#artosis

Leta vs Mong, ASL S16, RO24

Hey all,

As many of you might be aware, today are the GSL Super Tournament #2 qualifiers. This is an extremely important day, as its the last big SC2 tournament for Korea currently scheduled this year, and will decide the last 2 spots at the World Championships for the Koreans.

You can watch for updates (although I don’t think anything is actually streamed) here: http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/2017_StarCraft_II_World_Championship_Series_Korea/Standings

Cheers to Liquipedia. Best thing on the internet, period. The following screen shots are from their pages.

Here are the players qualified already for Blizzcon from Korea:

Here are the players who still can qualify for the final 2 spots:

IF ANY OF:

ByuN, Maru, Solar, aLive, Classic and Rogue do NOT qualify for ST#2, they are out of the running for the WCS World Championships.

Here’s the points breakdown for ST#2:

1st - 1,500 points

2nd - 1,050 points

3rd/4th - 675 points

5th-8th - 450 points

9th-16th - 225 points

Home stretch for herO:

If herO qualifies for ST#2, he is almost 100% locked for Blizzcon. ByuN would have to get 1st place and sOs 2nd place, specifically, to knock him out of contention.

sOs is pre-qualified for ST#2:

EDIT: Apparently sOs doesn’t get the 225 because of the invite, but he is still in the ro16.

OK! That about does it. I’ll give a full update when the qualifiers are over and the bracket is drawn as to each and every scenario for whoever is left over.

You can see all of the changes here: http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/20975163

When reading the “Major Changes” coming for StarCraft 2 later this year, the first thing that jumped out at me are how different Protoss vs Terran will look. This blog will go into some detail on my thoughts about how those changes could impact the matchup.

Widow Mine change:

- Widow Mines are now revealed while Sentinel Missile is on cooldown.

Let’s think about early game TvP for a moment. Currently, there is a choice to make. Do I keep my Oracle out on the map or send it home to defend vs drops? Do I risk flying in not knowing where mines are? If I lose that Oracle, I’m going to be really hurting at home. What if the Terran made a proxy Factory and Starport? Maybe I should go for a Robo so I can clean up mass Mines more easily.

Now, none of these decisions matter any more for Protoss. In fact, I’m already planning on opening Twilight every single game now. The power of the Widow Mine’s consistent cloak in the early game has truly been powerful. You simply must have detection – Observers or Oracles – no matter what.

With this change, though, Protoss players will simply trade a Probe for a Widow Mine, and happily go about their day.

Now, this all sounds really silly when I outline it like this. What I wrote above is an outline of what this change does alone in our current version of LotV. In our current version, this would be a brutal change for for Terrans. The thing is, we have to look at it in context of all of the upcoming changes, and this change, in particular (with regards to Terran vs Protoss), has amazing synergy with other changes.

First lets look at the Mothership Core, its purpose, and its removal.

I think that many non-Protoss players are happy to see the Mothership Core go, and that many Protoss players are scared of the same prospect.

What is the function of the Mothership Core? Why does Protoss need such a tool?

The Mothership Core was introduced to help shore up early game Protoss defence. The Protoss race, from the get-go, has been about teching up before macroing. If you make more than a handful of Gateway units before going higher up the tech tree, this generally means that you are going all-in, as the Gateway units simply don’t scale well without upgrades or splash damage.

So, if we look at the current role of the Mothership Core in Protoss vs Terran, it will generally help you (with good positioning of Pylons), to defend your bases early game with a minimum of Gateway units while getting out Robo tech, or an Oracle, or maybe even an upgrade like Blink.

The Protoss army has always thrived on working together (a nice way of saying Deathball). While, sure, you could have little harassment groups around the map trying to get things done, if your army isn’t all together and you run into your opponent’s army, you are in a lot of trouble. These types of armies in general are not as mobile as most Terran and Zerg armies, making it a bit scary to move around the map. Counter attacks could come quickly and do lots of damage. This, again, is where the Mothership Core helps out. By leaving an inexpensive unit at home, you would have some degree of defence vs incoming counter attacks, giving you some extra mobility on the map.

So now we have the Mothership Core on the way out. In it’s place is the Nexus, full of new abilities:

Chrono Boost

- Cost: 50 Energy - Duration: 10 seconds - Effect: Boosts a building’s work rate by 100%.

Mass Recall

- Cost: 100 Energy - Effect: After 4 seconds all units in target area are teleported to the Nexus. Units are unable to move or attack during this time.

Shield Recharge

- Cost: 1 Energy per 3 shield restored - Range: 8 - Has autocast functionality - Can be cast on units or structures

All I’ll say about the new Chrono Boost ability for now is that it is infinitely more interesting than the Chrono Boost that we’ve been working with lately. There are actual decisions to be made and APM/Rhythms to be used.

Now let’s talk about the Shield Recharge ability.

I love this ability. It is a fantastic idea. In a world without the Mothership Core OR Shield Recharge, Protoss would be forced to make lots of Gateway units nonstop, making sure they always have enough to simply beat what’s coming at them. This would make a horrible situation where everything you do is stifled. It would kind of look like games on Ulrena, if you remember that map, where Protoss would be extra heavy on Gateway units, waiting for an attack that might never come, thus forcing aggressive builds to utilize those units before their value sank too low in comparison to better scaling from the opponent’s units.

So, here we are with the new Shield Recharge. Now, whether your opponent is dropping with a Medivac into your main base or attacking your front with Roaches, you have some support for your early Gateway army. Defence won’t be a single click of a button that makes it mathematically unwise for your opponent to continue his attack, but rather micro-based. Stalkers, Adepts and Zealots fighting, sometimes kiting, being healed as they are focus fired down. I think that it will be extremely hard for anyone to argue that this will be less entertaining or less fun for either side when compared to the Mothership Core.

I also find it really cool that it will work with Cannons as well. You won’t necessarily have to have units at each base to defend vs smaller attacks in the mid and late game.

So now let’s look at Mass Recall:

- Cost: 100 Energy - Effect: After 4 seconds all units in target area are teleported to the Nexus. Units are unable to move or attack during this time.

It probably isn’t worthwhile to compare this ability with the current Mass Recall on the Mothership Core. The new version is unquestionably better.

Mass Recall probably won’t be used very much in the early game, as it definitely requires a high mana cost, but as the game becomes longer, it should be an extremely strong aspect of Protoss - adding a huge amount of mobility.

