Hyperdub < 0 - 2 > MMA

Hyperdub demonstrates that he’s not shy, going for the shock appeal in using a nuke to gain control of MMA’s ramp. Despite this tactic doing no initial damage, his ground forces shoot and roast their way into an economical advantage for Hyperdub. Unfortunately his poor follow up and decision making result in him losing, albeit in style.

The second game comes across as all too simple for MMA. He rushes for a banshee inflicting sufficient damage to gain himself a comfortable little lead. Both players fall back into the passive TvT that is tank against zzzz…oh right tank. To circumvent this silly split-map style MMA pushes into a position right outside the third base of Hyperdub, and using some excellent banshee baiting, forces him to engage in a terrible position.

Hyperdub - C+
I gave him a plus because he tried to use a nuke in a pro game and I'm really happy when people try new stuff on TV even if it fails. Besides that Hyperdub was plainly outclassed here

MMA B+
Can't get into the A range because his opponent didn't look like much of a challenge. MMA solid as usual.

Bomber < 2 - 0 > Nuts

Well ummmm, lets just say you wouldn’t want the former on your latter; as painful as that situation sounds, the games that ensue show no less agony. In game 1 Bomber makes a banshee, really I could stop there and you’d realize almost entirely why he wins. He does get cloak for it, however it proves unnecessary because Nuts really is that bad. Bomber then proceeds to build some stuff, attacks his opponent and kills him.
The second game makes an attempt to remove some of the lack surrounding the lustre, but falls considerably short of this goal. Nuts does show us some good early game micro, unfortunately this only ends up delaying the inevitable. Bomber does some solid drop harass while Nuts makes an effort to be cute with DTs. Eventually Bomber uses some of that macro skill he has and a-moves Nuts. (I so badly wanted to throw in some terrible pun there)

Bomber B
He's good, his opponent wasn't.

Nuts D
Nuts had like one moment where he looked like he knew what he was doing. I almost feel bad he had to play someone like Bomber.

Creator < 1 - 2> Ryung

Our wonderful young protoss begins with some wonderfully awesome tech, opting for a fast blink on his stalkers supported by DTs for map control. This gives him the necessary room to secure a third base and flaunt his map dominance. Afterward both players engage in drop wars, but blink stalkers tend to stop the unscouted drop much better than a terran ball. Creator creates an excellent unit composition supported by a legion of immortals to bust open Ryung. Combining this with fantastic HT usage, using both feedback and storm to cripple his opponent, Creator blasts his way through the terran forces.

I’d really rather not talk about the second game, it was bad. Let's just pretend it never happened and say next game wins! If you’re really curious, there was some sub par micro from both players that allowed back and forth battles to go on endlessly. The extremely sloppy nature of this game made it entertaining in painful way. Ryung won the game, but that wasn’t saying much.

In the final game of this series the players create a very bizarre base trade scenario with the terran dropping the protoss main while simultaneously losing control of his own base to a zealot heavy force. But some strong walling coupled with the awesome staying power of marauders against a protoss gateway army proves to be enough for Ryung to pull out this series. Sniping the pylon powering the gateways never hurt either.

Creator - B-
Creator looked great in that first game, and the third game could very well have went his way. This series was pretty close, and minus that second game I see some potential in these guys
Ryung - B
Let's carbon copy what I just said but Ryung ended up winning so he had to play a little better right?

BoxeR < 0 - 2 > aLive

The artist formerly formerly known as the Emperor, or otherwise within his own social circle as just "E", shows he’s still got it in the first game of this series. He demonstrates some SICK mind games by proxying his banshee tech and destroying the second gas within his main so that everything will appear normal when aLive scans. Both players end up doing fair amounts of damage with their harassing banshees, however BoxeR makes the unfortunate mistake of trying to expand off of only a small group of marines. aLive pushes out with a raven to stop those pesky banshees and rolls over Boxer’s lack of an army.
aLive was happy with his banshee’s performance last time, so naturally he gives it another shot. BoxeR deflects this repetitive idea with some strong marine micro, eventually calling in big brother Viking to push the bully away. In a bit of a brief mind link both players expand, and then attempt to drop and have both of their drops denied. With the mind link broken, aLive pushes around BoxeR’s army and gets a siege position on the natural. BoxeR is forced to use SCVs to break the push, crippling his own economy in order to stay alive. The emperor then tries at what he does best, pulling aLive into two different locations and winning a big exchange of armies. However, aLive incorporates this idea into his own play and picks apart BoxeR’s army in much the same way. Dwindling to a superior economy the Emperor goes down 2-0.

BoxeR - B
If there is one thing BoxeR will never fail to do, it's produce entertaining games. Even if he doesn't win there's always something worth watching in the Emperor.
aLive - B+
Alive was simply more consistent than Boxer with his decision making in this series.

MVP < 2 - 1 > Min

Since two of these games were really short and uneventful I thought I would spice them up by placing them in Haiku form. Naturally the last game had to follow suit.

G1:
Min keeps it simple
Exploding through the wall-in
Baneling bust is win

G2:
MVP says “oh”
I can do simple as well
Bunker rush crush Min

G3:
Fast broodlords quite good
Micro and macro better
Skill always owns noobs

MVP - B
MVP lost a game what?
Min - C+
Min put up a fight against MVP, it may have not been the best fight, but hey he took a quick game off someone much better than him. Moral victory!

Violet < 2 - 0 > YuGiOh

In a very refreshing match up for this bracket of code A we get to witness a ZvZ. Yes that’s right there are actually at least two zergs in the entire league. In the first game Yugioh gets a faster pool, and when the zerglings arrive to his opponent's base there are only drones to greet him. After losing a few drones, Violet counters with a baneling bust and it works because of some sorry micro despite the great set up at his opponent's ramp. Yugioh continues with his uninspiring control and loses his expo instead of cancelling it; following this up with a terrible timing push. Both players overextend themselves multiple times, eventually Violet makes a few more roaches and wins. Bleh.

With both players apparently reeling from the nightmares of last game, they turtle longer than one could have imagined possible in this match up. They both actually manage to secure a third before any real aggression occurs. Yugioh finally attacks but Violet has fungal! Then Yugioh gets some fungal of his own! Fungals all round! Sadly for the duelist, the colour purple amasses a better economy and thus gains more fungals and wins the game. A well-played game by the infestors.

Violet - C
This series just makes me sad, violet did a little better than his opponent.
YuGiOh - D-
He's got some work to do as far as zvz goes, a lot of work

Vanvanth < 1 - 2 > Keen

The first game may be fairly meh in terms of the rating but I assure the following games are thoroughly entertaining if you're a fan of pain!

Vanvanth, the man notoriously bad at this match-up has an opportunity to redeem himself and prove he has learned from his past. In the first game our protoss hero takes an extremely quick third, having only a handful of stalkers as his standing ground army. Keen tries to put on the pressure before the economy kicks in, but is unsuccessful. Vanvanth’s defense seems impregnable, eventually allowing his macro to take over. With a larger army and better upgrades the protoss forces walk all over the puny terran army.

