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[VNSL] Ro8 Preview: ZvP Bonanza!

Forum Index > BW General
8 CommentsPost a Reply

[VNSL] Ro8 Preview: ZvP Bonanza!

Text byTL.net ESPORTS
Graphics byv1
January 7th, 2016 01:47 GMT
Logo
Halfway through the Ro8, we have already had the pleasure of witnessing some fun and entertaining series. In the same vein, two contestants for the Ro4 have already been decided. Going into tonight's games, will ZerO edge out free to advance to the Ro4 or will the reversal happen?

Read on for a recap of the first two groups of the Ro8 by c3rberUs followed by previews of the remaining two groups by FlaShFTW and BLinD-RawR. Staff picks have also been added to give our readers an idea of who we think will advance and who shall fall!

With that said, let's sit back, relax and watch some of the finest BW on the planet with the next series of the Ro8 set to be casted in both Korean and English in .

Table of contents

  • Intro
  • Recap of QF #1
  • Recap of QF #2
  • RO8 Preview
  • Staff Picks
  • Liquipedia
Up
Groups Recap

QF #1 Recap

Bisu vs [image loading] Last


Following the success of his macro game in the tiebreakers, Bisu went double nexus against Last's barracks expo on a cross-position game on Circuit Breaker. Both took early third bases according to the standard game. Bisu used his earlier economic advantage to bulldog Last, killing 6 tanks. Last went up one base briefly after taking out Bisu's fourth while saving his own. However, Bisu continued to be relentless; using a combination of recalls and attacks at the fourth to put Last off balance. Last's first big push came out around ~20 minutes into the game. Despite Bisu's devastating push breaking, Last was able to clear four expos at one corner and another three across the map. Bisu made him pay by taking out Last's only lifeblood. When it came down to a single base for Last, Bisu's eco and stasis just overpowered him. GG.

The second set, at Gladiator was just a cute game that would have Protoss haters crying DT imbalance. Last tried some drop into expo opening to which Bisu countered with a DT drop that hit just as the academy finished. Couple that with Bisu's godly DT management -he goes up 2-0 in the series.

Last is at the brink of elimination now and he found Bisu going 12 nexus once again. His determination to punish it paid off when he destroyed the nexus. Last put Bisu on the backpedal and secured his third and fourth rather easily while defending attacks well. When Bisu finally manages to recall on his main, he counterattacks to slice Bisu's 5 bases. Then something happened, Last's numerically superior force was washed by Bisu. The observer revealed a 2-0 to 1-0 upgrade advantage for Bisu. 2-1 finished too late and the attack sputtered. Another recall is countered with another counterattack. Bisu then responded like he doesn't need to defend and recalls into a recall into a recall. Factories went down and zealots raid Last's last mining base. 3-0 for Taek Shin.

Up

QF #2 Recap

[image loading] Sharp vs [image loading] Mind


People had divided opinions for this series as Sharp's prowess in TvT was only as strong as his nerves against an undoubtedly experienced opponent.

The first game at Circuit Breakers. Mind was aggressive early with a barracks before depot which dealt some damage versus Sharp's forward barracks. Mind put himself ahead going 2 port wraith, hampering Sharp and allowed him to take an earlier expo. Mind went uphill against Sharp's tanks where his timing and micro gave him the opening game.

Mind put his Bo5 strategy into effect by going barracks expo in the next game on FS. His economic advantage against Sharp's factory expo allowed him to be more aggressive with tank placement. But Sharp's TvT was a different brand. He took all his forces and bypassed Mind's line then backstabbed him. Sharp continued to use his brand of pushes and drops to exploit weaknesses in Mind's tank lines and check his expansions. A game ending breakthrough came when Sharp walked into an expansion that Mind can't support. Things got out of hand and Mind's last ditch push to oust Sharp's newest mining base got foiled. Sharp made it a series.

The third game on Match Point was simply spectacular. In the early game, Sharp used an opening to slip vultures into Mind's main. Mind did the same with Sharp's wall-in sealed by Mind's barracks. Mind only had to lift but then Sharp built an ebay keeping it sealed. Mind was setback because of the SCV kills and it snowballed into an unwinnable position giving Sharp the 2-1 lead.

