July > Morrow

NASL Finals Day 1 showed the dominance of South Korean Starcraft 2 players with the exceptions of aTnDarkforce and Fnatic who were able to overcome TSL_Alive and oGsZenio. Especially dominant was i mas ya-hu na gayu ST_July, who crushed very Mouz_Morrow so badly that his grandchildren will most likely be born kitan. Morrow played Terran at the start of SC2, but later switched to Zerg and now sometimes switches back to Terran when playing his most hated matchup Z v Z. In the first match on Xel'Naga Caverns, an early omen foreshadowed Morrow's demise, when he accidentally opened with a 12 - Engineering Bay instead of barracks. He quickly cancelled it and started the barracks instead but it was still a sign that it wasn't going to be his day.

Here's some of the #NASL tweets from July and Morrow's match earlier today:

Polt and MMA Interview

The GSL Super Tournament is two days away, and while none of the players I was rooting for made it to the finals (not even MKP), I am nonetheless excited about the match. When I watch both of these players I can see the styles of their mentors and friends at work. MMA truly reminds me of Boxer, while Polt looks like a less crazy version of MKP. Although I know that Polt's record against Terran is dismal and MMA's records is superb, I am still hoping that Polt can get a revenge kill for his friend on Saturday.

Below is the GOMTV interview with the players from yesterday:

***************

Q. What are your thoughts on the final of GSL Super Tournament?

MMA: Semifinals was really tough for me and I know a lot of people considered the semifinals to be the actual final. I personally think the final will be easier because MKP is better than Polt.

Polt: Starting from Ro64 ,I faced stronger opponents as I advanced. And I think MMA is stronger than oGsTOP. But since I have been getting better progressively I am confident.

Gerrard: MKP is the most hardworking and most talented player in the team. But I believe Polt facing MMA is better than having to play against MKP. We will work on building good strategies to defeat MMA.

Cella: MMA is considered as the king of TvT. And Polt is well known for his TvP sklils. I personally thought Alicia was gonna win and meet MMA in the final but was surprised to see Polt win. But he is not gonna be good enough to defeat MMA.

Note: MMA has 73% win ratio against Terrans. Polt has 35% win ratio against Terrans.

Polt: Alicia has better win ratio against Terran but I beat him so I think I will do good against MMA.

Q. MMA. You already exposed a lot of strategies against Terran. Do you think this will work against your favor?

MMA: We (SlayerS) still have an infinite number of strategies and we are ready display them in games.

Q. Polt. You have MKP, a great teammate, on your team. Are you working with MKP to come up good strategies to beat MMA?

Polt: MKP creates many good builds. Most of the builds players are using now are modified versions of what MKP has introduced first. MKP showed me a new build recently that is really great. I am ready to show it off at the final.

Q. Polt beat Alicia and MMA beat MKP. Were you asked to carry out the revenge for your teammate?

Polt: MKP said that if MMA wins the final then he will not be able to sleep comfortably. To help him sleep peacefully I will do my best to win the final.

MMA: Alicia didn’t really say anything. Alicia actually went to the reserve forces training so I will see him once he gets back.

Q. MMA. You have been showing similar patterns in your games such as secret expos or Medivac harassment. How are you going to develop this strategy?

Polt. How are you going to prepare against MMA's play style?

MMA: My strength lies in multitasking and double-way Medivac harassment. But even though people know that I am going to use that strategy in advance they don’t know how to defend against it.

Polt: I am kinda weak against Medivac harassment but all out war is also important. I am going to push through with strength.

Q. Since it’s TvT, maps are not going to affect the gameplay that much. However, which map do you think will be the deciding factor and what’s your prediction for the score?

Polt: I believe it will be the maps for 3rd or 4th set. The player who wins both sets will win the final. If the wins are split over the 3rd and 4th set, then it will go to the 7th set. I am expecting 4-1.

MMA: I believe that first set is most important because how you play your first game will affect the result of 2nd and 3rd set. I believe the score is going to be either 4-0 or 4-1.

