GSL 2012 Season 4 Finals - Mvp vs. Life - RECAP

Set 1 - Cloud Kingdom - Life in bottom left and Mvp in top right

Mvp went for double factory hellion production and Life went for his usual aggressive zergling-focused style. Mvp did very successful hellion harass at the natural and main of Life taking out more than 20 drones. Life though went for roaches and Infestors from there and was able to control the map enough to stay ahead on bases.

Eventually the game went into lategame and Life got the currently much despised composition of Infestor/Broodlord with corrupters as well to deal with the vikings.
Life threw down loads of good fungals and in the end almost at the 30-minute mark, Mvp could no longer defend against Life's force and was forced to GG.

Mvp vs. Life = 0 - 1

Set 2 - Entombed Valley - Life in bottom left and Mvp in top right

Not much happened in the early game with Mvp going safely for a mech composition and Life gearing up for Infestors. Mvp was planning to invest a lot in banshees, but Life scouted the starport and the tech lab researching cloak so Mvp stopped the banshee investment.

Throughout this game Life was once again really successful with his zergling run-bys and he was able to take out SCVs left and right and force cancels on Mvp's attempts to take more bases.

This game though got into the lategame as well with Life once again getting broodlords. This time Mvp was a bit better prepared for them and was able to take them all out by having the far superior air force which consisted of vikings and ravens.

Life however switched into Ultralisks and Mvp had no real answer for them and the Infestors and was forced to GG in the end, in a set that also almost reached the 30-minute mark.

Mvp vs. Life = 0 - 2

Set 3 - Antiga Shipyard - Mvp to the right and Life to the left

Life built a lot of zerglings early on that didn't really do that much damage. Mvp went for a lot of blue flamed hellions eventually going up to 10 of them. Life on the other hand was going for Mutas and he had no real defense against all the hellions and they managed to kill almost 30 drones!

Life tried to counterattack with his mutas, but Mvp had already prepared with turrets and Life was too far behind and was forced to GG.


Mvp vs. Life = 1 - 2

Set 4 - Whirlwind - Mvp in bottom left and Life in top left

Life went for some 10-pool aggression, but Mvp scouted the incoming zerglings with an SCV and he cancelled his CC building at the natural and started building it in his main instead and took no damage from Life's 10-pool.

Once again Mvp went for blue flamed hellions, and although he didn't get quite as many of them as in the last game Life still weren't properly prepared for them. And in this game as well Mvp managed to kill around 30 drones with his hellion harass.

Life tried some zergling run-bys, but they were pretty much all denied by Mvp and the failed 10-pool and especially the hellion harass had gived Mvp such an economic lead that when he finally moved out his mech army was far too powerful for Life to stop and Mvp tied up the series.

Mvp vs. Life = 2 - 2

Set 5 - Abyssal City - Mvp to the left and Life to the right

Mvp once again went for mech and Life once again went for his usual aggressive zergling style. Throughout the entire early game he didn't really do any damage with the speedlings though as Mvp once again used his hellions perfectly. Mvp also did some harass with the hellions which was somewhat successful although not as devastating as in the last game.

Eventually Life went up to Infestors while Mvp kept playing insanely safe and doing all he could to avoid zergling run-bys while also baiting out fungals with banshees.
This meant that when Mvp finally pushed out with his truly scary mech army Life didn't have that much Infestor energy left.

Life was able to delay the push with one really good zergling run-by, but it still did not give him enough time to come up with any force that could match Mvp's army. He tried his best with all his Infestors, but they didn't really have any support so Mvp took the game and the lead for the first time in the series.


Mvp vs. Life = 3 - 2

Life doesn't have the Infestor energy needed to stop Mvp's army

Set 6 - Ohana - Mvp in the bottom and Life in the top

Before the game Life looked incredibly stressed out and it really felt like Mvp was going to take this set and the championship. Life hadn't lost faith in his style though and he once again played his usual agressive ling style. This time though he was more careful with his lings and Mvp didn't do any real damage with his hellions which he had once again gone for.

Life was able to force cancels on numerous CCs while getting a perfect economy and going for Infestors and eventually Broodlords. Once again Mvp tried to force Life to spend his infestor energy on banshees, but this time Life had a lot of other stuff to support his infestors and when he pushed out with his max Roach/Infestor/Broodlord/Corrupter army Mvp had no answer and Life took the set.


Mvp vs. Life = 3 - 3

Mvp cannot stop the Infestor/Roach/Broodlord composition of Life

At this point Life almost looked as relieved and happy as if he had won the entire championship.
This was pretty understandable though as he had forced a final and deciding set against Mvp and suddenly proven to himself and the world that Mvp still hadn't completely figured him out yet.

Set 7 - Daybreak - Life to the bottom left and Mvp to the top right

Life once again went for a 10-pool and he managed to get Mvp's quick natural expansion cancelled, but besides that he didn't get anything done and economically he was therefore behind.

