By most accounts, MLG Anaheim was a great event. Countless interviews, reactions, and reflections attest to this fact. But for those of you who happened to be Korean Terran players, it seems this tournament was extra special. The top four finishers were all Korean Terrans. Five of the top six were Korean Terrans (only one of the best Korean Zergs broke the pattern). The remainder of the elite eight? Two foreign Protoss players, one being trained in Korea and the other headed there.

Predictable as it was distressing, this beatdown somehow managed to hurt more than most.

There are important, wrenching, soul searching questions to be asked after MLG Anaheim. Why did this happen? Are the Koreans that much better than everyone else? Is Terran that much better than everything else? WTF blue flame hellions? And what on earth do we as a community need to do to avoid embarrassment on this scale again?


Jävla Terran imba!

A good deal of the Terran dominance shown last weekend had to do simply with the fact that five out of nine Koreans played Terran. But tempting as it may be to argue that this disparity in participation completely accounted for the disparity in the final standings, that argument covers only half of the picture. The Terran dominance at MLG mirrors the success of Terrans in Korea, as many people have noted and QQ'd about. Alongside the recently announced invitations of Bomber and MVP to MLG Raleigh, it forces some interesting questions: What exciting new Protoss and Zerg players are there to invite anyway? Was the choice of invites biased towards Terran simply because Terran is better?

Before MLG, much of the focus was on the nasty 1-1-1 TvP all-in attack which continues to be difficult to stop. Terran are seeing tremendous success with this strategy, most noticeable lately in the GSL Up/Down matches. Like many "OP" builds, it's too easy for a player without a plan or a clue to just defer to this build and have a fairly good chance of winning (similar to the way Protoss players dealt with Zerg's roach-ling all-ins earlier this year, I'm convinced the answer lies mostly in better micro, positioning and tactics from the protoss). MLG demonstrated on a large scale that Terrans have similar weapons in TvZ and (somewhat ironically) in TvT.

Blue flame hellion builds have been around for a while, but the major conceptual difference of the new school BFH builds is actually pretty simple: build even more of them. It doesn't really make sense from an efficiency perspective, as blue flame hellions do not become exponentially more effective as they grow in number the way that marines or sentries do.

Instead, the theoretical basis for blue flame hellions is pretty similar to the rationale behind MMA's aggressive drop play against Zerg. If just two blue flame hellions of ten make it to the mineral line, they can pay back the cost of the entire strategy. In SC2, there is simply no cheaper harassment unit than BFH's. As Zergs have become more adept at deflecting harassment from two, four, and six hellions, Terrans have simply upped the ante and made more hellions, and found more creative ways to ship them into Zerg mineral lines.

It's interesting that this trend has continued into TvT. It makes quite a bit of sense, of course, as Terran is usually in a hurry to tech, and thus is relying on marines to provide early game defense. Against hellions, that's far from adequate. But the popularity of BFH vs BFH battles in Anaheim brings back memories of the very best of BW TvT's, which often began with intense mass vulture battle. This was because in TvT the margin of error is was somewhat larger than any other match-up, and a later tank switch did not necessarily mean an auto loss. The case is similar in SC2, and thus the extended utilization of mass hellions past the point where counter units are out in numbers is a testament to growth among Terrans. More confident in their micro and game management, Korean Terrans are willing to take more risks in the early game to achieve a decisive economic advantage. Though much derided by the SC2 viewing populace, hellion TvT's are a sign of progress and growth in Terran players.

All of this brings us back to predictability. BFH's are a trend, not a one-time gimmick. They're predictable, deadly, but nowhere near un-counterable. In the later stages of Anaheim, DRG came out virtually unscathed against hellions (though he would lose to other things), while MVP especially showed how to capitalize on successful BFH defenses.

Frankly, there's really no excuse for how flat footed NA Zergs seemed to be against this kind of play. Unlike oGs's DT openings (used by HuK and MC at DreamHack and HSC) or LosirA's early roach ling play, blue flame hellions are tremendously old hat in Korean and European competition.

Sc2 strategies have an interesting history of being developed in Europe, perfected in Korea, and used on unsuspecting Americans. Anyone who has watched a European Zerg stream in the last two months has seen this style of play. Anyone who regularly watches GSL has seen similar variations of the "BFH harassment at any cost strategy". The consequences of not defending properly (SlayerS_Min, constantly) are bad. The consequences of not defending at all are MLG Anaheim.


Koreans imba!

The most obvious lesson that Anaheim taught us is the value of Korean training. We've heard this lecture before, but never before have we been taken to school so patently obviously and brutally. At Columbus, the Korean top three represented some of Korea's absolute best players. It's never been a secret that their best are better than our best. At Dreamhack, the Koreans dominated in similar fashion, but the ultimate triumph of a foreign born player masked the extent of Korean server dominance. Even at NASL - as mid-level Koreans swamped the qualifiers and PuMa and MC put on a show in the final - Sen and DarkForce offered a sliver of hope that maybe foreigners were catching up.

