With two players who hailed from the heyday of the 4-gate facing off, only one looked to the past for a free win. Genius faked a double gas build, only to cancel an assimilator and go for a 4-gate build. MC, going for a 2-gate 3-stalker rush, was completely fooled by Genius and went for extra stalkers instead of the sentries that might have saved his life. MC GG'd out of the game, putting Genius up 1 – 0.
MC opened up with a 3-gate pressure build, while Genius went 2-gates with both a robotics facility and a twilight council. This build order mix-up ended up favoring MC, as his early pressure forced Genius to cancel his robotics and build sentries. On the other hand, MC was taking a fast expansion behind this fake attack, giving him an economic lead. Genius followed up with his own nexus, but only after MC's was complete.
Instead of using his faster expand to build a big economic advantage, MC decided to cut probes at thirty to go for 5-gate, blink stalker timing. As MC neared Genius' base, there appeared to be a window where he could impulsively blink in and try to finish the game, but he played over-cautiously and allowed Genius to force-field off the paths. This gave Genius the time to build enough units to defend comfortably, and MC was forced to back off. That left Genius with the advantage instead, as he had been cranking probes out and teching the entire time, whereas MC had stopped on thirty probes and pumped pure stalkers for a period.
It was not an advantage Genius decided to capitalize on immediately, but it was one that carried on into the late game. As both players turtled up on three bases and started to mass colossi, Genius retained three more immortals due to his faster robotics bay, as well as a one-level upgrade advantage from his faster forge.
These were things that mattered when both players maxed out, and MC decided to initiate a game ending battle at Genius' base. The two players were tied at six colossi, but Genius had more immortals while MC had more of the less useful stalkers. Additionally, MC attacked while both players had two colossi queued up at their robotics facilities – but due to his initiating combat at Genius' natural, Genius was able to add those two to his army during the middle of the battle.
All these things together led to a decisive victory for Genius, where he came out standing with three more immortals and colossi than MC. This was a strong enough core for Genius to immediately counter attack with, and as it turned out, enough to finish the game as well.
Genius tried to trick MC again, showing him a second assimilator to mask another four-gate build. However, MC would not be fooled again, and some timely sentries and forcefields allowed him to stop the attack, even though he was cutting it close with his 3-gate + phoenix build.
Though he stopped Genius' 4-gate, MC was unable to find a way to capitalize. Genius followed his four-gate by going for a robotics and simply massed units off one base, and MC was dissuaded from attacking once he saw the number of units Genius had made. This put MC in a tough spot where his phoenix were becoming less and less valuable as the army sizes grew larger, and Genius added powerful robotics tech units to his army.
Instead of taking a risk to change his situation, MC decided try and ride it out. It turned out to be a poor decision, though perhaps there was not much he could do after he missed his initial attack timing with phoenixes. Even worse for MC, his phoenixes were out patrolling the map when Genius came knocking at his door. Genius barreled through MC's defenses to finish the sweep.
After the usual FE opens on both sides, Parting showed his first prepared strategy in double stargates. However, for whatever reason, he decided to show DRG each and every one of his three void rays, far before they were even close to reaching DRG's base. Who knows what Parting expected to happen? Perhaps he was just that confident in his micro. But the obvious result was that DRG simply made a lot of queens and a few spores to kill off the void rays without much trouble at all.
Parting shrugged off this early failure and proceeded to take his third relatively quickly. DongRaeGu reared up and struck with a large amount of speedlings, roaches, and corruptors, but Parting held off this attack without taking too much damage. Despite failing on his early risk, Parting seemed to be in a not-so-terrible spot, having successfully secured three bases.
However, it was more of a deceptive security, as DRG had been able to take whatever bases he wanted on the map, as well as tech with impunity. Brood lords emerged as a threat before Parting was equipped to deal with them, and he was forced to GG out after zergling, brood lords, and mutalisks ran rampant over his army.
Parting had another bit of trickery prepared on this map, faking a four into seven gate all-in timing, but actually going for a fast third base instead. DongRaeGu was fooled for long enough for Parting to get all the simcity complete at his third base, and it looked like he would be pretty much impervious with good force fields.
