Photos by: Thisisgame.com (2), Fomos.kr (2)
After two days of group stage plays, it comes down to these last remaining champions. Yet what we were about to see was that the Ro6 was just a prelude to two semi-final matches with quite the stories behind them.
Leenock vs 
MCGame 1 @ Dual Sight. The 3-gate expand into stargate of MC did no lead into a very dynamic game as Leenock’s response was just sit still and hunt down the air threat with hydras while macroing up to the best of his ability. The passivity was broken in a single motion however, as Leenock for reasons unknown decided to launch a suicide hydralisk attack into the protoss army. With all that gas went to waste, the game was MC’s.
Game 2 @ Shakuras Plateau. MC opened with a forge fast expand (as it befits the map) and then going straight for seven gates, which was to be a crucial part in his +2 blink timing attack. To make it even more potent, MC took the northern routed towards Leenock’s third instead of crossing the center field but the zerg smelled the threat in time and had a roach/infestor concave ready to defend the hatchery. MC’s stalkers were pushed all the way back to his base where Leenock set up a nice siege, just waiting for the protoss to show his face outside. Finally, with the help of two colossi, MC managed to chase away the zerg army but instead of taking this opportunity to set up a third, the protoss went straight for the 2-base all-in attack. Its first stop – Leenock’s fourth.
Perfectly using the chokes on Shakuras Plateau, MC was able to beat the zerg army every step of the way and even though his colossi fell during the battle, Leenock had already made too many corruptors to effectively stop the remaining stalkers. 2-0 for the God Protoss.
Game 3 @ Daybreak. MC continued to show different builds every game, this time deciding upon a +1 zealot timing attack – a build with huge potency but just as fragile. Much like the Stephano vs Hero game in day one, Leenock’s crisp roach timing spelled the end of MC’s forces but the protoss smartly decided to take a third behind some slight DT harass and try his luck in the late game.
The said attempt also ended disastrously as despite coming on a good trade after the first few engagements, MC could not edge ahead in the blink vs roach battles with all his colossi dead. The young zerg was back in the game.
Game 4 @ Tal’Darim Altar. If there is one particular ZvP strat I will always associate with Tal’Darim Altar (thank you, Losira) that is the nydus/hydra rush. Leenock went for it under the nose of MC’s fast expand/stargate build but only the sickest transfusion micro kept the rush going once the void ray got the chance to get a piece of that ugly nydus worm.
Shortly, hydras were all over MC’s front wall but the protoss showed once again his signature perseverance. Thanks to his zealots and archons, MC managed to punish Leenock’s rush but the greater lost for the zerg came later when a zealot warp-in destroyed the greater spire – a tech much needed to fight MC’s double robo colossus transition. With just six corruptors on the field and no prospects for brood lords in the near future, Leenock typed out and MC would advance to the semi finals.
Polt vs MvpGame 1 @ Crossfire. Do you know what’s the worst part when doing a proxy thor rush is? Getting scouted. This exact thing happened to Polt and the TSL terran had to cancel his armory and think of a suitable transition out of it but Mvp would not have it so. With his siege tech significantly faster, Mvp hit an easy timing when Polt literally had no means to stop the attack. The 1-0 came quick and uncontested.
Game 2 @ Daybreak. On Daybreak, Mvp pulled off a very strange mech timing attack that made Polt scratch his head in a ponder. The IM maestro moved out with six tanks, some hellions, a raven and four vikings and a-clicked his way all the way to Polt’s natural. By that time, Polt was down in supply despite going for pure mech so that was that for the second game.
Game 3 @ Bel’Shir Beach. The third set was a much more equal one, beginning with Mvp’s OK-ish banshee harassment but seeing some major blunders by the IM terran in the mid-game, the biggest of them happening after Polt successfully repelled Mvp’s first marine/tank push. Being under fire for most of the early-game, the Super Tournament champion had finally found an opportunity to move out and do damage himself. He directed himself straight for Mvp’s natural while Mvp himself decided to simultaneously do a low-ground siege and harass Polt’s production facilities.
If the latter looked like a good idea at the time, Mvp would later grow into regretting this decision, especially the part where he stayed sieged and did not go back to aid his defenses. That allowed Polt to kill off a bit too many SCVs – an advantage that later came back to bite Mvp in the butt as his diminished macro strength combined with some momentary indecisiveness during his follow-up pushed allowed Polt to walk away the victor.
Game 4 @ Calm Before the Storm. The final set was another mech vs bio face-off and to his credit, Polt played a stellar mid-game using medivac drops to harass and deny mining at Mvp’s pocket expansion. As he gathered enough strength however, Mvp was able to move out and reach Polt’s natural without any resistance, staying there for longer than it was healthy for his opponent. Finally, thanks to fresh reinforcements and the slow production rate of mech units, Polt came on strong and chased Mvp’s tanks all the way to where they came from. This game the TSL player a moment of temporary respite but he had only delayed the inevitable. Mvp was gathering strength behind his sturdy walls and as it hit near maxed food, the slow crawling mech centipede showed itself out of its hole in all its beauty – tanks, hellions, thors, a flock of vikings… Not even with the help of his few BCs was Polt able to stop Mvp’s advance towards the 3-1.
