Destination! Zero opened pool and gas before hatch, but Savior put down a 13-hatch at his third expansion, attempting to throw a wrench in Zero's gameplan with some unorthodox play.

Unfortunately for MJY, this hatch placement was nothing new for Zero. The week before this match, Luxury pulled the exact same trick against Zero on Destination (and won). Zero scouted the hatchery with his second overlord, so knew exactly what Savior was up to.


From this point, the game was all Zero. Savior's distant second hatchery forced him to maintain map control, and this meant many lings. As a result Savior's spire was well behind Zero's, and Zero took full advantage: he picked off two overlords while Savior's mutas were spawning.


Behind in muta count and supply, Savior couldn't defend his exposed second hatchery. Zero outmicroed Savior in every encounter, but he probably could have won regardless. A relatively easy win for the WJ Zerg, and a quite unsettling opener for MJY and his fans.

Savior and Zero opened at cross positions on Byzantium 2. This game was over quick: Savior opened 10-hatch into a speedling all-in, and Zero 12-hatched. Savior executed well, but Zero's build didn't stand a chance.

The most noteworthy occurrence in this game was that Zero somehow managed to leave an idle drone in his main for much of its duration.


This colossal mistake ended up not playing a role in the game's outcome, but…what if? Were Zero's nerves starting to crack?

In the third set on Carthage, both Zero and Savior opened 12-hatch and their spires were just seconds apart. The deciding factor in this game was Savior's decision to attack into an arc of zerglings outside Zero's nat, just before mutas popped. Perhaps he was feeling bold after his easy win in set 2?


The attack was a disaster, and left Zero with a substantial advantage in ling numbers. After a lull in the action while both players massed air units, Savior engaged Zero's mutas while Zero snuck his superior zergling force into Savior's nat. Zero got the best of both encounters, routing Savior's mutas with superior micro and scoring several dronekills in Savior's main with his zerglings.

At this point things got downright nasty for Savior, as his desperation attack over Zero's natural hit just seconds after Zero's +1 air armor upgrade finished.


Savior lost all of his mutas and typed out immediately.

Even a first-grader could point out the pattern in Savior's BOs for sets 1-3: hatch before pool. Now ahead by a set and looking considerably more at ease in his booth, Zero decided to take a risk and 9-pool in the 4set on Neo Harmony. Savior sent his 12th drone out…


…and placed a hatchery at his natural. The game dragged on for a few more minutes, but it was pretty much over as soon as Zero's first six lings reached Savior's nat. MJY must have simply given up at this point - he didn't even bother to cancel his hatchery. Zero wins, 3-1.

(Not played)

Leta's last two victories over Luxury involved wraiths, so it's not surprising he decided to open with 2-port wraith in the 1set on Neo Harmony. Leta's wraiths did considerable damage, but couldn't prevent the two-base hyper-aggression that characterized Luxury's play in this series. Once he had the wraiths under control, Lux countered with a hydra-lurk army that very nearly broke Leta's nat.


Leta eventually cleared the danger and pushed out with a sizeable biomech ball. Luxury looked in trouble until he pulled off a very neat hydra-lurk flank:


Leta's macro hadn't slipped, however, and he had another army ready back home. By this point it was obvious that Lux had powered hydra-lurk a bit too hard in the mid-game, and Leta had a considerable army advantage. Leta's second army rolled over Chance Park, aided by the good fortune of catching some lurker eggs out in the open.

Note here that Chance Park is probably the dumbest-ever Korean-imposed nickname. I feel bad for Luxury…even Practice is a better nick.

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Since the beginning of 2009, Luxury has silently crept up into the S-class with his convincing performances in the winners league including an all-kill vs Samsung in his first appearance and in both of the individual leagues by advancing to the quarterfinals of each. Before his showdown vs Leta however, Luxury had atypically lost twice in a row in the winner’s league to a rejuvenated Light and the unremarkable Piano. I certainly held doubts regarding Luxury’s preparation. But they were quickly settled, albeit in a slightly disconcerting manner, by the end of the second set.

