Of foreigners and upsets: Code A October Day 1

The new GSL October fires off with fireworks of grandeur: a couple of foreigners, an ex-champion and an exciting mix of Code S and A players, ready to deliver an entertainment of extreme value. Who knew that way before the end of the day, the passions would fly higher than ever before?

Morning segment

Revival vs sC

Game 1 @ Antiga Shipyard. The first chance for Revival to get an edge in this long TvZ came when sC moved down to attack his 6 o'clock base. This gave Revival the opportunity to do a ling/muta run-by and cause some havoc in sC's base but the terran was quick to react, returning home immediately after zerg's base was dead. sC then played carefully and methodically, winning every baneling-marine trade, hunting Revival's expos one by one and also outupgrading the mutalisks to force a tap out in the end.

Game 2 @ Daybreak. Revival went for a 9-pool, sending his first 8 zerglings right towards sC's base but droning and expanding behind that. sC himself was just midway along his CC first build and so was completely caught off-guard, losing more than 10 SCVs. While sC tried to stabilize after the initial losses, Revival just followed that up with a baneling bust to equal the score.

Game 3 @ Metalopolis. To return the courtesy of being killed off early, sC went for a 11/11 all-in that put an end to Revival in two hits. First, a bunker rush forced a ton of lings which perished in attempt to stop the attack. And second, a full marine/SCV all-in stormed upon zerg's weak economy to secure the 2-1 win.

Select vs Alicia

Game 1 @ Belshir Beach. An EMP mid-game timing attack before psi storm put SeleCT hugely in the lead but as he continued to assault the protoss lines, Alicia slowly caught up as his high tier tech completed. Alicia even succeeded in denying Select's third but was once again in trouble as the foreigner moved down to engage the chargelot/storm army. Perfectly targeted EMPs rendered Alicia's army impotent, giving an early lead to the Dignitas terran.

Game 2 @ Antiga Shipyard. Select led with a forceful aggression, using bio drops and full frontal attacks to turn Alicia mad. By the 20th minute mark, the PvT specialist of team Slayers was 50 supply behind, barely mining and his high templars continued to be either sniped, or EMPed, leaving just a bare army of zealots on the field. Alicia's gg at the end of this set was the opening victory for the foreigners this season but not the first upset of day either.

MC vs Monster

Game 1 @ Terminus. Monster approached the match by rushing straight to infestors and trying to break MC's front but the zerg found the defending colossi to be too much and had to fall back after getting only the cyber core. Monster followed this pressure with a mutalisk harass but once again MC's defenses were impeccable. Knowing that Monster's army was in no condition to fight his death ball (too few mutalisks and empty infestors) and that zerg's third was far too late, MC pushed up to gain the lead.

Game 2 @ Tal'Darim Altar. MC played uncharacteristically this game, letting enemy zerglings sneak in his main twice by not filling a crack in his wall. The first breach revealed all of MC's tech and held his +1 colossus army at bay for a long time and the second occurred just as MC was moving out for a push. Monster sniped the powering pylons of all the gateways and crushed MC's army for a GG.

Game 3 @ Dual Sight. Monster opened with the same build from set 1, going quick infestors into mutalisks. Once again, the defenses of MC held, despite some shaky moments where no protoss anti air was present and there was the potential of devastating mutalisk damage. But right after the pressure ended, MC decided it was time to throw the game away and moved out with his blink/colossus army. Seeing some mutalisks idly hanging out, MC blinked forward just to find himself fungalled and surrounded by lings. There was nothing that the God Protoss could do but to tap out and fall down to Code B.

Kyrix vs Gumiho

Game 1 @ Metalopolis. A misplaced spine crawler and bad roach timing by Kyrix led to a trio of hellions sneaking in and completely wrecking his economy, putting it down to 13 drones. Knowing there is no chance in hell that the zerg could recover from that, Gumiho just bio-pushed for the victory.

Game 2 @ Terminus. Kyrix opened with roach pressure but as it got denied by marines, the tides of battle turned 180-degrees. Gumiho retorted with a marine/siege tank push that crippled zerg's economy. Although the push got cleaned by mutalisks, Gumiho had a second one coming and this time Kyrix was even worse prepared than before. Kyrix followed MC's fate and dropped out of Code A.

Code A October Ro32 Day 1 Morning
sC 2:1 Revival
sC	>	Revival	@ Antiga Shipyard
sC	<	Revival	@ Daybreak
sC	>	Revival	@ Metalopolis
Alicia 0:2 Select
Alicia	<	SeleCT	@ Belshir Beach
Alicia	<	SeleCT	@ Antiga Shipyard
MC 1:2 Monster
MC	>	Monster	@ Terminus
MC	<	Monster	@ Tal'Darim Altar
MC	<	Monster	@ Dual Sight
Kyrix 0:2 Gumiho
Kyrix	<	Gumiho	@ Metalopolis
Kyrix	<	Gumiho	@ Terminus

Evening segment

YuGiOh vs ShinyStar

Game 1 @ Tal'Darim Altar. ShinyStar was the first to go on the offensive, opening with a sentry/gateway push which, however, was completely denied at YuGiOh's heavily spined up natural. The recovery time that Star needed after his defeat gave YuGiOh enough time to get his BL and infestor tech going and as the protoss moved in for a second attack, the zerg flanked him from all sides, destroying the bulk of the enemy army with ease. ShinyStar tried to stop the counter offensive with void rays but there were already too many infestors on the field for the fliers to stay alive for long enough time.

