GSL 2011 Mar. CodeS RO32 Groups A,B

Tal'Darim Altar, cross positions

      Mvp expands after his first barracks. Hyperdub techs to a fast blue-flame hellion drop. The drop does little damage. Hyperdub follows up with cloaked banshees and an expansion. Mvp starts accumulating tanks and marines. Hyperdub brings his starport count to four. A second hellion drop puts Hyperdub ten scvs ahead as he pumps banshee/viking. Mvp pushes out with marine/tank and a few marauders. It forces a lift on Hyperdub's expansion and slowly makes its way into Hyperdub's main. But Hyperdub's huge banshee fleet eventually repels the push, but only after taking non-negligible damage to his production capacity. Mvp makes a few vikings and switches over to pure marine production out of his barracks. Mvp moves out again and sieges up above Hyperdub's natural, killing a lot of scvs and tipping the economy balance in Mvp's favor. But again Hyperdub's cloaked air army chases Mvp's forces away. Mvp takes a third at the counter-clockwise cliff expansion; he starts two more starports of his own to pump vikings, realizing that Hyperdub's army threatens to completely dominate the skies. Hyperdub keeps his hellion count high to combat Mvp's army of marines, but Mvp's marine/tank/viking army gets a nice concave in the middle of the map and kills a major chunk of Hyperdub's army. Mvp takes both his cliff and his canyon expansions. Hyperdub takes a third at the counter-clockwise cliff. Mvp again sieges up over Hyperdub's natural, and this time has enough vikings to stay there. Hyperdub realizes that he's lost the air and starts making siege tanks. Mvp starts building battlecruisers as he takes three more bases, but Hyperdub concedes before either has time to take effect.

Mvp did a great job dealing with this relatively new strategy. On the other hand, Hyperdub was left to execute his build essentially unharassed for a fairly long time, showing just how big the skill gap between these players really is.

Mvp wins

Mvp 1-0
July 0-0
MC 0-0
Hyperdub 0-1

Bracket: + Show Spoiler +

Xel'Naga Caverns

      July goes pool/hatch/speed. MC expands after three gateways. July follows up with a roach warren and a lair. MC gets a starport for a void ray. After July sees the first air units he gets a hydralisk den and a in-base third hatchery. MC gets two more gateways and techs up to colossus. July gets his spire. Both players take their thirds. MC gets a twilight council and blink. July gets a bunch of corruptors and a baneling nest. MC takes his gold. Both players hit max: MC off of sentry/stalker/colossus and July of hydra/roach corruptor with a few overlords fulls of banelings. The armies start to engage in the middle. MC's stalkers blink under and kill a few corruptors and overlords full of banelings while force fields keep the rest of the zerg army at bay. July retreats. MC starts getting high templar and psionic storm finishes researching. MC force fields off a sizable chunk of July's army and kills it. July counter-attacks, but has too many corruptors which all end up suiciding into the stalker ball that just finishing kiting and destroying all of July's baneling-filled overlords. After the battle, MC has killed enough zerg units to completely surround July's army with one massive blink. July gg's soon thereafter.

MC looks like he's back with a vengeance this season. His micro was on full display in this exceptionally well-executed PvZ. He always seemed to know exactly where to go next with tech to stay in control of the situation.

MC wins

Mvp 1-0
MC 1-0
July 0-1
Hyperdub 0-1
Bracket:+ Show Spoiler +

IMMvp v ST_July

Tal'Darim Altar, July clockwise

      July uncharacteristically hatches first. Mvp gets a tech lab on his first factory and builds a command center. July gets zergling speed and a baneling nest. Mvp researches infernal pre-igniter. July goes for a baneling bust. He gets into Mvp's main and runs for the mineral line, but Mvp's micro is too good and he avoid any serious damage beyond an exploded supply depot and some lost mining time. July techs to spire. Mvp has four barracks(TTRR) a factory, and a starport. Mvp catches a big group of zerglings with his hellions, frying them all. Mvp attacks July's natural with a large force of hellions and marines as he floats his command center to his natural. But some banelings finish just and time and do serious damage, giving the eleven morphing mutalisks time to come out and clean up the remaining forces! July counter-attacks with his mutalisk flock. He manages to destroy some add-ons before retreating. July takes his canyon expansion. July is up by about ten food. He morphs about twenty banelings and attacks just as centrifugal hooks finish. The banelings hit home, leaving no marines to fend off the remaining mutalisks! July runs a bunch of speedlings in to help with some missile turrets, and suddenly there are about ten completely uncontested mutalisks in Mvp's base! July continues to stream units into Mvp's base, and Mvp leaves the game!

Wow. The recently-Code A July takes down last season's GSL champion. Mvp just didn't have enough anti-air, maybe not having expected July to transition right into so many mutalisks. July's aggression really helped him here, as if he had waited a little bit longer, Mvp might have been able to get far enough ahead to put the game away.

