Code S RO16 - Dark & GuMiho Advance (Season 2 2023)

Republished By Plato

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Group C of the RO16 gave us a predictable end result, with group favorite Dark finishing in first while GuMiho narrowly edged out Creator for second place. However, it was hardly an easy day at the office for Dark, who finished with a 4-2 map record after dropping maps to both SpeCial and Creator. In his post-match interview, he lamented his poor play on the day and vowed to do better in the RO8.

GuMiho’s path to the RO8 was thorny as well, starting his night off with a 1-2 loss to Creator. After taking care of business against SpeCial in the losers’ match, GuMiho rematched Creator in a winner-take-all bout. That series came down to the wire, with GuMiho just barely booking his RO8 ticket with 1/1/1 all-in on the final map.

The Code S RO16 will conclude on Thursday, Jul 13 9:30am GMT (GMT+00:00), with Cure, Solar, Ryung ,and Astrea playing in Group D.

Match Recaps

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Initial Match #1: Dark [2-1] SpeCial

Game One – Royal Blood (SpeCial win): SpeCial got off to a good start early on, securing a fast third CC and pressuring Dark with Hellions and a Raven. Going into the mid-game in a strong economic state, SpeCial set up a siege at Dark’s fourth. SpeCial got an excellent engagement here as Dark’s Ling-Bane ventured off Creep, jumping ahead to a big supply lead. Smelling blood, SpeCial continued to press with his infantry until Dark had no choice but to GG out.

Game Two – Gresvan (Dark win): The two players committed to the familiar Gresvan peace pact, passively building up on their respective sides of the map in the early game. They then burst into fierce mid-game combat, with SpeCial playing bio-mine against Dark’s Ling-Bane. Neither side could take a meaningful lead after several minutes of bloody combat, and Dark teched up further to Ultralisks and spellcasters (curiously, Special declined to add Ghosts).

The game was decided on a semi-basetrade, with the two armies finding themselves attacking expansions on opposite sides of the map. SpeCial blinked first, sounding the retreat while Dark continued to ravage Terran bases. Unfortunately for SpeCial, he lost too much time and positioning while he retreated and tried to regroup his forces, and Dark did massive, game-ending damage in the meanwhile. After a final defensive effort, SpeCial surrendered.

Game Three – NeoHumanity (Dark win): SpeCial got sneaky in the early game, going for a proxy Liberator while pressuring with Hellion-Reaper at the front. He committed hard to his early attack and got 11 Drone kills for his efforts, but it wasn’t quite enough damage to recoup his investment. SpeCial tried to play a defensive bio game from behind, but Dark had enough of a lead to finish the game with a head on Roach-Ravager attack.

Initial Match #2: Creator [2-1] GuMiho

Game One – Gresvan (ByuN win): GuMiho started out with Mine drops into a Raven timing, which ended up being a wash after a solid defense from Creator. After that bit of early action, the game took a very passive turn as the two players expanded and progressed toward their end game armies. The two players initially added Colossus/Disruptor and Ghost/Liberator in anticipation of a ground fight, but soon made the full transition into Battlecruiser and Carrier fleets.

One important thing GuMiho did during this passive phase was to be active with the remnants of his bio force, which he used to stay an expansion ahead of Creator. This paid off several minutes later when the two players engaged in a semi-basetrade with their Carriers and Battlecruisers. While both players killed off several expansions, starting the race with one more base meant GuMiho was left with a serious income advantage. This gave him a big leg up in rebuilding his fleet, and he proceeded to utterly smash Creator in the game-deciding aerial battle.

Game Two – Dragon Scales (Creator win): GuMiho went with an aggressive 1/1/1 style, opening with two Cyclones into a Cloaked Banshee. However, Creator did a good job holding this off with his defensive Blink Stalkers and preserved his three bases without taking too much damage.

With GuMiho’s tech and upgrades delayed, Creator went for the kill with mass Chargelot-Stalker off of three bases. While this move did a lot of damage, it didn’t quite succeed at ending the game outright. GuMiho had just enough left in the tank for a dangerous last ditch attack, which Creator just barely held off to tie the series.

Game Three – Babylon (Creator win): Creator got off to a nice start with some Adept harass against GuMiho’s Reactor opener, after which he transitioned into Phoenix-Colossus. As for GuMiho, he geared up for an attack with 1 Raven, 1 Tank and a bunch of infantry, hitting at around Creator’s 2 Colossus timing.

Creator was able to defend this attack quite handily, putting himself in position to launch a major counterattack. Gumiho went for his usual move of trying to basetrade from a bad position, but he couldn’t force any mistakes out of Creator. After the two players were done razing each others’ buildings, Creator easily finished GuMiho off with his superior army.

Winners’ Match: Dark [2-1] Creator

Game One – Ancient Cistern (Dark win): Creator opened up with proxy-Oracles, which caught Dark off guard and dealt a lot of Probe damage early on. However, Creator’s follow-up move of Archon drops and Chargelots was almost completely ineffectual, and Dark was able to make up for his early deficit and even jump ahead.

