After a weekend of some AMAZING StarCraft II games, SlayerS_MMA ran the table to become the champion. Hand picked by BoxeR himself. MMA did not disappoint! Going undefeated in pool play and on Championship Sunday. A lot of story lines formed from the complete dominace by the Koreans to the complete implosion of EG.IdrA. Here are some numbers from the event.

Player Game W-L (%) Match W-L (%)

SlayerS_MMA 16-2 (88%) 8-0 (100%)

oGsMC 19-8 (70.3%) 8-2 (80%)

IMLosira 15-7 (68.1%) 7-2 (77%)

Fox.Moon 12-8 (60%) 5-4 (55.5%)

ST_July 8-6 (57.1) 4-4 (50%)

ST_July had to beast his way thru the open bracket. Total of six rounds in order to get into pool play. July did not drop a single game in pool play, he was given a walk over because ROOT_CatZ did not show up for their match Saturday morning. In total July went 6-0 and 12-0 in group play.

Thorzain also made his way thru the mine field that is the open bracket. Showing why he won the TSL3 and considered to be one of the be Terrans in Europe. Posting a 3-2 record in pool play. Losses there coming from Liquid'Ret and MC. He beat SeleCT- in losers round 4 and lost to MC in round 5. Thorzain is someone we haven't heard the last of.

Proving why he is the BEST Protoss in the world, after his first loss to IdrA in the opening round of pool play, MC when on to rattle off 8 wins straight. After his revenge match with Thorzain, MC went out celebrated with the crowd, pointed at MC and did the throat slice. IdrA responded with the middle finger. That makes two MLGs in a row that Idra has flipped the bird. In which was one of the top 5 matches of the weekend, MC and Nani met to decide the best protoss in the world. After Nani broke the defense of MC and placing MC against the ropes. Nani decided it was time to /dance. That one mistake gave MC the time he needed to get the DT in the main and warp in reinforcements. In the second game, MC went four gate rush and as soon as Nani saw MC on his front door step it was GG. MC recognized that Nani is the best Protoss out side of South Korea and he went over and shook hands with Nani.

The only American to stand out would be IdrA but after his loss to Thorzain Friday night, that is when the countdown to the implosion began. Having to play SlayerS_MMA in the opening round of the winners bracket. Idra had the first game locked down, MMA for some reason took out his own Command Center and was doing a drop in Idra's natural. Out of no where Idra GG and left. Second game, MMA did a two Rax push, Idra held off the first attempt, but MMA tried again. In the second attempt he got the bunker down and Idra did another GG. MMA's ceremony is one that will never be forgotten. I don't think that we will ever know the true reason why Idra did this, you can speculate wall you want, he wanted MC in a rematch, he thew the match, and it can go on and on. I think that Idra thought he was in a hole and he had no way to get out. With the drop, Idra figured that there was a huge marine/tank push coming and had nothing to stop it. Just like Dallas, when HuK flew in the hallucinated Void Rays.

With invites into GSL Code A handed out to the top 3 finishers without a spot, those are Idra, Nani, and Slush. Idra has said he will decline the invite, I have not heard anything if Slush is interested in going to Korea. There was talk that Nani was very open with that fact that he wants to go to Korea and is currently looking for a team. If he does go, he has an uphill climb against the Koreans. He lost to both MC and Losira.

Now going into the next event in Anaheim many questions arise. Who will come over from Korea to continue the dominance, will MMA be back to defend his title, can teams like EG or Liquid turn around their poor showing, and which Idra will return? It's only two months away and I can't wait!

EDIT - Top 3 non-Koreans are offered the Code A spot.. not Top 4

After a weekend of some AMAZING StarCraft II games, SlayerS_MMA ran the table to become the champion. Hand picked by BoxeR himself. MMA did not disappoint! Going undefeated in pool play and on Championship Sunday. A lot of story lines formed from the complete dominace by the Koreans to the complete implosion of EG.IdrA. Here are some numbers from the event.

Player Game W-L (%) Match W-L (%)

SlayerS_MMA 16-2 (88%) 8-0 (100%)

oGsMC 19-8 (70.3%) 8-2 (80%)

IMLosira 15-7 (68.1%) 7-2 (77%)

Fox.Moon 12-8 (60%) 5-4 (55.5%)

ST_July 8-6 (57.1) 4-4 (50%)

ST_July had to beast his way thru the open bracket. Total of six rounds in order to get into pool play. July did not drop a single game in pool play, he was given a walk over because ROOT_CatZ did not show up for their match Saturday morning. In total July went 6-0 and 12-0 in group play.

