EPT
Game 1: Kingdom (p) vs Sasin)Child (z) on Nostalgia
Child spawned at one and quickly put a hatchery at his natural with nine control. Kingdom saw all this quickly as he scouted well coming from just down the road at five, and soon a zealot was making the trek up the map. With more bladed warriors following from the two protoss gateways, Kingdom microed his first zealot inside the zerg base just as zerglings were done their incubation. Using his first zealot as a distraction, the second and third members blocked the ramp, while number four and five of the enclave hammered away at the natural hatchery. For his part, Child laid down a third hatchery in his main and busied himself with killing the lone zealot. Once the attack on his natural commenced, Child was forced to break his ramp by sending his drones off line and rallying them to his minerals, breaking them as they passed through the zealots and making them scatter. Zerglings quickly took advantage of the breach, and headed straight down the map towards the enemy encampment. While he attempted unsuccessfully to get up the protoss ramp, a zealot he had left unattended in his haste made its way back into the zerg main and sliced up three drones before being eliminated. With three early hatcheries though, the drones were easily replaced, and Child added to his infrastructure with two evolution chambers for his zergling upgrades.
Kingdom had not been idle during this period of elongated harassment. As the announcer swept over his base, a shuttle was revealed waiting patiently by the robotics facility, picking up its reaver payload as soon as it popped out. No time was wasted in flying up the map, as Kingdom wanted to take advantage of Child’s lack of lair tech. Child had placed his overlords well, and the drop was well scouted, but as Kingdom faked main he really dropped the natural, getting a shot off. With only speedlings, Sasin was forced to either run after the shuttle from point to point or risk separating his troops and not having enough to defend well. Kingdom increased the pressure as he brought his now upgraded zealots up from his base and into the zerg natural. Parking his army behind the natural minerals, Kingdom protected his reaver with zealots while allowing the armoured robot to devastate the hatchery and sunkens. Child tried to make the switch to hydralisks, but as Kingdom returned with a second reaver in his shuttle, the defense melted in front of the mighty scarabs. With a switch to achons and speedlots, Kingdom rallied everything to the zerg base, and after an attempt to hold using sunkens and zerglings Child was forced to retire.
Kingdom > Sasin)Child
Game 2: Casy (t) vs Yellow (z) on Nostalgia
The pressure was high for both players, as Yellow dug in at eleven in his starting bid to get back to his accustomed position in the StarLeague. As the incumbent, Casy needed to prove his place last time was not a fluke, and he got a good start, sending his scout from seven up to Yellow’s natural and forcing the zerg to place his natural hatchery off center of the ideal mineral spot. For a moment it looked as if Casy would try to bunker the off center natural, but Yellow reacted quickly to the threat by sending a handful of drones to scare off the scv. Things regained their normal course for a moment while Yellow teched up to his lair while Casy put together a typical MM force including two medics and two firebats. Casy headed back up the map with his force, causing Yellow to increase his sunken count to three. Yellow hatched his first three lurkers and buried them at the choke leading to twelve, serving the dual purpose of blocking the backdoor to his natural, as well as protecting his new hatchery at the gas expansion at twelve. Casy scouted this move and decided to act before things got out of hand. Sending reinforcements up from his main boosting his numbers to about thirty, a firebat was chosen to run ahead of the pack and distract the burrowed killers. Unfortunately, the lurker counter attack was well aimed, and the spines ignored the one bat and tore through the marines, costing Casy his entire force.
This was a definite disaster for Casy, but despite the massacre he was busy taking his natural and conscripting more marines from his three barracks. Yellow made his first real move as he contained both the terran bridges and northern route with lurkers and zerglings while taking another expansion at one. With his lings now exposing almost the entire map, Yellow found no surprise in a dropship edging its way up the east side of the map. He tried to cut it off with his growing hydralisk force at three, but the ship escaped with heavy damage and managed to drop its force and kill the new hatchery at one. This would be Casy’s major success in the game, as Yellow’s three (and soon to be four) base economy pumped a mixed lurker/ling/hydralisk force in large numbers. Casy attempted to cross his bridges once he had added tanks and vessels to his MM, but Yellow had that path locked down and stopped the advance cold with hydra and lurkers. Now with only MM once again, Casy tried to take the overland route out of his base, but again he had difficulty with lurkers at a choke, and another thirty MM got chewed up by three concentrated lurkers.
