On Wednesday NaDa made it through to the finals in a thrilling five game set against the tenacious Casy. The atmosphere for that match was electric as two players, two champions, two SHINHAN champions fought tooth and nail against each other. On Friday, the second act was played out, this time with two teammates battling against each other for the chance at being crowned champion.
With everyone gunning for him, even the mapmakers, Savior always seems to find a way to win, whether it be 4-pools, "maphacking," ordefiler rushes. Deliberately, inexorably, Savior marches on. He is now three wins away from capturing his fourth MSL and becoming a Royal Roader in the OSL.
His dominance and mastery of the game is considered at one of the highest levels of all time, and by winning this OSL, the last place where he still needs to prove himself, Savior can take a step towards staking the claim that he is the best player in the history of Brood War. Can the Maestro work his magic one more time?
Iris has been consistently good, but a bit shaky in television games. His Zerg teammate gets all the attention, but he has definitely stepped out of Xellos' shadow as the premiere Terran player on CJ Entus. He now has an opportunity to accomplish something no Terran has done for years: beat Savior in a Bo5.
Iris has nothing to lose, and nobody expects him to win. But standing in front of him are slightly favorable maps and a team-mate’s knowledge of Savior's play that no other Terran has. If he wins, he plays his best matchup in the finals. Will Iris finally break through?
The maps for the set were in this order:
1) Neo Arkanoid 2) Reverse Lost Temple 3) Longinus II 4) Hitchhiker 5) Neo Arkanoid
Videos were uploaded to YouTube by wifebeater232, who, despite his horrid username, does a great service to the community.
Game One
Game one of this semifinal matchup saw Iris open with an aggressive MM build which quickly ripped down the buildings between his base at 11 and Savior"s base below at 7. His first MM group burst into the zerg main through the stone temple and ripped up the defences and lings standing guard. However, with reinforcements too slow in coming, and saviOr with hatcheries at both his expansions, the Maestro massed up enough mutalisks to end the threat. Iris was not to be denied however, and with a well working expansion and six rax for a tough SK Terran army, his next army rumbled south, shrugged off the harassment from the mutalisks, and entered the zerg main again, claiming the win.
Game Two
Smarting after being slapped around in game one, Savior was all business in game two. He was in tough however, starting at 3 vs a terran at 12. As Iris fast expanded, saviOr dropped three hatcheries and again went into mutalisks. His harassment was clinical, picking off tanks and scv's while also expanding to 6 and working his way to hive tech. However, his mutalisks could only buy him so much time. Eventually Iris made the short trip from 12 to 3 with his giant land army. Knowing he could not fight it head on, saviOr swung his army around the center and countered with his lurker/ling at the terran nat. Iris' defences folded quickly, but his field army was battering the sunken colonies of saviOr, looking for a breach in the wall. In a race that went down to the second, saviOr hatched his defiler and threw up a dark swarm, seconds before Iris went all in with his MM and tanks. With the offensive route blocked and his main in shambles, Iris punched out.
Game Three
Longinus has been a graveyard for zergs this season, but after winning both his Longinus games vs Hwasin, saviOr definitely looks to have figured it out. Iris again fast expanded at 3 while saviOr worked his way to his customary mutalisks in order to harass while expanding. Iris moved out with his ball of bionic tanks and vessels, but like the previous game found himself being countered heavily. Irradiate helped stop the mutalisk threat initially, but while his army bogged down vs lurkers saviOr had time to tech to defilers. As he finally approached the zerg natural, saviOr had amassed an incredible army of lurker ling which nicely pincered Iris' army. Being bled every step of the way, his large attack failed once dark swarm appeared. From that point on, saviOr pushed his team-mate back to his main with lurkers and darkswarm. Possessing no creative play, Iris had no answer and typed gg.
Game Four
Iris opened this game at the bottom, and diverged from his typical fast expansion play to open with a strong one base army. Rushing irradiate and vessels to deal with the typical three hatchery mutalisks, he wowed the crowd by killing a group of saviOr's initial lings with two vultures. He soon added tanks to his army, and marched up the trench to the zerg natural. saviOr had misjudged the aggressiveness of Iris' build and was late with his lurkers. By the time they morphed they had only a handful of damaged mutalisks for support and were quickly wiped out by a bank of artillery. This tied the series and sent it to a final game.
Game Five
Just watch it. Arbiter could probably do it, and mensrea could for sure. However, I do not think I possess the skill to articulate this game into words. Just watch it.
