As the music subsided in Dome Art Hall, the fans cheered wildly. The prelude was over, and the show was about to begin. Their thundersticks yelled out who their favorite was; a sea of MBC-Red overwhelmed the WeMade-Blue, and the in-uniform attendance of WeMade's team (a first in progaming as far as I can recall) further accentuated the shortage of public support for Mind. Anywhere from 80 to 90 percent of the crowd was pulling from Mind, and if there was ever a "home field" advantage in Starcraft, this may have been it.

The shocking loss of Savior last week had turned a marquee finals into a "what could have been". What went through these fans minds, anticipating the finals during the last week? Surely the majority felt a letdown from not being able to see the 2nd showing of Savior-Bisu. They saw Savior sporting a new PvZ style that was without a doubt developed to defeat the revolutionist that dethroned him 10 months prior. Could even the most passionate of WeMade and Mind fans believe in an upset? This was the reigning Bonjwa he was facing, a noname rookie against the most dominating player in progaming today. The sentiments were shared from East to West, as the TeamLiquid Liquibet showed 90 votes for Mind and 608 for Bisu.

Would Mind crumble before Bisu just like those that came before him? Savior came into the finals with the best ZvP in his bag, and walked out 0-3. Stork marched in with the reputation of the best PvP in progaming, but exited 2-3. Bisu had already defeated the likes of Hwasin and Light in a boN series, both of whom having sported one of the best TvP games around. The only hope that Mind fans could cling to, with only 5 TvP matches to his name, was the rumor that Mind's TvP was his best matchup, and that it was one that even Nada marveled at.

Even the maps dictated a Protoss victory, as Blue Storm (Terran 8 - 9 Protoss) and Python (Terran 35 - 23 Protoss, this season: 8-6), and Zodiac (Terran 2 - 4 Protoss) showed relatively even results, while Loki II (Terran 2 - 6 Protoss) was undeniably Protoss favored and. Loki II drove Xellos to levels of insanity rarely seen before, as he attempted a hopeless mnm tank build in order to somehow steal a win.

With the deck stacked clearly in favor of Bisu, the finals was projecting to be exactly what most fans had been fearing: a letdown of epic proportions. But to borrow from a cliche, "Anything can happen."

As a fan I was glad that Zodiac was the first and last map being played in the series. Although early results have favored Protoss slightly, there had not been any major indicators of serious imbalance in the games. As the fog of war lifted, we found the players across from each other on the map, Bisu at 12 and Mind at 6. Zodiac being a basic macro style map, both players chose not to do anything drastic at the early stages of the game.

The first one to make some noise was Mind, opting to make a vulture before his machine shop in a variation of the 1 factory FE opening. Upon seeing 1 gateway and a spinning core but no robotics, citadel or a second gate, Mind moved his marines to the 2nd natural to check for a possible proxy. Having seen the game between rA and ForGG, a reaver proxy was a definite possibility. Mind was determined to get the utmost out of his first vulture; he hid its existence by repelling the scouting probe with his marines and routed it through his 2nd natural in order to avoid any Protoss units. His meticulous approach paid off, as the vulture successfully entered Bisu's main past a dragoon, snagged a probe kill, and discovered an almost finished robotics and a second gateway warping in.

Bisu chose a 1 gate observer build, expanding to his natural after 4 dragoons and 1 detector. As probes maynards to his new nexus, a goon and probe are dropped to the 11 o'clock island before a reaver is made. Mind stayed conservative with his units, keeping his marines and tank on the ramp and building his command center there as well. When the cc landed at the nat three tanks were sieged to defend the area. A second factory was added, and an engineering bay was constructed against the harassment that Bisu often delivers through aerial means. His defense would prove to be fail-proof, with 2 tanks and 1 turret in the main mineral line and 1 tank and 2 turrets preventing entry to the natural mineral line. As Bisu came in with his shuttle, he was able to kill exactly nothing, in fact losing a dragoon in the process. Unable to gain any ground with his harassment, Bisu found himself in an early hole.

