EPTGroup C in Review
By: Waxangel
Group C: 
SK.MC, 
NSH_Jjakji, ST_Parting, SlayerS_GanZi
Match One: MC vs Ganzi
Game One –
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Both players went for standard FE openings to begin the game, with Ganzi following up with late gas and 4-barracks marine pressure, while MC went for a nondescript three gate follow-up. Ganzi poked at MC with a handful of early marines, which ended up achieving very little besides killing three probes and finding out that MC had skipped sentries and gone for mostly stalkers.
What Ganzi didn't see was that MC had added on another five gateways after his initial three, and was going for an all-out 8-gate all-in. After cleaning up the marines, MC went on the counter-attack, adding a round of eight zealots from a forward pylon. Though Ganzi had started to build a supply depot wall, he was nowhere near prepared to hold off this massive zealot-stalker attack – especially considering he had built a third command center behind his pressure. Badly beaten, Ganzi conceded the first game.
Winner: MC
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The game opened up as FE vs FE once more, with Ganzi choosing a fairly middle of the road, 3-rax into upgrades and medivacs follow-up. On the other hand, MC went for another gateway pressure build, this time massing up on sentries early while dumping the leftover minerals into a fast five gateways.
Once again, Ganzi was caught with just one bunker, and despite having stimpak researched in time, was unable to hold against MC and his excellent use of forcefields.
Winner: MC
Game Three –
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Match Two: Jjkaji vs Parting
Game One –
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Parting opened with a greedy build, got away with it, and made Jjakji pay the price. Parting's opening build was roughly: nexus first FE, gateway – core – gateway and then another Nexus. Jjakji went for a very standard, unambitious rax FE build, which could not match the economic strength of Parting's build once it got off the ground. With three bases, Parting was able to put on 8-gate pressure for free, without being all-in in any sort of way. He transitioned out of the pressure directly into late game setup mode, getting 12 gates, templar tech, and double forge.
Jjakji played very well considering his economic disadvantage, and even managed to hit a timing with 1/1 infantry right before storm completed that made Parting look like he was in danger for a fraction of a second. It was to no avail, however, and Parting overran Jjakji with massive amounts of everything.
Winner: Parting
Game Two –
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Jjakji picked an unorthodox build for Dual Sight – a siege tank expand with two reactored barracks. As for Parting, he went for the super-safe 2-gate robo into expand, perhaps fearing the possibility of some kind of all-in considering the map.
Jjakji's build seemed to include the possibility of a no-upgrade marine and tank attack timing, but after scoping out Parting's immortal + gateway units army he decided to just sit back and transition into a standard Terran bio-ball. Parting, too, decided that he would stand back, and teched up to colossi.
The way these decisions played out, Jjakji ended up way ahead. Their unorthodox openers favored Jjakji in terms of economy, and he ended up with a 30 supply advantage as he neared maximum population. When Jjakji finally moved out, Parting didn't have much choice but to let Jjakji take out his third base, while his own force went looking for counter-attack opportunities.
Parting did force a lift on Jjakji's third base, bu in the process ended up trapping his own army. Jjakji was able to force the fight, and crushed Parting's army the way a 30 supply Terran advantage typically will.
Winner: Jjakji
Game Three –
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The early game played out similar to game one, with Parting going for a greedy triple nexus start, while Jjakji went for a too-standard FE into three-rax tech opener. Parting once again followed up with 8-gate pressure, and this time broke through Jjakji's front line to kill an obscene amount of SCVs before being forced to retreat.
Jjakji had enough in him for one last ditch attack, and GG'd out after it melted to zealots and archons.
Winner: Parting
Winner's Match:
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Game One –
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MC opened up with a 2-gate, 2-gas build, while Parting opened with 3-gate 1-gas. This allowed Parting to be the aggressor first, striking a menacing posture in front of MC's base. In the end, it was just for appearances, as he did not commit to a real attack at MC's base. MC added two more gates while staying on one base, while Parting squeezed in a Nexus off of his three gates.
