EGMC Week 1 recaps

Both players took advantage of the in-base expansions on Crevasse to go expo first, with Drewbie going for reactor hellions at his choke into heavy upgrades. Morrow quickly scouted it and switched over to ling-bling-roach, walked right over, and killed him.

Greedy Drewbie was caught with his hand in the macro jar.

Moving on to Shattered Temple, Morrow took advantage of close air positions to hatch first on 17. Drewbie went with a two rax bunker rush, which Morrow held off well, forcing Drewbie to put down a command center and settle for something of a a macro game. It turned out Morrow had faked him out; while Drewbie was gearing up for heavily-upgraded infantry later in the game, Morrow moved out with another ling-bling-roach force and killed him again.

Even Drewbie had to laugh when he was caught without units twice in a row.

Morrow 2 - 0 Drewbie

Game one of Strelok-Slush kept us on Shattered Temple, but now with close ground positions! This made Slush’s hatch-first a little more vulnerable; Strelok was able to put some pressure on with marines and snipe an overlord. More importantly, his marine aggression scouted Slush’s roach all-in, letting him back up to the safety of a bunker while teching to banshees. Slush’s roaches got to the choke, found a bunker and a starport, and he just gged then and there.

Slush didn't even think this was worth playing out.

Game two gave us bottom positions on Shakuras Plateau, where Slush once again hatched first while Strelok once again did four marine pressure into banshee harass. While the harass was largely ineffective, Strelok managed to time a push while Slush’s mutas were still building and devastated Slush’s natural. Slush cleaned up the push and tried to harass with mutas, but poor control cost him several, which only put him further behind as Strelok built up another push. This time Slush was in the middle of an awkward infestor tech, and after a token defense of his natural, he gged.

Once again, the game goes to the player who built enough combat units

Strelok 2 - 0 Slush

Mana and Kiwikaki spawned cross positions on Shakuras Plateau, with both players going for a fairly standard (well, as standard as anything not four gate can be) three gate robo builds. Once the robos got up, though, the builds diverged: while Kiwi went for an immortal into colossi, Mana went with a warp prism, blink, and an expansion. Mana pressured with stalkers at the front while dropping zealots into Kiwi’s mineral line, which cost him units but put him up on the probe count. He followed that up with notably less successful blink harass, trading a chunk of stalkers for Kiwi’s robo bay. Mana was trying to even the colossus count, but all he managed to do was put himself behind on both colossi and gateway units. Kiwikaki realized this and pushed out, handily destroying Mana's smaller army in a game-ending battle.

As is often the case, the side with more colossi won.

Mana spawned at 9 with Kiwi at 6 on Terminus RE. Two PvPs in a row with no four gates would have been too much fun for the spectators, so Kiwikaki went for everyone’s favorite build. Unfortunately for him, Mana fended it off handily; by the time Kiwi gave up, he was behind on units and tech, as well as down an expansion. Knowing he was behind, Kiwi built up for an all-in immortal and gateway unit push. He spent a little too long doing it though; by the time he made it to Mana’s expansion he was up against a pair of colossi shielded by a significant gateway force. The first skirmish was indecisive, but Kiwikaki’s second attack cost him his entire army and forced a gg.

Let's play count the gateways!

Since one good turn deserves another, Mana decided it was his turn to four gate Kiwikaki. This went even worse than Kiwi’s did; he lost a couple of stalkers and a pair of pylons without even making it up the ramp. Mana tried some more warp prism harass to make up for it, but was totally shut down there again. This put Kiwi far enough ahead that he decided to just build up his colossus count for a final push. Mana still had one last trick up his sleeve though; when Kiwi pushed out across the map, Mana went right around him and pushed for a base trade. He was able to snipe a few units, including a colossus, that were trying to rally to Kiwi’s army to even the odds a bit, and had somehow saved up enough cash to plant a new nexus at the 5 o’clock expo. Once the bases were down, Mana’s stalker ball managed to take out Kiwi’s formerly superior army and force a gg.

