EPT![[image loading]](http://nesc2league.com/wp-content/themes/twentyten/images/headers/path.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://imgur.com/5A2Ey.jpg)
{From Left to Right: Blacklist, Critta, SanteClaws, IMVU, Kelsin,
DarthLunchbox, tGRanger, Logo, NailBunny, Drogith, IMBARANGER, Bitters, duckyRanger, Proxy, Recon, BronzeKnee, Force, DamnCats}
So the end of the second qualifier is over! I gotta say what a tournament. To start off, we had 16 people showing up. Not the turn out we were hoping for, but still a good amount of people. Drogith was there of course and so was Force, our guest caster. We started off with 10 computers but due to come technical difficulties, one computer was put out of service which in return knocked out another computer to keep it even. The technical problems didn’t stop with that one computer though. The cast was taken offline because, even though there was a upgrade on the download, the upload speed is still to slow and the casters were having some Mic problems. Not to mention that there were issues with the software where it didn't record everything. The VoDs that we do have will be linked later on by Drogith. Ee had 8 computers to run this tournament with 16 people though, so it worked out pretty well in the end. It really wouldn’t have be a New England Tournament without a few problems though!
Here are the Brackets and the participants:
+ Show Spoiler +
tGRanger
Recon
DamnCats
Bitters
BronzeKnee
duckyRanger
Logo
Blacklist
Kelsin
Proxy
iMBARANGER
IMVU
NailBunny
Critta
DarthLunchbx
SanteClaws
tGRanger
Recon
DamnCats
Bitters
BronzeKnee
duckyRanger
Logo
Blacklist
Kelsin
Proxy
iMBARANGER
IMVU
NailBunny
Critta
DarthLunchbx
SanteClaws
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/z1Okqh.jpg)
{Drogith Explaining the Rules (even though he was having a problem doing so… XD)}
The beginning of the tournament was DamnCats v. Recon, IMVU v. NailBunny, Proxy v. Logo, BronzeKnee v. DarthLunchbox. IMVU, Proxy, and BronzeKnee took the 2-0 wins to move on in the First Bracket. Recon moved on also but with a 2-1. The second set of the First bracket was tGRanger v. Blacklist, IMBARANGER v. Critta, Kelsin v. SanteClaws, and Bitters v. DuckyRanger. In no surprise, both of the rangers moved on to face each other with 2-0 wins. Kelsin and Bitters moved on also, both with 2-0 wins too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWMDMPk665E
{Some Crazy APM Skills. Everyone is so loud with their keys except Kelsin at the end haha}
{Some Crazy APM Skills. Everyone is so loud with their keys except Kelsin at the end haha}
In the second round of the First bracket, Recon had to face IMVU, Proxy against BronzeKnee, tGRanger against IMBARANGER , and Kelsin against Bitters. Following the 2-0 pattern, Recon, BronzeKnee, tGRanger, and Bitters all moved on. This meant that in the Second bracket, Critta went against Black list, DuckyRanger v. SanteClaws, NailBunny v. DamnCats, and DarthLunchbox v. Logo. Critta, SanteClaws, NailBunny, and DarthLunchbox were knocked out of the tournament with 2-0 losses.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/PeNuNh.jpg)
{IMBARANGER, Proxy, and Kelsin all playing in that order from left to right}
With these loses, Blacklist went on to verse IMVU, DuckyRanger was to face Proxy, DamnCats against IMBARANGER, and Logo moved on for Kelsin. With more 2-0 match ups, Blacklist moved on to Face DuckyRanger and DamnCats moved on to face Logo.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/gjsN6h.jpg)
{People Hanging out, waiting for their matches}
Back in the First bracket, Recon was to go up against BronzeKnee (TvP) and Bitters against tGRanger (PvT). In the first match with BronzeKnee against Recon, BronzeKnee started with a 4 gate and Recon started with a 2 rax expand. BronzeKnee built a pylon which Recon caught, forcing BronzeKnee to move back. Then BronzeKnee got into some DTs just as Recon’s missile towers were finished. The DTs didn’t do much damage however. Recon then got a raven out and transitioned to a Medivac. With a marine, marauder, Medivac, and raven push, Recon was able to get the GG from BronzeKnee for the first win. In the second match, the Protoss player started with a 2 gate rush. Our Terran player started with the 1 1 2 build. After a failed Hellion drop that BronzeKnee killed off, Recon went with the banshees. Both players then expanded and Recon tried to do some drops in the back of BronzeKnee’s expansion. BronzeKnee was able to defend against the banshees and the drops with a Gateway Army. However when Recon pushed out with marines and marauders, BronzeKnee had to GG. Recon moved on in the First bracket while BronzeKnee got knocked down to the Second Bracket.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/rBapth.jpg)
