Code S, Groups C&D: Zergs, terrans and a jedi master

Week one of Code S S5 is upon its end and it brought stories with it, including more upsets, drop-outs and the protoss line-up thinning.

Who would've thought that playing zergs only would bring HerO nothing but sorrow? Alas, that was the protoss's fate in yesterday's Group C which started with a convincing victory over Soulkey but only went downhill from there. He tried two immortal pushes against Curious and lost. He tried base trading against Soulkey in what was the absolute highlight of the group but could not clean up zerg's buildings and lost. He went for a nexus first against 6-pool in the final game and, understandably, lost. It was undoubtedly a bad day for HerO, which also made one think that "Parting's immortal pushes" are called Parting's for a reason.

HerO's loss put Soulkey as the runner-up in Group C, trailing behind Curious, who played with his trademark emotionless and, not unlike Symbol on Tuesday, was flawless in it. He overwhelmed both HerO's shaky PvZ and Maru's unusually disappointing play to be the second StarTale player to come on top uncontested.

Group C
Curious	4-1	To Code S Ro16
Soulkey	4-3	To Code S Ro16
HerO	4-4	To Code A Ro32
Maru	0-4	To Code A Ro48
HerO 2-0 Soulkey Curious 2-0 Maru Curious 2-1 HerO Soulkey 2-0 Maru Soulkey 2-1 HerO

Last night, nobody would expect to see Yoda surviving a group with HyuN, Gumiho and Rain in it but an unexpected gift arrived for the little green jedi master as SKT's beast forfeited his matches to go to MLG, making the group one tournament favorite lighter.

Not that Yoda owns his success to that alone, not by a long shot. His play ranged from standard TvT compositions and contains, through proxy rax openings, to stampeding late-game armies which awarded him the first place in this nightmare of a group.

If making Ro16 for the first time in his career was a big enough success for Yoda, it was even bigger joy for weekly cup king Hyun who had never played Code S matches until today: An odd karma for a zerg that successful outside GSL. Regardless, HyuN's performance felt a bit shaky today and its triumph was mostly due to having to play just one match and facing the manically unorthodox triple CC into double banshee opening of Gumiho in the final set.

Group C
Yoda	4-2	To Code S Ro16
Hyun	5-3	To Code S Ro16
Gumiho	4-4	To Code A Ro32
Rain	0-4	To Code A Ro48
Hyun W.O. Rain Yoda 2-1 Gumiho Yoda 2-1 Hyun Gumiho W.O. Rain Hyun 2-1 Gumiho