After a pair of five game thrillers in the Ro4, we're left with a final match-up that features 2013's two most interesting players from the SOSPA scene. Movie's absolute refusal to use anything resembling standard play has served to unsettle his opponents and produce incredible back and forth games, while beast's progress back to the top level of Afreeca competition vindicates all the hours he has put in during the last few months.

With the final less than a day away, the SRT team is here to provide a brief update for those following the tournament here on TeamLiquid. This time around, KristofferAG has taken the recap reins to bring you an account of the two incredibly close fought semi-final series, while I resume my previewing duties to examine what we can expect from the grand final.

Regardless of who wins, this is probably the best grand final match-up we could have hoped for. Tune in on Friday night to see if beast can pass this final challenge on his road back to a SOSPA title or if Movie can record what will surely be his first of many Afreeca tournament victories of 2013.

beast vs. hero

Game one on Python started off the same way most of beast's matches started off, with an early aggressive build geared towards throwing the opponent off. It certainly took hero by surprise as he went for his standard early expansion into spire. A small zergling army from beast quickly became a large one as he realized hero had neglected his base defenses. The attack hit at a perfect time, before the sunken finished and while the zergling count was still low for hero. The spire's still far from finishing, and hero was quickly forced out.

On to La Mancha for game two, beast wanted to go for a two-base muta build, but instead chose to open pool first. In the opposite spawn, hero opened hatchery first, which he easily defended from assault - not even allowing beast's lings to nibble at it once. Both players then started their lairs, hero's was slightly ahead as he continued zergling production. Well aware that beast was behind in eco and would probably try to drone-up, hero saw fit to mass zerglings. After chasing beast home, he pushed further in and destroyed whatever defenses beast had prepared. Two mutalisks popped for beast as hero's lings breached the main, but there's nothing more to be done. Hero's scourge came in to clean up the remaining mutas, and beast waved his white flag.


Early aggression only works in your favor if you actually manage to do damage. Knowing beast's style, hero made lings to accompany his expansion. When the attack came hero pulled drones to defend before beast's zerglings reached his front door. which allowed him to successfully defend his expansion. Things looked grim for beast. Realizing how far behind he was he opted for an all-in build, built a spire and began pumping out mutas. Of course, hero saw it coming miles away, and prepared appropriate defenses in the main and natural. What hero didn't see, however, was the slow-ling drop in his main. He's taken completely by surprise, and stood no chance of saving his main. A small zergling taskforce tried to retaliate, but beast's mutas kept him safe, and hero conceded.

In what could very well be the last game, beast opted for an expansion first, which delayed his spawning pool greatly. On the other hand, hero decided to go for early aggression, which paid off immediately as he forced beast to cancel his natural. A sunken helped beast to defend his main as he planted an extra hatchery and moved up the tech tree. Hero took his expansion and both sides acquired their spires. While hero was unable to take advantage of his earlier mutalisks, his earlier spire allowed him to build up greater numbers that would later allow him to annihilate beast's army in an all-out air battle. Beast tried to make a comeback by stalling hero with constant ling attacks while building up a small zergling/scourge army, but it wasn't enough and after another short engagement, hero managed to tie it up 2-2.

Neo Electric Circuit was the final battlefield, oddly enough both players went for pretty much identical builds and got their expansions up nice and early. Once again beast became the aggressor and pumped out lings to attack hero. Beast tried to attack before hero's sunkens finished, but terrible positioning lead to the decimation of his ling army before he could make a full retreat. Unfortunately for hero his counter attack was also unsuccesful, as beast's mutalisks popped out just in time. Seeing a small window of opportunity, beast charged towards hero's base and annihilated the mutalisks waiting for him which let his lings run riot. From that point on, hero's constantly on his back foot defending as best as he could. Meanwhile, beast ran lings into hero's base, threw scourge at his mutalisks, all the while building his own mutalisk count back up. Hero's spire eventually fell, and with another imminent attack, so did hero.

HiyA vs. Movie

What better way to kick off the last semi-finals than a proxy robo? HiyA easily held off the initial zealot pressure (he even managed to trap and kill it), and proceeded to get his factory and expansion up. Meanwhile, Movie prepared a nicely proxied robo while he took his own natural. A shuttle and reaver then nabbed two workers, a tank, and a handful of marines.
Movie surrounded HiyA while he macro up and aquired an arbiter tribunal. HiyA sat patiently in his main and massed factories. Suddenly the roles are reversed, as Movie pulled back to deal with vultures at his new base, HiyA moved out and set up a strong contain. As things started to look really grim for Movie, HiyA suddenly found himself with a Protoss army in his base. Movie had taken a huge risk and recalled his entire army into HiyA's main, leaving himself completely open. Movie's bold move paid off; With only a few tanks left, even HiyA's desperate push into Movie's base couldn't save him.


