[SC2B] Party in the USA

The Teamliquid Invitational tournament brought some of the best gamers in North America together for a no-holds barred brawl for $300 and status as a top player on the US server. Our two finalists, CauthonLuck and Slush, both battled through difficult opponents to meet in a great set of final games. CauthonLuck started his run off with a W/O over Tasteless, who unfortunately ran into technical problems before the tournament. He then proceeded to take a series off of both LzGamer in the quarterfinals and Huk in the semis to arrive in the finals undefeated. Slush, on the other hand, went through Incontrol and advanced after a controversial series with Artosis to face the rampaging Louder in the semifinals.

Battle tested and ready to rock, the two warriors met on the high tech futurescape of Metalopolis, with CauthonLuck's command center located at the 6 position while Slush spawned at 2 o'clock. Cauthon elected to open with reactor hellions for some early harass but was repelled by some early roaches and spine crawlers after minimal damage.

Game One - Cauthon draws first blood

Behind this harass he transitioned into a fast expansion and a five barracks ground army of marines and marauders. Slush opted for an early burrowed roach attack that did moderate damage but was mopped up fairly quickly by Cauthon's reinforcements thanks to a nice SCV surround.

Surprise!

Cauthon added some medivacs and applied some pressure soon after, but his attack was overwhelmed by Slush's large roach and hydra force as Slush simultaneously got an expansion at the 12 o'clock main online.

You've got some fungal growth on your face, yeah right there...

Slush took the left gold expansion quickly after that and, despite having lower supply, managed to crush Cauthon's next attack handily, leaving him well ahead in both army count and economy. CauthonLuck executed some small drop harass while also taking out Slush's natural expansion hatchery but, unable to secure his own third and almost completely mined out, succumbed to Slush's final attack of hydras and burrowed roaches. He tapped out, bewildered and wondering out-loud how Slush was able to defeat his attacks so easily.

I've seen the replay, and I'm not sure either

The Lost Temple has been found! Can you be the one to destroy your opponents and secure it? This challenge was issued as the game began on this Brood War throwback, with CauthonLuck getting the 3 o'clock position and Slush apparating at 12. Cauthon opened with a standard barracks tech lab build, opting to get two reapers and a bunker at Slush's morphing hatchery placed in his natural expansion. The reapers managed to kill a couple of zerglings and levy a fair amount of damage on the hatchery, but unfortunately for Cauthon, Slush had elected to get an early roach warren, and had roaches out in time to take care of the pesky bunker and it's D-8 demolition charges.

Have at you!

After the initial action ended, Cauthon expanded and transitioned into a three barracks starport build while Slush went for a fast lair, placing his spire behind his natural minerals. Cauthon missed the spire with his scans, and the newly spawned mutalisks soared into Slush's base to find a single viking and extremely marauder heavy army. The glaive wurms rained down on the defenseless SCV lines and Cauthon was forced to GG.

I'm tellin' ya Frank, it was a massacre out there...

We move on to game three, which took place on the tight quarters of Steppes of War. Both players opened fairly standard, with Slush taking an early expansion after his spawning pool while CauthonLuck went for his factory reactor build again. A spine crawler, some roaches and a queen held off the hellion's daring attempt at harassment, but back at home Cauthon was preparing a little surprise. Banshees!

Ah nuts.

The first of these powerful heliplanes flew towards Slush's natural just as Slush sacrificed an overlord to get a look inside the terran's base. The banshee sniped a queen at the natural before retreating back home for a little repair action. Slush threw down a few spore crawlers, thinking he was safe from the airborne hellraisers, but he was unprepared when Cauthon returned with three banshees. They made short work of a forward spore as well as both queens before destroying the natural hatchery. Slush attempted to immediately rebuild it, thinking his newly arrived spore would protect it, but Cauthon quickly razed it before it was cancelled. The banshees then took their leave, but the damage was done. Slush was left to rebuild his expansion as Cauthon's expansion came to life and five barracks poured marines and marauders out onto the battlefield. Slush tried to make use of burrow, but Cauthon was having none of it, easily squishing the hydra roach counter before continuing on to win soon after.

