GSL Code S Group F Recap

Group F is our first Terran dominated group, with 3 of the top level Terrans of GSL all bundled up into one nice package. We will of course be expecting Mvp to do quite well in this group, especially with his long-time dominance over MKP. Keen has been a little bit of an outlier when it comes to performance, he plays various styles and makes interesting decisions sometimes when it comes to positional play. MarineKing will of course look to smash through this group, but expect fireworks if he has to come up against Mvp, who he has never beaten.

GSL Code S Group F

• Set 1: MarineKingPrime (T) vs SamsungKhan RorO (Z)
• Set 2: LG-IM Mvp (T) vs MVPKeen (T)
• Set 3
• Set 4
• Set 5
• Final Results
• Gameplay Summary

Set 1: MarineKingPrime (T) vs SamsungKhan RorO (Z)

MKP has been an extremely dominant force in the game for quite a long time, and personally I doubt he’ll fade anytime soon, especially with HOTS coming along and the new opportunities that will provide. We’ll be on the lookout for his amazing micro, and also for his style of being completely unpredictable with his play. Cheese, macro/micro are all things that he can throw out there which can keep his opponents off balance and has done so in his past 12 Code S appearances.

RorO is a very talented yet underrated Zerg player in Starcraft 2. He is from the KesPA scene and while he wasn’t necessarily a dominant force there during BroodWar, he was still a top level player and I am very interested to see how he goes in this group.

DUCK EXPECTS: 2:1 MKP

Game 1: Cloud Kingdom

MKP starts off with a double … Makarax I guess it is. It’s just forward of his natural but not actually proxied. MKP is able to get the bunker up just behind the mineral line of Roro’s natural, and is able to get a decent amount of damage done, until a lot of lings are created and Roro is able to bust it down.

Roro counters with around 15 lings and does kill the remaining defensive marines of MKP, but he won’t be able to kill him because he has to drone behind the counter-pressure or the game is already over. It’s important to keep in mind that MKP did not kill the natural hatchery, but slowed down a lot of drone production.

MKP goes for double engineering bay after he stabilises himself, and is looking to play towards more of a macro game, but Roro has other ideas. With a baneling nest and a lot of roaches out, Roro counter attacks and gets an incredible amount of damage done, banelings bursting on SCVs, and the game is over, MKP taps out.

Game 2: GSL Daybreak

Yet again MKP goes for proxy 2barracks, but this time they are in a completely weird position, up and the top side of the map, quite far from Roro’s base, but still MKP yet again is able to clean up a lot of zerglings, and in a replica of the previous game doesn’t kill the hatchery.

Again in a very similar position to last time, Roro counter attacks with a lot of lings and does get a large amount of damage done on the defending marines, but he too is unable to finish the job.

Things steady up this time, unlike the previous game where Roro went for a bust. Both players are pushing up to 3 bases, and MKP heads out onto the map with hellions and marine/marauder, along with stim to help out. MKP with some nice splits is able to clean up the defensive units of Roro, and is able to stop mining at the third base for quite a while.

MKP pushes forward again with a well-macro’d marine/tank force, and while he does a great amount of damage cleaning up some more of Roro’s units, the attack is unable to take down the third base. Luckily for MKP he’s still on 3 bases and Roro is on 3 bases, so MKP will still be happy about the position he’s in.

MKP moves up to four bases, and looks to be in a commanding position in the game, with tanks, marines and medivacs all roaming the map, continually denying Roro from picking up a fourth base. at the 22 minute mark Roro loses almost all of his infestors, and shortly after is forced to GG.

Game 3: GSL Cloud Kingdom

Roro opens up with a 9pool, and MKP goes for a CC first. Things are looking a little precarious for MKP.

Minimal damage is done by Roro, as MKP cancels the lowground CC and is forced to restart the building inside the main. With a few marines out the attack is stopped, and MKP is free to move out with a small marine force to try some counter-pressure, but it doesn’t get much done.

Yet again MKP looks to capitalise on his beautiful micro and timings pushing out with a 10 minute stim/+1 weapons timing push. He runs across the long map, and is able to annihilate the natural base of Roro, and with some Fantasy GG timing, Roro falls to MKP.

