EPT
Today's games are from Group B:
Oversky (Z, GO)
Yellow (Z, KTF)
Boxer (T, SKTelecom T1)
ForU (P, GO)
(for fast results, scroll to the bottom of the news post)
Enjoy!
Game 1: Oversky ZvZ Yellow - Requiem 1.4
Here's how the two players compare in official OGN play:
Yellow is 20: 9 (edit: die smiley) in ZvZ
Oversky is 6:4 in ZvZ
Indeed, Yellow would definitely be the favourite in this match, being much more accomplished than Oversky and sporting a very good ZvZ record. However, Oversky did have the rising star GoRush on his team to practice with (these games were before played before GoRush transferred to SKT1).
Yellow yellow started at 9 and purple 'sky started at 6. Both players had their hax on today, as they both sent their ovies towards the correct spots.
The players' builds quickly diverged, Yellow going gas before pool and Oversky going pool before gas. Yellow put only 2 drones on gas, while Oversky put 3. It is worth noting that Yellow placed his pool between his gas and his hatch in such a way that it actually made his gas mine SLOWER. Their builds converging again, both players went for a 2nd hatch before starting their lairs, with Oversky's being a little earlier.
Both players began producing lings, camping at Yellow's ramp. His spire nearing completion, Yellow placed a 3rd drone on his gas as well. Oversky snuck 2 lings into Yellow's base, and Yellow handled it poorly, allowing 2 drones to die before he sent 2 lings of his own to stop them. Oversky's lings also killed a 3rd drone before being dispatched.
Both players' spires finished around the same time, and both players made some mutas and scourge, using their mutas to attack the other player's ovies. Oversky also got another 2 lings into Yellow's base and killed some more drones. The two fleets clashed at Oversky's nat, with Oversky coming out on top with several mutas left. After a litle more production and harassment from both sides, Oversky attacked Yellow's base and won the ensuing battle with 3 mutas left. He started killing the few drones that Yellow had left, and Yellow had no choice but to concede.
Oversky > Yellow
Game 2: Boxer TvP Foru - Requiem 1.4
A match between two players who have both seen better days. In his prime, Foru was a PvT guru: even Nada, who was dominating everyone else at the time, was scared by Foru's expertise. However, his glory is overshadowed by Boxer's achievements, for Boxer was at the top of the world for more than a year.
On the other hand, TvZ is Boxer's most celebrated matchup whereas his TvP is rather sub-par: 17:19 in official OGN play. The Terran Emperor will certainly have his hands full against Foru's 14:10 PvT record.
Boxer's empire would be built at 3; Foru would warp in his armaments at 6.
Boxer started a wall below his ramp, using a 2nd SCV to block his ramp in case Foru's probe arrived before his rax could start. Fortunately, it didn't, as Foru sent his probe clockwise around the map.
Foru got things started with a gate-core-range-gate build, as Boxer began to erect a single fac and train marines.
Foru began to harass Boxer's wall-in depot with his goons, as Boxer pumped marines and waited for his first tank to emerge. When it did, he brought his tank and 5 marines out to chase Foru away. However, he soon found himself on the run, in the face of Foru's 3 goons and zealot! Only his tank was able to escape, and it ran back into his main with Foru's goons on its tail. Boxer had lifted his rax away from his ramp and was training more marines, and so he was unable to stop Foru's troops from invading his main. Soon it was Foru's 3 goons vs Boxer's SCVs.
Having only 1 fac and 1 rax, Boxer had little hope of holding back Foru's 2-gate reinforcements: nevertheless he fought valiantly to stay in the game. Unfortunately, his SCVs were ineffective against Foru's microed goons, and after losing 2 factory-fresh tanks and most of his SCVs, the Terran Emperor bowed out.
Foru > Boxer
Winners Final: Oversky ZvP Foru - Dream of Balhae
Winner qualifies for the next Starleague!
GO teammates Oversky and Foru would be fighting for the next spot in the Starleague. Although it is a semi-island map, Dream of Balhae attempts to balance ZvP by placing the nat gas somewhat far away from the nat minerals, allowing zerg to take full advantage of it with a 3rd hatch while P and T must place more than 4 workers on it in order to mine it 100%.
Seeing Foru's PvZ record, it looks like he might need some serious map imbalance if he wants to win against Oversky:
Oversky is 6:3 in ZvP
Foru is 4:13 PvZ (ouch T_T)
The game started with Foru in the top-right and Oversky in the bottom-left. Oversky placed his second hatch at his nat and went for lair tech, as expected. Foru, on the other hand, did not take his nat and instead aimed for faster air tech. He warped in a Stargate and several sairs, killing a number of Oversky's overlords with them. He followed up with an expo at his nat.