Unfortunately for Parting, he had some rather bad force fields, which too late to stop DRG from flooding in with a huge roach and speedling attack. Though Parting had enough left to survive, he lost his vital sentries and took a big blow to his unit count, making it so he couldn't effectively defend all three bases at once. This was a huge invitation for DRG to exercise his specialty through relentless, multi-pronged attacks, and DRG went at it with gusto.
To Parting's credit, he defended much better than one would have expected, managing to protect his probes from mutalisks, kept his nexuses alive, and actually managed to slowly amass a fairly large core of stalkers. However, he could not save his gas units at all, as DRG prioritized killing templars, sentries, and archons. This left him incredibly weak once DRG decide to land a killing blow with mass banelings, which in conjunction with mutalisks, finished Parting off for good.
Parting opened with a very safe 2-gate, stargate expansion, looking to face DRG in a straight up battle on Crossfire.
Haha, just kidding. Parting faked the above build, and went for a four-gate all-in with a single void ray to provide fire support. In response, DRG plopped down a gazillion spine crawlers and prayed that he might hold.
The battle was very close, with Parting able to trap a lot of DRG's zerglings in his main with force fields while his army cleared up the crawlers. It looked like Parting had done it once he killed the last crawler, but at that moment he did not have mana for just one more force-field, and the zerglings flooded down from the main to surround the weakened Protoss forces and finish them off.
With his all-in stopped, Parting knew he was dead, but facing elimination from Code S, he decided to give it one last go. He attacked with a hopeless, last ditch force, and gave the GG after that force died.
Genius admitted it a few weeks ago, after topping DRG and sC to make it through to the RO32: he had been coasting for a while. He was happy to keep his Code S seed (he didn't mention the guaranteed $1,300 for RO32 finishes, but I think we can read between the lines), and he wasn't motivated to go much further.
For whatever reason, Genius got his fire back, and we've all been beneficiaries. Not only do Protoss players have someone to carry their banner, but fans of good Starcraft have one more player to put their support behind. Genius plans out smart strategies, plays for the late-game when possible, and makes great decisions to win his games. It's a bit subdued, and it's usually not that flashy. But it's a brand of Protoss that's rare to see, and it's fantastically entertaining for how much sense it makes. MC's showmanship will always be popular, as will HerO's tightrope walking and flamboyant plays, but personally, watching Genius is just more fun.
By the way, doesn't this make Genius the present best Protoss player in the world? It feels a bit weird, and maybe a bit underwhelming, but it seems to fall into place. He beat a bunch of very tough opponents in his Code S run, and he's the last Protoss standing. It's a bit hard to wrap your head around it if you've been used to Genius being incredible mediocre for the last year or so, but I think it's fair to say that for the next ten days or so, no one's going to take that title of best Protoss from him.
Clinging to the Bandwagon
Speaking of Protoss players, the Parting wagon is tilting at a dangerous angle, but it's yet to be derailed. His PvZ hasn't looked nearly as good as his PvT, which is a shame. But even if he becomes a one match-up player, it will be hard not to be a fan if his PvT can continue to be as awesome as it was against Jjakji. Those epic games vs Jjakji will keep me on board the bandwagon until MLG Winter Arena at least, where we can see how he performs in a completely new environment, against some completely new faces.
One Goal
DongRaeGu's in that unfortunate place where winning vs your average player doesn't do much for him anymore. Heck, beating one of the fastest rising stars in Parting didn't get him any credit, nor did busting through this tournament's group of death. The second he GG'd out of game seven of the Blizzard Cup finals, every goal ceased to be relevant for DRG, save one: Win a GSL championship.
"Manner Mule" by Fishuu
Writer: Waxangel. Graphics and Art: Meko and Pony Tales (disciple and Lip the Pencilboy). Editor: Waxangel
Pretty good write up, but I'd like to point out that the way the games are rated in no way reflect the intensity or the excitement of the actual games.