Game 2 @ Crossfire. YuGiOh opened with an early 2-base roach pressure but all accomplished was do just the slightest disturbance to Star's natural wall-off. The actual turning point came in the mid-game when Star's colossus ball and YuGiOh's muta flock simultaneously reached the enemy bases. As Star had no anti-air whatsoever so naturally his decision was to try his odds at a base trade. However, despite the sizable count of stalkers in his possession, ShinyStar could not find the way to victory as YuGiOh's mutas returned home to clean the mess.

JookTo vs JYP

Game 1 @ Antiga Shipyard. JYP opened with a fast expo in a void ray and quickly gained an early lead by sniping JookTo's third base, placed at the gold minerals. This, however, only made JookTo angry and in the next minutes we witnessed one of the best zerg drop plays in a long time. JookTo relentlessly attacked multiple locations at once, even finding the hidden 10 o'clock protoss base, leaving JYP with one mining nexus only.

With almost no income, JYP held to his only ace in the deck - his strong colossus/stalker deathball. While his hidden base was dying, JYP attacked the 6 o'clock zerg base and then swooped towards the natural, leaving JookTo with no income at all. The zerg went for a base race but at this time JYP was cleaning stuff way faster, sprinting towards the victory on the backs of his colossi.

Game 2 @ Daybreak. It all ended suddenly in this second set as JookTo took a quick third but got hit heavily by the +1 blink timing push that struck just before the infestor tech could kick in. Some perfectly placed forcefields augmented the pain for the zerg and he had to end his Code A journey with a gg.

Sniper vs Curious

Game 1 @ Dual Sight. Curious won an edge after an edge, even with the tiniest, most innocent of attacks. Before he knew, Sniper was down a couple of queens, some drones, a baneling and the hope of winning this game at all. When the time for roaches came, Curious had nearly three times more. Yes, not a cute ratio at all.

Game 2 @ Crossfire. I guess you all know what a BO loss is. It's when you put down your buildings in the exact wrong order as compared to that same process in your enemy's bases. Something like... going for a hatch first and then two more drones and then gas when your opponent is 10-pooling your ass off. We would all agree it wasn't the day for Sniper to shine.

Sjow vs Maka

Game 1 @ Crossfire. Things did not start well for Sjow. Maka's cloaked banshee proved to be extremely effective against the Swede's preigniter opening and so was the marine/siege tank attack that followed up the harass. While Sjow was fighting for his economy and his life, Maka got his own expo and later even a third CC, reached preigniter tech and was spitting out units like no tomorrow. As 12 hellions entered Sjow's main, the foreigner had to tap out.

Game 2 @ Antiga Shipyard. Sjow fired off the second set with another big mistake, thinking he could break a tank line with hellions and landed vikings. As he couldn't, Maka took advantage of his supply lead and pushed through the map but was stopped before he could reach either Sjow's natural or third. Still, Maka had the upper hand and by holding his position at the centre, he started expanding rapidly, eager to gain even bigger lead.

Sjow, though, was not easily discarded. Although three bases behind, the Swede eventually hit 200/200 way before Maka could do the same and one push after another led to evening command centres. However, Maka was already too far behind in supply and surrendered when Sjow came with his final push.

Game 3 @ Xel'Naga Fortress. The wildest game of the day was played on Fortress and the players saw no moment of peace. Maka dealt huge economy damage with a cloak banshee and marine/tank follow-up but was fed his own medicine later when Sjow landed his vikings to deny mining at Maka's natural.

The Prime terran went on the offensive once again past the 14-minute mark but his attack ended really bad for him as Sjow patience granted him the joy of breaking the contain and gaining a huge tank lead, which allowed him to torment Maka beyond limits. A front door push equalized the SCV count (previously largely in Maka's favor) and then a low-ground tank push destroyed a great lot of Maka's production facilities and forced a doom drop by the Korean. This, as it usually happens, led to a base race but Sjow had the upper hand in the form of a his safe 9 o'clock base. Patiently attacking where he had to and rebuilding his barracks from scratch, Sjow sucked a "gg wp" out of the Prime terran and would advance to the Ro16.

Code A October Ro32 Day 1 Evening
YuGiOh 2:0 ShinyStar
YuGiOh	>	ShinyStar	@Tal'Darim Altar
YuGiOh	>	ShinyStar	@ Crossfire
JYP 2:0 JookTo
JYP	>	JookTo	@ Antiga Shipyard
JYP	>	JookTo	@ Daybreak
Curious 2:0 Sniper
Curious	>	Sniper	@ Dual Sight
Curious	>	Sniper	@ Crossfire
Sjow 2:1 Maka
Sjow	<	Maka	@ Crossfire
Sjow	>	Maka	@ Antiga Shipyard
Sjow	>	Maka	@ Xel'Naga Fortress

Exciting day? Yeah, you could say so. I mean the fall of a two-times champion
and self-proclamed to be the God Protoss out of freaking Code A and the unquestionable domination of the two foreigners can spice up any party. And the best part - it's not even close to over. We have Sase, Naniwa, Check, FruitDealer, Hero, Byun, Trickster and many more still to battle in the Ro32. I guess you will have to tune in!