Mvp went for his double factory heavy reactor'd hellion style and it looked like Life was ready for it, as he started a roach warren, but then he didn't build any roaches anyway and went for a spire instead.
So Mvp did a lot of damage with the hellions and killed a ton of drones at the natural of Life, and Life practically did no damage with his counter attack with mutas.

Mvp slaughtering a bunch of Life's poor drones

At this point the game almost looked over as Life was still not even mining on his third.
From there Mvp went for a lot of factorys and a Thor focused composition whereas Life went for Infestors and Roaches.
Mvp took his fourth in the center and Life took his fourth and fifth and Mvp went for a big thor push on Life's fifth.

Mvp took out the base, but Life managed to fungal and surround all the Thors and therefore take them all out.
At the same time Life did a counter attack at Mvp's fourth, but it was a planetary and Mvp barely saved it, but lost a lot of SCVs.

Suddenly Life was back in the game and he could safely go into broodlord tech. At the same time he had a lot of Infestors that he could allow tanking up energy as Mvp had no way of moving out.

Eventually Life pushed out with Infestors/Broodlords and for a while Mvp was able to defend against them, but Life had secured a great economy and he could just keep sending units and as he prevented Mvp from mining anywhere he was able to eventually outlast him.

Mvp saved his Planetary for a long time, but eventually could no longer 

So Life took the game which was certainly among the best sets of a GSL final and he took the championship in a GSL tournament that has no doubt been the hardest and most competitive so far of all the GSLs.

We can't really believe Life managed to win that last game against Mvp. What a fantastic comeback by Life and what an amazing game! (Go buy a season's pass or whatever and watch it at gomtv.net)

Mvp vs. Life = 3 - 4

A big crowd of nerds cheers for Life, or Blizzard? Probably not the latter...

The young star gets to kiss the trophy. It's almost as good as the 50 k dollars.

Our favorite sets of the day:

Set 1, 5 and 7!

GSL Semifinals - RECAP

Mvp vs. Rain

Set 1 - Whirlwind - Mvp in top left and Rain in bottom left

Rain went for relatively quick expand. Mvp went for reactor'd hellions and medivac. Rain defended pretty well against the hellions, but still lost 9 probes.
Mvp expanded from here while sending a banshee to harass. The banshee did pretty well, but when
Rain counter-pushed with a big 2-base sentry/immortal based army, Mvp was forced to lift up his orbital at the natural and retreat to his main.

This gave Rain a big lead in economy, but their army supply was somewhat similar.
Rain also got pretty ahead in tech and when they finally engaged Rain also caught Mvp's tanks slightly unsieged and his colossi tore Mvp's army apart winning him the first set.

Mvp vs. Rain = 0 - 1

After killing Mvp's tanks Rain could easily feast on Mvp's poor troops

Set 2 - Abyssal City - Mvp to the left and Rain to the right

Both players played pretty safe and they each got up to three bases without taking any damage.
Mvp focused on ghosts anticipating that Rain would go for high templars which he did.
Rain tried some warp prism/templar harass in Mvp's main, but Mvp had placed two vikings in probable drop locations and he managed to take the warp prism out while Rain was spawning units from it. Rain did however manage to storm and take out almost all of Mvp's workers in the main.

At the same time though, Mvp pushed with his massive bio/medivac + ghost army and he landed some very good EMP's and even though Rain threw down a few good storms and forcefields, they weren't enough to save him and Mvp rolled him over and took the set.

Mvp vs. Rain = 1 - 1

Mvp used his ghosts effectively and no forcefields could save Rain

Set 3 - Entombed Valley - Rain in the top left and Mvp in bottom right

They both got up to 2 bases unharassed.
From there Mvp went for a pretty quick 2-base medivac/marine push, but Rain deflected it with an immortal/sentry based army and Mvp retreated.
A short while later Rain took his third and this caused Mvp to pull most of his SCVs and go for a big 2-base push that was aimed to hit just before the first colossus was out.

Rain reacted perfectly though and cancelled his third and walled of with force fields and was able to delay the attack until his colossus got out and Mvp was forced to retreat again.
Rain took his third again while getting some colussi out and also getting high templars. Mvp stayed on 2 bases and finally went for an all-in push with all his SCVs and a bunch of vikings. Rain however had too much and was able to defend with good storms and Mvp was forced to GG.

Mvp vs. Rain = 1 - 2

In the final engagement Rain knew Mvp was all-in so he threw
down some cannons and defended the all-in beautifully

Set 4 - Antiga Shipyard - Mvp in the top left and Rain in the bottom right

Mvp took his natural and built a third CC in his main quickly whereas Rain stayed a bit longer on 2 bases while going up to colossus tech.
He tricked Mvp into thinking he was focusing heavily on collosi and Mvp overproduced vikings a bit before realising Rain has switched to templar tech.

