EPTTable of Contents
Group B, Week One
Intro
Startale vs NS HoSeo
Match Results
IM vs TSL
Match Results
Sea[Shield] and the Team(only) Player
Opinion
Check out the GSTL on Liquipedia
Group B, Week One
Is it a coincidence that the GSTL brackets came out this way? Last week featured a disintegrating ZeNEX team going up against the Old Generation, which recent picked up new sponsors in MSI and Razer, not to mention a partnership with eSahara. For just one of those, ZeNEX would have gladly sacrificed a limb and a half. In that duel, the destitute but scrappy ZeNEX put up a good fight, but were defeated by oGs ace Supernova in the end.
Though it's not quite the same level of disparity between haves vs have nots, Team SCV Life and Incredible Miracle presented a similar tale. One team couldn't stop losing members, and the other couldn't stop winning championships.
People love to cheer for the underdog; F.United, TSL, Prime, and NS Hoseo were some of biggest fan favorites last season. But GomTV, you really have to give them a chance to build some momentum first, before you toss them into the lion's pit.
The double elimination format might give every team a second chance, but it's truly become an unforgiving, survival of the fittest GSTL world in 2012. May the best teams prevail, and the underdogs pray.
StartaleQ
NS HoSeo
Game One – Bomber vs Sting –
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Antiga Shipyard
The first game ended up being a more or less build order win for Bomber. He went for the recently popular proxy-barracks marauder rush, a great early attack option against Sting's gas-first banshee rush. Bomber's well microed marauders were able to take down a over 10 SCVs before Sting could finally stop the attack, and even caused a supply block to delay Sting's vital banshee.
Bomber simply had a better economy, and thus a bigger army after that point. He crushed Sting in an engagement out in the middle of the map, and forced the GG.
Winner: Bomber
Startale (1 – 0) NS HoSeo
The first game ended up being a more or less build order win for Bomber. He went for the recently popular proxy-barracks marauder rush, a great early attack option against Sting's gas-first banshee rush. Bomber's well microed marauders were able to take down a over 10 SCVs before Sting could finally stop the attack, and even caused a supply block to delay Sting's vital banshee.
Bomber simply had a better economy, and thus a bigger army after that point. He crushed Sting in an engagement out in the middle of the map, and forced the GG.
Winner: Bomber
Startale (1 – 0) NS HoSeo
Game Two –
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ST_Bomber vs NSH_Seal – Bel'Shir Beach Winter
The theme of game two was disarray and confusion. For the first half of the game, it looked like your typical macro TvZ game, with Terran throwing waves of troops against Zerg to try and out-trade him, and the Zerg playing defense while trying to get to hive.
The game turned weird when Seal decided to give up one of his expansions to go for a massive muta-ling counter attack instead. At first it looked to be a great trade for Seal, as he killed all but 18 SCVs for Bomber and forced off a retreat of Bomber's main force. However, Bomber still had four orbital commands worth of mules, which allowed him to continue building marines ten at a time. After cleaning up his main base, Bomber was able to counter-attack and kill all of Seal's mining bases leaving Seal looking awful dead as he distance mined with his fifty drones.
However, Seal had completed a shift to mass burrowed infestors before losing those bases, and set about doing whatever he could to win. Unable to fight, he went for counter attacks, and used mass infested Terrans to kill off significant portions of Bomber's base. Most importantly, he killed off the orbital commands first, crippling Bomber's income (he never rebuilt SCVs) and removing the detection that could counter the infestors.
The game settled into a strange situation where Bomber was left with one orbital command center remaining, while Seal continued to distance mine while his burrowed infestors looked for more weaknesses to exploit.
Briefly, Bomber considered landing his remaining orbital, turtling up, and rebuilding his infrastructure. However, a survey of the battlefield led him to change his mind. Seal had all of his advantages in being undetectable and being able to harass, but would not stand a chance in a head's up battle with Bomber's standing army. Rather than stand by and get slowly dismantled, Bomber decided to just go for the elimination.