Thorzain also made his way thru the mine field that is the open bracket. Showing why he won the TSL3 and considered to be one of the be Terrans in Europe. Posting a 3-2 record in pool play. Losses there coming from Liquid'Ret and MC. He beat SeleCT- in losers round 4 and lost to MC in round 5. Thorzain is someone we haven't heard the last of.

Proving why he is the BEST Protoss in the world, after his first loss to IdrA in the opening round of pool play, MC when on to rattle off 8 wins straight. After his revenge match with Thorzain, MC went out celebrated with the crowd, pointed at MC and did the throat slice. IdrA responded with the middle finger. That makes two MLGs in a row that Idra has flipped the bird. In which was one of the top 5 matches of the weekend, MC and Nani met to decide the best protoss in the world. After Nani broke the defense of MC and placing MC against the ropes. Nani decided it was time to /dance. That one mistake gave MC the time he needed to get the DT in the main and warp in reinforcements. In the second game, MC went four gate rush and as soon as Nani saw MC on his front door step it was GG. MC recognized that Nani is the best Protoss out side of South Korea and he went over and shook hands with Nani.

The only American to stand out would be IdrA but after his loss to Thorzain Friday night, that is when the countdown to the implosion began. Having to play SlayerS_MMA in the opening round of the winners bracket. Idra had the first game locked down, MMA for some reason took out his own Command Center and was doing a drop in Idra's natural. Out of no where Idra GG and left. Second game, MMA did a two Rax push, Idra held off the first attempt, but MMA tried again. In the second attempt he got the bunker down and Idra did another GG. MMA's ceremony is one that will never be forgotten. I don't think that we will ever know the true reason why Idra did this, you can speculate wall you want, he wanted MC in a rematch, he thew the match, and it can go on and on. I think that Idra thought he was in a hole and he had no way to get out. With the drop, Idra figured that there was a huge marine/tank push coming and had nothing to stop it. Just like Dallas, when HuK flew in the hallucinated Void Rays.

With invites into GSL Code A handed out to the top 3 finishers without a spot, those are Idra, Nani, and Slush. Idra has said he will decline the invite, I have not heard anything if Slush is interested in going to Korea. There was talk that Nani was very open with that fact that he wants to go to Korea and is currently looking for a team. If he does go, he has an uphill climb against the Koreans. He lost to both MC and Losira.

Now going into the next event in Anaheim many questions arise. Who will come over from Korea to continue the dominance, will MMA be back to defend his title, can teams like EG or Liquid turn around their poor showing, and which Idra will return? It's only two months away and I can't wait!

EDIT - Top 3 non-Koreans are offered the Code A spot.. not Top 4

MC was quite amusing this tournament.  He was quite good mannered but he still showboated like crazy.  And as per usual, he gave Idra the thumbs down. 
 
Also, MMA was a beast.

I think Thorzain will do great if he plays in the GSL. He has already shown that he performs at LANs like MLG, and when given prep time, he is a monster player.  
Maybe Boxer can draft him. :P 

@Ben_H said:

MC was quite amusing this tournament. He was quite good mannered but he still showboated like crazy. And as per usual, he gave Idra the thumbs down. Also, MMA was a beast.

Right on all counts, and I'm usually not a big fan of MC.

Such a kick ass tournament, and the final couple matches gave us one of the best endings of anything Starcraft 2 related yet. Better than the campaign's, even.

Anyone knows where to watch the replays?

MMA has said that he thinks Thorzain would probably do well in the GSL and I incline to agree with him (though he didn't get the Code A seed invites). Thorzain in particular excels when he has time for preparation (of which the GSL there's plenty of time for preparation early in the brackets and for the finals) and is said to have good mechanics. Naniwa would do pretty nicely in the GSL as well I would think. He is afterall, one of the best European Protoss. If HuK managed to get into Code S, then why can't Naniwa? 
 
I'm also more impressed by Naniwa than HuK. HuK makes questionable decision making at times. 
 
MMA and LosirA are a force to be reckoned with. I literally was on the edge of my seat when LosirA pulled out his special trick in the ace match against MC. My god that was beautiful. LosirA just needs to work on his TvZ. Maybe he should play Terran when he plays against Terran. NesTea had said that he thinks LosirA's Terran is better than his Zerg (which is a scary thought).