In the second game Vanvanth attempts to wow his fans by proxying a robo for immortals. Unfortunately while his gateway army is enroute to meet up with these standing titans Keen catches him out of position; destroying both separate forces. Vanvanth, a man not so easily bested decides the best course of action is to suicide his remaining forces. Letting us further into his brilliant strategical mind, he realizes that with an inferior army the best choice is to expand! Keen must cheat or something but he somehow wins just by having a bigger army.

In the final game of the series, the goliath that is Vanvanth pulls out all the stops. Pulling out an interesting one base tech build into warp prism, unfortunately Keen sees it flying en route and prevents any damage at all from occurring. Frustrated at being behind a base Vanvanth double expands, after all 3 is bigger than 2. Keen answers with some drop harass of his own that does manage some damage. That useful skill of scouting proves beneficial as Keen finds Vanvanth’s hidden third before he can reap much value from the base. This momentous change places Keen into the economic lead again up a base, and in furious anger Vanvanth manner blocks his own next expansion attempt. Eventually the armies meet and again Keen’s is bigger. I fully expect the folks at GSL to look into how someone as good as Vanvanth could have possibility lost to such an inferior opponent as Keen.

Vanvanth - A++++
Vanvanth is the pinnacle of protoss performance, the fact he lost at all shows the system of starcraft is flawed. Esepcially in the PvT match up.
Keen F
Boo hiisss, you're a failure in my eyes Keen beating the unstoppable Vanvanth.

CoCa < 2 - 1 > Noblesse

Terran opens with an aggressive later push with marines and blue flame hellions, but CoCa has roaches out so that’s the end of that. CoCa performs a really interesting break attempt on the terran natural by dropping half of his army from overlords in hopes to mitigate the usefulness of the siege tank; amazingly, Noblesse holds. Insert some more macro and Noblesse is ready to roll out, but when he does CoCa executes the same tactic crushing the terran army. CoCa tries to push this advantage into the terran natural, unfortunately there are siege tanks there and we all know how good those are. Noblesse recovers with a myriad of drops, taking full advantage of the zerg’s lack of spire. The pressure becomes overwhelming and in a last ditch effort Coca tries another break of the same style, but some poor execution makes it fail completely.

Noblesse attempts a similar opening as the first game, except this attack comes much sooner and with some SCVs as a bonus. When he arrives at the zerg natural he has second thoughts, sending the miners back to their base. This economical advantage is never made up, Coca simply expands and waits for the terran to move out. Eventually he does, and the 80 supply lead in Coca comes crashing down on him.

Game three is no different in forms of an opening from the Noble terran, however he keeps the SCVS at home this time. Coca’s response is no different, and the result is no different. Noblesse truly demonstrates some insanity in this game expecting his macro to overcome his opponents with no real effort from himself.

CoCa - B
While this series wasn't overly exciting Coca showed he can macro the macro when the time comes
Noblesse - B-
Noblesse really didnt play that badly at all, he has somethings to work on but I really do think he could improve and beat someone like Coca in the future.

Both MMA(@2:00) and Bomber(@5:00) opted to go for CC before Rax builds on Crevasse, taking their 'safe' one-gas expansions. While Bomber's SCV had the misfortune of finding MMA's base very late, MMA's worker discovered Bomber's base on its first try. Seeing that it was a mirror build situation, and that only he was aware of it, MMA went for a clever strategic ploy by squeezing in a third command center after a fast factory. This worked out perfectly for MMA, as Bomber was going for a fast tech build as well – only with 33% less command centers

The situation continued to play out perfectly for MMA. Not only did he time his turrets perfectly to counter Bomber's choice of cloaked Banshees, but he even managed to drop a couple of overzealous banshees from sky with some good scan usage. MMA was able to take his natural essentially for free, which gave him a solid advantage as both players transitioned to marine-tank.

MMA caught yet another huge break not long after, shooting him even further up the luck scale to Cruncher-esque levels. Bomber happened to push out with some no-siege, no-stim marines to blind check the ground at his natural expansion, and stumbled into a bloody death at the hands of some stimmed, medivac healed marines MMA had wandering about.

By now, you should be able to guess why I'm painting such a grim picture. Yup, Bomber won.

Being back two bases to three and twenty population isn't a big deal in TvT, or at least that's what this game tells me. After massing a few more tanks, Bomber went out to take his natural, this time with siege mode. He fended off MMA's adventurous 4 medivac drop into his one-gas expansion very well, but it still brought MMA enough time to take the center-north expansion. Sitting on four bases to three and a small troop advantage, MMA decided to control the middle and play it safe. It would be the foundation for Bomber's comeback.

As both players sat back and watched their armies balloon (MMA having a population advantage still), it became apparent that MMA was trying to maintain an excessively long containment line. He had tanks positioned at the main ramp into Bomber's natural, but also had forces occupied trying to stop any attempt Bomber might make to leave via the destructible rocks route to the west. If attacked, forces on either side would be unable to reinforce each other in a timely manner, because they would have to take a long path around Crevasse's central plateau.

Bomber understood the situation perfectly, but he waited until he had a large enough force to efficiently wipe out any one side of containment before he acted. Once he had a sufficiently large marine tank force, Bomber prodded the left side of MMA's containment with his marines, which caused MMA to stim his infantry and rush to the scene. Before MMA could gather himself and better deploy his forces, Bomber quickly backed off, stimmed up and smashed through the six tanks that had been left alone at the top-right side of the containment.

Just a few minutes later, Bomber rallied his forced for a huge head-on engagement with MMA, one he won easily due to the tank advantage he had just gained. Bomber continued with his smart decisive play, immediately sending his remaining force charging forwards to MMA's natural and main (even bringing SCVs from his own main). This was a shrewd move from Bomber, as MMA had just gone up to five bases from an additional expansion at the 8:00 pocket base. Bomber had won the battle by a sizable margin, but not game tilting one, and had he played it safe and taken his own fourth base, MMA could have easily build up another force within minutes. By quickly capitalizing on his victory, Bomber was able to destroy MMA's natural and setup inside the main to kill any newly trained forces before they could reach dangerous mass. MMA was forced to GG out.

The two hotshot Terrans opened with mirror builds yet again, MMA going for a no-gas orbital on the right side of the map, while Bomber did the same from the left. The build order trickery continued for MMA, going for double refineries as soon as Bomber's SCV left his base. He ended up doing an interesting rax-orbital-refinery-refinery-command center-factory build, the point of which seemed to be to have both cloaked banshees and a second orbital command out as soon as possible. Bomber was also being quite creative, going for a normal 1 rax expansion build, but with his expansion CC at the 11:00 gold mineral base (placed off to the side in a hidden position, but still allowing two mules to mine from the closest patches). With this boom of mineral income, Bomber followed up with 4 rax shield upgrade marines.

Even though MMA hadn't been silly enough to float his orbital down to his minerals, he looked very much in danger. His single bunker would be outmatched against Bomber's marines barring an incredibly swift SCV pull (and even then...), and he would have to be very careful about using his first banshee in defense, in case Bomber had saved up scan energy.

Luckily for MMA, Bomber missed the most opportune window for an attack, and allowed MMA to strike first with cloaked Banshees in his main. Mass turrets forcefully went up in defense, but more importantly, the large group of marines camped outside MMA's base simply stood there indecisively. Eventually Bomber brought his marines back to his base and occupied himself trying to fend the banshees off, allowing MMA to freely float down and take his natural. The turret at the gold natural proved ineffective at warding off MMA's banshee harass, and it looked like MMA would require only a few minutes to solidify his position and take the advantage.

