EPT
Let’s see…Game 1 – Casy vs. Midas
Tau Cross
Casy started out with a standard depot/rax/refinery build at his 1 o’clock main while Midas (5 o’clock) opted for a fast rax in the center of the map. Casy managed to miss Midas’ building rax during a number of passes as his scouting SCV covered the main positions.
Midas’ marine rush was met with perfect micro from casy, first boxing in one of the initial marines to kill with SCVs and later with some sexy vulture and repair moves. Midas got to expand first though, as he kept the pressure on his opponent, now adding tanks to his ground force.
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/ManaBlue/Shinhan2_Week_3/casy_midas_good.JPG )
Casy makes quick work of Midas’ marine attack.
Casy responded by teching up to wraiths and using cloak was able to kill a bunch of SCVs before his opponent could get scan. Both Terran’s set up the compulsory line of tanks in the sand and Casy expanded to his nat.
There were some cute clashes of small tank groups in the middle, but little damage resulted except for Casy stylishly stealing a dropship kill with his still tiny force of 2 wraiths. The factory counts were rising and both players expanded again. Casy ambushed Midas’ containment force in the middle with a cool tank flank but was quickly put in his place by a counter attack at his 3 o’clock expansion.
Midas had snuck an expansion or two during these conflicts though, and it started to show. He seemed to have unlimited gas, and his factory count was rising. Casy lost a bunch of battles in the middle, rather anticlimactically, and soon gged.
Midas > Casy
Both players had dropships but didn’t really use them. Attack move FTW!!
Game 2 – Yellow vs. Shine
Arcadia
Shine (11) used a one rax/acad into CC build, while Yellow took care of business as usual with a hatch first at his nat. Yellow choose spire tech while he took both islands with slow drop lords! (That wiley devil!
) Shine was well prepared for muta harass, but Yellow intelligently held off and enjoyed the extra gas his 2 new ecos were giving him.Shine built up a very impressive MnM force, forcing Yellow to build a ton of sunkens, but a greater spire was on the way and Yellow had tons of gas to spend. Shine dropped the 3 o’clock expo, killing it entirely, and got a lucky break in the center of the map as he stole some wandering mutas, but Yellows hive tech was still in full swing. He laid an ultralisk cavern and started guardian production. Shine built up a wraith force to deal with it, but foolishly lost them all to muta/scourge while he killed a lone extractor on the other side of the map. Yellow built up an intimidating ultra/ling force and harassed Shine with guardians very effectively due to the close proximity of Shine’s main and his island base.
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/ManaBlue/Shinhan2_Week_3/yellow_shine.JPG)
See those irradiation clouds? Those are ultras and Yellow has plenty more on the way.
Shine attempted to irradiate his way back into the game, but Yellow was in his element, doom dropping the Terran main here, running over expansions there. Shine ran around in circles for a couple minutes until he had nothing left.
Yellow > Shine
The poker playing old timer proves us all wrong against a bright young Terran. His plan to play off the islands while abusing terrain with guardians was brilliant and as always, Yellow is scary as hell when he’s got ultra/ling/defiler running full swing.
Game 3 – GGPlay vs. Cloud
Tau Cross
GGplay (10) opened with a very typical hatch at nat build while Cloud (1) blocked his choke point with a depot and built 2 raxes near the left wall of his main. He then lifted them off and landed them outside, to begin marine production. Fancy!
Cloud built one marine in his main before the lift, and before the raxes landed, GGplay scouted the area they would soon be in. Apparently he’s seen this before.
Cloud was still in good shape though, since his Zerg opponent had seen nothing at this point.Cloud made a move with his now built MnM force and ran past the Zerg sunk wall. He was eventually stopped, but fried a bunch of drones in the process. Cloud added 2 more raxes and expanded to his nat.
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/ManaBlue/Shinhan2_Week_3/cloud_ggplay.JPG)
Cloud gets his fair share of drone kills as GGplay stacks them right in front of the firebat.
GGplay built up his sunk wall and went muta while Cloud built up his base defence. GGplay displayed some very lame muta harass and was quickly forced back to defend his sunk line. Cloud bunched his units tightly around his lone tank, which resulted in heavy losses from lurks, but his successfully took the only other Zerg economy at 7 and fought off GGplays break out attempt shortly after. Things were looking good for the Terran as he expanded again and contained his opponent.
GGplay eventually broke out with defilers, but he was stopped cold by Cloud’s huge SK army and was forced to concede.
