EPTIn the first match of group E, we saw one of the top two terran in the world, SlayerS_MMA, show why he is just that. On a day where he really wasn't challenged at all we saw MMA play nearly flawless in all of his games; the game against Gumiho was no different. After a relatively standard win on the first map, Metropolis, MMA changed things up a bit with a proxy marauder rush on the 2nd map Crossfire. Though he had some trouble with the banshee harass of Gumiho eventually he stabilized with a planetary fortress at his 3rd and his mech army ran over Gumiho's remaining units.
The next match, a ZvZ pitted Team Liquids new Korean player, Zenio, against a SlayerS zerg, Yugioh. The first map Cloud Kingdom was played out in true ZvZ fashion. Zenio started the game with a 10 pool while Yugioh tried to hatch first. Zenio was able to harass a small amount with his first group of lings while he teched to banelings and got some good detonations to take the first game.
The second game between these two was a much longer affair. After losing the first match Yugioh went with Daybreak for the 2nd game. It was a bad and forth between an early pool build for Zenio and another hatch first for Yugioh. Ultimately it ended with Zenio choosing to go infestor, hydra, roach versus the mutas and roaches of Yugioh. While it was a back and forth battle at the third of Yugioh eventually the stronger tech of Zenio's army was too much for Yugioh to handle and the base fell, followed shortly by the rest of his base.
The winners match started off on Entombed Valley where MMA went with a gasless FE into reactor hellions, and later ending up with hellions marauders and a banshee or two. MMA was camped in the middle of the map for most of the game and eventually Zenio was forced to attempt to break out and was unable to do so forcing the GG.
On the second map, Bel'Shir Beach MMA decided to go for blueflame hellions with drops and marine tank against the pretty standard play of Zenio. Eventually with amazing multitasking MMA dropped Zenio's main multiple times while pushing forward with his marine, tank at the front until Zenio was forced to GG yet again.
The losers match of FXOGumiho and SlayerS_Yugioh started on Entombed Valley where Yugioh was able to take a pretty decisive victory after a relatively quick game by getting a fast roach warren and hitting a great timing with muta, roach, baneling, and zergling.
After the initial loss by Gumiho he came back in a pretty ugly looking game 2 on Crossfire. While it was a longer game than the first both players made many mistakes. Yugioh made a massive mistake not getting zergling speed until the 11 minute mark. Next, he allowed his 3rd base to be destroyed by an easily killable army in the top left. He allowed the army to sit there for at least a minute, and then after that he allowed Gumiho to take that army and siege up behind his destructible rocks near his main base. It went back to more of a standard style game after that with ling, bling, muta against marine, tank, thor. Yugiho lost all of his mutas while not looking and flying through a group of maines and that was basically the game ender.
The 3rd game on Antiga Shipyard was a bit longer and a bit better. We saw Gumiho with reactor hellions into banshee against a quick hatchery and a roach warren. Gumiho then went for a quick third and double e-bay while Yugioh got an infestation pit, and baneling speed after taking his 3rd. Yugioh went for 3 base brood lords and Gumiho began to push towards the middle to grab his 4th base there. Gumiho got ghosts as the brood lords sieged up the center of the map. Yugioh got a nice fungal off in the center of the map on all of Gumiho's ghosts and ended up killing them with ultralisks. Yugioh made a big mistake not scouting the 3 o clock base until it was too late, and it ended up costing him the game, basically.
The last match of group E saw FXOGumiho against LiquidZenio. Game 1 on Daybreak had Gumiho going reactor hellion expand and Zenio went hatch first into speedling. Zenio went for a heavier roach composition while Gumiho opted for mostly marine hellion early on into double e-bay bio play later. It turned into a game of back and forth harassment with a standard composition for Zenio and Gumiho eventually started to get tanks out and mech upgrades. Zenio eventually teched up to brood lords and dropped his main base. Gumiho was worn down and forced into submission.
Game 2 on Cloud Kingdom showed standard openings from both players until Gumiho went for a hellion, marine drop in Zenio's main base and killed 18 drones. It returned to more of a relaxed game after that with Zenio getting his 3rd and a macro hatch up until Gumiho hellion dropped again and killed 7-8 more drones. Zenio tried to hide an expand in the bottom right while Gumiho countinued to drop and kill more drones than he should have. Gumiho eventually killed enough drones and captured Zenio's clump of mutas in the middle of the map to force the gg.
The final game was on Bel'Shir Beach. Gumiho opened 2 barracks pressure on the low ground against hatchery, pool, then gas. Zenio decided to let the bunker finish outside of his natural expand eventually causing him to lose the natural to double bunkers. Zenio then decided to run by the two bunkers with lings and morph banelings to bust. The bust turns out to be less effective than Zenio planned. Zenio finally cleaned up the bunker at his ramp at around the 9 minute mark but in the end he ended up incredibly, incredibly behind. The game ended up stabilizing and both players began to turtle, Zenio was still behind on tech though and thus Gumiho had a convincing lead. Zenio made a poor choice to tech into mutas with Gumiho being completely prepared for them at around 17 minutes into the game. Eventually Gumiho decided to push with marine, tank and Zenio was forced to leave the game.
(I will be doing a lengthy write-up on group G and then focusing entirely on the round of 16, sorry for the delays.)
