TABLE OF CONTENTS
Round of 24 Group C and D Recap
We cannot hold!
By: itsjustatank
Group E and F Preview
Gosu progamer
By: Epoxide
Staff Predictions
My life for... aiur?
By: Nagisama
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Read the recaps and previews below and make sure to tune in on Saturday, Saturday, Jun 15 7:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00).
Group E | Group F |
---|---|
Napoleon | andrey |
WandS | dewalt |
TerrOr | SouthPark |
TTF | G5 |
Round of 24 Group C and D Recaps
Group C
The first game of this group was a Zerg mirror match on Jade between Bakuryu and trutaCz. The game was over in a flash as Bakuryu won the early zergling micro battle as trutaCz started the game with a lair before speed build. As the game's focus shifted over to the mutalisk battles, Bakuryu extended his lead and eventually took the win with more good micro.
Ramms put on some very early siege pressure outside of his Protoss opponent's natural on Jade in the second game of the group. After using a shuttle to elevator out a small group of units, Mazur attacked his opponent's main in the hopes of forcing his opponent to relent from his containment. While successful in killing off a number of vultures and a few SCVs, the larger goal of the attack was not achieved and the containment continued. Mazur was finally able to draw the Terran forces away after a breakout maneuver. He quickly retook his natural and established a third base, but his Terran opponent had simply been given too much time to build up an economic advantage for Mazur to have been able to eek out a victory in the end.
The winners match between Bakuryu and Ramms took place on Match Point. Bakuryu opened with a three hatchery before spawning pool build. In response , Ramms sent out an early marine and SCV to harass the Zerg player a little bit in the early game. Bakuryu then got his mutalisks out on the map and started to harass the Terran base with them. However, a poor engagement on his part on the high ground outside of the Terran base put him significantly behind in the game. Ramms took advantage of this and attacked the Zerg third with his main force and dropped a small group of units into his opponent's main to win the game and advance to the next stage of the tournament.
trutaCz faced off against Mazur on Match Point in the losers match of this group. Mazur attempted to end this game almost immediately with a cannon forge block, however his attempt failed miserably as the wall-off was not tight and trutaCz's nine pool zerglings were able to take the cannon out with ease.
trutaCz met Bakuryu on Match Point for the second time in the final game of elimination in this group. Bakuryu's zerglings were able to get the advantage against trutaCz's drone drilling, but he was unable to deny the establishment of his opponent's natural expansion. As the game entered the mutalisk stage of the mirror match, Bakuryu's micro was able to lock down his opponent's natural expansion. Despite this, trutaCz was able to kill off a significant number of Bakuryu's drones with a zergling counterattack. Once trutaCz's scourge were out, Bakuryu's mutalisk control seemed to falter. This did not matter in the end however, as a switch to zerglings caught trutaCz completely unprepared with zero ground defenses, and Bakuryu eliminated trutaCz from the tournament.
Group D
The first match in this group was between Assault and TechnicS on Jade. The early game period between the two was punctuated by an intense amount of passivity from both players, as they were content to let each other build up bases and economy and head into the mid game without fanfare. As the mid game developed, TechnicS's high templar and archons proved decisive against Assault's hydralisk and lurker army in multiple engagements and he ended up taking the game against Assault.
The second game of this group featured the Zerg player, Malkiyah, squared off against the Terran player, Cryoc, on Jade. Malkiyah built an early pool and forced Cryoc into a defensive posture in the early game. Cryoc was able to defend the early attack and brought an attack of his own against the Zerg natural just as Malikyah's mutalisks arrived at the Terran base, disrupting mining there entirely. The cost to remove the Terran containment outside of the Zerg natural was high, as Malkiyah lost a large amount of units in the process despite attacking from two sides at the same time. Further unit losses for the Zerg player were incurred with a key irradiate on the mutalisk stack. Cryoc took advantage of the map control afforded by his successful engagements, and forced a win against his opponent in the end.
TechnicS met Cryoc on Match Point in the winners match of the group. After a passive early game development between the players, TechnicS initiated mutalisk harassment against Cryoc's mech play. He then moved lurkers just outside of the natural and began to pound away against the Terran wall at that location, limiting the Terran's sphere of influence to just two bases while building up a strong economy at home. Cryoc attempted to move out with a mech force, but the Terran player was overwhelmed by sheer mutalisk numbers in the center of the map and the attack was neutralized in short order. As the late game arrived, TechnicS broke the half map siege tank line with drop play. As ultralisks entered the field under dark swarm, Cryoc ended up getting eliminated from the game.
The losers match between Assault and Malkiyah on Match Point was over in a flash, as Malkiyah converted what should have been a build order nine pool versus twelve hatchery victory into a disadvantageous position after his all-in attack was defended against by his opponent. A premature disconnect on his part led to the victory being awarded to his opponent.
In the final game of the group, Cryoc faced off against Assault on Fighting Spirit. The game started off badly for Assault, after losing a number of mutalisks to a large number of wandering marines in the center of the map. Cryoc then took map control in the mid game, seizing control of the middle of the map and taking five bases against the bottled-up Zerg player's two bases. After an irradiated science vessel eraser move on the drones in the Zerg main, the game was finished and Cryoc moved forward to the next stage of the tournament.
