Thanks rinizim and AmorVincitOmnia for the banners I will use this season!
Just over a month ago the dust cleared from the Second Pringles MSL, and to the surprise of few, saviOr walked away with the win after defeating upstart Silver in the finals. Now we are back for a fresh new season, one which boasts an interesting mix of both rookies and veterans.
The champ...
This season is being sponsored by GOM Player, which is the Korean equivalent to Windows Media Player. What GOM features that others don’t is a built in ability to browse streaming TV channels, promote events (such as the Superfights) and play all possible formats of pornography. Hopefully the MSL will be streamed on this free player as well as MBC, giving the foreign community another option for free viewing.
If you wish to just see the results from week one, scroll down. Otherwise, take your time and mosey through this preview
The Players
Lets face it, with so much money and competition in the pro scene these days, staying on top is harder than ever. These days the major tournaments feature many new names, taking the places of familiar veterans. This crop of MSL hopefuls features a mix of past champions and hungry no-names. Here is how the group drawing ceremony shook out. Group A - saviOr, Hwasin, Jaedong, PuSan[S.G] Match 1 - Savior vs Hwasin Match 2 - Jaedong vs PuSan[S.G]
Group A is obviously focused on one man, and that is the defending champion. saviOr has steamrolled everyone lately, winning 70% of his matches in the past year. Hwasin is a familiar amateur, but carries with him the respect of the entire progaming community for his fearsome TvZ. Perhaps this is the reason saviOr used his final pick to move him into his group.
Group B - Silver, Casy[ArnC], Much[gm], Ever)Z(aQua Match 1 - Silver vs Casy[ArnC] Match 2 - Much[gm] vs Ever)Z(aQua
Casy[name] is now going by the name Justin for some god forsaken reason. Other than that, Silver is going to have to impress again this time to win over the hearts of the fickle TL community. He has a chance to play all three races in the group stages which might help his rep.
Group C - Nal_rA, Bisu[Shield], Iris, Canata Match 1 - NaL_rA vs Bisu[Shield] Match 2 - Iris vs Canata
DJetter and I have a death pact on the first match. The rA is going to show Bisu why he doesn’t lose PvP. Meanwhile, Iris is the top TvT player from last year, and will have a practice dummy in Canata to beat around.
Group D - Jju, Light[alive], Free[gm], XellOs Match 1 - Jju vs Light[alive] Match 2 - Free[gm] vs XellOs
It is nice to see Xellos back in the MSL, his games always draw a crowd. Free will have his work cut out for him to advance, facing the perfect terran, jju and Light.
The Maps
There have been some big changes in the maps for this season, with two new ones, and modifications to the other two. Firstly, the most balanced pro-gaming map of the past year or two, Arcadia, is now gone. Despite its balance, game play on the map had become rather stagnant. It's replacement is definitely not of the standard type.
(3)Desert Fox
Desert Fox is the latest offering, an island map that turns ground if the mineral only is mined out. Early games and testing reveal a zerg will not win this MSL on this map.
(4)Reverse Lost Temple
In the most recent poll, people voted LT as the map they would most like to see back in progaming. Well, I pulled some strings for you, and here you go. Slightly modified, but I think it should be a lot of fun. This is on loan from OGN
(3)Longinus II
Longinus had some cosmetic surgery done to it, balancing the resources and adding some shrubbery.
(2)Blitz X
Not only does it have a much cooler name, the gameplay on Blitz is going to change radically this season. The pivotal 12 island has had one gas removed, hopefully bringing game play further to the south. Also, units the size of a dt or smaller can make their way through the middle with no mining, and the mineral blocks have been redesigned to form an X.
Hopefully all of this makes for some good games!
Week 1
The opening salvos of the tournament were fired just last night. Here is a quick recap.
Group A: saviOr vs Hwasin on Longinus II
SaviOr had specifically chosen Hwasin for his group, so this game was a great way to kick of the tournament. Whether Hwasin was selected for his devastating TvZ or his rookie jitters we don't know, but what we do know is that both players were anxious to get off to a good start.
