MSI MGA continued today with amazing plays; luckily the technical complications proved to also have been resolved.
Today the MSI Masters Gaming Arena continued with the second half of the bracket. While yesterday we saw, and reported on, very exciting games, we only had matchups that finished in 2-0’s. The underdogs couldn’t become more than that, and with the unfortunate absence of eStar Gaming the possibility of surprising results was mostly delayed to today.
The first series of games today saw the EU overlords Team Liquid face MVP Black, the top Korean team. Game 1 was played on Dragon Shire and saw an interesting (but becoming more mainstream) pick in both teams. Team Liquid drafted Sgt. Hammer, but MVP Black countered with a Raynor pick.
Team Liquid lead the game in experience for the longest time, and MVP Black couldn’t seem to be able to play their own game. MVP got the first Dragon Knight, but at one point TL wiped MVP and snowballed the advantage from there.
The second map (Sky Temple) is a favorite for Team Liquid, and it seemed like this series could also end up as a 2-0 victory. MVP Black allowed Team Liquid to pick up their preferred composition of Illidan/Abathur and The Lost Vikings, but also put TL into a position where they decided to pick Kharazim.
The combination of Illidan and Ultimate Evolution could have overwhelmed the Korean team, if it weren’t for the fact that key Void Prisons from MVP Black’s Zeratul were able to deny that type of initiation time and time again. What was supposed to be Liquid's favorite composition on one of their favorite maps, turned into the equalizing win for MVP Black.
Zeratul saw play three times this series, a very unique statistic these days. This time back on Team Liquid’s side. But MVP Black brought the triple tank that is so famous from Korea: Leoric, Anub’arak and ETC. ETC proved to be the best decision because his Moshpit heroic ability was both able to set up team wipes as well as counter Void Prison tempo swings. MVP Black showed that they just needed some time to warm up, and they decisively ended the series with their second win.
Chobra had the opportunity to ask MVP Black two questions. To the question of if they weren't scared of Blackscorp's Zeratul, since he is often called the best Zeratul in the world, MVP Black answered with the statement that they now thought that Blackscorp was nowhere near the best Zeratul player in the world. When asked for their thoughts on the finals, they stated that they really wanted to meet Tempo Storm because all the players really like Tempo Storm and they want to see how they match up.
The second series of the day, between Tempo Storm and Cloud9, is one that we have been able to spectate regularly over the past months. But it seemed that the LAN aspect of this tournament changed the dynamic a little, and it resulted in two very tense matches.
The first game showed us a Cloud9 that almost looked like COGnitive, going for an early aggression playstyle focused around Fan on Kerrigan. Tempo Storm did not respect the Kerrigan enough in the early game and it resulted in an experience lead for Cloud9 throughout the game. Cloud9 seemed to have the win, but at the point where TS could have lost faith they won a tight team fight and wiped C9. This gave them the control of the game, and the confidence, to grab the boss and march to victory.
This unexpected defeat must have been a big blow to Cloud9’s confidence, but they tried the same tactic again in the second game, on Dragon Shire. Tempo Storm went with the Azmodan pick that they have regularly been making use of. Again the game started with a significant number of takedowns on the side of Cloud9; Tempo Storm did not seem to want to play safe however, feeling the need to show C9 that they were not scared.
This again resulted in an experience lead for Cloud9, but this game the turn around by Tempo Storm did not take as long. Building on the momentum of their last game victory, they broke through C9's early aggression and showed their late game control that TS is so famous for. This resulted in yet another 2-0 victory for Tempo Storm, and our second finalist.
Tempo Storm was of course also asked some questions by Chobra. One of the questions focused on the way that TS keeps defeating Cloud9 in 2-0's, and Tempo Storm (jokingly) stated that ever since the 5th time it happened they have started expecting it. When asked for their thoughts on MVP Black, Dreadnaught said that they were really excited to play them for the first time since they were really impressed with their play so far.
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