NaDa on his way to the MSL after rocky start

The MBCgame Survivor League is the qualifier for the MSL. However it works very differently from the ODT. Group B in round 1 was played today. Read on for battle reports from that and an explanation on how the complex Survivor League works.

The format of the MBC Survivor League round 1 itself is exactly like the ODT. There are two initial games, then a winners, losers and a final game with the loser from the winners game and the winner of the losers game. The difference is in round two and how it interacts with MSL. More on that later, here are the battle reports from today.

PokJu vs NaDa at Longinus II

NaDa landed at 3 and started a one barrack, two supply wall before his single factory and CC in main. PokJu went for a gate, gas, core build followed by a proxy robotics facility at 12. While the goons of PokJu harassed NaDa's wall, the terran had sent a single marine around the map and it could enter the protoss base for a look. Some warning lights must have gone off in NaDa's head as he didn't see any tech at all, but at least his marine got a probe kill.

The shuttle did not wait for a reaver to get ready but headed straight for the terran wall and started ferrying units inside to harass the tanks. NaDa had some trouble, but hung in there. That is, until the reaver arrived. From there on in the terran found himself in an everexpanding hole. As the second reaver arrived, NaDa had lost pretty much all his units and scvs and his wall was down. GG.

hOyA vs HiyA at Longinus II

hOyA and HiyA, slightly confusing, but hOyA is the zerg also known as Jy. HiyA landed at 3 and went a barrack then for a command center in his natural, gas and academy. hOyA spawned at 11 and went for a 12hatch in his natural followed by a third in his main, den and a spire. There wasn't much action early on and HiyA put down 4 more barracks in his main as well as a factory. hOyA on his part put the fourth hatchery in his main and took 9 shortly after.

Terran moves out to the middle and attempts to take out 9, but shows some slowness and bad control and loses most of his M&M force to lurkers. The camera quickly fixes to hOyA's base to show his newly finished hive and started defiler mound. Terran pushes the zerg natural while trying to drop 9. A lurker and sunken foils the drop, but the push at the natural goes well. HiyA breaks through and is out to take it out as the swarm covers the terran army and zerg forces are pouring in from the front and the back.

“hOyA retakes it, and HiyA does the exact same thing again.Terran falls back to the higher ground of the middle while zerg takes his mineral only natural. HiyA goes down the other wide ramp and takes it out before zerg has time to react. hOyA retakes it, and HiyA does the exact same thing again. This time he has to pay in form of plagued marines at least. Terran takes 11 without challenge and takes out the zerg mineral only for the third time. The main fight is focused around the upper middle ramp with swarms and plague, but terran clearly takes advantage by going around to the other ramp every now and then.

Zerg figures out he might need more expansions, having lost his mineral only so many times. So he retakes it and expands at the 7 natural as well. Terran on his part can freely take his mineral only while he destroys the newly finished exp at 7. hOyA finally realized that harassing the terran economy might be a good idea and tries to drop 2 lurkers at 11. It's easily stopped and when HiyA destroys the zerg mineral only for the fifth time hOyA reluctantly gives the GG.

Winners PokJu vs HiyA at Desert Fox

PokJu warped in at 11 and opened with a 1gate, core into robotics and range. HiyA landed at 7 and went command center by his neutral buildings followed by a barrack right next to it. He floated both these buildings into his natural, landed the command center misplaced due to creep and trained two marines to deal with the creep colony. Before the creep had time to retreat HiyA added a scanner to the misplaced CC in order to get a view of what PokJu was doing, since he scanned the wrong place with his other scanner.

Protoss on his part was keeping busy, he had taken his natural eventually and gone for a second robotics facility and a support bay. He also started his mineral only and the island at 12. As soon as terran got a dropship he started ferrying his troops into the middle and sieging up behind PokJu's natural. Protoss holds off the first attack and is warping in 2 carriers from his newly built stargates in his main. After a few attacks however the natural falls and HiyA heads for the main, picks off the carriers and PokJu taps out. GG.

HiyA goes on to the second round of the MBC Survivor League in impressive fashion.