Leta opens the series with a rarely used variation of the mech opening, in contrast to his three most recent TvZs post savior defeated, which all featured bio builds. The build he uses this game is the one base two starport wraith build reminiscent of Lomo during his surprising run in the MSL and proleague last year. Failure to scout the inside of Leta’s base puts Luxury at a disadvantage as he proceeds to build two unnecessary sunkens in fear of a vulture run-by. Leta’s first wraiths kill way too many drones than it should. The lack of scouting leads to poor anticipation and defense by Luxury. Aside from losing drones, Luxury is unable to expand while harassed by the wraith army. By the time he finally has enough hydras to fend Leta’s incessant and well-microed harass off, the game has already been decided, as Luxury can do nothing at this point but go for a hydra/lurker all-in. Leta defends perfectly with the aid of Neo Harmony’s narrow chokes and high ramps. Luxury disappointingly drops the first game. After the game I wondered whether it was possible to beat Leta’s variety of mech and bio openings, as they seem to give every zerg he’s played tremendous difficulty. However Luxury quickly eased my doubts after.



Leta started with his renowned 2 port wraith strategy that has worked pretty well for him in the past. However Luxury was well prepared for this it and didn't take as much damage as others has before him. Leta saw that luxury countered with spores and hydralisks and chose to transition into a somewhat unorthodox expansion. Usually you follow up 2port with some sort of preassure but leta actually made a pretty fast CC and started making marines and tanks.
This was an exellent move, knowing that the distance them apart was far and luxury tried on big attack once he got speed overlords with lurkers and hydras to finnish him of. It was very close and luxury could just as well have won the game from that point but leta was able to defend and from there it was a pretty
standard TvZ.

Leta showed his strength in a safe play by pushing very slowly towards luxury who was actually ahead in economics since the wraiths was not that successfull. The reason he could do this was that Luxury was just macroing and not teching towards hive, and the best way to punnish a zerg playing like that is by being careful and slowly place tanks in the perfect position towards his natural. Any other terran, except the very top TvZ would probably have lost that game but Letas really safe lategame paid off and he was able to seal the win. Well played from leta although his initial strat wasn't that successful.

In the second set on notoriously T>Z map Destination, Luxury 5-pooled. Leta did everything in his power to help Lux succeed, including:

• Not walling
  
• Building his rax in a location that gave his marines 0% of survival upon spawn
  
• Starting a factory after scouting Lux's first six lings en route to his base

In his post-match interview, Luxury claimed the reason Leta didn't react to his first lings was that he didn't see them on the minimap:


I don't think Luxury's explanation for why Leta put down a factory (instead of something that would help him not lose, like a bunker) is satisfactory, and here's why. First, there's just very little probability that a professional gamer could miss something as significant as 5-pool lings on his minimap, especially when he gets a look as good as this with his scouting SCV:


I mean, just look at that crap. Leta's SCV had those lings in its LoS for longer than ShoCkeyy's new juvie sentence. Lux's zerglings may as well have jumped into Leta's booth and tapped him on the shoulder.

Furthermore, I think Leta's reaction immediately after his SCV passed the lings reveals he'd seen them:


Those pursed lips are the look of someone who sees a 5-pool coming and figures "Ah screw it, I'll just build my factory anyway". Perhaps Leta thought he could protect the factory long enough to produce a vulture - which he did, but it was too little too late. His main was lost. Mani said it best:

