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Red Bull Battle Grounds Washington DC Finals
September 19th-21st, 2014
DongRaeGu vs Scarlett vs Bomber vs PartinG vs Trap vs sOs
How to Watch: http://www.twitch.tv/redbullesports

September 19th, 2014
RedBull Preview and Code S Recap
by CosmicSpiral

That’s a bummer man.

It’s really all I say about that Ro8 match. There are many words that could sum it up: terrible, horrifying, cringe-inducing, despondent. None of them capture that sinking feeling that descends through the pit of your stomach though. It was brutal to watch DRG flounder so helplessly in a matchup that promised better things. Dongraegu prefers the ZvT matchup above all others and had recently beaten Flash in a thrilling series to reach the quarterfinals; Innovation was returning to the motherland, determined to recast his mind and spirit into a championship mold. We expected a vicious tug-of-war. Instead, we got a proper shellacking.

Hopefully Dongraegu will cheer up once he starts the Red Bull group stage. His Blizzcon hopes may be dashed, but there’s always another tournament for a player of his caliber and popularity. The winner of Red Bull Battlegrounds: Global faces 7 other challengers in the final event of the 2014 Red Bull circuit. A victory here would do much to ease his heartbreak, and he could dry his tears with $20,000 in winnings. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. It’s a hard road to walk and most of these foes are formidable. So who does DRG match up best against and who should he avoid?

PartinG

Typically I’d cringe a little hearing that DRG would have to possibly face 3 protosses. It’s not a matchup that any zerg feels completely comfortable in (unless you’re prepared for a long, slow game) and the current approach is antithetical to DRG’s playstyle. Parting is an enigma in this department though. He’s all but sidestepped PvZ over the summer, only playing 4 total series since the end of May. He’s won 3 of them, beating Sleep, Effort and Symbol. None of them are particularly great in the matchup; Effort is notorious for having a bad grasp of it.

Polt

Back at Red Bull Battlegrounds: Global, DRG and Polt met twice. They traded series, with DRG coming out slightly ahead in games. Overall they seemed relatively even in skill, and most of their games were decided by minor advantages in the early game that snowballed into convincing wins. The major exception was an epic back-and-forth on Merry Go Round. It was a nice showcase of how DRG can maintain his calm under pressure, as he seamlessly transitioned into vipers after his primary roach/hydra timing failed. Roach/hydra is already a specialized plan reserved for specific maps, and I don’t expect DRG to lean on it if they meet here again.

Once you play Polt a few times, you’ll know what to do against him most of the time. He’s not the crazy type of Korean who 2 raxs when he smells fear. He’s not the stoic mech player who will wait 40 minutes for the perfect engagement. Polt is not an incredibly tricky player. He will do hellbat pushes and marauder/hellion pushes, but he generally avoids mech. His lategame approach is characterized by careful positioning, an unwavering commitment to multipronged harassment with large groups of bio, and systematic expanding. Disrupting that methodical expanding appears to be the key to beating Polt. His aggressive playstyle often leaves him open to counterattack, and his worst losses happen when his opponent can figure out his movement patterns to outmaneuver him. We know DRG can do this. It’s a question of whether he can accurately predict the openings, which Polt will definitely try to conceal.

Trap

Jin Air’s most recent pickup must be a little nervous. In the past Trap has been singularly unlucky to join teams with little financial stability, and he must be relieved that Jin Air is more stable than Incredible Miracle. This will be his first tournament representing them, so one can only imagine how eager he is to prove his worth.

At this point Trap’s reputation supersedes his actual skill in PvZ. He can still summon up a terrifying display every once in a while, as evidenced by MLG Anaheim, but lately he’s matured into a well-rounded player at the expense of specialization. Formerly his PvZ was acclaimed for being esoteric and unpredictable, a haphazard mixture of builds and timings that always turned out in his favor. Many fellow protosses have adapted and improved upon those strategies, so Trap’s strong point has slowly lost its unique charm. DRG should not look down on him because he’s no longer the epitome of PvZ. Trap is still great at the matchup and regularly cleans house against lesser zergs. Considering his unpredictability and willingness to take huge risks, I would put Trap in the same boat as sOs.

Scarlett

Last time they met, the Acer zerg defeated DRG with an ingenious switch to protoss. Back then she punished DRG for being too flippant about the abrupt change. This time around, it won’t be a game-changer. Scarlett spent her best ace in the hole at Anaheim and consequently has to win playing standard ZvZ.

In that case, I like DRG’s chances against her. Scarlett is merely solid in most aspects of ZvZ. She can pull off the standard roach timings and multipronged attacks with some flair, but she largely sticks with the tried-and-tested macro style. Her real fortes are stalling the game until both players reach hive tech and muta vs muta battles. DRG has matched up against the best in that department, so his goals against her should be standard as well: take map control when it’s offered, stay one step ahead on the BO mindgames, and engage in the most favorable positions possible. As long as he ensures she’s not pulling a fast spire on him, I favor DRG in the midgame.

sOs

I don’t see any 6-figure checks here. Guess we can safely write him off.

Right?

Right?

…

Is this microphone working?

Bomber

Bomber’s playstyle has always been a bit problematic in this matchup. He is a great TvZ player who relies on a few core facets of his gameplay to carry him to victory. He is meticulous when it comes to setting up infrastructure and maintaining production; he can usually overrun inferior opponents with pure macro if they cannot match him in a battle of mechanics. This is not foolproof by any means, and Bomber will frequently trade games if he can’t get the byzantine machine chugging. Conversely, he’s not outstanding when it comes to micro and expansion timings. Bomber’s main plan in the midgame is building up an enormous swell of bio/medivac and knocking out his opponent with one devastating punch. Barring that, he is also proficient at pulling random builds from archaic metagames to catch his opponents slipping.

Cure

From the way Cure has been performing in the past few months, you’d be forgiven for thinking he’s the second coming of Innovation. He’s won 28 out of his last 31 series, qualified for the Red Bull finals without dropping a single series, and recently demolished Solar to reach the GSL semifinals. He appears to be immune to the fluctuations of online qualifiers and the self-doubt that crops up in live events. Out of all attendees at Washington D.C., he is the unanimous favorite to win the event. It would be bad news for DRG if Cure was placed in his group; alternatively, Cure could wreck some of DRG’s greatest threats if he’s put in the adjacent group.

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DRG wins RedBull Global!!!
Read the full article on their official site: http://www.redbull.com/us/en/esports/stories/1331670277844/drg-breaks-the-curse-at-battle-grounds-global

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