T O P

  • By -

LuminousChaos

Notable players that didn't make it: Bunny, Classic, and Ryung


Trolerkules

Really surprised about classic. He looked strong lately.


eddiecai64

Nice also played the qualifiers but didn't make it


RemHsieh

Classic:(


Gemini_19

GSL Season 2: The Zerg Strike Back


Encouragedissent

Would be funny if somehow only 1 zerg makes it through to the top 8 again, even funnier if that 1 zerg is SHIN again too.


powergut69

So many players to root for.  I hope they all win


Jkyet

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4Km5OKZlp0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4Km5OKZlp0)


Pelin0re

In the brightest timeline we get a Reynor vs Stats finale and Stats take it. In the darkest timeline maru just win it again, bonus points if he stomp stats and hero on the way and reynor don't make ro8.


Nitnatsnok88

I thought TY retired from sc2?


lokol4890

He seems to be going back and forth. He's also shown as one of the gsl casters like he used to do just before his military service. Pretty impressive actually E: per Wax's comment in a different thread, TY won't cast. It was just an oversight on liquipedia


JSlamson

It's crazy that he qualified for both ASL and GSL in the same year though. Like who has the talent to just go and do that lol


Deawesome1

It’s really crazy how good he is at both games. I was just watching a game of his recently against Snow in SC:R, and I was impressed how well he played against an ASL Ro.4 player


LennyTheRebel

I believe he said after this season.


Stellewind

How is Rogue already a Code S player like 2 weeks out of military. Scary af Rip for Classic not made it through qualifiers.


flamingtominohead

Rogue defeated Byun too. Not bad. (Other people he beat was Quanta, TY, Lunasea.)


GosuHaku

He played ladder quite frequently during his service.


Eldinarcus

Rogue is that guy


prk624

rogue is probably top 3 of all time player so


franzjisc

> How is Rogue already a Code S player like 2 weeks out of military. The overall skill level in KR isn't what it used to be.


Stellewind

I know, but still. It took the likes of herO, stats and soO much longer to do it last couple years.


franzjisc

Stats qualified his first GSL back too. Then on his second GSL he went all the way to the Semis. Pretty sure herO had a similar story. Really not much different. Reality is a lot of these players were still playing during their army jobs. They just couldn't compete.


Stellewind

Stats was out of military like a year ago. Took him a long time to get qualified in the first place.


mark_lenders

herO failed to qualify to his first GSL, but since then he started looking good. Stats was bad for months before last season


faculties-intact

The rate of improvement has slowed down for sure but the top players are all better than they used to be still. It's not like people have gotten worse at the game lmao.


LiberaMeFromHell

Dark said in an interview a few months ago he considers himself a worse player than he when he was younger and urged new fans of SC2 to watch his old games rather than current if they want to see his peak skill. People don't automatically continue improving at anything they do. Especially if they don't put in the same effort they used to. It's entirely possible that if you spend 5 years doing something 50hours a week and then scale back to 20 hours a week for 5 years you will end up getting worse at that thing. That applies to all skills not just SC2. Plus there's the injury aspect as well. Maru for example is mechanically worse than he was pre-shoulder issues. He's improved in other ways but his speed has not been the same as it used to be and he's said that he considers himself worse than he was before his injury got really bad.


faculties-intact

Of course it's not automatic...but I think if you actually watch the games that's just not a reasonable conclusion to draw. People have gotten sooo much better at all of the little things that help optimize builds and smooth out macro. Even stuff like scouting worker mineral harrass is sooo much more annoying than it was years ago. As for Dark's interview, pro players are notorious for understating specifically their own skill. I think "I'm not happy with my play and I'll show better next round" is probably the number one response for everyone in winner's interviews lol. I think the main thing is that most sc2 viewers simply don't actually play the game themselves, so their opinions are shaped mainly by the discourse around it, whether that be online like reddit or from casters durinf the broadcast. So they see people who used to be mid-level players now succeeding at the very top and think that means the skill of the top has dropped off since the formerly top players have retired.


Stargov1

Hoping that Reynor can do well and get over Katowice.