There's no argument now. The Korean invites easily dealt with their groups as expected, but the success of GanZi and Rain coming out of the open bracket was the killing blow to the myth of foreign capability. Excellent players, certainly, but far from the cream of the crop in Korea. And yet they demolished the best the foreign scene had to offer. Here are the totals. Koreans lost only five series to foreigners, all of them PvPs. No Korean Terran dropped a series to a foreign player during the tournament. The total number of Korean vs Foreigner series won by the Korean at MLG was... (are you sitting down?)... fifty five. The combined set record for Koreans against Foreigners in the Championship Pools and Bracket alone was sixty two wins against twelve losses.

This has been called a wake-up call. But we've hit the snooze button many times before.

The story of Korean dominance isn't just about practice time or team houses. That's a part of it, certainly. but it's also something explained more fully by social science. One of the most important reasons Koreans dominate is because the Korean network is located in a tremendously small area spatially and socially. Koreans don't just practice in close proximity to their teammates, they practice in close proximity to every other progamer in the GSL galaxy. Players in the Korean scene do not travel far for their tournaments. Their teams do not need to spend significant sums of money on travel, and can instead improve the practice environment of the teamhouses. The players encounter each other regularly. Many know each other from BW or from prior teams and clans. The Korean scene operates within the same time-zone. The pro teams operate on similar schedules. This is all a huge advantage. The Korean scene is the densest network in the entire gaming world, and perhaps one of the most focused in all of sports. That tight ball of yarn will beat the foreign scene's loose spiderweb every single time.

Dense networks breed innovation and hard work. The foreign scene is separated geographically, culturally, and socially in ways that directly inhibit our ability to compete. Not to mention the split between EU and AM servers, which promotes improvement about as well as the iron curtain. The results were disastrous at MLG. The American server looked like a backwater against the combination of blunt European ingenuity and smooth Korean refinement. The term foreigner or non-Korean is becoming antiquated nearly as fast as the Blizzard map pool. Though this was a tournament held in North America, the top three players who practiced primarily on the AM server placed 12th, 14th, and 18th. If it weren't for the Koreans, MLG would be free money for the Europeans.


Austerlitz, not Waterloo

Apologies in advance for the history.

At first I thought that MLG Anaheim might be our Waterloo, in which a much chastened foreign coalition would finally come together to end the the mighty Korean empire. However, it turned out I was looking too far forward. MLG Anaheim is better cast as Austerlitz, the decisive French victory often cited as Napoleon's greatest tactical victory, where the coalition forces of Europe were defeated and embarrassed by a vastly superior French army. As unbeatable as Napoleon seemed at the time, his reign was not long in the larger scope of history. His opponents learned, while he himself became overconfident. After shame, there was a recovery, and after recovery there was eventually victory. This must be the non-Korean path.



For the foreign scene, some steps are clearer than others. I'm deeply hesitant to criticize the recent development of several foreigner houses. There's no reason that this should hurt the play of these players. But there's equally good reason to be skeptical of how much a difference it'll make. The road to competing with Korea means learning from them. There is simply no 'western way' as some hoped with SC2's release. SC2 is not such an easy game that eight hour practice is the same as four hour practice. Furthermore, the answer includes more engagement, not less. That Koreans have discovered that our weekly cups and appetite for streaming is only a good thing. AM in particular needs much more in the way of weekly low-money cups. Tournaments must continue to aggressively recruit Koreans to come overseas. All of this will stem the bleeding. If the foreign scene takes its monthly medicine against Korean players, the gap that widened during the first half of 2011 might be stabilized.

Catching up is another story. It's been unlikely since the beginning that the depth of the Korean scene could be matched by the foreign scene. I admit, I have less ideas in how exactly to outperform a tried and true ten-year old system for ESPORTS dominance. I'm better as a critic than an adjunct ESPORTS professor. And of course, cost prohibitions are understandable. But there are some clear steps that can be taken.

I cannot imagine a way for foreigners to compete with Koreans that does not involve spending more money, or changing some of the big structural issues present in the foreign scene. A stronger network has to be built between foreign players and teams, through shared houses, clan leagues, and regular group practice. Blizzard needs to help out and remove the barriers between the EU, AM, KR, and CN servers. And we need to co-opt parts of the Korean system as well. The initiative of FXO in establishing a global network that includes Korea was very admirable in this regard. The cost of GSTL participation is extremely high, but the benefits of an extended Korean stay may be greater. GSTL should be a consideration for other teams as well for the sake of trying to remain competitive.