Similar to the previous game, Bomber flipped the try-hard switch and immediately turned the tables.

Still sitting on a big pile of unused marines, Bomber split them up for an amazing two prong attack. Two medivacs swooped into MMA's main to serve as a distraction, while the main cluster of marines swarmed into MMA's natural and focus-fired the orbital down. Though Bomber lost a lot of units in this effort, he had also built a command center at his natural during the attack, giving him a commanding three-to-one base economic lead. Bomber did allow MMA to plant a planetary fortress at this gold base and entertain hopes of winning the game, but a powerful maxed army eventually put an end to that.

Bomber won 2-0.

Ryung spawned at the top position while Alive started on the right side of the map. There was some interesting build order divergence at the beginning, with Ryung going for a reaper expand while Alive did a blue flame hellion rush. Ryung's reaper scout was quickly torched by a hellion, but gave Ryung enough advance warning to defend himself. Had he tried to expand immediately, Alive's marine + hellion push would have done a large amount of damage. As it turned out, Alive delayed Ryung from landing his expansion for a small amount of time, allowing himself to expand in turn. At the end of the day, Ryung was still slightly ahead.

Alive added two more factories to go mech, a rarity in recent GSL TvTs. Ryung's good use of scanners warned him of this surprise strategy, so he would not be caught off guard throwing marines into a tank-hellion furnace. A two medivac drop by Ryung tried to expoit mech's low mobility, but Alive was still covering a small enough territory for him to defend after a minor struggle. More importantly it revealed Alive's switch to a mainly tank-viking army, something Ryung should have kept in mind.

Instead, Ryung mostly stood by as Alive walked his army across the map and comfortably set up in a low ground position below his main. As obvious as it appeared to the observers, Ryung must have not expected that sort of tactic at all. His building evacuation was quite poor, even losing his all-important starport to tank fire. Ryung's idea of a good response was to let his main burn up while counter-attacking into Alive's natural with a poorly microed force. Between the supply blocks caused by the low ground tanks and Ryung's insistence on letting his infantry blunder into tank range, a 30 population gap opened up very quickly.

Ryung was well on his way to being totally dead, but he made a good move of killing off the tanks sitting just below his main before they could rejoin Alive's main force. Capable of actually building things in his main again, all Ryung had to worry about was being down two bases to three (for lo, Alive had taken the center-right expand with his aforementioned 30 food adv) with a giant tank contain in the middle of the map.

Yet, even with the ultimate defensive camping position of tank-viking, Alive managed to screw up the simple task of standing still and collecting money. He was somehow capable of deploying two dozen tanks, the units with the longest range in the game, in positions where no more than 4~6 could actually fight together. Ryung was kind enough to notice, and his marauder-tank easily cleared a ton of tanks from the middle. They were unable to take down the center-right expand, because that was where the highest concentration of Alive's tanks were, at a spot furthest away from the front line.

Ryung utilized his control of the middle much more effectively than Alive, leaving a token force to posture by the watchtower while a large MM force went through the backdoor route into Alive's natural. This backdoor attack worked splendidly for Ryung, buying him plenty of time to take the 9:00 base, and doing enough damage to swing the game in his favor. Alive was still even on bases and population according to the counters up top, but the announcers would eagerly inform us that this was only because Alive had ninety SCVs mining three bases.

Eager to see if Alive had learned anything, Ryung sent an even larger backdoor force to attack Alive's natural. This time Alive actually did have forces there, but Ryung's superior micro and reactions allowed him to ambush and crush the defenders. Alive was forced to empty his center expansion of defenders to put out the more urgent fire at his natural, which Ryung quickly took advantage of by sending in his troops at the watchtower to take out the unguarded expansion. In an equally comical and tragic twist, Alive showed that his expansion was not actually 'unguarded,' sending 50 SCVs to swarm and defeat Ryung's forces.

This bought Alive enough of a reprieve to last for a few more minutes, until Ryung overran him with a vastly superior army.

Alive (@6:00) opened this needlessly long TvT with pretty cute build that exploited the starting positions. Seeing that his opponent Ryung was at 3:00, Alive build a proxy factory and starport at his own third base, which by virtue of of Terminus' positional imbalance, were extremely close by air to Ryung's main. Alive floated his proxy factory to draw Ryung's marines away from the choke, allowing his own marines to come in and apply pressure. Ryung had more than enough forces to handle all of this without trouble, but it was still a cute, annoying move to force your opponent to expend some more clicks. If you enjoy these kind of plays on B.net, I hate you.

Besides that little bit of early game annoyance, it was basically Alive's cloak banshee open vs a standard Rax expansion from Ryung. Ryung had turrets up in time, since TvT banshees have been horribly predictable since beta, and Alive got to enjoy being behind in expansions and SCVs.

The game moved onto the needlessly long phase, where both players massed Marine-tank while they waited for their first two medivacs to come out of a reactor starport. Despite the fact that he had seen it a hundred times on ladder, Alive let his natural get decimated by a two medivac drop. Ok, that's not totally fair to Alive. He was at the same time, attempting a low-ground tank siege on Ryung's main. However, it is totally fair to say Alive's decision to lose half his SCVs while defending was a poorer decision than say, Ryung's decision not to.

Alive redeemed himself slightly by making a fast, decisive move into Ryung's natural before the defending tanks could be redeployed to the correct location. A few SCVs were killed, and a CC was lifted, but Alive had lost so many SCVs to Ryung's drop that it didn't matter. There was some needlessly long massing phase once more before we got to see Alive's last ditch attack fail.

Ryung won 2-0.

An interesting early-game interaction began when MVP (@ 9:00) went for some very advanced, but not quite proxy double barracks. Violet (@ 6:00) had opened with a normal pool-gas, and went for a quick roach warren upon seeing his opponent's dangerously placed buildings. A roach bust was definitely in play if Violet had kept his plans a secret, but a little mistake allowed MVP to slip an SCV scout past some zerglings. Now aware of his opponent's plan, MVP started a bunker on his ramp while squeezing out as many rounds from his barracks before he would be forced to float them back to his main. Oh, and MVP was also making a CC all the while, showing his devotion to his favorite build.

Violet played the situation very well, making only four roaches to fake pressure while taking his own natural. Though MVP probably knew what Violet was up to, but playing it extra safe never hurt the better macro player, and he was content to slowly take his natural after his first tank came out. On the other hand, Violet continued to measure his steps with great accuracy, squeezing in a third base while delaying his lair ever so slightly. It worked out very nicely for Violet, and he was able to get good saturation on his three bases before MVP could really threaten him. Then again, threatening Violet didn't seem to be the main thing on MVP's mind. He just sat around and made more troops, and prepared to take his third base as soon as he deemed he had enough defenses. So MVP sat by quietly, while Violet sat there as well, with a leery eye on his opponent.

