EPTPreliminaries:
Silver
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/images/Ticon_small.png)
vs. Spades + Show Spoiler +
As the other players were advancing into their round two and three, Spades and Silver played four games together. In game one, Spades disconnected in the midgame, and Silver allowed the replay to occur. Silver, an extremely well-mannered player, has been known to allow players to replay games for disconnects, most notably in the recent 
Minerva Invictus Tournament. Afterwards, Silver disconnected once more in game two. For the third game, I was invited to cast, and I'll highlight the play.
The map the players chose by elimination was Xel'Naga Caverns. Both players went for early bio in order to hold their quick expansions, and there was little early aggression and the game went into a macro stage where neither player wanted to attack. When Silver realised that Spades was ahead in his expansion, he decided to produce some banshees to harass him and keep himself even in economy, but Spades had already scouted the tech lab on Silver's startport and had prepared vikings in order to repel the assault. Silver tried to repeatedly harass with banshees but was very easily repelled by Spades' quick reaction time. All seemed lost for Silver when none of his banshee harass seemed effective, but he was able to muster up a fairly large army after taking his third base at the gold expansion. Even though he seemed to have a signficantly smaller army than Spades, Silver threw down a scan, saw Spades' army out of position, and was able to engage near his opponents' planetary fortress, getting some tanks in position, and even throwing down a point defense drone to absorb a lot of marauder fire.
![[image loading]](http://puu.sh/85Q)
Despite that, Silver didn't come out on top since Spades' reinforcing army was able to bolster his defences, and using that Planetary Fortress, pushed Silver's army back. However, during all of this, Silver used the fact that he had air superiority to pull off a battlecruiser transition, and he was able to use battlecruisers to harass Spades' fourth, forcing all SCVs off of mining, and took down a few marauders on its way.
![[image loading]](http://puu.sh/85W)
Things were looking like they might turn in Silver's favour once again when he engaged on the side of the map, doing tons of damage to Spades' army and destroying his fourth's orbital command with a battlecruiser. However, during this battle, Silver disconnected yet again.
![[image loading]](http://puu.sh/85X)
Afterwards, Spades allowed to Silver to replay yet again. This time, Spades opened with a quick expand. He added a reactor onto his barracks and moved forward with unsieged tanks to defend it. He was well prepared when Silver sent about nine marines and a thor to attack against four tanks and eleven marines. After a well positioned counter-attack by Spades, Silver was forced to gg, not having forces enough to hold off. His delayed expansion and failed early aggression lost him the game. Silver was clearly tired and frustrated at this point, practically giving up before he started, just trying to go for a quick aggressive build.
Afterwards, he said to me in private chat, "Well, after feeling like I won three times, I got bored. Wanted to mess around."
Silver's a good sport. Spades moved on.
Minerva Invictus Tournament. Afterwards, Silver disconnected once more in game two. For the third game, I was invited to cast, and I'll highlight the play.The map the players chose by elimination was Xel'Naga Caverns. Both players went for early bio in order to hold their quick expansions, and there was little early aggression and the game went into a macro stage where neither player wanted to attack. When Silver realised that Spades was ahead in his expansion, he decided to produce some banshees to harass him and keep himself even in economy, but Spades had already scouted the tech lab on Silver's startport and had prepared vikings in order to repel the assault. Silver tried to repeatedly harass with banshees but was very easily repelled by Spades' quick reaction time. All seemed lost for Silver when none of his banshee harass seemed effective, but he was able to muster up a fairly large army after taking his third base at the gold expansion. Even though he seemed to have a signficantly smaller army than Spades, Silver threw down a scan, saw Spades' army out of position, and was able to engage near his opponents' planetary fortress, getting some tanks in position, and even throwing down a point defense drone to absorb a lot of marauder fire.
Not looking so behind anymore
Despite that, Silver didn't come out on top since Spades' reinforcing army was able to bolster his defences, and using that Planetary Fortress, pushed Silver's army back. However, during all of this, Silver used the fact that he had air superiority to pull off a battlecruiser transition, and he was able to use battlecruisers to harass Spades' fourth, forcing all SCVs off of mining, and took down a few marauders on its way.
