Violet vs Shuttle (GomClassic Ro16)

Andomeda. The map I can never win on. Ever.

Holy crap, Shuttle is a god. Just wanted to get that out of the way.

OMG did you see this trickery? Shuttle fucking beats Violet to the same scouting base and BLOCKS THE RAMP to fool Violet into thinking this is his base. Pimpest plays 2008 please!

HAHAHA Violet fell for it, he is sending his Zealot straight over.

Shuttle's probe can not be blocked Violet, who the fuck do you think you are anyway?

Violet's probe is denied scouting again. Violet is in the dark: all he knows is Shuttle has 2 zealots, so for all he knows all that gas could be going to a DT drop. I expect him to play overly defensively and lose to a greedy build by Shuttle.

Reaaally early expo at the mineral-only for Shuttle. Did I call it or what?

Gah, Violet expoing as well. Mirror builds. Well I halfway called it.

2nd Gate added for Shuttle. Now he can crush Violet twice as fast.

2nd Gate for Violet, both players add observers.. Yawn mirror build. Why do you have to copy Shuttle's genius Violet?

Violet you lucky observer-sniping son of a bitch.

Shuttle has to back off from a small skirmish; looks to be getting Reavers. Not much action so far.

Violet expos again. Too greedy, it will be your downfall!

Crapsticks.. Shuttle leaves a reaver on the ground to go pick up the 2nd and Violet attacks with impeccable timing since he had an obs spying. Tricky bastard.

Haha it doesn't matter. "He needs to back off now, Shuttle has taken control of the game with excellent micro!" - Nick "Tasteless" Plott

Did I just see Violet clearing out his cliff neutrals with 2 Dragoons on the inside of the neutrals? Strange. Elevatored em up, yea.. But if he needed those to defend they would be trapped, right?

Shuttle tries to snipe over the cliff and almost loses his shuttle. A skirmish ensues and Shuttle comes out on top (as if there was any doubt), pushing Violet back into his natural.

Shuttle sets up a nice concave and engages Violet. Violet has a lot of zealots but leg is not finished. Shuttle appears to be winning, but oh shit there is a reaver for Violet.. Shuttle backs off.

GomTV observer is so biased as we get 3 pans of Violets base (templar tech and 3 more gates warping in) and none of Shuttle's.

Shuttle moves in! Both armies have a huge number of speed zeals, no templars yet. 2 reavers for both. Holy crap it is tense. Pausing in the middle of a battle feels STRANGE!

Crazy micro from both players. Shuttle ends up taking out both enemy reavers, but loses too many dragoons and has to back out.

Shuttle has some templars and DTs, which he appears to want to just use alongside his army. Since both sides have kept a low obs count I am praying for some sexy obs-sniping by Shuttle.

Shuttle loads up for a storm drop! :D

I think Violet's obs saw the storm drop coming, but he doesn't intercept the shuttle where he wanted to. Also, lol both players having a pylon party at 10 for some reason.

Oh, DTs also in that shuttle. But the probes are running and Shuttle is following them into Violet's base. I am really getting a bad feeling about this....

Crap, the shuttle goes down and storms only take out like 2 probes.

Violet tries to push into Shuttle's natural! Shuttle has 2 reavers but no shuttle to micro them in. Violet has no HT, he eats some storm.. AHhhhh!!!

Shuttle breaks out dominantly! Wow what a back and forth game! :D

AHHHH! SOLID SNAKE DT sneaking into Violet's base!!!

-_- dies to a cannon.

Shuttle expos at 10. But Mr. Shuttle sir, can't Violet see you doing that?

Fucking hell Shuttle is the man. The expo was bait and it worked as Violet sends out his army and Shuttle barrels into Violet's natural. Please take out the nex, please take out the nex...

TONS of Violets probes going done.. The humanity! :D

Shuttle is flanked by the returning army and loses his whole force, but he did take out most of Violet's probes at his natural. Difficult to call who won out here. Oh wait, no it isn't: SHUTTLE DID!

Wow I spoke too soon, Shuttle's reinforcements arrived at the right time and he is winning this battle!

GG! Shuttle wins!

Excellent game.

Othello. The other map I can never win on.

Interestingly both players deny scouting to each other, although Shuttle does it without having an idle probe so he gets bonus points.

The game passes early game with both players doing the exact same 2-gate obs build into reavers. Violet does some cute stuff with putting a spotting pylon on the path Shuttle's reaver drop might take (which reminds me that Shuttle has a slight positional advantage).

Violet moves in for an attack and reavers about 4 probes, but is repelled. Meanwhile Shuttle cracks his knuckles in manly fashion (not shown in the VOD).

Both players expand and Shuttle shows his namesake by just out reaver microing Violet in a skirmish, leaving him slightly ahead. And another skirmish. And another (i love slow-crawl reaver battles, lol).

Shuttle just keeps the pressure on. This is why I love this guy, he is not the 'skirmish and back off' type of player normally. He is the 'get a small advantage and keep compounding it while keeping you constantly defending' type of player. That type of player is just fucking awesome to watch.

Finally he is repelled, but only after destroying a good amount of probes. The game slows down and both players macro up to replenish their reavers. Shuttle gets 2 reavers and shuttle first and uses this as the trigger to go on the offense.

Violet looks like zealot-leg is on the way, given he is starting to make zealots, but when the two armies clash it is Shuttle who comes out on top with a big lead.

Shuttle presses the attack, does some more fantastic micro, and Violet GGs.

Shuttle > Violet 2:0

Hahahaha, you thought Violet could take a game from Shuttle? Poor non-believer.

I don't think I am going to try this live-blogging format again. My writing didn't feel quite as good and I just spit a ton more out than I normally do. I guess collecting my thoughts post-games is a better approach, but it was fun to try out.

Shuttle is now going to the Ro8. There are a lot of big names that are going to be standing in his way, but honestly giving the way he has been performing I think he has a shot of taking first.

These games were not quite the normal on-edge-of-my-seat constant action games that Shuttle normally produces. I guess this is just the nature of PvP mirror builds. But it did outline that Shuttle has some seriously good micro, macro, and game sense.

The first game he won largely due to his macro mechanics being superior to Violet and his game sense leading to superior positioning in most battles. Using the 10o'clock expo to draw out Violet's army was really fantastic, but using reinforcements to flank Violet's return-army flank was damned amazing.

The second game he won pretty much entirely on the merits of his micro. Every battle in the game he came out on top and every battle he came out on top due to superior micro. I also liked that he pressed his advantage when he had it, something I see pros fail to do sooooo often. Hell Violet let some good attack opportunities slip by in Game 1 due to this.


So yea. I really hope Shuttle can take this all the way. Remember he was seeded in the Ro128, so he has been clawing his way all this way up. I give the guy major props.

Shuttle: I will be your fan now and forever.