EPT![[image loading]](/staff/Tadzio/GOMsemi/battlereport8.jpg)
GOM Classic SemiFinals, Day 2
JangBi vs free[gm]best of five
Medusa • Colosseum II • Sin Chupung-Ryeong • Destination • Medusa
Game 1
Medusa
Free spawns as yellow at ten o'clock and Jangbi gets to be green at seven. Both players' builds mirror one another (one gate tech to obs/reaver) with mild differences in timings and unit production cycles distinguishing the two players for most of the early-mid game. Free scouts the correct way, while Jangbi scouts three o'clock before correcting the heading, finally finding Free's base at ten.
When Free's scout enters Jangbi's base, Jangbi places a pylon to block a manner attempt, but Free is able to get a manner pylon off in a different location on the mineral line. Free cancels the pylon before it completes, making the brief harass successful and putting him ahead, but not a game-ending move. In the meanwhile, both players make two zealots before switching to dragoon production and teching obs/reaver.
![[image loading]](/staff/Tadzio/GOMsemi/Janfre1_1.jpg)
Such a wonderfully ironic tactic... the manner-pylon!
Free's reaver comes earlier than Jangbi's, and so Free pushes first, sending his reaver into Jangbi's base. Jangbi reacts by sending his dragoons to defend, and Free retreats his shuttle while pressuring Jangbi's front with his dragoons. As Jangbi defends, Free micro's to kill Jangbi's observer and then backs off to await the reinforcement represented by his shuttle.
Jangbi isn't interested in remaining a victim, however, and moves out with eight dragoons, two zealots and a shuttle with a reaver. He chases Free into the middle of Medusa before Free decides he's not outnumbered, and drops his reaver. The battle is a quick flurry of scarabs flying between two parrallel lines of dragoons, with Free coming out on top. In a major blunder, Free doesn't seem to recognize his advantage (six dragoons+reaver vs three dragoons+reaver), and retreats just before he can finish off Jangbi's forces.
![[image loading]](/staff/Tadzio/GOMsemi/Janfre1_2.jpg)
Jangbi's forces are decimated, but Free's the one running away.
Free uses the time to expand to his natural, and once Jangbi's made a second reaver, he does the same. Perhaps because of overconfidence, perhaps due to respect for Jangbi's reaver micro, Free allows the expansion.
Free's unit advantage is drastically slimmed down over the passing minutes as he techs to templar and expands to his mineral only. Jangbi spends his free time building up three reavers to compliment his dragoon army. And although I cannot confirm it from the VOD, it seems likely that Free missed a pylon and/or Jangbi cut (a lot of) probes. Free went from a goon advantage of 10 vs 5, to 20 vs 13, to the minimal advantage of 23 vs 21 during this span.
Jangbi attacks Free's natural at this critical moment: before Free's mineral-only and tech can kick in, but after his dragoon numbers have swelled to rival Free's. Carefully managing his formation to keep his reavers alive, Jangbi takes Free completely off-guard, destroying one of Free's reavers in the first few volleys of scarabs. Despite the success of the attack, the continued survival of one of Free's reavers eventually forces Jangbi to regroup.
![[image loading]](/staff/Tadzio/GOMsemi/Janfre1_3.jpg)
Perfect. Timing.
Having teched to templar, Free uses two Dark Templar and some excellent observer sniping to deflect and delay Jangbi's reconstituted army, but once Jangbi's able to keep some observers alive, the tactic fails to produce the same results. Lacking deterrence against it, Jangbi attacks Free's natural again. His army is similar in composition as it was during his last attack, and Free's army is much weaker (only fifteen dragoons and one reaver). Free's natural falls.
After taking down the nexus, Jangbi focuses on containing Free. Free builds up to two reavers and through excellent micro, breaks the contain, but loses his reavers in the process. Assuming he's in a better position than he is, Free moves out with eleven dragoons and four zealots, but Jangbi has saved up close to two control groups of speed-enhanced zealots just for this occasion. Free micro's his army into a corner and recognizes that he cannot save the dragoons nor his recently reclaimed natural from Jangbi's looming counter-attack, Free GGs.
+ Show Spoiler [Key Moments] +
Jangbi's execution of his 3 reaver timing attack was spectacular, more than making up for his slower natural and smaller dragoon army. Before that, Free turned a clear win into an opportunity for a comeback when he retreated from an army half the size of his own to "defend" his natural. And how he lost his macro advantage over the course of this game is anyone's guess...
Jangbi warps in as orange protoss at seven and Free is white at eleven. Jangbi scouts after placing his gateway and searches for a proxy in the middle of the map before sending his probe into Free's base. Free places his assimilator before scouting, then does as Jangbi did and scouts the middle of the map before heading into Jangbi's base.
