By Galen Andress

With the 2010 Season now a part of history, let’s take a look back at StarCraft 2’s debut on the MLG Pro Circuit. This edition of the 2010 Featured Match Series takes us to Raleigh, for a breakdown of the epic Winners Bracket Round 5 match between CauthonLuck and the eventual Champion, Huk.

Although he wasn’t able to make it back for the final two Events of the Season, CauthonLuck was very strong in Raleigh. In Winners Bracket Round 5, he put Huk on the ropes with a win in Game 1. After an early Marine/Reaper/Marauder push put Huk behind, CauthonLuck went into what HD described as “God Macro Mode.” By the end of the game, CauthonLuck was running on 10+ Barracks and 4 bases, shutting down Huk’s expansion attempts and surviving an onslaught of Psionic Storms to take the game.

But Huk wasn’t out yet. In Game 2, he was able to even up the series by skipping Colossus tech and going for a quick Templar Archives. The mass of Storms were a perfect response to CauthonLuck’s heavy Barracks play, and after Huk held off some late Banshee harassment, he was able to make a huge push on the front. Had CauthonLuck gone for Ghosts to deal with the Templars instead of Banshees, the second game might have gone a lot differently. Instead, Game 3 on Steppes of War awaited.

Huk took advantage of the map’s short rush distance and put on some very heavy early Zealot pressure. He did a ton of damage in CauthonLuck’s mineral line, putting himself at an eight-worker advantage very early on. The pressure also appeared to fluster CauthonLuck, who had a few SCVs not mining during the attack as he tried to save them. After doing such a huge amount of early damage, Huk geared up for a huge attack and overran Cauthonluck’s expansion attempt. Huk’s attack was perfectly timed, arriving at CauthonLuck’s base just seconds before Stimpack was done researching, which gave him a huge edge in the battle.

Huk’s ability to switch up styles, as he did in this series, played a huge role in his journey to the Raleigh title. He was solid throughout the weekend, but it was his creativity that enabled him to get the best of everyone in the field and become the first MLG StarCraft 2 champion.