In the second to last round of the GSL Super tournament, four terrans stepped on stage to see whose metal army is stronger. The MLG Champion and Slayers ace MMA went against the three-times GSL runner-up MarineKing while in the second semi-final two young terrans - TOP and Polt - clashed in an epic battle.
MMA vs MarineKing
Game 1 @ Crossfire. MMA was the next terran that tried to make a Ghost rush work. His attempt was almost flawless as his small but high-tech bio force started shooting down marines, SCVs and barracks alike and it would seem that the game is over. MMA even threw down a hidden gold expo in-between the attack. But for a few important seconds, the observer failed to address the shouts of Artosis that there is a MarineKing banshee in MMA's base.
The cloaked fliers turned the game around as MMA's turrets and scans could not save his economy due to lack of marines. Even with his gold expo he could not gather enough funds to stabilize and had to gg.
The beginning of another failed ghost rush
Game 2 Metalopolis. MMA went for a Banshee after 1-rax/CC but soon found himself in trouble as MarineKing's combat shield timing rush hit him as a sledgehammer, denying his expansion and bunkering up his ramp. The ace of team Prime seemed to be everywhere, denying the lone banshee of MMA and continuing the relentless pressure, gaining bigger and bigger supply advantage. Being 40 supply down by the end, MMA had to surrender the second set as well.
The CC of MMA is being sandwiched
Game 3 @ Dual Sight. Both players opened cloak banshees but as MarineKing went for his natural, MMA expanded straight to the south gold. Both banshees dealt moderate damage and as they were chased away a time came for the ultimate marine/tank mirror to begin.
MMA had the huge advantage of having a gold base by his side and was in a economy lead for the better part of the game and when this expo was finally discovered and attacked, he just retreated to the normal expansion north of the gold. Despite the differences in economies, MarineKing somehow managed to stay even in supply for the most time but that equilibrium was soon tilted after two simultaneous counter attacks lead to a base trade scenario. By that time, MMA finally succeeded in accumulating a larger army and he crushed through MarineKing's bases while getting enough defence at home to stall the enemy army. The MLG champion was back in the game.
Having a buttload of units really helps in these situations
Game 4 @ Xel'Naga Caverns. MarineKing was the first one to go on the offensive, doing an elevation marine/hellion push but as the blue flame finished for MMA he had no trouble repelling that and go on the counter attack. The latter was just as scary and only the fortunate tank timing of MarineKing managed to save his skin.
From here on, MMA went for pure mech while MarineKing decided to respond with the standard in this situation marine/marauder/tank composition. Once again, the MLG champion was quicker in taking a third and soon had control of the centre from where he launched a scary tank push towards MarineKing's natural. In response, the Prime terran did a marauder run-by to force another base trade and actually got the better part of the deal... until his natural CC burned got shot down by a Viking. After the smoke cleared, MMA had three orbitals spamming MULEs compared to MarineKing's one. The score was now tied.
Hellion vs Hellion battles are always a thrill. Plus they are really, really shiny!
Game 5 @ Crevasse. MarineKing attempted the same combat shield rush as in set 1 but had to fall back after seeing two bunkers and a lot of SCVs guarding the ramp. Being safe from the marine aggression, MMA took his third base and moved towards MarineKing's front expansion, having him contained. MarineKing tried to sneak around the tank line threw the destructible rocks area but a bad engagement cost him a ton of marines and made the breaking of the contain nearly impossible. In a matter of minutes, MarineKing was outupgraded, outtanked and outmacroed and as MMA hit an 80 supply lead he charged down and steamrolled the three-times finalist to complete his epic comeback.
This engagement soured the odds for MarineKing to break out of the heavy contain
Polt vs TOP
Game 1 @ Belshir Beach. TOP's very late natural expansion pulled him further and further behind in economy and supply and as he saw Polt taking a third and macroing like crazy (by that time having a 40 supply lead), he knew that he had to make something happen. As TOP pushed towards Polt's third he easily won an important engagement and got the upper hand for a moment but Polt ran by with his marines and attacked TOP's natural. TOP knew what a base trade is his only option but Polt already had enough units at home to defend and the oGs terran gg-ed out.
