EPT
The stock of Control has risen appreciatively since his fourth place finish in the last StarLeague, and he had to be considered a lock to advance again from his group. First his first match he faced off against the other terran in the group, Cloud.
Cloud (@11) and Control (@1) both elected to start with a two factory build as their barracks slowly floated towards their opponents bases. While control built up a mixed force of an early tank and vulture, Cloud quickly added a single machine shop for vulture speed and built five of the agile bikes. As Control rallied his forces to his bridges, Cloud took advantage of his early speed upgrade by slicing across the map to three oclock, north along the land bridge, and into Control’s base. Before Control could recover, vulture grenades commenced havoc amongst the mining scv, killing half of them before Control could halt the attack.
With the game secure barring any major mistakes, Cloud built up forces from three factories as Control headed his way with a large vulture army backed up by a single tank. In a lapse not consistent with a StarLeague semi-finalist, Cloud was able to send another three vultures into Control’s base, and with no units remaining there, all of the scv met with their fate at the hands of Cloud. With no other option, Control tried to contain Cloud’s ramp with his vultures, but with no scv and no way to gain the ramp, he simply sat there while cloud built two starports. Once wraiths took to the skies, the containment was compromised and Control was forced to retreat. Once Cloud got to his opponents base, the lack of air defence was enough to force a GG.
Cloud > Control
Control played as if he did not want to be there, and Cloud won an easy victory over his listless opponent.
Game 2: GoRush (z) vs Rock (p) on Nostalgia
The second game opened up like the first, with the players taking the top two bases. Rock warped in at eleven with a two gate opening, but had misfortune in his scouting when he first sent his probe diagonally to five and then to seven. Once it finally made the trek into the zerg base in the northeast corner, six zerglings had popped from their eggs and Rock retreated back to his ramp. He dropped a quick forge + citadel combo, going for fast, upgraded zealots while GoRush added sunkens to his natural and a spire after his lair was complete.
Once his upgrades were complete, Rock had twelve hungry zealots running across the map towards the zerg natural. Their reinforced blades cut through the few zerglings in front of the four sunkens, but the delay allowed sunken spikes to get in their extra hits which allowed GoRush to fend off the attack. With nothing resembling air defence in his base, Rock was at the mercy of the first mutalisks and the game ended eight minutes in.
GoRush > Rock
Rock simply picked the wrong strategy and failed in his attack. A lack of cannons back home made it impossible to recover fast enough.
Game 3: GoRush (z) vs Cloud (t) on Requiem
GoRush (@3) nine pooled for the second game in a row, and quickly sent his first ten zerglings to the terran encampment south of him at six. Cloud opened with a typical two barracks build, but due to some unfortunate scouting, did not see the lings until they were en route to his base. He quickly started a bunker between his barracks and his command centre, and the crowd hummed with anticipation as the lings looked to halt construction before completion. With only one marine made, the lings were an inch away when the lucky soldier as able to find refuge in the reinforced structure. This allowed Cloud to stay in the game early, but the zerglings pinned Cloud in his main while GoRush teched to lurkers with only one hatchery. Cloud slowly built up his marine numbers, but GoRush was very aggressive with his zerglings, willingly sacrificing one or two at a time in order to halt construction or the terran refinery on multiple occasions. With this extensive delay lurkers were morphing in the center of the map and more zerglings were congregating above the terran ramp.
Cloud pushed up towards his ramp in his main, building another bunker and an Ebay for defence close to the bottom of the ramp. After causing Cloud to waste a scan early, lurkers burrowed and struck at the now completed bunker from the limits of their range. Scv came to repair the bunker while a turret was started just to the right of it, but more lurkers joined in the attack, slowly wearing down the hp. A total of four scv repaired constantly for almost a minute until finally the bunker fell and the zerg forces surged forward. Marines mowed down the zerglings, but their death allowed the six lurkers to re-burrow in front of the terran forces and shred them in an instant. GG.
GoRush > Cloud
Rush lived up to his name, pressing down on the throat early and never letting up. Cloud looked to be on his heels with the late gas, and paid dearly for the delay. Looking like a seasoned pro, Rush is making a consecutive trip back to the StarLeague.
