EPT![[image loading]](/staff/HawaiianPig/GSLST/GSLSTfinals.jpg)
GSL Super Tournament - Finals Preview
By confusedcrib, Fionn, and WaxAngel
By confusedcrib, Fionn, and WaxAngel
Table of contents
brought to you by:
Georgia typeface
G
Results and Reviews
SlayerS_MMA:
The True Heir
PoltPrime.WE
Hate Me Now
Strategies of the
Tournament:
Terran versus Terran
brought to you by:
Georgia typeface
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Results and Reviews
SlayerS_MMA:
The True Heir
PoltPrime.WE
Hate Me Now
Strategies of the
Tournament:
Terran versus Terran
I wonder, now that it's all coming to a close, what this tournament was. With the top 64 players in GSL history invited for this tournament, shouldn't it have been bigger than the regular Code-S tournaments, been some kind of, well, SUPER tournament?
Alas, it seems like it's only one in name. I don't think it's any single party's fault, or if there's anything to find fault in, but there's an all-around refusal to take this thing seriously. The vibe I get from Korea and the rest of the world is that it's a fun mid-year special event, but more or less on par with the usual Code-S tournaments. Seeing that GomTV plans to hold the Blizzard Cup later this year between the top ten GSL players, maybe they're saving the "best of the best" hype for the end of the year.
I guess there's nothing wrong with that, and having the Super Tournament as a special event to break up the monotony of Code-S. But given the quality of players that competed, the way they were selected, and how damn hard it was to progress through each round, the Super Tournament is not getting the respect it deserves.
So I'm gonna ask you guys to believe OUR hype at least: If you care about skill, good players, and good Starcraft, this was the biggest event in SC II history.
Alas, it seems like it's only one in name. I don't think it's any single party's fault, or if there's anything to find fault in, but there's an all-around refusal to take this thing seriously. The vibe I get from Korea and the rest of the world is that it's a fun mid-year special event, but more or less on par with the usual Code-S tournaments. Seeing that GomTV plans to hold the Blizzard Cup later this year between the top ten GSL players, maybe they're saving the "best of the best" hype for the end of the year.
I guess there's nothing wrong with that, and having the Super Tournament as a special event to break up the monotony of Code-S. But given the quality of players that competed, the way they were selected, and how damn hard it was to progress through each round, the Super Tournament is not getting the respect it deserves.
So I'm gonna ask you guys to believe OUR hype at least: If you care about skill, good players, and good Starcraft, this was the biggest event in SC II history.
![[image loading]](/staff/HawaiianPig/GSLST/GSLSTsemisreview.jpg)
Semi-Final One:
SlayerS_MMA vs MarineKingPrime.WEGame One: Crossfire SE -
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/images/blackstar.gif)
3.5/5+ Show Spoiler +
MKP > MMA
Both players opened 12 rax 13 gas and opted to skip scouting entirely. While this was fine for MMA as MKP was going for an entirely ordinary cloak banshee build, MKP would definitely have benefited from getting into MMA's base and scouting out his 2nd barracks and ghost academy. MMA pushed out with a ghost and a handful of marines, hitting well before banshee timing.
MKP had not even bothered to build a bunker, putting him in a very precarious situation. Having caught his opponent so off-guard, MMA chose to utilize his force in a peculiar manner.
Facing a handful of marines and a standard wall-in at MKP's ramp, MMA chose to stand there and kill the depot and barracks while MKP backed off. Though it looked odd at first, it made sense after watching the situation play out.
Running straight into the mineral line to hunt SCVs could have lead to a massacre if MKP engaged well with his workers. By hitting the barracks instead, MMA forced MKP to pull his SCVs out of the mineral line to repair, which let him kill them at his leisure.
However, the barracks was really the worst building he could have focus fired. Against MMA's unit composition, marines were the worst unit MKP could have built, and the one of least concern for MMA. Instead, killing the techlab on MKP's starport would have almost certainly ended the game, preventing the production of further banshees and removing the option of cloak.
Yet, it was not so simple for MMA, as MKP had built his starport and factory in the corner of his base. With what could have been a short window of dominance, could MMA really afford to spend time walking around his opponent's base looking for a single building? (In retrospect, the answer is yes, he could have, and he would have won if he had done so.)
The way the situation played out, MKP made the awesome decision to send his banshees straight towards MMA's base. He made one attempt to save his rax, thought better of it, and just let MMA take it down while he waited for his hellion to complete. After his hellion was finished, he cleared MMA's units from his base with the help of some SCVs. It seemed like he lost a lot of SCVs in this effort, until you saw what MKP's banshees were doing to MMA.
Without a turret in place, MKP's banshee was doing terrible, terrible things to MMA's SCVs, and once cloak upgrade finished, to the marines as well. Though MMA had taken a secret gold base, it didn't matter. With just two barracks making marines, and stim upgrade nowhere near done, MMA had to GG out to 2 banshees, a marine, and some hellions.
MKP: 4/5
Good crisis management. There was one small slip-up when he lost around 4 SCVs trying to repair his barracks, before he realized he didn't really need it that badly. The decision to attack instead of defending with banshees was great.
MMA: 3/5
Good creative build, but could have played it better. It seemed like he was really banking on MKP to use his first banshee in defense, when you consider the super-late timing of his turret. He was up quite a few SCVs before the banshee arrived and started doing a number on his very lightly defended main.
Both players opened 12 rax 13 gas and opted to skip scouting entirely. While this was fine for MMA as MKP was going for an entirely ordinary cloak banshee build, MKP would definitely have benefited from getting into MMA's base and scouting out his 2nd barracks and ghost academy. MMA pushed out with a ghost and a handful of marines, hitting well before banshee timing.
MKP had not even bothered to build a bunker, putting him in a very precarious situation. Having caught his opponent so off-guard, MMA chose to utilize his force in a peculiar manner.
Facing a handful of marines and a standard wall-in at MKP's ramp, MMA chose to stand there and kill the depot and barracks while MKP backed off. Though it looked odd at first, it made sense after watching the situation play out.