Rain took his third and Mvp went for a big push. Rain had an upgrade advantage, but Mvp had a more army supply and he was able to do lots of damage with the push, with Rain being forced to use probes to defend.
So from here Mvp was ahead in economy and he built to extra bases and started dropping different places to keep Rain in his base. The drops weren't that damaging, but they did keep Rain in his base and when they finally engaged Mvp was ahead in army supply once again and he also managed to catch half of Rain's army that had been split up and Mvp simply crushed him and took the set.

Mvp vs. Rain = 2 - 2

For a brief moment it looked like Rain could come back,
but Mvp simply had the economy to outproduce Rain

Set 5 - Cloud Kingdom - Rain in the top right and Mvp in the bottom left

Mvp went rax>CC (natural)>CC (main) while also delaying Rain's natural with an ebay block.
Rain on the other hand did his already infamous quick DT into expand built that went something like this:
gateway>gas>Cybernetics>gas>twilight>Nexus>dark shrine.

Rain built two DTs, but Mvp had a bunker in front of his natural and was building a turret so Rain pulled them back and for a long while he instead used the DTs with drops in the main and to delay Mvp's third and so forth. All in all Rain did built quite a lot of DTs all of which he of course lost so he spent quite a lot of money on them.

They both got a decent 3-base economy, but it felt like Mvp was a step ahead of Rain, perhaps because Rain had invested too much in DTs.
Rain had begun focusing on colossi, but Mvp had gone up the two starports relatively early so he had a lot of vikings.
Eventually Mvp pulled a lot of SCVs and went for a big push that was practically all-in. Rain had started templar achieves, but it wasn't done so he tried building defensive cannons once again.
But when Mvp arrived his vikings quickly took care of Rain's colossi and from there Rain had no way of defending so Mvp took the set and the series, and with that moved on to another GSL final

Mvp vs. Rain = 3 - 2

Vikings are pretty good against Colossi it seems

Life vs. TaeJa

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

TaeJa went for his classic heavy bio composition with double ebay.
Life went for some pretty quick 2-base muta aggression. He only built 6 mutas though and from there took his third. He harassed a bit in TaeJa's main with his mutas and then went for a big baneling bust up the ramp to TaeJa's main.

He killed a ton of SCVs and did a lot of damage with zergings and banelings in general. At the same time TaeJa counterattacked and managed to take out Life's natural.
Life was ahead in supply though and unfortunately TaeJa accidentally sent a lot of SCVs towards Life's main and lost them all to banelings in the middle of map.

From here Life had the economy to restart muta production and built a lot of banelings and eventually he just overran TaeJa and claimed the first set.

Life vs. TaeJa = 1 - 0

Life does what he does best and baneling busts TaeJa's main

Set 2 - Whirlwind - TaeJa in bottom right and Life in top right

TaeJa went command center first which he built in his main, and Life went 10-pool and a bunch of very quick zerglings.
TaeJa however used his CC to wall of and therefore it looked like Life's early aggression wouldn't do anything, but suddenly TaeJa accidentally lowered his depot and ended up losing 3-4 SCVs and a lot of mining time.
From here the game transitioned with both players taking three bases and TaeJa focusing a bit on reactor'd hellions.

But omg Life is fucking crazy and in this game Life really got to show his very own style of zerg to perfection. For the rest of the game there was just constant aggression from him.
He stayed so long on lair tech and with his baneling/zerglings/mutalisk force he just kept forcing TaeJa to stay at home and defend.

Although Life again and again threw away a lot of army supply, with every attack he also managed to take out so many SCVs.
At some point he was also able to take out TaeJas third base and had at this point killed more than 60 SCVs in the game.
Eventually Life safely got up to infestors as well with his economy at this point being far superior to TaeJa's.
TaeJa tried a final push, but was crushed by fungals and banelings.

Life vs. TaeJa = 2 - 0

TaeJa tries to get up a good defense outside his natural and third,
but Life does not mind attacking into sieged tanks

Set 3 - Entombed Valley - TaeJa in the bottom left and Life in the top right

A long and close macro game in which Life went up to three bases a bit quicker and TaeJa went for his double ebay bio style again.

In this game TaeJa was generally able to put on a bit more aggression, but once again Life showed that he just uses zerglings better than anyone in the world.
He constantly does run-bys and tries to take out workers or small parts of army.
Around the 11-minute mark Life did a very successful baneling attack at TaeJa's third killing almost 20 SCVs and at the same time he focused heavily on infestor production at home.

The game went back and forth for a while with a lot of fighting in the middle of the map while Life got some broodlords out and TaeJa got a bunch of vikings out.
There were some engagements that went either way, and in one of them TaeJa took out Life's broodlords, but lost his army while doing so and from there Life transitioned to Ultralisks again.

In the end though Life's constant agression was just too much for TaeJa. Especially when Life started sending burrowed infestors to all the bases of TaeJa and the infested terrans just tore TaeJa's economy apart.
With that Life took the series in impressive fashion and moved on the final in his first GSL ever.

