MarineKingPrime defeated coL.MvPDongRaeGu 5 – 2 at the MLG Winter Championship Grand Finals, finally departing from a club of ill-fated silver surfers. Having taken second place in three GSL finals, MKP had been solidly entrenched in the so-called 'Kong line' – a jinx originating in Korean Brood War that evolved from a joke into a true psychological obstacle for chronically second place players. Though he had won the preceding Winter Arena, the spectator-less tournament's status as a "major" win had been questioned. By winning in Columbus, MarineKingPrime was able rid himself of the curse – at least in the eyes of an adoring international audience. As of now, it is unknown if a GSL focused Korean audience will be as convinced.
Much like he did in New York, MarineKing dominated the competition in Columbus. Placed into a formidable group with GanZi, SK_MC, iS.CrazymoviNG, Quantic.SaSe, and mouz.ThorZaIN, MarineKing lost only a single game as he topped the group with a 5 – 0 match score.
Though he is more well-known for his TvZ skill, victories against opponents like MC, and one of the best PvT players in the world in ST_Parting, showed that MarineKing needed no further tests against Protoss. Of course, his lopsided 5 – 2 triumph over consensus best-ZvT-in-the-world DongRaeGu reaffirmed his incredible TvZ ability.
Up until the finals, DongRaeGu had looked just as strong as MarineKing, also finishing his group with a perfect record and making short work of his semi-final opponent in coL.Heart. However, the finals were a one sided affair.
At Winter Arena in New York, MKP had used cheesy two-barracks builds and specifically avoiding standard hellion openings to get into DongRaeGu's head. At the Winter Championship, MarineKing won in several drawn out macro games, showing that he could defeat the GSL champion in any way he wanted. Not only did MarineKing's micro live up to the billing, but his macro was nearly flawless as well. By using a variety of openings and army compositions in his victories, MarineKing showed he was well-rounded as well as very mechanically talented.
Show of Heart
The other big story of the night was Heart, who made an improbable run from an unseeded position in the open bracket to a third place finish. While he attracted criticism for favoring all-ins and risky build orders during group play, Heart proved that he could hang with the best using orthodox play in the championship bracket. He took out Code S veteran GanZi with aggressive TvT play, and then defeated HuK again in an extended series.
Unfortunately for Heart, he was not on the level of GSL champion and best ZvT player in the world, DongRaeGu. Heart was matched up against DongRaeGu twice, who defeated him both times to end the fairy tale. Even in defeat, Heart was able to put in some strong performances, proving that there was a significant amount of skill to back up his luck.
Tried and True
On the non-Korean side of things, HuK showed that he was the only foreigner to succeed Code S or win an MLG in the post-Korean era for good reason. While others buckled and cracked, HuK came through and delivered under pressure.
HuK finished in fourth place, a second consecutive top finish after placing third at the Winter Arena. Also like Winter Arena, HuK benefited from being a mirror match-up monster, a giant turnaround after being dogged by PvP in the later months of 2011. Already having bested Minigun, Oz, and Socke at Winter Arena, HuK had more Protoss opponents thrown before him, and added NaNiwa and PartinG to his notable 2012 take-downs.
The second best foreigner was Quantic.NaNiwa who tied for eight place. Ahead of his Code S debut, NaNiwa showed once again that he is very capable of beating Korean players by taking down EG.JYP and SK_MC, but whether or not he can do so with the consistency required in Code S was left to be seen.
The best foreigner experience, however, may belong to T-12th place aTn.Socke. After disappointing in the group stages by going 1 – 4 (2 – 9 in maps), Socke came back with a vengeance in the Championship Bracket and toppled EG.PuMa, EG.DeMusliM, iS.CrazymoviNG, and oGs.TheStC in order. His progress was only stopped by HuK, who won an extended series that included a nail-biting DT vs DT elimination race. By improving his position by more than a dozen spots in a few hours, Socke pocketed a cool $1,500.
00:20 GMT (+00:00): MarineKing 5 – 2 DongRaeGu. MKP went for quick 3 orbital and DRG got mutas after lings and banes. MKP engaged poorly several times early game and lost his first forces, but after he took a third and held it his marine marauder ball was unstoppable, he rolled over DRG with constant big pressure at the Zerg third and fourth.
23:44 GMT (+00:00): MarineKing 4 – 2 DongRaeGu. Tal'Darim cross. MKP used an interesting timing with 2 reactors to pump out marines, marauders, and blue flame hellions before DRG's third base got running for infestor/ling. DRG almost holds initial push but died when reinforcements came.
23:31 GMT (+00:00): MarineKing 3 – 2 DongRaeGu. Antiga. MarineKing opened with banshees, then did a timing with marauders and tanks. DRG attacked too soon before he had baneling speed and MKP mopped him up.
23:12 GMT (+00:00): MarineKing 2 – 2 DongRaeGu. Shakuras. MKP made 3 quick command centers and DRG broke him with a ling baneling roach bust.
22:42 GMT (+00:00): DongRaeGu 4 – 1 Heart. Antiga. DRG baneling busted, but didn't do enough damage to kill Heart and the game played on normally. DRG was behind all game in upgrades, and as Heart moved out to take the center of the map DRG took him on with infestors and brood lords. Heart was pushed back into his natural, but killed all of DRG's bases with drops, DRG survived with his last several broodlords and killed Heart by baiting a crucial stim and ending it when Heart had no way to kill the last broodlords.
22:18 GMT (+00:00): DongRaeGu 3 – 1 Heart. Dual Sight. Heart tried a cute early third build with a planetary, but it let DRG build up uninhibited and Heart couldn't stop any Zerg expansions. DRG got to infestors and ultras and crushed Heart's army.
21:57 GMT (+00:00): DongRaeGu 2 – 1 Heart. Entombed Valley cross. Heart got to 3-3 on his marines and ground down DRG, pushing with a few thors and marines similar to the game with MKP.
21:28 GMT (+00:00): Heart 4 – 2 HuK. Shakuras. HuK went for a gateway timing again but Heart held, and won when he moved out and sniped colossus in HuK's natural.
21:09 GMT (+00:00): Heart 3 – 2 HuK. Tal'Darim. Heart went 3rax, and HuK won with 1 gate expand because he got an early robo and had an immortal for the initial push.
20:57 GMT (+00:00): Heart 3 – 1 HuK. Daybreak. HuK went for a lot of gateways and a 1-1 timing attack, but Heart also had 1-1 and ground him down until there were no forcefields left. Heart cleaned up once HuK was out of energy.
20:32 GMT (+00:00): HuK vs Heart starting! Heart up 2-1 due to extended series.
20:32 GMT (+00:00): Heart 2 - 1 GanZi. Heart opened with a marine-hellion elevator which killed a large number of SCVs, more than negating GanZi's CC first build. Ganzi tried to utilize his faster siege tank tech to mount a counter attack, but Heart was able to fend it off and retain the lead. Heart then used his economic advantage to outproduce GanZi and won the series.
20:28 GMT (+00:00): HuK 2 – 1 PartinG. Entombed cross. PartinG expanded off 2 gates and a robo, HuK responded by making a dark shrine and attacking with archons. PartinG's immortals aren't enough to hold and HuK runs him over.
20:15 GMT (+00:00): PartinG 1 - 1 HuK. Antiga. PartinG 2 gate expanded, HuK made a dark shrine. PartinG held his nexus with good micro, and got his own dark shrine to kill HuK's second attack while countering his main as well.
20:13 GMT (+00:00): Heart 1 - 1 Ganzi. After expansions on both sides, Heart rushed to stim and medivacs while Ganzi tried to get a little bit of everything. Heart managed to hit a timing where his stimmed, healed marines were able to plow through Ganzi's regular marines with easy, taking out his expansion. GanZi tried to counter attack once he had stim, but Heart had already pulled too far ahead on two bases, and GanZi GG'd out after the attack failed.
20:01 GMT (+00:00): HuK 1 - 0 PartinG. Tal'Darim non-cross. They each opened with 3 gates, PartinG followed it up with a robo while HuK got blink. HuK pressured PartinG with DT/archon/chargelots and kept his expansion long enough to win.
19:58 GMT (+00:00): Ganzi 1 - 0 Heart. After build-ups of marines and tanks on both sides, Ganzi won the first and final engagement by a significant margin to take the game.
19:47 GMT (+00:00): HuK vs PartinG Starting! Ganzi vs Heart too!
19:24 GMT (+00:00): MarineKing 2 - 1 DongRaeGu. Entombed non-cross. MarineKing did a bio-mech build that involved a lot of 3-3 marines and 2-2 thors. DRG couldn't make an army big enough to stop constant onslaught of upgraded units.
19:12 GMT (+00:00): GanZi 2 - 1 viOLet. Shakuras. GanZi pressured viOLet from a sieged position in the center of the map, and viOLet could never quite breathe enough to get broodlords or infestors. Held on for a long time but couldn't break through with pure ling/baneling.
19:06 GMT (+00:00): DongRaeGu 1 - 1 MarineKing. Daybreak. MKP moved out to kill DRG's fourth, and DRG countered at his third and natural with roaches. DRG did enough damage to buy time for broodlords and won with them.