Running straight into the mineral line to hunt SCVs could have lead to a massacre if MKP engaged well with his workers. By hitting the barracks instead, MMA forced MKP to pull his SCVs out of the mineral line to repair, which let him kill them at his leisure.
However, the barracks was really the worst building he could have focus fired. Against MMA's unit composition, marines were the worst unit MKP could have built, and the one of least concern for MMA. Instead, killing the techlab on MKP's starport would have almost certainly ended the game, preventing the production of further banshees and removing the option of cloak.
Yet, it was not so simple for MMA, as MKP had built his starport and factory in the corner of his base. With what could have been a short window of dominance, could MMA really afford to spend time walking around his opponent's base looking for a single building? (In retrospect, the answer is yes, he could have, and he would have won if he had done so.)
The way the situation played out, MKP made the awesome decision to send his banshees straight towards MMA's base. He made one attempt to save his rax, thought better of it, and just let MMA take it down while he waited for his hellion to complete. After his hellion was finished, he cleared MMA's units from his base with the help of some SCVs. It seemed like he lost a lot of SCVs in this effort, until you saw what MKP's banshees were doing to MMA.
Without a turret in place, MKP's banshee was doing terrible, terrible things to MMA's SCVs, and once cloak upgrade finished, to the marines as well. Though MMA had taken a secret gold base, it didn't matter. With just two barracks making marines, and stim upgrade nowhere near done, MMA had to GG out to 2 banshees, a marine, and some hellions.
MKP:
4/5Good crisis management. There was one small slip-up when he lost around 4 SCVs trying to repair his barracks, before he realized he didn't really need it that badly. The decision to attack instead of defending with banshees was great.
MMA:
3/5Good creative build, but could have played it better. It seemed like he was really banking on MKP to use his first banshee in defense, when you consider the super-late timing of his turret. He was up quite a few SCVs before the banshee arrived and started doing a number on his very lightly defended main.
Game Two: Metalopolis -
3.5/5+ Show Spoiler +
MKP > MMA
MKP warmed my heart by being the third player in five match days to use a marine timing build to punish a greedy terran who tried to tech AND expand. Meanwhile, MMA disappointed me by being the victim yet again.
Both players opened gasless 1 rax expand, but even then, you could tell MMA was being greedier. MKP made almost non-stop marines, which meant he had to build a second supply depot and get his command center a bit later, while MMA skipped some marines to get his command center before his 2nd supply.
MMA's follow-up was to get a second barracks, double gas, and quickly rush to banshees, while MKP got a single gas, went up to three barracks, and rushed for a quick combat shields upgrade. MMA sealed his fate by lifting his orbital and settling it down, dismissing the idea of a marine rush and skipping bunkers entirely. Damn, I thought his opponent's ID might have tipped him off.
MKP's marines ripped through MMA's SCVs and marines, forcing a lift off the orbital command. By the time MMA had enough forces to push down his ramp and retake his natural, MKP was already massively ahead (sadly, MMA's banshee didn't do too much). MKP aggressively went for the kill, and MMA was forced to GG out.
MKP: 4/5
Not the COOLEST version of upgraded marines rush I've seen this week (polt's two medivac, 16 double upgrade marines wins), but it was still pretty sweet. Also, his aggression and attempts to finish the match quickly deserve applause.
MMA: 1.5/5
Thanks for showing us why greed doesn't pay!
MKP warmed my heart by being the third player in five match days to use a marine timing build to punish a greedy terran who tried to tech AND expand. Meanwhile, MMA disappointed me by being the victim yet again.
Both players opened gasless 1 rax expand, but even then, you could tell MMA was being greedier. MKP made almost non-stop marines, which meant he had to build a second supply depot and get his command center a bit later, while MMA skipped some marines to get his command center before his 2nd supply.
MMA's follow-up was to get a second barracks, double gas, and quickly rush to banshees, while MKP got a single gas, went up to three barracks, and rushed for a quick combat shields upgrade. MMA sealed his fate by lifting his orbital and settling it down, dismissing the idea of a marine rush and skipping bunkers entirely. Damn, I thought his opponent's ID might have tipped him off.
MKP's marines ripped through MMA's SCVs and marines, forcing a lift off the orbital command. By the time MMA had enough forces to push down his ramp and retake his natural, MKP was already massively ahead (sadly, MMA's banshee didn't do too much). MKP aggressively went for the kill, and MMA was forced to GG out.
MKP:
4/5Not the COOLEST version of upgraded marines rush I've seen this week (polt's two medivac, 16 double upgrade marines wins), but it was still pretty sweet. Also, his aggression and attempts to finish the match quickly deserve applause.
MMA:
1.5/5Thanks for showing us why greed doesn't pay!
Game Three: Dual Sight -
![[image loading]](/blogs/images/blackstar.gif)
+ Show Spoiler +
MMA > MKP
MKP decided to do a greedy tech expand, forcing me to remove every good memory about him from my mind. He received karmic punishment as MMA did a pretty nice counter build order, going for a reaper and then fast expansion at his gold base. The reaper discovered the building CC and the reactor on MKP's barracks, giving him a pretty good idea of what MKP was doing.
MMA followed by going for blue flame hellions into cloaked banshees, while MKP went straight up the tech tree to cloaked banshees. The way this worked out was that MMA's hellions stopped MKP from mining at his natural expansion for a while, but at the same time MKP was doing some pretty good damage with his banshee in MMA's under-defended main. However, with mules dropping down at the gold base, MMA was not at a terrible disadvantage. Then, MMA's banshees went on to do a fair bit of damage in MKP's base, which meant the gains and losses evened out surprisingly closely.
MMA's plan was to go for a more marine and medivac heavy style, while MKP had a larger proportion of tanks mixed into his main army. Before MMA's infantry production fully kicked in, MKP found a window to attack with his tank advantage and forced MMA to lift his gold base to a safer, regular expansion. However, once the marine production did kick in, MMA began to make the case that there was a more suitable owner for the ID of 'MarineKing.'
