[MST] The Gathering Storm

I really like the draw here. There have been some threads on TL proclaiming GuemChi to be the next big thing for Protoss fans, but great would have the first say. Great's best matchup is his ZvP (the classic sunken abuse on Medusa against Bisu comes to mind) and while GuemChi has been performing way better than his typical performance of late, he was up for a tough game.

Great went pool first but GuemChi wisely canceled his second cannon after he saw only one pair of lings, knowing that great wasn't going for any sort of threatening posture early game, which I think is an indication of his confidence and how far both he and Protosses have become in reacting to every little thing in the matchup. And just as I found myself praising GuemChi's play, the observer focused on GuemChi's natural which showed three mining probes, meaning that GuemChi didn't maynard his probes, either because he didn't have enough or he forgot to, both of which is sloppy on his part. Things started getting bad for GuemChi when he inexplicably decided to move out and give great an opportunity to use all those extra lings he'd made. GuemChi lost every offensive unit he had and surrendered a defenseless pylon powering his shiny new gateways.

Meanwhile, great played brilliantly, adding a hydra den and two hatcheries to complete a fakeout on the spire which he'd placed earlier and GuemChi had scouted. GuemChi's dark templars were not effective enough to make up the ground he needed as great was now solidly in the lead, causing GuemChi to waste minerals on cannons and start a third before he was able to defend it. Great wisely advanced his tech to lurkers as before GuemChi had started an observatory, setting up an obnoxious lurker contain which good storms from GuemChi rejected, but great's lead had started to show in his macro, and despite poor micro in a battle at GuemChi's natural, he still increased his lead with a tricky lurker drop at GuemChi's third. The lurker contain was reset, and no longer as obnoxious but as crippling, and the game was basically over as great's lings overcame the cannon's at GuemChi's natural and destroyed it. There were some dying gasps from GuemChi, but late game low econ PvZ is a very difficult thing to pull off, and he tapped out.

Really has always been something of a disappointment. His accomplishments speak nothing to his talent, sort of like a new version of Hwasin. So, when he got a draw against July in what is typically a strong matchup for him, he looked like a good pick to advance from his group. But we always seem to forget one thing. July has made the most of his talent, and he makes the most of his ability and the most of every game he plays. I really disagree with Really's choice to bunker rush here because it seems that July is clairyovant. I don't know if he planned aggression with his pool first build but Really did the absolute wrong thing in the situation, but at the same time I hestitate to call him unlucky.

July had more than enough lings to reject the bunker rush and the game was solidly in his favor, although Really was by no means out of it. He could have easily clawed his way back into the game but July, instead of doing a mutalisk build, July went for lurkers to take the win, correctly predicting that Really would try to safely expand and tech, having conceded the midgame advantage to July, but that wasn't good enough for the God of War. What happened next was a bit of a headscratcher. It was clear that Really knew that the lurkers were coming; he started building a second bunker and built a comsat station immediately upon landing the second CC, but the scan came down way late after Really's army was already dead, and it was GG.

As much as I love to watch him play, July's ZvZ is ugly. Great's isn't inspiring by any measure, but with a 12 pool + gas against 12 hatch on a map like Match Point the 12 hatch should have the edge to start. July even had a significant ling advantage with practically identical spire timing, and was in the lead even losing a drone to a pair of great's lings. I think things went wrong when July overplayed his hand. He took his natural gas a little early, but that wasn't the mistake. He kept building lings when he could have squeezed out a few more drones with as significant a ling count as he could have had, and he had scourge with identical timing as great's mutalisks.

However, with muta micro, mutas are far superior to scourge, and July's ling aggression was poorly timed, allowing great's mutas to fend the attack off. Great had fantastic econ management to have the gas to build significantly more mutalisks than July, which he turned into the advantage, the lead, and the win.

