We're a bit bare bones this week, due to being swallowed up in a deluge of Code-A games. It was really a blast to watch all of that young talent, but the eight BO3s in one day did cause some overload. So a few matches are missing reports, I hope you can forgive us!



This week, the ever excellent Fionn has written up a great Code-A RO8 preview that profiles all of that aforementioned young talent. And speaking of promising young pros, TreeHugger elaborates on the lack thereof among Protoss players.











YoDa goes reactor hellion expand into reactor/lab double factory blue flame hellions while Leenock, spawning cross map, opens hatch first. Leenock creates a nice wall off at his natural, completely shutting down the blue flame hellion harass. YoDa tries to circumvent this by dropping hellions into the Zerg main, but Leenock emerges with minimal damages and shuts down the harass completely with mutalisks. Leenock continues to amass a muta/ling/infestor army while teching to hive, but he's still only on two bases and tries to double expand to play catchup and meet the ridiculous gas requirements of Zerg hive tech. YoDa meanwhile is sitting pretty behind his mech army and turrets and breaks down the rocks to secure his third. Knowing he has to hit before the Zerg hive tech kicks into overdrive, YoDa moves across the map as Leenock stockpiles his gas to morph 8 broodlords at once. The rush distance proves to be too much for YoDa as the broodlords finish morphing right when his clunky thors arrive, and the Terran mech push is completely destroyed. Meanwhile, YoDa tries to take a fourth, but Leenock immediately counters at the Terran third. Unfortunately, he decides to donate his entire flock of mutas to thor splash while trying to prevent four vikings from focusing down the broodlords. YoDa then tries to push his luck with another cross map counter and sieges up below Leenock's natural. Leenock again shows incredible patience, stalling with a small ling counter at YoDa's third and then crushing the surprisingly thor-heavy/tank-light attack with mass roach and neural parasite. He is unable to do any damage as he sends his entire roach force back across the map, so he decides to tech switch back to mutalisks, followed up by broodlords, while taking two more bases to bring his count to six and forcing the Terran to switch back to thors. Leenock forces a nice army trade with a large broodlord/corruptor/mutalisk/infestor army, attempting to slowly running YoDa dry on cash while taking another two bases. YoDa counters at the bottom left taking out two bases, but Leenock completely shuts down YoDa's last mining base (his fourth) with banelings, builds up an even more massive broodlord/corruptor/infestor army, and runs over YoDa's dwindling army.2/5Definitely not his best game. He sacrificed so many precious mutalisks, roaches, and morphing banelings with misrallies and bad engagements. His map spread was abysmal, not scouting Terran's fourth until 25 minutes into the game. His creep spread was similarly bad - it barely extended past his natural. Overall, very sloppy play, but constant expanding, good defense, a long rush distance, and good army trades helped him eke out the win.2/5His hellion harass was terribly lacking, but besides that, his play was decent. "Decent" as in "I'm not going to make any big mistakes, but I'm not doing to do anything that's going to help me secure a win either (hint: hellion harass faraway expos throughout the game)." Mostly, though, I hope this game helped YoDa realize why you don't go mech on cross spawns on one of the largest maps in the map pool.

Dream decides to take the initiative with 11/11 2rax aggression, pulling six SCVs to accompany his earlier marines against a gasless pool first into expansion build. Some beautiful marine micro and questionable decisions by the Zerg player leaves Dream with a massive advantage and absolute map control as Luvsic is unable to afford an extractor and zergling speed off of a nine drone economy.Dream appropriately decides to put on some pressure with his unupgraded marines, being very liberal with his scans. He sees a third inbase hatchery and a baneling nest, assumes a baneling bust, and pulls back to his natural behind a four bunkers and a nice wall. He then techs to medivacs and attempts to abuse the low tech Zerg's lack of anti-air, but Luvsic again proves to be immune to harass as he mitigates the potential damage with merely queens and zerglings while taking a gold.Dream attempts to move out with his main army while landing a nice drop in Luvsic's main, but Luvsic cleans up with a beautiful flank (helped in part since Dream forgot to research combat shields). Meanwhile, the constant aggression from Dream is taking its toll on Luvsic, who is being forced to constantly make units. As Dream slowly grinds away at Luvsic's economy with multiple drops, he pulls farther and farther ahead in production and moves out to raze the Zerg's gold base. Luvsic desperately attempts a counter, but a bunker and a handful of units is enough for Dream to hold.Dream then heads for the jugular, skillfully using drops in the Zerg's main to give him breathing room to jump his tanks forward through the creep. As the Terran noose tightens, Luvsic decides to counter at the Terran natural - but to no avail. With only his main base still standing, Luvsic taps out after a brilliant marine splitting versus baneling show at his natural.4/5He grabbed his advantage and never let it go with his constant aggression and well-executed drops.2/5He showed some questionable decision making, but put up the best fight he could after losing so much from the start. A lack of a third gas base made the drops incredibly hard to deal with.