DongRaeGu vs MCGame 1 @ Antiga Shipyard. This series might have been a full five-map one and back and forth till the end but the sets themselves were surely one-sided. It all began with DongRaeGu’s impeccable mutalisk control on Antiga Shipyard that even MC’s blink stalkers could not keep up with. DRG’s air terror was constant and the protoss found himself contained within his three bases not being able to move out and get on par with the zerg economy-wise. The one time that MC had the chance to make an attack across the map, he was met by infinite number of banelings that literally melted his stalker force.
Game 2 @ Shakuras Plateau. If MC is known for something, it’s his 2-base timing attacks. Such a build was displayed on Shakuras as the God Protoss went straight up to a 7-gate +1/+1 rush, and unscouted on top of that which made it so much more dangerous. DongRaeGu, in fact, did react appropriately (although teching blindly at times) by going for burrow roaches but he was too slow to reveal his tech when the attack hit and he further mismicroed his units to suffer much unnecessary damage. It was all good news for MC who had no adequate transition out of this had the attack failed.
Game 3 @ Dual Sight. Another timing attack made the score 2-1 in MC’s favor. It was a 2-base +2 blink timing attack similar to the one he used on Leenock in the Ro6 but to MC’s luck, DongRaeGu was way less prepared. And by less I mean not at all. The pristine blink micro of MC increased the cost efficiency of his rush to such high levels that DRG just could not overmacro him despite being one base ahead.
Game 4 @ Calm before the Storm. CbtS saw MC return to his very usual fast expand into stargate play which minutes later was nothing but. After a few waves of phoenixes and as his third got saturated, MC put down a fleet beacon and went for both a mothership and carriers plus a colossus tech as his ground army of choice.
Funny, huh?
Indeed, though it was way funnier for DongRaeGu who had in his arsenal the one unit that counters all three – the corruptor. With every battle going into zerg’s favor and with MC sticking to this bizarre air play (not that there was any viable ground transition after losing so many carriers), the score was soon tied 2-2.
Game 5 @ Crossfire. This game could have gone in completely the opposite direction had it not been for DRG’s bold roach push and the force field mistakes of MC. DRG’s initial plan was mostly to get rid of the forge researching +2 attack and MC’s micro blunders allowed him to do so almost uncontested. Furthermore, as the battle went on, the sentries somehow found themselves in the front line under heavy roach fire and soon MC had no force fields left in his arsenal.
Knowing that there is no chance to come equal with DRG’s economy (who was now on three fully mining bases) without the aid of his sentries, MC decided to go all-in with whatever stalkers he had. It was a close fight but not quite enough for the protoss to score a victory – DRG’s hydras pushed MC’s units back, cornered them and slaughtered them without mercy. DongRaeGu would advance to the Blizzard Cup grand final.
MMA vs MvpGame 1 @ Calm Before the Storm. It’s one thing to abuse how macro friendly CbtS is but it’s a whole other thing to do it with terran as Mvp did. The IM terran went to very quick three bases off of one gas and pure barracks much like a zerg player would do, leaving MMA a bit behind in economy as the SlayerS ace had chosen a cloak banshee opening.
After enduring some harass for a while, Mvp managed to stabilize his three bases without much trouble and thus moved out with a large marine force across the map. A grave mistake as he would later see as a perfectly placed scan by MMA caught the pathing of Mvp’s units and hit his positions while his army was split. That led to a 20+ supply lead for MMA and it took Mvp several battles to restore the army balance.
The many alleys of CbtS would played a huge role once again towards the end of the game, when both armies were commanded to do two simultaneous attacks – Mvp’s units were directed at MMA’s fourth while those of the SlayerS terran made a march across the map towards Mvp’s natural. This quickly evolved into a base trade scenario but MMA had the upper hand of having quicker access to his enemy’s production facilities. While Mvp was dealing with MMA’s fourth, his whole base was burned to the ground in a matter of seconds and there was not really a way of coming back.
Game 2 @ Bel’Shir Beach. This game was opened standard with MMA going 3 rax and Mvp teching to reactor marines with combat shields when suddenly someone clicked the “go crazy” switch as MMA moved out with his marines and all his SCVs for an all-in attack. Somehow, amidst Mvp’s own maneuvers, MMA managed to make his way through the lowered supply wall and into Mvp’s base, giving start to an insane unit trade that left both players’ economies in shambles. It was near ten minutes into the game and the supplies were in the single digits.
The game was actually decided not with an epic micro clash but by a single decision: Mvp continued to build units, and MMA continued to build SCVs. The latter was the right answer to this puzzle of a game as at the 12th minute MMA pulled off his workers once again and head-on overpowered Mvp for the 2-0.
Game 3 @ Shakuras Plateau. It is kind of sad that a TvT rivalry of such magnitude spread across one MLG, one MLG Invitational and one GSL final did end in such a way. All because of a bunker, or rather all because of the absence of such.
MMA went for an aggressive 1-base reactor rax plus stim and marched his marauder/marine army east towards Mvp’s base. By that time the IM terran had a siege tank, an expansion a more than enough marines to hold this attack. All he needed was a bunker. He didn’t make one. He died in fifteen seconds. MMA was the second finalist of the Blizzard Cup and the match against DongRaeGu is just around the corner now.
| Blizzard Cup playoff results | |||||
| Round of 6 | |||||
| MC | 3-1 | Leenock | |||
| Mvp | 3-1 | Polt | |||
| Semi Finals | |||||
| MC | 2-3 | DongRaeGu MMA| 3-0 | Mvp | ||
