2011 GSL January Up And Down Matches: Group G

In Group G the second place player in the Code A tournament, ZeNEXByun, goes against the two players he selected: LeenockfOu and ZeNEXLiveForever. Byun looked very impressive at times during his run through the Code A tournament, but he had trouble with early rushes and harassment. LeenockfOu has played some really good ZvT games in the past, most notably his epic ZvT against TSLClide in GSL 3. ZeNEXLiveForever, meanwhile, was a surprising semifinalist in GSL 1. Even in that much weaker tournament he was thought to have gotten farther than perhaps his skill strictly would lead you to expect. Since then LiveForever has been pretty much out of the picture, focusing on academics instead of practicing. Unfortunately, even he's completely recovered his former skills, everyone else has been getting better all this time. If LiveForever beats either of these players and stays in Code S it would be one of the biggest upsets in GSL history.

ZeNEXByun (Code A Challenger) Terran Code A T-#9 2010 Results: ro32, ro64, DNQ GSL 4 Results: W SlayerSGolden (2-0) W TSLKiller (2-0) W STJuly (2-0) W FOXLyn (2-1) L oGsTOP (3-4)

LeenockfOu (Code S 3rd Place) Zerg Code S #22 2010 Results: DNQ, ro16, ro16 GSL 4 Results: L STRainBOw L NsPGenius W anyproPrimeWE

ZeNEXLiveForever (Code S 4th Place) Terran Code S T-#11 2010 Results: ro4, DNQ, DNQ GSL 4 Results: L SlayerSLegalMinD L TSLClide

LeenockfOu (Z) vs. ZeNEXByun (T)
Match Rating: 9/10
VOD Link

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Game 1 - Delta Quadrant

Right positions, Leenock at 2 and Byun at 5

Pool first for Leenock, tech lab and reaper for Byun

Zergling speed for Leenock, who actually manages to kill an SCV building a depot to complete the wall-in

Command center now for Byun at his front natural, then a factory on the tech lab

Lair for Leenock, bunker at the front natural for Byun

Siege mode starts for Byun, infestation pit for Leenock

Byun scans and sees the infestation pit. Meanwhile he adds two more barracks.

Leenock takes his front natural much later than Byun

Starport and engineering bay for Byun as three infestors hatch for Leenock

Stim and reactors for Byun as well as a turret at his natural

Spire for Leenock, whose zerglings are taking out the rocks at the gold

Leenock gets a hatchery at the gold while making mutalisks

Baneling nest for Leenock, second factory for Byun

Byun moves out a group of infantry. They all get fungaled to death by the infestors.

Baneling speed for Leenock, Byun puts up more turrets with his army

Byun starts a command center at the gold between his bases and Leenock's. Lenock takes a fourth in the 10 o'clock main

Armory for Byun while Leenock continues to harass Byun's army with mutalisks, sniping stray tanks and marines

Leenock is up over 20 mutalisks and getting hive. Byun gets a planetary fortress at the gold.

Byun starts to move forward but his infantry gets fungaled, slowing him down

Byun finally gets his lead tanks in range of Leenock's front natural

Leenock counters with zerglings and mutalisks to Byun's natural, forcing Byun to move his army back

Greater spire coming for Leenock, who doesn't try to defend the natural

Leenock starts making vikings as the greater spire finishes

Harassing mutalisks move into Byun's main and take out his starport

Byun makes three barracks and two starports. Three brood lords are out for Leenock and three more are coming.

Vikings attack the brood lords but Leenock manages to snipe them

Byun drops marines in the 10 o'clock expansion, forcing Leenock to send zerglings and mutalisks all the way across the map to deal with them

While he's doing that, Byun sends marines forward and kills all the brood lords and infestors

The mutalisks return and kill the marines, then magic box the thors. Byun's tanks have to retreat.

Byun gets more marines and thors, then attacks again. Although mutalisks wear down this force as well, the mutalisks themselves take too many losses to be effective.

Now Leenock can't defend his gold base from Leenock's army.

After taking out the gold base, Byun moves on to the farther flung expansions, taking them out one at a time.

Leenock counters ineffectually to Byun's expansion, but it gets cleaned up easily

Leenock concedes

Interesting strategy from Leenock, but he couldn't make the infestors work, culminating in a catastrophic loss of attention when he send his mutalisks to the distant expansion when it wasn't strictly required.

