The MBCgame Survivor League is the qualifier for the MSL. Today was group C in round 1. Sync, Kingdom, ShinHwa and UpMagic fought for a spot in the second round and eventually the MSL.
The format of the MBC Survivor League round 1 itself is exactly like the ODT. There are two initial games, then a winners, losers and a final game with the loser from the winners game and the winner of the losers game. Two old OSL Champions who are trying to make it to the MSL for a crack at that. Sync won the NATE OSL in the summer of 2002, while Kingdom won MyCube OSL in the fall of 2003. The other two are relative new guys. UpMagic has been doing well lately in particular. Read on for the battle reports, results and a brief description on how the MBC Survivor League works.
Kingdom vs UpMagic at Desert Fox
UpMagic landed at 7 and put down a barrack followed by a command center by his neutral buildings. Then he went for a dual starport build. The deviltoss on his part warped in at 3 and opened with a gateway-core build. It quickly became clear however that he was intending to do some hardcore dark templar drops. Unfortunately for his, his first shuttle headed the wrong way and was then spotted by a floating barrack when it headed towards UpMagic's base. UpMagic scrambled and didn't do too bad versus the first DTs. The third drop however killed some scvs and four or five supplies. The result was the UpMagic wasn't mining from his natural and had a very limited amount of scans. It helped that some of his wraiths were able to snipe a shuttle.
“Unfortunately for him there were only cannons there.Kingdom proceeded to take his mineral only and started building cannons at 4 to prepare to take that island as well. UpMagic secured his natural and took the island at 9 while tank dropping the cliff at 4. Unfortunately for him there were only cannons there. In a bit of back and forth UpMagic manages to lose most his wraiths to a storm, but answers with dropping the protoss natural. Kingdom has to rally his troops a bit and loses the nexus before he can clean it up. From this point on it's an expasion and harassing race. Both players try desperately to secure their own expansions while harassing the others economy. For a while it seems as if Kingdom is getting the better of the encounters, but when the dust clears UpMagic has the upperhand. Both players are left with no mining expansions and the cash is tight. The terran chose to go for a vessel with irradiate and the protoss goes for a dark archon to kill it. UpMagic tries to irradiate a templar, but Kingdom quickly merges it to an archon.
At this point Kingdom is unable to secure an expansion and UpMagic has just retaken the island at 9. Kingdom has to take it and drops a zealot, a templar and a DA. The DA hits the vessel with feedback but doesn't kill it and UpMagic cleans up the rest and forces the deviltoss to concede. GG.
ShinHwa vs Sync at Desert Fox
Sync lands at 7and opens with a command center first. ShinHwa spawns at 3 and opens with a hatchery in his main into a den. Once he got the passage to his natural open he took that and squeezed a drone through his mineral only to scout mid a bit. Sync's early command center was used to build scvs for the main at first and then he added a scanner to ensure that he would see what ShinHwa was up to before he lifted it into his natural. ShinHwa is more that happy to expand and sets up shop at his mineral only and the 11 natural.
Sync has the clever plan of harassing with two wraiths and starts attacking and overlord. Seconds later there are four incoming scourges and he loses them both. He then drops some units behind the natural at 11 and scares off the drones. When the zerg gets some lurkers however they it is cleared out rather quickly and the camera shifts to ShinHwa's base. A newly morphed hive and a morphin defiler mound seems to make it clear which way this game is going. Sync ferried some troops into the middle and ends the zerg mineral only. He also tries some drops, with limited success. Although he did get the defiler mound.
“If you thought the last game was intese on the expansion trading, it has nothing on this one.If you thought the last game was intense on the expansion trading, it has nothing on this one. Both players display their sloppy micro quite often when they fight a macro game to stabilize their own economy and ruin the others. After an unsuccessful drop on the main at 11 by terran he gets all his vessels scourged on the way back. Immediately after the zerg moves in with his newly made guardians. It seems like ShinHwa is winning, but the game carries on as Sync secures the air with some wraiths. In the end it's a battle over the terran island at 9. If Sync can secure it and keep up his harass, he's in good shape. ShinHwa knows it and attacks it quite relentlessly, with the worst drop I have even seen amongst other things. However, he does get clever and ridge it with swarm/lurkers eventually. Sync doesn't irradiate the defiler and it halts mining until ShinHwa drops it again and kills it. Sync tried one last time with an expansion at the south east island, but it's destroyed as zerg secures the island at 1. Sync taps out. GG i suppse, but a horrible game.
Winners UpMagic vs ShinHwa at Blitz X
UpMagic lands at the left side and goes with two barracks before starting his command center. ShinHwa spawns on the right side and goes for a 9pool before putting down his second hatchery at the natural. UpMagic struggles a bit with to defend his ramp against the first lings and lose some marines and scvs. The zerg puts down his third hatchery in his natural and terran expands. ShinHwa harasses very well with his lings and delays the command center for quite a while. UpMagic gains control and when he is ready to move out there's one sunken at the zerg natural, but two more morphing in. There's no point of even trying.