This base trade was genius

Mana 2 - 1 Kiwikaki

The teams mix it up for the 2v2, with mouz sending out two players who didn’t make the 1v1 lineup while ROOT, holding on to try and take at least a single point off of mouz, sends out a regular 2v2 team in drewbie and Catz. Mouz opted for a mineral-only wall from Ghosta while Syck teched straight to mutas. This half-worked; the wall held off ROOT’s lings and hellions with no problem, but the mutas ran into Drewbie’s turrets and marines and accomplished very little. That didn’t stop mouz from trying to capitalize on the timing though, and they moved out with muta-ling-marine. Unfortunately for them, they arrived at just the wrong time; as soon as his lings were stopped by Ghosta’s wall Catz had started teching straight to infestors and they popped just as the mouz attack arrived. A couple of quick fungals eliminated the entire attack with almost no losses from ROOT, and from there it just took a couple of minutes for ROOT to get over to the mouz base and force a gg.

Those are some money fungals.

Ghosta & Syck 0 - 1 Drewbie & Catz

Mouz won 3-1

Fnatic versus Millenium kicked off on Crevasse; both players took advantage of the large map to take their in-base expansions early. Adelscott went for a fairly passive quick colossi build, while Fenix opted for drop-heavy bio play. If you think this sounds like a recipe for disaster for Fenix, you’re right! After Fenix lost two medivacs full of units in a failed drop, Adelscott had a large enough army to march right in and force a gg.

If Fenix had had these units for the actual battle, things might have gone better.

Fenix chose Tal’Darim Altar for the next map, which prompted Adelscott to go early nexus again. Fenix went with a later expansion into a marine-tank push, but by that time Adelscott was already mining from three bases and was able to simply roll over the push with superior numbers. He then once again just marched his gateway units over and killed Fenix.

Who needs strategy or positioning when you've just got lots more units?

Fenix 0 - Adelscott 2

Spawning cross positions on Shattered Temple, Sen opted for a hatchery into roach build, while Stephano went with an early baneling nest. Sen managed to build just enough zerglings to tide him over until his roaches popped, which left Stephano in an intimidatingly deep economic hole. Sen cranked out a few more roaches and pushed out with almost twice Stephano’s food; Stephano tried to hold him off with spine crawlers but was forced to gg.

Wow! That's a lot of roaches!

Stephano picked Shakuras Plateau for the next game, which prompted Sen to pick Protoss. Both players expanded around 15 and happily macroed away; the first actual engagement came at the 11 minute mark when Sen’s gateway ball ran into Stephano’s giant mass of roaches. From there on out, it was a non-stop melee in the middle of the map pitting Sen’s blink micro against Stephano’s burrow-move. After a few minutes of tug-of-war, Sen finally broke through and took the set.

You don't usually see so many forcefields from a Zerg player, but Sen does it all!

Sen 2 - Stephano 0

Starting cross positions on Shakuras Plateau, Lalush opted for a quick hatchery. KawaiiRice moved out for a bunker rush, but arrived just in time to see a spine crawler and turn back around. KR then set up his own expo and started massing marines, while LaLush started building banelings, which we all know counter marines, right? KawaiiRice began pressuring the front while harassing with marine drops; LaLush tried to hold them off with mutas, but was slowly ground down in the war of attrition. By the time KR finally pushed in at the end, he had a nigh-unsurmountable 100 food lead.

One of several drops that just wore LaLush down.

LaLush took the fight to Shattered Temple, where he again opted for an early hatch. Kawaii launched another quickly-aborted bunker rush, but this time he followed it up with an elevator drop of hellions and marines into LaLush’s main. This went much better for him; he managed to keep dancing around killing queens and disrupting mining until banshee support could arrive. While LaLush was busy cleaning that up, KR was already rolling forward with another elevator drop, this time with siege tech. LaLush managed to fend that off as well, but as in the last game, he was just getting further and further behind. When KawaiiRice decided to roll in the front with his next tank-marine ball, LaLush simply didn’t have enough to hold it.