Savior opened at 11, and quickly laid the three hatchery foundation for his trademark muta build. Hwasin, at 6, took his expansion after a single barracks and quickly started pumping marines and medics. Seeing his opponent bottled up at the bottom of the map, Savior expanded again and harassed the terran force with his mutalisks. However, he was unable to keep Hwasin occupied in his main, giving the Soul Terran enough time to mass and move out virtually unscathed at this point of the match.
With Hwasin rolling MM and tanks north, saviOr threw everything he had at the army to try and save his 12 o'clock hatchery. Hwasin showed some backbone though, and the expansion fell before his troops did. Savior quickly re-expanded to 12, and then tried to take the other main as well. However, with no defilers out and an army bled white the next terran ball that rolled out was unstoppable and saviOr typed GG.
This makes group A very interesting, and Hwasin puts himself in a good position to advance. Savior played very sloppily, not showing that familiar form in his attacks.
Group A: Jaedong vs Pusan on Blitz X
After consecutive top 4 OSL finishes Pusan slumped, but is now looking to re-establish himself as a dominant force in the MSL. His opponent of the day was Jaedong, an impressive zerg who sports the instantly successful AandE combo in his name. Think Jaedong, Daezang, Maestro...
The map was Blitz X, heavily modified from last season. Starting on the left, Pusan fast expanded while Jaedong quickly spawned four hatcheries and his lair tech. As Pusan worked up to templar tech, the zerg was feasting off of three geysers. His mutalisk harass was weak however, and little prevented Pusan from taking his center expansion on the platform. With plenty of tech and arbiters incoming, Jaedong realized he was facing a protoss on equal expansion footing.
Once Pusan had developed his second expansion, his attacking prowess came into play. His combination of temps, goons, and zeals consistently melted the zerg armies and stumped Jaedong's supply. By repeatedly killing 12 o'clock he kept the pressure on until his army could break down the ramp and into the zerg natural. With little left to defend with, Jaedong typed GG, spelling the end for a second zerg on the day.
Today's group A results mean Hwasin will have to show off his TvP vs Pusan, and saviOr is in a do or die situation playing ZvZ. What a nightmare scenario that is.
Group B: Silver vs Bifrost on Desert Fox
You heard it here first, this map is going to be a boneyard for zergs this season. Silver hatched in the upper left, taking down the natural buildings and expanding as quickly as possible. Bifrost did the same, floating his CC as his marines cleared away the creep. Silver teched to mass mutalisks, while Bifrost was content to make MM and throw in a couple valks. As Silver tried to harass with his air force, it became painfully obvious that this was not going to work. After killing suitable numbers of zerg fliers, Bifrost simply loaded up some dropships with MM, flew over to the zerg base, and won the game.
Yawn. Both players played poorly, and neither had the imagination this map is going to require to be successful.
Group B: Much[gm] vs aQua on Reverse Temple
I had to admit, I felt somewhat nostalgic seeing the familiar layout of this map. It is a pity I didn't get to see it for very long.
Much (@8) proxy gated at his own natural, quickly scouted aQua at 6, and then ran him over with mass zealots and nice micro. Sometimes zergs have to be taught a lesson that a free expo is a privilege, not a right.
So, at the end of group B we find Much going up against Bifrost in the winners match, and Silver vs aQua in the losers match; basically a mirror of the group A results race wise. Next week Groups C and D will open their seasons.
Awesome article mani....just a couple corrections Group B: typed savior instead of silver edit: nm already noted Group B: Free[gm] =Much[gm] vs aQua on Reverse Temple
On December 07 2006 18:20 Manifesto7 wrote: <center>
truely this is a pitiful banner... someone find me a better one for this season?</center>
Sadly, pitiful is the broadcasting station MBCgame's defining characteristic. They really should start making things happen this season. I am a tired, tired old supporter of MBCgame.
I had to admit, I felt somewhat nostalgic seeing the familiar layout of this map. It is a pity I didn't get to see it for very long.
Free proxy gated at his own natural, quickly scouted aQua at 6, and then ran him over with mass zealots and nice micro. Sometimes zergs have to be taught a lesson that a free expo is a privilege, not a right.