The fourth set was short but sweet for Sharp, Team BBARAS and everyone who wanted Sharp to advance. On Gladiator, Mind went for a fast proxy factory and bunkered up Sharp's natural. Then everything went wrong. Sharp was able to scout his base despite two marines guarding the entrance. Sharp built a second factory to break out. Seige mode forced Mind to pull back... and he did a reverse bunker hop. Sharp broke out and smashed Mind's forces off of 1 factory and a starport, leading to a quick GG.

Up
Groups Preview

Ro8 Preview

free vs ZerO
"ZerOing In"

Quarterfinal 3 features a battle between two excellent veterans who both have solidified themselves in the current top 10, ZerO and Free. However, as good as both of these players are, this match will not be a very close one.

ZerO’s ZvP is still one of the best in the scene, only second to EffOrt’s. Boasting an incredible 72.73% win rate, his recent ZvP performances have been on point. In the first Spotimes Starleague, he doused an on-fire Jaehoon 3-1 to advance to the finals. In the second Spotimes, he battered Free 3-1 in the quarterfinals on-rout to his first real first place finish at a large tournament (ZerO has 1st place finishes in the past, but those were in extremely small and poorly structured tournaments). ZerO has some more notable ZvP wins, such as defeating Shuttle in two separate occasions in group stages when Shuttle began rising. With his recent first ever win at the Spotimes Starleague 2, ZerO definitely has the confidence and momentum riding on his side.

[image loading]
Maybe I should build some queens to make it fair...


Overall, while ZerO may have had a slump in the beginning to middle of the season where he dropped a series to Free 0-3 in the Draemong Starleague, his ZvP is still top-notch and only the likes of Bisu can take him in a BoX series.

Free’s PvZ is always something to be desired. While his other matchups are decent and are enough to carry him far into tournaments, he always drops as soon as he comes face to face with a solid Zerg. A quick list of Free’s tournament exits reveals to us his deteriorating PvZ:

KSL 1: 0-2 hero
SSL 11: 1-3 hero
Draemong: 3-0 ZerO (Slumping ZerO)
KDS 2: 0-2 EffOrt Ro16
Spotimes 2: 1-3 ZerO

From this list, we see a pretty clear trend besides his surprising win over ZerO at Draemong: Free cannot beat good Zergs. Notably, Free has an uncanny ability of being seeded with Terrans and Protosses in later group stages, which explains why he’s able to consistently make Top 8 and so many tournaments. Unfortunately, time runs out on Free when he gets matched against a strong Zerg like ZerO and I expect him to crumble to ZerO’s might.

Map Pool Summary:

With Fighting Spirit being played twice and Circuit Breakers, I fully expect ZerO to easily take maps off of Free here with conventional 4 base Zerg play. Gladiator, while interesting, is still relatively standard, and ZerO should still easily push Free away, especially with excellent ledge control around the center with lurkers. Match Point is the only map where I expect ZerO to slightly falter, but since it is the 4th set, I doubt ZerO will ever let it get that far. Free’s game plan should be to make it to Match Point, bring the series to the 5th and final set, then pull off some sort of cheese to catch ZerO off guard.

(Z)ZerO to advance 3-0.


Up

EffOrt vs GuemChi
"Yo, Champ in the making!"


The final Ro8 match, one with a fair bit of hype behind it, on one side we have (Z)EffOrt and his absolutely monstrous ZvP and on the other side we have (P)GuemChi who quite frankly has shown some of the best protoss play in the tournament alongside Bisu and maybe just proving himself to all that he was hyped up to be almost 7 years ago, whichever way you cut it we're looking a great.

EffOrt's ZvP really speaks for itself in 2015 he has been a whole 15-1 in the matchup in tournament games alone and lets not forget his regular bouts against Bisu in Balloon matches and sponmatches showing that he can go toe to toe against the best and still come out on top. EffOrt looking to dominate GuemChi in this series unless GuemChi really prepares for the fight ahead.
[image loading]
Sarlacc EffOrt eats protoss for breakfast, lunch and dinner


GuemChi has literally shocked and rocked the minds out of everyone with his play in the tournament so far beating Sea and hero in with solid play in the Ro32, then beating sea again along with free and sSak advancing 3-0 in a group that everyone would write him off, now with his kryptonite Larva out of the tournament too he faces an even tougher zerg in EffOrt, his games against larva have all been extremely close but his decision making were lacking, while his play still as crisp as Bisu's own PvZ, It all comes down to preparation.

