EPTGroup C in Review
By: WaxAngel
Group C: 
IMMvp, 
FXOLucky, EG.IdrA, IMNesTea
Match One: Mvp vs Lucky
Game One –
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Mvp performed a double proxy Barracks Bunker rush, against which Lucky microed terribly. Mvp was able to take down the natural hatchery and force Lucky to waste a ton of Zerglings, giving him an insurmountable advantage which he capitalized on later for the victory.
Winner: Mvp
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After some generic openings, Lucky decided to throw a curveball and go with mass Roach + Baneling drops. Mvp, as usual, showed little desire to be unnecessarily aggressive, and safely took his third base and macroed up continuously. Upon hitting max population, Lucky tried a massive attack with his Roaches and Banes, which Mvp stopped easily with well spread Tanks and simple Overlord kiting from his infantry. Lucky had enough in thebank to try the attack a second time, which failed all the same. Afterwards, Mvp counter-attacked and won the game.
Winner: Mvp
Game Three –
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Match Two: IdrA vs Nestea
Game One –
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IdrA went for a fast Baneling all-in, skipping both Zergling speed and a Queen for a fast rush. On the other hand, Nestea went for a more or less standard gas-pool build. IdrA failed to do significant damage with his first three Banelings + Zerglings, and GG'd out once his retreating Zerglings were finished off by Nestea's Speedlings.
Winner: Nestea
Game Two –
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Nestea turned the tables on IdrA and went for an early game Baneling attack of his own. IdrA just couldn't do anything against the number of Banelings Nestea had produced and was forced to GG.
Winner: Nestea
Game Three –
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Winner's Match:
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Game One –
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Mvp went for a two base shield Marine + blue flame Hellion timing attack, which managed to hit Nestea when he had only speedlings and slow Banelings to defend. Nestea couldn't get off the speedling surrounds he needed to make the Banelings effective, allowing the Terran army to kite him to death. With speedlings as his only reinforcements, Nestea was forced to GG to the continuous stream of Marines and Hellions.
Winner: Mvp
Game Two –
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Mvp pressured Nestea's Hatchery first build with two-rax Marines, and then followed up with two more Barracks to turn it into an Marine SCV all-in. However, Nestea managed to figure out that something fishy was going on, and built three Spine Crawlers and a ton of Zerglings in advance. Nestea stopped Mvp's attack easily, and Mvp GG'd out after his attack failed.
Winner: Nestea
Game Three –
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Faced with Mvp's Reactor-Hellion double expand, Nestea prepared a massive two base Muta-Bane-Ling attack and went for a bust. It turned out he had more than enough forces to break through Mvp's defenses, and he was able to follow through and end the game with that single attack.
Winner: Nestea
Loser's Match:
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Game One –
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There was a Hatch first versus Pool first BO difference to begin with, but it didn't really matter as both players did the standard "take three bases a piece" thing that comes naturally on Daybreak. After they had secured three base economies, IdrA went for some Mutalisks before switching to standard Roach + Infestor, while Lucky opted for Hydralisk-Roach before his inevitable Infestor switch.
There was a dangerous moment for IdrA where he managed to kill off a Nydus Canal tunneling in his main with just seconds to spare, and the failed attack left Lucky a little bit behind on Drones as he had focused more on his army in hopes of succeeding with his surprise attack.
The game was decided as Lucky tried to take his fourth base, and IdrA came charging in with mass Roach-Infestor to contest it. The initial battle was a wash, but IdrA was able to follow-up with far more reinforcements + his leftover Mutalisks to sweep Lucky aside and take the first game.
Winner: IdrA
Game Two –
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Despite early game build order differences and some speedling + Baneling skirmishes, the two players ended up with two bases and practically even drone and populations counts when it was all said and done. Both players decided that they would try to press the issue before Lair phase, with IdrA going for a Roach + Baneling attack while Lucky massed Roaches for a +1 ranged attack timing. Lucky's strategy turned out to be a soft counter to IdrA's, giving him just the right army size and unit composition to thwart IdrA's attack. Lucky was left with enough forces to counter-attack not long after and collect the GG.
Winner: Lucky
Game Three –
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With both players reaching three base Lair without any hassle, the game was decided by their diverging choices at that phase. Lucky went for a large pure Roach attack, while IdrA tried to put together a mixed Roach-Hydra army. Through luck or design, Lucky hit IdrA before he could gather his Hydralisks in a firing line behind his Roaches, crushing IdrA for the series win.
Winner: Lucky
Final Match:
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Game One –
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This crazy, unique game saw Lucky daring to challenge Mvp in the three time champion's favored 50/50 map split, max-out army scenario. While Mvp went for mixed mech, Lucky went for a rarely seen but entirely sensible counter in mass Corruptors, Brood Lords, and Infestors. Besides Queens and Infestors, Lucky did not even bother with ground units.
