GSL Round of 32, Group G Battle Report

Published on by Saxon "Saxy" Durrant





Shhh quickly get in here terran and zerg players. Group g is the only group without any of those pesky protoss players in it. We have it all to ourselves. Coming from another action packed week of GSL, will this group see anymore zerg players advance? Not if the terrans have anything to say about it and with only one group left, this could be their last chance.





On show today we have play from the one and only TY. He's backed up by a returning legend, making his first GSL appearence in over two years, FanTaSy. These two terrans are joined by some dangerous zergs, Leenock and Impact.





In what comes as no surprise, TY must be favourite for this group. A quarter finalist at last years blizzcon and a finalist in last seasons GSL, TY is heavily expected to advance through in first place. He's had a good off season to boot, qualifying for IEM although a chink in his armour may be his TvZ, which is statistically his worst match up since blizzcon with only a 56% winning percentage. His terran brother in arms is FanTaSy, who recently returned from military service in the latter half of last year. Despite his recent return, FanTaSy's performances have been making heads turn, beating several established players recently including Zest and TY and qualifying for a 16 man GSL Super Tournament last year.





They're joined by possible two very underated zerg players, Impact and Leenock. The former having a very impressive 2018, qualifying for every GSL season, making the round of 16 twice and reaching the round of 12 in IEM. Impact has had some recent history with players in his group. He beat TY in GSL qualifiers 2-1 but also lost 3-0 to FanTaSy in IEM qualifiers. The latter zerg goes by one name and many hair colours, Leenock. A fantastic run in the last season of GSL justified the hype surrounding him and it will be interesting to see if he can replicate such a performance in 2019.





TY vs FanTaSy - TvT





Our opening match saw a TvT, with TY facing off against FanTasy. Both players boasted their top win rate in this match up post blizzcon so it would be interested to see how these two players would compare. The first game saw FanTaSy looking to put on the pressure, whilst TY went for a quick third command centre. FanTaSy made an error in his push, dropping his tank in range of TY’s tank, shutting his own push down. This saw TY with a whole base advantage, as he opened up a big economic lead. Both players headed in different directions, TY heading into a mech play with FanTaSy playing bio. TY moved out as a big drop headed for his own base, both players trading but seeing TY step into the ascendency with a 50 supply lead. TY went for the killing blow and found it, reaching a 100 supply advantage before the FanTaSy gg timing was called.





With the cloak denied, FanTaSy's combeack was dealt a savage blow. - Credit AfreecaTV







Game two saw a proxy play to start us off, with a two barracks reaper play. Six scv’s were killed, with a bunker made in FantaSy’s base. With a proxy starport across the map, FanTaSy looked to counter and catch TY out, but with his cloak denied with only four seconds left, FanTaSy was once again left in a difficult situation, looking to make a push across the map. The siege was set, but a cloaked banshee from TY found no opposition in FanTaSy’s base, taking a quick 2-0.





TY 2-0 FanTaSy.





Impact vs Leenock – ZvZ





Cyber Forest was our first map of the series and despite it being the smallest map, a hatchery first build was seen by both players. A spire met a roach / nydus play, with Leenock playing muta while Impact went into a nydus play.With the nydus made outside of Leenocks base Impact came through with roaches and queens. Despite a good engage on the queens, drones came through to make spores for some well needed anti air defence. Game one was thick and fast, with Impact taking the 1-0.





Spores are just better versions of queens anyway right? - Credit AfreecaTV







Our second map represented Leenock’s score in this series, as we went into Year Zero. Both players went into zergling- baneling wars, taking quick thirds. Spire was seem from both sides, with a couple of big baneling hits swinging on the side of Impact. Impact had scouted Leenock’s spire and went for a much earlier carapace upgrade. In a similar situation to phoenix vs phoenix wars in PvP, a few extra mutalisks and an upgrade advantage saw Impact cleave through Leenock’s mutalisks and take another decisive 2-0.





Impact 2-0 Leenock





TY vs Impact – TvZ





With a 9-2 record in TY’s favour, he went into this series as a clear favourite. The first blow was to come in the second minute, a reaper denying Impact’s third as TY went into a quick third command centre. Impact’s woes were to continue, losing eight drones to two hellions and a reaper to further cement TY’s position. Both players powered up, with TY holding a slight supply lead by the 7:30 mark. With Impact going into a muta-ling-bane composition, TY was forced into thors and he expanded into widow mines. TY went for a push and took a good fight, looking to press into Impact’s base. Whilst that push was denied, widow mines killed 14 drones and some amazing multitasking also killed the fifth of Impact, placing TY into a supply lead. TY was chipping away at his opponent, with Impact utilizing great mutalisk control to try keep the terran player busy in his base. In a very entertaining game, both players exchanged bases again, but with Impact behind from TY’s play, one bad fight saw TY’s army stand tall, and gg was called.





In the first of three TvZ's, TY showed why he is considered one of the best in the first game.

Credit - AfreecaTV







Game one was a classic, and TY was to continue his trend from the first game, going into a quick third command centre again. A roach attack off 48 drones by Impact looked to put some pressure on TY but a tank on the high grounded swatted off the pressure. TY then looked to attack, three hellions hitting the gold with 12 drone kills. It’s hard to say if those drone kills prompted the move, but almost right after the ‘r’ key was held down, mass roaches the game as Impact looked to bulldoze through TY. A scary moment saw Impact take a good fight and kill 15 scv’s, but TY held well, relying on his tanks sitting on the high ground. Impact pushed once again, killing another 24 scv’s. No transition was in sight, as TY looked to use drops to find a comeback. TY was under constant stress and lost his third base, surviving on as little as 28 scv’s. This prompted a push out for TY. With a two upgrade lead TY shutdown the fourth of Impact. A passive couple of minutes followed, with TY trying to re-establish his economy. However the passive nature of this game ended quickly, with a push at 17 minutes. TY set up across the middle of the map, snaking his many tanks towards the side of Impact. With the zerg player still stuck on roaches, ravengers and mutalisks, an attack into TY saw him meet a massive line of tanks, roaches melting to send TY into the round of 16 without dropping a map.





