Koh “GuMiho” Byung-jae enters the 2023 Global StarCraft II League Season 3: Code S knockout stage with a perfect 4-0 record, having won Group D in the first and Group A in the second stage of the tournament. Kim “Classic” Doh-woo, meanwhile, placed second in Group B in the last stage, yet the Protoss player is priced as a favourite in this matchup.

That is mainly due to Classic’s strong head-to-head record against GuMiho, whom he has beaten 12 times (12-4) this year. However, GuMiho has won against Classic three times since July, including a 2-0 result in their most recent meeting at the start of October.

Classic has a lousy 37.93% win rate against Terran players over the last 58 maps, whereas GuMiho has a 58.27% success rate in TvP matchups. So even though Classic has done well against GuMihio before, we prefer the outsider at the offered StarCraft II betting odds.

Kang “Solar” Min-soo and Park “Dark” Ryung-woo last met at the start of August, when Solar won his eighth head-to-head match of the year and third against Dark over the last six meetings. However, Solar is still 8-11 down in the head-to-head stakes in 2023.

This might explain why Dark is priced as the favourite for this match, but we would argue that the odds should be reversed. Solar has looked very good in the first two stages of the tournament, and he is historically a solid player in ZvZ matchups (66.88% all-time win rate). Moreover, Solar has won 80.85% of mirrored matchups over the last 47 games.

Dark is getting a lot of respect on the StarCraft II betting sites since he is higher rated than Solar. But that doesn’t mean that the 2023 GSL S2: Code S finalist will have an easy time on Thursday.

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?Koh “GuMiho” Byung-jae has looked incredible this tournament and is now just one step away from his first Premier finals appearance since the 2019 AfreecaTV GSL Super Tournament 1. He had a rough start in the group stage, which he finished with a 2-2 record, but ever since he entered the knockout stage, the 30-year-old has been nothing short of impressive.

Admittedly GuMiho needed five maps to edge out wins against Park “DRG” Soo-ho and Kim “Cure” Doh-work, but not once did it seem like he wasn’t in full control of the series. Moreover, no matter what the final score was, beating DRG and Cure is an impressive feat in itself.

Shin “RagnaroK” Hee-beom topped Group A with victories against Lee “Bunny” Jae-seon, Kang “Solar” Min-soo, Kim “herO” Joon-ho, and GuMiho, who RagnaroK beat 2-1 at the end of September. It marked his 17th (17-12) head-to-head victory against his compatriot and his fifth (5-1) of the year. Still, the last two meetings went the distance, including the WardiTV Summer Championship group stage clash (3-2).

RagnaroK has looked better in the group stage, but GuMiho has shown improvement, and if his recent performances are any indication, he is definitely capable of winning on Thursday.

Cho “Maru” Seong-ju finished the group stage in a two-way tie for first at 3-1, but due to the better map difference, he locked in the first spot, ahead of Park “DRG” Soo-ho and a direct bye into the semi-finals. During the group stage, Maru hasn’t disappointed, although he had suffered a shock defeat against Jang “Creator” Hyun-woo.

It’s not too uncommon to see Maru slip against weaker opponents, but that doesn’t change the fact that he is one of the main favourites to claim the coveted trophy.

His next opponent, Kim “herO” Joon-ho finished the group stage in second place, with just one defeat against Shin “RagnaroK” Hee-beom, who reverse-swept him (1-2) on September 19. Since the group stage, herO has played just one game, against Park “DRG” Soo-ho in the round of six upper bracket, and won 3-2.

Maru has clashed with herO 21 times since their first meeting in 2013 and is 12-1-8 up in the head-to-head. He has also won five of six bouts (5-1) this year but is 1-1 across their last two, with a 1-4 defeat at 2022 Global StarCraft II League Season 2 Code S in July and a 3-2 victory from TeamLiquid StarLeague 9 lower bracket clash in September.

On paper, Maru looks like the better player, is in solid form, and has a 65.62% win rate against Protoss over the last 29 outings (19-10). However, herO is 17-1 against Terran over the last 18 matches and is on a four-game winning streak with wins against DRG and Park “Dark” Ryung-woo.
This should be another close series, and while herO is an appealing bet at evens or higher, we like over 4.5 maps at $2.37 with GG Bet.

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