GSL Season 5 Round of 32 - Zerg edition

We just finished watching Life absolutely dominate the last RO 32 group of this GSL season.

Everyone is talking about the current Zerg dominance and this RO 32 certainly felt more zerg dominated than ever before, with three Zerg players winning their groups with a 4-0 score, and 8 Zergs moving on to the RO 16.

We took a quick look at the win rates of all the Zerg featured sets of this GSL RO 32.

In all the sets played, the Zerg players had a combined result of 37 wins and only 15 losses meaning a win percentage of 71 %

That's a pretty nasty overall win percentage for a race...

What we find most interesting though is that a lot of people are focusing on Infestors and Broodlords being Imba and therefore being the problem.

But if we actually take a look at the Zergs that dominated the most, Leenock and Life (arguably the two best zergs in the world right now as well) their play wasn't really that centered around Infestors or Broodlords.
In fact their play was heavily dominated by all kinds of other stuff like Mutalisk play, Roach pushes or Baneling busts.

So what is it exactly that makes Zerg players dominate so much right now?

Hard to say.
Perhaps it's just God's (or Nestea's) way of bringing more attention to the Zerg race and thus provide a natural transition to Heart of the Swam :)

Anyway, the following players moved on to the Round of 16

Zerg: Symbol, Curious, Soulkey, Hyun, DongRaeGu, Sniper, Leenock and Life

Terran: Polt, Hack, Yoda, MarineKing, Bogus and Ryung

Protoss: Parting and Creator

Group B, C and D of GSL Season 5 RO 32

Unfortunately we didn't have time to do a recap of this week's group B, C and D of the RO 32 of this GSL season.

We did however watch a lot of the games from the groups so here's our quick summary of how we experienced them

Group B (Symbol, Hack, RorO and Happy)

From what we saw of this group's games it seemed pretty one-sided in the sense that Symbol dominated   the group heavily.

Symbol defeated both RorO and Hack 2-0 and thus took first place in the group.

We got to see one set of each of these matches and in both of these sets Symbol looked clearly like the better player. It just felt like Symbol was better at dictating where the games ended up going, and that is generally something you see in a lot of Symbol's games, in our modest opinion.

We also got to see the entire last elimination series between Hack and RorO and that was actually a pretty close and cool series. Hack ended up taking it 2-1, but they were evenly matched and of this group's games, the sets between Hack and RorO definitely seemed the most enjoyable.

Symbol and Hack advanced to the RO 16

Group C (Curious, Soulkey, HerO and Maru)

Once again we experienced the group as being somewhat one-sided, with Curious this time being the one that was somewhat dominating. He defeated Maru 2-0 making it almost look easy and then took down HerO 2-1, in a much closer series though.

Generally what this group made us think the most about was that we felt sorry for HerO once again.

Maybe it's just because we've always liked his style, but it just feels like he's always so damn unlucky.

This time he started out by defeating Soulkey 2-0 in a series in which he clearly looked better. He then lost to Curious as mentioned, but the experienced zerg was on fire and Hero made a few strange mistakes so we were still optimistic about Hero's chances.

In the final elimination series Hero was then once again up again Soulkey.

The first set was on Daybreak and here he once again crushed Soulkey giving HerO the 1-0 lead and at this point we felt absolutely certain that he had it in the bag.

Then Broodlord/Infestor happened in set 2 and Soulkey ended up taking it after a long basetrade. But Hero had played fantastically all through the game until the basetrade. His harassment had been perfect and he had kept Soulkey on a few bases while expanding him self so all in all it reminded us a lot about his tragic loss to Leenock in the last season.

In the 3rd set Soulkey did a 6 pool that HerO didn't handle perfectly and this gave Soulkey a lead that eventually won him the game.

Curious and Soulkey advanced to the RO 16

Group D (YoDa, HyuN, GuMiho and Rain)

Before the group was played Rain naturally looked like the clear favorite coming directly from his OSL victory. Unfortunately for everyone Rain cancelled in the last minute due to him going to Dallas for the MLG championship instead.

So we suddenly had a group of three very lucky players.

We only watched a few of the sets and from what we saw we made the following conclusions.

Yoda is better than we thought, and HyuN is worse than we thought and GuMiho is just as unstable as we thought.

We watched one of the sets between Yoda and HyuN and in that set Yoda had HyuN's game totally figured out and was able to defeat him easily even though HyuN got up to Broodlord tech.

We also watched a few of the sets from the final series between HyuN and GuMiho and in those games neither player looked particularly good.

GuMiho made some strange decisions and HyuN made some very poor engagements and threw away units in weird ways a couple of times.

But Hyun was able to take the series in the final set and thus move on, but we fell pretty certain that he would have had a harder time if Rain had been present.

YoDa and HyuN advanced to the RO 16

GSL Season 5 Code S RO 32 Group A - RECAP

Liquid_TaeJa vs. MVP_Finale

Set 1 - Abyssal City - TaeJa to the left and Finale to the right

There weren't really any kinds of aggression during the first 10 minutes. TaeJa invested a lot in ghosts with cloak and Finale initially went for archons and storm tech, but later also added colossi.

TaeJa lost some ghosts for free when they were chasing part of Finale's army and got forcefielded away from the rest of his army. Finale on the other hand lost a colossus for free due to a misrally.

When they had their final engagement Finale had a couple of Colossi, but TaeJa had no vikings and Finale's archons, colossi and storms tore apart TaeJa's army and the young Protoss took the first set.

TaeJa vs. Finale = 0 - 1

Set 2 - Antiga Shipyard - TaeJa in bottom right and Finale in top left

TaeJa took his natural quickly, but Finale was able to sneak a pylon into the natural of TaeJa.

Finale pretended to expand as well, but went for a 4-gate instead, and unfortunately for poor TaeJa he never scouted the pylon. Finale warped in and attacked just before TaeJa got a second bunker up and the 4-gate pressure was far too much for TaeJa who was forced to GG giving Finale a surprising win in the first match.

TaeJa vs. Finale = 0 - 2

TSL_Polt vs. StarTale_Parting

Set 1 - Daybreak - Polt in bottom left and Parting in top right

Both got their third bases up (Polt's in the main though) without getting harassed. Parting tried some heavy 8 gate pressure, but Polt had 3 bunkers and was able to barely deflect the attack. From there Polt could fly his third safely out and they both went for double upgrades with Parting investing in archons and Polt in ghosts.

Polt tried some heavy drop play, but Parting scouted it and used the opportunity to move in at Polt's third and force a lift. But Polt was able to prevent Parting from pushing further on with great EMPs.

