Well the pistons keep on turning
And the wheels go round and round
The steel rails are cold and hard
For the miles that they go down
Without love,
Where would you be now
And the wheels go round and round
The steel rails are cold and hard
For the miles that they go down
Without love,
Where would you be now
On Tuesday, Proleague R1 finished. Today, Round 2 starts. As you can see, unlike the other leagues which took a while to get started and even now are only throwing a few games at you a week, Proleague is here delivering bulk orders of awesome. While we the coverage team have scarcely had a moment to breathe between rounds, we're here to give you a brief summary of R1 and a look at the games to come in R2.
Before we get started though, let's have a look at how R1 ended.
Team Rankings
1st KT Rolster 10W 1L (+21) (31W 10L)2nd MBCGame HERO 8W 3L (+9) (28W 19L)
3rd SK Telecom T1 7W 4L (+8) (25W 17L)
4th WeMade FOX 6W 5L (+4) (25W 21L)
5th CJ Entus 6W 5L (+2) (24W 22L)
5th eSTRO 6W 5L (+2) (25W 23L)
7th Woongjin Stars 5W 6L (+2) (24W 22L)
8th STX SouL 5W 6L (-4) (21W 25L)
9th hite SPARKYZ 5W 6L (-5) (18W 23L)
10th Hwaseung OZ 4W 7L (-8) (19W 27L)
11th Air Force ACE 2W 9L (-15) (16W 31L)
12th Samsung KHAN 2W 9L (-16) (15W 31L)
As predicted, KT Rolstered their way to a first place finish with a nearly flawless 10 - 1 record. We guess their vacation did do them some good after all. Leading from the front is of course R1 top scorer Flash, whose 11 - 1 record says nothing of how he stomped through everyone during these first few weeks of 2009-10.
Of course, he is not alone. Violet finishes the round 7 - 0, a very respectable total when you realise that Jaedong is just one game ahead of him in wins but five games behind in terms of losses. Of course, Luxury is tied for wins with him as well, and is down on losses by only two games. In fact, although KT as a team has done really well this round, the people behind the performance are clearly visible when looking at the individual rankings table.
Sorry, you and what army?
Have a glance through the listing below and you'll see that three of the nine top players are from KT. That's clearly no coincidence. There's something good in the water at the KT house this round and one can only expect that their streak will continue into R2, especially since it starts tomorrow and it's hard to imagine that a lot would have changed since Tuesday.
Individual Rankings
1st Flash 11W 1L 91.7%
1st ZerO 11W 4L 73.3%
3rd Sea 10W 1L 90.9%
3rd EffOrt 10W 3L 76.9%
5th Really 8W 3L 72.7%
5th Jaedong 8W 5L 61.5%
7th Violet 7W 100%
7th Bisu 7W 2L 77.8%
7th Luxury 7W 2L 77.8%
7th free 7W 3L 70%
7th Calm 7W 4L 63.6%
12th fantasy 6W 4L 60%
12th Mind 6W 4L 60%
12th RorO 6W 5L 54.5%
12th RuBy 6W 7L 46.2%
16th Shine 5W 2L 71.4%
16th HiyA 5W 2L 71.4%
16th Stork 5W 3L 62.5%
16th BeSt 5W 3L 62.5%
16th Kal 5W 4L 55.6%
16th UpMaGiC 5W 4L 55.6%
16th Leta 5W 5L 50%
23th Action 4W 100%
23th han 4W 2L 66.7%
23th type-b 4W 2L 66.7%
23th Anytime 4W 3L 57.1%
23th sAviOr 4W 4L 50%
23th HyuN 4W 4L 50%
23th Hyuk 4W 5L 44.4%
23th Movie 4W 5L 44.4%
23th Light 4W 5L 44.4%
23th Kwanro 4W 5L 44.4%
23th hyvaa 4W 8L 33.3%
Sources: First part, Second part
Next, we come to MBC. As we've mentioned time and again in the past few weeks, this round of PL has been a breath of fresh air to MBC fans. With their second place results, they deliver not only results, but hope: hope of another SKY 2006. Sitting in the driving seat for HERO is of course our much loved Sea.
Sea, top dog on an MBC that really, really needed one.
Finishing the round in 3rd place with a 10 - 1 record, and thus ahead of even big names like Bisu and Jaedong, Sea is MBC's man of steel. Being the workhorse of a darkhorse however is not easy at all, and as he leads this outfit into R2, many feel that he might just fall under the weight. For MBC to keep their record up and their pride intact, players like Light, Pusan, Saint and Jaehoon are going to have to start delivering consistently.
