Code RO16 - Maru And TY Advance (Season 2 2023)

Republished By Plato

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Code S Season 2 delivered an upset in its first group, with TY advancing in second place alongside title favorite Maru. The IEM Katowice and two-time Code S champion didn't even make it through the qualifiers last season, but this time around he showed us his best games since returning from military service (in early 2023) by beating Classic and Bunny. TY was back to his mech-loving ways in the group, and he successfully wielded the composition against his formidable opponents (his mech games vs Bunny and vs Classic were the matches of the night).

First place finisher Maru looked dominant as expected, finishing his with perfect 2-0s against both TY and Classic. Code S will continue on Thursday, Jul 06 9:30am GMT (GMT+00:00), with herO, NightMare, ByuN, RagnaroK playing in Group B.

Match Recaps

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Initial Match #1: Maru [2-0] TY

Game One - Altitude (Maru win): TY got ahead on economy early on with a greedy fast 3CC build, which he used to set up mech play. This exposed TY to a series of bio drops, which pinned him in a corner while Maru expanded and teched freely. While TY managed to survive and assemble a strong anti-bio composition of Tank-Banshee, but Maru was easily able to transition into BC-Viking and win against the low anti-air of TY.

Game Two - Gresvan (Maru win): TY committed hard to a 1/1/1-style push off of two bases while Maru played a more conventional macro game. Maru executed better on defense than TY did on offense, and he forced the GG out of TY after parrying the push (the supplies were temporarily even but TY was far behind in econ and tech).

Initial Match #2: Classic [2-1] Bunny

Game One - Royal Blood (Classic win): We got a cheese vs cheese game to start the series, with Classic going for a fast gold base while proxying his tech buildings for BOTH Blink and DT tech. Meanwhile, Bunny stayed on one base for a mine drop into what was presumably a Thor all-in. This gave Classic an invisible 'rock' against Bunny's hapless scissors, with his DT's doing severe damage against the 1-Orbital Terran. While Bunny eventually got a Raven out, he had already taken too much damage by that point and he GG'd shortly after.

Game Two - Ancient Cistern (Bunny win): This game was a bit more conventional, with Classic playing Blink into Colossus while Bunny went 2/1/1 with fast +1 infantry attack. The two got into a semi-basetrade in the early-mid/game, and the firepower of +1 Marines proved to be far superior in that situation. Classic tried to play it out with a severely stunted economy, but the result was an inevitable loss.

Game Three - Gresvan (Classic win): This was the most orthodox game of the series, with Bunny playing bio against Classic's fast-storm macro style. Classic won the first big engagement between armies thanks to well placed storms, and he consolidated his advantage with a great storm drop into Bunny's natural. The game snowballed quickly into a Classic win from there, with Bunny tapping out a few minutes after his final, desperation push failed.

Winners' Match: Maru [2-0] Classic

Game One - Royal Blood (Maru win): Classic got aggressive to start, opening with two Gateways (one proxied out on the map). Maru opted to play it safe and remained on one base, sneaking a proxy Starport on the other side of the map for Cloaked Banshees. Meanwhile, Classic expanded to the FAR gold base, while also getting a Stargate for a Phoenix-Stalker bust attempt.

The Cloaked Banshees and Stalker-Phoenix ended up hitting at about the same time. Classic probably could have busted through Maru's defenses, but some micro errors allowed Maru to hold. Meanwhile, the Banshees gutted Classic's economy, including at the discovered Gold base.

With a huge advantage, Maru stayed on one base and looked to end the game with mass Marine-Tank. Classic tried to turn the game into a weird baserace, but he surrendered after he realized it was a lost cause.

Game Two - Gresvan (Maru win): Classic seemed to anticipate a typical, passive Gresvan start here, getting the full trio of Stargate, Twilight, and Robo tech early on. However, Maru was going for a timing with 2 Tanks, a Cyclone, and a bunch of Marine-SCV, and he got a fast win against the threadbare Protoss defense.

Losers' Match: TY [2-0] Bunny

Game One - NeoHumanity(TY win): TY went CC-first into mech while Bunny initially started with bio. However, the mech vs bio framework only held for the early/mid-game, with Bunny eventually transitioning into full-on mech himself.

While the game seemed like it would be a Viking-Liberator staring match for a while, Bunny's victory in a major air battle blew the game wide open as TY was forced to do a massive tech switch. Ultimately, this ended up being a pretty nutty 26-minute game with a lot of tech-switching and fighting, with TY going from Viking-Liberator into Thor-Tank into Viking-Tank into Battlemech to get the win.

Game Two - Gresvan (TY win): Bunny went for 2-Rax proxy Reapers, perhaps anticipating another CC-first from TY. But instead, TY went for a safe Rax-Factory start, and even scouting the proxy-Reapers. This allowed him to hold off the Reapers with barely any damage taken, all while haranguing Bunny with a proxy-Liberator.

TY probably should have closed this one out pretty quickly, but he made the comical error of destroying his stim-researching Tech Lab due to a misclick (he was trying to hit Bunny's floating scout Barracks). Bunny was actually able to turn this into a 20+ minute bio vs bio game, but he was always playing from behind. He could never bring it back to fully even, and GG'd out once TY had too much Liberator support alongside his bio to handle.

Decider Match: TY [2-0] Classic

Game One - NeoHumanity (TY win): TY brought out the mech once more on NeoHumanity, turtling with Tanks before teching up to BC's. Classic did a good job of exploiting the immobility of TY's force, using Gateway units to strike under-defended bases and make it hard for TY to achieve a true half-map split.

However, Classic didn't seem to have a good idea of what units he'd need to fight the Terran forces head on, initially going for Tempest-Carrier. After suffering a brutal defeat against TY's Viking-BC in the skies, Classic seemed to be at a loss, going into primarily guerilla warfare mode.

The bases in the top-right and bottom-left became the key flashpoints, with warp-ins and tactical jumps making it so neither side could easily hold them. In the end, this achieved a functional half map split for TY, and he began to chip away at Classic with typical mech attrition. Classic eventually ran out of gas (literally; the Vespene kind) and was forced to concede the map.

Game Two - Altitude (TY win): TY switched things up on Altitude, opening 2/1/1 bio but playing a defensive, conservative style. Classic went for Blink Stalkers into Colossus, and went for an ambitious frontal attack once he had Extended Thermal Lances. However, this attack was an utter debacle, and TY went on the counteroffensive after inflicting heavy losses on Classic's army. TY used multi-directional attacks to quickly whittle Classic down, giving himself an insurmountable lead. Classic tried for a desperate basetrade, but he had no choice but to surrender in the end.