BaBy and Really both went the popular SC2 1-1-1 build, however, BaBy starting building his second command center while his starport was still in construction. Knowing he was far ahead economically, BaBy played defensively with the one wraith he made and built turrets at his natural and main. Really tried to use his faster wraith, and then cloak upgrade, to harass BaBy, but BaBy’s turrets were done well in time and with his one base advantage, BaBy looked to be in really good shape. It was over a minute after BaBy started mining at his natural that Really landed his second command center, the economic disparity widening even further when BaBy double expanded, happy to let Really take a third base of his own. In an instant BaBy snapped air control from Really, the one advantage he had, with 2 valkyries and wraiths. Behind in economy, Really brazenly expanded across the top of the map, but with very limited scouting and no map control, 8 of 10 scvs in a transfer were annihilated when they trained right by a line of siege tanks positioned far forward on map.



When Really expanded to the last bases on his half of the map, BaBy, who had already taken his, took advantage of Really’s temporarily stretched army and defensive posture to mass wraiths off 6 starports, enough to vaporize lines of turrets and groups of goliaths.



With his almost pure tank/wraith army, BaBy easily nullified not only Really’s scouting and mobility, but any drops as well. Even when Really managed to sneak a drop into one of BaBy’s bases, the units and dropships were immediately killed off. Really responded to BaBy’s mass wraith play by making battlecruisers, more goliaths, and more turrets, all easily dealt with by BaBy’s tanks and 2-2 wraiths. The cloud of wraiths, with tanks on the low ground for back-up, swarmed into Really’s main, taking out all his defences and hovering around to eat up any units being produced. Unable to reinforce, Really could do nothing when a small group of BaBy’s siege tanks rolled into one of his three mining expansions, forcing him to abandon it. Really finally made valkyries, which, five minutes earlier would have been helpful, but now against a 3-3 mass wraith army, there simply weren’t enough of them and they too fell. In a last ditch attempt, Really converged his army of battlecruisers and valkyries on BaBy’s last mining base, head to head against fully upgraded wraiths. BaBy won the exchange handily and two minutes later Really typed out.

Light and BaBy planned identical build orders, both going 1 factory, fast expand. BaBy showed the first signs of aggression early on, sending his first three vultures to Light’s natural. But instead of running them up the ramp to scout and scoot-and-shoot, he got greedy and unsuccessfully tried to pick off Light’s 1 marine and 2 vultures, losing all his units, map control, and scouting. However, suffering no counter-attack and having a good view of the map with a new group of vultures and mines, BaBy, also ahead in factory count, started building his third base. Light followed suit, but being a bit behind BaBy and having his building scv picked off by a vulture delayed his expansion so that it was not even halfway done by the time BaBy was mining off three bases.


With his fourth base just finishing, BaBy used his first dropship to put a group of vultures in both Light’s main and natural, delaying mining and killing a healthy number of scvs.



Ready to pump up the aggression and defend his new expansion, BaBy followed up with a huge drop into the back of Light’s main.



Though it didn’t do much damage, it attracted Light’s units and focus, so when BaBy then immediately dropped onto Light’s newly finished fifth, Light’s units were nowhere to be seen. Light didn’t even bother to lift his command center.



BaBy took three of the four remaining expansions on the map and positioned his army in the middle of the map, and right outside Light’s fourth, making it very costly for Light to try and take a fifth expansion and risky for him to try dropship play. Looking at the minimap at the 19 minute mark, we can see that BaBy has also completely shut down any map vision for Light beyond his cluster of expansions. Knowing he would lose the war of attrition, Light tried to tank push his way into the natural of his fourth base, but BaBy was more than ready, cleaning up the advancement with a few drops. After that, Light dawdled around for a while, trying to be fancy with his dropships, before leaving the game.

After beating Hero 2-1, BaBy had one last Zerg blocking his path to the Ro16, a terrifying opponent who had humiliated him two days prior. Jaedong executed a 3 hatch muta BO, and though BaBy wormed an scv into Jaedong’s main, it was killed off before he saw the third hatch go down. BaBy quickly got another scv into Jaedong’s natural, and, seeing only two zerglings, sent his first 3 marines on a suicide mission behind Jaedong’s mineral line.