Perhaps influenced by this failed investment, Bisu chose to warp in his 3rd nexus at his 2nd natural instead of at the island, adding four more gateways to reach a total of seven. Mind sent out a vulture raid at this moment, and found a nexus warping in at Bisu's 3rd base. Reacting to this newfound information, Mind headed north with a timing push - 3 factories running with 2 more being added - JUST as the 3rd nexus finished. Not even an academy had been built yet. Mind moved out with eye-opening effectiveness, sieging and unsieging subgroups of tanks smoothly, all the while planting mines initially to the right of his push, and then to the left flank route as he moved further north.

Bisu wasn't going to stand around and allow Mind to gain ground freely, and he made his move the moment the leading edge of the Terran push was directly below his 3rd nexus. Bisu marches forward with 12 slow zealots, 12 goons and 1 reaver into the top edge of Mind's push, consisting of 12 vultures, 6 tanks and a couple turrets. The zealots hack away at the tanks, the reaver obeys the master's commands, and the northern end of the push is eliminated. Mind is down to just two tanks and a couple of vultures, facing 6 remaining goons.

However, Mind's new batch of vultures rally towards the push at the absolute last second, forcing back Bisu's forces away from the surviving tanks. Having caught a break, Mind reestablishes his contain formation with his new units and maynards his scvs to his 3rd cc at the 2nd natural. As Mind begins to siege into the nexus again, Bisu is coerced to act. This second "break" attempt largely fails though; the shuttle dies before dropping down any zealots, and with only 6 zealots and 12 goons to work with, there is simply not enough firepower to get through the wall of Terran metal. Bisu's 3rd and final try fares even worse - he leads with his dragoons and loses 4 of them immediately, and his attempt at mine-dragging backfires due to zealots assuming a clustered formation. The Protoss army vaporizes, and Mind is left with half a group of tanks as well as a few vultures. The nexus falls, and every last probe is shot down.

With nothing more to accomplish there, Mind marches up towards Bisu's natural. Unbelievably, in this short timeframe Bisu has mustered up enough units to put up quite the defense. Aided by a zealot bomb that takes out 4 out of Mind's 7 tanks, Bisu successfully deflects the Terran assault despite having significantly fewer units to work with.

With a new batch of dragoons out, Bisu is able to truly take the offensive for the first time this game. Sensing a pinch, Mind mines up the middle heavily and repeatedly as he retreats his vultures. Slowing Bisu down is imperative, as he will need a new batch of tanks in order to block the attack. Bisu realizes that with Mind having three bases running, this attack must do damage for him to get back in the game. He rushes forward, dragging the obstructing mines away with his zealots to cut down travel time.

But despite having a full group of goons against Mind's lowly tank count of 3 tanks, Bisu is unable to crack Mind's defense. Two of the tanks are positioned on the high-ground at Mind's 3rd base, and with 7 vultures surrounding the tanks, Bisu's zealot drops fail to take them out. Bisu had one window to drop the zealots without having vultures interfere but he missed it. Against the Terran positioning, the goons cannot make their move until the new shipment of zealots arrive; unfortunately for Bisu, his 8 new zealots move in just as Mind gets his new shipment of vultures and tanks from his main, and he types out when his attack fails.



Bisu made the choice to expand to his 2nd natural instead of the island, and it proved to be fateful. Mind moved out with perfect push timing, and his repeated timely reinforcements were proof that his macro did not abandon him at the toughest times of the match. Say what you will about the luck factor in receiving his reinforcements at crucial moments time and time again, but we must realize that without sound fundamentals and impeccable focus, this "luckiness" wouldn't have materialized. A shocking upset that perhaps made Bisu fans worldwide uneasy in their seats.

MSL organizers quickly moved on to game 2 of the series, and within 10 minutes the match would commence. What a difference a year makes; rewind to last year and we would have had to suffer through a break at least two to three times as long. I couldn't help but wonder what kind of effect this would have on the players though. Would these two have enough time to compose themselves after the dramatic first game? If anything, Bisu's experience at this stage should have given him an advantage.

