EPTFnaticSEn
v IMNesTea Game 1
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Game 1: Lost Temple, close positions
Both players get their hatcheries first, followed by spawning pools and extractors. Nestea uses his first gas for speed, whereas Sen gets a baneling nest followed by three banelings, and then attacks. Nestea holds off the banelings very well, but Sen is controlling them very well also. After the first push, Nestea uses his speedlings to counter-attack, which really only succeeds in fending off Sen's reinforcements. Both players continue to control superbly, but Sen finally manages to take out Nestea's natural due to his superior numbers. Sen retreats back to his natural with his forces, where there are curiously no workers mining at all.
Nestea's baneling nest finishes, he morphs five banelings, and attacks Sen's main. Sen's anti-baneling micro isn't as good as his baneling micro, so he loses a huge amount of still-slow zerglings to Nestea's banelings. This allows Nestea to start ravaging the mineral line, which eventually lets him win.
This was a great example of speedling vs slowling/baneling ZvZ. Both players played well, but Nestea's micro was a bit better, especially in baneling defense. The fact that Sen's expansion didn't ever mine seemed strange, but I guess he just wanted a second hatchery worth of larva for zerglings.
Nestea 1-0
Both players get their hatcheries first, followed by spawning pools and extractors. Nestea uses his first gas for speed, whereas Sen gets a baneling nest followed by three banelings, and then attacks. Nestea holds off the banelings very well, but Sen is controlling them very well also. After the first push, Nestea uses his speedlings to counter-attack, which really only succeeds in fending off Sen's reinforcements. Both players continue to control superbly, but Sen finally manages to take out Nestea's natural due to his superior numbers. Sen retreats back to his natural with his forces, where there are curiously no workers mining at all.
Nestea's baneling nest finishes, he morphs five banelings, and attacks Sen's main. Sen's anti-baneling micro isn't as good as his baneling micro, so he loses a huge amount of still-slow zerglings to Nestea's banelings. This allows Nestea to start ravaging the mineral line, which eventually lets him win.
This was a great example of speedling vs slowling/baneling ZvZ. Both players played well, but Nestea's micro was a bit better, especially in baneling defense. The fact that Sen's expansion didn't ever mine seemed strange, but I guess he just wanted a second hatchery worth of larva for zerglings.
Nestea 1-0
Game 2
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Game 2: Scrap Station
Both players open with hatchery, spawning pool, zergling speed, and a pair of queens. They first diverge at around two dozen supply with Nestea getting his roach warren and Sen making twenty zerglings. As Sen starts his own roach warren, Nestea starts making roaches. Sen attacks Nestea's natural's rock with zerglings, drawing the roaches away from common choke. The zerglings take the opportunity to run by into the main and kill Nestea's queen. Nestea gets some zerglings to fend them off as his roaches are busy tearing down the middle rocks.
Nestea gets through the middle with fourteen roaches and forty zerglings. He cleverly blocks Sen's common choke with his roaches as his zerglings wreck havoc on Sen's main. Send holds it off, but not before losing both queens and enough drones to put him six behind Nestea at 18-24. Sen counter attacks with his now +1 attack roaches. He evens up the drone count, but Nestea manages to eventually hold it off. After all the rallied units die, Sen ggs, realiazing he was a whole queen's worth of larvae behind.
I would have liked to see Sen stick around a little bit longer. Although he almost certainly couldn't win if Nestea played correctly, I feel like it's worth that 1/50 shot in your last game. Nonetheless, this was a very close, exciting, and instructional ZvZ. It is hard to imagine a zerg who could beat Nestea right now. He seems to just naturally do the right thing at every point.
Nestea wins 2-0
Both players open with hatchery, spawning pool, zergling speed, and a pair of queens. They first diverge at around two dozen supply with Nestea getting his roach warren and Sen making twenty zerglings. As Sen starts his own roach warren, Nestea starts making roaches. Sen attacks Nestea's natural's rock with zerglings, drawing the roaches away from common choke. The zerglings take the opportunity to run by into the main and kill Nestea's queen. Nestea gets some zerglings to fend them off as his roaches are busy tearing down the middle rocks.
Nestea gets through the middle with fourteen roaches and forty zerglings. He cleverly blocks Sen's common choke with his roaches as his zerglings wreck havoc on Sen's main. Send holds it off, but not before losing both queens and enough drones to put him six behind Nestea at 18-24. Sen counter attacks with his now +1 attack roaches. He evens up the drone count, but Nestea manages to eventually hold it off. After all the rallied units die, Sen ggs, realiazing he was a whole queen's worth of larvae behind.