It took LaLush way too long to clean up this drop.

KawaiiRice 2 - LaLush 0

Fnatic forfeited the 2v2 due to scheduling issues, which is laaaaaame.

KawaiiRice versus Adelscott
After three pretty lopsided series, it seemed pretty likely that both teams would choose an ace who had just won. Neither disappointed; Millenium put up Adelscott, while Fnatic sent out KawaiiRice in search of TvP vengeance. They spawned close air positions on Metalopolis, so Adelscott once again opted for a very early nexus. When he went for a quick third with no scouting information it proved to be a bridge too far though; Kawaii stayed on one base and pushed out to eliminate Adelscott’s natural. Fortunately for Adel, it didn’t even occur to Kawaii that his opponent might be greedy enough to have a third up, so he backed off after eliminating the natural. It proved to be just delaying the inevitable though; KR continued to mass an army while Adelscott tried to rebuild his economy, and when the tanks rolled out Adel was totally unprepared for them and gged.

Laggy or not, if your opponent has twice the units you do it's bad.

Game two moved to Xel’Naga, whereupon Adelscott promptly BMed not just Kawaii, but the entire US Starcraft-playing population, because he was having lag issues which he felt were the reason he lost the previous game. Couldn’t have had anything to do with a hugely greedy build and no scouting. Meanwhile, Adel went for a more conventionally-timed 3-gate expansion, which KR tried to counter with his third patent-pending “fail bunker rush” of the match. This time he lost a batch of bio with it, though, and Adel capitalized perfectly by patiently putting up a third and macroing up a fearsome gateway force. Once he had a 30+ food lead, he just walked over and killed KawaiiRice.

I guess "unsuccessful bunker rush" isn't going to be the hot new Terran build.

The final showdown was on Terminus RE, and Adel once again went for an aggressive expansion without even scouting. KawaiiRice made him pay with a blue flame drop, taking out a chunk of probes. KawaiiRice took advantage of the tempo this gave him to start an early third, pushing out another hellion drop to eat up some more workers. This let him surge ahead in macro, building up a 170 food thor and viking heavy army before pushing out. Adel’s large colossus count was exactly the wrong thing to have; the fact that he was down 30 food didn’t help either. KR rolled over him and took the series for Fnatic.

Turns out Thor Viking beats Colossus Stalker.

KawaiiRice 2 - 1 Adelscott

Cloud kicked off the match in turtle-terran style, holing up in the top left on Crevasse behind no less than 5 bunkers while upgrading to 3/3 infantry. Vibe wisely decided that if Cloud wouldn’t come out and play, he’d just macro like a beast and jump up to four bases. Other than some largely ineffective muta harass, very little happened until Cloud flew out with a double medivac drop; Vibe spotted it with an overlord and decided to push the front instead of pulling back to defend. Both players managed to narrowly save themselves, and from there on out it was a constant push-and-pull between Cloud’s heavily upgraded infantry and Vibe’s more numerous ling-bling-muta. While Cloud’s infantry was significantly more cost-effective, it ended up not being cost-effective enough to overcome his economic deficit; he eventually simply ran out of resources and was overwhelmed.

I am the bunker king!

Eager to not be out-macroed again in game two, Cloud one-rax expanded before putting up additional barracks and a solitary bunker. Unfortunately for him, this time Vibe did commit to a baneling bust, which totally crushed Cloud’s expo and pushed straight into his main. For those of you keeping score at home: 5 bunkers, too many. 1 bunker, too few. Will we ever learn how many bunkers are just right?

Where are your bunkers now, Cloud??

Cloud 0 - 2 Vibe

Spawning opposite positions on Shattered Temple, both players threw up early expansions. MajOr pulled off some strong reaper harass, but then he just harassed around with a couple of medivacs while surging ahead on macro two base versus two base. Mondragon eventually put up a third, but MajOr’s harass kept him from mining it effectively until his own third was up at the gold. Once Mondragon got a healthy muta force up he began to assert himself a little more, but it wasn’t long before MajOr was establishing a position outside his natural with tanks, thors and marines. Mondrago tried to break it, but in the end he had to gg.

