GSL 2011 Mar. CodeS RO8

      Today's lineup features the StarCraft stars and stalwarts that have yet to fall in this tournament of upsets. This is HongUn's third appearance in the quarter finals, a feat only matched by Nestea, MarineKing, and Nada. He is quite a slippery protoss, both loved and hated for his strange builds and cheeses. His relatively unknown PvP will be put to the ultimate test today by MC, a mirror match monster with a 10-2 record in the match up. Since PvP is such a mechanics and micro based matchup, it's hard to see how HongUn's tricks could let him escape from MC's iron grasp.
      Although each player in the second match is a BroodWar legend in his own right, both players still have something to prove when it comes to StarCraft 2. July washed out of the Code A tournament in the quarterfinals, and was one match away from not even getting into Code S at all. He has been an absolute beast this season, though, making it through the group of death by 2-0ing last season's champion to get to the knock-out round. Nada, on the other hand, has had a relatively easy bracket so far this tournament. After being swept 3-0 by MarineKing last tournament, he has yet to drop a game this season, 3-0ing his group and 2-0ing check in the RO16. In BroodWar, Nada had a 14-7 record against July. He has to hope to keep that going if he wants to make his first semifinals appearance.

Shakuras Plateau, cross positions
      MC decides to four-gate. HongUn goes for an early twilight council. But, micro-of-micro, MC's first zealot and stalker manage to kill HongUn's with an almost full hit-point stalker left over! Meanwhile MC's probe has slipped through and gotten a pylon up in HongUn's main. HongUn builds his dark shrine, but quickly has to gg when five uncontested stalkers make it to his mineral line.

Not a promising start for HongUn. Hopefully with these two players we will see a few four-gateless games.

MC wins, 1-0

Xel'Naga Caverns
      The builds first differ when HongUn gets a quick robo. MC gets a twilight council for blink after his first three gateways. MC convincingly wins another micro battle in the middle of the map, but doesn't press his advantage. When MC first blinks up HongUn's ramp, HongUn already has two immortals, which successfully fend off the push. HongUn builds his robotics bay and gets a a single colossus. HongUn moves out, prompting MC to immediately blink into his base and start wrecking his tech, killing the all-important robotics facility. HongUn is forced to turn around with his army. MC isolates and snipes HongUn's only colossus! When HongUn corners MC at the edge of the main, MC is forced to blink to safety. But because MC blinked out near the side of the map and has no way to double back, HongUn is able to chase him all the the way back to MC's own territory, whereupon HongUn makes a sharp right into MC's base. MC's stalker sprint down to HongUn's base for a base trade! HongUn lays down a beautiful force field to trap all of MC's probes, while MC's stalkers hunt down all of HongUn's. But each player thought ahead and has exactly one probe left in his opponent's base. But neither has enough for a nexus! After the armies have their ways with the opposing bases, the only two buildings left are two pylons cross-map from each other. Since MC has blink, it seems like his worst outcome is draw, since he should at least be able to force HongUn to defend. But HongUn makes a move across the map! Both players have roughly equal armies, but HongUn has an immortal to make up for a two-stalker, one-zealot deficit. MC shows some uncharacteristically poor blink micro as he seems unsure of whether to engage, harass, or make a beeline for HongUn's last pylon. After taking some hits from the immortal, MC decides that his best bet is to go for the building kill and gets there just microseconds before HongUn's army starts killing his pylon! And MC wins with just one volley of health left on his last building!

I'm too young for a heart attack. Please don't do this to me MC. It was a really bad idea for HongUn to move out that first time when he knew MC's stalkers were right outside his base. He could have easily just expanded and took the economic lead. MC almost lost his advantage with a poor exit from HongUn's base, and then again when he didn't seem to know how to finish the game. But that sort of endgame is so hard to execute, since a lot of the time you only have a handful of games that have gotten to that exact game state.

MC wins, 2-0

Terminus RE, cross positions
      It starts off as almost a repeat of game one with a four-gate versus a twilight council. This time, though, HongUn is going for blink. But it doesn't matter, as the four-gate kills that too.

I was really disappointed with HongUn's play this match. Yes, he was playing MC. But his builds would have lost against even the most mediocre S-class four-gate.

