WCSThis blog is going to be an analysis of
IM.Mvp vs 
ST.Life in the 2012 GSL Code S Season 4 finals from my perspective. Obviously this will be more focused on the Terran perspective since I play Terran. Hopefully this will provide you some insight or get you thinking about the series.Previous match vs T/Z
Mvp
Vs Symbol (Ro8)
Set 1 GSL Abyssal City: CC first hellion cloakshee 3rd -> mech
Set 2 Daybreak: Maka rax -> 3 OC 2 gas -> hellion +2rax 2 ebay 4 hellion 2 medivac build
Set 3 Antiga Shipyard: CC first hellion fast 3rd -> 6 hellion 1 banshee into bio
Set 4 Ohana: CC First hellion banshee fast 3rd -> bio tank
In Mvp’s Ro8 match against Symbol, Mvp used CC first into hellion banshee three times and 1rax FE into 3 oc bio hellion once. Mvp only used mech once.
Life
Vs Taeja (Ro4)
Set 1 Abyssal City: 16/16 lingspeed 2 on gas -> ~5:30 lair -> ~9 min 8 muta pop -> synced muta harass/speedbane timing ~10:40
Set 2 Whirlwind: 10pool expo -> lingspeed gas cut -> 3rd, some lings -> 1-1 muta burrow -> muta ling speedbane timing ~14 minutes while taking 4th, late hive style, countering
Set 3 Entombed Valley: expo speedling 5:40 3rd with 3 queens, fast lair 1-1 with speedlings+baneling nest 2 evo infestation pit, 4th +3 gas -> hive, ling bane + infestors to hold 2-2 push -> 8 BL -> ultra ling infestor
Life opened mainly expo into lingspeed openers, opened muta rush once, 3base mutas and then ling bane infestor into hive rush. He did various ling/speedbane timings in the midgame and used speedbane backstabs in the mid-late game.
Metagame
Since both players have analyzed the crap out of each other’s vods last game there will be a lot of metagame involved in this series.
+ Show Spoiler [Mvp] +
Mvp will probably do one 11-11 on Cloud, Entombed, Antiga or Ohana. He will probably favor 1rax FE or at least CC first in his base, since Life has already shown he isn’t afraid to pool first. Life has a reputation for doing many various timings and was #1 on the Korean ladder, so Mvp should be prepared for these aggressive plays. It may be good to mix in more mech builds this series, since he only used mech once against Symbol, and mech would be strong against the ling/bane timings and ling-centric builds Life commonly uses, but would be weak against 2base muta rush. Hellion banshee will definitely be Mvp’s opener of choice, but I doubt he will use the 2 medivac 4/6 hellion style, which has a disadvantage against muta openers. This is because when the bio/hellion is across the map, the mutas pop and with enough zerglings the marine hellion 2 medivac are doomed, then you lose all map control.
Mvp’s best bet is to focus on mid game 2-2 pushes if he decides to play marine tank. This is because Life has shown to favor lingspeed 3rd rather than 4-6 queen 3rd as his staple build; as a result, he has a lot less creep spread than other top Zergs, so focusing on the 2-2 timing would be good in my opinion.
Mvp’s best bet is to focus on mid game 2-2 pushes if he decides to play marine tank. This is because Life has shown to favor lingspeed 3rd rather than 4-6 queen 3rd as his staple build; as a result, he has a lot less creep spread than other top Zergs, so focusing on the 2-2 timing would be good in my opinion.
+ Show Spoiler [Life] +
Honestly my perspective here is really limited. I assume Life will go for a pool first build on Whirlwind as he did against Taeja, hoping to catch a CC first on the low ground. Life has shown he can play all Zerg styles, so I would not be surprised if he does a bit of everything throughout the series, although I do expect Life to learn more towards infestor openers this time around, just to mess with Mvp.
One thing I suspect we may see is the roach nydus allin once on a map like Abyssal City or Daybreak, which is very effective against hellion banshee builds as Mvp has shown to favor in his Symbol series.
One thing I suspect we may see is the roach nydus allin once on a map like Abyssal City or Daybreak, which is very effective against hellion banshee builds as Mvp has shown to favor in his Symbol series.
Maps
Map order: Cloud Kingdom, Entombed Valley, Antiga Shipyard, Whirlwind, Abyssal City, Ohana, Daybreak
The map pool I would say slightly favors Mvp.
Cloud Kingdom can be argued to be Terran favored with the cliffs above the fourth, but Life’s countering style will be really good on this map, particularly on the third and on both 4th bases.
Entombed Valley and Antiga Shipyard are widely known to be Terran favored over Zerg, and the terrain of these two maps limit Life’s ability to counter and use midgame timings, while also favoring defensive 3base play from Terrans.
Whirlwind and Abyssal City I’m not too familiar with, but these maps are much bigger, longer and hard to establish bases on. Life has an advantage on these maps for sure with his countering style, but that will also be affected by how well he can leverage his creep spread which is already weak from his preferred build.
