EPTTable of Contents
Keeping the Dream Alive
Intro
FXO vs SlayerS
Match Results
NSH vs IM
Match Results
The Return to Form
Opinion
Check out the GSTL on Liquipedia
Keeping the Dream Alive
This was a big weekend for GSTL. Both SlayerS and Incredible Miracle, who were playing each other for a GSTL championship exactly one year ago, were knocked out in the last two days of play.
More astoundingly, the mere fact that they will no longer be fighting is not even the most noteworthy part of the story. Rather, it was exactly how they found themselves being evicted from the team league, pushed out in the most unexpected of ways.
FXOpen won games with Oz and Leenock, which will come as no surprise to anyone who has followed their games as of late. However, while they took down Puzzle, Coca, and Crank between them, they saved the truly heavy lifting for Choya. Choya, the coach who had all but disappeared from competitive play in the second half of last year, who only recently found his way back into Code A. He took on Ryung and MMA and left unscatched, using a clever build in the first game and solid defense in the second, showing that perhaps his career has more to it than previously thought.
A similar situation happened with the HoSeo team. Seal, who only had the briefest of stays in Code A, came out in the second set to play against YoDa, and from there he nearly finished off the series all by himself. Dispatching of YoDa and Seed as mere warmups, IM sent their heavy hitters at him immediately after. He was forced to face Mvp and NesTea in back to back matches, both of whom he came out victorious against in the slimmest of victories, and nearly completing an all-kill against one of the league's strongest.
In the end Happy took him down and it was Jjakji who finished the series off, but today was not his day in the sun. This weekend was not for the Jjakjis, or MMAs, or NesTeas, this weekend was for the Seals and Choyas of the world.
FXOpen
SlayerS
Game One – FXO_Lucky vs SlayerS_Puzzle –
![[image loading]](/blogs/images/blackstar.gif)
+ Show Spoiler +
Daybreak
Opening with 3 fast bases for Lucky and an expand into +1 and 4 gate pressure, this could be any PvZ on Daybreak ever. Puzzle's early attack is thwarted easily, and he takes a third while adding more gateways and getting blink.
Lucky amasses a huge roach army, and as he maxes out he takes a fourth and fifth base as well as a spire. Puzzle has been sitting back on 3 bases building his army and making sure he can get a big army without dying. When Lucky maxes out Puzzle has about 150 supply and he chooses that time to try a double pronged attack at the third and natural with roaches.
Puzzle has his army well positioned and splits it up perfectly, leaving 2 immortals at each base. Lucky's huge army dies while doing absolutely no damage and he switches into speedlings and mutalisks. As he is harassnig the third with mutas he gets a nice runby, but good building placement in Puzzle's main keeps it from doing any damage. He keeps flying mutalisks around but is unable to do anything useful, and seeing this Puzzle moves out with his ever-growing army of sentries, stalkers, and immortals.
Lucky tries to stop it first with a counter, but is stopped by templar and storm, and then by making a dozen spines, which are rendered useless when Puzzle's army finds them just before they finish building. Puzzle rips through what little Lucky has and the game is over.
Winner: SlayerS_Puzzle
FXOpen (0 – 1) SlayerS
Opening with 3 fast bases for Lucky and an expand into +1 and 4 gate pressure, this could be any PvZ on Daybreak ever. Puzzle's early attack is thwarted easily, and he takes a third while adding more gateways and getting blink.
Lucky amasses a huge roach army, and as he maxes out he takes a fourth and fifth base as well as a spire. Puzzle has been sitting back on 3 bases building his army and making sure he can get a big army without dying. When Lucky maxes out Puzzle has about 150 supply and he chooses that time to try a double pronged attack at the third and natural with roaches.
Puzzle has his army well positioned and splits it up perfectly, leaving 2 immortals at each base. Lucky's huge army dies while doing absolutely no damage and he switches into speedlings and mutalisks. As he is harassnig the third with mutas he gets a nice runby, but good building placement in Puzzle's main keeps it from doing any damage. He keeps flying mutalisks around but is unable to do anything useful, and seeing this Puzzle moves out with his ever-growing army of sentries, stalkers, and immortals.
Lucky tries to stop it first with a counter, but is stopped by templar and storm, and then by making a dozen spines, which are rendered useless when Puzzle's army finds them just before they finish building. Puzzle rips through what little Lucky has and the game is over.
Winner: SlayerS_Puzzle
FXOpen (0 – 1) SlayerS
Game Two –
+ Show Spoiler +
FXO_z vs SlayerS_Puzzle – Entombed Valley
The game starts with Oz taking both gas quickly, and when Puzzle scouts this he takes a second one as well. Puzzle makes a robotics after his first gateway, and Oz starts on a twilight counsel. In the first 2 stalker vs 2 stalker battle Oz comes out ahead trading a stalker for a stalker and a zealot, and he takes a nexus off 4 stalkers right after.
Meanwhile Puzzle is adding immortals and researching blink of his own off 3 gateways. Oz tries to be a little aggressive with his blink stalkers, only to discover can't be due to Puzzle having blink of his own. Puzzle chases back to Oz's natural, and in the ensuing battle the one immortal is trapped and killed by forcefields and Oz comes through with better blink and positioning.
