oGsMC vs EGIdrA
Game 1
IdrA opens pool first, while MC opens Nexus first, with a forge shortly after. Smart decision from MC as he knows that IdrA tends to shy away from early aggression. IdrA goes for his characteristic early third base, and sacrifices his overlord beautifully to scout MC's Stargate. IdrA places a couple Spore Crawlers and produces extra queens at each base to shut down the early void ray harassment. IdrA makes a very wise decision and produces a large number of early hydralisks to counter the multiple air units of MC. With his powerful macro, IdrA pushes in towards MC's natural expansion with a hydralisk and roach army. He doesn't quite manage to take out the expansion, but he does force MC to pull off workers for quite some time, as well as taking out a few of MC's colossi. Instead of pushing in, IdrA gets up a fourth base and continues to macro and get more ahead. Both players get up a decently sized army, with IdrA using his standard hydralisk/roach/corrupter composition and MC using the protoss deathball. IdrA takes a fifth base while MC takes a fourth. Despite his advantage, IdrA's army gets a poor angle on MC's army and IdrA leaves the game.
Game 2
Game two is on Metalopolis, with the players spawning at close-by-air positions. IdrA again opens pool first, MC opens standard and pylon blocks IdrA's expansion. MC throws down a very early Twilight Council, and a Dark Shrine afterward. IdrA notices the low sentry count and knows MC must be up to something fishy. He throws down an emergency Evolution Chamber and gets a spore crawler up at both his main and his natural while simulatenously pushing in and forcing a cancel on MC's natural. IdrA throws up a hidden expansion and a macro Hatchery. MC spots the hidden expansion with a Dark Templar but IdrA's Spore Crawler finishes just in time to save most of the drones. MC pushes out but IdrA is prepared with a big army of roaches with tunneling claws. Despite IdrA's beautiful burrow to get under the forcefields, MC has too many stalkers. IdrA pulls back but MC pushes forward and takes out IdrA's reinforced army. MC takes the series.
Yet again, MC defeats IdrA and eliminates him from the tournament. If IdrA had implemented some infestors or drops in these games, I believe the results would have been different. Protoss units are simply too strong in the right compositions, and engaging in a straight up fight will almost never allow a Zerg to win (if they don't have infestors, of course).
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Saturday, June 18, 2011
GOMtv Super Tournament Finals
SlayerS_MMA (T) vs PoltPRIME.We (T)
Game One
MMA opens with a marine/hellion mixture while Polt opens with marine/marauder. After defeating the early harassment, Polt pushes with a large group of marines and marauders with stim to take game one.
Polt up 1-0.
Game Two
Polt opens up with a reaper that gets hastily taken out by SCVs. Polt kills MMA's early banshee, then shortly after sacrifices a few marines into MMA's tank line. Polt splits his marines amazingly well against MMA's tanks and gains a slight advantage. Polt presses his advantage and gets further ahead until his slow tank push overwhelms MMA.
Polt up 2-0.
Game Three
Polt opens up with another marine/marauder timing push which sets MMA way behind in the worker count. MMA manages to get some blue flame hellions into Polt's base as Polt pushes a second huge force into MMA's base. This exciting exchange leaves Polt with 2 SCVs to MMA's 1, however Polt has an an extra orbital command at the gold base. After a bit of time for players to get armies back up, MMA sends a banshee and spots the orbital. After picking off a few siege tanks of MMA, Polt brings the remainder of his forces into MMA's base to end the game.
Polt up 3-0.
Game Four
Both players open with with a quick 2 barracks, but MMA throws down a Ghost Academy. MMA brings a ghost along for the pressure at Polt's front and gets a few great snipes off on Polt's marines. MMA takes out two supply depots, expands to the gold, and pulls back. Polt swings himself back into the game with great banshee play, taking out a few SCVs and discovering the gold base of MMA. Polt pushes out to the gold and MMA doesn't have enough to defend it. Polt finishes off the remaining units from MMA and ends the game.
Polt takes the series and the championship 4-0.
In my opinion, Polt studied exactly what he needed to study. Everyone is so frightened by MMA's amazing multitasking and multi-pronged drops, and for good reason. Polt knew he would have a difficult time dealing with MMA's late game, so he never gave the games a chance to go that far. MMA played valiantly but in the end, he couldn't deal with the early game harass from Polt. Congratulations to Polt, and good luck to MMA in the future.
Game One
MMA opens with a marine/hellion mixture while Polt opens with marine/marauder. After defeating the early harassment, Polt pushes with a large group of marines and marauders with stim to take game one.
Polt up 1-0.