I would say Genius' play in the last year has been inconsistent rather than mediocre. The whole time, we could see little glimpses where we knew he was capable of more.
On February 17 2012 05:52 Proxy22 wrote: Pretty good write up, but I'd like to point out that the way the games are rated in no way reflect the intensity or the excitement of the actual games.
Yah people seemed to enjoy them a lot more than Waxangel did apparently
"DongRaeGu's in that unfortunate place where winning vs your average player doesn't do much for him anymore. Heck, beating one of the fastest rising stars in Parting didn't get him any credit, nor did busting through this tournament's group of death. The second he GG'd out of game seven of the Blizzard Cup finals, every goal ceased to be relevant for DRG, save one: Win a GSL championship."
On February 17 2012 05:57 RunningInSquares wrote: I would say Genius' play in the last year has been inconsistent rather than mediocre. The whole time, we could see little glimpses where we knew he was capable of more.
i feel like he is inconsistent, but right now he looks very strong. the glimpses of seeing he was capable of more was a foretelling of his amazing play this time around. i dunno, it feels like hes back for good
Also; hoping for Genious vs DRG in the finals. But man am I looking forward to the semis! aLive has a really strong ZvT and we all know DRG's relation to that matchup. It will be a fucking explosion. Gumi vs Genious, I gotta give the edge to Genious even though Gummibear must be on a real high roll right now after beating the living hell out of Puzzle. Its so hard to call; four real champion materials in the semis. I really hope both series go to ace match, instead of the (kind of disappointing) 3-0's of today.
On February 17 2012 05:57 RunningInSquares wrote: I would say Genius' play in the last year has been inconsistent rather than mediocre. The whole time, we could see little glimpses where we knew he was capable of more.
i feel like he is inconsistent, but right now he looks very strong. the glimpses of seeing he was capable of more was a foretelling of his amazing play this time around. i dunno, it feels like hes back for good
Maybe he's jealous of DRG so he's practicing like a mad man. Probably a really good motivator.
On February 17 2012 05:52 Proxy22 wrote: Pretty good write up, but I'd like to point out that the way the games are rated in no way reflect the intensity or the excitement of the actual games.
Yah people seemed to enjoy them a lot more than Waxangel did apparently
On February 17 2012 05:52 Proxy22 wrote: Pretty good write up, but I'd like to point out that the way the games are rated in no way reflect the intensity or the excitement of the actual games.
Yah people seemed to enjoy them a lot more than Waxangel did apparently
I am a cynic :o
Nah man, I think a lot of us know exactly why the ratings are low
On February 17 2012 05:52 Proxy22 wrote: Pretty good write up, but I'd like to point out that the way the games are rated in no way reflect the intensity or the excitement of the actual games.
Yah people seemed to enjoy them a lot more than Waxangel did apparently
I am a cynic :o
Nah man, I think a lot of us know exactly why the ratings are low
DIdn't wax write the dead president imba article? He's a softy for MC ;P
Genius and DRG in the finals is the only finals I want to see, those two are just so ridiculously good right now. No disrespect to aLive and Gumiho, but jeez and all MVP final would be crazy awesome. DRG fighting!
Careful before claiming a player is the world's best Protoss. Genius is definitely a top Protoss player, but we need consistency and multiple good showings before we can call a player the best of their race.
I for one do NOT want a Genius vs DongRaeGu finals...because I want DongRaeGu to win XD (I feel Genius just knows him too well and will destroy him easily)
Regardless, I'd be happy if any of these guys won. Rooting for DongRaeGu or Genius, but I don't want a finals between them XD
On February 17 2012 07:43 Bagration wrote: Careful before claiming a player is the world's best Protoss. Genius is definitely a top Protoss player, but we need consistency and multiple good showings before we can call a player the best of their race.
The weird thing is Genius *the* most "consistently not bad" Protoss. He's just never been consistently good.