19:03 GMT (+00:00): HuK 2 - 0 NaNiwa. HuK went for double proxy gate zealots and damaged NaNiwa's economy, but NaNiwa managed to get out a few stalkers and went for a complete counter attack. While NaNiwa could theoretically have won with perfect micro against the melee-only HuK, he was unable to take the game.
18:52 GMT (+00:00): viOLet 1 - 1 GanZi. Metal cross. GanZi dropped third and main simultaneously and viOLet couldn't come back with infestor roach after losing his third hatch.
18:51 GMT (+00:00): HuK 1 - 0 NaNiwa. HuK's blink stalker rush blew through NaNiwa's robotics build.
18:43 GMT (+00:00): HuK vs NaNiwa begins!
18:40 GMT (+00:00): MarineKing 1 - 0 DongRaeGu. Dual Sight. MarineKing opened double reactor hellions, and meched. DRG tried an ultra switch but it wasn't strong enough as MKP was able to limit Zerg expos.
18:36 GMT (+00:00): viOLet 1 - 0 GanZi. Daybreak. The game started with GanZi bunkering viOLet's nat, so he baneling busted him. It went into a normal midgame but viOLet had enough of an advantage to keep the initiative.
18:04 GMT (+00:00): HuK 4 - 1 Socke (extended series). 3-gate vs 4-gate broke down into an elimination fight on Tal'Darim Altar, but this time HuK got the better of his opponent.
18:02 GMT (+00:00): MarineKing 2 - 1 PartinG. Entombed non-cross. MarineKing did a lot of damage with a 2rax against 1 gate robo, and PartinG tried to counter with 1 base colossus. His attack was easily stopped and MKP won.
18:00 GMT (+00:00): NaNiwa 2 - 1 MC. Antiga cross. Both went for the same blink stalker with observer build, but MC made a nexus and NaNiwa made colossus. Back and forth fight but NaNiwa's colossus pulled it out.
17:51 GMT (+00:00): Ganzi 1 - 0 JYP. Being played off the air.
17:49 GMT (+00:00): Socke 1 - 3 HuK (extended series). After both players went for DT rushes, Socke ended up winning an elimination that came down the last building by about 300 hit points.
17:48 GMT (+00:00): MarineKing 1 - 1 PartinG. Tal'Darim non-cross. Long macro game, PartinG held a fourth and fifth long enough to win war of attrition after MKP ate a lot of storms.
17:45 GMT (+00:00): NaNiwa 1 - 1 MC. Entombed Cross. MC went 1 gate robo into immortal drop, and killed NaNiwa's first colossus at home as well as killed a lot of probes. NaNiwa's counter couldn't break through MC's ramp.
17:36 GMT (+00:00): HuK 3 - 0 Socke (extended series). Socke couldn't hurt HuK's fast expansion with his blink stalkers and lost to HuK's better economy.
17:35 GMT (+00:00): NaNiwa 1 - 0 MC. Metalopolis cross. NaNiwa went for 1 base colossus against 3 gate robo expand, and won with his first 1 colossus attack.
17:31 GMT (+00:00): viOLet 2 - 0 aLive. While aLive tried to go for some low-ground marine-tank tactics on Shakuras, viOlet simply crashed through the front door with roach-baneling bust that devstated aLive.
17:28 GMT (+00:00): Socke vs HuK and NaNiwa vs MC begin!
17:22 GMT (+00:00): viOLet 1 - 0 aLive. aLive lost to a big two base ling-baneling bust.
17:21 GMT (+00:00): Socke 2 - 1 TheStC. The run continues!
17:20 GMT (+00:00): MarineKing 1 - 0 PartinG. MarineKing got an extremely fast 2-2 with double reactor marines and tanks, pushed into PartinG's natural before storm was done and thinned down the colossus number enough to win in a prolongue battle.
17:14 GMT (+00:00): MKP vs PartinG and aLive vs viOLet underway.
17:10 GMT (+00:00): Socke and TheStC tied 1 - 1. Quit holding us up
17:05 GMT (+00:00): Ret 1 - 2 JYP. Dual Sight. JYP did pressure with 4 gates and a stargate after expanding, got several warpins to Ret's main with a hidden pylon and Ret couldn't hold it off before losing too much. JYP killed him with a gateway followup.
16:51 GMT (+00:00): MC 2 - 1 Polt. MC used probes and zealots to pressure Polt's CC first build to begin. Polt decided to follow up with a risky, no-gas 8 rax marine all-in, but it was perfectly countered by MC's choice to go heavy sentries and six gates. After mauling the un-upgraded marines with sentries, MC counter-attacked to advance to the next round.
16:50 GMT (+00:00): Ret 1 - 1 JYP. Ret tried a 2 base roach bust but JYP held with cannons, and Ret GG'ed when he saw the void ray.
16:42 GMT (+00:00): viOLet 2 - 0 SaSe. SaSe tried to do some light warp prism harass into a two base push, but got caught horribly out of position by viOLet and missed his timing entirely. It was trivial for viOLet to throw waves of troops at SaSe off his three bases and finish him off.
16:39 GMT (+00:00): DRG 2 - 0 Heart. Shakuras. Heart went for fast 3 orbital and double upgrades, DRG did a huge muta, baneling, ling bust on 2 bases and killed Heart.
16:38 GMT (+00:00): MC 1 - 1 Polt. MC hit with a 6-gate timing, attacking just before Polt's stim upgrade to take the game.
16:36 GMT (+00:00): Ret 1 - 0 JYP. Daybreak. JYP got a third off 4 gates and some light zealot harass, but Ret pressured it constantly with roaches and overcame the stalker army.
16:28 GMT (+00:00): viOlet 1 - 0 SaSe. SaSe allowed two lings past his wall as he forge FE'd, which ended up influencing the game hugely. viOlet had sight of everything SaSe was doing for a significant period, allowing him to drone up with impunity. SaSe went for desperation DT drops instead of trying to play the game out normally from a disadvantage, but once the drop failed, he was as good as dead.
16:26 GMT (+00:00): Polt 1 - 0 MC. After fast expansion starts on both sides, Polt used split armies effectively when MC went up to three bases. His main army picked at MC's main army with good kiting, while drops harassed MC in his main. Polt ended up gaining an army advantage on both fronts, and used it to simply barrel through MC's third while taking his own. Polt kept up the pressure to finish off MC.
16:24 GMT (+00:00): DRG 1 - 0 Heart. Metalopolis, 12 vs 3. Heart held his own through the midgame but once DRG started harassing with mutas he took over the game and overpowered him.
16:14 GMT (+00:00): MC vs Polt begins as well! Oh, and viOLet vs SaSe!
16:10 GMT (+00:00): DRG vs Heart begins!
16:02 GMT (+00:00): Socke 2 - 1 CrazymovING. Socke opened with multiple cannon rushes after his forge FE, forcing many zerglings from CrazymovING but ultimately leaving himself behind. However, Socke managed to follow into a blink stalker timing, and eventually added templars to kill off CM's third base after several heated battles. Left on 2 base vs 2 base against stalker-templar, CrazymovING opted to try and base trade with his roach-hydra mix, but had his forces cleaned up by Socke for the GG.
15:52 GMT (+00:00): Polt 2 - 1 Oz. Oz went for another fast double expand build, but Polt was able to use his stim & medivac timing to hit Oz at multiple locations and cause heavy damage at each spot. Polt then combined his forces together to steamroll through Oz's front.
15:44 GMT (+00:00): Socke 1 - 1 Crazymoving. The stream cut in and out many times, but Socke seemed to open with a warp prism + mass gates attack that did fairly well, and then used stargate units to harass Crazymoving and negate his mutas.
15:42 GMT (+00:00): Ret 2 - 1 Golden. Played off-stream.
15:39 GMT (+00:00): Oz 1 - 1 Polt. Oz opened with a double expand into 6-gate pressure, but Polt fended it off without much trouble. Polt then went for his own aggression with drops, but Oz in turn didn't take too much damage. The game was decided by clashes in the field where Polt couldn't deal with Oz's storms effectively enough, taking big losses and giving Oz the lead. Oz was able to raze Polt's third base a couple of times and eventually took the game.
15:36 GMT (+00:00): SaSe 2 - 0 HayprO. Antiga Shipyards. SaSe went double robo and started with sentry drop, made a lot of colossus and immortals and HayprO couldn't muster enough to stop it.
15:21 GMT (+00:00): SaSe 1 - 0 HayprO. Daybreak. SaSe took a quick third and both players maxed out. Then the stream died and apparently SaSe won, presumably winning the engagement before HayprO had enough infestors or broodlords.
15:17 GMT (+00:00): Crazymoving 1 - 0 Socke. Socke was getting creamed by mutas before the stream went down, so no surprise.
15:15 GMT (+00:00): Polt 1 - 0 Oz. Both players signed an early-mid game non-aggression treaty and allowed each other to build up the armies they wanted. When they finally clashed, Polt flattened Oz with alarming ease, taking game one.
15:13 GMT (+00:00):Golden defeats Rain 2 - 0.
