StarCraft 2 Battle Report: Heart vs. CranK – MLG Raleigh 2012

Crank’s had a phenomenal run here at MLG Raleigh 2012 – the arena’s favorite worked his way up from the very bottom of the ladders, and even without any starting advantage, Crank battled his way through ranks of talented StarCraft 2 pros to make it this far: He played against Revival, Taeja, HerO, and now Complexity’s Heart.

This PvT match between Crank and Heart would decide who progressed on to the championship bracket; would it be Crank, whose masterful control of Protoss has impressed throughout the weekend, or would it be Heart, who had just come out of several tiring matches?

Let’s look at the match summary.

Game 1: Heart vs. Crank – Entombed Valley

Heart goes with a Command Center first; Crank decides to go 1-gate-expand. This kicks the match off in a very standard and safe for both players; Heart eventually moves into 3-rax and begins to put some marine pressure on Crank, managing to kill two sentries in exchange for seven or eight marines – a fair trade. Despite this loss, Crank takes a quick third and gets a Robo Bay operational. Heart’s got his infrastructure up and producing at this point, and begins pumping out units while starting his own third.

A double-drop from Heart snipes both forges and gives Heart the upgrade advantage for now – this chain of events forces Crank to turtle-up as Heart sieges the outer-rim of his base. The Terran gets ghost tech up back home, but upon maxing out, the Protoss ball moves out and demolishes the Terran army, allowing Crank to take a fourth and refocus his economy.

Crank adds a Dark Shrine to the mix, but it won’t matter: Crank attacks, crashing through the Terran army and forcing Heart to GG.

Crank 1-0 Heart

Game 2: Heart vs. Crank – Cloud Kingdom

Heart catches the commentators by surprise and goes 1-reaper-expand, meanwhile Crank sticks with a fairly standard 1-gate-expand. From here, the game normalizes without either player taking much damage, though they both transition smoothly into tech and get upgrades. Heart sneaks a double-drop into the Protoss main, killing EVERY probe there (24, if our counting was right) without using a single unit.

Crank is forced to all-in with his remaining forces, sacrificing his base for an assault. A follow-up drop goes in as Crank reaches the half-way point across the map, destroying what was left of Crank’s hopes of survival for this game. With a playful “Medivac imba,” Crank GGs out.

Heart 1-1 Crank

Game 3: Heart vs. Crank – Daybreak

Heart goes 1-rax-expand, but this time, Crank decides to opt for a Nexus first. Having seen Crank’s greed, Heart takes a sneaky third in the bottom. Crank’s lucky probe manages to spot the hidden expand, though, and Heart loses his concealment advantage.

Crank tries to punish the Terran, assaulting the natural with his warpgate army. But pulling SCVs, Heart is able to clog the hole and hold off comfortable, leaving him up a base (the third moved to the normal third positioning).

Crank techs up to Colossi, but Heart’s economic advantage accelerates and his supply count sky-rockets. With Ghost tech on the way and extra racks being built, Crank’s third only now finishes. Heart goes for a massive attack, but Crank pulls off an equally-massive hold; the crowd goes wild as Crank manages to hold off an army composed of significantly more units than his own – this is mostly done through tactful control and medevac sniping.

As Crank moves out toward Heart, the Terran sneaks marauders past and into Crank’s natural, sniping a Robo Bay and a stray colossus; Crank is forced to retreat his army to deal with the threat. Both players get 4-bases, but Heart never loses his supply lead and maxes out rapidly – he attacks Crank’s forth, where his large bio force wins the game.

Heart (match win) 2-1 Crank

Crank is unfortunately out as of now, but we expect to see more of him in the future! Stay tuned for our pending interview with the near-champion!

-Steve Burke & Keegan Gallick.