EPT
Whoo! Time for another Challenge League to get going. Here is a rundown of the groups that will battle in the upcoming weeks: (thanks to Emlary for the translation)
Group A: Cloud (t), ForU (p), Niza (z), GGPlay[GsP] (z)
Group B: iOi (Casy) (t), Terato (p), Sir@Soni (z), Chojja (z)
Group C: Doggi (t), Soo (p), Canata (t), Clon (z)
Group D: Autumn(not the ktf one) (p), Iris[gm] (t), Rumble (z), SaferZerg (z)
Group E: Zeus (p), Mingu (z), KoS (t), Junwi (z)
Group F: Yooi (t), Umbrella (z), Pusan (p), Ggon (random)
This past week opened up with groups A and B cracking the cherry of the OGN season.
Game 1: Cloud (t) vs ForU (p) on Pelennor
Named after the Plains of Pelannor from the Lord of the Rings, this is the new map of the season in the Challenge League, so I will take a moment to describe it. Four mains take root in the corners, with the chokes taking the form of a valley snaking their way towards the center. At the choke of each main are four mineral patches which are within jogging distance of the initial starting structure. Natural expansions are accessible from just outside the chokes and are located on plateaus at 3, 6, 9, and 12. An interesting aspect of the map is that these plateaus overlook the chokes of the next main clockwise of its position. The middle of the map is taken up by four smaller gas expansions with a plateau overlooking all four of them.
ForU (starting at 1) opened up with a gate/core/range build and spent the early part of the game taking advantage of his dragoon’s firepower to harass Cloud’s wall. Cloud (at 11) managed to secure his choke with a bunker followed by siege tanks, and a command centre quickly came into production. Cloud seemed content early on to give control of the map to ForU as he built up a tank/vulture army. Foru said thank you very much and promptly expanded to the middle of the map followed by the three o’clock plateau. He kept his unit count at a level that allowed him to not only keep pace with Cloud, but also expand and increase his infrastructure.
By the time Cloud was ready to move out with his tanks and vultures, ForU had two working expansions as well as the extra mineral patches in his main. Cloud used his vultures to explore the map and mark the expansions, but could not get in to do damage as ForU had cleverly blocked the entrances with pylon walls. As Stargates came in to being in the protoss base, Cloud began to push across the top of the map with his now plump tank battalion. He split the group in order to send some to the twelve natural and pound the protoss units trying to leave ForU’s base. His offense came too slow however, and when the terran forces broached the protoss choke, the first carriers came into being. As the number of interceptors grew, so did the damage to the terran army. Although the protoss ground units were stranded at three o’clock due to the number of siege tanks at the top of the map, the carriers forced Cloud to pull back and switch to goliaths.
With his pressure on ForU compromised, Cloud tried to tank drop the cliff behind the middle expansions but carriers quickly neutralized the threat. As ForU advanced on Cloud, the over reaction to goliaths and lack of tanks showed its problems as dragoons covered the carriers and quickly minced the terran army. After switching up to speedlots, the forces of Aiur crumbled the terran defense and allowed the carriers to make their way to nine. With his only expansion falling, Cloud quickly gave up.
ForU (Suma)> Cloud (Kor)
I am not really sure about Cloud’s build in this game, as the one factory CC build was pretty ineffective as it only gained him the four extra minerals in his base. ForU also took advantage of these minerals just by making more probes and making them walk further. This really slowed his build and allowed ForU to dictate the game.
Game 2: Niza (z) vs GGPlay[GsP] (z) on Biofrost III
Ah yes, the return of my favorite zerg, Niza (who could almost be Boxers brother he looks so similar). Known for his excellence of sauron zerg, he opened against a new player in GGPlay. GsP has developed some good players in the past, so we will see how he does.
Niza (at seven) and Play (at two) started with very similar builds, with Niza getting the lair faster, but Play getting his hatchery ahead of his opponent. The early game was slim on action as both players just built up their numbers of zerglings and drones. Play tried to take his expansion at three after the first five minutes, but Niza quickly stopped that with a zergling attack that attracted Play to his base leaving the door open to force a cancellation at his natural. Unperturbed, Play tried again, and managed to secure his expansion as Niza followed suit quickly. After dropping his hatchery, Play took the initiative and tried his own split attack with his zerglings, sending some to Niza’s main, and more to the hatchery in progress. He was unable to duplicate Niza’s success though, as he couldn’t force a cancellation or keep his troops alive.
Firing right back, Niza sent his mutalisks to his opponent’s main mineral line, while sending his ground troops to the natural expansion to decimate the drones mining gas there. Despite this, no significant air battle had taken place, and with both players collecting from two gas sources their air armies were growing quickly. Play in particular had over twenty scourge patrolling the skies while Niza spent more resources on mutalisks than anything else.