Once MVP decided it was time to move from 'preparing to win the game' to 'winning the game,' it was shocking how fluid all of his motions were. Through some sorcery of multitasking, MVP made Violet fall apart without ever landing a crushing blow. The combination of constant drop attacks, slow pushing, and commando marines all combined with MVP's unfaltering macro saw him grow slowly stronger while Violet became ever weaker. Violet suddenly found himself down on economy and military, with a handful of morphing brood lords that looked more and more like a last ditch effort. MVP had already had vikings at the ready, and once the brood lords died, Violet was forced to GG out.

Ah, the game Violet should have won.

Puny details aside, the game boiled down to a few crucial moments. MVP was doing his standard boring stuff (marine tank expand), and Violet was doing his standard slightly-less boring stuff (muta-bane-ling, less boring because Zerg is cooler than Terran). Through some combination of good luck and good timing sense, Violet managed to ambush MVP's army just as it was split in two at that meaningless fork in the road right outside the naturals on Xel'Naga Caverns. It was a crushing victory over a poorly positioned Terran force, which led to mass SCV kills and an extended period of time where MVP had to hide in his main.

With three base Zerg vs one base Terran, you would have thought Violet would take the opportunity to drone up even further while teching up as well. Instead, Violet chose to stay aggressive against a turtling terran, and ended up losing a ton of muta-bane (some of the least durable units per cost in the game). This allowed MVP to get a relatively strong enough army to float back down to his natural and resume his boring Terran streamroll plan.

MVP pushed out not long after, and efficiently fought a larger Zerg force to mutual annihilation on both sides. However, MVP had macroed during the fight and Violet hadn't, so MVP ended up killing 20 or so drones with 12 reinforcing marines. From there on out, MVP had the army and economy advantage, which gave him even less incentive to diverge from his slow-roll plan (then again, 'defend until you have an imbalanced amount of tanks' seems to work whether you're winning or losing). Violet realized that MVP was only going to get more entrenched and powerful with each passing second, so he went for a failed all-in attack on MVP's gold base before Gging out.

MVP won 2-0

Keen started at 2:00, while Coca at began at 11:00.

Despite some funky openings (go banshee and don't even attempt to hit a drone, go baneling nest before lair and don't even make a baneling, much less try a bust), this game progressed to the typical 2 base terran vs 3 base zerg scenario without much happening. Hell, Keen even killed one of Coca's bases with medivac drops, and even that didn't seem to matter in the long run.

What DID matter was: marine-tank vs muta-bane-ling

Banelings hit marines: Zerg wins.
Banelings no hit marines: Terran wins.

I kid you not, I don't think Coca managed to get a single banesplosion on Keen's marines. Needless to say, he lost almost immediately after.

Coca had the honor of losing to a straight up reactor hellion rush, something the general populace thought to be no longer possible. As it turns out, the secret was to not pay attention to your zerglings and ramp while four hellions zoom into your main. After hellions, there were banshees, and that was pretty much it.

Oh sure, there were some other humorous points, like Keen having to spend money on three command centers in his main due to his inability to macro while harassing, the fact that this actually allowed Coca to get in one decent try at an all-in baneling bust because Keen didn't have units, or Keen's final decision to win with Thor-hellion out of what I think was total boredom.

But in the end, it was a game that was over at the seven minute mark.

Keen won 2-0

Play by play

On this two player map SlayerS_Ryung spawns at the west position and Bomber spawns at the east position. Both players opt for a wall in but Bomber chooses to skip his gas and go for a fast expansion. In the meantime Ryung is opting to proxy a factory in the mineral line of the third expansion. Bomber seems to be placing his marines to look for any early attacks but they can’t quite see the factory. Ryung floats the factory to try and land in the base but the marines are waiting right there for it. Ryung begins building a hellion while pushing the front, but Bomber is able to crush both attacks. In the meantime a proxy starport at the factory's previous position is building a cloaked banshee. Ryung is expanding behind his multiple proxies as his factory begins the long journey home.

Bomber already has turrets up for the banshee but all of the marines are out of position trying to hunt for the proxy starport. Ryung’s one banshee is getting quite a few kills but Bomber is hitting Ryung with a huge marine stim timing push to bust the fast expo. During the battle Bomber manages to spot the proxy starport, but Ryung is able to float it away in time while barely holding the marine timing attack with a banshee and SCVs.

Ryung’s banshees are still doing damage, allowing him to get back into this game. Bomber keeps trying marine timings but at this point Ryung has tanks up and is able to shut them down. Bomber has a very delayed tech lab on the factory and appears to be going marine medvac. Bomber begins faking engagements to force Ryung to siege tanks but now Ryung has a large force shelling Bomber’s base. Bomber feints a counter attack hoping to force Ryung to come back but ends up doing a huge two pronged attack, crushing Ryung’s force with relative ease.

Bomber immediately loads up two tanks and all of his marines to go for a big counter drop. Ryung stims and almost kills one medivac and Bomber is forced to fall back. Bomber decides that he has map control and opts to take the gold base for his third.

Bomber has a mobile army with only a couple tanks while Ryung is playing defensively with a lower tank count. A good counter attack by Ryung catches some transferring SCVs and even scouts the gold base. Bomber is moving his whole army to intercept the marines attacking his gold and both players are now trying to catch eachother out of position. Bomber is ahead in food but cannot risk engaging Ryung’s high tank force. Ryung is just now establishing his third base and Bomber is able to just crush through half of Ryung’s forces but tank reinforcements force him to pull back. Now that Ryung has his third base established he has a better chance of coming back. Both players are engaging in marine tank battles with Bomber unsure if he is far enough ahead to just attack or not. Bomber is shelling the natural of Ryung but not quite able to hit the command center, holding only a positional advantage for now. Ryung hides some marines out of range of the planetary fortress at the gold and is able to shut down mining for the time being. Bomber again decides that he is far enough ahead to attack his opponent but Ryung is able to hold, the question now being how fast Bomber can reinforce, especially without the gold base. Bomber finally regains control of his gold base but also has a fourth and fifth base up.

While Bomber did lose the earlier engagement, he kept most of his tanks and is still up 9 tanks on his opponent. As Ryung begins going battle cruiser, Bomber begins 3 ghost academies. Bomber is still pumping medivacs, apparently unconcerned with air control as the first battle cruiser is out for Ryung. Bomber begins nuke, cloak, and energy all at the same time and almost kills off the battle cruiser. Bomber shuts down more drops while sieging the natural with his huge tank force. The tanks go to the gold base while the marines maneuver around the map. One battle cruiser is able to kill the majority of Bomber’s tanks as Ryung re establishes his third base. It continues to be a 3 base vs. 5 base situation. Bomber launches a nuke on Ryung's army but Ryung moves at the last second, Bomber only killing a few tanks. Bomber has transitioned into mass marine and at this point Ryung realizes how far behind he is and ggs.


Analysis

This game was actually pretty crazy, but it made me feel worried about Ryung’s chances in the remaining games. You know how so many pro players mention that in longer games the better player will win? This match was the best demonstration of that, because Ryung used some pretty creative tactics and wasn’t too far behind Bomber, but Bomber’s macro was so good that Ryung was just never able to come back the whole game.

The cheese was very creative, floating the factory to begin hellion production in the main while simultaneously attacking with marines at the front would have been a sick move had Bomber not had marines watching over his whole base. The cloak banshee follow up was also a good move because if the early game tactic was successful then Bomber would either have low economy or a low marine count, both of which are crippling when dealing with banshees.



