WCS Europe Season 2 - Premier League

Ro32: Group D Recap
HasuObs and Duckdeok advance


Brackets and standings on Liquipedia

VODs on Youtube

by kollin

Protoss pair of mouz.HasuObs and MVP.duckdeok advance, Roccat.DIMAGA and Mill.Dayshi fall to challenger.

Results from Live Report Thread by Acer.Scarlett`.
+ Show Spoiler [Detailed Results] +

mouz.HasuObs came in first place with clinical German play, and Korea's MVP.duckdeok made the rest of his opponents look like geese with purely all-in strategies on a WCS EU day of unexpected results. Despite being a four man group, many expected it to realistically be a three way battle, considering the way Duckdeok's MVP teammate TAiLS had fared just the other day, opting to also all-in every game but failing due to crippling lag from Korea.

duckdeok's first series against Roccat.DIMAGA was basically the same story, as consecutive all-ins failed in spectacular fashion. In the first game, duckdeok attempted a four gate off two bases only to be countered by Dimaga's odd quick +1 armor build. He did not fare much better in the next game, as a small immortal sentry push was repelled with ease, and duckdeok once again immediately conceded upon realizing his all in had failed.

Meanwhile on the other side of the bracket, mouz.HasuObs showed a side of his play that few knew existed, attacking Mill.Dayshi before the twenty minute mark. After Dayshi's attempted marine mine push was defended, Hasu was quick to turn on the pressure with five gates, all the while defending hellbat drops with a well placed cannons in his mineral lines. The gateway attack smashed through Dayshi's unprepared front line, and Dayshi was forced to GG after his economy was crippled. The next game saw Hasuobs settle down and return back to his old self, as he played a drawn out macro game in which he displayed his fantastic multi-tasking. However, the end result was much closer than any match between a five base Protoss and a three base Terran should have been due to excellent EMP's from Dayshi. Nevertheless Hasu had too many resources and too many reinforces to lose, and made it through his first series to go on and face DIMAGA in the winners' match.

Each of Hasu's games against DIMAGA were fairly one-sided either way. In the first game he got swarmed over by an endless stream of roach hydra viper off of five bases, while in the second he managed to defend a similar push and pick DIMAGA slowly apart with harassment and clever army movement. The final game was extremely close as DIMAGA went for a funky two base roach hydra viper all in, which Hasu barely managed to defend with excellent forcefields and colossus positioning. DIMAGA attempted to base trade with mutalisks, but Hasu was on top of his defense and took the victory. While it is fair to say that Hasuobs came into this group considered an underdog, he more than proved that he more than deserved to advance in first place due to his solid, sturdy macro play.

You're either All-in or All-out

Down in the losers match, duckdeok had to fight to get past the latency and defeat Dayshi to avoid elimination. duckdeok's first all-in (what else was he going to do?) was a blink stalker build that got held off by hellbats and marauders, while even more hellbats wreaked havoc in duckdeok's mineral line. The next game he changed it up with a four gate. Not a regular four gate, but a four gate that Dayshi had to have known was coming based on his scouting information. A four gate that, despite the fact that Dayshi went for a marine mine build, managed to crush the bunker-less Terran and even the series up. Now I'm sure many of you know the proverb 'fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me'. Surely Dayshi would not die to a four gate twice? Well...he did. Admittedly it was after Duckdeok built a second nexus (more than TAiLS ever made), but it still killed him despite Dayshi once again having some clues to deduce an all in was coming, and it ensured that against all expectations duckdeok moved on and was granted a rematch against DIMAGA.

The first game of the rematch featured - surprise surprise - a tasty treat from a cheesy duck. This time it was in the form of a six gate, which was stopped dead in its tracks, and the follow up blink stalker all in was decapitated just to make sure. In the next game duckdeok went for the Magic Johnson of all ins, the triple double with two nexuses, two immortals, two colossi. Dimaga had teched to mutas as is the appropriate counter, but did not have the gas to get enough mutalisks or roaches out to stop the all in, and as his speedlings melted to the lasers of the colossi he GGed out.

In the final game duckdeok went back to reliable old standards and climbed aboard the Soul Train. Dimaga looked absolutely helpless in the face of a huge amount of immortals and sentries, and despite holding his natural ramp with a mass of roaches, the colossus follow up finished him off and duckdeok advanced to the round of 16. Without a doubt the biggest thing holding duckdeok back was the latency from Korea to Europe, so the MVP Protoss player might find himself in contention for a precious top 5 finish, and representation at the WCS Season 2 finals. When in Europe, he might finally show us his macro game... but considering how effective his all-ins were last night, one has to shudder at the thought of how much more powerful they will be in a live setting.

Writers: kollin
Graphics: shiroiusagi
Banner photo: ESL
Editor: Waxangel.