Leaving his opponent with no room to squirm let alone advance, Yellow promptly took the remaining expansions and waited, massing units in the middle of the map. When Casy tried one last push across his bridges, the brood fell upon his forces, tearing them apart in an instant. Without even having to attack the inside of the terran base, Yellow came away with the win.
Yellow > Casy
Game 3: Yellow (z) vs Kingdom (p) on Requiem
Yellow started this game safely, nine pooling from nine o’clock, and then expanding without doing any damage with his early troops. Kingdom started with a two gate build at twelve, but quickly got his gas and core after his first couple zealots. Yellow dropped a third hatchery in his base with no lair, and was forced to retreat his first lings as Kingdom moved out with his force of four zealots and five dragoons. With Yellow digging in at his sunken, Kingdom dared not to attack the natural, and instead paused for a moment and then headed back towards his base. This hesitation turned deadly, as Yellow had used his three hatch production capability to get a large speedling force and send it after the protoss force. As Kingdom struggled back, the much faster zerg poured over their enemies and tore apart Kingdom’s army. With little reprieve, Yellow switched up to hydralisks, and the zealots patrolling the protoss ramp fell quickly to their projected acid. In a matter of moments, Yellow demolished Kingdom like a blind boy and got his place in the big show.
Yellow > Kingdom
Game 4: Casy (t) vs Sasin)Child (z) on Mercury
Opening with a quick academy, Casy (at two) moved out quick with a couple bats, medics and four marines. Child had opened the game at eight by expanding, and then getting his third hatchery before his gas. The early terran threat forced Child to invest in sunkens early as he waited for his lurker tech to finish. Although his factory was almost done, Casy decided to skip the firepower of tanks for the moment and teched to vessels in order to handle the upcoming lurkers. Both players took a moment to build up their forces while Child took the opportunity to expand to both ten and the mid-west.
Once Casy moved out, Child was forced back to his new expansion and had to make a stand with his lurker/ling force. The terran was halted for a moment, but reinforcements were quickly on the scene. Child made an ill-advised choice to send his remaining force around the northern route of the map in an attempt to counter Casy. However, Casy was bottled up tight at his choke and this dilution of strength at the Zerg expansion allowed terran forces to rip up the mid-west expansion.
Pausing to take his natural ten minutes into the game, Casy held his ground outside the zerg base as Child attempted to use his ineffective offensive force as the second half of a pincer attack. Bad timing cost Child success in this attack, and because his force consisted still of only lurker/ling with no defiler, he was unable to crack the growing terran containment. A brief expedition to ten shut down both that expansion and the natural thanks to some tanks firing across the gap. With no economy, Child threw everything at Casy, but the marines held their ground and crushed the resistance.
Casy > Sasin)child
Game 5: Kingdom (p) vs Casy (t) on Namja Iyaga
For the last spot in the group, Kingdom wasted no time. Although he started at one, he built a proxy pylon at the bottom of the map, just to the right of the terran base at seven. Building ranged goons from one gate, a robotics facility was added at the proxy and reavers were soon in the queue. For his part, Casy decided on a confused tank/vulture drop that never got a chance to unload as Kingdom had a serious mental map hack and shot down the ship with three goons, the last shot stretching an impossible distance outside his base causing the crowd to burst into hysterics. With the failure of his first drop, the door was open for Kingdom’s proxy reaver to swoop in from the bottom and decimate thirteen scv with three scarabs. Dragoons came down the map, and when a second reaver was added, Casy’s defenses were inadequate to stop the onslaught.
Kingdom > Casy
Kingdom handled who he had to in order to advance, and Yellow dominated both his opponents without breaking a sweat. One more group to go, and then group selection can begin for the StarLeague. Boxer chosing Yellow anyone?
Cheers,
Mani~