Q. MMA. BoxeR also plays Terran and he can help out MMA with good strategies. How has BoxeR helped you make it all the way to the final?

MMA: Boxer is a great motivator and whenever he watches my game he helps me out a lot. He told me to stay calm at the semifinals after I was down 2 games. He helped me get back into the game and that’s how I was able to come back and win the game. I believe he will be of a great help to me at the final.

Q. Polt. Prime team does not have BoxeR helping out the team. How are you going to overcome that gap?

Polt: It is true that MMA has BoxeR supporting him but I have my teammates that I care about and have to lead. I have to get a revenge on MMA for MKP and I will do my best to win the team its first champion’s trophy. I will work hard to fill the gap to the best of my abilities.

Q. Prize money for the champion of GSL Super Tournament is 100 million won. Is claiming that money one of your goals in the upcoming final.

MMA: Even though the prize money is big I just want to win the championship as a pro-gamer. I have someone from SK Telecom (team) who have motivated me to win this final no matter what but I am not going to disclose more information on this until I actually hold the trophy in my hands.

Polt: Every time you play a match you have to win to take the prize money home. And it is true that money does concern me sometimes. However, once I make it to the studio and sit in that booth, the money disappears from my sight completely. And I just feel like I want to destroy the opponent in front of me. Right now defeating MMA is my only goal.

Q. Polt. This is your first time to advance to a final and your biggest enemy could be your nervousness. How are you going to overcome that obstacle?

Polt: I have not lost games in which I was able to display my full skills. I believe that if I can draw out my full SC2 skills at the final then I will have no problem overcoming the nervousness.

Gerrard: Polt is a good player but he has been having camera frights and was only able to show only 50% of what he is capable of. I just want him to stay calm and maybe I will have make him take some sedatives to do his best at the final (hahaha).

Q. MMA. After winning MLG Columbus, you said that your next goal is winning the Super Tournament. Are you nervous about the upcoming final?

MMA: The pressure from the final of an individual league is nothing compared to the pressure I faced from the GSTL final. I was the team captain and had to lead the team to the victory when they needed me the most. I think I will be able to cope with the nervousness pretty well.

Q. Polt. You are quite of a celebrity at your school. What are your thoughts on that? And is it hard to study and play at the same time?

Polt: I am grateful that people recognize me and cheer me on when the see me on campus. It is a bit tough doing both at the same time but college is college and game is game.

Note: At an interview Polt said that studying is easier than playing the game.

Q. Cella. What is MMA's biggest strength?

Cella: Other players sometimes take a break to take their mind off the game for a bit but MMA always pratices hard. When he is not playing he watches the game VODs and analyzes his opponent thoroughly. He doesn’t have any interest in other things and only takes his time off to work out. His strength is also his weakness because thanks to his characteristics, pleasing the community is a little hard.

Q. MMA do you know of Rainbow (Korean Girl Group) who will be performing at the upcoming final?

MMA: I have heard of them but I don’t know how many members they have. I just know it’s a girl group.

Q. Gerrard. What is Polt's biggest strength?

Gerrard: I believe most gamers are very focused on the game. Polt also practices a lot. Cella said concentration and constant practice is the strengths of MMA but Polt also has those strengths. On top of that, Polt also uses his practice time very efficently and effectively.

Q. Polt do you know of Rainbow (Korean Girl Group)?

Polt: Yeah I know of Rainbow and am familiar with their main song.

Note: Fans asked him to sing a line from the song but Polt kindly declined.

Q. Famous players have nicknames. Are there any nicknames you have been thinking of and would like the community to call you that nickname? And what would you do with the prize money?

Polt: I like the nickname I already have. I don’t really have anywhere to spend the prize money so I will save it and pay my tuition with it.

MMA: I have heard people call me Military Terran and that one is my least favorite. (MMA is short for Military Manpower Administration in Korea.)

I want the fans to give me a good nickname and if I win the prize money I want to help my parents get a new home.

Q. Is there a SC2 unit that you think you can use/control better than everyone else?

Polt: I am good with Marauders. Marauders are usually used against Protoss and that’s why I think my TvP is good.