It turned out to be the correct decision. Although he had barely any detection at all, Bomber had the incredible luck of Seal investing all of his gas into infestors with no burrowed banelings whatsoever. The final showdown was infestors with no kind of support at all against a MM tank army. Though Seal valiantly dropped infested Terrans and spread fungals, it was to no avail. With Bomber wiping out the remaining structures, Seal GG'd out
Winner: Bomber
Startale (2 – 0) NS HoSeo
The theme of game two was disarray and confusion. For the first half of the game, it looked like your typical macro TvZ game, with Terran throwing waves of troops against Zerg to try and out-trade him, and the Zerg playing defense while trying to get to hive.
The game turned weird when Seal decided to give up one of his expansions to go for a massive muta-ling counter attack instead. At first it looked to be a great trade for Seal, as he killed all but 18 SCVs for Bomber and forced off a retreat of Bomber's main force. However, Bomber still had four orbital commands worth of mules, which allowed him to continue building marines ten at a time. After cleaning up his main base, Bomber was able to counter-attack and kill all of Seal's mining bases leaving Seal looking awful dead as he distance mined with his fifty drones.
However, Seal had completed a shift to mass burrowed infestors before losing those bases, and set about doing whatever he could to win. Unable to fight, he went for counter attacks, and used mass infested Terrans to kill off significant portions of Bomber's base. Most importantly, he killed off the orbital commands first, crippling Bomber's income (he never rebuilt SCVs) and removing the detection that could counter the infestors.
The game settled into a strange situation where Bomber was left with one orbital command center remaining, while Seal continued to distance mine while his burrowed infestors looked for more weaknesses to exploit.
Briefly, Bomber considered landing his remaining orbital, turtling up, and rebuilding his infrastructure. However, a survey of the battlefield led him to change his mind. Seal had all of his advantages in being undetectable and being able to harass, but would not stand a chance in a head's up battle with Bomber's standing army. Rather than stand by and get slowly dismantled, Bomber decided to just go for the elimination.
It turned out to be the correct decision. Although he had barely any detection at all, Bomber had the incredible luck of Seal investing all of his gas into infestors with no burrowed banelings whatsoever. The final showdown was infestors with no kind of support at all against a MM tank army. Though Seal valiantly dropped infested Terrans and spread fungals, it was to no avail. With Bomber wiping out the remaining structures, Seal GG'd out
Winner: Bomber
Startale (2 – 0) NS HoSeo
Game Three –
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ST_Bomber vs NSH_Sage – Metropolis
Sage opened with a Nexus first build on Metropolis, and then defended it beautifully against Bomber's early attack of marines, marauders, hellions, and SCVs. That gave him a ten harvester lead going into the mid-game, something that could snowball if he could ride it out.
Bomber knew he had to do something to get back on even positioning, and he achieved it with a four-marauder drop. Even though Sage had Stalkers circling his base, there wasn't enough firepower to take down the medivac before it unloaded the marauders. One they were down, the stalkers were toast. Bomber took out some probes as well, and the situation was roughly even.
Sage decided he would try to go for his own attack after that, trying an immortal + gateway units attack at Bomber's natural. However, it turned out to be quite a bad decision as Sage completely misjudged the relative army strengths, trading rather poorly.
The game progressed into the late-game with Bomber in a very nice position, having a slightly larger army and being not far behind on upgrades. Sage had opted for colossi tech instead of templars, but didn't have many colossi to show for it.
It all came down to one big battle in the middle of the map as Bomber went on the offensive. Sage dropped some forcefields to trap Bomber's troops, but they ended up trapping too few of the infantry up front before turning into self-defeating barricade for the rest of the army in the back. Also, despite Bomber having only a handful of vikings, Sage's focus fire was found wanting as they were allowed to take down the colossi easily. The end result was an incredibly one-sided victory for Bomber, and Sage conceded defeat.
Winner: Bomber
Startale (3 – 0) NS HoSeo
Sage opened with a Nexus first build on Metropolis, and then defended it beautifully against Bomber's early attack of marines, marauders, hellions, and SCVs. That gave him a ten harvester lead going into the mid-game, something that could snowball if he could ride it out.
Bomber knew he had to do something to get back on even positioning, and he achieved it with a four-marauder drop. Even though Sage had Stalkers circling his base, there wasn't enough firepower to take down the medivac before it unloaded the marauders. One they were down, the stalkers were toast. Bomber took out some probes as well, and the situation was roughly even.
