EPT
Group D:
Saferzerg (Z, Samsung Khan)
Xellos (T, GO)
Qoo)Clon (Z, Hanbit Stars)
SN_Hoony (P, Pantech & Curitel)
For maps and map pics, head to WGTour: http://www.wgtour.com/map.php?datab=broodwar
For a quick summary of the results, scroll to the bottom of this news post.
Game 1: Saferzerg ZvT Xellos - Requiem 1.4
Saferzerg's ZvT record: 6:3
Xellos's TvZ record: 25:17
The experienced and proven Xellos is definitely the favourite going into this match. Let's see how it plays out.
Saferzerg grabs hold of 9 and Xellos begins to assemble at 6. Saferzerg's first ovie heads straight for Xellos's base. Saferzerg's build: hatch at nat followed by pool. In the meantime, Xellos is using the conventional dual rax opening. Seeing Saferzerg's ovie, his SCV knows where to go to find Mr. Zerg.
Xellos sends his first rine to Saferzerg's base, but turns around at Safer's ramp and heads back to his main. However, moments later he brings 6 up to Safer's nat choke. Safer's sunken has only just begun, and he must bring his nat drones to help defend. Xellos is forced to retreat, but not before killing several drones.
Safer's lair complete, he starts a spire in his main, at the right edge of his creep to hopefully avoid being scanned. But Xellos has academy tech and stim already, and uses 6 rines, 4 medics, and 2 bats to assault Saferzerg's sunkens. Evidently Safer's play was not very cautious, as his 3 sunkens were insufficient to stop the MMF. After tearing down the sunkens and the drones that rushed to defend, Xellos ignores the barren nat and walks right into Safer's main. Saferzerg has started some colonies and some lings, but nothing he can do can stop Xellos now. Moments later, Safer GGs.
Xellos > Saferzerg
Game 2: Qoo)Clon ZvP SN_Hoony - Requiem 1.4
Former OSL'er Clon goes up against newcomer Hoony. Matchup stats:
Clon: 1:1 ZvP
Hoony: 1:0 PvZ
Despite appearances in the OnGameNet Starleague in the past, Clon is clearly no veteran, with only a handful of games in official OGN play (only slightly more than Hoony).
Clon's reign begins at 9 with a pool-gas build. Hoony's terror starts at 12 with a 2-gate build. With his initial lings out, Clon starts a hatchery at his nat. But all is not safe, as Hoony pulls 5 progbes from his main to attack Clon's nat with 3 zeals and 6 probes. Clon is forced to cancel his nat and tries to counter at Hoony's main, but Hoony gets zealots on the ramp in time to block the lings. Hoony's probes return to mining, while his 3 zealots disrupt Clon's mining until Clon's lings return to kill them.
After building 5 more zealots, Hoony takes these and 3 probes and goes on the offensive again. Clon delays him for a bit by threatening to run into his base, but after 2 more zealots arrive to block the ramp Hoony heads out. Clon's nat hatch has hatched, however, and 2 sunkens have started morphing. Hoony attacks nonetheless but is quickly repulsed by Clon's sunkens and many lings. Hoony tries to retreat, but loses his entire force to Clon's speedlings.
Clon follows up with a 3rd hatch, lair, and hydralisk den. Hoony goes for a stargate and forge, and with a small army of zealots he tries to secure his nat with a cannon.
His sair out, Hoony heads for Clon's main. However, he is unable to score any ovie kills as Clon's hydras are ready and waiting. Hoony does get a glimpse of Clon's lurker tech, however, and starts a robotics bay in preparation. Hoony has also succeeded in taking his nat.
Clon decides to take the top-left "island" gas expansion, but Hoony sees it with his sair and quickly drops 4 zealots there to raze it. Clon tries to save it with his speedlings (which can pass through the nat minerals) but arrives just after the hatchery dies.
Hoony's strat is to use sair/shuttle/DT, but as he flies off to harass Clon, Clon drops his entire ling/hydra/lurker army into Hoony's undefended main. Hoony finds himself unable to harass Clon, nor does he have the strength to reclaim his main from Clon's units. As his main is reduced to ruins, Hoony taps out.
Clon > Hoony
Winners Final: Xellos TvZ Qoo)Clon - Dream of Balhae
Winner qualifies for the next Starleague!
The battle for the next OSL spot would be between the powerhouse Xellos and the relatively inexperienced Clon:
Clon 5:6 ZvT
Xellos 26:17 TvZ
The match kicks off with Xellos in the top-right and Clon in the top-left. Clon sends his first ovie south, heading in the wrong direction. As expected, Clon places his 2nd hatch at his nat. Xellos follows suit with a command centre at his own nat. Clon starts his pool and gas, Xellos his rax and gas.
Xellos's CC finishes just slightly behind Clon's nat hatch, and he already has SCVs there to mine once it completes. Xellos has floated his first rax down to the low ground and starts his second. Clon, meanwhile, manner-sunkens himself at his nat, blocking off one of his minerals and forcing drones to go around to the back to mine from it. His lair has also finished and his spire begins.
