IdrA takes first in MLG 2

As most Starcraft fans know, the 2nd SC2 MLG tournament just finished it's final match up of IdrA (zerg) vs SeleCT (Terran). You'd also know that Blizzard applied patch 1.1.2 in the middle of the tournament. The question here is, how much of a difference did it make on the final outcome?

The patch hurt Terran drops a bit. By slowing Medivac speed and buffing the health points of a handful of Zerg buildings, it gives players much more time to react against stimed marauder drops. On top of that, building a barracks now requires a supply depot, which had a sudden impact on many opening Terran builds by delaying how quickly they were able to build a barracks. The most notable one effected would be early Reaper harass/rushes, a common effective early harass option again Zerg players. It wouldn't be a huge deal if on top of it they didn't move Nitro Packs (Reaper speed upgrade) to be researched at the factory, making early reapers a thing of the past.

On the other hand though, the Zerg unit "Roach" got range upgrade from 3 to 4. This makes Hellion and Reaper harass a little easier to deal with, more notably the Hellions. This makes to very popular and strong early harass options against Zerg weaker as well.

So, it would seem that the patch obviously favored Zerg, and would logically lead to pushing the win into IdrA's favor. Or maybe not. IdrA didn't win with mass Roaches, he won with Mutalisks and Zerg/Banelings. Also keep in mind SeleCT is a professional player who doesn't need to rely on early game cheese tactics to take a win. You don't often see early Reaper bunker rushes in tournament play because it's hit or miss, if it fails there's usually no chance to recover your economy. So maybe this patch didn't hand IdrA the win like it would seem. SeleCT himself admits he didn't practice TvZ as much, but who could blame him? There's hardly anyone to play against and it was an "underpowered" and unpopular race in the tournament scene.

Bottom line though, two recent high level tournaments have been won by Zerg players. (fruitdealer winning GSL) Maybe it's time Blizzard stop balancing their games around Bronze League and start looking at top level game play because at Diamond and pro league levels, win rates are (and have been) fairly even. Sure tweaks need to be made, but Zerg don't need a massive buff just because it's hard to time your Inject Larvas.

PS: Nerf marauders.