EPT
Niza opened up with the geyser trick at twelve, electing for the extra drone and taking his expansion at 10/9 control as he was mindful of its vulnerable position on this map. He quickly added a spawning pool, while ForU harassed with his scouting probe, keeping it alive so his first zealots would have some help. With two gateways going pure zealots at first, ForU quickly arrived at the mouth of Niza’s choke from his base at six with three warriors and his initial probe. Niza gathered eight lings, and without waiting for ForU to move, he ran around the zealots and down the map, secure with his defense of two sunken colonies. Nobody was manning the ramp, and ForU was forced to retreat, with five zealots in limbo in the middle of the map. By the time Niza reached the protoss base, only one zealot was in position, and the zerglings simply ran on by. With a total of seven zealots in hot pursuit, Niza showed off his micro as he pecked away at the shields of buildings and units alike. With his impossibly slow zealots, ForU lumbered around the map after him, but with the speed upgrade, the zerglings made their presence felt for an impossibly long time.
While ForU tried to deal with Niza’s micro, the zerg master was not neglecting his main base. A lair had been completed by the time ForU warped in his core, and a spire followed shortly after. ForU finally got it together enough to run his nine zealots north to Niza’s base, but four well placed sunkens ensured instant death for anyone that came wandering in. Facing impossible odds, ForU just lined up his zealots to form a wall, but his masonry was poor and Niza got an additional eight zerglings through the side of the held force. Again he got into the protoss main, seeing the templar archive before cannons mowed them down. ForU again tried to probe the zerg choke, this time with an even dozen zealots, but he again ran from the strength of Niza’s zerglings and sunken colonies. They quickly not only lost the initiative for attack, but with the emergence of Niza’s mutalisks, he had to run back home, by this time aided by leg enhancements.
With great mobility given by his flying units, Niza wasted no time in appearing at the bottom of the map, harassing all over the protoss main, hitting buildings and stray units as ForU huddled close to the cannons around his nexus and on the highland above his ramp. ForU was trying to get some archons, but he was impossibly slow. Niza, having taken the one o’clock expansion upon getting his spire, was now able to produce mutalisks on a rapid scale. His numbers grew, and Niza felt no need to add ground troops to his arsenal. He came down with brutal force on ForU’s ramp, killing the five cannons that guarded the way as well as the new nexus ForU had just completed. For his part, ForU was still unable to mass any kind of effective force. He still had a dozen zealots, which he tried to use to distract Niza from his expansion, but he had nothing that would be able to kill the winged force.
After doing a couple laps of the center landmass with his zealots, ForU tried to sneak a replacement expansion at the nine o’clock position, which he surrounded with eight cannons. Niza didn’t hesitate at all, sending in his now uncountable clump of mutalisks. They may have been uncountable, but it was only two shots per cannon to wipe out ForU’s chances. He hung on a little longer, in an attempt to storm the lying marauders, but to no avail.
Niza > ForU
Pure domination by Niza, and I don’t know if ForU managed to kill more than twenty units in the entire game. He basically sat there and built structures for Niza to destroy.
Game 2: Cloud (t) vs GGPlay[GsP] (z) on Pelennor
Using the build that every zerg player has used on this map, Play put a hatchery at his choke (@1) followed by a pool and then another hatchery at twelve, covering the landmass that overlooks his choke. Keeping this in mind, Cloud, across the map at five, got a quick academy after two barracks, and followed that with a fast factory. His marine count was very low at first, as he elected to move out with a small but potent force of nine MM and make the trek up to twelve. With two sunken colonies defending, and a handful of zerglings somewhere on the map, Cloud did not risk an attack, and instead settled for a containment position outside the zerg main. Play tried to use this to his advantage and attack the terran choke, and his timing could not have been better. Just as he near the vicinity, an MM loaded dropship flew overhead, leaving only a firebat and medic for defense, both of which were out of position. Play stormed in, and although he killed the firebat after losing a couple zerglings, he was unable to get a marine sequestered behind a building. Zerglings ran one wan, and a scv blocked the route, and when they went to other, a medic blocked the path. With the heroic marine racking up a half dozen kills, Cloud was free to commence his assault.
He dropped his first load of MM into the bottom of Play’s base, and they were immediately set upon by a group of zerglings. The humans came out on top, and Cloud made two more trips with his dropship, making sure he scooped up every unit. He then sat there for a moment, scratching his ass and allowing Play to drop down five sunken colonies, spaced out well enough to hit marines from all angles. Cloud elected to go up the edge of the map, and try and get behind the mineral line, but Play had placed one of his sunkens in that path, and the fight was one. Twenty MM poured firepower onto the zerg defenses, while huge spikes impaled the marine from below, slowly wearing out their numbers. Finally, with the addition of mutalisks to his army, Play rid his base of the pesky humans, and flew south to commence harassment. His skills were not what Niza’s had been in the last game however, and he had zero success in bothering Cloud, who was busy working on a CC to take advantage of his choke minerals.
