EPTGroup F in Review
By: Waxangel
Group F: 
MVPsC, 
EGJYP, 
MVPDongRaeGu, MVPGenius
Match One: sC vs JYP
Game One –
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At first, it looked like JYP's PvT redemption quest was off to a good start. He opened with a greedy Nexus first build and easily thwarted a reaper rush from sC. Afterwards, he followed up with a little bit of four gate pressure into a well-timed third base. Against sC's Reaper expand, it seemed that JYP had taken up a solid economic lead.
However, everything fell apart for JYP once sC started attacking. sC's build saw his Reaper expand turn into a very tight 1/1 upgraded Marine-Medivac-Marauder timing, and he did an excellent dual pronged strike into JYP's third base as he double dropped the main. Though JYP had the troop numbers to repel both attacks, he lost focus and failed to defend either location. Force fields were late, Zealots got stuck behind Stalkers, and JYP's army couldn't do half as much damage as it should have.
With over 30 Probes dead and his main and third base gone, JYP was forced to GG.
Winner: sC
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JYP attempted a Nexus first build one more time, but was thwarted by sC's fast scout and offensive Engineering Bay. This forced JYP to make his Nexus at the spot where he would typically make his third base; a strange position for any Protoss player. Instead of exploiting this with an army cheese, sC decided to take advantage of the situation with more of an 'economic cheese.' Expecting JYP to play extremely defensively while trying to secure his natural as well, sC simply went for an extremely fast double expansion build. As it turned out, everything went according to sC's plan, and he went up to three bases against JYP's three bases.
After getting up some gateways off of his three bases, JYP went in for a terribly misjudged attack that swung the game heavily in sC's favor. After adding a few Ghosts, sC was able to take his superior army and take down JYP's third, all the while expanding to even more bases.
It looked like JYP was hopelessly behind, but he was able to slowly crawl back into the game by playing defensively and creating a splash damage death-ball. Though sC held more bases, JYP still had a powerful near maxed out army and a reasonable three mining bases (which is all you really need). However, sC knew exactly how to bust a Protoss in that situation.
sC performed an extremely impressive four-pronged attack, with three drops into various Protoss bases while a huge ground force attacked head-on. Much like the first game in the series, JYP wasn't able to deal with any of the attacks very effectively, resulting in the Protoss army getting split up and defeated on every front. sC received a very well-earned GG from his opponent.
Winner: sC
Game Three –
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Match Two: DongRaeGu vs Genius
Game One –
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In the first team-kill game of the night, everything played out in a fairly standard manner: Genius Forge FE'd, DRG double expanded. Genius went for a Gateway timing off two bases, DRG made Roaches and tried to defend. Genius had good force-fields, DRG couldn't really do much about it except press the R and Z keys some more.
All said and done, DRG ended up losing his third base and a significant but not catastrophic number of units. Genius was able to retreat and take his third base safely afterwards and wait until he had Blink and Colossi before moving out again. DRG was still in the game, but the pressure was on him to survive the very scary deathball.
DRG tried to use Mutalisks and Zergling backdoor attacks to buy himself time and force Genius to retreat, but Genius was ahead enough that he could afford to leave some troops behind to defend. DRG went for broke with an all-in backdoor attack, but only saw his army evaporate after a patient and calm Genius retreated back to defend. DRG admitted defeat and GG'd out of the first game.
Winner: Genius
Game Two –
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After a two base timing attack in game one, Genius changed it up by going for a quick third base on Bel'Shir Beach. DongRaeGu's plan was similar, getting fast third base, and then a fourth after he realized that Genius was going to be focusing on his economy as well.
The game was marked by patience and resilience from Genius, who didn't really feel the need to be terribly aggressive. DRG's aggressive style played into his hands, as he just sat at home and took out a variety of Mutalisk and Roach attacks DRG sent his way. If DRG was trying to shake up Genius, he wasn't doing a very good job. Genius's supply count kept climbing, and DRG's standing army looked more and more outmatched.
Naturally, DRG went for the base trade once Genius decided to move out with an army that looked clearly stronger. They say you never base-trade against Mutas, but at least this one time, the old adage proved to be incorrect. Genius's army had far superior firepower, and he had the foresight to build a large number of cannons at his third base. He had the time to clean up all of DRG's mining bases (and some of his infrastructure), and then return in time to save his last mining Nexus. At that point, DRG was forced to admit defeat once more.
Winner: Genius
Game Three –
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Winner's Match:
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Game One –
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What happens when you play Genius in lategame TvP? You lose the game! Whatever faults Genius may have had in the past, he's always been very good at playing long, macro PvTs. This game was no exception.
sC opened with an FE into 3-Rax Ghost timing, suggesting that a Daybreak game might actually end before there were six mining bases total on the map. However, he took a look at Genius's defenses, and decided that it would be better if they followed the typical pattern and split the map 50/50.