As the screen lightened, we saw Bisu at 7 and Mind at 1. Bisu sent an early probe to the middle, proxying his first pylon on the right shoulder of the center valley. The suspense was abruptly interrupted however, as the referee called for a pause. A sound barrier had malfunctioned, and a re-game was ordered.

As the rematch commenced, we saw the players swap places - the Protoss coming in at 1 and the Terran at 7. Bisu once again went for his proxy opening, placing his trust on the build he prepared for this single game. With a proxy gateway warping in on the left side of the path, Bisu entered Mind's main, immediately grabbing the geyser away from the Terran workers.

A cheesy opening was a logical choice for Bisu when considering the circumstances. Although Proleague rosters indicated the existence of a Protoss advantage on Blue Storm, Bisu had not fared as well as his peers on this stage. He had lost to iloveoov, Hwasin and Xellos on this map, his only win coming against the uninspiring Shudder.

Mind's scouting scv met an extremely early zealot, and the steady march of the bladed warrior confirmed that Bisu was going to give Mind an early examination. As soon as the assimilator finished, Mind began attacking it 4 scvs. However, Bisu was determined to delay this as much as possible; he repeatedly slid his probe into Mind's scvs, pushing them out of their attack position. But as the first zealot arrived, Bisu found Mind's marines holding ground under the geyser behind a line of scvs. Unable to do immediate damage, Bisu moved onto the next phase of his game plan.

Bisu was oblivious to the fact that Mind had hid an academy at the very top corner of his main, and this allowed Mind to succeed in pushing back the zealots with his mnm. However, as he moved out to pressure the center proxy, his group of 1 medic 1 firebat and 5 marines fell to Bisu's 4 zealots and 1 dragoon. But what Mind lost in terms of units, he made up with gained intelligence. Seeing Bisu's proxied Citadel and Archives, he was able to immediately start a scanner, an engineering bay, and a bunker at his choke.

Mind built a turret at his choke as soon as the ebay finished, with 5 scvs defending it. But Bisu was able to sneak the first dark templar through with 10 seconds to spare, getting into the main unscathed. With Mind unable to kill the dt despite using his scans, a second dt gets in, and the first tank is slashed away. Without any means of stopping the dts in his main, Mind taps out.

Bisu completely controlled the game flow from beginning to end. He was two steps ahead of Mind every step of the way, and the attention to detail such as delaying Mind's gas gathering proved fruitful. If not for the gas delay, perhaps Mind would have moved out sooner with his mnm, and the outcome of the battle may have been different. If his proxy was discovered 10 seconds earlier by the infantry, the dts conceivably could have been blocked by the bunker. It is this attention to the most minute of advantages that will separate the best players from the pretenders as the game develops even further. Bisu is Starcraft's frontrunner in the pursuit of fundamentals and mechanics, and it may have been what won him the game today.

Having taken a loss on Bisu's weakest map and with Loki II looming in the horizon, the 3rd game was an absolute must win for Mind. The countdown commenced, and we would find Bisu at 3 and Mind at 6 - a relatively even position that affords the Protoss a safe island expansion while giving the Terran a shorter rush distance.

In perhaps the most drastic decision thus far this series, Bisu choose 14 nexus as his opening. With a little hint of Nal_rA, he built his pylon, 2 gates and core on the ramp to narrow down the opening into his main - again, attention to the smallest of factors. However, Mind's sense dictated a two-factory opening before even sending a scout, placing Bisu in a tough position.

As Mind sent his scout towards Bisu, a lone zealot stood in the way. The zealot and scv danced at the choke, one equally determined as the other, in yet another display of micro-scale control. Mind was unable to even see the 2nd nexus, as Bisu's returning scouting probe finished off the scv.

Although Mind was unable to physically see Bisu's build, he could perhaps discern from the late zealot and the lack of a zealot rush that Bisu had gone for an early nexus build. Bisu positioned his 6 goons at Mind's choke and built both a robotics and a citadel; Mind spun double upgrades from two machine shops: siege and spider mines.