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As one should recall, Luxury had met Leta earlier in this year’s MSL on the same map. During the encounter Leta used a proxy fact to abuse one of the more frustrating features of Destination for zerg, by rushing an early tank and using it to harass Luxury’s natural from behind the back wall. Luxury in desperate defense tried for a hydra/ling all-in which failed to break Leta’s wall-in, thus ending a much anticipated game prematurely. Certainly with this previous, and the more recent frustrations still in mind, and perhaps also inspired by July’s aggressive mentality displayed in last year’s OSL final vs Best, Luxury proceeds to open the second game of the series with a 5 pool. It works perfectly as Leta refuses to wall again. Leta, also undoubtedly with the last two games in mind, perhaps assumed it was a safe bet that Luxury would not open with an aggressive build on Destination since walling is standard on this map. I can also surmise two other reasons, that Leta had hoped Luxury would drone scout and somehow miss the barrack, therefore assuming Leta was proxying, not likely of course; and also the lack of a wall might entice Luxury to harass with lings if he 12 hatched but with some vulture micro from Leta, Luxury would lose all of his lings for practically nothing. A fake proxy rax however would work much better if Leta had sent out a scouting scv sooner, which he didn’t. An earlier scv could also harass Luxury’s expo attempt and make the threat of a rush build greater, aside from the obvious purpose of scouting. What Leta ultimately fails to take into account is that Luxury knows about the metagame, and would therefore fall for none of his tricks. Luxury quickly disposes of Leta’s marines as they die one after another right after coming out of the barrack. After his quick loss Leta could only smile in vain and in a manner strikingly similar to a young girl who had just lost her cherry. Yes Leta, you just got taken advantage of.


Well well, what is there to say about this game. Luxury afraid? The worst possible build for zerg on a 2 player map where the distance is far is probably the 4 pool. But since terrans know this, they will often make a proxy barrack or a proxy factory before the second suply. Luxury knew that Leta is very good at executing cute builds on destination and was trying to prevent this by doing the 5 pool.

He was probably hoping for leta to do a proxy 8 rax or a proxy fact with his first scouting scv and not be able to scout until it was too late. However, while Leta didn't place his barrack at the best position, it still was close enough to his CC to defend vs the zerglings, and he sent out a scout in time to spot the zerglings. I have no idea what happened next. Maybe Leta did the old mistake of microing his scv vs the drone and actually missed that the zerglings was coming on the minimap.

He could have easily placed a bunker close to his CC while pulling scvs to the ramp and stall the lings, make 2 marines for the bunker and then lift rax closer to the bunker. I guess Leta is mad at himself after this huge mistake that probably cost him the whole series. I really think he would have been able to get a 3-0 victory had he not missed those zerglings on the minimap. Such things can decide an MSL, and I hate it, but its atleast fair.

Leta and Lux spawned at cross positions on Byzantium 2. I don't have much to say about this game, because Luxury played like absolute garbage. He opened with overpool speed on a map which Terrans almost always wall, did no damage with his 3-hatch muta, and then sacrificed his natural to morph a few guardians over Leta's nat and have them all irradiated to hell. By the late-game, Leta had enough of a lead to obliterate Luxury with pure firebat:

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The reverse ramp of Byzantium gives incentive to aggressive zerg openings. Luxury, ever the aggressor, opens game three with an overpool speed build popular in zvp but rarely seen in zvt. Leta in defense wisely chooses to wall in this time around. And taking extra precaution, he delays his expo command center for an one rax academy build, effectively protecting himself from every kind of early zerg aggression. Both players proceed to play standard. Luxury, in getting ling speed before lair, put himself at a slight disadvantage after early game. When he tries to muta harass, Leta responds with excellent building placement and defensive micro. Luxury’s mutas deals virtually no damage. As Leta’s first army rolls out at around the ten minute mark, which is as fast as a terran can get vessel after a standard opening, Luxury can only watch as Leta walks all the way to Luxury’s natural and sets up shop right in front. Luxury does a rather lackadaisical job of cutting off reinforcements as he completely misses the first stream of backup marines. He does catch a vessel. Then in a very bizarre moment of decision-making, he chooses to morph his guardians over Leta’s natural instead of his own, perhaps overestimating the strength of his own army and underestimating Leta’s, as Luxury at the time doesn’t even have a defiler mound yet. It is quite obvious Luxury can not kill Leta’s army without guardians or defilers, but nonetheless he tries. Luxury loses his units in a terrible flank, Leta disposes of the guardians, game over. This was a very confusing game from a spectator’s perspective for it seemed Luxury had more than a fighting chance to even the game had he used his guardians for defense rather than attack. Perhaps he planned to rely on defilers for defense but had forgotten to place the mound. Either way it is another disappointing loss for Luxury and after three games, he finds himself on the brink of elimination.