One peculiar part of this process was that Genius stayed on three-bases for quite a while, unconcerned with sC going up to four, then five bases. Only after he blocked off sC's many drops and various forms of harassment did Genius decide he needed to expand to further bases. Since maximum practical income is achieved off just three bases, Genius chose to max-out his army before stretching himself out.
As is typical with most games of this nature, there was a considerable amount of army movement and posturing, but very few actual engagements. sC tried to break the deadlock a few times with nukes, but never really achieved anything. In the meanwhile, Genius showed extreme patience, only taking pokes when he was certain there was very little risk. A warp-prism attack with a few Zealots and one quick Planetary Fortress hit-and-run; that was all.
sC got tired of waiting and decided to press the issue. He got off a strong volley of EMPs in the absence of Observers, which convinced him he had enough of an edge to charge in and attack. However, he did not have as big an advantage as he thought, and it ended up being a wash on both sides. After a few rounds of production, both players were back up to 200/200 and in the same situation as before.
Once again, sC was the one to lose patience first, charging into a fortified position. This time, sC made the mistake of trying to chase Templars too far with Ghosts, which only got his special operatives erased by Colossi. Genius then blanketed the Terran army with storms, winning a crushing victory. Now that he finally had a clear advantage, Genius went on the offensive. Having lost the core of his army, sC was unable to contest the snowballing Protoss deathball and GG'd out.
Winner: Genius
Game Two –
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sC went for an unusual Marauder + Reactor Hellion all-in off one base, while Genius went for a 3-Gate Blink Stalker rush. This proved to be a ridiculous build order rock/paper/scissor win for Genius, who won with minimal effort.
Winner: Genius
Game Three –
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Loser's Match:
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Game One –
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JYP brought a risky yet creative build, going for a Forge FE followed by a fast third base. His expectation that DRG would take a fast third base as well and forgo early aggression was correct, and it seemed that JYP would take a slight build order advantage. It probably would have been so, against any other Zerg. However, DRG proved that his mastery of Mutalisks and Zerglings was second to none by finding a weakness, and hitting it hard.
JYP re-positioned some Stalkers in response to what looked like some mundane harassment, only to have Zerglings run in and wipe out his unprotected Sentries. With those Sentries gone, he had nothing to stop a continuous stream of Zerg units that alternately attacked the three Protoss bases, always finding their way to the one that was the least defended. After losing many Probes and a Nexus, JYP was put into a tough situation. He decided he would try and attack with what troops he had, but that proved to be a mistake. DongRaeGu just back-doored with his army, removed a large portion of the Protoss base, and was back in time to defend himself. Without an army or economy, JYP GG'd out.
Winner: DongRaeGu
Game Two –
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JYP went for a 4-Gate +1 pressure into a 7-Gate all-in; not a terrible build by any means. However, DRG's perfect reaction made JYP's strategy look futile. Perfectly timed Roaches held off the pressure at the 4-Gate stage, after which he used two backdoor attacks to severely mess with the 7-Gate follow-up timing. JYP's attack failed miserably against DRG's mass Roach and Speedlings, and he was forced to concede defeat.
Winner: DongRaeGu
Game Three –
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Final Match:
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Game One –
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After his Overlord saw a suspiciously early SCV leave sC's base, DRG decided he would just hatch first anyway. Then he sent four Drones to the double-proxy Barracks location and easily stopped the attack before it happened. DRG had a huge economic lead after that, with sC resorting to a devious double-Starport play after taking a belated natural. However, Banshees never saw the light of day as DRG decided he would just end the game with eighteen Banelings. sC had nothing to defend with, and GG'd out quickly.
Winner: DongRaeGu
Game Two –
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DRG was unprepared for sC's double factory, double reactor Hellion build, and had to surrender several drones kills to sC as a result. DRG recovered fairly well for having taken early losses, and went for a Stephano-esque Ling-Infestor plan. However, he was facing a relentless macro-attacker in sC, and he needed to be in 100% shape to stop his continuous waves of Marines and Tanks. DRG put up a better defense than most Zergs could have hoped for, but in the end he was battered down by sC's endless armies.
Winner: sC
Game Three –
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DongRaeGu correctly read that sC would to try and exploit the wide-open natural on Dual Sight with a Marauder + Hellion timing, and built many Spine Crawlers in preparation. Though it looked like DRG was in danger at certain points, he managed to stave off the attacks without losing any of his crucial drones. From there, he transitioned into another upgraded Ling-Infestor strategy, a strange departure from his familiar use of Muta-ling.
