AS MANY EXPECTED, MVP OPENED THE GROUP WITH HIS POWERFUL PRESENCE, quickly casting out Lucky with a 2-0. The Terran ace of Incredible Miracle faced little to no resistance from the FXO Zerg on Entombed Valley as a simple double proxy rax into bunker rush spelled the death of the natural hatchery. This was followed by a marine/tank/hellion push to seal the deal. In set two Lucky went for roach/baneling bomb composition but once again found MVP’s control too good to handle - the Terran smartly and craftily placed his marauders in front to eat baneling fire and dps-ed down the Zerg army with his marines.
IDRA'S 2012 DEBUT IN THE GSL was against none other than ZvZ mastermind NesTea. Although EG’s zerg came very close to beating NesTea at the MLG Global Invitational semi-finals, such was not the case this time. On Dual Sight, Idra opened with a 1-base baneling rush which however was handled so perfectly by NesTea that Idra had no other option but to GG out. Game two saw the foreigner throwing a hatch first but dying to a similar quick bane nest build, despite trying his best to by more time for his defenses to get up.
DESPITE THE EXPECTATIONS FOR AN EPIC FORTY-MINUTES-PER-SET ZVT clash between the IM titans, NesTea and MVP settled their dispute very quickly. MVP stepped into a lead after punishing his teammate’s early (and slow) banelings with abundance of preigniter hellions but the score was tied on Belshir Beach as NesTea was successful in defending MVP’s 2-rax rush into 4-rax all-in. The third game was one-sided as well with the Zerg going for a 2-base mutalisk/baneling timing attack and rolling through the terran lines uncontested.
WITH HIS TOURNAMENT LIFE IN IMMEDIATE DANGER, IDRA HAD TO BE IMMACULATE while facing FXO’s Lucky in another Zerg mirror. Our foreign superhero was quick to make an impression, opening the Daybreak set with mutalisks, followed by a tech switch to infestor/roach while Lucky attempted to trick Idra by throwing a nydus in his main. The EG ace, however, was quick to react and as the worm died, Idra dominated the set with better control of his ground battles plus the invaluable help of his mutalisks.
With the beginning of set two, Idra was quick to once again establish an early lead, downing many of Lucky’s zerglings by a smartly placed baneling trap. Unfortunately for the foreigner, that surged a dose of overconfidence in him, making him botch a roach attack that forced him into an immediate disadvantage. Idra had to play from behind but Lucky did not give him too much time to do so and a roach counter attack tied the score. Game three on Antiga ended as Lucky hit a delicate timing, defined by Idra’s 10-drone power-up and his transition to hydralisks.
PURE INSANITY WAS UNLEASHED DURING THE FINAL SERIES BETWEEN MVP AND LUCKY. The zerg opened with a ling/roach timing attack that left MVP 13 SCVs behind, giving Lucky the green light to power up hard and go up to four bases and 90 drones. Somehow, though, the “Game Genie Terran” successfully lived until the very late game when a crazy base race ensued as both armies refused to meet in a direct confrontation. Each player was close to the defeat multiple times but eventually the game of nerves ended as the pure viking flock of MVP was not enough to chase away the brood lord/corruptor combination of Lucky.
Minutes later, the score was put to 1-1 after a nimble medivac drop that cleaned the majority of Lucky’s base so the two had to enter a third and final set to decide who will get that precious Ro16 spot. MVP struck the first blow as a marine timing attack destroyed the third of Lucky, whose position was made even harder as MVP transitioned to multiple ghost academies and started reigning nuclear terror upon the map. Yet the zerg strain was too tough and Lucky lived long enough to see his ultimate army of destruction composed of brood lords, infestors and ultras. Ironically enough, in the end it all proved to be insufficient as MVP’s absurd number of ghosts sniped down any hope that Lucky might have had of advancing.
| GSL 2012 Season 1 Group C | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Player | W | L | Status | |||||||||||||||||||||
  NesTea | 4 | 1 | Advances to Code S Ro16 | |||||||||||||||||||||
 MVP | 5 | 2 | Advances to Code S Ro16 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Lucky | 3 | 5 | Drops to Code A Ro32 | |||||||||||||||||||||
 Idra | 1 | 4 | Drops to Code A Ro48 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| NesTea 2-0 Idra MVP 2-0 Lucky NesTea 2-1 MVP Lucky 2-1 Idra MVP 2-1 Lucky | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
OZ AND CURIOUS WERE THE ONES TO OPEN GROUP D and their conflict ended with a protoss supremacy. On Daybreak Oz opened with a 2-gate expand, transitioning into a 7-gate +2 blink composition for the mid-game. One timing attack later, Curious saw his third in ashes and the protoss advancing deeper in his territory. The Zerg pulled off every single piece of living to repel the attack but the cost was too huge - Curious was too far behind in drones and his only option was to type out.
Belshir Beach saw a similar opening by Oz but Curious struggled a bit longer until the game evolved into a base trade scenario (a common theme on Belshir Beach these days it seems). In those heart-stopping moments, Oz was the player with better crisis management and better planning of his attacks which eventually won him the series and got him the early lead in the group.
