Upon return, the undisputed king of MLG 2012 was met with a diverse resistance: a Brood War zerg legend, a young terran that recently outplayed MMA in Code S and Team Liquid's newest acquisition.
Match 1: July vs Alive
Game 1 @ Dual Sight
It won't be а July series with at least one roach/ling bust attempt and this one was no exception. ALive, however, seemed completely unmoved by July's attempts for an early victory, crushed the zerg and moved out with a scary marine/tank force that looked like it could end the game. But as we all know, miscontrolling your army is of the biggest mistakes in StarCraft and Alive quickly found out what happens when your tanks lag behind: you get eaten in one bite and the rest of the game is just your opponent gnawing your bones clean. Having been presented this unexpected gift, July snowballed towards the victory.
Game 2 @ Entombed valley
Every time July gets bunker rushed it reminds me of a bully being bullied affair. The zerg tried to save his hatchery by sending all his drones along with his lings and when he lost all but four workers, he did a desperation baneling bust, which was predicted to fail the second the nest was put down.
Game 3 @ Daybreak
The final game was reminiscent of July's BroodWar days soldered into a beautiful illustration of how the swarm operates. After dealing with Alive's banshee, July went on a mutalisk terror spree, quickly reaching critical mass that easily one-shotted anything. Once supply cap was reached, the God of War just rallied everything he had into Alive's face and after a brief moment of unsieged tanks, the terran was raised to the ground.
You do not get any more zergy than that
Match 2: MarineKing vs Zenio
Game 1 @ Daybreak
Zenio had a good plan of how to break MarineKing and when the terran moved out for a +1 stim timing attack, he ran around with roaches and banelings and gave start to a base trade. The result was 6 SCVs left for MKP and 20+ drones for Zenio, but what the zerg did not fully calculate was that MarineKing just won a TvZ MLG final displaying a micro that should not really exist. With a medivac and a half worth of marines and marauders, MarineKing revisited the zerg base and shot him dead.
These were all the units that MKP had after the trade. And maybe if this was another terran Zenio could have lived...
Game 2 @ Atlantis Spaceship
Once again Zenio knew precisely what he had to do to win, only he couldn't. Despite losing 25 drones to a preigniter raid, Zenio stabilized, took a third and teched to neural parasite in anticipation of a thor/hellion composition. What he forgot is that infestors are severely insufficient in this scenario and the neurals must actually be followed up with some real army. With no roaches at all to tank hellion fire and dps the thors, the ling army of Zenio sizzled away to leave his casters free for the taking.
Winners match: MarineKing vs July
Game 1 @ Metropolis
It is easy to describe this game. Go to July vs Alive game three, replace the marine/tank composition with hellion/thor and have MKP moving out when his economy died to mass mutas. The outcome, however, was the same - July sweeped down with a horde of banelings and lings, magic boxed the thors, blew up the hellions and made MarineKing look stupid.
Game 2 @ Entombed Valley
The mid-game of set two was also blooming with promises of another July victory: MarineKing tried those marine/tank move-outs that he so much likes only to be surrounded and cleaned by mutas and banelings. As the infestor tech kicked in for July, the terran's job became even harder as the zerg now had the means to hold the terran forces still, making it a delicious baneling fodder. But as is the case with many great villains--often featured in cheap fiction movies--July fell victim to his overconfidence. He started using banelings on thors a bit too often, eventually giving MarineKing an army advantage that he turned into a tying victory.
Game 3 @ Daybreak
One could argue that after all those perfect ZvTs today, July kind of threw that game away by going for his very signature roach/baneling all-in. Truly, the stars were aligned for a moment in his favor as MarineKing had gone for a hellion expand into banshees and would have had extensive troubles stopping the attack, but July made the mistakes of marching his banelings up the ramp in a conga line and surrendering his chances for a win on a silver platter.
The end of an all-in
Losers match: Alive vs Zenio
Game 1 @ Metropolis
What began as your everyday boring ZvT sitcom developed into a piece with quite an unexpected plot twist. Alive and Zenio traded blows for what seemed like forever until an overextension by the zerg saw the death of all his brood lords--a loss that was peppered with a massive marauder drop in the main of Zenio that cleaned his hive and spawning pool. Although at first sight it seemed that there is more life in a cemetery than in Zenio's base, a quick look at the numbers divulged a different truth - Alive had sacrificed too much army, still had no running fourth base and the crucial BL and infestor tech of the zerg was untouched. A few one-sided engagements later and the score was 1-0 for Zenio.
Game 2 @ Entombed Valley
The beginning of game two passed under the sign of an unsuccessful bunker rush as Zenio's preemptive spining kept him more than safe. The match than continued to be played out even with Zenio pulling off some great fungals a few times to balance out the damage he suffered from Alive's drops. Yet Zenio's hugest mistake was his hive tech of choice, namely ultralisks. With 3/3 completed for Alive, Zenio's units were shot down upon hatching, making the series 1-1.
Game 3 @ Dual Sight
Zenio took a page out of Losira's book, i.e. the renowned "losing the natural to a bunker rush into winning the game" build order. After Zenio retook his expand, he used an immaculate creep spread and infestor-heavy play to keep himself alive till brood lord tech and despite losing a lot of them during the late-game engagements, Alive still suffered the greater losses and GG-ed to finish last in the group.
The battle for Alive's natural
Final match: July vs Zenio
Game 1 @ Atlantis Spaceship
It was unusual to see July on the receiving end of a baneling/roach aggression but this is the way of the spire-ing zerg. July suffered some early blows but stabilized once mutalisks spawned. As his tech was scouted, though, and as it took quite a lot of time to chase Zenio away, July decided not to persist with this play and transition into a ground heavy army. Thus the game evolved into multiple infestor/roach/hydra wars and for a long time there was no one in the dominant position. That changed when an army of Zenio found itself short on roaches and July outtanked it to get a decent supply lead which he used to get the early lead as he pushed further and futher into Zenio territory.
Messy battles like this were not uncommon during the first set. Also, I love screenshotting fungals
Game 2 @ Dual Sight
1-base baneling nest was Zenio's opening of choice in this game but he was much less aggressive that this build order usually suggest. What he actually did was force more and more banelings trades that had increasingly horrible ramifications for July until he was down to less than 20 supply.
Game 3 @ Cloud Kingdom
The first zergling attack of July ended the life of 13 drones of Zenio and, as it is usually the case with ZvZ, this difference snowballed to cosmic proportions. At the time when Zenio tried to get a third, July was macroing off of 4 hatcheries and had double the supply of his opponent. The series and the playday ended with an attack-ground victory for the God of War.
Final standings
| 2012 Code S Season 2 Ro32 Group C | |||||||||
  MarineKing | 4-1  JUly5-4 | Zenio3-5 | Alive2-4 | July 2-1 Alive MarineKing 2-0 Zenio MarineKing 2-1 July Zenio 2-1 Alive July 2-1 Zenio | |||||
