There's always a lot of discussion about which group is the toughest, but for the Code S round of 16 there's no question about which group is the easiest. "The Group of Life" as they say at the World Cup is clearly Group B, the group with IMmvp and some other guys:
| Player | | Code S Rank | Previously in GSL4 | 2010 Results |
|---|
| choyafOu | P | T-#16 | L TSLRain
W TSLTrickster
W ZeNEXKyrix | DNQ, ro64, ro8 |
| oGsHyperdub | T | T-#23 | L SlayerSBoxeRr
W HongUnPrimeWE
W HongUnPrimeWE | ro16, ro64, ro32 |
| IMmvp | T | #27 | W TSLFruitDealer
W oGsjookTo
W oGsZenio | DNQ, ro32, ro16 |
| TheBestfOu | T | #29 | W MakaPrimeWE
L PoltPrimeWE
W PoltPrimeWE | DNQ, ro64, ro16 |
According to the rankings, choyafOu is the best player in this group. According to me, he's a gimmicky rusher who is in over his head at this point, even in this group. Perhaps he'll prove me wrong today, but to be honest he could easily advance by beating the two non-IMmvp players. If he goes up against mvp, well, he did beat him in the GSL 3 round of 16, but I'll believe he can do it again when I see it.
oGsHyperdub looked very promising back in GSL 1 when he famously beat LiquidTLO after losing an epic game 1. Since then he's been less impressive, but he beat HongUnPrimeWE twice in the round of 32 to get here so you have to give him the best shot at getting second place in the group behind IMmvp.
Unlike Hyperdub, IMmvp has been steadily improving in each tournament. In the round of 32, he dominated a group that frankly was much more talented than this one, going 3-0 and defeating players like TSLFruitDealer and oGsZenio. Of course, he had a slight advantage in that he was a Terran in a group with 3 Zergs and could focus on that one matchup, but the wins were too convincing and the players too solid to deny that he's put himself in the conversation of possible champions. Anything can happen in these weird pseudo-round robins, but he's the clear favorite to win the group.
TheBestfOu is another middle of the road player that finds himself farther in the tournament than most people expected. I certainly didn't expect him to beat MakaPrimeWE and PoltPrimeWE, but he did, so perhaps he has more surprises in store for the round of 16.
Group B VOD
IMmvp (T) vs. TheBestfOu (T) on Scrap Station
Match Rating: 5/10
Click for match play by play
Gas for TheBest, no gas for mvp
For some reason, mvp hides a depot down near the rocks that lead to mvp's potential fourth base
Command center on about 20 supply for mvp...at the gold. I guess the supply depot is a spotter.
Two more barracks for mvp, command center in the main, reactor, and factory for TheBest
Armory for TheBest, stim for mvp
TheBest's scouting SCV narrowly misses spotting the SCVs transferring to the gold base
Factory and engineering bay for TheBest, plus a thor and blue flame
Second factory for TheBest, first factory for mvp
Starport, engineering bay, and two more barracks for mvp
TheBest getting a starport as well while making hellions and thors
mvp takes his natural and gets concussive shells while his marauders skirmish with TheBest's hellions
mvp about 20 supply ahead thanks to the gold base
Marines attack out of the smoke and take out a bunch of TheBest's hellions
Meanwhile marines drop in the back of TheBest's main and take out a bunch of SCVs
The other group of marines attack from the front and head into the expansion
Tanks and thors try to stop the large group of marines. That doesn't work out well.
With his natural destroyed, TheBest sends his units through the rocks in the center of the map
mvp goes around and then attacks TheBest's army from behind
TheBest concedes
When TorcH does builds like this, people roll their eyes. When IMmvp does it...well, TheBest is going to be pretty unhappy when he finds out what happened.
choyafOu (P) vs. oGsHyperdub (T) on Shakuras Plateau
Match Rating: 7/10
Click for match play by play
Command center on 19 for Hyperdub, standard opening from choya
Two more barracks for Hyperdub, choya puts a nexus at the near gold expansion
Four more gateways for choya, concussive shells for Hyperdub
Hyperdub's scouting SCV just narrowly misses the SCVs transferring to the gold base
Stim, engineering bay, and bunker out for Hyperdub
The SCV sneaks into the main and sees the gateways
choya gets a robotics at the gold base, Hyperdub starts building a bunch of bunkers at his natural
Hyperdub keeps SCVs ready to repair the bunkers, forge and robotics bay for choya
Factory and another barracks for Hyperdub, colossus and thermal lance for choya
Poor Hyperdub still hasn't found the expansion, but finally an SCV goes into the gold...11:45 minutes into the game
Hyperdub repositions his bunkers and starts a third command center
choya moves into position with two colossus and a big gateway unit army
Hyperdub has a lot of infantry, but choya has a ton of sentries and lays down an immense number of force fields
Caught in a maze of force fields, the infantry can't get in range of the colossus
Hyperdub concedes
Extremely clever build by choya. I'm not sure if he let that SCV in to see his warpgates on purpose, but regardless the game couldn't have gone better for him.
