HerO_V vs By.Flash [14 June, 2008] 2set @ PL

Ok I have to start off by saying.. While I found this to be the most amazing game I have seen yet this year I don't think this is actually game-of-the-year material. The reason is simply that it is a one sided rape and the amazing comeback that Flash pulls off looks to me more like HerO_V was just cracking under the pressure.

Hell I was about to get on a plane to Korea and bitch slap HerO_V myself if he let Flash take that game away from him. You can see it in his eyes when Flash's un-fucking-stoppable push just keeps rolling closer and closer... He is starting to panic.

Thankfully he takes a moment to compose himself. This is seen in the game when he stops throwing small groups of dragoons and zealots and Flash's fully upgraded tank ball and collects all those Arbiters he left just sort of hanging out.

And he thinks. Flash has a 3/3 ball of doom. I can't break it. But he has pretty much every unit sitting on the opposite end of the map so.. Recall! Once he took down the top-right expos his goal of starving Flash out took reality. Also by getting his units spread across the map he was able to pull something off I don't think I have ever seen in a PvT before: a full 360 degree surround. Finally the terran blob is broken. Fucking terran.

So HerO_V's opening.. To me this seemed like it was a tailor-made Flash-stomper of an opening. Flash has shown he is a versatile player: he has amazing macro, but is also quite capable of the cheese rush. He has shown that against opponents like Shuttle he is quite capable of doing an early push if he sees an opportunity. So what gives?

This build HerO_V did fucking defines greedy. 14nex into a god damned sprint for Arbiters. How big was his army when that first Arbiter came out? Something like 8 goons and 2 zealots? Madness. How could Flash not punish such a build?

Well I guess HerO_V has simply been paying very close attention to Flash's recent proleague auto-wins. Flash has it tough man.. He is the guy on top that everyone is aiming to knock down and he is currently pushing his way towards the finals of THREE star leagues. So this doesn't really leave a lot of room for proleague preperation, yet he is used. He is always used.

So what I have noticed in Flash's recent proleague games is that he has taken the mindset that he doesn't give a fuck what his opponent is doing (mind you I am talking about TvP only right now). As long as he can secure his 3 bases and do his little turtle-till-3/3-and-200 dance he feels like there is nothing any toss can fucking do. Why prepare when you have an auto-win strategy?

Well HerO_V takes advantage of this mindset in two ways. First he does the greediest build imaginable. Only way it could have been even more greedy is if he cut goons to get his 3rd up quicker, but hell that 3rd was still up at what I would call a pretty fast timing.

AND he had arbiters.. which he uses to great effect. It must take a lot of guts to go recall several times into the base of a Terran who has not moved out. Who has not had his tank count reduced through skirmishes. Flash is just sitting back macroing it up: obviously he is going to be able to respond to recalls quickly..

But the recalls happen. And somehow they work really really well. They even create enough chaos to allow Flash's 4th to be run over. Total domination!

We arrive at the point of the match that has HerO_V at 6 bases and Flash at 2. The SCV count has been reduced. HerO_V is looking like he will be maxing any second while Flash is trying to crawl back from what.. about 100-130 supply?

So HerO_V enters the 'starve Flash' stage of his strategy. He has been greedy enough to allow him to do some unforeseen damage to Flash's macro.. And this has given him total map dominance.. and now he just needs to keep expanding, keep making gateways, and wait for Flash to starve out.

And now we are back to the point I was discussing at the beginning of this spoiler.

Sorry if this was a bit rambly and hard to read.. Wrote it while very sleepy and very excited..

Also, I haven't watched it yet but I hear that this series contains 1 other amazing epic game.. See if you can guess which one!