RO12 Group A Preview: Cure, Zoun, Solar, Creator
Start time: 09:30 GMT (+00:00)
by Wax
Top-tier StarCraft II competition is set to continue mere days after the conclusion of DreamHack Dallas, with Season 2 of GSL Code S commencing from SOOP’s Korean studio.
The results of DreamHack suggested the off-season competitions had been wildly misleading, with StarCraft II being in a state of greater parity than anyone had expected. Will that be proven to be the case in the GSL, or will it be revealed that DreamHack was the actual illusion?
The favorites and underdogs in Group A are clearly delineated, with recent runner-up finishers Cure and Solar taking two Protosses with far less recent success in Zoun and Creator.
Cure’s second place run last season was vindicating for both he and I. For Cure, he loudly demonstrated why you shouldn’t get too wrapped up in online tournament results, and that he remains an incredibly consistent big tournament player. Now, it looks like he has essentially picked up right where he left off in 2024, where he finished RO4 at IEM Katowice and two Code events, and then fifth at EWC.
Personally, I enjoyed seeing the strategist I had hyped up so much fully deliver on his reputation. Honestly, I had probably been indexing a little too hard on his guileful GSL championship run in 2021—he had since become more inclined to play generic macro. But all of those mind-gaming skills were back on full display against Classic and herO, where out of necessity, he emptied his bag of Terran bulls***. While he did overplay his hand against herO in game seven of the finals by deploying his 3-Barracks/1-Factory all-in for the fourth time in the tournament, he had already reminded us how dangerous he can be.
I’m only mildly concerned about his latest result, a disappointing RO24 finish at DreamHack Dallas. Prior to Dallas, Cure was on an incredibly consistent two year run where he almost never fell out of the top eight, and I’m inclined to treat it as a fluke. That makes Cure my easiest pick to advance from this group.
On the other hand, DreamHack Dallas runner-up Solar is harder to pin down. One would think that by placing high at the biggest event of the year so far, Solar would be an automatic lock to make the RO8. He beat numerous Code S-quality players along the way in GuMiho, trigger, Reynor, and SHIN, and even pushed Serral to five games before giving up a 2-3 loss. In light of that, his RO12 elimination in Code S Season 1 could seem merely unlucky. He had narrowly lost 1-2 to Reynor in the decider match after defeating the Italian Zerg by the same scoreline earlier in the group.
However, could it be the case that he was equally lucky at Dallas? It’s conspicuous that Solar’s Solar’s wins against SHIN, Reynor, and Trigger all went to game five, and that two of those were ZvZ’s—a match-up that’s looking extra coin-flippy as of late. It also bears looking at his record in the latest GSL Code S qualifiers, where he went 1-2 against GuMiho as well as groupmates Creator and Zoun. He only clinched his spot at the very last opportunity by defeating DRG and sOs—two players who seemed quasi-retired until a month ago.
Still, major tournaments are what players should be judged on, and it would take a mountain of more evidence for me to dismiss Solar’s DreamHack run entirely. I’ll also pick him to advance from this group, but there’s a very realistic upset opportunity for our two Protosses.
In discussing Cure’s chances, I mentioned how you can’t always read too deeply into online results. Then what am I to make of Zoun, who was the apple of my eye during the off-season? The 2024 military returnee quickly rose through the online ranks with in the winter months, bouncing back to #15 on the Aligulac.com rankings at his peak. However, things went awry almost as soon as the ‘real’ season started, with Zoun failing to qualify for Code S Season 1 at all (losses to Reynor, ByuN, NightMare, and Bunny), followed by a listless RO24 elimination at DreamHack Dallas (losses to HeroMarine and MaNa).
I refuse to believe the off-season was entirely meaningless. Clearly, I wasn’t the only one enamored with the rapid restoration of his skills, with Vitality signing him to a contract in April. Okay, so everyone gets a contract ahead of EWC, but Vitality is headed by Crank, someone with deep knowledge of the Korean scene. I still think Zoun’s peak play is at a GSL playoffs level, but his poor showing in Dallas has definitely rattled my confidence.
The final player of the group is Creator, who reached the 2024 Code S Season 2 RO4 the last time we saw him in the GSL. While that impressive run saw him take down the likes of herO and Dark, things haven’t gone all that well from him since then. He failed to qualify for EWC 2024, grinded through the off-season while winning just a handful of minor showmatch/cups, and was denied a chance at playing in this year’s first GSL after losing to Percival and ByuN in the qualifiers. His recent trip to Dallas didn’t bear any fruit either, although it’s hard to fault him for losing to Maru and SHIN.
The only good news going for Creator lately is his qualification for Code S Season 2, which he did by beating Solar and GuMiho. Those games were a reminder that Creator is still a solid all-around player who can take a BO3 series off of any Code S regular not-named-Maru—something you see from him all the time in online cups. However, he just has trouble stringing those wins together in a way that nets a meaningful result.
Predictions
Cure 2 – 1 Zoun
Solar 2 – 0 Creator
Cure 2 – 1 Solar
Creator 2 – 0 Zoun
Solar 2 – 1 Creator
Cure and Solar to advance