Too much to dislodge

Both MajOr and Mondragon opted for early expansions. Eager to stay on the offensive this game, Mondragon went with a slightly delayed baneling bust, but a well-designed wall and some clutch siege tanks fended it off with almost no damage. MajOr used the edge this gave him to forgo medivac harassment and start the marine-tank death push. Mondragon just didn’t have the forces left to stop the slow push towards his natural; some muta harass and a cute burrowed baneling bomb or two dragged the game out, but it was too little too late.

If you’re using this many banelings, you really need to do damage

Mondragon 0 - 2 Major

Both players opted for quick expansions on Shakuras Plateau, with SaSe teching towards colossi while DDE went for a standard MMM+tank mix. SaSe’s lone observer not only spotted an incoming drop, but then camped on top of DDE’s army, allowing SaSe to pick and choose opportune moments to attack. A couple of botched engagements in the middle put DDE far enough behind that he was forced to cancel his third, and from there on out SaSe’s lead just compounded. An aggressive drop bought DDE a little more time, but when SaSe’s force arrived at his natural he gged before the battle was even over.

This drop was a great idea, but too little too late

With close air positions on Metalopolis, both players went for more conservative builds. SaSe managed to delay DDE’s expansion for a bit with a stalker push while he cut probes and massedunits at his own natural. His observer then caught DDE pushing out to take the Xel’Naga tower; SaSe met him with a superior army and a wall of forcefields to prevent retreat. The rest of the game was just a formality.

I’m sorry, where you going somewhere?

Sase 2 - 0 DDE

Both teams ended up pairing a player who won their match with one who lost; the question was, would the winner pull the loser up to their level, or vice versa? TP versus TZ can be a tricky matchup for the TP. Cloud and SaSe went with a wall at their front in case of zerglings, but that proved to be more of a liability than anything else when Team Sixjax’ marauders and roaches showed up. Cloud had to pop his marines in and out to defend, losing a couple of the fragile units each time while the beefier units of Team Sixjax kept building in number. SaSe’s stalkers didn’t really start popping out until MYM’s front was already overrun complete with all of Cloud’s marines, and while he tried to kite as best he could, DDE’s concussive shells let the roaches catch up and do their damage. Cloud was the first to tap out as MYM was clearly done for.

This is the danger of walling off when they’ve got ranged units

Cloud & SaSe 0 - 1 DDE & Vibe

Sixjax won 3-1

Axslav decided even though he’d been scouted, the pocket expansion on Crevasse was just calling out for a nexus-first build. Select lulled him into a false sense of security by not bunker rushing it, but hidden in his base he put down three additional rax, going straight for a no-gas push. To the amusement of the casters, he went all bit-by-bit-prime style and pulled almost all of his SCVs to come with the push. When Axslav saw 10+ marines and 15+ SCVs headed at his two stalkers and a zealot, it was pretty much over. A bunker in his mineral line just added insult to injury.

Get your own base, SCVs!

Cross positions on Metalopolis saved Axslav from himself, offering no overly-tempting overly-greedy options. He went with a much more conventional three-gate expansion build, so Select kept his SCVs in his base and went with a quick cloak banshee build. His banshees arrived shortly before Axslav’s robo finishes, letting him pick off some probes before an obs made it out. Select’s macro slipped during the attack, though, putting Axslav up ten probes by the time the banshees were chased out. Axslav got a little cocky, though, and tried to finish Select off with a poorly-conceived warpgate rush. This put Select far enough ahead that he could pull some two-pronged harassment while he caught up on expansions. Select kept the pressure on with a push against Axslav’s third, winning the fight decisively thanks to some brilliant EMPs and sniping the nexus before he made good his escape. Being the baller that he is, Select then threw up three tech lab starports for a big BC transition, but when he pushed out to clear some supply for his new fleet he crushed Axslav’s army and seemed to almost accidentally win.

