MLG Winter Arena day two: Fall of the Western World

The MLG Saturday brings us a few games away from the final face-offs. And if one thing is sure it's that the $10,000 first place prize are going to a Korea-trained pro-gamer.



It's no surprise, really. For anyone that has followed the MLG since the exchange program, having an abundance of South Korean flags in the top eight is no big deal. Frankly, even my mother is familiar with how MLGs end up and she can barely articulate "StarCraft".

Sure, there are the examples of Anaheim or Providence where there was an equal top eight distribution between foreigners and Korean but most of the time it's on Orlando-type fiasco. MLG Winter Arena proves to be no exception.

In the late Saturday night (or early Sunday morning for CET habitants) MLG Winter Arena found its top six. The upper bracket saw the success of HuK and MarineKing, who reached the WB final after four rounds of being nearly perfect. HuK took the the role of the foreign killer, eliminating Minigun, Socke and Ret before facing Oz in the Ro4 and slapping him down 2-0. MarineKing, on the other hand, saw many compatriots thrown down to the losers bracket by his hand, including Losira, Violet and Parting.

With HuK in the top six, the hope for another Orlando still lingers. The Canadian seems back in form after he disappeared from GSL and, most importantly, he has history by his side. Going back to the aforementioned MLG Orlando, we see a very similar pattern. Once again he shall meet MarineKing (whom he beat 2-0 last year) and should he succeed there is a strong chance that he'll have some protoss mirrors ahead of him. And we all remember how much pain did Chris bring to MC.

But enough chit chat, let's hop to where day one left off, namely WB Round 3 and the whole of the LB.

The Winners Bracket

Round 3: Oz vs Leenock

Game one on Daybreak ended early as the unstoppable +2 blink/sentry army of Oz forced Leenock into a base race - an endeavor doomed from the start as Oz was in possession of enough forcefields to keep the roaches out of his main for ever. Game two on Dual Sight saw Oz going for a 2-base sentry attack that pushed Leenock into a burrow roach tech. The zerg on the offensive himself but all he did was tickle Oz's army that continued to grow to reach an unstoppable size.

Final score: Oz 2-0 Leenock



Round 3: HuK vs Ret

On Daybreak, HuK went for a very unusual 8-gate +2 blink build into a third nexus, without making any efforts to put pressure Ret. Thus, the Dutchman took the initiative himself, and launched a +1 burrow roach attack on HuK's third. This led to the mid-game being in the form of multiple roach vs blink engagements that never went decisively into one or another's favor until Ret got his infestors out. That caused HuK more troubles than he would've liked, particularly when a single fungal caught and melted all of his high templars, forcing him to type out.

On Antiga Shipyard, HuK went for a 6-gate zealot attack to deny Ret's quick third, then swinging back to the center to the kill another morphing hatchery. Even though safe from immediate danger, Ret's economy would not allow him to fight the protoss for long and he gg-ed out after a one-sided battle in the center. Game three was played on Metalopolis with HuK opening with a very similar to game one 8-gate build but this time taking the initiative first, killing a lot of drones of Ret, ultimately making him type out.

Final score: HuK 2-1 Ret



Round 3: MarineKing vs Violet

Both players engaged in quite the sloppy first set on Dual Sight with Violet going for low economy all-inish mutalisk/speedling attacks but his less than optimal control led to zero results. The only reason for the game to go past the 20-minute mark was MarineKing's poor marine control (I know, the irony!) but eventually he managed to kill the third of Violet, bringing him down on his knees.

Violet did not play much better on Daybreak as well as his complete lack of banelings cost him his evo chamber to a marine timing attack and later the entire game, as his third base and infestor tech were too late to repel the mass marine force of MKP.

Final score: MarineKing 2-0 Violet



Round 3: MC vs PartinG

Tal'Darim Altar so both players going for a 4-gate build but MC delaying his WG tech by squeezing in some stalkers. That came back to bite him in the butt as PartinG's low-to-high-ground warp in caught him unprepared in terms of army size.

In game two on Dual Sight we saw a blink build from both with Parting rushing to council while MC preferring to first get his four gateways up. The only battle in the set was held at MC's natural where the SK protoss enjoyed a better positioning to tie the score. The series was closed with a cheese on Metalopolis as PartinG cannon rushed, using MC's mineral line at the natural to make his cannons unreachable. With his mineral line being under direct and undeniable fire, MC typed out.

Final score: PartinG 2-1 MC



Round 4: HuK vs Oz

HuK opened Antiga Shipyard with a 3-gate DT build but his templars were fully denied by Oz's perfect observer timing. HuK then transitioned to a second nexus plus chargelot, as opposed to Oz's immortal-heavy composition. The passivity of the game ended when HuK went for an attack on Oz's natural just as the Korean was getting his third up. Having a slight edge in army, HuK put the score to 1-0.

In game two on Entombed Valley, HuK went for a DT expand after defending Oz's early aggression and this time fate smiled upon him: his proxy pylon remained unscouted and with Oz's army and observer out in the center of the map, HuK was able to do quite a lot of damage. A massive zealot/stalker army then walked in and finished the Korea.

Final score: HuK 2-0 Oz



Round 4: MarineKing vs PartinG

On Dual Sight, PartinG went for a 2-base immortal timing attack but having an abundance of sentry energy he could not pull off a decent forcefield wall and thus MarineKing was completely safe. PartinG fell back and started colossus tech but MarineKing hit before any colossi were out, elevating his marines and marauders straight into Parting's main.

MarineKing sealed the series on Tal'Darim Altar, going for a 1 reactor/1 tech lab concussive shell rush. At the time of his arrival at the protoss base, Parting had but a single zealot and two stalkers or in short - not quite enough.

Final score: MarineKing 2-0 Parting