If beast vs. hero was a brutal slugfest with either contestant throwing punches left and right, Movie vs. HiyA proved to be a chess game between two players at a very high level of play. Game two on La Mancha was another long, interesting game. HiyA managed to push Movie quite hard, and once again opened with a mech build that completely shut down Movie's reaver harass.

Game three saw Movie try something...different. Once again proving that he enjoys living on the wild side, he built a proxy pylon along with two gateways inside HiyA's base. HiyA would not scout it until it was too late. SCVs were pulled to defend and prop up a defensive bunker in his main. It looked like HiyA would hold the attack, that is until a dragoon popped out. Suddenly, HiyA was losing every single marine, leaving only his SCVs to take out the new goons. After having sustained great losses, HiyA eventually cleaned up the proxy. His only reprieve, the single vulture that has killed every single probe in Movie's main. Without goon range, and money for more probes, and only one lonely dragoon there's no way Movie could out-micro HiyA's three marines and vulture. The dragoon eventually dies, and with it, Movie's chances of winning the game.

Fighting Spirit was next in line, and once again Movie was aiming for a quick and cheesy win - dark templars. Movie actually managed to do quite a lot of damage with his invisible assassins and denied HiyA from mining in his main for a long time. Even as the DTs were cleaned up, Movie shuttled four goons and a reaver into HiyA's main, and continued to decimate HiyA's worker population. Meanwhile, Movie saturated his own mineral lines. HiyA then decided that enough was enough and as Movie tried to go in for a third round of harass, HiyA fought back. HiyA denied any further shuttle harass, moved out with the large number of tanks and vultures he had quietly mustered, and swiftly brought Movie to his knees with one solid punch.


By now, HiyA had fought his way back from an 0-2 deficit to a tie. The final match was on Electric Circuit, and this time, it's HiyA's turn to bring on the Gouda. With a really early SCV scout, he threw up two barracks in the middle of the map. Movie, meanwhile, was going for a two-gate goon range build. It wasn't until HiyA had thrown up two bunkers that Movie was aware of the imminent threat. A shield battery is thrown down, and Movie is forced to hang back and look on as the marines fire away from inside their bunkers. HiyA tried to reinforce with all his SCVs, but the pathing on Electric Circuit is a mean mistress, and the SCVs got themselves trapped in a loop. Goon range finished up, and Movie had no issues cleaning up what was left of HiyA's incursion, which forced him out of the game and out of the tournament.

Friday, Feb 01 12:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00)

beast vs. Movie

And so, beast has finally made it back. Six months after his last appearance in a Ranking Tournament final, which ended in a heavy 0-4 defeat versus Sky, beast has to face off against another elite Protoss. For all the long hours and preparation that have brought beast back to the brink of tournament victory, Movie’s route through this, and the last, SRT appears to have been guided by sheer force of will.

In SRT11, Sea’s 13-3 run to his first SOSPA tournament win was defined by clean and efficient victories that one would expect from a professional who had spent years honing his craft. Movie’s run to the SRT12 final has seen him win ten games and lose 7, and even if he wins this final against beast 3-0 he’ll still be well short of matching Sea’s SRT11 win percentage.

The manner with which Movie has beaten down highly experienced and talented opposition with ruthlessly aggressive and often balls-out cheesy play makes it seem like the former CJ Protoss is simply playing the numbers - exerting the least possible effort for the minimum required win rate. This is probably most evident in his Ro16 series, against players which he should expect to beat handily, Movie still has a habit of losing games when luck doesn’t run his way.


Probably the first significant failure of Movie’s system came in the Ro16 of this very tournament, when his harass heavy strategies failed to pay off against beast’s plodding macro game, resulting in a 0-2 loss. It’s unlikely that this series will end up with such a one-sided scoreline but the overall storyline could be similar.

In both of his elimination bracket series in SRT12, beast has shown some fondness for creative or specifically prepared builds. While this type of play can be valuable in a BoX series, beast will still be heavily reliant on his solid macro-based gameplay which he has relied on for a majority of his ZvP victories.

Movie’s playstyle is one that sees him always dictating the terms upon which a series is played. Even in his two series losses of 2013, to Sea and beast, Movie was the player that was most in control of how each game turned out, winning and losing by his own means. Beast’s strength, and the key to any success he’ll have in this final series, lies in his ability to react to and survive whatever Movie throws at him.

After two years of competing on Afreeca, outlasting players who we all thought were more talented or had greater experience, Beast knows plenty about survival. There will be plenty more chances for Movie in the future; beast owes it to himself to win this final.

beast 3 - 2 Movie