EPTCSL Update:
Last week we played the University of Maryland College Park in the CSL Ro8. If you want to watch the VoDs, you can find them here. The matches start at about 13:00.
Honestly, going into the match, I thought that we were going to just win and be done. Looking at their lineup they have no GMs and hadn't ever really gotten far in the CSL before. However, this team really proved me wrong.
Here is a quick rundown of the matches:
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ReMiiX (T) vs Aidan (T) - Akilon Wastes (Flats? Why do they keep changing map names?)
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In this game, I went for a build that I have had a lot of success with on ladder. It is basically a double reactor barracks reaper into expo. I have found that against reaper or bio openings you pretty much straight up win if they don't go into factory quickly. Against hellion drops you can usually defend pretty well as you just stop reaper production and have 4 marine production. However, if you watch the game it didn't go so well. Aidan scouted the second rax and prepared with a bunker. I kind of over committed and was behind on tech.
Long story short I fell apart to his drops etc and lost.
ReMiiX -> Aidan
Georgia Tech 0 - 1 UMCP
Long story short I fell apart to his drops etc and lost.
ReMiiX -> Aidan
Georgia Tech 0 - 1 UMCP
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Quantic.MaSsan (Z) vs RomanDragon (Z) - Bel'Shir Vestige
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So I didn't get to watch this game (I was on a walk with my mother :3) but I imagine it was epic.
While MaSsan's ZvZ is his weakest matchup, we predicted him to win this match in our pregame meeting.
Quantic.MaSsan <- RomanDragon
Georgia Tech 1 - 1 UMCP
While MaSsan's ZvZ is his weakest matchup, we predicted him to win this match in our pregame meeting.
Quantic.MaSsan <- RomanDragon
Georgia Tech 1 - 1 UMCP
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Rane(Z)/Aucamazn(R) vs TheHappyNUN (T)/sGKINtoYOu (Z) - Graystone Ravine
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So this isn't our usual 2v2 lineup. We were kind of experimenting with putting me in 1v1 and playing Aucamazn in 2s. Usually we play Rane/ReMiiX as TZ is the strongest 2v2 team in our opinion.
Aucamazn mains zerg and he got lucky by getting z in this matchup. Double racing is usually banned because it is extremely strong, but in the case of a team with random players it is allowed.
In this game, GT started out really really far ahead with a really successful attack on both players bases. I really think that at anytime Tech could have just pushed and won, but they decided to play out the macro game and eventually lost. I chalk this up to them being an inexperienced 2v2 team (it was one of their first times playing together. But I applaud UMCP for sticking in the game and playing it out.
Rane/Aucamazn -> TheHappyNUN/sGKINtoYOu
Georgia Tech 1 - 2 UMCP
Aucamazn mains zerg and he got lucky by getting z in this matchup. Double racing is usually banned because it is extremely strong, but in the case of a team with random players it is allowed.
In this game, GT started out really really far ahead with a really successful attack on both players bases. I really think that at anytime Tech could have just pushed and won, but they decided to play out the macro game and eventually lost. I chalk this up to them being an inexperienced 2v2 team (it was one of their first times playing together. But I applaud UMCP for sticking in the game and playing it out.
Rane/Aucamazn -> TheHappyNUN/sGKINtoYOu
Georgia Tech 1 - 2 UMCP
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Splayers (T) vs kimji (T) - Newkirk Precinct
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Splayers is another new member to our lineup. Generally his spot is taken by a zerg, BORAT, but he was out of practice and unavailable so we ran Splayers on the most terran favored map (along with Akilon). UMCP had the same idea and ran a terran as well.
This was a pretty confusing game to start, since Splayers had like 60 workers before he decided to land his second CC in his natural. For the most part this was a pretty standard Mech vs Mech macro game, with Splayers generally staying ahead in the base and supply count. However, Splayers was WAY behind on mech upgrades (3-2 to 1-0) and suffered greatly because of it. Splayers eventually gg'd out (way too early imo) when a small push came, citing lag issues.
This was a pretty good game and I would have liked to have seen it played out a little more.
Splayers -> kimji
Georgia Tech 1 - 3 UMCP
This was a pretty confusing game to start, since Splayers had like 60 workers before he decided to land his second CC in his natural. For the most part this was a pretty standard Mech vs Mech macro game, with Splayers generally staying ahead in the base and supply count. However, Splayers was WAY behind on mech upgrades (3-2 to 1-0) and suffered greatly because of it. Splayers eventually gg'd out (way too early imo) when a small push came, citing lag issues.
This was a pretty good game and I would have liked to have seen it played out a little more.
