BW ReUnion Tour Reminescence

Sziky's next challenger, TT1, picked Destination as the battlefield. After the first two games, odds seemed grim for the veterans, so a first handicap was about to be introduced. Artanis asked Sziky to send one of his initial drones to scout and not return, but TT1 asked for a straight-up game.

Sziky had plans of his own though. Or did he misunderstand?

TT1, spawning at the top, opened FFE into +1 sairs and +1 speedlots. He had to deal with a ling runby that made it up his ramp, only getting two probe kills but hurting Protoss' mining severely, evening out the initial handicap. Much like ClouD, TT1 lost one of his scouting corsairs to scourge and would end up facing Sziky's 3 hatch mutalisks. But not before another deadly runby and a snipe of the natural assimilator hurting his economy and focus.

The scary looking runby didn't actually end up doing much damage, TT1 was on top of things and managed to somewhat harass Sziky with random zealots. Investing gas into corsairs and zealot upgrades and getting his natural gas denied on top of that, his only way of dealing with the mutalisk threat was to sacrifice his zealots.

That worked, but unfortunately, due to some undecisiveness and Sziky's superior drone drilling, the attack failed to do any direct damage, while it had the potential to at least snipe the spire. TT1 tried the same zealot tactic to keep the mutalisks busy soon after, but Sziky could then already rely on his home defences. Meanwhile, Sziky wreaked havoc in the Protoss territory, devouring corsairs, cannons, probes, templar archives, two high templars and TT1's third base.

Swarm gathers to enjoy renowned Protoss fireworks.

TT1 still kept up his production and his zealot heavy army faired decently against the incoming hydralisks, but it eventually evaporated under Sziky's merciless production rally.

Sziky < Tau Cross > (Z)

trutaCz

The final game of the event, and what would become one of the highlights of foreign ZvZ in 2014, saw one of the few foreigners able to keep up with Sziky, trutaCz, spawn in the bottom base of Tau Cross and open with a twelve pool. Sziky in the top meanwhile opened with a twelve hatch with just enough gas for zergling speed and after defending his natural hatchery, added two more hatcheries, looking to put massive pressure on the Polish ladder monster and possibly end the game then and there. Seeing the incoming speedlings with an overlord, trutaCz morphed two sunkens in time and while one of the sunkens fell, he held the zerglings back rather comfortably. Sziky's magic control failed him this time.

Seeing the great sunken/ling arch positioning, Sziky still went in for the attack.

With trutaCz's spire done, Sziky focused on drone production with an evolution chamber for spores - if you think you know where this is going, don't get your hopes up just yet. Instead of teching to lair to keep up with his opponent, Sziky continued his speedling agression, getting a few drone snipes, but with no critical mistake for either player and trutaCz's mutalisk count rising, he would have to adapt - with the "standard" switch to... hydralisks, of course.

With Sziky's hydralisks out on the map pretty soon, trutaCz had to sacrifice some of his mutalisks to buy extra time for his sunken wall. But as it turned out, Sziky never intended to bust the natural, he merely aimed to force the defences and retreated while droning heavily. Realizing this, trutaCz managed to find an opening in Sziky's natural, getting a few drones for free and not leaving while strengthening his sunken wall back home. He wanted Sziky to suicide into the wall badly, and the Hungarian granted him the wish.

With intense muta on hydralisk action, frequent ling backstabs and still no lair tech for Sziky, the low eco game carried on, resembling more and more a wraith TvZ rather than the regular flow of the matchup. trutaCz kept trading mutalisks for drones but with Sziky's hydralisk count steadily rising, he knew he'd soon be susceptible to another counter-attack. And much like the last time, he was ready for it. Yet, trutaCz had overreacted and with this successful defence, he actually put himself behind in the game.

trutaCz losing most of his mutalisks with seven sunkens virtually untouched.

