EPTFriday 6th of April 2012, one of the most impressive tournaments ever started today and well it is easy to say that, looking at the prize pool, a lot of people would want to be first place. Sadly enough, there were only 128 spots in the open bracket and another addition of 12 qualified players that got a paid trip to IPL and immediately get placed into pool play bringing the number up to a total of 140 players from around the world.
With 140 players and a big prize pool of $100.000, IPL had to do it big and decided to hold the tournament in Las Vegas the city of excitement. This meant that the $40.000 dollar first place prize money could be gambled away easily afterwards.
With so many great players in one Tournament predicting the person who would win it would be like gambling at one of the many slot machines and hoping you would win a million.
Even though it would be hard to predict the winner of the IPL 4, there sure is one favorite to win it. MarineKingPrime, who has won two MLG’s in a row is the biggest favorite for a lot of people.
Formerly known as the King of Kongs he managed to finally lift the curse of being placed second by winning those major titles.
Seeing the huge amount of koreans in the tournament foreign hopes are small. Though one player that sparks a small fire in the hearts of the foreign supporters is there aswell. Stephano who is often called the “Foreign hope” and heavily favored by the American crowd who love to cheer USA when Stephano gets on stage is also now the “Foreign hope”.
We have nine koreans and three foreigners at the beginning of the Pool play. Lets see who will come out on top in the open bracket and will join the players from the pool play from the open bracket .
Group A - aLive -- NesTea-- TAiLS
In Group A, a legend took the stage: IM_NesTea, the three time GSL Champion and obviously creator of the universe.
NesTea did not do very well lately with poor results in the MLG Winter Arena and in the GSL, where he even dropped down to Code A in the first season of 2012, but immediately fought back to Code S status for the 2nd season.
Fnatic.aLive, who finally did well in the GSL Season 1 2012 by placing Top 4 and MvP_TAiLS, who is mostly known for his great plays in the GSL Team League, joined “The Nerd Slayer” in Group A.
NesTea vs aLive
So NesTea and aLive faced each other a couple of times before aswell with NesTea winning ⅔ of his matches against him.
So at the first game aLive started off with a nowadays standard build with two cloaked banshees and an expansion. With the two banshees aLive did a nice amount of damage, though after the third hatch went up and a couple of spore crawlers the attack was over. aLive followed up with a couple of helions which did nothing. After another big attack of aLive NesTea took a lot of damage but aLive’s whole army was gone. Even with that amount of damage NesTea saw a chance to attack with a bunch of zerglings and banelings and a couple of muta’s ending game one immediately.
The second game was more hectic, after seeing that aLive decided to do a quick expand NesTea decided to go for a huge baneling bust. While a banshee popped out and was sent to the expansion of NesTea, NesTea decided to do the bust and did a ton of damage. aLive could not recover from this even after doing a nice amount of damage with the banshee and he gg’ed with Nestea having the first 2-0 win in his group.
Nestea vs TAiLS
At the GSTL Tails beat IM_Nestea and IM_MVP. After beating MVP he drank a bottle of Nestea in front of MVP’s booth. This sparked the rivalry between the two players and even the casters were excited to see what would come from this match. So after the GSTL TaiLS showed he could beat NesTea and with those careful thoughts we went into the first game.
After both players started off being careful making sure to not make any mistakes they both kept playing really greedy. NesTea scouted the greedy play of TaiLS and decided to go for a 200/200 roach all-in. TaiLS scouted it too late and because and only held on because of his great force field placement. Though when the reinforcements arrived and the energy was gone TaiLS his only hope were the double immortals pumping from his two robotics facilities. Sadly enough, NesTea quickly finished off TaiLS third base and ran up the ramp with no force fields to stop him. The double immortals popped out but NesTea quickly finished them off.
The second game was more hectic with both doing the same greedy game but this time TaiLS succeeded in placing a proxy pylon in NesTea’s base without NesTea scouting it. TaiLS decided to get a lot of warp gates quickly to finish off NesTea instead of focussing on his macro. Though the second the warp gates finished NesTea’s first roaches started popping out ready to hold the forces warping in from the warp gate. After holding off the proxy pylon warp in NesTea quickly finished off TaiLS for a somewhat unexpected 2-0 sweep.
aLive vs TAiLS
The first game TAiLS took a huge risk, trying to do a proxy robotics facility to try and bust the quick expansion of aLive. Sadly enough aLive quickly scouted the proxy robo and killed the pylon. TAiLS tried to get it back up by trying to place pylons over and over which did not work. TAiLS could not recover from this losing his whole army against the marauders of aLive because of no immortals.
