GAME ONE: 
Alive vs 
Brown
PEOPLE WERE TALKING QUITE A BIT ABOUT BROWN before the Group G matches were actually under way so the protoss tried to make sure he lived up to those expectations. He opened with a 3-gate pressure into expand and as he moved the second time, he took the ballsy decision to forcefield the terran army out of its main, rush inside, kill a lot of SCVs and threaten the production facilities. It would seem that Brown had it all won until he was cleaned and a direct engagement had to be fought at his third. Then it appeared that the earlier trade left Brown with fewer units than necessary and the game was Alive’s.Second game on Entombed Valley was no less entertainment. Brown opened with a double forge into colossus into a lot of mid- and late-game brawling. During those intense fights, Alive always managed to get the upper hand, clearing the colossi too quickly for them to do damage yet still Brown would not die thanks to having a steady economy. This brought him to the final engagement when Alive’s vikings were out of position for the first in the game. It was all Brown needed to AoE the hell out of the bio force and tie the game.
The series was closed on crossfire with Brown surviving the 1 tech lab/1 reactor rax opening by Alive thanks to some money force fields and the most effective composition of immortals and sentries. Everything went good for him until a drop by Alive passed by unscouted and the terran ate Brown from inside.
GAME TWO: Happy vs MarineKing
HAPPY OPENED WITH A PROXY TECH LAB RUSH on Antiga but everything went wrong for him and he had to abandon this plan. A single and very vital bio drop by Happy was what got him back into the game, drawing MKP’s forces back and allowing the IM terran to catch up economically. Happy continued to be better at the medivac harass, making much more use of it as opposed to MKP’s sloppy elevation attempts. Yet this is not how Antiga is usually won and MKP knew that. The terran veteran set his sight upon the central highground and as he conquered it it was all over for Happy.In game two on Daybreak, MKP took an early 10 SCV lead thanks to his banshee and a simple follow-up bio/tank push planted the seeds for his victory later on. MKP bravely double-expanded during the aforementioned push and repeated the exercise some time later to go up to six bases (to only four for Happy). That, combined with multitude of right and on-time late game decisions was all MKP needed to advance to Ro16.
WINNERS MATCH: Alive vs MarineKing
THERE ARE A FEW CRUCIAL RULES THAT NEED TO BE FOLLOWED when you want to avoid an early TvT loss. MKP was kind enough to showcase two of those. On Cloud Kingdom it was a matter of +1/+1 timing attack being stronger than +1/+0 army (call captain Obvious) and Dual Sight was a result of Alive’s hesitation to engage the mech army of MKP marching towards his doorstep. Usually you either engage or reposition. Going halfway to your opponent’s base and then suddenly turning back is never an option.
LOSERS MATCH: Brown vs Happy
THERE WERE MORE STORIES OF STRANGE DECISIONS IN THE LOSERS MATCH as well. Brown opened the series on Cloud Kingdom with a mass sentry push that failed flat on thanks to the immaculate spread of Happy. With so many gas down the dumpster, Brown had to gg during the terran counter attack.Daybreak saw Happy do a 2-rax semi-proxy marauder push against Brown’s quick nexus. Although it’s not an opening that often breaks people before the fifth minute mark, it becomes such when the protoss cockily decides to let his nexus finish and has practically zero resources to fight back.
FINAL MATCH: Happy vs Alive
IT ALL BEGAN WITH AN ESSENCE OF INNOCENCE AND SIMPLICITY. Happy screwed up his tank/hellion/raven timing attack and thus was a dead man.Not in game two, though, no, not at all. Alive and Happy played one of the best and most strategic TvTs I’ve seen in a while, stretching up to more than 40 minutes of StarCraft 2 chess. The highlight of it all was Alive’s unbelievable perseverance and dedication, featured in a ten-minute long nuke push that paved the way towards Happy’s only mining expansion at that time. Ten minutes and countless nukes to climb a single highground. If you feel the urge to applaud someone, let that be the now teamless terran.
| GSL 2012 Season 1 Group G | |||
| Player | W | L | Status |
| MarineKing | 4 | 0 | Advances to Code S Ro16 |
| Alive | 4 | 3 | Advances to Code S Ro16 |
| Happy | 2 | 4 | Drops to Code A Ro32 |
| Brown | 1 | 4 | Drops to Code A Ro48 |
| Alive 2-1 Brown MarineKing 2-0 Happy Marine King 2-0 Alive Happy 2-0 Brown Alive 2-0 Happy | |||
GAME ONE: Parting vs Puzzle
PUZZLE IS A PROTOSS THAT MANY PEOPLE GIVE AS AN EXAMPLE of how to push the protoss race ahead. Ever since his first appearance in Code A, Puzzle acquired more and more popularity, mostly thanks to his strange and ingenious at times build orders. Thus, it was curious to see him open Group H with a PvP against up and coming Parting. Puzzle went for 1-base phoenix play as opposed to Parting’s 1-gate nexus into robo but made the mistake of using his phoenix energy on a few probes instead of saving them for immortals during the actual push.Thus, Puzzle had to continue the series from a 0-1 disadvantage but, fortunately for him, managed to make use of his 3-gate blink/hallucination build to tie the score. Of course, Parting’s decision not to cancel his nexus after the 2-gate/robo also played a significant role for the outcome of the game.
In the closing set, Parting did not let Puzzle do anything crazy but then again no one ever does on Belshir Beach. Parting opened with an offensive 3-gate and won thanks to Puzzle having to cancel his twilight council and being late on the 3-gate himself.
