by Wax

The first RO8 group gave us the expected result of Cure and Maru advancing on to the RO4, but with the rather unexpected order of Cure coming out in first place while Maru slipped by as the runner-up.

There were no major surprises in the initial matches, with Maru getting a routine 2-0 against soO while Cure narrowly beat ByuN 2-1 in a very entertaining TvT series. However, the predictable start gave way to a pair of upsets in the subsequent series.

First, Cure beat his bete noire Maru by a clean 2-0 score in the winners’ match, which saw Cure reverse roles with Maru by displaying superior crisis management and composure in some high-pressure situations. While it certainly was meaningful for Cure to beat his chief tormentor, it should be noted that 2023’s Season 1 also saw him beat Maru in the group stage—only to lose to him in the grand finals rematch.

Down in the losers’ match, soO showed that he was no fluke RO8 entrant by defeating ByuN by a 2-1 score. Even soO’s much-critiqued late-game play looked solid on the day, as he split two such scenarios 1-1 against a very capable turtle-style player in ByuN.

soO showed his ZvT mettle in the decider match as well, taking a map off of Maru in a chaotic semi-basetrade. However, Maru proved to be far too strong in the other two games, which he won handily to book his RO8 ticket.

Code S will resume on Thursday, Jun 20 9:30am GMT (GMT+00:00) with herO, Creator, DRG, and Dark playing in Group B of the RO8.

Recommended Games

[The average quality of games was very high in Group A, and it’s recommended you take a look at the rest of the games as well]

Cure vs ByuN – Initial Match/Game 2 (VOD): The opening match between Cure and ByuN delivered an old-school Marine-Tank showdown that was one of the best TvT’s of the year. Despite the fact that the game went on for over 30 minutes with most of the expansions mind out, the action continued almost non-stop and there was constant tension over the outcome of the game. A must-watch for fans of TvT and good StarCraft II in general.

Maru vs Cure – Winners’ Match/Game 1 (VOD): This was a brief, sweet, and chaotic mess of a game, that demonstrated why short-distance maps can be extremely fun when all the stars align.

soO vs Maru – Decider Match Game 2 – (VOD): Some of the most entertaining StarCraft II games occur when players are placed in unfamiliar scenarios, and that’s precisely what happened when Maru and soO got into a semi-basetrade at around the 8:30 mark. As the game collapsed into chaos, neither player could figure out when it was time to slow things down or step on the gas, leading to the game spiraling even further out of control.

Match Recaps

Group B –

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Initial Match #1: Maru 2 – 0 soO

Game 1 – Site Delta (Maru win): Maru opened with 2-Barracks Reapers, going up to 4 Reapers to try and force a cancel on soO’s third base. We ended up seeing why many Zergs actually DO cancel their third Hatchery against Maru, as soO’s attempt to hold it cost him two Queens and a bunch of Zerglings.

While soO did save his Hatchery, it came at too great a cost. Maru snowballed quickly from there, and finished soO with a Marine-Hellbat-Medivac attack.

Game 2 – Oceanborn (Maru win): Maru opened 2-Barracks Reapers again, while soO changed his strategy up by going 3-Hatch without gas to get out more early Queens. Maru adapted by changing his target from the third Hatchery to Drones, and ended up nabbing 6 kills for the cost of 3 Reapers.

Maru macroed up behind his successful early game, putting himself in position to finish soO with well-upgraded Marine-Marauder-Tank. However, soO pulled off a series of impressive defensive holds with Roach-Ravager-Bane, surviving to reach Hive tech and Ultralisks. Yet, it didn’t mean soO was any closer to winning, as Maru’s pressure had prevented soO from taking his key 5th and 6th bases, while Maru himself was expanding freely. soO managed to keep things surprisingly competitive with some backdoor attacks, but eventually he had to GG out to Maru’s Ghosts and resource advantage.

Initial Match #2: Cure 2 – 1 ByuN

Game 1 – Alcyone ( win): Cure and ByuN started their series by playing one of the best TvT games of the year, giving us a good ol’ fashioned Marine-Tank brawl on Alcyone.

The early game was relatively passive, and both players reached their 3-base setups without much trouble. The mid-game had too many twists and turns to give a play-by-play on, but the key strategic point was that Cure was able to keep nearly all the fighting on ByuN’s side of the map. That allowed Cure to expand without any interference, while ByuN had to scrape and claw to keep the economic gap from getting out of control.