Code A - The Next Generation





Dream - The Cheese God



Ro32: 2-0 vs. Ready

Ro16: 2-1 vs. Luvsic Ro32: 2-0 vs. ReadyRo16: 2-1 vs. Luvsic





Leenock - The Unlucky Hero



Ro32: 2-0 vs. HopeTorture

Ro16: 2-0 vs. Yoda Ro32: 2-0 vs. HopeTortureRo16: 2-0 vs. Yoda





Noblesse - The Wildcard



Ro32: 2-1 vs. Hero

Ro16: 2-0 Check Ro32: 2-1 vs. HeroRo16: 2-0 Check





Tassadar - The Micro Maniac



Ro32: 2-0 vs. Lyn

Ro16: 2-1 vs. Ryung Ro32: 2-0 vs. LynRo16: 2-1 vs. Ryung





VanVanth - The Forgotten VanVanth - The Forgotten



Ro32: 2-1 vs. Soccer

Ro16: 2-1 vs. Tails Ro32: 2-1 vs. SoccerRo16: 2-1 vs. Tails





Puzzle - The Monster



Ro32: 2-0 vs. MMA

Ro16: 2-0 vs. Sheth Ro32: 2-0 vs. MMARo16: 2-0 vs. Sheth





Happy - MVP's Apprentice



Ro32: 2-0 vs. Hyperdub

Ro16: 2-0 vs. YuGiOh Ro32: 2-0 vs. HyperdubRo16: 2-0 vs. YuGiOh





asd - The Guy Who Beat Boxer and Jinro



Ro32: 2-0 vs. Boxer

Ro16: 2-0 vs. Jinro Ro32: 2-0 vs. BoxerRo16: 2-0 vs. Jinro

Predictions:

Ro8:

Semifinals:

Code A Finals:



Happy 4 - 3 Leenock

Next Week: I know all of you love those new intro photos with the Code S players in heavy makeup, right? Well, even if you don't, I'll be counting down the Top 10 Best (or, in your mind, worst) Code S Glamor Pictures next week in the GSL article. So look forward to that!