Winner: FXO_z
FXOpen (1 – 1) SlayerS
The game starts with Oz taking both gas quickly, and when Puzzle scouts this he takes a second one as well. Puzzle makes a robotics after his first gateway, and Oz starts on a twilight counsel. In the first 2 stalker vs 2 stalker battle Oz comes out ahead trading a stalker for a stalker and a zealot, and he takes a nexus off 4 stalkers right after.
Meanwhile Puzzle is adding immortals and researching blink of his own off 3 gateways. Oz tries to be a little aggressive with his blink stalkers, only to discover can't be due to Puzzle having blink of his own. Puzzle chases back to Oz's natural, and in the ensuing battle the one immortal is trapped and killed by forcefields and Oz comes through with better blink and positioning.
Winner: FXO_z
FXOpen (1 – 1) SlayerS
Game Three –
+ Show Spoiler +
FXO_z vs SlayerS_CoCa – Antiga Shipyard
The beginning is standard enough, with Oz forge expanding into 7 gate blink +1 timing, and Coca sees the twilight and gets burrow immediately and heads towards infestors. Oz moves out later than this normally hits, and Coca looks like he is prepared but a few overlord kills supply block him and he is unable to make enough roaches to save his third from going down.
Oz takes his own third and adds a robotics, while Coca replaces his destroyed base and adds infestors. Coca takes the center of the map as his fourth while pressuring Oz's third, to no real effect. As Coca takes a fifth Oz adds colossus to his army and Coca gets drop tech to try to harass with banelings.
They fight in the center, and Oz wins easily due to much of Coca's army doing nothing halfway across the map. Oz attempts to take down the center base but corruptors push him back, and Coca's baneling bombs Oz's mineral line at his third and kills quite a bit. Oz musters a nice army with his dwindling ecnomy, and when they meet Coca's broodlords in open ground it is an easy task to blink in and kill them.
From there Oz has more than Coca can deal with and he takes the game.
Winner: FXO_z
FXOpen (2 – 1) SlayerS
The beginning is standard enough, with Oz forge expanding into 7 gate blink +1 timing, and Coca sees the twilight and gets burrow immediately and heads towards infestors. Oz moves out later than this normally hits, and Coca looks like he is prepared but a few overlord kills supply block him and he is unable to make enough roaches to save his third from going down.
Oz takes his own third and adds a robotics, while Coca replaces his destroyed base and adds infestors. Coca takes the center of the map as his fourth while pressuring Oz's third, to no real effect. As Coca takes a fifth Oz adds colossus to his army and Coca gets drop tech to try to harass with banelings.
They fight in the center, and Oz wins easily due to much of Coca's army doing nothing halfway across the map. Oz attempts to take down the center base but corruptors push him back, and Coca's baneling bombs Oz's mineral line at his third and kills quite a bit. Oz musters a nice army with his dwindling ecnomy, and when they meet Coca's broodlords in open ground it is an easy task to blink in and kill them.
From there Oz has more than Coca can deal with and he takes the game.
Winner: FXO_z
FXOpen (2 – 1) SlayerS
Game Four –
+ Show Spoiler +
FXO_z vs SlayerS_Ryung – Dual Sight
The game opens normally with a command center and nexus after a barracks/gateway, with normal factory and stim timing coming from Ryung. Oz loses his first stalker and zealot needlessly when they are on move commands walking towards the Terran base to be annoying, after which he decides for 5 gate double force play.
His initial aggression is pushed away easily with bunkers, and Oz decides that DTs are the way to follow it up. As the casters are discussing how dark templar never seem to pan out in this situation, the first several are warped in and quickly repelled from the Terran base by turrets. Ryung decides to bring the fight to the Protoss base, and plants himself firmly in the area next to Oz's main where he can easily elevator units up and down, forcing Oz to split his army between the high and low ground.
As Oz doesn't even have charge when this is started, and is yet to finish 2-2 upgrades, he is slowly whittled down as the scenario tends to play out. Ryung methodically grinds him down until he has no more and is forced out.
Winner: SlayerS_Ryung
FXOpen (2 – 2) SlayerS
The game opens normally with a command center and nexus after a barracks/gateway, with normal factory and stim timing coming from Ryung. Oz loses his first stalker and zealot needlessly when they are on move commands walking towards the Terran base to be annoying, after which he decides for 5 gate double force play.
His initial aggression is pushed away easily with bunkers, and Oz decides that DTs are the way to follow it up. As the casters are discussing how dark templar never seem to pan out in this situation, the first several are warped in and quickly repelled from the Terran base by turrets. Ryung decides to bring the fight to the Protoss base, and plants himself firmly in the area next to Oz's main where he can easily elevator units up and down, forcing Oz to split his army between the high and low ground.
As Oz doesn't even have charge when this is started, and is yet to finish 2-2 upgrades, he is slowly whittled down as the scenario tends to play out. Ryung methodically grinds him down until he has no more and is forced out.
Winner: SlayerS_Ryung
FXOpen (2 – 2) SlayerS
Game Five –
+ Show Spoiler +
FXO_Choya vs SlayerS_Ryung – Calm Before the Storm
Ryung starts his game with a command center first to the back natural, while Choya grabs 2 gas and makes it obvious he intends to start with one base pressure. A scouting SCV slips into his base before the first stalker is completed and sees both gasses before dying, prompting Ryung to ramp up to 4 barracks immediately.