Ohana I personally give the edge to Terrans here with the 4th and 5th bases rather close to the Terran, so if it reaches late game and Mvp doesn’t make a terrible mistake I suspect he will win.
Daybreak statistically is Zerg favored but I think it’s a tossup in either player’s favor; if Life goes for his ling baneling counter style and has good creep spread this will be great for him, but if he decides to hive rush, Mvp has shown he can hold the fiercest of brood lord pushes time and time again.
Note: All of the above was written two hours before the match and isn’t very comprehensive obviously.
Games
Set 1: Cloud Kingdom
Mvp opens 1rax FE into 2fact blue flame, while Life goes for an oddly timed double gas and fast 3rd double evo, compared to the early speedling style he used multiple times against Taeja.
Mvp’s build is revealed as Life does his signature speedling aggression; huge build order advantage for Mvp as he goes mech. Life would not have been punished this badly if he had droned to 60 instead of going for his speedling aggression, then defended the blue flame push with lings on creep and queens, but he lost at least 20 lings instantly as he scouted the blue flame. Mvp carefully chose this build by analyzing Life’s style.
Life opts for infestors rather than mutas against mech; pretty standard here. He goes for roaches really late while other zergs prefer getting the roach warren out immediately, which is strange to me, but he made it work in conjunction with fungal. I suspect this is really bad if Mvp were to do a 2base mech timing instead of expanding and playing passively. This difference let Life greed harder since lings cost no gas and are cheaper, as well as spend more gas into infestors/hive tech.
Life opts to rely on pure counters to delay the mech push long enough for brood lords to come out and is very successful; Mvp has 30 tanks and 7 vikings. However, Mvp gets into a terrible position by letting his 4th die to roach ling… he repairs really really late; if this didn’t happen and Mvp’s main army was pushing during the counter he would have killed the 4th and 5th of Life, resulting in a 4 base (Mvp) to 3base (Life) situation (huge advantage). Life properly abuses the cliff above Mvp’s 4th to kill bunches of scvs with fungal and Mvp loses.
Summary: Mvp’s prepared build gave him a large advantage in the midgame, but some risk-taking from Life (super late roaches, greed) and Mvp’s mistakes gave Life the win. Mvp could have killed the 4th of Life but his army idled well over a minute during Life’s roach ling counter; Mvp should have also retained his 4th if he repaired. Then he would have the resources to make enough Vikings to win the game shortly thereafter. Instead, Mvp lost most of his first army to brood lords that barely finished morphing.
Set 2: Entombed Valley
Pretty standard openers once again; Mvp is forced to cancel his cloak as it gets scouted. Mvp goes mech once again, which is very strong against Life’s usual ling counter/ling centric style.
This game Life doesn’t take massive economic damage and is able to hive rush at a proper timing (13 minutes). This means the timing window for Mvp to punish pre-brood lord is much narrower than the previous game. Life’s creep spread is also much better than expected (compared to Taeja games).
Although Life’s ling counters don’t really do damage, they apply mental pressure on Mvp and buys him more time to mine more gas and get more brood lords out.
This game, however, Mvp has prepared 9 vikings for his timing push. Life appears to have 0 antiair to protect his brood lords; this is a result of making more infestors than the norm (with normal bl rushing you only have 4-5 infestors). He is saved by Mvp getting every Viking fungaled though… Basically, Mvp played theoretically correct but made one crucial micro mistake.
Since the push gets held so easily and Life takes 0 economic damage, Mvp is hard-pressed to make a miracle happen. Thanks to his abnormally high tank count Mvp is forced to counter.
Somehow, Mvp makes an Incredible Miracle by making enough Vikings to hold the brood lord push. But losing all the tanks and committing so much in AA means Mvp is screwed if Life goes for ultralisks. Life intelligently doesn’t remake brood lords after the big air fight and instead makes 7 ultralisks (textbook tech switch), winning the game. If he had remade another round of brood lords Mvp would have had a shot at winning.
Summary: Mvp lost at his hive timing push when the 9 vikings got chain fungaled and he did 0 economic damage. If he hadn’t got chain fungaled he would have won 100%. He would have had a shot if he killed even one expansion but he got literally nothing done with the push, lost too much to the brood lord push and didn’t have the money to deal with the final ultra switch.
At this point Mvp is in so much trouble; he lost in two of the four Terran maps in this map pool.
Set 3: Antiga Shipyard
Life finally breaking out his expo -> lingspeed into muta rush build from his Taeja series, while Mvp goes for a 2fact blue flame hellion opening. Life loses a lot of lings trying to bust the bunker, and stray lings on the map before he sees blue flame.
Summary: I think this game would have been a lot different if Life hadn’t lost as many lings early on; with all the lings he made, he could have surrounded and killed off enough hellions to take minimal damage, then busted out the mutas. Life could also have blocked his ramp with two queens and stalled for the mutas to pop out , then get full map control via mutas and max out on drones.
