EPTPreview
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=53778
Group A
sAviOr (Z) - By.Flash (T) @ Fantasy
Same as last week, we have starting positions at 11 - XenoSky (sAviOr) and 9 - Gaema Gowon (Flash). sAviOr does his usual triple hatcheries while Flash pumps out some marines from 1 barracks before setting up his expansion as well as academy and another barracks. A scouting SCV from Flash noticed the lair morphing but what it doesn't notice before it's dead is the fairly large amount of zerglings that sAviOr has produced. 8 zerglings storm in where only 7 unprotected marines await, they are busy running up the ramp though so no damage is taken from sAviOr. Instead, another 9 zerglings come to reinforce and then Flash lets the marines fire some... which makes them die in about 2 seconds with only 1 zergling killed. Lots of SCVs are pulled to block the ramp, a medic finally arrives together with a couple firebats to hold off the remaining zerglings. It doesn't take long before the mutas arrive though, and Flash immediately ggs when he sees them.
![[image loading]](http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h18/Freezard/mplayerc2007-06-0123-03-12-53.jpg)
"I told you, don't forget about the important SCV block you dumb kid!" - Reach
Very slow reactions from Flash here. When sAviOr's zerglings rallied south to Flash's expansion, a scouting SCV saw them coming but Flash didn't pull off his SCVs to block the attack. Also, he seemed to focus more on moving the marines instead. This was too easy for sAviOr, but that's life for FE terrans who doesn't bunker up or builds some sort of blockade.
Group B
Bisu (P) - DarkElf (T) @ Monty Hall
Bisu (5) starts with a 14 nexus to the north, DarkElf (11) goes 2 factories. A SCV blocks the mining path to Bisu's expansion with a depot in order for a vulture to pick off some probes, but it only catches 1 of them cause of dragoons. Add-ons for both factories and a starport going up, Bisu prepares for the mines with an observatory and adds his second expansion to the north. Incoming dropship with 4 vultures kills 7 probes before dying, mines can't do anything cause of observers out. Finally DarkElf decides to expand to the south, adding comsats and has a decent amount of tanks.
He loses his dropship for nothing though, but Bisu doesn't do much better when he first tries a 4 DT drop who only kills 3 SCVs to 2-3 DTs, and then right after a zealot/HT drop which again does nothing. DarkElf moves out to destroy the nexus which is just warping in at 6.30 as well as another empty expansion at 12.30. Bisu's army consists of over 20 dragoons and 10:ish zealots though, so the 10 tanks and few vultures stand no chance. Bisu attacks after 15 minutes of macroing, and with 2 carriers supporting, DarkElf is screwed - gg.
![[image loading]](http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h18/Freezard/mplayerc2007-06-0204-08-33-43.jpg)
"Muhahaha, I just destroyed his expo ez... looking good. Holy ****! Where did all this crawling shit come from!?"
DarkElf tried for a fast vulture push to get an advantage by killing probes, but failed. Bisu lost some probes but he still had 2 more expansions than DarkElf, so obviously his army got unstoppable after a while. Easy win for Bisu.
Group C
Iris[gm] (T) - Shark[gm] (Z) @ Python
Iris (3) barracks into expansion followed by academy and another barracks, Shark (12) with triple hatcheries before lair. Now 16 zerglings rally down and make Iris lift his natural CC, but Iris eagerly puts it back again and sends all of his SCVs there... 9 marines and 1 medic standing below the ramp, everyone but 2 die as well as 1 firebat when Shark tries to break through. Shark puts down a couple sunkens to prevent any mnm counter, 8 mutas pop out but Iris is prepared with turrets. Muta harrass: 21 marines and 1 medic for 6 mutas.
Shark is producing hydras now though, he loses a lot of mutas to the pretty large 0/1 mnm force of Iris. 4 hydras await on a slope, they never morph to lurkers so Iris just runs through and goes for the expansion at 11... Shark cleans it with about 10 mutas, but eventually he loses his 11 expansion against the next force. 6 1/0 lurkers now finally morphed, mutas harass some in main but without doing much damage. Iris going in with 6 tanks, a vessel and a lot of mnm, Shark decides to counter with all he has but loses terribly - gg.
![[image loading]](http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h18/Freezard/mplayerc2007-06-0204-48-22-81.jpg)
"Right, 400 gas finally, now I just need to... WTF?? Morph to lurkers button doesn't work?! Oh well fuck these buggy OSL computers, let us show him the power of hydras - ATTACK!!"
In the replay they show that Shark actually forgot the lurker upgrade... wow. Really embarrasing. He did well in the start, but Iris' macro was superior and of course without lurkers he had to continue to produce mutas which was a waste of much gas (since he didn't do well with them). I just waited for those 4 hydras at the ramp to morph into eggs... :-)
Group D
Sea.Up (T) - Stork (P) @ Hitchhiker
Up (5) 2 barracks which a scouting probe quickly sees, Stork (11) 14 nexus at mineral only into gateway and after scouting the barracks, a forge. However, Up is just faking it and immediately constructs a CC inside his base, while preventing any scouting with a bunker below the ramp and one of the barracks blocking the southern path. Stork heading towards Up's natural with shuttle + reaver, Up has 5 tanks there and a small mnm group. Reaver dies without killing anything else except 1 tank, Stork feels he is safe anyway and starts a nexus at 1 and has observers out.
Up now pushing forward with tanks, with bunkers and turrets along the way, sieging up below the ramp. Stork with nice 2 reaver micro and dragoons kills off all 5 + 5 tanks though with the robotics on 19 HP. :-) Up adding vultures with mines to his army and has taken the middle-right expansion, however he discovers that Stork has 7 up and running too. Big push coming with about 10 tanks and 10 goliaths, but 3 carriers shows up + storms, Up tries to drop at 1 but is neglected - gg.
![[image loading]](http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h18/Freezard/mplayerc2007-06-0205-11-53-93.jpg)
Looks good, many tanks, bunker for extra support... but some nice reaver micro is going to change that! And no, that extremely red robotics facility won't get destroyed...
Up continues his trend with doing unorthodox stuff, now with a 2 barracks into CC. It didn't really give him much of an advantage though, maybe the opposite. Anyway, they were both in the game early on as Stork lost many, many dragoons and reavers very easily, but Up just couldn't keep up with Stork's macro out of 1 more base. A pretty okay game, but I did expect more. Funny note: Stork mumbled something for himself when he scouted the 2 barracks. :-)
Results
sAviOr > By.Flash
Bisu > DarkElf
Iris[gm] > Shark[gm]
Sea.Up < Stork
Not any special games today... all just decent unfortunately. I'll call Up vs Stork the best of them. About the results of today I'm happy about everyone of them, I wouldn't have mind Shark winning though. However, what is more interesting is that we already can see that sAviOr advances to quarterfinals and that DarkElf is eliminated. Good news!
Results & Standings
http://teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=53114
But then suddenly 7 more comments on 1 day. 