Jangbi's cybercore is faster than Free's, so Free places two manner pylons while sending zealots down into Jangbi's main. Only managing one probe-kill before Jangbi's able to produce a dragoon to eliminate the threat, Free's rush has cost him more than it cost his opponent, so he follows up with an all-in four-gate build. Jangbi, knowing what is coming, follows his successful deflection of the harass by teching to dark templar.
As the dark templar make their way up to Free's base, Free moves out and spots their blur. He places a forge in a desperate attempt to get a cannon up. Jangbi blocks the counter with warping buildings at his choke, relying on the momentary arrival of dark templar reinforcements to save his base while the original pair of dark templar focus on destroying Free's nexus before cannons can warp in.
![[image loading]](/staff/Tadzio/GOMsemi/Janfre2_1.jpg)
DT hit HARD.
When the Nexus falls, Free GGs.
+ Show Spoiler [Key Moments] +
It may be GOM, it may be poor memory, it may be my imagination, or it may be a fact, but I struggle to recall a professional game where a PvP has been won by the player that manner pyloned. Whether the decision to manner was a crucial factor in Free's loss, Jangbi's rush to DT completely owned Free's follow up.
Free's visibly shaken before the start of game three but pushes on ahead anyway, warping in as blue protoss at two o'clock. Jangbi is a decidedly more confident peach at eight o'clock.
Jangbi decides to scout early, sending his probe after placing his pylon, Free sends his scout after placing his gateway. For the third game in a row, Free manner pylons, sending a zealot down to rush. The pylon is destroyed before the zealot even arrives and Free is forced to use the zealot to scout. When Jangbi's first dragoon arrives, the zealot dies having caused no damage and gained no more information than a well-controlled probe would've.
While Free techs toward reaver, huddling his dragoons above his ramp, Jangbi takes his natural, keeping his dragoons in a loose defensive position at his high-ground. As the game progresses, both players dance around the middle threatening one another's observers, but neither commits to an attack. Once Free's reaver completes, he places his natural nexus, but Jangbi's natural is already up and running, and this puts pressure on Free to do some early damage with his reaver.
With eight dragoons, a zealot and a reaver/shuttle, Free attacks Jangbi's natural. Jangbi defends with two zealots and nine Dragoons. In the vital first moments of the seige, Jangbi is able to snipe Free's shuttle and the instant after that he takes down Free's reaver. Despite the pathetic beginnings of the battle, Free's able to push Jangbi back into his natural-- until Jangbi fires his probes into the mix, that is.
![[image loading]](/staff/Tadzio/GOMsemi/Janfre3_1.jpg)
That's how you take the bite out of a reaver push!
Jangbi powers up a superior dragoon army in a hurry and positions twelve of them at the high-ground in front of Free's natural while he techs toward templar with a comfortable lead. Free, markedly less comfortable, maintains a defensive position at his natural with a shuttle-less reaver and ten dragoons. Jangbi is momentarily drawn away from his contain by the movement of an empty shuttle flying past one of his Observers, and Free uses the opportunity to reclaim his high-ground.
After building up to fourteen dragoons, four zealots and two reavers, Free moves out to attack Jangbi who's taken up residence at his own high-ground with sixteen dragoons, five zealots and two dark templar. Once again, Jangbi is able to snipe the shuttle leaving the reavers to the mercy of the dark templar. Six of Free's dragoons flee, escaping the carnage, but the damage to his army has been done, and Free's put deeply on his back-foot. Forced to rely on the positional advantage of his high ground for protection.
Jangbi uses his dark templar to attack some of Free's outlying pylons, distracting a few of Free's dragoons from the front, and then pushes into Free's highground with twelve dragoons, sixteen zealots and four high templar.
![[image loading]](/staff/Tadzio/GOMsemi/Janfre3_2.jpg)
Jangbi knows about "divide and conquer."
Free, to his credit, backs away giving up high-ground advantage in preference of a more unified front. Jangbi's storms aren't quite as deep as they could be, and many of his zealots die to the storm as Free's dragoons stay back to finish off the zealots before they counter push. Suddenly outnumbered, Jangbi is forced to retreat.
As Free's forces engage Jangbi's at the southern high-ground, Jangbi slips a dark templar into Free's natural. Not noticing the carnage while he's dodging storms to the south, Free loses ten probes before he can eliminate the dark templar.
As the two players recognize they cannot break the other's high-ground, Jangbi expands to five o'clock, while Free chooses the less passive role of baiting his opponent into a bad position on low ground. Jangbi eventually bites, dropping onto lowground to engage Free, but chooses to ignore the "bad position" part of the deal.
