When we last left the MSL, all 4 remaining Protoss players had dropped out in a tough Ro16, making it clear that we’re in much a different era from that of Clubday MSL and the Protoss dragons. A lot has happened since, and despite the lack of Protoss we’ve had an extremely dynamic and exciting couple of rounds. Play all around has been stellar, and what many consider Starcraft’s premier matchup – TvZ – continues to evolve as it is showcased again and again. The Ro8 opened up with the promise of three out of four matchups being TvZ, and even though the first games of each were played on a separate date, the allure of so many potentially epic best of five series was still strong.

Day one started off with murmurs of Terran dominance (and quite a few cries of imbalance) as not a single Zerg could claim victory. While Flash effortlessly dispatched of ForGG and Fantasy took out Calm with an old school 2rax build, Light vs Effort and Sea vs Jaedong were long, involved slugfests. Despite both Zergs destroying early game Terran bio armies and getting to Hive without much trouble (perhaps even ‘ahead’ in typical TvZ terms), mech switches proved to be extremely powerful. Time and time again, Zerg units melted as they tried to whittle away at fortified mech positions, fueling the anti-Terran sentiment that was expressed at the conclusion of the day.


On day two, Flash quickly finished his second team kill of the tournament, having little trouble sweeping an incredulous-looking ForGG. Fantasy vs Calm was slightly more interesting, though not quite as much as you’d expect from them. There were a few moments of brilliance, including a cute slowdrop on Triathlon and some clever boxer-esque cheese from Fantasy on Polaris. However, Calm was still unable to take even a single game. The other two series played out on day three, and began with Light doing awful impressions of both Leta and Fantasy. Even so, he only dropped one game to Effort, and looked very strong when playing straight-up. Going into Sea vs Jaedong, things were not looking good for the swarm. Three of the four semifinal slots were filled with Terrans, and Jaedong was already a game down. However, if there’s one Zerg you want as your last hope it’s certainly Jaedong, and he did not disappoint. Utilizing his brilliant mutalisk control and great anti-mech play, Jaedong took the series in what has become a regular format for him (LWWW).


This left us with quite an interesting semifinal matchup: Flash vs Fantasy; and Light vs Jaedong. If Jaedong were to win, we’d be guaranteed a rematch final no matter the winner of the first series. If both Light and Fantasy won instead, we’d have a new starleague winner (and likely a riot of Flash and Jaedong fans). All of this was complicated by what was going on at WCG Korea, where we would actually have a potential preview of both of these series before they even happened. Flash-Fantasy ended 2-0 while Jaedong-Light went to the third set, with Jaedong taking out Light in some cheesy games and Flash beating Fantasy pretty handily. Would things follow suit in the MSL?

Not quite. Just hours after their WCG match, Fantasy and Flash played what was easily one of the closest and most exciting TvT series ever. Some said it was the best since Boxer vs iloveoov in EVER2004; some said it was even better. Either way, words cannot describe how good these games were - even TvT’s fiercest haters will get chills at times. Flash showed resilience the whole series, and was able to eek out a victory despite Fantasy playing at a caliber we don’t often see from him.


Not to be outdone, Light and Jaedong played a brilliant series themselves. Light showed us his true strength with a great bio game on Fighting Spirit and eventually went up 2-1, but Jaedong proved to be too much as he put on his death glare and absolutely dominated the remaining two games – even going as far as infesting two of Light’s three CCs in glorious fashion on Triathlon. So, after the most entertaining semifinals in a long time, we have yet another Flash vs Jaedong final to anticipate! And - imagine that – they’re the two finalists of WCG Korea as well. Lee-Ssang Rok is alive and as fierce as ever.

Jaedong vs Light (Set 3) on Odd-Eye 3
The score is now 1-1. The winner of this match would corner his opponent to match point. Jaedong starts at 11 o'clock as the Red Zerg, and Light starts at 5 o'clock White Terran. Jaedong
D, feeling uneasy, having thumbed down this map, scouts with his 9th drone while expanding early. Light originally planned to do a 14CC of his own, is forced to put down his barracks first as Jaedong's drone stops Light's SCV from making a command center. Jaedong, in response, makes his 3rd hatchery before his spawning pool.