15:01 GMT (+00:00): Oz vs Polt, HayprO vs SaSe and Crazymoving vs Socke begin
14:55 GMT (+00:00): SaSe vs HayprO coming up on Gameplay 2, while @robpsimpson says Polt vs Oz will be up on Gameplay 1.
14:35 GMT (+00:00): Socke 2 - 0 DeMusliM. After some early marine kills allowed him to secure his tech and third base safely, Socke annihilated DeMusliM in the open field with a maxed out army.
14:18 GMT (+00:00): Socke 1 - 0 DeMusliM. After expanding, Socke went for a cute sentry drop harass into fast colossus build. DeMusliM tried to apply pressure before colossus range was done, but didn't do enough damage or buy enough time. Socke broke through DeMusliM's front with his gateway unit + colossi force to take the game.
14:07 GMT (+00:00): DeMusliM vs Socke begins.
13:30 GMT (+00:00): Just chillin'
Championship: Final Bracket
Grand Final: MarineKing vs DongRaeGu
Game Four: Shakuras. MKP made 3 quick command centers and DRG broke him with a ling baneling roach bust.
Game Five: Antiga. MarineKing opened with banshees, then did a timing with marauders and tanks. DRG attacked too soon before he had baneling speed and MKP mopped him up.
Game Six: Tal'Darim cross. MKP used an interesting timing with 2 reactors to pump out marines, marauders, and blue flame hellions before DRG's third base got running for infestor/ling. DRG almost holds initial push but died when reinforcements came.
Game Seven: Metalopolis 12 vs 3. MKP went for quick 3 orbital and DRG got mutas after lings and banes. MKP engaged poorly several times early game and lost his first forces, but after he took a third and held it his marine marauder ball was unstoppable, he rolled over DRG with constant big pressure at the Zerg third and fourth.
MarineKing 5 - 2 DongRaeGu
Winners Final: MarineKing vs DongRaeGu
Game One: Dual Sight. MarineKing opened double reactor hellions, and meched. DRG tried an ultra switch but it wasn't strong enough as MKP was able to limit Zerg expos.
Game Two: Daybreak. MKP moved out to kill DRG's fourth, and DRG countered at his third and natural with roaches. DRG did enough damage to buy time for broodlords and won with them.
Game Three: Entombed non-cross. MarineKing did a bio-mech build that involved a lot of 3-3 marines and 2-2 thors. DRG couldn't make an army big enough to stop constant onslaught of upgraded units.
MarineKing 2 - 1 DongRaegu
Semi-Finals
DongRaeGu vs Heart
Game One: Metalopolis, 12 vs 3. Heart held his own through the midgame but once DRG started harassing with mutas he took over the game and overpowered him.
Game Two: Shakuras. Heart went for fast 3 orbital and double upgrades, DRG did a huge muta, baneling, ling bust on 2 bases and killed Heart.
DongRaeGu 2 – 0 Heart
PartinG vs MarineKing
Game One: MarineKing got an extremely fast 2-2 with double reactor marines and tanks, pushed into PartinG's natural before storm was done and thinned down the colossus number enough to win in a prolongue battle.
Game Two: Tal'Darim non-cross. Long macro game, PartinG held a fourth and fifth long enough to win war of attrition after MKP ate a lot of storms.
Game Three: Entombed non-cross. MarineKing did a lot of damage with a 2rax against 1 gate robo, and PartinG tried to counter with 1 base colossus. His attack was easily stopped and MKP won.
MarineKing 2 – 1 PartinG
Championship: Losers Bracket
Losers Final
Heart vs DongRaeGu (Started with DRG 2 - 0, extended series)
Game Three: Entombed Valley cross. Heart got to 3-3 on his marines and ground down DRG, pushing with a few thors and marines similar to the game with MKP.
Game Four: Dual Sight. Heart tried a cute early third build with a planetary, but it let DRG build up uninhibited and Heart couldn't stop any Zerg expansions. DRG got to infestors and ultras and crushed Heart's army.
Game Five: Antiga. DRG baneling busted, but didn't do enough damage to kill Heart and the game played on normally. DRG was behind all game in upgrades, and as Heart moved out to take the center of the map DRG took him on with infestors and brood lords. Heart was pushed back into his natural, but killed all of DRG's bases with drops, DRG survived with his last several broodlords and killed Heart by baiting a crucial stim and ending it when Heart had no way to kill the last broodlords.
DongRaeGu 4 - 1 Heart
Round 9
HuK vs Heart (Started at 2 - 1 for Heart, extended series)
Game Four: Daybreak. HuK went for a lot of gateways and a 1-1 timing attack, but Heart also had 1-1 and ground him down until there were no forcefields left. Heart cleaned up once HuK was out of energy.
Game Five: Tal'Darim. Heart went 3rax, and HuK won with 1 gate expand because he got an early robo and had an immortal for the initial push.
Game Six: Shakuras. HuK went for a gateway timing again but Heart held, and won when he moved out and sniped colossus in HuK's natural.
Game One: Tal'Darim non-cross. They each opened with 3 gates, PartinG followed it up with a robo while HuK got blink. HuK pressured PartinG with DT/archon/chargelots and kept his expansion long enough to win.
Game Two: Antiga. PartinG 2 gate expanded, HuK made a dark shrine. PartinG held his nexus with good micro, and got his own dark shrine to kill HuK's second attack while countering his main as well.
Game Three: Entombed cross. PartinG expanded off 2 gates and a robo, HuK responded by making a dark shrine and attacking with archons. PartinG's immortals aren't enough to hold and HuK runs him over.
HuK 2 – 1 PartinG
Heart vs Ganzi
Game One: Shakuras. After build-ups of marines and tanks on both sides, Ganzi won the first and final engagement by a significant margin to take the game.
Game Two: Entombed Valley. After expansions on both sides, Heart rushed to stim and medivacs while Ganzi tried to get a little bit of everything. Heart managed to hit a timing where his stimmed, healed marines were able to plow through Ganzi's regular marines with easy, taking out his expansion. GanZi tried to counter attack once he had stim, but Heart had already pulled too far ahead on two bases, and GanZi GG'd out after the attack failed.
Game Three: Dual Sight. Heart opened with a marine-hellion elevator which killed a large number of SCVs, more than negating GanZi's CC first build. Ganzi tried to utilize his faster siege tank tech to mount a counter attack, but Heart was able to fend it off and retain the lead. Heart then used his economic advantage to outproduce GanZi and won the series.
Game One: Daybreak. The game started with GanZi bunkering viOLet's nat, so he baneling busted him. It went into a normal midgame but viOLet had enough of an advantage to keep the initiative.
Game Two: Metal cross. GanZi dropped third and main simultaneously and viOLet couldn't come back with infestor roach after losing his third hatch.
Game Three: Shakuras. GanZi pressured viOLet from a sieged position in the center of the map, and viOLet could never quite breathe enough to get broodlords or infestors. Held on for a long time but couldn't break through with pure ling/baneling.
viOLet 1 – 2 GanZi
NaNiwa vs HuK
Game One: Dual Sight. HuK's blink stalker rush blew through NaNiwa's robotics build.
Game Two: Antiga Shipyard. HuK went for double proxy gate zealots and crippled NaNiwa's economy, but NaNiwa managed to get out a few stalkers and went for an all or nothing counter attack. While NaNiwa could theoretically have won with perfect micro against the melee-only HuK, he was unable to take the game.
Game One: Tal'Darim Altar. aLive lost to a big two base ling-baneling bust.
Game Two: Shakuras Plateau. While aLive tried to go for some low-ground marine-tank tactics on Shakuras, viOlet simply crashed through the front door with roach-baneling bust that devstated aLive.
aLive 0 – 2 viOLet
HuK vs Socke
Game One: Entombed Valley. Socke couldn't hurt HuK's fast expansion with his blink stalkers and lost to HuK's better economy.
Game Two: Metalopolis. After both players went for DT rushes, Socke ended up winning an elimination that came down the last building by about 300 hit points.
Game Three: Tal'Darim Altar. 3-gate vs 4-gate broke down into an elimination fight on Tal'Darim Altar, but this time HuK got the better of his opponent.
HuK 4 – 1 Socke (HuK began with a 2 - 0 extended series advantage)
NaNiwa vs MC
Game One: Metalopolis cross. NaNiwa went for 1 base colossus against 3 gate robo expand, and won with his first 1 colossus attack.
Game Two: Entombed Cross. MC went 1 gate robo into immortal drop, and killed NaNiwa's first colossus at home as well as killed a lot of probes. NaNiwa's counter couldn't break through MC's ramp.
Game Three: Antiga cross. Both went for the same blink stalker with observer build, but MC made a nexus and NaNiwa made colossus. Back and forth fight but NaNiwa's colossus pulled it out.
Game One: Daybreak. JYP got a third off 4 gates and some light zealot harass, but Ret pressured it constantly with roaches and overcame the stalker army.
Game Two: Ret tried a 2 base roach bust but JYP held with cannons, and Ret GG'ed when he saw the void ray.
Game Three: Dual Sight. JYP did pressure with 4 gates and a stargate after expanding, got several warpins to Ret's main with a hidden pylon and Ret couldn't hold it off before losing too much. JYP killed him with a gateway followup.
