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by Arrian, Atrioc, motbob and pangshai


Hello everyone, and welcome back to another MSL update. Since the previous newspost, we've had 2 weeks of intense battling, and during this, we've narrowed the playing field to just 8. A month is left to the finals, and guess what, if the gods will have it, the brackets have been arranged such that we might see a rehash of last season's apocalyptic meeting between Jaedong and Flash. If that does not excite you, then surely the ro16's collection of some great games should do the trick.

What made this ro16 especially unique was that both burgeoning stars and oldschool, returning players would be showcasing their stuff, and they were clearly out for blood. Hydra had a crazy close 3rd game vs Jaedong, but what really brought butterflies to our stomaches was Midas' triumph over Jangbi. 2-1 over a faltering Protoss, who has lost his way against Terran, may not be particularly impressive, but his form in proleague has also been tip-top since the start of round 4. There must've been some change over at WeMade, cause Baby too, has been showing some fantastic results, and the pair are surely ones to watch in the ro8 (OSL for Baby). Enough of the rambling though, and on to the games, our connoisseur, Arrian, brings us the low down on what happened in the last couple of weeks.

+ Show Spoiler [results] +

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Calm v fantasy

When Calm won the first game against fantasy, he really made fantasy's TvZ look bad. Really bad. But fantasy, as ever, came with a game plan and executed it with deadly precision. He decided to take every annoying thing that can be done to Zerg as Terran and throw it together into one build. Here are the steps to accomplishing fantasy's blender of TvZ:

Step 1: Kill the scouting overlord.

Step 2: Bunker rush

Step 3: Vulture

So at this point, if you play Zerg, you might be wondering how, after losing the hatchery Calm didn't toss his keyboard aside in disgust. But it didn't stop there, because fantasy progressed to step 4.

Step 4: Wraith

Step 5: Bio transition


That, I think, is a pretty good summary of this game. It was fun to watch, not because it was ultra competitive, and also not because Calm was helpless for most of it, but because it showed how fantasy is always tweaking his TvZ, how he's always thinking and working and changing up on his own style. In this game, fantasy was throwing out every little trick that Terrans have been doing since he dramatically changed the matchup, and some old ones for good measure. Calm rightfully couldn't keep up.


JangBi v Midas

Frankly, at this point, I had expected it to be 2-0 JangBi, even though his once fearsome PvT was looking a little unsettled, and Midas was coming back onto the radar after a very long lay period. The game opened with an early scout from JangBi doing its little probe thing across Match Point, which then did its little probey thing on Midas' geyser. Having thus irritated his opponent, JangBi took his natural at about the same time as Midas tore down his stolen gas. Feeling pretty confident, Midas then took his natural.

JangBi ran some zealots by the bunker at Midas' choke, but they didn't accomplish anything of significance aside from taking down a few SCVs and disrupting Midas' mining and tech. Meanwhile JangBi had put down a robo bay on a quick tech stop on his way to arbiters, which was promptly scanned by Midas and would be the beginning of JangBi's bad luck. A single wraith came out for Midas, but not in time to stop JangBi's reaver from destroying Midas' building natural. Somewhat emboldened, Midas moved to JangBi's natural to force the reaver back to defend.

While JangBi was tied up at his front, however, Midas slipped into his main with a dropship full of vultures and blasted away at his probe line.



So, with a shelled natural and harassing vultures, JangBi was falling behind quickly, though he had managed to delay Midas' third and destroy his attacking force.



More vultures slipped into JangBi's third, but he finally had his arbiters, and countered with a simultaneous recall into the defending tank line and an attack on his front of Midas' third. Despite the good move, Midas' defense was beyond solid, and his reinforcements forced a retreat from JangBi. Undeterred by the defeat, JangBi took a fourth. With nearly perfect timing, JangBi waited until Midas had moved his army out before recalling into his main perfectly evading the copious amount of mines. Despite the impeccable timing, however, the recall didn't accomplish much. He could have done better, but his move to assault Midas' fourth was just a hair late and Midas got his army in position to set back JangBi's assaulting forces.