EAGER TO SHOW THAT HE IS BACK TO THE BIG GAME FOR GOOD, Bomber opened his series vs Inca with a 2base +1/+1 timing attack that was aimed at the protoss third. Inca, however, was most patient, casting forcefields and storms in all the right locations to chase the terran away. As his massive production power kicked in, the protoss walked out with the full wrath of his race, including colossi, templars and archons to demolish the terran. Bomber couldn’t dig the victory treasure on Daybreak as well, as his third got delayed by Inca’s irritating DT harass. A few bad engagements later and Bomber was forced to gg out.
COMING TO FAME WITH HIS PvP PROWESS BACK IN THE EARLY DAYS OF STARCRAFT 2, InCa came as the favorite to top the group but it seemed Oz had other plans in mind. On Antiga, the FXO protoss employed a robo/expand build into immorta/sentry composition to crush the neck of InCa’s blink stalkers. The series continued to walk towards one-sided outcomes as InCa dominated game two with a simple 4-gate against Oz’s 3-gate (basic math is bigger than StarCraft skills it seems) but failing to properly execute his double proxy gate on Dual Sight, ultimately losing the series 1-2.
DOWN TO THEIR POSSIBLE LAST MATCHES, Curious and Bomber plunged into a ZvT team-kill starting on Antiga Shipyard. Although nothing out of the ordinary was seen, the game was impressive in itself as Bomber displayed his signature godly macro, having numbers of units he should not possess during a simple marine/tank push. As that marked his early lead, Bomber was on his way to score another victory on Belshir Beach after Curious screwed up one of his pushes and was just a snitch away from the triumph when an army of his was caught in the open and banelinged to death, turning the tides of the war.
Sadly enough, the entire conflict ended abruptly as Bomber attempted to proxy a rax left of Curious’ base but as it got spotted and forced to be cancelled, the terran could only sit helpless and gg out at the sight of the follow-up ling/baneling attack.
IT ALL ENDED AS IT BEGAN - WITH A GRIPPING PvZ, this time between Curious and Inca. The mid-game saw the zerg focus on infestors to react to Inca’s quick gate/nexus into void rays but that was not the biggest victory for Curious that day. InCa’s misplaced attention led to the inflow of zerglings into his main, ending with a lot of dead probes and a crippling economy disadvantage. A disadvantage that Curious’ mutalisks later turned into a 1-0 lead.
The Entombed Valley set was just as entertaining but much more back-and-forth. While InCa was building towards a 6-gate into a third nexus, Curious teched to spire and conquered the lives of more than 20 probes, transitioning to mass banelings, aiming to end the game shortly after. The sudden and unexpected loss of his mutalisks, however, erased this advantage for Curious and for many moments the zerg was actually very close to losing the game. His persistence in not typing out repaid itself when numerous ultras popped out, chasing away the massive blink army that was at his doorstep and leading the zerg to victory.
| GSL 2012 Season 1 Group D | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Player | W | L | Status | |||||||||||||||||||||
 Oz | 4 | 1 | Advances to Code S Ro16 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Curious | 4 | 3 | Advances to Code S Ro16 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Inca | 3 | 4 | Drops to Code A Ro32 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Bomber | 1 | 4 | Drops to Code A Ro48 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| InCa 2-0 Bomber Oz 2-0 Curious Oz 2-1 Inca Curious 2-1 Bomber Curious 2-0 Inca | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
QUICKLY JUMPING IN TO ANSWER THE QUESTION ABOVE I WOULD SAY "NO" - everything went according to my expectations (and probably according to those of the majority of the community).
Idra returned to the GSL with a sense of confidence, saying that he is likely to qualify out of his group together with MVP. One can easily follow his logic since he almost beat NesTea at MLG Global Invitational (probably shaking off that aura of invincibility that surrounds the ZvZ genius) and having to play Lucky would be much easier, right? Wrong!
Despite being a devoted fan to playing long, solid, macro games, Idra employed too much of a gamble both against NesTea by going that very early baneling nest and against Lucky on Antiga by inserting a huge round of drones plus a tech switch just before a timing attack was supposed to arrive. He threw the dice and he lost. And despite this being the flow of the tempo of most ZvZs one gets to wonder would Idra's chances been different if he just played like he did against Lucky in the opening set.
MUCH MORE INTERESTING IS THE BOMBER QUESTION and if his divine terran body would be revived and dug out of the slump he has been in in the last two months. Bomber had a very powerful May-October period, snatching a Code A gold, first place at Raleigh, top 6 at Orlando and a top 8 at Code S July. His downfall began in November as he dropped out of Code S and finished 17th in Providence after being counted, naturally, among the favorites.
After the up-and-down matches last year, Bomber climbed into a seemingly easy group to conquer. He has long been of TvP fame (with a 75% win rate) and with InCa not showing particular mastery in the match-up it should have been an easy win for the terran. He would then have to go through Curious, who just recently made a solid stand after long stays in Code A (or out of GSL entirely), or Oz, who was probably the biggest threat.
The first doubts about Bomber's overall performance were cast as he fell 0-2 to InCa (that was supposed to almost be a walkover, remember?) and it seemed Bomber was not fully recovered to make a Code S stand. He still showed remnants of his former glory but they were weak, fading. His game against team-mate Curious proved that once again and Bomber was out with a 1-4. In just a few minutes he turned the unexpected upside down, making his elimination the most natural thing in the world.
Funny how thing turn out, isn't it?
