EPTLRSL Week 2 Recap: 12pool remains undefeated
After the turbulent first week, sieving the playerbase into the week and the strong. round two definitely shook the things up. Losers won and winners lost, with no player retaining perfect map score after 2 bo3s.
The ZvZs weren't anything out of ordinany,
Kashim bested meepman in pure macro and unit control, ending both games in early mid-game. The other Polish Zerg, Ej used 12pool on Interloper, netting it its 2nd win in the tournament, and closed the series with a speedling all-in that DBooN couldn't stopThe highlight of week 2 had to be
Luolis vs 
Durn. Both heavy favorites to make it to the finals of the tournament, met already in round 2 after sweeping their opponents last week.Unfortunately for Luolis, sporting a 17% TvP WR on the ladder, Durn rolled Protoss in every game.
After stopping a 2 base tank push on Odyssey, Durn took the first game swiftly with phoenix/adept. Surprisingly enough, Luolis managed to bounce back on Ascension, killing the 3rd base before any Protoss tech or upgrades kicked in and then closing out the game with liberators and ghosts.
In the last and the most nailbiting of the 3 games, Luolis again opted for strong 2 base play. He went balls-to-the-wall with an insanely prolonged tank/liberator all-in evolved into a contain, but Durn managed to survive long enough that a 0-0 Terran army with no economy couldn't contest soon to be 3-3 Protoss with every single AOE and the Terran had to tap out as a zealot counter forced an ill-fated SCV pull.
However, the relatively high level game was not the only source of entertainment. The PvZs definitely won the viewers' hearts with their messiness and impossibility to predict what the players would do.
Heartland vs The_Red_Viper started on Mech Depot, with a not-quite-all-in +1 phoenix/chargelot/archon push that was trumped by a roach/hydra army, but the Zerg later failed to deal damage to the Protoss player before the storm/immortal transitioned happened and the lurker army found itself hopeless and Viper had to tap out.However, he exposed Heartland's abysmal 12pool defence on Abyssal Reef and the rest of the game was a formality, save for a suicidal disruptor shot. That put the zerg rush BO at 3 wins and 0 losses in LRSL.
In match point on Ascension to Aiur, Heartland quickly put together that he was being proxy hatchery rushed, found the building and cannon rushed it before it finished. Viper's resilience in the game was notable, but ultimately futile as the Protoss closed the series.
Cricketer vs D-light was even more interesting, as it opened with a scouted and not seen 4gate that murdered the Zerg on Sacred Sands, which was followed up by a nexus first dying to 12pool on Odyssey, netting 12pool its 4 win.D-light eventually took the series as his mass oracle strategy beat the living shit out of everything Zerg in game 3.
The PvP for the crown of the macroest Protoss of this tournament happened between
Olli and Wire. Wire took the first game after a failed storm timing attack vs a nix opening put Olli too much behind, but the writer quickly bounced back with an immortal all-in on Odyssey.The 3rd game was a slow-paced archon/chargelot/immortal duel that the Austrian won.
The 2 ZvT series were polarizing:
mizenhauer did quick work of ByuuN, who transitioned smoothly after a failed 3rax reaper, but then lost the macro game to textbook hydra/ling/bane push with fantastic creep spread behind it. In the 2nd game the Terran tried some mech play, but it proved resultless as mizenhauer cemented his position in the ranking with a 4-0 overall score.Elentos played a lot closer series against Golo. On Abyssal, his initial hellion/banshee pressure proved detrimental to the Zerg economy, the follow up mid-game push swept all Zerg forces.Elentos' start was also fantastic on Ascension to Aiur, his 2-1-1 picked off several queens and killed the 3rd base for virtually free. However, Golo's fights with ling/bane/hydra in the mid-game allowed him to even out the resources lost tab and then push the Terran at critical time, killing the entire army and swarming into the production.
The final game on Mech Depot was a gruesome one. Elentos went back to a fast starport play, this time opting for a viking that kept killing OLs and limiting Golo's vision and a raven that racked up 15 drone kills throughout the game. That was all amidst a grand battle, in which the Terran was the one playing defensive, securing more bases with the help of liberators and tanks as the hive transition was too slow and the low mobility hydra/ling/bane was not enough to deal with drops and bio runbies on satelite bases, allowing Elentos to close the series 2-1.
STANDINGS
6 points:
Durn 
Olli 
mizenhauer 
Elentos4 points:
Wire 
Kashim 
Luolis Golo3 points
Ej ByuuN D-light 
Heartland1 point
The_Red_Viper 
meepman Cricketer DBooNHope you enjoyed it
.Huge thanks to mizenhauer, Luolis, GumBa who helped broadcast and cast the games and all players that made it possible.