Creator’s tech choices left him very vulnerable to Mutalisks, which Dark used a small number of to harass and keep Creator at bay. He then went for the sneaky move of making a second, larger wave of Mutalisks in secret (making Creator think he had stopped at a small number), and used those mass Mutalisks to finish the game.

Game Two – Gresvan (Creator win): Despite playing a non-proxy Stargate opener this time around, Creator still got in some solid early damage with good Oracle use. In contrast to the previous game, Creator went for Blink-Stalker follow-up off of three bases. This was a far more effective tactic, as he took down Dark’s fourth base, took great trades against Zerg units, and kept the Drone count low. This set Creator up to add Colossus and end the game not long after.

Game Three – Altitude (Dark win): Dark’s early game defense was porous yet again, with Creator’s first two Adepts killing five Probes and the follow-up Oracles killing four more. Creator had another different follow-up prepared, this time hitting quickly with a motley composition of mass Gateway units supported by 2 Oracles, a Void Ray, and an Immortal. This odd assembly of units came close to breaking Dark’s defense line, but eventually Sentry and Oracle energy ran out, leaving Creator with no way to keep pushing forward.

Having held off Creator’s low-tech force, Dark went for a curious punish option in the form of Swarm Host-Nydus. This didn’t really do much direct damage, but it tied Creator up until Dark had real game-ending tech in the form of Lurkers. Creator knew that catching up in tech was no option and went for an all-or-nothing mass Blink into Dark’s main. It definitely landed on the side of ‘nothing,’ and Creator conceded the series to Dark.

Losers’ Match: GuMiho [2-0] SpeCial

Game One – NeoHumanity (GuMiho win): The battle between two mech-maestros started with only SpeCial going for the niche composition, while GuMiho opted to play conventional bio instead. GuMiho seemed to know exactly when SpeCial would be weakest, hitting a timing with two Ravens and four Medivacs. This worked beautifully for GuMiho as he first struck at SpeCial’s third base and then quickly airlifted his troops into the main. Caught flat-footed, SpeCial GG’d out.

Game Two – Royal Blood (GuMiho win): Game two saw the Terrans go for differing harass options early on, with SpeCial going Liberator while GuMiho went for Cyclone-Medivac-Marine harass. This worked out way better for GuMiho, as he largely ignored the Liberator to take better trades on the other side of the map. GuMiho went into bio from there, whereas SpeCial transitioned into his 2 Starport style (one that GuMiho also happens to enjoy).

1 Reactor Starport was enough for GuMiho to temporarily keep up on Viking count, which stalled SpeCial’s attempt to push. But after a bit of backdoor dropping and harassment on both sides, SpeCial built up enough Vikings to force his way forward. Gumiho took the risk of splitting his forces, leaving just enough troops at home to hold the line while backdooring with another task force. He pulled this balancing act off successfully, gutting SpeCial’s economy while just barely defending at home. SpeCial was left irrevocably behind and he GG’d out.

Decider Match: GuMiho [2-1] Creator

Game One – Gresvan (GuMiho win): GuMiho’s penchant for basetrading showed up rather early in this game, with his small bio-Cyclone squad ignoring Creator’s harassing Blink-Stalkers to dive into the enemy natural. This worked out pretty well for GuMiho, as he killed a bunch of Probes and effectively defended against the harassment by prompting a quick recall.

However, this didn’t spiral into a catastrophe for Creator, at least not right away. He did a good job of building back up again, doing his best to hold off GuMiho’s continued and increasingly dangerous bio attacks. The supply actually looked pretty even for a while, but it was masking the huge deficit Creator had in upgrades and tech. Eventually, GuMiho won a decisive battle in the field and forced the GG out of Creator.

Game Two – Dragon Scales (Creator win): Game two followed a conventional TvP pattern, with GuMiho going for an early Raven-Tank-Marine push while Creator played defensively while goingfor fast Storm. Creator did a great job on defense, initially stalling the Terran forces outside of Nexus range and then mopping them up once he had warped in enough reinforcements.

The game was far from over as GuMiho had taken a third and teched up to Ghosts. Unlike their passive bout earlier in the night, this time we saw the two players engage in frequent and violent combat on the ground.

GuMiho’s Disruptor dodging wasn’t quite on point, letting Creator gradually rack up the kills and take control over vital territory. Eventually, the two got into a pitched battle over GuMiho’s vital fifth base, where Disruptor again made the difference and forced GuMiho to concede.

Game Three – Babylon (GuMiho win): GuMiho saved his cheesiest strategy for the final game of the night, committing hard to a fast Tank-Liberator-Marine-Medivac push with some SCV support for Bunkers and repair. Creator went for a daring/reckless forward Blink to try and pick off the two Tanks, but this only saw his Stalkers get turned to scrap. Unwilling to give up such an important game, Creator lingered around in his hopeless situation for a few minutes before finally GG’ing out.