There's not a lot to say about reigning Proleague Champions SK Telecom T1, apart from the fact that they managed to buck up after a rather lacklustre start and get it together in time to finish R1 at #3. Bisu has been consistent as usual, and along with Fantasy has been giving the team the foundation it needs to perform. Yet, at #7 and #12 in the individual rankings it's obvious that they're not performing at their best and that they will both need to do much better in R2 if they're going to keep their Winner's League hopes alive.
If there was a team which shocked the community with their performance this round, it was WeMade FOX. Their subtly deep line-up fooled a lot of people coming into the round, their lack of an obvious ace player made them easy to overlook. However, as time progressed, it became quite clear that WeMade were the real deal. Decimating the fantasy anti-teams of many, new faces RorO and Shine proved themselves a zerg duo to be feared.
WeMade rocketed up to the number two position in a short amount of time, ending the round in fourth place. While WeMade vastly exceeded everyones expecations, two teams in particular fell well below their expected performance level. Hwaseung Oz and Samsung Khan suffered devastating losses in round one, surprising everyone as both teams made it to playoffs in the last season.
Firebathero loses it yet again.
In fact, Samsung Khan finished the round even lower than Airforce Ace - a really sad performance. Not playing Stork early on in the round, as well as sending out Jangbi on zerg maps, really hurt them. Stork's return from WCG saw things looking up just a bit for Samsung, but by then it was too late.
Similarly, Hwaseung Oz had been under a lot of heat for their decision to not play Jaedong in every ace match, and rightly so, Killer losing all of his games as the Hwaseung ace. Eventually Hwaseung got their act together and started to use The Dong as much as possible. Even then, the rest of the team blundered their way to many 1-3 defeats. Hopefully Hwaseung won't disappoint their fans in the next round.
STX SouL were expected to go very far in round 1 of proleague, with one of the deepest rosters in StarCraft; unfortunately the likes of Calm, Kal, and Hwasin started performing worse and worse as time went on. While many predicted STX to finish in the top 3, they ended up in the bottom half at number 8. Hite Sparkyz too performed far under what was expected of them, finishing 9th overall. A bit of hope was restored at the end of the round, however, when Hite Sparkyz 3-0 rolled SK Telecom T1 and created a huge upset.
In contrast to the dismal failures of some past strong teams, eSTRO shook things up, finishing in 5th place. Formerly considered one of the worst teams in BroodWar, a few strong rookies and a consistent veteran lineup of UpMaGiC and Really worked out well for eSTRO. Really went 8-3 overall, placing 5th in the individual standings - a very impressive showing. Youngsters Action and GosI[Flying] also pulled their weight in the first round, providing eSTRO with just enough talent to pull through this season.
The fresh face of eSTRO is rudely molested by UpMaGiC.
Woongjin Stars and CJ Entus showed a solid performance this round. The trade of Kwanro hurt CJ minimally, while helping Woongjin a great deal, allowing the formation of the dream team, Free/ZerO/Kwanro, which had the potential to bring almost any game into ace. ZerO, the 2nd ranked player in the individual standings, had been on a more than impressive tear, his brilliant management style and surgical precision bringing him to a slew of awe inspiring victories.
CJ did well considering two of their key players were in a slump. EffOrt and Movie brought many games to ace, where EffOrt was able to win with ease, but without an in-form sKyHigh or Iris, CJ will have problems come R2; Movie, although an excellent player, still fairly inconsistent. Hopefully CJ Entus fans will see an even better performance in the second round.
Airforce ACE was the team at the bottom that surprised this round. With everyone expecting them to end up in last place as always, they disappointed punters by ousting Samsung KHAN and coming in second last. Both Ruby and Darkelf, fresh recruits to the team, earned their keep by winning key games. The addition of Much will strengthen the team further, giving hopes of a better round 2.
With every team taking their spot in the rankings, round 2 is set to begin almost as soon as round 1 began. This train keeps a'rollin and no one is getting a break. There is a lot of speculation as to how teams such as STX SouL, Hwaseung Oz, and Samsung Khan will perform this time around. Some believe their failure will continue, while others assert they will rise and claim what is rightfully theirs.
Similarly, will the upset teams be able to keep it up? With little break between rounds and a grueling proleague schedule, staying at the top is never an easy task. KT looks set to continue their rampage, their players blazing like a flash fire through the Starleagues, their image and philosophy turned upside down. However, what the future has in store for WeMade, MBC, and eSTRO, only time will tell. Round 1 is only the beginning and this train ain't stopping anytime soon. Before we move on to a preview of R2 though, here's this week's Game of the Week.