This turned into a battle of the disappointments. Like we've come to expect from modern PvT, GuemChi opened 1 gate tech. Really started with his questionable decisions by trying to turn a single factory into early pressure, building 6 marines, a tank, and a vulture while upgrading mines. It accomplished nothing, and GuemChi's natural nexus finished safely, while Really started his late expansion and added a second factory without an add-on. GuemChi played typically and perfectly, pumping goons from two gates and getting early observers to be comfortable in gaining intel and taking map control away from the threat of mines. Then GuemChi built his stargate and added the arbiter tribunal from the oh-so-popular arbiters, and started his third at the 9 o'clock mineral only.

Even with the failed pressure and the vultures he threw away, to this point in the game Really had the lead, as his third base at the 3 o'clock mineral only was up and saturated before GuemChi's was even finished, and Really deftly deflected the dark templar threat from GuemChi. Then Really got cute. He built medics and researched blind, which he used on GuemChi's observers with surprising ineffectiveness. With his medics and his mines ineffective, Really thought it would be a good idea to throw away his vultures as well, running them past dragoons and into fire without accomplishing anything at all.

GuemChi got a fourth running at 11 o'clock and recalled into Really's main, knocking out a couple supply depots but accomplishing nothing important. Even with the useless recall, though, GuemChi had map control and was able to simultaneously take the 12 o'clock, attack Really's fourth at 5 o'clock, and make a great move by catching Really's army out of position going to defend the fourth and run some units into Really's main. Even though the main attack accomplished little, GuemChi now had a 5 base to 3 base lead and it was practically over at that point. Even though I'm no huge fan of GuemChi, he played a very solid game against a decent opponent and came out with the win.

But now he had to beat July. It seems like I've covered so many games by July in the MSL, and I've always noticed that July is so incredibly clutch and this match was no different. Though I am loath to admit it, GuemChi is a good player, and July had lost to Pure in the last MSL, so it wasn't going to be a cakewalk. The game opened as is typical with 12 hatch from the Zerg and FE from the Protoss, but GuemChi made a mistake early by being annoying with his scouting probe but not babysitting it properly and losing it to drone shots.

The spire went down, at the same time as two hatcheries from July, followed closely by the hydralisk den. GuemChi countered with the Stargate and corsair, followed shortly by the templar archives. GuemChi once again didn't properly manage his critical units and lost the corsair to scourge. He then followed up with dark templar, which is a move that I think was a mistake on his part, as July is no where near irresponsible enough to forget to guard his expansions with overlords and sunkens. GuemChi hovered some units around the middle of the map for no reason but managed to get back to his natural before July seized the opportunity with his hydralisks.

With the impeccable timing we've come to expect from July, his mutalisks popped out and found GuemChi's templar and picked them off. Once again, GuemChi was careless with critical units, and it gave firm control of the game to July, something as a Protoss, you never want to do. An emboldened July pressed GuemChi's third and sacked it with good hydralisk control and a declawed Protoss army. July's macro is what impressed here, as he was able to keep up the attack, kill the probes, and continue to punish GuemChi for his simple mistakes. July pushed on the natural and it was GG.

I love this matchup between these players. Midas plays technically brilliant TvZ, even now I'd say, and it's great to see him back in the Survivor tournament, and there was also by.hero, the young Zerg always a threat to break into the upper echelon of the modern Zergs. by.hero stuck with the conservative 12 hatch opening, and Midas started his barracks. He had to be feeling comfortable with the close starting positions and the extremely strong 1 rax expand, and I'm surprised that hero wasn't bolder in the early game, happy instead with 3 hatch muta. Midas added a supply depot in front of his barracks, showing that he's pressing for every positional advantage and the sign of smart play.