These coming months will be crucial. Another MLG is coming fast. And some of the brightest stars in the foreign scene have accepted the Korean challenge. Their success might be the most critical step in foreign development since FXO acquired fOu and Team Liquid established its partnership with oGs. Parity is slipping ever further from our grasp as the SC2 scene grows further and further imbalanced.

Boxer and Rain brought us one of the most memorable TvT's in SC2 to date. Though some view TvT as a slow and boring match-up to spectate, it is hard not to get excited over mass explosions, nuclear missiles, hunter seekers, and grandiose engagements combined in a symphony of glorious destruction.


Boxer spawned as red Terran at the 12 o’ clock position, and Rain spawned at 6 o’ clock as blue Terran. Following the dominant trend of the MLG weekend, both players opened up with a very quick refinery that allowed for a fast factory and immediately moved up to blue flame research. While both players continued to mirror each other by getting matching starports, Boxer landed the first blow by slipping a hellion raiding party into Rain's base and slaughtering ten of Rain’s SCV’s. Not to be outdone, Rain countered with hellions of his own, but through a drop instead. Rain also managed to kill a substantial amount of workers, evening the game up again.




Boxer continued the pressure, making effective use of several hellions at the front of Rain’s main to keep him feeling the heat. With a substantially earlier reactor on his starport, Boxer’s air force began to exert its dominance in the skies as he continued to wrestle map control away from Rain. Unfazed by Boxer's overall map control, Rain calmly look his third base with his superior tank force.

Boxer then blew his lead and grip on map control with an inadvisable assault on Rain's newly established third base, as defending tanks blew up hellions and ground-mode vikings alike. As a small consolation, Boxer finished expanding to this third during the engagement.

There was a follow-up slew of aggression and pressure from both players, but with neither player able to gain a significant advantage, the game began to transition into a typical TvT tank cold war as both players marked their territory with treacherous tank lines.




Rain began mixing Thors into his mech composition while taking his fourth expansion at the other natural expansion. On the hand, Boxer chose to take his fourth base at his gold expansion, planning to use it as a staging point for offensives. However, Rain proved to be too entrenched and the game plunged further into stalemate.

With the center of the map impassable by land, both players began switching to starport tech. Rain drew his sword first with battlecruisers, while Boxer responded with mass reactor-starports for vikings. With a massive battle looming in the future - but no frontal engagements possible until then - both players tried to gain advantages through other methods.

Boxer began the production of mass orbital command centers while sacrificing his SCVs to free up population; Rain surprised the audience and began to research hunter seeker missiles for his numerous Ravens.




Rain also took the initiative to soften up Boxer’s tank lines by landing his own offensive mules on top of Boxer’s tanks.




The first major engagement almost occurred when Boxer's took some Yamato potshots at Rain's gold base. The two forces were close to having a drawn out engagement, but Boxer was forced to immediately flee upon seeing five hunter seeker missiles flying towards his vikings.




Shortly after, Rain noticed that Boxer's slow discarding of tanks in favor of aerial units might allow him to make some progress on the ground. Using a combination of nukes, tanks, and mules, Rain began to make forward progress across the bottom left lane of the map.

In a move that would influence the outcome of the game, Boxer decided to ignore this push by land, as he already had more than enough money in the bank to need any further mining from the bases at 9 o'clock.

Rain continued his slow encroachement into Boxer’s territory using cheap and supply-free missile turrets to keep any battlecruisers from easilty thwarting him. With Boxer beginning to cycle Thors into his army, the minimap begins to display a slight advantage for Rain as Boxer became slowly cornered.




As Rain slowly took the over the 9 o' clock area, Boxer's widely spread production facilities began to come under pressure. Seeing that Boxer was unwilling to commit to a major battle, Rain slowly began to tighten his enclosure. Boxer was forced to lift his buildings into the rearguard, putting himself in a very cramped position. Rain continued to use nukes to chip away at the edge of Boxer's territory, though he would not do any significant damage.




Backed into a corner, Boxer finally decided to commit to a battle and find out who would win the game. As the screen erupted with missiles, lasers, and explosions, Rain successfully landed a critical volley of hunter seeker missiles on Boxer’s mass of battlecruisers and obliterated almost all of them. With the battle clearly lost, Boxer attempted to flee with his remaining vikings.






There was little left for Boxer to do as he could not fight Rain head on. As Rain moved in to start demolishing Boxer's buildings, Boxer attempted to force a draw by lifting his buildings to the corners and protecting them with vikings. However, he did not have nearly enough vikings left over to make this strategy work, and was forced to GG after his air force was wiped out.




Rain took game one after one hour and five minutes in game time.