With 3 tanks, 4 vultures, 6 marines ready, Mind moved out for a timing attack. With his control focused on placing effective mines, Mind repeatedly set up mines adjacent to Bisu's goons only to see Bisu surgically pick off the vultures and key mines one by one. Even as more vultures are rallied, not a single mine hits its target. But even this robotic display of micro-control can't prevent Bisu from being pushed back to his nat, and in a crucial blunder, the last mine sinks into the ground just before Bisu is able to target it, propelling 2 zealots and 2 dragoons into the explosion. The vultures and mines are cleared, but Bisu finds himself down to 4 dragoons and 1 observer, and Mind to 3 tanks and 1 marine.

As Bisu is forced to back up a bit towards the ramp, he and Mind simultaneously make a move. Mind sieges all 3 of his tanks and Bisu pulls 10 probes into the tanks, right-clicking his goons into the tanks as well. As the tanks' cannons lift and the goons approach nearer, the commentators scream in panic. The tanks are able to fire one volley into Bisu's goons at the shortest area of their range. Out of Bisu's 4 goons, 1 dies to the last-standing marine, and a pair splatter to the tank fire. With the probes starting to surround the tanks, CoolWen (rightmost commentator) lets out a suspenseful cry. Mind immediately unsieges and spreads his tanks, losing one but avoiding the worst scenario. Two vultures arrive to mine the ramp, and the tanks re-seige underneath. Bisu sacrifices two goons to drag the mines into one of the tanks, and all three units perish. At this stage, Bisu had lost 7 probes from his natural while aiding the defense effort. Three more pairs of vultures would arrive to the scene before the last of Mind's tanks fell. Their mines restricted Bisu's movement and netted kills on two more dragoons right out of their gates, a few probes, as well as 1 dark templar.

As the storming assault on Bisu's natural ceases, Mind's own natural command center finishes. Bisu moves to dt drop Mind, as his build had originally intended. However, by the time the shuttle reached its destination, Mind had already finished 2 scanners and 3 turrets, one at the main mineral line, one at the natural mineral line, and the last above his factories. Bisu attempts to harass nonetheless, focusing on the bottom factory. But inflicting damage was impossible, as units were always there to restrict any brash attempts of aggression. The only thing Bisu's harassment accomplished was to keep Mind at bay for a short period of time as his goons advanced through the minefield.

Seeing the goons approaching and having built a fourth turret to cover the southern end of the factories, Mind moves his army to the natural, sieging four tanks and laying mines at the choke. Bisu attempts to dt bomb a tank, but barely being in turret range the dt dies in vain.

At this very moment, Mind's barracks lands in the northeastern corner of Bisu's main. The lights begin flashing, and firebats are trained; two factories are added back at Mind's main. The air tightens in suspense as a second firebat walks out, but the tension is diffused when Bisu's dt and goon kill off the bats before they can do anything. As the rax lifts off, Bisu shuttles a goon and a probe to the island, warping in a 3rd nexus there. Mind runs around the map with a pair of vultures to look for a possible expansion at 1 o'clock, but fails to find anything. Bisu reaches 7 gateways and Mind begins makes his fifth and sixth factories after starting a 3rd command center to lift into the mineral only. Mind moves his forces forward to the choke to sprawl his way to the mineral only, laying mines and putting up turrets appropriately.


As the tanks siege together and the mines go underground, Bisu floats his shuttle around near the building cc, prompting Mind to pull his vultures back into his main. With his opponent reacting to his fake just as he envisioned, Bisu moves his ground troops into Mind's setup. But just as the zealots march into the proximity of the tanks, the vultures race back into position, dampening the damage significantly.


Mind had carefully placed his mines towards the north rather than to the east - Bisu's primary orientation - and had intentionally or unintentionally decreased the risk of mines being dragged into his tank line. The thin minefield was penetrated easily, but the dense cluster of tanks, combined with the surrounding cliffs, had prevented Bisu's units from setting up in a more optimal position.

