With Boxer already back in the StarLeague thanks to his Challenge League victory, and know another legend had the chance to join him as Yellow took to the field today. Joining him is Kingdom, Sasin)Child and July’s four pool victim Casy.
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?
I don't know why, but I never had a lot of faith in YelloW as a player. I'm convinced that he'll commit himself to a mental institution if he loses another big match to Boxer.
As for my liquibet, odds are Boxer is always > Yellow...
I'm sure they'll meet in the next OSL. It would be such a huge let down to the fans if they didn't and I'm sure the organizers of the tournament would not allow that to happen. It would be a marketing nightmare from their perspective.
boxer yellow in the final would be sweet seeing the kings of old battle it out once more and boxer,yellow,reach and nada in one groupe would NOT be cool. just too many great players guaranteed to get knocked out
Contrary to alot of you I'm hoping Boxer respects Yellow enough to not choose him in his group and for them to be in separate ones, rape through each of their groups and go at it at the finals. But that last part is wishful thinking. Even being the huge boxer and yellow fan that I am, realistically I know they can't BOTH make it to the finals.
Only other final I would like is Boxer vs Nada, OMFG I HATE NADA, BOXER PLZ DESTROY, GET REVENGE FOR KTF FINALS RAWR.
I also hope Reach does well, poor reach >=(
And as always, it'll be interesting to watch July, who seems to be the end result of some kind of weird science experiement that combined Chojja and Yellow.
Edit: Forgot to add that I will cheer for all SK players too, unless they are going against the aforementioned favored players ^^
Nada vs Boxer would not be good if you're a boxer fan. Ideally, Boxer would win and avenge the beatdown he got in KT-KTF finals, but I doubt that Boxer could take down nada
On August 04 2004 12:01 LaZyScV wrote: Little error in the match between Yellow and Kingdom..
"Kingdom started with a two gate build at twelve, but quickly got his gas and core after his first couple dragoons"
Dragoons before core and gas, neat.
Nice reports though.
Thanks Sometimes even though I read them through, I make many errors. I was supposed to post these last night but instead had to write them at 8 am this morning thanks to a corrupt floppy. I think I swore loud enough to wake my neighbors.
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
it was not a bunker but a depot. in that game, Casy didn't do marine's range upgrade and he knew it after the game.
The deadliest group possible would be julyzerg/oov/nada/kingdom. I wouldn't be surprised if neither boxer nor yellow make it out of their respective groups. They aren't finalist caliber players anymore, get over it.
Nice reports. No bold results, me likey! I was pleased to hear yellow didn't fall for the old lead the lurker spines boxer trick, and crushed poor casy
On August 04 2004 14:52 Tien wrote: boxer will never beat nada. The only hope of Boxer winning anything is if he is matched up against a zerg.
Any other matchup of his is HIGHLY questionable.
Also, I thought nada was the one people usually picked LAST. Nobody wants this guy in their groups.
That used to be the case, but for the last few leagues it seems to have been the opposite. Obvious favorites (and Nada is always one of them) usually get picked up first because 1. it makes the person who picked them look badass (and OSL champions want to give the impression that they can take on anyone) and 2. it's better to potentially take out the favorite in the group stage where the matches are bo1 rather than wait until the semis/finals where it's a bo5.
On August 04 2004 15:27 HnR)hT wrote: I wouldn't be surprised if neither boxer nor yellow make it out of their respective groups. They aren't finalist caliber players anymore, get over it.
I would be surprised, though i accept they aren't as deadly as they were.
As for the deadliest group - that would be oov-July-Reach-Nada. Kingdom tends to fuck up almost half of his important games.
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
it was not a bunker but a depot. in that game, Casy didn't do marine's range upgrade and he knew it after the game.
Yeah I was really surprised when Casy started that building at Yellows natural, but I thought it was a bunker only because his marine was heading straight north to that position. With the VOD quality though, I only had to assume that it was a bunker because I didn't actually see the ob click on it.
I totally missed the fact that he had no range, but that explains a lot of why he got hammered time and again by those lurks.
On August 04 2004 21:34 Sulik wrote: I would be surprised, though i accept they aren't as deadly as they were.
People give Boxer and Yellow way too much credit these days. Yes they used to be the top 2 players in the world, but now I wouldn't put any faith in them at all. If they do pull off a miracle and make it out of groups, both will be promptly eliminted in any best-of series against somebody I consider in the top 7-8 gamers in the world at the moment.
On August 05 2004 14:11 Vharox wrote: Go yellow O:! I really hope boxer/yellow go to finals. Would be nice to see them duke it out :D
This is the most wishful thinking I've ever encountered. When I said it was obvious that Yellow and Boxer would meet I ment in the first round. They can't risk one of them being eliminated before they meet and with their current skill, that's a huge risk.
The only way I could concieve of Boxer not picking Yellow is if he's feeling like a tough guy and selects a deadly opponent...but I doubt that will happen.
Count on Boxer vs. Yellow first round...it'll happen...
On August 04 2004 21:34 Sulik wrote: I would be surprised, though i accept they aren't as deadly as they were.
People give Boxer and Yellow way too much credit these days. Yes they used to be the top 2 players in the world, but now I wouldn't put any faith in them at all. If they do pull off a miracle and make it out of groups, both will be promptly eliminted in any best-of series against somebody I consider in the top 7-8 gamers in the world at the moment.
If you're referring to me, or even if was just in general I wanted to make it clear that I cheer for Boxer and Yellow regardless of their current skill level. In my mind, it would not surprise me if Boxer won this starleague. On the other hand, yellow advancing to quarters would surprise me. I know what being realistic is but I think you don't give Boxer ENOUGH credit. Even though Boxer is in his ' Slump ' I think he's fighting back and I would say *Realistically* it's too early to count him out of finals-caliber play.
Edit: Btw Boxer is ranked 8th currently in KeSPA rankings. So he is top 7-8 gamers in the world, and I'm willing to bet he will spank Silent_Control who is ranked higher in any amount of bo5's.
Look at his Liquibet score how can you not havw faith in him HES BOXER 1 : 1 vs Stay[HyO] 1 : 0 vs Yellow 1 : 0 vs Qoo)Max 1 : 0 vs Nal_Rock 1 : 0 vs Sasin)Child 1 : 0 vs MinGu 0 : 1 vs Niza 0 : 1 vs Oversky
how many d(z),probes(p)and scv should i make b4 switchin to structures,.. and more im4tantly, how many structure should i make for each kind?a reply would definitely be so. appreciated.thnx-
On August 06 2004 16:15 marianne wrote: how many d(z),probes(p)and scv should i make b4 switchin to structures,.. and more im4tantly, how many structure should i make for each kind?a reply would definitely be so. appreciated.thnx-
For terran and protoss just make workers constantly, you shouldn't stop until you have enough to fully harvest at least three expos. 50 probes/scvs aren't too much by any means. Get as many drones as you possibly can, however this is a bit more difficult for Zerg, normally 12 per expansion does quite nicely.
On August 04 2004 15:27 HnR)hT wrote: The deadliest group possible would be julyzerg/oov/nada/kingdom. I wouldn't be surprised if neither boxer nor yellow make it out of their respective groups. They aren't finalist caliber players anymore, get over it.
Is it possible for july/oov/reach/boxer to be in a same group?
EPT
