2011 GSL January Code S Semifinals

The Code S semifinals opens with a battle of unbeaten teammates. IMmvp and IMNesTea have gotten this far without losing a single game. Something's got to give. Can NesTea throw a wrench into what many expect to be a coronation for mvp?

mvp may be on the rise, but MarineKingPrimeWE is already a king. Sort of. His unique style will be matched against LiquidJinro's rock-solid play. Can MarineKing become the first player to repeat as a finalist or will Jinro become the first foreigner to reach the finals?

IMmvp Terran #27 Map Veto: Scrap Station 2010 Results: DNQ, ro32, ro16 GSL 4 Results: W TSLFruitDealer W oGsjookTo W oGsZenio W TheBestfOu W oGsHyperdub W choyafOu W TSLTrickster (3-0)	vs.	IMNesTea Terran #2 Map Veto: Steppes of War 2010 Results: ro64, Champion, ro8 GSL 4 Results: W PoltPrimeWE W MakaPrimeWE W oGsZenio W SlayerSBoxeR W choyafOu (3-0)
Maps: Xel'Naga Caverns, Shakuras Plateau, Blistering Sands, Jungle Basin, Metalopolis

LiquidJinro Terran T-#11 Map Veto: Blistering Sands 2010 Results: DNQ, DNQ, ro4 GSL 4 Results: W EGIdrA L CheckPrimeWE W oGsEnsnare L MarineKingPrimeWE W oGsMC W oGsMC W EGIdrA (3-1)	vs.	MarineKingPrimeWE Terran #5 Map Veto: Delta Quadrant 2010 Results: DNQ, second place, ro8 GSL 4 Results: L TSLClide W SlayerSLegalMinD W SlayerSLegalMinD W LiquidJinro W STRainBOw W oGsNaDa (3-0)
Maps: Scrap Station, Steppes of War, Jungle Basin, Xel'Naga Caverns, Shakuras Plateau

IMmvp (T) vs. IMNesTea (Z)
Match Rating: 8/10
VOD Link

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Game 1 - Xel'Naga Caverns

Gas then pool for NesTea, gas for mvp

NesTea takes his natural on 15 supply

Zergling speed for NesTea, factory for mvp

Command center for mvp, also blue flame research and hellions

Lair and two spine crawlers for NesTea

Two marines catch and kill one of NesTea's overlords. Zerglings kill them before the initial hellions kill them in turn.

mvp sends three hellions into NesTea's natural as blue flame finishes. NesTea pulls his drones quickly and only loses a few.

Stim and siege mode for mvp, spire for NesTea

Mutalisks coming for NesTea. mvp moves out with a tank/marine/hellion force

Three tanks, a dozen marines, and three hellions move toward NesTea's natural

NesTea counters into mvp's main, positioning the mutalisks over the production buildings

NesTea desperately sends zerglings into siege tank fire and finally manages to kill all the marines

With the marines gone a few mutalisks can clean up the tanks.

Both players are even due to all the damage NesTea did.

NesTea starts a hatch at the gold base and gets baneling speed

Hellions hit the natural. Most drones flee while a few go to block their way.

mvp moves marines and medivacs down toward the gold base, but NesTea has burrowed banelings at the watchtower

Two banelings detonate, killing about a dozen marines. mvp has to turn around and retreat with mutalisks sniping medivacs as he goes.

mvp continues harassing NesTea's drones with hellions but NesTea keeps the damage to a minimum

mvp tries to threaten NesTea's gold again but NesTea has about 20 mutalisks now and forces him to stay back and defend

mvp puts a command center at the gold and starts making a planetary fortress

mvp starts making thors, forcing the mutalisks to stay farther back

NesTea masses up an enormous zergling/baneling army and attacks mvps's gold

NesTea's forces flow around the planetary, routing mvp's forces and pursuing them back into the natural

Unlike most Zergs, NesTea doesn't waste banelings on the wrong units, so he has plenty. So many that mvp's few surviving forces go all the way into his main

But the banelings and mutalisks pursue them even there. With almost all the marines dead, the only thing opposing the mutalisks are three thors

NesTea magic-boxes all three thors at once with his mutalisks

mvp concedes

The broadcast didn't make it clear just how much damage NesTea did when he countered his mutalisks into mvp's main, but I believe it was considerable. Then he got his gold base up with minimal interference from mvp thanks to the baneling land mines. From there, he massed up and then crushed him. Great game.

