EPTParty Like It's 2011
The second match of the GSTL Season 1 featured the brand spanking new Axiom-Acer going up against a team with one of the deepest rosters in the league, and a one time champion in Team MVP. The games and the match overall was extremely back and forth, with the series, and most games, going down right down to the wire. In a finish that came straight out of the year 2011,
Acer.MMA eventually cleaned house, taking down 
MVP.Monster and then long time rival MVP.DongRaeGu in the seventh and final set. Tug o' War
In contrast to the previous night's match between LG-IM and FXO, the games were smoother and the players looked better practiced at HotS. With none of the players having had any major WoL tournaments to prepare for, that may not have been much of a surprise. The opening game between
AX.Alicia and MVP.KeeN showcased Keen's fantastic multitasking, as he dropped constantly all over the map. Despite this, he continued to come out on the losing end of direct engagements, which resulted in Alicia staying fairly even in army and economy to Keen. While Alicia threatened to overtake Keen in the mid-game with an overpowering Protoss force, Keen's unrelenting harassment whittled down Alicia's economy too far, and the Protoss army fell to overwhelming numbers of bio.The next game was surprisingly between Keen and
AX.Ryung. I say surprisingly because most people (or non-MMA fans) expected Ryung to be the ace of his team, however it seems that the team collectively decided (in the absense of player-coach CranK, who had tournament duty in England) it was not to be, and send the TvT expert out second. The game opened with Keen being very aggressive with a one base widow mine into cloaked banshee build. Ryung shut down all of Keen's harassment attempts with minimal economic losses, but somehow Keen found himself not too far behind as both players decided to sit back and macro up.Ryung eventually made the decision to move out with marine and tanks, while Keen swung around the back with a large marine force. While Keen ended up killing Ryung's orbital command at his natural, his own natural was put under siege. Keen was forced into pulling SCV's to break the contain, and while he was successful he was put at a huge worker count deficit to Ryung. Keen started to posture outside Ryung's third and natural, trying to find an opening but Ryung's positioning was too good to allow an attack. After a few minutes Ryung broke out, which prompted Keen to doom drop into Ryung's production in an attempt to stifle his opponent's growing army lead. Ryung cleared it up while attacking himself, taking out Keen's fourth and taking a fourth and fifth himself. Keen, majorly behind, went for another doom drop which didn't do the damage it had to, and the counter attack from Ryung ended the game.
Tied 1 - 1, MVP sent out their #1 sniper
TAiLS to shut down Ryung's with his arsenal of funky cheeses and creative builds. TAiLS did indeed deliver, as Tails opened with fast expand into extremely quick DT-drop build, building just a single mothership core for defense. The DT's did a middling amount of damage, but more importantly allowed TAiLS to continue his gambit by going for extremely fast double-forge alongside colossus tech. Ryung decided that he had no chance if he gave TAiLS time, and responded by pulling his SCV's to try and end the game with a big bio push. It wasn't enough, as Tails superior upgrades along with the help of photon overcharge were just enough to stop Ryung's attack, forcing the GG minutes later.Heart was sent out next for Axiom-Acer and he intended to avenge his teammate's demise with his own cheese. With TAiLS attempted to do the exact same build, Heart revealed the dangers of expanding off a single mothership core by going for a proxy factory, widow mine rush. An early marine-widow mine attack devastated TAiLS' economy, with a single widow mine shot killing 11 workers that had desperately tried to focus it down before it burrowed. Tails attempted to return the favour with DT drops, but Heart knew what was coming and only lost a few marines as a result. Tails colossus transition left him with a very small army and Heart's harass did even more damage. Tails was forced into a last ditch two base colossus all in, but Heart held it off and the counter attack won the game, and tied the series back up at 2 - 2.Nakseo, aka
Monster was third runner for team MVP, and he immediately shut down down Heart and his aggressive playstyle. The Axiom Terran opened with a widow mine drop off the back of reaper hellion harass, and it did very little damage. Heart was brutally underprepared to stop Nakseo's WoL-esque 1-1 speed roach attack, and suffered huge damage when he tried to take an ill-advised third base.. Nakseo's mutalisk follow up did a good job at picking off reactors and stray medivacs, and Heart eventually fell to a swarm of roach baneling at his third base.Guess Who's Back
Down 2 - 3, Team Axiom-Acer had a tough decision to make in who to send out as their ace. On one hand,
Acer.Scarlett was reknowned for her ZvZ skills in WoL, and had even defeated Team MVP's ace player DongRaeGu in the past. On the other hand, Acer.MMA was a vastly more experienced player in GomTV games, and had won many clutch games under pressure.Axiom-Acer decided to go with MMA, and it ended up being the correct decision. The fallen SlayerS prince used the opportunity to emphatically announce his arrival back onto the Korean scene. Facing Monster, MMA opened with a two-base marine-marauder hellion attack that succeeded in killing Nakseo's third base. However, poor micro saw MMA's force get wiped out by roaches and banelings.
Just as the situation threatened to turn very grim for Axiom-Acer's Terran hero, MMA showed off why exactly why he was so good in 2011, using the new Turbovacs™ and his excellent multitasking to take back the advantage. Nakseo was barely able to saturate a base without at least some of the drones being killed off, and you could see him beginning to falter. MMA slowly crushed the life out of Nakseo with his endless harass all over the map. While for a moment it looked like MMA could be in danger, when waves of roaches, banelings, and mutalisk sstarted filing across the map, good widow mine positioning and solid control resulted in a vital win for MMA and his team.
We meet again, old friend
With the match tied at 3-3, MVP sent out their ace Zerg player DongRaeGu to set up the first HotS installment of a storied rivalry. Twice in the past had MMA and DRG faced each other in game sevens, once in the finals of the May 2011 GSTL, and once in the finals of the legendary 2011 Blizzard Cup. Both times, MMA had emerged victorious, celebrating with his teammates while DRG could only sulk in his booth.
MMA opened with a fast CC, which DRG unsuccessfully tried to punish with slow zerglings. The critical play from MMA came early, when he inflicted a lot of damage to DRG's economy with a fast widow mine drop. While DongRaeGu seemed to have a handle on the situation, unattentiveness saw him lose over ten workers to a single mine shot. From there MMA constantly poked at DRG's front with infantry, trying to force out roaches instead of drones, but never overcommitting. This led into persistent medivac harassment as MMA took a third, and he increased his lead while DRG struggled to keep his economy intact. The MVP Zerg just couldn't be cost efficient when he fought in the field, he was forced to take difficult fights with roaches and banelings against marines and tanks that slowly wore away at him. Although DRG got a fantastic engagement in the final battle, it just wasn't enough as MMA's superior economy, upgrades and army won the day.
Player of the night:
Acer.MMAMMA unquestionably showed the best play of the night. While Keen and Ryung both looked extremely strong, MMA was on top form with his multitasking and harassment. He displayed a glimpse of the MMA people remember, the one who beat Mvp in the GSL, the player who DongRaeGu could never overcome, and the one who was at moments, the best player in the world. The improvements to medivacs that HotS brings strengthens his play massively and I see no reason why Axiom-Acer would want to stop sending him out as their ace. In terms of Terran's, there aren't many in the world who surpass him based off the two games he played. MMA showed he has the potential to return to his old, dominating form.