The next big moment was the marine stim timing attack, this attack is a neat idea when fast expanding regardless of what your opponent is doing. When fast expanding in TvT there are generally very few ways in which to hit a timing against your opponent, this marine timing attack accomplishes two things: you will be safe against banshee and hellion openings due to the marine count and the stim guarantees you the edge in marine vs. marine battles.



At this point Bomber is really as far ahead as he needs to be in order to win the whole game. His macro just outclassed Ryung and he outproduced his opponent to the point that he could attack into siege tanks with ease. There are two other things worth noting: the end game compositions of ghost/marine seemed to match up well against Ryung's battlecruiser transition, and the flanks on the siege tanks were surprisingly effective. It would be interesting to see this kind of composition again, to further determine the level of effectiveness.

Play by play

Bomber spawns in the north position while Ryung spawns in the south. Interestingly, in this game neither player is walling in. Ryung is getting his gas but it looks like Bomber is going to go ahead and one rax fast expand again. Ryung and Bomber both check for proxies but it looks like Bomber is actually getting a delayed gas. Ryung gets a tech lab on his first barracks to begin a reaper for scouting. The delayed gas from Bomber subtly allowed him to expand faster than his opponent, get a faster factory, and a faster second barracks. Bomber now has 2 barracks and a factory while Ryung is getting combat shields with three barracks. Both players have expanded.

Ryung appears to be going for mass marine as he gets two more reactors on his barracks, Bomber scans and sees everything. Ryung begins siege mode before even building a siege tank but then decides to cancel and go for cloak banshee instead. At this point both expansions have landed, with Ryung adding on more barracks. Ryung will have an army advantage while Bomber has a tech advantage. Bomber sends out the first banshee while beginning a bunker and siege tank production.

Ryung gets a late engineering bay and the banshee is able to scout everything before getting shot down by marines. Still no siege mode from Bomber as he adds on more barracks and continues making tanks. The banshees continue harassment somewhat successfully but are shot down by marines. Ryung moves out for his big 5 barracks timing, bringing SCVs, and Bomber only has one bunker and no siege mode for his tanks. Ryung is able to 1a in and crush everything for the win.

Analysis

Bomber played this game very poorly, I honestly think he might have just forgotten siege mode on top of underestimating his opponent. Bomber was able to scan



and scout with his banshee



everything that was coming. 4 bunkers or siege mode would have completely shut down that push, but Bomber really didn't prepare despite having perfect information. I have to assume that he forgot to research siege mode after he cancelled it for cloak. There was just no excuse to lose to that kind of mass barracks build when you have good scouting information.

Play by play

Bomber for the first time goes gas at the standard time while Ryung appears to be delaying it like Bomber did last game. Ryung manages to catch Bomber's SCV and vice versa as both players are denied scouting. Bomber is getting a factory while Ryung is getting a reaper and expanding. Bomber rallies a hellion cross map with his marines while proxying a starport. The reaper scouts the hellion marine push coming but not the starport. Ryung is on three barracks and engages the small hellion attack with his marines and some SCVs.

Despite some great micro from Bomber, Ryung cleans up the push and gets a well timed e-bay this game. Bomber's expansion is delayed but not by too much and he already has produced a siege tank. Bomber does some great damage microing his banshee against marines and with a hellion at the natural. Both players are relatively equal in food and Bomber seems to have made up for not fast expanding with a nine kill banshee. Ryung is again going for an infantry style with three barracks and a reactor starport while bomber is going standard marine tank. Bomber leaves his starport at its proxy position and Ryung spots it while sending out a drop. Bomber's banshee goes around the back side and Ryung doesn't spot it. Ryung's drop similarly has gone unscouted and is heading for the main. Ryung's drop is shut down and the banshee is similarly killed off.

Ryung appears to be preparing to take a third base soon as Bomber heads out. Both players have large armies, Ryung of Marine maurader tank and Bomber of pure marine tank. Bomber is ahead in food and manages to hold a drop very well bringing some SCVs with his marines to minimize losses. Both players are setting up position in the middle of the map while getting their third bases. Both players have 1-1 infantry upgrades. Ryung does a nice small unit attack to pick off a tank while it is sieging and goes for a small drop at Bomber's third base. Ryung is able to kill the marines off and almost kills the third base off entirely. Regardless, both player's thirds go up at the same time. Bomber sneaks past Ryung's tank line and sieges his third base. Bomber sacks a large supply of marines into Ryung's tank line but is able to equalize food quickly. Both players are jossling position for Ryung's third base.

Out of position, Ryung loses his third base and a lot of SCVs while Bomber gets his fourth base up. Bomber is now ahead in upgrades, expansions, and army size. Ryung manages to clean up Bomber's attack on the third, now behind economically but having a military advantage. Ryung decides to push out but Bomber has a nice tank spread, killing all of the marines, leaving only tanks for Ryung who reestablishes his third by floating his main. Bomber uses some well positioned siege tanks to be able to go for a huge counter drop but Ryung is slow pushing the natural.

Bombers drop kills off two tanks and marines, while Ryung sieges up Bomber's third, Bomber goes for a counter attack while the drop continues to wreak havok. Ryung's army cannot get back into a good position before losing too much and he is forced to gg as Bomber cleans up some nice, but overdue drops.

Analysis

Bomber won this game through what boiled down to great counter attacking decisions. This game was sloppily executed by both players timing wise so there isn't too much to comment on build orders, but the game really only demonstrated how to play against contains. If you're having trouble with contains in TvT you should watch this for ideas of positioning in the match up.

Play by play

Bomber proxies a barracks without gas, appearing to be going for a standard one rax fast expand but is actually 2 raxing. Ryung barely misses scouting it with his SCV. Ryung appears to be fast expanding off one barracks, leaving only one SCV on gas. Ryung isn't able to see the proxy barracks but may have become suspicious when he sees an oddly placed marine. Ryung is getting a reactor barracks while expanding but begins a bunker, really all it takes to hold this attack off. Bomber hits before the bunker finishes but doesn't kill the SCV building the bunker, and the rush is held off after the bunker finishes. Bomber sneaks in an expansion at the gold base while adding on more barracks and getting his engineering bay to hold against potential banshee play. Bomber is doing a nice job denying scouting and using the mineral advantage to get more barracks. Just as a turret is almost completes, a drop hits but does minimum damage to Bomber's gold base.

Ryung is going for a standard marine tank medivac army while Bomber is going heavier on marines. Siege tanks deny a poke from Bomber as he continues to macro up with a big mineral advantage. Bomber is clawing ahead in food and taking his third base; he's up 10 SCVs. As is common for Crossfire, a half map split scenario begins to unfold, but Ryung goes for a big attack up the right side, opposite of the gold base. Bomber is hits with an excellently timed three medivac drop while Ryung is on the opposite side of the map. Ryung at the same time kills off Bomber's third base but it was nearly mined out at this point anyway. Bomber kills a huge number of supply depots and the drop continues to do damage in the main. At this point Ryung is pretty desperate and so far behind, that he is forced to keep attacking.