From there Parting started producing double colossi, but at the same time Polt went for triple viking production.
Parting however managed to force a big engagement before Polt had built up a decent army so that gave the protoss a good lead.
Polt tried some counter harassment, but Parting cleaned it up and was able to push towards Polt's base and take out his remaining forces with his Colossus/Archon based army.

Polt vs. Parting = 0 - 1

Set 2 - Antiga Shipyard - Polt in bottom right and Parting in top left 

Parting went for a DT into expand build whereas Polt took his natural quickly and from there aimed for a 8-minute marine/marauder with stim and +1 attack.

Parting's DTs were able to do a good amount of damage, but Polt evacuated some of his SCVs. At the same time Polt was able to take out Parting's natural with his push. On top of that Parting did an unfortunate move-command mistake and lost a lot of units for free.

By pulling probes Parting was able to deflect Polt's attack and then retake his natural.
Eventually Parting got some Immortals and Colossi, but around the 15-minute mark Polt pushed with his big bio army, and with good drop play was able to catch Parting's Colossi and different parts of Parting's army at different locations and in the end Parting had lost too much and was forced to GG.

Polt vs. Parting = 1 - 1

Set 3 - Cloud Kingdom - Polt in bottom left and Parting in top right

Parting went Nexus first whereas Polt went for some early 3-rax aggression upon scouting the Nexus first. Polt tried to get a bunker up at the natural of Parting, but by pulling probes Parting was able to defend.
Instead Polt expanded himself, but was of course pretty far behind in economy. Polt still has a bigger army though and he tried to push at the natural of Parting again and this time he forced Parting to retreat into his main and also got a bunker up at Parting's natural.

Parting got an immortal out and was able to push down his ramp and take out Polt's army and the bunker with good force fields, and thus save his natural.
At this point Parting was far ahead and he decided to go for a big counterpush. Polt was able to hold on for a while by pulling SCVs, but Parting stayed ahead while adding on colossi.
Polt never found an answer for Parting's colossi and was forced to GG in the end.

Polt vs. Parting = 1 - 2

MVP_Finale vs. StarTale_Parting

Set 1 - Antiga Shipyard - Finale in bottom left and Parting in top right

Finale went for a 4-gate and Parting went for 2-gate and a robo.

Finale managed to get a pylon into the natural and main of Parting and the game turned into a heavy micro battle in Parting's base, but Parting managed to survive and was only a few probes behind Finale after the attack ended.

From there Parting expanded whereas Finale decided to continue aggression instead of expanding himself. Finale was able to force Parting to retreat into his main, and thus take out Parting's natural.

From there though Parting was able to push out and take out Finale's army and also retake his natural.
Parting then pushed towards Finale's base, who had tried getting his own nexus up, but when Parting arrived he had far too much so Parting took the set.

Finale vs. Parting = 0 - 1

Set 2 - Cloud Kingdom - Finale in bottom left and Parting in top right

Finale went for quick DTs into expand, but Parting went for quick robo so he took no damage from the DTs.
Parting then expanded himself while Finale cancelled his Nexus and added more gates instead.

Eventually it came down to an all-in attack from Finale with his archon-immortal based army.
By barely having enough immortals and pulling drones Parting was able to survive the attack and with that the game was over.

Finale vs. Parting = 0 - 2

TSL_Polt vs. Liquid_TaeJa

Set 1 - Antiga Shipyard - Polt in bottom right and TaeJa in top left

Both went for quick CCs and TaeJa did a good early drop that took out some SCVs and Polt's tech lab researching Stim. Polt though did a decent counter push and was able to take out TaeJa's tech lab researching combat shields. Eventually both took their third while going for heavy Marine/Tank compositions.

Polt took control of the center, but at some point TaeJa was able to stim and catch some of Polt's tanks giving TaeJa the tank lead. Polt still remained in the center though.

Eventually TaeJa tried to do a big flank on Polt's army in the center, but ended up getting flanked himself when Polt came in with another force from the south and from there on Polt had a good lead.

They both took their fifth bases, but Polt was able to push on TaeJa's third with his tank lead advantage. Eventually Polt also pushed further towards TaeJa's natural and main and at this point TaeJa was way behind in army supply.
He still had 4 bases and a lot of SCVs, but since he had no answer for Polt's army and he was forced to GG eventually.

Polt vs. TaeJa = 1 - 0

Set 2 - Daybreak - Polt in bottom left and TaeJa in top right

Polt went for bio and TaeJa went for mech. TaeJa took his third faster than Polt and he also took out one of Polt's tanks early on with hellions so the Liquid player was in a good position.
Eventually Polt sieged up outside TaeJa's third and natural and it looked like neither would break the other.
Suddenly TaeJa engaged at the ramp outside his natural with only half his army and Polt's bio force took out lots of TaeJa's tanks practically for free and with all of TaeJa's remaining tanks still positioned at his third, Polt was able to move on into TaeJa's natural and TaeJa was forced to GG and with that was knocked out of the tournament.

Polt vs. TaeJa = 2 - 0

After taking out most of TaeJa's tanks Polt's bio force has free reign!

TSL_Polt vs. MVP_Finale

Set 1 - Whirlwind - Polt in top right and Finale in bottom right

Finale took his third rather early on whereas Polt invested a lot of all kinds of aggression, but Finale was ready for all his drops and took out several full medivacs, so Finale got way ahead in economy. 

When Finale finally pushed out Polt had no answer to the massive damage that Finale dealt with his Colossi and storms.

So Finale could push all the way up the main of Polt who tried a counter drop, but once again Finale defended well and thus he took the set.

Polt vs. Finale = 0 - 1

Set 2 - Antiga Shipyard - Polt in bottom right and Finale in top left

Both went for some aggressive builds with Polt going for reactor'd hellions + banshee and Finale for early twilight (blink) and robo. 

Polt got hellions into Finale's main and was able to take out 10 probes. Finale tried to counterpush with blink stalkers and was able to do a good amount of damage in Polt's base. Polt however got more hellions into Finale's base and in the end Finale has no probes left. 

At the same time Polt was able to force the blink stalkers to retreat with excellent SCV and hellion + banshee defense and with that he claimed the second set.

Polt vs. Finale = 1 - 1

Finale's only hope is his remaining blink stalkers, but they're doomed

Set 3 - Antiga Shipyard - Polt in top right and Finale in bottom left

Finale went for a 2-base 6-gate push around the 8-minute mark with around 5 sentries. Polt had two bunkers, and he scouted the incoming attack in the last second and was able to position all his SCVs correctly and also get a 3rd bunker up.