{Force Looking Comfortable with Drogith and the
In the PvT of Bitters and tGRanger, there was a Guest Caster, DamnCats. It has always been a dream of DamnCats to be a caster. For the following two matches, he was able to live that dream…
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/yPdim.jpg)
{DamnCats Day dreaming again}
Anyways, tGRanger opened on Testbug with a barracks factory barracks build using a two marine, marauder, and hellion poke. After tGRanger’s open, he then scouted out Bitters’ 3 gate. tGRanger immediately expanded which caused Bitters to also expand. After the expand, the Terran player then loaded up a medivac of marines and dropped it on Bitters’ main while at the same time pushing forward on Bitters’ natural. Bitters saw this but overreacted, sending his entire army to defend his main. Since his army wasn’t in his natural, tGRanger’s army was able to kill his natural. tGRanger pulled back a bit after killing the natural. As Bitters tried to recoup from the loss of his natural, tGRanger came back again to attack Bitters’ expand. They traded armies but Bitters lost his natural yet again. At this point, tGRanger had 3 bases as opposed to Bitters’ 1. With a timing attack from tGRanger as Bitters tried to rebuild his base, Bitters was forced to GG.
In the second match on Europa, There was an interesting opening conversation. Aside from the GL HF there was…
Bitters: I bet DamnCats is a terrible caster.
tGRanger: Hes cute though!
Bitters: no u
tGRanger: Ty
tGRanger: ;D
Bitters: <3
Bitters: No but really I hate you
Back to the match though. tGRanger used the same opening and scouted Bitters’ 4 gate. tGRanger took a hidden expansion and got a banshee while Bitters got an expansion too. Following this, tGRanger tried to harass with his banshees but Bitters was able to defend against it. Bitters took out the Terran army in the middle of the map, but when tGRanger did a 2nd round harass with his banshees and Bitters moved his army around to defend against them. tGRanger then stim sniped Bitters’ natural and got the GG from him. This meant tGRanger moved on to face Recon.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/sxZmIh.jpg)
{IMVU and Blacklist checking out the brackets}
tGRanger and Recon took a break in order to let the Second Bracket catch up. So continuing with the Second bracket, DuckyRanger moved on from his match with yet another 2-0 win only to face Bitters for the second time. Some people may remember that in his last CCG tournament, Bitters won against DuckyRanger against all expectations. Now they were back at CCG in the qualifiers only to face each other again for the second time this day.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41m2Ja1h7BE
{More people showing off their crazy APM Skills}
{More people showing off their crazy APM Skills}
In game 1, Bitters did another 3gate expand for his opening, then he started massing colossi, and eventually moved out so he could take a third. Bitters then had to fight off duckyRanger’s corruptors, losing badly. Eventually, DuckyRanger made brood lords, and Bitters responded with 4gate void rays. However, DuckyRanger ended up mopping Bitters up with a muta push. In game 2, Bitters attempted another 3gate expand into a 6 warp gate push, which failed unfortunately. Bitters then “turtled up” in a corner of the map making Force feel very anxious as he expressed many times during the cast. Eventually Bitters went double robo, and pumped colossi. That’s when he made his move. Bitters was able to take out duckyRanger’s main and natural, leaving him to 2 bases and Bitters with 1. Bitters then began long distance mining from the gold. He was able to beat duckyRanger’s mutas in a last push, finishing off his last 2 bases.