His judgment was superb in one engagement where he determined he could wipe up MKP's marines quickly, focus down a few of of MKP's tanks, and then pick up his surviving red HP marines before they were killed by the tanks in the rear. That engagement cut MKP's tank numbers in half, bringing him level with MMA. When MKP went for an ill-advised attack minutes later, MMA once again attacked at critical time when MKP's siege tanks were not in position. After that engagement, MKP was behind in both tanks and marines. With a third base down at his natural, MMA looked to be in a commanding position.
Refusing to die a slow, suffocating death, MKP attempted a daring 5 dropship in MMA's main. However, it only ended up being an even unit trade, much less than MKP needed in that situation. Not being in a position to do much else, MKP ended up going for a base trade as his last option. And we all know how base-trades done with smaller armies and less bases go.
MKP: 3/5
Loved his late game 5 medivac drop, which hit before MMA's resource advantage started to show. MKP KNEW he was gonna die eventually, and he preferred to take a big risk and die sooner than drag the game out and pray for a miracle.
MMA: 4/5
Used marines excellently before tanks reached critical mass. Also, the cheeky gold expansion was a nice decision, as it allowed him to stay even during the early harassment exchanges.
MKP decided to do a greedy tech expand, forcing me to remove every good memory about him from my mind. He received karmic punishment as MMA did a pretty nice counter build order, going for a reaper and then fast expansion at his gold base. The reaper discovered the building CC and the reactor on MKP's barracks, giving him a pretty good idea of what MKP was doing.
MMA followed by going for blue flame hellions into cloaked banshees, while MKP went straight up the tech tree to cloaked banshees. The way this worked out was that MMA's hellions stopped MKP from mining at his natural expansion for a while, but at the same time MKP was doing some pretty good damage with his banshee in MMA's under-defended main. However, with mules dropping down at the gold base, MMA was not at a terrible disadvantage. Then, MMA's banshees went on to do a fair bit of damage in MKP's base, which meant the gains and losses evened out surprisingly closely.
MMA's plan was to go for a more marine and medivac heavy style, while MKP had a larger proportion of tanks mixed into his main army. Before MMA's infantry production fully kicked in, MKP found a window to attack with his tank advantage and forced MMA to lift his gold base to a safer, regular expansion. However, once the marine production did kick in, MMA began to make the case that there was a more suitable owner for the ID of 'MarineKing.'
His judgment was superb in one engagement where he determined he could wipe up MKP's marines quickly, focus down a few of of MKP's tanks, and then pick up his surviving red HP marines before they were killed by the tanks in the rear. That engagement cut MKP's tank numbers in half, bringing him level with MMA. When MKP went for an ill-advised attack minutes later, MMA once again attacked at critical time when MKP's siege tanks were not in position. After that engagement, MKP was behind in both tanks and marines. With a third base down at his natural, MMA looked to be in a commanding position.
Refusing to die a slow, suffocating death, MKP attempted a daring 5 dropship in MMA's main. However, it only ended up being an even unit trade, much less than MKP needed in that situation. Not being in a position to do much else, MKP ended up going for a base trade as his last option. And we all know how base-trades done with smaller armies and less bases go.
MKP:
Loved his late game 5 medivac drop, which hit before MMA's resource advantage started to show. MKP KNEW he was gonna die eventually, and he preferred to take a big risk and die sooner than drag the game out and pray for a miracle.
MMA:
Used marines excellently before tanks reached critical mass. Also, the cheeky gold expansion was a nice decision, as it allowed him to stay even during the early harassment exchanges.
Game Four: Xel'Naga Caverns -
+ Show Spoiler +
MMA > MKP
MKP opened with a cute reactor barracks, fast factory into marine-hellion drop, while MMA did reaper expand into fast blue flame hellions. Blue flame was too much for MKP's drop, and he was forced to pull back and expand.
That would have been fine if he had built his orbital in his main and waited until he had a few tanks to move down, but instead he decided to expand directly to his natural with MARINES, when he had confirmed his opponent was making BLUE FLAME HELLIONS from a REACTOR. That went exactly like you'd expect, and MKP was forced to lift his expansion after losing a ton of SCVs.
MMA switched into pure mech and started pounding away at MKP's base from the low ground, which was responded to by the threat of a marine drop counter. It relieved the pressure on MKP for a second, but he was still facing a growing tank army and a resource disadvantage as MMA prepare to take his gold.
With marine-marauader mobility the only weapon remaining to him, MKP abused it magnificently. He threatened MMA's various bases, always managing to turn around and focus down any overly hasty tanks that tried to attack before the entire group could reposition. It caused some major headaches for MMA, but in the end he still had three bases including a gold, while MKP was only playing off his main and natural.
MKP put it all on the line with a base trade, where he out-performed MMA in every aspect. However, he only had a few marine to shoot at flying buildings, while MMA had vikings. Armies were cleaned up on both sides, but MMA had three orbitals left to drop mules against MKP's one. MKP GG'd out as viking landed to wipe out his remaining miners.
MKP: 3.5/5
I'm okay with him making marines against stuff that can be microed against, but marine expanding against blue flame hellions, before you have neither stim nor shields? Come on! Still, his late game marauder movement was excellent. Shame he was at a disadvantage of his own making.
MMA: 3.5/5
MKP's marauders made MMA's mech look absolutely silly. MKP played better for large portions of the game, but just couldn't overcome the early game disadvantage.
MKP opened with a cute reactor barracks, fast factory into marine-hellion drop, while MMA did reaper expand into fast blue flame hellions. Blue flame was too much for MKP's drop, and he was forced to pull back and expand.
That would have been fine if he had built his orbital in his main and waited until he had a few tanks to move down, but instead he decided to expand directly to his natural with MARINES, when he had confirmed his opponent was making BLUE FLAME HELLIONS from a REACTOR. That went exactly like you'd expect, and MKP was forced to lift his expansion after losing a ton of SCVs.
MMA switched into pure mech and started pounding away at MKP's base from the low ground, which was responded to by the threat of a marine drop counter. It relieved the pressure on MKP for a second, but he was still facing a growing tank army and a resource disadvantage as MMA prepare to take his gold.