Sziky took the opportunity to set up a third base, but with a forced cancel and a subsequent ling backstab for distraction, trutaCz managed to delay that and get a decent amount of drones while securing a third himself. With both players getting mined out in the main and securing a third, trutaCz found himself in an awkward position. The heavy sunken wall he was relying on suddenly seemed useless and the mobility of his mutalisks could no longer compare to the brute force of Sziky's hydralisk army. With a good tactical decision to go for the third hatchery, trutaCz bought himself a ticket back into the game...

...only to learn that Sziky has meanwhile been setting up a ninja base at the nine o'clock main that has already been well fortified with spores. Sziky's advantage was eventually too great to overcome and despite the great tactical play and solid micro from trutaCz, the Polish had no way of securing a third base and had to tap out.

Sziky < Tau Cross > (P)

ClouD

Sziky < Tau Cross > (T)

PredY

Sziky < Destination > (P)

Sziky < Blue Storm > (Z)

Sziky < Tau Cross > (P)

Bonyth

Sziky < Tau Cross > (T)

Marwin

Sziky < Tau Cross > (Z)

trutaCz

And just like that, Sziky ruined yet another event, never leaving the throne and taking the 60€ prize with seven kills, but not failing to deliver great, fun games in the process.

Relive The Glory: Quarterfinal Highlights top

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ClouD < Set 2: Tau Cross > (Z)

Mondragon

The second game in the first casted series of the quarterfinal had ClouD spawn in the top right base and Mondragon in the bottom base on Tau Cross. ClouD scouted Mondragon first and killing a drone in the natural choke of his adversary, threw down a pylon to block the natural choke. While Mondragon had a drone out in the natural, he GG'd right then and there in the shortest game of the tournament.

ClouD < Set 1: Destination > (Z)

Mondragon

ClouD < Set 2: Tau Cross > (Z)

Mondragon

MaNa < Set 1: Destination > (T)

SarenS

The opening game of the this quarterfinal match-up had MaNa spawn at the top of Destination, sending an early probe for harass and scouting. With nothing of particular notice in SarenS' base, who was executing a standard siege-expand opening, MaNa opened with a one gate robo expansion.

Through solid dragoon micro, MaNa traded two dragoons for two tanks and a marine, and progressed to five gateways and a third base to the right. SarenS' vulture drop was countered with ridiculously well timed cannons that finished morphing just as the vultures arrived to the exposed mineral lines.

SarenS' third base was delayed by agressive MaNa's shuttles and setting up a fourth at the back mineral-only, Protoss was slowly pulling ahead with arbiters on the way. Growing impatient of the passive Terran, MaNa used his first stasis to bother the Terran defences and managed to get a decent engagement with storm. While SarenS didn't seem to do much in the game, his macro was still very solid in contrast to MaNa's which would float a lot of resources while queuing units in gateways. That was of little help to SarenS when this happened.

Shame on you science vessels. x2

MaNa recalled the base and stasised Terran units on the ramp, buying enough time to deal significant damage and burn down some of the production structures. SarenS was soon to be on just a single mining base and with the lack of factories, he had a hard time securing a fourth base. Eventually SarenS succumbed to the restless Protoss agression.

MaNa < Set 1: Destination > (T)

SarenS

MaNa < Set 2: Python > SarenS [image loading]

MaNa < Set 3: Tau Cross > (T)

SarenS

HayprO < Set 2: Tau Cross > (P)

Eriador

The second game on Tau Cross kicked off with a more agressive gateway opening from Eriador. The initial zealots forced HayprO to cancel his third hatchery and deal with the early zealots in his base. The Swede dealt with the early harass including a pylon block in the natural choke quite handily, but Eriador wasn't by any means all-in as he has meanwhile progressed with a delayed forge expand. HayprO decided to answer this with hydra-ling production off of his two hatcheries.