I would have liked to see Sen stick around a little bit longer. Although he almost certainly couldn't win if Nestea played correctly, I feel like it's worth that 1/50 shot in your last game. Nonetheless, this was a very close, exciting, and instructional ZvZ. It is hard to imagine a zerg who could beat Nestea right now. He seems to just naturally do the right thing at every point.
Nestea wins 2-0
Game 3
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Sen got sent home :-(
LittleBoy/Goma
vs MakaPrime.WE Game 1
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Game 1: Delta Quadrant, close positions- Goma clockwise.
Goma starts out with a barracks, tech lab, and then a factory proxied outside Maka's back door. Maka similarly gets a barracks and a factory, except his barracks takes on a reactor. Each player builds a single bunker at the top of his own ramp as he techs. Goma floats the factory into his opponents back door and moves the starport to the tech lab to start a banshee and a cloak. Maka scouts the sneaky factory and parries the hellion that comes out, forcing the factory away. But Goma's first cloaked banshee come in, costing Maka two scans to kill. A second one comes in right after and gets many scv kills before getting away. Both players expand, Maka a bit after Goma, and settle down to transition to marine/tank. Maka is making many vikings, but Goma seems content to keep making banshees.
Maka pushes out just as Goma's stim finishes. Goma has also been producing tanks out of two factories for a while at this point whereas Maka's lack'o fact's kept him producing one tank at a time. Maka has instead teched up to cloak for his own banshees and given up viking production. Goma's force rolls over Maka's and immediately counterattacks, even taking a bunch of scvs. The natural's orbital command is forced to lift, and Goma goes right for the throat of Maka. The attack leaves Maka with only 11 workers compared to Goma's 25. Goma keeps the pressure on, but Maka's cloaked banshees keep him in the game. Maka floats his expansion to his back door for some extra security.
Maka's banshees continue to do good harassment, both on Goma's mineral line and his army. A few siege tanks keep Maka's ramp secure from a few pokes. Both players drop with eight marines to little effect. But Goma comes back and drops two tanks on the ledge over Maka's back door, forcing him to once again move his orbital command. Goma takes the opportunity to expand to his gold, which gets immediately stripped of its scvs by a Maka drop. Goma goes for a huge counter-drop, but changes his mind. Instead he goes for a straight up attack right into a solid line of sieged tanks. Maka decimates the force and even takes his own gold in the process.
Maka starts harassing like crazy and covering the map with sensor towers as he double expands, putting himself up in bases for the first time this game. Goma has switched to primarily tank marauder and attacks towards Maka's two new expansions in the north. Again, though, he positions his army very poorly against sieged tanks and loses a huge chunk of his army for very little gain. Goma, having lost essentially all of his army, and seeing a battalion of Maka's tanks bearing down, gg's. Goma looks pretty upset in his booth after the seemingly avoidable loss, and his coach comes in to talk to him.
Maka ground out a long, tough win. Goma seemed to break down with his army control in this game, hotkeying his whole army into one ball so that his own sieged tanks actually blocked his army. A telling fact: at 30' Goma had a 170-130 food lead, at 35' he was down 115-148, almost entirely due to an attack he himself had initiated. And although Goma generally had fine macro, he had a lot of trouble spending gas, having over a thousand for a good chunk of the game.
Maka 1-0
Goma starts out with a barracks, tech lab, and then a factory proxied outside Maka's back door. Maka similarly gets a barracks and a factory, except his barracks takes on a reactor. Each player builds a single bunker at the top of his own ramp as he techs. Goma floats the factory into his opponents back door and moves the starport to the tech lab to start a banshee and a cloak. Maka scouts the sneaky factory and parries the hellion that comes out, forcing the factory away. But Goma's first cloaked banshee come in, costing Maka two scans to kill. A second one comes in right after and gets many scv kills before getting away. Both players expand, Maka a bit after Goma, and settle down to transition to marine/tank. Maka is making many vikings, but Goma seems content to keep making banshees.
Maka pushes out just as Goma's stim finishes. Goma has also been producing tanks out of two factories for a while at this point whereas Maka's lack'o fact's kept him producing one tank at a time. Maka has instead teched up to cloak for his own banshees and given up viking production. Goma's force rolls over Maka's and immediately counterattacks, even taking a bunch of scvs. The natural's orbital command is forced to lift, and Goma goes right for the throat of Maka. The attack leaves Maka with only 11 workers compared to Goma's 25. Goma keeps the pressure on, but Maka's cloaked banshees keep him in the game. Maka floats his expansion to his back door for some extra security.
