Battle Report: All is Lost (Temple)

GSL Open Season 2: Grand Finals
BoxeR (Marineking) vs NesTea

Preface:

A scrappy rookie with a legendary name stands against a titan who hasn't dropped a single set all tournament. Can the power of destiny stand in the way of a god? This is GSL Open Season Two; this is BFoxeR vs NesTea!

Previous Reports:
Fruitdealer vs Rainbow
Set One: Delta Quadrant
Set Two: Lost Temple
Set Three: Kulas Ravine
Set Four: Desert Oasis
Set Five: Scrap Station
FoxeR vs NesTea
Set One: Shakuras Plateau

FoxeR prepares to decimate all Zerg forces.

Set Two: Lost Temple

FoxeR spawns in the 8 o'clock position; NesTea spawns close by air in the 7 o'clock. Foxer took a fast game one, but in a longer game, can he stand up to the impressive decision-making of Nestea? The IM Zerg's lost his first game of the tournament. He needs to rally back in order to survive.

Nestea isn't fazed by his loss on Shakuras Plateau; he opens with hatch first followed by a spawning pool. Foxer mixes things up, with only 1 barracks, followed by a refinery.

Why is he making gas? Marines don't cost gas!

With Nestea's base sitting in between Foxer and the cliff at his natural, the zerg player should feel relatively safe from drops landing there, but Foxer takes a second gas, making clear his intention to abuse the map's most well-known feature. He throws down a factory at his ramp.

A drone scouts the ramp and hurries home with the intel.

Nestea responds with queens at both bases, as Foxer throws down an armoury and a starport. He's planning a thor drop on the cliff outside Nestea's natural.

Thors are like marines; just really big with massive cannons...

Nestea attempts to scout the ramp with lings, but Foxer denies it with a marine. Nestea refuses to play in the dark, however, sending in an overlord and seeing everything.

Nothing is safe from the eyes of Nestea. Nothing!

Nestea spreads creep out in to the centre of the map and gets speed for his zerglings, setting up to deal with any ground-based aggression. However, even as a thor and medivac are in production for Foxer, he's yet to prepare any defences by the cliff. Finally he builds a spire in his main and puts down a spine near the cliff, but he's left it too late and the thor drop is on it's way.

Uncontested, the thor chases away the overlord and wrecks the spine crawler.

With no opposition, the Thor begins ravaging Nestea's mineral line from the safety of the cliff. But while Nestea's attention is on the natural, Foxer swings in with a second thor drop, this time in the main base.

An overlord sees the drop, but at what cost??

Speedlings are in position to deny the drop, but as they move away to deal with the thor at the natural, Foxer assassinates a queen. Then, as the lings return, he lifts that thor and drops the other at the natural again.

Dead queens are two for the price of one on Lost Temple.

Despite the hell being unleashed upon Nestea's base, he's managed to buy enough time and mutalisks are on the way. Foxer joins his thors up and starts repairing with a crack squad of SCVs, but Nestea goes for a counter-attack in to Foxer's main.

Nestea prepares for a counter-strike.

Last season, Fruitdealer crippled Rainbow on Lost Temple with mutalisk counters. Foxer isn't Rainbow, he has a thor and turrets in position to completely negate the attack. Nestea is flustered, as his gambit didn't pay off and his opponent brings the Thors to the low-ground by the natural.

With the natural dead, Nestea is running out of options.

Foxer seems to think that he's done enough damage as he builds a command centre in his main, ready to expand. meanwhile, he's pushing the issue and forcing his way up the ramp. Suddenly, Nestea strikes!

Perfect surround and a magic box; the answer to thors.

With the army crushed on his ramp, Nestea has a chance to get back in to the game. He retakes his natural, throws down a baneling nest and a roach warren and takes a hidden base over at the 2 o'clock, opposite Foxer's base.

Nestea going full Fruitdealer.

Foxer, on the other hand, is returning to his roots, building three barracks. Mutas try to harass his main, but thors chase them away without any significant losses. Foxer starts stimpack and +1 Infantry weapons, confirming his switch over to bio. Nestea starts roach speed for his own tech-switch.

Roach/Bane/Muta on Lost temple, where have we seen this before?

