EPTGame 1 - IC.Moebius(T) vs NTNU.Diffe (P)
Imperial opens up the series with Moebius, who faces off against NTNU’s Diffe on Entombed Valley. Both players opt for some heavy early game aggression – Diffe goes straight for blink, while also managing to sneak his probe in to see Moebius setting up for a standard 1/1/1. Small pokes occur here and there, but both players are adamant about staying on a single base. Finally, Moebius grabs most of his SCV’s and pushes across the map, forgetting siege mode in the process. Diffe prods the incoming force with blink stalkers to buy time, but eventually he is forced back into his main. Then, in what can only described as a huge blunder, Moebius tries to force his way up the narrow choke into the Diffe’s main.
![[image loading]](http://imgur.com/eaYj0.jpg)
Moebius pulling a Kazen (forgetting a critical upgrade - Siege mode - in a timing push)
Diffe cuts off most of the tanks with a forcefield, gets a very nice arc with his stalkers, blink micro’s beautifully, and just crushes the Terran push, before countering and picking up the 1-0 for NTNU.
Game 2 - IC.Disguard (Z) vs NTNU.Chili (P)
I’m going to keep this one as short as it was simple. It’s a Zerg versus Protoss on Daybreak. No prizes for guessing how this game begins. The interesting thing is that Chili throws down an extremely fast 3rd base, while Disguard goes straight for the Stephano-style. The Roach/Ling swarm arrives at 12 minutes, and overruns Chili who didn’t land his forcefields in time. Score is tied 1 apiece.
![[image loading]](http://imgur.com/mrTRX.jpg)
Roach good unit.
Game 3 - The 2v2
Regrettably, one of NTNU’s 2v2 players didn’t show up, so they had to forfeit the third set.
Game 4 - IC.Dragonite vs NTNU.Kjeksen
Kjeksen in his best match-up TvP, versus Dragonite in his favourite match-up PvT and on what a lot of players consider a “Protoss-favoured map” Cloud Kingdom. 1-Rax expand versus…well, Kjeksen built an engineering bay at Dragonite’s natural, delaying it by a significant amount. Dragonite smartly decides to pressure with 3gates, but fails to do significant damage. Dragonite follows up a good decision with a terrible one, adding on 3 more gateways instead of going for tech. His expansion is already delayed, and as such, the timing push that was meant to hit before stim finished instead runs straight into Kjeksen’s stim and combat shield firing line.
![[image loading]](http://imgur.com/Em6eM.jpg)
A single late forcefield, and suddenly the rest of them become Terran favoured
Dragonite tries to go for Colossus, but it’s already too late. Kjeksen forces picks off an exposed Protoss 3rd base, before proceeding to absolutely tear Dragonite apart with back and forth drops, doing huge economic damage while simultaneously taking his own 3rd and pumping out double-reactor-starport Vikings. Finally, Kjeksen goes in for the kill, and with no AoE, no upgrades, and no 3rd base, Dragonite just crumbles. NTNU evens up the series 2-2.
Game 5 - IC.Dragonite vs NTNU.Diffe
Despite his performance in the previous game, Imperial still sent out Dragonite as their ace, as Diffe stepped up again for NTNU on Ohana. Diffe fakes a 4-gate, but throws down an Stargate instead. Dragonite, upon not feeling any pressure, presses out across the map and catches a glimpse of Diffe’s first phoenix. Diffe continues to chronoboost out Phoenixes, while Dragonite is chronoboosting Stalkers out of 3 gateways. This time, Dragonite’s aggression pays off, marching up Diffe’s ramp as soon as the last forcefield goes down.
![[image loading]](http://imgur.com/Tw5Fg.jpg)
The phoenixes trying to make up for the huge disparity in the stalker count.
Diffe has to pull probes to stay alive for the time being, but when Dragonite follows up with blink, Diffe just has nothing left, and is forced to concede the game, and the series, to Imperial.
