The final eight of GSL Super are here. Out of the top 64 six terrans, a zerg and a protoss reached the quarter finals. But what is more puzzling is that there is only one top 8 in the top 8. Let's see what the fate of MarineKing was, as well as that of the MLG champion MMA, his teammates Alicia and Ryung, the new hope of the Zerg Line and the young terrans TheBest, Polt and TOP.
MMA vs Ryung
Game 1 @ Belshir Beach. We have seen terrans open proxy banshees a ton of times but rarely do we see them do so much damage. MMA was the one that hid all his tech below the center left expansion and soon his banshee was punishing Ryung's SCVs. The lethality of the situation was magnified by the fact that at the same time Ryung was out on the map, trying to do a blue hellion/marine pressure at MMA's front door. The MLG champion, however, would have none of that and as he defended his wall and the banshee accumulated more than 25 kills, the opening set was his.
When you have less SCVs than your opponent has banshees you know you are in big trouble
Game 2 @ Dual Sight. MMA opened with a blue hellion/marine pressure and as he threw down couple more factories and transitioned into pure mech, he continued to utilize his hellions by doing constant drops in attempt to hurt the economy of Ryung. That, however, did not occur as Ryung's defense was more than good and he soon moved out with his tank/marauder army.
Abusing the mobility of his units, Ryung ran around the stiff tank army of MMA and attacked his natural which soon fell to the heavy fire and Ryung sieged up below MMA's ramp. At the same time, MMA took probably the wiser decision to not go back and try to break the contain but instead to go south and in turn assault Ryung's natural and destroy it.
But suddenly MMA was in a position where he was so heavily contained that there was no chance of moving out, his tank counter push was repelled and Ryung still had an unscouted third and was retaking his natural. Being down one base to three, MMA rallied all his units in a desperate attempt to break out but as they died before even making it down the ramp, the ace of Slayers had to gg out.
The narrow ramp was MMA's worst enemy this day
Game 3 @ Xel'Naga Caverns. It is only natural for two teammates to perfectly mirror their opening builds and moves. Both SlayerS terrans tried to go for an early drop play but when those got denied, they moved out on the map at almost the exact same time.
A crucial deviation came at the 15-minute mark when, after countless cat-and-mouse maneuvers around the center caverns, MMA managed to sneak a third at the center right expansion. He moved down and sieged south of the tower to keep his expo hidden but that opened an attack path that Ryung saw and in a swift motion he moved up, sieged to stall the army movement of MMA and sniped his opponent's natural with his stimmed bio force.
But as MMA's continued to be not scouted, Ryung fell more and more behind as the game progressed. He tried to planetary a gold base but MMA was quick in his reactions, moving his tanks down to deny any mining. Those events soon led to a 30 supply lead and a constant stream of red units that eventually secured the victory for MMA.
MMA spreads his marines to take control of Ryung's gold
Game 4 @ Xel'Naga Fortress. Ryung made some strange decisions on Fortress, going for a double rax pressure but then throwing in double gas midway. Had he not done that he probably would've won the game as MMA was going for 1-rax/CC and barely had any marines on the field but considering the actual scenario he had no trouble repelling the rush with the help of some SCVs.
Ryung had to throw down a factory and a CC so he can get back in the game and MMA's passivity soon allowed him to besiege the low-ground west of MMA's natural and as that attack was finally pushed back, Ryung had a 30+ supply lead and was getting his third up.
That soon changed as Ryung was soon reminded that the slightest positional mistake can lead to a TvT loss. As both players moved towards the center of Fortress, Ryung chose to siege at the third south of his main while sending three medivacs full of marines in attempt to break MMA from the inside. But that gave MMA the opportunity to go around the tank line of Ryung and, taking a page out of his play on Caverns, to kill his natural while at the same time completely denying the drop play. Having no stable economy or decent army positioning, Ryung typed gg and let his team-mate move to the semi-finals.
MMA and his winning move
MarineKing vs TheBest
Game 1 @ Dual Sight. The opening set started really, really bad for TheBest. He opened with proxy starport rush much like MMA did on Belshir but a terrible control from the fOu player caused the death of two banshees even before cloak could kick in. Knowing that he is universes ahead, MarineKing mustered all his units and marched forward to end the game.