Bomber uses his mobile marine force to run around and cut off reinforcements while tanks hold the front. Bomber is contantly reinforcing while Ryung is still supply blocked from the huge drop. While the economies are even, Bomber has a huge army advantage and both players grab another base. Bomber gets good position with his huge marine army, and finishes Ryung off to advance to the finals.

Analysis

This game best showed a very creative opening from Bomber, using the two rax to apply pressure and secure map control to allow you to take the gold. His turret timing against drops was also very good. Doing a two rax into taking the gold may not be a bad way to mix-up your openings, as it allows for a lot of barracks at an unexpectedly early timing.



This allows for marines to be almost disposable, which can be used on many huge marine drops. Notice that Bomber also never went viking, always preferring medivacs, allowing for the big drop plays that won him the series.

Bomber won 3-1

Bomber: B, didn't play the most solid TvT ever, but was definitely good enough to outplay Ryung convincingly.

Ryung: C-, Ryung was really outclassed these games, the only game he won was an all in where I swear Bomber had to just have made a silly mistake. This is most apparent in game one where Bomber just purely out macro's him to the point of being able to win with A-move.

Play by play

Keen is getting his gas at a standard time while Mvp goes for a gasless one rax fast expand. Keen appears to be going for the more popular reaper expand but Mvp manages to get his SCV in and scout. Keen is also going for an extremely fast stim pack upgrade. His reaper manages to get two SCV kills before getting killed. Mvp decides to push with a small number of marines and does major damage to Keen who micros poorly. Mvp appears to be going for a tempo based play as he now has three barracks rallied into his opponent's base.

Mvp continues to deny the natural to Keen but pulls back at a good time, now ahead 4 SCVs. Keen appears to be going standard marine tank, but Mvp gets a bunker and begins going marine medivac. Keen does a nice drop and mages to kill the tech lab that was researching stim right before it finishes as well as more attachments and SCVs. Mvp just counter-attacks the relatively undefended front with a large force and forces Keen to gg.

Analysis

This game demonstrates three main things: risky dropping, the reaper expand opening, and marines into tanks for the midgame.

Keen timed his drop probably just a little too early. Once he had 3 or so tanks up at the front, counter attacking wouldn't have worked for Mvp, but the earlier drop timing was very risky to counter attacking, leaving the front very undefended.



The reaper expanding opening worked out very well for Keen this game, it's an opening that has the possiblity to do a little damage and allows for some great map control and a faster stim. This stim allowed Keen's drop to do extra damage. The reaper expand opening is worth trying for those who like playing an APM intensive game with map control and stim agression.



Mvp choosing to go marine into a tank midgame seems to be the new super high level thing to do in TvT on larger maps. Mass marines with good flanks can demolish early tank pushes as was demonstrated in the Bomber games. The big marine opening also allowed for Mvp to get ahead early:

Play by play

Keen is opting to get his gas at standard time while Mvp skips gas for a one rax fast expand. Mvp goes for a wall in, worth noting, most likely due the risk of marine all ins against his fast expansion. Mvp gets greedy and immediately puts down double gas after expanding while Keen is doing the much more uncommon ghost opening into expand. Keen pushes out with 2 ghosts and two marines while expanding.

Sick ghost micro ensues and Keen is able to do some major damage with a ghosts and marines attack while still escaping with both ghosts alive. Keen stops ghost production and is gets stim and siege tanks up while securing his expansion as well. Mvp pushes out with a big marine tank force as Keen's stim and siege mode finishes. Keen has only one tank to Mvp's three and is behind in marines. Mvp is able to just push into the main while Keen tries a ghost drop. At this point Keen is banking on a drop to do damage to Mvp but Mvp is playing safe and leaving marines behind for defence as well. Mvp has Keen safely contained and Keen is forced to gg.

Analysis

This game was simple but still pretty exciting to watch, it was very high level of Mvp to know what to do against a ghost build, he was so confident in his counter attack that I doubt it was improvised. The ghost opening was without a doubt awesome but also demonstrated the same weakness from TLO loss to Nada to in the TSL: you just don't have enough tanks to defend your natural from the counter push. Ghost openings are very fun, and they seem close to being able to hold counter pushes. Once they're refined to hold counter pushes better, I can see them becoming very popular. If someone wants to work on a ghost build, Keen's is a good starting point.

Winning



Wait what?

Play by play

Keen goes for the standard gas timing while Mvp does not and begins to look like he will be fast expanding again. Keen goes for a reactor fast expand, while Mvp again immediately double gases after expanding and adds on a second barracks as well as a factory. Meanwhile Keen is getting three barracks up and gets a fast combat shield. Mvp goes viking before medivac, the first terran in this semi finals to really try and go viking at all.

Mvp begins a late bunker as Keen goes for the same marine timing attack MVP used earlier in the series. Keen is successfully breaks through and forces SCVs to be pulled in order to defend. Mvp now has barely half the SCVs of Keen. Keen begins a fast third base while loading up two medivacs to begin dropping and getting his siege tanks a little later than Mvp. Mvp gets a medivac full of marines, catching up a little bit, but Keen's third base finishes and Mvp doesn't seem to be ready to get aggressive any time soon.

Mvp takes his third base way after Keen's. Mvp moves his marines out of a position for a second and Keen capitalizes on it, demolishing half of Mvp's force. Mvp manages to hold off Keen's overzealous attack but Keen has a fourth base up again ahead of Mvp. Keen is a full +1 attack for his tanks up over Mvp. Mvp is getting a very late fourth but has a huge population advantage over Keen. Keen is going for an absolutely massive drop in the main of Mvp, triggering Mvp to go for a big counter attack. Mvp turns around with half of his army to defend, while losing his attacking force to get killed at Keen's base. The tanks that went back to defend his main are out of position, and Keen's drop ends up doing a fair bit of damage. The trade evened up the food a bit more, but half of Mvp's supply is in SCVs, giving Keen a huge chance to attack, the only problem being that Mvp still has a lot of tanks, and is only behind in marines. However, Mvp is too spread out, giving Keen the chance to isolate the tanks and remove them, giving him a huge advantage in the field. Mvp has no tanks remaining and is forced to gg.


Analysis

This game again demonstrates the cost/benefit of opening marine into tanks or just going tanks as part of the opening. Mvp this game was the player who went tank, and Keen was able to do some very good damage early on with the attacks, but got a bit over confident with his attacks.

Good



Bad



The real deciding moment was how the base trade situation was handled and followed up by Mvp. Pulling the tanks back may have been an okay decision and did even out the game, but Mvp's tank line was way too spread out at the end to defend effectively. Really the best way to deal with doom drops like this:



If you have your opponent tightly contained, you should go crazy with turrets and sensor towers to make sure you spot that drop before it comes.

Play by play

Both player are 1 rax fast expanding with Keen again getting the fast reactor while Mvp again immediatley double gases as a follow up. Mvp is going barracks into factory while Keen goes for a fast starport into barracks. Both players are getting similarly timed stim while Keen is going for a very fast drop. Mvp seems to be either map hacking or well aware of the timing, as all of the marines head back into the main base just as a drop comes.

With a nice stim, Mvp is able to kill the full medivac of marines.