Group E Preview
Group E and F are most likely two of the weakest groups in the round of 24. With group F having Marwin drop out and replaced, group F now consists of two inactive protoss', one ZvZ specialist, and a replacement. Group E is deceitful, WandS should be nowhere near this level. But yet here he stands, because he just keeps winning in solid fashion. If someone would have mentioned Napoleon prior to the TLS qualifiers I would have agreed, Napoleon is good, especially in TvZ. Recently it has rubbed me in a wrong way. Even though Napoleon was the runner-up of qualifier #2 barely losing 1-2 to Julia; his play, to be frank, was just god-aweful and extremely boring to watch. In his defense he was probably high.
Last season I was hard on both Ramms and TTF. Yet they proved me wrong. This season I continued by saying Ramms would go out of his group 0-2 without standing a chance. Evidently his practice on Fish paid off, smashing his group 2-0. I'm not going to make the same mistake again and say that TTF will get knocked just yet. The last member of group E stands above the rest, TerrOr, a complete monster as of late. In the latest Defiler he managed to take out TechnicS 2-1 and Bakuryu 2-0 before losing to much discussed Neagle, and Weekly, edning up in third.
Group E starts off with Napoleon against TTF on Neo Jade. Napoleon has only played four games of ZvT recently. He 2-0'd andrey, won against Radley but lost against Justice. TTF hasn't played that much TvZ either, only playing two games, beating Michael and losing to Fenitio in Gambit's Cup. This will be the game of turtle on a map prone to have three-base turtle. The one who attacks loses. TTF is gosu progamer, and he shall have it. The game is followed by TerrOr vs WandS. WandS keeps proving everyone wrong and just doesn't lose against opponents he should, but the rise falls here. TerrOr is just too solid for WandS to compete. TerrOr against TTF can go either way as it's TTF's strongest match-up and most suited to his playstyle. Even so, expect TerrOr to 2-0 this group whoever he have to face. I'm just gonna go ahead and say it, WandS will take a game in this group and Napoleon will be the person to beat. Either way TTF should be able to repeat Napoleon or take out WandS.
Napoleon <Neo Jade> TTF
WandS <Neo Jade>TerrOr
TTF <Match Point> TerrOr
Napoleon <Match Point> WandS
TTF <Fighting Spirit> WandS
TerrOr 2-0
TTF 2-1
WandS 1-2
Napoleon 0-2
WandS <Neo Jade>TerrOr
TTF <Match Point> TerrOr
Napoleon <Match Point> WandS
TTF <Fighting Spirit> WandS
TerrOr 2-0
TTF 2-1
WandS 1-2
Napoleon 0-2
Group F Preview
Group F starts with andrey against G5. G5 has said that he is inactive and will most likely not be able to compete against the rest in the group. His play surprised me last season and we might see something similiar this week. andrey is however playing quite a bit and G5 shouldn't be a problem for him. Expect a bulldog. The next game is dewalt against SouthPark. dewalt is also said to not be practicing in favour of StarCraft II. I did however catch his stream and he looks like he used to. With SouthPark not being the best player in ZvP I think dewalt will still clinch a victory. Much like he is too solid for andrey and I will be surprised if dewalt doesn't 2-0 this group. SouthPark is on a higher level than G5 and the group will be decided on the final map. The match-up is probably the most close matched in skill. SouthPark has won against Cryoc while andrey lost to Sziky twice, lost to Cosy once, and beat Michael once. It's incredibly hard to predict. SouthPark made it to the round of 16 last season and shall do it again.
andrey <Neo Jade> G5
dewalt <Neo Jade> SouthPark
andrey <Match Point> dewalt
G5 <Match Point> SouthPark
andrey <Fighting Spirit> SouthPark
dewalt 2-0
SouthPark 2-1
andrey 1-2
G5 0-2
dewalt <Neo Jade> SouthPark
andrey <Match Point> dewalt
G5 <Match Point> SouthPark
andrey <Fighting Spirit> SouthPark
dewalt 2-0
SouthPark 2-1
andrey 1-2
G5 0-2
Staff Predictions
Group E
Player | Staff Picks |
---|---|
TerrOr (6) | |
2Pacalypse-, Sayle, Epoxide, itsjustatank, Falling, Nagisama | TTF (3) |
Epoxide, itsjustatank, Nagisama | |
Napoleon (2) | |
2Pacalypse-, Falling | |
WandS (1) | |
Sayle |
While Group E isn’t the group of death, it is still quite ‘TerrOr-fying’. All the TLS staff that voted thinks that TerrOr will make it out of the group. The rest are split between the other Terran in the group, TTF, and Napoleon, while Sayle is the sole believer in picking WandS. I don’t know if Sayle has some secret info on WandS possibly advancing, or it’s just the Protoss in him that wants him to advance. We may also get our first TvT in the TLS2 Ro24!
Group F
Player | Staff Picks |
---|---|
andrey (5) | |
2Pacalypse-, Sayle, itsjustatank, Falling, Nagisama | |
dewalt (5) | |
2Pacalypse-, Sayle, Epoxide, itsjustatank, Nagisama | |
SouthPark (2) | |
Epoxide, Falling | |
G5 (0) | |
Unfortunately for many including myself, Marwin has been replaced in Group F by another Terran player andreyy. He has proved to be quite popular with most of the TLS staff picking him and another fan favourite, dewalt, to advance over SouthPark and G5 who were Ro8 and Ro16 finishers last TLS respectively. SouthPark has two staff votes which surprisingly leaves G5 with no one thinking he will get out of the group.
That's all for now! Join us on Saturday, Jun 15 7:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00) for the cast of Groups E and F! And as always a big thanks to our sponsors:
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