After only SEn manage to survive the Code A Ro48 and Idra and HuK said goodbye to their GSL hopes for this season, it came time to see how far would the other three foreigners go. Xigua, MacSed and Morrow are no slouches but neither were their Code A opponents, some of them seasoned Code S veterans!
We all know that eSports is huge in China. WarCraft 3 and DotA are just a couple of examples about the flourishing gaming life in the East. When it comes to StarCraft 2, though, fans know little to nothing and what is known is mainly just the names of a few players that are of War3 fame or have appeared at IEM Guangzhou or WCG 2011.
Now, after a long time of absence since Loner was last seen in Code A January, China returned on GSL stage with two of its best children - WCG 2011 runner-up and arguably the best Chinese zerg Xigua and his protoss team-mate MacSed. The greeting party from Korean side was impressive, though - Killer and Keen were both GSL veterans and were very, very eager to return to Code S.
Oh, I almost forgot. Europe's own Morrow was there too, having to play the young MaruPrime. In my review of the foreigners in Code A from a few days ago, I expressed some very stroung doubts that the terran would beat one of the most accomplished Western zergs. It was time to see what my predictions were worth.
Photos by: ESL-World.net, TGbus.com, Tatazu.com
Xigua VS 
KillerGame 1 @ Daybreak
The homefiled protoss opened with straight-on 4-gate DT after expand and sent a probe out on the map to plant as much proxy pylons as possible but the Chinese was just too vigilant. His ling scouting parties caught every single pylon yet that not deter Killer and he sticked to his plan. The templars were warped close to the toss main and although having to walk half the map to reach Xigua's third, they no overseer in the making. Killer started slicing away the hatchery and had it killed by the time Xigua managed to morph and overseer and clear the threat.
Xigua was still in great shape, though - he retook his third quickly and as he moved out on the map it became clear that the zerg has quite the scary army actually. Xigua had complted +2 ranged attack and moved towards Killler's own third with a hydralisk-heavy army with mainly ling support. This composition would have been extremely good had Killer stayed on gateway army but as it was, Xigua found a couple of colossi guarding the nexus. Still the zerg attempted to make something happen but, naturally, all the army trades were most inefficient. Killer was safe behind his tech and did not make a move until his +3 was done. Once that was taken care of, Killer walked out to destroy Xigua's fourth, replenished his colossus count and repushed for the win.
Game 2 @ Metrlopolis
Killer opened with a minor warp prism pressure into a very all-inish 8-gate +1 armor push, supported by three immortals. Xigua, whose army was mostly roach centric, seemed to be in heavy trouble. His worries, however, were soon eleviated as Killer sloppily lost his prism which was to be his means of warping in reiforcements. With the mobile pylon gone, Killer could cut through the zerg swarm only so much before eventually being pushed back by the faster reinforcements of Xigua. Killer was pushed back all the way to his natural and within a minuted had to GG before the constant stream of zerg units pouring down towards his base.
Game 3 @ Belshir Beach
The Korean went for the exact same build on Belshir Beach as well but this time he was way more effective during the early stages, even managing to kill Xigua's spawning pool. However, for some reason, Killer hesitated a bit too much and ultimately decided to not attack, giving Xigua the opportunity to remacro up quickly and hit max very soon.
It was now Xigua's turn to return the favor and not attack although having a substantial supply lead over the protoss. The game entered minutes of inactivity until it all came down to a very Belshiry scenario - a PvZ base race, which in the end went in Killer's favor after the mutlitude of cannons around his bases withered down the muta count enough for his colossus deathball to march in and clear everything with a speed-of-light swiftness.
MacSed vs 
KeenGame 1 @ Entombed Valley
Keen is very good for a reason. It because, among other things, he and the other top terrans in the world know how to punish greedy play. On valley, MacSed opened with a quick nexus and paid for it after deciding not to cancel it at the sight of Keen's one-base hellion/marauder rush. Had MacSed sacced it and retreated up the ramp he would have been beaten up a bit but overall safe and very much alive. As it was, MacSed was suddenly 19 probes down and once Keen expanded and got every single non-ebay bio upgrade available, he just walked out for the 1-0.
Game 2 @ Antiga Shipyard
In game two, we saw very early 8th minute mark ghost academy from Keen who, despite pulling off some great EMPs onto MacSed's immortals did not got greedy and decided to retreat instead of trying to push up the highground to the protoss natural.