Losers NaDa vs hOyA at Desert Fox

NaDa looked very nervous right before the games started, maybe he was feeling some of the pressure that a player of his caliber should be in the MSL. hOyA on the other hand looked like he was enjoying himself as he spawned at 3. He went for a 12 pool, gas, quick lair build. NaDa landed at 11 and went gas first, then pretty much straight for a dual starport build.

hOyA struggled a bit with his neutral buildings and put down his second hatchery in his main. Shortly after he put down a spire and his third hatchery in his natural. As soon as the mutas popped, he attacked the single harassing wraith. It cloaked and almost got away, but was randomly within the vision of a lord and died. The cloaking tech force hOyA to research overlord speed before attacking NaDa. The muta harass in NaDa's main and his newly built expansion didn't do too much damage. The terran defended well with wraiths and marines.

As the muta harass starts to be slightly effective, killing some scvs and two supply depots, the first valkyrie emerges from one of the starports. That effectively put an end to hOyA's harass and he took two expansions rather. With his new found air superiority NaDa loads his dropships with M&M and heads towards the zerg natural. It looks like hOyA is taken slightly by surprise, but he manages without massive losses. However as he is finishing the cleanup, the terran has been back to base, picked up reinforcements and drops them in the zerg main. hOyA has no choice but to admit defeat. GG.

Final PokJu vs NaDa at Blitz X

PokJu warps in on the left side and went for a gate, core into robotics, exp at the natural and support bay build. NaDa on his part lands on the right side of the map and walls in before making two factories this time. He clearly doesn't want to suffer the same fate again. NaDa tried the same thing that worked for him in the first game, he sends a marine around the map, but this time it's stopped before it can get a good look at the protoss base.

NaDa is building his command center at his natural as PokJu starts harassing with his reaver. It's however not very effective and the first reaver is mostly wasted. As a counter NaDa manages to sneak so vultures into the protoss main and harass the mineral line. Protoss then takes the south west expansion and proceeds to lose a full shuttle to a single turret in the corner of the terran main. A single reaver makes it out, but it's quickly dealt with.

NaDa puts down three more factories, a starport and expands in the middle while PokJu builds two stargates and secures the south west natural. The reaver harass continues, but costs the protoss more than the terran. Before the carriers are ready PokJu moves towards NaDa with a huge goon force. The commentators are sceptical, but as they see the 24 zealots comming to reinforce they start screaming, probably about how this will make or break the game for PokJu. Protoss attacks the terran natural again and is close to breaking the back of NaDa, but reinforcements from base and the troops from the middle manage to hold it.

“Then he unsieges and heads for the protoss natural in typical NaDa fashion.NaDa has now mined open the barrier in the middle and is preparing a push. Protoss has finally gotten up some carriers and storm however, so he is pushed back into his own expansion in the middle. Protoss has 5 stargates and lots of gateways at this point. Somehow NaDa gains control of the middle and manages to minimize the carrier harass damage. Then he unsieges and heads for the protoss natural in typical NaDa fashion. PokJu can't resist and is forced to give up on making it to the second round. PokJu lost the game due to very sloppy micro on his shuttles and carriers. He also failed to keep NaDa's south east expansion under control. GG.

NaDa has to play a qualifier to reach the second round of survivor league. The other two go back to offline qualifications for the Survivor League.

MBC Survivor League, Round 1, Group B
PokJu > NaDa Longinus II
hOyA < HiyA Longinus II
PokJu < HiyA Desert Fox
NaDa > hOyA Desert Fox
PokJu < NaDa Blitz X


It seems like Desert Fox might be a bit of a terran map. The stats are now 2:0 TvZ and 1:0 TvP. It's of course way too early to tell for sure, but this is the way it seems as terran has won in style on this map.

The Survivor Format

The MBC version of ODT had a much more complicated format. The qualifications run at the same time as MSL, which has already started. HiyA is now in Survivor round 2 due to winning today. NaDa still has to qualify. This qualification will be against one of the eight players knocked out of the first round of MSL. After that Survivor round two will consist of the 8 winners in round 1, the 4 players who won the inbetween qualifiers (like NaDa, if he wins) and 4 players knocked out in the round of 8 in the MSL. That makes 16 players who are paired to fight for 8 slots in the MSL. The 8 who lose here go back to survivor round 1 next time. Complicated? Yes.

A big thanks to Manifesto7 for helping me understand the format.

Links
TeamLiquid - HonestTea on the MBC Formats