The second game aLive decided to do an all-in bunker rush versus the nexus first of TAiLS. With the rush he did a lot of damage killing a ton of workers which TAiLS pulled to defend against the marines. After cleaning up the marines TAiLS decided to put up two forges and a twilight council. Sadly enough aLive decided to go for cloaked banshees, without detection aLive did even more damage to the mineral line. After a failed attack by TAiLS and eventually a drop in the main base and a small force in the second base of TAiLS by aLive, TAiLS had to tap out.
Group B - MarineKing -- Stephano -- WhiteRa
Stephano vs White-Ra
The first match for group B was a difficult match for the foreign fans. Should they cheer for the “Foreign Hope” Stephano or the “Beast of the East” White-Ra. The two players who faced each other many times before had some exciting matched ahead.
In the first game the beginning was very equal with both players doing great. But when Stephano reached a certain point, he had enough and demolished White-Ra. White-Ra’s heroic attempts of holding of numerous attacks from Stephano just didn't cut it and lost game one. Game two looked totally different, with White-Ra’s incredible micro and multitasking he held off numerous attacks by Stephano and at the same time dropped zealots into the base of stephano killing off many drones and even the important tech structure the greater spire.
Though the critical point came where White-Ra attacked Stephano with his mothership and his whole army. Moving out to Stephano’s fourth base the mothership trailed behind and got caught by the Infestors. This suddenly turned the tables around. With a ton of corrupters broodlords and infestors on the field for Stephano, White-Ra had no counter because his mothership got picked off. White-Ra scrambled to get his Mothership back out but it was to late. Stephano had neural parasite and picked off the mothership again and again leaving White-Ra constantly open for attacks from every direction. After the third time White-Ra could not get a mothership out after numerous zergling harass from Stephano devastating White-Ra’s mineral line. White-Ra had to tap out leaving Stephano with a 2-0 victory.
After the game Stephano got interviewed making many White-Ra fans annoyed by saying it was expected for him to win.
MarineKing vs WhiteRa
At the beginning of the first day, MKP looked a little bit vulnerable. In his first game versus White-Ra he absolutely dominated him. Though the second and third game made MKP look very sloppy. White-Ra took game two after very strong play dropping zealots in MKP’s mineral line and all round good gameplay. Even the third game ,where White-Ra also did a lot of great multitasking, was already won by White-Ra until he messed up his micro and let MKP took advantage eventually winning game three.The look on White-Ra’s face was full of disappointment. You saw that he knew he could have won that game and beating the fan favorite.
MarineKing vs Stephano
The games versus Stephano took off with a rivalry moment aswell after MKP obviously stating that Polt was better than Stephano and MKP was better than Polt.
The first game versus Stephano both were very equally matched. Though when the game started to evolve and the game went on and on something happened that makes a tournament cry for LAN functions, Stephano dropped. They both decided for a rematch which went roughly the same way as the game that was dropped but halfway Stephano made a whole different choice. Stephano decided to all-in MKP and it worked, after pumping roach after roach and ling after ling Stephano was comfortably enough to place down 2 manner hatches after which he loaded up all his units into overlords and finished off MKP.
This game immediately increased the hopes for the fans who cheered for “The best foreign zerg”. Though in game 2 and 3 MKP stepped up his game slapping Stephano around and having some amazing play against him. Even though the games were really exciting to watch MKP had everything under control and Stephano got beat 2-1.
With this MKP confirmed his role as favourite by defeating the two fan favourites Stephano and White-Ra in Group B.
Group C - Polt -- Puma -- MC
Group C features another rising Star - TSL.Polt, the winner of Assembly 2012 and 2nd in the Lone Star Clash recently earned a seed in Code S, an honor that only few players ever experience.
With EG.Puma, 3rd at Assembly 2012, and SK.MC, 1st at Homestory Cup IV and the IEM World Championship, two Koreans who are playing for foreign teams were challenging Polt.
Puma vs Polt
Game one was a very basic TvT with Puma going mech and Polt going bio. After one mistake from Puma, Polt destroyed the mech army and it was too hard for Puma to come back. Polt immediately took out two of Puma’s bases and Puma gg’ed.
