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by Arrian, Atrioc, motbob and pangshai


A short, but hectic week of games brought an end to the MSL's ro32, and the players who successfully battled their way into the ro16 have been determined. While there were a couple of surprises and disappointments that popped up, we thought we'd first touch on a bigger piece of news that went unnoticed, buried underneath the deluge of information regarding the match fixing scandal. After all the needless pessimism and despair, painting an extremely bleak future for the MSL and for starcraft, we're glad to report that, despite the initial scare, the MSL has finally secured itself a sponsor, Hana Daetoo Securities no less!


Now, on to the players who made it past the ro32. Traditionally, MSL's player pool has always, for some reason, paled in comparison to OSL's. This season, MSL seems to have caught up in this regard, with plenty of stars featuring in their 16 remaining players competiting for the top prize. Some huge upsets occurred though, but in progaming, these unexpected events have increasingly become the norm. To take a look at all the results, click on the spoiler.

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In case you couldn't be bothered to go through that list, some of the notable results are Hydra and MVP both qualifying from group E despite having to play the Protoss beasts, Stork and Best, and Oldtimer Midas also making it out of his group 2-0, defeating Flash in a TvT match on Odd-Eye 2. Unfortunately, July and Yarnc were unable to continue delighting the fans, getting stomped out of their groups 1-2 and 0-2 respectively. What people were paying most attention to though, was probably the Baby-Jaedong revenge game from Group A. Arrian unleashes his unhappiness about the game, and also takes a look at the finer games played during the ro32.


And the better games played...

Sea v Kwanro

This was the Winner's match of group C, with Sea and Kwanro looking to be the first to advance from the group. Sea spawned at 12 o'clock and Kwanro at 5 o'clock. Sea must have been very confident, given Kwanro's tendency toward early aggression, because he opened with a 14 CC, expanding to the protected expo. Kwanro went for the crazy zerg, which Sea scouted quite late. Sea quickly added a second rax and an academy, and immediately thereafter adding the engineering bay, as Kwanro's spire neared completion.

Sea teched fearlessly, adding his factory while throwing up some turrets, riding on the strong economy of his 14CC. Kwanro's mutas managed only about 4 SCVs, a turret, and a handful of marines, which he must have known was bad news. But for everything that the mutas didn't do, Kwanro's sneaky lurker follow up did about double.


Kwanro busted Sea's wall-in and began wreaking havoc, but Sea didn't panic, and Kwanro didn't have the economy to build reinforcements and follow up.


Sea was very impressive in holding Kwanro off, and before Kwanro could build his economy to macro up an army capable of taking on Sea's sudden mass of tanks and marines, five tanks were laying siege to Kwanro's morphing sunken colonies. A baffled and decisively outplayed Kwanro tapped out, handing Sea the berth from Group C.

Pure v free

Group G's final match set Pure and free against each other on Odd-Eye 2. Both opened with 1 gate tech, but Pure opted for the fast robotics support and an expo while free added 2 gateways. free probably anticipated the 2 gate robo from Pure, but instead of opting for the hard 4 gate counter went for a softer attack with more precise timing out of only 3 gates. free's goons arrived before the reaver came out, but he couldn't bust the ramp, instead taking out the expansion and starting his own while continuing to pump goons.


free set up a contain while starting his own reaver tech, but Pure had the unit advantage and moved to bust the contain. This was where free showed how much of a superior player he is. Pure's goons were funneled by the ramp, free saw how much he was outnumbered by, and microed his dragoons to keep Pure's goons in a position where he could not bring that unit advantage to bear, and then smartly retreated instead of try and push it.


Pure made a move to gain map control, and free danced about noncommittally waiting for his reaver, then crashed down onto Pure's retreating forces. free was forced to retreat because of his intensely damaged shuttle and Pure pursued, trying to cut down on free's dragoon numbers, now unsupported by reavers. free once again showed what kind of a player he is when Pure attempted to cut off the retreat of his dragoons by surrounding and overwhelming Pure's reinforcements with crisp, precise micro.

free's reavers rallied together with his dragoons and met Pure in the middle. One great scarab dropped both of Pure's reavers, and together with his reinforcements free overwhelmed Pure for the win.