Eight goons survived on the Protoss front, while four tanks and 10 vultures still stood for the Terran Dominion. The metal army boldly pressed forward without hesitation, clashing again with the Aiur halfway between their encampments. With both sides having replenished their forces during the short lull in combat, the fireworks would be intense.

Mind meticulously spread his 6 tanks out, adding 2 turrets at the frontline. The vultures went to work on the north flank route, and then rushed to the front. The tanks spacing would prove to be crucial in this battle, as a dragged spider mine only hit three tanks instead of potentially many more. Having lost all his zealots, Bisu backed away for a moment. 7 dragoons remained, facing just 3 tanks and 5 vultures. However, just as Mind's army looked beatable, 2 tanks and 4 vultures arrived to the scene. Two depots were added to shield his contain, and a barrier of mines was added to the front and side of the setup; an old-school and stable setup was erected.

With a formidable threat at his front door, Bisu opted to send his 9 surviving goons to Mind's mineral only instead. However, a mine would unearth itself along the way, turning 3 of them into blue goo. With the cc in sight, the goons shuffled forward. But just as Bisu's goons charged up their plasma shots, vultures raced in from the frontline, cutting off the retreat path to the north. With the aid of two new tanks, mines, and scvs, the raid force was eliminated with ease.

With the contain increasing its pressure with every passing moment, Bisu made his last move of the game, moving in with the meager army he had left to no avail. Mind won the "must win" game, and put the pressure squarely back on the defending champion.

Who would have imagined that after three games, it would be Bisu who would find his back against the wall? Bisu had made some isolated mistakes in the games, and Mind punished him every time. Luckily for the crowd-favorite, the 4th set was on the PvT wonderland, Loki II.

Bisu warped in to the south at 7, and Mind landed to the north at 1. Bisu sent an early scout after his pylon, only to find Mind blocking his ramp with a scv of his own. This scv block bought time for Mind to start building his barracks, completing the wall-in. The theme of this series, aside from the cut-throat timing and accurate positioning, proved to be the attention to detail and trying to gain the smallest of advantages. Along this tune, Mind keeps his scv on the ramp to prevent the rax-building scv from being harassed, and Bisu counters by trying to kill said scv with the probe's ranged attack.

Despite not being able to see Mind's build, Bisu goes ahead and expands to his back natural after 1 gateway, before his gas. Mind matches him with a cc at his own back natural after queuing one marine, starting its construction about 30 seconds after Bisu.

Once the barracks finished, Mind sent out his ramp-blocking scv towards Bisu's main. Although Bisu attempted to block his ramp with a probe, the scv managed to sneak by, spotting Bisu's fast expansion. Bisu inexplicably builds a forge after his cybernetics core, which are both spotted by hte scv. Bisu was unable to gain an economic edge over his opponent, and lost out on the scouting war as well.

The most surprising move in the early stage of the game came when Bisu opted to build two cannons, one at his ramp and one at his natural. Bisu was choosing to play extremely safe, a direct result of being unable to scout Mind's opening. Down 1-2, he could not risk becoming the victim of an all-in rush or a drop build. Nevertheless, the decision was certainly unexpected.

Loki II being a disproportionately Protoss favored map, Bisu was presumably giving up some efficiency in order to guarantee the game reaching the mid and late game stages where the Protoss dominance truly materializes. The Terran's lack of maneuverability through the terrain makes either form of Protoss air tech incredibly effective.

As his first tank is produced, Mind removed his wall and started his 3rd cc inside his main. The timing for his 3rd main building was disgustingly early, as he was still on one factory and still researching siege. Mind had prepared a special build for this match. Scanners were going up, and a very fast armory was getting upgrades already. The early armory in particular would be a key factor in the outcome of the game.

Bisu's next move in the game was to go for a reaver drop, which made the timing of his 3rd nexus a bit later than Mind's. As the shuttle approaches the Terran stronghold, Mind is ready with a wraith. The shuttle is chased by the wraith, moving shots hammering away at its shields. The wraith was killed and the shuttle was saved by virtue of Bisu brining over his ground troops to Mind's natural, but the opportunity to deal damage with the reaver had passed, and Bisu would once again find himself behind monetarily.