Our fourth battle takes place on the lush, fertile world of Kulas Ravine. The valiant terrans gently awaken to find themselves at the top right of the map, while the hard partying zergs jolt out of their stupor, dizzied and at bottom left. Both races collect themselves and proceed into fairly standard openings, with Slush opting for a typical FE after pool, while Cauthon opened with his factory reactor build again, this time electing to get two barracks with tech labs also. In an unfortunate turn of events for Cauthon, two of Slush's scouting zerglings charged into his main as the building switch was happening, giving Slush unfettered access to the base and Cauthon's plan. This was no simple harass build, Cauthon was going to put real pressure on with a mixture of hellions and marauders. When he arrived at Slush's front door, he found some of the spine crawlers out of place and quickly ran behind the natural expansion's minerals, hammering away at the drones before the roach army arrived to engage.

Those spine crawlers, always fashionably late

Despite killing off this initial attack, Slush was forced to place down more spine crawlers as Cauthon showed signs of keeping up the aggression, rallying hellions and marauders to just outside the range of Slush's base. Cauthon, seeing this increased defense, pulled back and expanded to his natural while Slush teched up to mutas and took the left side gold. Slush's mutas attempted to deal some damage, but were easily handled by Cauthon's mixture of marines, vikings and turrets, and he was forced to try to escape.

I'm tellin' ya Frank, it was a massacre out there...

Meanwhile, though, Slush's Zerg had shed its hangover and was fully charged, pumping out a mass of hydras complimented by infestors. Cauthon engaged and took out the infestors before any fungal growths could be cast, but the hydras overwhelmed the marauder heavy army.

Uh, Sarge, that's a lot of hydras

Slush laid a hatchery at bottom right and pushed into Cauthon. Knowing he couldn't hold and was defeated, CauthonLuck tapped his GG and the series was decided, Slush was the champ!

And the victor is...

I managed to grab Slush for a few minutes after the tournament had ended and briefly got some of his thoughts.

TL: You played very well in the finals, taking home a 3-1 victory over CauthonLuck. Did you expect to win like you did?

Slush: Well I know pretty well the game style of cauthonluck, so I was pretty confident, he did suprise me though the 3rd game with his banshees, so I had to adjust a bit in the 4th game.

TL: At the end of the metalopolis game, Cauthon seemed just both impressed and exasperated by the sheer amount of units you produced. Do you think that was a result of mistakes by him or just very strong macro by you?

Slush: I got ahead by a base mid game that gave me the win. I think I was ahead too in the upgrades so I just had to keep pumping units and have a good position when I was attacking.

TL: Were you suprised at how unprepared he was for your mutas on LT?

Sluth: Well I made my lair and my spire at my expansion hoping he wouldnt see it, and I think he didnt scan my expo so he had no defense what so ever. I was pretty shocked though he didn't think I had lair at that point.

TL: Do you think any of the recent patch changes played a big part in your games today?

Slush: I don't think so. The corruptors new ability didnt help that much. I cant deny planetary fortress but the 20% buff is only great vs colossus maybe.

TL: Is there anything you'd like to say in addressing the issues with artosis and the disconnect game?

Slush: In ANY sport, the call is up to the referee to make, not the player. I just stood by the ref call. I had a small chance to comeback and he was the one to disconnect. Yes, he had the advantage, but you never know. I respect Artosis a lot and he has done a lot for the community. Cheers to him, he'll get his chance next tournament i'm pretty sure. The game isnt even released yet...

In our third place match, the prodigious protoss HuK battled wits with our resident terran terror Louder. Louder took game one with two starport banshees backed up by marines into mass ground, despite some nice blink usage by Huk. After that, though, it was all HuK, who took nice games on Lost Temple, Metalopolis and Scrap Station to claim the third place position.

Unfortunately for Louder, medivacs can't attack

From everyone at Teamliquid, thanks for reading and watching! We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. VODs will be up shortly, so don't worry if you missed out on the action! Also, please keep comments regarding the Slush/Artosis issue in the appropriate thread.

This post was made by the Team Liquid Starcraft 2 Coverage Team. For more of TL's coverage, please visit the Team Liquid Starcraft 2 Beta Page.

[SC2B] Party in the USA

[SC2B] Party in the USA

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