Life vs. TaeJa = 3 - 0

One of TaeJa's almost desperate attempts to break Life

Recommended games of the day:
Set 4 of Mvp vs. Rain and Set 3 of TaeJa vs. Life

GSL RO 8 - Rain vs. Hero and Mvp vs. Symbol - RECAP

Rain vs. Hero (Best of 5)

Set 1 - Entombed Valley (Rain in bottom right and Hero in top right)

Hero went for early DTs and was able to take out Rain's natural expansion while getting his own up. The game transitioned into a longer game where both players got up to three bases and went for Colossi tech with 2 robos each. Hero tried some more DT harass, but not with great success.

In general Rain's robos were faster though and his production slightly ahead of Hero's and when they finally engaged, Rain had 1 more Colossus and 3-4 more Immortals than Hero. 
In the engagement Rain simply positioned and controlled his army much better and by attacking from two angles he was able to comfortably win the engagement and take the set. 1 - 0

Set 2 - Abyssal City (Rain to the right and Hero to the left)

Both focused on blink Stalkers in the early game on and then transitioned into robo tech. Rain was able to blink into Hero's main and take out his robo once again gaining a lead in the robo production.
Eventually they both went up to double robo and three bases as well.
At some point Hero managed to take a small revenge and blink into Rain's main and take out one of his robos.

This game also went late game (two PvP macrogames in a row!!!) and they both got their fourth base up with Rain though being ahead on his, as well as on upgrades. After the game went a bit back and forth for a while the game in the end came down to a big final engagement around the 32-minute mark. This time Rain had 3 more Colossi and 1-2 more Immortals than Hero and once again Rain looked a lot better in the engagement, controlling his Immortals and Colossi fantastically and he took the set. 2 - 0

Set 3 - Daybreak (Rain in the top right and Hero in bottom left)

Hero went for some early 3-gate stalker pressure into robo whereas Rain went directly for early Robo meaning that his robo was once again ahead of Hero's.
Hero's 3-gate pressure was pretty much a failure as Rain trapped his stalkers with forcefields and took them out with his immortal supported army.

They both expanded and went for robotics support bay, but once again Rain was ahead on both things.
Around the 12-minute mark when Rain's first Colossus was finished he pushed out and Hero tried to defend by using immortal/warp prism micro, but it backfired as he lost the warp prism with an Immortal in it, and eventually Rain rolled him over and claimed the set as well as the series in dominating fashion. 3 - 0

General thoughts on Rain vs. Hero

All in all a really cool and unique PvP series that showed us that the best Protoss players in the world are finally figuring the matchup out. Especially the two first sets that gave us some heavy late-game PvP action.

The series was however pretty one-sided with Rain clearly looking better in all the engagements and with regards to the build orders as well.

Hero made some small mistakes here and there, which might have been due to his infamous nerve-issues, but in the end there was no doubt about who the better player was today.

Rain lived up the hype and he definitely has a good shot at becoming the next GSL champion!

Rain vs. Hero = 3 - 0

Mvp vs. Symbol (Best of 5)

Set 1 - Abyssal City (Mvp to the right and Symbol to the left)

Their opening builds were something like this:

Symbol: Hatch first > Pool > Gas > Zerglingspeed > 3rd Hatch > Roach Warren > Roach-production
Mvp: CC first> Rax > Factory > Starport > Techlab > Bunker > 3rd CC > Cloak > Banshee-production

Mvp tried different kinds of Banshee+Hellion harass some of which worked pretty well with him for instance killing Symbol's roach warren and around 10 drones.
The game transitioned into mid and late game with both of them taking additional bases and Mvp going heavy mech and Symbol aiming for a broodlord/infestor composition.
Meanwhile they both did different kinds of harass like Mvp killing overlords with vikings and Symbol doing effective zergling run-by into Mvp's third.

Eventually Mvp grabbed a fourth base and then pushed and took out Symbol's fifth. Symbol retook the fifth while Mvp took his sixth.
Symbol used burrowed Infestors to take out Mvp's sixth with infested terrans, but at the same time Mvp pushed and took out the fifth and fourth of Symbol.

Symbol tried to retake some bases, but Mvp denied all his attempts and eventually starved Symbol out forcing him to a final engagement just before the 30-minute mark. Symbol though had no way of breaking the scary fully upgraded mech army with his inferior remaining forces which consisted of mainly Infestors, so Mvp took the set. 1 - 0

Set 2 - Daybreak  (Mvp in top right and Symbol in bottom left)

Symbol went hatch first again and this time Mvp tried some bunker aggression at his natural. Symbol scouted it and pulled lots of drones though and denied the aggression, and from there both focused a bit on their economy. Symbol went up to three hatcheries and Mvp took his natural while getting a third CC in his main.

This game Mvp went for bio+hellions with double e-bay and Symbol geared up for a heavy early/mid-game all-in with Roaches/Banelings/Zerglings.
Around the 9-minute mark Mvp evacuated his natural after scouting Symbol's incoming attack. Mvp tried getting bunkers up in his main, but Symbol broke open the wall with banelings and eventually overran Mvp's main with zerglings and roaches winning Symbol the second set. 1 - 1

Set 3 - Antiga Shipyard (Mvp in bottom left and Symbol in top right)

Symbol went hatch first, zergling-speed, 3rd hatch and then a roach warren whereas Mvp went CC first and from there went for reactor'd hellions + banshees and eventually a 3rd CC as well.