MarineKing wins 2:1

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Set 2: LG-IM Mvp (T) vs MVPKeen (T)

Keen is a very interesting player, in that he has been around the Code S level for quite a while now, but has always seemed a step behind the other players. He does have the ability to bring out all sorts of builds and has some strong cheese play, and in a similar style to Byun sometimes he’ll draw a game out to take advantage of his macro skill. It will certainly be a tough challenge ahead for him to beat Mvp, and then the others in the group.

Mvp picks up the “Nestea Award” for this season of Code S, being one of the only players besides the great man Nestea to get the award, and potentially, one of the only ones ever. Another consideration for Mvp will be his neck/wrist injury and whether that will factor into his playstyle. With potential problems limiting his ability to play the game, maybe we’ll see him go for less micro-intensive mech builds?

DUCK EXPECTS: 2:0 MVP

Game 1: GSL Akilon Wastes

Simple openings for both players, but Keen goes banshees with cloak before his expand, and MVP goes for a simple marine based opening while expanding.

The first cloak banshee goes through to MVP’s base and does get some decent damage done, 7 workers in total but nothing much after that. Keen goes into a third base a little quicker than Mvp, and will be playing a bio style to the mech style of Mvp.

Keen is able to take his third base a lot quicker than Mvp of course, with the bio style being very mobile and practical for this type of quick base acquisition. Mvp eventually does move up to his own reasonably quick third base, and even has a fourth on the way, which puts him in an amazing position as a mech player if he is able to hold them. Keen begins dropping around the map, doing some decent damage however never really dealing a crippling blow.

After Mvp secures his fourth base Keen takes own and looks to push towards Mvp, dropping in marauders and attacking from the front he is able to get a really good amount of tank kills but the problem is that Mvp has already started up his battlecruiser production, and Keen is no where near prepared for it. With upgrades rolling on the BCs and tanks slowly making their way forward towards the main base of Keen, Mvp takes the victory in game 1.

Game 2: GSL Daybreak

Game 2 begins with more standard play from both of these Terrans. Mvp goes for some quick siege tanks and will be forced to defend himself from a quick attack from Keen. The game proceeds at a standard pace, with both players trading blows until MVP is able to move up towards the natural of Keen and sieges up, holding Keen to 2 bases.

Keen cleverly holds up for the time being, and sticks to the 2 bases… while sneaking a third at what is normally Mvp’s fourth or fifth. We continue to see Mvp hold Keen up, thinking that he’s on 2 bases, while MVP is still unable to take his own third due to splinter forces of Keen roaming around the map denying bases.

Eventually, Mvp is forced to drop back as he slowly loses air domination over Keen, and falls back to the Xel’Naga watchtower. Soon after Mvp is able to spot the extremely hidden third base of Keen, and while Keen takes what is technically a fourth base (in the normal third position) Mvp pushes into his third and clears it out. Under the cover of this destruction across the map, Keen is able to fly out a fleet of medivacs with tanks and marines and is able to siege up the third base of Mvp, taking it down swiftly.

After all these highly skillful and positional plays, Mvp starts to fall apart, and with a final attack Keen is the one who is able to push into the natural and main of Mvp, finishing him off with hammering tank fire.

Game 3: GSL Whirlwind SE

Command center first from Keen, with a 1-base banshee play coming from Mvp. Cloak also gets started for Mvp and he is actually able to get quite a sizeable amount of damage done with the first 2 banshees he sends out to Keen’s base, killing 9 SCVs total.

Keen attempts to counter with a small force of marines and a single siege tank and although Keen does have the tank and air control with 3 vikings, he cannot get any real damage done due to the marines and tanks already prepared by Mvp with his fantastic macro.

Both players continue to macro up for the next 5 to 10 minutes, going for a marine/tank strategy of which Mvp is well-renowned for being absolutely stellar at. Keen almost catches a massive break, dropping some marines in the main base of Mvp, almost killing the tech lab researching stim! Luckily for Mvp his own forces rush back inside and they save the tech just in the last second.

Mvp pushes across the map and does a decent job of downsizing the forces at the third base of Keen, but Keen is able to hold in the end with a superior tank count. After the failed push and due to the lower tank count of Mvp, Keen goes for a huge 4 medivac doom drop into the main base of Mvp, doing insane amounts of damage, and Mvp is forced to GG.