MMA: I am good with Mules. Just kidding. I use Marines pretty well.

Q. MMA. Not Medivacs?

MMA: Wel I can control Medivacs well but Marines are the ones that get in the Medivac.

Q. What are the differences between MKP’s Marines and your Marines?

MMA: Don’t really wanna face his Marines really and I don't want to talk about the differences. I will need my Medivacs.

Q. Are there times when during break you feel like you want to use cheese rush or strategies other than the ones you have prepared?

MMA: I try to stick to my original plan but when I feel like a certain strategy would work better then I use that strategy.

Polt: I always stick to the strategy I have prepared. There is a saying that whenever you take a test the first answer is always the right one. I don't want to be wrong.

Q. Polt. Do you actually guess on some of your answers during the test?

Polt: Sometimes…

Q. What do you think of the balance?

Polt: I believe it changes depending on the map. Overall, GSL maps are comfortable for me as a Terran player but I am not sure about how it is for Protoss or Zerg because I don’t play those races.

MMA: I also believe that it changes depending on the map. There were certain maps that were good for Terran but I believe when the new maps come out people will complain less about the balance. I think Protoss is a strong race but some players don’t use its strengths well.

Q. MMA. You were recently eliminated from another tournament. What happened? Also what do you think about the comments about your looks?

MMA: I lost yesterday because I lack skill. And I know my face is little shady due to my facial hair. I shave often but it just keeps growing back. I am planning on doing something about this in the near future.

Q. Polt. What do you think about the comments about your looks?

Polt: People get mad when others say that I am good looking. I haven’t personally thought about it and don’t really care about it.

Q. Coaches. What are you doing to prepare your players for the final?

Gerrard: We have MKP who is helping out a lot. Polt had to do his school work while playing the game and that’s why he had trouble making up new builds but MKP has been of a great help. MKP is good at building new builds and strategies but Polt is good at adapting to those strategies, analyzing his opponents and making that strategy one of his own. We will do our best to help Polt get ready for the final.

Cella: There aren’t many things I can advise MMA on regarding TvT strategies since MMA is already on a high level. However, SlayserS is known as the top notch Terran team. We have BoxeR and are able to make good strategies. Ganzi, BoxeR, and Ryung will be a good support for MMA.

Q. Many people didn’t want TvT for the final. But there are various types of Terrans. When you have to play against a Terran player which type is worse? A classic textbook Terran that is predictable but strong or unorthodox Terran that is using risky but powerful strategies?

Polt: Speedy Terran is pretty tough to play against but you end up winning when you defend their attacks. However, players like NaDa are hard to fight against even though you know what they are trying to do.

MMA: Strategies like double Barracks, Mech and Gas first are being used these days.However, classic textbook Terran is strong. And sticking to the basics will win you the game.

Q. What are some of the hard things you have been facing preparing for the final?

Polt: I had a busy schedule and I am exhausted but I believe MMA had to go through the same schedule so maintaining a good condition for the final is important and is definitely necessary.

MMA: I don’t agree with Polt. I went to MLG and was so tired after the event. I was in zombie mode for a while so I don't think Polt and I had to go through the same schedule. I agree that maintaining a good condition is important, however.

Q. Coaches. You will have a champion from your team soon. What are your thoughts on this?

Cella: I want MMA to do his best since the opportunity doesn't come often. SC2 is still in its beginning stage and I want the fans to help us make this game something bigger than what it is now.

Gerrard: MKP advanced to the final 3 times but couldn’t take home the trophy. And now Polt is at the final. Many players share the dream of becoming the champion but I am going to help Polt win the Optimus ID and this will be passed on to the next player who wins the championship. Hopefully this will motivate MKP to work harder as well. It’s going to be some form of title at the Prime house.

Q. Players have to face slump at some point. How do you overcome your slump or stress when you practice?

MMA: Whenever I experience slump I tell myself that it’s okay as long as my skill level doesn’t drop. Whenever games don’t work out well I exercise. I play soccer or go hiking with my teammates.

