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TeamLiquid.net KT-KTF Premiere League Games of the Week, Week Eight:
July Zerg (Park Seong Joon) v [Oops]Reach (Park Jeong Seok) on Luna
An intriguing rematch of last season's OSL final. Reach (protoss at eight) went for a forge first build with early expo while July (zerg at two) morphed two new hatcheries at his natural and quickly re-expanded to the five natural. Protecting his natural with cannons, Reach (left) started teching as July morphed in a lair and den. With speed and attack upgrades completed quickly, Reach burst out of his base with a force of zealots, killing lings and heading for five. However, he ran past the protective sunkens at the five natural only to realise that July had not yet taken the main.
Reach was now upgrading at two forges and had templar tech and a large collection of gateways. July (right) had been waiting for transport and he loaded his forces onto seven overlords and headed for the protoss main. The watching audience was on tenterhooks as July's transports held position above the toss main, waiting for signs that Reach's army would move out across the map and be unable to react to the drop. However, as his army did move away Reach spotted the overlords with an observer and quickly moved his dragoons, zealots and templar back to guard his base.Reach now expanded to nine, and July to 11. July's overlords moved away from the protoss main and towards the warping expansion at nine, dropping the entire attack force there. However, Reach had reacted quickly and with the help of newly arriving cannons, plus storm, he obliterated the attacking army easily, sending the remnants fleeing.
Nevertheless, July's economy was surging and he had teched to hive and ultralisk cavern. Having killed the drop at nine, Reach went on the offensive, his army heading for the five nat expo. He blasted into the expansion (left), templar storming lings, dragoons hitting the numerous sunken colonies. July refused to leave the expo to its fate and sent his new ultra/ling and lurker force to defend. Instead of focussing fire on the hatchery, Reach retreated up the nearby ramp and tried to hold it with archon and dragoons. Eventually his attack force was overwhelmed and, crucially, the expansion survived to fuel the swarm.Having held onto the five position, July had seized the initiative and eliminated the protoss expansion at nine, delivering a near-fatal blow to the toss economy.
Reach expanded to six to replace the lost mineral flow but he was plainly struggling for resources. July had a greater spire and started to snipe at the new six expo with guardians, Reach ferrying in high templar by shuttle to storm the attackers. Reach was hanging on but July had assembled a massive hive tech army, with queens for support. He essayed the rarely seen ensnare and plague against the new protoss army and overwhelmed the depleted protoss forces (right) to seal the win.July continues his hold over Reach, defeating the protoss pro again in another superb clash.
Kingdom (Park Yong Ook) v ArtofHan (Han Oong Nyeol) on Nostalgia
The Devil Toss' horns have been rather blunted in recent weeks and he was utterly destroyed last week by the rampaging Yellow. Kingdom (protoss at one) sent an early zealot towards his terran opponent's base at the 11 position after seeing Han decline to wall in. After killing a couple of marines he took his natural and built up his dragoon force, with observers floating overhead. Han had opted for a one factory early expansion build, rapidly moving up to four factories after he established his natural. Han expanded his perimeter, forcing his way out from the double roadway choke near his base despite strong resistance from Kingdom's dragoons, who were sniping at vultures and SCVs.
Han now moved up to five then six factories and slowly pushed out towards high centre with his main army. Kingdom, meanwhile, had established a new expansion at five but saw his transferring probes destroyed by roaming vultures. As Han's slow push started to approach his own double roadway Kingdom attacked, sending a hoarde of zeals into the centre of the terran army (left), two massive mine detonations obliterating large sections of the terran force. However, with only dragoons remaining the protoss pro could not break the terran position and retreated to reinforce. He launched a second wave of attacks against the slowly advancing terran force but again could not break through. Han had now expanded again to nine and Kingdom sent his army out to low centre, circumventing the terran forces and heading for the new expansion. He had left his natural perilously undermanned but Han opted to move his forces back to defend his new expansion. Kingdom netted a host of SCVs with his surprise attack but the defenders arrived in time to save the command centre. As Han moved his forces back up the map to resume his attack, Kingdom struck again at high centre and broke up the terran tanks with zealot and dragoon assaults, once again helped by a rogue mine blowing up two tanks.At the five position Kingdom had two stargates and a fleet beacon and was waiting for carriers. He shutled four zealots into the terran main in a lightning strike against the two terran armouries, destroying one but unable to get the other.