BeSt v MVP

MVP and BeSt would rematch from the first set of Group E in the final match on Bloodspot. BeSt had won the first game calmly and efficiently, and definitely had the mental edge going into this game. He opened 12 nexus, a build BeSt has demonstrated he is exceedingly comfortable with. However, the more intelligent play came from the player who had blundered in the first set. MVP, displaying guts, opened with a 1 factory double expand.

I highly doubt that BeSt had any idea that he was economically behind at this point in the game, but I doubt he really played much differently when his observer spotted MVP's third. He didn't have the units to challenge it, given his own economy heavy opening, so he secured his own third while teching to his signature PvT unit, arbiters. Meanwhile, MVP took full advantage of his 1 factory double expand opening by adding 4 factories and beginning to kick his macro into high gear.


I love the gambit from MVP; BeSt is known for his outstanding macro, and MVP challenged him on his own turf, not only playing to outmacro the macro Protoss but taking advantage of the knowledge that BeSt likes fast nexus openings, allowing him to safely double expand.

The first confrontation happened in the middle of the map, and MVP was forced to siege in terrible position, but somehow MVP's smaller army forced a retreat from BeSt's embattled dragoons. BeSt didn't get the courage to move out again until he had arbiters, but MVP's economic advantage had translated to a unit advantage.


MVP plowed over BeSts army and took few stops on the way to BeSt's third.. Both players expanded at that point but MVP was now a macro train that would not be stopped. The nexus at BeSt's third went down and then MVP's entire army plowed through the forces at the bridge to BeSt's natural and it was game, eliminating BeSt from the tournament and starting MVP's run in this MSL.



Bisu v Movie

Triathlon hosted the inaugural matchup of Group H between Bisu and Movie. Bisu spawned at 8 o'clock and Movie at 12 o'clock. Bisu went for 1 gate tech, grabbing the early gas while Movie took the protected expansion, which prompted Bisu to take his natural while throwing in a manner pylon and some ineffective zealot harassment to irritate his opponent.


The two first clashed when Movie made a move toward Bisu's natural, testing Bisu's defenses. With his reinforcements rallied, Movie pushed through, killing the nexus and scoring a significant number of probe kills, while deflecting Bisu's attempts to push him out. Apparently Bisu's dark templar have extra invisibility augments because, despite 3 goons and an observer spotting the shuttle with the dark templar inside, Bisu's dark templar managed to kill every probe at Movie's main and a good many at his natural. Movie had his own tech ready, though, dropping a reaver and killing Bisu's helpless protected expansion.

Despite the assaults, Bisu somehow came out on top, as Movie just realized the damage that Bisu's dark templar had done. With his opponent without a reaver capable of harassment and having lost many of his dragoons, Bisu safely took his natural back and started his protected third. Again, the two players weren't attacking each other but rather sending shuttles back and forth for harassment. During this, four zealots were unloaded by Bisu to try and finish off Movie's damaged nexus but it just hung on. Bisu didn't give up though, dropping two sniper-dragoons, which finished the nexus off.


Knowing what trouble he was in, Movie counterattacked at Bisu's natural, but Bisu moved in from behind to cut off Movie's retreat, and obliterated his army. That was serious trouble for the CJ protoss; he was still hurting for probes, was down a nexus as compared to his opponent, and his army had just been destroyed. Movie tried more shuttle harass with a reaver, but only got one probe with three scarabs while Bisu countered with four zealots at Movie's third, which scored a whole bunch of probe kills.


Again, Movie struck back with a shuttle dropping a zealot and 3 dark templar at Bisu's third. unfortunately, it didn't do as much damage as he needed. Meanwhile, Bisu had a fourth up and moved into Movie's natural to deliver the coup de grace in psionic storm form.

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Before we move on to the previews, we thought we'd make mention of the new MSL map, Triathlon. Sea vs Kwanro was a delightful game on this map, and unlike most of the maps in the pool at the moment, this map offers some opportunities for a different style of play. By the massive thumbing down of it by ro16 players, it seems to be pretty unpopular amongst the progamers though. motbob takes a more indepth look into the map, bringing us some strategical insight on the TvT matchup.



And finally, on to the previews! After a bumpy ride at predicting the ro32, Atrioc puts his thoughts down on paper again, putting his foresight to the test.

