I'm surprised people are calling the IdrA vs tester matches bad. They were amazing games (imo) despite the fact that IdrA lost. IdrA does say quite frequently that Tester is a really good player.
Game 1: Tester has an extremely unexpected oldschool opening. IdrA responds perfectly. His expansion is delayed so he decides to make a hatch in-base and make a ton of lings, his reaction to tester's opening was very good there. Re-watch the game. Tester won game 1 because his 3rd sentry popped out at the perfect timing at the perfect place. Imagine if tester didn't have that 3rd sentry exactly right there at that time, IdrA's lings would've entered his base and it would've been gg right there. I do think IdrA should've snuck in some banelings there though.
Game 2: A couple things about tester I noticed: -The simcity at his choke was beautiful -He made ONE phoenix from a stargate for the sole purpose of scouting; he got to see everything that idra was doing and his tech; he didn't make anything else from that stargate for the rest of the game -His harass with stalkers and then pulling back at the perfect time was really good; a mediocre toss could've easily blinked too early and then gotten his stalkers surrounded. -He made 7 warpgates and never used them all at once (notice how he only warped in 4-5 units at a time?) I want to hear from IdrA about game 2 but I don't think he expected collusus, he saw 7 warpgates very early and probably expected hts/dts. He didn't scout at all after initially seeing the 7 warpgates; you wouldn't need to in most cases because if the toss was actually using all 7 of those, he couldnt really make anything else. That's why I think he was caught off-guard and flat out-lost because pure hydra/ling gets destroyed by 4-6 collusus whereas hydra/ling does very well against pure gateway units. Tester threw up 2 robos after seeing that idra had nothing but hydra/ling. I think IdrA shouldve harrassed with ovy drop/nydus though, he left tester alone for most of the game.
I posted all this cause I just saw what I thought were two really good games and all I see here is "lol idra sucks" "zerg is underpowered" "idra was too intimidated" etc etc.
Lost Temple wasn't balanced in BW and I don't see why it would be balanced in SC2; especially considering the obvious positional imbalances. Tester scouted first too after placing a pylon at his natural. He must've been rubbing his hands with glee.
IdrA's reaction was not ideal, as we saw. I'm sure in hindsight he could have done things better. For example: if he was planning a ling all-in why so much gas and why Lair? However, no-one is playing fantastic Starcraft at the moment and you can't say IdrA's reaction was awful; he almost pulled off the counter.
It's not that IdrA is bad (he is very good), it's just that Tester will probably take the 2000 dollars if he avoids building double cybernetics cores, and then chrono boosting the wrong one (made me lol).
Does anybody know why did IdrA pick Scrap Station instead of Metalopolis? Was he scared of the 1/3 chance of spawning cross positions? Is he saving his Metalopolis strategy for the final / a more important tournament?
The IdrA / Tester matches were very interesting, what a cruel way to annoy your opponent in the first game, I'm definitely going to try this out Not a fan of the qxc matches, it didn't look nice how he got taken out by so few voidrays.
hi, any possibility chill being a live guest co-commentator with day[9] on in this tournament?
I apologize if this offends for whatever reason.. I'm still high as fuck after picking up an hour ago.
I just was just re-watching these, and they are as awesome as I remember them.
I think Day[9] fills the gaps perfectly well on his own, and I greatly enjoy the dailies (especially the Idra timings daily, and then when I was ready to switch races confident after starting as random, the Sen one base muta -> expand everywhere kept me playing Z) but besides the obvious benefit of a secondary analysis/set of eyes, everyone needs time to think, and you can't webcam having a sip of water during a replay.
Now I understand why White-rA lost so badly to TLO in those showmatches a few days ago. He obviously didn't want to give away his anti-Terran build that worked beautifully against qxc. No reason to throw away a chance at $2k just to win a showmatch.
Edit: Actually, I just realized that would depend on when these games were played in relation to the showmatch. Maybe White-rA just had a bad day after all.
I really think the finals will be IntoTheRainbow vs. Tester. TLO does have a good chance as he has displayed some very strong TvP action therefore he could make it to the finals. Not sure if he is as strong at TvT though.
