EPT
In an effort to get our act together here, I’ll be doing a big report on both game days of this week’s quarter finals and treat each series individually. Then we’ll be all up to speed and where we want to be for the semis and the end of the tournament.
Nal_rA vs Jju
Game 1 – Cultivation Period
Ra (6) opened with a familiar gas/forge first for +1 weapons build while Jju (3) 12 pooled with his first hatchery morphing at his natural expansion. Both players scouted well and minimized their cannon and sunken usage due to their respectively passive builds. Ra laid down some gateways and began to produce zealots while simultaneously teching to archives and getting upgrades. Jju began a lair and den but read his opponent well and spent the majority of his larva on drones which resulted in an impressive economy.
Ra finally decided to leave his base with a small attack force of 8 zealots and a goon while cannons were being warped in to protect his natural. Jju was ready for Ra’a attack and had basically the exact perfect force to deflect it. 2 sunkens along with a handful of lings and hydras defended and Ra was only able to get a couple of drone kills before the last of his force was crushed. In addition, Jju had snuck some lings in behind Ra’s army as he had attacked, which allowed him to kill the warping cannons before they finished.
Ra retreated and tried to hold his own with some sexy storming, but Jju had a kicking 2 base economy and rained hydra/lurk until the inevitable occurred.
Jju > Ra
Jju played brilliantly. On a tiny little map like Cultivation Period, you need to have an acute sense of what your opponent has so you don’t get caught with too little and pay the price. Despite this risk, he was able to power drones for the maximum amount of available time and have a force ready just in time to defend himself. Ra on the other hand, had an odd build that didn’t really seem effective. His +1 was done forever and a day before he attacked and he didn’t even use templar units in his assault so building the tech and researching storm weakened his attack and slowed it down considerably. He would’ve been better off with some kind of 3 gate build if he was planning on being that aggressive so early.
Game 2 –815
Ra (11) 2 gated outside of his main with the pylon on the high ground in his base to make it less vulnerable and Jju (7) used a hatch first expansion build to his natural. Ra was able to get a zealot in Jju’s base before he had any lings and harassed some drones before he brought it back to block Jju’s ramp. Jju was forced to use most of his drones to drill the ramp and tried to fight off Ra’s reinforcements but it was a forgone conclusion from the start. Ra microed away, retreating intelligently and targeting drones where he could. By the time Ra’s 5th zealot arrived Jju knew it was already over for him.
Ra > Jju
The positions were ideal, his opponents build was ideal, Ra’s sexy execution was ideal. Easy four minute win for the dreamer.
Game 3 – Rush Hour
Jju (7) 11 pooled into an expansion hatch at his natural and Ra went forge first with a cannon to protect the warping nexus at his natural. Jju expanded again to the 9 o’clock gas expansion and quickly stopped a cannon building attempt by Ra on the high ground above it with a few lings.
The players each began to build up their forces, but they took very different approaches. Jju employed a very typical ling/lurk build concentrating on powering as many drones as possible and expanding again to the min only behind his 3rd economy for a strong mid/end game while Ra, determined to be cute, pumped sairs from two stargates and filled a shuttle with dark templar. He began to mass gateways as his fleet headed through the skies toward the Zerg main at 7 o’clock.
Somehow, Jju saw a sair/drop build coming and already had a bunch of sunkens placed all over his expansions. However, he did not anticipate so many sairs nor did he expect darktemplar and quickly lost overlords before he could defend himself. The sunkens were placed perfectly to defend against reavers, but fortunately for Ra he easily cut through the one protecting Jju’s main under a cloak of invisibility and then set his sights on tech buildings.
Jju played it cool and targeted his own buildings and zerglings to hit the DTs with lurker splash and finished them off once a spore colony was finally morphed. Despite the sexiness of the drop, Ra had little other than a destroyed spire to show for his efforts. He tried again, this time dropping the min only at 9, but again, did little damage.
Disappointed with the apparent ineffectiveness of his strategy, Ra turned to a more conventional style and expanded to 1 o’clock as he pumped a lot/goon/temp mix from his gateways. He even added in a nice storm drop at 9 o’clock for good measure, getting a decent number of drone kills.
Jju drew a line in the sand at the left side of the middle area of the map and Ra danced with him there for a while before pulling his units to the bottom of the map to poke around. Jju took the opportunity to attack Ra’s expansions at 1 with a massive ling/lurk force and killed all the cannons and defending units before Ra’s main army could come back to clean up the mess. Although he cleared out the Zerg attackers, he had lost considerable unit numbers in the process. The next few minutes featured massive ultra/ling attacks from Jju and a botched reaver drop from Ra. The protoss army was eventually ground down to dust and swept off the map.
