Welcome to the this edition of 'Liquid Advantage', this time featuring TLAF-Liquid`Taeja! Liquid Advantage is a means for Team Liquid to highlight excellence from our players at the highest level of competition. We will get inside the players head, pick his brains, and fully analyze the match. We hope that this feature will make you take a second look at the decisions and strategies that our players perform and give you a new found appreciation of progaming, and perhaps learn something in the process.

by Plexa

Photo credit: Bumblebee

In IPL TAC 2 Liquid put up an incredible fight against Prime including an incredible three-kill by TLO. It wasn’t enough, and Liquid were sent down to the losers bracket. It seemed ill fated that Liquid and Prime would once again be on a collision course in IPL TAC 3. But after a disastrous GSTL season and the loss vs Prime fresh in their minds, the boys in blue were more determined than ever to triumph.

Determination turned to despair as Zenio, Haypro and Hero all went down to Annyong. It was like the GSTL all over again. Wanting to get some wins in the board so Ret might finish the job, the team looked to TaeJa to bring the team back from the brink. Things started off well; Taeja defeated Annyong, and then Bboongbboong, and then Creator to bring the score to 3-3. Things were starting to look up for Liquid. With only two choices left, Prime selected Maru and the map Atlantis Spaceship to try and stop Taeja. The match starts with Taeja (Red) spawning in the bottom left and Maru (Blue) spawning in the top right. Taeja, eager to play a macro game, opens with a 14CC build while Maru opts for a rax-gas-factory build. Taeja scouts very soon after starting his command center and is able see everything that Maru is doing.

The game progressed; Taeja went up to three rax and took both his gas while Maru added a starport and a tech lab for banshees. Taeja spent his first gas on a tech lab for his barracks and researched combat shields first. Maru on the other hand went cloak before banshee and then took his natural.

Taeja has his engineering bay complete as Maru’s first banshee pops and immediately heads for Taejas base. But before it can get there, Taeja sneaks an SCV into Marus base and scouts that Maru is playing very greedy – Meanwhile, Maru’s first banshee begun to harass Taeja. But with a turret at both his natural and main, Maru’s harass was limited to hitting marines and buildings. With a well placed scan Taeja was able to kill Maru’s first banshee without it doing much damage. But as the first banshee was dispatched, a second banshee had arrived.



After Maru’s banshee harass ended, both players had a fairly stable economy and had teched up. Taeja had three rax with two reactors, a reactored starport and a factory beginning to make tanks. He also had just started his third CC, but he was still ahead economically and had 1-0 for his bio. Maru, on the other hand, was slightly behind in economy and only just started his upgrades, but had his third CC already converted into an orbital (but no floated to the third). He was ahead in tech and had siege finished and tanks coming off the production line. He was, however, behind in marine count.

With his higher marine count, Taeja looked to do some pressure to ensure that Maru wasn’t being extra greedy. He loaded up two medivacs worth of marines and flew into Maru’s base. But Maru was prepared with a squad of marines and a tank, so Taeja was forced back and set up a marine perimeter around Maru’s base. While this is happening Taeja takes his third.Taeja catches Maru trying to drop with two medivacs which forces Maru to abandon his plan. But by now Taeja had had his third for some time, giving him a significant edge in economy and a supply advantage. By the time Maru had taken his third he was 20 supply down. Both players added additional barracks at this point, and Taeja also added another factory (to help with his slight tank deficit).

As Taeja approached 185 supply he moved out and pushed up to the edge of Maru’s base with 5 tanks and a ton of marines. He sieged up on the low ground and tried to drop inside Maru’s main but Maru had too many forces in his main and so was forced to drop on the low ground. Maru took advantage of this by setting up a really good arc of marines, and then engaging Taeja’s army. He was able to kill everything and in particular reduced Taeja’s tank count from seven to two.

After crushing Taeja’s attack, Maru replenished his marine count and prepared to stage a counter attack – both players also took their fourths at the high gas base. As Maru creeps forward, Taeja and Maru scan each others armies frantically and try to move into the best position possible. Eventually Taeja decides it is time to fight and he charges head first with his marines into Marus (unsieged) tanks. The move backfires, and Taeja loses roughly 20 marines and gives Maru the window he needs to start attacking.


Maru drops two medivacs worth of marines inside Taeja’s main. But Taeja is prepared for him and has some marines and tanks ready to crush the attack. But in worrying about defending Maru’s drop, Taeja left four of his tanks sieged and undefended. Maru quickly capitalised on this and killed them – trading a handful of marines for Taeja’s tanks. This left Taeja with a 3 to 12 tank deficit.

As he had just traded a good chunk of his marines, Maru couldn’t push forward with his tanks until his reinforcements arrived. Taeja used this time to position his remaining tanks and get his marines ready to snap at any opportunity that came their way. As luck would have it, Maru moved some tanks a little too far forward and Taeja was able to trade some marines for 4 tanks. This brought the tank count to a more respectable 6 for Taeja and 9 for Maru.

Taeja was able to secure his position now that the tank numbers were closer, and Maru realised this. Knowing that he couldn’t make any more headway, Maru moved around to the back of Taeja’s 4th base and began sieging it from the lowground. The plan seemed good, but Taeja already had three tanks waiting on the high ground and was moving his army into a position where he could engage Maru. This stopped Maru’s advance in its tracks – and even gave Taeja the tank advantage for the first time in the game as the high ground tanks killed some of Maru’s lowground ones.


It became clear to both sides that Maru’s attack wasn’t going anywhere. So both sides backed away from the position and started to work out what their next move is. Taeja looked to be aggressive with some marines, which forced Maru into the middle of the map to prevent Taeja’s advance. But Maru couldn’t siege up in time, and Taeja moved in with a swarm of marines and took out three more tanks for minimal losses. Taeja split off a small group of marines and a tank and sent them the long way around the map to attack Maru’s third. While in transit, Taeja and Maru drew up siege tank lines in the middle of the map creating a momentary stalemate. When Maru scouted Taeja’s strike force approaching his third he seized the moment to break Taeja’s tank line. Fortunately for Maru, Taeja’s marines were horribly out of position and Maru’s attack was very effective – killing five tanks and Taeja’s newly established fifth base.



Taeja was not without hope, he had eliminated Maru’s third base and still had a healthy tank count left in his fourth. Taeja kept pushing with his strike force into Maru’s natural, which caused Maru to be a bit sloppy with his attack at Taeja’s fourth. He lost some tanks carelessly and quickly decided that he needed to retreat and focus on stabilising himself. But as he was retreating, Taeja rushed in with stimmed marines and was able to kill almost everything in Maru’s attack.
After killing so much, Taeja had established a firm lead. He was up a base, he had 20 more marines, he had 5 more tanks. Now Taeja just had to close out the game. Taeja moved in and took out Maru’s fourth and it wasn’t long before he was simply able to overpower Maru with a superior economy and superior army. Taeja had brought Liquid to 4-3, and was one game away from an all-kill.



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