Choya takes it a step further and proxies a pylon, and starts a robotics facility just outside Ryung's base while also going up to 4 gates. When it finishes, he plants down a support bay and shows his hand to the audience of proxy colossus. Ryung has an SCV go up north the long way, and glimpses a view of the robotics just as it finishes, but doesn't check it out further and never sees the bay.
Ryung begins stim and a large force of marauders, delaying his factory much longer than normal. He also prepares for the assault with a bunker behind his wall, leaving room for more later. Both players build up their force, and Choya decides his time to attack is just after range finishes, with 2 colossus. Ryung constructs another set of bunkers, but the attack has already started on his base and both stim and his starport are still a ways off from finishing.
The battle is drawn out some, but tilts heavily in the favor of the colossus as bunkers slowly fall as does the worker count for Ryung when he tries to repair. Destroying them one by one, by the time he has stim (and a single viking) it is far too late and the remaining stalkers finally run him over, once he can finally deal with the robotics units. Apparently he was expecting immortals after seeing the robo.
Winner: FXO_Choya
FXOpen (3 – 2) SlayerS
Ryung starts his game with a command center first to the back natural, while Choya grabs 2 gas and makes it obvious he intends to start with one base pressure. A scouting SCV slips into his base before the first stalker is completed and sees both gasses before dying, prompting Ryung to ramp up to 4 barracks immediately.
Choya takes it a step further and proxies a pylon, and starts a robotics facility just outside Ryung's base while also going up to 4 gates. When it finishes, he plants down a support bay and shows his hand to the audience of proxy colossus. Ryung has an SCV go up north the long way, and glimpses a view of the robotics just as it finishes, but doesn't check it out further and never sees the bay.
Ryung begins stim and a large force of marauders, delaying his factory much longer than normal. He also prepares for the assault with a bunker behind his wall, leaving room for more later. Both players build up their force, and Choya decides his time to attack is just after range finishes, with 2 colossus. Ryung constructs another set of bunkers, but the attack has already started on his base and both stim and his starport are still a ways off from finishing.
The battle is drawn out some, but tilts heavily in the favor of the colossus as bunkers slowly fall as does the worker count for Ryung when he tries to repair. Destroying them one by one, by the time he has stim (and a single viking) it is far too late and the remaining stalkers finally run him over, once he can finally deal with the robotics units. Apparently he was expecting immortals after seeing the robo.
Winner: FXO_Choya
FXOpen (3 – 2) SlayerS
Game Six –
+ Show Spoiler +
FXO_Choya vs SlayerS_MMA – Crossfire SE
MMA starts his build with 2 barracks, only one of which Choya spots though his probe does see gas. Choya relies on tried-and-true gate-robo-gate, making a nexus shortly after his first immortal. MMA prepares for a build that looks like a banshee-less 1-1-1, building up a large marine-tank fore with a few marauders and a single delayed medivac. Choya takes a peek at the large marine and tank count with an observer, and readies himself with colossus and range.
Some nice forcefields on the ramps leading down the center of the map means Chyoa can delay for a bit, but he still doesn't quite have range by the time the first tanks siege up outside his natural. Several immortals let the Protoss army take damage for a bit, letting the colossus get close to fire and easily kill the handful of SCVs that came along with the army. The two exchange blows a few times, with Choya keeping a steady 2 colossus and taking out marines, but never quite being able to push back the tanks.
After some time, the tides turn for the 2 base Protoss against a single base Terran, and he marches all the way to MMA's front door, where he looks sloppy and loses his colossus and a big chunk of the army to some sieged tanks. MMA pushes out one last time and tries to finally take down the natural, but Choya plows through him with a series of zealots, stalkers, and colossus. MMA dies with a wimper.
Winner: FXO_Choya
FXOpen (4 – 2) SlayerS
MMA starts his build with 2 barracks, only one of which Choya spots though his probe does see gas. Choya relies on tried-and-true gate-robo-gate, making a nexus shortly after his first immortal. MMA prepares for a build that looks like a banshee-less 1-1-1, building up a large marine-tank fore with a few marauders and a single delayed medivac. Choya takes a peek at the large marine and tank count with an observer, and readies himself with colossus and range.
Some nice forcefields on the ramps leading down the center of the map means Chyoa can delay for a bit, but he still doesn't quite have range by the time the first tanks siege up outside his natural. Several immortals let the Protoss army take damage for a bit, letting the colossus get close to fire and easily kill the handful of SCVs that came along with the army. The two exchange blows a few times, with Choya keeping a steady 2 colossus and taking out marines, but never quite being able to push back the tanks.
After some time, the tides turn for the 2 base Protoss against a single base Terran, and he marches all the way to MMA's front door, where he looks sloppy and loses his colossus and a big chunk of the army to some sieged tanks. MMA pushes out one last time and tries to finally take down the natural, but Choya plows through him with a series of zealots, stalkers, and colossus. MMA dies with a wimper.
Winner: FXO_Choya
FXOpen (4 – 2) SlayerS
Game Seven –
+ Show Spoiler +
FXO_Choya vs SlayerS_Crank – Cloud Kingdom
The game starts with identical builds, 2 gates and then a robotics. To continue Choya goes up to 4 gates and adds a support bay, while Crank stops at 3 and then makes a nexus on the back of an immortal. Choya moves out straight away after his first colossus, and launches his attack as soon as possible.
Crank has an army that is slightly smaller in size, but when Choya micros a little poorly and lets his colossus take more hits than it needs to Crank is able to hold with an immortal remaining. Choya is dead and the game is over.
