Match 1: MMA vs Squirtle
Game 1 @ Cloud Kingdom
The revenge match from IPL 4 between MMA and Squirtle began with ten exciting minutes of zero action as both players minded their own business and set up their late-game economy.
Sadly, all it was not building towards double the time of non-stop PvT action that would drown Cloud Kingdom and put it to ruins. Instead, MMA found three high templars stranded from the protoss pack and killed them off to render Squirtle's army impotent. Squirtle's best chance of survival was to fall back and recuperate but for reasons unknown he chose to fight at his fourth, despite his chances for victory being far below the nil.
It must have been the easiest TvP battle in MMA's career.
Game 2 @ Daybreak
Squirtle played that out like a boxing match, just sitting still behind his perimeter of observers, fending off every attempt of MMA to make a move and waiting for his hour to come. As the gong sounded for round two, Squirtle already had a good stalker-centric deathball with colossus support in a very Genius style and in full opposite to the chargelot/storm compositions we saw yesterday. The advancement of Squirtle left MMA no chance but to take the fight but, unfortunately for the former champion, there exists no way to micro against colossi in the absence of vikings.
MMA and his bio/medivac army were chased back, paving the way for Squirtle's dead cert victory.
Game 3 @ Dual Sight
Squirtle went for a 3-gate blink attack off one base which turned into a soft contain after MMA made it perfectly clear that not a single protoss unit will survive the blink into his main. Still, the contain was as good as option as any, giving Squirtle the opportunity to get a second nexus and transition into a standard game. Additionally, sniping a drop attempt of MMA ensured his mid-game safety.
The game ended with a Daybreak deja vu with Squirtle launching a blink/colossus timing attack just as MMA was preparing to take a third. The terran had to lift all his command centers but the one in the main and was put in a position where barely mining was not even the second worst thing slapping his face. Squirtle had the pefect army composition in terms of cost efficiency and his arc encircled MMA's units to an extent where the terran could not maneuver at all. MMA tapped out and would go on to play in the losers match.
Match 2: Leenock vs NaDa
Game 1 @ Daybreak
Nada went mech in game one after his reactor hellions into banshee opening was completely shut down. For Leenock, these were moments of full macro mode and for Nada it should have been a time to sit back, defend his three bases and at some point match the zerg army in both supply and firepower.
Nada did not do that. Instead, he ventured too far out, reaching the rim of Leenock's huntig grounds where he was surrounded and gnawed to bone by the maxed zerg before hive tech was even done. By the time brood lords hatched, Nada's army was even more laughable.
Game 2 @ Entombed Vallley
Nada had some success in the early stages of the game, denying a couple of bases with his hellion/banshee harass but was completely and totally outclassed past the mid-game. Leenock went for mutas as it's his style but immediately gave up on them at the sight of Nada's thors. He transitioned into standard ZvT late-game composition of infestor/brood lord/baneling and simply played better than Nada in all aspects to best him 2-0 in a manner that leaves this author absent original thought since this is how 80% of late-game ZvTs end.
Winners match: Leenock vs Squirtle
Game 1 @ Ohana
Sometimes we get amazing PvZs that go on and on and reach these scenarios when the third mothership does a cluth vortex before falling to a maxed out zerg, who in turn had used every single tech available to survive the death ball.
Occasionally, though, the protoss goes for a 7-gate +1 attack and the zerg dies because of not making a single roach.
Game 2 @ Dual Sight
The six-gate/void ray push of Squirtle took down Leenock's base after a prolonged struggle from both parties, opening the doors to a game that was a complete opposite to the previous set. Leenock would not fight the gateway/immortal army of Squirtle directly and bypassed it in favour of a base race but as both players barely held, it became a game of cat-and-mouse. In the first few minutes, Leenock had the advantage of the more mobile and thus more versatile army, using burrow roaches and mutalisks to strike the bare spots of the protoss. It took Squirtle some time to give away those sluggish immortals and switch to full blink stalker composition so he could keep up to zerg's pace.
Once again, Leenock was not fine with how the game developed and for a second time in the set chose to avoid direct confrontation. Although this time, he could not do much in terms of guerilla tactics. Every mutalisk raid cost him either HP or even whole mutas, severely hurting the strength of the zerg flock. As Squirtle got more and more observers, the same fate befell the burrow roaches and once the spire died to a blink attack, Leenock was check-mated.
Losers match: Nada vs MMA
Game 1 @ Ohana
Nada found a good pace this game, suffering some casualties to MMA's 2-banshee harass but taking the path of the mech as that was over, immediately gaining Artosis's approval. Additionally, MMA, who was relying on a bio/tank composition, did not abuse his mobility in taking a quick fourth and so, for all intents and purposes, the game was equal.
This changed as Nada was baited into a bust, ending with his vikings and raven being hit from behind and erased from the game, thus giving MMA full control of the air above Ohana. Nada had to start a painful process of equalizing this disbalance but MMA reacted switfly and punished him with a number of viking harassments which did not deal too much damage but instead spread the mech army thin, predisposing it to a frontal bust. The game was over at the second MMA launched his attack and would have been won even without the medivac drop dressing.
Game 2 @ Antiga Shipyard
The Genius Terran was given a quick but merciless death in game two as a simple viking/siege tank/marine push from the low ground signed Nada's obituary once MMA's vikings set camp above the enemy starports. Having his buildings near the edges of the base made Nada's life even harder as the few production facilities he had were now under siege tank fire.
Nada was out of Code S while MMA would get a final chance at a Ro16 spot.
Final match: Leenock vs MMA
Game 1 @ Valley
The first spark of that last chance was a very weak and trembling one as MMA opened with 2-rax and into a 4-rax marine/SCV all-in after it got scouted.
Fortunately for Leenock, who despite his spine crawlers was looking forward to suffering some serious hurt, MMA had one of the worst decision making in the history of 2-rax and into a 4-rax marine/SCV all-ins. The hatchery fell instantaneosly but instead of pulling back and getting his macro on tracks, MMA greeded up and marched into the main, seemingly forgetting that there would already be banelings out who blasted through his bio without breaking a sweat.
There were even more five minutes later as Leenock counter-busted with near thirty banes, bringing MMA to a game away from a Code S elimination.
Game 2 @ Antiga Shipyard
Knowing how hard it is to get a fourth base on Antiga, Leenock smartly remained on three base and lair tech and not rushing into any big aggressive play early on. MMA approached the game similarly - he got up to five rax, went for double e-bay and took a third CC.
At that point Leenock knew that given enough time, MMA's three base set-up would become marginally stronger than his own so the zerg had to take some decisive actions. And act he did, using burrowed infestors to catch an unsuspecting terran army in a fungal and chaining a few more of those together with a ling/baneling wave to leave MMA in a barren state. There were no tanks on the field, marines were scarce, and MMA's income would shock the accountant of an Eskimo ice parlor.
Now, terrans use manner MULEs and protosses build nexuses to communicate a "Get out!" to their defeated opponents. Leenock had more finesse and went for both ultras and brood lords--infestors still in play, of course--making MMA look even more puny and helpless.
Final standings
| code s season 2 ro32 group f standings | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
  Squirtle | 2-0 | 4-1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
 Leenock | 2-1 | 4-2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
 MMA | 1-2 | 3-4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nada | 0-2 | 0-4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Squirtle 2-1 MMA Leenock 2-0 Nada Squirtle 2-0 Leenock MMA 2-0 Nada Leenock 2-0 MMA | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