Set 4: Whirlwind
Life opens for a 10pool praying to catch Mvp going CC first on the low ground and fails, then takes heavy damage to the 2fact blue flame opener.
The first few roaches come out around 16 minutes; instead of fast teching to hive, Life uses the gas to make more infestors and wastes all the energy on infested terrans for no reason. I think this would have had success if he had the money to max out the rest of his supply in roaches, then made a huge push with roach/infested terran to break the maxed push from Mvp… This style seems to bank on the Terran not making fast 4-6 tank timing with blue flame hellions rallied, but that the Terran would go for a pre-hive timing… pure ling infestor would not hold a tank/hellion push unless the hellions got chain fungaled way ahead of the tanks.
Summary: Life seems to show an astounding unwillingness to change his style, despite the fact that Mvp went 2fact blue flame three games at this point. He seems to have prepared for Mvp to go marine tank most of the games, even though Mvp is widely known to have a huge range of builds. On the other hand, Mvp tailored his builds according to his opponent this series.
Set 5: Abyssal City
Mvp finally goes for a cc first on the low ground; maybe this is because he’s not afraid of the threat of pool first anymore, since Life blew it in set 4. However, it is my belief that 3 hatch before pool puts Zerg in a better position than Terran (even if T goes cc first fast 3rd). I personally prefer 1rax FE over CC first, but I’m not sure.
Life does yet another coinflip speedling opening; at this point it’s way too predictable and is hurting Life… He loses so many lings and Mvp’s already wary of the aggression from the previous sets so this makes no sense.
Life yet again starting infestors before getting a roach warren against mech; obviously this works for him but he’s been starting every game with a disadvantage. I’m really confused. It seems so vulnerable to a 4 tank + hellion rally.
I don’t really agree with Mvp’s choice of going mech on Abyssal; it seems like such a hard map to secure bases and even harder to make cross map pushes. Marine tank would allow much more flexibility and threat (drops). Maybe I need to practice mech more though ~.~
Summary: Although Life didn’t take economic damage this game, he set himself behind by making so many zerglings. Also, his midgame didn’t really make sense. He relied on roach ling countering but instead of hive rushing behind it, went for a very high infestor count yet again. The only thing I can think of that makes sense is busting a maxed push with roach/infested terran and/or neural parasite.
Set 6: Ohana
This game Life is playing more macro-oriented with a fast third and later speed upgrade. Life gets a huge opening by Mvp placing his third cc at the 3rd base, when the lings counter the cc Mvp is distracted and loses his hellions at the front. He gets a huge advantage from doing so, especially since the build of Mvp already had a semi late third.
Again… roach warren after infestors. This time since Life cancelled the third and managed to kill some hellions, he is in a much better position. Since Life was successful in keeping down the hellion count all game, his ling infestor -> roach infested terran style is working MUCH MUCH better than the previous games. This game Life isn’t blowing infested terrans randomly for nothing and his push into Mvp’s 4th with roach/infested terran trades very well.
Life built both an ultra cavern and greater spire… if Mvp hadn’t done the second scan on the spire he could have gotten screwed by the first wave of BLs. I guess that was pretty smart?
Summary: Life opens slightly more macro oriented this game but his style is roughly the same (speedling stab, infestor into late ass small handful of roaches). But cancelling the third and constantly racking up hellion kills gave Life the ability to play insanely greedy and full map control. I guess this style is legit?
Set 7: Daybreak
2fact blue flame against the speedling -> muta rush build from Life once again (a repeat of Antiga). Life defended the initial hellion push extremely well without roaches but then sacked over half of his lings, allowing Mvp to kill off tons of drones at the nat. As a result Life comes out of the game only slightly ahead, and goes back into his same style of ling infestor into small roach group of roaches.
The deciding point in this game was Life catching the 10+ hellions at Mvp’s fourth as Mvp went for the base trade-ish push.
I think a large factor Mvp lost this game was his followup in the early game; when the mutas came he made four Vikings to deal with the mutas. If he made two factories and an extra two turrets, he could have defended AND set up his production much much earlier. Then, his timing push to Life’s 4th would have come much much earlier.
Summary: Mvp had a sloppy followup to his build and also lost all his hellions away from his push to Life’s 4th, so his attack got wiped up extremely easily.
Conclusion
MVP brought a completely different style from his last GSL TvZ series for this finals; as noted in the beginning he went for marine tank three times and mech once; this time around he went mech every game and had early game advantages in each set.
In comparison, Life showed that he wasn’t really interested in changing his style at all and proved that it could be very successful (contrary to my doubts, lol T-T). Life had a very precise way of going ling infestor -> ~9 roaches -> hive units while relying on fungal and infested terrans to catch hellions and break apart mech armies.
Congrats to SC2’s first Royal Roader o:
Hope this long post was insightful in any way. Feel free to leave comments.
Thanks for reading.
... boy i wanted him to win