With marine-marauader mobility the only weapon remaining to him, MKP abused it magnificently. He threatened MMA's various bases, always managing to turn around and focus down any overly hasty tanks that tried to attack before the entire group could reposition. It caused some major headaches for MMA, but in the end he still had three bases including a gold, while MKP was only playing off his main and natural.
MKP put it all on the line with a base trade, where he out-performed MMA in every aspect. However, he only had a few marine to shoot at flying buildings, while MMA had vikings. Armies were cleaned up on both sides, but MMA had three orbitals left to drop mules against MKP's one. MKP GG'd out as viking landed to wipe out his remaining miners.
MKP:
I'm okay with him making marines against stuff that can be microed against, but marine expanding against blue flame hellions, before you have neither stim nor shields? Come on! Still, his late game marauder movement was excellent. Shame he was at a disadvantage of his own making.
MMA:
MKP's marauders made MMA's mech look absolutely silly. MKP played better for large portions of the game, but just couldn't overcome the early game disadvantage.
Game Five: Crevasse -
+ Show Spoiler +
MMA > MKP
Since this was Crevasse, the only god-forsaken map that allows it, both Terrans opened with command center before barracks.
MMA had a similar plan to the last time he played TvT on Crevasse, which was to be greedy as possible and get tech as well. He rushed up to banshees and even got a THIRD orbital command inside his main for extra mule droppage. However, he actually learned something from getting totally destroyed by SuperNova's 20 combat shield marine rush five days ago (shame he couldn't have remembered that for the Metalopolis game!) and build two bunkers at his ramp.
Unfortunately for MKP, he had banked on MMA being forgetful and had gone for a combat shield marine rush of his own. After being thwarted by the bunkers he retreated back to his base and started a command center at his natural, around the same time MMA lifted his third CC and floated it to his own natural.
Marine drops were attempted by both players, but both were ineffectual. MKP came out worse for wear, not because he had taken more damage, but because he lost more units in his pointless drop.
With faster tech and more gas, MMA jumped ahead with the tank advantage and started setting up a containment position. MKP tried to circumvent this by going around a different Crevasse path, but made a horrible mistake by sieging up his tanks in range of high ground tanks he could not see. For some reason, MKP decided to stick around rather than run the hell away, which meant that MMA was able to just run up and pound him with a crapton of marines while his tanks supported from the cliff.
Having lost a bunch of troops, MKP couldn't do anything about MMA setting up within siege range of his natural, and was forced to float his CC away. The slow, wearing death process began for MKP, and he GG'd out minutes later.
MKP: 2.5/5
A really foolish engagement to lose the game.
MMA: 4/5
Absolutely ruthless play when he had the lead. Also he learned to build bunkers ^_^
Since this was Crevasse, the only god-forsaken map that allows it, both Terrans opened with command center before barracks.
MMA had a similar plan to the last time he played TvT on Crevasse, which was to be greedy as possible and get tech as well. He rushed up to banshees and even got a THIRD orbital command inside his main for extra mule droppage. However, he actually learned something from getting totally destroyed by SuperNova's 20 combat shield marine rush five days ago (shame he couldn't have remembered that for the Metalopolis game!) and build two bunkers at his ramp.
Unfortunately for MKP, he had banked on MMA being forgetful and had gone for a combat shield marine rush of his own. After being thwarted by the bunkers he retreated back to his base and started a command center at his natural, around the same time MMA lifted his third CC and floated it to his own natural.
Marine drops were attempted by both players, but both were ineffectual. MKP came out worse for wear, not because he had taken more damage, but because he lost more units in his pointless drop.
With faster tech and more gas, MMA jumped ahead with the tank advantage and started setting up a containment position. MKP tried to circumvent this by going around a different Crevasse path, but made a horrible mistake by sieging up his tanks in range of high ground tanks he could not see. For some reason, MKP decided to stick around rather than run the hell away, which meant that MMA was able to just run up and pound him with a crapton of marines while his tanks supported from the cliff.
Having lost a bunch of troops, MKP couldn't do anything about MMA setting up within siege range of his natural, and was forced to float his CC away. The slow, wearing death process began for MKP, and he GG'd out minutes later.
MKP:
A really foolish engagement to lose the game.
MMA:
Absolutely ruthless play when he had the lead. Also he learned to build bunkers ^_^
Semi-Final Two:
PoltPrime.WE vs. oGsTOPGame One: Bel'Shir Beach -
+ Show Spoiler +
Polt > Top
Polt opens with a creative reactor hellion expand into banshees. The hellions allow Polt to kill a lot of Top's marines as well as soften up SCVs, opening the way for his banshee to do a lot of damage. By the time Top is done holding, Polt is up 11 SCVs. After that huge early lead, Polt is able to keep it secure with some nice attacks to ensure that Top doesn't do something crazy like double expand to make up for his deficit (hey, it worked for MMA). Polt messes up one huge engagement though, that almost let Top back into the game, but Polt manages to hold off Top's continuing attack while counterattacking to take the win.
Polt: 4/5 Very clever opening and he was good enough to not let Top get back in.
Top: 4/5 Was barely able to hold Polt's opening efficiently and nearly came back a few times, showing the strength of his macro.
Polt opens with a creative reactor hellion expand into banshees. The hellions allow Polt to kill a lot of Top's marines as well as soften up SCVs, opening the way for his banshee to do a lot of damage. By the time Top is done holding, Polt is up 11 SCVs. After that huge early lead, Polt is able to keep it secure with some nice attacks to ensure that Top doesn't do something crazy like double expand to make up for his deficit (hey, it worked for MMA). Polt messes up one huge engagement though, that almost let Top back into the game, but Polt manages to hold off Top's continuing attack while counterattacking to take the win.
Polt:
Top:
Game Two: Dual Sight -
+ Show Spoiler +
Top > Polt
Polt again uses a creative opening, a reaper expand into three barracks marine with a very fast stim upgrade. Meanwhile Top goes for a banshee expand. After the openings are complete both players are pretty much even. Polt has his units positioned in the middle of the map, going for a marine stim timing, when blue flame hellions from Top hit Polt's bases and leave him with only 9 SCVs remaining. The marine timing does some damage, but still leaves Polt behind 20 SCVs. Top is able to keep attacking with blue flame hellions to take the game.