Mind made the curious choice of building his factories in the top corner of his main, but in hindsight it is apparent that this aided him in enhancing his mobility through his main, moving between the front and back naturals. Meanwhile, Bisu chose to go for 3 stargate carriers off of 3 bases while going up to 6 gateways. As the last of the stargates warps in, we see that Mind had completed his science facility along with another armory for the second round of upgrades. A starport add-on is complete, and the flashing lights indicate a science vessel in production.

With a booming economy and tech ascent, Mind goes out for a harass mission with 6 vultures down the right hand side of the map. But Bisu's units are everywhere on the map, and this attempt fails entirely, aside from spotting the 5 expo.

However, having diverted Bisu's attention to the right side of the map, Mind is able to move uncontested down the left side with 12 vultures, mine up the middle and enter Bisu's natural. But a stray zealot spots him at teh last second, giving Bisu three seconds to slide his probes into the ramp, denying Mind entry to the main. Bisu finally caught a break, as the timing happened to coincide with his maynard to the 5 expo, and the returning Protoss ground-force chased away the vultures. What could have been a catastrophic hit to his economy was luckily averted for Bisu.

But as the vultures retreated up the left side of the map and his cc lifted into the 3rd natural, Mind moved out with his main force, a timing attack with a rare mix of 6 goliaths, 10 vultures and 10 tanks and a vessel. Shooting down several observers along the way, Mind met Bisu's forces at the wide ramps on the left side of the map. Contesting this Terran ball was out of the question though, and Bisu quickly ran to counter Mind's 4th base instead; the cc was lifted and the scvs went under fire.

With the opposing army out of position, both players stormed into the other's naturals, both with about 3 control groups of units. Mind was ready with 2 tanks, dense mines and 10 vultures, while Bisu alert with 4 carriers, 3 cannons and a handful of goons. However, half of Bisu's zealots immediately evaporated to two mine explosions, and with Mind placing new mines adjacent to his goons while he was busy defending Mind's assault, Bisu's attack was completely neutralized. Mind meanwhile had better luck with his attempt.

The carriers were not filled to capacity with interceptors, and eliminating the Terran attack was proving difficult for Bisu, even against Mind's relatively low goliath count. Mind lingered in Bisu's front door long after the natural nexus fell, pressuring the gateways and preventing Bisu from amassing any kind of groundforce. Halfway through his contain Mind had sent two tanks over to Bisu's 5 expo; by the time Mind finally unsieged and retreated his main force, the wall and cannons at the 5 expansion had fallen.

Bisu quickly moved to save his expansion with his carriers, as he could not allow any further damage to his income flow. He then headed north towards Mind's back natural. Bisu made quick work of the back natural cc while Mind's goliaths were stumbling around. With another sweep, the 4th cc was leveled as well, and Mind suddenly found himself left with just one mining base to Bisu's two. However, Mind had began to quietly produce wraiths out of his single starport...

While his economy was being shoved down the trash shoot, Mind had sent some of his tanks to kill off Bisu's 5 expo. He was butterfingered in this attempt though, as tanks stumbled all over each other and were unable to fire into the nexus. This inefficiency gave Bisu the time to bring back his carriers from Mind's base, allowing him to kill off the tanks and save his mining node for the second time. It is worth noting though that while Bisu had two mining bases at this point in the game, his worker count was far below what Mind had remaining, and his unit production reflected his relatively thin income flow.

As Bisu headed back north to raze Mind's structures, Mind had to make a move. He headed down the map with two control groups consisting mainly of tanks and goliaths. Mind rolled into the center of the map, where Bisu sat with 15 goons. Even without sieging, Mind pushed Bisu back on the ground, forcing him back to the front natural again.