Despite losing the marines and another scv for all his trouble, BaBy actually killed 2 drones and, when Jaedongs 2 lings that were blocking the top of his ramp ran down to kill the marines, managed to sneak his 10 health scv into Jaedong’s main, letting him know exactly where Jaedong’s tech was at. Right before his mutas popped, Jaedong snuck 2 zerglings into BaBy’s main, letting him know exactly how many units BaBy had and how few turrets there were. So when his mutas were ready to start harassing, Jaedong knew exactly how aggressive he could be, and after sniping 5 scvs at BaBy’s natural, flew directly into the heart of BaBy’s base to fight what few marines there were head-to-head.



It looked like BaBy was going to lose the game then and there, when a small group of hero marines ran up from the natural to drive off the last of the mutalisks, saving the day. BaBy used a fast dropship and what few units he had left to immediately put pressure back on Jaedong, sending his dropship on a risky endeavour straight south to Jaedong’s base, regardless of mutas or scourge. I think the tactic caught Jaedong off guard, for no scourge were ready to intercept and were, I believe, waiting to pick off the first science vessel. BaBy had barely unloaded and stimmed his marines behind the mineral line of Jaedong’s main before all of Jaedong’s units swarmed back to his base, but even though Jaedong outnumbered him, with two medics blocking the path behind the minerals, all the zerglings and mutalisks quickly melted.



BaBy killed 3 mutalisks, 1 drone, 1 lurker, and probably 15 zerglings before his small contingency was killed off, not to mention scouting the progress of Jaedong’s hive tech and delaying all mining for 30 seconds. Once BaBy had four tanks he made his push for Jaedong’s natural, but he was a bit too aggressive with his lone science vessel and it got sniped. BaBy, nonplussed, redirected his army to Jaedong’s third base, all the way at 5 o’clock.



His 4 tanks and continually reinforced MnM managed stay linger in Jaedong’s base for almost 3 minutes, but without being able to take out the nydus canal Jaedong was able to continually reinforce and drive BaBy back, though not without losing nearly every drone and about 6 lurkers in the process. Now with map control and his third base fully operational, BaBy had no regrets bashing through lurkers and darkswarms, sacrificing the mass of his army, to shut down Jaedong’s second attempt at a fourth base and kill 4 drones at Jaedong’s third.



BaBy immediately followed up with a dropship to Jaedong’s main, a very clever idea that was, unfortunately, thwarted by a waiting group of lings. With constant harass at his third and being unable to take a fourth, Jaedong, focusing purely on survival, was unable to chip away at BaBy’s science vessel count, or stop him from taking a fourth base. After finally losing his third, his only base with resources left, Jaedong gg’d.

Having just played perhaps the best TvZ of his life, 1 game away from the Ro16, BaBy 1 rax FE; Jaedong overpooled. Playing it safe, BaBy immediately built a bunker tight between his command center and a supply depot, and then, seeing how many lings Jaedong had, another adjacent one. In fact, Jaedong was going for an early bust, fast teching to lurkers and not mining from his natural at all. Jaedong went all-in with 12 zerglings and 2 lurkers, but it wasn’t nearly enough.



BaBy’s two bunkers slaughtered the lings and his group of MnM up on the ramp easily killed the lurkers with in one scan. Only four marines died during the whole attack, and those from the last spine of a dying lurker. Now with a turret, tank, wraith, and 3 bunkers defending his natural, BaBy had no problem defending Jaedong’s last, desperate attack. With 15 drones and nothing left to throw at BaBy, Jaedong left the game.

Stork came out of the countdown swinging, deciding to use his first zealot and scouting probe to harass BaBy’s base (to what end, I don’t know). Both were easily killed and BaBy, having scouted Stork’s base, happily expanded. Deciding to research mines before siege, BaBy came dangerously close to losing his first tank and having to delay his second command center, but with only 1 gateway Stork didn’t have enough units or gumption to seriously commit to an attack, especially with a newly finished expansion and robo facility almost complete.