Finale decided to try and break him anyway, and he took out two of the bunkers, but his army was crushed and as stim finished for Polt the attack was absolutely denied.

From there Polt was far ahead, but Finale tried to transitioned into a longer game while getting DTs.
Polt moved out when he had a bunch of medivacs and Finale was able to hold on a bit with his DTs, but Polt just kept sending units and eventually Finale was forced to GG.

Polt vs. Finale = 2 - 1

Polt defends perfectly against Finale's big attack

Parting and Polt advanced to the round of 16! 

Finale and TaeJa is knocked down to code A!

Polt is a happy dude as he secures himself a spot in the RO 16

All in all some pretty surprising results as TaeJa was probably the favourite going into the group, but ended up finishing in last place.
Parting on the other hand showed some really dominating play and is definitely looking like a protoss contender to take this season.

GSL season 4 RO 32 group H

Recap incoming - BEWARE OF SPOILERS

 So today was the final group of this season's round of 32.

It consisted of Bomber, DongRaiGu, GuMiho and Polt who had to battle for the final two spots in the RO 16.
So one of the absolute best Zergs in the world and three really consistent and killer Terrans.


First series was between Startale_Bomber and MVPDongRaiGu and it was supposedly a really cool series.
We only had a chance to watch the third and final set after both players had won a set. And if we had to compare this set to an icecream flavor it would be chocolate. Mostly just because we like that flavor and we liked this game as well.
DongRaiGu used some really cool Mutalisk harassment to keep Bomber in his base. It was a cool style where he never actually went for SCVs with the Mutas, but instead just kept snatching add-ons and supply depots. And then when Bomber finally moved out he finally went for the drones with his mutas and at the same time attacked with Zerglings at the third. And then after doing loads of damage he went back with the Mutas and along with a big number of Banelings they were able to crush Bomber's army and thus DRG took the first series.

DongRaiGu vs. Bomber = 2-1


Second series was between FXOGuMiho and TSL_Polt and was an ok series. If we had to compare it to an icecream flavor it would be the strawberry. Just because it's red and tasty.

First set was on Daybreak and we expected a pretty long game that could end up in a classic TvT split map situation. GuMiho however dominated Polt completely. Maybe because of the lucky piece of cloth that he places over the mouse, or maybe just because he is a bad ass kid.
Anyway, they went for pretty much the same Tank/marine/medivac composition but GuMiho just rolled over Polt when they finally engaged.

Second set was on Antiga shipyard and whereas game 1 looked one-sided in favor of GuMiho this game was a lot closer in general. In the early game Polt went bio and GuMiho went mech, and in this phase Polt generally seemed to be able to use his composition better.
Polt used his mobility and did some nasty drops that killed around 30-35 SCVs. GuMiho didn't have his defense positioned all too well during these drops, and all the damage Polt did allowed him to take control of the center with a big number of siege tanks. GuMiho tried to attack into the center but couldn't break Polt so Polt felt safe enough to start transitioning into skyterran. GuMiho had been smart as well though and built a lot of vikings and ravens along with his mech army. With this composition he was able to put on some pretty good pressure on Polt's army in the center. But then Polt moved out with a Battlecruiser fleet and they killed GuMiho.

Third set was on Cloud Kingdom and was actually a really cool and close game. Once again Polt seemed to favor bio (as he always does) whereas GuMiho seemed to favor Mech. GuMiho used a cool Helion/viking composition to control the map and this allowed him to take his third faster than Polt.
Polt invested heavily in marauders and tried to break GuMiho's third, but he was too well defended. From this point on it was a very back and forth game where both players kept moving forth in different locations. They both played really well in all of the engagements in this phase but at some point Polt caught GuMiho's army unsieged and this gave him too big a lead and GuMiho resigned.
A very good comeback from Polt that looked like he was in big trouble in the first set, but really showed some good bio skill in the next two sets.

Polt vs. GuMiho = 2 - 1


Third series was the winners DongRaiGu and Polt going at it for a spot in the RO 16.

First set was on whirlwind. DongRaiGu went for his classic style three base opening with some heavy drone production.
At some point Polt did a big push but DRG held it beautifully by building the exact right amount of units in the very last second and then sandwiching Polt's army.
From here on DRG's three base economy gave him what he needed to do a giant and insane baneling bust on Polts base and with constant zerglings and Mutas streaming in, Polt had to GG

Second set was on Antiga shipyard.
DRG played some of his usual three base zergling/baneling/mutalisk style again. This time he also had an absolute fantastic creepspread that went all the way to Polts base. Polt was also on 3 bases and when DRG took his fourth and fifth at the same time Polt decided to move out. But moving around on DRG's creep is not a very safe thing to do, unless you're chuck norris or a T-Rex with a light saber.
Polt had neither in his army though and at some point Polt's tanks were unsieged for a second too long and drg rolled in and crushed his army.
After that DRG had 5 bases against the three bases of Polt, and of top of that he had a massive supply lead, so that was game over for Polt

DongRaiGu vs. Polt = 2 - 0


Fourth series was between the loser's of the two first games GuMiho and Bomber.

First set on whirlwind
They both got up to three bases relatively unharmed. At this point GumiHo did a 4 medivac drop with siege tanks and marines in Bombers main that Bomber had not anticipated at all as he had his entire army out on the map. The drop did massive damage and took out a lot of supply depots and production fascilities. This provoked Bomber into attacking into GumiHo's natural but he had siege tanks set up and was able to defend pretty well. Bomber did manage to take out Gumiho's third though, by parking the tanks outside his natural. From here on the game stabilized a bit as they cleared each other's armies up.
Gumiho then took a sneaky fourth on the opposite side of the map. Bomber scouted it and tried to drop it, but Bomber defended it. Then Bomber tried to do a massive drop in GuMiho's main, but Gumiho scouted it with vikings. Bomber was never able to catch up after this and GuMiho took the game.

Second set was on Ohana
Bomber placed a proxy barracks with a tech lab just outside GuMiho's main. GuMiho scouted Bomber's proxy marauder plan and started a bunker immediately.
This caused Bomber to give up his initial plan and follow up with a proxy factory and starport.
He then tried to drop in GuMiho's main with a few marauders, marines and a couple of helions. He did this a couple of times but never did any real damage.
From here he went for cloaked banshees from his proxy starport, but GuMiho knew it was coming and he built a viking. Bomber never did any real damage with the banshees and eventually all his initial aggression ended.
From there GuMiho was able to move out on the map while building a third orbital. This gave him an economic lead over Bomber who only had two orbitals. GuMiho dropped some marines in Bombers main while assisting with tanks from the low ground, and he was able to take out Bomber's tech lab that was upgrading stim. GuMiho also pushed a bit at the natural and there he took out Bomber's third that was under production.
At this point GuMiho was in a pretty big lead so Bomber decided to try to do a doomdrop to find some way back in the game, but GuMiho scouted it almost by chance and took out all of the medivacs with all the units in them. This was a gameending move at this point and GuMihos lead was too big and he took the series and with that bombed Bomber out of the Code S.

