Top/Not Top Plays of Lone Star Clash 2

Last weekend I introduced a new idea to my blog : A spinoff on ESPN’s Top 10 Plays. This week, I thought I’d continue this theme and apply it to the Lone Star Clash 2. But new this week, I thought I’d also add in ESPN’s fun twist on Fridays; a segment called the Not Top 10. For anyone that has never heard of this…

The best part is the look on everyone’s face after.

Or for a more StarCraft related item, we can look at Kingdom’s Unpimpest Play of 2004. It’s like the anti-Pimpest Play list. A quick summary of the game if you didn’t click on the link: Kingdom tries to proxy 2gate July on Korhal in WCG 2004. However Kingdom positioned his Gateways and Pylon in a way so that his zealots were trapped between the Gateways. Kingdom realized he couldn’t do anything and just left the game.

Anyways, I’ll be presenting my Top/Not Top 3 Plays of Lone Star Clash 2.

Quick Links
Not Top 3 Plays
Top 3 Plays

Not Top 3 Plays

#3)

Polt vs

GanZi
Day 1 – Quarterfinals – Game 1 on Entombed Valley

I know players love to cut corners but I’m not really sure if I agreed with Polt’s decision in this game. It was suggested that he forgot the upgrade but I’ll give him the benefit of doubt. Polt tried to rush for triple command centers. To do so, he delayed stim (I believe he did have combat shield) and decided to forego siege mode for his tanks. Instead, our Terran protagonist attempted to defend his ramp with 3 siege-less tanks and stim-less marines. Ganzi pushed with a stim marine/medevac timing attack around eleven minutes and managed to catch Polt with his pants down. Ganzi picked off all three tanks and continued the rampage by pushing into Polt’s natural. I forget what happened exactly after that point but Polt cannot recover from the damage done and lost the match.

#2) (Z)

Sheth vs

ToD
Day 1 – Shadow (Read as Losers) Bracket Round 1 – Game 1 on Daybreak

Sheth managed to identify that Tod’s warp prism/immortal drop was en route to drop his main. He pulled about twelve infestors to defend against drop. Sadly instead of using fungal growth, Sheth lost focus and Tod dropped his immortals right next to the pack of infestors. And while I listened to Day9’s yells of dismay, I learned that immortals two-shot an infestor. Tod’s drop worked to its utmost potential as he burst Sheth’s idle defenders. And then I looked down at the webcams to see Sheth’s super sad face. Luckily for the Manner Bear, his bank was large enough that he recovered and managed to take the game.

#1) (P)

ToD vs

Sheth
Day 1 – Shadow Bracket Round 1 – Game 3 on Ohana (I heard that Ohana means family)

Tod wanted to use Parting’s WonWonWon All-in. But as an incredulous Day9 realized, Tod had forgotten to research his Warp Gate upgrade. With his all-in stunted, Tod tried to transition into a macro game. He held out until the mid-game but simply didn’t have enough units to defend. Poor Tod, who said he already felt his PvZ wasn’t too good going into the match, might’ve been on tilt. Or maybe he was just tired since it was the last match on Saturday. Regardless he got knocked out of the tournament after this loss.

Back to the Quick Links

Top 3 Plays

#3)

ThorZaIN vs (P)

CranK
Day 1 – Winner’s Bracket Round of 16 – Game 1 on Cloud Kingdom

Since his break out performance, Thorzain has showcased stunning ghost play. In this game, I watched Thorzain hunt down observers like Pacman hunts down pellets. Why? Ghosts can be much more effective if they are cloaked. And if we look to the midgame, TZ showed a creative and effective use of the invisible ghost. Terran pushed towards the center of the map, trying to position for the next fight, but found an overwhelming number of chargelots moving in. He calmly runs towards a ramp with rocks, using the chokepoint to his advantage. With the marine/marauders in back, the ghosts are placed in front and create wall which barred the way for the chargelots. Since Crank had no observers, he was unable to push past the ghost barrier and the bio rained down damage. With his creative use of cloaked ghosts, Thorzain managed beat Crank’s larger army and went on to win the game.

#2) (P)

NaNiwa vs

CranK
Day 1 – Quarterfinals – Game 1 on Daybreak

Naniwa prepared a specific build for this map. Because of the size of Daybreak, Naniwa was able to hide a proxy dark templar shrine at his natural third along with a hidden nexus. Back at Naniwa’s main, Crank scouted the gateways and twilight council but nothing else. Crank decided that an all-in was incoming and prepared by warping in sentries. However, Naniwa added a little twist to his DT rush. This twist reminded me of a Pimpest Play from 2004.

I know the video doesn’t have force-fields but I said reminded…plus the concept is similar enough. (Side Note: Anyone a Sonata Arctica fan?)

Naniwa tried to sneak his DTs into Crank’s main but was held off by the inevitable force-field. So he merged two of the dark templars into an archon. Then the archon crushed the force-field and Naniwa is allowed to destroy Crank’s main. And if I remember correctly, the game ended soon afterwards.

#1) (T)

qxc vs

NaNiwa
Day 2 – Shadow Bracket Round 2 – Game 1 on Ohana

qxc prepared a build to use against Naniwa on this map. The build starts by looking like a Thor/Dropship all-in. But instead of going for an all-in by making multiple thors, qxc stops at a single Thor. He also had stim/combat shield for his marines and medvacs in the air. But the casters were puzzled; is this a thor rush or a stim medevac timing. What could he possibly do with the single thor? Remember that Thors are a massive unit and so they can crush force fields. And what is Naniwa relying on at home to hold his ramp after he fast-expanded? Yeah. qxc squashed the force field and just waltzed into Naniwa’s main, delivering a death blow. Naniwa’s low unit count couldn’t defend without the forcefields and tapped out.

Back to the Quick Links

All images are from Liquipedia

Top/Not Top Plays of Lone Star Clash 2

Completed

Ongoing

Upcoming