In every way the opening minutes of this game were a clinic of TvZ timings and openings. Midas opened with a staple of the TvZ arsenal, and hero countered with the Zerg analogue in 3 hatch muta. His only mistake was adding two creep colonies when he didn't need them, but that's only elucidated in retrospect. by.hero's mutalisk control was crispy and effective, and he didn't make any typical mistakes of pressing the harass too hard before making the tech switch or forgoing the proper third timing. Instead,, even knowing that Midas had moved out to attack his natural (or perhaps his third, it is unclear which), hero stuck with just an absolutely brutal harass which forced Midas to come back to defend while morphing the creep colonies to deter an attack. Aggression and good decision making put hero in the lead as his harass inflicted a good amount of damage, his economy was secure, and he was advancing to lair while even delaying Midas from gaining map control with forward postured lurkers. Hero even managed to snipe a vessel he very much should not have.

Finally Midas was able to make a move on the map but hero's army was easily able to surround and destroy the tanks, and without the tanks the push failed. It seemed the game was going beautifully for hero until Midas caught hero with his pants down, dropped a very large number of marines into his main and trashed the defiler mound, the drones, and the extractor and almost got the hydralisk den. Midas then made a move at by.hero's front, which good swarms held off but hero was still in a bad position. What I really liked here was Midas' switch to vultures but his choice not to engage hero's third or fourth where he was vulnerable was bad as he could have won the game right there. Midas took a third and then finally made the move at hero's fourth where he was prepared with a whole bunch of lurkers and a defiler. Somehow, hero settled down after those rattling drops and started looking dangerous despite what seemed like a large supply dispairity.

What was puzzling was how Midas didn't have a dozen vessels by this point. He did pull an eraser but it accomplished surprisingly little. Midas once again showed us, however, why he is so good at the matchup. Just as hero was bringing ultralisks onto the map, Midas had accumulated a wrecking ball of tanks to chew up the ultralisks. He tried to trap the ultralisks into engaging his tank line but hero was too wise for it and pulled back, but his attempted drop at Midas' fourth was completely ineffective. Hero started showing cracks when he allowed Midas to completely trash his fifth. Midas had practically transitioned to mech by the late game as his army was composed almost entirely of tanks and vultures which is a powerful combo against ultraling. I don't know why hero didn't react to this appropriately and switch his tech up as he should have done and it eventually cost him the game. Midas inched his way to victory with solid technical play and smart execution.

Leta was once terrifying to Zergs. His wraith control was sick, and when we first saw it looked like a complete nightmare. Needless to say, something has changed. Maybe it was to Leta, maybe it was to his confidence, but he doesn't scare Zergs the way he used to, and he certainly didn't scare Hydra. Hydra was definitely the dark horse of the group. by.hero got a lot of attention a couple seasons ago when he played like a monster, but has been unable to replicate his results, Midas is an old-timer who still has a knack for TvZ, and Leta used to be a challenger for the Terran throne, but Hydra we have only rarely seen.

And for the second time a bunker rush was planned, but a 9 pool was planned first. I don't know if it was just a lucky day for Zergs. Leta is supposed to be the superior player and the late game ought to have favored him, but he was forced to recall his bunker rush when he scouted the early lings. Hydra went the unusual route and added a third hatchery instead of follow up the 9 pool with the 2 hatch as is more common but Leta should have known what Hydra had planned when he scouted the evolution chamber, and it was a real blunder for Hydra to allow his opponent to scout that. Leta somehow lost his entire army to sunkens (although killing more than a fair number of drones) and allowing lings to disrupt his production. Leta was prepared with turrets but Hydra was comfortable because there was little chance of Leta being able to make any sort of aggressive move, even when he lost his mutalisks with poor micro. Leta finally got around to adding four more barracks as Hydra was morphing a greater spire and an ultralisk den, prepared with Hydra's double upgrades early.

When the guardians wrecked Leta's natural, he knew he was all in, but Hydra had a trick up his sleeve. Two control groups of lings, half a dozen sunkens and a queen (the ensare was clutch) stopped Leta's push dead in its tracks and then the lings flooded into Leta's main to end a superbly executed game by Hydra.