Maka's banshees continue to do good harassment, both on Goma's mineral line and his army. A few siege tanks keep Maka's ramp secure from a few pokes. Both players drop with eight marines to little effect. But Goma comes back and drops two tanks on the ledge over Maka's back door, forcing him to once again move his orbital command. Goma takes the opportunity to expand to his gold, which gets immediately stripped of its scvs by a Maka drop. Goma goes for a huge counter-drop, but changes his mind. Instead he goes for a straight up attack right into a solid line of sieged tanks. Maka decimates the force and even takes his own gold in the process.
Maka starts harassing like crazy and covering the map with sensor towers as he double expands, putting himself up in bases for the first time this game. Goma has switched to primarily tank marauder and attacks towards Maka's two new expansions in the north. Again, though, he positions his army very poorly against sieged tanks and loses a huge chunk of his army for very little gain. Goma, having lost essentially all of his army, and seeing a battalion of Maka's tanks bearing down, gg's. Goma looks pretty upset in his booth after the seemingly avoidable loss, and his coach comes in to talk to him.
Maka ground out a long, tough win. Goma seemed to break down with his army control in this game, hotkeying his whole army into one ball so that his own sieged tanks actually blocked his army. A telling fact: at 30' Goma had a 170-130 food lead, at 35' he was down 115-148, almost entirely due to an attack he himself had initiated. And although Goma generally had fine macro, he had a lot of trouble spending gas, having over a thousand for a good chunk of the game.
Maka 1-0
Game 2
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Game 2: Xel'Naga Caverns
Both players get up to factories in their own bases this time with two gases each. Goma goes for quick banshees with cloak, and Maka for tank viking. As in last game, a banshee that requires two scans paves the way for the next one to get a bunch of kills, putting Goma up by an impressive 20 scvs. Goma adds on three barracks, one with a tech lab. Maka pushes out with a paltry force of two tanks and a few marines against a sizable force of marines. But again Goma suicides a lot of marines (and then scvs) into tanks, and although Maka's army dies, the battle leaves him in a much better position than he was in before .
Maka starts to expand, but changes his mind as Goma pokes. Maka sends his own banshee down to Goma's base to harass a little bit, and as it starts to take out scvs, Goma tries to force his way up Maka's ramp. As it becomes apparent that Maka will likely hold the push, Goma leaves the game and the tournament.
Goma has some pretty basic TvT skills to work on before he will get far in a very competitive tournament, but he is still a fairly skilled player. Maka was just better this time.
Maka wins 2-0
Both players get up to factories in their own bases this time with two gases each. Goma goes for quick banshees with cloak, and Maka for tank viking. As in last game, a banshee that requires two scans paves the way for the next one to get a bunch of kills, putting Goma up by an impressive 20 scvs. Goma adds on three barracks, one with a tech lab. Maka pushes out with a paltry force of two tanks and a few marines against a sizable force of marines. But again Goma suicides a lot of marines (and then scvs) into tanks, and although Maka's army dies, the battle leaves him in a much better position than he was in before .
Maka starts to expand, but changes his mind as Goma pokes. Maka sends his own banshee down to Goma's base to harass a little bit, and as it starts to take out scvs, Goma tries to force his way up Maka's ramp. As it becomes apparent that Maka will likely hold the push, Goma leaves the game and the tournament.
Goma has some pretty basic TvT skills to work on before he will get far in a very competitive tournament, but he is still a fairly skilled player. Maka was just better this time.
Maka wins 2-0
Game 3
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Not needed
GoldenfOu
v ST_GgoBooGie 
Game 1
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Game 1: Steppes of War
Golden starts with some bizarre opening that goes something like: proxy hatchery into evolution chamber cancel into spawning pool. He then makes a lot of zerglings, a queen at the proxy hatch and attacks into Boogie's very normal gateway/cybercore. When Boogie holds it, Golden leaves the game.
Golden must have meant to make that pool first.
Boogie 1-0
Golden starts with some bizarre opening that goes something like: proxy hatchery into evolution chamber cancel into spawning pool. He then makes a lot of zerglings, a queen at the proxy hatch and attacks into Boogie's very normal gateway/cybercore. When Boogie holds it, Golden leaves the game.
Golden must have meant to make that pool first.