Great write up but surely you can do better with the ratings of the games. Judging from your ratings Waxangel I can't see a man who is ever thrilled by a game of starcraft. It is so much tension in the games, and that (at least for me) is also a big part of the entertainment value. It doesn't need to be strategies which get carried out to the letter to score above a rating of 3, at least not in my book
Protoss seems kind of hopeless against excellent Zerg such as Dongraegu and Stephano. Once your gates/2 stargates/DT push are blocked, you're behind. And if you don't do anything and try to safely take a third, you're behind as well.
Stephano himself believes that, given the current metagame, PvZ is a joke. All eyes are on Genius now. Hope he will find something which doesn't rely on the Zerg messing up his control or not anticipating a timing push...
A sad day for my liquibets. I was so sure either MC or Parting would win. I wouldn't mind DRG taking the championship this time, but I'm still not much of a Genius fan.
On February 17 2012 08:17 SiroKO wrote: Protoss seems kind of hopeless against excellent Zerg such as Dongraegu and Stephano. Once your gates/2 stargates/DT push are blocked, you're behind. And if you don't do anything and try to safely take a third, you're behind as well.
Stephano himself believes that, given the current metagame, PvZ is a joke. All eyes are on Genius now. Hope he will find something which doesn't rely on the Zerg messing up his control or not anticipating a timing push...
Genius says 'You're wrong'.
The part I hate most is that if crossfire is in the map pool then Protoss are one game down. I don't think I've seen P win a PvZ on crossfire.
On February 17 2012 08:17 SiroKO wrote: Protoss seems kind of hopeless against excellent Zerg such as Dongraegu and Stephano. Once your gates/2 stargates/DT push are blocked, you're behind. And if you don't do anything and try to safely take a third, you're behind as well.
Stephano himself believes that, given the current metagame, PvZ is a joke. All eyes are on Genius now. Hope he will find something which doesn't rely on the Zerg messing up his control or not anticipating a timing push...
Genius says 'You're wrong'.
The part I hate most is that if crossfire is in the map pool then Protoss are one game down. I don't think I've seen P win a PvZ on crossfire.
Could someone please explain to me why Crossfire is in the GSL?
It has got to be one of the worst maps I've ever seen, in its history it has either favored Protoss when deathballs were popular, or was Terran dominated in PvZ, and now it is the anti protoss map with 1-1-1 and muta play dominating
It has never produced balanced games, even when Nestea and SC duked it out, it was just everyone wondering how Nestea could win on such a Terran favored map.
I'm very curious as to the opinion of someone who actually knows what they are talking about as to why Crossfire is not removed as an imba map.... It doesn't seem to be balanced at all....
i really hope DRG wins the title, imho the most deserving player. In a season where Zerg does not well he stomps every opponent, no matter if T, P or Z.
And I hope the two Terrans get knocked out in ro4, imho they are 'nothing special'. Of course they are great players, but imo just another random Korean Terran.
Gogo PvZ final (and gogo same result as the last PvZ final :D)
On February 17 2012 08:17 SiroKO wrote: Protoss seems kind of hopeless against excellent Zerg such as Dongraegu and Stephano. Once your gates/2 stargates/DT push are blocked, you're behind. And if you don't do anything and try to safely take a third, you're behind as well.
Stephano himself believes that, given the current metagame, PvZ is a joke. All eyes are on Genius now. Hope he will find something which doesn't rely on the Zerg messing up his control or not anticipating a timing push...
DRG actually said he has huge difficulties fighting protoss and he asked helped from Nestea, but Nestea was facing the same problem as well....
To be fair, Parting was up against DongRaeGu, ZvT extraordinare, but equally cunning in ZvP. I didn't expect Parting to win, but man was this a total blow out. Parting put up a good fight in all 3 games, but no cigars in any of em
Hmmm... Genius is playing well but I don't think it means he's the best protoss player. He's just the winningest protoss at the moment. I think he has to show a little more potential or at least a championship before you can start taking contendership of "best protoss" away from people like MC and HerO =/
Genius the best Toss already? No, not even close. That's victory-day hype. MMA beating MVP in GSL October and the Blizzard Cup didn't instantly make him the best Terran. Genius is still going to have to at least win a championship to even have a claim to the title.