Game 2 - Shakuras Plateau

Lower positions, Leenock at 8 and Byun at 4

Hatch first for Leenock, tech lab and reaper for Byun

Command center on 19 for Byun

Factory for Byun, zergling speed for Leenock

Two more barracks for Byun, lair for Leenock

Reaper speed researching for Byun, then siege mode

Spire starts for Leenock while Byun masses reapers

Byun attacks with five reapers while getting an armory at home

Two reapers are killed by zerglings when they get caught on terrain

Leenock starts a third hatch at the 10 o'clock main. Reapers scout it but zerglings get rid of them.

Four barracks for Byun, two thors being made right now. Mutalisks out for Leenock.

Stim and shields start for Byun, now making tanks from his factories while putting reactors on his barracks

Infestation pit for Leenock. His mutalisks clean up the last reapers.

Starport and a third command center for Byun, baneling nest and hive for Leenock

Byun takes down the rocks and moves down to the path between bases with five siege tanks, two thors, and plenty of infantry

Byun builds a turret near his main but creep prevents him from doing it closer

Leenock attacks with zerglings, an infestor, and his mutalisks. But the infestor doesn't have enough for a fungal. The zerglings and the infestor melt.

Greater spire and baneling speed coming for Leenock. The creep tumor in the middle of the map is gone. Byun waiting to land his command center.

Leenock counters to Byun's natural, easily breaking through the bunker with only one marine in it.

Zerglings kill a lot of SCVs, then force the orbital to lift. Mutalisks destroy it before Byun's army can return.

Byun tries to move up the ramp to Leenock's main but brood lords are out, slowing him down

Mutalisks try to defend the brood lords but get taken out by the thors, though most marines do fall

Byun reinforces with marines and continues the attack. Leenock tries to make ultralisks but two of the eggs are sniped.

While Byun destroys his main, Leenock counters again to Byun's main. His zerglings actually kill the orbital and Byun's main

Leenock has a spawning pool and ultralisk cavern at his other expansions. He also is remaking a spire there.

Byun's army now takes out Leenock's natural, but Leenock has three more bases whereas Byun has just a single mining base

Byun's army is weak now and gets taken out by zerglings and ultralisks

Byun drops marines at two of Leenock's expansions, destroying one of them, but Leenock eventually cleans it up.

Leenock still has a spire, so he switches to mutalisks

Byun sets up a siege position in the center of the map, preventing Leenock from rebuilding the expansion his drop destroyed

Leenock attacks with six ultralisks, some banelings, and mutalisks, crushing Byun's army

Byun concedes

Very fun game. Finally someone shows how to survive the ZvT cross map push on Shakuras: keep tech buildings in other places and just counter to the undefended base.

Game 3 - Lost Temple

Close ground positions, Byun at 3, Leenock at 6

Pool first for Leenock, Byun puts two barracks at the natural chokepoint

Zergling speed for Leenock, who manages to snipe the scouting SCV with his workers

Leenock takes his natural and then pushes with zerglings, killing Byun's marines and forcing him to complete the wall-off with a third barracks

Byun starts a command center at his natural, plus a bunker behind his barracks wall

Factory for Byun, evolution chamber for Leenock

Lair and a spine crawler for Leenock, starport, engineering bay, and siege mode for Byun

Infestation pit for Leenock in his natural within range of the cliff

A dropship moves out with a tank, two marines, and two SCVs

While the tank sieges on Leenock's high ground, the SCVs build turrets

Stim for Byun, Leenock takes a third at the 9 o'clock main and a fourth at that natural

Leenock's infestors spawn infested terrans on the high ground, killing everything

Hive coming for Leenock. Byun starts to hard push toward Leenock's main

Byun sends a dropship with marines to the high ground, but Leenock fungal growths it and then makes infested terrans to kill everything

Ultralisk cavern coming for Leenock, Byun's push is still pretty far away

5 ultralisks building now for Leenock while Byun takes out the rocks at the gold between the two players' mains

As the marines try to advance they get fungal growthed

Byun sends two dropships full of marines to Leenock's left side bases. Zerglings have to come and help.

Meanwhile Byun moves into Leenock's natural and destroys the hatchery there.

Leenock puts a nydus worm in Byun's main but only four ultralisks get through before SCVs kill it

Byun's tank force moves back and kills those ultralisks

Byun drops tanks on the high ground over Leenock's left side expansion

Leenock attacks down his ramp with ultralisks, smashing through the tanks at his natural

Marines and marauders rush back to protect Byun's gold base

Leenock surrenders

Well, Byun looked pretty good that whole game. If Leenock had executed his nydus a little faster and not lost the first one to SCVs he would have had a better chance, but Byun seemed more than capable of dealing with the ultralisk strategy.