They both tried harassing each other in different ways as the game transitioned into mid-game with Mvp trying a number drops, most of which were deflected immediately by Symbol, who on the other tried a few run-bys with zerglings which Mvp deflected as well.

Eventually Mvp pushed across the map with a Marine/Tank force, but Symbol defended well in the center with nice fungals followed by banelings. About a minute later though he threw away 4 Infestors for nothing when he tried to do a counter-attack.

Mvp then pulled of a quick and effective push that took out Symbol's third, while wisely adding 2 extra starports anticipating that Symbol was going for quick Broodlords.
Symbol took a fourth the top left corner and a fifth in the bottom right corner, but when Mvp finally pushed towards Symbol's main the poor Zerg player was far behind in supply and didn't really stand a chance.
He had a few broodlords and landed some good fungals, but that was nowhere near enough and Mvp took the set. 2 - 1

Set 4 - Ohana (Mvp in top left and Symbol in bottom right)

Symbol went for some semi early 2-base 9 roach aggression that could have potentially dealt a lot of damage as Mvp quickly had taken his natural as well as built a 3rd CC in his main. Mvp however scouted it just in time to lift up his natural and get a bunker down on top of the ramp to his main.
Symbol's roaches fried some of the repairing SCVs, but eventually got cleaned up.
A short while later Mvp went for a counterattack with around 7 hellions and he killed some drones, but neither of their initial attacks had done that much damage.

From there they both took their third bases with Mvp though clearly being in control of the game.
Mvp simply showed great macro skills and while they were both on three bases he quickly got ahead of Symbol in supply. Mvp also did some annoying drops while eventually pushing with Tanks/Marines and taking out Symbol's third. Symbol retook it, but in the meantime Mvp already had his fourth up and running.

In this game Symbol had once again gone for a pretty quick hive this time though going for a Infestor/Ulralisk composition. Once again Mvp denied Symbol's attempts to get a fourth or fifth base while Mvp himself got an insane amount of production facilities.
Symbol was eventually forced to do a big engagement in the center and he did clean up Mvp's forces, but Mvp already had a new army in production whereas Symbol himself could in no way keep up with the production.

In the end Mvp practically just kept sending units towards Symbol's base and Symbol could not withstand and was forced to GG. 3 - 1

General thoughts on Mvp vs. Symbol

In general this series was rather one-sided as well. And even though there were a lot of times were Mvp wasn't exactly dominating, you still never got the chance that Mvp was truly threatened. Especially since Symbol's only win came with his baneling bust.

Watching the series it was very apparent just how much more experienced Mvp is. At least in the sense that he just always looked so damn well-prepared when he plays the GSL, and that is pretty important in a tournament where players always have time to prepare.

In conclusion Mvp doesn't seem to be tired of winning and the semifinal between him and Rain will probably be the toughest series that has ever been played in SC2.

Mvp vs. Symbol = 3 - 1

Recommended games of the day:

Set 2 between Rain and Hero 

Set 1 between Mvp and Symbol



Finally for some light humor in the end.

Between the two series Artosis made the joke that he thought Matrix 2 was better than Matrix 1! Tasteless didn't get that it was a joke instantly and we'll leave you with the bewildered look on Tasteless' face as he for a second or two thought that his best friend was actually a complete retard...

GSL code S round of 8 predictions

Today the first two quarterfinals of season 4, GSL code S, will be played and they are potentially both some pretty epic matches.

The first one is SKtelecom_Rain vs. Liquid_Hero and the second one is LG-IM_Mvp vs. TSL_Symbol.

With regards to predictions, most people we've talked to (and teamliquid.net as well) expect Rain to win the first match and Mvp to win the second.

This is quite understandable since Rain without a doubt reigns as the most hyped korean right now with him so rapidly improving that it's actually insane.
And when it comes to Mvp, well he is just Mvp. And you never really feel like betting against him do you?

However, we at the The Starcraft Stalker are going to go with our hearts today and say that we think/hope that Hero and Symbol advances.

It will be hard for sure, but we dreamt that Hero were to become the champion of the next 7 GSLs so of course he will make it.
And Symbol?
Well he is just a symbol, and a symbol cannot be defeated. Go watch Batman if you don't believe us...

GSL code S RO 16 group C - RECAP

Today's GSL code S round of 16 group, consisted of a bunch of experienced GSL nerds in the form of LG-IM_Mvp, EG_JYP, StarTale_Curious and MarineKing_Prime.

Before deciding who the favorites were for the group we had a look at each player's win rate throughout their entire GSL career.