Thus, the game was very much uneventful until the 200 vs 200 final clash where Keen just had the better position and having the perfect concave against the colossus deathball of MacSed. Very easy and quick win for the Korean terran.
Morrow vs MaruGame 1 @ Belshir Beach
Maru opened with a double reactor hellion build but despite the large scale of the harass, Maru only killed 10 drones - Morrow seemed to be in perfect condition. He confirmed that by defending the stim marine/tank timing attack aimed at his natural and for a moment the game seemed pretty even.
The second push of Maru, however, proved that to be untrue. Morrow was just in the middle of growing his mutalisk flock and had little to no banelings with bane speed only halfway done: possibly the worst army composition when you have to defend against marines and medics. Seeing that he cannot fight the terran army head-on, Morrow attempted to force some kind of a base race but it was just a hilarious picture - with so few mutas, the Swede could even kill a missile turret, let alone the entire base of Maru. The terran just a-clicked to victory.
Game 2 Metropolis
If the ending of Belshir Beach was painful enough to watch, the entire game on Metropolis was twice as much. Once again, Maru chose to go for reactor hellions (from a single reactor this time, though) and just his first two hellions seized the life of 8 drones. When four more hellions arrived the number grew to 26.
Morrow was obviously falling apart and was controlling his army as if he had never played zerg before. His sim city was virtually non-existent and despite having four queen he just could not chase the hellions out - something top tier zerg should never have trouble doing. Maru supremacy would shine even brighter when his marine/tank attack came knocking and being greeted by nothing more than a single spine crawler.
Yes, it was that bad.
Needless to say, it was all very embarrassing.
The six foreigners won a total of four maps during their Code A stay with SEn now officially being the best (and only) non-Korean in the GSL.
Spin it and twist all you like but you just cannot deny that the level of play, shown by the foreigners, was on the level of Code B and I find it extremely saddening and uncomfortable to bash at people that have achieved so much in the past. As such is the case, let's try a more... humorous approach. Let's give away some "prizes" just for the sake of it.
Winner: SEn
It's very obvious, of course, after all only SEn succeeded in winning an entire series! Sure, he played his best match-up but ultimately, the Taiwanese behaved as every experienced player should in his place - he stuck to what he knew, he was patient and safe and he just played to his opponent's mistakes. It was like "Being the veteran 101".
Runner-up: HuK
Although the Canadian did fell out of Code A, his play still carried pieces of what made him famous - playing from behind and turtling to victory. Although it doesn't sound like much, HuK first set against BumbleBee was a showcase about why HuK is so good in PvZ and was a lesson of how one should play after both his zealot pressure and DT get owned hard.
Winner: Morrow
One should not simply die to reactor hellions. EVER!
Runner-up: Idra
Everyone expects Idra to do well, even the fans that hate him in his guts. Despite playing ZvP, Idra had the entire Slayers team helping him with practice (at least I hope they did), and yet he did a wrong decision after a wrong decision, mismicro after mismicro that ultimately led to his defeat.
Winner: HuK vs BumbleBee @ Shakuras Plateau
Because of the reasons stated above. Just a perfect decision making by HuK and not going all Idra after his early game openings were crushed mercilessly.
Runner-up: HuK vs BumbleBee @ Crossfire
Just great use of the topography of the map by BumbleBee - spread out bases, baneling landmines, mutalisk chases, elements of base race. The complete handbook of how to play ZvP on Crossfire.
Winner: Xigua vs Killer @ Belshir Beach
Awarded to both of the players for not making a single god damn attack when they should have. When you've killed your opponent's pool, it's a nice indicator that he is vulnerable and is to be gutted. So is the situation when you are maxed on three bases and have 80 supply lead.
Winner: Idra
The entire series against Avenge could have been much, much closer, possibly even ending with an Idra victory (but please let's not go too deep into speculations, or fanboism or anti-fanboism). But that's StarCraft and when you make bad decisions or have no adequacy in targeting, you will be punished.
Winner: Morrow vs Maru @ Metropolis
As mentioned, you've probably played better games while climbing out of Platinum.
Runner up: SEn vs True @ Entombed Valley
Or the story of how SEn mismicroed 100% of his banelings and dying to a +1 roach timing attack. Not the best ZvZ the world has seen.