Polt: The game changed rapidly recently and when I couldn’t adapt to the change I experience slump. Thinking about my current situation and adapting to the change helped me overcome the slump.

MKP Mumumu!

I've been too busy with the MLG and the NASL lately to really closely follow the GSL Super Tournament.

Part of the reason I haven't cared to watch it because of the early exit of ST_July at the hands of Slayers_Min. Now after a few weeks we're down to the final four players and so I'm paying attention again. The format of this tournament led to plenty of upsets, and the team Slayers in particular seemed to dominate round after round with the only players eliminated early being Boxer and Yugi-oh. As we reach the final four we've only got one Slayers player left, MMA, who is fresh off his nerd-crushing, choking and all around savaging performance at MLG Columbus (a victim of which was July).

One of the icky things about this Super Tournament has been the Terran dominance. Protoss were destroyed early on, leaving only one Slayers_Alicia in the final 16. And while the final 16 had 6 zergs, (IMNestea, oGsjookto, SlayerS_Min, ZeNEXLine, LeenockfOu and TSL_Revival), only one made it to the round of 8, ZeNEXLine, and he was eliminated in a close series by oGsTop.

The only reason that I'll be watching the final four and hopefully the finals themselves are if MarineKingPrime.We can make it. After making it to the finals three times now and coming up short each time, he is hungry for a win, and a chance to ensure that he does not become the quick King of Silver in SC2. I'm rarely a big fan of Terrans, a case in point is SlayerS_MMA, who is a brilliant player absolutely, but whose style of Terran while technically incredible, since his abilitly to take apart zergs in particular by consistently denying them their late bases, while holding off their large pushes in the center, is nonetheless boring. MKP, has so far been a joy to watch and so I'd much rather see him get to the finals and win.

Total Biscuit on Fast Battle Cruisers

NASL Season 1
Week 6
May 19, 2011

ST_July v. aTn.Dark.Force

Game 2

Commentators are the Awesome Andre that is Gretorp and guest commentator TotalBiscuit

The topic: If you are playing as Terran on the ladder and you end up fighting another Terran, what is a good way of saving yourself from a 40 min game of grinding and boring tank war?

TotalBiscuit: Playing (t.v.t.) is draining, especially for lower level players like myself. Everytime I see a T v. T on my ladder stream I cringe. It's the reason I go fast battlecruiser. One way or the other, the game will end in 10 mins, if I go fast battle cruisers, there you go. That's the attitude I take to it. Please don't try this at home kids, it's a terrible strategy.

Planetary Assault

In the last Guam Starcraft 2 tourney over the weekend, I went 2 and 4, which was alot better than I thought I would do. I didn't think I would win a single game, I didn't practice or play at all the week before and since I have very little experience against humans, when I do play against people of any level, I tend to make stupid mistakes and give away the game very easily. This past tourney was no different, as I found that the strategies I use against AI on insane and VH didn't work very well against humans.

My biggest win was on Scrap Station, Protoss v. Terran. My opponent likes to rush cloaked banshees, which doesn't work as well against someone like me, who noobs it up by always going forge first and building canons. It doesn't even matter what race I'm playing against or what their strategy is, I almost always go forge first and lay down canons, especially to prevent any Dark Templars or burrowed units from giving me nightmares. The problem with rushing the cloaked banshees is that you don't have much for other units. You wall in but don't have much defense at your base. My plan was to rush void rays and also proxy pylon with zealots outside his main.

He arrived with two cloaked banshees when I finally got my first void ray out. Thankfully I had some stalkers who could take advantage of the vision that the canons provided to stave off the banshees. And when my void rays arrived at my opponent's main, he had a handful of Marines who were easily taken out. I warped in two zealots to attack in the front and start killing depots. While I was killing off my opponent's base, he built some vikings and was able to take out one of my void rays while I killed off his vikings (charged void rays are the best). When he stopped resisting my killing his base I began to get suspicious. I warped in some zealots and sent them down to the gold and the side expansions, and of course he had built a command center at the gold and was mining like crazy. As I sent down some zealots and my remaining void ray to take out his gold base, I notced that he was attacking my main. I assumed that he still had his banshees left and was trying to snipe my buildings and probes, but I was pretty sure that I would be okay.