This game was for everything. Top four doesn't matter in OGN history, nobody remembers or cares. The fate of both players rested on this final game, and it was a game that will go down as one of the greatest ever. When people make threads in the coming years about their favourite pro games, this one will join the ranks of the greatest ever. The tension and atmosphere of the studio surpassed anything I have seen before. For thirty minutes Iris threw his SK Terran skills at saviOr on Arkanoid, devising and executing a devastating campaign which eliminated from now on any criticism of his TvZ skills. Against it, saviOr clung, with all of his poise and will power, to his knowledge of the map and champion pedigree. Allowing Iris his main bases but nothing else, he deflected attack after attack while slowly spreading his creep across the map. This game showcased exactly how to manage larva as zerg, as saviOr perfectly mixed his military and economic needs. In the end, he achieved an incredible victory and will take on NaDa in the final round.
Game 1 Savior < Iris @ Neo Arkanoid Game 2 Savior > Iris @ Reverse Lost Temple Game 3 Savior > Iris @ Longinus II Game 4 Savior < Iris @ HitchHiker Game 5 Savior > Iris @ Neo Arkanoid
Savior 3:2 Iris
This series showed me a few things. First, Iris proved he is in the elite of the progamers. Already possessing the greatest TvT skills, he shoed that vs any zerg he can bring to the table frightful skills. It is only his misfortune that today the serg was saviOr. As for the maestro, his game is predictable and see through. His builds today were generic, but he makes up for it with the best game sense in the world. His timing saved him on Reverse Temple, and his defiler use won him the game on Longinus. His fight against NaDa will surely be epic.
Casy: I go 14 cc k? NaDa: lolz imma dual rax rush ur ass Casy: my rax sees your scv and rines coming. i wonder what that means. better not make any vults, just to be safe NaDa: *tss-ahhh, yeahh* Casy: ....damn
Game 2:
NaDa: timing attack ftw. gg noob Casy: no wait im still in this *plays with wraiths for about 10 minutes* NaDa: *a-clicks into Casy's nat* Casy: nvm
Game 3:
NaDa: lolz don't even think about cheesing me. i got dis now. 3-0 ez with reps Casy: O RLY NaDa: YA R-fuck
Game 4:
*30 minutes of rape* Casy: .....bitch (thx androide 4 the tips)
Game 5:
*30 minutes of a slowly increasing NaDa advantage* Casy: fuck NaDa: lolz wuts that? yeah yous got RAPED son! 3-2 ez with reps gg no re Casy: arkanoid imbaaaa NaDa: gtfo my turf
Manifesto7 I really like your reports. They're succinct and entertaining, giving the substance of the match without over-explanation. I was at Yongsan for the game and as you say the atmosphere was amazing. You couldn't hear it so well on the TV but the crowd were making a lot of noise and were so into it. One of the most entertaining games ever and full credit to both players for showing so much heart. And what about those twins, is OGN trying to distract the players or what?
Manifesto, would you be kind enough to use spoiler tags or drop the text down lower from the video? I'm having a hard time from my eyes wandering to the spoil what I'm watching by reading the summary. As always great job, and I really like how you guys are imbedding the games now. It's great.
Game 2 I don't get why Iris didn't save his base. Zerg counters are almost always worthless unless zerg has swarm to go with the lurkers. Terran just has too much de to counter. He could have left say 1 tank and about 10 marines and a few meds outside savior's base even. He could have even sent 2-3 rines over to 6 just to harrass during everything if he scouted it. I think he gave up his base too easily.
Is the reason why savior always opens with Mutas because every map has a gas natural? I would like to see how well he does in a season when they have maps like Nostalgia that dont have gas nats. Also I've noticed that every game he played nobody tried any rush strats or non fast expanding/slow strats.
When he plays Nada I hope Nada does unorthodox/all in/rush tactics.
Savior style can be broken down into early lings,FE,Muta Harass to buy time for Hive tech then Lurker/Swarm and more tech. He doesn't really do any strategic moves or very advanced tactics like multiple lurker drops or things of that sort. I can sum his style up into a macro defensive zerg that techs fast. Is it just the maps dictating him to play this way? The only real noteworthy thing about him is he likes abuse nydus canal asap. Thats pretty cool.
PS - Anyone else notice on Longinus Savior got 11 vs 3 every game and scouted the wrong way every time? coincidence?
OH YEA, Mani, in the spoiler you bolded Iris name even though he lost that shit was confusing me for a minute.
Game 5- Wow Iris was relentless, I can't believe Savior took that game. I guess Hydra/Lurker/swarm/plague is the way to go vs MnM Vessel no tank. Highlight of the game though was last minute of the VOD when Savior came over to shake his hand or whatever and Iris pushed him away, rofl.
This line kinda pissed off the sAviOr fanboy in me:
On February 18 2007 06:07 Manifesto7 wrote: As for the maestro, his game is predictable and see through. His builds today were generic, but he makes up for it with the best game sense in the world.
What top programmer doesn't use a handful of "generic" builds in every game? Surely Iris did generic builds as well, what builds aren't? This statement is just a bit dumb because sAviOr has been forced to mix up his build orders quite a bit recently and has done so successfully.
