Washington D.C/Baltimore LAN recap

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CaucasianAsian plays pretty well but ends up losing to a 5fact push. I got lucky with the starting locations, it's much easier to push TvP on python from 12 to 9 instead of 12 to 6 or from 9 to 3 or vice versa. gg!

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I win the first game and turn to ask which map Haemonculus wants for the second game. This was the first time we see face to face, we had been sitting opposite of each other the whole time... Oh so that's the mystery terran player, cool! t.t
Second game goes on Tau cross and literally nothing I try works. I try to drop on a ledge at the natural, gets shut down, I try to set up a contain, gets destroyed and when I go to wipe out a base at 3, 40 tanks attack my main... 5machine shop mass tanks just comes out of nowhere. I'm thinking dammit what just happened... I told tossinyosalad at dinner later that I never should have looked face to face, it screwed my gameplan and I got overconfident from that point on I was thinking, “yeah playing vs some newbie girl ezpz 2-0 win.” Ha! duckett watched the replay of the game later and was speechless. It really wasn't bad play at all by Haemonculus.

So we're tied 1-1 after 2 games. On to game 3. My choice of map, I choose Rush Hour III which was a map I was choosing throughout the night in various matchups. It's a fairly oldschool map that seemed to suit my style well. (At least I thought so before last night haha...) Long 35 minute game 3. I go for 2fact speedvults opening but it's countered by a 2fact gol drop opening, sets me back early. The game moves into drops and vulture harass and siege attacks and stuff everywhere... It was determined afterwards by StorrZerg that I went too Goliath heavy in the game and should have done more with vultures... Either way I lost in this game in the ro8 but sad news immediately follows the game... Haemonculus has to leave early and can't play in the semis! It feels wrong staying in the winners bracket now but oh well kinda sucky...

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Game 1 was on Tau cross and zeppelin goes for DT's and tries to snipe the turret, he takes it out but loses the DT in the process and doesn't have another dt to follow up fast enough before the turret is rebuilt. He does minimal damage and is slightly behind after this. Eventually loses to a push. Game 2 was on python and some tricky 2base tactics by zeppelin work well. I went for another 5fact timing push which I realized was starting to become predictable. The supplies are even when I move out but zeppelin gets great positioning and destroys the push sending the match to a third game. The third game was played 2 hours later after dinner on Colosseum II. Zepplin goes for a hidden 3rd base with carrier tech but I spot it with a dropship and after a couple large conflicts I come out ahead in the series 2-1 into the winner bracket finals against superiorwolf.

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Just watch these games most of them are pretty epic, words can't really describe how cool they were By far the best games I've ever played @ a LAN in person. Superiorwolf was B ranked on iccup in the past and I was B- last season. The Korean owner of the place came over when he sensed this epic series going on and said we were and I quote: “Really good.” After I was up 2-1 going into game 4 I chose bluestorm and went for a proxy factory into 2port wraith. A build that I've beat top zerg players with and have become pretty confident with. I put pretty much all my energy into trying to end the series in this game. I should have won the game and I was ahead, but some mistakes with marine and wraith micro really ended up costing me. All of these games were crazy fun to play, some massive plagues, a verity of builds by both players, mech, speedling rushes, fast mutas.... It really was an amazing series of games. And they were played on LAN! I highly encourage everyone to just watch the games which is why I'm not going into big detail abou them here... Plus this blog post is getting fricken way too long...

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So having lost in the winners finals vs Superiorwolf there's no break coming up in the losers bracket. -orb- a 260+ apm protoss player who won many games against many people to get into this position awaits. He says in the pregame it's a shame Haemonculus had to leave early because he says he can beat her. I believed him but from my experience earlier in the day I had my doubts... lol!

Going into this final I decided to ditch the 5fact push for at least a couple games. Game 1 is on othello and I go for a safe 3cc build with quick armory. Macro up to about 180 and start to roll. I believe I got a crazy good emp off this game on 2arbiters and orb's army is slightly out of position and I take game 1. LF wins game 1.

Game 2 is on python and I go for a very risky all in 3fact play. I've seen top korean terrans use this build in TvP from iccup replays and it works well in this game. You need to get lucky with mines though if you dont take out goons with mines u'll be screwed because you get an expansion so late with this build. LF wins game 2.

Game 3 is a really nice game on longi. I win many early conflicts in the field but orb gets a great recall in my main. Instead of pulling back and taking care of it I push for his main but my forces die quickly and then another recall at my last mining expansion seals the game for orb. orb wins game 3.

Game 4 is on Rush Hour III (I kept choosing this map for some reason, brings back my oldschool days I guess) here I go for my standard 5fact timing BUT orb plays awesome and uses a bridge to his advantage. Holds the push back long enough for that 2nd round of zealots to clean it up. With a clear advantage in the game and a chance to send it to a game 5 a control group of goons goes retardo (isn't starcraft great?) when I send a second push to his 3rd base. So his units pretty much file in single file which really sucks. This series honestly should have gone to a game 5 but it ended here. LF wins series 3-1 GG's.

Result: + Show Spoiler +
The grand finals are a rematch of the winners finals with myself going up against Superiorwolf again. Both of us were pretty tired at this point it was 1am and we had been playing sc pretty much all day. I had no break in between finals matches either- when I lost to Superior I had to play more games against orb in the loser finals right away, Superior on the other hand went outside and started stretching by learning dance moves with hazely and stuff during my games with orb...

Anyway moving on to the finals games. Game 1 is pretty amazing on desti. Massive tank+gol battles against mass hydra+muta. Huge armies moving around the map feeling each other out before engaging. Always interesting... Eventually I win a big battle in the middle with some really great tank positioning across the middle bridges on desti. So many hydras die and it's downhill from there. LF takes game 1.

Game 2 is on python and is a very standard close game. We end up trading main bases but Superior has expos elsewhere on the map whereas I do not. Amazing use of swarm+plague in this game. After I lose my main I have just one army left to win the game with but a couple swarms/lurkers delay the terran forces long enough to claim victory in game 2. Superior takes game 2.

Game 3 is lost forever. I believe it was on rush hour III where I open with a mech/2port build. I get decent harass in but can't fight off massive lurker+ling armies. Superior takes game 3

Game 4 was a must win game for me on desti and I open standard 1fact expand build but sadly I see an early hydra den and play for mass hydras like game 1, instead Superior sneakily throws down a spire and goes for quick mutas. 7 Mutas in the main vs 1 goliath is an instant gg. Not the best finish to the series but still an amazing series of games and a really fun time!Superior takes the GRAND FINALS

From LEFT to RIGHT:

LuckyFool, Orb, CaucasianAsian, Zeppelin (Wearing a T1 shirt signed by Bisu, zomfg) Hatchetwound, Storrzerg, duckett, d3_crescentia, hazelynut, Superiorwolf.

Other people that were there earlier but left before the picture was taken:

Sadistx, EchOne, syndromepdp, Loophole, ktp, Torenhire, EvilTeletubby, Haemonculus, tossinYoSalad and probably more people that I forgot... There were so many people there it was amazing!