However, ByuN proved to be quite tenacious, and at around the 16-17 minute mark he finally forced Cure into a position where he couldn’t just keep attacking. The game briefly stabilized into a 50/50 map split, but the incredibly lengthy ‘border’ on Alcyone (basically the entire diagonal line from NW to SE) meant the peace couldn’t be sustained for long.

ByuN stayed true to his aggressive style by producing almost pure Marine-Medivac-Tank, using his mobility to strike at Cure’s spread out expansions. Meanwhile, Cure played a more high-tech comp with Ravens added in, giving him the huge edge in any head-on engagements but also making it difficult to split his army up to put out multiple fires. This resulted in an almost non-stop sequence of mid/late-game fights and guerilla actions. ByuN hopped around the map to try and disorient Cure, while Cure did his best to defend while also finding windows to counterattack and force ByuN to withdraw his forces back. The fighting was so brutal that we got to see an especially brutal units lost tab, with over 1300 Marines having lost their lives by the 31 minute mark.

Eventually, as bases mined out, the game swung in Cure’s favor as it reduced the number of locations he had to deploy his more powerful army to. ByuN found himself running out of backdoor attack targets to exploit, and had to GG out at around 34:45.

Game 2 – Site Delta (ByuN win): Both players opened Rax-Factory-CC, after which their techs diverged with ByuN going Marine-Tank-Raven while Cure went for a Reactor-Starport for Marine-Tank-Viking. Cure wasn’t just looking for a bit of early pressure, as he even added a second Starport to commit to a two-base push with his ‘1/1/2.’

Unfortunately for Cure, almost everything went wrong for him. He nearly lost the initial Medivac he sent out for light harassment, while his first move out with Tank-Viking was utterly crushed by ByuN’s Raven use. While Cure had enough gas left in the tank for a strong second push, ByuN skillfully stalled while hitting with a devastating backdoor Marine attack. Cure basically had no chance of winning after his economy was hamstrung by the backdoor, and he soon GG’d out against ByuN’s superior forces.

Game 3 – Goldenaura (ByuN win): Both players played passive in the early game, which worked in Cure’s favor as he greeded out a significantly faster third CC. To make his situation even better, he managed to sneak a small force into ByuN’s third, delaying him from landing his already late third CC. Rather than dislodge Cure’s troops, ByuN decided to send his own troops to attack Cure’s natural in a quarter-basetrade. While ByuN ended up killing a decent number of SCV’s, he lingered for too long and ended up allowing Cure to get an efficient clean-up on the intruders.

This gave Cure a short window to counterattack with his army advantage, and he made the absolute most of it. He paid back all the SCV damage and more with an attack at ByuN’s third, and even set up a containment line. After a failed attempt to break through the containment perimeter, ByuN conceded the GG.

Winners’ Match: Cure 2 – 0 Maru

Game 1 – Oceanborn (Cure win): Maru took a very aggressive approach to the game, opening with Marine-Cyclone drop harass with an immediate transition into a Marine-Tank-Viking with 2 Starports. Cure played a more conventional Marine-Tank-Raven style, which forced him to keep giving ground to Maru’s push as he waited to reach two Ravens with high energy. While Maru did push within Siege Tank range of Cure’s natural CC, Cure calmly executed a Raven-powered breakout before he took any real economic damage. The breakout was very efficient for Cure, and only some fast reactions from Maru prevented it from being a total massacre on his end.

Perhaps misjudging the situation, or simply looking to stall, Maru regrouped and tried to set up a soft contain with his smaller army. However, Cure simply buzzsawed through with his superior force, and rolled into Maru’s territory to take the victory.

Game 2 – Ghost River (Cure win): Cure opened with 2-Barracks Reapers, with one Barracks proxied out on the map. This countered Maru’s 1-Rax Reaper expand with a CC directly on the low ground, forcing a cancel. This wasn’t as bad for Maru as it initially appeared, as Cure’s own expansion wasn’t that fast and he only ended up with a moderate economic advantage.

