MVP decided to ride the hot horse, hoping that Tails would keep right on track after finishing off both MVP and Nestea in rapid succession last week. NSHoseo, fresh off of a bye week, sent out Tassadar. From the builds you might have expected Tails was the one with the extra week to plan; while Tassadar went with a basic blink stalker expand build, Tails whipped out a pretty bizarre phoenix-immortal-zealot-DT push. I was really hoping Tails' wacky build would prevail, and for a few minutes it looked like he might. Unfortunately, while his DTs were able to drag Tassadar’s army back into his main, Tails totally missed his chance to forcefield them in. He did, however, manage to totally bork his macro trying, which ended up costing him the game when the inevitable counter attack came.

After a solid, but somewhat unremarkable, showing from Tassadar, MVP opted for Keen to snipe him. Keen came prepared with a more traditional build than Tails, feigning a one rax expand and then pushing out with a strong three rax marine attack backed by a slightly later expansion. Tassadar, having been lulled into a false sense of security by his scouting, was busy teching to blink stalkers and an observer and was caught with his proverbial pants down. He pulled a ton of probes and managed to just barely survive, but by the time the dust settled there were about 30 SCVs and about 12 probes.

That’s when shit got crazy. Somehow Tassadar’s meager funding turned into an army of blink stalkers, while Keen’s much more solid economic basis produced what seemed to be a mere handful of bio. The superior mobility of the stalkers allowed Tassadar to dance around, engaging fractions of the terran force at a time and slowly nibbling away. Keen’s overzealous stimming didn’t help much, and it began to look like Tassadar would overcome the incredible odds against him.



Alas, it couldn’t be. Eventually Tassadar over committed to an attack and lost too many stalkers that he just didn’t have the money to replace, and that was that.

I’m not sure if NSHS was impressed by Keen, and sent out Seal because they feared him, or if they just wanted to smash his silly face in to avenge poor Tassadar’s wrongful loss. Either way, they went with Seal. Keen whipped out another snappy build, moving out with a squad of marines on the ground and some blue flame hellions hidden in a medivac, but Seal swatted it away and got down to business. In this case, “business” involved beating the hell out of Keen with a pretty standard macro zerg, waiting for Keen’s three-base doom push, destroyign it with brood lords, infestors, and a killer flank, and then straight up winning.

MVP knew Seal was a force to be reckoned with, so they sent out one of their own top players: Genius. Genius moved out with what looked like a pretty slick timing attack just before Seal’s infestors came to fruition, but then he just turned it all around to chase some lings Seal slipped by him. Seal returned the favor with a brief push that ended up consisting primarily of infested terrans, dealing surprisingly much damage for the low level of commitment. Seal then rushed up to a maxed army before engaging Genius’ significantly smaller, but better composed army; some key forcefields and a generally superior unit set let 170 food of Protoss handily defeat 200 of Zerg. Let the lamentations of the zergs begin.



Next up from NSHS was Sculp, who rolled out a pretty standard MMM push against Genius’ double-forge build. Once Sculp’s first attack had been beaten off, Genius immediately took advantage of the tempo to snag his gold base. Sculp then rushed into a pretty significant drop on Genius’ main; even Tasteless and Artosis were a bit worried before a dozen stalkers blunk out of absolutely fucking nowhere to start shooting down medivacs full of units. From there it was all downhill for Sculp, peaking with the pair of offensive Nexuses Genius threw up in his natural.



Maybe Sage thought he saw something exploitable in Genius’ TvP, because he wasted no time sending Jjakji out to test it again. Genius obliged by playing almost exactly the same double-forge build...and that’s where the “flaw in his play” theory falls apart. JJakji played an incredibly passive game, and let Genius get a base ahead and get an upgrade lead. I’m not sure how he thought that was gonna work out, but it sure didn’t end up going well for him.

With that, Genius had fought his way through to the NSHS boss fight: Sage. And thus, the roulette wheel of PvP began to spin...



