Recommended VODs of recent games - Page 90

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in more ways than one.

With the series tied 1-1 after two hard-fought games of relatively standard play, Jaedong (whom I had not seen cheese in what seems like ages) pulls the ultimate Zerg cheese. Yes, a 4 pool.

This was an incredibly daring move to begin with: after a gut-wrenching loss in the pro-league and an an unexpected upset in the MSL, these are the semi-finals of the last league Jaedong remains alive in; moreover it is the most prestigious of the leagues. For Jaedong, there is more at stake: if he takes this OSL, he becomes the third player to win the golden mouse; if he loses here, given his other recent losses, it will be hard to deny that he is starting to slump. Although these are just the semi-finals, he is facing one of his toughest opponents (the winner of this series will be strongly favored to win the OSL). Fantasy is not exactly known for his predictable, standard play: more than once in his recent games against Jaedong, he has gone for an 8-rax (which almost certainly would hard-counter a 4-pool). Taking all this into account, Jaedong weighs up his options and decides to go 4-pool--on a 4-player map.

The 4 starting locations mean that Jaedong has at best a 1 in 3 chance of spotting Fantasy with his initial overlord. Practically speaking, it means that, after utterly sacrificing his early economy, Jaedong has to cripple it even further by sending a drone to scout (4-scout--haha). This is about as all-in as you can get.

Jaedong's drone scout finds Fantasy to his east and harasses the SCV building the barracks. Fantasy has gone for a 10-barracks after supply depot: early, but just late enough that Jaedong has a shot. Unfortunately, he then goes for a refinery, having no inkling yet of the incoming zerglings. But Fantasy's star-sense, perhaps triggered by the early scout leads him to send a fairly early scout of his own, giving him an extra second or two warning of the 6 zerglings heading for his base. Now it will come down to micro.

Jaedong's micro is sublime, taking down many SCVs and--critically--sniping the first marine before it gets into the bunker that Fantasy has put up next to his command center (the scout drone, with its ranged attack, proves invaluable here). Had this been any other opening, Jaedong would have a solid lead, but as it is, he still has only three drones mining. He needs to do more. The next marine gets into the bunker, the barracks lifts off to form a Sim City between to the bunker and the minerals, and it seems that fantasy has successfully defended.

Taking advantage of the bunker's limited range, Jaedong takes down the supply depot (at the ramp, for a wall-in) and the refinery (on the other side of the command center) and seems to have done just enough damage to allow him--improbably--to switch to drones and transition into the middle-game, albeit at a disadvantage.

But he is not doing that! As fantasy tightens his defenses and continues building his economy, Jaedong is not building drones at all--just ling after ling, with only three drones mining! Cutely, while 6 lings run around the edges of Fantasy's base, both displaying their small number and preventing any sort of scout, the others are massing above the ramp, where Fantasy can have no clue of their existence. Nonetheless, there seems no possible way that this can work. Fantasy's Sim City now includes a bunker, a barracks, a supply depot, and a building factory, which he had apparently saved enough gas for before the refinery snipe. The SCVs to repair the bunker are just centimeters away from it, in the mineral line. The best Jaedong can hope for is perhaps to delay Fantasy's gas as long as he can, but he has far too many lings for that, and the incoming vulture will render them all obsolete in moments. The building factory appears to have sealed off not only the bunker, but Jaedong's last hope of victory in this game.

With the factory nearly done, Jaedong strikes. His lings run around the other side of the minerals and into Fantasy's mineral line, where the marine is standing among the SCVs to protect the far reaches of his base. The bunker stands empty. The marine runs for the bunker while a second marine, just completed, does the same. Both of them make it in time. While Jaedong may be able to pick off a few SCVs, he cannot do nearly enough damage to make up for his trashed economy.

But Jaedong's target is not the SCVs at all! In the heat of the moment, Fantasy has made one tiny and understandable--but critical--mistake. He has not pulled any SCVs to repair the bunker, instead stacking them to help protect them from the zerglings. As Jaedong's lings attack the bunker, and his other, hidden lings stream in to the base to assist, Fantasy tries to repair the bunker only to find that he cannot. Jaedong has brilliantly turned his own Sim City against him! Instead of blocking out Jaedong's lings, Fantasy's buildings are blocking his SCVs from repairing the bunker. Only one side of it remains open for them to reach--and that side is entirely blocked off by the attacking zerglings!

There's not much else to say about the game. Jaedong closes it out crisply with his usual impeccable micro, and Fantasy, perhaps understandably frustrated, delays the inevitable by floating away his buildings. A minute later, he gg's. I pick my jaw up off the floor, and get on with life, a little more cheerfully than before.

3 and 4

1: http://www.gomtv.net/classics3/vod/996

N/A

If you're a fan of aggressive, low econ play, it's probably worth watching: this game features that from both sides. Otherwise, although there are some exciting points, the game as a whole wasn't especially great.

I dont really think the defense was all that amazing. It was over for hwasin as soon as his scvs maynarded past the overlord at his nat. It left jaedong more than enough time to finish 2 sunkens, make lings and set up a flank. It was virtually impossible for hwasin to break him at that point, and such an aggressive rush failing pretty much killed his chances of winning the game.

That was his only chance of winning the game. Doesn't want to face JD's late game.

second time I see Hwasin attempting this same kind of BS rush against JD. He just doesn't think it's possible to win in a straight game. I guess he's right...