With his 3rd hatch giving him 100% mining from his nat gas, Oversky opted for hydra tech. Meanwhile, Foru placed several cannons at his nat and started teching towards templars, rather than using the popular sair/reaver build that is common in PvZ island games.
Oversky lifted about a dozen hydras onto the mainland plus a drone. The drone started a hatch at the 6 gas expo, and the hydras tried to harass Foru's main. Unable to reach any probes, he moved them back away from the cliff edge and started morphing lurkers. Oversky also started another hatchery in the lower-right main.
Foru's army consisted entirely of goons and HTs. He began lifting his army down to the mainland just as Oversky burrowed lurkers below his nat and started killing the probes mining there. Foru sent ranged goons to his nat cliff to deal with the lurkers, while Oversky sent the rest of his hydra/lurk army to defeat Oversky's ground force. In the end,
Sensing the strength of the growing protoss army, Oversky sunkened- and spored-up his expos. He also took the upper-left main, giving him 5 bases in total.
By this time, Oversky's Hive had finished, and he started on an ultralisk cavern. He also started an expansion at the 9 gas expo, and saved his lower-right expansion by dropping about 16 hydras there. But he could not prevent the destruction of the hatchery there, and had to rebuild it.
Meanwhile, Foru was not sitting idle, as he had razed Oversky's expo attempt at 9 o'clock. Foru then moved towards the 6 expo, but was forced to run from Oversky's 9 sunkens. Instead, he secretly lifted a good portion of his ground army into Oversky's main. He managed to raze an evo chamber, the ultralisk cavern, and the spire before Oversky arrived to defend.
Foru now focused his attention on the upper-right main and nat. He began to shuttle units up, but lost his shuttle to scourge. In the meantime, Oversky started hatcheries at the 9 gas expo and the lower-right nat. But even without them, he clearly had the advantage with 5 active expos compared to Foru's single active expo at 3.
With his economy surging, Oversky attacked 3 o'clock with lings, hydras, and ultras. However, a combination of ground reinforcements and surprise mass sairs came to the rescue. Foru was also starting on 2-stargate carriers.
With a large number of hydras and a couple of ultralisks, Oversky assaulted 3 twice more, but Foru fought him back both times using goons, archons, HTs, and Disruption Web. Foru had 4 carriers out now, and started to raze Oversky's lower-right expos. Oversky countered at 3 with ultras, hydras, and defilers armed with dark swarm. He also got a good plague on most of Foru's units. Foru held his ground, and then tried to attack across the map with his carriers. Bad idea: Oversky caught him in a pincer with around 20 hydras and quickly destroyed Foru's 6 carriers, most of which had been plagued earlier. Foru sent his ground army into the centre, but he was unable to save his capital ships.
While Oversky continued to mine from about 5 active expansions, Foru's 3 expo had now mined out. Foru attempted to expand to the centre, but he could not hold this position against Oversky's mass hydras. As his nexus in the centre fell, Foru conceded, allowing his teammate to advance.
Oversky > Foru
Oversky proceeds to the Starleague!
Losers Semi: Yellow ZvT Boxer - Neo Guillotine 2.1
Loser must re-qualify for the Challenge League!
It looks like the age-old rivals Boxer and Yellow must fight it out to determine who gets a shot at the upcoming Starleague and who gets knocked back to square one.
Official OGN records show that both players -- but especially Boxer -- are powerful contenders in this matchup:
Yellow - 41:29 ZvT
Boxer - 45:18 TvZ
Yellow kicks off at 5, while Boxer settles down at 11. Boxer starts a rax in his choke, while Yellow uses a hatch-pool build, placing his hatch at the common main/nat choke.
In a scene reminiscent of a certain infamous series of games, Boxer pulled about 8 SCVs off his mineral line and glided towards Yellow's base with his SCV/marine force. Yellow only noticed this as Boxer's troops walked up to his completed hatchery and started a bunker. He immediately rallied all of his drones to defend while waiting for his pool to finish. By killing SCVs, he delayed the construction of Boxer's bunker. In a fierce micro battle, Boxer fought to complete his bunker and save his marines. As his last rine ran was running around Yellow's hatch, Boxer's bunker finished, but as the marine headed for safety, Yellow's drones got in the way and killed it! But Boxer had 2 more marines approaching the bunker. Thankfully, Yellow's pool had finally finished, and his drone/ling force was able to kill these 2 marines as well. His bunker rush thwarted, Boxer retreated, managing to secure his choke in time to prevent Yellow from ending the game with his lings.
During the action, Yellow had stolen Boxer's gas, and now Boxer used 4 SCVs to tear it down while starting a 2nd rax. Yellow, in the meantime, started a 3rd hatch at his nat and went for lair tech.