With PvP in the wacky post-patch state it’s in, it’s kind of crazy that both players settled on almost the exact same (pretty weird) build - warp prisms with speed and double immortals for harassing. Sage showed slightly better micro, but nothing game breaking. He also opted for more immortals, while Genius went straight to colossus. That turned out to be the decision the game (and match) hinged on. When Genius came knocking with three colossus, thermal lance, and a big pack of zealots, Sage’s immortal and stalker heavy force crumbled. NSHoseo’s hopes of winning GSTL in their first season crumbled with it, and MVP booked their second playoff win.

And they didn’t even use DRG. Holy shitballs.

I’m not sure what it is about Prime that attracts attention. Sure it could be their play, or their success, or the fact that MarineKing has attracted so much fervor that Reddit is sending him to MLG, but there’s something more.

It begins when they arrive, draped in the somehow cool Primezzang clothing, like some strange cult… but a cool cult, the kind of cult that wouldn’t have you in it. They’d look you up and down and shake their heads.

“Prime is not a team,” they’d say, “but a state of being.”

Game One:

The day opened with Bumblebee(Prime) versus (TSL)JYP. JYP opted for the forge fast expand, while Bumblebee opened with a 14 pool and picked up his expansion early. Bumblebee poked with his first few zerglings, taking down a pylon but with little other effect. At five minutes, he took his third to the south and was near-instantly scouted by a prescient zealot. JYP moved out with a sentry/zealot force, only to have his probe snatched up by roving zerglings.



As the game wore on JYP managed some impressive, if confusing, harassment with four sentries in a warp prism, ferried from base to base force fielding mineral lines so that they can’t be mined. A transition into stalker/immortal/colossus, a series of successful engagements (some light dark templar harassment) and solid force fields assured JYP’s victory. Things were off to a fine start.

Game Two:

Prime next fielded Annyung, another Zerg to face down the TSL Protoss. Annyung too opened with a 14 pool, while JYP repeated his fast expand. Annyung then took the gold base as his second and quickly moved up to three bases. JYP bumped himself up to seven gates and moved out with zealot/sentry, denying mining from the gold base and then taking down the rocks to smash Annyung’s newly completed fourth.

In the end, JYP’s well-upgraded stalker/sentry force, augmented by force fields, guardian shieds and blink, put paid to Annyung. As though that weren’t enough, he also dropped a manner nexus…

Game Three:

Prime’s last Zerg fielded was BBoongBBoong, who also opened with a fourteen pool, while JYP opted for another fast expand, this time with nexus before forge, and BBoongBBoong picked up his natural and a third in short order. JYP pushed up to seven gates, researching blink, but again it was solid sentry play that won the day.



Once the stalkers caught up with the zealots and sentries, already having caved in BBoongBBoong’s front door, it was over.

Game Four:

An increasingly flustered-looking Prime sent out MarineKing in an effort to defuse the JYP situation. This time, JYP opens with a gateway to MKP’s barracks, while MKP moved into his one rax, gasless expand. JYP responded by moving up to two gate stargate, using his stalkers and void ray to cover his expansion.



Having expanded, JYP moved up to five gateways, and MKP began to assemble what would be a sizeable tank/marine force. When MKP moved out, he caught JYP out of position, doing sizeable damage to his army. It was a position from which JYP never recovered.

Game Five:

TSL dispatched its resident 19th century man, Clyde, to face MKP in a TvT. MKP opened with a barracks, while Clide took his chances with command center first, allowing him to take his natural a little ahead of MKP.



From there, Clide opted for blue flame hellions, managing to delay mining from MKP’s natural until he was deflected by tanks. MKP then moved out with a similar marine/tank composition to the previous game, but had some of his strength dragged home by timely hellion harass. While he eventually pressured Clide’s front, it was turned aside without having done the damage it needed to. Immediately afterward, MKP dropped Clide’s main and killed a significant number of SCVs.