However, fans of DRG had no need to worry as he showed the same degree of ZvT dominance with a ground-centric combination as well. From Ling-Infestor, DongRaeGu went up to Ultralisks. Though they've been widely panned as a shortcut to losing, DongRaeGu showed how powerful they could be in the right hands. With fungals to tie down sC's army and Banelings to erase Marines, Ultras performed their role as tanky powerhouses beautifully. sC was totally overwhelmed, and GG'd out of the game.
Winner: DongRaeGu
Notes and Comments
Wins come in fours: Perhaps Genius felt a twinge of jealousy upon seeing the Protoss President welcomed back by hordes of fans. 2-1, and 5-4 on map scores? What an amateur. Genius clinched first place in his group with four straight games against championship caliber opposition. That marks the third time Genius has had a 4-0 day (to my knowledge, a GSL record). On the other two occasions, he ran through four members of NS HoSeo in GSTL, and his entire Up-Down group to make it into the current Code S tournament.
It's been hard to figure out Genius as a player. For the longest time, we thought he had plateaued as a RO16 level Protoss player. He was solid enough to be mediocre, without a real spark to be great. He admitted as much in an interview, saying he had been unmotivated and content to retain Code S in the old format. Things might have changed.
Being consistent will keep you in tournaments, but being streaky will allow you to win them. What will the future hold for Genius?
Art Nouveau: Stephano is widely acclaimed as the player who popularized the double-evo Zergling + Infestor style, and the player who achieved the best results using that style as well. Though Stephano might be the face of this style, DongRaeGu's recent play makes me think that the young Frenchman might only be second best. Starting back in Arena of Legends III (King of Kongs), DongRaeGu used the so-called 'Stephano' style with brutal effectiveness. It's a difficult style, requiring great mechanics and map awareness to maintain map control and security without any sort of anti-air units. With some of the best mechanics in the West, Stephano made it work very well. So I suppose it's no surprise the Zerg with the best mechanics in the world is making it work for him as well.
In the finals of King of Kongs, DRG made MKP's famous Marine micro completely useless as he fungaled and swarmed his way to victory. The game against sC on Dual Sight looked like a repeat of those MKP games, where he used a quartet of Ultras, Lings, Banes, and Infestors to take apart the Terran army in record time. Seeing that DRG is already a master of Muta-Ling-Bane, it's scary where DRG could go with even more styles available to him.
Lamenting the macro map (Daybreak sucks): Move aside Terminus. I've found a new map where I can fast-forward to the eleven minute mark in every game. To an almost scary lack of exception, Daybreak means three base. While other TL staffers thought Daybreak was good enough to be map of the year, personally I'm finding the lack of variation on the map to be a pretty boring. Sure, the numbers say it's one of the most balanced maps in competitive play, and I like that for the players. But as a viewer, the horribly imbalanced Dual Sight 1.0 provided some much more entertaining, epic games.
It's funny, because as a reaction to a lot of early pro-SC II games ending far too early, the earliest non-Blizzard maps were all created to be very macro centric. Terminus, Crevasse, Tal'Darim Altar, etc. To a lesser extent, Dual Sight, Bel'Shir, and Daybreak have ended up in that direction as well (Dual Sight and Bel'Shir had to be made more three base friendly, because Zerg was owning too much face). I'm proud of Cloud Kingdom crossing the ocean and becoming part of the GSL map pool, but it's still one that's interpreted as an "Oh it's far too long to rush, let me take three bases and turtle." map (Leenock proxy-hatches not withstanding).
Now that we've seen a ton of macro games, and ton of boring macro games, might it be time for a change?
Code S, Group G Preview
By: Fionn
Protoss Hype Train 2012.
Group G: aLive, SlayerS_Brown, IMHappy, MarineKingPrimeaLive
Breaking News: Alive seems to be gone from TSL and is without team for the time being, but he will still be competing in this season's Code S after a strong showing last season, getting all the way to the quarterfinals for the first time before bombing out in embarrassing fashion against Leenock. He didn't show up for GSTL profile shooting, his Twitter name is sans the "TSL," and even GomTV.net has him listed as teamless.
Let's get this out of the way right now, friends. Alive is really, really, really good. I cannot stress enough how good this guy is when he is actually playing at his highest level. Along with MarineKing (we'll get to him later), Polt and Byun, Alive is one of the Ladder Gods in Korea, usually atop of the ladder for most of the season. This season is no exception, currently 1st in Korea with fifty more points than the second place player. When Alive is on his game, Alive is one of the best players in the entire world.
You can see flashes of brilliance when he plays at times in the GSL. He looked spectacular in the Round of 16 last season, going in strong against a weary Leenock in the quarterfinals who just got home after running the gauntlet at the MLG National Championships. It wasn't a lock for Alive to win that series, but he it was disappointing that he lost. What happened when Alive played Leenock last season is what has always been holding Alive back: his nerves.