Feeling better about his position, Play took another expansion at eleven, stretching his influence across the top of the map, while also taking five in an effort to surprise Cloud. His mutalisks helped force Cloud to stay close to his base, by picking off easy targets whenever the terran attempted to move out. However, when Cloud eventually did decide to move, it was a tour de force around the map. As cloud headed north up the left had side, Play countered at his main with a dozen mutalisks, a dozen zerglings, and four or five lurkers. They tore and the buildings around the choke, but Cloud did not hesitate. Seemingly like magic, the two siege tanks and bunker full of marines, helped by a massive repair job by scv mining right beside it, melted the zerg counter in an astounding display of power. It happened so quickly, it was difficult to tell why, except maybe for the fact that Cloud was now +2. Nevertheless, Play’s counter fizzled, and all of a sudden, the initiative that he had once held was gone.
Cloud rolled through eleven with almost no resistance, and then ignored twelve, instead choosing to set up shop outside the zerg main. Play expanded in the middle to replace his fallen site, but nothing he had was going to stop the siege tanks. Wary of lurkers, Cloud used his dropships to ferry more MM from his base across the map and up to his position. With the sunken colonies and a hatchery destroyed, Cloud showed off his micro as his MM flooded into the zerg base and splattered lurkers everywhere. Although attrition took its toll, Cloud’s attention to detail in bringing in reinforcements gave him the upper hand. The MM tore up the zerg main, while the tanks were redeployed, and busied themselves by hitting twelve o’clock from the ground below. With a small group of marines, which even Play didn’t notice, killing his expansion at five, the zerg conceded the game.
Cloud > Play
Cloud showed his experience and torched Play, who could not quite seem to focus his strategy enough to slow the terran macro.
Game 3: Terato (p) vs Chojja (z) on Biofrost
Terato started this game oddly, building a pylon just inside of his choke, and another just outside the choke of Chojja. His intentions soon became clear however, as he built a forge that perfectly blocked Chojja in, adding a couple cannons behind that one, as well as a pylon/cannon combo on the path leading from the back of Chojja’s base. With his opponent now perfectly contained, Terato went to work starting his core and gas production. Unfortunately, he did not follow on of the main tenements of StarCraft “know thine own base”. Chojja had sent out a scouting drone at the same time that Terato had, and after seeing what the young protoss was up to, Chojja sent that drone to build a hatchery at Terato’s mineral only, overlooking his main mineral line. With the protoss confident of his strategy, especially after stealing the zerg geyser, he had no idea of Chojja’s master counter.
It took two probes popping inexplicably before Terato reacted by fleeing his gatherers. A quick look revealed his worst fears. Chojja added a second colony, and then began making zerglings. Without a cannon or unit in his base, Terato tied to flee, but he had built a gateway blocking his own choke, and effectively sealed his own coffin. Chojja’s lings got to his probes just after they had destroyed their one and only gateway, and Terato conceded.
Chojja > Terato
A master stroke by Chojja, who countered so effectively against the protoss cheese. He got up to shake his opponents hand as always in the end, but Terato couldn’t even look up at his as he offered his limp appendage.
Game 4: Casy (t) vs Sir@Soni (z) on Mercury
Both players played conventionally early on, with Casy (@8) electing on two barracks while Soni (@2) expanded quickly to his natural. He then took eleven as well, hoping to get the early edge on his opponent, who was short on troops but long on tech as he got an academy after only three marines. Casy marched with a dozen troops, first testing eleven where he was repulsed by sunken colonies, and then over to two where he sat outside the zerg base. Because of his early gamble and investment in a strong economy, Soni had to play safe, and was content to just defend and tech to lurkers, while letting the terran have control of mobility on the map.
When he was ready, Soni began to push out of his main with lurkers, making the containing MM force retreat bit by bit. The same happened at eleven, where Casy had also placed a group of MM. The human commander regrouped all of his forces just outside of his bridge, and with the addition of a vessel and multiple tanks; it made for an impressive array of destructive power. He promptly moved back into position outside the zerg main, while Soni laid in wait just below with a group of lurker/ling, just waiting for a chance to spring a pincer trap around the terran. He lost all of his sunkens to tank fire, but then launched units from both the middle and his main once Casy moved in to wipe up his natural. Casy was truly trapped as most of his units were still on the bridge, but the front side of the zerg pincer could not hold up, and he was able to run from the units nipping at his heels and into the zerg main. Here Casy spent considerable energy avoiding lurkers and shooting at anything that moved. This was not the knockout punch he had been looking for, but the economy of Soni was in tatters, although his infrastructure was mostly still intact.
By this time though, Casy had already built up another force consisting of tanks and MM, supported by a vessel. A dropship hit a zerg expansion at five, while the main force rolled over the longstanding eleven. Soni threw his remaining force at this main army, but he did not have the quantity necessary to defeat it.
Casy > Soni
Casy operated on his main almost this entire game (15 minutes). It was only at the end, when the game was pretty much over, that he was mining from his natural. Like a repeat of game two, the zerg tried to take the economic advantage early, but the terran just sat and massed, and the zerg could not handle the massive breakout.
Cheers,
Mani