Only learning about the Protoss wall upon his arrival, he had to rely on his hydralisk speed upgrade but he sucessfully dealt with the cannon and zealots and just barely stopped the forge from finishing the +1 weapon upgrade. Losing quite a lot in the process and floating minerals from drone oversaturation, the Zerg didn't try to break the emergency cannon wall. A good call considering the DT threat was now in play as well and with overlords nowhere in sight, HayprO had to focus on the defence, although not before forcing a huge investment in the form of seven cannons.

With a decent hydralisk count, the Zerg didn't have to bother getting a spire and focused solely on his hydralisk production and upgrades. Eriador had no interest in air warfare either, warping up to six gateways and setting up to take a third base with two forges spinning to pump out a deadly army. The third Protoss base went up uncontested and with three evolution chambers and three well saturated bases and a fourth one coming for the Zerg, it was Eriador's turn to get out on the map.

With a decent supply lead and six high templars sitting at full energy for the Protoss player, this seemed like a good idea but it turned into a disaster as Eriador's army was surrounded by lurkers supported by hydra-ling, and despite some decent storms, soon perished.

Realizing the Zerg was gaining the upper hand, Eriador decided to take step back and try to claim a fourth base in the top main. Even though a well timed ling runby got past his defences and sniped the warping nexus, his engagement in the middle of the map went much better, putting him in a 40 supply lead over HayprO, who was greedy enough to claim a fifth base at the three o'clock. Rather than clinging to the idea of a fast fourth base, Eriador decided to take advantage of his favorable engagement and put the pressure on the Zerg with a reaver assault of the third base.

This worked out so well for the Norwegian that he could immediately follow it up by ravaging the Zerg's fifth base meeting zero resistance. The dragoon heavy army soon fell to plague though and with the first ultralisks out for HayprO, securing a fourth base still proved to be an issue. Eriador let the enemy burn his army away on his two reavers while his main force denied the fifth Zerg base reconstruction and this time even wiped out the fourth base as well, putting HayprO on just a single mining base.

Just a single mining base is still better than no income at all though, which was exactly what Eriador had to work with. He pulled his archon heavy army back to at least secure the mineral-only base at twelve o'clock. The back-and-forth low eco lategame was eventually decided by two consecutive lurker drops at the mineral only, securing HayprO dozens of probe kills and the semifinals.

HayprO < Set 1: Destination > (P)

Eriador

HayprO < Set 2: Tau Cross > (P)

Eriador

TT1 < Set 2: Tau Cross > (Z)

In the second set, TT1, spawning in the top right base on Tau Cross, decided to dictate the flow of the game by pylon-blocking Fosken's natural choke, forcing the Zerg to build an in-base hatchery at the bottom main.

AHHA! No wait..

Although Fosken survived the early zealot harass, TT1's zealot/archon attack decimated his fragile lurker count which combined with weak static defences lead to the inevitable GG.

TT1 < Set 1: Destination > Fosken [image loading]

TT1 < Set 2: Tau Cross > (Z)

TT1 < Set 3: Python > (Z)

While many viewers were excited to enjoy the tournament for some of that sweet nostalgia, the players, while rusty, still provided us with entertaining games. All of the semifinal contestants showed smart play and clever mind games and with big money on the line, some dirtiness was to be expected as well.

Dirty Fighting: Semifinal Recap top

ClouD < Set 1: Python > (P)

In the first game of the semifinals, both players spawned in close air positions on Python - ClouD in white at the two o'clock main and TT1 in yellow at the twelve o'clock. TT1 opened with two gateways for zealots that he ended up using just defensively, switching into tech. Meanwhile, ClouD had the tech advantage with a gate-core built and added two more gateways looking to perhaps make something happen with his earlier dragoon range.

The highground advantage of the ramp and three zealots for the Canadian was enough to stop any such attempts though and with goon range finished for both players, TT1 prepared to take his natural expansion. In the enemy camp, ClouD had no such thoughts, investing his resources into robotics tech.