Alive tried a cheese in the first game. It failed. Alive tilted. Alive then fell apart in the next two games, getting wiped out of the GSL without putting up much a fight. A lot of people say that MarineKing has the weakest mental strength of the GSL players, but to me, at this moment, I would put him second behind Alive. Someone with this much talent and skill should be known by more people. When you look at a group, Alive should be the player that makes casual viewers go, 'Wow, Alive is playing today! This is going to be awesome!'
Going into this group, Alive might be the least hyped or talked about player of the four, but if you asked me who has the best pure skill out of the four in this group, I would honestly say Alive. He's that damn good when he plays at his potential. Though, sadly, when it comes down to it, it doesn't matter how good you are on ladder or in certain games if you can't be consistent. With the probable changing of teams, this could be a new start for Alive. Will he become the consistent Terran force that he is capable of or will we see the same Alive that crumbled in the quarterfinals of the November season?SlayerSBrown
Can he do it? We've been down this road many a time, friends. Seed, Yonghwa, Alicia, Sage, Puzzle, Oz. All have been hyped up (captained by Artosis), and they have all at one time or another been the player that could have become the Hero of Aiur. Protoss has not made a final since Nestea wiped the floor with Inca in May of last year. Protoss has not had a GSL champion since MC all the way back in March of last year. This season, like many before, a new Protoss has been put before us with a lot of potential, and just like many time before, Artosis has said that this player is special and should be someone to watch out for.
Brown got into Code A without much fanfare. He was just another one of the guys from the SlayerS camp kicking ass in the qualifiers and qualifying for GSL. Going into his first series against Superstar in November, there still was not a lot of hype. He played well, but no one was really predicting that this guy was going to get into Code S. But he kept winning. He kept becoming more impressive with each set he played. By the time he vortexed Losira's army in Code A and got into Code S without losing a single game, a new Protoss Hype Hero was born.
There are a lot of expectations for Brown going into this tournament. When a month ago, no one even knew about Brown, he is now one of the most talked about players going into this season. His first two wins, over Superstar and Ryung were dominant, but neither player were Code S level when it came to vP. Losira was his only true test that made people start hyping him up, and Losira wasn't even able to make it into Code S this season.
So, what are you betting on, TeamLiquid? Will Brown be another Alicia? A hyped Protoss, expected to do great things, but falling from grace in a blink of the eye, straight into the depths of hell known as Code A and B? Or, will, somehow, someway, this Protoss from Slayers rise above the Artosis Protoss curse, make a trip down the Royal Road and live up to this new found hype following him? IMHappy
MiniVP continues to be one of the most underrated players in the Starcraft universe, continuing to be consistent and improving under his mentor MVP. His mech play has to be considered the second best in the world behind MVP's, only rivaled by oGs' SuperNova. Happy has actually brought a lot of new mech builds to the GSL, showing the power of different unit compositions and taking his opponents off their feet with his innovative play.
Sadly, for Happy, his strongest match-up, TvZ, which is at a ridiculous 15-2, will not be showcased on Thursday, having to play against two Terran and a Protoss. Take away his amazing TvZ, and he is only 50% against the other two races, even though he has had strong performances against tough opponents like DongRaeGu, MC and Genius, beating all three in the past few months in Korea. For Happy to get out of this group, he will need to use his mech style to his advantage against the more bio-prone players in Alive and MarineKing. MVP has shown that, when played correctly, mech should beat bio, but it'll be a hard test against two of the best bionic users in the world.MarineKingPrime
It's been a long time, MarineKing. Ever since the Super Tournament, MarineKing hasn't made a Round of 16 in any of the regular GSL's (not counting Code A) and hasn't been in a GSL final since his second loss to MVP almost a year ago. It finally feels like MarineKing is getting back in form, doing decently in both HomeStory and the Arena of Legends, and playing well in the past Code A season, getting past his idol Boxer in the final round, making a gigantic comeback in the third game of that set to get back into GSL.
I think Happy is the worst match-up MarineKing could have drawn in the first round. His mech play is patient and could frustrate MarineKing. If MKP wants to advance from this group, he's going to have to have some strong strategies planned and not jump into tank lines. If he can pick his battles at the right time and not suicide marines into the line of siege tanks, the rejuvenated King of Marines should have a great chance to make it out.
This will be a huge test to see if MarineKing can keep up with the newer age Terrans. A lot say that his bio play is going out of style, but if he can take down Happy, it'll be a huge statement that MarineKing is here to stay in Code S and definitely at the level of players who deserve to be there.
Predictions:
Brown > Alive
Happy > MarineKing
MarineKing > Alive
Brown > Happy
MarineKing > Happy
P.S: Artosis has to be right about a Protoss sometime, right? All aboard the new Protoss Hero Hype Train!
Art by Fishuu
Writers: Fionn and Waxangel.
Graphics and Art: Meko and Pony Tales (disciple and Lip the Pencilboy).
Editor: WaxAngel
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