EPT![[image loading]](/staff/Plexa/GOM_Ro16_Wk1/1.jpg)
SoO's Nexus appears at three o'clock and sKyHigh's Command Center plants itself at twelve. While SoO chooses to open with a standard one-gate build, sKyHigh starts off with a fierce eight-Barracks into Supply Depot and then a second Barracks.
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This game ain't fixin' to last long.
SoO blissfully continues his standard play, sKyHigh blocks his ramp with two Marines, hiding the rest near his Barracks. sKyHigh scouts SoO on his first attempt and rebuffs SoO's attempts to probe scout him. Shortly after SoO's first Zealot completes, sKyHigh leaves his base with five Marines and 9 SCVs. When sKyHigh arrives at SoO's ramp, SoO finds himself completely unprepared owning only one Zealot, one Dragoon, and a handful of Probes with which to defend himself.
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'Sup, SoO?
Once SoO figures out what's happening, he sends all but three of his probes to meet with sKyHigh's SCVs at the ramp, but they barely delay sKyHigh's advance, and SoO is forced to concede shortly afterward.
+ Show Spoiler [Key Moments] +
SoO was caught completely off guard by the sKyHigh's rush. Had he managed to scout it, two-gated, or even been at a different starting location, he may've had better luck.
SoO begins at eight o'clock and sKyHigh at three. sKyHigh opts to begin with the standard Supply Depot, Barracks, Refinery, while SoO chooses to take his mineral only at twelve supply. SoO places a gateway next and begins scouting in the correct direction. sKyHigh, on the other hand, decides to mine out the mineral patches next to his stacked-temple back-door, and then scouts the eleven o'clock main first.
sKyHigh's scouting SCV finds SoO's main in time to high-five SoO's first zealot, and easily spots the nexus at the mineral only. sKyHigh reacts to this knowledge by moving out with his four Marines, killing a probe on the way. His first tank and vulture follow sluggishly behind as he places his natural Command Center.
When the Tank and Vulture catch up to the Marines, sKyHigh begins to place spider-mines in front of SoO's natural. SoO deftly uses his Dragoons to destroy the first spider-mine and then backs off as sKyHigh's Tank fires menacingly. The Vulture's second and third spider-mines are then placed without incident.
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SoO backs off, buying some time.
SoO builds a Robotics Facility as sKyHigh rallies more vultures to his mini-contain and adds a second Factory. sKyHigh plants a few more mines and harasses SoO's defenses with his Tank, meanwhile SoO places his natural Nexus and sends one of his two Zealots into the mine field to disarm the spider-mines. The Zealot diffuses two mines, but there are still 3 remaining. SoO uses his expert Dragoon micro to diffuse one more mine and then sends his last Zealot into the mine field to finish disarming. sKyHigh attempts to kill the Zealot before it can finish the job, but his focus fire only manages to destroy his Tank and a Marine as the final mine explodes too close to sKyHigh's units.
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Did sKyHigh really think he could kill the Zealot before the mine exploded?
In short order, SoO eliminates the remainder of sKyHigh's containment forces, but he decides against moving out, content to sit on his economic and, now, military advantages. Instead, he sends an empty Shuttle over sKyHigh's base, both scouting and intimidating the Terran into staying at home while SoO extends his lead. sKyHigh reacts to the Shuttle's every movement and builds several turrets as a result.
SoO sends his Shuttle back to his base and picks up a Reaver and a Zealot as sKyHigh adds two more Factories to his base. SoO floats his Shuttle over the sKyHigh's main again, and again sKyHigh follows the Shuttle with his army of Tanks, but SoO is content to simply threaten with the Shuttle, as he does not force any drops. Meanwhile, more Gateways warp in for SoO.
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Someone's about to get his macro on!
Eventually, SoO does drop his Reaver and Zealot, but only briefly and all told, only one Tank is destroyed by the harass before SoO sends his Shuttle back to his main army.
As SoO's army is moving out to meet his Shuttle, sKyHigh sneaks two Vultures into SoO's mineral only to harass some probes. After laying two mines he begins his work, but SoO simply transfers his probes to another Nexus and mostly ignores the Vulture harass.
Hoping that SoO overreacted to the Vultures, sKyHigh moves out with eleven Tanks and sixteen Vultures, but SoO's army of sixteen Dragoons and 13 Zealots meets the Terran push before any mines can be placed and makes quick work of sKyHigh's army.
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Just not enough.
Knowing he's in bad shape, sKyHigh retreats to his natural and plants down a bunch of mines, but SoO simply runs three Zealots into the area and clears that up. SoO also drops a Reaver into the natural just before his Shuttle is destroyed by turret fire (losing one Reaver) and that Reaver quickly dies to Tank fire, but not before a scarab can be fired into a cluster of tanks. As his last Tank dies, sKyHigh attempts to hold off four of SoO's Dragoons with some nice mine-placing micro, but only one Dragoon falls, and SoO has already set his rally points to sKyHigh's main. sKyHigh's natural falls, and he GGs soon after.