As seen in game 2, Light had the upper hand when it got to late game. Jaedong tries to stop this game from progressing that far, and makes a hydralisk den before lair as soon as he scouts a mech build from Light. Jaedong stops any of Light's SCV from getting into his main, and Light doesn't even make bunkers or tanks.

When Jaedong's hydralisks rush in, Light only has 4 marines and 4 vultures. After killing the supply depots in Light's natural, and it seems like Jaedong is breaking through, but Jaedong stops hydralisk production and expands, thinking he is ahead. Jaedong adds a 5th hatchery and a spire, and Light stays defensive while harassing with his vultures.


Even though the hydralisk attack didn't win Jaedong the game, it gave him an economic and psychological advantage. To further increase his economic advantage, Jaedong expands to the mineral only expansion towards the center while getting mutalisks to harass. After seeing the mutalisks, Light decides to get science vessels before he expands, to be safe. Mutalisks aren't able to do much damage to the well defended base, and Light lands his third command center safely.

While Light got his tech and units ready to push out and expand, Jaedong builds up a huge army of hydralisks. He even gets the overlord transport upgrade and loads hydralisks, getting ready to attack. With Light's army separated between his natural and his 3 o'clock expansion, this attack could destroy Light in one shot. However, Jaedong decides not to commit, and just stop Light from harassing. Light takes another expansion at 3 o'clock, but Jaedong still just sits back with his hydralisk heavy army.


After a while, Light builds up a large amount of mech force, with enough tanks to make hydralisk useless. Jaedong decides to attack once his defilers come out, but a large number of tanks kill most of Jaedong's hydralisks, and Light loses a command center and a few tanks. With his unit advantage, Light expands to the mineral only expansion at the center and starts to threaten Jaedong's 7 o'clock expansion. Knowing that he will no longer be ahead in economy if Light takes that expansion, Jaedong goes for another attack at that expansion. He swarms all over the tanks and drops zerglings and hydralisks on top, killing a lot of tanks. However, Light's reinforcements manages to save the command center.


Jaedong, seeing that Light is low on goliath composition, he makes guardians to kill the tanks. The guardians at 6 get cleared out easily by vessels, but the guardians at 3 o'clock manage to kill a few tanks, and leave Light's mineral only expansion vulnerable to attack. Dark swarm and zerglings kill a few tanks at the mineral expansion, but Light's reinforcements come just in time again to defend. Jaedong takes 1 o'clock to maintain his economic advantage, and begins to produce ultralisks.


Light decides it is the best time to push out and attacks towards Jaedong's mineral only expansion. Jaedong attacks 3 o'clock at the same time, and kills almost all of Light's vessels and lifts the mineral only expansion. Jaedong is unable to kill the gas expansion at 4 o'clock, and is forced to retreat to defend his own expansions. Light harasses 12 o'clock mineral expansion while killing 1 o'clock with a few tanks. Light's army that killed Jaedong's center expansion pushes down towards 7 o'clock and manages to kill an extractor before dying.

Light now moves his tanks from 1 o'clock to 12 o'clock while Jaedong is focused on 7 o'clock. Jaedong's army comes in just in time to defend, and denies Light from taking 1 o'clock expansion. Jaedong and Light both know that if Terran is allowed to take either 1 o'clock or 7 o'clock, Zerg has no chance of winning. Light moves towards 7 o'clock with his vulture-tank army. At the same time, Light harasses 12 o'clock with vultures. Jaedong is low on resources, and cannot take 1 o'clock while his 7 o'clock is being destroyed. Even his mineral only expansion gets canceled by vultures.


Jaedong knows that he has no chance against Light's main army, and goes for a final attack on Light's 3 o'clock mineral expansion. He manages to kill some of Light's army there, but his army is destroyed by reinforcements before he is able to kill the command center. With neither 7 o'clock nor 1 o'clock, Jaedong concedes the game to Light, looking to regain his lead in Triathlon.