And a quick look at the new Stalker:

- Increased Stalker’s Particle Disruptor weapon from 10 (14 vs armored) to 15 (21 vs armored) - Increased Particle Disruptor’s weapon period from 1.03 to 1.54 - Particle Disruptor now gets +2 damage per weapon upgrade, up from +1

The new Stalker will maintain approximately the same DPS throughout the game, but will take over (in conjunction with the Nexus’ new abilities) the defensive roll that the Mothership Core used to have.

One of the problems in early game PvT since the Siege Tank buffs (as well as Liberators in general) was that making Stalkers early on in a defensive manner could be detrimental. For instance, the original Protoss defensive opening of Blink/Observer, was almost completely killed off by the presence of early Tank pushes. You would simply not have the damage or health to fight off a well executed attack from Terran, and thus the build went into obscurity. This forced Protoss into builds based off of a tech unit (most often the Oracle) to slow the Terran down, so that you could buy time to crush an early push all at once. Now:

1. You don’t necessarily need early detection to deal with Widow Mines. 2. The Nexus can heal up lots of damage on your Stalkers. 3. Initial (first volley) damage output from Stalkers are greatly increased.

When you put all of these changes together, Protoss vs Terran, from the Protoss perspective, looks a lot different. - You are no longer forced into either Stargate or Robo for macro openings - You are no longer forced to control the early game with just 2-3 specialized units (Mothership Core, Oracle, Phoenix, etc)

These make me think that early game PvT will likely consist of making a few defensive Stalkers while getting a Twilight Council and a Forge or two. Without an overwhelming need for early detection, Protoss can focus on getting ahead on upgrades and having much higher mobility with a larger and stronger early army than ever before. The more we see the matchup skew towards this, the less each individual unit will matter (unlike now with a huge importance on the specialized units).

I think that the direction of Protoss splash actually supports my notions of the new direction of the race:

Disruptor changes

Purification Nova - Purification Nova now detonates on contact with enemy units (not structures) - Purification Nova still lasts 2 seconds before detonating - Damage reduced from 145 (+55 shields) to 135 (+25 shields) - Cooldown reduced from 21 to 18 - When dropped from a Warp Prism the Disruptor’s Purification Nova will be set to a brief cooldown. As it felt a little too strong vs worker lines otherwise.

Quicker cooldown, but much easier to micro against. Less giant swings due to overwhelming splash damage. The cooldown when dropped from a Warp Prism is shocking, to be honest. This was never and to this day is not a problem in professional play. I don’t think that this was on anyone’s list of things that felt too strong agains worker lines. I disagree with this change wholeheartedly. Disruptor Drops are no longer a viable strategy with this change. Even the other change about contact with enemy units would have nerfed them already, but this is insane overkill.

Colossus changes

- Damage changed from 12 to 10 (15 vs Light) - Damage per upgrade changed from 1 to 1 (+1 vs Light) - Range increased from 6 to 7 - Upgrade: Extended Thermal Lance - Range upgrade decreased from +3 to +2 - Cost decreased from 200 / 200 to 150 / 150

Obviously Colossus will shred Marines even harder than before, and it’s nice to make base range a bit longer as well as Thermal Lance a bit cheaper. That being said, this doesn’t seem like a buff or a nerf to me. Just a slight change in roll, from something that you will always just blindly make, to something that you think about whether or not you want. I might be slightly wrong due to numbers, but it seems like that’s the intended direction at least.

I do want to, for a moment, mention the Ghost change:

- Cloak is now available by default on Ghosts - Ghosts now start with 50 energy instead of 75 - Moebius Reactor is re-added to the Ghost Academy. It provides +25 starting energy to Ghosts

If, in fact, the Protoss meta does shift as I think it will, Ghosts could be a pretty cool way to keep things in check. Starting with Cloak makes the fast Ghost rushes (that we barely ever see) more reasonable, and just in general force Protoss to not skip detection all game long. I think it’s a solid idea.

From the Terran side, most of the changes don’t seem to greatly effect the TvP matchup. The Widow Mine change is pretty big for the early game. The fix to Liberator vision was probably called for a while ago. The Cyclone initial volley will help push out harass a bit better, which is a good thing. But overall, there’s not a whole lot there. Of course, as Protoss’s overall play changes some, Terran players will have to adjust accordingly. That’s just common sense.

The overall feel that I get from these changes on the Protoss side of things is that the early game will become less volatile, and the basic Protoss army will feel stronger and more mobile. Mid-game map control could easily become Protoss favoured. In short, this new PvT looks like it will be a lot more like the flavour of PvT in StarCraft 1. Based on the overwhelming majority of comments that I’ve read online about the flavour of Protoss in SC2 in the past several years, I would think people will be happy about this general direction.

In closing:

Having the Nexus enable Gateway units (alongside the higher Stalker damage) to be useful on defence in the early game without making them overpowered offensively is awesome and should make the game more enjoyable for everyone, whether playing or spectating.

BONUS!! Here’s some stuff I don’t like at all from the changes:

High Templar

- Added Psi Blast weapon - Range: 6 - Damage: 4 - Attack period: 1.25

This is so weird. The stated reason is that it will make them easier to control, not running into battle to die.

Who is attack moving their High Templars into battle and losing them like that? This is not and cannot be a change for the pro level, and that I don’t like.

HT attack isn’t the only change like this:

“While we don’t want to make Protoss ability gameplay any more complicated we wanted to try making Observers more useful for ladder players. Currently Observers are selected with the select all army button (F2 by default) which can often bring Observers out of position and to their untimely demise. While we’d like to keep observers in this selection, we are considering adding the ability to ‘deploy’ your observer for increased vision range in exchange for being unable to move.

New ability: Surveillance Mode The observer is unable to move and gains 25% more vision”

Let me rewrite this one - “We noticed that people are bad at StarCraft. Many players have developed bad habits and are too lazy to fix them, so we are going to make those bad habits less bad.”

As a turtley macro player, I’m very excited to have 25% more vision on my Observers. This isn’t the right reason to give me that, though. I disagree with the change, but more so with the stated reason for the change. If you want to use the “easy button” to play StarCraft, then that’s a drawback you should have to deal with. Learn to play more cleanly and you will lose less Observers.

Same opinion on the Overseer change which is exactly the same.