This put Mvp in a strange situation where he found his tanks - a fair chunk of the population in his army - rather useless in a head on fight. So instead, he sent his tanks around the map to kill off Lucky's bases uncontested, a move that only worked because of Lucky's unusual and incredibly immobile army composition.
A base trade scenario ensued where Lucky easily cut through Mvp's Vikings and Thors, while the tanks hurried to tear down Lucky's buildings. Though Lucky had a far superior army, he actually had to turn back at one point to save himself from elimination, which was a very slow process since the only units he had that could attack ground were Brood Lords.
Lucky managed survive with just a handful of Spine and Spore crawlers, which he uprooted and hid under his cloud of airborne units as he returned to finish Mvp off. Though Mvp had built a considerable number of Vikings during the brief respite, they were no match for the combination of Infestors and Corruptors. Mvp GG'd out after a one-sided final battle.
Winner: Lucky
Game Two –
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Lucky needed his drop defense to be perfect as he went for a Ling/Festor build without Banelings, but he faltered for a second and took a huge amount of damage to a simple two Medivac Marine + Hellion elevator. The situation hurtled out of control for Lucky, and Mvp was able to secure the win with continued drops into Lucky's main.
Winner: Mvp
Game Three –
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Similarly to game two, it seemed like Mvp had done a catastrophic amount of damage to an unprepared Lucky with just a handful of stimmed Marines and Hellions in the mid-game. However, Mvp played it extremely passively from there on out, allowing Lucky back into the game.
From there, the game progressed to yet another map-split, max-out fight. This time, Mvp decided not to mess with Mech, and went with his preferred combination of Tanks, Marines, Thors, Vikings, and MASS Ghosts. Lucky on the other hand, tried to go for the same composition from Bel'shir Beach, with mass Corruptors and Brood Lords backed by Infestors.
However, with Mvp using his true ultimate combination, the result was completely different. Mvp constantly utilized the mobility advantage of his composition, dropping, nuking, and sending splinter forces everywhere to cripple Lucky's econ and infrastructure. After frustrating Lucky into attacking, he nullified the entire Zerg army with Ghosts. EMPs took care of the Infestors, while snipe finished off the Corruptors, leaving the Vikings to polish off whatever remained. Left without an economy or army, Lucky GG'd.
Winner: Mvp
Notes and Comments
Class is Back in Session: The last three months of 2011 threatened to shake up the Zerg world order in Starcraft II. Nestea dropped from tournaments, lost his first ZvZs in forever, and was even exposed by a handful of foreigners. It wasn't just the losses that were surprising – it was how he lost. The Professor had made a career of always being the smartest guy in the studio, and it often looked like he knew more about his opponents than they did themselves. Seeing Nestea in what seemed almost clueless losses was a shock to many.
With Nestea weakened, DongRaeGu and Leenock were able to challenge for the Zerg throne. Though they didn't have the cerebral flavor of Nestea, their extraordinary mechanics saw them tear through opponents with a brutality we rarely saw from the Professor. Though they did not win GSL championships, their respective runner-up finishes saw them briefly overtake Nestea.
Three days into Code S, it looks like Nestea has discovered some time reversal formula. Nestea once more looks like he can read minds and play games on Mvp's level, while Leenock is yet again looking like a one match-up wonder. If DRG gets knocked back to Code A, then I will start to suspect that some of Artosis' hyperbole is actually true, and that Nestea really can warp reality.
Is it too early to say he's back? We held back for two months over dozens of games to finally decide it was okay to say Nestea was slipping. Taking that into consideration, declaring his return after a day and five games might seem odd. However, for a someone who won two GSL championships last year, I think we can say those are acceptable conditions.
Slow as Molasses: You know an army is immobile when it allows the opponent to backdoor with TANKS. Though Brood Lords can certainly pack a punch, recent GSL games make me wonder if the lack of mobility is worth it. Against DRG's Brood Lords, MMA used drops and small army groups to awesome effect in the Blizzard Cup finals. Mvp made a great demonstration of how to abuse Zerg immobility today, and he's done it quite a few times in the past as well. On the other hand, you could say that ForGG's head on confrontation with Leenock's Brood Lords and his lack of harassment tactics lost him a game a few days ago.
It's just depressing to see Zerg players build up a decent bank, allow their expansions to die to drops, and realize later that it wasn't a big enough bank. At the very least, GSL Zergs going up against top level Terrans are going to need some kind of mobile clean-up force to stay home while their Brood Lords press forward. That, or a gazillion spines and spores at each base. (At this point, Zerg players will chime in and say neither is practical, and thus TvZ is imba).
Beating a Dead Horse: After seeing the final game of Mvp vs Lucky, I hope maybe a few of the "Nestea threw games against Mvp at Blizzcon" people might be converted. Alright, Lucky's bank never hit 10,000 (it stopped at around 4,000), but he was in a similar situation. He had a gigantic death army, plenty of money, and was incredibly reluctant to take any kind of offensive action. When he was finally forced into an attack after getting beat silly by harassment, he lost his expensive Hive army in a matter of seconds to a hail of snipes. Guys, ZvMvp is just really, really hard. That's all there was to Lucky's loss, and to Nestea's.
