It all started with the opening matches, featuring four of the finest players from all over the world: DongRaeGu vs TLO on the blue stream and HuK vs Naniwa on the red. The mirror match between the exemplary champions of protoss ended quickly and in a silly fashion. Naniwa showed some plays that might be considered flawed, building his gateways at the ramp and losing them to stalkers in the first game and failing to spot a proxy pylon in his own base in the second. Typing in that he is sorry for not showing his best (that being expressed shortly after Naniwa paused due to a keyboard problem), the Swede gg-ed out of the opening match.
On the stream next door, DongRaeGu was merciless against TLO, owning him with a 2-0 and proceeding to play his next game against Naniwa. In the first set on Metalopolis, the protoss once again experienced hardware problems and surrendered the series after his whole army got surrounded and minutes later banedropped to death in the second series.
As the day grew late, the attention got switched to two other Korean invites: reigning champion MMA and the Emperor Boxer. MMA had to play the Canadians Drewbie and Slush with the terran being the only one that took a set of MMA on that day. Slush had the chance to do the same by attempting a cheesy double warren burrow roach play and although he successfully infiltrated MMA's base, the terran already had a blue flame drop going on that killed almost 40 workers, practically ending the game. After that game, MMA shared in an interview with JP that those games were too quick, not allowing him to show everything he had and he will try to make his next TvZ more entertaining. Brave words, MMA, considering that your next opponent will be Liquid's Ret. Who, by the way, is currently the top contender at Anaheim, holding a record of 6-0 in sets.
Boxer, on the other hand, had to face Idra first. The "bad boy" of StarCraft now had the chance to exact his vengeance onto the Emperor after losing to him in the NASL. Boxer, however, did not allow that to happen and punished Idra in two quick games with, apparently, team SlayerS' favorite strat - preigniter hellions and marine drops.
In pool D, MVP was ploughing hard through the competition, conquering Kiwikaki, Moonan and SeleCT, showing little mercy to the Canadian protoss and his terran compatriots. Kiwikaki was actually the only one that managed to take a game out of the two-times GSL champion and thanks to that the protoss currently resides at second place in his group.
Two amazing ZvPs wrapped up the blue stream broadcast as Idra destroyed his team-mate InControl (no, really, what is with all the teamkills in those groups?!) by taking a page out of Losira's book and winning the second set with beautiful nydus/hydralisk play. DongRaeGu also secured his third win of the day, defeating HuK 2-1, showing immaculate control and macro, losing only the set on Shakuras due to poorly executed baneling bombs.
So, what will the new day of MLG bring us as the pool play and open tournament resume? We are just about to find out with the tournament currently on the way.