Game 2 - Shakuras Plateau

Lower positions, mvp at 7 and NesTea at 4

mvp walls in on the low ground, NesTea goes hatch first

The scouting SCV starts a bunker at NesTea's natural but it's just a harass move, not a serious rush. Drones deal with it.

Two more barracks and a command center for mvp. He uses the barracks to wall off his natural.

Seeing the wall-in, NesTea takes an immediate third.

Zergling speed for NesTea, factory for mvp

Baneling nest for mvp, starport for NesTea

Two engineering bays and a banshee coming for mvp, lair (in his main) and evolution chamber for NesTea

Stim and an armory now for mvp. Seeing the first banshee, NesTea puts a spore crawler at each base

Two more barracks for mvp, spire for NesTea

mvp starts shooting down the rocks leading between bases. Baneling speed half done for NesTea.

Siege mode half done for mvp, NesTea takes a fourth

mvp moves a siege tank to the rocks leading to NesTea's base and sieges up

mvp drops a few marines into NesTea's main to provide vision

NesTea's mutalisks kill some rallying units while he builds a ton of spine crawlers.

While the mutalisks harass mvp's army and base, NesTea builds an ever-larger zergling/baneling army

mvp takes down the rocks and sends a large group of marines to attack the spine crawlers. Banelings move in and kill them instantly.

mvp finally moves in more aggressively and attacks the spire. NesTea brings everything, wiping out the army

mvp sends a second wave of units across, driving back NesTea's survivors and moving into NesTea's main

NesTea doesn't have enough units to stop them. They take out his tech buildings and lair.

mvp slowly advances into NesTea's natural. NesTea fights every inch of the way but he just doesn't have the numbers.

NesTea concedes

The game might have gone differently if NesTea hadn't put his lair and tech buildings in his main. It was his spire coming under threat that forced him to move in with his whole army (and he didn't save the spire anyway). If the spire had been at his natural, he could have kept harassing and biding his time for quite a bit longer, allowing the eventual battle to be fought at on better terms and with a bigger army.

Game 3 - Blistering Sands

Hatch first for NesTea, two barracks for mvp

mvp sends an SCV and some marines to NesTea's natural

Seeing them coming, NesTea starts a spine crawler. Meanwhile the pressuring SCV and the scouting SCV wall in NesTea's ramp with bunkers

First drones, then zerglings attack the bunkers. One of the SCVs is killed but the other finishes its bunker and marines get in.

NesTea fights an elaborate battle, blocking reinforcements, transfusing his spine crawler, and repositioning it while keeping mvp's units occupied.

NesTea actually wins, killing the bunkers and chasing the surviving marines away, killing most as they flee

Hard to say how badly NesTea was hurt by that. The two players are close on supply and NesTea has a worker advantage, but he did lose his queen at the end.

Zergling speed for NesTea, command center for mvp

Stim and shields coming for mvp, lair and baneling speed for NesTea

mvp moves in with marauders and marines once stim is finished. Half of NesTea's zerglings blunder into them as they approach and are killed.

NesTea might not have had enough to defend anyway, but now he's really in trouble. The infantry move in and crush the natural.

NesTea tries to make a few banelings at the top of his ramp but mvp's marines fight their way up and kill them before they can finish.

NesTea concedes

NesTea didn't seem to expect the follow up attack. Well, actually he didn't seem to expect either attack. While he's occasionally lost in the past, I don't know if I've seen anyone else manage to surprise NesTea. To avoid elimination, NesTea will have to win on Jungle Basin, the Graveyard of Zerg.