With a bit of breathing room, BaBy aggressively expanded to his third. Having scouted it, Stork also expanded, and with observers freely roaming BaBy’s bases, almost sniped a dropship as it tried to sneak out BaBy’s back door. As soon as BaBy’s third finished and he transferred over scvs, Stork reaver dropped the mineral line and started building a hidden expansion at 6 o’clock. Lucky for BaBy the scarab misfired, and, in response, BaBy dropped 2 tanks and a group of vultures behind the mineral line of Stork’s third, delaying mining for a minute and forty seconds, bringing the nexus down to less than 100 health, and killing a good number of probes and a reaver when Stork tried to scarab the tanks.



As soon as Stork did, finally, manage to kill off the harass, BaBy already had another dropship, laden with vultures, headed for Stork’s main. This drop proved a disaster, however, as both dropship and vultures were lost without having killed more than 2 probes.



Wanting to finish off that third nexus, BaBy dropped the same nice little combination of tanks and vultures behind Stork’s mineral line and with a few shots, destroyed it. With his fleet beacon warping in, Stork retook his third base and started building his fifth. BaBy started building his fourth and fifth, and just when Stork’s first carrier finished, BaBy, knowing Stork’s army was out of position to defend, moved his enormous mech army to Stork’s fifth. Not even bothering to siege, BaBy razed it to the ground in seconds and rolled right through to Stork’s natural. BaBy lost his fourth base but destroyed Stork’s natural and 9 probes at the Protoss’ third, and though he lost the bulk of his army, expanded to the 5 o’clock base as Stork retook his natural and started warping in a fifth. Stork used his fleet of carriers to take out BaBy’s undefended third, and then, as BaBy was destroying his fifth, simultaneously moved his carriers on to BaBy’s natural and attacked BaBy’s fifth with a group of dragoons. After taking out Stork’s fifth, BaBy sprinted back, defended his fifth, then ran to his natural, getting there just in time to save his burning command center.



With a scan, BaBy saw that Stork’s natural had been rebuilt, so he moved his whole army to take it out – then doubled back with his goliaths to try and save his natural when Stork attacked it yet again with his carriers. This time BaBy was too late and he lost the command center, as well as his old fourth which he had just retaken. BaBy rebuilt his natural and fourth, and when Stork attacked his fifth with carriers, BaBy abandoned it and gutted straight for Stork’s main, knowing Stork’s ground army was nothing but a few scattered units. Only 2 of Stork’s carriers remained, and with nothing to defend with, he left the game.

In cross positions, Movie went nexus first followed by 2 gateways. I was expecting a 1 fact FE but BaBy, the diverse player that he is, went for a fast vulture, and blocking Movie’s ramp with his scv, used it to kill two probes at the natural. BaBy then siege expanded to his main; Movie teched to templar archives and started warping in his third. BaBy loves getting an early dropship, but he also loves not getting turrets, and when BaBy moved out with his first dropship, Movie easily spotted and sniped it before any harm was done.



Ready to punish the expanding Protoss, BaBy mined and siege pushed his way up Movie’s ramp while taking a third of his own, adding some flair by using a wraith to kill a shuttle and fend off Movie’s arbiter. Despite Movie’s best attempts at mine dragging, BaBy, relentless, inched closer and closer to the Protoss natural until finally his vultures swooped in, killing many probes and forcing the rest to transfer away.



But Movie was not without tricks. With one sneaky arbiter he recalled behind the mineral line of BaBy’s natural, forcing the command center to lift but doing little else as his nexus was destroyed. However, a follow up attack on BaBy’s third forced him to abandon the base. Though put back, BaBy had Movie contained, cutting off reinforcements to the Protoss’ third, giving BaBy the freedom to run a group of vultures into the expansion and kill off every probe.



In one last gambit, Movie recalled into BaBy’s main and at the same time, pressured the natural. BaBy was prepared and held off both attacks, then another recall into his main – all the while keeping up on his scouting and finding a hidden expansion. Movie tried to retake his natural but BaBy a-moved and Movie left the game.