Game Two
Polt opens up with a reaper that gets hastily taken out by SCVs. Polt kills MMA's early banshee, then shortly after sacrifices a few marines into MMA's tank line. Polt splits his marines amazingly well against MMA's tanks and gains a slight advantage. Polt presses his advantage and gets further ahead until his slow tank push overwhelms MMA.
Polt up 2-0.
Game Three
Polt opens up with another marine/marauder timing push which sets MMA way behind in the worker count. MMA manages to get some blue flame hellions into Polt's base as Polt pushes a second huge force into MMA's base. This exciting exchange leaves Polt with 2 SCVs to MMA's 1, however Polt has an an extra orbital command at the gold base. After a bit of time for players to get armies back up, MMA sends a banshee and spots the orbital. After picking off a few siege tanks of MMA, Polt brings the remainder of his forces into MMA's base to end the game.
Polt up 3-0.
Game Four
Both players open with with a quick 2 barracks, but MMA throws down a Ghost Academy. MMA brings a ghost along for the pressure at Polt's front and gets a few great snipes off on Polt's marines. MMA takes out two supply depots, expands to the gold, and pulls back. Polt swings himself back into the game with great banshee play, taking out a few SCVs and discovering the gold base of MMA. Polt pushes out to the gold and MMA doesn't have enough to defend it. Polt finishes off the remaining units from MMA and ends the game.
Polt takes the series and the championship 4-0.
In my opinion, Polt studied exactly what he needed to study. Everyone is so frightened by MMA's amazing multitasking and multi-pronged drops, and for good reason. Polt knew he would have a difficult time dealing with MMA's late game, so he never gave the games a chance to go that far. MMA played valiantly but in the end, he couldn't deal with the early game harass from Polt. Congratulations to Polt, and good luck to MMA in the future.
GOMtv 3D Tournament Finals
sCfOu (T) v MVPDongRaeGu (Z)
Game One
sC opens with heavy 2 Barracks pressure. With a handful of marines and 4 SCVs, he takes out DongRaeGu's queen but loses his push to a well timed zergling surround. DongRaeGu retaliates with a zergling contain of his own to allow him to get up a very quick second and third base. DongRaeGu annihilates sC's first big push with a fantastic combination of zerglings, banelings, and roaches. After a few desperate drops from sC, DongRaeGu gets out enough mutalisks to destroy sC's economy and end the game.
DongRaeGu up 1-0.
Game Two
This time sC opts to go for quick hellion harass. He manages to pick up a couple quick drone kills but quickly gets repelled. sC follows up with an 8 hellion push but DongRaeGu manages to hold off the hellions before they can do any damage to his natural. Instead of continuing the ineffective hellion harass, sC switches over to a standard bio-mech style with tanks and marines. DongRaeGu gets out a handful of quick mutalisks in response. sC sieges up outside DongRaeGu's natural, though the attack is thwarted by a two-pronged attack with zerglings and banelings coming from the front, and the mutalisks from behind. As a follow up, DongRaeGu harasses sC's expansion with his mutalisks. After another sC attack is defeated at DongRaeGu's natural, both players expand again to their third. Despite DongRaeGu's advantage early on, he spent far too long being even on bases with sC which is never a good idea as a zerg. After sC suicided his army a few times denying DongRaeGu's third base, the tides of battle started to slowly turn in sC's favor. DongRaeGu sends out the gg after losing his remaining mutalisks against sC's hanful of marines.
sC ties up the series 1-1.
Game Three
DongRaGu opens up with a semi-early pool and notices the lack of a wall off for sC. After some cute drone scout gas stealing micro, six zerglings make their way over to the front door of sC as SCVs are just placing two additional barracks to complete the wall. The zerglings manage to break down one of the barracks and rush in for a few SCV kills, as well as scouting the Terran expansion. DongRaeGu throws up a third base relatively quickly, but he'll soon regret as sC brings a fairly large number of marines to pick it off. sC continues his drop harass and expands to his third base. Great siege tank placement from sC makes it incredibly hard for DongRaeGu for do any sort of attack or pressure. Mutalisks come up just in time to stop a terrifying push from sC, as well as deter any more drop play. After a number of back and forth battles, sC musters up the perfect push and shows off his amazing marine micro as he splits them beautifully to avoid banelings. He drops the manner mules on DongRaeGu for the gg.
sC goes up 2-1.
Game Four
Once again, sC opens up with 2 barracks but DongRaeGu defends against the bunker rush perfectly. sC transitions into the normal marine/tank/medivac mix while DongRaeGu takes a quick third base. sC loses his big push with almost no loss to DongRaeGu's army. DongRaeGu continues to get more ahead, crushing another large push from sC. After an easy baneling bust at sC's front door, the game is over.
