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General12 years agoGosu "GosuGamers" Gamers

IEM: Grand Final: MC vs. PuMa - Preview

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Old rivals MC and Puma are set to face to each other in the Grand Finals after decisive victories against their opponents, Feast and MMA, who must fight for third place. Here are our thoughts on the battles to come.

Third Place - Consolation Via Exhibition

Tomorrow’s MMA - Feast bout will be a good chance for MMA to earn more prize money and for Feast to show off more of what he knows. He’s had a great run, keeping the flame of foreigner hope alive, and offering us some entertaining matches, but we still need to see more of him before we decide: is this another HuK in the making? Granted, MMA shattered predictions by losing to Puma, so let’s assume he’s human after all - and therefore vulnerable. Feast could take it - maybe - not likely - but still, it’s going to be a great series. Let’s be grateful for the spectacle.

Grand Finals - Hector and Achilles Redux

As players MC and Puma are symmetrical opposites. One plays terran, the other protoss; both have a keen sense of timing, superb control, and murderous instincts. Equally capable of all ins, two base timings, or epic macro games, we can expect a wide variety of styles from the two juggernauts. But who will win?

Historically, MC has nearly always lost to Puma in critical tournament games, being forced to concede both the grand finals of NASL Season 1 and IEM Cologne. However, this is no longer the season of the 1-1-1, and a revitalized MC is looking to score his second major tournament win of the year after taking Homestory Cup IV in January. Puma is in a similar position, having taken third place at Assembly Winter after ending 2011 with the NASL Season 2 Grand Finals trophy in his hands.

Facing Puma is sure to give MC pause. He himself has stated in a post-match interview that he would rather face MMA than Puma, whose preference for tight army control has been the undoing of many a protoss. Indeed, Puma’s bio armies are a force to be reckoned with, being not only reinforced by terrifying micro, but also moving according to Puma’s expert positional awareness, giving the enemy no quarter while providing no openings for attack. How often have we seen Puma retreat from a line of angry chargelots while leaving behind a squad of marauders to snipe overeager templar and stalkers?

Consider, for instance, Puma’s games versus Mana. Faced with an overwhelming Colossus-Gateway force Puma separated his army into small packs, maneuvering them in such a way as to produce, as if from thin air, a flank on the helpless colossi. Add to that a nigh-unprecedented level of ghost control. This writer has never witnessed a greater efficacy of EMP, snipe, and the simple tactic of cloaking ghosts and focus firing key units. The ghost is in and of itself a dangerous unit, but in the hands of Puma it could be said to erase templar tech entirely.

This is what MC must face - he has fallen against this before, but he has also triumphed against it. Looking at his performance in Hanover we have witnessed some of the cleanest forcefields ever produced. It may not seem the greatest advantage for a protoss but it is indicative a cleanness of style, an accuracy in control, and a cool-headedness which does not dissipate no matter how dire the circumstances. To this he brings his razor-sharp builds, his timings, which are sometimes closer to precision strikes, ruthless and unfailing. MC has stared down monsters before and he will do so again without batting an eye. This is, after all, the Kratoss Protoss. Believe in him.

Either is capable of taking down the other. Puma is strong, but he is by no means invincible, and MC himself has proven to be less than invulnerable. It would be a snappy way to end an article with ‘unstoppable force meets immovable object’, but perhaps we should be content with two great rivals having it out one more time, double or nothing.

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