When I asked about game 3, Bitters had such a good recap of the match I had to quote him. Bitters wrote,
I was very nervous. I wasn’t sure if I could beat ducky yet again. Last tournament I faced ducky and was able to 2-0 him going against all expectations. PvZ is my favorite matchup but ducky is still a solid player. I don’t know match point well, so I winged it with walling my choke. Ducky stole my gas again (sajsdhfjasdfj) and I, for some reason, went 3gate/forge, cannoned my natural, and expanded. I again went 2robo (<3), pumped colossi, and tried to secure my third, but lost it twice. I pushed ducky’s natural, used hold position to outrange his spine crawlers, and was able to take the win after killing his natural.
DuckyRanger then wanted to be quoted saying,
<3 Bitters but in a mean way though.
Also in the Second bracket, DamnCats took a 2-1 win, knocking out Logo in a ZvZ match. According to DamnCats and Logo, this replay is definitely worth watching and should have been casted. Their third match was one of those kind that called for a breather before DamnCats moved on to face BronzeeKnee.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/sBzVCh.jpg)
{BronzKnee with the sexy headset <3}
During the DamnCats and BronzeKnee match, Recon and tGRanger had decided to do their match, seeing who would move on for the Finals. The first game in the TvT match was on Matchpoint with tGRanger spawning in the bottom left and Recon in the top right. Recon opened with a gasless 2 barracks build and proxied the 2nd barracks in the middle of the map. Recon’s early pressure caught tGRanger somewhat off guard. A clutch SCV pull and some back and forth between the two started immediately. Eventually tGRanger’s hellion ended the pressure from Recon. However, the strong pressure was not an all-in push, and Recon expanded behind it. tGRanger, seeing this, attempted to abuse it by getting siege tanks on the low ground outside the natural and shell in. Recon was then forced to lift his orbital and float it to a different expansion, and tGRanger retreated to conserve his force. From there the game turned into a dance between Recon’s bio running around the map trying to force a mistake and tGRanger’s tanks trying to anticipate their movement and meet them at every turn. With some strong macro, tGRanger pushed into Recon’s natural and Recon went for the counter attack, but the base trade went in tGRanger’s favor with a close defense and Recon tapped out.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/ml248h.jpg)
{Drogith and Force Casting the Match. Drogith showing off the new Sexy League Shirts}
In their second match, on Pawn Re, we saw both players opening with the 1-1-1 hellion build, but tGRanger opted for blue flame while Recon went for an earlier banshee. The two marine hellion Medivac armies met just as tGRanger’s blue flame finished and Recon’s hellions instantly melted. The ensuing push was too powerful and quick for Recon to defend and his lone banshee died at the hands of tGRanger’s marines, ending the game.
![[image loading]](http://imgur.com/K8TTt.jpg)
{Broken Love}
It was now time for DamnCats to go up against Bitters. The two players have been friends for a long time and played each other a lot. They both knew how the other would react to certain builds. Bitters as the blue Protoss and DamnCats as the Purple Zerg, the two started off on their games. Bitters opened with a new build this time, using the 6 gate build. DamnCats saw this though and started to mass spam as many lings and roaches as he could forcing Bitters to GG. In the Second match, Bitters felt that his recap was again better then anything I could do. He said
I got owned harder because I apparently can’t 6wg push. FML. DamnCats <3
He then rethought it and said
I went 3gate expand into 6WG push. My units got spread out because my army and my reinforcing pylon weren't in the same direction of attack, and so my reinforcements were getting caught out of position. Great macro from DamnCats ensured he had plenty of units to crush my push. I turtled, as I had in my games against ducky when a push failed, and attempted to mass collossi. DamnCats hit just as I was making my first collossi, and I had to stall with force fields. It didn't work so well. From there I was simply overwhelmed. DamnCats <3
DamnCats respectively agreed. And for anyone who cares, the two are still great friends. Bitters has already challenged DamnCats to a rematch at some point. With DamnCats 2-0 win, the zerg player moved on to face Recon for 3rd place though.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/OxGlbh.jpg)
{DamnCats}
Recon got a 2-1 win against DamnCats, which meant he moved on to face tGRanger again. DamnCats had this to say after the match.