Splayers -> kimji
Georgia Tech 1 - 3 UMCP
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FXOShield (Z) vs Shifty (T) - Daybreak
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I didn't get to watch this game either but why are we still playing Daybreak? I feel like ZvT is really Z favored on this map.
Since our games were played simultaneously, I was unaware of how close we were to losing here. Any losses would result in us being knocked out.
Luckily, Shield is where the deepness of our lineup really starts to shine. Before the match, we pegged this one as a win for Tech due to Shields ZvT dominance and the difference in ladder ranks.
FXOShield <- Shifty
Georgia Tech 2 - 3 UMCP
Since our games were played simultaneously, I was unaware of how close we were to losing here. Any losses would result in us being knocked out.
Luckily, Shield is where the deepness of our lineup really starts to shine. Before the match, we pegged this one as a win for Tech due to Shields ZvT dominance and the difference in ladder ranks.
FXOShield <- Shifty
Georgia Tech 2 - 3 UMCP
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FXOTheoRy (P) vs AWu (R) - Star Station
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Once again, I did not get to watch this one but I think AWu rolled Zerg and it went to a macro game.
TheoRy is a very strong player so we were pretty confident in him winning this match.
FXOTheoRy <- AWu
Georgia Tech 3 - 3 UMCP
TheoRy is a very strong player so we were pretty confident in him winning this match.
FXOTheoRy <- AWu
Georgia Tech 3 - 3 UMCP
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ACE MATCH OMG
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This was our first match that did not result in a 3-0 victory for Tech, so going to an ACE was a little scary.
We decided to play our hero, MaSsan against Aidan from UMCP on Neo Planet S.
MaSsan's ZvT is absolutely stupid so we were happy that they chose Aidan. We originally predicted them to throw RomanDragon again for a ZvZ tossup.
The game was a pretty standard macro game that resulted in a win for MaSsan and for Tech! Aidan had really good harassment, but eventually the macro and baneling mine usage (or lack thereof t_t) from MaSsan overcame it.
Quantic.MaSsan <- Aidan
Georgia Tech 4 - 3 UMCP
We decided to play our hero, MaSsan against Aidan from UMCP on Neo Planet S.
MaSsan's ZvT is absolutely stupid so we were happy that they chose Aidan. We originally predicted them to throw RomanDragon again for a ZvZ tossup.
The game was a pretty standard macro game that resulted in a win for MaSsan and for Tech! Aidan had really good harassment, but eventually the macro and baneling mine usage (or lack thereof t_t) from MaSsan overcame it.
Quantic.MaSsan <- Aidan
Georgia Tech 4 - 3 UMCP
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I think coming into this match we were slightly under prepared. It started right at the end of our exam week and on the day that all of were scheduled to travel back home. We had very little time to reschedule and it resulted in some lineup changes. Additionally, most of our players were slightly out of practice due to studying for exams for the previous two weeks.
We also slightly underestimated our opponent and it almost came back to bite us.
As I am writing this, we just finished playing UC Berkeley in the Ro4. I will not go into how that went, as the CSL will be broadcasting it later this week and I do not want to spoil it for anyone.
How I feel about
This is our scariest match yet, going up against last seasons champions and the famous EG player, Suppy.
As much as I want to talk bad about Suppy, since he is our rival, and say "oh he is bad, oh I don't like him"... I can't. Who doesn't love Suppy? Currently he is the American hope in WCS and I will definitely be cheering him on. He is an incredibly strong zerg and I hope he does very well in the future.
I often get mad that the CSL dotes on Suppy as much as it does while seemingly actively ignoring our players, but in reality I would do it also.
I have had the pleasure of meeting Suppy once (albeit briefly) and he was extremely nice. Immediately after me meeting him, he played our ACE player MaSsan and ended up losing and getting knocked out of MLG Raleigh. (This was left out of the CSL write up on Raleigh t_t)
Suppy or not, I feel really confident going into our match vs Berkeley (trying to stay spoiler free with my tenses).
Georgia Tech 화이팅!
한국어:
I haven't gotten much of a chance to study Korean this week as I have been very busy.
Mainly I have just been reviewing things that I think will come in handy during my initial stay in Seoul: asking for directions, asking for help, saying "I don't understand what that means," etc.
I am also meeting up with some Korean friends later this week and I hope I can get a little practice from talking with them.
I have also been reading up on different endings and particles that I had not seen in my classes yet. I am also trying to learn some of the more common vocab with the help of this chart.
Thanks again for reading! It will be about 3 weeks before I am actually in Korea, so the Korean section of this blog will be a little sparse until then.
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Week #1