Mvp: 69,2 % vs. P - 68,8 % vs. Z - 68,2 % vs. T - average win rate of 68,6 %
(omg! his win rates are almost exactly the same in every matchup)

JYP: 61,5 % vs. P - 73,9 % vs. Z - 27,3 % vs. T - average win rate of 53,4 %

Curious: 55 % vs. P - 75 % vs Z - 64 % vs. T - average win rate of 63,2 %

MarineKing: 69,7 % vs. P - 68,4 % vs. Z - 45 % vs. T - average win rate of 60,7 %

First match of the day was Mvp vs. JYP and based solely on their respective win rates it should be no difficulty for Mvp to take the series with his 69,2 % vs. P, opposed to JYP's mere 27,3 % vs. T.

Second match of the day was Curious vs. MarineKing and based on their win rates, this should be a closer series, with MarineKing though taking the series with his 68,4 % vs. Z, and Curious barely trailing with his 64 % vs. T.

Following the same strict win rate logic, Mvp would then beat MarineKing in the winner's match, and JYP would defeat Curious in the loser's match.
In the last series MarineKing would then take out JYP, meaning the Mvp and MarineKing would advance.

BUT statistics is one thing, and reality another and whereas Mvp and MarineKing certainly are the two players in the group with the best GSL history, JYP and especially Curious has looked really strong recently.
For instance: Curious beat MarineKing in the RO 32, so we doubt he cares about win rates.

Anyway, now for the Recap!

Mvp vs. JYP

First set was on Abyssal City with Mvp spawning in the left and JYP in the right.

JYP went for a somewhat fast, but also safe sentry into expansion build while Mvp quickly built two extra command centers in his main.
Mvp then flew his command centers out to his natural and shortly afterwards third location.
JYP went for a 2 base push with 6 gates and a single Colossus, but he just poked a bit and then went home and took his third instead.

JYP tried some minor Zealot harass at Mvp's third, but it didn't too massive damage and from there
JYP tried to set up to take his own third.
But at that point Mvp had had a good 3-base economy for while and he was ready to go for a big three base push.
JYP saw it coming and did all he could to try and finish storm, but he did not get it done in time and when MVP arrived at his base he simply had too many vikings that just tore JYP's collossi apart and Mvp took the set.

Second set was on Daybreak.

Mvp took early gas which JYP scouted, but after JYP left the base Mvp cancelled it and went for an early command center instead.
At the same time he built a ebay in JYP's natural to block and delay JYP's expansion.
This caused JYP to throw down two gateways first while taking the ebay out before he could eventually expand.
Perhaps because of the quick three gates, JYP then went for a push around the 7-minute mark with 3 sentries, 5 stalkers and a few zealots, and with this force he managed to catch a bunch of MVP's marines that were out on the map scouting.

He then headed towards the natural of Mvp, but Mvp quickly got a couple of bunkers up and a lot of SCVs ready to repair and JYP therefore retreated.
But then JYP rather sneakily went back to poke again and this time the SCVs weren't there so JYP managed to take out a bunker and good bunch of units by throwing down nice forcefields.
JYP went up to around 7 gates while getting zealots speed and gearing up for templar tech and at this point he was way in the lead with 52 probes to 38 SCVs.

At the 13-minute JYP already had his third so Mvp went for a big 4 medivac drop in JYPs main to try and get back in the game.
MVP did some damage, but when JYP returned to the main he threw down killer storms and took out all of MVPs forces.

Mvp then went for a push at the third, while doing a new small drop in the main. JYP took out both of MVP's attacking forces, but not without losing a lot of probes.
At this point they were even in supply but Mvp was down a base and behind in economy so Mvp decided to go for a big push at JYP's third again while dropping in the natural of JYP.
JYP managed to sneak some high templars up on Mvp's army from behind, but the storms he ended up throwing down were pretty bad and the engagement really favored MVP who could finally take his third.

Mvp went to push again at the third and once again JYP sneaked up high templars from behind and this time they threw down some really effective storms.
At the same time JYP did some Zealot harass at Mvp's natural and at this point they had both killed almost 30 workers in the game.
JYP then went for a big push at the third of Mvp which was in the left center, and Mvp's army had gone up to his natural to clean up the Zealots.
This meant that JYP easily could take out Mvp's third and when Mvp's army arrived to defend, JYP threw down perfect storms to really win him the engagement, and apart from a few cloaked ghosts Mvp had nothing left and shortly afterwards he GG'd.

Third set was on Entombed valley.

JYP went for a gate and cybernetics in his main, and then a proxy gate outside Mvp's natural.
Mvp had taking his natural rather quickly, but also built a bunker in front of his natural.
Mvp scouted the proxy gate so he got all his marines back in his bunker which meant he was safe.
So JYP was behind economically and therefore decided to double expand to try and catch up.
Mvp then took out JYP's proxy gate, without JYP even trying to defend it and JYP threw down 5 gates at home instead.