+ Show Spoiler [Key Moments] +
SoO's decision to use his Shuttle as a threatening decoy went a long way toward winning him this game. But before that became an issue, there was sKyHigh's decision to react to the 12 Nexus with a sloppy FD contain.
SoO spawns at 8 and sKyHigh at 12. sKyHigh blocks his ramp with an SCV while he builds a wall behind it. SoO unwittingly responds perfectly to this by not probe scouting whatsoever, opting to scout with his first Zealot instead. Neither player is able to scout the other significantly, which means both players successfully conceal their opening build. sKyHigh's being one Factory, Command Center, SoO's being one base Dark Templar.
SoO builds his natural Nexus as he makes his first Dark Templar, and blocks the front choke partway with a pylon and a Stargate. Two cliffed Tanks support as sKyHigh places a Turret at his natural, and floats his Command Center down to low ground.
Fearing the Turret's detection, SoO's first two Dark Templar do a whole lot of nothing while the Arbiter Tribunal warps in. Meanwhile, SoO sets up a contain outside sKyHigh's natural with a unit mix of Dragoon, Dark Templar, and Zealots. As he does this he begins building Pylon walls at five o'clock in preparation of taking his third.
Having spotted the conspicuously placed Stargate, sKyHigh begins preparing for Arbiters by putting down an Armory, Academy and building Comsats. As sKyHigh begins to place mines outside his natural, a Dark Templar tries to force a scan, but sKyHigh is disciplined and merely backs off to the safety of a Turret. One Vulture gets by SoO's contain and spots SoO's first Arbiter as well as the Pylon wall at five o'clock.
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Who needs DT when you have ninja Vultures?
At ten Tanks, sKyHigh decides it's time to move out, so he scans the Dark Templar in front of his natural and kills it, then moves out. SoO sends in one Zealot under cover of Arbiter's cloak to force a second scan as he backs off with his containment force. Three Vultures get down toward the five o'clock pylon wall and begin to attack it, but SoO kills them with an Archon.
sKyHigh then begins a slow push, scanning along the way. As sKyHigh takes high ground, SoO decides he's had enough and rushes forward with his army and two Arbiters. SoO uses two Stasis spells, but only manages to stasis 5 of the front-most Tanks. One scan later and all of SoO's Zealots die, so SoO is forced to back off.
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Why attack uphill when you don't have to? Answer: overestimating the effect of Stasis.
sKyHigh uses this fortuitous event to send all his Tanks down to five, and because SoO never got any Observers, a few well placed mines prevent the Protoss from defending. sKyHigh easily destroys the Protoss expansion. SoO responds by counter-attacking sKyHigh's natural, but the no-longer-stasis'd Tanks already have the high ground and quickly thin out SoO's Dragoon numbers.
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A panicked Protoss falling apart.
As SoO reinforces his clumsy assault with a fresh round of Zealots, sKyHigh lays out a thick mine field in front of his natural, and the Zealots simply evaporate. With only 4 Dragoons and a couple Arbiters in his possession, SoO finally thinks better of the clumsy assault and retreats to his natural expansion.
After cleaning up five o'clock sKyHigh decides to really put on the pressure and situates his tanks behind SoO's natural. With his main's minerals quickly running out, SoO attempts to minimize the damage by using stasis on the Tanks behind his natural, and then he flanks the Terran force with his remaining forces, suffering heavy losses.
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Yes, this is as bad as it looks.
After clearing out the Tanks behind his natural, SoO attempts to retake five. And now temporarily without scans, the Terran lays mines to discourage the still Observerless Protoss from gaining any ground in the middle of the map. Once his Comsats recharge, sKyHigh sends a group of Vultures down towards five and forces SoO to pay attention to them, then he takes immediate advantage of SoO's misplaced army by attacking the front of SoO's natural with the bulk of his forces. After SoO's natural Nexus falls, he concedes and sKyHigh earns his spot in the Ro8.
+ Show Spoiler [Key Moments] +
SoO's build was pretty clever, but his lackluster use of stasis, his decision to attack while sKyHigh held highground, his refusal to get even one observer, and his panicky overreaction to losing his third all contributed to his loss. Kudos to sKyHigh for capitalizing on SoO's mistakes, but SoO made a lot of them.
Best warps in at twelve o'clock and EffOrt at six. Best has teching on the mind and goes one base Corsair/Reaver, while EffOrt chooses a very safe twelve pool, twelve hatchery, eleven gas, taking his natural after he determines no two-gate rush is coming, and begins his lair.
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Better safe than sorry.
EffOrt follows up his natural expansion with a Hydralisk Den, and Best continues to follow his build, adding Citadel of Adun for Zealot Speed. By some off-screen miracle, EffOrt gets one Zergling past the Zealots guarding Best's ramp and EffOrt sees all of Best's tech. He immediately places a Spire and a Sunken. Already past the point of being able to change his build, Best continues on with his timing attack.
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Miracle Zergling.