After a brief pause to build mirroring Marine-Tank-Raven forces, Cure resumed the action by moving out and setting up a low-ground siege at Maru’s third base. Maru took a successful defensive fight, losing similar supply to Cure but coming out ahead in terms of Tank count. Maru rolled out for a counterattack, moving through the top-most corridor to try and attack Cure’s natural from the low ground.

Here, Cure made a clever tactical move in response, moving his troops forward to fake a defensive engagement before immediately changing direction to launch a counterattack toward Maru’s expansions. This forced just a few seconds of hesitation on Maru, but it made a big impact as Maru was forced backtrack through the top-most path—which didn’t have its rock obstruction removed yet! This let Cure arrive at Maru’s third base significantly earlier and deploy his troops in an advantageous position. Once Maru finally broke through the rocks, he was forced to enlist many SCV’s in the ensuing defensive battle. While Maru succeeded at defeating Cure’s force, heavy SCV casualties made it seem like Cure had a major lead.

However, Maru was not one to go down without a fight, and he took advantage of his momentary army advantage and short ground distance to launch a countercounter-attack. He was helped by the fact that he was quicker to tech to Vikings and Liberators, and his attack ended up dealing severe damage. In a close mirror of what happened to Maru earlier, Cure himself was forced to sacrifice many SCV’s to finally defeat Maru’s army.

The scales had swung in Maru’s favor, but only briefly as Cure was ready for his own countercountercounter-attack (the game really resembled the frequent ZvZ tug-of-wars on Oceanborn). Thanks to Cure’s advantage in Medivac count, he was able to break through Maru’s defenses, and Maru GG’d out somewhat early after deeming there was no way to reverse the momentum for a fourth time.

Losers’ Match:soO 2 – 1 ByuN

Game 1 – Oceanborn (ByuN win): ByuN opened with 2-Barracks Reapers, and soO adjusted from his previous series by simply delaying his third Hatchery significantly to make the anti-Reaper defense much less troublesome. Regardless of his slightly worse start in terms of economy, soO’s Oceanborn plan was similar to his match against Maru: start with a Roach-Ravager-Bane and tech up to Hive and Ultralisks.

While Maru had played aggressively in the mid-game, ByuN went for a different approach by playing a more passive, late-game oriented style (though he did get in some moderately effective drops and backdoor attacks). soO was allowed to take map control and expand freely for almost all of the mid-game, thus building up an impressive bank. However, these were all concessions ByuN was willing to make, as he looked to outlast soO in the very long run. While soO launched a number of effective attacks that broke parts of ByuN’s defensive line or forced temporary lifts on his expansions, ByuN managed to toe the line of bending but not breaking.

Slowly, but surely, ByuN saw the game go according to his plan, with soO mining out his bases and needing to secure extra expansions over the 50/50 split line to stay in the series. ByuN refused to give soO that key lifeline, and eventually outlasted soO to win at just over the 35-minute mark.

Game 2 – Post Youth (soO win): soO showed that he was psyched out by all the Reaper play from Maru and ByuN, blindly opening with a late third Hatchery against ByuN’s extremely greedy 3-CC start. The situation got even worse for soO when he let his attention lapse against ByuN’s first four Hellions, allowing them into his main and roast seven Drones.

The game looked like it was snowballing toward an awful defeat for soO, but he turned the tables in an instant with a well-timed Speedling backdoor. He attacked just as ByuN was looking to harass with his first two Medivacs full of Marines, and ByuN’s decision to stand and fight with SCV’s cost him dearly.

The backdoor was enough to give soO the lead, and he decided to follow-up by going for a big Roach-Ravager maxout with double upgrades. soO’s first big attack at around 180 supply was just barely fought off by ByuN, but the second and third waves of Roach-Ravager forced ByuN to GG.

Game 3 – Alcyone (soO win): The early/middle stages of the game progressed much like game one, with soO playing Roach-Ravager-Bane into Hive, while ByuN played passively while eyeing a victory by attrition in the late game. Again, ByuN ceded map control to soO for much of the mid-game, which left soO to ponder how to solve the problem differently this time around.

