GOMTV GSL: Battle Report - Group A

Group A opened up the first GSL of 2011 with a few upsets as Maka lost his two first games, and failed to qualify for the round of 16. A tie-breaker between Polt and TheBest had to decide who would join NesTea in the round of 16, while the opening-ceremony probably was the most entertaining part of the day.


S-CLASS ROUND OF 32 - GROUP A

Game 1 - NesTea Vs. Polt - Blistering Sands

NesTea' first game was against Polt on Blistering Sands, where he out-macroed the Terran, Polt, who seemed a bit rusty being supply blocked at 134 supply for quite some time. Polt made it into the mid-late game, but NesTea seemed to be in control most of the time. Polt had a contain for a while outside NesTea, and it things seemed OK for him, but patient as the season 2 champion is, NesTea just waited for the right time to break it, and did it without losing his golden expansion.


NesTea cleaning up, saving his golden expansion

From there it was pretty much straight up, NesTea harassing all over the place, Polt making blunders such as stimming all of his marines to take down rocks, and getting surrounded all too easily, 1-0 for NesTea.


Polt not happy after opening the season with a loss

5/10

I give the game a 5 because of some exciting baneling moments, but Polt has to learn to use his stim properly, he probably knows, but can't really get his head around it under pressure it seems; too many stims of no use. The game was on hold a lot too, a little early pressure from Polt, but NesTea held it off easily, after that, the contain was really all there was to it.


Game 2 - Maka Vs. TheBest - Metalopolis

Early marine/hellion pressure with close positions on Metalopolis gave TheBest a lead early on in the Terran vs Terran. TheBest managed to catch a few marines off-guard, and Maka had to bring SCVs to repair his wall-in, and lost a few SCVs as well. More hellion micro against Maka's marines gave TheBest more of a lead. But TheBest's first banshee only got a couple of marine kills before it died, and Maka could take over the lead really, definitely after TheBest lost his second banshee as well.



Maka took this opportunity to expand, got it up and running as well, and TheBest realized it was now or never. Bringing his SCVs, TheBest committed to an all-in push, and with the advantage from his siege tanks TheBest managed to take out the command center, and gain an excellent contain, forcing Maka to eventually rush into it, but the siege tanks did too much damage, and Maka would have to throw in the towel, and TheBest won his first match. With something else than only marines, Maka could've held it off.


Maka probably regretting going for only marines

4/10

This game gets a 4, a very short Terran vs Terran, with a lot of sloppy mistakes from both players does not make a good game. The winner actually lost two banshees of no use, but it was a very well-timed all-in push. But really, I'm tired of all-ins now.


Game 3 - NesTea vs Maka - Blistering Sands

It does not help on your confidence being up against the season two champion NesTea after losing your first match in the S-class group. Maka responded in making his signature build, Maka-rax, but did not commit to the build, and followed up by making an expansion without being any real threat.

NesTea relied on a baneling/roaches build, and tried to bust Maka's front too early, giving Maka the lead. Still NesTea was the first to take the third base at his golden expansion, without Maka doing any more pressure than a medivac drop here and there for some harassment. If Maka had done something more to keep his lead he might have taken this game, but after the mutalisks spawned in his map contol with the medivac was lost, and another very bad decision from Maka was that he actually chose to take the normal expansion instead of the gold, while NesTea had his gold expansion up and running already. Add to that it was delayed even more because of the mutalisks preventing it from landing before the marine support could arrive.

From there, NesTea's mutalisk number constantly grew, and he was free to do anything, even kill turrets here and there, and take down the second base expansion of Maka. Maka also wasted quite a few stims on all of his units, showing he was uncomfortable with NesTea's mutalisks.


NesTea's mutaball putting on constant harassment and pressure on Maka, preventing him from mining

When we see NesTea's units contain a total of 91 banelings and 24 mutalisks, and 50 zerglings, things were quite clear, being maxed and having a great economy, NesTea could waste his entire army, but re-maxed right away with ultralisks and eventually run over Maka, and go up 2-0 in his group, securing him a spot in the round of 16.


Soooo many banelings

6/10

This game gets a 6 due to the incredible domination by NesTea after he got his mutalisks. The game was exciting after the first attack from the Zerg failed, but Maka did not do enough to stay in the lead, and NesTea could work his way ferociously back in the game and overwhelm Maka with tonnes of banelings, then remaxing into ultralisks. If you like explosions, this is the game for you. It could've been much better if Maka didn't make the mistakes he did, such as taking the normal expansion instead of gold, or stimming all his units instead of just a few of them to stop the mutalisk harassment.


Game 4 - Polt Vs. TheBest - Xel'Naga Caverns

TheBest started out with a very interesting build in what seemed to be an identical game for both players. Though, TheBest made a Raven instead of cloaked banshees like Polt did. Though, a bad timed push from TheBest made his base wide open for Polt's banshee, while the Raven was heading for Polt's base. It was however a very bad decision to go for that push, losing all of his units, while the banshee in his base got something around 20-30 SCV kills.



Had he waited a little longer with the push, and stopped the banshee before he moved out, the game could've been a lot different, but too late for that now, and Polt could easily go straight for the kill, forcing the GG.

4/10

The game started out interesting, and when we thought we had a brilliant counter from TheBest he wasted it for nothing. It could be a lesson for Terran players in Terran vs Terran though, getting that early Raven instead of a banshee if you expect cloaked banshees could work out well if you wait for the banshee to arrive before you move out.


Game 5 - Polt Vs. TheBest - Metalopolis

Because of the results, Polt and TheBest were tied, and Maka had to concede to the up-and-down matches, while NesTea had a safe first-place spot of the group. Polt and TheBest had to play another game to decide who would take the second spot from the group to the round of 16, and they did so in a match with close positions on Metalopolis.

Some early marine/hellion pressure from TheBest, similar to what we saw him do against Maka, gained him a lead early on by killing some marines, and also a few SCVs before Polt's siege tank. He also spotted the starport, knowing exactly what's going on in the game.

Polt went for a counterattack after the early pressure, having tanks with siege mode and a medivac for vision, Polt managed to put down a solid contain against TheBest who does not have siege mode ready yet. TheBest decided to give it a try anyways though, and managed to break the contain, though he lost a lot of units to it. After a while, TheBest is the one to set down a contain outside the base of Polt, and he also manages to take down a tank from Polt with his banshee. Very careful tank placement gave us some nailbiting minutes outside Polt's base.



After some more nervous minutes, Polt managed to break out with some very clever tank placement, followed with a push out with SCVs in the front taking the first hits. Polt decided to counter contain him, and from there they were pushing each other back and forth, more and more sloppy play from both. Polt did get a free ticket back in the game after a horrible push from TheBest, but his SCV count was just too high, and after a final even worse attack than TheBest's, Polt lost all of his units, while TheBest could move in one final time to win his spot in the round of 16.

7/10

The tank placements in TheBest's first contain made the game into a thriller, and the back and forth action made the game fun to watch. It was however not a high-level match, as the turn-around moments in the match relied mostly on the sloppy mistakes the players made, with a few exceptions. It was entertaining though, which is why I give it a 7.

Code S - Group Standings
GROUP A
Top two qualifies for the round of 16, while the bottom two will move on to the up-and-down matches vs the top eight of the A-class tournament.
1st.	IMNesTea	2-0
2nd.	TheBestfOu	2-1
3rd.	PoltPrime	1-2
4th.	MakaPrime.WE	0-2
IMNesTea > PoltPrime MakaPrime < TheBestfOu IMNesTea > MakaPrime PoltPrime > TheBestfOu PoltPrime < TheBestfOu

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