Keen wins 2:1

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Set 3: MVPKeen (T) vs MarineKingPrime (T)

DUCK EXPECTS: 2:1 MarineKing

Game 1: Neo Planet S

Yet again we see some proxy action from MKP, this time with a proxy barracks heading into a reaper rush.

The reaper could end it straight away, and to put it simply, it does. With a CC first from Keen, he has extremely late defensive units, and after the first few marines die, Keen taps out.

Game 2: GSL Cloud Kingdom

Keen decides to send it back in the face of MKP, starting up his own proxy barracks, and sends out a quick reaper to try and take advantage of MKP’s factory play. He only gets 2 SCV kills which isn’t too successful at all. MKP is able to counter very quickly with his own marines and a couple of hellions, and does a sizeable amount of damage, killing off 13 SCVs.

Keen is eventually able to recover, and with a hellion drop is able to get his own damage done and along with a followup cloak banshee he evens up the score, and perhaps even makes it worse for MKP.

Not one to give up without a fight, despite his losses in the worker tally, MKP still has a decent bio army, and once he adds in a few more hellions for splash, he is able to take the fight back to Keen, and with some fancy micro work MKP takes the game, sealing the set and proceeds to the round of 16.

MarineKing wins 2:0

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Set 4: SamsungKhan RorO (Z) vs LG-IM Mvp (T)

DUCK EXPECTS: 2:0 MVP

Game 1: Neo Planet S

Mvp starts up with a quick command center into 2 barracks play. It will be interesting to see whether he goes for a mech style on this map which tends to favour mech, or if he’ll go for bio play. Roro goes for a standard style, quickly expanding but he also throws down 2 very quick gas at the natural which may be the sign of some early cheese and/or push.

Roro starts up 14 roaches with speed and 1/1 upgrades, and this attack is going to be quite powerful against the basic marine/marauder army of Mvp. With siege mode very far from completing, the roaches of RorO are able to bust into the natural base, and clean up quite a few units before the attack is finally deflected by a couple of tanks and a few marauders.

With Roro taking a tech, economy and base lead on his Terran opponent, he is free to drone up hard and push straight up to ultralisk tech. With the amazing creep spread that Roro has on the map, he is able to position himself perfectly to begin his final attack into Mvp.

Broodlords, ultralisks, infestors and banelings all converge on Mvp’s natural base, and despite a valiant attempt by Mvp to counter, the game is over.

Game 2: GSL Cloud Kingdom

Both players opening up reasonably standard, 1 barracks expansion, with a starport/hellion followup from Mvp, while Roro goes for a quick expansion followed by 4 gas and an expansion.

Mvp attempts to hold control of the map with some hellion pressure, and starts researching cloak while his hellions and even his first few marines look to poke at the third base. Unable to get much damage done, Mvp pulls back and waits for the banshees to come across the map. Roro starts up his lair, and with a baneling nest and a roach warren out his options for dealing with Mvp remain open. The cloak banshees are unable to really get any damage done due to some wonderfully placed spore crawlers, they are left with very little to do.

Behind the pressure from Mvp he continues to power up, getting double armory (pointing to mech) and taking his third base. Roro still has his economy running fine, and he looks to be going straight up to broodlord tech.

At the 15 minute mark Mvp looks to push out with the standard 2/2 mech army push pre-broodlord, and he is able to take down the attempted (but not really mining) fifth base of Roro. He continues to roam out on the map, moving down to the southern side towards the third base of Roro, and he is able to clean up the fourth… but loses his own third. Mvp is then subject to a flurry of gruesome fungals from Roro, losing every single viking he has.

Mvp attempts a second attack with some extra vikings that he quickly scrounged, but it isn’t enough. He continues to battle on and despite some decent attacks, Roro techs up to broodlords, and alongside fungals, queens, roaches and lings he sweeps through the remaining forces of Mvp and he is taken out by Roro in an upset. GG

Roro wins 2:0

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Set 5: SamsungKhan RorO (Z) vs MVPKeen (T)

DUCK EXPECTS: 2:1 Keen

Game 1: GSL Whirlwind SE

Roro opens up with a quick pool, yet again trying to take advantage of the commonplace command center first build Terrans have been using on this map. Unfortunately for Roro, Keen has been very non-standard and has gone for a barracks build followed up by a slightly quick gas just after it.