Top: 5/5
Ingenious move to use his banshee to force expansion SCVs into the main where the blue flame hellions were
Polt: 4/5 it was a neat timing that he was going for, but blue flame hellions are too good against marines.
Polt again uses a creative opening, a reaper expand into three barracks marine with a very fast stim upgrade. Meanwhile Top goes for a banshee expand. After the openings are complete both players are pretty much even. Polt has his units positioned in the middle of the map, going for a marine stim timing, when blue flame hellions from Top hit Polt's bases and leave him with only 9 SCVs remaining. The marine timing does some damage, but still leaves Polt behind 20 SCVs. Top is able to keep attacking with blue flame hellions to take the game.
Top:
Ingenious move to use his banshee to force expansion SCVs into the main where the blue flame hellions were
Polt:
Game Three: Xel'Naga Caverns -
+ Show Spoiler +
Top > Polt
Both players open this game with a fast expand, but Top does a clever little marine blue flame hellion timing that would have killed Polt had he not built a bunker. As the game goes macro, Top goes for the recently popular mech style TvT, focusing on tank, hellion, viking, whileMarineKingPrime Polt goes for the MarineKing style. However, Top's positioning is just too good to allow any counter attacking all game long.
The game goes super late, and Polt goes battlecruiser to try and break the tank. Polt stays a base behind Top the entire time, and due to that he never has a viking lead over Top. There are a few epic air to air battles, but Polt is never able to seriously threaten Top's mass viking with a BC-viking mixture. Polt has no way of exerting map control, and is forced to GG.
Polt: 3/5 Wasn't quite active enough to pull off the MarineKing style
Top: 5/5 Played the mech style near flawlessly all game long on one of the hardest maps to pull it off on.
Both players open this game with a fast expand, but Top does a clever little marine blue flame hellion timing that would have killed Polt had he not built a bunker. As the game goes macro, Top goes for the recently popular mech style TvT, focusing on tank, hellion, viking, while
The game goes super late, and Polt goes battlecruiser to try and break the tank. Polt stays a base behind Top the entire time, and due to that he never has a viking lead over Top. There are a few epic air to air battles, but Polt is never able to seriously threaten Top's mass viking with a BC-viking mixture. Polt has no way of exerting map control, and is forced to GG.
Polt:
Top:
Game Four: Terminus RE -
+ Show Spoiler +
Polt > Top
The game starts off with some pro gardening tips from our favorite casting duo. Both players go one rax expand with Top going for a mech style and Polt a marine marauder tank style. A combination of harass and superior macro has Top with almost 30 more workers than Polt.
Top tries to do a huge hellion run by but it is denied doing no damage to Polt. Polt goes for a huge counter attack, and manages to pick off 5 out of position siege tanks, tons of workers, and plenty of hellions. After that counter attack, Polt has enough to just straight up attack Top's low tank numbers and take the game.
Polt: 4/5
Top: 4/5
The game starts off with some pro gardening tips from our favorite casting duo. Both players go one rax expand with Top going for a mech style and Polt a marine marauder tank style. A combination of harass and superior macro has Top with almost 30 more workers than Polt.
Top tries to do a huge hellion run by but it is denied doing no damage to Polt. Polt goes for a huge counter attack, and manages to pick off 5 out of position siege tanks, tons of workers, and plenty of hellions. After that counter attack, Polt has enough to just straight up attack Top's low tank numbers and take the game.
Polt:
Top:
Game Five: Crossfire SE -
+ Show Spoiler +
Polt > Top
Polt does a banshee opener with cloak that puts him 11 SCVs ahead of his opponent right at the beginning of the game. TOP has a chance to do the same with his own banshee, but screws up massively by having his banshee grouped with his defending marines and having it uselessly return to defend his own base after having crossed half the map.
Polt continues with the harassment, and again gives himself a huge worker lead over his opponent, who is managing, through better macro, to keep almost catching back up. Just as Top is finally equalized with Polt in terms of SCVs, Polt gets a huge marine flank and is able to efficiently kill a tons of Top's marines and SCVs. After this engagement, Polt is able to do one final attack and take the game.
Polt: 4/5
Great banshee harass but kept falling behind in workers despite the huge lead
Top:2/5
Top almost caught up to Polt several times, despite messing up the first 6 minutes so badly.
Polt does a banshee opener with cloak that puts him 11 SCVs ahead of his opponent right at the beginning of the game. TOP has a chance to do the same with his own banshee, but screws up massively by having his banshee grouped with his defending marines and having it uselessly return to defend his own base after having crossed half the map.
Polt continues with the harassment, and again gives himself a huge worker lead over his opponent, who is managing, through better macro, to keep almost catching back up. Just as Top is finally equalized with Polt in terms of SCVs, Polt gets a huge marine flank and is able to efficiently kill a tons of Top's marines and SCVs. After this engagement, Polt is able to do one final attack and take the game.
Polt:
Great banshee harass but kept falling behind in workers despite the huge lead
Top:
Top almost caught up to Polt several times, despite messing up the first 6 minutes so badly.
Semi-final interviews by PlayXP, translated by Phosgene
![[image loading]](/staff/HawaiianPig/GSLST/GSLSTfinalsMMAhype.jpg)
by WaxAngel
Years ago, we thought that we had discovered Boxer's heir. His name Jung Myung Hoon aka 'Fantasy,' and he was a rising Terran star on Boxer's then team SKT1.
Though a few other prominent Terrans had played on Boxer's team (known over the years as Orion, 4U, and finally SKT1) since the early 2000's, there hadn't been a real need to find a successor while the Emperor was still a force to be reckoned with. But by 2008, a greatly deteriorated Boxer had gone into voluntary exile with the Korean Air Force's e-Sports team, leaving a massive spiritual void in hearts Brood War fans.
