GSL RO 8 - TaeJa vs. Leenock and MarineKing vs. Life - RECAP

Taeja vs. Leenock (Best of 5)

Set 1 - Cloud Kingdom

The first set was a lot like most of Leenock's games in the RO 16 in that he eventually ended up being behind on bases, but at the same time managed to get his beloved massive Broodlord/Infestor/Queen army. TaeJa had his own fourth base for a long time while constantly denying Leenock's attempts to get one, but eventually when Leenock carefully pushed out TaeJa had no way of stopping Leenock's deadly composition and the young zerg took the set.
0 - 1

Leenock knocks on the door with his favorite composition!

Set 2 - Whirlwind

Leenock went for a heavy roach aggression at the 12-minute mark, but TaeJa har sieged tanks and quite a lot of Marauders and was able to defend well. From there TaeJa started dropping in Leenock's main while pushing out on the map. Leenock tried to transition to Hive-tech, but TaeJa constantly pressured with numerous drops and in the end Leenock tried engaging, but TaeJa's army was better and he took the set.

1 - 1

Leenock's roaches meets some of the old tank and marauder love!

Set 3 - Entombed Valley

TaeJa went for a quick double rax and Leenock scouted only 1 of them. TaeJa got three bunkers up by the natural of Leenock and even though Leenock managed to morph a decent bunch of banelings he weren't able to take out all the bunkers and TaeJa took the set.
2 - 1

The worst zerg nightmare is when TaeJa has 3 bunkers at your natural!

Set 4 - Antiga Shipyard

Once again TaeJa went for a double rax, and tried sending marines and SCVs to the natural of Leenock, but this time Leenock defended and the game transitioned into a longer game. Leenock once again aimed for the 3-base Infestor/Broodlord/Queen composition while Taeja did a bit of drop aggression which allowed him to gain control of the center.
They denied each other's attempts to get a fourth base, but when they finally engaged in the center TaeJa had a lot more vikings than in the first set and he was able to spread them out perfectly and win the engagement. Leenock switched to Ultralisks but lost a bunch of them that were standing too far out on the map and eventually TaeJa could secure a fourth and at the same time do a big push that Leenock couldn't stop.
3 - 1

Leenock with good fungals, but not a big enough army to defeat TaeJa!

General thoughts on TaeJa vs. Leenock

In the Round of 16 Leenock had great success with his Broodlord/Infestor composition which won him a lot of games in which he was actually behind on bases and economy.
In this series though TaeJa's aggressive style just seemed to fluster Leenock more causing him to not be able to focus on getting his Broodlord/Infestor force as intensively.
Generally TaeJa just knew how he wanted to play Leenock and today he looked like the smarter player of the two.

TaeJa vs. Leenock = 3 - 1

MarineKing vs. Life (Best of 5)

Set 1 - Cloud Kingdom 

MarineKing tried some early bunker aggression on Life's natural, but Life deflected it perfectly. The game transitioned into longer game with both eventually going up to three bases, with MarineKing though delaying Life's third significantly.

The game was pretty back and forth with Life moving around with his zerglings beautifully and trying a lot of run-bys. He invested heavily in zergling/baneling aggression constantly switching between attack MarineKing's main and third and managed to kill almost 30 SCVs.
But MarineKing's upgrades were better and when he finally pushed out Life couldn't defend.
1 - 0

MarineKing likes his marines. Life doesn't! 

Set 2 - Daybreak  

They both went up to three bases pretty fast, but Life used his three bases to once again do some heavy zergling/baneling aggression. He did this beautifully and even though MarineKing got a bunker up by his natural he took far too much damage from Life's attack. MarineKing tried to do a typical MarineKing counter-attack, but Life had far too much and he crushed it, and when he then he pushed out afterwards with Infestors MarineKing had no way of defending.
1 - 1

MarineKing is thinking: why is this kid's zerglings so damn annoying!

Set 3 - Entombed Valley 

MarineKing went for proxy rax, but Life had 10-pooled which was the perfect way to counter. MarineKing built a bunker behind the minerals of Life's natural and forced a cancel. Meanwhile Life countered with some zerglings in MarineKing's main, and did a lot of damage. At this point MKP had lost a lot of SCVs while Life hadn't lose a single drone. 

Life expanded twice and delayed MarineKing's expansion for a long time with zergling aggression. The far better economy eventually won Life the game as he crushed MarineKings feeble attack.
1 - 2

Life plays with MarineKing as the zerg forces are far superior at this point!

Set 4 - Whirlwind 

Life went for quick speed, and did some light harassment. MarineKing went for hellions so he held off the lings pretty easily. While MarineKing had his hellions out on the map, Life did som ling run-bys and got a good amount of SCVs. Life then went for mutas and the muta-ling composition turned out to be too much for MarineKing and although he had Thors, Life did a really nice magicbox and killed way too many SCVs that was trying to repair the Thors. Eventually he just overran MarineKings natural and main with zerglings and the young zerg took the set and the series in impressive fashion. 
1 - 3

Look at that happy kid. 15 years old and already in the semifinals of GSL!

General thoughts on MarineKing vs. Life

Life just has his own cool aggressive style of playing and there are just so many small things that he excels at like his constant zergling movement and his somewhat strange timings. In every game his great zergling based harass managed to damage MarineKing's economy severely. And even with MarineKing's great micro and defensive abilities he was still forced to constantly try and protect his bases. This just allows Life to control practically all games he plays, which is why he has what it takes to reach round of 4. 

MarineKing vs. Life = 1 - 3

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...