EPT
I must be honest tho - I have been a "bit" busy these days, so eventually, as to not stretch the wait even longer, i've decided to look for some help from my colleagues on the site, so that in the end this report has been crafted by 4 ppl.
Mynock's part:
Game 1 - tomsOn[TaO] (Z) @ 3 < Infinity[pG] (T) @ 6 on The Lost Temple
The match starts off with a TvZ on LT - a really basic matchup to open it all up with - and Infinity shows quite a stable and secure kind of play thru the game; which has brought him this far already (3 wins), and also secured him a win against Tomson right away. Tomson's defenses are also quite right (save for the part where he lets Inf to take his extractor down due to shabby sunk placement -_-), so both players rather go on the more massive, less micro-powered road, with Inf taking both his natural and the mineral-only, and Tomson (repeatedly being denied any chances to expand to 12 by a pack of wild marines valiantly holding their position at the ramp) tries to exp in all the other places while harrassing Inf's main - to no avail however - due to Infinity's dropships and tight home defenses. As eventually Tomson manages to take the map, german forces are already making an Anschluss of the center of it, and damn they're hard to stop. By the time the polish manage to beat back the first wave of invaders in the middle, Infinity plays the reenactment of September '39 at 9 o'clock and it's natural, taking those resources as he pushes forth. The battle further esclates on the north as desperate resistance forces try to withstand the push of the armoured panzer divisions, but eventually fail to do so, giving up their positions around 12. As
truppenführer Infinity calls in the air support it becomes obvious: the polski forces are out of resources and scattered, and with that, dowódca Tomson has to surrender.
Game 2 - tomsOn[TaO] (Z) @ 5 > Infinity[pG] (T) @ 10 on Sin Gaema Gowon
Infinity opens this one up with a daring early exp - the taste of the previous victory still fresh - maybe believing that mass might be Tomek's weakness, dunno. Tomson doesn't really make use of it right away however, since he's busy making a daring early exp himself - he needs sunkens. Infinity takes this as an invitation to exp his arse off, and puts another CC down at his min only while only having 2 barracks yet (xcept for the one he used to make firebats inside the zerg base, haha -_-). A massive zerg drop comes here, taking the whole of terrans's base with it, and even securing the ledge with several lurkers as to make sure Inf won't try to take that abck again. So now Infinity's left with 2 running bases but barely any production sites. Tomson, being Blackman's jeja, uses this to take the whole map again (he seems to like that stuff), and - needless to say - there's not much resistance from the lone terran outpost from here...
Rekrul's part:
Game 3
Map: Guillotine
The Game: Infinity decides to fight like a man and starts at bottom right with Protoss this time. His opponent, Tomson, is his usual Zerg at top right. The Generic German starts off with a pylon+forge+cannons+GW at his outer entrance and expanding (Nal_rA style), while the Pumpin' Polak counters this with a 4 hatch mass hydra build. Infinity then gets a corsair while trying to cheese Tomson's main with cannons built inside of it. This turns out to look pretty retarded against mass hydra tho, and now Tomson's got an opportunity to attack. His follow-up hydra push is quickly countered by (again, Nal_rA style) lots of zeals from Inf's main tho, and here Infinity decides to move out and go for some enemy exps. He does take the exp at 3 pretty soon, but then we see what we get by letting a russian to select the maps for the match: as Infinity's goon/zeal/temp frorces move out towards the main entrance of Tomson's base they get gayed from every direction by a sizeable lurk/hydra/muta/ling force. This variety is too much for protoss to handle in open field, and Infinity won't even wait till the end as he leaves the game.
Rekrul's rating of the game: 2/10
mensrea's part
Game 4
Infinity (P) ("Manuel von Ewigkeit") < Tomson[TaO] ("Tomek Krzesinki") - Blade Storm
I'm still at a guess here as to why Infinity decided to go for a PvZ on a map notoriously known for it's harsh conditions for P when facing Zerg, however in a previous liquibition Daaman opted for the same decision; which leaves us at an option that probably European players do not agree on this topic with their korean counterparts. Mind you, the outcome still proves the original theory to be correct - Daaman was toast not long after 8 minutes into the game, while Infinity, however lasted longer, missed his opportunity to turn the game into a shootout of wild strategies, and instead let it go like your proverbial fish. The whole game made me go D'OH actually.
OK, to clear things up: Manuel (@10) DID start off well with an early exp which he managed to secure nicely with cannons at the beginning. He DID take Tomek's (@5) natural expansion down by the means of an eye-raising build of cannons and a forge behind the natural's mineral line. What he MISSED however, is to ensure a proper ground defense for his fresh-from-the-conveyour natural expansion. Sure, flowers were blossoming all over the twilighted fields infront of the Protoss base - so much so, it made me feel like I was watching a certain "divine entity"'s OGN play all over again (Humm, we all know of whom I speak, right??). But we also know that cannons alone are by no means a proper defense when it comes to fierce packs of hydras swarming the outskirts of the protoss' natural. Tomson shows good initiative knowledge by pushing his hydra force as soon as he spots the first corsairs - a sure-tell sign that no templars or other mass-destruction units are as yet in Protoss' reach. After the initial breakthrough it's Tomson all over the protoss base - or at least over what's left of it. Infinity makes a last-ditch attempt at colonising the 1 o'clock main - doesn't see too much fantasy in it however, and realising that Tomson's got control over whatever corners of the map he wants - taps gg.
Some disappointing decisions by Infinity, while Tomson shows he knows exactly what to do with his hydras and when.
Waxangel's part
Game 5: Tomson[TaO] defeated Infinity[pG] on Neo Forbidden Zone
As it seems Tomson thinks his abilities at TvT seem to be better than zerg's chances against T on this map. Infinity starts off as a terran at 10, and Tomson also T at 5. Infinity's opening build of cloacked wraiths soon proves to be a futile one, as the wraiths are not even enough to secure him an expansion, while in the meantime Tomson, who went for a standard goli-dropship build expands freely. This proves to be the key moment for the entire game as Infinity is soon at a resource disadvantage. Infinity tried to battle his natural off, but the flow of reinforcements from Tomson's base held it all pretty tightly. Under constant pressure Infinity then expanded to the main of 2, while still not giving up his natural, however his workers at 2 soon fell victim to a successful upside cliffing and further raids by Tomson. Infinity finally managed to take an exp in the middle of the map around the 14 min. mark and also launched a weak attempt at his oppent's natural, but that just wasn't enough. Tomson initiates a devastating double-attack on both of Infinity's expansions, and since the middle one dies completely, and the other is left without any workers/defense, Infinity leaves the game. :O
Well, that's it folks, thx goes to Waxy, rea and Rek for helping me out, oh and btw; the identity of the next contestant is yet to be revealed, so just stay tuned - nobody's being deprived of their rightful liquipoints -_-a.
-Mynock