The opposing openings were 1 rax expand to 2 hatch muta. Midas opted for the quick third barracks instead of the faster ebay, which is a good move when it's used properly, because nothing derails 2 hatch muta like unexpected aggression, but Midas made the mistake here. He ignored the mutalisks at his base and underestimated Hydra's micro. I mean, Hydra tore Midas' marine force to bits. Midas' typically solid micro may have already lost the game for him at that point, because even though he was able to get up turrets in time at his natural mineral line, he surrendered the barracks area and was unable to reinforce, and thus unable to threaten Hydra in any way, which is basically the point of 2 hatch muta. Meanwhile Hydra was starting a fourth base and morphing lurkers close to Midas' natural, which was the perfect move. Hydra's lurker micro compromised Midas' natural and with an operating fourth base, Hydra had effectively sealed the game.

Leta! Why didn't you do this against Hydra? Why did you have to try and bunker rush when you could frighten a gg out of a Zerg with your wraiths alone? Quick and dirty, that's what this game was. I don't disagree with the Crazy Zerg from hero here, as it would be an interesting move against Leta's wraiths, but the Crazy Zerg is crazy unstable economically and he won the game with the vultures alone. The wraiths were just assurance of that, although the last five minutes are almost worth watching just for marveling at Leta's wraith micro against scourge.

TvT. What is there to say about thee? This was a matchup of players that I appreciated. If Midas really wanted to show that he is a threat to win the whole thing (don't sound surprised-Midas isn't looking for anything but the top), he has to go through a respected player who has been near the top recently. And Leta had something to prove in this match himself. Midas took his natural while Leta more aggressively pumped vultures and made the Starport and began a wraith harass. The harass was not particularly effective but it gave Leta the time to take his natural, and both were about equal as they progressed into the midgame. Midas started his own wraiths, this time with cloak, while Leta grabbed a dropship for a vulture drop, and once again Leta was choosing to be aggressive while Midas was passive, taking a third.

Leta's dropship was intercepted but not destroyed, as he cutely dropped a vulture to deflect the hits that may have killed the dropship. Leta briefly considered trying to break Midas' tank line defending his third, but realized there was no chance and backed off. Leta took his third and the two exchanged blows and engaged in minesweeping that amounted to little. Midas was a step ahead economically, however, as he had taken a fourth, but Leta again had a response, building a good many dropships. Midas' wraiths were in the right place in the right time and damaged the dropships, killing one. Midas also took a fifth as Leta took his fourth and a mineral only.

Leta then boldly broke Midas' tank line and established his own postured forward, and for the first time seemed to have retaken the lead. If he had pressed it in the next critical moments as Midas was making the switch to battlecruisers he may have taken the game, but he did not press it significantly enough, even though he blasted Midas' 12 o'clock mineral only. Even then, Leta had not scouted the battlecruisers, but he should have noticed the drop off in unit production from Midas. Even after the battlecruisers had come out, though, Midas was in serious trouble. His tank line defending the bottom left double gas expansion had been shattered and he had to use the battlecruisers defensively instead of to inflict damage, which bought Leta valuable time to macro and tech.

Even though Leta had more ground at that point in the game, Leta's battlecruiser numbers were frightening and only increasing, and Midas was using his battlecruisers to snipe the tanks, leaving the goliaths vulnerable to his tanks. Leta, knowing it was took late to bring in battlecruiser tech, began massing wraiths out of 6 Starports. Leta didn't successfully coordinate his wraiths with his goliaths and lost too many at a fight at the 2 o'clock, and it was pretty much gg at that point, as Midas was mixing up seige tanks and battlecruisers beautifully to inflict a lot of damage on Leta's paper planes. When Leta led an attack on Midas' turreted 7 o'clock and lost a massive number of wraiths, he knew it was over and tapped out, leaving Midas to advance to the MSL.

