The MST continues with group 3 and 4

With plenty of rounds still to go, the MST wastes no time in getting those matches played. Read on to find out which four players have advanced into the MSL.

Group 3 and 4 are rather well-rounded groups, in skill levels as well as in pleasing the fans. Time to find out whether the old favorites like Midas and Much are still kicking, or whether the young wolves are superior.

Group 3

MST Group 3
MatchPlayervsPlayerMap
Game 1 Muchvs BaByByzantium 2
Game 2 go.govs SaintByzantium 2

Much has had a tough time as of late, taking slaps to the face by mostly any player who decides to take a swing. We all know he's got the moves, he just needs to bring them out to advance out a group which should ordinarily be a walk in the park. The rest of the group is more or less up for grabs. BaBy has been showing some good and solid play and is clearly improving all the time. go.go and Saint are about on even terms skill wise as well, making the second spot a bit difficult to predict.

Game 1 - Much vs BaBy @ Byzantium 2



After mentioning BaBy's solid play earlier, it's nice to see him live up to the praise right away. Even though Much put pressure on him from the start, BaBy coolly and calmly deflected both zealots and dragoons in the opening minutes and then the reaver harassment, although Much helped him out by throwing away first his reaver and then his shuttle. Much kept on attack, BaBy kept on defending successfully and countering with blistering vulture raids that were much more successful than Much's efforts. BaBy eventually wins the game after a frustrated Much loses his final attacking dragoons and taps out.

Game 2 - go.go vs Saint @ Byzantium 2



A brief and painful TvZ on a map where Zerg players are not having a good time in general. Viewers who find poor mutalisk micro offensive should consider themselves warned, as most of the game saw the two hatch mutalisk build Saint fall to pieces as his mutalisks repeatedly got shot out of the sky by go.go's marines. While one group was entertaining the mutalisks, another group started moving out toward's Saint's natural and when the two marine groups were united, Saint had no troops with which to challenge them. Saint surrenders quickly.

Winner's Final - BaBy vs go.go @ Destination



The winner's final turned out to be a very dramatic event indeed. BaBy was built a sneaky proxy factory close to go.go's base and was just going to build a proxy starport in the expansion just north of go.go's main, when a marine finds the starport. The starport gets canceled and the referee calls for a pause. It turns out BaBy is not wearing headphones, which he is required to do. The OGN coach wants the game to be remade, but the FOX coach refuses to accept this. After some time the referee reaches a decision, BaBy gets a warning and the game will be unpaused.

The game resumes and go.go is now aware of what BaBy's plan is and has formulated a counter: All out attack. He breaks BaBy's wall with a few marines and a vulture, killing off a number of SCVs. A wraith swoops in to continue the SCV killing as BaBy's vultures out of two factories swoop down toward go.go for revenge, but go.go has placed unfinished supply depots at his ramp, preventing the vultures from entering. The vultures eventually make their way in and kill off most of go.go's SCVs, but not before every single one of BaBy's SCVs are wiped out by wraiths. As the wraiths return to defend the base, BaBy types GG.

Loser's Match - Much vs Saint @ Destination



Make yourself comfortable, because this game is a long one, much too long to fit into one or to paragraphs. Both Much and Saint would take turns in being aggressive, constantly getting deflected by flanks, storms and what have you. Much ended up dealing out more damage than he received, although Saint had some excellent chance to do better than he did several time. If you have 45 minutes to spare and enjoy a good PvZ with all the tech in the book, watch this one. At the end, with both players on the edge of starvation, Much was able to shut down Saint's economy totally and still have a superior army, giving him the victory.

Final Game - BaBy vs Much @ Athena 2



With his defeat in their previous game in fresh memory, Much opted for a more sneaky tactic this time around. The dark templar drop was quite successful, taking out supply depots and forcing BaBy to concentrate enough forces at that area to make it possible for another force to push in and wreak havoc in BaBy's expansion. Much was way ahead and started macroing like a madman when BaBy pulled off a series of drops that was devastating against Much's probes at all three of his bases. Unfortunately this was not enough, and when BaBy moved out with his push he was overwhelmed by protoss units and defeated.

go.go and Much advance from Group 3!