Ret 1 – 2 JYP
viOlet vs SaSe
Game One: Daybreak. SaSe allowed two lings past his wall as he forge FE'd, which ended up influencing the game hugely. viOlet had sight of everything SaSe was doing for a significant period, allowing him to drone up with impunity. SaSe went for desperation DT drops instead of trying to play the game out normally from a disadvantage, but once the drop failed, he was as good as dead.
Game Two: Shakuras Plateau. SaSe tried to do some light warp prism harass into a two base push, but got caught horribly out of position by viOLet and missed his timing entirely. It was trivial for viOLet to throw waves of troops at SaSe off his three bases and finish him off.
viOlet 2 – 0 SaSe
TheStC vs Socke
Not streamed.
TheStC 1 – 2 Socke
MC vs Polt
Game One: Antiga Shipyard. After fast expansion starts on both sides, Polt used split armies effectively when MC went up to three bases. His main army picked at MC's main army with good kiting, while drops harassed MC in his main. Polt ended up gaining an army advantage on both fronts, and used it to simply barrel through MC's third while taking his own. Polt kept up the pressure to finish off MC.
Game Two: Daybreak. MC hit with a 6-gate timing, attacking just before Polt's stim upgrade to take the game.
Game Three: Entombed Valley. MC used probes and zealots to pressure Polt's CC first build to begin. Polt decided to follow up with a risky, no-gas 8 rax marine all-in, but it was perfectly countered by MC's choice to go heavy sentries and six gates. After mauling the un-upgraded marines with sentries, MC counter-attacked to advance to the next round.
Game One: Daybreak. SaSe took a quick third and both players maxed out. Then the stream died and apparently SaSe won, presumably winning the engagement before HayprO had enough infestors or broodlords.
Game Two: Antiga Shipyards. SaSe went double robo and started with sentry drop, made a lot of colossus and immortals and HayprO couldn't muster enough to stop it.
SaSe 2 – 0 HayprO
CrazymoviNG vs Socke
Game One: Daybreak. Crazymoving won the game while the stream was down. Socke was getting creamed by mutas before the stream went down, so no big surprise.
Game Two: Shakuras Plateau. The stream cut in and out many times, but Socke seemed to open with a warp prism + mass gates attack that did fairly well, and then used stargate units to harass Crazymoving and negate his mutas.
Game Three: Tal'Darim Altar. Socke opened with multiple cannon rushes after his forge FE, forcing many zerglings from CrazymovING but ultimately leaving himself behind. However, Socke managed to follow into a blink stalker timing, and eventually added templars to kill off CM's third base after several heated battles. Left on 2 base vs 2 base against stalker-templar, CrazymovING opted to try and base trade with his roach-hydra mix, but had his forces cleaned up by Socke for the GG.
CrazymovING 1 – 2 Socke
Oz vs Polt
Game One: Antiga Shipyard. Both players signed an early-mid game non-aggression treaty and allowed each other to build up the armies they wanted. When they finally clashed, Polt flattened Oz with alarming ease, taking game one.
Game Two: Daybreak. Oz opened with a double expand into 6-gate pressure, but Polt fended it off without much trouble. Polt then went for his own aggression with drops, but Oz in turn didn't take too much damage. The game was decided by clashes in the field where Polt couldn't deal with Oz's storms effectively enough, taking big losses and giving Oz the lead. Oz was able to raze Polt's third base a couple of times and eventually took the game.
Game Three: Shakuras Plateau. Oz went for another fast double expand build, but Polt was able to use his stim & medivac timing to hit Oz at multiple locations and cause heavy damage at each spot. Polt then combined his forces together to steamroll through Oz's front.
Game One: Antiga Shipyard. After expanding, Socke went for a cute sentry drop harass into fast colossus build. DeMusliM tried to apply pressure before colossus range was done, but didn't do enough damage or buy enough time. Socke broke through DeMusliM's front with his gateway unit + colossi force to take the game.
Game Two: Shakuras Platea. After some early marine kills allowed him to secure his tech and third base safely, Socke annihilated DeMusliM in the open field with a maxed out army.
DeMusliM 0 – 2 Socke
KawaiiRice vs Polt
Not streamed.
KawaiiRice 0 – 2 Polt
Live Updates: Heyoka and Waxangel. Graphics: Meko Moral Support: R1CH
I may actually consider staying up all night watching this. So many sick games over the next few hours. I'm really hoping some of the underdogs can shine today.
On March 25 2012 23:38 Seldentar wrote: I can't believe MLG let us miss SaSe vs Select......
Is there any inside info when all this stuff is actually starting - or do I have to refresh and check all the streams (Except central which our lovely TL team wrote is starting in ~50 minutes)?????
why is demuslim playing those totally weird marine combat shield pushes on shakuras? if there is one map where this should definitely never work it is shakuras... if the protoss forcefields even a bit then he will clear that push up no problem and be far ahead because socke's ffs were brilliant the game was pretty much over right there...
On March 25 2012 23:24 trancey_ wrote: is the stream (SC A1) flickering for anyone else?
yeah puckett claims they didn't order enough power for day 3 so its going to be flickering all day long
wat
hahaha classic. If your power cord for your graphics card is loose, than it starts making the screen flicker and stuff. I'd reckon if you dont have enough power the same thing occurs.
This is a big joke! Rain vs Golden, Sase vs Select and Polt vs Kawaiirice wasn't even live streamed (instead they stream replays from yesterday, which you can watch at vods yourself whenever you want to). WTF is this? Paying for nothing? It's not that expansive, but when you pay for something, you expect to get something back.
On March 25 2012 23:49 teas wrote: This is a big joke! Rain vs Golden, Sase vs Select and Polt vs Kawaiirice wasn't even live streamed (instead they stream replays from yesterday, which you can watch at vods yourself whenever you want to). WTF is this? Paying for nothing? It's not that expansive, but when you pay for something, you expect to get something back. I will NEVER EVER pay for this again. Shame on you MLG! Really embarrassing.
I share your dissatisfaction. If there was a stream chat... it would be flipping out now (well, ok, it always is flipping out,, but more than normally).
Anyways gents - the A1,2,3 streams seem to be starting at 11:00 EDT//17:00 CET time (that's what it says through their GUI) - and Central 11:30//17:30 CET as noted already.
On March 25 2012 23:49 teas wrote: This is a big joke! Rain vs Golden, Sase vs Select and Polt vs Kawaiirice wasn't even live streamed (instead they stream replays from yesterday, which you can watch at vods yourself whenever you want to). WTF is this? Paying for nothing? It's not that expansive, but when you pay for something, you expect to get something back. I will NEVER EVER pay for this again. Shame on you MLG! Really embarrassing.
I echo everything you said. I knew they would be using lesser casters on the beta streams. But to not stream those matches AT ALL! Is downright unacceptable. You have the streams. USE THEM!!!!!
Anyone know if the twitch streams are ver going to be back =(((( i ccant watch it mobilly anymore, whic is the way i usually watch 99 percent of the tournament
parting is like my new fucking hero, so boss. of course i'm rooting for sase just because his play is unlike anyone else's. MKP could take the whole thing though.
Was Oz ready once the lag ended? Looked like he had good positioning and storms ready before the caster's connection dropped, then when it restarted he was running away half dead. Would imagine he wasn't ready when the game finally restarted and Polt caught him off-guard. Dunno.
On March 26 2012 00:17 Anncoulpable wrote: Internet forums are a constant reminder of the unwarranted sense of entitlement people have.
I do agree for the most part. However, those who spent money on a service have a right to express dissatisfaction with the purchased service. I have been enjoying the free MLG streams and will most likely purchase MLG streams in the near future when I have an income, but I think the other users have the right to say they do not think streams should have gone unused.
Pretty much, it is not an 'unwarranted sense of entitlement' in all cases.
Wow, Polt can get to the finals. Except for Stephano and obviously Sheth, who prepared very well for him, he had a pretty easy bracket. I wonder if MLG is going to change it's system, up to now it was a complete failure in terms of balance with all the open groups and LB. If it was not that way MLG would have been a great tournament.
On March 26 2012 01:05 Tachyon wrote: Socke 2 - 1 CrazymovING Socke 2 - 1 PuMa Ret 2 - 1 Golden SaSe 2 - 0 SeleCT
Sup korea? Europe hwaiting!
I think Europe will beat us (Americans/North America) to a Code S win. Idra is letting us NA players down- and he was on fire about a quarter or 2 ago with his IEM wins.
On March 26 2012 00:17 Anncoulpable wrote: Internet forums are a constant reminder of the unwarranted sense of entitlement people have.
I do agree for the most part. However, those who spent money on a service have a right to express dissatisfaction with the purchased service. I have been enjoying the free MLG streams and will most likely purchase MLG streams in the near future when I have an income, but I think the other users have the right to say they do not think streams should have gone unused.
Pretty much, it is not an 'unwarranted sense of entitlement' in all cases.
As some one who also paid money for MLG, I agree we can be a little annoyed. However, people act as if MLG is purposely doing this to fuck people over. When you're relying on the Internet and computers for your entire experience of MLG, you have to recognize the possibility of there being issues outside of MLG's control. People freaking out and claiming they'll never give MLG any money ever again, because the streams were choppy for an hour or so?
