EPT
Game 1: NaDa (t) vs ktf_Autumn (p) on Nostalgia.
Autumn (at eleven) opened up with confidence, as he managed to keep his scouting drone alive and out of the way of Nada's marine until the four minute mark of the game. Because of this, Nada (at one) seemed hesitant to show his tech, and had only one factory made once Autumn came to the ramp with his first couple dragoons. Autumn harassed at Nada’s ramp while following his one gate/range build with a quick nexus at his natural. Nada eventually decided on a second CC after his first factory, placing it right below his original. Once done, it helped boost his scv count rapidly before lifting and floating towards its destination below the main base.
Autumn must have sensed the lack of terran units, as he spent early minerals on his infrastructure building up gateways to take advantage of his early natural. Once he switched over to his macro game, speedlots formed the majority of his army, backed up by dragoons and observers. Nada did not make any attempt to produce any early pressure, and as the telecast switched to his screen, viewers were treated to an exhibition of speed as Nada worked at his macro, pumping units from five factories. Just as he began to mobilize and place his tanks to defend his ramps, Autumn came out of no where, zealots followed by dragoons streaming across the bridges. A lack of mines hurt Nada, as the zealots were unimpeded in their sprint across the map. Proper unit selection made Autumns attack very successful, as his tanks around his natural fell to zealots right away. Nada seiged tanks on his cliff to start the defence, and then pulled his mass of scvs off the minerals to trap the dragoons in their pincers. In addition, vultures arrived to handle the remaining zealots, and did so effectively. Once the dust cleared and Autumn retreated his remaining units, Nada's damage seemed amazingly minimal. He had lost a few scvs and his initial tanks, but his natural was still in production and his pump was still working.
With the initial pressure relieved a little bit, Nada sent vultures out to reconnoiter the map, finding and shutting down a protoss expansion at seven oclock. The reprieve was not as lengthy as Nada had hoped however, and at the same time as vultures was working over seven oclock, Autumn came again across the map, a shuttle full of zealots complementing his speedlot dragoon force. Good vulture micro allowed Nada to deal with the drop quickly, but others rushed up the ramp from below, joined by dark templars which allowed the dragoons to fire at the natural expansion with no opposition. Nada retreated his scv back into his base and used them to fight along side his vultures. He managed to fight of Autumn once again, but with no army and protoss reinforcements on the way, the end was inevitable.
Ktf_Autumn > Nada
Game 2: Stay[HyO] (z) vs jju (z) on Nostalgia
Jju (@ 7) went up against Stay (@1) in a battle of brood supremacy. Jju got his gas very early, mining before dropping his spawning pool while Stay dropped a pool first, following it by an extractor. Their builds evened out a couple minutes into the game, with the only difference being that Stay scouted with his ninth drone. This paid off as he was able to delay Jju’s second hatchery with some cute micro; but this aside there was no encounters before mutalisks. Both players used their initial mutalisks to hunt for overlords, and that acted as a spark for first conflict, as Stay flew to defend one of his weakened overlords. Jju got the upper hand and forced Stay to retreat, and a pattern developed that would continue the whole game. Jju would engage Stay in mutalisk battles with a pure muta army, while Stay went with a combination of mutalisks and scourge. Repeatedly, Jju came out on top of these battles, but he always retreated rather than pressing his advantage in order to preserve his mutalisks and continually build numbers.
Eight minutes in, each player took a respite, with Jju taking the gas expansion at six while Stay settled for his natural. A minute later, Stay also tried to take 12, but a small ling force from Jju stopped that before the hatchery was half done. Jju complemented this attack with a strike at Stays diminutive muta force, reducing their numbers and only retreating once scourge arrived on the scene. Stay tried to chase Jju down the map, trying a two pronged attack with zerglings at six and mutalisks headed towards the main base. This fizzled as a sunken stopped the zerglings and Jju intercepted the mutalisks. Stay retreated, and then threw both forces against six. Again, Jju defended with his now far superior mutalisk force and he chased Stay back up the map. With no way to defend the flock of mutalisks, Stay typed GG just as his opponent arrived at his expansion.
Jju > Stay[HyO]
Game 3: Jju (z) vs ktf_Autumn (p)
Both these players know that a win means a progamer status and a spot in the most prestigious StarCraft league on earth. You would think then, that both players would bring their “A” game with them. Autumn, unfortunately, did not. With close stating spots, (protoss at three and zerg at twelve), Jju dropped two hatcheries in his main and went for lurkers. Autumn began with a two gate build, but after making three zealots to guard his ramp, decided to tech and got his core+gas. Autumns next move was to start building dragoons with range, but a decision to mass four gate goons without a robotics facility cost him dearly. Jju took his first four hydra south around the long way of the map, while speedlings guarded the short route from the protoss base to the zerg base. Once he had eight dragoons, Autumn moved out with his five zealots, scattering the zerglings outside his base. Jju used nice micro to suck the protoss forces out, and then brought his lurkers in from the back and ordered the to burrow at the ramp. Speedlings swarmed over the dragoons, pinning them to the cliff and allowing lurker spines to eviscerate the lumbering quadrupeds. With no detection in the skies or buried beneath the ground, Autumn stood little chance once Jju breached his ramp. With two quick moves, lurkers were buried in place beside the nexus, slicing through the fragile bodies of the hovering probes. Jju struck at the jugular, and Autumn went down in a blink of the eye, giving the vet another tour in the big time.