@Meteora: Have they announced who got the GSL invites? I was under the impression that they just went down the list until they got 4 players that wanted to go and since a lot of players have said it isn't worth it leaving their lives for a month+ to compete in the GSL, thorzain probably will get an invite. Not sure if he wants to go either though, as far as I know Naniwa is the only player who has said he actually would go if invited.

@NickL: "With invites into GSL Code A handed out to the top 3 finishers without a spot, those are Idra, Nani, and Slush. Idra has said he will decline the invite, I have not heard anything if Slush is interested in going to Korea. There was talk that Nani was very open with that fact that he wants to go to Korea and is currently looking for a team. If he does go, he has an uphill climb against the Koreans. He lost to both MC and Losira."

@DerBrick: I understand who the top 3 foreigners were but that doesn't really answer anything I said. In everything official I have read from MLG or GSL it hasn't really been clear on how the invites work. State of the game at least implied that the invite system would go down the top 32 list for that MLG until they got three people who accept the invite. If state of the game was correct in that assumption, then thorzain is almost a shoo-in to get a GSL invite. Idra said he will decline, next up would be ret and I doubt he would want to go back to the event he just left. After that is moon, doesn't count he is korean, and next up is thorzain.

@NickL said:

@DerBrick: I understand who the top 3 foreigners were but that doesn't really answer anything I said. In everything official I have read from MLG or GSL it hasn't really been clear on how the invites work. State of the game at least implied that the invite system would go down the top 32 list for that MLG until they got three people who accept the invite. If state of the game was correct in that assumption, then thorzain is almost a shoo-in to get a GSL invite. Idra said he will decline, next up would be ret and I doubt he would want to go back to the event he just left. After that is moon, doesn't count he is korean, and next up is thorzain.

We should know in the coming weeks who accepted the invites. Yes, Thorzain is next in line for the invite after Ret. From what I hear Thorzain is really dependent on his team for practice games. Going over to Korea with no team could be an issue for him. I really hope SlayerS picks him up, if he decides to go

Official top 32 from MLG Columbus - http://pro.majorleaguegaming.com/news/mlg-columbus-starcraft-2-top-32/

@NickL said:

@DerBrick: I understand who the top 3 foreigners were but that doesn't really answer anything I said. In everything official I have read from MLG or GSL it hasn't really been clear on how the invites work. State of the game at least implied that the invite system would go down the top 32 list for that MLG until they got three people who accept the invite. If state of the game was correct in that assumption, then thorzain is almost a shoo-in to get a GSL invite. Idra said he will decline, next up would be ret and I doubt he would want to go back to the event he just left. After that is moon, doesn't count he is korean, and next up is thorzain.

We should know in the coming weeks who accepted the invites. Yes, Thorzain is next in line for the invite after Ret. From what I hear Thorzain is really dependent on his team for practice games. Going over to Korea with no team could be an issue for him. I really hope SlayerS picks him up, if he decides to go

Official top 32 from MLG Columbus - http://pro.majorleaguegaming.com/news/mlg-columbus-starcraft-2-top-32/

@NickL said:

@DerBrick: I understand who the top 3 foreigners were but that doesn't really answer anything I said. In everything official I have read from MLG or GSL it hasn't really been clear on how the invites work. State of the game at least implied that the invite system would go down the top 32 list for that MLG until they got three people who accept the invite. If state of the game was correct in that assumption, then thorzain is almost a shoo-in to get a GSL invite. Idra said he will decline, next up would be ret and I doubt he would want to go back to the event he just left. After that is moon, doesn't count he is korean, and next up is thorzain.

We should know in the coming weeks who accepted the invites. Yes, Thorzain is next in line for the invite after Ret. From what I hear Thorzain is really dependent on his team for practice games. Going over to Korea with no team could be an issue for him. I really hope SlayerS picks him up, if he decides to go

Official top 32 from MLG Columbus - http://pro.majorleaguegaming.com/news/mlg-columbus-starcraft-2-top-32/

I just finished watching Live on 3 with Mr. Chae (GOM TV) and Lee Chen (MLG). Lee said that the invites for Code A have gone out. He wouldn't announce who got them or who accepted them until they get full commitments fromt he players.