The first GSL Code S of 2017 is underway, and already we’ve seen some excellent games and huge upsets. The most notable story from the Round of 32 was the shocking elimination of defending GSL and Blizzcon champion Hyun “Byun” Woo.
Byun
Considered widely to be the best in the world, Byun lost a close series with top-tier Protoss Kim “Stats” Dae Yeob after crushing an the unknown Zerg, Lee “DRGLing” Won Ju. Byun rushed to Liberator range in a back-and-forth Game 3, but found himself out-positioned by the high mobility of Stats’s Stalker/Colossus composition. Stats closed it out by faking an attack on Byun’s third base, luring out the inferior Terran army, and blanketing it with Psionic Storms.
Next, he would face the Terran-vs-Terran expert Kim “Ryung” Dong Won for a chance to move on to the Round of 16. Game 1 was a very convincing win for Byun, utilizing doom drops and multi-pronged attacks to out position his opponent. In Game 2, Byun went for an odd two-base tank push that Ryung easily repelled with a mirror build, prompting a swift counter with double the siege tanks to choke out Byun’s natural base and win.
Then there was Game 3… Game 3 will surely haunt Byun for years to come, and cost him both a chance at a second consecutive GSL championship, and the title of best in the world. After taking some heavy worker losses from an early Cyclone attack, Byun attempted a doom drop in Ryung’s main base with four full Medivacs. To the horror of Tastless, Artosis, and Byun fans everywhere, he flew over a missile turret, decided NOT to drop after all, and flew back over that same turret without a Medivac boost. 20 supply and two siege tanks exploded out of the sky in a matter of seconds.
“This was the most indecisive thing I’ve ever seen Byun do… This is the worst move that Byun has done that I can remember.” – Artosis
Less than three minutes later, Byun typed out “gg” and buried his head in his hands.
Scarlett
Second only to the fall of the King was Canadian Zerg Sasha “Scarlett” Hostyn’s remarkable run in Code S – a very rare occurrence for a non-Korean. After smashing the Protoss Kim “Myungsik” Myung-Sik 2-0, she went on to face Kim “Classic” Doh Woo. Game 1 was very short, as Classic masterfully countered her proxy hatch all-in.
Game 2 we saw Classic go for the very popular archon drop, but Scarlett was able to push away his mid-game Immortal-Sentry push while defending her main from charge Zealots and a pair of Archons.
Scarlett immediately launched a Roach/Ravager counter attack on Classic’s third base with a 180 degree surround, wiping his Sentry-heavy army and winning the game.
Game 3 was one of the best games of group stage. Classic’s first two adepts managed to get a devastating seven drone kills. His follow up with glaives killed another six. Behind massively in economy against a Protoss starting up double-stargate Phoenix production, Scarlett attempted a full force Baneling bust that failed to do game-ending damage.
He would use that lead to roll over Scarlett’s Hydralisk force with a high-tech Protoss army of Immortals, Archons, Void Rays, and High templar a few minutes later.
Another fantastic series and the one that would deny “the foreign hope” passage to the Round of 16 (last time this happened was 2013) was Scarlett vs. Han “aLive” Lee Seok. Scarlett was able to come back from a huge deficit in Game 1 with some fantastic burrowed Infestor play and Zergling counter attacks.
She almost took Game 2 with a Roach/Ravager timing, and almost won it again later on with a very low economy Brood Lord play. Before the Brood Lords could arrive at the Terran’s base, Scarlett made a questionable choice in attacking into Alive’s tanks with just her ground army, leaving the Brood Lords exposed to his small Viking force and fully upgraded marines.
Game 3 was very close as well, but Scarlett’s burrowed Infestors and Muta/Zergling/Baneling were not enough to handle Alive’s impressive macro and bio control.
Other great games to watch from the Round of 32 were Solar vs. Trap Game 3, sOs vs Curious Game 2, and Ryung vs Stats Game 3. All VoD’s can be found organized and in high quality at SC2Links.com. The Round of 16 Groups Selections will be held on February 1.
All photos courtesy of AfreecaTV
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