The people at MLG, and every major tournament for that matter, work their asses off for months to provide people with this content for free, and then if you pay a small amount, you get even more. 30 dollars for a year of MLG? It costs me $15 a month for one premium cable channel, such as HBO. It's just ridiculous, especially when kids who live with their parents and have to ask mommy and daddy to pay for their WoW subscription complain about the cost of these events, as if they had to slave away at some 9-5 office job to be able to watch.
It's just getting old having to sift through all of the whining and complaining, when all I want to know is if the stream issues are on my end of theirs.
On March 26 2012 01:05 Tachyon wrote: Socke 2 - 1 CrazymovING Socke 2 - 1 PuMa Ret 2 - 1 Golden SaSe 2 - 0 SeleCT
Sup korea? Europe hwaiting!
The all korean winners bracket nods respectively at Europe's achievements. There's still at least one korean in every quarter of the losers bracket, too. Don't get too excited just yet
On March 26 2012 00:17 Anncoulpable wrote: Internet forums are a constant reminder of the unwarranted sense of entitlement people have.
I do agree for the most part. However, those who spent money on a service have a right to express dissatisfaction with the purchased service. I have been enjoying the free MLG streams and will most likely purchase MLG streams in the near future when I have an income, but I think the other users have the right to say they do not think streams should have gone unused.
Pretty much, it is not an 'unwarranted sense of entitlement' in all cases.
Internet forums are a constant reminder that amongst the masses of whiny, angry and senseless people, there exist, somewhere, voices of calm reason.
Do we have to pay to watch just regular stream? Cause it wont load for me... I tried on Foxfire ( some banner error ) and on IE but get a blank grey screen.
On March 26 2012 01:51 BoxerXIII wrote: Do we have to pay to watch just regular stream? Cause it wont load for me... I tried on Foxfire ( some banner error ) and on IE but get a blank grey screen.
It may just be a black screen they arn't using fillers very well this time around (might be saving their bandwidth limt as I heard they are close to cap)
be sure to hover ur mouse over the screen and if you see a timer counting up you know ur good. If it is otherwise not laoding you have a problem.
On March 26 2012 01:51 BoxerXIII wrote: Do we have to pay to watch just regular stream? Cause it wont load for me... I tried on Foxfire ( some banner error ) and on IE but get a blank grey screen.
If you are on Firefox, disable Adblock plugins you might have installed. IE didn't work for me either. Downloaded Chromium and it works just fine.
On March 26 2012 02:01 SayGen wrote: I do wish Day9 and Tasteless would cast together (Yes I know they won't and all the backstory) but still it would be nice to see it happen.
I haven't heard the backstory, is there somewhere I can read about it?
I've always thought MLG should be more experimental with caster pairings, since they've already gone to the trouble of flying Artosis and Tasteless halfway across the globe to be in person at the same event with the likes of Day9 and DJWheat.
Failing that, I do like the back-and-forth between the two caster desks though; definitely a step in the right direction.
On March 26 2012 02:01 SayGen wrote: I do wish Day9 and Tasteless would cast together (Yes I know they won't and all the backstory) but still it would be nice to see it happen.
I haven't heard the backstory, is there somewhere I can read about it?
I've always thought MLG should be more experimental with caster pairings, since they've already gone to the trouble of flying Artosis and Tasteless halfway across the globe to be in person at the same event with the likes of Day9 and DJWheat.
Failing that, I do like the back-and-forth between the two caster desks though; definitely a step in the right direction.
umm not sure if there is a post or not- but on one of the Day9 Dailys he talked about how it's better for them not to be seen as a pair so they don't get the equivalent of character locked like Christopher Reeves and Superman.
On March 26 2012 02:24 LukasG wrote: Socke is doing a great job, but vs. Huk it will be hard, i hope he can make it through :D
I think Socke needs to win three matches against one match for huk. Since they met in the pool play, they should be playing a Bo5 where Huk starts with 2 victories. Is that correct, can someone confirm this?
On March 26 2012 02:01 SayGen wrote: I do wish Day9 and Tasteless would cast together (Yes I know they won't and all the backstory) but still it would be nice to see it happen.
I haven't heard the backstory, is there somewhere I can read about it?
I've always thought MLG should be more experimental with caster pairings, since they've already gone to the trouble of flying Artosis and Tasteless halfway across the globe to be in person at the same event with the likes of Day9 and DJWheat.
Failing that, I do like the back-and-forth between the two caster desks though; definitely a step in the right direction.
umm not sure if there is a post or not- but on one of the Day9 Dailys he talked about how it's better for them not to be seen as a pair so they don't get the equivalent of character locked like Christopher Reeves and Superman.
Thanks, if anyone knows the episode number that'd be nice. Doesn't seem like a big problem to me though, given how Tasteless is already paired so tightly with Artosis, plus the fact that they're on different continents most of the time. I haven't seen Day9's explanation of it though, so maybe there was some substance to it that I'm missing.
On March 26 2012 02:16 Moneyscoop wrote: Oh my gooooood what is up with Socke? Really nice! But he'll lose against HuK for sure.
A year ago, everyone was saying the exact opposite- HuK almost always lost vs. Socke. HuK turned that around with a vengeance, but there's always a chance that Socke can step things up and do the same.
Toss gets a pass on this map since Terrran can't hold expansions. tohugh I think had MKP done some drop harass it would of been better. I didn't see any HT on the sides of his base- they were all chilling in the midddle- even tasteless mentioned how in the middle of the map was HTs.
MKP vs DRG is going to be so good- hope the stream smooths out though. Little laggy from time to time- esp during the engagements (go figure). Also glad MC lost.
On March 26 2012 03:05 trancey_ wrote: Sorry for Socke, but it was pretty much impossible to win with Huk's 2:0 lead. Good games though!
You make it sound like the set up isn't fair. I like when they do extended series so that it doens't cheat the 1st winner. why should they start on equal footing when Huk clearly beat him the 1st time.
On March 26 2012 03:05 trancey_ wrote: Sorry for Socke, but it was pretty much impossible to win with Huk's 2:0 lead. Good games though!
You make it sound like the set up isn't fair. I like when they do extended series so that it doens't cheat the 1st winner. why should they start on equal footing when Huk clearly beat him the 1st time.
Still pretty impossible to win, even if it's his own fault from losing 2:0 earlier?!
What would really be fair is if you could go 3-2 in sets with someone and end up losing. That would be fair. It is more fair if a player who has won fewer sets can still win.
e.g. Win 2-0 in WB, lose 1-2 when you play them again. Total = 3-2 but you lost the last one so you get knocked out.
Edit: after reading your edit- yes I see what your saying now, and I could see that working as well. This time it played out well for Huk. Hopefully he uses all his momentium he has been building and pushes his way to the top.
anyone else getting many many problems with the streams? always muting itself or going black during matches etc. -_- i must've opened and closed at least 90 stream windows over the course of the entire mlg weekend really tired of it
On March 26 2012 04:27 DeadBull wrote: MKP like a boss!
funny how HuK almost always gets the easiest route in tournaments...
He played some good opponents- MC, Nani, Polt All code S material. Wouldn't say the easiest route by far. And who wants to crawl through the losers bracket... that's just one more game series you gotta win to take the championship.
On March 26 2012 04:27 ropumar wrote: I didn't understood the "I hope Nestea doesn't wake up" joke, anybody care to explain?
Basically at one point Artosis said that Nestea is sleeping and we're all currently in his dream and that we don't exist or something along those lines. So if he wakes up we all disappear.
On March 26 2012 04:29 draken_lore wrote: anyone else getting many many problems with the streams? always muting itself or going black during matches etc. -_- i must've opened and closed at least 90 stream windows over the course of the entire mlg weekend really tired of it
Yeah, those are happening a lot to me,muting and black screen.
On March 26 2012 04:35 Scribble wrote: Crazy weekend. Trying to keep up with all the SC2, proleague playoffs, MK9/KOF13 at MLG, and NCR while writing 3 reviews. =O
Huk vs Naniwa G2 was yet another awesome PvP. Didn't get to catch much from the MKP/DRG series, how was it?
Really good, best TvZ of the tounry imho. MKP did some biomech builds and had some really sick medvac+thor micro (esp. that last game)
I'm curious if it would be possible for MLG to just do an extended commercial run between sets as opposed to between games. They run commercials after every. single. game. When they're done, we have to wait another few minutes that we get to spend staring at the crowd and the players in their booths.
It seems to me that doing something like Gom does, where they go straight through the series and then run commercials, would make for a better viewing experience.
On March 26 2012 05:15 Hemlighest wrote: Probably intentional, to get people to pay for the stream, so they wont get commercials.
Even without ads u still have to watch downtime as said above.
Ah true. Guess you could watch another stream meanwhile. But yeah, it's a bit annoying with the commercials, but doesn't bother me too much when it's free.
On March 26 2012 03:19 fourColo wrote: What would really be fair is if you could go 3-2 in sets with someone and end up losing. That would be fair. It is more fair if a player who has won fewer sets can still win.
e.g. Win 2-0 in WB, lose 1-2 when you play them again. Total = 3-2 but you lost the last one so you get knocked out.
