2011 GSL January Up And Down Matches: Group A

The first group of the Up and Down matches features three experienced players. PoltPrimeWE eliminated oGsMC and SlayerSBoxeR from GSL 1 and GSL 3 respectively. oGsTheWind beat MakaPrimeWE in GSL 2 and then lost to the eventual champion, IMNesTea. FOXLyn isn't quite as accomplished in SC2, but he did quite well in Warcraft 3 and reached the semifinals of the Code A tournament.

Two of these three players will return to Code S for GSL 5 and one of them will go down to Code A. FOXLyn and PoltPrimeWE both have two shots, for whoever loses their game will play oGsTheWind, with the loser of that game being relegated to Code A.

Warning: GomTV's VOD list spoils the results of the first match by listing both participants of the second match. I'm sure they'll get that sorted out in a day or two but for now be careful if you don't watch live and want to avoid being spoiled.

FOXLyn (Code A Challenger) Terran Code A T-#15 2010 Results: DNQ, ro64, ro64 GSL 4 Results: W AngelGirlPrimeWE (2-0) W ButterflyEffectZenith (2-1) W FOXMoon (2-0) L ZeNEXByun (2-1)

PoltPrimeWE (Code S 3rd Place) Terran Code S T-#23 2010 Results: ro32, ro64, ro16 GSL 4 Results: L IMNesTea W TheBestfOu L TheBestfOu

oGsTheWinD (Code S 4th Place) Terran Code S T-#23 2010 Results: ro32, ro16, ro64 GSL 4 Results: L IMNesTea W TheBestfOu L TheBestfOu

FOXLyn (T) vs. PoltPrimeWE (T)
Match Rating: 4/10
VOD Link

Click for match play by play and commentary

Game 1 - Shakuras Plateau

Cross positions, Lyn at 5 and Polt at 10

Command center for Lyn, factory for Polt

Two more barracks for Lyn, command center and hellion for Polt

Starport and engineering bay for Polt, stim and shields for Lyn

Lyn builds some turrets but otherwise sticks with infantry. Siege mode researching for Polt.

Factory for Lyn, stim coming for Polt

Lyn moves across the map with a marine force while building a starport at home

Lyn builds a third command center in the 3 o'clock main

Siege mode starts for Lyn while he loads up two dropships with marines and marauders

A patrolling viking spots the dropships. Lyn quickly empties the dropships and the marines shoot down the viking.

Armory coming for Lyn. Polt moves down his ramp with a marine/tank army.

Polt sieges up at the top center, so Lyn goes around him and into his natural

With only a few units to defend, Lyn can easily move into his main

Polt's army returns and destroys Lyn's force before any real damage is done

The two players fence in the middle of the map. Lyn outmaneuvers and corners Polt's army.

Polt's dropships pick up all his marines and fly away from where he's trapped to Lyn's third.

Just a single marine defends Lyn's third...unsuccessfully. Polt's army easily shoots down the fleeing orbital before Lyn's army arrives.

Lyn still controls the center of the map with a good number of siege tanks and he's taking another expansion close to his main

Polt sends his new marine/tank army to the lower path in hopes of going through the rocks into Lyn's main

Lyn has spotter marines there, so he counters into Polt's natural and sieges up there

Lyn's army kills all sorts of SCVs in the natural and then moves into Polt's main

Polt's army enters Lyn's main and starts destroying production buildings

Lyn pauses the game

Mouse problem, apparently. Quickly resolved.

The game continues and Lyn has unbeatable siege positions in what's left of Polt's main and what's left of his own main

Lyn attacks into Polt's army and cleans it up

Polt concedes

Very passive game from Polt. He didn't seem to have a timing he was trying to hit, so why concede map control and allow Lyn to safely expand?

Game 2 - Blistering Sands

Factory for Polt, tech lab and then reaper for Lyn

Command center and stim for Lyn, command center and hellion for Polt

Two barracks for Lyn, starport for Polt

The reaper gets into Polt's base but the hellion drives it out and kills it before it can see everything

Engineering bay and viking for Polt. Lyn moves his infantry to Polt's natural.

The bunker finishes just as they arrive, so they go to the rocks.

Siege mode starting for Polt, factory for turrets for Lyn

Once the rocks go down, Lyn goes back to the expansion and easily destroys the bunker

Lyn's little army kills some SCVs as well before getting cleaned up

Lyn sends another group of units through the back rocks to attack SCVs in the main

Polt sends a banshee to Lyn's natural but loses it to a turret while his attention is elsewhere

Siege mode starts for Lyn, who is taking down the rocks at the gold

While he gets the gold up and running, Lyn attacks Polt's natural again with a larger infantry army. He kills the two siege tanks but gets driven off by Polt's infantry

Now Lyn moves underneath Polt's natural and sieges up there,

Polt counters to Lyn's gold base. Lyn sees it coming and lifts the orbital off in time for it to escape.