The beginning of the end
Game 2 @ Terminus. Similar thing happened on Terminus but before going for banshee harass, TheBest attempted a blue hellion drop. Both strategies did little to no damage as TheBest first lost three hellions and a medivac to kill about six SCVs and then prematurely cloaked his banshee even though there were no units around only to lose them seconds later to the marching army of MarineKing that was almost three times larger than the defenses TheBest had.
*Image self-explanatory*
Game 3 @ Metalopolis. By throwing a CC after the reaper scout it would appear that TheBest was gearing up to finally play a decent macro game. That, however, was in conflict with MarineKing's attention as he started rallying cloaked banshees to TheBest's main and showed him how you should approach this harass. By getting more than 30 kills spread among four banshees, MarineKing just moved down for the third time in the last half an hour and crushed the inferior army of his opponent.
MarineKing is having yet another deja vu
Alicia vs Polt
Game 1 @ Metalopolis. After scouting the 2-rax build from Polt, Alicia threw down a Stargate and went for 1-base void ray build. But as the bio army of the terran pushed forward, Alicia made a grave mistake and sloppily lost one sentry and then failing to forcefield the ramp with the second. As soon as Polt's army climbed the ramp unchallenged the game was over.
This could have been easily prevented
Game 2 @ Crevasse. Alicia opened with a nice Stalker pressure and followed it up with a DT warp-in straight into Polt's base. Alicia tried to split them as much as he can but after a perfect scan got rid of two of the DTs and a turret denied any damage from the last one, the Protoss had to abandon his strategy and fall back to his side of the map.
It was around that time that Polt took a third and went for double-pronged attack, dropping some marauders at the small natural while pressuring the third of Alicia. The threat grew even more fearsome as Alicia carelessly warped in seven zealots right in front of the marauder fire. With that many minerals down the drain, Alicia just couldn't accumulate a large enough force to drive the bio force back and as his third fell he typed in a gg.
GG incoming...
Game 3 @ Dual Sight. Alicia once again went on the aggressive by doing a 3-base pressure while getting his Nexus up and actually denying Polt's own expansion. But in a surge of overconfidence, Alicia tried to climb the ramp and break the heavily defended front, losing a lot of sentries in the process.
Polt's job from that point on was easy. As he reclaimed his natural, he moved down with his bio army, sniped the nexus and fell back to defend the last push of Alicia. 3-0.
Another game, another nexus
Line vs Top
Game 1 @ Metalopolis. Both players traded some hellion/banshee and mutalisk harass but with the defenses in both bases being impregnable a time came for more of a macro game. TOP went on the offensive first by taking another base and pushing towards Line's third, who retaliated in a non-standard way, using transfused mutalisks to kill the marines and chase away the remaining tanks.
But Line's biggest mistake was the insufficient droning and by staying on less than 50 drones, he could not spew enough stuff to hold the follow-up push of Top.
No transfusions this time
Game 2 @ Dual Sight. The second set started analogically to the one on Metalopolis with Top opening hellion/banshee and then taking a third and pushing with his marine/tank army. But this time Line was prepared for this attack and using his massive mutalisk force supported by a ton of lings, the zerg repelled the threat, knowing that now is the time for him to reign terror.
Line displayed a stunning mutalisk harass, killing more and more units while at the same time keeping his fliers alive as much as possible. By the time Top geared for a second attack, Line was already comfortable with the muta numbers he had and flawlessly denied any aggression without losing too much. He then used his enormous flock of 25+ mutas to wreck Top's base and win the set.
This happens when the mutalisk count gets out of control
Game 3 @ Crossfire. Top brought me back to SC2's beta by going for a Hellion/Marauder push but needless to say that was not an effective strategy at all. Line surrounded the terran army with ease and, exploiting the fact that Top's starport was incredibly late, he used his mutalisks to harass wherever he can and down the marine count with ease. Every time Top moved out with an army in attempt to hurt the zerg in any way he got ultimately trampled and by the end of the game Line had more mutalisks than Top had marines. GG.