Boogie 1-0
Game 2
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Game 2: Scrap Station
Golden gets his gas and then pool as Boogie sets up a gateway and cybernetics core to start walling off the common choke to his natural. Golden gets speed, pulls drones out of gas, and takes his expansion, followed by a roach warren. Boogie has rushed for a void ray, though, which takes out a queen and leaves. Golden upgrades to lair, then a hyrdalisk den, but instead of more void rays, there are blink stalkers for him to face off against. A dozen or so stalkers blink up to the platform above Golden's natural usuing the void ray for sight. Hydras hold it off for a while, but eventually reinforcements from a proxy pylon overrun the natural. From there they just walk into the main and kill.
This seemed like a pretty risky build on Boogie's part. Maybe just a few more hydralisks and Golden would have held and taken out the proxy pylon. Boogie had almost completely stopped probe production and has still not expanded, so this seemed like a do-or-die situation. But he did, and Golden died. Hopefully creative builds like this will carry Boogie far into the tournament.
Boogie wins 2-0
Golden gets his gas and then pool as Boogie sets up a gateway and cybernetics core to start walling off the common choke to his natural. Golden gets speed, pulls drones out of gas, and takes his expansion, followed by a roach warren. Boogie has rushed for a void ray, though, which takes out a queen and leaves. Golden upgrades to lair, then a hyrdalisk den, but instead of more void rays, there are blink stalkers for him to face off against. A dozen or so stalkers blink up to the platform above Golden's natural usuing the void ray for sight. Hydras hold it off for a while, but eventually reinforcements from a proxy pylon overrun the natural. From there they just walk into the main and kill.
This seemed like a pretty risky build on Boogie's part. Maybe just a few more hydralisks and Golden would have held and taken out the proxy pylon. Boogie had almost completely stopped probe production and has still not expanded, so this seemed like a do-or-die situation. But he did, and Golden died. Hopefully creative builds like this will carry Boogie far into the tournament.
Boogie wins 2-0
Game 3
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Golden got sent to the showers
NSP/NexGenius
v TSL_Rain Game 1
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Game 1: Jungle Basin
Rain gets a barracks made in Genius's back door natural, and starts a second. It gets scouted though, so the second barracks is canceled. When it goes down, Rain brings all of his scvs and five marines. In a crazy stalker marine micro battle, Rain gets two bunkers down in Genius's base, and Genius has to leave in the middle of a desperate attempt to tech to DTs.
There were a few ways that could have gone better for Genius, but obviously Genius didn't have the information we did. A solid, if somewhat cheesy, win for Rain.
Rain 1-0
Rain gets a barracks made in Genius's back door natural, and starts a second. It gets scouted though, so the second barracks is canceled. When it goes down, Rain brings all of his scvs and five marines. In a crazy stalker marine micro battle, Rain gets two bunkers down in Genius's base, and Genius has to leave in the middle of a desperate attempt to tech to DTs.
There were a few ways that could have gone better for Genius, but obviously Genius didn't have the information we did. A solid, if somewhat cheesy, win for Rain.
Rain 1-0
Game 2
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Game 2: Metalopolis, close by air.
Both players get both gases, and Rain prevents Genius scouting. So Genius goes for the early robotics bay with three gateways total, and Rain for a fairly early banshee followed by a siege tank. Genius expands at around 6', but Rain just keeps pumping banshees. tanks, and marines from a reactored barracks. Genius gets his first colossus out, but Rain starts to push right as siege mode finishes. Rain catches a colossus off guard and sieges up right below the ledge of the main. The tanks pick off the robotics bay just before a colossus comes out, and then hit a gateway also. Bunkers go up to reinforce the positions even more, and from there Rain shells Genius to death.
I'm very sad to see Genius go out so soon, but Rain played well. That second build especially seems very strong against an expanding, gate/robo-focused protoss.
Rain wins 2-0
Both players get both gases, and Rain prevents Genius scouting. So Genius goes for the early robotics bay with three gateways total, and Rain for a fairly early banshee followed by a siege tank. Genius expands at around 6', but Rain just keeps pumping banshees. tanks, and marines from a reactored barracks. Genius gets his first colossus out, but Rain starts to push right as siege mode finishes. Rain catches a colossus off guard and sieges up right below the ledge of the main. The tanks pick off the robotics bay just before a colossus comes out, and then hit a gateway also. Bunkers go up to reinforce the positions even more, and from there Rain shells Genius to death.
I'm very sad to see Genius go out so soon, but Rain played well. That second build especially seems very strong against an expanding, gate/robo-focused protoss.
Rain wins 2-0
Game 3
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No game threes at all today.
