Battle Report: Ode to the 20-kill DT

The Dark Horse who defies expectations against one of the ladder's best players seeking redemption for his failings in brood war. Will it be inauguration or downpour? This is GSL Open Season Three; this is MC vs Rain!

Previous Reports:
Fruitdealer vs Rainbow
Set One: Delta Quadrant
Set Two: Lost Temple
Set Three: Kulas Ravine
Set Four: Desert Oasis
Set Five: Scrap Station
FoxeR vs NesTea
Set One: Shakuras Plateau
Set Two: Lost Temple
Set Three: Scrap Station
Set Four: Jungle Basin
Set Five:Steppes of War
Set Six: Xel'Naga Caverns
Set Seven: Metalopolis
MC vs Rain
Set One: Delta Quadrant

This game features tons of epic drop harass on both sides!

Set Two: Lost Temple

MC spawns in the 12 o'clock position; Rain spawns close by air in the 2 o'clock position. Rain wants easy access to the cliff by MC's natural so that he can use it as a staging point, but in these positions he'll have to go around the long way. Regardless, the close proximity will help with drops, unless MC once again adopts a phoenix-heavy style of play.

The game opens up very standard with rax into gas for Rain and gate into gas for MC. The korean protoss elects to scout early again, but this time he doesn't find Rain until the last base he checks. By the time he reaches the terran base, Rain has already found MC with his own SCV.

Party SCV goes to town on a pylon.

The game continues fairly normally with core for MC and orbital for Rain. A marine emerges to deny MC his probe scout and as soon as it's gone, Rain drops a factory and a reactor. He has an scv hiding in MCs base but it scouts nothing before the zealot pops out.

Rain going for the same opener as Game One.

Rain continues to mimic his game one build with a bunker at the ramp and a tech lab on his factory, but instead of a second barracks he starts a starport. MC starts pushing out onto the map with 2 stalkers and a zealot.

MC transitions into his stylistic aggression.

Back at home, MC gets a stargate, also making the same play as in game one. With a void ray on the way, he's setting up for the same void/stalker aggression that set Rain back on Delta Quadrant.

Void Ray chrono'd to the front lines.

MC sets up a proxy pylon at Rain's watchtower while the terran starts pumping out tanks and marines for the same composition that he's used throughout the tournament. MC's void ray finishes and he swings around to attack Rain's ramp.

MC is becoming an aficionado of ramp abuse.

This time, Rain manages to get out a quick viking to zone back the void ray and force MC to retreat. However, back at home, MC has once again built up his tech and he already has a robo pumping out an observer and four gateways.

FourGate works at any time in the game!

Rain has loads of units on one base now and MCs observer scouts them. However, gosu play from Rain catches the observer with a scan and snipes it. If MC wants to rebuild it, he'll lose valuable robo build time.

Sniped!

MC gets a council, completing all three tech routes on one base and sends a probe out to make pylons on the map. Rain builds a command centre to expand and in the meantime grabs a second barracks and combat shields. Preparing for a harassment-heavy mid-game, MC gets a dark shrine.

Nestled in the bosom of the mineral line; the Dark Shrine.

Rain sends in an empty medivac to scout the base of MC and sees his army as well as most of his tech routes. However, he doesn't see the dark shrine that's lurking behind the mineral line.

Rain; master of the gosu micro tricks!

MC starts a warp prism while he uses his hidden probe to start a base at the 9 o'clock position, on the opposite side of the map from Rain. Memories of Fruitdealer in GSL1 are suddenly flooding back. However, Rain's star sense is tingling and he's working on a raven to deal with the incoming dark templar. MC warps one in at his proxy but it dies to a well timed scan.

Rain catches the DT with his pants down.

Meanwhile, MC is warping in at Rain's main mineral line using his warp prism. The DT gets a couple of kills before the raven pops out, but the result is the same as at the proxy pylon.

The pandemic of pant-less DTs continues.

MC has two more DTs hidden in corners of the main, but Rain won't let him get anything done with them as he bounces back and forth with his army. He starts the gas at his natural, and as he does, MC takes advantage of the pinned down Rain by taking his third base at his natural position.

Why take one base when you can have two?

Something inside Rain snaps and he begins to push towards MC's main base with his whole army. MC is getting charge back at home to deal with the tanks, but it's only just starting and Rain is already at the cusp of MC's natural.

The army of Rain pushes into position.

Rain drops a PDD to hold off stalker fire as he sieges, forcing MC back up his ramp and guaranteeing the cancel on the third nexus. MC only has a small army, so Rain begins pushing his way up the ramp. MC forcefields some marines, but can't kill them without being shelled from the low ground.

Marines: "Come at us, bro!"

With MC held back and Rain in a solid position, he decides to unsiege his tanks to move them up to the high ground. MC catches it and without a moment's hesitation, he pushes forwards with slow zealots tanking shots for the immortals.

MC runs face first in to the terran army.

MC loses most of his gateway force in the attack, but he still has immortals and he's killed most of the marines. Pushing with DTs, he can force Rain to scan, having killed the raven in the attack. Charge finally finishes and MC forces his way forwards, butchering tanks as he goes.

Emergency tank evacuation is a go!

MC finishes off the remainder of Rain's army and takes four gates at his hidden base. He techs up to blink for his stalkers and attempts to establish his third for a second time.

Third at the natural; take two.

Rain pulls off a marine drop at the 9 o'clock base and there's nothing there to defend. However, he's forgotten stim so his marines don't do anywhere near as much as they could. As a result, MC arrives with blink stalkers and shuts down the drop. Back at home, he has his templar archives on the way.

