EPTGroup E in Review
By: Waxangel
Group E: 
SlayerS_MMA, FXOGuMiho, 
SlayerS_YuGiOh, Liquid`Zenio
Match One: MMA vs Gumiho
Game One –
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In one of the more hilarious build order + strategy mismatches we've seen in a while, MMA went for a proxy Barracks+Factory to perform a Marine+Tank push (similar to the ones he used to great effect against Mvp in the GSL October finals), while Gumiho did an extraordinarily greedy FE with extremely late scouting to boot. MMA walked into Gumiho's base, saw no units, and finished the game.
Winner: MMA
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By opening the match with a proxy Barracks Marauder rush, MMA started a chain of endless aggression and counter-attacks that didn't stop until the very end.
Gumiho countered the damage taken from that Marauders with a Banshee, which MMA then countered by backdooring with Reapers, which Gumiho countered with another Banshee, and so forth. Basically, the game was a repetition of one player gaining an advantage (economic or military), and the other player striking and regaining ground almost immediately. What enabled this was the extreme aggression on both players' part, which always left the backdoor open for some kind of counter-attack.
In the end, it was MMA's superior multi-tasking and battle micro that allowed him to accumulate enough small advantages to turn them into a victory. Also, Gumiho's sub-optimal use of his Viking army played into his defeat. Often, his Vikings would be caught in the incorrect location despite their mobility, and sometimes they were in the incorrect mode as well. However, considering how ragged MMA was running Gumiho with his aggression, it's hard to blame Gumiho too much.
Winner: MMA
Game Three –
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Match Two: Zenio vs Yugioh
Game One –
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Despite going expansion before Pool, Yugioh was able to hold off a ten Pool attack from Zenio very well. However, he the either misread Zenio's follow-up or played too greedily, getting three Drones instead of a Baneling nest ASAP. Zenio had gone completely all-in by following with a Baneling Nest and Zergling speed, and struck before Yugioh could deal with Banelings at all. As expected, the player with Banelings beat the player with slow Zerglings.
Winner: Zenio
Game Two –
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Opening Gas-Pool against Yugioh's fast expansion, Zenio smelled blood and pumped a large number of speedlings to try and deal some damage. Though he killed around ten Drones and two Queens, the game actually ended up evening out after his early assault due to Zenio's heavy investment in Zerglings.
From there, it was ZvZ on Daybreak as usual, with both players avoiding aggression until they both established solid three base economies and Lair stage tech. Yugioh went for a few Mutas before switching to the standard Roach + Infestor, but was unable to achieve much with his flying units.
The crucial battles of the game ended up being fought towards the right-center of the map, where Zenio tried to take a fourth base and Yugioh tried to deny it. Yugioh did manage to stop Zenio's expansion, but had his own fourth base countered as well during the melee. Overall, Zenio fought the Roach wars better than Yugioh, and had enough of a buffer to add a number of Hydralisks into his army as well.
With the addition of Hydralisks, Zenio created a force that Yugioh just couldn't beat. Though the defender's advantage from the long ground distances kept Yugioh alive for a while, it was only a matter of time before Zenio's superior armies battered him down.
Winner: Zenio
Game Three –
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Winner's Match:
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Game One –
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MMA began to strangle Zenio from the get go and never let up. He followed a fast expansion with Reactor Hellions and a Banshee, using those units to constrain Zenio's creep spread while delaying his third base for a very long time. Back at home, MMA played with typical SlayerS greed, getting up a fast third Orbital Command Center while getting Mech units. Every step of the way, MMA simply had more units than Zenio, and used aggression at the right times to force him into tough situations where he could either fight or counter - both of which were bad decisions. Zenio was just overwhelmed by MMA's superior play and was forced to GG out.
Winner: MMA
Game Two –
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Once more, MMA stayed ahead of Zenio from start to finish. Opening with an FE into Marines and blue flame Hellions, MMA never let up the aggression. A combination of drops and ground attacks constantly kept Zenio on his toes. Each time, it looked like Zenio had performed a great defense, but the supply counts showed that MMA was leading anyway. MMA kept throwing stuff in Zenio's general direction while he expanded and became stronger, as if the success or failure of his attacks didn't even matter. This continued until MMA had grown so massive that Zenio just couldn't keep up, as the small harassment forces had grown to the size of formidable armies.