Match 1 winner vs Match 2 loser
Match Rating: 7/10
Click for match play by play
IMmvp (T) vs. oGsHyperdub (T) on Metalopolis
Cross positions, mvp at 12 and Hyperdub at 6
No gas fast expand for Hyperdub, command center on 16 supply
Gas for mvp, then command center on 19 supply after scouting Hyperdub
Two more barracks for mvp, bunker for Hyperdub
Factory for Hyperdub, third base on mvp
Not a typo. mvp takes the non-gold third at about 26 supply
Stim now for mvp, another bunker for Hyperdub as well as siege mode
Factory now for mvp, starport for Hyperdub
mvp moves out with a small group of infantry but pulls back after reaching the middle of the map
Starport as well for mvp, Hyperdub adding barracks
Medivac and engineering bay for mvp, viking and tanks for Hyperdub
mvp moves down to the center of the map, Hyperdub getting stim and shields
mvp drops three medviacs worth of marines and marauders in Hyperdub's main
Hyperdub's infantry is actually outnumbered by the dropped units
mvp takes out several barracks instead of fighting the infantry directly while Hyperdub tries to relocate his tanks
Hyperdub finally cleans it up but only after losing SCVs, production builds, and lots of infantry
mvp takes three more bases, including the gold, and adds tons more barracks
Marauders stim into the chokepoint and take out some of the siege tanks
Hyperdub tries to take a third but mvp's infantry forces it to lift
Despite his huge number of production facilities and unsaturated expansions mvp is having trouble spending his resources due to his ridiculous income
mvp has almost a dozen medivacs escorting his infantry as he moves in to Hyperdub's third base again
Again mvp just attacks into a massive collection of siege tanks and a planetary fortress with impunity
Most of the army melts of course, but a few survivors wander behind the minerals and take out a bunch of SCVs
With the infantry gone, the huge medivac fleet gets cut in half by marines and vikings before reinforcements arrive
It doesn't matter, of course. The reinforcements rout Hyperdub's units.
mvp has barracks everywhere. He sacrifices SCVs to free up supply and use mules instead
Another huge fleet of dropships moves into Hyperdub's main. A sensor tower allows Hyperdub to get marines into position.
mvp ignores them, lands an enormous amount of infantry, and kills the defenders and then Hyperdub's main command center
Siege tanks rush to the defense of the main and clean up the army
Another enormous infantry army hits the third base just as the tanks leave, killing the command center there as well as a fourth under construction
Hyperdub surrenders
It's hard to believe people haven't been doing that to fast expand builds before given how absolutely devastating that was. Everyone playing mvp in the future is going to be scouting non-stop after these games.
Match 2 winner vs Match 1 loser
Match Rating: 2/10
Click for match play by play
choyafOu (P) vs. TheBestfOu (T) on Scrap Station
Right away, choya sneaks a probe into the main and warps a pylon into the corner
TheBest builds a barracks, not able to see the two gateways in the corner of his base
Two zealots emerge at about 3:15
The probe dies almost immediately, but there are three zealots in the mineral line
Several marines fight them while the SCVs screen, but they take forever to kill zealots and the SCVs drop rapidly
TheBest keeps his marines alive, but he has no SCVs. Those are important.
TheBest surrenders
Apparently there's no honor among thieves, or in this case, teammates. TheBest should have checked, but...
Deciding Game(s)
Match Rating: 4/10
Click for match play by play
choyafOu (P) vs. IMmvp (T) on Shakuras Plateau to decide round of 8 seeding
Lower positions, choya at 5 and mvp at 7
Both players take their gas. Reactor and then a second barracks for mvp
Stargate for choya on 25 supply, tech lab finishing for mvp
Concussive shells for mvp, two more gateways for choya
Void ray coming for choya, mvp moves out into the center of the map
Command center on the high ground for mvp, the first void ray is out and a second is on the way
mvp's units arrive at the ramp but a force field blocks them
Two void rays join the ramp's defenders so mvp withdraws, building two more barracks while he does
The void rays take down the rocks between the bases. choya still making more.
choya's small group of stalkers moves to the front of mvp's base, proxy pylon added
Stim just started for mvp and choya is moving in with three void rays and a group of stalkers
A fourth void ray arrives, more on the way. Factory coming for mvp.
All four void rays start hitting mvp's command center but he drives them off
Starport coming for mvp while a small group of marines go through the path between bases
choya moves into mvp's main while mvp's marines attack his worker line
mvp's actually still got enough infantry at home that he just, er, kills all of choya's ground units. Then he stims and kills all the void rays.
The marines in choya's main are killing off the last probes
choya concedes
Some strange decisions in this match. Why take down the rocks and then attack through the front? Why go up the ramp when mvp had enough infantry to win a straight-up fight? A surprising game even if the outcome was expected.
Group B Results and Commentary
Click for results, standings, and commentary
Results
IMmvp (1-0) defeats TheBestfOu (0-1)
choyafOu (1-0) defeats oGsHyperdub (0-1)
IMmvp (2-0) defeats oGsHyperdub (0-2) [mvp advances, Hyperdub eliminated]
choyafOu (2-0) defeats TheBestfOu (0-2) [choya advances, TheBest eliminated]
IMmvp (3-0) defeats choyafOu (2-1) [mvp finishes first, choya finishes second]
Standings
1. IMmvp
2. choyafOu
-. oGsHyperdub
-. TheBestfOu
Commentary
Is Day9 doing a Funday Monday theme for hidden bases? choya and mvp competed to see who could have a cooler win involving hidden buildings. mvp won that contest with his double expand response to Hyperdub, he won his match against choya by, well, making a lot of marines and marauders, and he won the group while looking significantly better than the other three players. As for choya, earlier I said he was a gimmicky rusher and over his head, and I apologize for that. He's a gimmicky rusher all right, but against this competition he seemed quite comfortable. His game against Hyperdub was actually pretty cool, but really he benefited from being placed in by far the weakest round of 16 group. You've got to feel for TheBest and Hyperdub since they basically got punked out of the tournament. With mvp, they probably would have lost a straight up game anyway, but choya was beatable. If only, if only...oh well, at least they're sure to be back for GSL 5's Code S tournament. That's more than a lot of players can say.
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