Winner: SlayerS_Crank
FXOpen (4 – 3) SlayerS
The game starts with identical builds, 2 gates and then a robotics. To continue Choya goes up to 4 gates and adds a support bay, while Crank stops at 3 and then makes a nexus on the back of an immortal. Choya moves out straight away after his first colossus, and launches his attack as soon as possible.
Crank has an army that is slightly smaller in size, but when Choya micros a little poorly and lets his colossus take more hits than it needs to Crank is able to hold with an immortal remaining. Choya is dead and the game is over.
Winner: SlayerS_Crank
FXOpen (4 – 3) SlayerS
Game Eight –
+ Show Spoiler +
FXO_Leenock vs SlayerS_Crank – Belshire Beach
Crank starts normal as can be with a forge expand, while Leenock chooses something out of the ordinary and makes a pool first and then a baneling nest immediately when it finishes. Crank's first probe scouts it, seeing the 1 base baneling bust, and responds by adding a second cannon followed by 2 gateways to seal up his wall.
As Leenock readies his banelings for the first attack, Crank starts a third cannon. Leenock easily breaks down the weakest pylon, but is trapped in anyway by the gateways. There is still a small gap, which Crank has plugged up with another pylon, but the last baneling wrecks it and Leenock sneaks in with 8 zerglings while he takes his natural.
They are a bit of a nuisance but could probably be dealt with by good control. However, Leenock morphs 2 banelings out of them, the first of which is killed while still an egg and a second which completes out of vision. When Crank sees it running around his main, he responds by running all of the probes in his main in a single line....which the baneling detonates on. When all is said and done, Leenock has killed 14 workers and finds himself in a comfortable economic lead.
The game moves on rather normally from there, Leenock taking a third and Crank builing am army. There is a cute moment when Crank tries for double stargate, but when it is spotted he sticks to just one and builds a few phoenixes to help his army.
Leenock eventually amasses a huge hydra-roach-infestor army, and when Crank moves out to the middle of the map without colossus, Leenock crushes it without any effort. He marches to Crank's natural and dances repeatedly as he is tearing down the buildings while a helpless Crank watches.
4 stars for the hilarious start and incredible botch by Crank.
Winner: FXO_Leenock
FXOpen (5 – 3) SlayerS
Crank starts normal as can be with a forge expand, while Leenock chooses something out of the ordinary and makes a pool first and then a baneling nest immediately when it finishes. Crank's first probe scouts it, seeing the 1 base baneling bust, and responds by adding a second cannon followed by 2 gateways to seal up his wall.
As Leenock readies his banelings for the first attack, Crank starts a third cannon. Leenock easily breaks down the weakest pylon, but is trapped in anyway by the gateways. There is still a small gap, which Crank has plugged up with another pylon, but the last baneling wrecks it and Leenock sneaks in with 8 zerglings while he takes his natural.
They are a bit of a nuisance but could probably be dealt with by good control. However, Leenock morphs 2 banelings out of them, the first of which is killed while still an egg and a second which completes out of vision. When Crank sees it running around his main, he responds by running all of the probes in his main in a single line....which the baneling detonates on. When all is said and done, Leenock has killed 14 workers and finds himself in a comfortable economic lead.
The game moves on rather normally from there, Leenock taking a third and Crank builing am army. There is a cute moment when Crank tries for double stargate, but when it is spotted he sticks to just one and builds a few phoenixes to help his army.
Leenock eventually amasses a huge hydra-roach-infestor army, and when Crank moves out to the middle of the map without colossus, Leenock crushes it without any effort. He marches to Crank's natural and dances repeatedly as he is tearing down the buildings while a helpless Crank watches.
4 stars for the hilarious start and incredible botch by Crank.
Winner: FXO_Leenock
FXOpen (5 – 3) SlayerS
Game Nine –
+ Show Spoiler +
FXO won 5-3.
Overall Results
+ Show Spoiler +
Lucky < Puzzle
Oz > Puzzle
Oz > CoCa
Oz < Ryung
Choya > Ryung
Choya > MMA
Choya < Crank
Leenock > Crank
FXOpen 5 – 3 SlayerS
Oz > Puzzle
Oz > CoCa
Oz < Ryung
Choya > Ryung
Choya > MMA
Choya < Crank
Leenock > Crank
FXOpen 5 – 3 SlayerS
Incredible Miracle
New Star HoSeo
Game One – NSH_Sage vs IM_Yoda –
+ Show Spoiler +
Entombed Valley
Yoda starts the game by going up to 3 command centers off a single barracks, while Sage makes a nexus after a gateway. The game plays out normally, with each player getting to 3 bases in fast order and posturing around the map withuot and major engagements.
Sage chooses to double forge after robo, delaying colossus tech to keep his third fast. Unfortunately for him, by the time he adds the support bay, Yoda scans an has more than enough time to add a second starport for vikings.
For some reason Yoda's colossus range is incredibly late, not starting until after his second colossus is halfway done. While both range and 3/3 are researching, Yoda attacks with a mixed army of vikings, marines, marauders, and medivacs, and rolls over him when Sage gets caught in a less than favorable position. Yoda marches to victory on the back of a single battle.
Winner: IM_Yoda
HoSeo (0 – 1) Incredible Miracle
Yoda starts the game by going up to 3 command centers off a single barracks, while Sage makes a nexus after a gateway. The game plays out normally, with each player getting to 3 bases in fast order and posturing around the map withuot and major engagements.