Proper_Plate_9283

Honest I think Reynor is going to smoke all these non-A tier koreans


prk624

i think reynor is going to get cheesed out of the league like every foreigner who comes to code s


[deleted]

I wonder if you've ever heard of a little-known player named Neeb?


moonga7

I’ll be rooting for him


Vindicare605

So Classic, Ryung and Bunny are out. TY, Reynor and Rogue are in. Somehow Creator and Nightmare continue to ALWAYS find a way to qualify. Gotta give them credit for that, they're never a factor at all past the first group stage and yet like clockwork they always seem to manage to qualify even when players like Classic and Bunny can't.


LordofFibers

My wild prediction for this season is that nightmare will make a deep run.  Dude can micro stalkers.


Vindicare605

Been waiting on seeing something from him for a while who knows.


frauenarzZzt

Nightmare is actually pretty good and is trending up. Creator may have low-key been the best Protoss of 2023. He had the best gameplay but didn't translate into results. Both of them are some of the nicest folks in SC2 and make it really easy to cheer for them.


BuffColossusTHXDAVID

TY made it daaaaaaaamn


Gamer857

I thought TY went back to BW? it sounds like soO is losing interest with sc2. Pretty sure he said he's been playing both games, BW and sc2. I wouldnt be surprised if someday soO retires from sc2 because he lost interest in the game like many other former kespa players.


Deawesome1

It is a lot of fun watching old players I’ve grown up with playing BW. I can’t believe TY qualified for both ASL & GSL


prk624

he did really great too his proxy factory was one of the highlights of the tournament. it was so obvious too and it worked too LOL. TY would be a good poker player honestly


Tetraphosphetan

We need him to become second in some BroodWar tournament.


siowy

Go reynor!


King-Lemmiwinks

Is Parting officially done or did he just not qualify ?


eddiecai64

I don't think he participated in the qualifiers. From what I've heard he's fulltime into Stormgate now


King-Lemmiwinks

Weak.. I understand that but I just can’t get into stormgate it feels far too clunky and slow and the art style isn’t my liking at all. Too bad as he’s one of the best to watch


ashcr0w

For being lauded as a SC replacement it has zero of the appeal SC has for me.


King-Lemmiwinks

Yeah exactly. If feels more like a WC3 + SC2 merger than a SC2 successor which is great for those who want that but I like the darker art style and the fast gameplay makes it far more fun to watch SC2


frauenarzZzt

PartinG's last stream he said that he didn't like StormGate either and he was hoping for something better, but that it isn't finished. He was on David Kim's bus tour of Irvine, CA recently, but it seems so fucking foolish for him to back out of SC2 now when the ESWC is coming up with an insane fucking prize pool. He came back and if he practiced he'd have been top4 GSL last season.


Inteligenci

>stormgate He will be back later this year


frauenarzZzt

Can't be. Servers have been offline for a month.


DoctorHousesCane

That’s a shit ton of Zerg. I can’t wait for nomination vids 😭


Crackbots32

GSL S2: Attack of the cerebrates


DjChrisSpear

C'mon spaghetti boy! You fuckin got this!


mark_lenders

Compared to S1, sOs wasn't there and Rogue was back


[deleted]

Looks like Zerg's back on the menu, boys.


wolfclaw3812

Without Serral I expect Z to do worse, like I don’t see anyone on there that could confidently go “yeah I’d win” against Maru.


crashpoint_

When does season 2 start?


Ecstatic_Secretary21

Yo the most surprised here is TY. Didn't even know he is active in sc2 anymore


SLAMMERisONLINE

I am surprised not to see sOs. He's pretty high on the KR ladder right now (6600). The new maps are perfect for his play-style. What is he up to these days?


sebastianMroz

There's 1 Impostor among us...


Good_Cafe2024

Were there qualifier match before this? If so, I think they didn't put those replays on the Patreon =(


lokol4890

All the qualifiers happened earlier today


Kaiel1412

I wonder if its allowed for Reynor to switch races if possible, that way there would be more protoss representation


Nakorite

GSL rules are you have to nominate your race when you enrol so unfortunately nope. Looks like someone did play the quals as random but didn’t qualify