ShinHwa has been pumping units and takes control of the middle of the map. From that position he loads up his now upgraded overlords and drops into the terran main. A bunker is quickly constructed and the damage is not too bad. The second the drop is cleared out, another one comes in. This time the barracks have to life and UpMagic loses a few supply depots. ShinHwa is being relentless and attack the front while terran is busy in his main. This is not terribly successful, but when the third drop on the main comes directly after UpMagic cannot keep up anymore. He has to run his scvs and lift his main command center.
ShinHwa is in an excellent position to win the game and now he has a hive morphing has started expansions in the south east corner. UpMagic gets a bit impatient about transferring his scvs back to his main and does it before he's cleared out the last two lurkers. It costs him a squad of scvs, but finally he has his main back. It doesn't matter much though. Eight guardians make their way across the map and as UpMagic sees them hear gives up. GG.
ShinHwa from Lecaf OZ qualifies for the second round of the MBC Survivor League.
Losers Kingdom vs Sync at Blitz X
Sync lands on the right side of the map and starts walling in. Kingdom warps in on the left and opens with a gate-core build. With his first zealot and two goons, he almost manages to kill the first tank of Sync behind the wall, but has to withdraw. The protoss takes his natural and defends decently against the first vulture raid. Terran sets up a push at the wide ramp by Kingdom's natural, but it's too weak and is dealt with eventually. While that was happening the deviltoss had been teching towards reavers and started to harass the terran natural. Unfortunately for him it did little damage and was lost to a random mine by the ramp.
“It eventually gets dropped in the main mineral line.... right next to a mine, again!Kingdom doesn't seem to care and takes the middle expansion on his side while continuing the reaver harass with his next one. It eventually gets dropped in the main mineral line.... right next to a mine, again! This time it takes a score of scvs with it in the explosion though. Terran takes his side of the middle, while protoss finds his proxy starport and destroys it. Kingdom also takes the south west main and puts down two stargates. Sync on his part just starts mining the middle to set up his push. Protoss tries to break the push after his middle base is destroyed, but is unable to stop the terran. The second attempt includes arbiters and some very nice storms to finish off the push. Protoss takes the south west natural, but he is far behind and depends on harassing Sync's south east expansion. Sync is unable to secure it, but doesn't care. He rather takes the middle on the protoss side and then pushes straight for the protoss natural. The deviltoss has no chance to stop it, but puts on a show for the fans and recalls into the terran main before he gives up. GG.
Final Sync vs UpMagic at Reverse Temple
Sync lands at 9 and opens with a factory starport build. UpMagic lands close by at 6 and opts rather for two factories with an armory. He attacks early on with a marine, vulture and tank force. Thanks to cloaking tech Sync is able to defend it after getting some mines planted by his opponent around his ramp. Both players take their natural, although Sync builds it below his ramp while UpMagic builds it in place. UpMagic does a four goliath drop in Sync's main, but after some nice micro displays he loses his dropship, with two goliaths still inside, to a single sniping wraith.
UpMagic is still ahead though and decides to take his island. There's a stalemate for a long time with both players sieging up on either side of the raised ground that seperated their mains. Eventually Sync has had enough and drops into the main of UpMagic. He is easily repelled and UpMagic simply pushes up the side and drops into Syncs main for the win. A very dominant performance. GG.
UpMagic from eSTRO qualifies for the third round of the MBC Survivor League.
MBC Survivor League, Round 1, Group C
Kingdom < UpMagic Desert Fox
ShinHwa > Sync Desert Fox
UpMagic < ShinHwa Blitz X
Kingdom < Sync Blitz X
Sync < UpMagic Reverse Temple
ShinHwa was the first to beat a terran on desert fox, but there have been to few games to really say anything about the balance for sure yet. If you want to get the VODs from this later get UpMagic versus ShinHwa. It wasn't such a great game, but wow did ShinHwa demonstrate how to play agressive zerg. Out with the old guys, in with some new blood.
The Survivor Format
The MBC version of ODT had a much more complicated format. The qualifications run at the same time as MSL, which has already started. ShinHwa is now in round 2 of the Survivor League and will face one of the other 8 winners of their round 1 group in a best of three. The four winners here go to the MSL. The four losers here go to round 3, where they meet the second place finishers (UpMagic from today etc) from round 1. There will also be the four forth place finishers from the current MSL. These guys are also paired up and play best of three. Then the winners advance and face the third place finishers in the current MSL groups for another round of best of three to decide finally who advances into the next MSL. Slightly more complicated than the ODT.