July wins

From the LiveReport:
+ Show Spoiler +


MC 1-0
Mvp 1-1
July 1-1
Hyperdub 0-1
Bracket:+ Show Spoiler +

oGsMC v oGsHyperdub

Crossfire

      Hyperdub rushes for a quick concussive shell opening. MC quickly techs to a robotics facility for an immortal and then adds on another gateway. Hyperdub techs to cloaked banshees off of three barracks(TRx). MC expands and adds on two more gateways. Hyperdub looks like he is about to attack just as combat shields finish, but ends up just sitting at the top of MC's natural's ramp. Hyperdub adds on another starport, still making only banshees. Hyperdub wanders aimlessly around the map for a little bit as MC techs to colossus. MC gets a starport. Eventually the stalker and banshee counts are big enough to one-shot each other, and Hyperdub still seems content to just poke at MC's army. Hyperdub is almost completely mined out when MC gets impatient and just attacks Hyperdub's lazy army and kills it. Hyperdub packs for his first trip to the relegation matches.

An embarrassingly awkward game for Hyperdub. Either he fears commitment, or is gun-shy from being smashed by MC so many times in the OGS house.

MC wins, advances
Hyperdub goes to the up-and-down matches.

MC 2-0
Mvp 1-1
July 1-1
Hyperdub 0-2

Bracket:+ Show Spoiler +

IMMvp v ST_July

Metalopolis, close-by-air positions

      July hatches first. Mvp two-barracks expands. July gets his zergling speed and a baneling nest. July goes for a baneling bust- and Mvp lifts off his walling barracks just as the banelings are coming! They manage to land and start add-ons, but both add-ons fall to one baneling apiece! All of a sudden July has free reign in Mvp's base! It's over, and Mvp looks despondent in his booth as he realizes that he, the current GSL champion, is heading for the up-and-down matches to fight for his Code S survival. He eventually gg's, and looks like he has literally been killed in his booth as he lies motionless with his head on his desk.

StarCraft is a game of seconds, and Mvp happened to do precisely the wrong thing at precisely the wrong time.

July wins, advances
Mvp goes to the up-and-down matches.

Final standings:
1 oGsMC 2-0
2 ST_July 2-1
3 IMMvp 1-2
4 oGsHyperdub 0-2
Bracket:+ Show Spoiler +

Not needed.

Final standings:
1 oGsMC 2-0
2 ST_July 2-1
3 IMMvp 1-2
4 oGsHyperdub 0-2

Shakuras Plateau, close positions

      Bye rolls protoss, and what follows was essentially the most epic game known to man. Bye somehow got three motherships out on the board and Clide had 300/200, all tanks, due to a rules engine glitch. But the GOM ref ruled to play on, and Clide eventually took the game.

Clide wins

Clide 1-0
Byun 0-0
Zenio 0-0
Bye 0-1

TerminusRE – cross positions

      Byun expands after his first barracks. Zenio hatches first. Byun takes his third, still only on one barracks. Byun walls in his shared choke with three barracks. Zenio takes his own third. It is shaping up to be a huge macro fest-- at 7:30 into the game, Zenio has 45 drones and 6 zerglings, while Byun has 8 marines and 34 scvs. Zenio gets a lair and a baneling nest. Byun builds two engineering bays for double upgrades as he gets shields and stim. Zenio takes his fourth. Byun adds on four barracks, all with reactors, and starts getting tanks and medivacs. Zenio gets his spire and starts mutalisk production. Zenio expands to the clock-wise third and gets his infestation pit. Zenio nydusses into Byun's base behind the smoke... and Byun doesn't see it! Zenio does solid damage to Byun's mineral line with zerglings and banelings before the worm's exit is taken out. Meanwhile Byun catches a flock of mutalisks mid-map and kills many of them. But Zenio combos fungal growth into baneling explosions to take out a lot of marines. Zenio starts his hive. Byun makes four in-base orbitals and takes his fourth.
      At 17:30, Zenio has 5510/1550 banked, and Byun has 900/1700, but neither are maxed. Zenio gets his greater spire and his ultralisk cavern. Byun is getting +3/+3 for his infantry- Zenio is evolving +3 melee, +3 armor and adrenal glands. Zenio takes the clockwise main and natural for bases six and seven as Byun moves across the map to try and put a dent in Zenio's monstrous economy. Ghosts and brood lords hit the field for their respective players. Byun kills Zenio's fourth. Both players are trading solid emps and fungals. A few great fungals kill Byun's marines and force the tanks back across the map. Byun retreats to a fortified position near his fourth. Zenio assaults it with brood lords, ultralisks, and infestors, but a clutch emp wipes out the energy on three infestors, giving the fully-upgraded marines the mobility to kill a lot of ultralisks and brood lords. Zenio makes eighty zerglings. Byun starts making some marauders. Byun gets the rare terran building armor. Byun again suicides a bunch of broods and ultralisks into sieged tanks as ghosts continues to rain down emps.
      A drop from Byun takes out one of Zenio's seven bases. Zenio gets a great fungal on some retreating tanks, allowing the ultralisks to run them down. Both players take their counter-clockwise fourths. Zenio transitions to an almost exclusively zergling/ultralisk/infestor army. Byun continues to take out hatcheries with bio balls. After yet another ultralisk kamikaze, Byun is free to take out four more hatcheries, leaving both players on just one mining base. Byun starts to get cocky, scanning and mule-dropping Zenio's army. Zenio responds by killing Byun's last mining base. But the ultralisks being out of position means Byun is able to take out Zenio's last mining base- throwing this game from super high economy to... no economy, with both players hanging out around the 140 food mark. Byun is able to use his orbital farm to spike his income as Zenio rebuilds three hatcheries. Byun uses the mobility of his drop ships and Zenio's lack of anti-air to keep pressuring Zenio's expansions. He eventually takes out all of them as he has almost two fully-charged medivacs for every marauder. Byun's mule-based economy and hyper-efficiency eventually put him up by about fifty supply. Byun keeps up his clutch emps on Zenio's infestors, protecting his army from deadly fungi. Zenio desperately tries to take the counter-clockwise three bases, but is forced to concede after the familiar scene of emps falling on infestors seal the fate of Zenio's army.

