With the preliminaries out of the way, the Survivor tournament has kicked off to continue separating the wheat from the chaff. The first two groups have already been played and four players have already advanced.
Fans of watching Starcraft will be delighted to know that there will be MST groups played all throughout December and even the first few days of January. As usual, the groups consist of young hopefuls who are out to make a name for themselves and grizzled veterans who for one reason or another didn't make it that far last season. Here's a rundown over the two rounds that have already been played.
The map played in the first match is Byzantium 2. The winners and losers matches are then played on Destination and finally the last finals is played on Athena 2.
Group 1
Two champions in a group together with, well, two non-champions. Even though July and fOrGG both have seen better days, they ought to be able to pull through against opposition such as FireFist and Bul_T.
Match 1 - fOrGG vs FireFist
The first game started out quite mellow. Cross positions on Byzantium with fast expansions from both players with standard teching from both players was the way of it early on. The first piece of action was when FireFist decided to try to overrun fOrGG's forces with a zergling/mutalisk push, but all he accomplished was receiving a bloody nose, as there were far too many marines and medics for comfort. FireFist resorted to attempting to harass with his remaining mutalisks while teching up to hive, but fOrGG had another thing in mind.
fOrGG amassed a huge force of marines and medics and parked outside FireFist's natural. When he had determined that most of the zerg forces were elsewhere, he busted the sunkens and the two lurkers guarding the choke, rushed in and killed every drone in sight. Although his control wasn't perfect, losing units to lurkers while his attention was elsewhere, the damage was certainly done. Even though his science vessels were a bit late and dark swarm and lurkers were protecting the Zerg, he continued to put pressure on FireFist, who finally decided that it was no use and surrendered.
Match 2 - Bul_T vs July
July's favorite matchup is against Protoss, but the map Byzantium 2 is not known for favoring zerg. Bul_T took his expansion right away while July went for a speedling opening, which ultimately didn't do much. July decided to go straight for a two hatch mutalisk build, something that Bul_T was most likely expecting him to do. There were far too many cannons guarding Bul_T's base for July use his mutalisks effectively, and when he tried anyway his mutalisk force was nearly completely wiped out. Although his dark templar failed to do much, Bul_T had only to wait until he had sufficient forces before moving out. July's mutalisks exploded in screeching clouds of blood and July himself then surrenders shortly thereafter.
Winner's Match - fOrGG vs Bul_t
Counting on the fact that fOrGG was going to wall in and stay put for a while, Bul_T opened with a nexus before gateway, putting him in a very favorable economic position. Once fOrGG discovered this he knew he had to do something to hurt his Protoss adversary, lest he fall too far behind. His two factory push soon reached the bridges leading into Bul_T's base. The vultures had a golden opportunity to rush in and do the damage fOrGG needed to do, but they fumbled at the bridge just long enough for dragoons to block their passage. Regardless, fOrGG managed to push far enough in that his tanks could shell Bul_T's natural expansion.
He did not have any anti air however. A shuttle with zealots that dragged a bunch of mines into the tanks made quick work of the push. fOrGG managed to defend the counterattack that consisted of goons and a shuttle with zealots and a reaver, but only barely. Protoss forces kept streaming in, eventually wearing fOrGG down enough for Bul_T to push up the ramp and into the main decisively. fOrGG surrenders and Bul_T, rather unexpectedly, is the first player to advance to the next stage.
Loser's Match - July vs FireFist
July opened up with a faster spawning pool than FireFist, but was unable to capitalize on it. Just as his zerglings reached the enemy base, FireFist's own zerglings popped out of their eggs and managed to drive July away. However, July was still teching to mutalisks faster than FireFist was, although not by very much. FireFist decided to place a second hatchery in his main before starting up his spire, a decision that would prove to be wise. July had the upper hand when it came to mutalisks early on, so FireFist sent a few zerglings to harass the natural expansion July had taken, sending all the mutalisks over there. That's when FireFist's own mutalisks struck the main drone line, enhancing the economic lead he already had.
When mutalisks weren't harassing the drones, zerglings were, and July couldn't keep up with FireFist's superior production and eventually was overpowered. July is defeated and FireFist gets a rematch against fOrGG.
Final Match - fOrGG vs FireFist
For the rematch fOrGG opted for a slightly more aggressive opening than the last game. FireFist noticed the bunker going up outside his natural and sent a handful of drones to deal with it while waiting for the zerglings to arrive. Arrive they did, but FireFist lost the drones he used for defense and a satisfied fOrGG retreated in good order. FireFist's response was a two hatchery mutalisk build, but unfortunately fOrGG's defense was enough to prevent any serious damage from being done. As fOrGG pushes out with a decent force, FireFist flies all his mutalisks and parks over the pushing force, wiping it out but losing the bulk of his mutalisks as well.