Game 4 - Jungle Basin

Hatch first for NesTea, no gas fast expand for mvp, who doesn't even wall in

Factory and two barracks for mvp, zergling speed and lair for NesTea

Spire for NesTea, siege mode for mvp

Engineering bay, stim, and a starport for mvp

mvp sends ten marines to the watchtower

Speedlings surround and kill them. Mutalisks on the way for NesTea, mvp starts building turrets.

Mutalisks reach mvp's base just as the first turrets are getting done. But the coverage isn't good enough, they bypass and then continue to harass.

NesTea takes a third in the center and starts a baneling nest.

The mutalisks and zerglings take out the rocks behind mvp's base

Armory and second factory coming for mvp. Burrow and baneling speed for NesTea

NesTea's mutalisk army is up to 18. He moves around the periphery of the base harassing where he can, but mvp's base is now crawling with marines

mvp moves down his ramp and scans to find NesTea's burrowed banelings.

NesTea double expands to both outside bases.

In an epic misclick, NesTea flies his mutalisks over mvp's mass marine army and loses almost all of them.

mvp moves in and destroys NesTea's center expansion despite taking heavy losses

mvp finds one of the outside bases and sends a small marine detachment to destroy it, easily enough done since there's nothing defending it

mvp tries to move into NesTea's main but turns back after meeting heavy resistance

Instead he goes towards NesTea's last outside base and sieges up there

NesTea seems to think about attacking mvp's third base, but mvp's army turns on his units before he can.

With several thors and tons of marines controlled perfectly, NesTea can't do much against it.

NesTea surrenders

Well. I don't know that NesTea would have won if he hadn't lost those mutalisks, but he certainly would have had a better chance. I wish I could have seen whether his strategy--which looked like an adaptation of the Terran model of controlling the center of the map--would have worked in a "fair" fight.

Commentary: It turns out that IMNesTea and IMmvp are both really good, although I guess we already knew that. NesTea didn't get dominated by mvp the way some people expected, but mvp definitely looked like the better player.

LiquidJinro (T) vs. MarineKingPrimeWE (T)
Match Rating: 9/10
VOD Link

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Game 1 - Scrap Station

Gas and factory for Jinro, no gas fast expand for Jinro

Two more barracks for MarineKing, hellion and blue flame for Jinro

Starport for Jinro, stim for MarineKing

MarineKing scans and sees the factory and starport

Jinro has a small group of marines on MarineKing's side of the map while he drops the hellions.

The hellions attack and hit the SCVs. The SCVs take a lot of hits before marines come to help.

The marines line up and the hellions kill all of them, requiring marauders to come and clean them up

Meanwhile Jinro dropped his marines into MarineKing's natural, killing a bunch of SCVs.

Marines rush to defend the natural and since they have stim they overrun Jinro's marines.

But already Jinro's first banshee is flying into MarineKing's main

Two mules come down just as it arrives and are killed instantly.

The banshee moves to the expansion, cloaks when marines threaten it

MarineKing stims and scans but Jinro dodges.

The banshee is quite hurt but Jinro goes back for more harassment.

MarineKing stims and scans again, but Jinro dodges again

Another banshee is in MarineKing's main, getting a good amount of kills before getting killed

Jinro not quite as far ahead as I expected...apparently this wicked micro is slowing down his macro, which isn't surprising I guess.

Finally MarineKing kills the banshees in both of his bases.

Oops, another one just flew into his main.

Jinro putting up turrets on the edge of his base as well as sensor towers

Jinro building siege tanks. MarineKing loads two dropships full of marines

MarineKing also takes the gold base.