![[image loading]](/staff/Tadzio/GOMsemi/Janfre3_3.jpg)
Taunting the guy with the gun to your head ain't the brightest of strategies.
The player's armies are equal in size, but the composition is slightly different, as Free has two more archons and Jangbi has three more high templar. As his storms find purchase on dragoon clumps and his dragoons and zealots engage Free's zealots and archons, Jangbi routes the opposition forces and again Free is put on his back-foot. From there, Jangbi just rolls Free, earning his spot in the finals!
+ Show Spoiler [Key Moments] +
Jangbi really showed he was the better player in this game. Anytime Free attempted to be aggressive, Jangbi took it in stride and calmly extended his advantage. Jangbi didn't force anything in this game and were it not for positional high-ground advantage, it may've been over much quicker.
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Daigomi/Banner__Gom_Classic_Results_.jpg)
SemiFinals - Day 2
JangBi vs free[gm]+ Show Spoiler +
JangBi > free[gm]
JangBi > free[gm]
JangBi > free[gm]
JangBi > free[gm]
JangBi > free[gm]
Recommended Game
+ Show Spoiler +
![[image loading]](/staff/Tadzio/Banner__GOM_Classic_Bracket_.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Daigomi/Banner__GOM_Classic_This_wee.jpg)
Pre Match Stats
2009 Record: 11 wins - 4 losses (73.33%) 2009 Record: 21 wins - 7 losses (75.00%)
2009 PvP Record: 5 wins - 1 losses (83.33%) 2009 PvP Record: 6 wins - 1 losses (85.71%)
PvP Loss to: Anytime PvP Loss to: JangBi
-=Road to Glory=-
JangBi
Ro64:
Shine[kaL]
Ro32:
Iris
Ro16:pepe
Ro8:BackHo DQ
Ro4:free[gm]
Bisu
Ro64:Devil
Ro32:Calm
Ro16:HoeJJa
Ro8:Flash
Ro4:sKyHigh
2009 Record: 11 wins - 4 losses (73.33%) 2009 Record: 21 wins - 7 losses (75.00%)
2009 PvP Record: 5 wins - 1 losses (83.33%) 2009 PvP Record: 6 wins - 1 losses (85.71%)
PvP Loss to: Anytime PvP Loss to: JangBi
-=Road to Glory=-
JangBiRo64:
Shine[kaL]Ro32:
IrisRo16:
pepeRo8:
BackHo DQRo4:
free[gm]BisuRo64:
DevilRo32:
CalmRo16:
HoeJJaRo8:
FlashRo4:
sKyHighJangbi's been on a tear in PvP the last six months, and that play came to it's fruition against Free, where he pushed his PvP winning percentage for the period over 70%. In fact, he's on a four game winning streak in the match up which includes a convincing win over Bisu on Destination in winner's league. So why am I still liquibetting Bisu?
Well, Bisu hasn't been a slouch in the last six months, either. The Revolutionist's PvP during that period is actually better than his PvZ was back in the days he was pistol-whipping Ma Jae Yoon!
From Mar. 3rd '07 to Jan. 4th, '08 Bisu went an amazing 19-6 (76%) PvZ. Since July 29th, '08, he's gone 24-7 (77.4%) PvP. Comparing the matchups, he's played six more games in three fewer months and managed to eclipse not only Jangbi's recent PvP performance, but his own performance in the match up that earned him his nickname. That, my friends, is impressive.
The game the two players shared on Destination was a half-hour tooth-grinding, back-n'-forth harass-fest that Bisu lost-- I'm convinced-- only because he opened with a manner pylon. And as we've all learned during this season of GOM, a manner-pylon is just a white flag of surrender by another name (tongue firmly set in cheek).
Check out the Winner's League game if you missed it and wanna believe Jangbi can take Bisu in a best of five. As PvPs go, it was pretty epic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pK5q1PiKY2I
Both Jangbi and Bisu's PvP seem to be powering up for this moment: the GOM Classic Season 2 Finals. You won't wanna miss watching these two tsunamis of gosu collide.
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Daigomi/Banner__GOM_Classic_Communit.jpg)
If you have any questions for the players in the upcoming matches, ask them on GOMtv's Community forums. Click on the Community button below for easy access to those forums. lilsusie was unable to interview the winner of Jangbi vs Free for personal reasons, but you can still review her past interviews by clicking the button below.
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Daigomi/Banner__GOM_Classic_Intervie.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Daigomi/Banner__GOM_Classic_Question.jpg)
See you in the Live Report thread, February 8th, 18:00 KST! Special thanks to Fzero for his contribution of the "prematch stats"! I've been sick and he was kind enough to pick up some of the slack.