GOTW - Fantasy vs Calm on Match Point
By Pangshai
Fantasy. Calm. If you have been following progaming for at least the last month, these two players need no introduction: aces of their respective teams, stars in their very own right. The battleground was Match Point, at stake - pride, honour, and a team win. Would Fantasy triumph over Calm like in their previous OSL meeting, or would Calm, already 1 game up that evening, yet again dominate Fantasy and exact revenge for his OSL loss?
The beginnings of this game were fairly unexceptional. Besides some additional scouting for cheese, the early game played out like a standard TvZ, 2 hatch muta for Calm with a third base slightly before the completion of his spire, and 1 rax CC for Fantasy.
The commencement of muta harass saw the game picking up in speed significantly, Fantasy employing some Flashesque timing, moving out into the middle of the map with his small group of marine medic and forcing Calm's mutas to engage in open ground. The players fought for every inch of ground, reinforcing religiously with more units, while performing the immemorial muta-marine dance - it was terrific to watch as Fantasy waltzed his marines around and Calm, too, executed his moves to flawless perfection. In the end, it was Calm who claimed victory, taking down Fantasy's wayward marine medic force, and in the meantime getting his drone saturation up at all his bases, including the freshly taken mineral only.
Calm was now starting lurker production, and with 6 hatcheries going, his macro was easily through the roof. Having forced Fantasy to turret up heavily only furthered his advantage at this point, and it was looking good for the Zerg player, who had strangely opted for a late hive this game. Having scouted Fantasy's army holding his high ground position, Calm proceeded to sneak his lurkers up the small ramp near Fantasy's choke, burrowing them to net a whole lot of marine medic kills. Tragically, Calm got greedy, or for some reason, left the lurkers behind, and Fantasy flanked and killed them with ease.
Calm's following move, however, was one of genius, making up for his previous mistake. With a lurker ling force, he arrived from the north via the high ground, forcing Fantasy into retreat. A second army though was en route and cut off the retreat path of Fantasy's units via the small ramp, scoring many kills on the marine medic. While the timing was a little off in Calm's attack, the devastation wrought was not insignificant, Fantasy surviving thanks to some good micro, a batch of marines fresh out of their barracks, and a lone tank.
Despite that, it seemed evident that with hive tech done, Calm would soon mop up with defilers supporting his army. A newly taken fourth gas at 6 was supplementing the Zerg economy, but Fantasy was now pushing dangerously across the map, somehow, with a decent sized army. With Calm's main army busy holding Fantasy's at bay (and slowly getting depleted by irradiate), a dropship found its way, unhindered, to the bottom right expansion, where its payload of firebats and marines made short work of the hatchery. In exchange, Calm took out Fantasy's army in the middle of the map, although with his slowly growing cloud of science vessels, Fantasy was slowly, but surely, crawling his way back into the game.
After dispatching an errant defiler and some lurkers in the middle of the map, Fantasy gathered up his new army and headed down towards the Zerg expansion at 6. The defending lurkers and defiler were irradiated, but swarm and lings forced Fantasy to retreat. Subsequent engagements saw more of Calm's lurkers and defilers getting irradiated, while at the same time, a drop landed in his main, taking out lots of lings and drones. Apparently distracted by the drop, Calm neglected the defense of his expansion at 6, and Fantasy pounced on the opportunity, taking it out swiftly with his forces, even irradiating all the lurkers coming to defend.
Fantasy was now in a very good position, having taken his mineral only; with a significant vessel cloud, he was also irradiating everything that moved. His army eventually found its way to Calm's bottom right gas base, and shut it down once again. Here, Calm finally caught some good fortune and scourged all of Fantasy's vessels on their way back to his main. Unfortunately for him, his two gases were probably depleted, and would've been insufficient anyway to fuel his production needs. As Fantasy's firebat heavy stormed into his mineral only, he realised the game was over, and typed in the GG.
Fantastic showing by both players, with Fantasy first taking a beating, then Calm making some critical errors and allowing Fantasy back in the game. Calm's hesistant scourging this game was definitely his downfall as his defiler play was never put to use, due to Fantasy's constant irradiating leaving his army mostly consisting of just zerglings with a sparse sprinkling of lurkers. His late hive, although possibly a result of the imbalance of the map, was similarly a questionable decision that could also have made a huge impact on the game.