Sage chooses to double forge after robo, delaying colossus tech to keep his third fast. Unfortunately for him, by the time he adds the support bay, Yoda scans an has more than enough time to add a second starport for vikings.
For some reason Yoda's colossus range is incredibly late, not starting until after his second colossus is halfway done. While both range and 3/3 are researching, Yoda attacks with a mixed army of vikings, marines, marauders, and medivacs, and rolls over him when Sage gets caught in a less than favorable position. Yoda marches to victory on the back of a single battle.
Winner: IM_Yoda
HoSeo (0 – 1) Incredible Miracle
Game Two –
+ Show Spoiler +
NSH_Seal vs IM_YoDa – Daybreak
Starting with a command center after a barracks, Yoda makes a pair of hellions and then a quick third orbital. Seal's has a few speedlings and a nice sim city at his natural and blocks them easily, and then stops the banshee followup with queens in his main.
As the game looks like it will go to a passive stage when Zerg is normally getting his third and techning to infestors, Yoda makes 2 ebays and starts upgrades while Seal adds a spire. He then proceeds to make 18 banelings and leaves more as speedlings for a bust.
The first round of his bust successfully knocks down the wall at the front, in part because the depots were down, and then breaks straight through into the main. Killing no tech buildings, he gets away with a handful of marines and 16 SCVs before being cleaned up. Yoda sits back and gets ready to repair his economy by sitting on 3 orbitals, but Seal goes for round 2.
His second batch of speedling-baneling rips through again with no trouble, but this time when the orbital at the natural lifts banelings destroy every SCV sitting there. Seal gets into the main as well and kills even more there, bringing his worker kill count up to beyond 40.
When Yoda sees a few mutalisks out on the map heading towards his ravaged main, he taps out and lays the GG.
Winner: NSH_Seal
HoSeo (1 – 1) Incredible Miracle
Starting with a command center after a barracks, Yoda makes a pair of hellions and then a quick third orbital. Seal's has a few speedlings and a nice sim city at his natural and blocks them easily, and then stops the banshee followup with queens in his main.
As the game looks like it will go to a passive stage when Zerg is normally getting his third and techning to infestors, Yoda makes 2 ebays and starts upgrades while Seal adds a spire. He then proceeds to make 18 banelings and leaves more as speedlings for a bust.
The first round of his bust successfully knocks down the wall at the front, in part because the depots were down, and then breaks straight through into the main. Killing no tech buildings, he gets away with a handful of marines and 16 SCVs before being cleaned up. Yoda sits back and gets ready to repair his economy by sitting on 3 orbitals, but Seal goes for round 2.
His second batch of speedling-baneling rips through again with no trouble, but this time when the orbital at the natural lifts banelings destroy every SCV sitting there. Seal gets into the main as well and kills even more there, bringing his worker kill count up to beyond 40.
When Yoda sees a few mutalisks out on the map heading towards his ravaged main, he taps out and lays the GG.
Winner: NSH_Seal
HoSeo (1 – 1) Incredible Miracle
Game Three –
+ Show Spoiler +
NSH_Seal vs IM_Seed – Calm Before the Storm
The game starts oddly, with Seal starting pool first and Seed opening with a gateway and a core before a nexus, instead of the more traditional expansion first on Calm Before the Storm. As they go to 2 base play, Seal starts in on a spire whereas Seed adds a stargate and starts popping out void rays.
His first 2 void rays chill out around the main and do what they can to put on pressure, and as he makes a third stargate unit he places a pylon in the front and gets ready to assault with 6 gateways and his flying force.
The attack comes as 3 spines finish at the front, and right as the first 10 mutalisks appear. Seal holds easily between his army, the defense, and a few queens, and from there Seed is plaing from behind. His counter gets into the main and kills 13 workers while taking a fourth base, and continues making mutas to keep Seed from taking a third.
Seed's chances lie in storm and good blinks, he defends from the mutas well and eventually is able to get a third up. Seal, however, has taken a fourth and a fifth by this point, and goes into JulyZerg mode where he rams all of his units down the Protoss throat repeatedly until the game is over. He forces a war of attrition and despite a lot of good storms, Seed eventually can't keep up and is overrun by the swarm.
Winner: NSH_Seal
HoSeo (2 – 1) Incredible Miracle
The game starts oddly, with Seal starting pool first and Seed opening with a gateway and a core before a nexus, instead of the more traditional expansion first on Calm Before the Storm. As they go to 2 base play, Seal starts in on a spire whereas Seed adds a stargate and starts popping out void rays.
His first 2 void rays chill out around the main and do what they can to put on pressure, and as he makes a third stargate unit he places a pylon in the front and gets ready to assault with 6 gateways and his flying force.
The attack comes as 3 spines finish at the front, and right as the first 10 mutalisks appear. Seal holds easily between his army, the defense, and a few queens, and from there Seed is plaing from behind. His counter gets into the main and kills 13 workers while taking a fourth base, and continues making mutas to keep Seed from taking a third.
Seed's chances lie in storm and good blinks, he defends from the mutas well and eventually is able to get a third up. Seal, however, has taken a fourth and a fifth by this point, and goes into JulyZerg mode where he rams all of his units down the Protoss throat repeatedly until the game is over. He forces a war of attrition and despite a lot of good storms, Seed eventually can't keep up and is overrun by the swarm.