Commentary: Leenock is definitely a Code S caliber player, so it bodes well for Byun that he was able to battle Leenock to a standstill and then win. It was a fairly close match, but Leenock is good. Ultimately I thought Leenock's ultralisk use was a little shaky: if you don't have overwhelming numbers of them then they have a hard time against late game Terran armies. Byun seemed to handle multitasking a lot better than in the Code A final against oGsTOP. Leenock is in a bit of trouble but luckily for him he can fall back on a match against ZeNEXLiveForever to stay in Code S.

Match 1 Loser vs. ZeNEXLiveForever (T)
Match Rating: 1/10
VOD Link

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Game 1 - Shakuras Plateau

Cross positions, Leenock at 2 and LiveForever at 8

Hatch first for Leenock, tech lab and reaper for LiveForever

The reaper kills the scouting drone and then heads out. Meanwhile LiveForever takes his natural and builds a factory at the tech lab.

The reaper runs into Leenock's natural, gets attacked by four zerglings, and gets killed trying to kite them

Zergling speed for Leenock, blue flame and a bunker at the natural for LiveForever

Two more barracks for LiveForever, lair for Leenock

Starport for LiveForever while his three hellions head for Leenock's natural

Leenock walls off his natural with evolution chambers right before the hellions arrive, killing them pretty easily, then cancels them

Siege mode, stim, and an engineering bay for LiveForever. Spire for Leenock.

Leenock takes a third and gets a baneling nest

LiveForever pushes out across the map with a couple tanks and marines

Speedlings slaughter everything as soon as it gets onto Leenock's creep

Armory for LiveForever, infestation pit for Leenock

LiveForever takes down the rocks behind his main. Meanwhile Leenock's mutalisks destroy the engineering bay and some supply depots on the other side of his main

LiveForever moves his army to the 5 o'clock main. Leenock snipes the medivacs with his mutalisks, then realizes he can just kill all the marines with his mutalisks as well and does so. Then he finishes off the tanks.

The mutalisks move into LiveForever's main and there's not much to defend. Leenock sends zerglings into LiveForever's natural and turns them all into banelings.

The banelings hatch and pursue LiveForever's SCVs across the map...not a typo, across the map...in a humiliating conclusion to the game.

LiveForever concedes.

OK, well then. I think if I'm LiveForever, I do a two barracks marine rush and send all my SCVs next game in the hopes that I can lose doing something...plausible.

Game 2 - Blistering Sands

Hatch first for Leenock, two barracks for LiveForever

LiveForever moves toward Leenock's natural with his initial marine and some SCVs

Leenock initially pulls drones, but seeing the bunker is placed at the chokepoint. With plenty of time to get a spine crawler up, there's no need to even fight.

LiveForever finishes the bunker and then pokes with six marines.

Zergling speed is half done for Leenock, LiveForever building a command center at his natural

LiveForever falls back and builds three more barracks. Zerglings destroy the bunker and kill the two marines left in it.

Lair for Leenock, stim and shields for LiveForever

Spire starting for Leenock as LiveForever moves out with four marauders and about fifteen marines.

Leenock has a couple spine crawlers and a baneling nest that's half done

Zerglings move in and attack the marines, but there's not even remotely enough

Leenock concedes

A little overconfidence from Leenock? Now he has a must-win on Jungle Basin. Hmm...

Game 3 - Jungle Basin

Hatch first for Leenock, command center on 17 for LiveForever

Zergling speed for Leenock, factory and two more barracks for LiveForever

Two zerglings poke LiveForever's ramp. A depot is down so they go inside and scout his whole base.

Lair for Leenock, another two barracks for LiveForever, bringing him up to six

Spire, evolution chamber, and finally a baneling nest for Leenock, stim and shields for LiveForever

An overseer scouts LiveForever's main and sees all the barracks. LiveForever moves out.

Leenock repositions his spine crawler and makes 7 banelings.

LiveForever moves up the ramp. Leenock waits for the banelings, then attacks.

LiveForever has marauders out in front and is able to shoot down the banelings on the way in.

That's pretty much it. LiveForever's infantry kills all of Leenock's drones, then destroys the main hatchery.

Leenock surrenders.

So...Leenock just got surprised by the exact same (very common) timing attack that he lost to in game 2. Losses don't get much more deserved than that.

Commentary: Shocking result. Leenock has played some fantastic games, including earlier tonight against ZeNEXByun. LiveForever played horribly in game 1, then did the same rush twice and somehow Leenock failed to react properly even the second time he saw it. Very, very disappointing outcome, since although Leenock is far from the best player in Code S he plays in entertaining games more consistently than anyone except perhaps LiquidJinro. Meanwhile, LiveForever will stay in Code S another month despite clearly being the worst player.