Now that you've been entertained, it's time to be informed. Heyoka is back for the final Statisfaction of R1 with some dirt on a very current topic.
Statisfaction
By Heyoka
By Heyoka
The role of Protoss recently has been a catchy topic. Last year at this time all the talk was about how the six dragons might be stopped, as they tore through individual leagues while dominating play in the team circuit. In the last few weeks the picture has been flipped, with the forces of Aiur struggling just to take up slots in proleague play.
While the reasons for this are not well understood, the popular themes have been shifts in the metagame (the way zergs play against protoss in particular) and change in map balance, with only minor attention paid to the individual protoss players themselves. By looking solely at proleague data, we can show some evidence that the specific people who play protoss, as well as how we see them are not entirely blameless factors in this shift in racial parity.
First, lets look at the difference in win rates for each team's protoss lineup between round 5 of the last season, and the completed round 1 of now.
I was originally hoping you could show with this which teams started having bad toss lineups, but you can see while some teams did notably worse (Oz, STX, eSTRO) it gets balanced partially by a few teams doing better (MBC, ACE, and of course KT). The overall winrate did change enough to note (falling from 51% to 47%) however so we do know that this exchange was a loss overall to the race.
Proleague gives us a unique take on the situation however not necessarily because of raw numbers, but because of how they fall. Its a league where popular, strong players get to consistently showcase their skills against mediocre opponents, a league where winstreaks are remembered and small losses to nobodies forgotten. As such the percieved strength gap between the top, middle, and bottom is far larger than it is in actuality.
Here are the top 10 performers of 08-09 Proleague Round 5.
Most of these players became established as strong representatives of their race before or through that round, even if somewhat begrudingly (Horang in particular took a lot of flak for his wins). My point in showing this is that these are the players who become expected to win in the following round, and here is how this exact list performed in the last month and a half.
As a group they performed only marginally worse (perhaps a difference from "strong" to "meh") but the ones who started playing poorly, started playing real poorly. BackHo, Horang, and SangHo went from people who could be expected to consistently take a game even when outmatched to being completely unable to win. Guemchi (and this factor probably is directly the fault of the maps) was unable to show us if he can still win or not - he didn't capitalize on his first chances and wasn't given more. The anomalies here are free and violet, who were the only ones able to significantly improve their scores between the two rounds.
Ultimately this suggests that the trend (for lack of a better word) we're seeing now is not only due to some in-game factors like maps or playstyle, but is largely maintained simply by the players we expect to be good (or players who have shown that they can be good) all failing to be near their top form at a similar time. Its a problem of both actual performance, as well as perception of performance, offering some insight that maybe the issue of protoss ability/standing runs deeper than what we have thought of so far.
Finally, here's our little peak at the week of games ahead. Which games should you catch? Which ones will be worth VODding, and which should you just forget about? Kona reports.
5th December
The first game on New Heartbreak Ridge and it's a TvZ with Sea. Will Sea's incredible performance in Round 1 that even rivals Flash's performance continue in Round 2, or was that a fluke? Will hero finally step up his performance? How much will the changes affect balance on this map? If you are a true TeamLiquid member, you shouldn't miss this match.
6th December
SK Telecom T1 usually doesn't out send out new players, unless they're really prepared and ready to step into the real deal. Like the above-mentioned game, not only should you watch this to get a first-hand look at how the heavy changes will affect gameplay, but also because of the players. HiyA is an unsung hero in keep Hwaseung from falling into the bottom of the list alongside Samsung, going 5-2 with only two losses against Flash and Ruby. But this will be a whole new challenge for him - will he be able to continue being Jaedong's silent pillar of support, or will it start cracking under the pressure? Will n.Die_soO be the next GoRush, or will he be just another Thezerg, early appearances before fading into oblivion? Can SK Telecom T1 finally get a dependable Zerg?
Canata finally gets to play against Jaedong, by whom was knocked out for making terrible, terrible mistakes in the last game of the set. Jaedong, on the other hand, should be pretty happy he's finally facing a Terran in the line up (game against Miracle in the ace match excluded), and if he truly wishes to win an individual title this year, he has to first show that his ZvT is not weak by defeating Canata once more, before moving on the bigger monsters. Expect an all-out macro game that will show that Jaedong is indeed still the best Zerg at the moment.
The games here are so awesome it's ridiculous. Both teams are fielding their best players, most facing their best match-ups and thankfully, no mirrors.