GuMiho vs. Bomber = 2 - 0


The last series of the day was a rematch between GuMiho and Polt and this series was easily our favorite series of the day.

First set was on Abyssal City and it was an insane TvT. It was a really unique game and we have a hard time describing everything that happened, but we'll try do give an overview.
GuMiho did a helion drop in the beginning in Polts main, but Polt was ready and it did practically no damage.
From here on GuMiho transitioned into a mech composition whereas Polt once again focused on building up his bio force.
GuMiho went for a ton of blue flames helions.
When they were both on three bases Polt pushed at GuMihos third base and was able to take it out because Gumiho had a hard time defending with his helions against the sieged up tanks that supported Polt's bio troops.
Instead Gumiho went for a counterpush with an insane helion/viking/raven composition. It was a weird but successful push because a lot of Polts army was still parked outside Polt's third.
From here the game just went wild and very back and forth for a while with both players doing massive damage to the other at different locations.
Around the 25 minute mark they had both killed more 50 SCVs but GuMiho had more mining bases, because had done some amazing helionbased attacks on Polt's different bases that also showed that helions actually can take out command centers, tanks and all this other stuff that they arent supposed to take out. In the end GuMihos economy was just a lot better and eventually he pushed out with a big thor/tank army that Polt could not stop and GuMiho took first game.

Second set was on Entombed valley.
Polt went for cloaked banshees and Gumiho once again went for a heavy helion style. Polt didn't do much damage with the banshees and when Gumiho got a raven out Polts banshee agression was completely over. Polt followed this up with a tank/marine push and was able to siege up at the ramp at GuMiho's natural. GuMiho was just barely able to defend with a strange helion/raven/banshee composition, but he took quite a lot of damage and Polt got a supply lead.
They were both on two bases and Polt decided to do another big push and exploit the fact that GuMiho still did not have siege mode. Once again Polt sieged up at the ramp of Gumiho's natural and once again he did a lot of damage. But Gumiho pulled off another miraculous hold with some good raven usage with some point defence drones.
The problem for Gumiho was that Polt kept having a supply lead and that Polt was able to build up a decent force quicker. This allowed Polt to control the map and take a fourth base behind this.
Gumiho tried to move out a bit on the map with his mech force, but Polt was able to engage from a multiple sides and win the engagement.
From here on Polt could push into GuMiho's third and Gumiho could do nothing but GG.

Third and last set of the day was on Daybreak.
This time GuMiho went for bio as well.
Polt went for a nice two base marine/marauder push on Gumiho's natural. Polt's army was bigger, but GuMiho was able to hold by bringing his SCVs and by having two medivacs which Polt did not have.
This attack gave Polt a lead in SCV's but while this was going on GuMiho had begun building his third which Polt had not so the economy was pretty even in fact.
In stead of building his third a well, Polt did a two pronged attack by dropping in Gumiho's main and attacking the third at the same time. With this he killed a lot of SCVs and from here Polt took his third. This gave him an economic lead as he had lost no SCVs and had too fully saturated bases already.
At this point Gumiho decided to try and do a big drop in Polt's main but Polt was ready for it and the drop did no damage. At the same time Polt caught a lot of GuMiho's army out on the map and Polt gained a massive supply lead after this.
From here Polt pushed at Gumihos third and this attack could not be stopped. Polt continued into GuMiho's natural and that was it.
So Polt took the last spot in the RO 16, and GuMiho was thrown into code A even though he showed a really original and cool style today.
Congratulations to Polt though for making two amazing comebacks on one day against the same player.

Polt vs. GuMiho = 2 - 1


If we have to recommend one game it would be the first set of the second series between Polt and GuMiho. Everyone who has every been bored watching TvT, should watch this game cause it was pretty damn cool.
We look forward to the RO 16 and this season it's actually pretty damn impossible to guess who can make it into the RO 8 as there are so many good players fighting for the spots.

GSL code S RO 32 group G

Beware of Spoilers

We didn't have a chance to watch a lot of yesterday's games in group G which consisted of Life, Nestea, JYP and SuperNova.
Even though JYP and Life (with his ludicrously high win rate in ZvZ) are good players, we expected Nestea and SuperNova to take the two top spots and move on to the round of 16.

Mainly because they are both so experienced code S players, that we expected them both to deal better with the pressure and play the games necessary to advance.
On top of that SuperNova has shown some really good play lately and also more of the consistency that he has sometimes been lacking.

We were gravely mistaken however and Life absolutely tore the group apart with 2 easy victories and a 4-0 score. JYP took the other spot which was certainly also somewhat of a surprise.

We did get to watch the first series between Life and Nestea. And while Nestea used to be the God of ZvZ, it was definitely Life that looked godlike in that series. Life simply looked better in every aspect of that matchup and it was actually a bit sad for us to see Nestea outplayed like that.

And while no one can argue that Nestea is a bad player, the fact is that for a long time a lot of newer and younger players have simply developed their play more.
But we have always enjoyed seeing Nestea tearing nerds apart, partly because he is one of the oldest SC2 pros. And for some reason we feel that it's comforting that you can win games even though you are 29 and not 19 any more.
Perhaps because it's easy to understand that it get's harder and harder to dedicate every second of the day to training SC2. Especially if you start establishing a family and so forth.

Anyway, we hope to see him back again next season, but it will be hard no doubt.

Congratulations to Life and JYP. We feel sorry for the zerg players that might bump into Life later on in the tournament.

GSL code S RO 32 - group F

BEWARE OF SPOILERS

Today's group featured the only remaining foreigner in the GSL, the infamous NaNiWa (infamous as in that no one has ever provided as much perfect Reddit material as he has), going up against the three koreans Heart, Sniper and Squirtle. Well not going up against all of them, but being in the same group as them.

NaNiWa made it to the round of 8 in the last two GSLs (as everyone except my mum knows), but he hasn't really played well in any of the tournaments outside Korea over the summer, so we were pretty excited to see if he could prove that he is still one of the best foreigners by being able to move on from today's group.

First series of the day was between NaNiWa and Heart.
It was a pretty cheesy series, but Heart is known for his early aggression so it was not that different from what we had expected.