A ton of gas and tech down the dumpster
Game 4 @ Tal'Darim Altar. Seeing the triple rax opening by Top, Line went for a 2-base baneling bust and wrecked Top's wall twice, killing a lot of SCVs and getting a huge economic lead... which was mitigated seconds later when Top unloaded a medivac full of marines and reduced the worker difference to less than 10.
As both players stabilized, Line continued to manifest his mass muta/speedling style with very few banelings but by being too aggressive he forgot that there is no third base for him and his macro started falling behind. When he tried to solve this problem it was a bit too late as Top's elevation push was knocking on Zerg's door and with the muta number not high enough it was lights out for the Zenex player.
It's a green conga line of DEATH!
Game 5 @ Xel'Naga Caverns. This amazing ZvT series peaked at its fifth set. TOP went for the same build as in games one and two, opening hellion/banshee, getting a third and transitioning into tank/marine. Line, on the other hand, upped his play and switched away from the muta/ling combo and teched to hive while trying to double expand.
Soon the war broke with multiple massive battles all around the map. Both players kept sniping each other's bases and by the end they were reduced to just one mineral line.
It was hard for either contender to cross the center line. Line had a terrifying high tier army of brood lords, infestors and corruptors that went against the tank/marine/viking composition of Top. Few tense minutes of territorial and army equilibrium passed until Line finally decided to make a move down the map. And that cost him the game as, unsupported by fungal growths, his brood lords and corruptors fell victim to the viking fire. The game, the series and the Ro8 was over. Four terrans would advance to the semi finals.
Line desperately tries to defend his gold base
GSL Super Ro8
MMA 3:1 Ryung
MMA> Ryung@ Belshir Beach
MMA< Ryung@ Dual Sight
MMA> Ryung@ Xel'Naga Caverns
MMA> Ryung@ Xel'Naga Fortress
TheBest 0:3 MarineKing
TheBest< MarineKing@ Dual Sight
TheBest< MarineKing@ Terminus
TheBest< MarineKing@ Metalopolis
Alicia 0:3 Polt
Alicia< Polt@ Metalopolis
Alicia< Polt@ Crevasse
Alicia< Polt@ Dual Sight
TOP 3:2 Line
Top> Line@ Metalopolis
Top< Line@ Dual Sight
Top< Line@ Crossfire
Top> Line@ Tal'Darim Altar
Top> Line@ Xel'Naga Caverns
MMA vs Ryung
Game 1 @ Belshir Beach. We have seen terrans open proxy banshees a ton of times but rarely do we see them do so much damage. MMA was the one that hid all his tech below the center left expansion and soon his banshee was punishing Ryung's SCVs. The lethality of the situation was magnified by the fact that at the same time Ryung was out on the map, trying to do a blue hellion/marine pressure at MMA's front door. The MLG champion, however, would have none of that and as he defended his wall and the banshee accumulated more than 25 kills, the opening set was his.
When you have less SCVs than your opponent has banshees you know you are in big trouble
Game 2 @ Dual Sight. MMA opened with a blue hellion/marine pressure and as he threw down couple more factories and transitioned into pure mech, he continued to utilize his hellions by doing constant drops in attempt to hurt the economy of Ryung. That, however, did not occur as Ryung's defense was more than good and he soon moved out with his tank/marauder army.
Abusing the mobility of his units, Ryung ran around the stiff tank army of MMA and attacked his natural which soon fell to the heavy fire and Ryung sieged up below MMA's ramp. At the same time, MMA took probably the wiser decision to not go back and try to break the contain but instead to go south and in turn assault Ryung's natural and destroy it.
But suddenly MMA was in a position where he was so heavily contained that there was no chance of moving out, his tank counter push was repelled and Ryung still had an unscouted third and was retaking his natural. Being down one base to three, MMA rallied all his units in a desperate attempt to break out but as they died before even making it down the ramp, the ace of Slayers had to gg out.
The narrow ramp was MMA's worst enemy this day
Game 3 @ Xel'Naga Caverns. It is only natural for two teammates to perfectly mirror their opening builds and moves. Both SlayerS terrans tried to go for an early drop play but when those got denied, they moved out on the map at almost the exact same time.
