EPTSo for lunch we walked around and looked for something decent to eat. JF and Boxxah shared a chicken from metro, and I got a sub earlier. We came back, and discovered because of time; we were to play our next games asap.
When the brackets went up for RO32, I was paired up against pure toss all the way to finals pretty much. Lol. JF as well, jeez there was so many toss. I noticed JF was to face me in RO8 if we both made it that far, we both seemed pretty confident to make it.
AhhBoxxah had some pretty decent people, a bunch of Quebec team of like 9 protoss. After beating the first one they kept discussing tactics on how to beat him. Eventually he had to change his style. He got knocked into the losers bracket after the first game I believe (RO32) then played some really really entertaining games.
In one game he got bunker rushed from a 6 rax on steppes, and clearly was about to lose. The player had like 6 marines and 1 scv vs Boxxah's 2 marines and scv line of like 9. He moved in to bunker rush behind the mineral line and boxxah sent everything. The bunker was literally 1/2 a second to finish. He manage dto hold it off with like 5 scvs left. Definitely at a huge disadvantage. He played really safe bunkering his choke and scouting his opponent do a 3 rax marauder build. With a heavily saturated main, compared to his skimpish line. Boxxah predicting his opponent would commit to win this with one push threw up 3 bunkers really early. His prediction was spot on, he lost like 10 marauders for 1 bunker, then he was back in the game. THe crowd on him was all giggling like little girls. BOxxah scans his main and his factory barely started. With his banshee on the way, he definitely would've done massive dmg. Right when the banshee got to the line, BAM comp crash. Lol. He played a re and I hear a challenging game and managed to win. I think someone gave him like 75 bucks lol.
For my games, I played 2 protoss. The first one was pretty bad, I won 2-0 in 15 minutes with 2 gate zealot. The next opponent, CrazyChryst was a bit more tough. Our first game was on xel'naga caverns. Right at the beginning, he said "Korean 4 gate!". Wow what a cocky guy, I did an 11 gate, then placed a pylon in the hidden spot behind his nat. I scouted him, and hes doing the Korean 4gate. Getting his core, not even making a zealot. I chrono'd and rallied 2 zealots to his ramp, ran my probe back outside planted another gateway. 1 minute later hes dead.
The next game we played, metalopolis, I went into his base and saw What I believe was a double 10 gate. Or something similar. I did a 12 gate, pylon, gate. I had a 6 probe advantage. The game was decided when he ran to my base and I had 2 more zealots. I went to report my wins to the sc admin, and they all look baffled at how I won 4 games in less than 25 minutes. I smiled. They told me to wait up (its not like I could go play until JF advanced anyways.) JF was also creaming his opponents, though at a slower pace cause hes doing 2 gate robo most of the time. Where I was rushing 2 gate into 4 gate pretty much every game. Eventually everyone caught up, Kiwi, Slush, Taurent(P), me and JF, and uMadImStylin(T) were the names I remembered from the RO8. I was to face JF the next day like I predicted. (fuck)
Its not that I didn't think I stood a chance against JF, but its because I know I could've cruised my way into the finals if I got anyone else. In our games we play, they're all really tight. Usually me up ahead in economy, while he is up ahead in collosus count. I helped JF get into sc2 a couple months ago, gave him some tips helped him transition, his sc1 mechanics were there and I was already having a hard time, hes played a shit ton of ladder matches since. We play together a lot of games, so we know each others exact styles.
After getting lost for an hour due to a really stupid GPS system (we ended up going in a circle for an hour). We grabbed some McDonalds and stayed at Boxxah's house where we met a very hospitable cat and mother. Again, I'd like to say thank you for letting us stay over.
The next day, we were suppose to play up on stage, but due to some harsh time management and cs matches, we just played regular games with some games being streamed. I don't know why the stream wasn't advertised better, it was only like 16 people watching the first day.
One thing to note about me, is that I'm a very psychological player. In SC1, I tend to rely on strategy and micro over mechanics cause I felt limited by my lack of speed. In SC2 because it required a lot less difficult mechanics, I definitely became a stronger overall player. Even so, I'm more comfortable playing different from the standard.
So the first game I played vs JF, I already had in my mind exactly what he was going to do. He scouts on like 15 after his second pylon, which is pretty late. So I knew by the timing of his scout/lack of scout, exactly his position. If I saw the probe at this spot after my 12 gate scout that means hes not at the base with the closest path, then I took the observation tower and waiting a sec, nothing, therefore hes directly across from me. I knew he was going to scout my base last so I threw down a pylon and completely walled off my base. I knew he does 2 gate robo, so that forces him to observer scout my base, going directly across the map, he wont see whatever I do and will probably do collosus tech before he even sees me. It worked like a charm, I got 4 warpgates moved out and crushed his 2 gate army. Game 1 mine, I felt so good after that game.
The next game he chose delta quadrant. Unlike most 4 player maps, I know from playing pvz that adjacent positions are really short paths. Like a 4 player steppes of war. If JF did a 13 gate, cybercore w/ no zealot. He'd be in a bad situation against a double chrono gate rush. Unfortunately he got the across position and I still decided to go for it because he did the build I knew he would do. The positions were too far and I lost in BO pretty easily.
The third game, I chose the map kulas ravine, because I knew he wasn't use to it. 2 Gate is actually pretty good on this map because of the lack of a ramp. Again the advantage was with me because I knew how he would scout, I went to the observation tower, went back and forth and saw where he was without him knowing. I proxied a gateway outside his base. Rushed zealots, I did amazing damage, about 6 probes killed along with a couple of zealots and 2 severely weakened stalekrs for the cost of 4 zealots. I was definitely ahead. Meanwhile in my base I threw up 3 gates and had continuously produced zealots and stalkers. I had 1 zealot hidden in a corner cause I knew he would counter after he killed the proxy. Unfortunately though, I only had 1-2 probes on my gas (or gas was late) for a long time and couldn't afford stalkers. My hidden zealot went to his base, while JF was attacking, to kill probes but instead hacked away at a cybernetics core cause of poor multitasking. I barely lost to his push cause of my lower stalker count. I knew I threw away the game, but I felt proud that I played really well overall. Oh well losers bracket time, I still could meet him again in the finals with a 1-2 score.
Wow didn't realize how much you can write about matches. Going to take a break again, hopefully people enjoy insight into how I see games.