MVP is Broodwar equivalent of the little engine that could. EffOrt is the Broodwar equivalent of the locomotive that bullies the little engine that could before smashing its hopes and dreams. I like the heart that MVP plays with, it's his skill that I normally have a problem with. Still, he's more than capable of taking a game against good players, and I think it was to EffOrt's credit that he opened 3 hatch play over 2. MVP stuck with the powerfully and conservative 1 rax expand. The game evolved into the midgame fairly standard, with MVP adding three barracks and EffOrt making the move to mutalisks. I like EffOrt's move to take the early third and send in the zerglings, it was a perfect balance of economic aggression and making the most of his zerglings, and he was still comfortable as ever.

EffOrt really showed how polished his play has become. He saw the heavy turret concentration and progressed quickly up the tech tree because he knew he couldn't accomplish much with the harass. And he didn't cut corners where he should not have. He read the 4 barracks as a pressure build and built and morphed the lurkers on the ramp, but MVP played that move correctly and made use of his m&m ball by blasting EffOrt's natural. sAviOr style ZvT was playing on a razor's edge, and EffOrt just cut himself with it. He did manage to sack MVP's natural with some guardians but that was rebuffed by some wraiths which he then used to harass EffOrt's third. MVP all of a sudden was showing a really great game, and I would have loved to see the supply disparity at this point in the game. When MVP sacked EffOrt's third and fourth, it would have been difficult to overestimate MVP's lead. The game was effectively over at that point, with MVP taking a decisive victory.

Yarnc, unlike his namesake, isn't known for creative or bizarre plays. But this one gets him some credit. He apparently went 9 pool with expo at a third because of some bunker ridiculousness at his natural, and gas stole Bogus, who opted for two barracks play. After deflecting the bunker move, Yarnc ended up with a control group of lings he didn't exactly need, but his mutas were met with their counter in Bogus' two rax opening. I think Yarnc was hoping he could draw Bogus' forces away from the ramp to get his lings to run up but Bogus had well placed firebats. Yarnc teched to lurkers, while Bogus really needed to start an expo, and Yarnc started a third and prevented Bogus from expanding with a handful of lurkers and his mutas. Bogus finally busted out and started making his moves but Yarnc had macroed up enough lurker ling to declaw the push without defilers.

I know it's somewhat trivial, but just watching the minimap, I was struck by Yarnc's overlord placement. I think in details like that is a good measure of the overall quality of those players. In the not so trivial details, at this point in the game Yarnc had macroed a large force of lings and pushed in a secondary force of lurkers that caught Bogus with his pants down. Bogus muscled it out with tanks and vessels and re-established map presence. That didn't last long as defilers and ultras came out for Yarnc. Bogus' macro couldn't keep up and he tapped out.

No VOD + No living reporting + YouKu sucking=no battle report
Sorry.

Same as above. There is one for the final game, though.

When you think about it, MVP and Bogus are at pretty similar places in their skill level and careers. For both of them, a win here would mean a lot, and I do believe both of them are good enough to challenge some bigger names. Maybe not claim victory, but challenge certainly. Both players made a bunch of factories and expanded to their naturals. Both committed to vulture wars early while adding more factories. Bogus continued to pump vultures, while mixing a couple tanks in, which put him somewhat behind MVP who had already switched to tanks.

Overall MVP was playing aggressive in his expanding and positioning and Bogus was not responding well. Bogus managed to lock down the 2 o'clock but hadn't started the CC when MVP revealed his wraiths and began pew pewing at Bogus' tank line which revealed a window in which MVP made a move with his vultures, but Bogus held it with some timely reinforcements and good nerves. MVP continued to press however, and pumped wraiths while securing another expansion and it was clear that he was gaining ground. After a tense fight Bogus lost control of the 2 o'clock and that was the beginning of the end, as MVP had gain the supply, economic, and positional advantages. Still, Bogus had amassed a force large enough to break MVP's main tank line, but MVP outpositioned Bogus and when he lost his army, it was gg.

i'll bake you a cake