Sage decided he would try to go for his own attack after that, trying an immortal + gateway units attack at Bomber's natural. However, it turned out to be quite a bad decision as Sage completely misjudged the relative army strengths, trading rather poorly.
The game progressed into the late-game with Bomber in a very nice position, having a slightly larger army and being not far behind on upgrades. Sage had opted for colossi tech instead of templars, but didn't have many colossi to show for it.
It all came down to one big battle in the middle of the map as Bomber went on the offensive. Sage dropped some forcefields to trap Bomber's troops, but they ended up trapping too few of the infantry up front before turning into self-defeating barricade for the rest of the army in the back. Also, despite Bomber having only a handful of vikings, Sage's focus fire was found wanting as they were allowed to take down the colossi easily. The end result was an incredibly one-sided victory for Bomber, and Sage conceded defeat.
Winner: Bomber
Startale (3 – 0) NS HoSeo
Game Four –
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ST_Bomber vs NSH_San – Calm Before the Storm
After getting three kills, no one could blame Bomber for being a little big arrogant on CBTS. His strategy was to blindly go for triple orbitals and fast upgrades while not give the smallest damn about what his opponent was doing. It proved to be a winning strategy.
San went for a greedy opening as well, going Nexus first. However, instead of continuing to stay greedy like his opponent, he tried to mix in a timing with a warp-prism and four gates to apply a little bit of pressure. Unfortunately, Bomber was perfectly prepared, and San was forced to back off without doing anything.
Though he didn't lose any troops, San found himself slightly behind compared to Bomber who was racing straight for the late game. It made all the difference in the game, as San was just seconds away from having Storm when Bomber crashed into San's natural with his completed late-game army. Gateway units did pitifully against the glob of infantry, which even had better upgrades than the Protoss.
San barely survived the first attack (which was accompanied by courteous mules and much dancing), but couldn't withstand the next wave. Bomber moved on to try for the first five-man all-kill.
Winner: Bomber
Startale (4 – 0) NS HoSeo
After getting three kills, no one could blame Bomber for being a little big arrogant on CBTS. His strategy was to blindly go for triple orbitals and fast upgrades while not give the smallest damn about what his opponent was doing. It proved to be a winning strategy.
San went for a greedy opening as well, going Nexus first. However, instead of continuing to stay greedy like his opponent, he tried to mix in a timing with a warp-prism and four gates to apply a little bit of pressure. Unfortunately, Bomber was perfectly prepared, and San was forced to back off without doing anything.
Though he didn't lose any troops, San found himself slightly behind compared to Bomber who was racing straight for the late game. It made all the difference in the game, as San was just seconds away from having Storm when Bomber crashed into San's natural with his completed late-game army. Gateway units did pitifully against the glob of infantry, which even had better upgrades than the Protoss.
San barely survived the first attack (which was accompanied by courteous mules and much dancing), but couldn't withstand the next wave. Bomber moved on to try for the first five-man all-kill.
Winner: Bomber
Startale (4 – 0) NS HoSeo
Game Five –
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ST_Bomber vs NSH_Jjakji – Dual Sight
Earlier in the series, Bomber had celebrated one of his wins by walking over to the Hoseo bench and pointing at Jjakji. Finally, he would get his wish.
The early builds got a little bit mixed up, but both players ended up getting expansions fairly quickly. Jjakji did what amounted to a siege tank expand with late stim, while Bomber went for late tanks and a lot of early infantry.
Jjakji's stim ended up being so late, that Bomber couldn't resist trying an attack. Seeing just two tanks defending Jjakji's natural, Bomber decided to go for the bust with stimmed marines and marauders. It could have been a straight up game winning move – Bomber forced SCVs to be pulled and killed quite a few – but Bomber's refusal to focus fire tanks allowed Jjkaji to hold on.
It followed that Bomber's army was quite larger after an ensuing build-up period, and it looked like that Jjakji was going to have to fight extremely well to win as both armies started to depart their home bases.