With 2 rax on the ground and his academy finished, Xellos starts 2 more in his main. He gets an ebay and a fac as well. Xellos has not taken his nat gas, however, whereas Clon has taken his and has started a 3rd hatch nearby to maximize mining from it.
Clon sends his first 4 mutas to Xellos's base and gets a nice look around, but Xellos has 2 turrets at both his main and his nat and Clon can do no damage. Clon adds more mutalisks and Xellos adds more turrets at his nat, while a growing group of M&M helps to defend his main.
His drop tech finished, Clon drops 2 drones down to the mainland. Clon tries to harass Xellos with his mutas and succeeds in razing 2 of his nat turrets before being chased off by Xellos's mainland M&M. With 2 tanks and a bunch of M&M, Xellos heads for Clon's nat. Clon persists in trying to harass Xellos, but his mutas are ineffective.
As Clon's nat comes under siege, Clon begins 2 hatcheries, one in the lower-left main and one in the lower-right, while also taking a large group of lurkers to Xellos's base. Gradually he gets his lurkers up and into Xellos's main. Xellos has only M&M up there to defend, his fac having been placed on the mainland. In exchange for razing Clon's nat, Xellos is forced to lift his nat CC for a good length of time until his tanks can return to dispatch the lurkers.
Clon's 2 lower expos have finished and he has begun mining from both. However, Xellos has firm control over the mainland and now loads up 2 dropships, one heading for each expo. The dropship heading for the lower-left expo is shot down by scourge (though Xellos manages to save a few units with his fast reaction time). The other succeeds in reaching the lower-right expansion, but Clon's sunken and lurkers prevent any damage from being done. Clon quickly clears the threat from his expo.
His drops having failed, Xellos heads across the map and sieges up outside Clon's main, destroying Clon's nat. He then starts ferrying units up into Clon's undefended main. Clon leaves a sunken and 2 lurks to slow down the damage while lifting away all his drones to safety. Soon Clon's main is no more.
Clon has expanded to the lower-left nat and starts expansions at 9, 3, the centre, and the lower-right nat. However, his attempts at 9 and 3 are forced to cancel, as Xellos expands to 3 and sends a small force of M&M around the map. This force takes up residence below Clon's nat, destroying the geyser there, but suddenly Clon brings out a large flock of mutas and crushes the attackers.
Xellos decides to strike the final blow. He takes his powerful mainland army and heads for the lower-left nat, rolling over Clon's centre expansion. Clon has nowhere near enough units to confront this brigade. Soon Xellos's guns are blasting away at Clon's nat while his dropships ferry units into the expansion. Clon gives up this base and attempts to counter with mutas, guardians, and a few lurkers at 3. However, Xellos manages to slay the lurkers with a second army of M&M and shoots down some of the guardians as well. Then his vessels arrive and irradiate the rest, leaving Clon with nothing. Clon types out.
Xellos > Clon
Xellos will play in the next Starleague!
Losers Semi: Saferzerg ZvP SN_Hoony - Neo Guillotine 2.1
Loser must re-qualify for the Challenge League!
Ah, Protoss vs Zerg: many a toss player's worst nightmare. Hoony had already lost to Clon in this dreaded matchup, and now he would have to face Saferzerg. Thankfully, the map is Neo Guillotine, known for giving toss an advantage in this matchup.
Saferzerg is 4:4 ZvP.
Hoony is 1:1 PvZ, including his loss to Saferzerg.
Hoony, at 5, does the PvZ build that Nal_rA popularized on this map: a pylon and forge at the common choke leading into both his main and nat. He then scouts across the map towards 11. Saferzerg, at 1, sends his first ovie towards Hoony and does a pool-gas build. After starting his forge, Hoony sends a second probe to scout 7, while his first scout headed for 1.
(Note: I apologize for the following accidental change of verb tense. Also, Saferzerg turned into Clon for the rest of the match, however this was an easy mistake for me to fix.)
After warping in 2 cannons and starting a gateway, Hoony kept 4 probes at his choke to hinder Saferzerg's speedlings should they attempt to run past the cannons. Hoony started his nat nexus and a second gateway to block the choke, keeping his probes there to block the gaps between the gateways and the walls. Saferzerg's 2nd hatch finished at the 2 o'clock gas expo below his main, and he began this 3rd hatch at his gas nat.
Saferzerg teched towards lurkers, while Hoony started his citadel and templar archives. Hoping to protect his 2 forward gateways, Hoony placed a pylon and cannons in front of them. Once his leg upgrade completed, Hoony sent 7 speedzeals to raze 2 o'clock, but could only kill a sunken before a lurker arrived to defend.
Later, Hoony attempted a second speedzeal raid at 2. He reduced the hatchery's life to red, but failed to raze it. Saferzerg decided to take advantage of Hoony's troop loss, and attacked his choke with ling/hydra/lurker. He succeeded in forcing Hoony's army back behind his gateways.
While Safer expanded to the 11 nat, Hoony sent a DT and HTs in a shuttle to harass him. He secretly dropped the DT near Safer's nat while using the HT to storm at his main. The DT completely cleared Safer's nat of drones, while the HTs got a good number of drone kills themselves.