Recon is a great T. He played well.
In the Finals and Semi finals, the players were suppose to do Bo5 but DamnCats agreed with Recon about doing a Bo3 Since it was getting late. In the Finals though, the two friends Recon and tGRanger decided to do a Bo5.
The first game of the finals began on iCCup Fighting Spirit. Both players opened with the 1-1-1 build but tGRanger opted for a early reaper. Spotting the reaper with his SCV, Recon was able to anticipate its path and pick it off before it did any damage. He then tried to take advantage of this with a marine hellion push, but a SCV pull and a spawning banshee fended it off. tGRanger accidentally canceled cloak at the last second, and his banshee died without doing anything else. Both players then expanded and Recon moved to contain tGRanger. Unfortunately for Recon, he overestimated his advantage, costing serious losses and a counter-contain. With a contain, tGRanger was able to take out Recon's third and fourth expos with siege tanks and the game moved into overdrive with back and forth engagements all over the map. The game finally ended when tGRanger was able to catch Recon's push out of position in the middle of the map.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/O9GtFh.jpg)
{Recon}
The second game started on iCCup Valhalla. tGRanger opened with a Banshee rush and Recon opened with a thor drop. tGRanger's early push was stalled with a bunker to give time for the thor to finish and tGRanger was forced to fall back. Recon attempted to set up a mini contain to delay tGRanger's expansion, but a risky play with the thor/ medivac cost him and tGRanger took the advantage with both army and an early expansion. tGRanger then moved out while taking a quick third expansion to capitalize on his advantage. tGRanger also attempted a marine drop, and while it did some damage, Recon was able to minimize his losses. However, with no third in sight for Recon, he decided to gamble it all on one break. Unfortunately, the powerful tanks of tGRanger crushed the attempt and Recon was forced to GG.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/s4EcHh.jpg)
{tGRanger}
The fight that decided it all was battled out on iCCup Testbug. Recon opened with a reactor barracks expand into 4 barracks while tGRanger opened with a marine/ blueflame/ medivac push that had worked for him in other matches. Knowing he was weak early, Recon double bunkered his natural entrance, but tGRanger's hellions reached there a second too early and roasted a few unprotected marines. Once the bunkers finished a few seconds later, tGRanger loaded up his marines and hellions then dropped them onto recons main. Recon won the first push with reinforcements from his 4 barracks, but at the cost of many SCVs. At the end, Recon was left with 15 and tGRanger over 30 with an expansion of his own on the way. However, Recon did have a significant amount of marines and marauders. He pushed out, catching tGRanger off guard and forcing a lift from the natural. After tGRanger retook his natural with siege tank hopping, he moved out to contain Recon, but Recon moved his army to the middle of the map for a flank. The flank was largely unsuccessful as tGRanger was able to anticipate it with a scan and position his marines in the way. A follow up combination marine drop in the main and siege push in the natural ended the game with tGRanger being undefeated throughout the tournament.
So for the results for the Tournament was...
Undefeated Champion: tGRanger
Secon Place: Recon
Third Place: DamnCats
All three move on to the Grand Finals in April. The Next NESC2League tournament will be March 19th in Haverhill.
As always, GL & HF ^_^
Sponsors
A big thanks goes to our sponsors, Megahertz Computers ( http://www.mhzcomputer.com/ ) and Mana Potions ( http://www.manapotions.com/ ). Thank you very much to these sponsors for supporting the NESC2 Community.
Pass Tournaments
NESC2 Qualifier 1 http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=176378
NESC2 Qualifier Write-up http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?topic_id=187021
Qualifier 2 - http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=187061
The New England Starcraft 2 League is operating with an official license from Blizzard and will continue to do so.