I agree that his muta harrass every game was predictable but *hopefully* this was partly used to throw off NaDa, although that's just my hope. But I mean if sAviOr's game was that predictable he wouldn't have won; on Reverse Temple for instance, when he counter attacked, you can call that great game sense and you can call that unpredictability, because obviously Iris wasn't ready for it.
"PS - Anyone else notice on Longinus Savior got 11 vs 3 every game and scouted the wrong way every time? coincidence?" rofl its normal that you scout always the same way :O
On February 18 2007 06:07 Manifesto7 wrote: As for the maestro, his game is predictable and see through. His builds today were generic, but he makes up for it with the best game sense in the world.
What top programmer doesn't use a handful of "generic" builds in every game? Surely Iris did generic builds as well, what builds aren't? This statement is just a bit dumb because sAviOr has been forced to mix up his build orders quite a bit recently and has done so successfully.
I agree that his muta harrass every game was predictable but *hopefully* this was partly used to throw off NaDa, although that's just my hope. But I mean if sAviOr's game was that predictable he wouldn't have won; on Reverse Temple for instance, when he counter attacked, you can call that great game sense and you can call that unpredictability, because obviously Iris wasn't ready for it.
On February 18 2007 13:01 boghat wrote: This line kinda pissed off the sAviOr fanboy in me:
On February 18 2007 06:07 Manifesto7 wrote: As for the maestro, his game is predictable and see through. His builds today were generic, but he makes up for it with the best game sense in the world.
What top programmer doesn't use a handful of "generic" builds in every game? Surely Iris did generic builds as well, what builds aren't? This statement is just a bit dumb because sAviOr has been forced to mix up his build orders quite a bit recently and has done so successfully.
I agree that his muta harrass every game was predictable but *hopefully* this was partly used to throw off NaDa, although that's just my hope. But I mean if sAviOr's game was that predictable he wouldn't have won; on Reverse Temple for instance, when he counter attacked, you can call that great game sense and you can call that unpredictability, because obviously Iris wasn't ready for it.
Both players played their hearts out this series. Again, the games were so desperate! I can't believe how Iris played these ZvT's. And I can't believe Savior's still standing after winning two very monstrous semifinals. I love team CJ. This is an OSL to remember. Really.
On February 18 2007 13:01 boghat wrote: This line kinda pissed off the sAviOr fanboy in me:
On February 18 2007 06:07 Manifesto7 wrote: As for the maestro, his game is predictable and see through. His builds today were generic, but he makes up for it with the best game sense in the world.
What top programmer doesn't use a handful of "generic" builds in every game? Surely Iris did generic builds as well, what builds aren't? This statement is just a bit dumb because sAviOr has been forced to mix up his build orders quite a bit recently and has done so successfully.
I agree that his muta harrass every game was predictable but *hopefully* this was partly used to throw off NaDa, although that's just my hope. But I mean if sAviOr's game was that predictable he wouldn't have won; on Reverse Temple for instance, when he counter attacked, you can call that great game sense and you can call that unpredictability, because obviously Iris wasn't ready for it.
Well I wasn't trying to suggest report writers should be more or less biased. Indeed having bias in your writing almost always makes it more interesting. I was just disagreeing with something Manifesto said but obviously my opinion is no better than his. But I see now that report threads are really the best place for arguments...
On February 19 2007 18:43 aaro wrote: awesome reports man!
game 5 was amazing.. and i think this is the first time ive ever seen a hint of a smile from savior. correct me if im wrong lol.
He looked just as happy, if not more so, when he beat Midas in the Round of 16 best of 3. He was smiling so much he put his hands in his face when he beat Midas.
On February 18 2007 12:54 CharlieMurphy wrote: Highlight of the game though was last minute of the VOD when Savior came over to shake his hand or whatever and Iris pushed him away, rofl.
On February 18 2007 12:54 CharlieMurphy wrote: Highlight of the game though was last minute of the VOD when Savior came over to shake his hand or whatever and Iris pushed him away, rofl.
Wtf, he didn't push him away...
yea he did he was like "eh, go away I'm dwelling in my losses T_T"
On February 18 2007 12:54 CharlieMurphy wrote: Highlight of the game though was last minute of the VOD when Savior came over to shake his hand or whatever and Iris pushed him away, rofl.
Wtf, he didn't push him away...
yea he did he was like "eh, go away I'm dwelling in my losses T_T"
I think it was more like a halfhearted forced handshake as savior was walking away so it looked like he was pushing him away (which is what he might have wanted to do anyway).
since im not really that good at sc, what are some build orders that terran usually do or possibly do vs a zerg? when im watching nada replays to me he's just building alot of marines and meds eventually vessels and start raping from there, but what are the types of build orders that u normally would vs a zerg?