MC wins 3-0, advances

Hong really needs to iron out the wrinkles in his PvP
MC wins 3-0

MC is well HongUn?
MC wins 3-0

Crossfire
      July hatches first. Nada builds two fast barracks. Nada gets a bunker built at the bottom of July's natural's ramp. July eventually defends, but has almost two-dozen zerglings left over. Meanwhile, Nada has built a second command center and started a factory. July surprisingly doesn't get aggressive with his zergling army, instead content with teching to a baneling nest, lair, and spire. Nada settles into the familiar marine/tank/medivac army composition. July takes his corner third as his first ten mutalisks come out. Nada pushes out with five barracks and one factory's worth of marine/tank. But July catches the army unsieged at the top of the natural ramp! Everything of Nada's dies and July chases the reinforcements back to his base! July does what July does and starts rallying muta-ling wave after muta-ling wave into Nada's base. Two of the baneling strikes kill all of Nada's scvs. Nada briefly stabilizes, but has to concede once his desperation push fails.

Just as he did against Mvp, July took advantage of a single strategical error and followed up with continuous pressure for the win. Nada definitely should have known to tank crawl a little bit more carefully against such an aggressive player.

July wins, 1-0

Terminus RE
      Deja Vu as we once again see hatch first against two-rax. July fends off the bunker much more efficiently this time, although the bunker does get up with four marines in it, forcing July to once again make a good number of zerglings. The first difference from the last game comes when Nada uses his super-safe base layout to double expand just as the proxy bunker falls. Nada barely gets his three-barracks wall up in time to block a counter-attack. July gets his baneling nest and sets up for a bust. After spending eight-hundred minerals on those two command centers, Nada doesn't have nearly enough to defend the twelve-baneling bust that follows, and gg's once all of July's speedlings start pillaging his base.

I don't think it's ever a good idea to double expand against July unless you've killed his spawning pool, all his queens, and at least one hatchery. You just can't have too many units to defend against July.

July wins, 2-0

Metalopolis, cross positions
      Both players change it up this game. July goes for early zergling speed; Nada one-barracks-expands. July expands, then expands again before any other tech. Nada gets three barracks and two factories(TT) in total for a marine/pre-ignited hellion opening. July gets his baneling nest and a lair. July still only has zerglings and banelings when Nada's marine/hellion force reaches his front. Some great micro on Nada's part helps to roast July's entire army with very few losses. Nada sends his hellions into July's main and fries almost all the drones there while his marines do more damage to July's natural's mineral line. July morphs a roach warren and enough zerglings to stabilize as it builds. In the end, Nada has managed to equalize the workers counts as he transitions into two-factory tank/marine.
      July gets his spire and researches baneling speed. Nada builds up to five barracks and expands. Nada pushes out with marine/tank. July has roaches waiting right outside Nada's base for a counter-attack. Nada decides to keep the push moving forward and pull the scvs from his main to deal with the roaches. Both players lose a lot of workers in their defenses, but Nada probably comes out with the worse of it as July's mutas pop in time to clean up a lot of Nada's tanks for free. Nada expands to his gold, putting him on equal bases with July, who had canceled a building fourth when he saw Nada's push incoming.
      July starts focusing on muta/xling as he take his fourth. Nada gets an armory for upgrades and builds a fourth command center of his own. July does a good job sniping medivacs and isolated units with his mutalisk flock. Despite July's ever-increasing mutalisks count, Nada abstains from thors, sticking to purely marine/tank/medivac. July uses his mutalisks to draw Nada's marines deep into his own main base to try, but fail, to protect his starport. July then attacks Nada's gold and destroys the planetary with banelings and mutalisks.
      July has been keeping his worker count fairly low this whole game, using his four bases mostly for gas-collection. Nada floats his main's orbital over to his gold. Both players stay on the tech they've been using all game, and the the armies continue to neutralize in constant skirmishes. Nada takes his fifth, as does July, leaving only two open expansions on the whole map. As +3/+3 infantry finishes for Nada, July only has +2/+0 air and melee. Nada is now making some marauders and starts thor production as July has switched over to mutalisk production almost exclusively. Both players' bases have started to run very low on minerals, and July gears up for one last mutalisk/x-ling attack. But instead of going for Nada's unguarded fifth, which is essentially Nada's only base with all of its mineral patches still extant, July decides to attack Nada's entrenched and dry gold base. Nada has managed to build up a solid thor/tank army by this point, though, and the tanks are already sieged. July's banelings hit the thors, who fire some good shots at July's mutalisks. July gg's, having taken out only about fifty supply of Nada's forces at the cost of his entire army.