Best moves out with six Zealots, a Dragoon, a Corsair and a Shuttle with one Reaver nestled inside. As Best assaults EffOrt's Sunken, EffOrt sends two Scourge on a mission to kill a Shuttle, a mission that succeeds. EffOrt commands his sunken to attack the Reaver, and just as the Sunken falls, four Mutalisk hatch in time to finish off the Reaver before it does any significant damage to EffOrt's Zerglings. Best Rushes his Zealots down EffOrt's ramp, but is met with a large number of Zerglings. Best GGs in disgust.
+ Show Spoiler [Key Moments] +
I want to know how that Zergling got into Best's base. It is the single biggest reason EffOrt won this game.
Best warps at eleven, EffOrt spawns at three. Best chooses to fast expand into Corsair/Reaver, EffOrt decides to Overpool, and then gets lair before his natural expansion has finished, he settles on a very fast two hatchery Mutalisk build.
EffOrt does an exceptional job of preventing Best's scouts from reading his build, but Best builds 6 cannons anyway. EffOrt's first tech units are Scourge, but despite crossing the first Corsair's path, EffOrt is unable to destroy any Corsair. As a result, the Mutalisk harrass turns out to be largely useless, and EffOrt makes the tech switch to Hydralisk as Best's fifth Corsair warps in.
When Best reaches seven Corsair, he loads up his Shuttle with his Reaver and moves out. EffOrt reacts by sacrificing five Mutalisk and nine Scourge to destroy the Shuttle. Although successful, EffOrt loses his entire airforce to the exchange and at 41 supply, he's already 30 supply behind Best.
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Was it worth it?
While replacing his Shuttle, Best farms for Overlords and begins teching toward Templar. EffOrt Does his best to clump all his Overlords at his natural, where over a dozen Hydralisk sit, idle, to protect them. EffOrt expands to five o'clock, and despite the fact that Best spots it he doesn't have any units capable of preventing it yet.
When the new Shuttle completes, Best takes it and a Reaver to EffOrt's mineral-only to do some harassment, but EffOrt's teched burrow, and seven Hydralisk chase off the Shuttle before any damage can be done.
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Ha ha! I trick you!
Best takes his Shuttle back to his base and picks up a Dark Templar, which he drops into EffOrt's main. Also, Best sends another Dark Templar to five o'clock where it begins attacking the Hatchery that's completed there. Meanwhile, the Dark Templar that was dropped within EffOrt's main racks up 16 drone kills before EffOrt notices it.
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Ha ha! I trick YOU!!!
EffOrt has no real choice but to attack, and attack now. He moves out with thirty-three Hydralisks and does his best to do some damage. But Best already has Psionic Storm, a healthy number of speed Zealots and just as many Dragoons. EffOrt does a good job dodging storms with his Hydralisk, even managing to snipe the Shuttle, but he's forced to retreat repeatedly and loses his army when Best finally decides it's time to move out.
+ Show Spoiler [Key Moments] +
EffOrt's build was questionable this game. Maybe he was expecting to have mutalisks out before Best considered putting down extra cannons? The fact that EffOrt failed to Scourge any Corsairs only multiplied problems. And then, of course, Best did an excellent job distracting EffOrt with fake drops and DT attacks at five o'clock to allow the 16-kill DT to do his damage. It's rare to see tech switches from Protoss work as well as Best's did this game.
Best warps at eight o'clock, EffOrt at one. Best places his Pylon and then Forge at his natural and then scouts, EffOrt Overpools again. EffOrt makes six Zerglings, techs Zergling Speed and then takes his natural. Once EffOrt kills Best's scouting probe, he expands to eleven o'clock and positions his Zerglings to prevent Best from scouting.
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No scout for you.
Blind, Best techs Corsair/Reaver again, but only makes two Corsairs, building a small ground army instead of mass Corsair. EffOrt dedicates himself to Drone whoring while teching Spire and then Hydralisk Den shortly afterwards. Best's first Corsair scouts the tech and goes about the business of killing Overlords. He manages to kill two Overlords before Scourge retaliate and kill the Corsair.
But then Best moves out. Reminiscent of the timing attack Best used in game 1, he moves out with two Zealots, 2 Dragoons and his Shuttle/Reaver. When Best reaches the middle of the map, EffOrt flies 2 Scourge into Best's Shuttle, but Best managed to unload his Reaver in time. Rather than waiting for another Shuttle, though, Best continues with his push, waiting for his Reaver and reinforcements along the way. EffOrt, with two Sunkens and plenty of warning waits for Best to arrive at his natural, and then the two forces collide.
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Well positioned Dragoons make it difficult for EffOrt to get at the Reaver.
Between a hail of Dragoon fire and scarabs, EffOrt's first attack fails to do any damage to the Protoss army, whatsoever. The Sunken Colonies fall shortly afterwards, and then the natural hatchery along with all of EffOrt's tech buildings. EffOrt lets out a deep sigh and GGs. Best moves on to the Ro8.
+ Show Spoiler [Key Moments] +
Now we see what Best was trying to do the first game, and it is sexy. Saving the Reaver really made this attack work. EffOrt powered drones just a bit too long and was in major trouble the moment the Reaver got to his natural.
not tadzio (i had to rehost all his images)