With TT1 further delaying his reavers by going observer first, all ClouD had to at this point was issue his dragoons to a-move into the enemy natural and drop his two reavers safely. He did even better than that and easily cleaned up TT1's natural along with most of the army, forcing the GG.

ClouD < Set 2: Tau Cross > (P)

The second game saw ClouD spawn green at the top right and TT1 peach at the left main on Tau Cross. Besides a skipped zealot for ClouD and hence a slightly faster second gateway, both players followed the same three gate goon range build. TT1 got a faster robotics for obs though, and he still decided to poke into ClouD's natural, where he fell into the Italian's trap.

Unaware of the dragoons positioned in the fog of war to the left, TT1's killer instincts kicked in as he marched in to punish the out-numbered dragoons of his adversary, only to find his forces surrounded. Losing only two dragoons and a zealot was as good an outcome as he could have hoped for. With the supply lead, ClouD pursued the retreating dragoons all the way to TT1's main, getting past the choke point but facing the home re-inforcement advantage and losing his main force and the battle.

With the game even, both players decided to delay their expansions and get reavers out. While ClouD was playing in the dark, TT1's observer in ClouD's main followed his every move and was ready for the two reaver assault. TT1 made up for his missing shuttle by sniping ClouD's right away and picking off the exposed reavers, forcing ClouD to retreat. Despite the failed attack, ClouD felt comfortable enough to take his own expansion while TT1 hesitated and eventually decided to go on the offensive with his own two reavers.

The two reavers were not enough to overcome the huge arch ClouD set up in front of his natural though, and with his entire army wiped out and no expansion to fall back on, TT1 called the GG.

ClouD < Set 1: Python > (P)

ClouD < Set 2: Tau Cross > (P)

HayprO < Set 1: Python > (P)

Spawning in close ground positions on Python, MaNa risked forge fast expanding. HayprO got early zergling speed just to deny scouting and progressed with a three hatch hydralisk agression. Even though MaNa may have picked up on this fact, going citadel before stargate, he couldn't scout with his probes. Caught with his pants off and no emergency cannons warping or even probes pulled, MaNa was completely rolled over by HayprO's hydra-ling bust.

HayprO < Set 2: Destination > (P)

In the second game, MaNa spawned top and opened with a standard FFE, cannon first for safety. Seeing a probe at his natural, HayprO didn't even bother trying and went straight into the third base to lay down his hatchery, opening with pool first and six initial zerglings. These six zerglings ran unchallenged past the Protoss wall into MaNa's main base, securing an economic advantage for the Zerg by constantly harassing the probe line.

MaNa decided to add some reavers to his +1 sairs against HayprO's +1 carapace mutalisks. The unfavorable situation for the Zerg was somewhat made up for by a nice scourge interception that cost MaNa two of his corsairs. HayprO then wanted to get rid of the corsairs altogether and claim air dominance but MaNa smartly only moved out just seconds before his +1 air weapons finished, turning a successful surround into a complete disaster for the Zerg with all of the mutalisks melting.

The first army engagement started well with some nice storms from the Protoss but ended in a surround that decimated the Protoss army. MaNa still secured and managed to hold a third base at the ten o'clock and a mineral only at the top right, but getting a fifth base of his own, HayprO still had the upper hand and began setting up a lurker contain at MaNa's front and on the highground of the mineral only as well. MaNa's patience somewhat payed off as he baited some favorable engagements from the Zerg but as his third base fell, HayprO's six bases and heavy tech was too much for him to fight and swarming over the Protoss natural with cracklings and ultralisks supported by dark swarm, HayprO advanced to the finals in a dominant fashion.

HayprO < Set 1: Python > (P)

HayprO < Set 2: Destination > (P)

With the semifinals finished, the two finalists have been confirmed: (Z)

HayprO and (P)

ClouD. The finals was a best of 5 played on the four maps of (Wiki)

Bluestorm, (Wiki)

Destination, (Wiki)

Python and (Wiki)

Tau Cross.

Finals Recap by BigFan top