The Protoss army got through, however, and a handful of dragoons knocked the CC out of the sky. JangBi used that distraction to set up a fifth, but the hour of reckoning had come. The giant half upgraded terran ball was on the move for Midas, preparing to smash into JangBi's natural. Figuring his best shot was a counter attack to try and force a retreat, JangBi went for Midas' third but was shut down, while Midas plowed through JangBi's third and natural. Ever persistent, JangBi went at Midas' third again, tossing away valuable units.



A glimmer of hope remained for the Samsung Protoss when he busted through Midas' contain, but he had already lost his fourth, and Midas was moving towards the helpless fifth. As it went down, JangBi knew it was over and tapped out.

Hwasin v Flash

There were many tears shed for Hwasin when TL saw he was destined to take on Flash. The summary of sentiments on this matchup seemed to be that Hwasin's TvT wasn't the best, for sure, and Flash is, well, Flash. And so it was, but Hwasin played a good game from start to finish, eventually being outsmarted by Flash's tactical mind, which is what sets him apart as a player in this matchup.

The two squared off on Match Point, Flash spawning at 2 o'clock and Hwasin at the corresponding 7 o'clock. The most memorable moment of the match came three minutes in when Flash attempted to take on Hwasin's marine with his scouting SCV. The most amazing part was that Flash almost got him. It didn't impact the match at all, but it was good for a fair bit of lulz.

Both opted for early expands off of one factory, and teched straight to Starport, with Hwasin placing his at the 12 o'clock expo. Hwasin started his wraith first, while Flash went for the add on. When Hwasin scouted Flash with his earlier wraith he added another Starport, but the advantage of cloaking is substantial and the Ultimate Weapon used it mercilessly. Yackety Sax would've been a great accompaniment to Flash chasing Hwasin's units around with his wraiths, but alas, finals are afoot.



Flash knew his advantage was appropriate to make a move, and he sieged his tanks at that spot just above the lower natural that Terrans absolutely love. Hwasin wasn't mobilized to break it, and thus did the genius of Flash turn a small advantage into a larger one. Undeterred, Hwasin started an expansion at 11 o'clock which Flash either smelled or scouted, because two goliaths made their way there and began a whimsically amusing, ineffective battery that gave Hwasin enough time to scramble opposition to save his expansion. Flash began his own expansion at the mirror position, and prepared himself for Hwasin's imminent break through the tank line laying siege to his natural.



For a moment it looked as though Hwasin had the Ultimate Weapon on his toes. Then I saw exactly what I had been waiting for, exactly what I was expecting. Two dropships came out for Flash, and he ferried his waiting tanks into Hwasin's main just in range of his opponent's factories.



With Hwasin's army caught way out of position, things looked dire, and so they were, as the narrow passage between the factories funneled Hwasin's units into Flash's seiged position, and there was nothing left for Hwasin to do.

great v Movie

It's always exciting to watch two good players play a close game, but sometimes it's exciting to watch a great player get dominated. I don't know if by every characterization this was a domination, but great undoubtedly has some flair in the ZvP matchup. He is exceedingly comfortable with the 9pool build, while I think Movie wasn't sufficiently equipped to combat it, even though it isn't exactly uncommon on Fighting Spirit.

Great's six lings made Movie pull three probes to cover the exit to his wall in because he insisted on only one cannon. As is typical, great took his natural and third and teched quickly to lair, while Movie added a Cybernetics Core and then a Stargate. I will say that Movie's probe micro was very good, even with six lings running around that thing stayed alive for a very long time. The spire completed for great as Movie dropped his Templar Archives and began scouting with his corsair.

Another thing I noticed about great is that he likes burrow more than the average Zerg. He burrowed an infoling at Movie's bridge and possible third, which is a move I really like in this matchup. Great spawned some mutalisks and ignored the pressure that Movie applied to his front, and then his third, taking the opportunity to knock down the cannons around Movie's mineral line and blast some probes with glaive wurms.