The Four Horsemen It should come as no surprise that all of the Four Horsemen will be playing at IEM Shanghai. What is a surprise, though, is that 3 of them are in the same group. Group D stands for Death. It's easy to feel bad for Trust who has to battle his way through INnoVation, Expert_ByuN and JinAir_Maru, but I'm sure Terran players will find a way not to, on the account that he's Protoss and all.

The Zerg short-list If you had to name the world's best Zergs, it would go something like this:

soO, the complete package of Zerg, 6 time GSL Finalist

Dark, the most aggressive macro player maybe ever, SSL Champion and Blizzcon runner-up

LFT_ByuL, the mechanic god, INnoVation's counter-part for the Zerg race, 4 time combined GSL/SSL runner-up

Splyce_Solar, the meta-changer, SSL Champion

JinAir_Rogue, the long-time up and comer "sexy Zerg", who's time may have finally come, Korean Ladder #1 dominator

Well, IEM Shanghai will showcase 4 of those names, with only ByuL being unable to make the cut.

This year's GSL Champions

Splyce_Stats and PsiStorm_GuMiho will both be competing in Shanghai. In the same group. You're welcome.

The Chinese hopefuls

China has an extremely strong and passionate StarCraft II scene. Sadly, we only get glimpses of it, due to many of their tournaments being Chinese-cast only on Chinese streaming sites, Visa issues, and the difficulty of cross-server play.

Luckily we get the chance to see 2 of their very best in action, in front of their home-field crowd. TIME, the incredible rising star of China, who we just got to see put up some fantastic games in GSL Code S (being the first Chinese player to play in GSL in many, many years) will be in the incredibly hard Group C. We will also get to see a preview of the GSL vs the World invited player, iAsonu, a household name of the Chinese scene.

Perhaps the hottest player on earth right now

The one and only Super Tournament champion, ROOT's very own herO. This man is absolutely on fire, absolutely demolishing his competition in his recent matches. Not only one of the favourites of IEM Shanghai, but of GSL Code S this season as well.

And of course, the Groups:

Group A TY Dark Bunny PenguiN

Group B Stats GuMiho Rogue iAsonu

Group C soO herO Solar TIME

Group D INnoVation Maru ByuN Trust

Make sure you catch all the action starting at: 9:40am Thursday 27th - Sunday 30th, Shanghai time

On: http://www.Twitch.tv/esl_sc2

At IEM Katowice I was pretty outspoken about the need for Protoss players to transition out of Adept/Phoenix play in PvT as the game became longer. herO's play in the group stage was a great example of the limitations of the Adept/Phoenix composition. In many of his games he would have what amounted to a decent lead and eventually get grinded down by remaining on the early/mid game composition for too long.

Some Protosses, most notably Stats, were attempting to transition out of Adept/Phoenix, but that transition was not yet fully vetted. In both games during which he opened with Adept/Phoenix strategies against TY in the finals of Katowice, Stats attempted to transition out. In both of these games (game 2 on Proxima Station and game 3 on Abyssal Reef), Stats followed up the opening with Blink and Psi Storm, and in both of these games TY defeated him. Stats hung up the strategy for the rest of the tournament, as TY was clearly more prepared for these situations than he was.

2 Weeks Later...

IEM Katowice ended on March 5th. Let's fast forward almost 2 weeks later to March 18th. On this day, herO and Stats both showed identical transitions from the strong Adept/Phoenix early/mid game into a full blown, teched out late game.

herO vs Bunny @ Abyssal Reef - SHOUTcraft Kings March - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aADlJZtuA5o&feature=youtu.be&t=612

Stats vs Ryung @ Abyssal Reef - GSL Code S ro4 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDaXcaURBZA&feature=youtu.be&t=730

Stats vs Ryung @ Cactus Valley - GSL Code S ro4 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDaXcaURBZA&feature=youtu.be&t=3322

Here is a brief outline of their important changes to the transition of Adept/Phoenix into the late game:(please note that for these rules to hold, Terran should have taken a 3rd base and not taken or inflicted critical damage, i.e, a "normal" game)

- The transition happens in the area of 70-80 Army Supply for Protoss (40ish on ground units - mostly Adepts, 20ish on Mothership Core / Oracle / 7-8 Phoenix / Prism). Around this time the game is shifting. Either you have done enough damage that Terran is scrambling, or Terran is turtling well enough on 3 bases that you will get diminished returns upon any further attacks.

- The transition itself is into a 2nd Robotics, Colossus Tech, and THEN a 4th base. The second Forge and Blink can come around this time as well.

3 Weeks Later...

Now, strategies do not stop evolving in a game like StarCraft 2. As shown above, Adept / Phoenix went from no transitions / bad transitions into a highly regular and strong follow-up strategy in under 2 weeks time. Protoss vs Terran and Terran vs Protoss are, of course, still evolving. Certain base concepts of RTS will always apply, and as people use them in different ways or with different emphasis-es the metagame will continue to evolve.

Let's fast forward again, from March 18th, where a completely solid transition was showcased for Phoenix Adept, to almost 3 weeks later during GSL Super Tournament. As you probably already know, herO won this tournament, mostly on the back of his outrageously strong PvT. The two matches that I want to talk about are the ones which he had in the ro8 and Finals, against GuMiho and aLive, respectively. 

herO's Adept / Phoenix vs GuMiho - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhTGuHQGdto

Overall Score: 1-1

GuMiho's loss on Newkirk Precinct:

In this game, and overall in the series, GuMiho plays against herO's strong Pylon rush opener. Instead of the popular Gas before Barracks which is used to get your Factory and Reactor out right after your Reaper, GuMiho instead goes for a Barracks first. With this he skips the Reactor for a little bit and instead makes 3 Marines immediately, which do a fantastic job of shutting down the aggression.

GuMiho uses a "GuMiho moveout", as I call it in my head. He, like many other Terrans, will move out with a couple of Medivacs, some Marines, and 2-3 Widow Mines. Unlike many other Terrans, he won't engage with it. A key to understanding Adept/Phoenix is to understand that they WANT this fight. Adept/Phoenix is strong in small skirmishes, and especially strong against Marines. The lower the supplies, the stronger Adept/Phoenix becomes. GuMiho will not give you this fight. He will pretend that he is going to, often times baiting out an Overcharge. Then he will retreat over his Widow Mines, hoping that you will chase and lose a couple Phoenixes. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. The most important thing is that he makes it back home, not having donated his units towards a Protoss victory. Screen Shot below.

