We're rapidly approaching the halfway point for the MST with group 5 now having been played. Let's see how it went!
Two well liked Terrans in this group, Sea and UpMagic, get to face YoonJoong and by.great respectively. Sea is his usual, stable self and it is still far too early for him to collapse under the pressure of playing in an individual league. Happily for UpMagic, he gets to face by.great rather than YoonJoong in the opening game. UpMagic has won 7 out of his 10 TvZ, making this his current best matchup. Both YoonJoong and by.great have been consistently mediocre, although YoonJoong made a rather large splash in the first season of TG Sambo. The Terran duo should be considered favorites to make it out of the group.
MST Group 5
MatchPlayervsPlayerMap
Game 1 Seavs YoonJoongByzantium 2
Game 2 UpMagicvs by.greatByzantium 2
Game 1 @ Byzantium 2
Starting out in cross positions, both players decided to fast expand, with Sea walling off the entrance to his base. Perhaps Sea knew what YoonJoong's plan was, or perhaps he just wanted to play it safe, because he had turrets up long before the sneaky DT arrived at his front door. YoonJoong then immediately took his third base and teched to arbiter, but it wasn't long before Sea set up a perimeter of tanks and turrets just above this second expansion, shelling everything in range.
Sea crept closer and closer to the Protoss natural, until he was in shelling range of the pylon barricade. In a move that would give UN mine clearing forces apoplexy, YoonJoong sent several zealots into the minefield, successfully pulling a few with him and destroying a few tanks, which soon thereafter enabled him to break the contain. YoonJoong attempted a counter attack towards Sea's second expansion, but was beaten back while a dropship loaded with vultures harassed his main. A series of devastating vulture harasses followed, leaving YoonJoong's economy in shambles. After a failed recall attempt in which he lost two arbiters, he attempted a desperate push to no avail. Sea regroups, pushes, destroys the Protoss army in the center of the map and starts shelling YoonJoong's expansions, and YoonJoong surrenders.
Game 2 @ Byzantium 2
UpMagic isn't one to do the expected when he plays and so it wasn't that great of a surprise when he blocked off his ramp with first his barracks and immediately afterwards with his factory. by.great had gone for a pool first, but when he saw what the tricky Terran was up to he took his expansion and added another hatchery right away. Pretty soon a force of hydralisks moved out to attack UpMagic's natural. They dutifully cleared up mines along the way, until some mismicroing saw the entire force wiped out by mines. Shortly thereafter he managed to lose another small force of hydralisks, this time despite having an overlord right above the mines.
His mutalisks were more successful at first, almost wiping out all the SCVs in the main. He had to more or less sacrifice his natural to achieve this though and there were still plenty of goliaths being produced. The mutalisks became less effective as the minutes passed, until finally UpMagic pushes once again with tanks and goliaths, leaving by.great with no choice but to gg.
Winner's Final @ Destination
While Sea opened with a standard one factory FE, UpMagic was greedy and took his expansion before even his barracks. Despite a vulture temporarily driving the SCVs away from mining, he had established a firm economic advantage. Then he opted to build a ton of factories, where he perhaps should have looked to his defenses. Sea streams in with half a dozen vultures, forces the command center to lift off and mines the entire natural. Now Sea is the one with two running bases against one.
Sea's vultures are wiped out when UpMagic's second tank arrives. The first tank tested the minefield earlier and was destroyed, it should be noted. UpMagic had built a scanner and scanned his natural, but there were too many mines for him to wipe out with a single scan. UpMagic knew he was light years behind Sea, and when one of his tanks triggers a few mines, destroying it and a bunch of SCVs, he decides not to play it out and surrenders. Sea advances to the MSL.
Loser's Match @ Destination
No surprises early game, both players fast expanding and by.great almost refusing to build zerglings altogether, at least until his lair finishes. Some light zealot harassment from YoonJoong annoys by.great, but no major harm done there either. YoonJoong was now content to sit on two bases, scout with his corsairs and tech up while adding gateways. by.great's scourge has seen the spinning forge, the added gateways and templar archives and knows what's coming. He adds sunkens to his expansions and squeezes out a few more drones before producing a bunch of mutalisks.
The mutalisks prove ineffective and are ultimately wiped out by YoonJoong's archons, but the large number of sunkens in each base discourages YoonJoong from attacking them with his zealot/archon force. More mutalisks are produced and used to greater effect, wiping out the main nexus and the templar archives, as well as a number of probes. A desperate counterattack kills all the drones in by.great's third expansion, but reinforcing hydras save the hatcheries and wipe out the zealot/archon force. The mutalisks continue to fly around, harassing the edges of YoonJoong's base and sniping high templar. A large battle between a large hydralisk force and the protoss zealot/ht/archon combination takes place in the center of the map, and even though some really nice storms are cast, the protoss forces are sent packing. The second large battle proves fatal for YoonJoong, as wave upon wave of zerg units destroy first his second expansion and then almost finishes off his natural before he types GG.
Final Game @ Athena 2
It was time for the rematch between UpMagic and by.great. As it turns out there were some clear similarities between this game and the previous one, like vultures being the unit of choice for Upmagic. by.great found out the hard way just how effective zerglings are against well microed vultures, wasting almost two control groups of the critters. Mutalisks were soon to pop, but this time UpMagic was prepared for it and had plenty of goliaths and turrets up.
The rest of the match consisted more or less of by.great floundering around with his mutalisks, trying to inflict some damage, any damage, against UpMagic. UpMagic fended these off while gathering forces, until finally he breaks the sunken line, kills off the mutalisks with a large force of goliaths and wins the game.
Sea and UpMagic advance to the MSL!
The Near Future
On Thursday the 18th of December there will be double the fun, as both group 6 and 7 will be played on that very day. In group 6 Memory will face Luxury, followed by ZerO vs Sea.Really. A few hours later group 7 begins playing, starting out with FrOzean vs Calm followed by none other than sAviOr, who will be attempting to destroy Tester. If you are unable to catch these games live, just check back here at GosuGamers for VODs and a rundown of the action!
Links
YouTube.com - VODs