First set was on Entombed valley. NaNiWa took his natural after building a gateway and a gas. Heart went for an early factory, but NaNiWa scouted that Heart wasn't expanding so he built two extra gateways and a robo. Heart built a starport and pushed when the first medivac was done along with a few helions and a bunch of marines. He brought some SCVs as well even though we all know they are civilians and not supposed to be fighting.
NaNiWa scouted the exact timing of the all in attack though and he looked prepared at his ramp. Then Heart decided to do a fake drop, and this caused NaNiWa's units to get a bit out of position, and Heart wanted to punish him for it and went up the ramp with his helions. NaNiWa missed the forcefields, and the helions took out all his sentries. .
Heart placed a bunker next to NaNiWa's natural and took it out easily.
From here on NaNiWa was contained in his main. He went for an immortal composition and was able to push out and take out Heart's army. NaNiWa decided to do a counter push but Heart had siege mode and defended it somewhat easily. The game however seemed to be a bit even at this point and NaNiWa took his natural again and built a robotics support bay.
Around the 15 minute mark Heart went for a big all in push in which he brought all his SCVs.
All NaNiWa needed was a colossus or two to defend, so he had to buy time. Unfortunately he once again missed some forcefields, and Heart used good tank placement on the ramps of NaNiWa's natural to force NaNiWa to retreat into his main once again. NaNiWa got two colossi out and tried to break Heart that had already moved into the main with some tanks. But he could not break Heart's army and Heart took the first game. All in all a somewhat weird game that NaNiWa lost partly because of some grim mistakes he made.

Second set was on Antiga Shipyard. Heart went for a helions and a medivac and as he send them across the map to drop in NaNiWa's main, he also took his natural. NaNiWa however is a Swedish viking and they don't like to be cheesed in the way that he had been in game one. So he had decided to do a counter cheese and had already built 4 gates and even been able to sneak a pylon in Heart's natural. NaNiWa's 4 gate took out all of Heart's poor SCV's (they were slaughtered like animals), and although Heart's drop did some damage in NaNiWa's main as well, the game was essentially over and when NaNiWa's stalkers took out Heart's medivac he GG'd and NaNiWa thus tied up the series.

Third set was on Ohana.
Heart went for a 2 rax and a early marauder/marine push. NaNiWa had taken his natural but he scouted the incoming attack so he built two extra gates (making it 3 gates), and a twilight. He was able to defend by bringing the exact right amount of probes.
From there NaNiWa went for DTs. Heart went for another big push when stim and siege mode finished.
When the dark shrine finished NaNiWa had gas enough for two DTs and he warped in both of them outside Heart's main. This was probably a tiny mistake, as Heart's army did a lot of damage at NaNiWa's natural before NaNiWa had enough gas for a defensive DT. He did however kill a ton of SCVs in Hearts main with his two DTs. Heart went for cloaked banshees but NaNiWa scouted them and got out an observer reasonable quick.
At this point NaNiWa had around 4 times as many workers as Heart. Heart however did have a bigger army, that included a raven and a couple of banshees. He then pulled all his SCVs and went for a final push Heart style.
So if NaNiWa could have defended against this the game would have been his, and he did get out an immortal, morphed a few archons and while also researching zealotspeed. Unfortunately for him his three gates didn't give him enough units and he could not stop Heart's army and Heart took the game and the series with an all in.
A deserved win for Heart, but also a heartbreaking loss for NaNiWa. He did some stupid mistakes but overall he kinda looked just as good as Heart, or even better in some situations.
But in the end Heart was the smarter player today.

Heart vs. NaNiWa = 2-1


Second series of the day was between Sniper and Squirtle, and in our opinion Squirtle is top 5 protoss in the world so we had him as a clear favorite going into the game.

First set was on Whirlwind. Sniper went for pool first, and then two expansions. Squirtle did a Gateway nexus built. From there he went for a 5 gate push with around 5 sentries and a bunch of stalkers. Sniper didn't get enough units or spinecrawlers out and Squirtle took out his third without much hassle.
Squirtle even managed to keep three of his sentries alive and was able to push on and by chrono boosting his gateways he ended up simply overwhelming Sniper with units who thus had to GG.

Second set was on Daybreak. Squirtle went for a warp prism sentry drop in Sniper's main. He did the classic force field of the ramp, to prevent the units from Sniper's second and third hatcheries to provive assistance. He did damage but at some point missed a forcefield and zerglings got in and surrounded his army. He did manage to continue the attack for a while though.
After a while Sniper got enough roaches to kill of the drop and from there went for a counter push with roaches. They overwhelmed Squirtle and took out his natural. As response Squirte tried to harass with warp prism again but didn't do all that much damage. Eventually Squirtle got out an immortal that took out Sniper's roaches, but Sniper had another big wave of zergstuff and that was too much for Squirtle. 1-1.

Third set was entombed valley. Sniper pretended to go for three hatcheries, but went for an early roach warren instead and then cancelled his third hatch. He pushed out with 6 roaches and a bunch of zerglings. Squirtle had to defend with probes to gain time for defensive cannons to warp in at the ramp, so Sniper killed quite a few probes, but eventually Squirtle secured his ramp. Squirtle went for DTs and was able to send a DT to each of Sniper's hatcheries. He killed a ton of drones with his DTs and even took out Sniper's third. Squirtle kept harassing quite successfully with the DTs after this, while he himself got a super economy. Sniper went for infestors, but he never got a good economy and when Squirtle pushed out Sniper could not stop his huge amount of Stalkers.

Squirtle vs. Sniper = 2-1


So the third series of the day was the winner's match between Squirtle and Heart.

First set was on Antiga Shipyard. Heart went for a trademark early push with reactored helions and some bio stuff. He even brought some SCV's as Heart seems to believe that he needs to punish some of his poor workers in every game so they all remember who their God is. Anyway, he got a bunker up at Squirtle's natural, but with an immortal and some stalkers from the high ground, Squirtle was able to defend. Heart decided to expand thinking that he had done a reasonable amount of damage, but when Squirtle finally moved out with stalkers and sentries he was able to push all the way into Heart's main with some really good forcefields, and he took the first game.

Second set was on Entombed valley. Having shown nothing else than cheeses today, Heart decided that it was time to be extra sneaky so he built a bunker at his ramp and then two Command Centers inside his main. The idea was that Squirtle would expect another cheese and therefore not be greedy giving Heart an economic advantage. This was a good idea in theory, as Squirtle did go for 3 gates and a robo pretty early. The stupid thing about the plan though was that went Heart floated his orbital out and took his natural he didn't really built a lot of defense at the ramp, which had probably been a good idea considering his economic position. So the production facilities that he had forced Squirtle to built, ended up providing enough units for a push that overwhelmed Heart's natural and took out all his SCVs. As the attack ended Squirtle had three times as many workers as Heart and from here on Squirly played extremely safe. Eventually he overwhelmed Heart with a ton of Colossi and won the game and the series relatively easy.