Code A, the place where new stars have arrived on the scene (Bomber), and the place where we've seen player after player fall out and never return. This time, going into the final eight, we've seen some good, some bad, and are left with eight players all gunning for the promotion to Code S. This time around, we don't have a MVP or Bomber to take the entire spotlight, but we do have some interesting players that you might have not heard about until now.So if you're just getting into Code A now and didn't watch the first week of action, relax and get a little insight on who is left in this tournament of rising new superstars.Most people would be offended or mad when being called a cheeser, but for Dream? It's a compliment. Nicknamed the "Cheese God" on the ladder for his wide array of cheeses, Dream has made it through the first two rounds with what he is known best for. His strategies haven't always been the cleanest, but he's been getting it done.On the squad MVP, and with Keen, a top player on the same team, helping him as his teacher, Dream should have a good chance to get into Code S if he can continue his ways as The Cheese God. I know a lot of you might hate people who cheese all the time, but hey, if you're gonna do it, at least be the best at it, right?You also can't forget that Dream is the youngest player in the GSL. Clocking in at 14-years-old, Dream is two months younger than fellow 14-year-old Creator, and two years younger than Leenock and Keen. What were you doing at fourteen-years-old? For example, I was trying to build up the courage to try and talk to girls about video games. Weirdly, the girls didn't think I was very cool...Oh well, Dream is living, well, his dream, and he is someone to keep your eye on for the future!Leenock never gets an easy bracket. Ever since he got put into an Up-and-Down group with MarineKing and Nestea, arguably two of the best five players on the planet, and losing to both, Leenock has been trying to claw his way back into Code S. He had a decent Super Tournament, winning two rounds against two tough terrans in Alive and Clide, but eventually lost in the Round of 16 against Alicia, which in my opinion, Leenock should have won, but choked the series away in the third and final game in that series.It's well known through interviews that Leenock has had problems inside the booth, citing that nerves have gotten to him in the past. Now, making it finally to the final eight of Code A, he has said that the nerves of being in the booth are gone and he will not fall until he is crowned champion. So far, he has been good on his word, destroying his first two opponents, and even snacking on a piece of cheese after beating IMYoa in the last round.Could the cheese have been a foreboding to Dream? Leenock says that cheese won't beat him, but can he beat Dream in the quarterfinals? Leenock should be favored against the upstart Dream, but he will have to keep his nerves in check and munch on some Korean cheese to advance into the semifinals.Noblesse is truly a wildcard. He has shown some great games this tournament, specifically his series against Hero, but he also can put on some bad performances from time to time. His series against Check, he played solid, but the win was more Check playing awful while Noblesse just didn't do anything stupid to lose it. I really like Noblesse as a player, and I honestly believe he has a great chance to make the finals if he keeps improving. Every time I see him, he seems to get better and better inside the booth. With MVP showing that they have a very solid terran core, with both Dream and Noblesse getting into the quarterfinals, and Keen in Code S, the sky is the limit for the young Noblesse.Noblesse's record might not be the prettiest, but he has vastly improved from his last Code A showing, and actually showed up this time, unlike his first round game in the Super Tournament where he got stuck in traffic. Luckily, the traffic wasn't able to take him down this time, and he is ready to take on all challengers.From watching Tassadar in the first two rounds, I can tell that he's pretty damn good at micro and early timing attacks. We really haven't seen him show the best macro so far, but hey, whatever helps you win, then you should do it. His first round series against Lyn was basically him making DT's and Lyn, for whatever reason, not being able to defend them. His next series against Ryung was better, but also wasn't anything that made me think that this guy could be a Code S regular.He's on a team with a strong protoss line, though. With San and Sage (along with VanVanth) on the team, Tassadar should get better in time with more experience in the booth. NS HoSeo has shown lately that they are a strong team that will get more hype very soon if they continue to do well in the GSTL. In his match against Noblesse, I would probably favor the terran from MVP, but Tassadar has a good chance of winning. I want to see if his macro has improved; if he can show that he has some good macro underneath his pretty blink stalker micro, he could go far.Both his series so far have been pretty terrible. His series against Tails, for example, only lasted twenty minutes all together. Yes, both were PvP, and he did win both, but VanVanth has never really impressed me. He was really bad in the Super Tournament; he was always looked upon as a lower class player when he was in Code S; and he hasn't shown any truly impressive games in a long time. Not to say he's a bad player necessarily, since you can't stay above Code B this long if you're truly terrible, but he's never had a big victory. His biggest win in GSL history was probably against Jookto, a guy who is currently in Code B.In fact, every single player VanVanth has ever beaten in the history of the GSL is currently in Code B. He's never actually beaten anyone who is Code S or even Code A level. This is his chance to make a name for himself, and I hope he can show some good games. If he doesn't, he'll continue to be forgotten and continue his trend of somehow staying in Code A forever until the end of time.Most impressive player in Code A so far? Puzzle. He has been hyped up quite a bit before by the Korean community, saying that he is another one of these ladder bonjwas like DongRaeGu or Bomber. Before this tournament, however, we had only seen him in the GSTL, and he lost all four games that he participated in. Coming in, with expectations lowered, he had to face the runner-up in the GSL Super Tournament and reigning MLG champion, MMA. Not many people expected Puzzle to actually beat MMA, but he beat him 2-0.Following that, he took on our very own Sheth, and also beat him 2-0 in very decisive fashion. Sheth put up a good fight, but Puzzle was just, well, a monster. At the climax of the match, in the final battle, Puzzle's APM was up around 500. Yeah, that isn't a typo, his SC2 APM was clocked in at 500. Sheth, with almost 300 less APM, had no chance and just got bowled over at the end of the game. Losing to Puzzle is nothing to be sad about, though; he has shown how strong he is and that the hype given to him is well justified. Only three more wins, and he'll be in Code S and definitely belong there.If it wasn't for Puzzle, Happy would be the most impressive person in this tournament. He's been fantastic. He disposed of Hyperdub easily, and he played a great series against YuGiOh. Like Puzzle, he is another person that has been hyped up through his accomplishments on the ladder and how well he plays in the team house. Just like Losira, who gets to be taught by Nestea, Happy gets to talk and practice with, one of the best terrans in the world, MVP. Incredible Miracle has been a three man team in the singular GSL tournament with Nestea, MVP and Losira doing all the work, but with Happy's appearance in Code A, it's not far fetched to say it won't be too long until we see Happy as a regular with those three in the Code S for a long time to come.He beat two of the community's fan favorites back-to-back! Not only did he beat The Emperor himself, knocking him into Code B where he might never get out of, but he also eliminated our very own Swedish Gorilla Terran in the next round! How could you, asd!?! What a vile, evil, terrible and just very cruel person you are! Why did you have to do this? Why couldn't you just let them win!?Alright, alright, he isn't a terrible person and didn't cheese to beat either of Boxer or Jinro, so you guys shouldn't give him TheBest treatment. He's a really good player that has played very solid games so far in the tournament. Hasn't cheesed any of his opponents and has had drawn out games that have gone past twenty minutes in each one. You might want him to lose for beating your favorite players, but the guy has some skill. Would I favor him over Happy? No, not with how good Happy is playing, but I can't dismiss him just yet.- 1 Dream- 0 Tassadar- 0 VanVanth- 1 asd- 1 Noblesse- 2 Puzzle