Behind this, GuMiho is just massing up on 2 bases. The push distance on Newkirk Precinct between GuMiho's natural and herO's 3rd is very short, which makes this a strong choice of strategy for the map. He is making sure to make Liberators, Marauders and Widow Mines. His push will begin around 110 Army Supply. The 110-130 Terran Army Supply range, generally speaking, is where Adept/Phoenix will start to deteriorate in value. Remember, Adepts are like Roaches. They can be scary, but the higher your supply, the less you have to worry about them. Here is a screen shot of the armies as GuMiho starts his push.

Now, I need to mention about herO's lack of transition here. GuMiho has forced this. As I mentioned above when talking about the transition into Colossus tech, it is used when Terran has 3 bases and has basically shut down harassment. In this game, GuMiho has remained on 2 bases, has lost very little so far, and feigned pressure multiple times. herO has been forced to remain on Adept/Phoenix. GuMiho would have some serious kill potential if he tried to skimp on units at any time in this game so far.

GuMiho sets up a pretty awesome looking push:

herO begins to push it back:

herO continues to chase but GuMiho rallies in and turns any time he feels advantaged (getting most units out of range of Adepts, over mines, etc.)

This approach from GuMiho is really quite brilliant. While he does eventually lose the game, he comes very close to defeating herO, and perhaps with a few different moves a bit later, does.

And just to cut off anyone who wants to say "oh, yeah, see! GuMiho played so awesomely and in a way you say is strategically sound, and Adept/Phoenix still beat him!" , I have this to say:GuMiho is a great player, but being upset that herO beat him with Adept/Phoenix is like being upset that Maru beat Trap with Marine/Marauder.

GuMiho's win on Echo:

GuMiho again, as he did on Newkirk Precinct, opens with Barracks - Gas, making sure to minimize damage from any Pylon rushes.

GuMiho again uses the "GuMiho moveout".

herO tagged the army in their encounter on Newkirk Precinct when the Mines were with it. This time GuMiho kept them behind and pre-burrowed:

He then waited around a bit longer and successfully baited herO into them. Remember, Protoss WANTS to fight right now. GuMiho uses this want against him.

Now even though these first two moves I bring up are similar to the other Adept / Phoenix game, the overall strategies of both players have changed. GuMiho decided to take a much faster 3rd CC, and herO had also taken a faster 3rd Nexus -- right after his Oracle, before adding additional Gateways. herO also grabbed an early Prism this game, and decided to try to kill GuMiho outright. GuMiho sat back defending, sending only a single Medivac onto the map to drop Mines while he was being harassed by the Phoenixes at his main base.

Now herO, taking a 4th base, is trying to kill a turtling GuMiho, who is taking a 3rd base.

What is wrong with this picture for Protoss? He has shaded in to a nice GuMiho arc. Many of his Adepts are not firing. Also, GuMiho has not actually lost basically any units this game. There is no real reason why a defensive GuMiho should die to herO's attack. What is herO trying to achieve? Even if he pushes the army to retreat, what is gained? There are no SCVs at the 3rd base yet, the best he can do is trade some units for units. Now, to be fair, he's lost some Probes to the Mine drop, and his initial Prism didn't work out. He could feel like he needs to take some risks to even up the game, which is reasonable. Still,  GuMiho defends this push very well, targeting down as many Phoenixes as possible.

After defending the a bit longer, GuMiho, not having sent countless drops out to their own doom, not having wasted units in skirmishes that the Adept/Phoenix player wants to take, moves out once again around 110 supply.

This push rolls through herO. There are lots of different reasons that herO may have chosen to play extra aggressively on this map, and just because he lost doesn't necessarily mean that he was wrong in doing so. StarCraft is complicated like that. This game, though, is a perfect example of the need for Phoenix/Adept players to transition vs a well defended 3 base Terran who knows what he's doing.

herO's Adept / Phoenix vs aLive - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ds6ymGrIMMQ

Overall Score: 3-1

herO went 1-1 vs GuMiho with Adept/Phoenix play, and could have easily gone 0-2. So why, against a better Terran player in aLive, did he go 3-1? Let's take a look at the causes of aLive's losses.

aLive's loss on Echo:

aLive uses a different opening on Echo from anything we normally see in TvP right now. He opens with a Barracks first and skips making a Reaper, or any units. Instead he gets a fast Reactor while expanding, followed by a second Barracks and a Factory. This will allow aLive to have a much higher Marine count early on than most common builds in the matchup.

Next, at 3:25, aLive scouts a ridiculously fast Nexus. This Nexus is so fast that it's before the Oracle. This fast scout my account for what happens next, but there's no way to tell for sure.

aLive scans and sees a Stargate building an Oracle. It's actually the second Oracle. The first Oracle is almost to his base. He moves out at this point with a sizable Marine force, a Mine and a Medivac.

Of course with no units at home the Oracle flies in and does critical damage.

My guess is that aLive thought with how fast the Nexus was that herO maybe went 3rd base into a Stargate, which would maybe make him think that his scan reveal the first Oracle. Otherwise why would he leave his base completely unguarded vs an incoming Oracle? He just wouldn't.

aLive's push doesn't end up doing any damage. He splits up all of his units and then herO deals with them in two groups instead of fighting against them all at once. If aLive had kept them together its certain he would have at minimum killed the 3rd base. Regardless, he lost 10 SCVs to the first Oracle before 5 minutes into the game and did nothing of note with his initial push. This game isn't as much a loss to Adept / Phoenix as it is a loss to an undefended Oracle. If a Protoss loses 10 Probes to the first Mine Drop, normally it isn't the follow-up kill that gets complained about. It's the Mine Drop.

aLive's loss on Daybreak:

This game opens pretty well for aLive. herO expands quickly and immediately tries harassing with 2 Adepts, and an Oracle. He even brings a Phoenix across to tank Mine hits so the Oracle can get more damage. aLive deflects everything just about as perfectly as you can, taking minimal damage.

The next real action occurs as aLive is moving out. He goes across the map with a similar army to what GuMiho uses in the "GuMiho moveout". 3 Mines, 20 Marines, and 2 Medivacs. He's headed towards the 3rd base. On his way there, herO is harassing with his Phoenixes in aLive's natural. aLive sees this as an opportunity to get into an aggressive position.

herO doesn't see this incoming attack until the last second, but immediately brings all of his units and warps in on location. Note the army supplies right now: 52 vs 53.

