So with some interest I decided to download every replay of MLG Columbus and analyze them. With the help of my friend SC2 Gears I am going to show you what this sample of what the best of the best are doing with this really solid cross section. Many of these builds in the wake will be copied so its worth checking out as well as other cool stats. Let's dive into some numbers.
1. Who were the real troopers of MLG Columbus?
A few players deserve recognition for playing tons and tons of games. These are players who simply played the most games.
First we have oGsMC who played an astonishing 26 games this weekend going 19 and 7. Second with 20 games are the players SjoW and ThorZain with Sjow going 9 and 11 and ThorZain going 13 and 7. If you are curious, the winner MMA went 14 and 2, Losira went 12 and 4, and Idra went 10 and 8.
2. Build Orders:
Analyzing the build orders of the entire tournament a few very successful build orders came through:
Protoss:
PvP: Not many of these this tournament sadly, the standard (Gateway, Gas, Core, Gas) was the most used going 5 and 4. Different openings that were successful but only once used were the standard but getting your 2nd pylon after building your core, and Gateway, Gas, Core, Gate.
PvT: Best openers seem to be this 1 gas opener (Gateway, gas, core) followed likely by an early attack, and an expand based build (Gate, gas, core, nexus). Notable the most tried is the standard (gateway, gas, core, gas), but in PvT went 9-13 suggesting it might not be as effective as these new openings.
PvZ: The standard Gate, gas, core, gas just lost against Zerg, going 5 and 8. Successful PvZ builds that worked was the forge fast expand, but the Zergs were showing that they are adapting to it. Cannon rushing was sadly successful at MLG as well as quick rushes for air. Seems though that the forge fast expand overall did the best vs Zerg.
Terran:
TvP: The 1 rax fast expand followed by 2 more rax was by far the best opener at MLG, going 10 and 4 vs Protoss. In two instances a 2 rax pressure build did work.
TvT: Not too surprisingly the Marine Tank build showed itself to be a dominant beast in TvT. with 1 rax 1 factory followed by an expansion working well as well. I don't think that without watching all the replays there's a ton to learn from TvT this time.
TvZ: The 2rax pressure did amazing at MLG not losing a single time against Zerg the five time is showed up. Besides that and oen instance of a rax fast expand, Terran got pretty badly bloodied overall vs Zerg at MLG. Terran pros are likely going to be hard at work to combat Zerg for the next big event.
Zerg:
ZvP: ZvP was essentially rewritten during MLG, with many successful strategies combating Protoss coming unveiled for the first time and really there was no standards that really worked. First of all, hatch first builds worked only 2 times in ZvP, so Pool first seems to just be the way of the matchup (Both times they worked one was with many crawlers and one with roaches soon after). Double expanding was also quite common in winning BOs for Zerg. Others involved many early roaches being successful as the response to that early Protoss air harass.
ZvT: Hatchery first was very successful vs Terran. Most successful being Hatch, pool, crawler, 1 or 2 gases, lair. Also notable was a large use of Roaches and not just Ling Baneling in early game. Maybe I am out of touch but that rang new to me. One of the most interesting build orders involves beating the Terran and then GGing before he can
ZvZ: In ZvZ as well Hatch first won out over pool first. There are slightly more who went Banelings either before or instead of Roaches, but many got both early.
3. Maps:
Maps by Popularity:
Metalopolis - 45 Shakuras Plateau - 45 Tal'Darim Altar - 37 Shattered Temple - 34 Xel'Naga Caverns - 33 Testbug - 14 (I love this map btw) Typhon Peaks - 11
It seems the best map for Protoss is Shattered Temple, for Terran is Typhon Peaks, and for Zerg is Testbug. The most balanced map seems to be Xel'Naga Caverns and the least balanced seems to be Typhon Peaks.
Theres no way 141 is the lowest APM lol. Axslav has between 70-95 APM, I don't t hink I've ever seen him go over 120 APM throughout a whole game, and he made it pretty far out of the open bracket and into top 28.
I only analyzed replays from the groups and the winner/ loser double eliminations so none of the open bracket people. He is a famous player though I was surprised.
Also, since I think its like 47 real life seconds = 1 in game minute, Losira's APM is roughly 498 APM in real time lol. 480 for Select, even Ret has 356 real time APM
On June 06 2011 15:33 Tristan wrote: I only analyzed replays from the groups and the winner/ loser double eliminations so none of the open bracket people. He is a famous player though I was surprised.
Well considering how strong of a player Axslav is, and the fact that he has 50% less than the apparent lowest you found, I don't think it'd be a big deal to "expose him"
Plenty of players have under 150 APM that are high level players such as an Axslav, or Minigun, etc.
On June 06 2011 15:33 Tristan wrote: I only analyzed replays from the groups and the winner/ loser double eliminations so none of the open bracket people. He is a famous player though I was surprised.
Well considering how strong of a player Axslav is, and the fact that he has 50% less than the apparent lowest you found, I don't think it'd be a big deal to "expose him"
Plenty of players have under 150 APM that are high level players such as an Axslav, or Minigun, etc.
I know that's how people should think, but you know how people get. Also you never know he might be really ashamed of it. Nah I'm gas pooling and playing it safe here.
If you get a chance, spec a game with Nyomu (you can find him in the XPN or CSO korean channels) he's a nice guy and beats many of the top NA players pretty well.... he's pretty crazy to watch though. I just always feel bad he can't compete because his parents freak if they catch him playing the game haha.
I edited the APM chart because I totally didn't see MorroW and I noticed that Losire changed accounts during the tournament and for the account he spent a majority of the games in he was at 364.
Yeah true, Sjow was like 100-120 from what I remember, maybe he dialed it up a bit during MLG due to the atmosphere. But everyone knows it, he himself has said before IEM Europe that he thinks that he will not go to Korea because he doesn't think his APM is good enough to compete there for much longer. Apparently he felt like his careers lifespan will be limited due to his APM in the upcoming years.
EPT