The 1/1 marines of Polt are chewing through TOP's base
Game 2 @ Dual Sight. This short game began with TOP's banshee harass and his transition to mech play while Polt was spamming pure marines to repel the pesky flier. As Polt moved out with his bio force to pressure TOP's natural, a brilliant play came from the oGs terran. He used his banshee to chase Polt's SCVs from the natural back to the main while dropping blue flame hellions to greet them wtih a fiery death. Being down 9 SCVs to 30+ and no way to break TOP's defences, Polt surrendered the set.
A brilliant finisher of TOP's harassment
Game 3 @ Xel'Naga Caverns. The long tank stalemate was broken when Polt went for a Battlecruiser switch and managed to survive it despite TOP's persistence to break his opponent's gold base. As the BCs were revealed, TOP switched to pure viking production and, having the larger air force, managed to win the multiple air battles despite Polt's high-tier units. As Polt was trying to make his BCs work, TOP used whatever ground army he had to deny SCVs and expansions, bringing his opponent to less than 20 workers. The game went to the oGs member.
Polt's last battlecruiser attack
Game 4 @ Terminus. Polt went marauder/tank to counter TOP's pure mech and that worked perfectly for him. In yet another demonstration of bio mobility throughout this tournament, Polt walked behind the sieged tank army of TOP, sniped the coming reinforcements and thrashed his base in a matter of seconds to tie the score.
Polt's run-by proved to be incredibly effective
Game 5 @ Crossfire. A grave mistake by TOP made his situation very hard. As Polt's banshee flew in to harass, TOP mismicroed his own banshee, sending it back to his main for no apparent reason. Polt took this advantage to gain a 2:1 SCV lead and used marine run-byes to exploit the smaller army of TOP, which could not hold every single path to his base. Near the 20-minute mark, Polt launched his final attack, going around TOP's position and winning the game due to way larger a force.
Polt secures his place in the grand final
GSL Super Semi Finals
MMA 3:2 MarineKing
MMA< MarineKing@ Crossfire
MMA< MarineKing@ Metalopolis
MMA> MarineKing@Dual Sight
MMA> MarineKing@ Xel'Naga Caverns
MMA> MarineKing@ Crevasse
TOP 2:3 Polt
TOP< Polt@ Belshir Beach
TOP> Polt@ Dual Sight
TOP> Polt@ Xel'Naga Caverns
TOP< Polt@ Terminus
TOP< Polt@ Crossfire
That leads us to a MMA vs Polt grand final. The latter will be played on June 18th so do not forget to tune in for the epic Terran mirror and see who will take home the fat prize money.
MMA vs MarineKing
Game 1 @ Crossfire. MMA was the next terran that tried to make a Ghost rush work. His attempt was almost flawless as his small but high-tech bio force started shooting down marines, SCVs and barracks alike and it would seem that the game is over. MMA even threw down a hidden gold expo in-between the attack. But for a few important seconds, the observer failed to address the shouts of Artosis that there is a MarineKing banshee in MMA's base.
The cloaked fliers turned the game around as MMA's turrets and scans could not save his economy due to lack of marines. Even with his gold expo he could not gather enough funds to stabilize and had to gg.
The beginning of another failed ghost rush
Game 2 Metalopolis. MMA went for a Banshee after 1-rax/CC but soon found himself in trouble as MarineKing's combat shield timing rush hit him as a sledgehammer, denying his expansion and bunkering up his ramp. The ace of team Prime seemed to be everywhere, denying the lone banshee of MMA and continuing the relentless pressure, gaining bigger and bigger supply advantage. Being 40 supply down by the end, MMA had to surrender the second set as well.
The CC of MMA is being sandwiched
Game 3 @ Dual Sight. Both players opened cloak banshees but as MarineKing went for his natural, MMA expanded straight to the south gold. Both banshees dealt moderate damage and as they were chased away a time came for the ultimate marine/tank mirror to begin.
MMA had the huge advantage of having a gold base by his side and was in a economy lead for the better part of the game and when this expo was finally discovered and attacked, he just retreated to the normal expansion north of the gold. Despite the differences in economies, MarineKing somehow managed to stay even in supply for the most time but that equilibrium was soon tilted after two simultaneous counter attacks lead to a base trade scenario. By that time, MMA finally succeeded in accumulating a larger army and he crushed through MarineKing's bases while getting enough defence at home to stall the enemy army. The MLG champion was back in the game.
Having a buttload of units really helps in these situations
Game 4 @ Xel'Naga Caverns. MarineKing was the first one to go on the offensive, doing an elevation marine/hellion push but as the blue flame finished for MMA he had no trouble repelling that and go on the counter attack. The latter was just as scary and only the fortunate tank timing of MarineKing managed to save his skin.