Here is the engagement about to happen. Do 3 Mines, 20 Marines and 2 Medivacs beat 15 Adepts and 6 Phoenixes/1 Oracle? Even just comparing the supplies, or the army cost of these two armies... in no world does aLive's army ever win here.

At the pro level, Protoss wins this every single time. This particular time, aLive micros really well and herO is a bit off, even missing a pickup on a Mine. aLive actually ends up sniping off a few Phoenixes that make this fight not as bad as it could have been and often is.

Phoenix / Adept, as I've been saying throughout this article, is very strong in the early and mid game. We are all used to Terran being stronger in small skirmishes at small supplies than Protoss or Zerg, but Phoenix/Adept turns the tables on that. Attacks like this are, in my view, the primary reason that Terrans have a hard time against Adept/Phoenix.

This next drop happens right as aLive's previous attack was being cleaned up. 7 Marines, 2 Mines and 2 Medivacs are sent into herO's natural. I really like the fundamentals that aLive is showing here.

First, herO's Phoenixes are in aLive's natural, so aLive hits the 3rd. Then as all those units are getting cleaned up, aLive hits herO's natural to do damage while he's out of position. These are the types of moves that make aLive so damn good. This play shows aLive's multi-tasking prowess. I seriously think that the first attack at the 3rd base was a mistake, but based on the fact that he did that attack, this attack is a good idea. (for the record he ends up killing 8 Probes, 1 Oracle, costs a bit of lost mining time and unpowering 4 gates for slightly over the build time of a Pylon.)

OK, so now comes aLive's biggest mistake in this game, and what probably actually ended up costing him the game overall. aLive has traded ARMY for ECONOMY (and some tech units, i.e ~3 Phoenixes and an Oracle). When you trade ARMY for ECONOMY, that means that you now have LESS ARMY and your opponent has LESS ECONOMY. We can reword this to say that your opponent has a SUPERIOR ARMY.

As a StarCraft player, the moments after you trade your ARMY for ECONOMY are the moments during which you are most vulnerable. It inevitably means that your opponent should be looking to use this new ARMY ADVANTAGE. This is when you should be most fearful of a counter attack. herO knows that aLive just spent a lot of units to deal damage to him, but that herO didn't lose very many units at all. So here we have herO gathering his forces to see if he can punish aLive at all.

Here's what aLive is up to:

aLive, again, has a much smaller army. 24 Army Supply down. Not only that, but he has absolutely NO pressure on the map. Maybe if he had a Medivac in herO's main base or something, maybe then herO would be at home trying to clean stuff up. Instead we have aLive doing nothing but expanding after losing lots of units to injure herO's economy. This is the one time you can be certain of an incoming attack.

To aLive's credit, when he sees herO incoming, he wastes no time getting behind his Depot Wall and pulling SCVs to repair. Within seconds, though, aLive loses 15 workers and much of his bio force. aLive's economy advantage turns into a disadvantage, and the army supplies equalize:

This is a good spot for an Adept/Phoenix player. Adept/Phoenix wants to fight at lower supplies against Terran. Bigger economy = more production of Adept/Phoenix = easier to continually trade vs Terran. Continual aggressive trades with Adept/Phoenix is exactly what herO is going for.

The rest of this game is just wild. aLive does a great job fighting against herO, especially as his army becomes more technical. As his Maruader and Mine counts grow, aLive takes better and better fights. The game becomes an extremely down and dirty one, full of multitasking, harassment and micro -- with both players showing a great quality in skill.

aLive's loss on Cactus Valley:

This game starts out very different from the others. herO does a 66% chance of working Proxy Stargate and nails it, being very close to aLive's base. He sends the Mothership Core over and does a Pylon rush while flying in 2 Oracles. While he destroys the front Depots and Reactor, aLive's Reaper actually gets 5-6 Probe Kills over in herO's base.

herO takes a 3rd base while aLive defends his relentless harassment. With 2 Oracles and 3-4 Phoenixes, herO is able to pick off a a few units and SCVs, but then pulls back into a defensive arc around aLive's base, watching for any leaving harassment:

This is a great move to protect his economy back home. aLive has already invested heavily into tech units, so only a technical harassment threatens the almost unit-less (still on one gateway) herO. As herO adds on his tech and aLive becomes a bit too strong to contain so forwardly, herO pulls back into another arc around his home bases.

Now this game, aLive has been very much on top of his defense. He hasn't taken too much damage despite some really flashy harassment from herO. He's also gone up to 5 Barracks without a 3rd CC. The game is looking, strategically, a bit more like GuMiho's play on Newkirk Precinct.

As aLive's complexity grows, he begins to push out a bit and starts his 3rd CC. He is posturing though, and doesn't commit to an actual fight:

When herO scouts that aLive is making a 3rd CC and continues to turtle, giving away no units for free, herO decides to transition from Phoenix / Adept, knowing that the composition is doomed vs such play:

This is a very important moment in understanding the mind of herO while playing Phoenix/Adept. For a long time aLive was just sitting on 2 bases while building his army complexity. That is, for a long time, aLive was playing like GuMiho on Newkirk Precinct. herO was unable to do anything but continue making as strong an army as he could so that he could fight at the moment that aLive would come out. When herO sees that there is, in fact, a 3rd CC on the way, he sees that aLive is not going to be allin when he attacks. Thus, herO must transition. His main goal from here out is to not to fully engage until he has an army complex enough to fight against what aLive is making.

herO (I think accidentally) lets a shade finish at the wall-in, and aLive having a sufficiently large and complex army, in addition to seeing the Adepts close by and without their Shade cooldown active, takes the opportunity to move out. Notice the army supply once again for aLive:

Here is where it gets a bit messy. In this next screen shot, herO has just shaded the rest of his Adepts away, having some shaved off by aLive chasing. herO, knowing that he MUST buy time for this huge investment into Colossus, gathers all of his Phoenix together behind aLive's army which is in the center of the map:

Here is the moment that aLive turned back around to head towards herO again:

If aLive had not turned around, had he ignored the Phoenixes going back towards his base, he would be entering the 3rd base at this moment, with the Colossi half way done, the Phoenixes across the map, and the Adepts in the natural.