However, the multiple lanes of Dual Sight turned the game into a base-race instead of a deathball fight – and as with deathball fights, the bigger army won the day. Bomber was able to crush Jjakji's defenses with more than enough left over to clean up his main, while back at home he scrapped together a defense to put an end to Jjakji's army.
Jjakji surrendered, handing Bomber the first 5 – 0 all kill in GSTL history.
Winner: Bomber
Startale (5 – 0) NS HoSeo
Earlier in the series, Bomber had celebrated one of his wins by walking over to the Hoseo bench and pointing at Jjakji. Finally, he would get his wish.
The early builds got a little bit mixed up, but both players ended up getting expansions fairly quickly. Jjakji did what amounted to a siege tank expand with late stim, while Bomber went for late tanks and a lot of early infantry.
Jjakji's stim ended up being so late, that Bomber couldn't resist trying an attack. Seeing just two tanks defending Jjakji's natural, Bomber decided to go for the bust with stimmed marines and marauders. It could have been a straight up game winning move – Bomber forced SCVs to be pulled and killed quite a few – but Bomber's refusal to focus fire tanks allowed Jjkaji to hold on.
It followed that Bomber's army was quite larger after an ensuing build-up period, and it looked like that Jjakji was going to have to fight extremely well to win as both armies started to depart their home bases.
However, the multiple lanes of Dual Sight turned the game into a base-race instead of a deathball fight – and as with deathball fights, the bigger army won the day. Bomber was able to crush Jjakji's defenses with more than enough left over to clean up his main, while back at home he scrapped together a defense to put an end to Jjakji's army.
Jjakji surrendered, handing Bomber the first 5 – 0 all kill in GSTL history.
Winner: Bomber
Startale (5 – 0) NS HoSeo
Game Six –
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Startale won 5 – 0.
Game Seven –
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Startale won 5 – 0.
Game Eight –
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Startale won 5 – 0.
Game Nine –
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Startale won 5 – 0.
Overall results
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Bomber > Sting
Bomber > Seal
Bomber > Sage
Bomber > San
Bomber > Jjakji
Startale 5 – 0 NS HoSeo
Bomber > Seal
Bomber > Sage
Bomber > San
Bomber > Jjakji
Startale 5 – 0 NS HoSeo
Incredible Miracle
Team SCV Life
Game One – IM_Yoda vs TSL_Shine –
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Bel'Shir Beach Winter
Yoda opened up with a two rax build, hiding one of his barracks in his main before floating it down to the low ground. On the other hand, Shine went for a hatch-pool build that wasn't super greedy, but ended up allowing a bunker to complete in his natural anyway.
Shine's decision was to wait, wait, and keeping waiting. However, after two bunkers went up safely it became apparent that he had simply waited too long. Yoda was able to kill off the hatchery, as well as a considerable amount of zerglings before Shine was able to clear out the marines and bunkers.
A sloppy lowered supply depot allowed Shine to pull back slightly with a speedling attack, but Yoda was already too far ahead for it to matter. He had more SCVs, and a second orbital up before Shine started building his hatchery again.
Yoda played rather sloppily in the following minutes, but it didn't matter. He kept flinging units Shine's way, and eventually the TSL Zerg was forced to fold.
Winner: IM_Yoda
Incredible Miracle (1 – 0) Team SCV Life
Yoda opened up with a two rax build, hiding one of his barracks in his main before floating it down to the low ground. On the other hand, Shine went for a hatch-pool build that wasn't super greedy, but ended up allowing a bunker to complete in his natural anyway.
Shine's decision was to wait, wait, and keeping waiting. However, after two bunkers went up safely it became apparent that he had simply waited too long. Yoda was able to kill off the hatchery, as well as a considerable amount of zerglings before Shine was able to clear out the marines and bunkers.
A sloppy lowered supply depot allowed Shine to pull back slightly with a speedling attack, but Yoda was already too far ahead for it to matter. He had more SCVs, and a second orbital up before Shine started building his hatchery again.
Yoda played rather sloppily in the following minutes, but it didn't matter. He kept flinging units Shine's way, and eventually the TSL Zerg was forced to fold.