In the longer-term, Clide’s transition to mech play allowed him to strangle MKP’s bio, despite some impressive drop play and flanking.

Game Six:

Faced with Clide, Prime rolls out Creator, who opened with a one gate expand, while Clide went for a hellion expand, deflecting the hellion harass neatly. Having scouted extra gateways coming up for Creator, Clide dropped an extra three barracks and started to mass bio.



From there, Creator work on double upgrades and, though Clide tries to poke at him, he manages to do relatively little damage other than sniping an assimilator from the low ground. As though in response, Creator added three gates and started researching zealot charge and adding colossi to his mix.

In spite of Clide’s strength in positioning, Creator’s upgrades slowly won the game for him, with engagements seeming a little lopsided as the game progressed.

Game Seven:

Suddenly finding itself on the back foot, TSL’s response to the Creator threat was Heart, who took the opportunity to wall off on Bel’shir Beach and build a command center behind his barracks. Creator, by comparison, went for another one-gate expand, adding another two gates and a robo and, shortly afterwords, added two forges to start his signature double upgrades.



Heart postured outside Creator’s base with his bio, drawing Creator into an impossible fight and then, perhaps overzealous, chasing him home. Both players took an extra base, Heart’s a gold, and continued to play relatively passively.

Once again, when push came to shove, Creator’s upgrades gave him the edge he needed. While Heart did eventually make it to 3/3, he didn’t manage it before he had thrown his army at Creator’s front, like eggs against a brick wall.

Game Eight:

An increasingly off-balance TSL next sent their Zerg, Revival, in an effort to stem the flow of victories for Prime. Revival opened with gas before pool, while Creator continued his one gate expand spree.

Revival picked up his lair early, and Creator, bolstering his expansion with sentries, dropped a stargate to take a jab at the overlords and roaches Revival had stationed too close to his base. Revival then pushed in with the roaches, but finds himself blocked by forcefields and started researching ventral sacs.



In the meantime, Creator harasses with two void rays and a phoenix, knocking down Revival’s third, forcing a drop-based counter attack just as Creator was taking his own third. Bizarrely, the successful drop was cleaned up in seconds and Creator seemed to have none the worse for wear. There was a second drop, but it simply prompted a counter attack from creator that closed the game out.

Game Nine:

Realizing that they’re not facing a player, but some strange guillotine, the last TSL player sent to the block was aLive. Once again, Creator opened with one gate, while aLive sizes things up, canceled his second gas and expanded early once Creator’s scout was out of the picture.

Laughing in the face of the dummied double-gas, Creator expanded ahead of aLive and pretty much immediately started work on his double upgrades. aLive pushed at the right time, but was choked out by the few force fields left to Creator after the EMPs went down.



Once again, the upgrades were where the difference was made. Moreover, Alive seems to have disabled zealot charge until the last moment, giving him some interesting mobility options against aLive’s retreating bio force.


In the end Creator, and through him Prime, prevails. TSL finds itself not just roundly tested but soundly bested, and broken.

Take a look at the GSL or at the various top level solo competitions, it does not take a genius to realize that Protoss is an endangered species. As Zerg is starting to use their units to the maximum and Terran offers an endless amount of viable tactics and timing pushes, Aiur looks a little weak.

Protoss is in a slump: It’s not possible to win with a 4 gate anymore and most of the timing push (even if they are deadly) have been timed and figured out. The race is failing to renew itself.

Who is to blame? The players? Protoss itself? Most likely a little bit of both. But as it take some time to get through the process of the GSL qualifiers, many Protoss are showing new promising styles like Sage, Tails or JYP in the only place they can show their skill: the GSTL. In the end, the team league from GomTV transformed into a place of discovery and experimentation.



When 1.4 was released, all the talk was focused on the immortal range. What lots of people tend to forget was this simple but important line: [i]Warp prism: Shields increased from 40 to 100.