Now when aLive gets there, the Colossi are out and the Phoenixes are back. Another Warp-in round is occurring. Most importantly, perhaps, is that herO has jumped up a whole level of complexity. aLive's army right now is perfectly suited to fight against Adept/Phoenix, but has nothing to really deal with the Colossi:

They do a lot of trading in this battle, but aLive does not kill the base. So was chasing the Phoenixes back and regrouping with some important Liberators and Widow Mines a mistake? This is where the complexity of the game makes me uncomfortable in saying a simple "yes".  The further we get into a tight game of StarCraft, the harder it becomes to be critical of some of the more complicated moves the players make. On top of that, we are getting very few games right now that progress so well to this stage.

I do want to say that I think that this game, more than any other, is a testament to herO's skill and adaptability in the matchup and with the strategy in question.

In Closing

I do not think that this article has all the answers or clearly states exactly how you should or should not play against Phoenix / Adept as Terran, or even exactly how to play with Phoenix / Adept from the Protoss side. 

I do however think that this article shows many of the concepts and ideas that are being misunderstood about the Phoenix / Adept matchup against Terran at the moment. I think overall the Protoss side of understanding of this strategy is a bit more advanced than the Terran side currently, but that will swing over time, as it always does. It also seems to me, at least from the many, many games which I watch and study, that Terrans sometimes misunderstand their roll as the defender in early/mid game when playing against the strategy (as throughout the history of SC2, Terran has almost always been the aggressor, this is certainly a strange feeling change for at least some players).

Balance-wise, my gut tells me that this strategy will not prove to be imbalanced as play advances in the coming weeks. I'm fine being wrong with that, but to find out for sure we will need some more time for Terrans to continue to adapt to the strategy. 

Alexander "Neeb" Sunderhaft won the KeSPA Cup. Mikolaj "Elazer" Ogonowski, Tobias "ShoWTimE" Sieber and the aforementioned Neeb all made it into the round of 8 at Blizzcon. This is a wild time to be a StarCraft fan, as the foreigners continue to close the gap against the Korean programmers, making their mark more and more.

And now, Sasha "Scarlett" Hostyn has qualified for the longest standing and most prestigious tournament in all of StarCraft II, the GSL Code S. While this is certainly an impressive feat, Scarlett's entire story in the GSL has not unfolded yet, so I'd like to take this time to look back on the history of foreigners (non-Koreans) in GSL.

GSL started just after the official release of SC2, all the way back in August of 2010. It was an exciting time, the start of the first Korean league in the sequel to the game that really started esports. Immediately great attention was given to the GSL, and many top Non-Korean players decided to attempt to make their name by traveling to Korea to compete.

The First Era - Open Seasons 1-3

The Open Seasons were like the Wild West of GSL. StarCraft II was an untamed land, one full of strategies and mechanics yet to be discovered. There was a pretty good understanding of who the top players were at the time, but really anything could happen as the game was not even close to mapped out at the time. To add to the craziness, the first 3 seasons were known as "Open" for a reason. There were no seeds, and the brackets started at 64 players. This means that during the open qualifiers, there were 64 spots up for grabs to get into the GSL. That is a LOT of spots, which both allowed almost every top player to qualify, but also let in a lot of randoms who had some strange strategies or easy brackets.

Open Season 1

The first qualifier for GSL was announced very last minute, but still 4 non-Koreans were able to make it into the main tournament. 

Trevor "TorcH" Housten made it only as far as the round of 64, losing to a Protoss player who, little did we know, would several seasons later become a surprise powerhouse: Cho Won "San" Kang.

Dan "Artosis" Stemkoski (me, lol!) also only made it into the round of 64. There I played a pretty poor series against a Protoss player and lost 1-2. This was of course with Zerg, my original race in SC2.

Dario "Liquid`TLO" Wunsch also qualified for the first GSL Open Season, and certainly did a good job there as well. He took out Kang Ho "LosirA" Hwang, who is still a top professional Zerg to this day, with a 2-0 score, and then lost to Yoo Jong "Hyperdub" Kim in the round of 32, a well known Terran of the time, 1-2. By the way, this was all playing Terran, the race TLO started out with.

The favourite of the Non-Koreans (and truthfully, one of the overall favourites of the whole tournament), Greg "IdrA" Fields didn't preform as well as anyone expected in the first season. After handily dispatching a Terran player in the round of 64, he lost to Yung Soo "NettiePrime" Jun 1-2 in the round of 32. 

Thus ended a very underwhelming Open Season 1 for a hopeful foreigner scene.

Open Season 2

Season 2 had repeat qualifiers in TLO and IdrA, as well as a new one in Yi "Loner" Dai, the Chinese Terran (who would soon later go on to get 2nd at the first StarCraft II Blizzcon tournament).

TLO had a harder season this time, hitting Sang Ho "Killer" Shin AKA SangHo, an experienced StarCraft 1 pro who had just switched over. He went out in the round of 64.

IdrA had a much better run this time. He took out 2 Terrans before losing to Jung Min "Zenio" Choi in the round of 16.

Loner had a pretty impressive in his first GSL, first taking out the current world champion, Hyun Woo "ByuN" Byun (who played Protoss at the time and was known as Bleach), followed by a victory over a Zerg player before losing to the Emperor himself, Yo Hwan "BoxeR" Lim.

2 rounds of 16 was certainly a much better showing for the foreigners, but nothing compared to what the 3rd season had in store...

Open Season 3

Some truly heavy hitters came out of the woodwork this season. 

Hayder "Liquid`HayprO" Hussein made it in but instantly fell to the cheesiest player in the history of StarCraft, Nam Kyu "BitByBitPrime" Kim.

IdrA, Jos "Liquid`ret" de Kroon, and Chia Cheng "Sen" Yang all fared a bit better than HayprO and made it to the round of 32 before falling. Notably Sen's run was cut short by the previous season's champion, Jae Duk "NesTea" Lim, who mentioned multiple times that he felt Sen was easily top Korean level.

Pretty underwhelming for a brand new game with the best RTS talent outside of Korea trying their best to overcome the history of Korean dominance. Enter Jonathan "Liquid`Jinro" Walsh.

Jinro had already tried the previous 2 seasons to qualify for the GSL. Despite many weaker players making it into the GSL, Jinro was only able to make it to the ro8 in both previous qualifier attempts. 3rd time's a charm.