MC decided to go on the offensive with his four gateways, and the game came down to a battle of whether Parting could hold or not. There were zealots, stalkers, and sentries on either side, and it all hung on who could micro better. In the end, Parting couldn't out-micro MC by enough to overcome his army disadvantage, and was forced to GG out.
Winner: MC
Game Two –
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Parting went for a relatively fast expansion, a PvP strategy that's been popular recently on the GSL maps with longer rush distances and more easily defensible naturals. On the other hand, MC went for a DT all-in, putting himself in a do or die situation.
Parting already had a robo when MC hit with DTs, but the observer was not complete. MC had a brief window to do any kind of damage, so he decided to hack away at Parting's troops to set up his follow-up gateway unit attack the best he could.
It turned out to be just barely enough for MC to win the day. Parting had two bases, but his actual production capacities and income ended up being roughly the same as MC. It came down to a straight micro battle between gateway units, and in that area, MC proved to be the better player.
Winner: MC
Game Three –
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Loser's Match:
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Game One –
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Ganzi opened with a reaper-expand into a prepare-for-everything plan, with a bunker at the front, vikings for banshees, and even missile turrets. However, the one thing he couldn't stop counter was Jjakji's well timed marine-hellion elevator – which was unfortunate considering he even put three marines at the edge of his base to watch for such attacks. Ganzi pulled all his SCVs, landed his vikings, and used everything to try and stop the attack, but couldn't hold in the end.
Winner: Jjakji
Game Two –
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As Ganzi opened with mech, bringing up memories of Jjakji and Ganzi's RO32 match. There, Jjakji had tried to fight Ganzi's mech with his own mech, only to be outplayed. This time, Jjakji went for a bio-tank composition, and it went much better.
Ganzi did all the right mech things, turtling up and waiting, even managing to mine from a hidden base for a considerable amount of time. Once the time it came for him to move out, however, it was Jjakji's time to shine as he used small groups of units to backdoor Ganzi and restrict his troop movements.
Once he built up a sufficient amount of tanks, Ganzi went for a half decided, half forced all-out attack. Jjkaji saw there was no chance of fighting the army head on, and he went for a straight up base trade. Both players razed each others' bases with ease, and were left in a quite a peculiar position with almost no buildings, but huge, intact armies.
Unfortunately for Ganzi, he forgot the #1 rule of mech in a series deciding situation. Instead of being patient, he was in too much of a hurry to move his tanks out of Jjakji's base and onto the map. Jjakji ambushed Ganzi's army as it left his old main, and caught them all out of siege mode. Marauders tore through the unsieged tanks, and Ganzi was forced to GG.
Winner: Jjakji
Game Three –
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Final Match:
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Game One –
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Where to begin? It was a long, action packed game that never came down to just one battle, but was swung by the results of several carefully made strategic choices across the map. There were traps, hit and runs, straight up slugfests – just about everything you could want from a high level game.
If I had to over simplify, Parting was able to win the game because of his ability to keep Jjakji off his fourth base, and disrupt his resource collection for a very long time.
Winner: Parting
Game Two –
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Like game one, but a little bit more exciting. There's no good way to summarize it and really convey what happened – hopefully we will be able to highlight it in more detail later this week.
For now, all we can say is: Watch this game!
Winner: Parting
Game Three –
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Notes and Comments
1/3
Is Parting the real deal? It was a damn shame we couldn't throw more opponents at him to answer that question fully. After he defeated Jjakji 4 – 1 in the best TvPs in the history of the GSL, there was no question that he was an elite PvT player. It was one of those rare series that was so well played on both sides, even the loser ended up having his reputation go up a notch.
However, it filled everyone with curiosity. Could Parting be just as good against the other races? In terms of PvP, he played against MC, had his game boil down to early game micro-or-die situations, and he died. Against MC, who has some of the best PvP micro in the game, it's not a huge shame, but it might haunt him down the line should he face another Protoss player. We need to see more.