From here on, MMA went for pure mech while MarineKing decided to respond with the standard in this situation marine/marauder/tank composition. Once again, the MLG champion was quicker in taking a third and soon had control of the centre from where he launched a scary tank push towards MarineKing's natural. In response, the Prime terran did a marauder run-by to force another base trade and actually got the better part of the deal... until his natural CC burned got shot down by a Viking. After the smoke cleared, MMA had three orbitals spamming MULEs compared to MarineKing's one. The score was now tied.
Hellion vs Hellion battles are always a thrill. Plus they are really, really shiny!
Game 5 @ Crevasse. MarineKing attempted the same combat shield rush as in set 1 but had to fall back after seeing two bunkers and a lot of SCVs guarding the ramp. Being safe from the marine aggression, MMA took his third base and moved towards MarineKing's front expansion, having him contained. MarineKing tried to sneak around the tank line threw the destructible rocks area but a bad engagement cost him a ton of marines and made the breaking of the contain nearly impossible. In a matter of minutes, MarineKing was outupgraded, outtanked and outmacroed and as MMA hit an 80 supply lead he charged down and steamrolled the three-times finalist to complete his epic comeback.
This engagement soured the odds for MarineKing to break out of the heavy contain
Polt vs TOP
Game 1 @ Belshir Beach. TOP's very late natural expansion pulled him further and further behind in economy and supply and as he saw Polt taking a third and macroing like crazy (by that time having a 40 supply lead), he knew that he had to make something happen. As TOP pushed towards Polt's third he easily won an important engagement and got the upper hand for a moment but Polt ran by with his marines and attacked TOP's natural. TOP knew what a base trade is his only option but Polt already had enough units at home to defend and the oGs terran gg-ed out.
The 1/1 marines of Polt are chewing through TOP's base
Game 2 @ Dual Sight. This short game began with TOP's banshee harass and his transition to mech play while Polt was spamming pure marines to repel the pesky flier. As Polt moved out with his bio force to pressure TOP's natural, a brilliant play came from the oGs terran. He used his banshee to chase Polt's SCVs from the natural back to the main while dropping blue flame hellions to greet them wtih a fiery death. Being down 9 SCVs to 30+ and no way to break TOP's defences, Polt surrendered the set.
A brilliant finisher of TOP's harassment
Game 3 @ Xel'Naga Caverns. The long tank stalemate was broken when Polt went for a Battlecruiser switch and managed to survive it despite TOP's persistence to break his opponent's gold base. As the BCs were revealed, TOP switched to pure viking production and, having the larger air force, managed to win the multiple air battles despite Polt's high-tier units. As Polt was trying to make his BCs work, TOP used whatever ground army he had to deny SCVs and expansions, bringing his opponent to less than 20 workers. The game went to the oGs member.
Polt's last battlecruiser attack
Game 4 @ Terminus. Polt went marauder/tank to counter TOP's pure mech and that worked perfectly for him. In yet another demonstration of bio mobility throughout this tournament, Polt walked behind the sieged tank army of TOP, sniped the coming reinforcements and thrashed his base in a matter of seconds to tie the score.
Polt's run-by proved to be incredibly effective
Game 5 @ Crossfire. A grave mistake by TOP made his situation very hard. As Polt's banshee flew in to harass, TOP mismicroed his own banshee, sending it back to his main for no apparent reason. Polt took this advantage to gain a 2:1 SCV lead and used marine run-byes to exploit the smaller army of TOP, which could not hold every single path to his base. Near the 20-minute mark, Polt launched his final attack, going around TOP's position and winning the game due to way larger a force.
Polt secures his place in the grand final
GSL Super Semi Finals
MMA 3:2 MarineKing
MMA< MarineKing@ Crossfire
MMA< MarineKing@ Metalopolis
MMA> MarineKing@Dual Sight
MMA> MarineKing@ Xel'Naga Caverns
MMA> MarineKing@ Crevasse
TOP 2:3 Polt
TOP< Polt@ Belshir Beach
TOP> Polt@ Dual Sight
TOP> Polt@ Xel'Naga Caverns
TOP< Polt@ Terminus
TOP< Polt@ Crossfire
That leads us to a MMA vs Polt grand final. The latter will be played on June 18th so do not forget to tune in for the epic Terran mirror and see who will take home the fat prize money.
