Pony Express Issue 118: Apr. 12 - Apr. 19, 2010

Lots of good games this past week, and there were some damn good ones from the 7 hour long OSL Tiebreakers, but since I didn't watch ANY of those games since I'm just that lazy, I decided to cover another game.

Unfortunately there seems to be this horrible trend of the best games occurring right around the time the PX is slated to be released, so I can't write up any Battle Reports on the best games.

Undoubtedly the best game in recent memory is Set 2 KT vs Stars, Stats vs. Zero on Judgment Day. Holy crap was that game good. In fact it was made good by the virtue of basically one player. Please go watch it.

Specifically NaDa (FUCK YEAH) vs hyvaa.

And thus the game begins with Nada as the Blue Terran at bottom right and hyvaa as the Orange Zerg at top left. The map is Fighting Spirit, which is a map that has pretty much been figured out for Terran: Get 3 base. Turtle. Win.

Ok maybe it's not that simple, but that inevitably ends up being the general gist of how games on this map generally work out.

Hyvaa ends up feeling so insecure on this map that he sends out a 9 Drone scout, and finds Nada on his second try.

Nada, seeing that hyvaa is going for the standard Zerg 3 Hatch, immediately starts his natural CC after only one Marine.





Meanwhile, NaDa goes COMPLETELY the opposite of established strategy on this map, and decides that he's going 1 Rax Tech. What what what? You're defying Flash's tried and true 2 Rax build on this map Nada? Oh you...



Meanwhile hyvaa goes completely standard, getting that Spire, although also getting an Evolution Chamber for unknown reasons...

But wait a second..... Nada noooo don't fail that badly! He lets a Zergling in his main that sees the Armory, and thus knows that Nada is getting Valks. That's just great... The surprise factor would have really helped, but it can't be helped.



Meanwhile, hyvaa gears up to take top right, as hyvaa goes in for the harass. Eh? No turrets Nada? Are you crazy? But it ends up not mattering because hyvaa suicides his four Scourge right into Nada's Marines!







At this point Nada is up to four Valks, and hyvaa's gameplan is made clear – mass Muta/ling with +1 Carapace on the ground. While hyvaa ends up raping Nada's ground army, the entirety of hyvaa's Mutalisk force is completely decimated, leaving Nada with air superiority (for what it's worth).





But now Nada reveals his plan... A Mech switch!



And what comes with a Mech switch? That's right! Mines.





And thus hyvaa's counter attack fails MISERABLY. No further explanation needed I would hope.

Meanwhile, Nada lifts his three Raxes and floats them around the map, trying to get as much vision as possible. Nada also takes 6, doing the patented 3 base turtle Terran that FS is well known for...

hyvaa opts to expand to bottom left without protection, but Nada soon reveals that plan to be.. well... sucky, since Vultures come in and rape that expo. Hyvaa thus opts to take 12 instead.

Now Nada doesn't have a large mech army by any stretch of the imagination, but he pushes out against hyvaa's natural, although anti-air might end up being a pretty big problem for Nada....



And thus Nada tries to push in, and gets completely raped by Mutas. Not cool.



Nada ends up losing quite a few Tanks,



though he is able to shut down 12 for a while thanks to vultures...



And now Nada comfortably in a good position, as he's taking essentially the entirety of bottom, but hyvaa soon stops that plan as he takes out the CC at lower left. No matter, Nada marches in with a pretty big mech army, hoping to completely crush hyvaa's forces there.



Unfortunately the majority of those units are Mutas, so they happily dart away.

Now Nada decides to push out again, this time to top right, and takes out a portion of hyvaa's army while its separated.



The impending threat of hyvaa's force going down bottom left makes it imperative for Nada to return down South, but he soon repositions himself to smash top right while containing hyvaa's army in that corner. Shame that hyvaa had swarm out already to stop that, but oh well. The game continues.



At this point several skirmishes occur around the map, as hyvaa tries to shut down Nada's various expos, but Nada ends up saving every single expansion, so it's no big deal.





Nada at this point is up to 3/2 in upgrades, and this situation is pretty much every Zerg's worst nightmare against a meching Terran.



Zerg, on 5 bases, is up against a Meching 3/2 Terran on 4 bases (granted 2 are mined out for Nada, but whatever). 4 bases for Nada = 4 gas for Mech Terran = ability to build infinite units. Hyvaa's situation looks dire now.

While hyvaa tries to send some commando lings down to bottom left (that get distracted...),




Nada pushes straight into hyvaa's natural. Hyvaa, being the fail person that he is, ends up failing miserably and loses tons of units without swarm support to try and take down Nada's Mech ball.



Eventually though, hyvaa gets his shit together and pushes Nada back.



And now Nada basically has a vice-like grip on this game, as his economy is booming while hyvaa is stuck on 3 bases (his natural mined out), and hyvaa can't do any thing to grab another expansion or stop any of Nada's expansions. Nada is essentially fighting a huge war of attrition at this point, and and he has enough of an economy to basically start throwing away units.



Its at this point that I had enough of the game, and decided to skip ahead, because it's clear that Nada's just going to continue massing up armies and attacking hyvaa's various expansions. So let's see some key events...

Nada crushes hyvaa's fourth so hyvaa's down 2 bases to three....



Nada crushes hyvaa's 12 so now it's 1 base to three...



And hyvaa taps out. At least he isn't gay and tries to drag out the game any longer....



And thus Nada breathes a sigh of relief... And celebrates!




Recap for you lazy bums
Nada goes Valkonic. Hyvaa fails with his Scourge. Nada moves out, loses his MnM army while wiping out hyvaa's Mutas. Nada transitions to Mech. Hyvaa attacks while Nada's at a weak point after losing those MnM, fails miserably thanks to Mines. Nada takes 6. Nada builds huge 3 base economy, constantly pressures hyvaa. *Insert random battles + skirmishes + hyvaa throwing away units* hyvaa ggs.