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TheTyranid

Russian Federation4333 Posts

December 04 2008 09:42 GMT

Hello everyone and welcome to the 16'th MBC Game Survivor Tournament (Z)

Where over the next month 48 players will battle it out for entry into the MSL. Today the tournament kicks off with Group 1 which features arguably the greatest Zerg of all time (Z)

July and Lecaf's Terran macro (P)

beast

fOrGG along with two unfortunate victims. Lets take a look at today's matchups:

fOrGG < Byzantium 2 > (Z)

FireFist

fOrGG has had an incredible TvZ throughout his career. He is now at a solid 19-9 (68 %) and despite only playing 5 TvZ games since his stomping of Jaedong, his Zerg slaying powers should be as potent as ever. Byzantium is a nice standard macro map with a close Mineral only base and should suit fOrGG just fine.

FireFist is a zerg that has been around for a while and was recently traded from Wemade to KTF. Mainly a Proleague performer, FireFist has never gotten past a preliminary and this Survivor tournament will mark his first ever appearance in a Starleague (not including GOM). FireFist is a decent Zerg and has shown great ZvT such as his game vs RuBy on Andromeda. He definitely has a shot at an upset, however, I advise him to do an all in. Hopefully he watched fOrGG's most recent TvZ loss against Calm, who succeeded in an all in speedling rush, and will follow suit. I don't see him winning against fOrGG in a straight up game.

July < Byzantium 2 > (P)

Bul_T

Ah July. A ZvP legend steps onto the ground of PvZ holy land. Will Zerg finally get a win on Byzantium? They are 0-9 on Byzantium 1 and 2 combined, hell it's about time! However this all depends on one thing, which July is going to show up to the game. Is it going to be the confident, dominant, EVER 08 July possessing both lightning quick aggression and jaw dropping macro? Or is it going to be the Incruit July who's confidence, for inexplicable reasons, got popped like a balloon causing consecutive losses to Bisu and Much? Thankfully July has been a solid 3-0 against Protoss in the Proleague. I believe July will show a strong performance and will be able to defeat his opponent ~~Byzantium~~ Bul_T

Bul_T is a relatively new player. This SKT Protoss was a strong 2v2 player in previous seasons, however, with that gone he must now focus on his 1v1. Bul_T has only played 5 televised 1v1 games. They were all part of his MST run last season. He was knocked out of his MST ro32 group By.Flash and JangBi in which there is absolutely no shame for such an inexperienced player. Note that he advanced into the ro32 by beating Calm and Kwanro in his Survivor group. Bul_T has PvZ potential and along with map imbalance he has a decent shot at upsetting July.

Winners @ Destination.

This is a TvZ friendly map and if everything goes normal we will see July going up against fOrGG. July recently showcased his ZvT against pepe and it was... bad. July will have to accept the fact that he is a huge underdog against fOrGG and try to finish the game early. I expect fOrGG to dispatch a TvZ slumped July and advanced 2-0. In case fOrGG faces Bul_T, he should have it even easier. Bul_T has only played one PvT match and lost. Despite all of fOrGG's recent shortcomings coming from facing Protoss players, he should walk over Bul_T with ease. If FireFist makes it past fOrGG he will either have to face July who is solid in the mirror, or Bul_T who will have huge momentum with a win over July. This entire group looks grim for poor FireFist.

Losers @ Destination.

Well it looks like I just went over all the possible combinations in the winners set description. We should be looking at Bul_T vs FireFist here. Destination is a good PvZ map. The Nostalgia natural enterance makes it very hard to hydra cannon-break and the 9 and 3 expansions are easy to hold with reavers and storm thanks to the awsome choke point bridges. The bases are overall very close to each other making it ever easier for Potoss to mass expand and 1a2a3a4a5a with a few more clicks for some storms. Bul_T, as mentioned before, advanced through his past Survivor against Zergs after losing the first set and will have experience in this situation. Bul_T is the clear favourite here.

Final @ Athena 2

Expecting a Bul_T/July rematch here. July should win here. He outclasses this new player by leaps and bounds. Athena 2 is a ZvP heaven compared to Byzantium 2 and Destination. However, Starcraft is getting more and more unpredictable and it is impossible to tell which one of these new talents will break out and go on a streak. Let's hope Bul_T isn't one of them. No offense Bul_T but MSL really needs more Zergs,
especially if its legends like July.

So what are you waiting for? Get over to the live report thread and see what unfolds.

For more information on Survivor Turnament and the MSL, visit the Ultimate MSL FAQ