DongRaeGu ties up the series 2-2.
Game Five
Both players decide to open with safe builds in the deciding game five. sC's first big push consists of only about twenty marines, and it is completely obliterated by a fantastic zergling/baneling surround. Another push comes out with marines, marauders, and tanks for sC but DongRaeGu has the speed banelings and mutalisks to clean it up. DongRaeGu makes a very wise decision and stays on three bases as sC is gearing up for another large push. Despite sC avoiding the banelings, the lack of medivacs allows the mutalisks to clean up the remaning marines and tanks. DongRaeGu takes game number five.
Winner: MVPDongRaeGu
Game One
sC opens with heavy 2 Barracks pressure. With a handful of marines and 4 SCVs, he takes out DongRaeGu's queen but loses his push to a well timed zergling surround. DongRaeGu retaliates with a zergling contain of his own to allow him to get up a very quick second and third base. DongRaeGu annihilates sC's first big push with a fantastic combination of zerglings, banelings, and roaches. After a few desperate drops from sC, DongRaeGu gets out enough mutalisks to destroy sC's economy and end the game.
DongRaeGu up 1-0.
Game Two
This time sC opts to go for quick hellion harass. He manages to pick up a couple quick drone kills but quickly gets repelled. sC follows up with an 8 hellion push but DongRaeGu manages to hold off the hellions before they can do any damage to his natural. Instead of continuing the ineffective hellion harass, sC switches over to a standard bio-mech style with tanks and marines. DongRaeGu gets out a handful of quick mutalisks in response. sC sieges up outside DongRaeGu's natural, though the attack is thwarted by a two-pronged attack with zerglings and banelings coming from the front, and the mutalisks from behind. As a follow up, DongRaeGu harasses sC's expansion with his mutalisks. After another sC attack is defeated at DongRaeGu's natural, both players expand again to their third. Despite DongRaeGu's advantage early on, he spent far too long being even on bases with sC which is never a good idea as a zerg. After sC suicided his army a few times denying DongRaeGu's third base, the tides of battle started to slowly turn in sC's favor. DongRaeGu sends out the gg after losing his remaining mutalisks against sC's hanful of marines.
sC ties up the series 1-1.
Game Three
DongRaGu opens up with a semi-early pool and notices the lack of a wall off for sC. After some cute drone scout gas stealing micro, six zerglings make their way over to the front door of sC as SCVs are just placing two additional barracks to complete the wall. The zerglings manage to break down one of the barracks and rush in for a few SCV kills, as well as scouting the Terran expansion. DongRaeGu throws up a third base relatively quickly, but he'll soon regret as sC brings a fairly large number of marines to pick it off. sC continues his drop harass and expands to his third base. Great siege tank placement from sC makes it incredibly hard for DongRaeGu for do any sort of attack or pressure. Mutalisks come up just in time to stop a terrifying push from sC, as well as deter any more drop play. After a number of back and forth battles, sC musters up the perfect push and shows off his amazing marine micro as he splits them beautifully to avoid banelings. He drops the manner mules on DongRaeGu for the gg.
sC goes up 2-1.
Game Four
Once again, sC opens up with 2 barracks but DongRaeGu defends against the bunker rush perfectly. sC transitions into the normal marine/tank/medivac mix while DongRaeGu takes a quick third base. sC loses his big push with almost no loss to DongRaeGu's army. DongRaeGu continues to get more ahead, crushing another large push from sC. After an easy baneling bust at sC's front door, the game is over.
DongRaeGu ties up the series 2-2.
Game Five
Both players decide to open with safe builds in the deciding game five. sC's first big push consists of only about twenty marines, and it is completely obliterated by a fantastic zergling/baneling surround. Another push comes out with marines, marauders, and tanks for sC but DongRaeGu has the speed banelings and mutalisks to clean it up. DongRaeGu makes a very wise decision and stays on three bases as sC is gearing up for another large push. Despite sC avoiding the banelings, the lack of medivacs allows the mutalisks to clean up the remaning marines and tanks. DongRaeGu takes game number five.
Winner: MVPDongRaeGu
Friday, June 17, 2011
MLG Columbus 2011
Hey, everyone. Welcome to my Starcraft II blog. I've been an avid follower of e-Sports ever since I was a young lad and it all came to fruition when I finally mustered up the courage to head out to MLG Columbus this year. I'm from Chicago, so Columbus is by no means close, but I took the plunge and bought my tickets the day before the event. It was a hectic night of packing and a six hour drive in the morning but there's only one thing that really needs to be said.
It was worth it.