Both players are very even at this point, with Mvp only being slightly ahead in SCVs and marines due to the failed drop of Keen. Mvp also goes for a drop that passes Keen's SCV, but goes unnoticed anyway. Mvp pokes at the front to ensure the marines are there, picks off an extra supply depot, and then retreats. Mvp continues trying to drop, just doing small amounts of damage with every drop. Keen lands a nice drop at Mvp's third base but Mvp is triggered to push and is able to kill off a lot of Keen's army.

After that battle Mvp has a pretty high supply lead and takes a fourth base. Mvp sieges the side of Keen's base while Keen realizes he is behind and goes for a base trade. Mvp is able to hold on both sides though fairly easily and although Keen breaks the soft contain at his natural, he is too far behind and nearly mined out of his third base, forcing him to attack into unfavorable positions and gg.

Analysis

Mvp getting that medivac full of marines at the very beginning gave him a small advantage that he was able to snowball into a larger advantage by the time he was ready to fight Keen head on. Mvp just used some great positioning to pull ahead a little at a time until Keen was forced to all in drop or suffocate to death. The most important thing to get out of this game is the timing at which Mvp left marines in the back of his base to intercept the fastest possible expansion double marine drop (9 minutes).

MVP won the series 3-1.

Mvp: B+, This series didn't really let Mvp shine, he was able to play pretty standard and the games weren't really close, as was demonstrated in game two, Mvp can be sloppy when he is ahead

Keen: D+, Maybe he plays a good macro game sometimes, but he seemed so willing to base trade it was unbelievable, he played with little confidence, missed a drop when there was an SCV spotting it (no excuse at a professional level), and only won one match through a base trade.

Play by play

Mvp is choosing to go for a gas opening while Bomber is choosing no gas. Bomber proxies a barracks in the same exact spot as the semi finals match, just out of range of Mvp's scouting SCV. Bomber isn't able to kill Mvp's scouting SCV as it comes up the ramp, giving Mvp potential to scout the proxy barracks, but the SCV never ends up spotting it, it will be useful later though. Mvp becomes aware of the rush through the Xel'Naga tower and has a wall up to make the attack easier to hold. Mvp uses some superior marine mico to hold the attack until a hellion leaves the factory to stop the rush from Bomber in its tracks.

Bomber is expanding to the gold behind his 2 rax, doing the exact same build from the semifinals. Mvp is opting for blue flame hellions and scouts the gold base with his initial scouting SCV just as it finishes! Bomber begins floating the barracks back while preparing to do an infantry style with some late gas. Mvp's hellions are out, and Bomber makes a good decision to float the gold base away. Bomber has some good positioning in his main base and is able to shut down any potential drive byes or drops from Mvp. Mvp is using the hellions for map control while expanding, now doing an interesting build with one reactor factory and another one making tanks.

Bomber is pushing out with some marines and mauraders, in an attempt to punish Mvp for going blue flame hellions. While Bomber is pushing cross map, Mvp hits with a huge blue flame drop at the natural, roasting half of Bomber's SCVs. Mvp has some great map control with the hellions but hellions aren't too helpful against that big stim marine maurader timing from Bomber when MVP only has a few tanks and a bunker up to defend.



Mvp does some great repair on the bunker to barely hold the stim timing



Meanwhile the blue flame drop has killed off a huge number of Bomber's SCVs, putting him at half the count of Mvp. Bomber is using marauders to try and take map control back from the hellions as Mvp adds on a huge number of barracks. Bomber feels too far behind after losing so many SCVs to the blue flame hellions, and pulls what's left of them to all in. Mvp is able to spot it with a pair of hellions and is prepared to hold it with more tanks and the left over bunker, forcing the gg from Bomber.

Analysis

This game showed a big flaw in Bomber's build from the semi finals, frankly, it was pretty gutsy of him to try the exact same thing again. The two rax marines is great for holding map control against any lesser terran, but Mvp really knew how to punish that. Bomber's game plan was to try and hold map control all game long with a mobile Marine Maurader army, but against blue flame hellions and drops, this becomes much more challenging. Getting a second factory to produce tanks was also a great idea to hold any attacks that came from Bomber. Mvp probably knew that big barracks play was coming because of Bomber's previous series.

After Mvp did so much damage to Bomber with his drop, Bomber was correct to assume that he would lose, at both of these players levels, as demonstrated by the semi finals, one mistake puts you behind the entire game. Mvp's build was interesting though because it forces blue flame hellions to work because he gets so many out of a factory with reactor, they become nearly disposable. Reactor hellions are a great way to force yourself to harass and keep your apm high due to how many hellions you get. I strongly recommend giving it a try.

Play by play

Both players open with gas builds and are able to deny scouting while hiding their factories far off to the sides of their main, making them difficult to scan. Mvp begins a bunker at his front, apparently worried about more proxy barracks play from Bomber; especially because his scouting SCV was killed. Mvp begins a starport immediately when his factory completes while Bomber is opting to expand behind his factory. Bomber is doing the same build but his expansion is a little bit before Mvp's.

Both players are beginning a banshee and adding additional barracks. Bomber scans and is able to see only a tech lab and infer that a banshee is incoming, giving ample time to prepare. Both players get out a viking in time to kill off each other's banshees. Bomber is opting for a fast stim while Mvp a fast combat shields. Mvp is transitioning into tanks a little faster than Bomber and also getting a faster 3rd base. Both players have 3 barracks, a factory, and a starport while Mvp just has a faster third and Bomber has +1 infantry weapons starting with missile turrets in case of more banshee play. Both players end up getting similarly timed third bases and are preparing to go standard Marine/Tank/Viking

Despite doing very similar builds, Bomber is up 12 food on Mvp through pure macro while Mvp does have an earlier third base as his hope to catch back up. Bomber is up 1 tank and 10 marines on Mvp, so the battle will come down to positioning as both players begin preparing to engage. Both players are adding on another factory and an armory, mirroring each other again.

Bomber has sky rocketed up 40 food over Mvp and is ahead on barracks. Bomber just engages, even out of position, and Mvp is forced to temporarily abandon his third base. Mvp had slightly better positioning for that engagement, which places the two players at roughly even food counts.

Bomber uses aggressive positioning to grab a fourth base while Mvp goes for a big drop. The drops are thwarted and scouted by Bomber who contains them pretty easily, putting Mvp further behind.

Bomber decides that he is far enough ahead and goes for the engagement while a big drop by Mvp kills off a lot of forces at Bomber's natural. Mvp isn't quite able to take out the natural expansion but is still trying to crawl back into the game over his 2 base defecit. Bomber goes to bust Mvp's front while Mvp is cutting off reinforcements.

There's another big engagement in the center as Mvp finally grabs his fourth base compared to Bomber's running 5 bases. Mvp loses three medivas full of marines that do no damage. Mvp tries to push Bomber's third but at this point is crumbling to the superior macro of Bomber. Bomber is able to shut down the just finished fourth and fifth bases and force Mvp to gg.

Analysis

This game was extremely interesting and should teach people exactly what it means to play at the pro level. The number of buildings and timings were nearly exactly the same from both players, even 15 minutes into the game. That just shows how planned out pro level player's builds are. There were a couple of interesting timing's in this game that allowed Bomber to slowly pull ahead and out macro Mvp.