Winner: IM_Yoda
Incredible Miracle (1 – 0) Team SCV Life
Game Two –
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IM_Yoda vs TSL_Revival – Cloud Kingdom
Both players let each other sit back and do whatever they wanted, and the result was that what Revival wanted to do was way worse than Yoda.
Yoda played a greedy reactor hellion triple orbital build, while Revival did some bizarre two base roach infestor build. Somehow, despite having gone for a build that stayed on two base for a while, he managed to lose his third to a mid-game marine tank timing, which came before any infestors were out.
Behind in economy and army, Revival then lost all of his infestors after getting baited into attacking Yoda's fourth base, where he was sandwiched by an even bigger Terran army. Yoda then attacked and won the game.
Winner: IM_Yoda
Incredible Miracle (2 – 0) Team SCV Life
Both players let each other sit back and do whatever they wanted, and the result was that what Revival wanted to do was way worse than Yoda.
Yoda played a greedy reactor hellion triple orbital build, while Revival did some bizarre two base roach infestor build. Somehow, despite having gone for a build that stayed on two base for a while, he managed to lose his third to a mid-game marine tank timing, which came before any infestors were out.
Behind in economy and army, Revival then lost all of his infestors after getting baited into attacking Yoda's fourth base, where he was sandwiched by an even bigger Terran army. Yoda then attacked and won the game.
Winner: IM_Yoda
Incredible Miracle (2 – 0) Team SCV Life
Game Three –
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IM_Yoda vs TSL_Cyrano – Calm Before the Storm
With both players left to their own devices once more, Yoda came out on top again with a superior plan. He performed what can be described as a "no-stim marine-tank timing with neo-steel upgraded bunkers." Yoda caught Cyrano at great timing before he had zealot speed, archons, or storm, and set up shop right outside Cyrano's base. Then, he plopped down a gazillion upgraded bunkers and began to push into Cyrano's base.
Did the bunkers actually make a difference? It's hard to say, as Yoda's attack timing hadn't really relied on bunkers, just the number of marines and tanks he got out at a certain time. Once he did get the bunkers down though, it made his push that much harder to break, and Cyrano GG'd out after a futile attempt to bust it.
Winner: IM_Yoda
Incredible Miracle (3 – 0) Team SCV Life
With both players left to their own devices once more, Yoda came out on top again with a superior plan. He performed what can be described as a "no-stim marine-tank timing with neo-steel upgraded bunkers." Yoda caught Cyrano at great timing before he had zealot speed, archons, or storm, and set up shop right outside Cyrano's base. Then, he plopped down a gazillion upgraded bunkers and began to push into Cyrano's base.
Did the bunkers actually make a difference? It's hard to say, as Yoda's attack timing hadn't really relied on bunkers, just the number of marines and tanks he got out at a certain time. Once he did get the bunkers down though, it made his push that much harder to break, and Cyrano GG'd out after a futile attempt to bust it.
Winner: IM_Yoda
Incredible Miracle (3 – 0) Team SCV Life
Game Four –
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IM_Yoda vs TSL_Symbol – Daybreak
Symbol looked a class apart from his TSL teammates as he clinically dismantled Yoda. He opened with some well measured roach pressure to force a lengthy lift of Yoda's fast expand, while at the same time droning up heavily and taking a third base. When Yoda massed enough MM tank to try a little bit of early-mid pressure, Symbol easily crushed it with his mass upgraded speedlings, buying him the time to transition seamlessly into ling-festor while teching to hive.
Symbol didn't even need ultralisks to finish the game, as he went for a huge ling/festor + baneling drop attack, which absolutely annihilated Yoda as he greedily tried to take a fourth base. A continued stream of zerglings sealed the game for Symbol, who tossed in 30 drones as payback for Yoda's many manner mules in previous matches.
Winner: TSL_Symbol
Incredible Miracle (3 – 1) Team SCV Life
Symbol looked a class apart from his TSL teammates as he clinically dismantled Yoda. He opened with some well measured roach pressure to force a lengthy lift of Yoda's fast expand, while at the same time droning up heavily and taking a third base. When Yoda massed enough MM tank to try a little bit of early-mid pressure, Symbol easily crushed it with his mass upgraded speedlings, buying him the time to transition seamlessly into ling-festor while teching to hive.