Jju > ktf_Autumn
Game 4: Stay[HyO] (z) vs NaDa (t) on Mercury
This game opened with both players working at a similar speed, with Nada opening with a standard two barracks, academy build. Working up at eleven, Stay got his lair and researched lurker tech. Nada’s first small MM force moved up the map and patrolled the perimeter of zerg influence outside the bridge, but was soon forced back as the first lurkers pushed outwards. Every inch between the two bases was fought for. Stay used his lings to buy time for the lumbering lurkers, but Nada was equal to the task as he alternatively retreated and stood his ground, racking up kills and losing no units in a delicious display of marine control. Stay quickly lost his taste for this kind of warfare, and he took his newest units down the far side of the map in order to hit from multiple angles. Unaware, Nada brought his now burgeoning marine and tank army into the center and up to the zerg north, where a hatchery was digging its tentacles into the ground. Wasting no time, Nadas tanks plowed through the feeble organic goo, tearing it apart in a blaze or scorching cannon fire. Turning on a dime like a well oiled machine, tank and human acted as one, sending a wall of lead through the reinforcements come up from the south. When the sulpher cleared the air, terran dominance had already acquired another target, and the marine platoon did not wait for sunken colonies to fail before rushing into the fray and annihilating the drones and maggots. With losses topping no more than fifteen units, Nada put on his boots and waded through Stay from the bottom up. Time for a rematch.
Game 5: Nada (t) vs ktf_Autumn (p) on Namja Iyaga
It was all on the line and Nada, starting in the northeast corner, scouted diagonally to find Autumn camped in the southwest. Protoss started the game tech heavy, getting a robotics facility, citadel, archives and forge before his second gateway. This boded well for the terran star, as his factory/port build allowed him to have two tanks loaded and in the air quickly. As he hooked down the map, a jerk of the stick caused the ship to swerve top the left as a protoss shuttle glided through their path. Both generals dipped and dodged, daring the other to show their payload first. Deciding not to risk it, Nada swerved in pursuit of the slower protoss ship. Once over terran land, two dark templars unsheathed their blades in preparation for battle, but they escaped just before a wraith fire ripped apart the ship. Staying out of the range of the revolving towers, they sliced through an scv building a command center. Their effectiveness was limited however, as they could not get in range of any other buildings to destroy. As Nada pushed up with tanks and turrets, their fate was grim as they eventually were pinned to the top of the base and destroyed. Meanwhile, tanks were back in the air, scattering protoss probes upon their arrival behind the minerals. Accompanied by the wraith, this formidable duo cost Autumn two goons and several probes before he could neutralize the threat.
Nada kept the pressure on as another two tanks seiged on the cliffs above six, raining death upon the newly warped nexus. Now with a more conventional zealots/dragoon army, Autumn came down with his units and cleaned up the mess with his mine clearing dragoons and zealot drops for the cliff. The nexus survived, and soon fresh probed zipped above the shattered bodies of their predecessors. Again, however, Nada would not leave Autumn alone, re-dropping his main and scattering the probes once again. All this time, Nada also showed off his multitasking skills as well as his tenacious control, and as they camera panned up it was apparent that the terran war machine was in high gear with expansions at both his mineral and natural expansions. With Autumn still smarting, vultures motored down the map, strewing mines behind themselves and gearing towards six. Ignoring the two cannon defense, the vultures were numerous enough to again shred the probe population. This attack repeated itself, causing Autumn to have to respond again with troops and giving Nada time to again expand to three. Autumn finally dealt with the last of Nada’s harassment, and moved into the middle with a large zealot/dragoon legion. At the same time, Nada was also hastily setting up on his end of the plateau. This hastiness burned him hard and fast, as zealots sucked in mines that destroyed five tanks and five vultures. With the crowd in hysterics, Autumn surged forth into the void, spilling units towards the terran ramp. Holding his ground, Nada fortified from below and held on with an impressive display of shock and awe. In the blink of an eye, the protoss forces that had been flooding in vaporized in a shimmer of power. Autumn retreated back to lick his wounds, and with the taking of his natural began to climb the ladder to carriers. With the middle now his own, Nada took twelve and lair a thick bed of mines and turrets across the map. With a quick scan of his opponents base, his focus changed to goliaths with double armouries providing an extra punch.
Unaware of Nada’s massive expanding, which now included both eleven and its natural, Autumn moved out with his first carriers and dragoons. Protoss used his little wriggle room to take both nine and five, but Nada had been rallying his units to the middle for an extended period, and he had an army large enough to stop any protoss offensive. Heedless of the meager resistance, Nada struck simultaneously around the map, dropping nine with goliaths and shutting down five with a vulture sneak. Trying to counteract that success, Autumn headed north with his seven carriers, running into a long turret line on the border of the eleven main. After taking apart the static defense, Autumn found himself caught in the middle of a landmass as Nada brought goliaths up his ramp, followed quickly by another goliath drop directly underneath the air behemoths. Autumn did well at first, using his high templar support to shred the giant walkers with blue lightning. Unfortunately, his reactions betrayed him with his speed, and he stormed the drop located underneath his carriers. He paid for this mistake as this weakened the blimps and allowed the goliath missiles to rip through them, sending chunks of their bodies crashing to the ground.
Now with level two weapons and armor, Nada rolled through six and then through the natural. Sending divisions in different directions, Autumn’s protoss empire fell apart around him, as his last force of units could simply not respond to the offensive effectively. Nada rolled through the main and a retaken five oclock sending Autumns last airships crashing to the ground and forcing him back to the Challenge League.
NaDa > Autumn
So Nada and Jju both return to the StarLeague, where hopefully Nada can reclaim his winning form and earn his newly inflated paycheques. Next week the last two groups go through their qualifying stage and the new champion JulyZerg will find out his final opponents.
Cheers,
Mani