You weren’t using that nexus, were you?

2 Select - 0 Axslav

Both players started fairly standard cross-positions on Shattered Temple, with CCs going up around 20. Merz tried to build up some reapers to sneak into DeMusliM’s base, but borked his micro and lost them all to marines. DeMusliM tried his own cute counter with 6 hellions, was warded off by Merz’s marauders. Not one to be deterred, he kept massing hellions while teching up to blue flame; I imagine Merz was fairly surprised when his marine/marauder ball ran into ~10 hellions into the middle of the map. The hellions managed an end-around to get into Merz’s natural and take out a chunk of SCVs, softening him up for the incoming tank push while DeMusliM put up a third. From there Merz was just too far behind to catch up; he managed some successful drops in DeMusliM’s main but he never quite got a third. DeMusliM was happy to just lock him in, macro up, and wait for a gg.

Those tanks stayed there for a loooong time

Game two started out with some friendly banter on Xel’Naga Caverns. This time Merz is the one who opts for early hellions, but again it’s DeMusliM who really commits to them. Repeated blue flame hellion raids kept Merz on the defensive and behind on SCVs while DeMusliM was macroing up and amassing tanks. Merz finally tried to seize some initiative and swung through Tasteless’ Secret Hallway to hit his opponent’s natural, but a well-placed depot wall bought DeMusliM enough time to get his tanks seiged up. Merz got impatient and tried to load his bio up for a flanking maneuver, but his multitasking faltered and he lost most of his tanks doing it. This put him far enough behind that DeMusliM could just stay in macro mode, eventually rolling Merz over with a wave of mech.

Just where were these tanks going?

Merz 0 - 2 DeMusliM

Sjow went for a fairly standard early expand on Shakuras Plateau, which iNcontrol looked like he was thinking about before he slipped a probe into Sjow’s natural undetected. From there on out it was all four gate, all the time. iNcontrol warped in a half dozen stalkers on the low ground before going for a round of zealots hidden in the corner of Sjow’s base, but unfortunately his fat zealots pushed his probe into the edge of Sjow’s vision. Sjow immediately converged with his marines, which pushed iNcontrol into an all-in rush against a pair of bunkers. While his stalkers did make it past the bunkers, by that point there were only two of them, and he gged.

What’re you doing there, little probe?

iNcontrol was calling for Shattered Temple even before the first game ended, but we’ll never know if he was hoping for the cross positions he got or not. He certainly went with a greedy enough build, going one gate nexus into robo. Sjow didn’t really punish him for it, instead macroing up a bio force and starting a third. iNcontrol went with some somewhat scattered tech choices, trying to macro colossi, dual stargate phoenixes, and gateway units off of just two bases. Sjow pestered him with a few drops, but mostly just macros up a bio force backed by a fleet of vikings before pushing out. By the time the two armies met, Sjow’s third base and focused build had put him up almost 40 food, and he won as convincingly as you would expect with that lead.

This is not a balanced diet of Toss units

Sjow 2 - 0 iNcontrol

Axslav went with a wall at he and StrifeCro’s common choke, which proved to be a great idea since KiLLeR was ten pooling into non-stop lings. The idea became less good once Select’s marines showed up and chewed up a gateway; KiLLeR’s lings then poured in and did some significant damage. StrifeCro managed to get some roaches out and stabilize team EG, but at this point you’d think they be hopelessly behind. And if KiLLeR had ever built more than ten drones, they would have been, but true to his cheesing self he was still just cranking lings. EG managed to rebuild to the point that StrifeCro felt comfortable expanding, but it turned out that was just what Dignitas was waiting for. This time KiLLeR’s lings were backed up by hellions and tanks from Select, and a well-managed push broke through EG’s choke, eliminating their armies in the process and forcing a gg.

I guess tanks and lings are a combo now?

KiLLeR & Select1 - 0 Axslav & StrifeCro

Dignitas won 3-1