Day 1 of MLG starts today, and with it starting up everyone is looking forward to see how much Heart of the Swarm is going to change the eSports scene. With players like Flash,Sen,MarineKing, and Parting.
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SEn and Innovation's victories open MLG
The first match of the day was between Huk and InnoVation. In game one Huk skipped his mothership core in favor of more Stalkers which ended up to come back and haunt him since a drop in his main ended up doing to much damage for him to come back from. Game two saw Huk lose to a similer marine, marauder, medivac force due to numerous miss clicks on Huk's part forcing him to lose too many stalkers. Game 3 gave way to somevery impressive plays from Huk, including baiting Innovation's army just to force Field the ramp and forcing some significant losses. He also used some beautiful dark templar play, destroying close to 60 workers. However, despite all these amazing plays he ended up losing to Innovation's marine, marauder army. Giving InnoVation the series 3:0 over Huk.
In the Vibe vs. Sen series things started off looking good for Vibe taking game 1 with some impressive Mutalisk play. However Sen showed that he would not go silently going on a three game winning streak with a combination of Baneling timings and Mutalisk/Roach plays. Sen ends up taking the Series 3:1.
Rain, Seed and the changed PvP
The first PvP of this tournament between Rain and Seed showed how much PvP has changed, Rain took game one with a very impressive Stargate play. Game two saw an unfortunate mislcick that resulted in Seed not researching Anion Pulse for his Phoenix's, causing him to lose to Rain's upgraded Phoenix army. In game three Seed ended up staying on one base favoring blink stalker harassment. In the end Rain was able to hold his expansion and build up an immortal stalker army that just pushed through Seed's blink stalker army despite some fantastic blink micro. Giving Rain the Series 3:0.
The series between Leenock and BabyKnight showed some very interesting plays, including early Mothership Core harassment and a very back and forth first game. Leenock showing some very different tech styles in the series taking game one with some fantastic Ultralisk play. Game two saw an even more interesting composition from Leenock favoring a heavy Swarm Host composition, and using the Swarm Host's ability to constantly put aggression on an opponent Leenock was able take game two. Game three saw BabyKnight use a similar build to game one incorporating Oracles for early harassment. Despite Leenock not scouting the stargate BabyKnight could not deal the maximum amount of harassment, and Leenock eventually just pushed to BabyKnight's natural and powered through his defenses.
Ret crushes Suppy in amazing mirror
With so many of the foreigners falling before thisseries everyone was hoping for a close series. The Ret vs. Suppy series was able to deliver, with game one coming down to a very heavy Muta/Ling composition on both sides, with ret coming out victorious taking game one. Game two showed that Ret is a force to be reckoned with when ZvZ goes into the late game, being able to out drone and out macro Suppy and takes game two. Suppy something very unexpected in game three, taking an early pool and pulling his drones he was able to catch ret off guard while ret played very greedy. Giving Suppy the win and making the series 2:1 in favor of ret. However, in game four ret was able to take the series by showing his amazing ability to macro and his control of mutalisks.Liquid ret takes the series 3:1 over EGSuppy.
Despite MarineKing being a fan favorite in this series Jjakji showed that he enjoyed the new changes to Terran in Heart of the Swarm. Jjakji convincingly takes the series 3:0 over MarineKing, because of his ability to pick apart MarineKing with multi prong attacks and constant harassment with medivac drops, and his superior positioning of siege tanks in engagements.
Parting vs. State unfortunately did not have the same allure that the Rain vs. Seed series did. Parting was able to defeat State by using numerous builds such as Stargate into void ray/phoenix, and in game two he was able to win within the first ten minutes by simply catching State trying to play a bit too greedy and skip units. Giving Parting the win over State 3:0
The spectacle of Flash vs Bly
The greatest series of the day had to be Flash vs. Bly. A series that was saved for last for a reason, Flash won the first two games with a mix of heavy drop play and a combination of marine marauder. However, in match three Bly showed that he was not going down so easily. By burrowing his infestors and moving all of them behind each of Flash's mineral lines, Bly was able to draw Flash's slow moving mech army out of position so he could launch a barrage of infested Terrans and decimate Flash's economy. He then proceeded to hold off Flash's colossal mech army with a series of well placed infested Terrans and a large brood lord force to take the game and take the first win against a Korean.
Heading into game four everyone was in high hopes, Flash reverted back to his previous style of doing large marine/marauder harass with medivac drops, as well as incorporating tanks into the mix. The game was largely back and forth with Bly performing some amazing ling run-bies. It came down to every last unit with Bly incorporating Vipers into his late game composition. However, in the end Flash was able to triumph over Bly with only a handful of marines and marauders left. Flash clutches out the final game to win the series 3:1.
All photos by TeamLiquid.net