Winner: MMA
Game Three –
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Loser's Match:
+ Show Spoiler [Players] +
Game One –
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In a straight forward game, Gumiho lost to a two base Muta-Baneling bust after he got Siege Mode just a little bit too late after wasting units on fruitless harassment.
Winner: Yugioh
Game Two –
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This game was a bit confusing and very ugly. After both players opened with normal FE builds, Yugioh seemed to check out of the game completely as he let Gumiho simply kill his expansion attempts and do whatever he wanted. On the other hand, Gumiho was surprisingly passive for the large army lead he had, and fought rather poorly when he did choose to move out. Still, Gumiho couldn't really lose given what can only be described as a general lack of interest from Yugioh. A bizarre game in general.
Winner: Gumiho
Game Three –
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For the second game in a row, Yugioh looked very off. He did a great job to stop Gumiho's pressure and harassment in the early mid-game, successfully securing the fourth and fifth bases that are often difficult for Zerg to take on the Antiga. However, Yugioh played incredibly wastefully from this position. He was unaware of a hidden base Gumiho had secured, and thus thought Gumiho was near death when he was very much alive. Sloppy play from Yugioh saw him wasting units, losing bases to drops, and just slowly letting his lead dwindle away until Gumiho reversed the situation entirely.
Winner: Gumiho
Final Match:
+ Show Spoiler [Players] +
Game One –
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There were some interesting parallels to be drawn between this game and Zenio's game against MMA on Bel'Shir Beach. In both games, the Terran player fast expanded, and then followed with incessant pressure and harassment while trying to slowly build up his empire at home. However, Gumiho either wasn't as good as MMA at that aspect, or Zenio had figured out how to react much better. Whereas Zenio had stopped MMA's pressure and still found himself behind in many cases, he found himself swatting away Gumiho's attacks and slowly building up a comfortable lead. Eventually Zenio built up a strong enough economy and army that he was able to overwhelm Gumiho on all fronts to take the game.
Winner: Zenio
Game Two –
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Game two demonstrated how failing to stop Gumiho's initial harassment can cause an endless spiral of pain. Zenio's Queen, Zergling, and Baneling micro wasn't up to par against Gumiho's Marine-Hellion elevator, and he paid for it by losing eighteen drones. Losing Drones led to less units, less units led to less security against harassment, which in turn led to the loss of even more Drones and infrastructure. Rinse and repeat for Gumiho. Zenio just barely kept up with Gumiho's population count, which wasn't enough to stop him when the final death push came.
Winner: Gumiho
Game Three –
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Gumiho opened with two semi-proxy Barracks against Zenio's fast expansion, and was rewarded by killing the Hatchery and getting massively ahead. Zenio pulled back slightly with a Baneling bust that did a little bit of damage, but Gumiho retained that little edge he needed to win the game. The game played out like the one on Cloud Kingdom, where Zenio managed to barely hang on until Gumiho decided to finish the game with an overwhelming army.
Notes and Comments
Disappointing, but advancing: Gumiho advanced as many people expected, but his performance was not the most inspiring. His TvT looked flat as usual, but even his vaunted TvZ wasn't looking so sharp. Against Yugioh – who was panned by Tastosis for showing quality of play that belonged in 2010 – Gumiho just barely got through after struggling for three games. Though he made it into the next round, it was still a disappointing outing for a rising player who has played much better in the past. Even FXO Head Coach Choya had to make a tweet to make up for Gumiho's uncharacteristic performance: @FXOChoya "today , gumiho's condition wasn't good so he didn't play well but , he practice very well and has really good skills so plz look foward to watch his ro16 !"
Let's not do the time warp again: Tasteless was a little bit too harsh when he said he felt like he was back in GSL Open Season III upon seeing Yugioh's play, but only just a little bit. Facing Gumiho on Crossfire, Yugioh moved his units around the map without a shred of purpose, allowing his Terran opponent to do whatever he wanted. His decisions to engage or back off seemed almost random at certain points in the game, and at no point did it seem like he had a long term strategy for winning. Yugioh has shown he can play much, much better, but at least for one game he seemed completely out of place in 2012.
An alternative to mech and bio: Mvp makes mech look stupidly solid and reliable in TvT. On the other hand, Polt might convince you that going bio will always let you be one good engagement away from winning the game. However, if we look at MMA's recent TvT games, I think we have a valid third option: Cheese. them. to. death.
After smashing Mvp at Blizzcon with some smart one base all-ins, MMA repeated that performance at the Blizzard Cup with even more cheesy tactics. Against Gumiho, he made it three TvT series in a row where all-ins factored in heavily (he even used one of the same builds he used to beat Mvp).