Polt sieges at the gold for a time, preventing the orbital from returning, but eventually Lyn attacks and destroys his army

Lyn moves back into the center of the map and relands his orbital at the gold

Polt sends a small group of marines to attack it again, but Lyn counters with infantry of his own and fights them off

Polt attacks a third time, and this time he gets a favorable siege position that allows him to shoot down the orbital as it flees

Lyn destroys Polt's army and although he's basically mined out his huge supply lead means he's in good shape

Lyn rebuilds his gold base and also takes a fourth while fighting small skirmishes with Polt's outnumbered forces in the center of the map

Polt floats a command center to his gold, though he never removed the rocks there

Lyn sends a huge infantry force to Polt's gold base and destroys the command center and all the SCVs there

For good measure, Lyn's troops go and flank what's left of Polt's army

Polt surrenders

Very good pressure from Lyn early in the game gave him the advantage, and Polt's tactical bumbling made sure he never came close to evening things out.

Commentary: I've never been enormously impressed with FOXLyn but he looked a thousand times better than Polt in these two games. Polt's play was passive, even aimless.

Match 1 Loser vs. oGsTheWind (Z)
Match Rating: 4/10
VOD Link

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Game 1 - Xel'Naga Caverns

Hatch first for TheWind, two barracks for Polt with the second hidden at his natural

TheWind doesn't scout the second barracks. Polt builds a bunker in one of TheWind's natural chokepoints

Drones rush out and delay the bunker, but marines arrive and allow the SCV to finish it

The drones go back home and TheWind sends out large numbers of zerglings, killing rallying marines in the middle of the map

The rush falters as TheWind's zerglings kill all the marines on the map except for the four in the bunker

Polt floats his second barracks back to his main, where he's been building more barracks and a command center

TheWind relocates a spine crawler to take out the bunker at his natural

Baneling nest and zergling speed for TheWind, stim and shields for Polt

Polt lands a command center at his natural and builds two bunkers there

TheWind makes a bunch of banelings and rolls in, killing one bunker and most of the marines.

Zerglings kill the other bunker, the mules, and the SCVs. The command center has to lift.

TheWind tries to break Polt's ramp with banelings but two marauders absorb all of the damage

TheWind takes a third base, Polt builds bunkers in his main

Lair for TheWind, siege mode for Polt

With siege mode finished Polt finally is able to control his natural, landing the command center again

Spire and baneling speed for TheWind, Polt building turrets and getting an armory

Infestation pit for TheWind, who seems to have stopped mutalisk production at about 8

Third factory and two thors coming for Polt, hive for TheWind

Polt starts to move out with his thor/tank army, TheWind getting a greater spire and corruptors

Polt starts crawling his siege tanks toward TheWind's third

TheWind counters to Polt's natural with his entire army, smashing through everything and then advancing into the main

Polt can't save his base, so he lifts off some of his buildings and sends them toward his army

Meanwhile Polt's army destroys TheWind's third

TheWind gets five brood lords out and they pretty much instantly demolish Polt's tank/thor army

Polt concedes

Good game from TheWind.

Game 2 - Shakuras Plateau

Cross positions, TheWind at 7 and Polt at 2

Two barracks for Polt, hatch first for TheWind

TheWind puts a spine crawler at his natural, Polt starts a command center at his natural

Polt moves his barracks to wall-off his natural

Zergling speed for TheWind, three more barracks for Polt

Lair and baneling nest for TheWind, stim and shields for Polt

Spire, burrow, and baneling speed for TheWind

Polt moves out with about two dozen marines and four marauders

TheWind burrows some banelings in the path of Polt's army, but Polt scans and clears them out

TheWind double expands to the 11 o'clock main and one of the center expansions

Siege mode and lots of factories for Polt, mutalisks coming for TheWind

Infestation pit for TheWind, armory and turrets for Polt as the mutalisks do minor harassment

Hive for TheWind, thors for Polt

Ultralisk cavern and greater spire for TheWind

Polt starts attacking across the top toward TheWind's third

TheWind counters to Polt's natural, smashing through into Polt's main

Polt crushes TheWind's expansion at the top of the map and advances down to TheWind's natural

TheWind finishes about 10 brood lords and uses them to demolish Polt's mech army

Polt surrenders

Very similar to game 1...TheWind controlled the map and coasted to hive units.

Commentary: Everyone knows that you have to do damage to Zerg before they get to their hive tech units. In both games Polt sat on two bases while TheWind got an economic lead, he spent his time getting counters to mutalisks, and then got run over when TheWind didn't end up using very many mutalisks. In both of today's matches, Polt played very similarly in the second game after his strategy had already lost the first game, which is not encouraging. Polt's got a lot of work to do if he wants to get back to his former level, and he'll have to do that in Code A.