In the round of 64, Jinro took out the strong Zerg player Jin Yung "Drug" Kwun 2-1. Sadly, he would be going up against the 5th race, the ultimate legend from WarCraft III, Jae Ho "Moon" Jang, in the round of 32. Sadly for Moon, that is. 2-0 for Jinro. Well, in the round of 16, which is as far as any non-Korean had made it so far, he would have to play Seong Hun "Polt" Choi. Yes, that Polt. Polt, by the way, had already taken down BoxeR in the previous round. Oh, never mind, no problem. Jinro wins 2-0. Well round of 8 is pretty damn good. But now he was going up against Hyung Seop "Choya" Lee, who had already taken out He Who Would Be The Greatest That There Ever Was, Jong Hyun "Mvp" Jung. Jinro clutched that round out as well, with a 3-2 score. Round of 4. This would be where Jinro was stopped, by none other than the Boss Toss, Min Chul "MC" Jang. MC crushed Jinro 4-0, and would go on to give a 4-1 victory against Seo Yong "Rain" Park in the Finals. MC would also go on to be the biggest money winner EVER, even to this day, when he is retired and coaching a League of Legends team. Not a bad player to go out against.

Just to get this out of the way, these large 64 spot GSLs were the ONLY times that foreigners ever qualified for the GSL through an open bracket. Every single participation in the GSL after Open Season 3 (which started in November of 2010) by a foreigner was seed-based. Until, that is, Scarlett won her qualifying group this past week.

The Second Era - Rapid Fire GSL Code S

2011 had 7 GSL Code S tournaments. 2012 had 5 GSL Code S tournaments.

  GSL January 2011

Loner and ret both played in Code A and both lost to Jung Hwan "Cezanne" Kim. ret in the first round, Loner in the second.

Jinro and IdrA were in Code S, where they were both put into Group H. The star foreigners were both able to eek it out, forcing Sang Cheol "Ensnare" Kim and Hyung Joo "Check" Lee into the Up and Down matches.

The round of 16 groups were absolutely brutal for both players. IdrA was in a group with the legendary Yoon Yeol "NaDa" Lee, the Blizzcon Champion Min Soo "Genius" Jeong, and one of the strongest players of early StarCraft II, Kyu Jong "Clide" Han. Despite this, IdrA advanced in first place to the round of 8.

Jinro's group was no less scary. Sung Je "Rainbow" Kim, the runner-up of Open Season 1. MC, the Boss Toss and defending champion. And last but certainly not least, the legendary Jung Hoon "MarineKingPrime" Lee, who was the runner up to Open Season 2. No prob Bob. Jinro gets out cleanly in 2nd place, moving on to the round of 8 with IdrA. Or should I say against IdrA?

Having not played against each other enough, what being in the same ro32 group and all, IdrA and Jinro faced off in the round of 8, to see if IdrA would become the most successful foreigner in GSL history, or if Jinro would run far out of his range. Jinro came out on top, securing his second top 4 in a row. Here he would fall to MarineKing once again, 1-3. 

A remarkable season for the non-Koreans, and a statement to be sure. Spoiler alert: this greatness would never be matched again.

GSL March 2011

This was a sad time, the time when IdrA, after many years living in Korea decided it was time to move back to America. With that, Jinro would be the only foreign player in Code S this season. 

It started out well for Jinro, beating down a group containing RainBow, Polt and Check to finish in first place. Once he reached the round of 16 (now a bracket), he was taken out by Hong Wook "HongUnPrime" Ahn, a Protoss of some note in early SC2.

There was also quite a handful of foreigners in Code A this season. Loner, HayprO, ret and Andrew "mOOnGLaDe" Pender all lost immediately in the round of 32.

This though, was Chris "HuK" Loranger's big breakout moment. HuK was seeded into the Code A and was able to take down Won Pyo "Curious" Lee and Dong Hyun "Revival" Kim, two extremely strong Zergs before losing to LosirA in the round of 8. This gave HuK a spot in the Up and Down matches. After losing to Joon Hyuk "InCa" Song, a previous GSL Finalist, HuK managed to take down Choya in a close series and gain a spot in the next GSL Code S.

GSL May 2011

HuK and Jinro were all that was left going into the GSL May season. Neither were able to make it out of their round of 32 groups. Jinro beat San but lost to both Nestea and Clide. HuK wasn't able to take any victories, losing once again to InCa as well as to the God Of War himself, Sung Joon "JulyZerg" Park. These disappointing performances forced both into the Up and Down matches. Jinro lost to both Jong Hwan "CoCa" Choi and Zenio, while HuK was able to take out Seong Won "MMA" Mun and advance back into Code S.

GSL July 2011

Due to a partnership between MLG and GSL, Shawn "Sheth" Simon was given a Code A spot for this season. Showing great skill he was able to take down San in the first round, but did lose in the next round to the strong Protoss, Sang Jun "Puzzle" Kim.

Jinro met a similar fate. After winning the first round of Code A against an unknown Protoss, he fell to the strong Terran player Dae Jin "asd" Lee, who had taken down fan favourite BoxeR in the previous round. Thanks asd.

Meanwhile in Code S, HuK was having a strong showing. He topped his ro32 group which included Polt, Killer and Lee Seok "aLive" Han. It was a much tougher round of 16 though, as HuK faced off against his close friend MC. HuK was crushed here but at least secured the next season of Code S on the back of this performance.

GSL August 2011

There were 4 new foreigner seeds for Code A this season due to the MLG / GSL partnership: 

Marcus "ThorZaIN" EklofJohan 

"NaNiwa" Lucchesi

Jian Carlo "Fenix" Morayra Alejo 

And Kim "SaSe" Hammar

All 4 players, as well as Jinro who was in Code A once again, lost in the round of 32 in Code A. Only ThorZaIN was able to take a map.

Similarly to GSL July, though, HuK was having a great time up in Code S. First he got out of his ro32 group in second place. Out of Killer, Ji Sung "Bomber" Choi and Dong Hwan "viOLet" Kim, only Bomber was able to take him down. As one of 4 Protosses in the round of 16, HuK got a deadly opponent indeed. A bonjwa of StarCraft 1, NaDa. HuK managed to take down his opponent 2-1, but that's where his run would end. His next opponent was Mvp. HuK lost 0-3 there, but who can blame him? Mvp was just hitting his stride as the strongest player in the history of the game.