Obviously, MMA can only do this because he has good standard TvT which he can force opponents to prepare for while he goes for something sneaky instead. However, none of the other Terrans with good normal TvT mix in all-ins to the degree of MMA, even though you might think it would let them win a few more games. By my purely anecdotal analysis, it seems that all-ins are underutilized in TvT right now compared to their success rate. Maybe more GSL Terrans should take a leaf from MMA's book and make it a bigger part of their games.
Code S, Group F Preview
By: waxangel
The MVP Team-Kill.
Group F: MVPsC, 
EGJYP, MVPDongRaeGu, MVPGenius
If Starcraft II is anything like its predecessor, then we should know to expect the unexpected from the MVP team-kill matches. It's been proven that when two players are familiar with each other's styles, they sometimes simultaneously try to play mind games to take advantage of that style, resulting in some very bizarre games. So keep your eye out for the MVP vs MVP games; you might see something unusual.
DongRaeGu is the obvious pick to top the group. Without a doubt, this is the best form he's ever been in. In his runs through MLG Providence, Blizzard Cup, and King of Kongs, we've seen that his ZvP has improved massively, and that his ZvT is even stronger than before – if that were even possible. Genius and JYP shouldn't pose that much of a threat, but sC can play some very brutal macro TvZ. DRG has had trouble in the past with Terrans that specialize in throwing endless waves if troops at him (as seen in his games against SuperNova or Ganzi), so a second place finish could be in the picture if sC can beat DRG in the winner's match.
I feel that sC should have been a GSL finalist months ago, but it never really materialized. Sure, he was coming up at a time when macro-abuse Terran was all the rage, but I would contend that he did it THE best out of anyone. Then he started suffering from chronic collapsed lungs, which put an end to his upward progress after a GSL top four finish. It's hard to say how much his medical condition affected his ability to improve as a player, but considering he's tweeted about days where he couldn't do anything but lie down and suffer, I'll assume it was pretty damn bad. Through all that, sC has somehow managed to stay in the upper echelon of Terran players, and has kept his place in Code S.
This isn't a sure-fire advancement group for sC by any means, though he's probably the second best player. JYP will be a PvT free-win until he proves otherwise, so sC can feel okay about his first game. Of sC's teammates, Genius might be distinctly average in a lot of people's eyes, but he does happen to play straight up, late game PvT extremely well. Add the team-kill complication, and that's anybody's game. As for DRG, I feel like sC has a decent shot against him in straight up games, as mentioned above.
JYP has been distinctly self conscious about his reputation as a vsTerran disaster, making frequent tweets about his determination to overcome that hurdle. Even so, he must have been jumping for joy after seeing he only got one Terran player in his group, with 46% of the players in Code S playing Terran. It would be a good baby-step for JYP to overcome one Code S caliber Terran opponent.
JYP scored a victory against DRG back in the days when DRG was known for being bad at ZvP/bad at GSL, but it's a distinctly changed DRG he'll be facing this time around. JYP's ZvP style resembles his friend, HerO's at times, and DRG has slight edge against the former oGs Protoss. Against Genius, well, that's PvP, so who knows how that could go? That leaves his game against the Terran of the group... I guess we'll see if he makes good on his promises to live up to expectations. Overall, JYP does seem like the weakest player in the group, but only by a slim margin.
Finally, we have Genius. He's the last in the class of Protoss players like Killer, HongUn and Tester, having been around forever yet receiving a strangely low amount of attention. Instead of waiting for JYP, HerO, and Sage to figure it out, why not support a reliable old warship for a change? Though not on MC's level, Genius can use all of the tried and true Protoss tactics proficiently. Two base all-ins in PvT. Turtle into Death-ball in PvZ. Flipping a coin in PvP. We've seen in the past that if you can execute those three things well, it's worth a semi-final run. I'm not saying it will be easy for Genius to get past monsters like DRG and sC, but we should give the veteran his due respect.
Predictions:
sC > JYP
DRG > Genius
DRG > sC
Genius > JYP
sC > Genius
DRG and sC advance
Art by Fishuu
Writer: Waxangel.
Graphics and Art: Meko and Pony Tales (disciple and Lip the Pencilboy).
Editor: WaxAngel
And to top it off, was baller doing that 
loved that stalker dance and other celebrations ^^