On December 07 2006 19:59 Cadical wrote: its actually much[gm] not free.
yeah, thanks, I changed it. I can never keep those two straight. Much looks so old though, maybe I will call him Moses[gm].
I feel you there. free/much four letter protosses from same clan who are both doing fairly well right now and both drew PvPs by massing DA's in proleague recently etc etc.
man, savior is really really piss right now. i have a feeling that he's so piss that he will train hardcore and crush jaedong 2 0 to face hwasin again. it's nice to see some creative terran, im tired of watching terran do 3 strats either fe fast aca or proxi fact. jaedong has nice execution, however, he seems to be a follower, not a race leader like savior so win pliz mr Ma
Btw it says that Justin and Casy[name] are the same person a bit up, then later down at the game reports it's Bifrost. It definately doesnt look like Casy from the VODS so I guess it's Bifrost, right?
On December 08 2006 05:48 Eagleheart wrote: Btw it says that Justin and Casy[name] are the same person a bit up, then later down at the game reports it's Bifrost. It definately doesnt look like Casy from the VODS so I guess it's Bifrost, right?
Casy[name] = bifrost Casy[alive] = really[alive] (I think) = ioi[alive] = the guy who won starleague earlier this year ;p
The person who puts his arm the opposite way as everyone else
will win!
/goes to find pictures of this MSL draw to see who will win.
nono, the person who looks the most cool, has his arm put strong in the air not cowardly and is being known as WoodJohn will pwn the 'opposite way put arm' player in 'revenge of lim' !
OMG I JUST saw Jin Yeongsu vs Ma Jaeyun. That game was FREAKING money. Hwasin totally pissed all over sAviOr that game. I love it! I saw like no mistakes out of Hwasin. I'm officially now a huge Hwasin fan. OMG that was so beautiful.
On December 07 2006 20:04 Manifesto7 wrote: yeah, thanks, I changed it. I can never keep those two straight. Much looks so old though, maybe I will call him Moses[gm].
LOL TF??
I just wanted to say.... Poor JaeDong. T.T ZvZ vs Savior for elimination. Pusan that lucky sonuva bitch. Well played.
On December 09 2006 14:14 Eduardo!! wrote: I dont mean to bug but... in the TL.net tracker, i download a vod and its downloaded as a .php document. How can i actually see the VOD T_T
On December 09 2006 14:14 Eduardo!! wrote: I dont mean to bug but... in the TL.net tracker, i download a vod and its downloaded as a .php document. How can i actually see the VOD T_T
On December 07 2006 23:33 ManaBlue wrote: Mani, you can't just throw around the phrase "Zerg Graveyard" when I'm around. I'm already giddy to see the swarm die brutally.
Which link in the torrent page is the Hwasin vs Savior game? Its the 1207_GOMTV_MSL_R16 ?
BTW Why MSL do one game and not BO3? It's in order to put new names every time?
If Savior who is widely considered the best player ATM can be taken out after losing just 2 games don't you think there's too much luck factor in this tourney?
On December 10 2006 12:24 Locke. wrote: Which link in the torrent page is the Hwasin vs Savior game? Its the 1207_GOMTV_MSL_R16 ?
BTW Why MSL do one game and not BO3? It's in order to put new names every time?
If Savior who is widely considered the best player ATM can be taken out after losing just 2 games don't you think there's too much luck factor in this tourney?
Yes it is that one. I dont think its luck factor.. cuz if u see the game there s nothin lucky about hwasin beatin savior.. its not like he did a cheese tech or bunkerd rush or anything like that
I didn't mean luck in that specific game but in the system. I meant that everybody can have a bad game or a small mistake that cost him the game etc. especially with all of them being on such insane level. And that's why usually it's BO3 to know who is really the better player and not who managed to win just one game.
Savior is just lucky Boxer era has ended...I have no idea why Nal_rA should lose to him...mistakes probably because in the fourth match he had made mistakes. Now, Nal_rA should do best today
EPT
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! Are any of the replays released? When are these casted live O_O
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