GSL October Group H: Coca, TOP, Alive, Supernova

The last day and the last group of the Ro32 featured three terrans and a single zerg. Although it did not bear the thrill of group G (knowing that the latter hosted the only protoss left in the tournament), there were some truly sick plays, worthy to wrap up the round.



Nothing went right for TOP this game. First, he failed to spot Coca's fast 6 o'clock third, which gave the zerg such a macro advantage that he had no trouble stopping the 2-base low-ground push. Secondly, TOP's 3-base push also failed miserably as it got mightily flanked in the middle of the map, putting the terran at around 140 supply to a maxed zerg.

Of course, as every Korean does, TOP tried to stay alive for as much as possible, struggling to get a meaningful number of thors and marines out but the brood lords were already in his face, craving the gg.





Supernova approached the set in a very sleek, technical way, going for a very delicate yet calculated rush. He opened with a reaper/hellion and with just a small poke hurt the marine count of Alive quite a lot - a deed that would later help him as his next step of the plan arrives.

Soon after the ground rush was over, Supernova started his banshee harass. His two fliers got around 15 kills between them, forced out two scans (which did not aid Alive at all as no banshee was killed) and hurt Alive's army so much that when the follow-up siege/marine push arrived, Alive had nothing to do.





"Coca is on fire today" were the exact words of Artosis and he couldn't be more right. In what seemed like the shorter twin brother of the Tal'Darim set, the game on Belshir Beach ended just as brutally.

It began with Supernova screwing up his siege timing attack... without waiting for the actual siege tech to finish (some might say that this classifies as the opposite of timing attack). Needless to say, Coca crushed through it to gain a huge lead, which benefited him greatly as Supernova tried a second push. And history repeated itself - Supernova got flanked in the middle of the map the same way TOP did on Altar. At least Supernova was quick enough to realize he is dead and done and gg-ed out.





Every aspect of this TvT deserved at least mild admirations as TOP and Alive made sure it was an entertaining game. TOP combined his signature immaculate macro play with constant attacks but Alive's positioning was a work of art and the oGs terran kept running into flanks.

A little after the 15th minute mark Alive had already surpassed TOP's supply: his constant repositioning of units gave him full map control and he had a gold base running, while TOP has been forced into a long distance mining. This torture, however, would not go for long as Alive soon found a crack in TOP's defences and shot himself into the yellow terran's main, killing every building in sight. TOP scored a second loss in a row, which meant he would drop to the up-and-down matches.





Supernova's job of taking control of the tempo was really helped by the fact that Alive decided to go bio and starting with mass marines to that. Supernova's small hellion and banshee pokes kept Alive in his main, denying him the only advantage that bio has over mech - being able to go on the aggressive early and take map control.

Supernova continued to turtle until it was time to get a third. By that time Alive had regained map control but being one base behind was a tough situation. That is why he gathered whatever bio and tanks he had, pulled a big load of SCVs and proceeded with the all-in attack at Supernova's third. Unfortunately for the TSL terran, there were PDDs waiting for him, making the marauder ball that much weaker. As he could not break Supernova's position, Alive gg-ed out.

GSL October Group H Standings
Coca	2	0
Supernova	2	1
Alive	1	2
TOP	0	2

This completed the long and hard round of the group play. The sight is not pretty, with 10 terrans, 5 zergs and the lonely protoss hero Killer. Despite that, the Ro16 matches carry a promise to kick ass, especially the opening match Bomber vs MVP - a Code A grand final rematch!

The main questions here a few. How far will Killer make it? Will there be a 4-times champion? Who will stop the terrans and how (or will he at all)? The answers are coming, starting this Tuesday.