When I looked at my main to see what was happening, I was pretty certain that I'll always be a horrible macro player. While I was distracted in my opponent's gold base, he had snuck a command center into my main, landed it and morphed it into a planetary fortress. Thankfully for me, he had landed it at a point where it was getting hit by one of my canons. He started bombarding my buildings with his fortress, and so I left my zealots to take out his expansion and search for others and moved my void ray back to take out his fortress.

Since I won the match, the fact that he was able to build a planetary fortress in my main was a "lol moment," and it was really hysterical moment. If by some chance he had built the fortress in my base and I had lost, then it would have been a major "I suck" moment.

Got You Where I Want You

If you ever play against my brother tQmagnavox on the ladder or in a tourney, there is a very good chance that he is listening to this song below while he fights you.



Slowly overtime I've developed a similar habit of having a queue of Youtube videos loaded up and repeating over and over as I play for long periods of time. I find it can be helpful when things get intense to help keep you focused even as you hear screams and explosions are your forces and buildings are being ripped to shreds.

I unfortunately missed the last GUSC2 tourney that was held over the weekend (congratulations to tQprobe the winner this week!), because ti maolek i siniente-ku yan mumayulang iyo-ku keyboard, but as I was preparing for it last week I found myself listening to one song over and over again. My most difficult matchup has been kontra Terran, as I find the M and M and M deathball so frustrating and so difficult to take down in a straight up match. I have found as I wrote about in my last post, that if I can proxy pylon rush Terran and take down their army at their ramp or eventually wear them down an hour into the game by warping in an almost endless supply of cheap kamikaze zealots, I can beat Terran, but if the game ever moves into the middle to late stages, Terran eventually overruns me with its M and M and M.

The song I was listening to in order to give me inspiration for a nice way to defeat Terran was "Got You Where I Want You" from The Flys, which was a popular song in the late 1990's (when I used to be into contemporary popular blah blah music), and was featured in the soundtracks for Disturbing Behavior and Dawson's Creek. I have always loved the sound and tortured feel of the song and over the years, as I have changed my interpretations of what the point of the intent of the song (and the singer) are. Sometimes it feels sardonic. Sometimes angry. Sometimes hopeful. Sometime earnest.

When I added this song to my Starcraft 2 playlist, I found myself once again enamored with the lyrics and the sort of slow, twisting angry style of the song. Last week I actually translated it into Chamorro, or rather created a Chamorro version of the song. Here's a little tinamtam of what I came up with (the first is the original English lyrics, the second part is the Chamorro version and then an English translation of the Chamorro)

Hey, what's the point of this?
Oh hey, what's your favorite song?
Maybe we could hum along.
Well, I think you're smart,
you sweet thing,
Tell me your name,
I'm dying here.


Got you where I want you


*****************************


Nene para hafa este?
Sangåni yu’ i mas ya-mu na kanta.
Buente siña ta akanta
Kao malate’ hao
Siempre siempre
Sangåni yu’ ni’ na’ån-mu
Sa’ esta kumekemåtmos yu’


Hågu i magoggue-ku!


*******************************

Baby, what is the point of this?
Tell me your favorite song
Maybe we can sing it to each other?
Are you smart?
Of course of course
Tell me your name
Because I'm just about to drown

You, are my salvation!

The moral of the story is that eventually I was able to figure out some cool builds against Terran and the song was the perfect soundtrack as I found myself picking apart the Very Hard AI piece by piece, killing them on both land and air, and switching back and forth between units and tech to keep the advantage, limiting their expansions and even using warp prisms for drops. And the whole time, that song in the background shrieking the perfect followup to what I was doing, na put fin, gaige hao manu na ga'o-ku.