This game definitely lived up to the hype of the match. July stayed mid-tier and hyper aggressive all game long, while Nada used superior positioning and economy to tech at a snail's pace until he had a superior army composition. The game could have tipped either way many, many times, but Nada managed to defend by the bits of his scvs' drills each time for the narrow victory.

Nada wins, 1-2

Crevasse, close positions, Nada clockwise
      Back to the basics with a hatch-first against two-rax. The bunker push happens at July's true natural, since July declined to take his poor back door. The bunker push does good damage, but Nada eventually salvages the bunker and falls back after expanding to his back door. July gets zergling speed, a baneling nest, and twenty-four zerglings, setting up for a bust at Nada's front door. Nada, unaware, techs to medivacs. The banelings break through a supply depot, letting July's speedlings stream in. A bunker still stands, though, and Nada' s scvs come out to join the fray, successfully holding of the first attack. As July's second wave approaches, without banelings this time, Nada has not yet rebuilt his wall, and his bunker has burned down. But Nada's medivacs come out in time, and his scvs make a living, healing wall to prevent the zerglings from breaking through!
      Stim finishes for Nada as he starts making hellions. Round three comes with banelings this time, but stimmed marines with medivac/hellion support manage to clean up with more ease than they could during the previous two attacks. A tank is on its way now for Nada and his worker lead is slowly growing. July makes one last attempt at a bust, but hellions roast the x-lings as they run two-by-two through a supply depot hole, and July does barely any damage before he has to concede, sending this series into a game five

This map does not seem that conducive to a baneling bust, but it almost worked nonetheless. That medivac/scvs wall was a thing of beauty, though, and stim finishing was essential. At first I thought that July would actually try to baneling bust the ramp-blocking rocks, but Nada was ready for that as well, as he had preemptively expanded his wall to cover that possibility. Also, how someone can survive a baneling bust while teching up to a reactored starport seems almost miraculous to me.

Nada wins, 2-2

Xel'Naga Caverns
      July plants his standard early hatchery. Nada, as in the epic game three, expands after his first barracks. Nada's early bunker kills a single drone, but not much else before the bunker is salvaged. Nada gets his standard three-barracks and a factory. July gets a baneling nest, zergling speed, and a lair as he breaks down all the rocks on his side of the map. July makes a third hatchery at his natural to help with macro. Nada pushes through July's hallway as July's spire is building. Nada's first attack goes very well as his tanks kill a lot of July's banelings, which got speed just in time to defend. But when Nada's marines get too far from his tanks, two banelings manage to take out eight or nine marines, ending the attack.
      Nada adds on another factory but skips medivacs at the moment. July's first mutalisks hit the field. July expands to his third, then to Nada's fourth soon after! Nada starts to push against July's third, but a speedling counter-attack from July brings him home and does a lot of damage to Nada's mineral line. Nada attacks again; July counter-attacks again. This time, though, Nada follows through and takes out two of July's expansions. But back at home, Nada has lost almost all his natural's scvs to mutalisks and speedlings! When the dust settles, July has fifty-one drones but only two mining bases, while Nada has thirty scvs. Nada has started making medivacs and is mixing in some marauders with his tanks and marines.
      Nada tries to expand to his gold, but July kills the floating command center. July expands to his gold and re-expands to his third. Nada floats his main's orbital over to the gold. Nada tries to push against July's gold, but gets chased back all the way across the map, losing all his siege tanks in the process. July has built up a huge flock of mutalisks at this point, and Nada doesn't have any thors out at all. July's mutalisks slowly pick apart Nada's economy and production structures, eventually gaining July a massive seventy-food lead. From there it's a long, slow death for Nada as he desperately chases July's mutalisks across the map. But July's muta count grows to FORTY and Nada has to drop his mules in defeat.

July has now advanced further in Code S than he did in Code A last season. He played very well within his own unique style, never once getting infestor tech or higher. Nada played very interestingly that last game. He built a lot of marauders, probably to help soak up July's banelings. But July always had enough zerglings and mutalisks to counter them. He also always started building thors very late in the game, way after July's mutalisks had done significant damage. But July has definitely earned his semi-finals berth with performance in this series. It will be interesting to see who he will play from the up-and-down superstars side of the bracket, and how his play compares to when he has faced off against the beasts of SC2.

July wins 3-2, advances.

oGsMC 3-0 HongUnPrime
ST_July 3-2 oGsNaDa