This game was pretty much a standard TvZ with leta having the early opening advantage. His plan was to make a safe opening and do an early preassure to make zerg pay for sunkens early on, since Leta would be behind economically, and in the best case make a runby or a sunkenbreak, while also being safe from a rushbuild. However Luxury opened with 9pool gas and was not at all ahead in economics. This plus the fact that Luxury still had to make the two sunkens early on was giving Leta a small advantage. Both player played pretty solid from here in my oppinion but Leta usually never lets go of an advantage and his push was just abit to strong and early to be broken and he was able to damage Luxurys economy and seal the game. I guess by then he was pretty mad about the 4-pool.

The match's 4set was the second-ever televised TvZ on Carthage (the first being Savior > Up in the Ro16). Luxury headed for the usual 2-hatch muta opening, but Leta decided to 2-rax instead of FE. Leta's first control of MnM dealt Luxury a near-killing-blow - sneaking behind the nat mineral line, killing many drones, forcing zergling production, and totally disrupting Lux's 3-hatch muta timing.


What followed was a brilliant comeback from Luxury, who seized the opportunity to demonstrate his flair for low-econ Zerg play. the game-deciding move was a massive lurk-ling flank which cut off Leta's retreating army at the ramp outside the Terran natural:


With his forces divided, Leta couldn't hold his nat. The cloud of mutalisks over his barracks didn't help much, either. How close was Leta to clinching this series 3-1? This close:


If Leta had stimmed and attacked at this moment, he in all likelihood would have waltzed into the Lost Saga MSL semifinals.

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Wanting to take advantage of the flat and open choke, Luxury opens the fourth game with an overpool speed build again. Leta on the other hand opts for a conservative two rax opening and with some neat micro, prevents Luxury from inflicting any damage. Leta gets academy first to counter-pressure. Upon arriving at Luxury’s natural, he sees three sunkens with the third halfway done. In a moment of balls, Leta runs by the sunken line and successfully deposits himself behind Luxury’s natural mineral line. More importantly Leta manages to keep both of his medics alive in the process which enables him to repel Luxury’s following 12 ling attack, and after doing so, Leta sneaks into the main and proceeds to slaughter four more of Luxury’s drones. At this point it looks as though all is lost for Luxury. The camera catches him shaking his head in disgust. Leta, knowing all he has left to do is defend the incoming muta harass, adds two more rax to make it four. Mutas come out, but deals unsurprisingly little damage as Leta defends perfectly. Luxury furiously replaces lost drones while trying best to control his mutas. His lurker switch is delayed, and once again he can only watch as Leta marches a handful of marines right to Luxury’s doorsteps to contain. Leta reinforces endlessly. Luxury in the meanwhile is able to finally harass with some effectiveness as he kills three turrets and some marines. After Luxury’s lurkers morph he forces back Leta’s containing army. Luxury sends all of what he has towards Leta’s natural through the adjacent higher path. As a stream of lurker ling runs towards Leta’s base, Leta’s containing army, unaware, slowly walks back to meet Luxury’s units. The zerg army arrives before Leta’s army, and then, in a hilarious twist of fate, Luxury without hesitation goes straight for Leta’s throat as he micros his lurker/ling perfectly to catch all three of Leta’s tanks badly out of position and instantly crushed. Almost all of Luxury’s lurkers survive. They hurry inside Leta’s base to destroy his remaining buildings. Luxury pulls off, in my memory, one of the greatest comebacks in MSL, especially considering the context of the game. He displayed the macro, awareness, army control, and most important of all, nerves, of a S-Class player. It also has to be said of course that Leta made one of the worse mistakes in MSL history. The course of this series so far reminds inevitably of the epic Midas vs Savior series from several years back, when Midas in game six, holding a 3-2 lead I believe, had a deciding advantage on 815 but could not deliver the killing blow to the then prime savior. Let’s see if Luxury can complete the comeback to warrant his comparison to the maestro of the past.