Go Alive! Deny team MVP a championship and I shall love you eternally!
Edit: I don't think HerO should be considered a contender at all. Yeah, I love TL, but HerO has never even made code S.
On February 17 2012 08:17 SiroKO wrote: Protoss seems kind of hopeless against excellent Zerg such as Dongraegu and Stephano. Once your gates/2 stargates/DT push are blocked, you're behind. And if you don't do anything and try to safely take a third, you're behind as well.
Stephano himself believes that, given the current metagame, PvZ is a joke. All eyes are on Genius now. Hope he will find something which doesn't rely on the Zerg messing up his control or not anticipating a timing push...
Genius says 'You're wrong'.
The part I hate most is that if crossfire is in the map pool then Protoss are one game down. I don't think I've seen P win a PvZ on crossfire.
Could someone please explain to me why Crossfire is in the GSL?
It has got to be one of the worst maps I've ever seen, in its history it has either favored Protoss when deathballs were popular, or was Terran dominated in PvZ, and now it is the anti protoss map with 1-1-1 and muta play dominating
It has never produced balanced games, even when Nestea and SC duked it out, it was just everyone wondering how Nestea could win on such a Terran favored map.
I'm very curious as to the opinion of someone who actually knows what they are talking about as to why Crossfire is not removed as an imba map.... It doesn't seem to be balanced at all....
Crossfire being a Terran favoured map in TvZ is a myth - it definitely favours Zerg.
On February 17 2012 07:48 SenorChang wrote: The title of best current Protoss player is passed so quickly
Shouldnt MC has more money and more titles than all Korean protoss put together, think about that as you question whos president. But in sport of "what have you done for me lately" I can understand the genius bandwagon. He's playing fantastic.
Hoping for DRG though. IMO he plays practically perfect and perfectly abusive. As an MC fan I appreciate that.
As much as i respect DRG and Genious, i really wanted to see MVP_sC in the final four. At any rate, best of luck to them both. Looks like team MVP is sitting if a very good place to finally get a Code S trophy.
Simply because Genius has a few good performances doesn't automatically make him the best protoss in the world, even temporarily. You're wrong, and you should apologize.
On February 17 2012 16:35 FlyingDike wrote: Simply because Genius has a few good performances doesn't automatically make him the best protoss in the world, even temporarily. You're wrong, and you should apologize.
On February 17 2012 16:56 Scarecrow wrote: Genius vs DRG would be such a terrible final. Genius is WAY overhyped atm
I don't think so. I put my hope in Sage and Genius to finally overcome MC's protoss presidency. Genius seems to have done it. The inaugural Blizzcon champion is back.
On the other hand, even Genius shouldn't be able to stop DRG in a longer match series. DongRaeGu wants the title. He needs it to break the kong line. He needs to prove all nay-sayers wrong.
I don't know whether anyone's still looking at this thread, but vis-a-vis Genius beating MC at PvP and therefore being the best Protoss in the world, people still consider MC's PvP to be really good.
To put it bluntly, it really isn't. Since the 5th March last year, his Korean PvP record is exactly 50%, as shown here. That's the same as MMA's PvT, shown here.
MMA's PvT is widely considered to be his weakest matchup. MC's PvP should definitely be considered his, but his winrate is inflated by his hulk-smashing of players like HongUn and Ace in his heyday, and in the heyday of 4gate, which was unforgiving but at least a stable build.
When Puzzle or Oz beat MMA last season or this season, opinion didn't show that Oz or Puzzle were considered vastly superior than MMA. This was partly because the matches were closer than a 3-0, but also partly because TvP is well-known and recognised to be MMA's weakest matchup.
People should recognise MC's weakness as well, when making their decisions as to who is the overall better player.
On February 18 2012 02:43 SeaSwift wrote: I don't know whether anyone's still looking at this thread, but vis-a-vis Genius beating MC at PvP and therefore being the best Protoss in the world, people still consider MC's PvP to be really good.