I Uttimo na Tinigong Zealots Siha

My brother often tells me that the AI is harder than humans. For a long time I wasn’t convinced of this, since most of the games I watch people play in Starcraft 2 are high level, professional mampos kapas players, who are able to play the game at a level I will never reach. But I always need to remind myself that the majority of people who play SC2 are nowhere near that level and might be just as good as I am.

Recently it seems like the computer has gotten harder when I play against it. They mix up their strategies and are making units they never did before. This seems especially true with Terran, which I detest playing against on VH or Insane. I’ve learned the hard way recently that Blink Stalkers is not a good choice for early strategy against Terran since Marauders seem to have an uncanny ability to take out all their pent up frustrations (perhaps over Don’t ask Don’t Tell) on my delicate units. Stalkers look pretty cool, until they get hit by Marauders and then you realize they are made out of glowing origami paper or something and not as high tech and awesome as they seem.

One thing which the computer has started to do recently is build ravens, which irritates the hell out of me. I’ve never had a human use a raven against me and I have certainly never had a human use a Point Defense Drone against me and so I was blown away the other day when I found my attempts attacks muffled by two PDD thrown on the ground. When I had a computer use Seeker Missiles against me, that was the moment I knew that the apocalypse was here. Makpo’ i tano’, na’listo hao sa’ esta mamagi Si Yu’us ta’lo.

Last week I tried a FFA match against 3 insane computers. Whenever I try FFA games against a diverse number of races Terran tends to emerge as the last man standing of the computers. I don’t know why this is the case, but usually in these matches which in one instance stretched for 2 hours, it is usually me barely clinging to life trying to take down an incredibly OP Terran goliath. There were two zergs, me a Protoss and one Terran. One zerg was taken down in 10 mins. The second zerg was almost taken out by the Terran and by me who killed his expansions, but was able to sneak a hatchery into the base of the dead zerg without any of us seeing it. That left me and Terran, who sent army after army of Marines, Marauders and Medivacs against my ramp. My canons and colossai held them off very well while I expanded onto both islands on the map. While I was distracted and building up my expansions, Terran hit me again and overran my defenses. I quickly sent a prism to his main and warped in some zealots to try to distract. It worked for a minute before they returned again to my main. I decided to sacrifice my main and work on fortifying my islands. With one island almost mined out by that point, I wasn’t quite sure what to do.

I had been fighting with a land army, but by now Terran had made six BC which were part of the reason why they had been able to take out my main. I built a few air units to try and snipe the BC, but they had Vikings with them and I wasn’t able to do much damage. By now I sent my observers around and saw that Terran had five expansions including one gold. Thankfully, the zerg had regained some strength and computers never lose hope and so they constantly rebuild expansions hoping to come back. Terran was somewhat distracted with zerg and so I could use that to my advantage to weaken Terran. Knowing that my resources were limited I decided to use a daring kamikaze strategy of warp prisms and charge zealots all over the map. I warped in units at two places at once and followed around the Terran main army with my observers and phoenixes to make sure I had the breathing room to have my zealots do some damage before the main army came back.

One by one, with great patience I took out all of Terrans expansions and whenever their main force would find me, my zealots would slowly whittle down their ground army. Eventually their air forces which were still five BC, attacked my island with all my leftover tech and buildings. They slowly took out my canons but gave me the chance to warp in six stalkers who slowly but surely (with the help of the remaining brave canons) took out their BC. With no Terran resistance left I started sending out my zealot army after zerg, who had by now expanding to three bases, but still have pretty weak units. In all the game lasted about an hour (in-game). It is interesting, because against P and Z I have strategies that usually work, but against Terran, unless I can kill them early with a rush or distract them effectively with VR, the only way I can win is by that last desperate charging of the zealot brigade.

Legacy

With the release of Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty, it carries a heavy stigma of being a sequel of the one of the most popular and most successful PC games of all time. This game literally created E-sports, or at least gave it a worldwide recognition that spawned communities in nations all across the world. Nowadays, South Korea is known as the hub of Starcraft where TV channels broadcast games and players and teams are sponsored by national banks and large food manufacturers. To this day Brood War is still a force in South Korea, but the sequel is making waves everywhere else.

