I used to be a pretty hardcore SC player back when it first came out.  I played for about 3.5 years before school came knocking and I had to quit playing.  Then along rolls college, and I have all this free time.  A teammate of mine told me to hop back into SC, and here I am.  I joined the fantastic community over at SC2gg.com, who have taken me under their wing.  Unfortunately, because I do have quite a bit of work at nights, I am unable to take part in their brand-spanking-new SC101, a classroom meant to teach beginning players everything they need to move up the rankings.  It’s an excellent program and I encourage everyone to check it out.

This is my first match report, so bear with me as I get my style worked out and some experience under my belt.  As always, check out SC2gg.com for links to commentary, replays, maps, and more.

And onto the match!

Match Info:
GOMTV MSL S4: Group A
Match 1: Mind (T) < Katrina > HoGiL (Z)

Here we have the very first game of the tournament.  We start off with Mind spawning in the 12 position, HoGiL spawning in the 9 position.  HoGiL’s initial overlord scout goes the complete opposite direction, but he manages to spot Mind with his drone scout.  Both players go for the fast expo, HoGil going to 7 and Mind going to 11.  Mind’s SCV scout finds the expo base initially, then moves up the map to find HoGiL’s main.  Mind goes with a 2 rak start, with HoGiL going for a quick 3 hatch build and teching straight for the spire.  HoGiL forgoes any real ling harass in favor of the spire build, sending them out really only to scout Mind’s positions.  After spotting Mind’s 2 rak start, HoGiL walls his main with three sunkens, which keeps Mind’s roving marine band at bay, but slightly slows his muta harass.

Spotting the Spire push, Mind briefly forgoes his military in order to put a push on his economy, also taking the time to bump up to 5 raks and throw up a few turrets at his main to slow the muta harass he knows is coming.  Mind wisely keeps a group of marines out in the field to wall in the mutas and prevent them from retreating just out of range of the marines at his main.  HoGiL does a small bit of harassment at the main, but Mind’s solid force of marines keeps the mutas from doing any real damage.  HoGiL takes his mutas around the side of Mind’s main and manages to pick off a few SCVs before getting driven off by Mind’s substantial marine force.  It’s quite plain to see that HoGiL does not have much interest in his muta harass at this time.

While the harassment is going on, HoGiL has expanded into the 5 position and also into the center 9 position, supporting his tech towards lurks.  Mind has made a push towards tanks and siege, achieving it in short order.

HoGiL, seeing that Mind’s army is fairly split up, sends a solid force of lings, supported by mutas, at Mind’s main; he makes a fairly sizeable dent in Mind’s army, almost making it past and into Mind’s main, but reinforcements quickly arrive and he is driven off.  Mind has been teching quickly to science vessels, and he gets them up around the same time HoGiL makes his initial lurker push.  Unfortunately, Mind does not have irradiate by the time he makes his first push, losing a large advantage over HoGiL’s still-clumped mutas.

At HoGiL’s position 5 expansion, Mind’s heroic firebat makes a last stand, taking out two drones before he is put down by a force of mutas.  The firebat may have done more damage if he had moved in sooner, but such heroism brings a tear to the eye.

While Mind is making his first push out the left ramp, HoGiL is circling around from the right with a sizable force of lurkers and lings, but unfortunately runs into a scouting SCV and Mind is able to pull his forces back to drive HoGiL back before he could make it into Mind’s main.  Mind goes for a hard push towards HoGiL’s main with a force of tanks and marines, hoping to axe HoGiL’s tech.  HoGiL has been teching towards defilers, but the mound isn’t completed by the time Mind begins his push.  The slight delay turns out to be unworrying, as HoGiL overruns Mind’s push, partially contributed by a slight unlucky streak on Mind’s part, losing an entire group of marines on their way to reinforce the push to two lurkers sitting by the exit ramp.  Mind is forced all the way back into his main, holding on by a thread, a defense-matrixed tankey thread.  As a result of the defeat of his push, HoGiL gets a force of defilers out into the field, which will make life difficult for Mind.  Mind’s next expansion is just another unlucky moment for him, with the SCVs getting there just in time for swarm-defended lurkers to rip the expo to shreds, Mind’s forces getting there too late to save it.  Mind’s unlucky streak continues as his second dropship gets spotted before it can drop is payload of marines at HoGiL’s expo, and the tide is seemingly turning in this fight as the unlucky moments just stack against Mind.

Mind loses one science vessel to scourges, but his force of marines takes out the other group in time to prevent another costly loss at this stage in the game.  All this time, HoGiL has been pushing toward ultralisks, and sends them during the final seconds of the game into the field against Mind, who is quickly losing the advantage with the defilers rendering most of his army useless.  The game shift coupled with the unlucky streak have completely put Mind out of his element, causing him to make some costly errors in protecting his forces and preventing him from expanding.  HoGiL’s defilers have really made their presence known, setting up swarms perfectly and keeping Mind from gaining any advantage.  In the final moments of the game, Mind is out-expanded 4 bases to 1, having only his natural expansion up and running.

HoGiL’s sizable army pushes the resource-strapped Mind back into his base, where his 8 raks desperately pump out troops in an attempt to stem the tide.  Again HoGiL’s excellent swarm work, coupled with scourges taking out Mind’s science vessels, render Mind’s last push almost completely ineffective.  Faced with losing his main, Mind gracefully surrenders and, showing his class, congratulates HoGiL on the win.