A crucial deviation came at the 15-minute mark when, after countless cat-and-mouse maneuvers around the center caverns, MMA managed to sneak a third at the center right expansion. He moved down and sieged south of the tower to keep his expo hidden but that opened an attack path that Ryung saw and in a swift motion he moved up, sieged to stall the army movement of MMA and sniped his opponent's natural with his stimmed bio force.
But as MMA's continued to be not scouted, Ryung fell more and more behind as the game progressed. He tried to planetary a gold base but MMA was quick in his reactions, moving his tanks down to deny any mining. Those events soon led to a 30 supply lead and a constant stream of red units that eventually secured the victory for MMA.
MMA spreads his marines to take control of Ryung's gold
Game 4 @ Xel'Naga Fortress. Ryung made some strange decisions on Fortress, going for a double rax pressure but then throwing in double gas midway. Had he not done that he probably would've won the game as MMA was going for 1-rax/CC and barely had any marines on the field but considering the actual scenario he had no trouble repelling the rush with the help of some SCVs.
Ryung had to throw down a factory and a CC so he can get back in the game and MMA's passivity soon allowed him to besiege the low-ground west of MMA's natural and as that attack was finally pushed back, Ryung had a 30+ supply lead and was getting his third up.
That soon changed as Ryung was soon reminded that the slightest positional mistake can lead to a TvT loss. As both players moved towards the center of Fortress, Ryung chose to siege at the third south of his main while sending three medivacs full of marines in attempt to break MMA from the inside. But that gave MMA the opportunity to go around the tank line of Ryung and, taking a page out of his play on Caverns, to kill his natural while at the same time completely denying the drop play. Having no stable economy or decent army positioning, Ryung typed gg and let his team-mate move to the semi-finals.
MMA and his winning move
MarineKing vs TheBest
Game 1 @ Dual Sight. The opening set started really, really bad for TheBest. He opened with proxy starport rush much like MMA did on Belshir but a terrible control from the fOu player caused the death of two banshees even before cloak could kick in. Knowing that he is universes ahead, MarineKing mustered all his units and marched forward to end the game.
The beginning of the end
Game 2 @ Terminus. Similar thing happened on Terminus but before going for banshee harass, TheBest attempted a blue hellion drop. Both strategies did little to no damage as TheBest first lost three hellions and a medivac to kill about six SCVs and then prematurely cloaked his banshee even though there were no units around only to lose them seconds later to the marching army of MarineKing that was almost three times larger than the defenses TheBest had.
*Image self-explanatory*
Game 3 @ Metalopolis. By throwing a CC after the reaper scout it would appear that TheBest was gearing up to finally play a decent macro game. That, however, was in conflict with MarineKing's attention as he started rallying cloaked banshees to TheBest's main and showed him how you should approach this harass. By getting more than 30 kills spread among four banshees, MarineKing just moved down for the third time in the last half an hour and crushed the inferior army of his opponent.
MarineKing is having yet another deja vu
Alicia vs Polt
Game 1 @ Metalopolis. After scouting the 2-rax build from Polt, Alicia threw down a Stargate and went for 1-base void ray build. But as the bio army of the terran pushed forward, Alicia made a grave mistake and sloppily lost one sentry and then failing to forcefield the ramp with the second. As soon as Polt's army climbed the ramp unchallenged the game was over.
This could have been easily prevented
Game 2 @ Crevasse. Alicia opened with a nice Stalker pressure and followed it up with a DT warp-in straight into Polt's base. Alicia tried to split them as much as he can but after a perfect scan got rid of two of the DTs and a turret denied any damage from the last one, the Protoss had to abandon his strategy and fall back to his side of the map.
It was around that time that Polt took a third and went for double-pronged attack, dropping some marauders at the small natural while pressuring the third of Alicia. The threat grew even more fearsome as Alicia carelessly warped in seven zealots right in front of the marauder fire. With that many minerals down the drain, Alicia just couldn't accumulate a large enough force to drive the bio force back and as his third fell he typed in a gg.
GG incoming...
Game 3 @ Dual Sight. Alicia once again went on the aggressive by doing a 3-base pressure while getting his Nexus up and actually denying Polt's own expansion. But in a surge of overconfidence, Alicia tried to climb the ramp and break the heavily defended front, losing a lot of sentries in the process.