Foxer prepares for another push out on to the map, sending a Marine/Thor/Medivac army to the tower and on to Nestea's creep. Nestea has banelings spawning in his natural as Foxer arrives. They finish just in time.

The war machine arrives, can Nestea hold?

Assaulting just as Foxer enters his concave, Nestea ambushes with zerglings, banelings, roaches and mutalisks. The banelings get enough good hits to allow the roaches and mutalisks access to the thors.

Nestea sweeps in with all kinds of zerg.

Roaches push through, focusing down the thors and pushing back Foxer. Mutas and Roaches chase down all the remaining forces and crush them as they flee. Nestea goes back to his macro, throwing down an Evolution Chamber for upgrades and sending his mutalisk in for more harassment. They grab a couple of SCV kills before being forced out. Foxer adds on yet more barracks and starts combat shields. Stimpack is finished.

Another army posturing for Foxer.

This time, Nestea has the army he needs to crush Foxer's small bio force and he blasts across the creep with a roach/bane force. He has +1 Carapace and Baneling Speed just finishing up as he prepares to strike. Foxer scans the hidden base, but he isn't in a position to assail it yet.

It's Time! Nestea ambushes the terran forces.

The roaches quickly kill the Thor and start working on the bio, but most of the banelings get wasted on thors and marauders. With some beautiful splitting and dodging by Foxer, he holds the attack and chases the remaining roaches back out on to creep.

Never doubt Foxer's bio.

Foxer rides his momentum back to Nestea's natural, but the Korean Zerg has enough roaches rallying in to chase off the army. Foxer lifts his army in to medivacs and retreats as roaches pursue.

Roaches assault the dangling legs of the thor.

As Nestea reaches the Sight-Blocking Grass, however, Foxer drops his forces and pushes through with a ton of reinforcements. The ambush is successful and Nestea is forced to flee back to his base yet again. Nestea's main is over-saturated now and he has to evacuate a line of drones past attacking forces. The roaches hold the line long enough to let them through in a scene that wouldn't be out of place in Lord of the Rings.

Drones come of the line to hold the push.

Foxer moves the fight to the ramp where Nestea has difficulty getting a surround, but eventually the roaches punch through. Foxer has to retreat, but he's crippled the drone line and Nestea's forces are drastically reduced.

De ja vu; medivacs evacuate Foxer's army.

Mutalisks pursue, but as Foxer gets back to the range of his reinforcements, Nestea retreats. With his opponent weakened, Foxer turns his attention to the third base, where only two spine crawlers stand in defence. With an enormous drop, Foxer arrives at the third base while Nestea is still on the other side of the map.

SURPRISE!

Foxer immediately crushes the base, but drones evacuate down the ramp while he deals with the spines. Nestea's army arrives and engages Foxer's forces, brutalising everything and forcing another retreat by the medivacs. Mutalisks pursue.

The medivacs wish they had some kind of boost upgrade...

Reinforcements defend the medivacs and Nestea takes the natural expansion at the 9 o'clock as his third. Foxer responds by taking the gold base, but as he attacks the rocks, Nestea brings in his whole army to make one last ditch attack.

Roaches and Mutalisks sweep in to assault the rich mineral base.

Foxer crushes the army, using marauders to crush through the roaches and chasing the mutalisks down with marines. As zerg units drop like flies, he chases on to creep and makes a bee-line for Nestea's natural.

Nestea is forced to evacuate and sacrifice the natural yet again.

Nestea's run out of lifelines as Foxer ignores the third and forces his way in to the main base. Structures start falling and Nestea pulls everything in to a massive concave for one last stand.

Everything comes rolling in for Nestea.

Foxer stutters back all his units and drops a pair of MULEs in front of the zerg army. Nestea's army vanishes to a stim.

FoxeR 2-0 NesTea.

NesTea came in as a god who has killed a legend; SlayerS'BoxeR. But whilst he was able to beat the real BoxeR, this fake BoxeR has proved unstoppable, taking a 2-0 lead and making a sharp dent in to NesTea. Having won a long game and a quick game, FoxeR is in Prime position to butcher NesTea. If the IM Zerg can't make a comeback, he faces the prospect of losing as badly as Rainbow did last season. Can he do it, or is FoxeR destined to live up to the name that he's chosen? To Be Continued...

Battle Report: All is Lost (Temple)

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