We start off with EffOrt and Violet, facing off on an exciting ZvP map. EffOrt went on a record of 10 wins and 3 losses in the previous round, the best performer on CJ. Not only that, his current vP record is over a mind-blowing 73% and having single-handedly defeated half of the 6 Dragons this year. However, Violet is not just another Protoss. Boasting 100% win rate from Round 1 (and in fact, the only player in the top 10 to have 100% win rate), However, his vZ is yet to be truly put to the test this round, so will we be finally seeing Violet get a loss? Or will he maintain his 100% win rate and solidify his position as KT's ace Protoss?
Next, we have two players that need no introduction. Flash is playing a Zerg, but The Maestro is no simple Zerg. + Show Spoiler [MSL spoilers] +
Despite being knocked out 0-2 in his MSL group, including a loss to a Terran by the name of Bogus, he has shown hints of his lurker-management style gameplay slowly returning.
Following the two games will be Movie versus FireFist on Outsider SE, the best map for the creative ones. And who can be better representatives from each team other than these two? This game won't play out standard, that is almost a guarantee. I have no idea how it may turn out either, but I'm pretty damn sure of one thing - it will be very entertaining.
The last game will be Skyhigh playing his weakest match up against Luxury, who, alongside Violet, also scored 7 wins in the past round. With heavy changes on Neo Tornado that will help Terrans by a huge amount (including a mineral boost, with all minerals at naturals being 2000 instead of the standard 1500, as well as the reduction of gas amount at the 2nd expansion), we can finally see if these changes will help Terrans out on this map.
We may think that CJ needs to take the win before the ace match, with the map being Neo Moon Glaive. KT has Flash, right? But with the heavy changes to Moon Glaive, CJ may just have a hidden card up their sleeves. Will it be the new rookie, Hydra? Or will it be Effort once more? sAviOr? OriOn? Movie?
We may never know, and what better way than to watch it and find out?
7th December
DarkElf is slowly becoming ACE's ace choice for playing in the ace matches, which definitely has to say something about his performance off-stage. With both Ruby and Darkelf revealing that they're competing to be the top players in ACE, we will definitely see DarkElf perform strongly on the updated Heartbreak Ridge. Also recommended to see how the changes will work out.
8th December
Sea faces off against YellOw[ArnC], considered to be one of the top few ZvT players at the moment. Will Sea defy the odds and prove that, despite playing against mainly Terrans in the first round, he still has what it takes to be MBC's ace and TeamLiquid's favorite player by knocking out fake YellOw?
We have our first ever PvP mirror on this map, so naturally it'll be very exciting. Add in the fact that we have 2 of the 6 Dragons facing off, and given their recent shaky performance (especially Jangbi, who only has 1 win over a terrible Jaehoon from the previous round), neither players will be willing to give in to the other. Expect a fierce game that I suspect will eventually end in a fail.
Of course, with the conclusion of R1, we, the proleague coverage team, thought it would be apt to round it all up with a collection of its ten most memorable games. Then without further ado, we present A Round to Remember.
A Round to Remember - Games from R1
By Pangshai
After a slew of losses to Zerg this season, including a knock out of the OSL by Shine, Bisu's prowess in the PvZ matchup began facing much doubt from the masses of fans, who wondered if his time was up. This match was, in a way, Bisu's chance at redemption, to appease the fans and prove his worthiness of the title, "Best PvZ in the world" - and man, did he throw us off our seats.
Every once in a blue moon, we see Zergs utilise a build besides the 5 hatch hydra. Even rarer, do we see a build that does not involve hydras at all! This was one such game, with Hero relying on sunken colonies and a good sim city to tide him through the mid game. While Bisu's army, time and again, clashed into brick walls of static defenses, Hero's mutalisks were unable to prevent new Protoss expansions from going up, and Bisu was able to get all the gas he needed to replace his army.
Although he eventually broke through to clean out Hero's nat and main after numerous tries, including an initial attempt thwarted by guardians, a doom drop executed by Hero took out his depleted main and all his gateways and tech. From rebuilt gateways at an expansion, Bisu then began fielding DAs and reavers to supplement his army against the ultraling and defiler combination of Hero. With Hero's remaining bases depleting quickly, it wasn't looking too bright for the Zerg.
Despite a good flank with ultras and sunkens that took out the entirety of Bisu's army, a fresh wave of units from the Protoss took out a newly established expansion and the heavily damaged ultras of Hero soon fell, along with Hero's hopes of taking the game, under a hail of scarabs and angry zealot blades.