Symbol didn't even need ultralisks to finish the game, as he went for a huge ling/festor + baneling drop attack, which absolutely annihilated Yoda as he greedily tried to take a fourth base. A continued stream of zerglings sealed the game for Symbol, who tossed in 30 drones as payback for Yoda's many manner mules in previous matches.
Winner: TSL_Symbol
Incredible Miracle (3 – 1) Team SCV Life
Game Five –
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IM_Seed vs TSL_Symbol – Entombed Valley
The early game featured a sharp back and forth between the contestants. Symbol tried some early roach-ling pressure to see if he could punish Seed's one-gate expansion, but Seed had a void ray out just in time to defend himself. Seed then went on the counter offensive, but erred on the side of caution and withdrew after seeing that Symbol would be able to defend.
The next few minutes passed by mostly uneventfully, with both players allowing the other to build up. Symbol went for a strong mixed army with lings, roaches, infestors, and baneling bombs, while Seed had your usual deathball stuff. Symbol was able to catch Seed in a wide open position in the middle twice, and won engagements with some good fungal+baneling bomb combos. However, Seed wasn't completely committed to those attacks, and continued to expand along his side of the map.
The game tilted in Seed's favor when Symbol tried a big attack into Seed's fourth base, only to get massacred in the bottleneck. Seed regrouped and went on a counter-offensive with a newly summoned mothership, and it looked like he had all the tools to massacre Symbol. However, a mismanaged battle immediately turned the tables again.
Symbol had a mixed army with many high DPS Zerg units; lings, hydras, infestors, brood lords, and ultralisks. Seed dropped a vortex to banish the ultras temporarily, during which time he tried to blink his stalkers ahead to finish off the brood lords. However, he didn't have the positioning or DPS to remove all of the brood lords in time, and ended up having a huge amount of ultralisks pop up against his out of position army. A promising battle turned into a complete rout for Seed, and Symbol capitalized with an immediate remax and flood of zerglings.
Having lost his core army, Seed couldn't deal with the continuing stream of Zerg troops. Symbol wiped out all of Seed's bases with remaining minerals, and secured another victory.
Winner: TSL_Symbol
Incredible Miracle (3 – 2) Team SCV Life
The early game featured a sharp back and forth between the contestants. Symbol tried some early roach-ling pressure to see if he could punish Seed's one-gate expansion, but Seed had a void ray out just in time to defend himself. Seed then went on the counter offensive, but erred on the side of caution and withdrew after seeing that Symbol would be able to defend.
The next few minutes passed by mostly uneventfully, with both players allowing the other to build up. Symbol went for a strong mixed army with lings, roaches, infestors, and baneling bombs, while Seed had your usual deathball stuff. Symbol was able to catch Seed in a wide open position in the middle twice, and won engagements with some good fungal+baneling bomb combos. However, Seed wasn't completely committed to those attacks, and continued to expand along his side of the map.
The game tilted in Seed's favor when Symbol tried a big attack into Seed's fourth base, only to get massacred in the bottleneck. Seed regrouped and went on a counter-offensive with a newly summoned mothership, and it looked like he had all the tools to massacre Symbol. However, a mismanaged battle immediately turned the tables again.
Symbol had a mixed army with many high DPS Zerg units; lings, hydras, infestors, brood lords, and ultralisks. Seed dropped a vortex to banish the ultras temporarily, during which time he tried to blink his stalkers ahead to finish off the brood lords. However, he didn't have the positioning or DPS to remove all of the brood lords in time, and ended up having a huge amount of ultralisks pop up against his out of position army. A promising battle turned into a complete rout for Seed, and Symbol capitalized with an immediate remax and flood of zerglings.
Having lost his core army, Seed couldn't deal with the continuing stream of Zerg troops. Symbol wiped out all of Seed's bases with remaining minerals, and secured another victory.
Winner: TSL_Symbol
Incredible Miracle (3 – 2) Team SCV Life
Game Six –
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IM_Mvp vs TSL_Symbol – Antiga Shipyard
Going up against Mvp, Symbol had not one, but two aggressive moves prepared.