PvZ is the real question. If he played just PvT, we could already say Parting has a shot at the title. However, he's very likely to meet a Zerg opponent in the next round, as he will face the #1 finisher in Group D. That could be DongRaeGu or Nestea, meaning a trial by hellfire. We have yet to see Parting play PvZ in the GSL, and it's a bit worrisome knowing that PvZ and PvT are night and day for some players. Keep that oil bottled, it's not yet time to anoint a Protoss savior.
By the way, the best PvTs ever.
Did I mention it in passing? Jjakji and Parting played an insane set of games. Fionn put it correctly: just treat it like a combined best of seven, and it's already one of the best played series we've ever seen in the GSL. If there was just a little bit more drama, a bit more back story, and a few more "I've never seen this in a game before" moments, then I think we'd be putting the games up there as some of the best ever. At least in terms of pure gameplay, this was PvT's testament to how far the match-up has come in a year, similar to what DRG vs MMA did for TvZ. Well, go watch em!
The race for Protoss President: MC
In some ways, winning games in Starcraft is like having a good economy in real life politics. When the economy is bad, people don't give a damn about anything else. All other priorities be damned, just fix the goddamn economy! It's the same thing when a race can't win games. It's nice to win with aplomb, with style, and with elegance. But when there's just no winning going on at all, people don't care how you get those wins. All-ins, cheese, all sorts of tactics are acceptable. Obviously, there is a minimum level of morals to maintain in both spheres – we can't increase employment by creating state sponsored meth labs, just like we can't 4-gate every game (well, some Starcraft players have been as 'morally' bankrupt as politicians in that respect).
Let's look at the incumbent, and leading candidate for the Protoss Presidency, SK.MC. Some say he's not the sexiest candidate out there. Yes, he gets wins, but some voters are not happy with the nature of those wins. Too many all-ins! cry members of the disgruntled 'true skill' party. Bread and circuses! write the cynics. It's a reflection of the times that a once hero can be criticized so. Other Protoss players have come, shown that they can win, and win in a more attractive way. MC might be aggrieved. Have ye Protoss masses forgotten so soon, all that I have done for you in your darkest days? However, with so many rivals in this tournament, he may be ousted yet. Because as much as politics is cold, so is Starcraft.
Code S RO16, Group D Preview
By: Fionn
There are often talks about "Groups of Death" when it comes to the GSL. Sometimes you will get a group with three champions in them, such as GSL August, where Polt, MC and MVP all grouped together. However, Group D in the GSL Season One RO16 could make the case that it's the toughest group of death in GSL history. Not only does it have three-time GSL champion Nestea, three-time GSL runner-up MarineKing, the Blizzard Cup runner-up DongRaeGu, and 2010 BlizzCon champion Genius, but the collective record of all four players in the RO32 was an outstanding 16 wins, 3 losses. What makes it even more incredible is that three of those losses all belong to maybe the favorite of the entire group, MVP's ace, DongRaeGu. Furthermore, two of DRG's losses came against another member of this Group of Destruction, his long-time friend and teammate, Genius. 
IMNesTea is entering this group as the veteran. After looking like he might be falling off the map, out of the finals picture since July and showing some miserable games against players like Huk in Code S, the God of Zerg has come into 2012 rejuvenated. He took down teammate MVP for the first time in the GSL and advanced from his RO32 group in first place.
He will be tested in all three match-ups in this group. First, he will have to go against the man who wants to take his Zerg crown away, in MVP's DongRaeGu. Nestea's ZvZ looked to be back to its dominating form in the first round against Idra, but it will be a big step up in competition when taking on the Blizzard Cup runner-up. Even at the age of 29, far above the GSL average, Nestea will be trying to accomplish what he's been lusting after for almost half a year: becoming the first player to win four GSL titles. Ever since beating teammate Losira in GSL July, winning his third championship with an undefeated record, it's been his sole goal. With MVP knocked out early in the tournament, the door is open for him to reach the four title plateau before his counterpart.
Trying to stop Nestea from getting his fourth title will be MvPDongRaeGu, who is coming off a very rocky first round. He got shellacked 2-0 against teammate Genius, and was taken to the brink of elimination against another teammate, sC. After his legendary battle against long-lasting rival MMA in the finals of the Blizzard Cup, DRG will be hungry to get to another final against his nemesis and win his first GSL title.