As a spectator sport, the sequel pales in comparison to the original. This might be due to the fact that Brood War has had 10 years to developed and be fully fleshed out. The game is young. But when time passes, I hope games like this will be produced:

Game 5 of Bisu (P) versus Iris (T), art in pixel form.

If you have any knowledge of Starcraft or Starcraft 2, or any Real-Time Strategy prowess you will know why the game itself is epic, as you do not know who is going to win until the last 60 seconds of the 30 minute match. But the background of the game itself is worthy of discussion as well, at this time, Bisu was considered to be unstoppable and was slated to win this whole league. Iris is an aging Terran player who’s two years past him prime and for him to take it to a 5^th game was a big surprise in itself. I will not spoil the results but I hope dearly that games like this will be produced in Starcraft 2.

GSL Finals

I have to admit, I was let down by finals of the GSL last weekend.

I was all excited and pumped up, I even decided to write about the GSL in my column in the Marianas Variety this week just to share even a faint engram of how excited I was. My brother's friend had GSL watching party, where we had pizza and endured the incredibly long and mind-numbing interludes between matches, only to watch TSL_Rain get completely outplayed by OGSMC. There wasn't really a lot of suspense, although there were some interesting plays.

I got the feeling that most people expected Rain to act like Bitbybit and simply all in rush every single game, but I felt like he was straining against that and trying to prove himself to be a bit more than that, and as a result a sort of cautiousness crept into his play. He made the unusual move of going siege tank against protoss in his first two games, as if to prove he wasn't one of those kaduku taisensia na all in freaks, he brought some siege, some marines and medivacs and would bunker like crazy just outside of MC's base. He wasn't rushing but trying to blockade. In both instances, his timing was a bit off. Although he had no way of actually knowing it, MC had already expanded in both games, the first to his protected natural, the second to a hidden base, and so the blockade didn't work since Rain was stuck on one base. In both cases he didn't press effectively, and so MC was allowed to come back.

This is not to say that Rain is not a great SC2 player. You don't get to the finals of the GSL by being lucky or super-cheesy. You have to have alot of skill just to play at that level. But you could definitely see Rain's newness in his play. He started off in a way that seemed to doubt himself and to doubt his style of play.

In the 3rd match, Rain was able to come back by playing with the mind of MC and tricking him into thinking he was going to go two barracks when in fact he was going for the infamous partial "Tasteless Build" to rush out cloak banshees.

In the 4th match, MC almost completely mindf-cked Rain by doing the cheesiest most despicable rush possible where you build your gateway in your opponent's main, pylon on 7, gateway on 8 and then just chronoboost out zealots to tear the base to shreds. The map was Steppes of War which is one of the smaller maps ideal for quick and brutal rushes and I like most people watching was anticipating a super fast Terran Rain rush, but MC shocked everyone (ko'lo'lo'na Si Rain) by rushing his attack before Rain had even built his supply depot.

The 5th game, was the final, although it was very close. Both players got attacks into each other's bases at the same time. Rain snuck blue flame hellions into MC's base and took out all his probes. Rain tried to defend off a zealot-immortals-stalkers-sentry force which invaded his main but could not. It was somewhat close, but ultimately Rain's command center could not escape as it was surrounded by sentries and stalkers picking it off.

OGSMC is a great player. The way he picked apart LiquidJinro in the round of four was so brutal it should have come with a warning for people watching. But I was disappointed that one of the more macro players did not make it to the final to make the last games more epic. It seemed that many players had practiced techniques to try to kill your opponent in that first timing window when they expand, or get them with some sort of blitz tinigong before they are even ready for aggression. I was glad that at least one of the final games (game 2) went to an epic level, with nearly all bases taken and so many things happening at once not even the commentators could keep up. I hope that in the next tournament however there is a good mixture, because the first layer of strategy, the mind games which take place at the very start can be fun to watch, but there is nothing more satisfying than a game which pushes the limits and endurance of both players and the audience by going far beyond what you could imagine at the game's start.