Though SKT1 was still one of Brood War's powerhouses with an abundance of talent and history, a large part of its identity was as 'Boxer's Team.' The idea of SKT1 as a formidable team with Boxer at its helm was such a deeply ingrained part of pro-gaming culture that it just felt wrong for things to be any different. And so, fans scrambled to find an heir to force into the royal line, anyone that would restore some semblance of order to the Brood War world.
Fantasy had even less in common with Boxer than his predecessors iloveoov and Midas (who were in their time, discussed as teammates and not heirs), but nonetheless he was shoe-horned in out of necessity. And while the so called "crown prince" proved to be an excellent player, his play style would always show that he was no Boxer (he actively tried to get around using marines, for God's sake!). Once Boxer left for SC II, the idea of succession died down for good, while Brood War fell into another sort of spiritual disarray.
In 2011, when we had stopped looking for an heir, he found us.
Moon Sung Won aka 'MMA' left the ranks of SKT1 to join Boxer's new SC II team, SlayerS. As part of team SlayerS, he immediately proved that he was their most valuable member by playing as the team's anchor in GSTL, defeating many other 'established' SC II pros and delivering two championships to (because SKT1 was always an 'ace by committee' team, Boxer was never their designated ace in team leagues. MMA's accomplishments as the SlayerS Ace are purely personal, no romanticizing here).
There isn't any forced belief, any looking aside while marines get bloodily killed by lurkers, or similar sorts of nonsense. This guy is so much like Boxer, he might as well be Boxer's mental imprint transferred to a younger body.
First, he's obsessed with drops to the point that it becoming a liability. Like Boxer, MMA goes about trying to medivac drop his Zerg opponents not just because it's a good tactic (it is), but because it's something that he can't help doing. Yes, he could use those extra 16 marines and two medivacs to just straight up crush his opponent in a fight, but it that wouldn't be MMA. Boxer knew that while winning was the most important thing, winning with an identity was almost as important. MMA has caught on.
Second, MMA makes instant, accurate marine decision. Everyone loves to compliment Boxer's amazing marine micro, but in large part it was an illusion caused by his incredible judgment. He could see lurkers start to burrow, and in a fraction of a second, know whether or not to engage. You can't hesitate in those situations, because getting caught in the middle ground between fight and flight means certain death.
The margin of error is even smaller against range 13 siege tanks, but MMA handles them perfectly. It looks risky when he charges his marines into a group of tanks beginning to siege up, but it's actually a foregone conclusion. MMA knew the outcome of the battle the moment his opponent pressed "E," and just followed with the logical decsion.
Third, even his character is eerily reminiscent of a young Boxer. Not many people remember this, but before Boxer became the well-groomed and even more well-spoken icon of e-Sports, he was one the shyest, soft-spoken pro-gamers out there. And despite his fame and success, Boxer never gave way to cynicism (no one's left more tears on stage).
While Slayers is trying to bring MMA up to speed on ceremonies and ways to be an engaging pro-gamer outside the game, at heart he's still a kid who's trying to come to terms with his fame. That much was transparent when he stood on the stage after winning the championship at MLG, trying to answer interview questions when the crowd broke into a chant of "MMA! MMA!" There, you could pinpoint the precise moment when all rational thought left his head, with only the raw emotion of the situation remaining.
So, what's left then for the heir apparent? Oh right, more championships.
![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/mmatwo.jpg)
One, going on two.
I had a great analogy where Boxer is Don Corleone, Fantasy is Sonny, MMA is Michael, and iloveoov is Tom Hagen. Then I realized the cross section of people who watched early 2000's pro BW AND The Godfather is surprisingly small.
![[image loading]](/staff/HawaiianPig/GSLST/GSLSTfinalsPOLThype.jpg)
by Fionn
Every single time you want him to go down, he doesn't. You think he's about to get knocked out? He fights back. How many times will you have to bet against this guy until he changes your mind? Polt has made his first Grand Final and many of the Team Liquid faithful are looking at him like he doesn't belong. Who the hell does this guy think he is? He was supposed to lose in the first round! Losira was supposed to mop the floor with this guy and fight for the honor of winning the group against Alicia! How the hell did this guy, someone who was a laughing stock of the GSL months ago, get to the final?
There's thousands of reasons why you might hate Polt. Let's go through a few, shall we?
A. He trash talked Jinro months ago before their GSL match, saying that our Swedish Gorilla Terran got lucky by getting into the semifinals two seasons in a row. Polt then promptly got embarrassed by Jinro in their match.
B. He eliminated one of the most popular zergs, Losira, in the first round.
C. He knocked out Team Liquid's Huk in the next round with a resounding 2-0 victory, flexing his TvP muscles.
D. He fell down against the lovable Maka, but then made a comeback to knock him out in decisive fashion.
E. He rolled over one of the most popular protoss, and the only protoss left in the tournament, Alicia, in the most lopsided best-of-five series in GSL history that didn't involve TheBest.
F. He broke thousands of sad Korean fangirls' hearts by defeating TOP in the semifinals.
G. He has a freakishly long neck.
H. He gets to hug and touch MarineKing while you can't.
I. He might take away the OptimusPrime ID that many thought was destined to be MarineKing's.
J. He's the person responsible for the terrible streams at MLG Dallas.
K. He's also the owl in those Tootsie Pop commercials that steals the boy's candy and eats it in front of him.
Okay, okay, those last two might not be totally 100% factual, but you get the picture. A lot of people (not all, mind you) think that Polt is just another Inca in waiting. He got here just because of one strong match-up (TvP like Inca's PvP) and will get crushed in the final when he can't rely on that anymore.
While it is true that Polt's TvP is probably the best in the world (10-0 all-time in the GSL), he didn't get here just by beating protoss. Unlike his opponent, MMA, who got to the finals by only beating terran, Polt had to go through every single race. He took down one of the best zergs in the world, Losira, and two tough terrans in Maka and TOP. Of course he looked brilliant in his TvP, but his other two match-ups haven't been shabby at all. Nothing like Inca's horrendous PvZ that he showed us in the last final.
