Survivor: No holiday for the pros

The StarCraft scene in Korea doesn't stop for such things as Christmas and New Years. The new year kicks off with MBCgame Survivor League. There was one participant missing from todays games that I know we would all have loved to see there however.

The MBCgame Survivor League is the qualifier for the MSL. If you still don't know how it works, go to my other news about the Survivor League for a closer explanation of the format. Todays Survivor League was supposed to feature Boxer, but he is as we all know in the army and could not get permission to play here. Due to the emperors absence, keke got a pass in round one. Here are the battlereports from today and results from the last week.

Stork vs OriOn at Reverse Temple

Stork warps in at 12 and opens with a forge first in his natural. OriOn spawns at 3 and opens with a 12hatch at his natural. After he scouts Stork's quick expo he also takes his mineral only and shortly after adds a forth hatchery in his natural before starting his spire. Stork techs to templar archieve relatively quickly while OriOn is busy placing sunkens between his mineral only and natural.

“	It came down to a few lings and the commentators went crazy over all the action.

When Stork gets the leg upgrades for his lots he attack, but the zerg pulls the drones off both the mineral line in his mineral only and the ones in his natural. He doesn't suffer too much damage and his newly spawned mutalisks cleans up the rest before heading to the protoss main. OriOn travels back and forth between the protoss main and natural for a bit and takes out some cannons and probes, but it's not too bad for Stork. Zerg is delayed slightly by a dark templar at the 6 natural, but gets it out of the way and puts down an expo there. It is taken out by some goons and templars shortly after though.

OriOn responds with a counterattack with mutalisks and lurkerling. Unfortunately for him a perfectly placed storm limits the damage for Stork. Zerg retakes the natural at 6 and puts down a mound. Stork drops the zerg main with two zealots and two HTs. He nets almost all the drones there with two storms. At the same time zerg decides to charge Stork's newly finished mineral only with some lings. He suicides them to take out the nexus and barely manages. It came down to a few lings and the commentators went crazy over all the action.

Protoss retakes it and also expands at the island on his side. Zerg takes the main at 6 and also his own island. Stork has teched to reaver and starts harassing the sunkens outside OriOn's natural. Zerg holds on with plague, swarm and his new ultralisks. Then he drops some lings with swarm at the Protoss island to eliminate that. When Stork sees the final bit of his forces outside the zerg natural being slaughtered by ultraling, he realizes that it's a lost cause. GG.

OriOn vs keke at Longinus II

Keke spawned at 3 and scouted the right way with his overlord. OriOn spawned at 11 and both players opted for a 9pool. The first lings went different ways and as OriOn was about to enter keke's base he saw the lings that were heading for his base. Not knowning what was in keke's base due to scouting the wrong way he decided to turn around. Keke headed straight for the mineral line of OriOn, but didn't do much damage.

Keke's spire was a second faster than his opponent, but OriOn went all in with his lings as it finished. It seemed like he couldn't decide if he should go for the drones or the spire though, so he ended up not doing as much damage as he could have. OriOn went overlord hunting with his newly morphed mutalisks while keke headed straight for the mineral line. OriOn was able to hold it however and countered keke with his mutas. Keke did simply not have enough air forces and had to give up. A very quick game. GG.

keke vs Stork at Desert Fox

Keke spawned at 7 and opened with a pool before adding a hatchery and heading for a spire. Stork warped in at 3 and went with two quick stargates. Keke scouted it and went with scourges rather than mutalisks in the start. Unfortunately for him they didn't do much. At least they bought him time to get his den up and some hydralisks to defend his overlords from the growing army of corsairs.

“	The commentators were screaming "timing, timing".

At this point, both players had taken their naturals and keke was only losing a few overlords to the corsairs. The zerg took the island at 9 and then moved all his hydralisks and overlords to his mineral only. Stork on his part was roaming the map with corsairs while teching to reavers. Keke ferried some hydras over the mineral block at his mineral only and then loaded up all the lords and dropped into the protoss main. The commentators were screaming "timing, timing". And they were right, the timing was crucial. As the lords emptied in the protoss base, Stork's first reaver finished... right next to the hydras. There was nothing Stork could do and he had to face facts. Keke looked like he was very relieved, although we might be more relieved if he would shave. Stork looked like he was in disbelief at what just happened. GG

MBC Survivor Group E, 01/01-07
keke	>	Autowin
OriOn	>	Stork	Reverse Temple
keke	<	OriOn	Longinus II
keke	>	Stork	Desert Fox

OGN StarLeague Week 2

The play weeks of the OSL is split into two days. Week 2.1 was played on the 27th and week 2.2 was played on the 29th. Week 3.1 will be played on the 3rd and week 3.2 on the 5th. Here are the results from week 2:

OSL Week 2.1 27/12-06
NaDa	<	Much	Hitchhiker
FireBatHero	<	UpMagic	Neo Arkanoid
Midas	>	Light	Reverse Temple
Casy	>	Child	Longinus II
GoRush	>	IriS	Longinus II
Hwasin	>	Yooi	Hitchhiker

OSL Week 2.2 29/12-06
iloveoov	<	DongraE	Hitchhiker
Anytime	<	YellOw[ArnC]	Neo Arkanoid
Savior	>	ChoJJa	Reverse Temple
GoodFriend	>	July	Longinus II
GGPlay	<	ForGG	Longinus II
ZergMan	>	Jy	Hitchhiker

In Group A NaDa is in trouble with 0-2, while Much looks like he'll make it with 2-0. DongraE and iloveoov each have a 1-1 score. The only hope for NaDa is that Much takes out oov and that he wins himself next week. In Group B UpMagic is in the same situation as Much and Anytime in the same as NaDa. In group C it's Midas in front, with ChoJJa in the last spot. In Group D Casy leads, with Child in last. Group E is dead even with everyone on 1-1. Hwasin leads group F with Yooi is last place. Next week promises to be very exciting.

MBC StarLeague Week 4

These were the winners matches from the MSL. The winner moves on, but the loser has to play more games to make it to the round of 8.

MSL Week 4 28/12-06
Hwasin	>	Pusan	Desert Fox
Justin	>	Much	Longinus II
Nal_rA	>	Canata	Reverse Temple
Light	>	XellOs	Blitz X

So coming up is more Survivor, MSL, OSL and not to mention the Final of the second season of SKY ProLeague 2006. MBCgame HERO takes on CJ Entus on January 7th for the right to face season one champions SK Telecom T1. Should be a great start to the year.