Mvp went for a big push and JYP didnt have a lot of units, but a bit of stuff and 4 sentries and he managed to trap some of Mvp's units on the ramp and this meant Mvp had to retreat.
Instead JYP went for a big counterattack at Mvp's natural, but Mvp had a bunch of bunkers and defended perfectly making it a very bad engagement for JYP.
So now Mvp was far ahead in supply and when he went for the counterpush JYP didnt have enough forcefields to defend and the bio army of Mvp tore him apart.

Mvp vs. JYP = 2-1

Curious vs. MarineKing

First set was on Ohana with Curious spawning in the top and MarineKing in the bottom.

MarineKing went double rax at 11 supply. He placed them both in the top of his main wanting to fly them down and go for some heavy agression. Curious couldn't find any barracks so guessed that some sort of agression was coming.

MarineKing pulled 6 SCVs and along with the first bunch of marines he went to push at the natural of Curious and started building a bunker there.
Curious pulled all drones except for two to try and deny MarineKing's agression and he forced a cancel on the first bunker. Marineking started building another but now Curious had around 6 zerglings out.
He trapped MarineKing in the corner preventing the marines from entering the bunker, but at the same time MarineKing's marines had a perfect spot in the corner to take out so many of curious units.
Eventually he got the bunker up and as some more marines arrived he took the game.

The second set was on Whirlwind with Curious spawning in the top left and MarineK in the top right.

Curious went for a expand into quick gas and pool aiming for fast zergling speed and eventually a baneling bust.
Unfortunately for him MarineKing had gone quick gas into reactor'd hellions and banshees while staying on one base.

This was practically a buildorder loss for Curious and it didn't help that MarineKing scouted the incoming attack and took out the 6 first zerglings of Curious.
Curious tried the baneling bust, but the hellions in MarineKings main dealt with the attack rather easily and at this point the supply was 44 to 28 in MarineKing's favor.
Eventually MarineKing attacked with 8 hellions and Curious could do nothing against them so MarineKing took the game and the series.

MarineKing vs. Curious = 2-0

Mvp vs. MarineKing

First set was on Whirlwind with Mvp spawning in the top left and MarineKing the bottom right.
MarineKing went for 2 gas quickly into banshees, but Mvp scouted the two gasses.
Mvp went for reactor'd hellions while MarineKing also went for cloak for his banshees while they both threw down another command center in their main.
As MarineKing's banshee arrived at Mvp's base there was already a viking out.

Mvp scanned and took out the banshee without it doing any damage at all. MarineKing then sent another banshee and even a third and both of them were killed instantly which meant he had wasted so much money on nothing.
Mvp then counter-attacked with his hellions at the natural of MarineKing, who lost a ton of SCVs and at this point Mvp doubled the supply of MarineKing who stayed in the game as he always does, but eventually was rolled over when Mvp pushed out again.

The second set was on Daybreak and a pretty epic game.

Mvp went for quick banshee this time (no cloak) and then expand whereas MarineKing just went for a quick expand.
Mvp killed 6 SCVs with his single no-cloack banshee, which ironically was a lot more damage than MarineKing did with his three cloaked banshees in the previous set.
Mvp built another command center while going for a marine/tank composition and MarineKing on the other hand geared up for a big two base marine/medivac push at the 10 minute mark.

In the meantime though, MVP had sneaked his old banshee back into the main of MarineKing and it took out a lot of SCVs.
MarineKing went for a two medivac drop in MVP's main, but Mvp denied the drop with vikings.
So Mvp was ahead, but MarineKing then did quick marine push at Mvp's third which he managed to take out.

Meanwhile MarineKing took his own third so Mvp decided it was time for some payback and so he went for drops both at the the main and third of MarineKing.
MarineKing was ready for it though and he denied both drops and suddenly he was ahead in supply. Mvp retook his third this time in the center while placing a big defensive siege tank line around it and from here the game was very back in forth.
They attacked each other's third and both managed to kill a lot of SCV's

MarineKing tried to break Mvp in the center a couple of times some times winning engagements, and other times losing them.
They both took their fourth while constantly trying different attacks and drops.
Mvp did some very big and effective drops in the main of MarineKing while also attacking the third. MarineKing couldn't do anything about it so he decided to go for a MASSIVE DOOM drop at Mvp's third and in a matter of seconds he took out the third and the natural and moved into the main of Mvp.

At the same time though, Mvp was also taking out all of MarineKing's bases and it was suddenly a basetrade with both of them only having their original fourth base left.
Mvp managed to take out MarineKing's fourth while having a lot of siege tanks at his own fourth making it pretty safe.
So Mvp was the only one mining and MarineKing knew he had to try and attack, but all Mvp had to do was keep all his tanks sieged, and there was no was for MarineKing of breaking it and Mvp won the epic game and the series comfortably.

Mvp vs. MarineKing = 2-0

JYP vs. Curious

First set was on Whirlwind with Curious in the top left and JYP in the bottom right.

Curious went double expand before anything else, and JYP had gone for a forge fast expand and since he scouted the early third of Curious he went for a cannon rush forcing a cancel on the third of Curious.