Rain's marines are defenceless without their precious stimpack.

Rain starts a third command centre as MC continues to drop DTs into each of his mineral lines. After holding a wave of drops, Rain decides to push out onto the map. MC tries to pick off vikings with his stalkers, but he loses a handful in the process.

Now the stalkers are zoned away from MC's main.

With the protoss forces split between two locations, Rain sets up outside MC's natural, dropping bunkers in an homage to game one.

Bunker fort is now in session.

MC goes for a counter-attack with his stalkers and some zealots from a proxy, but Rain has some tanks set up at home to defend.

MC trying to do some damage to stall for time.

Rain pulls back some of his marines from the front lines and manages to get a surround, killing the zealots outright and bruising the stalkers. Rain continues his brilliant map control by sniping a prism with a viking and catching a templar out of position.

He eats a storm but gets a templar for his trouble.

Rain drops at the 9 o'clock again and snipes templar as they warp in, denying the storms from their khaydarin amulets. This time, MC can't get his stalkers through Rain's contain in time and the base falls.

Meanwhile, MC picks off reinforcements to the front lines.

MC tries to pick off a tank, but great stim micro means that the stalkers trade evenly with Rain's marines. MC dodges out by blinking above the watchtower, but Rain secures his supply lines again.

Having held back MC long enough, Rain has taken out the third.

Using his strong position at the front as a staging point, Rain starts dropping into the main where MC can't get his immortals. Unfortunately for Rain, MC warps in templar and gateway units and with a quick storm, the drop pressure is ended. The Korean Terran tries to make the most of the opportunity with a stim in to snipe templar, but it's quickly thwarted by a strong concave from MC.

Storms deny any advance forwards.

Tanks continue shelling the front of MC and manage to catch an out of position archon on the high ground. Rain has a functional third base at the island expo now, but MC pushes out with a big counter attack of stalkers and high templar.

Surprise!

Rain is forced to pull home his marines as his tanks fall to archon fire. With the juicy psionic units tanking the shots, the stalkers manage to take down Rain's defences and he's forced to pull SCVs to hold. Meanwhile, an aggressive push in by Rain takes place at MC's natural, but it's held with good storms.

Not the SCV pull Rain was hoping for...

MC utilises his warp prisms to get up a third base at his island, but Rain is posturing around his gold base, getting ready to take out the rocks. With Rain's marine force still away from the front lines, MC takes his shot.

Zealots on one side, Immortals on the other.

MC smashes the contain, but as he tries to step out onto the map, Rain kites well with his bio, forcing MC to stay back at home. DT harass cripples Rain's third, but with MC pinned back again, he takes the gold and drops the island to defend his orbital.

Meanwhile, Rain double drops. Sadly, it gets shut down.

Seeing what's going on on the other side of the map, MC begins to kill the rocks at his own gold base. Rain's natural and main are mined out by this point, so he pulls almost all of his SCVs to the gold base.

With this many SCVs, it's almost tempting fate.

With a nail-biting build-up, MC drops 2 templar on the ledge behind the gold and waits for the perfect moment. Then...

...suddenly, death, everywhere!

12 SCVs die and Rain snipes the prism, getting a ghost academy at home to finally find a solution to the templar. MC takes his gold base, and with a big zealot push out, he cripples the main of Rain. Vikings snipe another warp prism, but MC is teching up to Colossi now with a pair of robos. Rain is feeling pressured and he goes for one big push to turn the tides.

More tanks than marauders move into position.

This time, MC won't let Rain get too close and so the terran is forced to set up in the middle of the map, where he snipes one of MC's observers. With ghosts in position, he drops massive EMPs and flanks round from both sides. MC only has a single storm left to deal with Rain's army...

Any he nails it!

Immortals smash through the remaining tanks and suddenly Rain is on the back foot with a tiny army. Well, at least he has a four base economy to fall back on, right?

Wrong! 20 SCV kills during the engagement.

Rain tries to drop the main; it's shut down by templar. Rain tries to re-establish his third, it's dropped by DTs again. He barely manages to stay mining, but MC is on 4 bases now with a large army to boot. MC has double colossus production in full swing as he goes up to a fifth base. Meanwhile, his DT harass is relentless and keeps pulling Rain back and forwards. Trying to regain tempo, Rain drops the fifth.

Marines kill the ground forces and establish an attack.

However, MC doesn't cancel and the blink stalkers are soon in position to take down the drop. MC is everywhere at this point as DTs ravage the economy of Rain. Rain manages to take out a prism and, gaining some confidence, sends two dropships towards the fifth. However, he doesn't notice the observer over his army.

The interception is quick and painful.

MC begins to swing his army around to the south for the final push, with a ton of unanswered colossi and a big ground army of immortals and archons. Rain sticks a great set of EMPs on the army, but with well-spread templar, MC still has the storms he needs to make the push happen.

Lasers rain down from MC's army.

Rain gets smashed in the first fight and rallies back to his natural. If he can stall for a bit of time, he can still make it. However, MC ignores the gold and pushes straight for the production, determined to close out the game. With his colossi in the natural and nothing on its way for Rain, the terran player GGs.

GG! MC 2-0 Rain.

By this point in the series, Rain is beginning to look like he doesn't have that much depth. He's tried the same style twice and it's been crushed both times. Even with sick micro and map control, he needs to find something else if he wants to take a game away from MC. Will the protoss player continue his dominance or will Rain find the Achilles heel he needs to break through? To Be Continued...

Battle Report: Ode to the 20-kill DT

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