Well that wouldn't be an extended series at all, you're basically just saying the first match's results should not affect the second, that's not an extended series. Many people don't like the extended series rule and all you're really suggesting is that they scrap it. I actually don't like it either and think that if someone wants to use an extended series rule, it should just be the best of whatever it would have been (or +2, will explain) but with the previous match counting for 1 win, regardless of the actual score. e.g. 2-0 in one series, Person A advanced, meets up with Person B later though, a best of 5 is played, but starting at 1-0 in favour of person A. Alternatively, if that is too harsh, it's a Best of 7 instead of the Best of 5, but starting 1-0 for Person A. Currently, I think the rule is just a little more harsh, I believe they said it goes to 4 more than normal (bo9 instead of bo5 for the final), but with the 2-0 or 2-1 carrying over, although with it being out of 5/9 instead of 3/7, the previous results obviously account for a lower percentage of the final series' number games to be played. Good move by MLG to increase the number though, I think just about everyone finds a Best of 3 stupidly short for a final.
EDIT:
On March 26 2012 05:31 ropumar wrote: The only thing that bothers me is the constant random black screen and mute it happens. The ads dont bother me too much. (adblock also works)
Yeah, exactly. I had adblock on and then thought "no, these black screens cutting the stream (forcing a page refresh to get it to work) are annoying and I get the feeling it's from ads, but I guess they wouldn't actually be playing ads during the games" but then it cut out during a game and said I had to turn adblock off to view it, so I did, only to receive a couple of ads immediately upon load, which is really lame when you're trying to watch the final game of MarineKing vs DongRaeGu. >_< If there were only ads in the break, I don't mind leaving them on in the background, but you're there to watch the show, not the ads, so if ads play during the game, it is only going to make me turn adblock back on.
Great games! However, I have a question. Is the stream on a big delay? The results have already been posted on MLG and liquipedia for the Huk-Heart match.
Is anyone getting insane amounts of lag? I can't even stream the main stage without getting the glowing MLG popup every 5 seconds. I can't go any higher than medium without it lagging even worse.
Arrrhck, they could have Day[9] and Artosis and instead of it's JP with Rob (only really good at hosting, not commentating+fine) on one and the second casters (obvious comments and not interesting commentary for me at least) on the other. :'( I guess Day[9] really never will commentate with either Artosis or Tasteless.
On March 26 2012 03:05 trancey_ wrote: Sorry for Socke, but it was pretty much impossible to win with Huk's 2:0 lead. Good games though!
You make it sound like the set up isn't fair. I like when they do extended series so that it doens't cheat the 1st winner. why should they start on equal footing when Huk clearly beat him the 1st time.
Well, by that logic, they should take in consideration the whole match history of 2 players.
If it's 39:2, wel then win 39 times! Wouldn't be fair outerwise!
/irony off
Had Socke played somebody else of the group-first players, he would have had a better chance. How is that fair?
I agree, although that's not irony. The first win though, trancey, gives the winner the opportunity to play from the winner's bracket, or, in pool play, a greater chance of going straight to the winner's bracket and the later they fall out, the further into the loser's bracket they would be playing from. If someone fights all the way back from the loser's bracket, they've already earned their right to an equal match should they meet again much later on. EDIT: I'm sure the extended series between Huk and Heart is a b07, as it would otherwise have been bo7. They add four games to the total, but as you know, they keep the 2-0 or 2-1.
An extended series requires you to actually win more games against someone to eliminate them. Say player A wins the first meetup 2-0 then player B wins the second meetup 2-1. Under GSL rules, player B would eliminate player A, under MLG rules the series is 3-2 in favor of player A. The reason it needs to be best of 7 rather than best of 5 is to prevent the player who won the first set from getting through on a single cheese win after being up 2-0 or 2-1 in the set.
HuK played absolutely fantastic this tournament. All the haters of HuK have now seriously been proven wrong...he took out alot of high quality players!
His PvP is top notch. Oz at Winter Arena, and now PartinG....damn that's a good line up.
You have to look at the tournaments and how they are run. GSL would be stupid to have extended series seeing as the seasons lasts 6-8 weeks. However when you have a weekend long tournament like MLG is, it makes total sense.
Once more, DongRaeGu and MKP meet in the finals of MLG. Last time, MKP carried his extended series advantage to a championship.
MarineKing didn't have an extended series advantage in the last MLG. DRG won the first best of three 2-1. Then it became an extended series because it was the first set MarineKing lost in the tournament. He won the tournament because he won the next three games.
Once more, DongRaeGu and MKP meet in the finals of MLG. Last time, MKP carried his extended series advantage to a championship.
MarineKing didn't have an extended series advantage in the last MLG. DRG won the first best of three 2-1. Then it became an extended series because it was the first set MarineKing lost in the tournament. He won the tournament because he won the next three games.
On March 26 2012 07:43 FlamingForce wrote: Funny update, DRG never had ultras.
Haha, yeah. In the game on (I think) Entombed Valley, they were commentating that DRG had no money left (I'm not thinking of the 0 income on Antiga Shipyard), right after the numerous Ultralisks had died unimpressively.
Oh ok thanks! Im thinking DRG takes this one pretty easily doesn't look like the man can be stopped! I feel like Genius matches up best against his play style but I haven't seen him take part in any foreigner tournaments except blizzcon a long time ago : ( anyone know the chances of ever seeing him at an MLG?
Looking through the results I can't seem to work out how PartinG got to the semi-finals ahead of HuK? Were there results carried forward from earlier on or something?
Is it just me or is Tasteless running out of steam? During these final games I feel he oftens just doesnt know what to say. Its more like Artosis casting; Tasteless just adding few here and there mostly this emotional stuff. I dont know if its just me or what but its not what it used to be, his game knowledge feels really poor. Anyone?
On March 26 2012 08:28 Veriol wrote: Is it just me or is Tasteless running out of steam? During these final games I feel he oftens just doesnt know what to say. Its more like Artosis casting; Tasteless just adding few here and there mostly this emotional stuff. I dont know if its just me or what but its not what it used to be, his game knowledge feels really poor. Anyone?
Artosis has always been the analytical one while Tasteless is the hype-man so to say.
On March 26 2012 08:28 Veriol wrote: Is it just me or is Tasteless running out of steam? During these final games I feel he oftens just doesnt know what to say. Its more like Artosis casting; Tasteless just adding few here and there mostly this emotional stuff. I dont know if its just me or what but its not what it used to be, his game knowledge feels really poor. Anyone?
So, same score as the last MLG when MKP won. DRG will need to pull the same miracle MKP did last time in order to take the tournament in this new format.
But he won't because MKP is bigger than Coca Cola and Jesus combined.
CursivE, that is a good point, evidently it would seem it is simply down to Parting being top of his group and Huk being second in his, despite the fact that Parting had lost one more game. Pool results It seems slightly nicer then that Huk got to face him directly and beat him to go through.
Close spawns on metalopolis good (terran) unit. The fast reinforcements and catching the banelings morphing really come down to the fact that he could get to DRGs main so quickly. All in all, MKP played brilliantly, but close spawns are a huge bonus for a terran.
Also team Polt! Clutch also had some other brain fart that was hilarious earlier in the weekend.
On March 26 2012 09:24 Holey wrote: Replays or it didn't happen! Ugh jk I am just mad i didn't get to see it, great to see Terran winning some more tournies now. :D
i think you can rewatch the stream due to their player kinda saving the stream on the fly. finals are at ~ 7h10min
No joke, this was one of my favorite events to watch. Huk put on a good show, MKP won, DRG still the Zerg master, a great showing by a formerly "unknown" player, Heart... great stories all around, and the games were interesting to see. I love that MKP used a handful of different, almost wacky styles to win, and really only fell back on his straight up bio for the last game. The only regret is that it didn't go to game 9 - but hey, 6 games is still a great series, and it wasn't a blowout in any way.
Stimming all the way from your own base to catch spawning banelings....aaaaaaaw yeah! Whenever I see MKP do splits his training video of doing a million marine splits against banelings comes to mind. I cannot express how insanely hard it is what he is doing especially against DRG.
The best moment was when MarineKing's 3rd finally kicked in and he exploded with his pure MMM style from the days of KyrixZenith to topple DRG, the best modern zerg player. I had nerd chills...
I wanna see this training video Rinnegan5, can you send me a link maybe? Thanks in advance!
@topic
Hate to see drg losing (zerg !), but mkps micro is just unfair, so incredibly good and nice to watch. Now im looking forward to see those two guys in code s ( :
Wish I hadn't known how this tournament would end after just the winner bracket finals, extended series just made me lose interest after that I didn't watch any more games. Looking at the brackets now it was pretty obvious I did the right thing.
I also think this MLG was a testament to that only people in day 1 pool play has any chance of winning an MLG, I'd say that out of the top 16 very few were actually the top 16 players at the tournament. Imagine if GSL let their top 4 from last season start in the round of 8 or in truth its more like the finalist get to start in the round of 4, something tells me we would get almost the same finals every year in GSL then as well.
GSL's tournament system is probably the worst of all tournaments and it always makes it feel like just a fun event but it tells us nothing of who the best players are.