GSL October 2011

NaNiwa and SaSe both remained in Korea and gave Code A another go. It didn't go very well, as both Swedish Protosses fell in the first round to Korean Zerg players. Joining them, and fairing a bit better though, was fellow Swede Jeffery "SjoW" Brusi. SjoW did manage to win his first round against Han Eol "MaKa" Kwak, but then promptly lost to the Code A Gate Keeper himself, Curious.

Meanwhile, due to his strong showing in the previous Code S season, HuK was once again the only foreigner representation in the most prestigious league in the world. He ended up in 3rd place in his ro32 Group, having lost to asd and Joon Yong "Virus" Park, but having taken down Zenio at least.

GSL November 2011

HuK fights on in Code S. Put into group C with Clide, JulyZerg and Puzzle, HuK takes first place with a clean 2-0. In the round of 16 groups, though, he gets a devastatingly hard group. The Creator Of The Universe, NesTea, along with MMA and Dong Nyoung "Leenock" Lee. No laughing matter. HuK manages a win against Leenock but loses against both NesTea and MMA, getting 3rd place. This loss in the ro16 immediately seeded HuK into the Code A ro24, where he would face Kyu Seok "KeeN" Hwang. With a 0-2 loss, HuK was off to the Up and Down matches. His group was played less than 2 weeks later. Unable to secure a top 2 spot, HuK was relegated to Code A.

SaSe and Naniwa, once again, stayed in Korea to fight the good fight. Both dropped in the first round of Code A with 0-2 scores.

GSL 2012 - Season 1

A welcome surprise occurred with the new year's first GSL season. The return of IdrA. Kind of. Both IdrA and Sen were seeded directly into GSL Code S this season, much to the delight of the fans. They didn't fair too well, though. Sen ended up with a 0-4 map score and immediately was eliminated. IdrA, in what could be called the group of death (containing NesTea AND Mvp) fell out in last place as well, taking only a single map.

Code A was chock-full of foreigners this season: HuK returned, of course. Two still-famous Chinese pros also came to Korea: Xiang "MacSed" Hu and Lei "XiGua" Wang. IdrA and Sen, who were eliminated early on in Code S were also back to battle it out.

It didn't go well. IdrA lost 0-2. HuK lost 1-2. XiGua lost 1-2. MacSed? 0-2. Only Sen was able to take his series, but fell immediately in the next round.

GSL 2012 - Season 2

Only HuK and NaNiwa remained to fight on. HuK had to start out in the Up and Down matches, which still consisted of 6 man groups with the top 2 advancing to Code S. Heartbreakingly, HuK got 3rd place in his group and had to go into Code A. Here he lost in the first round to Young Il "Hack" Kim, being completely eliminated from the GSL.

NaNiwa was given a seed directly into Code S, where he made an extremely impressive run. First he topped his round of 32 group which included Dong Won "Ryung" Kim, Puzzle, and Mvp himself. Naniwa dropped only a single map. The round of 16 groups, somehow, went even better. With a flawless victory, Naniwa won the group over Young Jin "SuperNova" Kim, Virus and Genius.

This put NaNiwa into a fabled land: the GSL Code S round of 8 bracket. Here his opponent was Mvp, the eventual champion of the tournament. NaNiwa fell 1-3.

GSL 2012 - Season 3

HuK was now completely out of the GSL. NaNiwa remained in Code S due to his high placement, and ThorZaIN was back due to a seed, this time directly into Code S. Sadly, ThorZaIN wasn't able to capitalize upon his seed in the same way that Naniwa had in the previous season, falling out of a strong group containing Hyun Woo "Squirtle" Park, Byung Jae "GuMiho" Koh, and Keen. His 3rd place finish put him into the Code A round of 32 against Jin Young "JYP" Park, where he ended up falling 1-2.

NaNiwa though, wasn't done making his mark on Code S. In a group containing NesTea, Hyun Woo "Creator" Jang and Yeon Sik "TheStC" Choi, NaNiwa got out in second place right behind NesTea. The round of 16 groups went just as well for Naniwa, getting 2nd place to ByuN, beating out both Genius and KeeN. Again NaNiwa found himself in the round of 8, and again he found himself eliminated by a legend. This time it was Soo Ho "DRG" Park who took him out with a 3-2 score.

GSL 2012 - Season 4

Season 4 brought a new seed: Grzegorz "MaNa" Komincz was put directly into the Up and Down matches. In a 5 man group containing Ji Hoon "jjakji" Jung, Seok Hyun "HyuN" Ko, KeeN and Bomber, MaNa was able to secure 2nd place (to Bomber) and move on to the Code S. Code S didn't go so well for MaNa. His group was maybe the most ridiculous of the year, though, so 4th place with a 1-4 map score really wasn't that bad. Who was in the group? Oh, only Mvp, MMA and Young Seo "TaeJa" Yun.

Naniwa had similar results in his ro32 group, going 1-4 total against Squirtle, Min Hyuk "Heart" Kim and Tae Hoon "Sniper" Kwon. His drop down to Code A was similarly rough, losing 0-2 to a Protoss player.

These results meant that GSL 2012 - Season 5 would have not a single foreigner playing in it.

The Third Era - The End of Hope

GSL 2013 - Season 1

The Up and Down matches this season had both HuK and Manuel "Grubby" Schenkhuizen seeded in. Grubby ended up losing each and every map in his 6 man group and was immediately eliminated. HuK, on the other hand, managed to get top 2, just behind NesTea. This seeded him directly into Code S, where he and Ilyes "Stephano" Satouri (also seeded) would be the last foreigners to play in the tournament until Scarlett's debut.

HuK was placed into another tough group with Bomber, GuMiho and Sniper. Only able to win a single map, HuK fell out of GSL Code S for the last time.

Stephano didn't fare much better. With DRG and Shin Hyung "INnoVation" Lee topping the group, Stephano was only able to beat out Hack, losing to INnoVation 1-2 in the decider match of the group.

With both players in Code A, we would witness the unceremonious exit of foreigners from GSL. HuK lost in the first round 0-2 to Young Han "Shine" Lee. Stephano, seeded one round higher due to his 3rd place group finish, lost 1-2 to Jae Wook "Flying" Shin.

It's like, who wins, the guy with the bolt gun or the cow? And we say well it looks like the cow might have a timing attack and... oh. There it is. It's done.