Game two was another basic TvT with a lot of position based tactics. When Puma saw that Polt was out of position to not defend his 4th base, Puma immideatly took advantage. He grabbed a bunch of marines and quickly killed the 4th and immediately ran to the third which had nothing there to defend against the amount of marines Puma had. This forced Polt to GG.
The third game was influenced by mistakes of both players and incredible multitasking. Polt ran into Puma’s tanks a couple of times losing a lot of marines, eventually had not enough marines to defend his tanks and lost every single one of them. At the same time Puma dropped in Polts third and main to kill a lot of scv’s. Eventually Polt made the amazing decision to contain puma cutting of the way to Puma’s third. Polt immediately took advantage and killed the third. Puma decided he had to take action but he could not break Polt’s tank line and Puma had to tap out for Polt to take it 2-1.
Puma vs MC
In the first game Puma’s nerves got the better of him. Getting supply block and lifting all his unit producing buildings and cancelling stim it showed that he had not yet recovered from his previous match. Without stim from Puma and storms and charghelots from MC, MC made short work of Puma’s army. Puma could not defend the next attack of MC tapping out for MC to get the 1-0.
In game two the cloaked banshee did a lot of damage for Puma because of MC’s bad placement of observers. After building up to 200/200 army MC engaged and destroyed puma’s army with storms and great force fields. Puma had to pull a lot of scv’s but storms killed them easily. With these huge losses MC continued his advantage for Puma to leave the game. MC 2-0 Puma.
Polt vs MC
In game one both players played greedy making sure to expand not once but twice. Eventually Polt sniped MC’s expand taking the advantage. After dropping into MC’s main Polt took an even bigger lead which made MC decide to attack. With colossus in his army MC made a big attack. Polt decided to flank but through great force fields the army got cut off. Though the force fields were not enough. Polt’s upgraded marine marauder army killed the protoss army making it even. Polt eventually decided to attack on two fronts, killing both forges for upgrades while keeping the protoss army at the third base. Eventually polt ran into the main finishing MC off without giving MC any chance to defend.
In game two Polt made more amazing decisions. After both players expanded they both decided to build up a small army. Though while MC was still teching up Polt decided to attack, this attack was successful and killed MC’s expansion. MC tried to harass with the warp prism but it did not do that much damage. Eventually Polt decided to drop in the back and attack in front which finished off MC sweeping him 2-0. Polt 2-0 MC.
Group D - Bomber -- MMA -- IdrA
In Group D 3 MLG Champions met. EG.IdrA recently showed weaknesses and immediately dropped out of the GSL again after being seeded into Code S in the first Season of 2012. ST.Bomber, who also directly dropped out of the GSL after starting in Code S, on the other hand immediately re-qualified through the preliminaries and will be starting in Code A again in Season 2. He also achieved an All-Kill in the GSTL vs NSHoSeo and seems to be back in business.
MMA did not disappoint, but was not too happy either with his recent GSL results, placing Top 8 in the first Season of 2012 after winning Blizzard Cup, the last big tournament of 2011 and IEM Kiev, one of the first major tournaments of 2012.
Anyway none of the three players should be underestimated.
Bomber vs IdrA
In game one both players played very passive though idra did some good harass with his infestors and zerglings. Even though the harass of Idra was really good Bomber did not show any dents in his play. With great fungal growths his ultralisk did the maximum damage and eventually destroyed bombers army to make bomber tap out.
In game two bomber tried to go mech and decided to attack with the first few thors tanks and helions. Idra saw it coming and made a lot of roaches holding the attack getting ahead. But bomber got lucky, Idra transferred about thirty drones and Bomber just passed by with a couple of helions. Lets just say it was a nice korean drone barbeque. Eventually with a mobile hellion siege tank and not so mobile thor army, Bomber decided to push into idra’s fourth. He killed all the drones in the fourth but the biggest mistake by idra was made. He had all his burrowed Infestors move towards bombers army to launch a ton of infested terrans but a scan caught them and they all got killed immediately forcing Idra gg.
Game three went quite quick. Both players expanded and Bomber decided to go mass helion. While Idra attacked Bombers base with zerglings Bomber decided to move out. With enough scv’s Bomber dealt with the zerglings but the mass helion force caught Idra off guard. With no defence Idra had to pull drones but they obviously all got killed by the helion fire making Idra gg. Bomber 2-1 Idra.
