EPT
Game 1: Nostalgia
And its on! Ogogo spawned at 11, and guessed well, sending his overlord down towards Legionnaire who had warped in south of him at 7 oclock. Legs build was a gate/core build, working towards a stargate for corsairs, as well as adding a forge for +1 attack upgrades. Ogogo, who started with a typical 12 hatchery/11 pool build, veered from the normal course of things by quickly expanding to the 1 oclock main once his initial zerglings had popped up. Things were looking up for Leg, as the delayed lair by Ogogo meant that his corsairs had a chance to do some damage. Unfortunately for him, Ogogo had quickly put up a spore colony, which helped limit his overlord losses early on.
Finding that his corsairs would not be effective early, Leg switched up his tactics, warping in a citadel for zealot speed while looking to secure his expansion. A scouting probe found Ogogos expansion at 1 oclock, and started up a pylon to which a gateway was added once it was done. The first real action of the game started up when Legionnaire sent his first 4 zealots from his base to 1 oclock. Ogogo did not have enough zerglings at that point to defend against the zealots, so he decided to counter into the protoss main, but achieved little. Leg made it up to 1, but two hastily made sunken colonies, as well as some freshly hatched lings managed to save the fledgling expansion.
During these early stages of the game, Ogogo had been content to try and establish his expansions, and he was now gearing up to lurkers, hoping to set up a containment of Legs base. Before they could be made, however, Leg again went to threaten 1 oclock, sending seven zealots from his main, as well as having 4 made from his proxy gate that Ogogo didnt know about. Again Leg ran through the middle into Ogogos lings, but again he was able to slaughter them with his speed and attack upgrades. Knowing that he did not have the mobile forces to save his expansion, Ogogo made sunken colonies out all but a few of his drones at 1 oclock, ending up with seven sunkens just as Leg attacked. Leg destroyed a couple of the colonies, but as Ogogo brought fresh troops from home to corner the zealots, Leg was forced to retreat without killing the expansion in the face of mounting casualties.
This victory for Ogogo gave him the time he needed, as protoss was forced to ease off the pressure in order to secure his natural expansion. Ogogo did not disappoint, as he dropped down four hatcheries and started on double upgrades for his zerglings as well as a hive for the andrall gland upgrade. Leg moved out again with a small zealot force, while making templars at home, and searched the open expansions making sure that Ogogo was not taking the map right under his nose. There was no worry of that though, as Ogogo was just making 1/1 zerglings from his eight hatcheries. With Leg roaming the map, Ogogo sent a solid stream of zerglings south and across the bridges to Legs natural. He obviously wasnt too worried about his micro, as a straight line of zerglings ran into some well-placed storms by Leg and a wall of zealots. Ogogo wore down the defences to a nub, but he was unable to break through to shut down the natural expansion. This massive loss of at least sixty lings didnt faze Ogogo though, as he had already made another huge army. Leg was in tough as Ogogo again attacked, this time from across the bridges and the land bridge just to the west of that. Again Leg defended well, and despite losing his Nexus, he didnt lose the game.
Trying to rebound, Legionnaire expanded to the 5 oclock main, and morphed archons to battle the waves of zerglings. Now 2/2, Ogogos lings formed up again to attack the protoss base, and again he was rebuffed without ending the game. Leg defended well with his massively outnumbered troops, as one of his archons reached the astronomic heights of 58 kills. In the end, however, Leg could not keep up to the zergling production of Ogogo, and the increasing zerg upgrades made the difference as Ogogo finally broke through to win the game.
1:0 Ogogo > Legionnaire
Well, this was a tough opening matchup for Leg, as Ogogo is spectacular on Nostalgia. A gutsy move, taking another main before his lair, but it worked for Ogogo, as he was able to both keep his expansion and defend against an early sair, then shift into high gear with his massive cracklings. Legs build was not the greatest, as it limited his early ability to pressure Ogogos expansion, and his corsairs were not a factor in the game.
