MSL Finals Battle Report - Coles Notes Version

ManaBlue

Canada10458 Posts

November 20 2007 23:01 GMT

MSL Finals – Bisu vs Inter.mind

Here is a quick battle report with my thoughts on the matches. thedeadhaji will be posting a longer, and generally more impressive in every way, news post to cover the finals soon. Be sure to give it a read when it appears on the front page.

EDIT: Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere's haji's! http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=62765

The defending champ vs. an attempting royal roader coming off a win over Savior. Anyone who doubted that this series was going to be A class clearly knows nothing about the game.

Game 1 - Zodiac

Mind (6) opened with a vult before his machine shop while Bisu (12) played a standard 2 gate goon opening, obviously weary of the dangers associated with expanding too quickly. Mind got his expansion up much quicker that Bisu and began to throw up factories while his opponent took an island expo and worked toward reaver tech.

The first skirmish took place behind Mind’s main mineral line as Bisu attempted some sub-par reaver harass. A wasted scarab crashed into a defending tank which survived, unlike the reaver’s goon escort which melted into goo immediately upon landing.

Bisu assumes there is only one defending tank and completely misplays the situation, costing him the few SCV kills he could have gotten.

After deflecting the reaver harass with ease, Mind moved out for a text book timing push and the inevitable clash ensued.

Bisu throws everything at Mind’s initial push and juuuuuuust falls short of cracking it.

So he does what any self respecting Protoss would do... he gives it another go... and another... and another...

Each progressive strike at Mind’s wall wears further on Bisu’s forces.

In the end, Bisu had nothing left to fight with. His center expansion lost, army gone, and complete lack of map control made it a futile effort.

Mind > Bisu

Mind played a completely perfect, textbook timing push. He got his nat up faster than his opponent and took no damage whatsoever from the reaver. An engineer couldn’t design a TvP game more calculated and flawlessly executed. But Bisu didn’t make it too hard on him with that lame harassment.

Game 2 – Blue Storm

After a game reset due to some technical difficulties, Bisu and Mind were back at it. Bisu (1) planted his first pylon in the center of the map and proxied a gateway. He wasn’t about to let Mind (7) have an inch of breathing room and followed up by stealing the Terran’s gas too!

Bisu makes expert use of the gather command to scramble Mind’s SCVs and slow down their assault on the invading assimilator. These are the little things that make watching pro SC so incredible.

Bisu continued to lay it on, harassing with Zealots and forcing Mind to make a lot of marines... not that he cared, because the Terran was building a hidden academy in the upper left corner of his main! A risky, and ultimately pimp, decision that put Mind on the offensive shortly after. As soon as the first medic was trained the Terran forces ran out to try and destroy the Protoss proxy prematurely. They were forced back, however, leaving Mind with little to defend against the DTs that were to follow. Bisu snuck a few in and that was that.

Mind loses a game deciding battle in the center that he foolishly instigated.

Bisu > Mind

I liked everything that Mind did in this game, except his decision to mount an offensive with his early infantry. If he had stayed back he would have easily deflected the DTs and planted a quick expansion. On the other side, Bisu played a slick and sweet aggressive game that paid off for him, which is not an easy thing to do at this level of the game. He showed his edge in experience as he flustered his green opponent.

Game 3 - Python

It was nexus first versus 2 factory as the third set geared up. Mind (7) and Bisu (2) had an earlier than normal micro battle ensue as the scouting SCV and first defending zealot tangled in front of the Protoss natural. Bisu displayed insanely great micro as he prevented the SCV from entering the corridor, with the zealot alone. Yes, I’m serious.

As unimpressive as this picture may be, this was one of the coolest sequences I’ve seen in a game of BW in months.

The SCV completely failed it’s scouting mission at the hands of a melee unit! and was soon killed in equally stylish fashion by Bisu's returning scouting probe.

This minor victory aside, Bisu was in for a world of hurt. Mind was pushing out, regardless of what he saw with that scout, and he was coming quickly. The Terran rolled over toward the Protoss natural and forced the squad of goons up the ramp to the main. Bisu was never in the game after that, though he still managed to pull off some daring micro moves, like the destruction of a siege tank with a single goon sitting on the high ground.

These are the only circumstances in which you will see a lone goon kill a sieged tank.