BaBy vs. MVP

#1 Baby is on fire lately, 2-0'd his group to get here, and in TvT is coming off wins over Hwasin and fOrGG
#2 MVP is pretty mediocre at TvT, and while he has definitely picked his game up lately is not quite at Baby's "rising star" level
#3 This is probably the least luck-based matchup in the game. The better player wins in nearly all TvT.

Add these three facts together and I don't see anything other than a Baby victory here, though it probably will be 2-1.

Jaedong vs. Hydra

Hydra is not good at ZvZ. Watching his game against RorO showed me numerous weaknesses in control and decision making for the matchup that make him a prime target for the ZvZ veteran Jaedong, who, aside from his 12 hat vs. 9pool speed build order loss to Modesty, has been dominating his recent ZvZ. If he is experiencing a slump, as some have claimed, his core matchup shows no signs of being affected. As a disclaimer though, I have to mention that, unlike TvT, this is not a matchup where the better player has much leeway - any mistake or disadvantageous build order can lead to a loss almost immediately and there really is no "safe" play. I predict Jaedong 2-0 with the possibility of a build order 2-1.

Midas vs. JangBi

This is weird. Midas is in a MSL ro16? Hes 7-3 in his last 10 with a win over Flash? Forget Nal_Ra, this is the biggest splash an "old school" player has made in a long while. It might not end here either, because few Protoss have the capacity to dissapoint on their potential than Jangbi. This is a Protoss who once had the best PvT of all time and is now 3-7 in his last 10 with some seriously questionable losses. Is he capable of winning? Absolutely. Will he win? I'm not sure. For his part, Midas has lost a Bo3 recently to Tester and that doesn't boost my confidence, but something tells me (wishful thinking?) he's going to take this 2-1.

Hwasin vs. Flash

Flash.

Sea vs. free

The highlight match of the Ro16 in my opinion, and I could not be more excited for this face-off between two on-fire top tier gamers. Both are 7-3 in their last 10 games for this MU, look solid in proleague, have very complementary safe macro oriented play styles, and most importantly both definitely have something to prove in an individual league. Expect to see very large clashes, lots of multitasking, and a lot of emphasis on arbiter and EMP control to decide games. Sea won the last encounter between the two in a close game, and that combined with his ability to thumb-down Triathlon means that he is going to have the slight edge going into this series, but free is certainly a contender. My tenuous prediction is Sea 2-1.

Calm vs. fantasy.

Zergs are getting slaughtered by Terrans as of late and not only is Calm not an exception to the trend, he is practically leading the charge (right behind Effort) - throwing himself headlong into loss after loss vs Terran with no signs of stopping. I love HiyA, but he did not do anything exceptional to roll over Calm in their recent proleague match, and if that is all it takes then Fantasy with his razor sharp build orders and solid series play will sweep 2-0 this easily, which is disappointing for a Bo3 with so much potential. I once considered both of these players the closest you could get to being S-Class without being Jaedong, Flash, or Bisu, lets hope for the spectators that they both play like that here.

great vs. Movie

Movie has had the most exciting PvZ since an in-form Bisu - a combination of clever timing attacks, harassment and an uncanny ability to find ways of getting through Zerg sim-city, and I think he will take this series in a strong showing. Great is not terrible, but his last meeting with Movie showed he simply wasn't prepared for a Protoss that actively exploited holes in his defense and mixed up his unit composition instead of blindly charging into muta/hydra and losing. Movie's clever Reaver play and excellent storms really made a mockery of great past midgame, and if Movie's builds stay sharp, I don't see why the same wont happen in this series. 2-0 Movie.

Shuttle vs. HiyA

HiyA simply doesn't have the nerves to compete in individual leagues and has fallen apart in more BoX's than I can count, so despite having as softball an opponent as you can get at this point in a tournament, is very likely going to drop quickly to Shuttle, who has more tournament experience (especially in GOM) and the advantage of having the god-awful Triathlon as the second map, which is basically a free win in PvT. Its pretty telling about a map's weakness that every player except Shuttle who had the ability to thumbs down chose Triathlon to remove, and with it and Match Point being the first two maps I think Hiya goes down 2-0.

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That brings us to the end of a rather lengthy MSL newspost. For some reason, MSL has decided to schedule all the ro16 matches played on Match Point for tomorrow, demonstrating the tremendous effort they're putting in to capture the audience. Well, at least there'll be Calm vs fantasy, and Jaedong playing. Here's to hoping the games'll be good.