I'm going to go ahead and say it: the most underused unit in the game is the warp prism.
The unit not only allows transportation of troops, but also creates units everywhere on the map. How cool is that!? I can understand why people don’t use Carriers or Motherships, but when it comes to warp prism I can’t. Still, it seems this unit is used more and more and I’ve got a feeling you will see it used in every match up and in every macro game in the near future.



The game that started this speech is the opening match of TSL versus Prime. Going out of the MVP/IM match, the bar was set high and I wasn’t expecting to be impressed by a Terius vs JYP match. But as usual with the GSTL you have to expect the unexpected.

The map is Dual Sight. JYP spawns as our blue Protoss at the bottom while Terious aka bumblebee is our yellow Zerg at the top. Forge expand versus a quick second hatch, textbook PvZ.
Then as Terious denies every attempt from the Protoss and puts on a lot of pressure with his roaches and lings, JYP goes for a sentry drop while teching to Colossus. This is one of the new forms of aggression based on the prism change we see these days. Seeing JYP become so aggressive with the warp prism, I realized it accomplishes three important things:

• You can kill some drones
  
• You stop the mining of your opponent
  
• You force the Zerg to defend instead of macroing

The drop will come at the 11-12 minute mark. If the Zerg droned like a crazy person, which is more than likely, both his main and natural will be saturated by then. A saturated mineral patch (3 workers) will yield approximately 102 minerals/minute. (1.7 minerals / seconds) If you shut down the mining for 15 seconds, you will force a loss of 204 minerals (1.7 min/sec * 15sec * 8 mineral patch). Also if you manage to kill one or two drones you will inflict another 50-100 mineral loss. It is also likely to force some spine and spores.

In the end it inflicts a lot more damage than you might think, because you can do it multiple times and because you will have your war prism for the rest of the game. This drop is really important as Protoss in this match up is always looking for ways to make up for his lack of mobility while at the same time trying to put pressure on Zerg to prevent him from droning.



Watching this insane game filled with aggression made me realize how much the warp prism is a key component of the Protoss arsenal. It seems clear that it is still underused (special tactics aside). Don’t get me wrong, Protoss players are using it but, not as much as they should. In macro games Protoss should always have a prism, and in many they should get the speed upgrade. For the moment players rely too much on proxy pylons and not enough on warp prism.

Using this unit a lot more and perfecting its use would be good for Protoss and for the game. Many of the craziest Protoss games I can think of involve a prism: San vs Nestea on Shakuras, Socke vs Jinro on Desert Oasis off the top of my head. I am sure we are going to see more and more of warp prism action and I simply can’t wait.

Greatness lasts forever. Players, coaches, even fans come and go, their loyalty or interest changing. When your name is carved onto a trophy, you are forever embedded in the halls of history. It is physical manifestation of ephemeral ideals. It is training, dedication, concentration distilled from their abstract constructs and melded together in reality to create an object that will outlast any career.

Tonight two teams have the ability to earn that trophy. And they will be the first, the owners of a new way of recognizing teams and their ability to shine. No one will forget the first, the top name in a list that may go on for decades.

Both of these teams represent those who struggle, those who have naysayers assuming they cannot perform. MVP has been called one dimensional, needled for their heavy use of DongRaeGu in winning matches.

Prime barely entered the playoffs, relying on Fenix beating oGs out of their last games to be bumped into scoring position for the post-season. They are the blue collar, the hard working men whose achievements fail to manifest in such a way as to prove ability beyond the shadow of a doubt.

Today is their chance to show they are more than the sum of their parts. They are teams for whom individual titles have been fleeting, always just within grasp but remainning ever elusive. Now is their time to shine, to overcome past barriers and give all that they have. They have no choice but to leave everything they have in the booth.

The Team League has always been a prestigious Starcraft achievement. And now is finally the time when Starcraft II's team presence is more than a simple tournament, it is a regular league, complete with a season and regular round robin play.

Winning matters. More than ever before.