It didn’t look like soO had any clear answer, as ByuN slowly achieved his desired half-map split and put together a dangerous mech/ghost composition. However, one good fight in the field proved to be an absolute game changer for soO, as he took an advantageous trade against ByuN’s army and charged forward to force lifts on two of ByuN’s bases. These two bases also happened to be the source of most of ByuN’s gas income, which left him a rough spot as the two players rebuilt their armies. Whether soO was aware of ByuN’s situation or not, he exploited it wonderfully by quickly remaxing and attacking again. Hellbat and Marine reinforcements were woefully inadequate against soO’s Ultralisk-centered force, and ByuN had to admit defeat.

Decider Match: Maru 2 – 1 soO

Game 1 – Site Delta (Maru win): The game opened with the familiar 2-Barracks Reaper vs delayed third Hatchery pattern that had developed over the day, with Maru following up with his preferred 3-CC + fast double upgrades. soO went for some light Roach-Ravager-Ling pressure to delay Maru from landing his third CC, while gearing up for a more committed mass Roach-Ravager attack with Nydus support a few minutes later.

Unfortunately for soO, he struck too late (or he may never have had a window to strike at all). Maru already had 2/2 and 8-Barracks production when soO charged into his third, and he defeated soO’s army handily. Maru immediately went on the counterattack, ending the game.

Game 2 – Oceanborn (soO win): Maru changed up his plan to go Rax-CC, following up with four Hellions. Somehow, soO made the same mistake as in his match vs ByuN, allowing the Hellions to walk through his front door and get 6 Drone kills. Maru looked to play another aggressive 3-base strategy from there, while soO had to play Roach-Ravager from his less-than-deal start.

Maru’s position got even better when the two mid-game armies took different paths in the center of the map, which resulted in Maru killing soO’ third (which also happened to be his Lair for some reason) while he simply lifted off his own CC and retreated to his natural.

It seemed like Maru just had to play things safe and slow at that point, but instead was caught overextending as he retook his third while also sending out 3 Medivacs worth of bio for some drop harass. soO launched a frontal attack at the perfect time to take advantage of these absent troops, inflicting major SCV damage to Maru and forcing him to retreat all the way into his main. While Maru’s drops did some damage and kept soO on three bases, the exchange was still enormously advantageous for soO.

With the situation looking very dicey, Maru went for broke by emptying his main to go for a huge drop play with the majority of his army. This risky move paid off as soO responded by committing his entire army to chasing around Maru’s Medivacs, all while Maru reclaimed his natural and third bases with zero defenders. Not only that, but soO didn’t even do a particularly good job at chasing the Medivacs around, which let Maru keep soO on a 3-base economy. By the time soO had realized he should stop chasing Medivacs and check up on Maru’s half of the map, Maru had already rebuilt much of his army and was in a firm defensive position.

Yet again, it looked like all Maru had to do was play safe and slow to take the game, but he ended up making the same mistake as before. He sent out a detachment of troops for drop tactics, just as soO was preparing a head on attack with the bulk of his army. soO cut through the weakened defenses undid much of Maru’s economic recovery, while Maru did much less damage on the other half of the map with his drop.

Despite this setback, Maru managed to secretly float a couple of CC’s to untaken expansions, giving him the foundation for perhaps another turnaround. However, after a few scans and a bit of Viking scouting, Maru abruptly GG’d out, perhaps assessing the situation to be unwinnable (viewers may beg to disagree).

Game 3 – Alcyone (Maru win): Maru went back to 2-Barracks Reapers, while soO gave his ‘defense’ a twist by sneaking out a handful of Zerglings to counterattack and delay Maru’s add-on timings (Maru having drawn the bad spawn location RNG). However, it proved to be a poor decision to split resources and attention against Maru’s Reapers, as Maru was able to take advantage of the situation by killing off 3 Drones and a Queen.

The add-on delay didn’t seem to bother Maru too much, as he kept up the pressure with Reaper-Hellion and then Marine-Medivac with stim. soO just couldn’t keep pace with these rapid attacks, bleeding off Drones, Queens, and Roaches during his haphazard defense.

soO was so damaged he had to go all-in with Roach-Ravager at that point (which may have been his plan anyway), but Maru wisely lifted his third and defended from his natural. This time, his decision to counter-drop while defending proved to be successful, as he easily thwarted soO’s frontal attack while dealing game-ending damage on the other side of the map.

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• Source: https://tl.net/forum/starcraft-2/627137-code-s-ro8-group-a-cure-and-maru-advance