Jju > Ra
Jju played another brilliant game. I don’t know where these Zerg players are getting their intuition nowadays but if I ever met one I’d ask him for stock advice and winning lottery numbers. Jju played with a “July-esque” quality that makes fast expansion builds seem futile. He predicted the drops, though it looked like he expected reaver, and powered drones with minimal sunkens and units for the perfect amount of time which made his unit massing periods seem like he had a mineral hack on. This was a very impressive performance coming from Jju, who played tenaciously and timed everything perfectly.
Sea vs Yellow[name]
Game 1 – Rush Hour
Yellow Jr. (7) played a pool first build with fairly early gas while his opponent at 3 opened with a 2 rax build, placing one of them in the not so hidden area outside the main to the right of his ramp. Sea tried some cute early marine attacks, but due to his fast pool Jr. had more than enough lings to deal with it and even made the Terran pay as he killed stray marines around the entrance to Sea’s base.
Sea expanded to his natural after building up academy tech and an eng bay. Apparently this was quite late seeing as Jr. had lurks up his butt before the comsat could even finish at the Terran natural CC. Sea tried to dance with the lurks but just lost large marine numbers to them. After Sea’s CC had been in the air for a while and his units were constantly disappearing to inexplicable attacks into lurker patches, Jr. switched tech to mutas and threw the kitchen sink at the Terran main. He had way too much of everything and Sea simply couldn’t handle it.
Yellow[name] > Sea
Sea didn’t control his infantry well at all at any point in this match. He suicided so many marines it didn’t matter what Yellow[name] built…he had nothing to defend himself with. Yellow[name] should be complimented for his keen fast gas build though, since it got the first 3 lurkers to Sea’s natural before he had the means to cope with them.
Game 2 – Peaks of Baekdu
Yellow[name] got the top main and 12 pooled with early gas into an expansion hatch at his natural. Sea, at the bottom main, made a pseudo rax wall and teched to academy quickly. Their first encounter resulted in Jr’s lings getting owned handily by a tiny marine/bat force, but the Zerg quickly got the momentum back by killing off the remaining infantry when Sea tried to run past sunkens and attack the Zerg natural.
Both players then went into Sim City mode and built up there forces, afraid to move out. Sea, finally satisfied with his large SK Terran army consisting of 3 vessels, 1 firebat and a butt load of MnM, attacked the Zerg expansions at the left side of the map, levelling the one at 9 o’clock before he his army was finally destroyed.
Sea continued to put the pressure on and stopped his opponent from holding any of the expansions near the middle of the map. There were constant clashes of lurk/ling and MnM/vessel with great swarm usage from Yellow[name] but the Zerg was simply not able to break out and take more economy. He turned his attention to attacking the Terran economies and had tremendous success, destroying everything but the Terran main. Sea had a sickening number of vessels and MnM, which were constantly plagued and killed in a very stylish fashion, but in the end Sea was able to re-establish himself at the 9 o’clock economy while Jr. sat at his original few expansions, now completely dry.
Sea > Yellow[name]
Sea played just like Oov in this one, which is strange seeing as Peaks is hardly a macro map. His infantry and vessel control was certainly not sexy, but he had so many units that it hardly mattered. He kept Jr. from taking the expansions close to the center and choked him out. Not really an inspiring game, but not poorly played either since he had to deal with a ton of swarm on a relatively small map.
Game 3 – Cultivation Period
Sea (12) 2 raxed while his Zerg opponent (6) 12 pooled with an expansion hatch at his natural. Sea tried to break Jr’s sunken wall quickly with his first MMF group, but lost everything but a bat and a couple medics without killing so much as a single colony. He was lucky he got time to regroup as his opponent teched up to spire.
At this point, Yellow[name] harassed with mutas while Sea did a mediocre job of minimizing the damage, still losing more than enough SCVs to make it worth Jr’s while.
Sea was very apprehensive and made his push across the middle of the map very slowly. Yellow[name] was happy to let him take his time as he built up impressive ling/lurk numbers to add to his fleet of mutas. The expansion he laid down in the upper right hand corner of the map was now very productive and allowed him the gas for tons of lurks. When he finally decided to attack, he flanked Sea beautifully and destroyed the entire Terran army in the middle of the map. Sea had nothing left and quickly had his main and natural full of enemy forces.
Yellow[name] > Sea
Jr. showed some impressive muta micro in this game. He would’ve made daddy proud.
His harass, sneaky expansion beside Sea’s base and patience in hording units as long as possible all contributed to the massacre in the middle of the map that ultimately won him the game. This was a strong performance from one of our new Zerg faces. Sea on the other hand played in a mediocre fashion the entire series. His control was unimpressive and he never really seemed to take control of any of the games.Well that’s all for week 6. Reports for the entirety of the quarter finals are coming up soon. Seems like I have my work cut out for me.
Here are the quarter final matchups we have to look forward to:
Casy vs Zergman
Yellow vs Shinhwa[name]
Chojja vs Iris
Yellow[name] vs Jju
As always, keep up with the progression of the tournament here.