Cloud > GGplay
Cloud always plays really cool TvZs in the second round of his OSLs. A game to watch if you want to learn how to manipulate a Zerg player early game.
Game 4 – FBH vs. JiHyun
Sin Peaks of Baekdu
FBH got the top main and 1 rax/acad into CC while his Zerg opponent 12 pooled into a nat hatch. JiHyun went spire and did a phenomenal job of harassing, avoiding tons of turrets to grab SCV, rine, and tank kills. He took the bottom right expo as a reward.
FBH moved out to kill the expo with a sizable MnM/tank/vessel force, and JiHyun took the opportunity to drop the Terran main. The upgrading E-bay was killed along with some SCVs and the main Terran mineral line remained unproductive for a very long time.
Now all the Zerg had to do was stop the Terran advance and he had the units to do it. Too bad he spaced out and suicided them all into a marine wall.
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/ManaBlue/Shinhan2_Week_3/FBH_Jihyun.JPG)
Holy unburrowed lurkers batman!
Things didn’t get better after his initial blunder, as JiHyun lost his guardians to a single wraith. His head wasn’t in the game anymore.
FBH > JiHyun
FBH got this one for free once JuHyun started to unravel. The poor kid looked so disappointed with himself after the game. Breaks my heart.
Game 5 – Nal_Rock vs. Sea
Arkanoid
Rock (1) opened with a very conservative early robo build while Sea (11) expanded almost immediately to his lower expansion. He placed the CC below the crystalis blocks and lifted it into the proper position once they were killed by marines. Sea had 2 facts and a port building along with his expo before Rock had his first new nex building. The toss had to make up for it with some SCV killes from his approaching reaver drop, but due to terrible luck in the position of Sea’s goly filled dropship, Rock lost the shuttle with 2 reavers in it for only a couple SCVs.
Sea, now with a reasonably large goly/tank force and a few dropships, dropped his army in the small gap near Rocks upper expo and fired upon it with tanks. This initial drop was dealt with by Rock with some nice goon/reaver drop work, but it was about to get harder.
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/ManaBlue/Shinhan2_Week_3/sea_rock.JPG)
Sea sets up shop and fires at Rock’s expansion. The fight for these areas would soon become the name of the game.
Rock attempted to drop Sea’s main, but the Terran had plenty of units waiting for it. Sea then dropped a goly/tank force in the same small gap on the other side of Rock’s main, firing on his lower expansion. And of course, he placed another group shortly after in the original gap as well, destroying both economies. Rock made a lame counter attack and gave up.
Sea > Rock
Sea had one plan in mind. Expo first and abuse those little gaps. It worked wonderfully, unfortunately for Rock.
Game 6 – Nada vs. Zergman
Arkanoid
Both players expanded to one of their nats very quickly, and Nada (11) built up infantry while Zergman (5) went for quick lurks. Zergman pushed forward, destroying the neutral buildings to try and catch the Terran under-defended. It didn’t happen. Nada showed some incredible marine micro and picked off lurks. Nada teched up to wraiths and Zergman built up some mutas, waiting for his greater spire.
There was a little harass from Zergman here and there, but the first major conflict happened when Nada finally moved out with a marine force into the center that was filled with… guess what… hold position lurkers.
The majority of Nada’s MnM was completely raped by the lurks, which was a good thing for Zergman because Nada also dropped the Zerg nat and was having a field day killing drones. Zergman defended with defilers and hydras and attacked the upper Terran nat with fresh guardians. Nada now had a large vessel force, but was being forced back by hydra/lurk under dark swarm. Zergman pushed too far into the Terran main, however, and lost his momentum. Nada also had built up a sick number of vessels and had 10 raxes pumping to replace his infantry.
He macroed hard, dropped the remaining Zerg expo, and despite some nice plague and swarm use from Zergman, the numbers were in Nada’s favour.
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/ManaBlue/Shinhan2_Week_3/nada_zergman.JPG)
Nada murders his own plagued marines to stop them from draining his medics energy. No big deal, he’s got more on the way.
Nada > Zergman
If Nada didn’t lose a billion marines to those hold lurkers, this game would’ve been over in half the time. That guy has crazy SKTerran control and macro. CRAZY!
So that’s Wednesday’s games. The recommended VOD from this pack is definitely Yellow vs. Shine. Yellow controlled that game well and had the best decision making I’ve seen from a Zerg in ZvT in a long time. Check it out.
As always, it’s a new season and I’m always open to hearing what you guys want to see in the reports. More of what? Less of what? You tell me.