Group 4

MST Group 4
MatchPlayervsPlayerMap
Game 1 Hwasinvs maGmaByzantium 2
Game 2 HerOvs MidasByzantium 2


Hwasin and Midas, two grizzled Terran veterans against two younger players. To be frank, none of these players have been impressive recently, making predictions difficult in this group as well. In the end, even though the performance has been poor, experience still counts for something and as such Midas and Hwasin stand the highest chance of advancing.

Game 1 - Hwasin vs maGma @ Byzantium 2



maGma played an excellent ZvT against a player renowned for his TvZ ability. The lurker contain in the early game enable him to get four bases up quickly and tech to hive. When Hwasin pushes the contain back, maGma falls back and stalls Hwasin long enough for reinforcements to come down. Eventually maGma rushes forward instead of backward and takes out a larg part of Hwasin's marine forces. Some very nice use of dark swarm and plenty of very accurate scourges prevent Hwasin from doing the damage he needs to do, until finally the ultraling with defiler support overwhelm Hwasin, who taps out just before a queen has a chance to infest one of his command centers.

Game 2 - HerO vs Midas @ Byzantium 2



After both players opened with standard builds, HerO decided to play some tricks. Midas was unable to scout HerO's base and so assumed reavers would be on the way. Having moved his forces away from his natural, he was almost caught of guard when around 8 dragoons started to pound his mines to pieces with the aid of an observer, who had been created at a hidden robo bay just west of Midas' natural. The reaver did come, and did get a decent amount of SCV kills. Midas found HerO's second expansion and decided to go for a timing attack, but missed the timing window and lost all his forces. From there it was an uphill battle, being constantly outnumbered in every battle. Midas is quickly overrun and sighs heavily as he types GG and leaves the game.

Winner's Final - maGma vs HerO @ Destination



It was time to see if maGma could play as convincingly as he did against Hwasin or if HerO would halt him in his tracks. HerO started out rather well actually. His corsairs managed to clear out the overlord guarding maGma's second expansion, giving his dark templar free reign over it's drones. In an attempt to come back, maGma decides to run four lurkers into certain death, followed by him making a face that can only be described as constipated. When HerO moved out to put the hurt on maGma he had a nice unit mix, even throwing in a dark archon for maelstorm in the mix. It proved utterly futile as his army got torn to pieces as they engaged a large amount of zerglings and lurkers, even with maelstorm and psionic storm. The counterattack consisting of cracklings and defilers easily took out one of HerO's expansions, and he decided to give up right then and there. maGma advanced to the MSL!

Loser's Match - Hwasin vs Midas @ Destination



Well, it was time for the two old ones to decide who would have a chance at the second spot. Hwasin hid a second factory out in center-right of the map, while Midas expanded right away. A couple of tanks were pushed into said expansion, but heavy mining by Midas prevented them from advancing too far. One marine was sacrificed for the greater good and took out the majority of the mines, giving Hwasin the chance to run in and set up turrets and mines, preventing the command center from landing and preventing Midas from using the expansion. Midas tried everything to get back into the game, from drops to sneaking in vultures, but everything was deflected without too much difficulty. When he dropped and lost a chunk of his army to take back his natural, Hwasin counter dropped to great effect and tore down Midas' main. Midas is out, Hwasin gets a crack against HerO in the final match.

Final Match - Hwasin vs HerO @ Athena 2



For the last game we would see a good old fashioned dark templar rush from HerO. Even though Hwasin had mines places, the dt managed to navigate around all of them and head into the main, where there was no detection. It did get cleared out, but there was a serving of reaver to come soon afterward. It was not nearly as much trouble however, and Hwasin could recover and prepare his timing push. Not only was HerO's army not that strong to begin with, given that he'd invested so much in harassment, he ran parts of it over mines as well for good measure. The timing push came and would not be stopped. Hwasin wins and claims the second spot.

maGma and Hwasin advance to the MSL.

Coming up next

Moving right along to the future, this Saturday December 13th round 5 will be played. The first match will be between Sea and YoonJoong, followed by UpMagic vs by.great.

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