After all the defilers, doom drops, guardians, ultralings, and other deadly weapons in the Zerg armoury had been thrown at Bisu, the grandest of Protoss weapons prevailed, fighting off the assault to bring this game into our top 10 games for R1.
After the relatively unprecedented play in the previous game, we move on to another PvZ, this time on Heartbreak Ridge, with Zerg embarking on the textbook 5 hatch hydra route. Calm and Movie were the players, Calm, at this point of time, still fresh off his MSL victory. A win here was important for both players, getting the season off on a good foot, setting the pace early on and guaranteeing good morale.
The first half of the game was defined by reaver, DT and storm drops, with Movie pitting a corsair and harass-heavy build against Calm's hydras. While successful in depleting Calm's drone count substantially, Movie had neglected to take a third base himself, instead committing his resources to a game ending midgame push supported by his leftover reavers. The arrival of Calm's mutas on the battlefield, however, sent his plans haywire, sniping off key templars and making him waste storm. A hydra flank then proceeded to gobble up his army whole.
Movie tried to make a game of it, quickly taking a third base, but from then on, Calm was in control. His hydras applied pressure at all the right places, and another batch of mutas left Movie's army templarless. Eventually, Movie grew impatient and attack moved his army into Calm's rows of hydras, losing it yet again, and allowing Calm the opportunity to take out his last mining base.
Somehow Movie managed to scrape up another sizable army that took out Calm's nat, but it was not enough to hold vs Calm's hydra/ling forces and Movie typed in the GG following its demise. Calm's demonstration of a completely textbook style ZvP, including superbly well-timed muta transitions to take the win, allows this game to find its way into the top 10 list(edging out Han vs Modesty on the same map).
Which top 10 list would be complete without a Boxer game? Honestly, this game wasn't particularly outstanding, but we do have to satisfy his legion of rabid fans. Boxer's first appearance this season had him up against Killer, Hwaseung's choice of player in a couple of ace matches. They had previously met in a GOM season 2, and there Boxer took two easy games off the beginner.
With revenge on his mind, Killer started off the game with an aggressive 2 hatch hydra against Boxer's fast factory. The hydras, however, were merely there to force Boxer to overcommit to defense, allowing Killer a large window to expand, tech and drone up. Some sleek wraith play by Boxer netted him a few drone kills, slowing Killer down a little, but he was far behind with Killer's defiler mound already up.
Boxer's first marine medic push then met up with some hold lurkers, which greatly reduced the marine count, although it still had some success in killing drones at Killer's third. For some reason, Killer was not getting aggressive with his twenty or so lurkers, perhaps due to a lack of defiler support, and Boxer used the opportunity to attack his expansions, taking out his third with a clutch firebat that survived just long enough.
In panic mode, Killer decided now would be an opportune moment to attack. His lurkers meandered through a minefield, taking heavy casualties on the way, and when he finally made it to Boxer's tanks, his, once proud, army was torn and tattered. What happened next was inconseqential; Killer mucked around for a while, and then Boxer, in true baller fashion, ended the game with a nuke delivered straight to the heart of his opponent, sending Killer back to the Oz bench with his head hanging, and this game into the top 10 of R1.
This game marked the meeting of Upmagic, a brilliant strategist, and Free, the ever reliable Protoss player. The map was Outsider, one which Upmagic had already showed us his creativity and ability to repeatedly think up new, original builds on, in the game against Luxury. The anticipation was apparent, many wondering if the mechanics and solid play of Free would prevail, or the cunning and well planned manoeuvres of Upmagic would win through.
The hallmark of this game was the dropship and shuttle use, Upmagic ferrying entire armies around in almost six to seven dropships at times; in response, Free built a whole tonne of shuttles as well, with many of them being shot down by goliath fire. In fact, besides the dropship raids, Upmagic did not leave his base for perhaps the first twenty or so minutes of the game.
Utilising the terrain to his maximum advantage, he took multiple expansions, hidden away and only reachable by shuttles, and harass attempts by Free were mostly swatted away easily until the entrance of arbiters into Free's army. Recalls and drops now had more success in taking down Upmagic's expansions, but Upmagic had amassed a large army, which he sent to the middle of the map. Free engaged, and landed some beautiful stasis fields on Upmagic's army. His army was unable to match the strength of the Terran's though, and he was forced into retreat. However, with Upmagic's expansions out of comission, Free was able to simply rebuild and restock his forces, and eventually whittle down Upmagic's once fearsome army.