Shortly, Boxer headed out with a force of M&M while Yellow began to sunken up his choke. Yellow also managed to run 2 lings into Boxer's base before Boxer's rax could land, much to the delight of all his ladyfans. They scouted around and saw Boxer's standard TvZ tech before being dispatched.
Boxer's first tank soon rolled off the production line, and he escorted it to the front with 2 marines and an SCV. However, Yellow intercepted the convoy with about 12 speedlings that he had snuck out of his base, and he succeeded in surrounding and destroying the tank, much to the delight of all his ladyfans. The lings ran into Boxer's base and killed a few marines and SCVs, then surrounded and killed 2 fresh firebats as well. Weakened by the flames, a well-microed tank was able to finish the lings off, but sadly Boxer received no shouts or screams for this.
At this time, Yellow's lurkers had recently finished. He snuck 3 lurkers and a handful of lings out and attacked Boxer's main. Boxer had a few marines and 2 tanks to defend, and managed to slay the attackers with minimal losses. At the same time, Yellow attempted to break free of Boxer's M&M containment. But again Boxer triumphed, prompting a loud cheer from the crowd as Yellow's lurkers died.
During a period of calm and first-person shots, Yellow attempted to expand to the gas expo above his main, and Boxer tore it down with an M&M force. Yellow caught the expedition force on its retreat and crushed it with lurker/ling. He then restarted his hatchery at 4.
Knowing he could not sit idle for long, Boxer loaded up a dropship and moved to fly out the bottom of his main, but a well-placed ovie spotted it, earning Yellow another round of screams. If only all women were this easy to please. Indeed, when Boxer opted to send his dropship out anyway and Yellow knabbed it with scourge/ling, I think some of the fans hit their climax. Yellow is one lucky guy.
Moving on, Boxer decided to move out with his M&M/tank/vessel army, amassed entirely off of his main. But while Boxer sieged up at his choke, Yellow sent about 5 ovies into his base and dropped a large group of lurker/ling. Since his main had just mined out anyway, Boxer decided to lift his buildings and head out with his army to try and eliminate Yellow. He managed to survive one wave of luker/ling/scourge, but as he laid siege to Yellow's sunkens a second wave of units ate up the last of his army, and a disappointed Boxer bowed out. This was followed by screams of joy from Yellow's adoring fans.
Yellow > Boxer
Boxer is out and must re-qualify for the Challenge League all over again!
Losers Final: Foru PvZ Yellow - Alchemist 1.0
Winner earns a spot in the Starleague; loser earns a spot in the Challenge League!
Poor Foru: he's now 4:14 PvZ thanks to Oversky, and now he's facing Yellow who has a 18:14 ZvP record. Can Foru overcome his PvZ weakness (let alone Yellow's strength) and win himself a spot in the next Starleague? We shall see.
Yellow saturated the ground at 11 while Foru graced 6 o'clock with his psionic prescence. Both players dodged a bullet by not getting stuck with the dreaded 3 spot.
Yellow chose a pool-gas build for this game, while Foru started a pylon and then a forge at his left choke. He also scouted in this direction and found Yellow. Foru blocked his left choke with a gateway and cannon, and started a pylon at his right nat, preparing to expand. Yellow, seeing Foru's plans with a drone, responded by placing a hatch at his lower nat and sending lings around the right half of the map. But he turned back as he saw Foru start a cannon at the bridge leading into his nat.
Yellow decided to strike fast with upgraded hydras. Foru's relatively slow expo (compared to 14 nexus) combined with the burden of having to defend 2 chokes left him with only 2 cannons, a zeal, and a goon defending his left entrance. He had also warped in a sair in case of mutas. Yellow brought down about 8-10 hydras and began harassing Foru's gateway. Foru must have underestimated Yellow's strength at this point in the game, since his only reaction was to start a 3rd cannon.
At first Yellow was cautious of Foru's defences, but with a quick reassessment he decided to simply walk up and raze Foru's nearest cannon with ease. This prompted Foru to start 2 more cannons at his entrance, but it was too little too late: Yellow's combined hydra/ling had little trouble razing the other 2 cannons and Foru's only gateway.
Foru's remaining defence consisted of one dragoon, 2 cannons at his main nexus, and about 16 probes. He also had 2 zealots on hold at his other choke, but probably forgot about them due to panic. Foru started 2 more cannons at his main nexus in a desperate attempt to salvage the game, but Yellow continued to advance. He had little trouble microing his hydras against Foru's defenders, and soon Foru was left with nothing. GG.
Yellow > Foru
Foru returns to the Challenge League, and Yellow moves on to the Starleague!
MATCH SUMMARY:
Oversky > Yellow
Foru > Boxer
Oversky > Foru - Oversky goes to the Starleague
Yellow > Boxer - Boxer is out
Yellow > Foru - Foru goes to the Challenge League; Yellow goes to the Starleague