A mini swarm of lings brought down the archon/zealot/dragoon force that Movie was counting on to even up the game, and the game was firmly in great's hands from that point on.

With all the damage that great had inflicted, he knew that observers would be far from his opponent's thoughts, so he morphed some lurkers and began smacking Movie's wall while macroing a large force of hydras. The infolings helped immensely when Movie took the back door route, out his third to try take some map control or apply some pressure, but the advantage great had built with the mutalisks had blossomed into a very large hydralisk force, and this cut off and cut down the units Movie had sent out into the center.



Knowing how little his opponent must have had left, and how much he had then, great a moved his way to victory in very convincing fashion against a strong opponent.



Sea v free

This was the highlight game of this stage of the MSL. Free won the first game in this Bo3 fairly easily, and Sea I think was actually even a bit embarrassed by his showing in that game. Free took the opportunity of his opponent being somewhat flustered to add a gas steal on top of prior annoyances and promptly took his natural, while Sea added his own expansion. Both players were in full macro gear, with free adding his Cybernetics Core and a Robotics Facility and Sea adding factories and an Academy.

Sea got his first tank five minutes into the game, showing how comfortable he was with what he saw of free's base and tech and the flow of the game. Neither player showed any boldness, content to tech and mass, until Sea moved out with a handful of vultures and a couple tanks. Once again, another Terran parked his sieged tanks on the low ground but in range of the natural nexus and began shelling away. Free had a sizeable force, though, and even was comfortable enough to send about five dragoons to shut down Sea's attempt to expand to the 9 o'clock mineral only. With Sea failing to reinforce his sieged tanks, free had no problem surrounding an exterminating them.

The arbiters were out for free at this point, and things were about to get much harder for Sea. Safe with his arbiters, free took the 5 o'clock, but Sea, right on time, started a CC. The two flirted with engagement at the high ground by Sea's mineral only but free was unwilling to dedicate to an attack. A dropship full of vultures gave free a headache and Sea a look at his opponent's base, but the overall impact of the harass was minimal.



Free then laid a giant recall into Sea's main. Sadly, the positioning was bad, and trapped behind supply depots and an armory, Free had no room to negotiate his units, allowing Sea to trap and exterminate them easily. A second recall, however, dropped into Sea's fourth, and that didn't stand a chance, going down quickly. Meanwhile free had started a fifth but it didn't remain a secret for long because shells began raining on it before a probe transfer could populate it.

Another recall came in to Sea's main, this time catching Sea's army out of position and getting his second armory again, but inflicting minimal damage on SCVs. Free's unit count was getting dangerously low, however, despite the damage his recalls had done, and the mobilising Terran ball was looking very threatening. Still, however, free set up a fifth at the 6 o'clock. Knowing that his army was entirely incapable of taking on the Terran ball, free countered into Sea's third, ignoring his natural being sacked and destroying Sea's third completely.



But Sea wasted no time and plowed into free's main, obliterating most of his tech and production facilities. Free scrambled some gateways at his fourth and although he was almost completely incapable of applying any pressure to his opponent, he recalled a handful of dragoons, almost the entirety of his army, to hit Sea's highly secure fourth, succeeding only in delaying it. Free did have a large number of functional expansions, even though he'd lost his fifth (but was setting it up again, this time at 12), but it was his tech and production that was behind.

Sea was on his heels though, and it allowed free to claw his way back into the game, and only a few minutes after having almost lost the game free had a substantial force. A vulture raid into free's third killed a bunch of probes but he wasn't mining there anyway. Emboldened, free blasted through Sea's tank line on the high ground but he pushed too far and lost most of his forces. Sea's tanks shelled free's last functional expansion at 12 o'clock and with a timely defensive matrix held off the last of free's army.