JYP also went for some zealot harass at the natural and it actually killed some drones.
Curious took a new third in the top center and from here they both focused a bit on economy with JYP going for phoenixes and a heavy 2 base attack.
JYP also managed to sneak a pylon into Curious main and warp in a lot of units that did a good amount of damage.
But Curious had taken his fourth and focused on drones so he was actually ahead in supply but behind in tech as JYP had pumped out Colossi while taking his third.

At this point Curious had a lot of corrupters out but JYP still did a lot of good phoenix harass where he really used their speed advantage over the corrupters.
Curious then took his fifth and JYP took his fourth which he could safely because Curious lair was really late.
They had a big engagement in the middle of the map, but Curious had too many curropters and while he took out JYP's colossi easily, the ground forces of JYP tore his own ground army apart.
JYP then pushed at the fourth of Curious who managed to defend with spines and infestors.

From here they tried different kinds of harassment and small aggressions without doing too much damage to each other. In the meantime JYP had taking his fifth base in a sneaky place in the top right corner.

When they were both at max supply they had a big engagement where JYP landed a massive vortex on all the infestors, giving him the chance to take them out when they popped back out again.
At this point JYP was far ahead in economy and he also did some effective warp prism harassment in the main of Curious.
Curious decided to do a final big push with his big broodlord/infestor force, but he didn't know about the sneaky 5th and also 6th base of JYP in the top right corner.

The game turned into an exciting basetrade with both player's easily taking all the other player's main bases out.
Eventually Curious realized that JYP had two bases in the top corner so he knew he had to engage and so they engaged for won final time.
JYP threw down killer storms, but lost all high templars.
Once again though he landed a big vortex on all the infestors and eventually he crushed Curious' forces winning him a pretty thrilling set.

The second set was on Daybreak with JYP in the top right and Curious in the bottom left.

JYP went for another FFE while also placing a pylon to block the natural of Curious.
Once again he also went for a cannon rush at the third of Curious and once again he forced a cancel and at this point we felt pretty sorry for poor Curious.

Curious, who was pretty far behind decided to go for some 2-base infestor play while JYP geared up for a big 6-7 gateway push (with blink) and he started warping in at the pylon from his cannon rush.
Curious threw down a bunch of spines at his natural, and with his infestors he just barely managed to deny the first couple of attacks from JYP.
But JYP just keep warping in units eventually also morphing archons and when they arrived at the natural of Curious they did massive damage. Curious switched into roaches and managed to hold on for a bit more, but JYP switched to mass stalker and with good blink micro rolled over Curious

JYP vs. Curious = 2-0

MarineKing vs. JYP

First set was on Entombed Valley with JYP in the top left and MarineKing in the bottom right.

MarineKing went for quick command center in his main and JYP for cybernetics into expand.
MarineKing went for a big 2-base Marine/Medivac with stim and plus 1 attack.
JYP on the other hand went for quick Colossus and actually managed to catch some of MarineKings army that had moved out on the map, and although he lost his first and only Colossus he also took out most of MarineKings army and denied the attack.

Instead they both took their third and MarineKing tried to push again, but JYP had as many Colossi as he had vikings so he could not attack.
So MarineKing then went up to two starports and eventually 12 vikings.
MarineKing then pushed out once again and when they finally engaged just before the 17 minute mark, MarineKing positioned all his vikings perfectly and managed to crush JYP in the engagement and take the set.

The 2nd set was on Daybreak.

MarineKing went for hellions and a quick starport, and JYP for a quick 3 gate with blink build.
MarineKing then went for a four hellion drop in JYP's main, and he wasn't ready for it at all and he lost 13-14 probes.
After this JYP had to try and do some damage with his blink stalker push, but MarineKIng knew the agression would be coming so he placed down a bunker and also got a tank out.
JYP blinked into the main and took out the tank and some SCVs, but MarineKing got a surround on him and took out all his stalkers.

From here MarineKing expanded safely with JYP also expanded but way later and he was also far behind in supply. This caused JYP to desperately go for DTs to try and catch up.
JYP only warped in one DT and of course it didn't do any damage as MarineKing had turrets ready.

On seeing this Tasteless started a hilarious joke about him having been sure that the single DT would be able to crush MarineKing's entire army and eventually take out the entire base of MarineKing.

That didn't happen though and from here MarineKing took his third while doubling JYP's supply.

Eventually MarineKing just attacked with everything and he had so much more than JYP that it was depressing to watch. JYP tried to throw down forcefields, but MarineKing picked up all his army and dropped on top of JYP's forces and that ended the series and knocked JYP out of code S for now.

MarineKing vs. JYP = 2-0

So all in all it was a day where most series were rather one-sided, but a few of the games were really epic.
In the end it was Mvp and MarineKing who moved on to the Round of 8 just as our initial average win rate logic had predicted.

That just goes to show you that stats never lie...

Best game of the day: Game 2 of Mvp vs. MarineKing

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.