Game 2: Into the Darkness
This is a new map from the MBC league, using the space tile set, so Ill take a minute to describe it. It is a regular sized map, but with only two main bases @ 3 and 7 corners. A large ramp from each main leads down to a gas natural expansion at 6 or 12, which is joined via a land bridge to a mineral only expansion closer to the interior of the map. The middle portion of the map is quite small, with avenues leading off to expansions at 9, 11, 3, and 5. The overall effect is a map divided into as many as 9 smaller islands, all connected by bridges or land bridges. There are a lot of routes for units to travel, so it is easy to avoid confrontation, and base defence is a major factor as counter attacks could be repeated and devastating.
Legionnaire drew the lower position at 7, while Ogogo started at 3 with a pool/gas build. Leg again went for a gate/gas build working towards templars quickly. Three minutes into the game, Ogogo came down the map with 6 fast zerglings, but was seconds too late to get up Legs ramp, as his second zealot had just arrived, relieving the probes that were set up for defence.
Both players took their first expansions at this point, with Ogogo putting down his third hatchery before his lair; allowing him to quickly mass up his drone count, as well as to get started on his lurkers. He tried to probe Legs forces with a ling raid, but it was ill advised and he lost them all to Legs burgeoning force at his natural. This loss was not critical however, and Ogogo still looked good with a lurker ling force being massed at his mineral only expansion, where he had dropped down two hatcheries.
Leg had been using his secure position to make a force of zealots, dragoons, templars and observers, and he moved out after the failed ling attack. His forces came straight up the middle and were surprised, as Ogogo was also moving south along the same path with his 1/1 lings and lurkers. Leg got off a couple storms, which took out all of Ogogos lings at once, but there were too many lurkers to stay and fight, and Leg was forced back towards his natural with Ogogo in hot pursuit. Leg again stood his ground well though, and he took apart Ogogos ling reinforcements, so that Ogogo had to back his lurkers off in fear of losing them all.
Leg again moved out, this time going up the east side of the map, looking for any stray zerg expansions. Ogogo used this move to counter at the protoss natural, forcing Leg back to his base to defend. In a mirror of game one, Ogogo used his large numbers of hatcheries to tech to 2/2 cracklings, and sent waves down to the protoss base. Leg, as usual, defended well, but Ogogo then switched up to hydralisks and almost instantly had another large force ready. With Leg unable to leave his base for fear of a counter attack, Ogogo was free to expand to 11, and continue to mass his upgraded hydras. With a superior economy and map position, Ogogo sent his hydras down to the protoss base and ran over it, taking a 2-0 lead in the series.
2:0 Ogogo > Legionnaire
Another tough game for Leg. Despite winning most of the head to head battles, he could not put any pressure on Ogogo for fear of losing his expansion. That map is a nightmare for PvZ if the zerg is able to take both its expansions. I think that Leg needed to take a page from Nal_Ra or KTF-Autumn and go cannon crazy. That static defence combined with a few high templars would have allowed him to move about the map with less worry.
Game 3: Parallel Lines
Another map that I was not familiar with, so Ill take a second to talk about this one too. A very striking map visually, this desert tile map is divided into two large landmasses, with a trench running from the northwest to the southeast corner. There are two starting spots on each half, 5 + 9 on the lower half and 4 + 11 on the upper half. There are two expansions for each main, as well as a corner expansion for a total of seven mineral sites per side. (As I write this I realize that maybe there are only 2 mains to start, one on each side, but I havent seen enough games on this map to know if the starting points can be on the same side or not, I am sure someone can clear this up).
Ogogo started at 5 oclock, sending his overlord north and expanding quickly to his natural. It was all on the line here for Legionnaire (@11), as he went for a gate/gas build for the third straight time, as well as a nexus at his natural just before his core warped in.
