EPTGame 1
Imperial’s Terran Imposter opens up the series against TooL, the UWL Zerg on Dual Sight. TooL goes for a hatch first, but despite opening with 2-barracks, Imposter is unable to do any damage, before expanding himself. After a couple of unsuccessful pokes, Imposter then pushes TooL’s third, taking it down, and then loading up and flying home right as Mutalisks start hatching. After fending off the flying menace, Imposter chooses to move towards the Zerg main instead of the vulnerable third base to seal the deal, but decides to back off. Seizing his opportunity, TooL overruns the retreating force with banelings and mutalisks, although a moment of inattention allows Imposter to gun down most of the mutalisks. Imposter denies the Zerg attempt to take a fourth base, but again, loses almost everything on the way back. TooL steamrolls Imposter’s fourth base with banelings, but loses his own to a drop, as both players are starting to run low on mining bases. Another drop knocks out TooL’s Hive, but while the Zerg burns through most of his stockpiled gas with Infestors and a fresh wave of mutalisks, Imposter can’t quite manage to reciprocate with marines and ghosts. Catching the Terran army out of position, TooL devastates the natural, before being forced back by mass EMP’s. Unfortunately, the Infestors escape with burrow, and they soon return with broodlords and a vengeance. Having lost his only mining base, Imposter calls the "gg", and TooL finally claims victory in this 38 minute long game.
![[image loading]](http://imgur.com/EEr94.jpg)
Possibly a pre-mature GG, since Zerg isn't mining either?
Game 2
Game 2 features Lewisl from Imperial, with nothing less than a dismantling of the GM Protoss GLBiOhAzArD from UWL on Shattered Temple. Opening with a gasless fast expansion, the bunker finishes right as the first chronoboosted stalker reaches the front. Lewis follows this up an additional 3 barracks, and pushes forward with one squad of marines while another looped all the way around the back to deny the stalkers their retreat path. Forming up at the Protoss natural, they get several probe kills, but some very nice micro allows Biohazard to clean up all the marines with minimal losses on his stalkers. Pressing forward, the stalkers are unable to break the Terran bunkers, before backing up to deflect the Terran counter-push as Colossi hit the field. Claiming the central watchtower, Lewis keeps the Protoss pinned back with drops while he takes the gold base. Feeling the pressure, Biohazard drops a Nexus at his own gold while pushing out with his army. Lewis, however, plays this out perfectly – a small group of infantry draws all the chargelots out of position, while the main force crushes through the vulnerable stalkers and Colossus, who are caught on the retreat by the marauders that sniped the expansion attempt during the action.
![[image loading]](http://imgur.com/SEAnH.jpg)
Drawing away the Zealots – how to beat a Protoss deathball.
Not forcing the issue, Lewis is content to sit back on his three bases while keeping the Protoss on two with drops, slowly pulling Biohazard apart with drops. Biohazard eventually splits his army, but this is the moment Lewis has been waiting for. He strikes for the kill, annihilating the Protoss piece by piece, and a well-mannered “gg wp” nets Imperial the win, evening up the series with one victory on each side.
Game 3
Anxious to take the lead, SpartaN and YuM step up for Imperial, as do TrowaBarton and ddk for UWL. The Imperial Protoss/Terran duo wall themselves in early, but this plays right into UWL’s Zerg/Terran hands – a bunker on the low ground, and an overlord to provide vision. TrowaBarton’s marauders chip at YuM’s gateway, while a pack of slavering Zerglings eagerly awaits their opportunity.
![[image loading]](http://imgur.com/4mvk2.jpg)
Overlord/Marauder – good for breaking down a high-ground wall-in.
Bunkers and forcefields are thrown down to buy more time, as the concussive shell marauders continue to pick off anything within range. As another bunker is cancelled, UWL goes in for the kill – only to run headfirst into SpartaN’s 5 barracks and YuM’s 4-gate. Imperial burns through most of the Zerglings before the marauders even make it up the ramp, and what looked like a victory for UWL quickly turns into a rout, followed not long after by surrender.
Game 4
At match point, Imperial sends out Kazen next, hoping to replicate the previous TvP against UWL’s Robo on Xel’naga caverns to close out the series. However, Robo would have nothing of the sort, opening with 3 gateways and a proxy Stargate. Kazen knocks out the nearby proxy pylon, but a critically mis-positioning leaves his tanks vulnerable at the front to be picked off by stalkers and voidrays while all his marines are stuck behind on the ramp. Losing too much too quickly, Kazen surrenders, and UWL ties up the score 2-2.
![[image loading]](http://imgur.com/z2Bdk.jpg)
Marines being blocked by tanks and the ramp.
Game 5
Down to the ace match, Lewis comes on for Imperial, while on the other side of Shakuras Plateau, BiOhAzArD looks for a chance to redeem himself for UWL. With everything on the line, neither side is willing to draw out the game – Lewis with a proxy second barracks, and Biohazard a proxy Stargate. Lewis hits first, breaking into the Protoss base with a marauder heavy force. Biohazard warps in units to buy himself time, and even manages to escape with the majority of his probes, while his two Voidrays start incinerating the Terran base. Realizing that this might not be the quick win he was hoping for, Lewis starts building a command center in his opponent’s base, as he moves his infantry across the map to towards Biohazard’s remaining pylon and stargate. However, with only a single marine, the voidrays rip through Lewis’ infantry.
![[image loading]](http://imgur.com/gcdIo.jpg)
Marauders – not so good against air units
In desperation, Lewis splits his two command centers to bait the voidrays, while sneaking two marines and two SCV’s to take out Biohazard remaining structures. However, one voidray returns just in the nick of time to save the Stargate from destruction (as Protoss structures don’t burn down), and Lewis, out of money, out of units, and out of options, finally throws down the “gg”, giving UWL the win!
A very tense and exciting series, and a pleasure to watch, marred only by the loss of Imperial. The nail-biting finish in the final game was a gut-wrenching end to Imperial’s run in Season 1 of the European CSL, but congratulations are in order for UWL for taking the series. Still, making it to pseudo-third place is a feat in itself, and Imperial can still hold their head high at that.
Lewis' first game was amazing!