Winner: NSH_Seal
HoSeo (2 – 1) Incredible Miracle
Game Four –
+ Show Spoiler +
NSH_Seal vs IM_Mvp – Antiga Shipyard
The game starts with a command center after barracks and a wholly normal looking opener from Seal. After securing a natural, Mvp runs out to Seal's base with his first force of marines and 2 marauders, and attempts to pressure Seal long before medivacs. As opposed to the ling-infestor style that is prevalent on Antiga, Seal has completed a baneling nest and already has some ready for the attack. Mvp is forced to turn around, and gets caught on creep to lose the entire force before inflicting any damage.
Seal starts in on muta production and starts his third, as Mvp plays on the back foot and readies a third orbital. Mvp attempts some drops but they are quickly shut down by mutas with no damage done. Mvp grabs his third while setting up a position with sieged tanks, marines, an some bunkers in the area just outside the third.
Seal gets a force of mutas, banelings, and lings and keeps the Terran army honest by forcing a defense while he takes this fourth. The armies trade, and Mvp is once again in the position where he has to max out on three bases while letting Zerg take the map and teching to hive.
Mvp tries a few more drops while adding a ghost academy, to no effect. They both max out without major conflict, and Seal brings the battle to Mvp again by launching an offensive with broodlords and infestors, doing considerable damage to the Terran army before many ghosts are out. Seal takes a fifth base in the center of the map, while Mvp uses a ghost to nuke the fourth which kills every drone there.
Fortunately for Seal his army is still stronger than Mvp's and he is able to continually siege the front with broodlords until Mvp has no more and has to GG.
Winner: NSH_Seal
HoSeo (3 – 1) Incredible Miracle
The game starts with a command center after barracks and a wholly normal looking opener from Seal. After securing a natural, Mvp runs out to Seal's base with his first force of marines and 2 marauders, and attempts to pressure Seal long before medivacs. As opposed to the ling-infestor style that is prevalent on Antiga, Seal has completed a baneling nest and already has some ready for the attack. Mvp is forced to turn around, and gets caught on creep to lose the entire force before inflicting any damage.
Seal starts in on muta production and starts his third, as Mvp plays on the back foot and readies a third orbital. Mvp attempts some drops but they are quickly shut down by mutas with no damage done. Mvp grabs his third while setting up a position with sieged tanks, marines, an some bunkers in the area just outside the third.
Seal gets a force of mutas, banelings, and lings and keeps the Terran army honest by forcing a defense while he takes this fourth. The armies trade, and Mvp is once again in the position where he has to max out on three bases while letting Zerg take the map and teching to hive.
Mvp tries a few more drops while adding a ghost academy, to no effect. They both max out without major conflict, and Seal brings the battle to Mvp again by launching an offensive with broodlords and infestors, doing considerable damage to the Terran army before many ghosts are out. Seal takes a fifth base in the center of the map, while Mvp uses a ghost to nuke the fourth which kills every drone there.
Fortunately for Seal his army is still stronger than Mvp's and he is able to continually siege the front with broodlords until Mvp has no more and has to GG.
Winner: NSH_Seal
HoSeo (3 – 1) Incredible Miracle
Game Five –
+ Show Spoiler +
NSH_Seal vs IM_NesTea – Metropolis
NesTea starts with a hatchery first, while Seal makes a pool at 10. When it finishes, he pulls nearly all of his drones and as he makes his way to NesTea's base uses a scouting drone to build an offensive spine. It is forced to cancel once by drone but finishes on the second try.
The first battle begins in NesTea's main, where as things start going poorly, NesTea simply sacrifices his pool and retreats down to the natural with all of his drones and makes a stand there, building a spine. Seal takes out the pool and is pushed back between good drone defense and a spine when he tries to end the game, and it looks like NesTea is in a commanding position because Seal refuses to bring his spine to help.
Remembering that he has a spine crawler in NesTea's main, Seal uproots it and brings it down for his final attack, the battle is a small number of lings while 2 spine crawlers beat away at each other. The battle is close, and looks as if NesTea will win at several points, but the spine of Seal survives and kills NesTea's by a single hit and when the dust settles seal has a spine and 2 lings vs a drone, and wins, by the absolute slimmest of margins.
Winner: NSH_Seal
HoSeo (4 – 1) Incredible Miracle
NesTea starts with a hatchery first, while Seal makes a pool at 10. When it finishes, he pulls nearly all of his drones and as he makes his way to NesTea's base uses a scouting drone to build an offensive spine. It is forced to cancel once by drone but finishes on the second try.
The first battle begins in NesTea's main, where as things start going poorly, NesTea simply sacrifices his pool and retreats down to the natural with all of his drones and makes a stand there, building a spine. Seal takes out the pool and is pushed back between good drone defense and a spine when he tries to end the game, and it looks like NesTea is in a commanding position because Seal refuses to bring his spine to help.
Remembering that he has a spine crawler in NesTea's main, Seal uproots it and brings it down for his final attack, the battle is a small number of lings while 2 spine crawlers beat away at each other. The battle is close, and looks as if NesTea will win at several points, but the spine of Seal survives and kills NesTea's by a single hit and when the dust settles seal has a spine and 2 lings vs a drone, and wins, by the absolute slimmest of margins.