Bomber's banshee was begun almost at the same time as Mvp while the expansion was started significantly before Mvp's.



Mvp didn't get his barracks add ons as fast as Bomber, giving him less marines to work with. When an engagement occurred as both players were grabbing their third bases, Bomber was able to come out ahead and force Mvp to go on the defensive, lose SCVs, and float the third base temporarily. That small advantage was all Bomber needed to control the rest of the game, out expanding and out producing Mvp. Mvp knew he was behind after the engagement and so went for some big drops play to come back, but Bomber shut them all down, truly knowing how to play when ahead.

The defining engagement

Bomber gets his gas while Mvp is opting to skip it and indicate a fast expand. Bomber is even getting his second gas, really indicating that he will be one basing for a little bit longer as he adds on a second barracks and a factory. Mvp gets up to three barracks while Bomber gets a reactor on his and a tech lab on the factory to begin siege tank production. Bomber will have to do some damage to catch up to Mvp economically. Mvp looks to poke with some marines but smartly pulls back once seeing no expansion. A great scan by Mvp sees everything that Bomber is up to but Mvp only reacts with a single bunker.

Bomber begins pushing out, looking to hit Mvp's front when siege mode finishes and is pulling half of his SCVs. MVP has far too little to defend with, and to make things worse, half of his marines were wandering in the middle of the map. Mvp has almost nothing to defend with and is forced to GG.

Analysis:
Mvp really had no business losing this match so one sidedly. He got off a money scan that saw everything:



MVP really should have known what was coming. He was greedy getting only one bunker and trying to flank with a large chunk of his marines. I'm sure Mvp knows how to stop timings like this, but must have been caught off guard. After seeing it he really should have just massed some bunkers and cut Scv production to catch up. It was a smart move by Bomber to do this build because a no gas fast expand on this map is pretty predictable. The large choke into the natural also helped Bomber's all in and I'm not perfectly sure without experimenting on how to stop it.

Play by play

Neither player is opting for gas and both execute one rax fast expands (close air positions). Bomber does get a delayed gas, expanding just a little bit behind Mvp. Mvp opts for the immediate double gas instead, meaning he should catch up to Bomber in gas fairly quickly. Both players add additional barracks and seem to be doing near mirror builds just with different gas timings. Bomber gets a faster factory than Mvp but both players end up going two barracks one factory one starport.

Both players are equal in unit count and Bomber engages slightly out of position. Both players lose a large chunk of their forces. Mvp has chosen to put his gas into siege mode while Bomber chose to put it into cloak banshees. Mvp is able to use siege mode to shell Bomber's production facilities from the low ground while Bomber does some banshee harass on MVP's workers. In the end, MVP's choice of tech is superior, as he is able to use a viking to clean up Bomber's banshee while also using the siege mode advantage to slow push Bomber's main and force the gg.

Analysis

This game showed the premier way to play TvT on this map as well as the cost benefit of getting a fast siege mode in the matchup. When Bomber attacked without siege mode, Mvp could have easily lost had he not engaged in the right position, but once he had siege mode he was able to come back with a huge advantage, a lot of which was dependent on the map and the low ground. Another factor was that Bomber did not use his tech to try and combat Mvp's tech, instead going for the mineral line. In a situation where there was such imminent danger, cloaked banshees would have been better off being used in defense than trying to pick off a few SCVs.

So in summary,

Cost:



Benefit:

Play by play

Bomber is opting for a gasless build while Mvp gets his at the standard time. Bomber in a huge maneuver manages to spot Mvp's gas with his SCV and gets a gas of his own to react. Mvp lays down a factory while Bomber is fast expanding and getting a tech lab on his barracks.

Bomber is looking to poke with a few marines but pulls back after seeing Mvp's higher marine count. Bomber begins a bunker and stim pack while Mvp is going for blue flame hellions. Mvp attempts to get a scout through Bomber's front but it is denied. Mvp is moving out with his marines and expanding with blue flame for map control. Mvp reveals the hellions out of his base only after securing the Xel naga tower with some marines. Bomber is looking to wall in his main choke and the hellions are too late to just run by into the mineral line. Bomber easily denies the attack with some marines and marauders, putting Mvp behind.

Bomber begins poking at Mvp's front with some marine marauder. Bomber determines that once siege mode is out Mvp will be too far ahead and that he has a small window to win the game now. Bomber pulls some SCVs and is able to bust Mvp's front for the win.

Analysis
This was a very technical build decision by Bomber. From the earlier games it is apparent that Bomber likes going marine marauder into tanks later. Once he shut down the blue flame attack



He just knew from experience that he would have enough to all in and break Mvp, especially after how close he was to breaking Mvp in game one. This is the kind of decision you can make after playing so many games, that he just knows that he can beat it at that moment by all-inning right away.

Play by play

Both players are gearing up to one rax fast expand. After the expansion is completed Mvp is adding on two more barracks instead of gas while Bomber is going for a factory as well as his second gas. Mvp goes up to 4 barracks without gas, looking to pressure his opponent. Bomber gets a bunker up, which is pretty good at shutting down marine pressure. Mvp is forced into getting a very late gas, and with the marine pressure being shut down is now pretty far behind Bomber while Bomber is going for cloak banshee. Mvp scans to see cloak banshees coming and decides to try and hit a timing with his marines, but it will be difficult to break bunker with pure marines as Bomber still hasn't floated his command center to the natural, still turtled in his main:



Mvp decides to push the ramp with stimmed marines and Bomber pulls SCVs to repair the bunker, easily holding the attacks while Bomber does some good harass with his banshees. Mvp is still very delayed in tech, really only having combat shields going for him while Bomber has siege mode and cloak banshees which are still harassing to try and even out food.

Both players are getting +1 infantry attack and Mvp is going marine medivac with delayed tanks while Bomber already has a healthy tank lead. Mvp catches the harassing banshee with a viking while Bomber has a big drop incoming to Mvp's main. Bomber's drop does some good damage, killing SCVs and a reactor on a starport. Bomber is preparing to push out with his superior siege tank count and is able to get a couple big hits on Mvp's army. Mvp is grabbing his third faster than Bomber, opening himself to a small timing window that Bomber can attack into.

Bomber get's his third a little later than Mvp and both players are doing the same build, similarly to game two, and again Bomber has a small marine lead but Mvp has some vikings for sight. Bomber engages and the superior marine count combined with his superior upgrades allow him to crush Mvp's force convincingly and 1a in for the victory.

Analysis

This game pretty much just played out the exact same way as game two. Bomber's ordering for his build was just superior than Mvp's, allowing for extra marines, extra tanks, extra upgrades, and even some cloak banshees. Bomber truly deserved to win this match, just able to squeeze out every extra unit that mattered. Also Mvp's failed marine stim timing put him behind, and in a matchup between players of this caliber, no mistakes can be made.

Bomber won 4-2

Bomber: A-, he straight out macro's Mvp and even uses all ins to ensure victories against builds he knows his can beat. He never loses when he shouldn't and his timings were just better than Mvp's, a true feat.

Mvp: B, Mvp didn't really do anything wrong, and his play in game one was great. He just was playing as optimally as Bomber and lost due to that, despite oftentimes having superior positioning.