Code S Ro16 Group C&D: The hopes of KeSPA

The Ro16 is over and as the dust settles, certain questions that have gathered head do get their answers: how many zergs, how many champions and how much KeSPA will there be in the playoffs.


It was not long after Group B fixed the sense of abnormality left by the DongRaeGu/Curious upsets that Group C came and polluted it once again. Parting, the world renowned master of PvTs and immortal all-ins, finished last in a group with Bogus, Polt and Sniper.

It'd be more than inaccurate to say that it wasn't really Parting's fault and that the group by itself was tough enough as it is. StarTale's pupil was far from his best shape and executed everything sloppy, giving Polt and Sniper clear wins, a performance that sharply contradicted to the Parting we saw in the previous round.

Continuing the theme of unexpected results was Bogus who, after showing some good-but-not-too-great plays in the Ro32, came in to absolutely murder Group C. To his luck, both Sniper and Polt insisted on giving him a helping hand, the first finding joy in wasting banelings on baneling-proof targets and the second doing weird marine/tank timing attacks which crashed in arcs of Bogus' units. In fact, the only game that provided entertainment in its purest form was Bogus vs Polt on Daybreak, in which a hellion drop crossed ways with cloak banshees to leave both players with no economy and entangled in a WarCraft 3 decisive micro battle. By the second match, Bogus would be the first KeSPA player to make the playoffs this season.

Sniper had a very similar journey towards the top two: people tried to attack him and he crushed them and it didn't matter whether it was immortal timings, colossus deathballs or marauder/hellion/SCV all-ins. An unpredicted outcome for sure and one that sent another playoffs first-timer forwards.

Group C
Bogus	4-1	To Code S Ro8
Sniper	5-2	To Code S Ro8
Polt	2-4	To Code A Ro24
Parting	0-4	To Code A Ro24
Polt 2-0 Parting Bogus 2-1 Sniper Bogus 2-0 Polt Sniper 2-0 Parting Sniper 2-0 Polt

While this one was a group that pretty much defined the state of contemporary StarCraft 2 balance, it was also one that those who disliked zerg expected with trepidation. No matter what, two zergs would lose their life, the infestation of playoffs thus quarantined by its own nature.

As every playday that has ZvZs and ZvZs only, there aren't many stories to tell matches-wise. Soulkey paraded his excellent mirror match control - a mechanical habit that's surely an inheritance from his days as BroodWar progamer - and dealt a heavy first blow to Life and then, later the same day, would strike him again, just as hard. The last person to have ever been a GSL champion fell to Code A, joining the likes of Seed, MVP and DongRaeGu.

Meanwhile, it was just another day of slaughtering zergs for the Leenocktopus. The GSL veteran had chosen to favor spire openings in most of the games, throwing in the orthodox roach/infestor wherever mutas were not the plan, and ended up dropping just one game to Symbol's nydus/hydra pressure, in a stand-off that seemed to go on for hours.

Group D
Leenock	4-1	To Code S Ro8
Soulkey	4-2	To Code S Ro8
Life	2-4	To Code A Ro24
Symbol	1-4	To Code A Ro24
Leenock 2-1 Symbol Soulkey 2-0 Life Leenock 2-0 Soulkey Life 2-0 Symbol Soulkey 2-0 Life

The end of Ro16 naturally forms the shape of the playoffs that are to start next Wednesday, November 21st. By the end of the quarter final round, one zerg, one terran and one KeSPA player are sure to go out.

Code S quarter finals
Creator	VS	Hyun
Bogus	VS	Soulkey
MarineKing	VS	Ryung
Leenock	VS	Sniper