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Now, the brackets to the ro8 are out and the players are more than ready to go. Atrioc takes us for a spin in his magical crystal ball and predicts how the games will turn out.



Flash vs MVP

Well well well MVP, consider me impressed. I definitely doubted your ability to move past Baby, let alone move past him 2-0 in a dominating fashion. That being said, your run really and truly does end here. For MVP to advance past Flash in a TvT bo5 at Lee Young Ho's current level of power would be an upset almost on the level of Bisu toppling sAviOr - that's how unexpected I consider it. The only advantage at all that MVP has going into this series is that Flash has to deal with a heavier schedule, but honestly at this point in his career The Ultimate Weapon is so used to a jam-packed schedule that he doesn't see having to compete in two different leagues against two strong Terrans in separate Bo5's as a bad thing, but rather better than normal because he only has to practice one matchup. God help MVP in this series, Flash 3-0 or 3-1.



Calm vs great

This is least exciting Ro8 matchup by far, a battle between an arguably great player who is underperforming lately (Calm), and a mediocre player whose on the run of his career (Great) - while that might make for a relatively even matchup, it does not make for a good one (especially in ZvZ, where only the highest levels provide the razor thin thrills that can make the matchup spectator worthy). The true crime here is that neither of these guys simply seems "in-form" enough for a MSL Ro4, a spot so far along in the tournament that it is usually reserved for a serious competitor to the title, a distinction that I don't think I can make about either of these two players at their current playing level. That being said, the person with the best chance to make a dent on the remaining competitors later on is Calm, and has already proven himself to be a ZvZ master in a Bo5 when he puts his mind to it. If he lives up to the "Brain Zerg" persona and prepares for this as heavily as he did for his Bo5's vs. Jaedong and Kwanro, then he's got it no contest and hopefully returns to form for the Ro4. Calm 3-2



free vs HiyA

Forget Bisu, forget Stork, forget Kal. If you are looking for a current set of shoulders to currently rest the hopes of Auir on, look no further than Free, who has shown what all those others have not during these uncertain times: consistency. He may not be a favorite against S-Class Flash or Jaedong, but unlike any Protoss that might be - he much more rarely drops games to people worse than him. Beating fOrGG, Sea, Light, firebathero, etc. recently, he's proven that his PvT is in seriously good shape. On the flipside - HiyA has proven time and time again that, when it counts, he can play a mean TvP. However, he's also proven that, when it counts, he will choke in an individual league (Remember his 2-1 drop out to Stats in GOM?). So as excited as Hiya in the Ro4, or even better - a Hiya/Jaedong Oz-tastic Bo5 - would make me, there's no way I see him taking out such a strong Protoss in a 5 game series, but he can definitely put up a fight. Free 3-1.




Jaedong vs Midas

Now here is a thrilling series. On one side we have the storyline of Midas, the old school TvZ master who once was practically the only person capable of holding his own against sAviOr, now returning to stand against his successor at head of the Swarm, Jaedong. On the other, the best Zerg in the world preparing to remove doubts about his waning ZvT and re-assure the doubters that he still has what it takes to tie NaDa with a ludicrous 6th gold - for Jaedong, this cannot simply be a win - it needs to be a crushing victory, to send a signal to his doubters (and to Flash) that this is still a player who wins Golds. Storylines aside, with Jaedong being statistically the better player and the maps (and current metagame) seeming to favor Terran in this matchup, we are actually looking at a very close series assuming both players come in top form. I predict a close edge out by Jaedong that plays out very similar to his Avalan MSL Bo5 vs Canata in 2009. Jaedong 3-2.

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That takes us to the end of this update, and if I might add, those photoshops by Atrioc are amazing. Please feel free to use them in the LR threads. Not doing so would be letting all his hardwork go to waste. Another week of games will determine the semifinalists and bring us that one step closer to the finals. There's still a glimmer of hope for that Flash vs Jaedong rematch, so let's keep our fingers crossed for the two players to work their magic once more.