Mind then laid back and expanded, knowing that he needed only go through the motions to secure the win. One more expansion and a containment force later, Mind was up 2-1.

Mind > Bisu

Mind’s play in this game was reminiscent of Iris’ 2 factory pressure builds from a past series last season with Stork. He had close positions and an opponent going nexus first. Mind couldn’t have dreamt up more perfect circumstances.

Game 4 – Loki II

Both Mind (1) and Bisu (7) expanded quickly to their backyard expos and began to craft their master plans. Mind scouted often, getting a good idea of his opponent’s build with sneaky SCVs. Bisu, on the other hand, was never able to penetrate the ramp to the Terran main and felt inclined to stick to a very conservative game plan. He cannoned up his ramp before his first goon and didn’t expand to his natural until his robo tech, among other things, was completed. This resulted in both players making it to 3 economies at the exact same time.

This meant that the early game edge would once again be decided by the effectiveness of Bisu’s reaver harass. Needless to say, things somehow managed to go worse than they did in the first game for the poor guy. Mind had built a port and wraith in anticipation of his opponent’s attack and managed to deflect it after suffering no damage, though he lost his wraith to yet another smooth display of goon control from Bisu.

The entire squad of goons stepped into tank fire together, fired a single, simultaneous shot to kill the wraith, and stepped out of danger sparing all but the goon that was carried in the shuttle. Pure art.

Bisu began carrier tech and invested himself deeply, with 3 stargates. This allowed Mind to run over Bisu’s new expansion attempt in the center and push all the way to the Protoss natural, destroying it as well. The same couldn’t be said for Bisu’s counter offensive, which was deflected by a spattering of tanks and a mess of vultures.

Now in complete control of the center high ground, Mind set his sights on Bisu’s expansion in the lower right canyon, but the Protoss fleet was heavy in numbers. Bisu pushed Mind back and flew past his retreating tanks to destroy both the backyard CC and the center expo CC in one smooth swoop.

Mind wasn’t about to lay down and die just because of a handful of carriers though. After pushing them back with golies, Mind release his small cloaked wraith fleet, produced entirely off of one starport, and got another 2 carrier kills before they made it back within cannon range.

Mind gets great value out of his wraiths through a couple of carrier kills, but does not over commit to their production, allowing him to maintain a strong ground force.

Bisu was now functioning off of one economy and his carriers were having a harder and harder time with the ever increasing number of golies that reinforced the cannon shredding tank line. In the end, 2 economies reinforcing goliaths will always best 1 economy reinforcing carriers.

Mind > Bisu

Mind continued the theme of solid play by producing the perfect number of the perfect type of units during every game phase. It’s any wonder how I, and all the rest of you, doubted this kid from the outset of these finals.

Mind wins 3-1!

With this win Mind secures not only the title, but a series win over the best Protoss player in the world. With Oov and Savior also under his belt in this tournament there is little to complain about when viewing his royal road. Congratulations to Inter.mind, the man that finally managed to dethrone Bisu.

Superiorwolf

United States5509 Posts

November 20 2007 23:27 GMT

Great evaluation, pictures are perfect too

Jyvblamo

Canada13788 Posts

November 20 2007 23:27 GMT

Thanks for the great battle report. :D
Seems like all the cool moves were done by Bisu, whereas Mind just played a normal, unstylish game. Speaking as a Bisu fan, of course.

ilovejonn

Canada2548 Posts

November 20 2007 23:30 GMT

Nice report!

Last Romantic

United States20661 Posts

November 20 2007 23:33 GMT

Nice writeup^^;

One thing though - in game 3, the scout scv was actually killed by Bisu's returning scout probe.

Aepplet

Sweden2908 Posts

November 20 2007 23:58 GMT

good analysis of minds play. it's easy to see what bisu did wrong but it's not as easy to see what mind did right, but you highlighted it nicely.

one more thing though - in game 1, bisu never expanded to the island but took the high ground expo instead (i think?)

ManaBlue

Canada10458 Posts

November 21 2007 00:06 GMT

On November 21 2007 08:33 Last Romantic wrote:
Nice writeup^^;

One thing though - in game 3, the scout scv was actually killed by Bisu's returning scout probe.

Ahhhhhh, and I remember watching that too!

Sorry if there are some minor inaccuracies like that guys. I wrote this in pieces as I was watching the games, so some things might have been missed in the shuffle.