Accidental Winners: Turns out that Mvp and Nestea are not the only winners in this group.
- Naniwa: Everyone who gave him crap for dropping out Code of A to Lucky twice can zip it now.
- Jinro: For yet another season, the best ever foreigner in GSL.
- Terran Players: How many combined free ladder points do you think they'll get from that Entombed Valley Bunker placement?
- Naniwa, again: Cue the "Naniwa could have got through!" arguments.
Code S, Group D Preview
By: Fionn
From the shadows he comes.
Group D: 
FXO_z, ST_Curious, ST_Bomber, oGsInCaFXOz
The Wizard of Aiur had his best performance yet in the GSL last season, getting all the way to the semifinals and one set away from beating eventual champion Jjakji and making his first ever Code S final. A lot of people were surprised with his success last season, but the former Brood War player from Hite Sparkyz has shown potential for a long time now. To be fair, his semifinal performance wasn't his best and left a bad taste in the mouths of many of his fans, but he has the skills to get back to the semifinals and maybe even a final.
He is going to have a hard group, though. He will be meeting his old friend Curious first off, the man who completely embarrassed him in the Code A finals, sweeping him in a quick 4-0 that finished a perfect season for the Zerg from Startale. Beyond that, he also has to face one of the best TvP players in the world (Bomber) and one of the best PvP players (Inca) to get out of the group. It's going to be a hard road, but Oz has shown us that he has magic on his side and shouldn't be disregarded when it comes to the very best in the GSL.STCurious
Curious has had a very unusual last couple of months. Back in October, he crushed everyone in Code A, not dropping a single game and staking claim as the first player to ever go through Code A without dropping a single set. Then, with all the hype around the new Zerg Hope, he lost two quick games in his first Code S group and was dropped directly back to where he began. Worst of all, his first match was against the underexposed but extremely skilled TheStC from oGs. It was a close battle between the two, but Curious made it out and got his second chance.
He did have some luck on his side, however, with Coca dropping out of GSL, giving Curious a forfeit victory in the Round of 24 and a free pass back into Code S. Now, back for the second time, it's time to see how good he really is. I was hyped for his debut in Code S, believing from his Code A performance that he could seriously contend for at least a quarterfinal appearance, but he wasn't even able to show his true skills in his first two games. A quick loss to MKP's cheese was followed by his throwaway of an all but assured victory against Alive in the Losers' Match.
Don't sleep on Curious, people. He might not be the flashiest zerg like DongRaeGu or one with a history of domination like Nestea, but he's dangerous. People have already forgotten how much terror he caused in Code A and could be looking past him coming into this event. If Curious can play against Oz like he did in the Code A finals, then Oz shouldn't have a chance unless he improved two fold against Zerg since that match. STBomber
Alright, Bomber. It's time to stop losing before getting to a semifinal. You have somehow, even with all the skill you posses, never made a GSL semifinal (not counting Code A) and have even been slightly forgotten with the new hype train ForGG coming into the station (derailed). This might be good for the Startale Terran, as most of the attention for his race now revolves around MVP, MMA, and ForGG, and not having a massive amount of pressure bearing down on him for the first time in his career could do him some good.
I truly believe Bomber has all the tools to at least make it to a final, but he needs to overcome himself to get there. He's dropped series that he has all but won and hasn't been able to get over the quarterfinal hump. Looking at this group; he should be favored heavily over Inca and decently over Oz. Against Curious, it could be anyone's game, Bomber's TvZ being his weakest match-up and Curious' weakest also being ZvT. Add in the fact that they're teammates, and I would expect some non-standard games if they face off.
It's almost been a year since Bomber came onto the scene, and we're still waiting for his breakout season. It looked like it would happen in July, when he was only a win away from getting to a semifinal, but he lost three straight games to Byun in the biggest choke in the history of GSL. The time for hype and talking up potential is over. It truly is now or never for Bomber. MMA and MVP are improving rapidly, ForGG is only going to get better, and young Terrans such as Keen, and sC might pass him by if he doesn't start putting it together. A quarterfinal appearance shouldn't be a good tournament for a player like Bomber.oGsInCa
I really don't need to write a preview for the Dark Knight, The King of Templars, the Incredible Inca himself. All I have to say is this:
When you play the Games of Inca, you either win or you die to Dark Templars.
Predictions:
Curious > Oz
Bomber > Inca
Bomber > Curious
Oz > Inca
Curious > Oz
Bomber and Curious advance
Art by Fishuu
Writers: Fionn and Waxangel.
Graphics and Art: Meko and Pony Tales (disciple and Lip the Pencilboy).
Editor: WaxAngel
sad that idra couldn't advance but what can you do