Han's ground forces had now reached Kingdom's double roadway and were pressing against the protoss natural. They moved in to the natural and started to attack as Kingdom again zeal dropped the terran main in an attempt to get the second armoury and cut off the supply of goliaths which would threaten his imminent carrier fleet. Han narrowly succeeded in saving his armoury and, after destroying the natural nexus he withdrew his forces and headed for the five expo to cut off Kingdom's final mineral flow. Kingdom put up furious defence with his four carriers but the terran army was too strong and he finally typed out.
Cloud (Cha Jae Ook) v Yellow (Hong Jin Ho) on Nostalgia
A short and barely believable game. Cloud opened with two barracks but quickly moved started work on a factory and two starports. Yellow went for a standard early expansion build, with lair, den and lurkers. As Yellow�s first lurkers scuttled across the map Cloud had wraiths but still had no detection at all.
Two lurkers climbed half way up the terran ramp and burrowed, decimating the guarding marines. Yellow�s lings surged into the terran base, taking down the defensive bunker, laying waste to Cloud�s SCVs and destroying buildings left, right and centre, forcing Cloud to lift the rest of his structures. However, just as it looked as if Yellow had the game it slipped away from him. He simply could not get enough air defences to fend off Cloud�s wraiths, saw his drones and morphing spore colonies destroyed (see right) and found his entire setup at the mercy of the terran airforce. With no minerals, no drones, no overlords and nothing to attack the airborne terran units and structures, Yellow gave a wry smile and typed out.Other Games:
Rage (Kim Hwang Joon) v Xellos (Seo Ji Hoon) on Requiem
Rage opened this game in aggressive fashion, attacking with zealot and dragoons early as Xellos (terran at six) struggled to secure his own main. Rage (protoss at nine) kept the pressure on, forcing Xellos to rally SCVs for defence, while teching rapidly to templar archives. Xellos managed to scout the templar tech and quickly erected a bay, with a turret near his ramp. If Xellos believed he was safe from the dark assassins he was mistaken. Rage timed his attack perfectly, destroying the single turret with his dragoons as his dark templar spirited themselves into the terran base. Havoc ensued as Xellos tried to put up turrets near his command centre. He managed to hold on, killing one dark by targeting his own SCV and using splash damage, but was now completely contained. Rage expanded to 12 and furiously resisted Xellos' attempts to establish his natural. Finally securing his expansion, although with a huge loss of time, Xellos sent his first sizable force to vultures out across the map. Rage neutralised a vult raid at his expo then launched a huge attack at the terran natural, with mass storming of tanks, while at the same time expanding to three. Xellos somehow managed to send a large force of vults into Rage's main, destroying all the probes and causing chaos with spider mines. However, it was only a temporary respite for the terran. He could not re-establish his natural and, having mined out his main and seen his defences overwhelmed by the protoss army, he typed out and gave Rage his first win of the tournament.
Boxer (Lim Yo Hwan) v [Red]Nada (Lee Yoon Yeol) on Luna
A dominating performance from Boxer, who took advantage of serious misjudgements by his opponent to condemn Nada to his second defeat in a row. Boxer (terran at two) opened with one factory and two starports, while Nada (terran at 11) tried to get away with a risky fast expansion build with one starport. Within minutes of the start, Boxer was harassing the Nada main with wraiths and was completely befuddling the usually unflappable Nada. At one point Nada, astoundingly, even lifted his main command centre by mistake, leaving his SCVs standing around in bemusement. As he struggled to safeguard his base, Nada tried to counterattack with his first three tanks but they were easily dealt with by the Boxer air force. Nada was able to establish his expansion and had cloaking and an armoury but Boxer was putting his extra resouces to good use and he launched a game-ending attack with goliaths and wraiths, taking down the lone defending tank and starting to lay waste to his opponent's undermanned natural and main.