The first group of zerglings run across the map to try and get some damage done, and while they are able to kill 1 marine, it’s a bad start for Roro. Regardless, Roro is still able to macro up, taking his natural base and a third not too long after, and starts up a spire along with a baneling nest.

Keen meanwhile attempts to get some damage done with some early hellions, but isn’t really able to get too much done, losing almost every hellion that he attacks with. He is able to take his natural expansion and starts his own bio based play. Some mutalisks come about and get some harassment done inside the natural and third of Keen, and with a big zergling/baneling push at the front, Roro does a small amount of damage, but nothing too heavy.

At the 18 minute mark Keen attempts to push out with a large tank/marine army, but Roro positions himself perfectly, utilising the extremely large open spaces of this map. This allows him to get a complete surround on the army of Keen, completely crushing it, giving him an incredible lead.

Keen is still sitting on 4 bases at the 28 minute mark, but the problem is that this map is so large that it’s very difficult to maneuver around the map properly to attack all the outlying Zerg bases. Roro is up to 6 effective bases, and with a very large ultra/infestor/zergling army out, Roro is able to finally take this first game.

Game 2: GSL Daybreak

Roro starts up with a quick pool, a double extractor trick into 8 very quick zerglings. Keen on the other hand has gone far more economical, with a command center first on the high ground. The quick lings from Roro do get up to the ramp of Keen and somehow kill a couple of SCVs that are building the CC and the barracks, but other than that he doesn’t actually get too much done.

Keen expands out to his natural and gets his bio play going and actually heads out with a small medivac-with-marines and a hellion attack. It doesn’t get too much done due to a few early roaches from Roro, but still, it’s turning the pressure back to his opponent.

Marine/tank play comes from Keen, and while he gets his third and fourth bases, Roro plays very passively, preparing his own tech too. Ultralisks are going to come from Roro, his 3/3 upgrades and ultra armour on the way and with a plethora of banelings prepared he attacks the fourth of Keen, and was able to snipe down the planetary fortress.

Roro makes his way up to 5 bases and his economy is looking fantastic, and with Ultralisks, banelings and even a few broodlords, he is eventually able to crush any resistance from Keen, and we get a GG.

RorO wins 2:0

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Final Results

RorO and MarineKing advance from the group.

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Summary of gameplay:

RorO:
I’ll admit, I’m quite shocked to see RorO make it out of this strong group. I didn’t at all think he’d have the skill to take down Mvp, but the lingering question is; did he actually beat Mvp, or did Mvp lose it? Regardless we saw some wonderful play from RorO, reminding me a little of Losira actually, with brilliant creep spread and the tendancy to go for ultralisk tech. I don’t think he’s at the same level as some of the other high-powered players in the round of 16, but we will definitely see him grow.

MarineKing:
Personally I feel like this wasn’t a true test of MKP’s skill. I’m not really saying that “he cheesed so he had no skill” but with the way he played here today we were not able to check out whether or not MKP still has the macro ability to stick through a longer game. Don’t get me wrong, I certainly think he can, but it’s hard to really say how good he looks from the strategies played today. Unless you’re checking out what he did do today, and that was definitely some fantastic proxy play alongside brilliant micro.

Mvp:
The big man is out, and the question on everybody’s lips will be “is his injury effecting him that much?”. It’s curious because as mentioned earlier on in this recap, it would have been expected that if Mvp’s neck/wrist problems were coming back to haunt him, I would have thought he’d continually use a mech style which requires less micro. But we saw him play bio quite a lot, and it could have cost him. We’ll never know until there’s an interview about it. With that in mind, while much of his prowess was on display, a few tactical and positional errors (notably in the Cloud Kingdom game against RorO) let Mvp down today.

Keen:
I was a little bit upset that Keen wasn’t able to push through in this group, not only because I wanted to see another hilarious ceremony, but also because his ability to play multiple styles is quite fun to watch. I must admit I did expect him to try out some more interesting builds particularly on Whirlwind, but the fact that Keen seems to sometimes just think “YOLO LETS LIFT UP AND DROP ALL THE THINGS” makes him very exciting to watch because you’ll never know what’s coming. Yet again though, Keen seems to just be on a rung a tad lower than some of the other Code S players, but hopefully he can come back strong next season in Heart of the Swarm. Speaking of which, here’s a present from me: 69RHKC-49WC-T876EM-E8D4-J62RWD. Enjoy!

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