Spotter supply depots allow Jinro to counter the drop quite easily

Jinro drops marines into MarineKing's main and then retreats when defending units arrive

One of Jinro's banshees forces the gold command center to cancel

Jinro drops MarineKing's main again while hitting the natural with a banshee

Among other things this latest banshee kills the SCV building MarineKing's third

Jinro moves a massive army...over ten siege tanks and tons of marines as well...across the rocks in the middle of the map

Jinro sieges up at the exit to the rocks and starts to break down the entrance to MarineKing's natural

MarineKing loads up a ton of dropships and counters to Jinro's main

Several dropships are destroyed on the way in by Jinro's turret wall, but there were so many to begin with there's still plenty of marines in his base

Jinro moves into MarineKing's natural and sieges up. Meanwhile MarineKing's forces destroy Jinro's production buildings

Jinro tries to get a siege tank or two to secure his base but MarineKing's marine micro is too good

MarineKing's attempt to take a hidden expansion fails as Jinro sends a dropship full of marines to kill it

Jinro had to lift the command center in his main and fly it to the island, and meanwhile he finally secures his base

MarineKing has a lot of tanks now and tries to counter across the center, but Jinro sieges up outside the exit just in time

Instead MarineKing loads up dropships and tries to attack Jinro's natural, but he runs into another turret wall and takes heavy losses just getting there

Jinro's defenders clean it up

MarineKing tries to take the island again but Jinro again forces a cancel

Jinro shadows MarineKing's army with a cloaked banshee while he escorts his orbital towards the gold, picking off stray tanks

Jinro ambushes the orbital with marines, getting it into the red before MarineKing's army forces him back

The command center continues on to the gold, where it gets shot down

MarineKing tries to advance on Jinro's third but Jinro moves tanks in place just in time

MarineKing drops tanks on the high ground above it, but a banshee comes and forces them to retreat

Jinro ambushes the dropship as it tries to withdraw

MarineKing concedes

Fantastic harass play from Jinro. I thought he was actually too cautious when he made his attack. After seeing a siege tank defending the ramp to MarineKing's main, he stopped and started crawling toward the natural. But there were only two tanks there and Jinro had ten. Once he knew the marines were in his own base, Jinro could have easily smashed through the defenses, occupied MarineKing's main, then won the game a lot faster. But he won anyway, so it probably doesn't matter.

Game 2 - Steppes of War

No gas fast expand for MarineKing, gas and factory for Jinro

Factory for MarineKing, both players put bunkers at the top of their ramps

Siege mode and tanks coming for Jinro

Jinro builds a proxy barracks near MarineKing's main. MarineKing adds another bunker and starts a starport and siege mode

MarineKing starts a bunker at his natural just as Jinro's army arrives, killing it easily

The barracks flies in and provides vision of the top of MarineKing's ramp for Jinro's siege tanks

MarineKing getting a banshee

Jinro positions his siege tanks and takes out two of MarineKing's

Jinro tries to move up the ramp but MarineKing attacks with a banshee and Jinro's marines are on the low ground

MarineKing floated his natural's command center to the gold base and Jinro doesn't know about it

Jinro builds a bunker on the low ground and tries to hold the contain, not realizing it is already broken

MarineKing masses up a large army and then attacks down the ramp, crushing Jinro's army

MarineKing advances to Jinro's main, takes a devastating siege tank volley, and then pulls back

Jinro has air superiority with vikings, so he gets a defensive position in place at his natural and floats a command center there

MarineKing doesn't press the issue, he just takes his natural to stay a base up

Jinro moves into the center of the map and outmaneuvers MarineKing in the grass, landing a lot of siege shots and sniping medivacs with his vikings

Jinro adds another starport, then starts banshees and cloak

MarineKing concentrates his forces and attacks Jinro's army in the middle of the map. Jinro's heavily outnumbered.

Jinro concedes

Great strategy from Jinro, but disappointing that he didn't scout the gold base. If he had, he probably would have won.

Game 3 - Jungle Basin

MarineKing gets gas first, then builds his barracks on the high ground in the middle of the map

When it's done, he lands it on the low ground between the center and his base, then builds a factory where the bunker used to be

Jinro scouts and can't find the barracks. Meanwhile MarineKing now proxies a starport right outside Jinro's natural.

Jinro sends three marines to MarineKing's main. There's only one marine there to defend.

Jinro shoots down a supply depot and the two SCVs that try to repair it, then kill the marine. A hellion comes to deal with them.

They kill the hellion and move into the main, but SCVs kill them while Jinro's attention is elsewhere.