Terato (Park Jeong Kil) v Chojja (Jo Yong Ho) on Requiem
Terato (protoss at 12) opted for the increasingly popular forge first early expansion build used so successfully recently by Ra and Reach on Requiem. Chojja (zerg at nine) went for pool followed by extractor and expo. As with his week two game against Reach, Chojja made early use of overlord transport to circumvent protoss cannons and attack from behind the toss lines, with fast hydra and lurker attacks at the enemy natural and main. Terato was going for two robotics facilities but before he could get reavers he tried to expand to two, quickly destroyed by dropped hydralisks. Chojja never gave his opponent a moment to rest, harassing the protoss base from all directions while expanding to 11 and six. Terato tried to take the fight to the zerg with reavers dropping at 11 and more and more reavers emerging from his robotics facilities. However, Chojja had been preparing the perfect answer and the MBC game pictures moved to show a huge and still increasing flight of mutalisks, giving Chojja instant control of the map. Terato dropped at six and killed all the drones but his reavers were destroyed by muta fire. After a new drop at 11 was quickly neutralised by the invincible mutas Terato realised his cause was already hopeless and left the game.
IntotheRainbow (Kim Seong Jae) v Sync (Byeon Kil Seop) on Requiem
Perhaps stung by his woeful record heading into week eight, Rainbow (protoss at six) played like a man possessed against Sync (terran at three). He started in aggressive fashion, with four probes attacking the terran wall, and never let up. Once his core was established Rainbow�s first dragoon applied pressure to the terran wall, followed by a second then a third dragoon, destroying the supply depot. The protoss forces were forced to pull back when siege became available to the terran army but by this time Rainbow was teching speedily to reaver and his drop into the terran main was utterly devastating. Sync rallied his SCVs but the game was all but over.
GoRush (Park Tae Min) v TheMarine (Kim Jeong Min) on Luna
GoRush is proving himself to be a force to be reckoned with in the KT-KTF Premiere League and he notched up another impressive win against TheMarine. GoRush (zerg at five) went standard early expo but had to fend off a bunker rush by TheMarine (terran at 11), followed by a marine assault on his morphing sunken colonies. Having secured his expansion he went for lurkers and continually shredded TheMarine�s infantry as it time and again wandered over the burrowed attackers. GoRush was securing numerous expos. After tanks became available, TheMarine set to work securing his own expansion but GoRush was ready and waiting and as the terran army moved out the zerg forces dropped at his main. The overwhelming swarm launched a simultaneous frontal assault into the new terran natural and the game came to a speedy conclusion.
GoodFriend (Lee Byeong Min) v Iloveoov (Choi Yeon Seong) on Luna
A lengthy but uninspiring game in which the two terran armies settled into a centre stand-off while expanding across their respective sectors and building fleets of battlecruisers. Friend outmacroed Oov and used his fleet�s numerical advantage to force the victory after an interminable wait.
Mumyung (Seong Hak Seung) v Nal_Ra (Kang Min) on Nostalgia
Professor Ra decided to conduct a controlled experiment. His hypothesis was that a nexus-first build would not be viable against a zerg pro on Nostalgia. The hypothesis was not falsified. Mumyung overwhelmed the protoss pro with a swarm of lings in a matter of minutes.
And the TeamLiquid.net Player of the Week award goes to reigning OSL champion July Zerg who continued his dominance over Reach with a hive tech devastation on Luna.
Standings after week eight:
KT-Megapass League:
Yellow 6 � 2
GoRush 5 - 3
Sync 5 � 3
Cloud 4 - 4
Goodfriend 4 - 4
Iloveoov 4 � 4
Mumyung 4 - 4
TheMarine 4 - 4
Nal_Ra 3 - 5
IntotheRainbow 2 - 6
KTF-Fimm League:
Chojja 5 - 3
July Zerg 5 - 3
[Oops]Reach 5 - 3
[Red]Nada 5 - 3
ArtofHan 4 - 4
Boxer 4 - 4
Xellos 4 - 4
Kingdom 3 - 5
Terato 3 - 5
Rage 1 - 7
4/10 on liquibet though 