Polt's job from that point on was easy. As he reclaimed his natural, he moved down with his bio army, sniped the nexus and fell back to defend the last push of Alicia. 3-0.
Another game, another nexus
Line vs Top
Game 1 @ Metalopolis. Both players traded some hellion/banshee and mutalisk harass but with the defenses in both bases being impregnable a time came for more of a macro game. TOP went on the offensive first by taking another base and pushing towards Line's third, who retaliated in a non-standard way, using transfused mutalisks to kill the marines and chase away the remaining tanks.
But Line's biggest mistake was the insufficient droning and by staying on less than 50 drones, he could not spew enough stuff to hold the follow-up push of Top.
No transfusions this time
Game 2 @ Dual Sight. The second set started analogically to the one on Metalopolis with Top opening hellion/banshee and then taking a third and pushing with his marine/tank army. But this time Line was prepared for this attack and using his massive mutalisk force supported by a ton of lings, the zerg repelled the threat, knowing that now is the time for him to reign terror.
Line displayed a stunning mutalisk harass, killing more and more units while at the same time keeping his fliers alive as much as possible. By the time Top geared for a second attack, Line was already comfortable with the muta numbers he had and flawlessly denied any aggression without losing too much. He then used his enormous flock of 25+ mutas to wreck Top's base and win the set.
This happens when the mutalisk count gets out of control
Game 3 @ Crossfire. Top brought me back to SC2's beta by going for a Hellion/Marauder push but needless to say that was not an effective strategy at all. Line surrounded the terran army with ease and, exploiting the fact that Top's starport was incredibly late, he used his mutalisks to harass wherever he can and down the marine count with ease. Every time Top moved out with an army in attempt to hurt the zerg in any way he got ultimately trampled and by the end of the game Line had more mutalisks than Top had marines. GG.
A ton of gas and tech down the dumpster
Game 4 @ Tal'Darim Altar. Seeing the triple rax opening by Top, Line went for a 2-base baneling bust and wrecked Top's wall twice, killing a lot of SCVs and getting a huge economic lead... which was mitigated seconds later when Top unloaded a medivac full of marines and reduced the worker difference to less than 10.
As both players stabilized, Line continued to manifest his mass muta/speedling style with very few banelings but by being too aggressive he forgot that there is no third base for him and his macro started falling behind. When he tried to solve this problem it was a bit too late as Top's elevation push was knocking on Zerg's door and with the muta number not high enough it was lights out for the Zenex player.
It's a green conga line of DEATH!
Game 5 @ Xel'Naga Caverns. This amazing ZvT series peaked at its fifth set. TOP went for the same build as in games one and two, opening hellion/banshee, getting a third and transitioning into tank/marine. Line, on the other hand, upped his play and switched away from the muta/ling combo and teched to hive while trying to double expand.
Soon the war broke with multiple massive battles all around the map. Both players kept sniping each other's bases and by the end they were reduced to just one mineral line.
It was hard for either contender to cross the center line. Line had a terrifying high tier army of brood lords, infestors and corruptors that went against the tank/marine/viking composition of Top. Few tense minutes of territorial and army equilibrium passed until Line finally decided to make a move down the map. And that cost him the game as, unsupported by fungal growths, his brood lords and corruptors fell victim to the viking fire. The game, the series and the Ro8 was over. Four terrans would advance to the semi finals.
Line desperately tries to defend his gold base
GSL Super Ro8
MMA 3:1 Ryung
MMA> Ryung@ Belshir Beach
MMA< Ryung@ Dual Sight
MMA> Ryung@ Xel'Naga Caverns
MMA> Ryung@ Xel'Naga Fortress
TheBest 0:3 MarineKing
TheBest< MarineKing@ Dual Sight
TheBest< MarineKing@ Terminus
TheBest< MarineKing@ Metalopolis
Alicia 0:3 Polt
Alicia< Polt@ Metalopolis
Alicia< Polt@ Crevasse
Alicia< Polt@ Dual Sight
TOP 3:2 Line
Top> Line@ Metalopolis
Top< Line@ Dual Sight
Top< Line@ Crossfire
Top> Line@ Tal'Darim Altar
Top> Line@ Xel'Naga Caverns