Bisu's play was far from the near-flawless form he had been showing in recent times, and the most telling sign came at this crucial moment in the game - he had failed to bring observers along with the carriers. Three wraiths stalked the ships, reducing Bisu's 6 carriers down to 4 before they could get back to the cannons at the 5 expo. Mind was playing relentlessly, pushing his ground force into Bisu's front natural again, taking down the newly built nexus instantly and crushing the troops there. Bisu had reestablished his natural for less than 30 seconds when Mind's stampede arrived.

The tanks lifted their cannons, fresh goons melting under the assault. Mind took the opportunity to expand at 12, as Bisu had no means of stopping it. Bisu's renowned control and multitasking were showing cracks now, pressured by Mind's persistent multi-fronted attacks. The 4 carriers would become 3 from goliath fire as they wandered through the flatter parts of the map, and the 3 would be reduced to 2 due to another set of wraiths; even the presence of observers could not prevent the accumulating of wear and tear on these blimps.

As Bisu's fleet took significant blows, Mind ordered his ground force to change course to the 5 expo. Bisu called over his two surviving carriers back from Mind's base, as well as his two new ones from his own main. However, having exhausted his supply of interceptors, his defense lacked the necessary force to deflect even 8 poorly positioned goliaths, struggling to get through the ramp into the expansion. Bisu would lose yet one of his two worn down carriers above his nexus, and the ones with full armor would find themselves horribly out of position, getting shot down by just three goliaths. Mind's second mining base went online concurrently, and things were looking bleak for the bonjwa.

Mind departed from the corner of the map briefly, regrouping his troops in proximity of his base. However, he would quickly return to deliver the final blow, reinvigorated by a cash flow that had just doubled in magnitude. Bisu called over everything he had left: just 3 under-equipped carriers and 3 dragoons. The goons died immediately under tank fire, and the 8 new goliaths would clear the air without trouble.

With Bisu lingering in the game, Mind started a cc adjacent to the nexus at 5 o'clock in a "leave already" gesture. Bisu had no choice but to oblige, immediately giving the "gg", handing the 16 year old the throne to his domain: the fields of MSL. And like that, it was over.

Mind's build allowed him to have upgrades at 3 attack and 2 armor at a time when Bisu's carriers were 2 armor and 1 shield, (attack unknown) and his ground troops at only 1 attack and zero armor. The early vessels and goliaths took away Bisu's vision of the battlefield, and his unrelenting attacks made the mechanics of Bisu - the most fundamentally sound of all progamers - reveal its cracks.



Bisu 1 - 3 Mind

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And so what was projected as a walkover and a letdown became a monumental upset. The bonjwa was toppled, at least for the time being. The favoritism of the maps were irrelevant, the experience factor moot. While Bisu fans mourn over this travesty, the revolutionist himself related these words: "do not worry." We should recall that Bisu's PvT was historically never his strong suit, and that his wins had started accumulating in 2007. He was always prone to accidents involving spider mines and his unit movement was far from perfect. While Bisu's macro prowess, fine-scale unit control and harassment carried him through 2007 (just look back at how often he chooses some form of drop/air build when the games matter most), these games should have told him that there is much to improve on.

Bisu clearly made errors in both decision making and control, but they would not have been exploited in the manner we saw if not for Mind's show-stealing multitasking and composure. Mind's timing was impeccable in all three of his wins, his control and placement stronger than any of could have imagined. Our worst fears of having a boring and uninspiring set of games (July vs oov anyone?) couldn't have been more unfounded, as these two put on a spectacle for the fans.

He defeated iloveoov, Savior and Bisu - all three time champions of this event - to claim the title. Already called post-Lee Yoon Yeol by fans of the game, his impact on the scene in the coming years will be one to pay close attention to. As a fan I would like no more than for Mind to flourish, and would like to think that his best years lie ahead of him. We have had enough fluky and one-time winners; we need parity, but at the highest of levels, not by virtue of the stars falling to mediocrity.

I hope you enjoyed the games, the coverage, and this throwback battle report. I've assembled the most prominent topics of discussion pertaining to the MSL finals below for you to follow.


Until next time,
-thedeadhaji

TeamLiquid.net