For Upmagic's brilliant strategy that played maximally to the map's potential, and Free's calm, level-headed decision making and adaptation in the face of strong harass, this game is surely a top 10 game of R1.
The Ultimate Weapon, Flash, who boasted huge winning streaks against Zergs and Terrans, and was playing like never before, met Best in week five of round 1. Playing in what many would consider his finest match up, Best had a huge task ahead of him against the on-fire Flash, who, too, had something to prove, his TvP yet untested in the season.
The game panned out similar to expectations, with Flash taking a quick third and Best heading for arbiters and macroing up heavily on three bases. The action picked up slightly before Flash's first push, when Flash flew a science vessel across the entire map, then lured Best's first arbiter out with vultures, and EMPed it.
His push then came fast and strong, a huge contingent of tanks, vultures and goliaths with 2/1 upgrades and vessel support heading for the freshly taken Protoss expansions in the bottom right. Best, armed with three arbiters, engaged in what seemed like a suicidal decision. He hit a stasis on one vessel, and just when the SKT supporters were ready to cuss and swear at yet another loss at the hands of Best, he pulled off a whole series of storm that could only be described as amazing, reducing Flash's army to a mere couple of tanks.
Flash stuck around for a while, and to his credit, played well despite his position. Unfortunately, Best was no Jaehoon, and ultimately, Flash was forced to GG under the might of Best's six arbiters and 6 base economy.
This game makes it to the top 10 list for showcasing two great plays, first Flash's offensive EMP on Best's arbiter, and then Best's jaw dropping storming that bought him the victory facing Flash's scary push.
We find ourselves with yet another Best game in the top 10, this time against Pusan, a seasoned veteran making a comeback onto the big stage after a prolonged absence. Not too long ago, Best was considered a master of PvP, with a fearsome win rate in the match up. It was a toss up between the two, one a macro monster that we have become well acquainted with, the other, a player seeking to, once again, attain the glory of yesteryear.
Pusan knew he was outgunned at the start, but he had no intention of matching Best in mechanics or timing. Moving out with an early probe, everyone held their breaths as Pusan made his way across the map, and placed his first pylon in Best's choke. A gateway quickly followed, and Best promptly pulled his probes and took it down before sending them after another two warping gateways outside the main. The grand plan then unveiled itself when Pusan put down a forge, forming complete seal at the choke, trapping Best's probes outside.
While Best's zealot hammered away at the forge, Pusan's was hard at work wasting Best's probes, and a following gas steal put Best not only economically behind, but also behind in tech. A slower expansion and DTs killing his probes did not aid Best's cause, although he tried to fight on valiantly despite getting contained. Tragically, there was no coming back from this position, and Pusan rode his advantage to victory, easily outmacroing Best with a third base and more gateways.
Taking a look at how the game faired against our list of criteria for top 10 games: ingenious cheese? check. Old timer? check. Non-boring mirror match? check. Top 10 game? hell yeah.
A second PvP makes this list, Free against Tazza on Match Point. Tazza was once hyped up to be the next big Protoss, along with Guemchi and Horang2, and with Free's win rate against Protoss languishing in the sub fifties, it seemed half the work was already done for Tazza.
Indeed, in the early game, Tazza took the lead with some clever shuttle play, drawing Free's defending army away from his nat, where his goons then stormed in to force a cancel on the nexus. Things, however, went downhill from there. A two shuttle harass attempt failed to do significant damage, and Tazza was forced into the retreat, his reaver lost, and Free's larger army hot on his tail.
What happened next was Free serving Tazza a little of his own medicine. With his shuttle, Free feigned a drop over at Tazza's main, flying it in plain sight of Tazza's dragoons, which immediately gave chase down the centre of the map. At the same time, Free headed his army over to Tazza's nat via the high ground over the third, meeting no resistance along the way. Free pummelled the smaller group of defending units to the ground, and his reavers soon joined up after taking a big detour around the map.
Tazza initially tried to climb the small ramp at his choke, and subsequently headed over to the high ground. By then his nexus had fallen, and his returning army was too small to engage Free's anyway. Defeated by the same trick he had pulled, Tazza typed out of the game, propelling Free to another victory, and this game into the top 10 of R1.
On to the next mirror match up, TvT, we see Flash in the limelight for amazing play once more. His opponent, Really, has also been playing insanely well, achieving a score of 8-3, and giving Sea his only loss of the season. These two clashed on Fighting Spirit, in what was guaranteed to be a great match, and they did not disappoint.