MMA vs IdrA
In game one MMA decided to go cloaked banshee doing a little bit of damage but mostly being annoying so he could take an expansion. Eventually with both players on three bases they decided to mass units. With the first few marines, helions and medivacs MMA pushed out. Idra did not have enough to defend and his infestors were too late to save his third base. While Idra is building up MMA decides to push out with a couple of siege tanks and marines while dropping at three places at once. Idra deals with the drop successfully but the tanks and the marines kill the third and a lot of Idra’s infestors which makes Idra tap out.
Game two was a slow game with Idra defending nicely to early hellion aggression. After that both players expand. Eventually MMA was done playing passively and moved out with a banshee and marine, marauders and medivacs. Even though Idra landed amazing fungals MMA cleaned up Idra’s whole roach infestor army and pushed through. Idra scrambled for units but had no larva to make them. Without the larva Idra needed MMA stomped through the small army Idra managed to get and Idra gg’ed. MMA 2-0 Idra.
Bomber vs MMA
In the first game MMA decided to go for cloaked banshees to force scans and pick of scv’s. He picked off a lot of scv’s but only a couple of scans were used. MMA was ahead but after Bombers amazing drop in MMA’s main base killing a nice amount of scv’s he took the lead. After both players building up an army they decided to go for a base trade. After MMA lift his base up to land at a different spot MMA attacked Bombers planetary killing a lot of his marines. In the meantime bomber took another two bases and build a lot of barracks so he could produce a lot of marines.. MMA knew that he could not win and gg’ed.
The second game started off interesting with a proxy barracks by MMA. Without it being scouted by bomber the techlab was added to the barracks and the first marauder and the shell upgrade was on the way. When two marauders were out Bomber scouted the barracks in the main and got up the bunker just in time. After a bit of harass of Bomber he decides to move out with a tank and a bunch of marines with the support of a banshee. MMA went for blue flame hellions and a command center. The banshee killed the helions and the marines killed three supply depots blocking the ramp supply blocking MMA. MMA saw he could not come back and gg’d.
Bomber 2-0 MMA.
Open Bracket - Upset of the Tournament
128 players in started in the open bracket. In the first few rounds only few upsets happened.
The biggest one definitely was the rise of Scarlett. Scarlett is a female Starcraft 2 player who won the “Sponsor Me”-Tournament and got sponsored to go to IPL 4 - she took full advantage.
In the winners bracket she defeated Code A player TeriousPrime (also known as Bumblebee) and Ddoro. In the round of 8 in her bracket she found her master in FXO.Oz who dominated in the Bo3 series. So she fell down to the Losers Bracket where she defeated Evil Geniuses DeMuslim. In her last match she faced GoldenLighT in Round 5. Golden defeated her 2-0 and ended the fairytale.
Winner of the Winner Brackets
Those are the players who won their Brackets and get seeded into the Groups A-D
Let’s see who they eliminated in the Open Bracket and where they will be seeded.
CoL.Ganzi -- Group A
knocked out
IMBAoracle
Millenium.Dragon
ClassicPrime
FXO.Oz
ST_Parting
EG.JYP -- Group B
knocked out
BearJewSlava
Qxc
ST_Sound
xsix.Sleep
ST_Curious
ST_Squirtle -- Group C
knocked out
Demonlord
ToD
GhostKingPrime
SaSe
ST_AcE
NSHS.Jjakji -- Group D
knocked out
Heathen
STX
SlayerSCranK
EG.Huk
Liquid’Taeja
Winner of the Loser Brackets
Those are the players who used their second chance and won their Bracket in the Loser Rounds. They are also seeded into the Groups A-D.
ST.PartinG -- Group A
ST.Curious -- Group B
CreatorPrime – Group C
GhostKingPrime -- Group D
Conclusion
It seems as usual Koreans are dominating the tournament again. This isnt much of a surprise especially seeing the open bracket was also filled with koreans. Looking at the scores it seems Stephano really is the only “Foreign hope” left in the tournament.
The interviews of the first day were also good. There were some points to improve on in the beginning but the more the tournament went on the more they improved. The presentation were nice, the commentators did a great job aswell.
The matches of the first day were very exciting and the matches of the second day will be even better.
Also the Kpop was a really nice addition, YAY KPOP.
By;
Thomas “Wali”
Michaël “Archangel”
from http://sc2kk.wordpress.com
For comments, tips and idea's please e-mail us at SC2KK@hotmail.com
and yeah good blog liked it ^^!