Ogogos intentions were soon apparent, as he researched drop and speed upgrades for his overlords, as well as range and speed for hydralisks. I was again amazed by Ogogos almost supernatural ability to judge time, as his spire completed for scourge just as the first corsairs appeared in the air for Legionnaire. He looked to take control of the air traffic with double stargate corsairs, and things looked good for Leg as he caught Ogogos first 12-hydra drop crossing the canyon in the middle of the map. Just as it looked like Leg would deal a devastating blow to Ogogos early chances, Ogogo called down a dozen scourges to chase the sairs back to the protoss main, allowing the hydras to carry on to the expansion. Leg had also been teching to reavers, and had one reaver plus a few cannons for defence. Ogogo dropped his hydras just out of range, and then stormed the expansion, using the good range of the hydras to kill the reaver after only one scarab fired. The canons, combined with some brave probes managed to save the expansion, but Ogogo was still able to kill 1 of Legs 2 robotics facilities.
Ogogo, who had used any advantage very well thus far in the series, again capitalized on this small victory to expand twice on Legs side of the map, at 3 and 4. Leg, also taking a quick breather, tried to take the 10 oclock expansion on Ogogos side, but Ogogos psychic powers came into effect again, and he scouted the expansion with an overlord just as the nexus warped in. Despite the relative success of his first hydra drop, Ogogo must have felt concerned about trying to ferry troops across with the growing number of corsairs, because he switched up to mutalisks and scourge, making large amounts of each. It was with these new mutas that he forced the protoss to cancel his nexus at 10, but it wouldnt be the last battle over that expansion.
Legionnaire countered this loss by trying to reaver drop Ogogos expansion at 3 oclock, but again the mutas arrived to take care of them before the hatchery could be destroyed. Leg countered with his now numerous corsairs (11 of them + upgrades), but Ogogo spread his mutalisks out well and both players fought to a standstill. With 4 gas though, Ogogo was looking good and FLEETS of scourge were flying around the map now. Groups of 12 patrolled the canyon between the two areas, and Ogogo rapidly built up a large muta force on the strength of his four gas sources. In a costly move for the protoss, those roving groups of scourge found Legs corsairs, and like a magnet they attacked from all sides, taking down all but two corsairs. This was a costly loss for Leg, because although his corsairs were upgraded, and he had three stargates, Ogogos production was far superior.
The 10 oclock expansion was taken again, this time by Ogogo, but Leg used a stray probe to cannon this attempt, and both players focused their collective might at this spot, ready to battle it out for this territory. Leg dropped a couple reavers amongst his cannon, and backed them up with all of his corsairs. Ogogo countered this move by bringing all of his mutalisks, as well as about 20 scourges that swooped in from behind. The corsairs, now 2/2 (but no shield), took a beating, but backed up by a few cannons Leg managed to come out on top, halting the expansion and forcing Ogogo to withdraw. Ogogo came firing back quickly with fresh troops to force a retreat, not wanting Legionnaire to be able to secure the expansion.
Legionnaire killed 3 oclock with reavers, as both sides took a minute to mass up some more forces. This pause in the action clearly showed that Ogogo was pulling ahead, as he had maybe thirty mutalisks with
1/2 upgrades. In addition to this he was working on a greater spire for devourers. Both players used their forces to trade expansion kills, but protoss needed to hold onto something, as his expansions were far outnumbered by the zergs. Repeatedly both players tried to expand while killing their opponents expansions, neither of them looking for the knockout punch. This style worked to the advantage of Ogogo, and his force of scourge, mutalisks and devourers soon outstripped Legionnaires ability to make corsairs. Once Ogogo felt his advantage was enough, he switched to hydralisks, filled up 12 overlords, and dropped them onto Legs side of the map. After destroying yet another expansion attempt by Legionnaire, the protoss was forced to type GG, making Ogogo your new liquibition champion.
3:0 Ogogo > Legionnaire
Legionnaire was just unable to stop the economy of Ogogo, and that was really the difference in all three games. In the last one, Leg really needed to try and get a ground force to take care of the zerg expansions at 3 and 4 on his side, as they provided so much gas to Ogogo. For his part, Ogogo played with perfect timing and poise, making all the right moves and picking his strategy well on each map.
So another round of liquibition is over, and a new champ has been crowned! I dont know when the next round will be played, but whoever it is will be in tough against a strong zerg like Ogogo. The replays are uploaded in the replay section, so gogo and enjoy.
Cheers,
Mani~
