As we continue our coverage of MLG’s professional StarCraft 2 gaming tournament from yesterday, we’ve had an eventful Saturday at MLG, watching as HuK and Marine King Prime fell into the loser’s bracket, seeing Stephano joke with Violet on stream, and witnessing multiple misplays that resulted in friendly-fire (queens and hatcheries are two of note).
The fun continued through a Zerg vs. Protoss match between Revival and Crank, respectively, where we witnessed an impressive level of patience and control from Crank, the reddit-sponsored Korean pro; we’ll quickly break-down the best-of-three that these players battled through.
Game 1: Revival vs. Crank – Entombed Valley
Both players opened safely in game 1 – Crank went for a forge-first-expand with Revival going pool first and follows up with two hatches. As builds unfold, Crank looks to be going for an aggressive warpgate play, starting his upgrade early and adding gates as he goes.
Crank’s Zealot pressure doesn’t do much damage, but it does allow him to take the first third base in the game; both players continue to tech and get upgrades as things stagnate and they approach max, but once blink finishes, Crank moves out with his blink Stalker/Immortal army. His advances go unstopped as he continues to crash through army-after-army of Revival, eventually forcing a GG.
Crank 1-0 Revival
Game 2: Revival vs. Crank – Daybreak
Revival again opens with a pool first, meanwhile Crank goes Nexus first, before later adding his forge and gateway. Both players open fairly normally, and Crank places the first real tech structure – a Star Gate. Crank’s tech continues as he adds a Robo facility and follows it with 3-gates and a Robo Bay.
Meanwhile, Revival starts Roach upgrades and techs up to Infestors and then applies Roach pressure. His aggression begins just as Crank begins to take a third, but the attack is held off and neither side takes substantial damage.
The players approached max and both move to take fourths. Revival makes another attack attempt, this time taking a fair amount of damage in the process; a third unsuccessful attack leaves Revival behind in supply and is now slowly accumulating Broodlords. Deciding it’s time, Crank moves out and crushes Revival’s remaining army, taking the second game.
Crank 2-0 Revival
- Steve Burke & Keegan Gallick.