The first one was an early roach-baneling bust, which he decided to abandon at the last second (recovering money by cancelling morphing banes) when he found that Mvp had gone for quick siege mode.
The second one was a speed-roach + baneling drop attack, a strategy that DRG had used to great effect vs MMA in their Blizzard Cup match. Also, it happened to be a strategy that Mvp crushed with ease when Lucky tried it against him Code S.
Symbol inherited Lucky's fate instead of DRG's. An almost comically maphack-esque scan discovered all of Symbols morphing banelings, roaches, and gathered overlords, and Mvp turtled up like a man in no great hurry to attack.
Symbol tried to go for the attack anyway, and walked/dropped into one of the bloodiest meatgrinders in GSL history, and GG'd immediately after.
Winner: Mvp
Incredible Miracle (4 – 2) Team SCV Life
Going up against Mvp, Symbol had not one, but two aggressive moves prepared.
The first one was an early roach-baneling bust, which he decided to abandon at the last second (recovering money by cancelling morphing banes) when he found that Mvp had gone for quick siege mode.
The second one was a speed-roach + baneling drop attack, a strategy that DRG had used to great effect vs MMA in their Blizzard Cup match. Also, it happened to be a strategy that Mvp crushed with ease when Lucky tried it against him Code S.
Symbol inherited Lucky's fate instead of DRG's. An almost comically maphack-esque scan discovered all of Symbols morphing banelings, roaches, and gathered overlords, and Mvp turtled up like a man in no great hurry to attack.
Symbol tried to go for the attack anyway, and walked/dropped into one of the bloodiest meatgrinders in GSL history, and GG'd immediately after.
Winner: Mvp
Incredible Miracle (4 – 2) Team SCV Life
Game Seven –
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IM_Mvp vs TSL_Polt – Dual Sight
With a chance to close out the series, Mvp shook off his bad form from Code S with an impressive victory over Polt. Polt went for a barracks-FE with a focus on infantry, delaying his medivacs and tanks. Mvp went for a banshee expand, but Polt anticipated this move and fended off the banshees while only taking minimal damage.
Yet, somehow, despite having expanded in the meanwhile, Mvp put together a deadly, dare I say, 1/1/1 push that hit when Polt was at his very weakest. With stimpak and medivacs less than a minute away for Polt, Mvp took up position with tanks, marines, and a handful of banshees right below Polt's ramp. From this advantageous position, he was able to rip apart Polt's attempt to bust out with stim and medivacs.
Polt managed to stay in the game for a few more minutes than he needed to, but the result was never in question. Mvp had proved his excellence once more, and gave his team the win.
Winner: Mvp
Incredible Miracle (5 – 2) Team SCV Life
With a chance to close out the series, Mvp shook off his bad form from Code S with an impressive victory over Polt. Polt went for a barracks-FE with a focus on infantry, delaying his medivacs and tanks. Mvp went for a banshee expand, but Polt anticipated this move and fended off the banshees while only taking minimal damage.
Yet, somehow, despite having expanded in the meanwhile, Mvp put together a deadly, dare I say, 1/1/1 push that hit when Polt was at his very weakest. With stimpak and medivacs less than a minute away for Polt, Mvp took up position with tanks, marines, and a handful of banshees right below Polt's ramp. From this advantageous position, he was able to rip apart Polt's attempt to bust out with stim and medivacs.
Polt managed to stay in the game for a few more minutes than he needed to, but the result was never in question. Mvp had proved his excellence once more, and gave his team the win.
Winner: Mvp
Incredible Miracle (5 – 2) Team SCV Life
Game Eight –
+ Show Spoiler +
IM won 5 – 2
Game Nine –
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IM won 5 – 2
Overall results
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Yoda > Shine
Yoda > Revival
Yoda > Cyrano
Yoda < Symbol
Seed < Symbol
Mvp > Symbol
Mvp > Polt
IM 5 – 2 TSL
Yoda > Revival
Yoda > Cyrano
Yoda < Symbol
Seed < Symbol
Mvp > Symbol
Mvp > Polt
IM 5 – 2 TSL
Sea[Shield] and the Team(only) Player
by Waxangel
After Bomber's 5 – 0 beatdown of NS HoSeo, on the tail of an ugly 1 – 4 elimination from Code S two weeks ago, I can't help but be reminded of a certain Brood War pro: Yum "Sea" Bo Seong. Wait, who?