Of the people that lost, I think that HuK has the best chance to make it out of group play. Of course this means he has to beat Tester, but I have a feeling his best matchup could be PvP as he favors his 4 gate push which is very strong. I think HuK is vastly underrated and has the potential to hang with any player in this tourney. However, he doesn't quite have the experience and is prone to making costly mistakes. The other 3 players I don't see having a chance. Qxc is just not of the same caliber, Dimaga did not look good at all against IntoTheRainbow...and then there is Idra. I don't forsee Idra having any chance against TLO or even HuK because he is simply too predictable.
Looking forward to the upcoming matches and will be rooting for some upsets to keep things interesting.
Note: I only believe that Huk has the best chance out of those that lost, not that he will actually make it out of group play.
There are some nice Tester love songs being posted but let's not forget the double cybernetics core and chrono boosting the wrong one.. it wasn't all perfection . And there's probably a number of things Idra could have done differently that would have swung the game back in his favor. Instead of making the second hatch at the top, make it at his ramp for fast creep to get the spine crawler there asap to bust through. He also teched lair (which did nothing) and spent quite some time with his zerglings in front of the wall-in, so if he had either gotten banelings or roaches there was a good chance he could have busted down through the zealot and/or the right pylon (which both got very low on hp before the sentries showed up).
On July 20 2010 18:18 Kishkumen wrote: Now I understand why White-rA lost so badly to TLO in those showmatches a few days ago. He obviously didn't want to give away his anti-Terran build that worked beautifully against qxc. No reason to throw away a chance at $2k just to win a showmatch.
Edit: Actually, I just realized that would depend on when these games were played in relation to the showmatch. Maybe White-rA just had a bad day after all.
There was crippling lag affecting that game. His voidrays were just sitting there getting killed. Lag won, not TLO.
Idra vs Tester: 1. I don't see how banelings couldn't have won the game for idra instantly. He needed like 4-5 banelings to pop that zealot+pylon and Tester could have done nothing. Idra had lots of gas left and plenty of time to mass up lings from two hatches. Why trying to bust with just Lings? I won't deny that Testers pylon block was great (even more so the double Cybernetics Core), but he was extremly vulnerable afterwards and banelings would have busted that np.
2. No scouting, no infestors, no ultralisks, no corruptors, no drops, no nydus and then suiciding into a sentry/collosi army with just ling/hydra.
How is that good play? He could have done a million things with his huge economical advantage but that was just uninspired / plain bad.
As for the games, idra vs tester showed that colossi don't fit into starcraft. They're too super-unitish for me... Second game idra really amazed me with his amazing macro, pulling ahead so fast in food when only macro matters. He needs to practice A LOT on his game sense and unit control thou...
On July 20 2010 19:19 Gomas wrote: Nothing compares to Seans commentary!
As for the games, idra vs tester showed that colossi don't fit into starcraft. They're too super-unitish for me... Second game idra really amazed me with his amazing macro, pulling ahead so fast in food when only macro matters. He needs to practice A LOT on his game sense and unit control thou...
And no comment about void-ra :/
Colossus is a good unit but not OP at all. They are just very good vs hydra and IdrA had pretty much only hydras.
But too bad IdrA lost to his nemesis once again. Hope he wins his next match!
As soon as you don't have masses of corruptors in time to counter colossi you are seriously behind. Idra Match 2 showed that perfectly. Match 1 was interesting, I wonder if fast roaches would have helped Idra in a better way.
what do people think about the stargate & phoenix being created only for scouting? stargate is 150/150 and 60sec with the phoenix being 150/100 and 45sec. Hallucination costs 100/100 and 110sec which would've been the more economic choice with the build time being only 5sec slower. do you think he went stargates to give himself the option of getting some air support later on or did he really just create a stargate for scouting?
I love WhiteRa but he gets away with too much "oh, he hides a pylon/stargate and whaamm there is the surprise element of void ray or unit X".
I think TLO got WhiteRa figured out and thats why steamrolled him in showmatches.
So far IntoTheRainBow impressed the most. Damn, what perfect play.
And Idra, please. I know you think this is a macro game and you are a beast at the macro game but please put som effort into micro/unit control also. So boring to see you mass up and then go all in with that.
EPT
. And there's probably a number of things Idra could have done differently that would have swung the game back in his favor. Instead of making the second hatch at the top, make it at his ramp for fast creep to get the spine crawler there asap to bust through. He also teched lair (which did nothing) and spent quite some time with his zerglings in front of the wall-in, so if he had either gotten banelings or roaches there was a good chance he could have busted down through the zealot and/or the right pylon (which both got very low on hp before the sentries showed up). 
