EPTThis mini-tournament was divided into two groups. Pusan, Nal_Rock and Boxer were in group A and Anytime, Yooi and Doggi in group B... Nal_Rock and Anytime won their respective groups and got to play the grand finals.
For details about groups A and B and how Rock and Anytime won, see these threads:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=26794 (group A)
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=26985 (group B)
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Game 1 on Neo Requiem
Rock at 9, Anytime at 12
Rock opened with only 1 gate but was forced to add another one when his scouting probe discovered Anytime's 2 gates build. Fearing to be outnumbered, he then kept producing zealots frenetically and placed a few of them on his ramp. Too bad Anytime wasn’t producing zeals in the meantime but rather going for early 2 gate goons. Just like his second gate, his Cybernetics Core had been up way before Rock’s.
Only one real battle occured in this game, in which Anytime micro’ed better. When Rock pulled back, Anytime just went “follow and hit” and raped.
Rock 0-1 Anytime
Game 2 on Forte
Rock at 4, Anytime at 2
Both opened with the same, classical 1 gate/core build. Rock chose to add a second gate while Anytime opted for fast reaver tech. Unfortunately for Anytime, both the reaver and the shuttle died without dealing any damage. Rock had more troops at that point thanks to his additional gateway and kept pumping goons/zeals while teching to reavers. Any' just got his expo up when Rock pushed in with a big zeals/goons force accompanied with a shuttle/reaver. Less troops for him + no micro mistake from Rock = GG.
Rock attacked at the perfect timing, just before Any’s nat eco kicked in. Anytime’s failed reaver drop cost him the game.
Rock 1-1 Anytime
Game 3 on Luna the Final
Rock a 4, Anytime at 2
Both chose the same build again, gate/core/gate, but then Anytime tecked faster than Rock and went for reavers while Rock was still massing from his 2 gates. Rock smelled the zeal/reaver drop and brought goons near the nexus just in time. Anytime still dropped and managed to kill a nice pack of probes before the reaver was got rid of.
Rock then finally tecked to something (also reavers) and both proceeded to take their nat. Anytime’s drop must have had Rock freaked out cause he still had like 6-8 goons around his nexus, just in case. But a few minutes later, they probably got bored here doing nothing and followed Rock’s army up to just in front of Any’s nat. Rock then created a little diversion: he feinted to attack while his shuttle was sneakily heading towards Any’s undefended main. The two reavers got one free shot each before probes were out of range... but bad luck there, the scarabs got stuck and hit absolutely nothing. Rock took them back and brought the shuttle back to where his army stood. Still just in front of Anytime’s nat, that is.
Anytime then finally proceeded to confront his opponent’s troops. Both armies looked pretty even... micro battle again? Well, it wasn’t. Basically, Rock had NO SCARABS left in his reavers and spent like ten seconds realising, costing him the battle. What a newbie mistake. Anytime chased the remaining troops up to Rock’s nat. The P&C guy struggled hard, lost one gate and lost of probes but finally defended. It was too late though, as Anytime was already massing like crazy. The next attack forced Rock to type out.
Rock 1-2 Anytime
Game 4 on Ride of Valkyries
Rock at 7, Anytime at 5
Mirror openings once more there with gate/core/gate for both. Then mass goons and a few little skirmish battles in the middle of the map. Anytime finally came out on top and chased Rock’s goons back up to his ramp. Rock being contained, Anytime’s plan was pretty clear from then on: taking his nat while preventing his opponent from expanding himself. Rock then took a risky bet, as he decided to expand on the center island, hoping that Anytime wouldn’t discover it too soon.
Anytime actually discovered it when the nexus was done, but didn’t attempt anything on it, and instead waited for his own nat expand to finish while teching to reavers. Rock already had reavers himself: he grabbed 2 of them and sent his shuttle towards Anytime’s base... but Anytime was playing 120% safe since the moment he had him contained, and had goons everywhere, forcing him to pull back.
There’d been basically no action at all for like 10 minutes. Rock’s troops were all in his main (although he could have broken through the “containment” way sooner) and both were massing goons and a few zealots. Nal_Rock then *finally* attempted to go out. Anytime's “containment” force was like 30% of his force and that’s why he had to pull back so that the rest of his army could join. Big clash in the center of the map, but still nothing else than goons/zeals + shuttle/reaver.
Not only did Rock come out on top of the battle (by a little though), but he had also expo’ed to his nat in the meantime. Big economic advantage kicking in for him: Anytime knew it and pulled his first offensive move of the game, trying to take out his opponent’s natural soon after. But Rock had already rebuilt a decent-sized army and a few templars/archons (which weren’t used in any of the previous games), and used perfect storms (esp. on shuttle/reaver) to easily stop the attack.
Rock wanted to finish it right there: he grabbed a reaver + 2 templars and dropped them all in Any’s nat mineral line. Probes’ slaughter. Anytime tried to desperately break through one last time but it was hopeless. GG.
Rock 2-2 Anytime
Game 5 on Requiem
Rock at 12, Anytime at 6
Time for the decisive game. Anytime got the upper hand in game 1 on that map and opted for the same opening, 2 gates/assimilator/core. Rock didn’t repeat his mistake in the previous game and opened similarly (to Anytime, not to the 1st game -.-).
And then the turning point of the game, already: Anytime built a third gateway. Yeah, that may sound like a gay turning point, but that’s definitely what allowed him to win the first fight, and then slowly outnumber and finish Rock off, in a 8 minutes game. I don't play Protoss so I don’t really know whether it’s possible or not to build off of 3 gates without stopping probes production, but Rock didn’t stand a chance against that.
Anytime wins 3-2 and gets the 4th seed for the next OSL!
VODs:
http://www.yaoyuan.com/show.php?SID=36366
Round 2 reports coming soon.