Squirtle vs. Heart = 2-0


Fourth series was between the losers of the two first games, NaNiWa and Sniper. A very hard elimination match for NaNiWa as his PvZ isn't exactly his strongest matchup.

First set was on Antiga Shipyard and it was actually a pretty painful game to watch.
NaNiWa went for a 2 base push with zealots from 6 gates. The plan was to take out Sniper's third but Sniper scouted both of NaNiWa's pylons and knew exactly what was coming so he just built some roaches and all of NaNiWa's zealots were practically a waste of money. From there NaNiWa decided to go for a blink stalker push that was pretty much all in. Unfortunately for him Sniper had a changelot by his army all the time (that he never saw strangely enough) and once again Sniper was perfectly prepared. He even managed to burrow zerglings in the middle of the map and do a perfect sandwich on NaNiWa's army and NaNiWa was so far behind at this point that he had to GG.

Second set was on cloud kingdom and actually a pretty cool game. NaNiWa once again did a 2 base push on Sniper's third. This time his army of mainly Zealots were supported by a few stalkers which allowed him to micro better against Sniper's units. He did this quite well and was able to take out Sniper's third, however he also lost all of his army in the process. Sniper retook his third and at around the same time NaNiWa began his third. He cancelled however and went for another big push with blink stalkers. This could probably have killed Sniper or at least done a ton of damage, but Sniper had researched burrow and NaNiWa had no detection at all. He tried to push on anyway but lost most of his army without doing much damage. This caused NaNiWa to try to take his third after all, but for what felt like a million years Sniper had a cool sneaky zergling burrowed there. And since NaNiWa had no detection this delayed his third for a while.
After this Sniper went for a heavy infestor composition. He then did a double pronged attack at both NaNiWa's natural and third and although NaNiWa defended pretty well Sniper managed to SNIPE his third (omg that's funny...).
Not having the army or map presence to move out NaNiWa started his third again. When it finished Sniper attacked it again. This time with around 25 infestors or something crazy like that.
NaNiWa had a few colossi to defend, and he controlled them really well, but Sniper had spawned the exact right amount of infested terrans and the last one of them barely managed to take out NaNiWa's third once again. This was too devastating a blow for NaNiWa and he resigned, and he will now have to battle in code A to regain his code S spot.

Sniper vs. NaNiWa = 2-0


So the last series of the day was between Heart and Sniper battling for a spot in the round of 16.
Heart took game 1 and Sniper took game 2, but unfortunately we didn't have a chance to watch those two games. Someone told us that it was actually the two closest games of the day so far, and supposedly they both went past the 20 minute mark (which was long for today's games), so we might have to check them out at some point later.

Anyway, the third and deciding set was on Entombed Valley. Heart decided that he didn't want to play another semi long game because it ain't his style man, so instead he did a proxy 2 rax and went for a bunker attack at Sniper's natural. Sniper managed to survive although he took some damage.
Knowing Hearts aggressive style, Sniper should probably have spend all his money on spines at this point. He only built one though, and Heart, being who he is, took all his SCVs and went for a final push along with a small flock of marines he had built. This was far too much for Sniper to handle and Heart took the game and the series with a smart all in.
He goes on to the round of 16 where he will get another chance to annoy a lot of good players and fans around the world with his sneaky cheeses.

Heart vs. Sniper = 2-1


So at the end of the day Squirtle and Heart moved on into what will certainly be the hardest round of 16 ever. Good luck to both of them. They will need it.
Tomorrow we get a chance to enjoy the grand old man in action. It's NESTEA, and what makes seeing him in action even nicer, is that Tastosis always lights up a bit more on days where Nestea is present.

GSL season 4 code S group E (round of 32)

BEWARE OF SPOILERS!

Today's group was the group that most people called the absolute group of death, even though there were a lot of groups fighting for that title this season.
Anyway, it was three of the absolute best Terrans in the world, MvP, MMA and TaeJa, and one of two foreigners in the GSL this season, MaNa.

First series was TaeJa vs. MaNa.
Not much to say about the series honestly. Even though MaNa probably has one of the best PvT's of all the foreigners, he was never any match for TaeJa.
MaNa did take one game of TaeJa, but that was in a weird game in which TaeJa did a 2 rax build that did no damage at all, and then decided he had to catch up by building two command centers, but MaNa had already build 4 gates so he just rolled over TaeJa.
In the Macro games however, Taeja looked very dominat.

TaeJa vs. MaNa = 2 - 1


Next series was a somewhat classic rivalry between Mvp and MMA.

First game was a game that we can definitely recommend. A 45 minute TvT, that was constantly back and forth. It was never possible to figure out who was going to take it, as both players kept sniping the other player's expansions with drops. On top of that they had almost the exact same Tank/marine type of army and army supply for most of the game.
MMA did have a secret base for most of the game though, that Mvp didn't scout until really late, and that gave MMA's economy a constant edge that eventually helped him outlast Mvp and take the game.

Second game was on Daybreak and actually even more fun to watch. Mvp invested heavily in a lot of helions, as he wanted to go mech (probably just to please Artosis). From there he went into a tank/viking/raven combination along with his helions. When MMA pushed out with marine/marauder/medivacs, Mvp had a very hard time defending. Mainly because he had built quite a lot of vikings that didn't really help him a lot. So he lost a lot of SCVs but managed to hold on. From that point on he was a bit behind but with his mech he could safely focus on his economy for a while. As MMA could not do another big push into Mvp's siege Tanks, he decided to do some drops while investing heavily in ghosts and nukes. So when Mvp was at max supply he moved out but MMA kept throwing defensive nukes which slowed Mvp's push massively, and while Mvp's mech army was in the middle of the map, MMA managed to do some quite damaging drops in Mvp's main.
MMA never managed to pull of a killer nuke, as Mvp was too careful. He did however nuke two of his own medivacs that were both full.
In the end he didn't really have any match for Mvp's army and MMA lost the game, even though he had a somewhat big lead in the beginning of the game. But we are grateful for his 20 nukes or whatever.