TY 2-0 Impact





FanTaSy vs Leenock – TvZ





Another TvZ meant we head to New Repugnancy, with our first mech TvZ to take place. FanTasY went into battle mech with a hellion / cyclone composition, roaming the map and looking for fights. Leenock responce was an early seven minute hive for vipers. Leenock went to push with hydra-roach-viper composition but it was beaten back by FanTaSy. In another entertaining game the battle mech rolled around the map and although Leenock utilized abduct to it’s potential the trades remained even, both players swinging at the other. This back and forth continued for the next few minutes, constant action giving us fight after fight, as a fusion core sadly signaled only liberators, rather than battlecruisers. More trades came in, as 11 swarm hosts and ranged liberators were added to the mix, both players sitting on five bases a piece in a serious late game. However in a very sudden end, the ranged liberators added by FanTaSy could not be countered by Leenock. Supported by the hellion-cyclone beneath, freedom was brought on, with FanTaSy taking a lead in this elimiation series.





Battle mech is at least in my opinion, the more fit, active and attractive version of turtle mech.

Credit - AfreecaTV







Standard openings saw a more aggressive opener take place in the second game. FanTaSy went into a big hellbat timing, flanked by 3 maruders with concussive shells. Although we saw INnoVation roll over SoO with a similar timing in group f, Leenock held strong, although a counter attack was held by a lone tank. FanTaSy went into his battle mech style again, as Leenock looked to go into ravengers and swarm hosts to counter. With some great play, FanTaSy picked off 4 swarm hosts for free, making Leenock deploy his locusts defensively. Leenock still had a big supply lead, but it was FanTaSy’s unit movement that was making the moves, finding openings and good trades, as well as consistently finding damage with liberators. A big hyrda push by Leenock killed two bases as both players throwing punches at the other. At the 17 minute mark both players were on 120 supply, a testament to the crazy game we were watching. More blows were being thrown, FanTaSy’s constant liberator harass a highlight as a push found Leenock with more vipers than hydralisks and eventually gg was called. Bringing an end to an action packed series.





FanTaSy 2-0 Leenock





FanTaSy vs Impact – TvZ





Impact was watching the previous series and we would see how much he learnt and if it would help him. A pool first by Impact looked to shake things up, running around the reaper and looking to cancel the building command centre. However FanTaSy reacted well, only losing two scv’s, moving into a third command centre and stimpack research. FanTaSy had done great damage with hellions in the previous series and it continued here, killing eight drones in a run by. Impact looked to go for another big roach timing similar to which he did against TY. The attack killed the siege tanks of FanTaSy, but was unable to do much more damage and a spire transition followed up for Impact. Impact looked to pressure into FanTaSy but every over extension off creep was punished. However a couple of medivacs lost by FanTaSy pushed Impact into a big attack, smashing through FanTaSy’s defences to take map one.





A hatchery first by Impact went up against a Terran classic, the three barracks proxy. Impact’s hatchery was killed off, as Impact’s ravenger counter met the hard wall off siege tank fire. From here the game normalised, Impact moving into three bases, FanTaSy going into stimpack. Impact threatened another roach timing, before going into burrow and burrow movement. It was a passive game compared to the last three, both players content to advance to the later period of the game. Impact struggled to get rid of his roach supply in an effective manner with a big push by FanTaSy coming through the middle at the 14th minute mark. In an even trade, we saw FanTaSy go up up in supply, as Impact looked to move into ultralisks. Another push by FanTaSy through the middle advanced and sniped Impact’s third. Impact went to fight before several of his key upgrades were finished, losing the fight handily to FanTaSy, placing the terran player in a dominating position. A follow up push a minute later saw some big mine hits, giving a big lead to FanTaSy to tie up the series 1-1.





In the only game to not be a 2-0, Impact and FanTaSy put on a show in the last game.

Credit - AfreecaTV







Our final and deciding game took place on Cyber Forest, with an aggressive pool first opening by Impact. No proxy play was to be imployed by FanTaSy , instead opting for a supremly quick third command centre. Both sides trades aggression, with a swell of lings killing six scv's, while hellions dived in the other end of the map to kill six drones. With a barracks floating to the middle of the map, it was confirmed that FanTaSy would swap into his battle mech style which he used against Leenock. Impact however was not willing to play the long game against this style. A nydus network was made as he would look to dive into the main of the terran player. With a double pronged move by Impact, FanTaSy's army was split, losing his third as Impact broke the third and natural bases. The damage was huge, with Impact pressing the issue with his massive roach- ravanger account. Despite having three command centres still, our Terran player couldn't overcome the tide, tapping out to fall at the final hurdle, Impact advancing to the round of 16.





FanTaSy 1-2 Impact





Qualified Players: TY, Impact





Series of the Day: FanTaSy vs Leenock





Game of the Day: FanTaSy vs Leenock game two.





GSL Code S continues on Wednesday 18:30 KST, with the final group of the round of 32, featuring Rogue, Zest, Patience and aLive