Another, slightly larger force soon pushed out for fOrGG. Having spotted FireFist's third expansion, half the force went straight to take out the hatchery while the other half entertained the now reinforced mutalisks. The force was wiped out, but so was the hatchery. His frustration increasing, FireFist persisted in making mutalisks and sending them into fOrGG's defenses, only to finally get herded into a corner and decimated after a particularly foolhardy attack. When the final mutalisk fell, FireFist surrenders and fOrGG claims the second spot in the MSL.
MBC Survivor Round 1
GamePlayervsPlayer
Match 1 fOrGG > FireFist
Match 2 Bul_T > July
Winner's fOrGG < Bul_T
Loser's FireFist > July
Final fOrGG > FireFist
Group 2
Horang2 and Dongrae have certainly got a fight on their hands in this one. Flash and GGPlay should be considered the clear favorites to make it out of the group, unless one of them trips up or gets cheesed out. Interestingly enough Flash may get the chance to even the score with GGPlay, who punted him out last time they faced off.
Match 1 - Flash vs Horang2
A short and brutal display of the powers of dark templar, Horang2's cheese strategy went just the way he liked it. Flash scouting the wrong direction, the zealot blocking the ramp just right, Flash going for a standard FD build and not having detection and finally the use of zealots to clear the mines away from the dark templar. Flash did what he could, but he simply discovered the cheese to late to put up more than a token fight, whilst Horang2 coolly picked Flash's main apart.
Match 2 - GGPlay vs Dongrae
Both players fast expanded right off the bat, Dongrae doing so in a very greedy fashion by expanding before he began building his barracks. GGPlay did not put down his third hatchery but instead decided to tech directly to lair for some fast mutalisk action. Dongrae had a bunker at his choke and was feeling secure when GGPlay rushes in with more than a control group of zerglings, takes out the defenders and sends the SCVs at the expansion running. It all went downhill from there for Dongrae as he was forced to build firebats when he needed marines to combat the impending mutalisk harassment and having to send his scvs off like that messed up his timing, making his turrets just late enough for GGPlay's mutalisks to wreak havoc.
And so they did. Time after time the mutalisks swooped in, destroying turrets, scvs and marines wherever they flew. The +1 attack upgrade only made them deadlier and Dongrae was struggling just to stay in the game. A desperate timing push attempt with a handful of marines was easily taken care off. His expansion in ruins and his main breached by zerglings and mutalisks, Dongrae surrenders.
Winner's Match - Horang2 vs GGPlay
Having first taken out Flash, it was time to see if Horang2 could take on the other group favorite. After a standard opening by both players Horang2 plopped down the citadel of adun and started up that spinning wheel on the forge, meaning we were going to see a speedlot push. GGPlay was busy adding hatcheries and securing his economy before doing anything else. What followed was not tricky, not fancy and not flashy, it was simply a consistent, never-ending stream of zealots that continued to pour into GGPlay's base and beat him to a pulp. Six gateways were constantly producing zealots and despite GGPlay's best efforts, his hydralisks just didn't cut it. A very happy Horang2 rushes out of the booth and sits down in the back room, reveling in his advancement to the MSL, while a stunned GGPlay ruefully shakes his head over the result.
Loser's Match - Flash vs Dongrae
Two Terrans feeling the pressure of an early loss, one of whom was a major favorite to leave the group. Flash decided to show everyone exactly what he thought about that. When Dongrae's scouting scv entered Flash's base, he saw the one factory, the barracks lifting off and assumed that Flash was going to expand. He never found the second, hidden factory that Flash had built. The attack was swift and brutal. Dongrae tried to outproduce Flash by adding a third factory, but by then it was already too late. Only the final match between GGPlay and Flash awaits.
Final Match - GGPlay vs Flash
And so they meet again, albeit not in the same tournament as last time. Both players opened with standard fast expansion openings without any drama. Flash must've been watching GGPlay's game against Dongrae, for he also put down a bunker at his choke and reinforced it heavily to prevent zergling rushes. The mutalisk harassment that ensued was effortlessly swatted aside and as the mutalisks flapped around looking for weak points, lurkers were on their way for GGPlay and science vessels were out for Flash.
The Terran push takes place at a leisurely pace, lurkers and mutalisks skirting the edges and forcing tanks to siege and unsiege constantly. Once Flash scans the defiler mount being built he realizes he needs to step up the pace a bit. He moves down to set up camp just outside GGPlay's natural. This is where the flank takes place. GGPlay rushes in from both sides with mutalisks and lurkers aplenty. The result? Every single lurker annihilated, no tanks lost and very few marines lost for Flash. All that remained was to stim up and attack move into GGPlay's base. GGPlay surrenders and Flash takes the remaining spot in the MSL.
MBC Survivor Round 2
GamePlayervsPlayer
Match 1 Flash < Horang2
Match 2 GGPlay > Dongrae
Winner's Horang2 > GGPlay
Loser's Flash > Dongrae
Final Flash > GGPlay
More to come in the MST
The next two rounds in the MST will take place on the 11th of December. First out that day will be Old Man Toss Much vs BaBy and go.go vs Saint. The following round will begin with Hwasin vs maGma followed by HerO vs Midas.
Links
YouTube.com - VODs