The fac port opening of Flash met fac CC of Really, and the players headed into the mid game roughly even, Really with an earlier expansion, but Flash picking off a number of SCVs with cloaked wraiths. Some expanding and vulture harass took place afterward, but the first real battle occurred in Really's main when three dropships from Flash landed their payloads there. Having seen in coming from miles away with mines, Really handled it with ease, putting him ahead, with mines providing map control, and now a supply advantage as well.
The gruelling drop play from Flash, however, did not cease. In fact, Flash didn't step out into the centre of the map for the majority of the game, relying instead on dropships to establish expansions while taking out Really's bases. Really picked up on the dropship game late, and no doubt, suffered in mobility. By the time he established a good number of dropships, Flash was on 6 bases to his 4, and was putting pressure on his new expansion attempts.
As we headed for the late game, both players continued trying to find loopholes in each other's defenses, Really even making a move on Flash's main that was almost successful in making it up the ramp. In the end, Flash won, his units just always being in the correct place at the correct time, but Really made him work for it.
Non-stop intense dropship action for the entire game without the whole tank line, chess piece manoeuvering nonsense, what more could we ask from a TvT?
A ZvZ! At last, we reach the last match up of the game, and here we have two of the best duking it out, Luxury and Effort, undoubtedly fearsome ZvZ players. The two dominated this round of proleague, Effort with a cool 10 wins 3 losses, Luxury, not too far behind at 7-2. Both reknown for their muta control, this game was not likely to disappoint.
Luxury found himself behind after his 9 pool failed to do any damage to Effort's 12 pool 12 hatch, but with a vastly faster lair, things were not quite over yet. When Luxury's mutas arrived at Effort's base, however, they found it well defended with spore colonies, Effort clearly intending to ride on his economic advantage to victory.
With Luxury's mutas out of position, Effort sent his lings out for a run over to Luxury's main. There they broke through Luxury's ling defenses, but Luxury's mutas were quickly on their way back to defend. Effort, though, was well prepared for this scenario, splitting his lings up and sending a couple to hide at the mineral only. Luxury gave chase with his mutas, only to find more invading lings arriving. Everytime he tried to take them out, Effort simply ran the lings away, while another team proceeded to wreak havoc someplace else.
This happened for the next minute and half, and by the time Luxury was done clearing out the intruders, Effort had his own air force up. It grew rapidly, supplied by Effort's two gases, and unsurprisingly, took out Luxury's to end the game.
Effort's absurd micromanagement of his lings brought the game home in this one. Dancing circles around his opponent's mutas, Effort delivered KT their first and only loss of R1 and earned a spot for this game in the top 10 of the round.
At long last, we come to the final game of the 10. This one is another ZvZ between Peace (who?) and Hyvaa. Since there's not much to say about the players, we'll just get straight into the game.
Hyvaa started with a strange 9 extractor 9 overpool build, immediately putting himself economically behind against Peace's 12 pool 12 hatch. His spire though, was years faster, and this forced Peace to spore up. For some bizarre reason, Hyvaa decided to engage in a ling battle before his mutas spawned, perhaps hoping to later take out the morphing spore colonies, but Peace's larger ling numbers won him the fight easily.
The game then dragged out in a rather repetitive fashion, so here's a summary: Peace built lots of spore colonies, got lings, and later mutas, and harassed Hyvaa's drones. Hyvaa, with barely any drones for most of the game, used his mutas like a champ, taking out extractors, drones, spore colonies, even Peace's spire. Later in the game, we would see Peace attacking Hyvaa's overlords with scourge, and Hyvaa attempting a sunken push using Peace's creep, although that failed miserably. At last, with Peace's main almost mined out, he emerged from his spore sanctuary with a substantial muta flock, and took out Hyvaa to win the game.
And there you have it, this 25 minute long unique ZvZ that stood out from the crowd of run-of-the-mill Zerg mirror games rounds up the last of the top 10 list, entertaining everyone despite not entering the hive tech stages of the game.
Well, there you have it - one round finishes, another one begins, and TL is here giving you coverage every step of the way. We hope you enjoy the first games of R2 and that you'll join us again as we bring you another update in a week's time. Here at PL coverage headquarters, the pistons do just keep on turning. Chugga chugga. See you next week!
This Proleague update was brought to you by Team Liquid's PL 2009-10 coverage team - riptide, heyoka and pangshai. Thanks to keit as usual for the stellar graphics, Konadora for the Round 2 Week 1 previews and DrHelvetica for guest writing!