I think you mean "MLG" instead of "GSL" in the last paragraph Krogan, and I agree if that's correct: The GSL's system is superior for several reasons imo.
On March 26 2012 09:59 Krogan wrote: Wish I hadn't known how this tournament would end after just the winner bracket finals, extended series just made me lose interest after that I didn't watch any more games. Looking at the brackets now it was pretty obvious I did the right thing.
I also think this MLG was a testament to that only people in day 1 pool play has any chance of winning an MLG, I'd say that out of the top 16 very few were actually the top 16 players at the tournament. Imagine if GSL let their top 4 from last season start in the round of 8 or in truth its more like the finalist get to start in the round of 4, something tells me we would get almost the same finals every year in GSL then as well.
GSL's tournament system is probably the worst of all tournaments and it always makes it feel like just a fun event but it tells us nothing of who the best players are.
Just out of curiosity, what players did you think deserved to be in ahead of MKP, DRG, Huk, Parting, Gangzi, and Heart?
Polt's the only one I wanted to see in that didn't make it.
On March 26 2012 06:15 ropumar wrote: Extended serious is dumb.
The huk vs heart is going to best of 7 or 9?
Why is it dumb? Why should one player have two chances to beat one player while the other has only one?
or
Are you being sarcastic in some way by spelling "series" wrong?
Extended series is really not fun to watch. Why should someone be punished AGAIN for losing by being behind the next match up that they meet? They have already LOST and the victor is rewarded with a win for the match...so next game between the same players should be a blank slate. And this is totally excluding that extended series matches are just less exciting because you feel like one player is in a deep hole that he can't climb out of (although if they do win it's cool, but it's rare-ish when that happens).
In most tournaments, if you lose a best of 3, you're out. That is how the GSL rolls, and "standard" tournaments.
How, in gods fucking name, can you be okay with that, then complain... that going to losers bracket and having to start down 2-1 is bad? I hope that you are going to every thread that has a standard elimination system and complaining that its too harsh that players who lose are eliminated.
On March 26 2012 06:15 ropumar wrote: Extended serious is dumb.
The huk vs heart is going to best of 7 or 9?
Why is it dumb? Why should one player have two chances to beat one player while the other has only one?
or
Are you being sarcastic in some way by spelling "series" wrong?
Extended series is really not fun to watch. Why should someone be punished AGAIN for losing by being behind the next match up that they meet? They have already LOST and the victor is rewarded with a win for the match...so next game between the same players should be a blank slate. And this is totally excluding that extended series matches are just less exciting because you feel like one player is in a deep hole that he can't climb out of (although if they do win it's cool, but it's rare-ish when that happens).
I don't get this logic. When you say that the winner was already "rewarded with a win", lets think about what this reward really is. Without extended series, then the reward is simply that the loser has to play one extra set. In this case, DRG just had to play heart, and then he gets a second chance. And, if he happens to win the second time, then he wins the entire tournament.
Why is that bad? If MKP wins 2-0 and then DRG wins in the finals 2-1, then actually DRG wins the entire tournament even though his overall record against MKP was 2-3. MKP actually won more games.With best of 9 finals that's also possible (DRG wins 5-4 after having gone 0-2 before).
Without extended series, the ONLY reward for winning the initial winners round finals is that the loser has to face one extra player. In many cases that's not much of a reward at all, especially if the extra match is against someone who the loser can easily beat like HuK or Heart. Having extended series means that players overall score against each other determines who wins, and the larger the sample size of games, the more likely that the more skilled player wins.
You made your point "totally excluding" the excitement factor, so I ignored it too. But I will say that DRG was only down 1 game going into the finals, and I found the finals to be very exciting with almost every game being close.
What they're saying is right - MKP/DRG is lookin' like the new Mvp/Nestea. At least the Korean scene is seeing changes... While the foreign scene is still same ol' Huk#1 Naniwa/Stephano #2.
On March 26 2012 11:39 CursOr wrote: In most tournaments, if you lose a best of 3, you're out. That is how the GSL rolls, and "standard" tournaments.
How, in gods fucking name, can you be okay with that, then complain... that going to losers bracket and having to start down 2-1 is bad? I hope that you are going to every thread that has a standard elimination system and complaining that its too harsh that players who lose are eliminated.
Heh, this is an even better point than the ones I made in my post above. In a GSL tournament, DRG would just have been out after losing the first series...
On March 26 2012 06:15 ropumar wrote: Extended serious is dumb.
The huk vs heart is going to best of 7 or 9?
Why is it dumb? Why should one player have two chances to beat one player while the other has only one?
or
Are you being sarcastic in some way by spelling "series" wrong?
Extended series is really not fun to watch. Why should someone be punished AGAIN for losing by being behind the next match up that they meet? They have already LOST and the victor is rewarded with a win for the match...so next game between the same players should be a blank slate. And this is totally excluding that extended series matches are just less exciting because you feel like one player is in a deep hole that he can't climb out of (although if they do win it's cool, but it's rare-ish when that happens).
I don't get this logic. When you say that the winner was already "rewarded with a win", lets think about what this reward really is. Without extended series, then the reward is simply that the loser has to play one extra set. In this case, DRG just had to play heart, and then he gets a second chance. And, if he happens to win the second time, then he wins the entire tournament.
Why is that bad? If MKP wins 2-0 and then DRG wins in the finals 2-1, then actually DRG wins the entire tournament even though his overall record against MKP was 2-3. MKP actually won more games.With best of 9 finals that's also possible (DRG wins 5-4 after having gone 0-2 before).
Without extended series, the ONLY reward for winning the initial winners round finals is that the loser has to face one extra player. In many cases that's not much of a reward at all, especially if the extra match is against someone who the loser can easily beat like HuK or Heart. Having extended series means that players overall score against each other determines who wins, and the larger the sample size of games, the more likely that the more skilled player wins.
You made your point "totally excluding" the excitement factor, so I ignored it too. But I will say that DRG was only down 1 game going into the finals, and I found the finals to be very exciting with almost every game being close.
Because if you don't have extended series the normal way to run double elimination is if MKP loses first set, he gets 'sent to losers' as well and gets a second shot at winning.
Also people seem fixated on one-on-one records, so let me just say that extended series doesn't actually ensure that the champion has a winning record against everyone else. If Huk sends Socke to losers, gets eliminated by random other players, and Socke goes on to win the tournament, he would have won with a losing record against Huk, extended series or not. So that's a red herring.
Heh, this is an even better point than the ones I made in my post above. In a GSL tournament, DRG would just have been out after losing the first series...
Yes, this is what we call single elimination. That is not what MLG uses, given that there is obviously a pool system and a loser's bracket. Irrelevant.
On March 26 2012 11:39 CursOr wrote: In most tournaments, if you lose a best of 3, you're out. That is how the GSL rolls, and "standard" tournaments.
How, in gods fucking name, can you be okay with that, then complain... that going to losers bracket and having to start down 2-1 is bad? I hope that you are going to every thread that has a standard elimination system and complaining that its too harsh that players who lose are eliminated.
Heh, this is an even better point than the ones I made in my post above. In a GSL tournament, DRG would just have been out after losing the first series...
Except that DRG was in the championship bracket and played MKP only because he did well in group stages and then 2-0'd heart. By your logic that BO3 of them there should have been the end of the tournament. The reason extended series is flawed is that you could end up in a finals that actually has the person from the losers brackets in the finals being up 2-0 if they had beaten the other finalist in the group stages but didn't take first in their group, while the other took first in their group, wins the winner bracket and their only reward is that they don't get a second chance and infact are now handicapped even though they didn't lose in any elimination games.
Either way grats to MKP. He's playing his old school TvZ again with all that aggression. Still couldn't understand why DRG didn't get infestors in that last game. Baneling ling is what is makes marauder and marine so strong when split well (as we learned in GSL season 2 when MKP did it there with pure marines).
On March 26 2012 06:15 ropumar wrote: Extended serious is dumb.
The huk vs heart is going to best of 7 or 9?
Why is it dumb? Why should one player have two chances to beat one player while the other has only one?
or
Are you being sarcastic in some way by spelling "series" wrong?
Extended series is really not fun to watch. Why should someone be punished AGAIN for losing by being behind the next match up that they meet? They have already LOST and the victor is rewarded with a win for the match...so next game between the same players should be a blank slate. And this is totally excluding that extended series matches are just less exciting because you feel like one player is in a deep hole that he can't climb out of (although if they do win it's cool, but it's rare-ish when that happens).
I don't get this logic. When you say that the winner was already "rewarded with a win", lets think about what this reward really is. Without extended series, then the reward is simply that the loser has to play one extra set. In this case, DRG just had to play heart, and then he gets a second chance. And, if he happens to win the second time, then he wins the entire tournament.
Why is that bad? If MKP wins 2-0 and then DRG wins in the finals 2-1, then actually DRG wins the entire tournament even though his overall record against MKP was 2-3. MKP actually won more games.With best of 9 finals that's also possible (DRG wins 5-4 after having gone 0-2 before).
Without extended series, the ONLY reward for winning the initial winners round finals is that the loser has to face one extra player. In many cases that's not much of a reward at all, especially if the extra match is against someone who the loser can easily beat like HuK or Heart. Having extended series means that players overall score against each other determines who wins, and the larger the sample size of games, the more likely that the more skilled player wins.