The first banshee moves into Jinro's expansion. Jinro has a turret building but it's not even half done.

The banshee kills every SCV, then kites the marines that try to deal with it, kills more SCVs that try to finish the turret.

Jinro has to give up and float the command center to his main, where he at least has turrets

Jinro has a viking out but he has to use lots of scans to deal with the banshees

MarineKing switches to a marine tank army and moves to the back of Jinro's expansion, taking down the rocks

Jinro's siege mode isn't done yet. He briefly holds with two unsieged tanks and a few marines, then drops back and sieges up when siege mode finishes

A timely banshee arrives and helps Jinro win the battle. Of course Jinro is still quite behind.

MarineKing sends one tank and six marines to Jinro's expansion

Meanwhile Jinro puts a banshee in a dead spot of turret coverage in MarineKing's natural, puts it on hold position, and kills a bunch of SCVs while MarineKing's attention is elsewhere

Jinro cleans up the forces at his natural with siege tanks

MarineKing creates another force and attacks again, this time attacking from the front

There's a bunker there but nothing to repair. MarineKing's army breaks through then swarms over the siege tank and raven autoturrets that try to slow them down

The surviving marines move into the mineral line of Jinro's main, killing SCVs

Jinro concedes

MarineKing has always been a strong micro player, but now he's using some really dynamic strategies. Looks like it might be too much for Jinro.

Game 4 - Xel'Naga Caverns

No gas fast expand for both players

Two more barracks for MarineKing, factory and bunker at the top of the ramp for Jinro

Starport for Jinro, shields and reactors for MarineKing

Siege mode starts for Jinro, MarineKing gets a factory and starts a command center beside the rocks at the gold

Jinro gets banshee and cloak, MarineKing getting a starport and stim

Jinro's first banshee arrives at MarineKing's natural before stim is done, killing quite a few SCVs

Jinro's second banshee finds the gold base

MarineKing starts a fourth base

Jinro moves into the center of the map with a large siege tank army

MarineKing can't actually engage the tank force, so he counters toward Jinro's natural while Jinro crawls toward the gold

Jinro crawls in and takes out the command center at the gold. MarineKing started a fifth already, so he does have that.

MarineKing masses all his forces and attacks Jinro's position, even bringing a lot of SCVs

Jinro's army gets wiped out, but there aren't many survivors for MarineKing

Despite his advantage in bases, MarineKing only has 25 SCVs, so he doesn't have the lead you might think. Of course he has four orbitals.

Jinro clears the rocks at his gold and floats a command center there.

MarineKing sends his army around to the back of Jinro's expansion, but supply depots alert Jinro and he counters with his army.

Meanwhile a small marine force goes to one of MarineKing's expansions and kills the mules there.

Jinro tries to move up the map but MarineKing attacks the expansion again.

Jinro deals with it and MarineKing retreats. Unfortunately Jinro can't do anything to reduce the medivac numbers.

Jinro moves up to MarineKing's new gold command center, but while he is there MarineKing counters and destroys Jinro's gold.

MarineKing attacks Jinro's natural again, this time completely running over it before Jinro can get there.

Jinro pushes up to MarineKing's gold and sieges up there, easily destroying the the command center. MarineKing attacks but his units melt.

While Jinro moves toward another of MarineKing's expansions, MarineKing counters to Jinro's main

Jinro lifts all the buildings there and floats them out. Meanwhile, his army moves into MarineKing's natural and sieges up

MarineKing attacks from several directions with a massive force of marines and destroys Jinro's army

Jinro surrenders

Great double expansion from MarineKing. Jinro fought hard but they were too evenly matched for him to win once MarineKing had that kind of advantage.

Commentary: MarineKing looks better than ever. Given how dangerous a player he was back when he usually did similar builds, how hard is he to handle with such diverse openings? Jinro fought hard and his back to back semifinal finishes is a great achievement, but MarineKing is a cut above. Even so, MarineKing probably would be the underdog against either of his possible finals opponents, IMmvp and IMNesTea.