Code S October Group F: Happy, Genius, Leenock, Jjakji

This is one of the groups that's so balanced skill-wise, making it practically impossible to predict. Protosses have not been doing very well this season, but Genius is still a name to be reckoned with, never mind the fierce competition he had in the faces of three young, yet deadly scary players.



One cannot say much about this game, as it was as simple and straightforward as a "Dreamworks" animation. Happy opened with the very popular 1/1/1 rush and Genius, despite having the right tech to stop it, controlled it horribly, having his zealots in the back while exposing his immortals to banshee and marine fire. His forcefields were actually augmenting his situation a lot and had he had a proper micro things would be different but as it was, Genius was now 0-1 in his group.


First lesson of how to defend 1/1/1 - zealots in front, sentries in the back. Not vice versa



Another short game right after the opening TvP as Leenock demonstrated how to stop them pesky preigniter openings. He opened hatch/pool and midway through his ling speed upgrade he put down his roach warren. The timing lined up perfectly with Jjakji's attack, whose highest damage peak was forcing a cancel on a creep tumour.

Seconds later, Jjakji was in even more horrible a spot. Just as he was setting up his own natural, Leenock calmly marched in with his roaches and put an end to the game with a simple a-click action.


Many of the zergs in the world die to preigniter harass. Leenock ain't one of them



As his third tank popped out, Happy moved out to pressure Leenock, while taking his own third base behind it. The terran took position in the centre but overstayed his welcome as Leenock approached the situation with utmost patience, waiting until just the perfect moment when he could surround and clean Happy's army with ease.

But at least one good came for Happy from all of this - Leenock's fourth was severely delayed and by staying on just three bases he had great troubles gathering enough resources to adequately tech to his higher tier. Thus, as Happy's follow up push arrived, Leenock had neither the necessary amount of banelings neither was he anywhere near brood lord tech. So instead of engaging directly, Leenock went for a ling run-by but that only made him lose even more units. True to his name, the IM terran joyfully sieged up and struck for the jugular, grabbing his Ro16 spot.


What I admire about Leenock is that even when against the ropes, he still has the balls to burrow banelings during a heated engagement



Genius was not meant to have a peaceful PvT early game that day. Jjakji opened with a 3-rax stim push but this time Genius would not fall as easily as he did to Happy. He had charge researched, sentries in the right position and repelled the attack without much trouble, immediately transitioning into warp prism and storm.

The latter was as smart choice as it was obvious as a ghost academy was scouted earlier and Genius had to find a way to protect his templars from being rendered useless. As psi storm finished, the protoss moved out for his own timing attack but Jjakji was already too fortified. Genius landed some successful storms but once again the marauders and ghosts came victorious. Genius' life got even harder as Jjakji retook the initiative, EMP-ing his way to victory and sending yet another protoss to the up-and-down matches.


Hiding templars in warp prism is definitely a good idea. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough this time



The rematch between those began similarly to their initial meeting as Leenock opened roaches but this time Jjakji handled it all properly, relying on a bigger marine army to keep himself alive.

The mid-game, however, was a completely different story for the terran. The holes in his play came to light as Leenock started picking off lone, unprotected tanks for free, gaining a too favourable baneling to tank ratio, such that is never good for the terran. Furthermore, Leenock handled his lead in the best possible way, stalling Jjakji's army and avoiding battles until his hive tech was completed.

By that time, Jjakji's army composition and presence on the map was awful to say the least. He had no vikings, no ghosts, his entire army got slaughtered while taking down Leenock's 5 o'clock base, and his marine count was scarce. Although Leenock made a slight overcommitment to his big brood lord attack, the transition to ultralisk left Jjakji torn apart into a bloody mess.

Code S October Group F Standings
Happy	2	0
Leenock	2	1
Jjakji	1	2
Genius	0	2