EPS SemiFinals HasuObs vs Xlord

Game 1 - Shakuras Plateau:

The Game started on Shakuras and I was hoping for a long macro game and god did I get one. While Xlord started with a normal expand build for zerg and got his speed a bit later, Hasu opted to go for a forge expand and take early gas to sustain his Stargate. His Voidray proceeded to clear the map from overlords. After denying the 3rd of Xlord Hasuobs overlooked a drone that sneaked past his voidray and build a 3rd at the 11 o'clock position and drop upgrade was also in research and as soon as that upgrade was finished Xlord dropped the bomb and started with high aggression ling/bling/infestor play all over the map. HausObs defended well at some points, but could do nothing at others. With sick micro and good storms he evaded most of the baneling drops, but when he overextended a bit a deadly fungal got off and banelings completely obliterated his army. The high pressure of Xlord continued and soon both players faced each others again. While the mainfight was going on Xlord again dropped 3/3 zerglings and took out important infrastructure of Hasu but despite this constant pressure HasuObs fought back and with sick micro evaded those pesky baneling drops. The finishing blow came in form of 8 or 9 brood lords and a good strategical move to corner Hasuobs where even his brilliant blink micro could not save him.

Game 2 - Taldarim Altar:

A game worthy of any big event final, and certainly a game that would excite nearly every caster. I would love to hear a commentary on this game by Tastosis. The overall strategics were similar but when I thought that Xlord had some pesky multi pronged attacks in game one I did not anticipate that he could turn it up several (and I mean several) notches. He flipped his killswitch and instead of 2 or 3 attacks at once, he was all over the field with five pronged attacks at some times. Ling drops, counterattacks, Baneling drops, runby`s... Xlord fought with every ounce of multi task he could offer and for a long time Hasu was forced to run between his bases to save what was left of his infrastructure and economy. Again Xlords upgrades shone trough and with 3/3 zerglings he put the pressure on Hasuobs. That zergstyle is incredible annoying to play against and HasuObs experienced it first hand. In his euphory Xlord tried to do cute stuff with Ultralisks and thought he could surprise Hasu who for a long time looked like he was on his last ropes. (Xlord had 4 saturated bases and 2 freshly constructed hatches) Unfortunately for him Hasu would have nothing to do with that and beautifully outmicroed infestors, baneling drops and Ultralisks without losing much of his army. While this fight was going on he sneaked a dark templar and some zealots into the new 2 bases of Xlord and completely took them out. Suddenly after Xlord lost his whole army against a split that would make the Automaton bot proud he stood there without income because he took his 3rd and 4th so early and had only distance mining as an option. His last attempt to regain control of the game with some Broodlords was thwarted and he had to concede. One dark templar and two zealots were the heroes of this game.

Game 3 - Terminus SE:

After those first two games both Commentators were completely confused and kinda wished for a short game to regain their voice and retain some of their vigor for the next matches. Their wish got granted on Terminus SE a map that is commonly referred to as a good macro map.
HasuObs played with a forge expand again and had some good building placement (Again much thought in it). Xlord seemingly tired of long games saw his forge expand and opted to fo for a tier 1 baneling bust. While he managed to kill the forge some good FF's completely denied him entrance into Hasu's base and he survived the bust with nearly zero losses. Trying to save the game Xlord researched 1/1 and speed for his blings as well as overlord drop + speed and mixed some infestors in it. Even tough the unit composition is strong, Hasu got an early lead trough the failed bust and quickly took a third. In combination with his insane split micro he completely overwhelmed Xlord in that game.

Game 4 - Metalopolis:

This time around HasuObs opted to go with a normal 3 Gate expand instead of a forge Expo and managed to secure it rather easily. The game was going well for him until a greedily expanding Xlord once again turned on the killswitch and engaged HasuObs at nearly every front possible. The map was split in half but because Xlord got Broodlords out pretty fast Hasu could not take the highyield expansion and Xlords problem of Map 2 was not existent. Slowly bleeding out isn't that easy if the zerg has 6 bases of which 3 are saturated and include one high yield. Nonetheless Hasu fought back bravely and his superb micro left me speechless once again. At the end HasuObs lost the fight against an Armada of broodlords with 3/3 broods who obliterated everything in their way.

The move in this game that made me pause and smoke a cigarette just to contemplate it was done by Xlord. In a pure moment of Genius he neural parasited a hightemplar of Hasu, stormed his army and feedbacked one of his full energy templars. I was shocked and completely in awe at that move. To macro 6 bases, micro a 200 army and have the awareness to do this stuff is completely amazing.

Game 5 - Shattered temple:

The last game of the series and I was excited to no end. Personally I was hoping for a macro/micro fest like 3 out of 4 games has been so far. But this time I got denied... To close that extremely exciting series HasuObs showed that he is not suspectable to mindgames at all and pulled one over Xlord with the MC style 5 Gate expo fake. While Xlords banelings where stuck at the ramp due to a FF Hasu easily took out the 4 spines and 2 queens and ended the series. The last game was the least exciting, but took nothing away from the other amazing games.