GSL Finals Analysis (Spoilers Obviously)

July opens speedling expand while MC opens with a 4 gate. His 4 gate is ingenious however because he cuts the first wave of units that you would make with a 4 gate to throw down an expansion. This delays his 4 gate for a small amount of time but he has the benefit of two gases and the mind game with his opponent. MC continues to cut probes as if doing a normal 2 gas 4 warp gate and then cancels his expo at the last second, gets one more round of units and rolls July

First, had July scouted it, he would have been much better off. July never sacked an overlord in to see what protoss' production was, to his credit, this was the first time this has really been done and Zergs are not used to seeing it. MC won the scouting war because of the originality of the build, in the future it would most likely be scouted.

July did not begin making roaches until the 4 warp gate was half way across the map, and against a 2 gas 4 warp gate, since the push comes 2 minutes later than a 1 gas 4 warp gate, you need to use that extra time to pump roaches. Had July sacked an Overlord at the standard time and had 2 more rounds of production, he would have had 16 extra roaches and been able to easily hold MCs rush and win out in the macro game.

Sentries were not the main factor in winning this game, the sentries were just there to convince the 3 gate expand. Had July seen what MC was doing he could have easily won.

July opens speedling expand while MC opens 1 gate expand. This means that protoss gets his expo down before Zerg, which any player knows is not a good situation. At this point July has to choose between one base all inning and expanding at a disadvantaged position, he chooses the latter. MC is already far ahead as he did an extremely risky opening and July let it fly. Both players then macro up, it is a two basing protoss vs. a two basing Zerg and MC throws down a 5th and 6th gateway and begins to cut probes shortly thereafter. July then RUSHES hydralisks before even beginning roach burrow or speed. July then scouts a 6 gate and begins pumping roaches immediately, making his investment in the hydralisks worthless and his roach upgrades very delayed for no payoff. MC then attacks at the perfect timing before roach burrow is finished and the third base is finishing and easily takes the win.

July rushed for hydralisks, delaying his roach burrow and speed too much. He also scouts the 6 gate too late to begin pumping roaches optimally. You'll notice the moment he scouts the 6 gate 11 roaches are produced and hydra range is canceled, this makes it clear that July is simply reacting as best as he can to a rush he didn't know was coming. Had July done the much more standard roach burrow timing to secure a third base, MCs lack of an observer would have meant a free infinite delay of MCs push, long enough for hydras to come in and easily take the game.

The only thing FF did in game 2 was keep the roaches from kiting the 4 zealots of MC, if all of those sentries were other units, July would have still been rolled because of his mediocre roach timing against a perfect 6 wg timing.

July opens speedling yet again and MC yet again gets a huge early advantage by getting an unpunished fast expand. MC takes back the economic advantage with an extremely fast third before lair, this allows MC's stargate to inflict some good damage before backing off. July then gets very fast hydralisks yet again, but MC, not expecting overlord drop to be upgraded, builds more cannons at the front and keeps his units there while July is able to Hydralisk drop into the main to secure a win before any colossus are out to deal with Hydras effectively.

MC did a risky opener for not playing the colossus standard. MC did not give July a reason not to go pure hydra (i.e. colossus, storm, sometimes chargelots) and so July was able to win with it.

MC let him go pure hydra and deserved to lose against it. Without a timing attack before hydras are out or a high tech unit, hydras will be dominant.

July opens speedling while MC rushes for dark templar (he states in the interview afterwards that he had his practice partners preemptively get detection, indicating that this was not designed to win or be an all in). July is denied his overlord scout and most likely assumes a three warp gate expand. (Notice that this game July gets some preemptive roaches in case another fake expo 4 gate is coming). July sees the darks coming and immediately begins an evo chamber. July loses several roaches and a queen while MC loses nothing. MC begins blink and +1 attack while July takes a third, staying relatively even in economy with MC. July begins his hydra den a little bit later than what seems to be his standard based on the other games, but he does get his spire extremely quickly for a player not going mutaling. July frantically begins roach burrow and pumping roaches when he sees the high gateway unit count from MC. July engages blink +1 stalkers with pure - no burrow - roaches as his spire completes. July simply doesn't have enough to beat the timing push and gg's

July could have easily taken this game as well but he seems to have a real problem with scouting his opponent. First he gets hydras and a spire, neither of which even come into play. Second, the counter to a +1 blink stalker build, similar to what Nazgul did against Idra, is either a lot of hydra's or Burrow roaches with equal upgrades, neither of which July had. Had July gotten faster hydras or committed more to roaches with burrow and tunneling claws he could have won, but instead teched in 2 useless directions against a well refined timing push that requires a very particular response.

The FF that match stopped about 4 roaches from coming down the ramp and gave MC in total about 10 roaches. MC would have EASILY won without the sentries, the loss was purely July's fault for not reacting to his opponent. MCs build should also be given credit, as opening DT is a very cool way to do the blink stalker push without delaying it too much

July speedling expands while MC forge fast expands without any counter pressure, this does put MC off to a starting advantage. July takes a risk though and gets a very fast third before lair. July is super droning, and looks to be off to a great start. MC again goes for the 6 gate play while again July rushes for Hydralisks instead of roach burrow. July begins roach hydra production but has not begun the critical hydra range upgrade yet. MC begins blink and +2 weapons. Hydralisks never get the plus range upgrade and MC slowly wins with upgraded wg units against severely under upgraded roach hydra. In the end it was MC with +3 weapon gateway units against +1 hydras off creep without range.

I think that July felt very pressured that round, MC's aggressive army movement kept bating July's army off of creep and messed with July's mindset of upgrading and droning. MC made it look, through his superb army movement, like a 2 base all in was coming when really he had macro'd up and grabbed a third. Had July played a safer game and stayed on top of upgrades he would have easily won, but he really looked to be on tilt and unfocused.

Again MC could have won without sentries or FF. Not to mention because July was engaging off creep without range, the hydras lack of speed was very easy to abuse. July simply was playing sloppy this last game and had he upgraded better he would have been easily able to win since MC never got colossus out.