Game 4: Silent_Control (t) vs Rock (p) on Mercury
After losing horribly to Cloud in the first game, Control was looking for a better showing in his second game. He opened with a one-factory / expansion build in the eight o’clock position, while Rock at eleven decided on a standard one gate / range start. Once his robotics facility was complete, Rock sent his dragoons to the bridge at nine, but were forced back by Contol’s well placed siege tank. With his expansion secured by siege tanks, Control switched gears and dropped down four barracks as Rock also took his expansion and warped in numerous gateways. Just as Control’s barracks came into production, Rock dropped zealots amongst the seiged tanks as dragoons invaded across the bridge. Acting quickly, Control pulled a dozen scv off his minerals and used them as a barrier to prevent the dragoons from gaining ground. With no where to go, and tank fire pounding his forces, Rock retreated back to the center of the map, quickly researching storm in order to adapt to the new threat.
Although his MM was not a surprise anymore, Control posed a considerable threat as he moved out with twenty MM and eight tanks. Rock used his dragoons to stall for time as high templars emerged from his gateways, and by the time Control was at his bridge a shuttle full accompanied the speedlot/goon force. Control stimmed forward, but Rock deftly dropped his payload to the east of the battle and then snuck them west, frying all the MM and allowing speedlots to clean up the remaining tanks. Control pulled back but was able to make a stand outside his natural when reinforcements arrived. Rock expanded to one o’clock and sent dark templars into the terran MM force. It took the deaths of ten troops before Control reacted with a scan, and by that time speedlots and archons were pouring down the map. Control repositioned his army behind his bridges, and Rock threw forces at him, stretching his capacity to the maximum. Smelling the victory, Rock expanded two more times and simply rallied his forces to the middle. Control never again was able to leave his base, and after repeated attacks he fell to defeat.
Rock > Control
Well, Control went out in two games, and his play deserved no less. Rock keeps hope alive for another protoss in the StarLeague as he faces one more game against Cloud.
Game 5: Rock (p) vs [Oops]Cloud (t) on Namja Iyaga
Rock started this game from the one o’clock position and found Cloud quickly at eleven. His early presence forced Cloud to take his gas before starting a barracks in order not to lose it to an assimilator. Rock wasn’t done with that though, and he further frustrated his terran opponent with a manner pylon that cut off a third of his minerals. More scv were pulled off line to take down not only the manner pylon, but also a pylon that materialized at the terran ramp. Zealots emerged late from their gateways, and by the time they made the trek across the map Cloud had eliminated the threat. Although he had spent considerable resources dealing with the harassment, Rock was little better due to his early expenditures and five minutes in had only started dragoon range. His dragoons were stationed around the minerals in his base and it appeared Rock was guessing dropship, but in fact Cloud had built a second command center after his first factory and left it in place after completion to boost his lacking scv count.
Cloud eventually secured his natural expansion, but had very few units early on with only a few tanks securing his expansion. Rock had forgone his natural, but had instead taken both his corner mineral only and the three o’clock island for his second source of gas. Now with about eight tanks, but no vulture support, Cloud took the northern route to twelve and set up a turret/tank perimeter. Without a natural to worry about, Rock avoided this menace by taking the southern ramp into the center with his dragoons and zealots and commenced an attack on the terran natural. After modest damage, he then ferried units into the terran main, but was stopped by fresh troops. Terran expanded again to his already reinforced position at twelve, but he underestimated the troop count from Rock and the protoss commander was able to force his way up his northern ramp and force the new CC away with mostly zealots. His thriftiness with his gas was soon explained as carriers emerged from stargates at the three o’clock island. They slowly made their way across the map and although goliaths soon came from Cloud’s factories, the combined force of protoss air and ground units crushed the remaining terran forces and forced an end to the game.
Rock > Cloud
Rock makes a nice run to win twice and steal away a spot in the StarLeague from Cloud. Surprising, but if Rock wants to do any damage in the next stage, he will have to step up his game.
Mani
