Code S October Group B: Ryung, MarineKing, Bomber, Puzzle

Group B was another one heavily stacked with some of the best terrans in all the world. And amidst all this sea of metal was a young protoss struggling to make a Code S name of himself.

Ryung vs MarineKing @ Daybreak

Ryung opened very unorthodoxically, going for a bunker contain with preigniter support, while getting his expansion up. But MarineKing was ever watchful and broke out the first chance he got, seeing that Ryung's hellions were slightly out of position.

Ryung, though, had further plans of how to make MKP's life miserable. Constant preigniter drops put MKP's worker losses in the double digit and while the Prime terran was trying to get his third and stabilize his economy, Ryung launched a tank attack at the 3 o'clock base of his opponent. Completely dominated, MKP gg-ed out.


Checkmate

Bomber vs Puzzle @ Xel'Naga Fortress

Bomber opened with a 3-rax into CC and factory and denied any scouting of Puzzle, so the protoss had to rush a robo facility in order to get an idea of what he is dealing with.

As stim finished, Bomber started a frontal push but Puzzle's forcefields denied him so he had to regroup and launch a double pronged attack, hitting with his marauders from the front while dropping the other part of his army into protoss' main. Puzzle was again on top of things and a quick warp-in of zealots solved his problems.

Bomber's macro, however, was off the hook. Despite his good early defense, Puzzle's supply was way below that of the monster terran and as Bomber hit 200/200, Puzzle helplessly GGed out.


Bomber has more units than Kerrigan in the "All In" mission

Bomber vs Ryung @ Crossfire

When two terrans of such grand magnitude meet, it is only natural that the game goes for long, and long, and long. By the 20th minute, the map was split in half and viewers witnessed a sight very usual nowadays - the one of massive air forces flying around, looking for a crack in the opponent lines.

In this crazy cold war stalemate, Ryung was the first to spice it up with ingenious moves, dropping MULEs at Bomber's mineral lines to steal resources from him. Furthermore, he had chosen to go for less BCs, but more vikings and all that with a thor/raven support, while Bomber went heavy-hitter mode, reaching 13 BCs at one point.

What Bomber did not have were ghosts, the only thing that could give him an edge at this raven-heavy situation. When the final battle ensued, Ryung's casters dived in to unleash seeker missiles onto Bomber's BCs. When the smoked cleared, there were no more BCs for Bomber and Ryung's thors were cleaning the remaining vikings. The top Ro16 seed would go to the SlayerS terran.



MarineKing vs Puzzle @ Tal'Darim Altar

This game brought me back to the days when 4-gate was a viable strat. Well, it is not anymore and Puzzle found that the hard way. Although he did manage to breach MKP's choke, the stim researched finished for the terran in just the right moment, clearing up all of Puzzle's army. A simple counter attack put an end to Puzzle's hopes for Code S championship this season.


Oh come on, Puzzle, really?

Bomber vs MarineKing @ Terminus

Despite all the misfortunes that it brought him last season, MarineKing stuck up to the bio composition, a style that is gradually falling out of fashion in the highest tier of TvTs. And thus, he was accordingly punished in all stages of the game, starting from the early-game preigniter/banshee harass to the devastating 3-base timing attack, so typical for the mech players.

MarineKing tried to make full use of his bio mobility but all he succeeded in doing was deny Bomber's third base. Which was not a huge loss by itself as the army of the ST terran was already on the way and he was double expanding behind this. Being forced into a direct engagement, MarineKing's marauders stood no chance and he had to tap out, not advancing to the Ro16 but keeping his Code S status.

Code S October Group B Standings
Ryung	2	0
Bomber	2	1
MarineKing	1	2
Puzzle	0	2

The overall results are probably what everyone expected. Apart from their direct clash that could've gone either way, Ryung and Bomber won their matches convincingly, showing that they have reached a class far above that of MarineKing and Puzzle. If I am allowed a moment of personal opinion I would confess that I actually expected MKP to go back to the up-and-down matches. His play has been very shaky and Puzzle has been showing some promising results but questionable decisions can still ruin your performance it seems. And to anyone thinking that GSL October is starting a bit slow I would remind you that what followed was the unquestionable group of death!