To put it bluntly, it really isn't. Since the 5th March last year, his Korean PvP record is exactly 50%, as shown here. That's the same as MMA's PvT, shown here.
MMA's PvT is widely considered to be his weakest matchup. MC's PvP should definitely be considered his, but his winrate is inflated by his hulk-smashing of players like HongUn and Ace in his heyday, and in the heyday of 4gate, which was unforgiving but at least a stable build.
When Puzzle or Oz beat MMA last season or this season, opinion didn't show that Oz or Puzzle were considered vastly superior than MMA. This was partly because the matches were closer than a 3-0, but also partly because TvP is well-known and recognised to be MMA's weakest matchup.
People should recognise MC's weakness as well, when making their decisions as to who is the overall better player.
Dude do you play protoss? You could beat any pro 30% of time due to BOers. Pros being 50/50 is no big deal. It's random as fuck. One week MC will shut out Huk The next the opposite. and on and on and on. I said in thread when MC got 1 st in his RO16 group and would face Genius that would be his toughest test because of random. Same when Alicia eliminated him same when hong did in both shut outs. It's not a weakness it's random. PartinG could have won those games w MC just as easy.
On February 18 2012 02:43 SeaSwift wrote: I don't know whether anyone's still looking at this thread, but vis-a-vis Genius beating MC at PvP and therefore being the best Protoss in the world, people still consider MC's PvP to be really good.
To put it bluntly, it really isn't. Since the 5th March last year, his Korean PvP record is exactly 50%, as shown here. That's the same as MMA's PvT, shown here.
MMA's PvT is widely considered to be his weakest matchup. MC's PvP should definitely be considered his, but his winrate is inflated by his hulk-smashing of players like HongUn and Ace in his heyday, and in the heyday of 4gate, which was unforgiving but at least a stable build.
When Puzzle or Oz beat MMA last season or this season, opinion didn't show that Oz or Puzzle were considered vastly superior than MMA. This was partly because the matches were closer than a 3-0, but also partly because TvP is well-known and recognised to be MMA's weakest matchup.
People should recognise MC's weakness as well, when making their decisions as to who is the overall better player.
Dude do you play protoss? You could beat any pro 30% of time due to BOers. Pros being 50/50 is no big deal. It's random as fuck. One week MC will shut out Huk The next the opposite. and on and on and on. I said in thread when MC got 1 st in his RO16 group and would face Genius that would be his toughest test because of random. Same when Alicia eliminated him same when hong did in both shut outs. It's not a weakness it's random. PartinG could have won those games w MC just as easy.
Except they weren't build order wins. Hell, maybe the first one was, when Genius could have gone for a 4gate or not. But the 2nd and 3rd game were not just straight up autoloss for MC, they were Genius outplaying him.
I'm looking forward to seeing what DRG can do in the semi-final, and hopefully the final! I mean, yes, he's obviously really good, and in fact he's probably the best Zerg in the world right now. But I'm still finding it a little hard to get excited about his play. It feels almost as though he's the Zerg #1 by default at the moment (i.e., I'm not getting the chills a Leenock or a Nestea can induce). Parting's play wasn't much of a test for DRG, sadly. I only hope we get a Genius vs. DRG final. That, I think, would really test the depth of DRG's ZvP, and the match winner could truly be called the king of their race.
On February 17 2012 06:12 neoghaleon55 wrote: I am so scared for DRG if Genius makes it to the final. Genius would totally be stealing his thunder.
For DRG's sakes, I hope Genius loses against Alive. Then DRG's got a chance at his first championship.
Man, your post sums up the truth perfectly.
I don't see DRG win against Genius. However I don't see DRG lose against anyone else Though I must admit that even if I'm a DRG fanboy, I hope to see him vs Genius in the finals, for the sake of having the highest possible combined skill level in those finals
EPT![[image loading]](/blogs/images/blackstar.gif)
MVPDongRaeGu vs 
ST_Parting![[image loading]](/staff/fishuu/muleQueen2.png)