In 2006, Sea led the financially challenged but feisty MBCGame Hero to a Proleague championship. Unlike any of the team competition we've seen in Starcraft II so far, Proleague consists of hundreds of games played over a yearlong season, similar to leagues for other sports. Over the 2006 season, Sea had a record of 15 wins and 6 losses, and often anchored his team as its 'ace.' Sea did not lose a single game in the playoffs, and clinched the championship for his team by winning in game seven of the grand finals. In the same period, Sea competed in three individual leagues (two OSLs, WCG Korea qualifier), and was eliminated from all three before the quarter-finals.
![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/seambcgame.jpg)
Sea rallies the troops – photo: NeverGG
You can see where this is going. Ever since he debuted through an incredible Code A run in May of 2011, Bomber's career has been a story of unfulfilled expectations. Bomber is excellent in Code A, foreign tournaments, GSTL and up-down matches. There, he shows the kind of play that we would expect to see from a Code S champion. Yet, when he actually does play in Code S, he just cannot get past the RO8.
There are some key differences in the types of competition available to them, but the resemblance Bomber has is more with the archetype of player Sea represents than Sea himself. A player who has extraordinary skill and can beat anyone in the world, as long as it's not in top flight, Korean singles competition.
It's fascinating that such a type of player exists. The easiest way to explain it is by saying it's down to 'nerves,' which for all its use as a convenient, blanket excuse, is pretty valid. Many pro-gamers have said that pro-gaming is at least half a mental game, and the poor play of otherwise good players in pressure situations is testament to that. Code S, in particular, seems to have a special aura that makes people play below their standards, and Bomber isn't the only Code A phenom to stumble in Code S. It's the other way around for some players. Playing for themselves only, they don't feel enough pressure. Only when they have the expectations of their teammates on their shoulders, do they feel that they must play 100%.
Another part of it is type of preparation. Top Korean singles competition is defined by the long period between matches that gives players ages to prepare. Bomber's blitz through MLG Raleigh, or multi-kill runs in GSTL show that he's great at playing off the cuff. But when you play in Code S, you're in an environment full of so many meticulously planned build orders and cheeses that ten out of twelve finals ended up being borderline unwatchable. For instance, I'm not convinced that MMA was the player with the best micro, macro, or decision making during Code S October, where he won his championship. But he was definitely the most prepared player, and for that, he deserved his Code S trophy.
Of course, there's also just dumb luck. HongUn definitely did some things better than Bomber to make it to the semi-finals of Code S July while Bomber stopped in the RO8 (the famous choke reverse sweep against Byun). Still, you can't say his mentality and preparation were so much better than Bomber's. He had to get a bit lucky as well.
It's one thing to be good at Starcraft II. You need an appropriate combination of the above (and some other stuff) to be good at the one specific kind of Starcraft II known as Code S. Yet, the way Starcraft II culture has developed in the past year or so, the two have erroneously come to be seen as almost equivalent. That's something that needs to change.
The beauty of the team league is that Sea will be remembered as one of the best players of all time. He's been stopped at the RO16 ten odd times in the OSL, but no one will tell you he didn't play Brood War very well, nor will anyone try to tell you he wasn't a successful player. He contributed to his team in a way few players have in the history of Brood War, and he receives due recognition for the fact.
Now, Bomber's been around for less than a year, so I'm not going to say he's never going figure out how to get it done in Code S. But even if Code S stays out of his reach for the rest of his career, and his domain stays limited to all competitions outside of it, it's a better world where his career won't be defined more heavily by disappointment in one tournament over his many achievements in others. There's different kinds of Starcraft II outside Code S, and that many different kinds of Starcraft II to be good at.
As it stands now, the Code S type of Starcraft is disproportionately important. So yes, you could call Bomber a disappointment in Starcraft II so far. But hopefully, that's something the GSTL will change in time. For the Bomber of the present, and the others to come.
Writer: Waxangel.
Graphics: Pathy.
Editor: Waxangel.