Winner: NSH_Seal
HoSeo (4 – 1) Incredible Miracle
Game Six –
+ Show Spoiler +
NSH_Seal vs IM_Happy – Cloud Kingdom
The game begins with IM's last hope, Happy, making a command center after a barracks and making 2 hellions. They are met by zerglings on creep and are unable to see much before dying, and he moves into fast double upgrades while delaying starport.
They both get to 3 bases without much consequence, and and Seal makes mutas to try to contain the Terran army while taking a hidden 4th at the bottom right of the map. His mutas fail to do any real damage or control the game, and his 4th is spotted quickly.
When Happy finally moves out to with a marine-tank-thor army he has 2-2, and the two players trade thirds as Seal is unable to take on Happy's force head to head. When Happy moves into Seal's natural, he is finally forced to deal with it and he trades armies almost favorably.
Happy, however, has his third back up already and reinforces easily when Seal fails to take advantage with the portion of his army in the middle of the map. Happy is already at 3-3 at this point, and takes down Seal's natural without any trouble before he is stopped and his army is killed.
As his main is mined out, Seal is down to a single mining base at this point whereas Happy has 2 mining and 3 orbitals. He comes out with another army and kills the base at bottom right while dropping into the main, and the fourth that Seal has taken at 3 o'clock.
Happy grinds him down from here, dropping and pressuring multiple bases at once until Seal has nothing left. His dreams of an all-kill crushed, Seal leaves the game.
Winner: IM_Happy
HoSeo (4 – 2) Incredible Miracle
The game begins with IM's last hope, Happy, making a command center after a barracks and making 2 hellions. They are met by zerglings on creep and are unable to see much before dying, and he moves into fast double upgrades while delaying starport.
They both get to 3 bases without much consequence, and and Seal makes mutas to try to contain the Terran army while taking a hidden 4th at the bottom right of the map. His mutas fail to do any real damage or control the game, and his 4th is spotted quickly.
When Happy finally moves out to with a marine-tank-thor army he has 2-2, and the two players trade thirds as Seal is unable to take on Happy's force head to head. When Happy moves into Seal's natural, he is finally forced to deal with it and he trades armies almost favorably.
Happy, however, has his third back up already and reinforces easily when Seal fails to take advantage with the portion of his army in the middle of the map. Happy is already at 3-3 at this point, and takes down Seal's natural without any trouble before he is stopped and his army is killed.
As his main is mined out, Seal is down to a single mining base at this point whereas Happy has 2 mining and 3 orbitals. He comes out with another army and kills the base at bottom right while dropping into the main, and the fourth that Seal has taken at 3 o'clock.
Happy grinds him down from here, dropping and pressuring multiple bases at once until Seal has nothing left. His dreams of an all-kill crushed, Seal leaves the game.
Winner: IM_Happy
HoSeo (4 – 2) Incredible Miracle
Game Seven –
+ Show Spoiler +
NSH_San vs IM_Happy – Crossfire
Aside from Happy showing a rector at the front of his base, the game begins completely normally. San looks like he is ready for heavy 2 base play with a robotics followed by twilight counsel and templar archives while upgrading from a single forge, while Happy builds a pure marine-marauder-medivac force and completes a ghost academy.
Failing major engagements, each player takes a third while posturing around the middle of the map. After forcing ghosts, San switches to colossus before researching storm, and tries to get a battle going. They both dance around some more, and after Happy runs his ghosts in and fires off some bad EMPs San decides to go for it. Unfortunately, what ends up happening is him chasing Happy's army into a choke, and then letting Happy fight him in the worst possible position for Protoss and the army melts easily while it is funneled into a tiny area.
Happy can do what he wants from here, and he wins by going to the natural and attack moving.
Winner: IM_Happy
HoSeo (4 – 3) Incredible Miracle
Aside from Happy showing a rector at the front of his base, the game begins completely normally. San looks like he is ready for heavy 2 base play with a robotics followed by twilight counsel and templar archives while upgrading from a single forge, while Happy builds a pure marine-marauder-medivac force and completes a ghost academy.
Failing major engagements, each player takes a third while posturing around the middle of the map. After forcing ghosts, San switches to colossus before researching storm, and tries to get a battle going. They both dance around some more, and after Happy runs his ghosts in and fires off some bad EMPs San decides to go for it. Unfortunately, what ends up happening is him chasing Happy's army into a choke, and then letting Happy fight him in the worst possible position for Protoss and the army melts easily while it is funneled into a tiny area.
Happy can do what he wants from here, and he wins by going to the natural and attack moving.
Winner: IM_Happy
HoSeo (4 – 3) Incredible Miracle
Game Eight –
+ Show Spoiler +
NSH_Jjakji vs IM_Happy – Dual Sight
The game begins with Happy taking both of his gasses, while Jjakji only takes one. They both get to starports quickly, with Happy making a viking first and adding tanks while Jjakji starts with a cloak-less banshee as he prepares to expand.
Jjakji pokes in with his initial force of a few marines, a hellion, and a banshee but is quickly turned away by the tanks of Happy. Happy goes for the counter attack, while does well initially but is finally turned away by the banshee of Jjakji. Jjaki plants his second orbital while Happy starts constructing his natural.
Happy researches a late cloak, and gets a banshee ready for its conclusion near Jjakji's natural. The two of them tangle with marines, tanks, and vikings in the center of the map, and some better control means Jjakji wins the air war and pushes Happy back. All while this is going on, Happy has a cloaked banshee killing SCVs at his opponent's natural, getting 12 in all before dying.