Thirteen minutes into the game Play tried to get another leg up on his opponent by taking the middle expansion on his side of the centre bridges. Niza was busy still massing and flying his mutalisks, but Play was impressive with his constant ling scouting which time and again prevented Niza from masking his movements. Unfortunately, Play made the mistake of overextending the range of his mutalisks while trying to take out an overlord of Niza’s. Niza pounced with his own mutas quickly, and the battle that was fifteen minutes in the making commenced. Mutas spat and scourge howled in as the screen filled with muta fire in clouds of yellow. When the dust settled, Niza was triumphant by eight mutalisks and from this point on the initiative was his. He flew over to Play’s main and forced the drones to scatter while Play attempted to salvage a win by attacking with his zerglings. Niza held, and with control of the skies, he forced Play to give.
Niza (Pantech-Curitel) > GGPlay (Hanbit)
Play did very well in his first Challenge League game, taking the initiative and making Niza work. It is unfortunate that his first game was a ZvZ, but he will get a taste of Cloud or ForU next time.
Game 3: iOi aka Casy (t) vs Terato (p) on Mercury
Terato (@5) made his first gateway in the midst of the minerals in the middle bottom expansion of the map, allowing his early units to pressure the terran early and not get bottled up in his natural. Meanwhile, Casy (@11) blocked his ramp with a barrack and started building tanks to ease the pressure of early zealots hammering at his block. As terran reclaimed his natural area from the early protoss units with his tanks, Terato had a shuttle waiting for a reaver back in his base and added a Nexus to his natural.
As Casy tried vulture sneak that was easily stopped by Terato’s goons, the reaver danced and spun inside the terran base as Casy was forced to retreat his tanks to deal with the threat. It looked as if he would escape major harm as he had scattered his scv, but he forgot to send a group of them back to the minerals and Terato was able to launch one last scarab before losing his shuttle which exploded in the midst of the workers. Eight of them were vaporized, and this loss forced Casy to come back down the map, this time with tanks, in order to try and recoup this loss. Vultures forced dragoons back in the face of mines, and this allowed tanks to get in position just in front of the proxy gate at the bottom middle. Tanks punished the retreating dragoons, but with zealots loaded into a shuttle and reinforcements coming from the protoss gateways, Casy was unable to do significant damage to Terato.
With his much earlier expansion, Terato looked good as he forced Casy back, and his fresh dragoons took position on either side of the center area, halfway up the map. Although Casy now had his natural, he decided to move his remaining units into the top center expansion in order to take that as well. Terato saw this and pounced, and speedlots and dragoons crashed in from both sides destroying all of Casy’s defence. With no units and only a few mines for defense, Terato simply regrouped outside the terran main and then ran across the bridge. Any remaining resistance fell fast, and the game ended then and there.
Terato (SK1) > Casy (Kor)
A pretty dominant performance by Terato, as Casy simply worked too slow and got run over. A good start for the protoss prospect.
Game 4: Chojja (z) vs Sir@Soni (z) on Requiem 1.1
With both players coming off disappointing Challenge Leagues last time, these zergs would try and get off on the right foot at the start of this season.
Chojja (at twelve) and Soni (at six) started similar to the last ZvZ as both players worked their way towards two hatcheries and a lair. With spires up, Chojja decided to get scourge while Soni invested in mutalisks with his first larvae. Other than some early overlord harassment, neither player engaged each other early as they both took their natural expansions. The only early divergence was that Chojja managed an extra hatchery in his base which would serve him well later on.
After increasing his mutalisks to an acceptable level, Soni attempted to pick off the zerglings patrolling Chojja’s choke but instead lost a handful of his fliers to some well timed scourge. Chojja quickly upended the tables by splitting his lings into two forces and attacking both resource sites. Soni defended, but only after losing several drones and retreating them back into his main. Although he had a massive advantage in mutalisk numbers, Soni did not make good his advantage and Chojja managed to keep him at his base with constant zergling and scourge attacks. In an attack that would become pattern, Chojja attacked with his zerglings, and when Soni defended with his mutalisks the scourge would swoop in from the back and erode their numbers. Even when Soni tried to counter with his mutalisks, Chojja backed up his scourge and chased him away.
Twelve minutes in, Soni was still unable to keep his mutalisks alive ling enough to form an effective force. Just when he would gather enough mutalisks to become a threat, Chojja would mercilessly swoop in with his scourge and out-micro Soni. With his air techniques obviously not working, Soni switched up to zerglings and had some modest success with his first attack. Chojja was forced to send his drones into his main, and wait for his mutalisks to kill the remaining forces as they hammered his buildings. Unfortunately for Soni, he could not deliver the deathblow he was looking for, and his economy still lagged behind that of his opponent.
With both players low on units, Chojja recovered faster and again lauched his merciless ling/scourge attacks. Success followed as Soni’s remaining mutalisks fell to scourge and the zerglings fought to a standstill. Soni tried one more zergling attack on Chojja, but was turned away at the ramp and Chojja won by the virtue of a handful of mutalisks killing the rest of Soni’s drones.
Chojja (KTF) > Sir@Soni (Pantech-Curitel)
This was a real war of attrition that lasted twenty minutes. Chojja got up after the match and shook the hand of Soni, as he tries to prove he is back on form in OGN play.
Some long ZvZ’s this week,but all around some good games. No liquibet for this week, but as it has been reset for the new season, next week’s games will be up shortly.
Mani
, man I soo wanna see niza vs foru @bifrost.