Third game was on Antiga Shipyard and not quite as exciting as the first two sets, but still good.
They both went for banshees, MMA's with cloak as well. Mvp on the other hand had a number of helions as well, whereas MMA only had marines. Mvp attacked with his banshee/helion combo and killed all MMA's marines and around 10-12 of MMA's workers. At the same time though MMA had his cloaked banshee in Mvp's base, and he ended up killing around the same number of SCV's as Mvp, so they ended up being pretty even.
From there on MMA continued to attack with various banshees and he did a bit damage here and there. At some point though, Mvp managed to get some helions to MMA's third expansion and kill a ton of SCVs. A bit later he even got up the ramp at MMA's main and killed a lot of SCVs again. Eventually MMA pulled all his remaining SCVs and vent for a push, but MVP had tanks in siege mode and was able to defend easily and take the series.

Mvp vs. MMA = 2-1


Next series was the winners of the first two series TaeJa and Mvp battling to claim 1st place in the group.

First game was on Abyssal city. Mvp placed a proxy barracks outside TaeJa's main but his rush failed, but he transitioned into an expansion. Around the 8.30 mark TaeJa did a 2 base push with some vikings, a banshee and some marines and he took out a lot of SCVs with the push. After Mvp held that attack TaeJa took out even more SCV's with another banshee. Mvp however, had quite greedily taken three orbitals so he wasn't exactly dead, even though he had lost so many SCVs.
Mvp did some damage with some helions, but when TaeJa moved out he simply overwhelmed Mvp because TaeJa had better upgrades and siege mode already and so forth. So it ended up feeling like the quick three bases of Mvp was simply too greedy an idea. At least against TaeJa, who doesn't really make any mistakes at the moment, so TaeJa took the game.

Second game was on daybreak. Both players went for mech. Mvp took both his natural and third a bit faster than TaeJa so he got a small economic advantage early on. TaeJa however managed to sneak in some helions at Mvp's natural and they killed around 15 SCVs.
From this point the game went into a real macro TvT. TaeJa seemed to be a bit in front of Mvp with regards to upgrades and production facilities, but at the same time they had some minor engagements that favored Mvp because TaeJa seemed a bit too eager to try and get ahead. Around the 25 minute mark the map was split in half as we have seen it on Daybreak so many times before. They both had 6 bases and both tried to transition into skyterran.
At the same time TaeJa managed to take out a billion of MVP's SCVs with helions, and when their armies met the next time TaeJa's skyforce was much bigger and he took the game and the series and moved on. In the end TaeJa never really looked threatened today and as Artosis put it: They need to put out a patch that buffs TaeJa :)

TaeJa vs. Mvp = 2-0


Third series was between MMA and MaNa but in our opinion it wasn't really a series that was that exciting, cause while we we're really cheering for MaNa, MMA actually ended outclassing him almost as bad as TaeJa did in the first series. MaNa is a great player, but GSL is a special format and he had to battle some of the most experienced GSL players.

First set was on Abyssal city. MaNa did a blink stalker build that was sort of all in. He didn't kill MMA and tried to transition. Eventually MMA crushed him looking much better in the engagements.

Second set was on Entombed valley and it was a weird and painful game to watch. MMA did a two base bio push while expanding, that did massive damage. For most of the game MMA was just in a big lead in general and it almost looked like he could have won it with one hand tied to his back.
Compared to the Up & down matches MaNa really didn't look that good overall today, and in almost all engagements he came out as the loser. Especially in this last set.
We hope that MaNa keeps believing that he has what it takes to show good results in code S, and hopefully he can return next season.

MMA vs. MaNa = 2-0


So the last series of the day was a rematch between MVP and MMA.
First set was on emtombed valley. MMA did an early push with a quick medivac, a few helions and some marines. MVP had scouted it though, and he flew his expansion into his main and build a bunker. MMA still did a bit of damage and killed some SCVs at the ramp but the game transitioned into a longer game.
MVP did a counter drop with helions in medivacs and did reasonable damage.
The game stabilized a bit after this. Around the 15 minute mark Mvp had more than twice as  many siege tanks as MMA and Mvp used this to his advantage and pulled of some beautiful engagements and brake MMA's siegelines.
MMA tried to take hidden bases and do different drops at the same time to try and get back in the game. But Mvp was on top of everything and MMA couldn't stop his army and had to GG out.

Second set was on whirlwind and a really cool game.
They tried to do some damage to each other in the early game, Mvp with helions and MMA with banshees. Neither did massive damage though.
Mvp went mech and MMA went bio as we have seen a lot of times before.
Around the 15 minute mark MMA did a beautiful 3 medivac drop at Mvp's main. He led the drop with a viking to absorb all the turret damage, which was why he could drop all the units.
Mvp did a counter drop that was also quite successful but he was still 15 SCVs behind.
From this point on the game gets really heated going back and forth all the time. A lot of position wars, most of which MVPs seems to come out of on top of.
While this goes on they continue to drop each other quite successfully. Mvp however does most damage with the drops and takes out a lot of important production facilities of MMA. Eventually Mvp does a beautiful and very nasty drop in MMA's main with a huge amount of tanks.
This is too much for MMA and Mvp takes the game and the series and moved on to the round of 16.
Must feel pretty good for Mvp to defeat MMA twice on one day, when he has had such a hard time dealing with him in the past.

MVP vs. MMA = 2 - 0

TaeJa and Mvp moves on, and this can hardly come as a surprise to anyone, as they are probably the too scariest Terrans out there at the moment.

GSL season 4 code S group C (round of 32)

SPOILERS BELOW

OMG! Today's group was MC, Jaedong, Curious and MarineKing. Another Group of horrific death.

First series of the day was MC vs. Jaedong. The most accomplished Protoss in SC2 against the most accomplished zerg in Broodwar.

First game was epic. Jaedong showed beautiful strategic skills. He build a rather big number of mutalisks, like 13, early on with the purpose of taking out MC's sentries. This worked out perfectly and Jaedong was thus able to deny MC's third for a long time simply with Zerglings.
Jaedong took the entire map and build around 35 spinecrawlers everywhere.
Unfortunately a MC on three bases is still scary as hell, even if you have the entire map. Jaedong had a billion of fully upgraded Broodlords and Infestors, but in the end MC just kept winning all the big engagements and MC was able to take the game

Second game was on whirlwind. MC did a one base push with some sentries and zealots, while expanding. It did some damage at Jaedongs natural but he actually defended pretty well.
From there on Jaedong tried to be more aggressive than he had been in game 1 by overlord dropping a lot of places with roaches. MC however kept stabilizing while secured his third as well.
When MC was at max supply he pushed out and once again he crushed Jaedong in the engagements and he won the game.

MC vs. Jaedong 2-0


The second series was between Marineking and Curious.