[image loading]
be the man who the maker of this image always wanted you to be


(P)GuemChi<Circuit Breaker>(Z)EffOrt
(P)GuemChi<Match Point>(Z)EffOrt
(P)GuemChi<Gladiator>(Z)EffOrt
(P)GuemChi<Fighting Spirit>(Z)EffOrt
(P)GuemChi<Circuit Breaker>(Z)EffOrt

(Z)EffOrt to advances 3-1


Up

Staff Picks

free vs ZerO EffOrt vs GuemChi
2Pacalypse- (ZerO 3-2)
FlaShFTW (ZerO 3-0)
BigFan (ZerO 3-1)
v1 (free 3-1)
BisuDagger (ZerO 3-1)
Santa XKCD(ZerO 3-1)
BLinD-RawR (ZerO 3-1)
2Pacalypse- (Guemchi 3-2)
FlaShFTW (EffOrt 3-1)
BigFan (EffOrt 3-2)
v1 (EffOrt 3-2)
BisuDagger (EffOrt 3-2)
Santa XKCD(EffOrt 3-2)
BLinD-RawR (EffOrt 3-1)
Up
Writers: c3rberUs, Santa XKCD, BLinD-RawR, BigFan
Graphics: v1
Editors: BigFan, prech
Facebook Twitter Reddit
TL+ Member
c3rberUs
Profile Blog Joined December 2010
Japan11286 Posts
January 07 2016 01:51 GMT
#2
G-Chizzle for the win. And he doesn't even need 4 won games, just 3.
WriterMovie, 진영화 : "StarCraft will never die".
TheGreatOne
Profile Joined November 2005
United States534 Posts
January 07 2016 02:00 GMT
#3
Both protoss advancing here!
Protoss has always been the strongest race and always will be!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BisuDagger
Profile Blog Joined October 2009
Bisutopia19237 Posts
January 07 2016 02:06 GMT
#4
Both protoss advancing would be hilarious, but Zerg advancing creates best finals.
ModeratorFormer Afreeca Starleague Caster: http://afreeca.tv/ASL2ENG2
BLinD-RawR
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
ALLEYCAT BLUES50121 Posts
January 07 2016 02:07 GMT
#5
On January 07 2016 11:06 BisuDagger wrote:
Both protoss advancing would be hilarious, but Zerg advancing creates best finals.


the very idea that we could get a PvP finals makes me shudder, I'll take a ZvZ in the semis instead.
Brood War EICWoo Jung Ho, never forget.| Twitter: @BLinDRawR
TL+ Member
HyralGambit
Profile Joined February 2014
2439 Posts
January 07 2016 02:20 GMT
#6
^ Plus we might see Hive tech being a ZerO vZ match-up
Passion overcomes corporate stupidity: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jX9hbbA-WP4#t=4h2m
Probemicro
Profile Joined February 2014
3708 Posts
Last Edited: 2016-01-07 02:53:23
January 07 2016 02:48 GMT
#7
"his play still as crisp as Bisu's own PvZ"

yeah my ass is crisper than that. effort 3-0 unless windows 7.

free has a much better chance of upsetting zero
1) free current vZero post Kespa record is 4-6
2) zero is a choker and can only win in spotimes leagues
BLinD-RawR
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
ALLEYCAT BLUES50121 Posts
Last Edited: 2016-01-07 03:21:54
January 07 2016 03:13 GMT
#8
edit:nvm
Brood War EICWoo Jung Ho, never forget.| Twitter: @BLinDRawR
TL+ Member
aRyuujin
Profile Blog Joined January 2011
United States5049 Posts
January 07 2016 03:51 GMT
#9
this prediction took zero effort
can i get my estro logo back pls
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