When you watch Polt play, you might not get out of your seat like when you watch MMA or MarineKing with the amazing builds they prepare, but you can tell the guy is smart. He doesn't make a lot of mistakes. He's solid. His decision making is amazing, and he knows what to do in any situation you put him in. He knows how to counter these wonky builds that are thrown at him. He might not always win the battle, but lately, he's the one winning the wars.
MarineKing has been helping Polt for this final. Who better to be your main training partner than the guy who just faced your opponent a few days earlier in a series that could have went either way? The builds that MarineKing probably prepared for the finals if he got there, are now getting passed on to Polt. Can he show us that his bio play is as good as his teammate's? At times this tournament, especially against Maka, it looked like MarineKing was in the booth playing with the micro that Polt was showing.
There is one thing that Polt might have over the king of marines. Polt hasn't tilted. He's the same as MMA in that way. When Polt looked like he was down and out against TOP, losing a gigantic air battle in Game 3 where he went Battlecruisers, and going down 2-1 in the Bo5, a lot of people would have been shaken. Losing a long, intense game that went thirty minutes? Being one game from elimination? That would shake a lot of players. You could see it with MarineKing against MMA. When MMA started making his comeback, MarineKing looked like he was about to throw up.
Polt, instead of falling to the pressure, came back and won the next two games. Even down in Game 4, on the brink of elimination, he made a brilliant decision in sandwiching TOP's mech army with his marauders and checkmating him right there and then. After that, TOP was the one who tilted and let Polt almost kill his entire supply of SCV's with two banshees in the deciding game.
So why should Polt have any chance against MMA? The same MMA who swept MLG Columbus and took down MarineKing in one of the best comebacks in GSL history? He should get crushed! MMA's drops and macro will totally destroy him, right? Polt is a flash in the pan!
Look at Polt's record since Jinro embarrassed him all those months ago. Counting the Champions Trophy Tournaments (where he bested the highly regarded terran, TheStC, twice in both finals), he has an amazing record of 41 wins and 14 losses. Yes, you read that right. He's been on the hottest streak in SC2 for the longest time and it is only now people are realizing how good he is.
Hey, MMA is also on an incredible streak, going 32-9 in both MLG and GSL/GSTL and not dropping a match in that time since losing to Huk in the Up-and-Down matches a month ago. These two are currently the hottest players in the scene. Yeah, yeah, Nestea, MVP and MC might be the best players in the world, but these two are playing out of their minds at the moment. Together, their streaks would be 73 wins and only 23 losses between them. A fifty win difference? Heh, not too bad. Not Flash, but still good.
So when it comes down to it all, can Polt beat MMA? Can Polt become OptimusPrime? Is there an actual possibly that MMA doesn't win the GSL?
In my opinion? Yes, Polt has a good shot at taking this entire tournament and $100,000 prize. Neither player is invincible. In this tournament, it looked like MMA might get knocked out by Lyn in the first round, but MMA did his magic trick where he makes an epic comeback out of nowhere and went through to the next round. I thought Supernova was going to beat MMA in the second round, but Supernova stumbled and another comeback was completed. There are times when MMA looks like he's down and out, but he always rises up again to turn the tide. If Polt can exploit the weak early game play by MMA and not tilt when he makes his routine comeback, he'll win this series. Polt has the skills. Polt has the training partners to win this. He has the drive that he didn't have months ago. If MMA gets too over confident, he will lose. This won't be a walk in the park by any means.
Hey, Polt has been the underdog in almost all his matches this tournament. Look at Liquibet. Most of you thought he would get crushed by Losira, Huk, Alicia and TOP. Why stop betting against him now? Keep on wanting him to go way. This isn't just for himself anymore. This is revenge for taking away MarineKing's chance at getting his first title, MMA. This is for every fan of MarineKing who wanted to see him finally have his moment in the sun. You might have beaten MarineKing, but can you beat MarineKing and Polt as one? If Polt wins this, it'll be a team effort to take down The Son of Boxer and The Emperor, Lim Yo-Hwan.
![[image loading]](/staff/HawaiianPig/GSLST/haters_gonna_polt.gif)
Haters gonna hate.
So the people who hate Polt, keep hating. The hate makes him stronger. It fuels him. When this final is over, we'll see who was right. Was it just luck and bad play by his opponents that got him here or was he the real deal? Will we see the rise of the true OptimusPrime or the Polt that was a laughing stock of the GSL?
Only time will tell, but one thing is for sure: I'll be watching. But will you?
P.S: You better watch or TheBest will haunt you in your dreams.
Strategies of the Tournament
TvT build orders and strategy trends, as understood through the games of the
Super Tournament
TvT build orders and strategy trends, as understood through the games of the
Super Tournament
by WaxAngel
Bread and Butter Builds
One Barracks Expansions
[Barracks - Orbital - Command Center]
The "standard" build TvT at present. I would have called it the "gasless" expand,but there have been some variants (listed below) that include a refinery.
The most normal variant is to pump straight SCVs and marines until about 18 population, put down a CC, and immediately get two refineries. It allows for a very safe second orbital, as you can just hole up behind your wall-in against anything immediately dangerous, and once the danger is over you can simply float down to expand. Because double orbitals are so incredibly economically superior to single orbitals, a cheese rush has to do a massive amount of damage to really be worth it. It follows up nicely into anything off its strong economic basis, but has rather late tech as a drawback.
Despite its supposed status as the standard opener, fast expanding was actually slightly LESS popular than tech openings in the Super Tournament. I presume it's because it's been the most popular build on ladder for months, and by now everyone is very used to playing against it. It was the slight variations on this build that were more interesting.
Like, if you expect your opponent to do the normal 1 rax expand, how do you one up him? You get faster tech! So there were some variations that snuck in a refinery, like barracks - gas - orbital - CC, or one very strange instance of a barracks - gas - gas - orbital - CC build. Another version saw MMA try to squeeze in the CC even faster, cutting SCVs and marines at 16/18 population and quickly saving up for his CC.