Luxury opened with the popular 9pool speed here aswell. Letas response was to open dual rax with good placement. After a risky but successful sunken runby Leta was really ahead and I cannot really understand how he lost that game. I have watched it several of times and my best guess is that Luxury just played better mechanically. He ran his lurkers all the way to Letas natural and Leta was too slow getting back with his units that were on the map and from there it was burrow easy-mode for the zerg. I think the fact that Luxury kept making mutas for some while and did huge damage to Letas barrackline had something to do with Letas lack of units, but overall Leta just didn't play that well.

Perhaps because they carried him through a trying fourth set, Luxury decided to rely on his massive balls once again in the deciding game on Neo Harmony. He put down an early hydra den for what looked like 2-hatch lurkers, but then hid a spire further into his natural. Leta fell head over heels for the gambit - his scouting SCV saw the den and pulled back immediately.


Within seconds, Leta was working on two comsats and two bunkers to protect his natural from lurkers that never came.


Of course, part of the beauty of Lux's build was that, with Leta fearing fast lurkers, he didn't dare waste a scan to see whether Luxury was actually morphing hydras.

Luxury's surprise mutalisks destroyed Leta, reminding us all what ZvT was like before Terrans figured out how to build enough turrets to defend 2-hatch muta. In case you've forgotten, it involves legions of splattered marines in the shadow of fearsome muta clouds. Luxury dupes Leta and advances, 3-2.

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Leta opens the final game with the same appearance of the first game, in that he uses a scv to block the ramp, denying Luxury scouting. However unlike the first game, he decides to go for a standard one rax cc build, perhaps feeling the most confident in a standard opening. Luxury opens two hatch with a hydra den, but also gets a spire when lair finishes. Leta sends out a second scouting scv at this time, and through what I can only assume is another sick twist of fate created by the starcraft gods, Leta sees the hydra den but then quickly turns back like an embarrassed child who just stumbled across some porn. He does not scan in preparation for the imaginary lurker attack. Luxury, ever so aware of the metagame, saves his larvas for mutas. When they arrive at Leta’s base, Luxury sees nothing but a nude, defenseless terran home ready for his deflowering. He does not disappoint. The muta harass is beautiful. After a few rounds of fun, Luxury attack moves all of his mutas for the final blow. Leta types out.

Drama at its best. This series had everything a fan could ask for but a close game. Both players made mistakes, the winner made fewer. Leta, despite his strong performances in last season’s proleague, is still a newcomer to the big stage. His mistakes under pressure can be attributed to inexperience. I have faith in him to do better in the OSL and next season’s MSL. Luxury well, he displayed all the qualities of a veteran. His aggressive mindset was invaluable. With that said, I can not see him winning neither league’s titles as there are better, similarly experienced or more experienced players left in both leagues. But with a little luck, who knows. His early aggression won him one game, but put him behind and ultimately lost him two games. He would definitely have to prepare better builds for futures series.

For those of you wondering why there is no Savior vs Zero write up. Every time I began to type I started cursing uncontrollably at the starcraft gods for forcing the two most promising zergs in MSL to meet in the quarterfinals. It is truly a lose lose situation for zerg fans. Also this report got way too long so I thought I would just end it here. Good luck to Luxury in the next round. Until next time,

zulu_nation8/Bo


Why didn't you open wraith again? That wouldn't have been suspected and this time it was closepos. But Leta wanted to switch things up and went for a Standard opening. However, he fell for the oldest trick in the book, the dual tech zerg. Leta was too greedy and didn't use his scans to find out what Luxury was up to since he had already spotted a hydra den with his scouting scv. Luxury played smart and placed the den in a location where he knew it would be spotted but still, Leta should have used his scans. He was putting up a turret at his entrance anyway.

What happened thereafter was painful to watch. A Leta fully prepared for a strong 2hatch lurkerbuild was utterly destroyed by a strong 2hatch mutabuild. 2 big blunders cost him the shot of this MSL and I would really feel sad for him if it wasn't for the fact that he kicked Flash out of the MSL with a freakin BBS.