GAME TWO: Nada vs Keen
ARTOSIS COULD NOT CONTAIN HIS EXCITEMENT SEEING HIS TERRAN IDOL NADA GOING MECH in the opening set against Keen. His joy would grow even larger as “The Genius Terran” came out to show us a completely different style of handling the metal terran units. Nada employed constant mobility and aggressive behavior to force Keen into engagements and therefore indirectly deny him the advantages of going bio, namely outexpanding your opponent and being a constant nuisance. Despite being on the edge a couple of times, Nada eventually did take control over the central high ground of Antiga and a few wrong battles for Keen put the score at 1-0 for the BroodWar veteran.The MVP player quickly recovered from the earlier loss and played a much (much!) better game on Cloud Kingdom, utilizing a slow and steady marine/tank push through the centre that dominated Nada’s strange marine/marauder stim timing with a few excellent tank shots.
The final set saw Keen play to Nada’s music as the oGs terran used a drop in Keen’s base to draw him back, move through the map and set a contain in front of his natural. From there, Nada launched a second drop and Keen’s mismicro cost him almost all his tanks, opening himself to the deadly follow up attack of Nada.
WINNERS MATCH: Nada vs Parting
ON DAYBREAK, NADA TOOK A QUICK LOSS after his 3-rax timing met a grand protoss resistance. Parting had gone to a quick third base behind his five gates and once he completely demolished Nada’s push, he easily followed this up with a victory offensive. He was quick to throw away the lead, however, by going for a 1-base colossus on Entombed Valley - a build order that stood so barren as compared to Nada’s wall-off that all Parting managed to do was burn down a supply depot.The closing set was played on Cloud Kingdom with Nada going for a more unorthodox mass thord build and was opposed by Parting’s immortal/high templar. It was all stable for both players until Nada decided to move out, expending most of his 250mm cannons upon destructible rocks in order to prevent getting feedbacked. Ironically, despite achieving this particular goal, Nada found out mid-fight that those 250mm cannons would be extremely efficient against the ton of immortals of Parting. Not being able to DPS them quickly enough, Nada would have to play one last match to see if he can keep his Code S spot.
LOSERS MATCH: Puzzle vs Keen
THE TWO SETS PLAYED BETWEEN PUZZLE AND KEEN WERE IN COMPLETE OPPOSITES, as the Daybreak game ended at the edge of a successful 7-gate, while the Metropolis one was a near 40-minute long non-stop action. Parting was the guy that managed to triumph for the 2-0 after showing better late-game decisions and took the base lead with seven to five. This, combined with the oh so familiar late-game PvT atmosphere of ever-raining AoE damage from templars, archons and colossi, sent Keen packing as his bio force melted in seconds whenever they ran into protoss fire.
FINAL MATCH: Nada vs Puzzle
ANY OTHER WAY OF SEEING NADA GO DOWN WOULD BE BETTER than this one. In less than fifteen minutes in total, the Genius terran lost to a 1-base void ray on Dual Sight and to a simple 7-gate on Entombed Valley. Raw and inelegant, yet I double Puzzle cares much about how he advances to the Ro16.
| GSL 2012 Season 1 Group H | |||
| Player | W | L | Status |
| Parting | 4 | 2 | Advances to Code S Ro16 |
| Puzzle | 5 | 2 | Advances to Code S Ro16 |
| Nada | 3 | 5 | Drops to Code A Ro32 |
| Keen | 1 | 5 | Drops to Code A Ro48 |
| Parting 2-1 Puzzle Nada 2-1 Keen Parting 2-1 Nada Puzzle 2-0 Keen Puzzle 2-0 Nada | |||
GROUP G MARKED A DAY SO DIVERSE IN PLAY STYLES it was uncanny. It was like fate brought Brown and Alive together so they can teach us how to play and not to play StarCraft 2 - lessons that are still eluding some people despite the tournament being in its eleventh season.
SlayerS_Brown has been the subject of community talk and hype shortly since his Code A debut. And that's understandable, you see, as the StarCraft 2 fans are still in need of that protoss hero that comes around and conquers their minds and imagination (sadly, HerO himself did it only partially and for a short time). There are countless examples of players that started on Brown's path and ended nowhere and lie in the darkness forgotten by everyone.
BROWN NEEDED TO SHOW HE WAS DIFFERENT. Sadly, he did not and only confirmed that his inexperience on the big stage is getting to him. His play was cocky and risky and against seasoned veterans like Alive and Happy that simply was not enough. His misfortunate story began with a questionable sacrifice of his army by marching into Alive's main and forcefielding the terran army in a very "Stay out, bitch, that's my game now" way. Strike one. Strike two was the mind-numbing, inexplainable attack into a bunker wall. Strike three was not cancelling a nexus, although it was obvious that he needed to in order to stay alive.
All avoidable mistakes, showcasing that Brown has yet much to learn about the big stage. He'll get used to it in time, I suppose. Otherwise he is to share the destiny of his brethren.
MEANWHILE, ALIVE PLAYED ARGUABLY THE BEST GAME IN THE GROUP, spending more time than the average length of a PvP to climb a high ground. The systematic approach to the situation and the composure that Alive kept during those tense moments were intoxicating. There was no mindless rushing in despite playing an exhausting 40-minute long series. There was no hastiness or "I hope that works" moves. Alive knew what the best way to win was an took it.
He needs to be picked up by a team. Right now.