What a marathon of a game. Once his infestors started being nullified by ghosts, Zenio didn't seem to have a plan for winning. In every battle that the fungal growths got off, Zenio won. But more often than not the faster, longer-range emp carried the fight for Byun. Byun seems to have a pretty good idea of how to handle himself late game against zerg.

Byun wins

Byun 1-0
Clide 1-0
Bye 0-1
Zenio 0-1

TSL_Clide v oGsZenio

Metalopolis, close-by-air positions

      Zenio hatches first. Clide gets a marine, a reaper, and expands. Zenio goes for roaches, but cancels the roach warren as soon as the reaper scouts it. Zenio gets zergling speed instead. Clide attacks with his first six marines. They kill a queen, but fall without doing any more damage. Zenio gets his baneling nest and a lair. Clide goes for pre-ignited hellions and an armory. Zenio expands to his third, then gets a spire. Hellions and x-lings trade for roughly equal supply. Zenio gets an in-base fourth as he makes mutalisks. Clide starts getting tanks out of two factories and builds a third command center. Clide floats his command center to his gold. Zenio puts some pressure on it, but then runs around and kill a lot scvs at Clide's natural. Clide responds by slow-pushing to Zenio's natural. After all of Zenio's banelings whiff in its defense, Clide is able to siege up outside of Zenio's natural, which is where all of Zenio's tech happens to be. Zenio is not quite patient enough with massing a counter-offensive, and gg's one his entire tech tree is destroyed.

The slow push works its magic once again. It seems strange that Zenio kept -all- of high tech in fairly open positions at his natural instead of spreading it out a little more.

Clide wins, advances

Clide 2-0
Byun 1-0
Bye 0-1
Zenio 0-2

ZeNEXByun v uNi_BYE

FASTEST_MAP_POSSIBLE, close positions

      Bye rolls zerg, six pools. Unfortunately for him, it's a money map, so Byun has eight battlecruisers and three thors by the time the rush gets there. Bye gg's.

Bye should really work harder on considering the intricacies of the map when planning a build. Hopefully he will do better against the less-experienced Code A players in the relegation matches.

Byun wins, advances.
Bye goes to the up-and-down matches

Clide 2-0
Byun 2-0
Bye 0-2
Zenio 0-2

ZeNEXByun v TSL_Clide

Shakuras Plateau, cross-positions

      Both players tech to starport. Clide wants a pre-ignited hellion drop. Byun goes for cloaked banshees. Clide's drop does serious damage, putting him up 28 scvs to 14. Byun's first banshee dies to turrets. Both players expand. Another drop by Clide does middling damage. Clide gets cloaked banshees of his own. Both players start building up marine/tank/viking armies. Clide makes a move on Byun's natural while taking a third, forcing him to pull a bunch of scvs, which get melted by siege tanks. Clide eventually retreats, but at this point his economy is so much better than Byun's that he just rolls over his army with tanks and marines.

Clide wins, secures top seed

Clide 3-0
Byun 2-1
Bye 0-2
Zenio 0-2

oGsZenio v uNi_BYE

Tal'Darim Altar, cross positions

      Bye finally rolls terrans, his best race. Bye goes marine/tank. Zenio tries for a one-base muta play. Zenio's mutalisks pick apart Bye's marines before medivacs come out, and after the tanks fall, Bye gg's. In the most bizzare ceremony ever, Zenio actually goes to Bye's booth and literally cuts his throat open in an Idra-less rage.

Hopefully Bye can recover by the up-and-down matches, as he will have only one chance to stay in Code S.

Zenio wins

Clide 3-0
Byun 2-1
Zenio 1-2
Bye 0-3