Unfortunately for him, this is the hardest group he could ask for; Nestea is still, even with the recent bumps in the road, the best ZvZ player on the planet. MarineKing, if you had forgotten, was the King of TvZ before MMA busted on the scene with to take that spot. And finally, there's Genius, the player who dismantled DRG only a short two weeks ago and has shown he knows how to take down his teammate. We all know DRG has the skill to crush everyone in his group and exit with a clean 4-0 record, advancing to the quarterfinals, but so does everyone else in the group on a good day. DRG will need to play twice as good as he did in the first round if he wants any chance of going through.
His first game in particular, should be an exciting challenge. After defeating countless minions in his way, DRG is finally standing directly in front of Nestea's throne. Can he be the one to knock the God off his perch?
Speaking of players who desperately want a title, I don't think anyone in the world wants to be in the Season One finals more than MarineKingPrime. Since losing to MVP for a second time in during the GSL World Championship finals in March, the ace player from Prime hasn't been able to make it back to the grandest stage. He got close during the Super Tournament, swaggering his way into the semifinals, looking unstoppable on his way to his fourth finals. Up 2-0 against MMA, it all looked certain that he would be given a fourth chance at winning the gold, but he became but another victim in MMA's comeback legacy. Since then, MKP has been hard to place, bouncing from Code S to Code A, doing well in some non GSL tournaments, but unable to make it to even the quarterfinals of a GSL since May.
Finally, after eight months of waiting, the fans of the King of Marines can cheer, because their hero has finally made it back to the round of sixteen and looks better than ever. I will be the first to say that I doubted how MarineKing would fare in his opening group, having to play against two insanely difficult Terran players in Alive and Happy. Even worse, both players were capable of playing very slow, patient mech style builds that MVP has used time and time again to destroy the impatient, bio-heavy MarineKing. To my amazement, MarineKing was able to crush both players, actually showing something that I've never seen before with MKP: composure. He was cool, calm and collected. He didn't tilt when he fell behind and didn't overly force the issue to finish the game before the late game. He let the game come to him and he countered beautifully, showing that his tank-marine play is top class, even when put up against some of the best mech users on the planet.
Now that the man he cannot beat, MVP is out of the tournament, this is MarineKing's golden opportunity to at least make it to the finals. There are still a lot of great players left in the tournament, but MKP might have reason to be cautiously optimistic. Mvp and Supernova, two of players that countered him style-wise in his worst match-up, TvT, are out of the tournament. Against everyone else, he stands a real fighting chance. There may never be a better chance of winning a title.
The last member of the group might be the most surprising. That would of course be the Master of Ceremonies (sorry, MC) of GSL Season One, the former BlizzCon champion, MVPGenius. Though he has been considered a player who hangs around Code S without achieving anything of importance at many points in his career, Genius showed us a different side of himself this season. When faced off against teammate DongRaeGu in the first match of the series, he was able to pull off precise builds that took his friend off of his game. It really felt like Genius was always two steps ahead, and he finished a 2 - 0 sweet with a hysterical ceremony in DongRaeGu's booth. He continued his rampage on his own team against sC, taking him with another 2 - 0 and also continuing his ceremony crusade, trying to bust his way into his teammate's booth. With his cheerful attitude and entertaining play style (check out his series against sC), he is becoming a fan favorite in the GSL. Protoss has had a long championship drought, and Genius is coming up as one of the candidates to end it.
Predictions:
DongRaeGu > Nestea
MarineKing > Genius
DongRaeGu > MarineKing
Nestea > Genius
MarineKing > Nestea
DongRaeGu and MarineKing advance.
Art by Fishuu
Following Losira-Cat's elimination from Code A, we are looking for a suitable replacement.
Writers: Fionn and Waxangel.
Graphics and Art: Meko and Pony Tales (disciple and Lip the Pencilboy).
Editor: WaxAngel
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