Honestly, this event changed my life. If you're one of the many people who've always wanted to go to an MLG, but never have, you are missing out. Walking through the doors for the first time literally took my breath away. You could feel the energy as soon as your approached the stages, with tons of people crowding around talking about the games they were witnessing. I have never before instantly connected with a few dozen people simultaneously like I did when TLO dropped a nuke on iNcontroL's army.
The actual tournament structure was 3 days of madness. The pool play and simultaneous games going between the blue and red stream made following the event in person a real mess. The brackets were displayed but it was a hassle to have to keep checking in to see what matches were coming up and what stage each game was being played at.
The open bracket was equally messy, with 3 long rows of stations. Only players and media could enter this area so spectators were forced to watch these game from a distance, or perhaps not at all if the player you were looking for was in the middle row. The amount of players was staggering at 256, a full open bracket.
The first day was a pretty relaxed day. After the amazing IdrA v MC series, I walked around the open bracket a few times and got to witness an extremely funny rage quit. I stopped by the second stage to watch IdrA v SelecT, and was shocked to see SelecT absolutely dominated in both games. Most of the day was spent being absolutely blown away at the amount of Starcraft that was surrounding me.
On the second day I made it my goal to watch all of ThorZain's games as he made his was through the remainder of the open bracket and into pool play. When ThorZain wasn't playing, I tried my best to sit by the main stage but the inadequate amount of chairs meant I had to sit on the floor. Watching IdrA v ThorZain on the main stage was quite entertaining. ThorZain ended up giving IdrA his first loss of the event, and the crowd was going absolutely crazy.
Championship Sunday was everything anyone could have hoped for. IdrA's early gg againt MMA, MC's rematch against IdrA, and the Korean Top 3. MMA completely dominated the competition with impressive drop play pulling Losira's army in every direction.
This event really surpassed my expectations, and it's a tremendous showing for e-Sports in North America. The Koreans that attended the event had nothing but positive things to say about our hospitality and all the fans that showed their support. When the top three remaining players in the tournament were all Koreans, I assumed the size of the audience would go down. I was absolutely floored when the Halo and Call of Duty sections filled up with Starcraft spectators and all three main stages switched over to Starcraft for the finals.
It was worth it.
Honestly, this event changed my life. If you're one of the many people who've always wanted to go to an MLG, but never have, you are missing out. Walking through the doors for the first time literally took my breath away. You could feel the energy as soon as your approached the stages, with tons of people crowding around talking about the games they were witnessing. I have never before instantly connected with a few dozen people simultaneously like I did when TLO dropped a nuke on iNcontroL's army.
The actual tournament structure was 3 days of madness. The pool play and simultaneous games going between the blue and red stream made following the event in person a real mess. The brackets were displayed but it was a hassle to have to keep checking in to see what matches were coming up and what stage each game was being played at.
The open bracket was equally messy, with 3 long rows of stations. Only players and media could enter this area so spectators were forced to watch these game from a distance, or perhaps not at all if the player you were looking for was in the middle row. The amount of players was staggering at 256, a full open bracket.
The first day was a pretty relaxed day. After the amazing IdrA v MC series, I walked around the open bracket a few times and got to witness an extremely funny rage quit. I stopped by the second stage to watch IdrA v SelecT, and was shocked to see SelecT absolutely dominated in both games. Most of the day was spent being absolutely blown away at the amount of Starcraft that was surrounding me.
On the second day I made it my goal to watch all of ThorZain's games as he made his was through the remainder of the open bracket and into pool play. When ThorZain wasn't playing, I tried my best to sit by the main stage but the inadequate amount of chairs meant I had to sit on the floor. Watching IdrA v ThorZain on the main stage was quite entertaining. ThorZain ended up giving IdrA his first loss of the event, and the crowd was going absolutely crazy.
Championship Sunday was everything anyone could have hoped for. IdrA's early gg againt MMA, MC's rematch against IdrA, and the Korean Top 3. MMA completely dominated the competition with impressive drop play pulling Losira's army in every direction.
This event really surpassed my expectations, and it's a tremendous showing for e-Sports in North America. The Koreans that attended the event had nothing but positive things to say about our hospitality and all the fans that showed their support. When the top three remaining players in the tournament were all Koreans, I assumed the size of the audience would go down. I was absolutely floored when the Halo and Call of Duty sections filled up with Starcraft spectators and all three main stages switched over to Starcraft for the finals.
I managed to snap a few pictures of pool play on Saturday. I'm pretty proud of these pictures because I didn't have a media pass and I was also completely unprepared for the extremely dark venue.
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| EGiNcontroL |
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| LiquidTLO |
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| StarTale.July |
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| mouz.ThorZain |
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