It look as though the game has evened out, but Jjakji marches forward and kills Happy's tanks with his marines before they can siege, and from there his superior army wins him the game outright.
Winner: NSH_Jjakji
HoSeo (5 – 3) Incredible Miracle
The game begins with Happy taking both of his gasses, while Jjakji only takes one. They both get to starports quickly, with Happy making a viking first and adding tanks while Jjakji starts with a cloak-less banshee as he prepares to expand.
Jjakji pokes in with his initial force of a few marines, a hellion, and a banshee but is quickly turned away by the tanks of Happy. Happy goes for the counter attack, while does well initially but is finally turned away by the banshee of Jjakji. Jjaki plants his second orbital while Happy starts constructing his natural.
Happy researches a late cloak, and gets a banshee ready for its conclusion near Jjakji's natural. The two of them tangle with marines, tanks, and vikings in the center of the map, and some better control means Jjakji wins the air war and pushes Happy back. All while this is going on, Happy has a cloaked banshee killing SCVs at his opponent's natural, getting 12 in all before dying.
It look as though the game has evened out, but Jjakji marches forward and kills Happy's tanks with his marines before they can siege, and from there his superior army wins him the game outright.
Winner: NSH_Jjakji
HoSeo (5 – 3) Incredible Miracle
Game Nine –
+ Show Spoiler +
HoSeo won 5-3.
Overall Results
+ Show Spoiler +
Sage < YoDa
Seal > YoDa
Seal > Seed
Seal > Mvp
Seal > NesTea
Seal < Happy
San < Happy
Jjakji > Happy
HoSeo 5 – 3 Incredible Miracle
Seal > YoDa
Seal > Seed
Seal > Mvp
Seal > NesTea
Seal < Happy
San < Happy
Jjakji > Happy
HoSeo 5 – 3 Incredible Miracle
The Return to Form
by JimLloyd
At the beginning of the season, I wrote about the GSTL as the place where new players are found. The garden where we see the first sprouts of Starcraft brilliance -- the little DongRaeGus and MMAs who'll eventually bloom into the majestic flowers whose beautiful play we love to watch. In support, I pointed to the rigid structure of the GSL (since revised), and even took a few guesses as to who might be players to look for this season.
Now that we've seen all the teams and a few have been eliminated, how did it turn out? Rather than provide a place for new players to shine, the GSTL this season has been where old players return to form. Like spring, when the first green shoots of the annual plants reawaken from their winter slumber . . . oh forget it. Here's how it works this season: if you were good in early and mid 2011, you're going to do well now. The GSL changed the format to allow for more turnover, and the players who are putting together great performances are the same ones who were part of the old guard pushed out by the new. While some of the newer stars have performed well (MMA, Lucky, Sculp), there's been an incredible run of victories from players who were going to be the next big thing last year, but never quite put it together.
The first, of course, is StarTale's
Bomber. As the handsome and talented Waxangel explained earlier this year, Bomber was on the verge of breaking out last year; he was going to be the dominant Terran in the Korean scene. He played with style and confidence in winning an MLG (Raleigh, 2011) and was Code S for a few seasons before dropping down and eventually ending up in Code B. But he gave the GSTL its first all-kill in 2012, knocking off NSHS and all its top players, and he booked a trip to Las Vegas later this year by finishing second in the IPL4 qualifier, beating Sleep and LosirA.![[image loading]](/staff/heyoka/GSTL/squirtle.jpg)
Bomber's teammate,
Squirtle, is another player who came back from a relative slump to perform in the GSTL. In early 2011, he was all the rage, getting invited to NASL Season One and the IEM World Championships (where he participated in an epic three-way tie with SjoW and Socke). He also had an all-kill in the first GSTL match ever played, and later that season played a legendary game against Mvp. Then he sort of fell off the Earth for a while, failing even to qualify for Code A. But recently he had a four-kill against Incredible Miracle (albeit without Mvp and Nestea, who were in New York at the time), which put StarTale into the third round of the group stage.It's hard to say that
MarineKingPrime ever fell from relevance in the SC2 scene, but after his incredible three second-place finishes, he floated around the line between Codes S and A for a while. Just a few short weeks ago, however, he all-killed NSHS, coming in to stop a streaking San and in turn defeating them one-by-one. He, of course, followed that up with a victory (finally) in New York, so even though this season hasn't had that many new faces, you GSTL enthusiasts can still look cool to your friends by being ahead of the curve. It's just that the curve started in early 2011, circled through or even below Code A, and came back around for you now.But perhaps the most impressive player this season -- who was barely even on the curve to begin with -- has been
oGsVINES, heretofore notable primarily for a comic mis-pronunciation of his name in late 2010. His only GSL appearance was having been eliminated by Sen in the first round of the GSL Open 3, and then, twelve months later, he qualified for Code A, only to lose in the first round to SuperNova. But he's been fantastic in this season of GSTL. He went 2-1 in oGs's first match, beating ZeNEXLine and Jjun, and followed that up with a four-kill against SlayerS, which included victories over Ryung, YuGiOh, Alicia, and MMA. While he couldn't make a play against MvP recently, oGs can hope he is there to save them from elimination in their next match against FXO.Writer: Heyoka, JimLloyd.
Graphics: Pathy.
Editor: Heyoka.