After this harassment, Hoony decided to attack. His zeal/goon/HT army avoided Safer's lurker containment, going up around the right side of the map. A confrontation between the two armies showed Hoony as the clear victor. He continued up and razed 2 o'clock. Hoony also snuck another DT into Safer's nat, killing all the drones there yet again. With the zerg economy in ruins and the protoss army continuing to grow, Saferzerg conceded.
Hoony > Saferzerg
Saferzerg is knocked out, and will have to re-qualify in the Challenge League Prelims.
Losers Final: Qoo)Clon ZvP SN_Hoony - Alchemist 1.0
Loser earns a spot in the Challenge League; winner earns a spot in the Starleague!
Thanks to his previous performance, Hoony has earned himself a rematch against the zerg nemesis Clon. It is duly unfortunate that Protoss players are in short supply these days and that Hoony has had to face all zerg opponents in his quest for the Starleague.
Thanks to today's games, both players currently have identical records for this matchup:
Clon 2:1 ZvP
Hoony 2:1 PvZ
Would Hoony succeed in exacting revenge and advance to the OSL despite his zerg opponents and his inexperience? Or would Clon repeat his defeat of Hoony and re-attain a spot in the Starleague?
Hoony conspired at 6 and Clon plotted at 10. Neither player ended up at the dreaded 3 position. Hoony got things started with a gate forge build for a cannon and +1 attack, Clon with a pool gas build for speedlings. Both players scouted in the correct directions.
Clon expanded to 12, while Hoony took his gas in preparation for his +1 attack upgrade. Clon made a bad decision with his pool placement, severely reducing his rate of gas mining. In contrast, Hoony built a single well-placed cannon that protected everything from Clon's initial lings.
With his first 4 zealots from his initial gate, Hoony set out towards Clon's base while starting a second gate. However, Clon had too many speedlings for Hoony to handle, enveloping the zealots and killing them.
Clon teched towards lurkers, Hoony towards speedzeals. Once his leg upgrade finished, Hoony sent about 9 speedzeals towards Clon's main. But Clon's lurkers had just finished as well, and Hoony ended up running back to his base while teching towards observers.
With his first obs out, Hoony attacked with an even larger force of zealots. He clashed with Clon's lurker/ling just outside his nat and, to Clon's surprise, won with few losses. Clon had fortified his main with a couple of sunkens and lurkers, but his natural was only protected by lings -- which were still dying in 2 hits to Hoony's +1 upgrade. Hoony fought his way into Clon's nat and razed it.
Meanwhile, Hoony started a cannon outside his 7 o'clock nat. He had only a few zealots to protect it, though, as he had sent the rest of his zealots up to Clon's main to continue the assault. This allowed Clon to overwhelm the position with lurker/ling and force Hoony back into his main.
Feeling confident, Clon took a large group of lurker ling and attempted to break through Hoony's choke. For defence, Hoony had 3 cannons, an archon, a DT, and 4 zealots. A pool of zergling blood gathered in front of Hoony's cannons, and Clon was forced to pull his lurkers back while Hoony suffered comparatively few losses.
At this time, Hoony began to expand to his 6 nat, and Clon to his 12 nat. Hoony placed 2 zealots on the ramp above Clon's nat, preventing any back-attacks from surprising his 6 nat. Clon found them and chased them off with a group of lings.
With a small force of zeal/archon, Hoony moved up the map towards Clon's main, but in a battle with Clon's lurker/ling his small force was defeated. But during the comotion, Hoony somehow snuck a zealot into Clon's nat, where it killed a couple of drones before being eliminated.
After winning the previous battle, Clon, who knew the Protoss army would soon be unstoppable in an equal-bases game, assaulted Hoony's choke for a second time. Hoony was about to shuttle some HTs towards Clon's base, but thankfully his shuttle had not left, and he was able to use them to defend. Nevertheless, Clon broke through the protoss choke with a few units remaining. He tried to go further, but a new batch of units from Hoony's gateways turned him away. Once again, while Clon was busy watching the battle, Hoony snuck 2 more zealots around the back of the map and into Clon's nat, where they emptied it of drones before Clon stopped them (or the drones ran away: we did not get to see what happened).
Both players had teched a little further: Hoony began incorporating ranged goons into his army while Clon had a spire and had scourge in the air to nail Hoony's obs. Clon also scourged Hoony's shuttle as it glided towards his main.
Hoony started to advance around the left side of the map again, trying to secure the nat area with cannons. Clon held him back momentarily, but in the following battle the zerg army was just barely defeated, due in part to a single DT and Clon's lack of detection. However, the Protoss economy was starting to dominate and for the third time Hoony got a zealot into Clon's nat. When the OGN observer found it, the zerg nat was once again devoid of drones. At this point, Clon could no longer match or usurp the protoss army and Clon, realizing this, bowed out of the game.
Hoony > Clon
Clon returns to the Challenge League; Hoony goes on to the Starleague!
MATCH SUMMARY:
Xellos > Saferzerg
Clon > Hoony
Xellos > Clon => Xellos advances!
Hoony > Saferzerg
Hoony > Clon => Hoony advances!
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