You made your point "totally excluding" the excitement factor, so I ignored it too. But I will say that DRG was only down 1 game going into the finals, and I found the finals to be very exciting with almost every game being close.
Because if you don't have extended series the normal way to run double elimination is if MKP loses first set, he gets 'sent to losers' as well and gets a second shot at winning.
Also people seem fixated on one-on-one records, so let me just say that extended series doesn't actually ensure that the champion has a winning record against everyone else. If Huk sends Socke to losers, gets eliminated by random other players, and Socke goes on to win the tournament, he would have won with a losing record against Huk, extended series or not. So that's a red herring.
Heh, this is an even better point than the ones I made in my post above. In a GSL tournament, DRG would just have been out after losing the first series...
Yes, this is what we call single elimination. That is not what MLG uses, given that there is obviously a pool system and a loser's bracket. Irrelevant.
People are complaining that DRG didn't have a chance because of the extended series rules, which put him at a disadvantage. In the GSL, which they were citing as an example of a superior system, DRG would have had LESS of a chance than at MLG. I'd say that's COMPLETELY relevant. The fact that one is single elimination and one is double elimination is what's irrelevant.
Also, it's true that extended series doesn't ensure the winner has a winning record against all players, but it ensures they have a winning record against whoever they play in the finals.
I think the main point is that without extended series, then you can have two series between two players, and essentially only the second series matters for selecting a champion, who could have a losing record overall.
On March 26 2012 11:39 CursOr wrote: In most tournaments, if you lose a best of 3, you're out. That is how the GSL rolls, and "standard" tournaments.
How, in gods fucking name, can you be okay with that, then complain... that going to losers bracket and having to start down 2-1 is bad? I hope that you are going to every thread that has a standard elimination system and complaining that its too harsh that players who lose are eliminated.
Heh, this is an even better point than the ones I made in my post above. In a GSL tournament, DRG would just have been out after losing the first series...
Except that DRG was in the championship bracket and played MKP only because he did well in group stages and then 2-0'd heart. By your logic that BO3 of them there should have been the end of the tournament. The reason extended series is flawed is that you could end up in a finals that actually has the person from the losers brackets in the finals being up 2-0 if they had beaten the other finalist in the group stages but didn't take first in their group, while the other took first in their group, wins the winner bracket and their only reward is that they don't get a second chance and infact are now handicapped even though they didn't lose in any elimination games.
Either way grats to MKP. He's playing his old school TvZ again with all that aggression. Still couldn't understand why DRG didn't get infestors in that last game. Baneling ling is what is makes marauder and marine so strong when split well (as we learned in GSL season 2 when MKP did it there with pure marines).
For the record, if you are referring to my quote, I said that DRG would (not should) have been out and that would have been the end of the tournament.
The original question was single elim vs double elim extended series, and that's what I was addressing. I think your point is interesting, but I'm not convinced. Yes, someone who topped their group but lost to one other person could theoretically be handicapped in the finals despite being from the winners bracket. But, in the loser bracket the likely would have had to play many more games which might mean that their overall win/loss would be similar to the player who won their group.
I heartily agree on the infestor tech question though. The muta's seemed useless, despite the close air positions, because of the constant aggression.
On March 26 2012 12:20 shanelevy wrote: Also, it's true that extended series doesn't ensure the winner has a winning record against all players, but it ensures they have a winning record against whoever they play in the finals.
This is not actually true. If A sends B to losers', C sends D to losers', A beats C in Winners' Finals, and D beats B and then C, A vs D in Grand Finals ends up being an ordinary best of 3 set... which I'm not entirely certain is for the best, since even the GSL affords players larger best-of sets the deeper they are in bracket.
EDIT: Unless Grand Finals is actually best of 5. I dunno.
Excitement factor can be very cool with extended series. Still remember Leenock beating DRG and Naniwa, both times being behind in extended series. Look me in the eyes and say it wasn't exciting, you little liers
MLG format is strange, unlike any other and so on, but I find it as exciting as "normal" formats if not more.
It's fair since this is a double elimination tournament, if this was the GSL then the losers wouldn't even get another chance to win it. If DRG beat MKP in the grand finals starting from 0-0, then how come MKP doesn't get his double elimination rule? It wouldn't be fair if he got eliminated by losing once. So.. extended series is pretty fair from what I see it as. I can see how people think it's unfair, but this is a double elimination tourney, keep that in mind.
Just glad that heart scrub didn't win. Make nothing but marines, attack and almost win MLG /puke At least MKP makes other buildings, units and expands once in a while...lol.
On March 26 2012 14:43 aznball123 wrote: It's fair since this is a double elimination tournament, if this was the GSL then the losers wouldn't even get another chance to win it. If DRG beat MKP in the grand finals starting from 0-0, then how come MKP doesn't get his double elimination rule? It wouldn't be fair if he got eliminated by losing once. So.. extended series is pretty fair from what I see it as. I can see how people think it's unfair, but this is a double elimination tourney, keep that in mind.
Extended series may be fair, but it sure as hell is not exciting. When a player wins over another player, how likely is it that the loser wins double the amount of games in the second match?
I closed the stream after the Winner's Final.DRG is my favourite player and I really don't think DRG can't beat MKP, but he's not that much better to come back from behind after he had to fight another game while MKP could rest.
When it was Leenock vs NaNi, that was not the same. Leenock didn't play against NaNi before, so that was exciting.
On March 26 2012 18:42 PraiseB wrote: Big congrats to MKP, I teared up a bit to see him win a big live event.
To nimdil, you win an MLG then talk K. This is just as big of an event as GSL now, specially with the prize money involved.
I'm not denying MLG size or prize pool although saying that MLG as as big of an event as GSL is a bit suspicious. In many ways it is, in others it still is not.
However GSL and MLG are different type of event and GSL definitely requires more skill - on many different levels than MLG. The most important aspect is that MLG is weekend event so - to prepare for one - you have to focus on your play, your build orders and map pool. For GSL you know, especially after group stage, your opponent in advance and you can focus and refine your play with that specific opponent in mind. That's how OSL is and MSL was played. That's how GSL works. That's not the case for MLG. Truly - as of know - the only way to leave Kong line is to win GSL. Maybe if OnGamenet will start SC2 OSLs then we will have other StarLeague exit from the Kong Line.
Still, this is great achievement for MKP and I see him as huge favorite in this GSL.
On March 26 2012 11:39 CursOr wrote: In most tournaments, if you lose a best of 3, you're out. That is how the GSL rolls, and "standard" tournaments.
How, in gods fucking name, can you be okay with that, then complain... that going to losers bracket and having to start down 2-1 is bad? I hope that you are going to every thread that has a standard elimination system and complaining that its too harsh that players who lose are eliminated.
GSL is a tournmanet where people have a week to prepare a match and play once a week.
MLG is a totally different tourney that involves 10+ best of 3's in one weekend. And correct me if im wrong but every tournament that is a weekend event like MLG has a losers bracket? (IPL, MLG, Dreamhack)
Extended series is stupid, if you lost a game and got sent to the losers bracket then that's penalty enough for losing, if you lose again your out of the tournament. Instead of extended series in the finals they should just the person coming from the losers bracket has to win 2 best of 5s where as the winner bracket only has to win 1.
Having HuK start 1-3 losing the first game and then being down 1-3 is stupid for the players and the viewers, he shouldn't be punished because he lost the day before in god dam group play. I didn't even bother watching HuK play heart after the first game of the second series choosing to instead just play a game of my self because the chances of him actually winning 3 in a row is essentially 0%.
On March 26 2012 21:38 Josh111 wrote:Instead of extended series in the finals they should just the person coming from the losers bracket has to win 2 best of 5s where as the winner bracket only has to win 1.
I don't see so big difference between extended series in a final and double Bo5. However extended series in the rest of the tournament is just stupid.
Heart beating HuK was so impressive, good job Heart, congratz to MKP awesome performance during the whole tournament and good luck for future tournaments Y´oull compete in!
maybe a sidenote here but who the crap is "Axel" & "kibbelz" where the hell did they! come from ??? the biggest sponsor peons ive ever seen or whatever they are, the last thing they are and can is cast sc2 (or anything i bet). try googling them youll get nothing else but sc2casts (from the site) and some other site http://rawnrawn.wordpress.com/ that hails them as the second coming of sc2 casters, well excuse me for puking in your forum a bit. watch the BIG nose and four eyes try to make love to the camera (and each other) and actually listen to their completely clueless casting of this match i just saw http://sc2casts.com/cast7986-Huk-vs-Naniwa-Best-of-3-MLG-Winter-Championship-Losers-Round nothing wrong with the match mind you, but man how fake does their appearence seem to you, its like watching two muppets telling you to be good to your parents and watch both ways before crossing the street lol more preoccupied with looking good (puke) and sounding all chummy and as if they know ANYTHING about sc2 to actually have ANYTHING of interest to say...
sry i just had to get that out when i saw it, and the only and closest forum i could find was yours... and a bloody good one btw ^^ lemme know if im barking up the wrong tree here or if im on to something ^^ peace
EPT
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