First game was on Emtombed Valley. Marineking went mech while actually expanded at the same rate as Curious or almost faster. He just seemed to keep building planetarys and orbitals all over the map.
Anyway. Curious never actually looked like any real kind of threat to Marineking in that game and in the end Marinekings massive amount of thors and vikings rolled over the infestors and Broodlords of Curious.

Second game was on Daybreak. Curious went for a nydus that he placed just outside of Marineking's natural. And as Marineking had his helions out on the map, Curious attacked with a number of roaches and two queens from the Nydus and he just did a ton of damage to Marineking. The rest of the game was just Marineking holding on because of his insane micro skills. But eventually Curious overwhelmed him and claimed the second game.

Third game was on Antiga Shipyard. It was a very back and forth macro game. We definitely had Marineking as the favorite to take this set, especially on that particular map. But Curious seemed to be all over the place, and not in a bad way, but in the way that zerg is supposed to be. Curious managed to do a lot of damage to Marinekings main and third with a bunch of mutas that Marineking had not expected at all or prepared for. Then later on Curious killed a billion SCVs at Marinekings third with a bunch of banelings. Marineking never caught up in supply but he stayed in the game for a long time, once again holding on with very good micro that won him most of the engagements. But Curious had taken so many bases that his brilliant economy allowed him to remax again and again.
So Curious took the series, and he showed that he certainly belongs in code S.

Curious vs. Marineking = 2-1


Third series was between the two winners, MC and Curious, for the first position in the group and a spot in the round of 16.

First game was on Antiga Shipyard and it was absolutely amazing. In fact everyone in the world should watch it right now.
We don't even know how to describe it but we will try.
It was a game in which both player looked fantastic at so many different times. For most of the game Curious was the aggressive one, and MC looked like he was far behind. But around the 25 minute mark MC attacked the fourth and the main of Curious at the same time and managed to take out the fourth and do a lot of damage in the main. Curious had all his Broodlords in the center of the map so MC really took advantage of his advantage in mobility.
However the game continued with Curious doing some great pushes. Anyway, in the end it turned into an epic basetrade where Curious finally only had a few spore crawlers left that he was moving around with his army while taking out all MC's remaining structures. MC tried to snipe the spores but he couldn't, and Curious took the game when he killed MC's last pylon.

Second game was on Cloud Kingdom. MC did a very cool greedy opening (Nexus, Gateway, forge) upon scouting that Curious was once again doing a greedy 3 quick hatcheries build again. At some point MC did a classic MC 2 base push with sentries/stalkers/zealots on the third base of Curious. Curious decided to do a counter push with zerglings and mutas because he felt like he could hold his third with a number of spines. He suddenly realized that he couldn't though so he turned around to defend. MC however took out the third with no problem and went for the natural. He couldn't break this however and he lost most of his army.
This also meant he didn't have any defense against the Mutas of Curious, and thus they managed to take out MC's main and a lot of his gateways and pylons. From this point on MC was far behind and even though there was a long period where he showed some superb Phoenix micro against Mutas, he eventually lost because Curious was far ahead in economy and supply. So Curious took the series and a surprising first place in the group.

Curious vs. MC = 2-0


Fourth series was between the losers of the first two games, Marineking and Jaedong who had to battle for the chance to take on MC for the second spot in the round of 16.

The first game was Antiga Shipyard once again. Jaedong invested heavily in mutas which turned out to be a good idea if you are Jaedong and known as the best muta user ever. Marineking went Mech and Jaedong just used the mobility of his mutas and managed to kill a billion SCVs. Eventually his economy was just so much better than Marinekings that he could overrun him.

Second set was on entombed Valley. Marineking build 2 proxy barracks but Jaedong scouted them. This caused Marineking to bring all his SCVs in an attack. He placed a bunker by Jaedongs natural and Marineking simply handled the situation much better than Jaedong and MKP defended the aggressive bunker perfectly. Eventually Jaedong had lost too many drones and zerglings, and was going to lose his natural so Marineking took the set.

Third set was on Daybreak. It was a really close game with a lot of good engagements on both parts. Marineking managed to get his third up and running relatively fast without getting bothered. But then Jaedong did quite a lot of damage with his mutas in Marinekings main again.
Eventually Marineking did a big push with tanks/marines/medivacs and Jadong decided to counterpush. It turned into a basetrade where they both lost practically all structures. In the end though Jaedong only had a few buildings left so he tried to attack Marinekings army with a lot of banelings that was all he had left. But Marinekings marine splitting was perfect and he took the game and the series, and with that knocked Jaedong into the up and down matches.
Jaedong however has proved that he is certainly close to matching the best players in SC2 in skill.

Marineking vs. Jaedong = 2-1


So last series of the day was Marineking against MC. On paper a match that could have easily been a final in any GSL.
First set was on Ohana and Marineking did a 1 base all in push with tanks and marines. MC however held it and this gave him a big lead as he was on two bases. Marineking did manage to transition a bit out of it and expand. MC however was constantly 20 supply ahead of him and when they finally engaged again MC had a number of colossi that just tore Marinekings army apart. So MC took the first set.

Second set was on Antiga Shipyard. It was a weird game. MC did a very defensive build that never really seemed to make any sense. He didn't really do a serious push, but at the same time allowed Marineking to take his third way before himself so MC just got far behind.
And MC never really recovered from this. So Marineking got a win that in reality seemed to spring out of MC never really knowing what he wanted to do in that set.

Third set was even weirder. Marineking went for helions plus cloaked banshees. MC however scouted the factory and went for early starport, and then a robotics bay which was of course the perfect counter. He build around 4 phoenixes and went to marinekings base to do some damage. The problem was that he for some odd reason cancelled his robo, and then restarted it too late. So when Marineking's cloacked banshee arrived there was no defense and it killed around 15 probes.
After that MC wanted to transition into Colossus tech, but instead of a robotics support bay, he accidentally build another robotics bay, which was of course absolutely useless when marineking eventually pushed with tanks and bio units. Especially since MC didn't have the economy to support immortal production on both bays. So he lost the game and the series due to a number of strange mistakes that didn't look like something one usually sees from MC. Maybe he was tired at this point or maybe he was out spending some of all his money on drugs and strippers the night before, who knows?
Anyway, Marineking moved on, even though his play today didn't look like some of the best play he has shown. All in all it actually felt like MC was a better player today, but he just fell apart in the last two games, which was of course pretty unfortunate for him.

Marineking vs. MC = 2-1


So it was Curious & Marineking that moved on from today's group, but we feel that both MC and Jaedong will be definitely be back in code S next season.