Followed by:
- Lotsa marine medivac tank
The normal TvT army. The maximum amount of firepower you can cram into a small space. However, it was uncommon in the Super Tournament for players to go straight up FE and then directly start playing the macro game. Many players preferred to try some techy, harassing tactics before transitioning into standard macro. - Banshees
With the threat of ravens, vikings, etc, going for late banshees against someone who's already teched tends to be a bad idea. But when the opponent is fast expanding as well, and you don't plan to attack soon (and don't expect to die soon, I should say), it's a pretty good option. Techlab and starport are all things that will be needed later anyway, so basically only the banshee itself is really being invested in.
Unless the defender is really overloading on defense, banshees vs pre-stim marines is a pure micro battle, and plenty of progamers are confident that their micro is better than the opponent's. That opened up the Super Tournament's most popular mini-game "how many range 5 marines can range 6 banshee kill?" Though in the past, players prioritized SCV kills heavily, Super Tournament players seemed to know know how to exploit a low marine count better, and didn't mind going for marine kills on occasion.
Of course, if you're spending too much of your gas on tech crap, there's a timing where your opponent might just kill you with an actual army (see MKP vs MMA game two).
Fast Tech
[Gas - Rax - Factory // Rax - Gas - Factory]
One of the more interesting points this tournament was that Gas - Rax became the more popular build for going factory tech or above, overshadowing the previous standard of Rax - Gas. With players doing more and more 1 rax - fast tech/expansion variants, it was an easy decision for players to be one marine behind and have a faster factory instead.
Given the tendency towards passive early game play, some players opted to cut significant amounts of marines with this already low-defense build, if they thought their scouting indicated a lack of aggression. Of course, they were not always correct, and occasionally 1 rax marines + hellions and other such early pressure proved to be trouble for excessively greedy techers.
Though there were a few 1/1/1 all-ins, most of the time the tech builds were followed up by a fast expansion. In many cases, the techer did enough early damage that by the time his expansion was complete, the game was in a very even state.
Followed by:
- Banshees
Aggressive harass was the trend during the Super Tournament, with banshees from both players being a common sight. Until players start over-committing on defense, going for flying, ranged DTs will continue to be a TvT mainstay. Since banshee vs banshee is pretty much a pure micro and multitasking duel, it's not surprising that highly skilled players who are confident in their skills keep steering games this way. - Blue Flame Hellion
Automatically punished anyone who rolled the dice and decided to play risky with only early marines as cover. Even progamers make blind, intuition based moves on occasion. Gave map control until the opponent had something better than regular marines, which was sometimes a very long time given the current trends.
Followed by:- Banshees
Combined with banshees and marines, blue flame hellions offer a pretty interesting 1/1/1 attack option that still transitions into expand pretty well. - Drop
This one didn't work so well this tournament, as progamers were all well prepared. Perhaps the players who used this build didn't mask it well enough? - Mech
One base blue-flame expand seemed to be the most popular way to setup a mech transition.
And as long as we're talking about mech... let's talk about mech.
Mech was surprisingly popular this tournament, though it didn't clear a 50% win rate. Besides MMA, none of the "top" terran players used this strategy. These elite players seemed more than happy to pick apart mech's weaknesses with a mobile marauder-medivac force. The problem with mech, for being so goddamn powerful when it's actually set, is that it gets totally, absolutely obliterated by marauders when it's not. It seemed that the best players with tip-top mechanics were always on top of when and where their opponents' tanks were sieged, and reacted to mistakes very quickly.
Against those players, you couldn't just unsiege half your army, move a screen away and re-siege. You had to siege un-siege, siege un-siege leapfrog your tanks the entire distance, or else 8 marauders were going to kill two exposed tanks and leave. And when that was forced upon mech, it became even MORE agonizingly slow.
Still worth it, for the ability to kill your enemy's army in a single volley.
- Banshees
Less Common but not Particularly Interesting Builds
Reaper Expand
For players who just couldn't live without knowing what their opponent was doing. The last time someone actually got hurt by a reaper in TvT was when Nada went two barracks reaper (one in proxy position) during the previous Code-S season. One rax reaper expand is purely a scouting build at this point.
DeMuslim's lame reactor barracks + hellion medivac elevator
MKP, 2010 called and said it wanted its build back.
Two Rax cheese into expand
With so many Terrans fast expanding, this might seem similar to playing two rax vs Zerg. However, you absolutely must do damage with two rax versus an expanding Terran or you'll get economically overrun very quickly.
Going CC before rax on Crevasse
When both players did this (happened twice), all it did was add another 1~2 minutes to the time it would take for the players to actually start doing interesting things. The problem with Crevasse is that its easy expansions aren't even necessary anymore to make games more macro-centric, because the game has naturally moved towards FEing and macro since the map was created.
Less Common but More Interesting Builds
Two rax ghost rush
Again, exploiting the fact that right now people are relying too hard on plain marines for defense and skipping bunkers. Like any other prolonged one base TvT build, you better do a lot of damage fast.
Any shield marine rush against banshees
A normal looking expand build that suddenly rushes into getting a massive amount of combat shield marines against a careless banshee expander. Now that this strategy has been used four times, I guess players will start building precautionary bunkers, or at least scout harder.
11 rax - 11 gas - slightly faster banshee
An exceptionally cute build that tries to exploit the fact that everyone knows the timing on the standard banshee builds, and prepares their turret timings and marine counts based on that. By cutting SCVs, this build LOOKS like a 12 rax 13 gas banshee build, but pushes the banshee ahead by a small but significant window (30 seconds or so). This build actually results in a pretty significant economic hit to oneself, but the wager is that getting in before the opponent is ready makes it well worth it. Note, this is actually slower than a gas first build, but gets a scout deny marine faster and looks very similar to a 12 rax 13 gas build.
Rainbow's blue flame hellion and thor drop
This didn't actually DO anything, but it was by far the coolest way to set up a mech transition.
Mech in general Vs. Anti-mech marauder-medivac-tank
Something that's just so fun for the sheer contrast. One is immobile, long ranged, impregnable when set. The other is quick and fragile, but can pack a serious punch when it finds a weakness. The marauder player might look better by virtue of having to be active and moving around, but it's more of a fine dance between two partners who have to know their roles well.
Hopefully, TvT will get some more love.
