WCS Global Finals Semi Finals Recaps

Classic vs MMA | Life vs Taeja
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Game 1: Nimbus
Both players opted for expansion first on the greed-friendly map. Anticipating a stargate build from Classic, MMA built a quick engineering bay, establishing the proper defenses to take zero damage from Classic's oracle. Classic followed up with colossus tech and looked poised to take a third when he was dropped from the game. During the downtime, much like yesterday, the players sat idly in their booths while the TL Writers' chat collaborated on some fan fiction. No more than an hour and 10 minutes later, the game resumed with Classic starting his third. MMA pressured the third while dropping Classic's natural, only to find a growing number of phoenixes. MMA continued to take small engagements, eventually catching all of the phoenixes with good target firing. Classic abandoned the phoenix route and switched into blink stalkers, but before he could balance enough stalkers with zealots to tank, MMA pressed hard with a marauder and viking heavy army to crush through and take the first game.

+ Show Spoiler [Said Fan-fiction. Warning: not recomme…] +

Game 2: King Sejong Station
MMA chose an aggressive hellion plus marine drop build on the second map to deal some counter damage to the expected oracle. After fending off the oracle and drawing out a photon overcharge, MMA attacked again and managed to kill 12 workers. Classic took a fairly quick third behind his phoenix colossus transition. Both players, having maxed out, began to dance for position to take a favorable engagement. MMA managed to bait the phoenixes into widow mines, killing about half of them. Recognizing his enormous advantage as a window of opportunity, MMA made the snap decision of pulling two thirds of his workers. However, he botched the attack with poor positioning fighting up a ramp, his SCVs getting stuck behind his army as six colossi beamed fiery death upon his army. Yet Classic refused to capitalize on his 45 worker lead and finish the Acer terran off, opting to sit back and tech up while taking his half of the map. MMA clawed his way back, taking multiple favorable big fights with good viking positioning and ghost micro. But Classic retained his economic lead, compounding it with ubiquitous zealot harass. Once again reduced to just a few workers, MMA mustered up a final push. Though it battered Classic within an inch of death, MMA's attack sputtered and the Acer terran was forced to concede the game.



Game 3: Overgrowth
Classic opened with a fairly standard gateway expand, with MMA used a reaper expand. MMA poked at Classic, first with his reaper, then with a pair of hellions. Classic calmly repelled the attacks, losing only a handful of probes as he threw down a robo and a forge. A drop from MMA would deal a small amount of damage which gave him some room to breathe as he threw down his third base. At 13 minutes, Classic warped in a fast templar archives, while MMA started to position himself in front of Classic's natural. MMA pulled the boys, baiting out all of Classic's storms on the ramp, and then pushed into his third to take out the remainder of Classic's army. Classic tried to hold with a pack of templar in his main, but MMA's army was too large and too powerful to be repelled.

Game 4: Merry Go Round
MMA opened economically with a CC first, while Classic again opted for a gateway opener. The followup, however, was a stargate before the SKT Protoss constructed his nexus. A scan from MMA revealed Classic's plan, and he responded with quick missile turrets. A kill on Classic's oracle allowed MMA to safely enter a macro phase, pumping out bio, medivacs and fast upgrades as Classic began his transition into phoenix/templar/zealot. An attempted drop was warded away after MMA scanned and saw a group of phoenixes in Classic's main. Classic pursued, only to be caught by MMA's main force and pushed back. After several zealots and phoenixes were eaten up by the bio, archons finally pushed MMA back. Both players then focused on rebuilding their armies with their fresh 3rd bases, though Classic still appeared to be behind. A drop from MMA soon cleaned up the majority of Classic's remaining phoenixes, as well as several workers, leaving Classic gasping for air and running out of time. The terran seized the opportunity and rushed into Classic's third with an all-too-large group of bio units, annihilating the protoss army. A final push into the natural secured MMA his second spot in the finals of a tournament hosted at Blizzcon, where he would await the winner of Taeja vs Life.



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Game 1: Nimbus
As the stage flashed to set the show, both players went into their first game of the day. It was the next chapter in a rivalry that had decided many tournaments in the past. Life approached it with obvious, almost uncharacteristic care, positioning his queens with gentle watch and macroing up at a decent yet not aggressive pace. Meanwhile, TaeJa went for his favourite build on Nimbus. Getting a CC first and delaying his gasses, he greedily macro'd before going into a large hellbat/marine/medivac/mine push with +1/+1. While Life looked well-prepared with little reason to worry at first, he took a couple of bad trades that were harshly punished by TaeJa. A confusing fight without banes sealed his fate and gave the Liquid Terran his first win of the series, in a way that made Life look both helpless and lost.

Game 2: King Sejong Station
Although there is much to be said about this game, it would be easiest and kindest of us to make this recommendation: go watch this game. No, seriously. You will not be disappointed. It's the best game of Life vs Taeja.



Game 3: Deadwing
After the chaos that was the second game (Have you watched it? Yes? Good. No? Go watch it. Seriously), TaeJa decided to go for trickery again. Facing the difficulty that is cross spawn Deadwing, TaeJa chose an early tank drop across the rocks, in the position where lings and queens could not normally reach. However Life once again showed that he was capable of out-thinking the Liquid Terran. Not only did he anticipate what TaeJa was going to do and stopped it, Life went for an enormous swell of lings and banelings to try and smash his way into the natural. While TaeJa managed to scout the banelings just in time to react ahead of time, it was still a little too late: Life crashed into the wall with the writhing mass of zerglings and banelings that have won him so many games in the past. Despite some of his trademark great splits, Taeja did not have enough in the face of Life's swarm, and the Royal Roader earned a surprising 2-1 advantage.

Game 4: Overgrowth
This time, the trickery traded hands. Life went for a (this time unprovoked) proxy hatch outside the Terran natural on Overgrowth, while TaeJa went CC first. With a couple of bunkers, TaeJa greedily tried to hold both the natural and the main, and Life set up his ling/bane attack. Through a combination of excellent bunker hopping and questionable decision making by Life, TaeJa managed to hold on to his natural—albeit barely. Despite the fact that TaeJa was bleeding, Life was left practically dead, on one base and behind in workers. With attempts at standard macro play by both players, TaeJa merely pushed forward and pressed his economic advantage, slaughtering the StarTale Zerg with intelligent hellbat zoning to tie it up 2-2.

Game 5: Merry Go Round
With the stakes as high as they could ever be, both players played out a greedy game of chess, with Life building three hatches before his pool and TaeJa responding with a quick 3rd CC. With upgrades being added on, it seemed like the fifth game would be an excellent macro game to end the series between the prodigies. However, Life was too crafty to simply play TaeJa's game. In an initially perplexing move, he pushed with queens and lings counter-clockwise across the map, catching TaeJa completely off guard and picking off his entire army. Taken completely aback by the unexpected turn of events, Taeja did his best to hold on. Even with his army surrounded and lings swarming into his natural with no remorse, TaeJa did not give up. He took a deep breath and pushed the zerg back inch by inch despite having his third blocked by creep. But the Ling King would not be stopped. With creep coating the entire distance between the two players, Life yet again caught TaeJa off guard with his constant parries and counters. With no way to engage Life off creep as the zerg's army crept closer and his own disadvantage growing worse, Taeja decided that it was over. He tapped out, his dreams of a crown to close out a career as indisputable king of weekend tournaments shattered. Life had risen once more, yet his road was not over.



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WCS Global Finals Grand Finals Recap

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G1: DeadwingG2: CatallenaG3: Foxtrot LabsG4: Merry Go RoundG5: Overgrowth