Battlecruiser operational!
Things were looking like they might turn in Silver's favour once again when he engaged on the side of the map, doing tons of damage to Spades' army and destroying his fourth's orbital command with a battlecruiser. However, during this battle, Silver disconnected yet again.
Not again ! Thanks Battle.net 2.0
Afterwards, Spades allowed to Silver to replay yet again. This time, Spades opened with a quick expand. He added a reactor onto his barracks and moved forward with unsieged tanks to defend it. He was well prepared when Silver sent about nine marines and a thor to attack against four tanks and eleven marines. After a well positioned counter-attack by Spades, Silver was forced to gg, not having forces enough to hold off. His delayed expansion and failed early aggression lost him the game. Silver was clearly tired and frustrated at this point, practically giving up before he started, just trying to go for a quick aggressive build.
Afterwards, he said to me in private chat, "Well, after feeling like I won three times, I got bored. Wanted to mess around."
Silver's a good sport. Spades moved on.
SuperiorWolf (Suppy)
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/images/Zicon_small.png)
vs. HasHe + Show Spoiler +
I was given the choice to either cover Stalife v KawaiiRice or cast Suppy v HasHe, and I decided to cast the ZvT, since I had been casting TvTs practically nonstop the two days before. I was pretty delighted with the game that I was given.
This game took place on Lost Temple, and HasHe opened up with reapers. He threw down five barracks during his harass, and continued to bring the fight to the front of Suppy's base. He did not, however, use the cliff advantage that his reapers had to maximise the harassment. He mostly focused on the front of the natural, which Suppy defended excellently with his speedlings and queens. He never once overextended himself, and held out through a tense moment.
![[image loading]](http://puu.sh/863)
During that harass, Suppy was able to get a spire up behind his mineral line, and began producing mutalisks. HasHe had gotten a missile turret, but had not really had any marines out in his composition. Once HasHe scouted the spire, he tried to buy himself time by sniping it with about ten reapers. He just barely knocked it down, with four mutalisks and a queen trying to defend against it. The reapers all fell, leaving HasHe very vulnerable.
![[image loading]](http://puu.sh/869)
Suppy tried to counter-attack with the eight mutalisks he was able to get out, but he was met with several well-placed turrets and a few marines that drove them off. Since he was constructing a second spire at the time, he really wanted to conserve the mutalisks that he had, rather than throwing them away on a harassment that wouldn't be that effective. When he saw that HasHe had completely transitioned into producing mostly marines and did not yet have a factory, he decided to throw up a baneling nest. HasHe felt confident about pushing with the small force he had gathered up, which was marine-heavy, not having seen the baneling nest.
![[image loading]](http://puu.sh/86f)
The eight mutalisks and remaining speedlings cleaned up HasHe's forces pretty nicely. Afterwards, rather than trying to take a third base and macroing up, Suppy decided to push into HasHe's base, knowing that there would be no army left to defend. He cleaned up the remaining marines that had just come out fresh from the barracks and then continued to fire on the barracks, slowly destroying them and camping them to prevent any more marines from coming out. At the same time, he stopped SCVs from building turrets to defend the barracks. HasHe had absolutely no factory tech and could do nothing against the onslaught of mutalisks. Finally, speedlings came with the mutalisks to clean up the missile turrets and SCVs. Afterwards, HasHe tried to throw down some bunkers at his third to hold off but was forced to concede.
![[image loading]](http://puu.sh/86q)
This game took place on Lost Temple, and HasHe opened up with reapers. He threw down five barracks during his harass, and continued to bring the fight to the front of Suppy's base. He did not, however, use the cliff advantage that his reapers had to maximise the harassment. He mostly focused on the front of the natural, which Suppy defended excellently with his speedlings and queens. He never once overextended himself, and held out through a tense moment.
A scary time for any Zerg player
During that harass, Suppy was able to get a spire up behind his mineral line, and began producing mutalisks. HasHe had gotten a missile turret, but had not really had any marines out in his composition. Once HasHe scouted the spire, he tried to buy himself time by sniping it with about ten reapers. He just barely knocked it down, with four mutalisks and a queen trying to defend against it. The reapers all fell, leaving HasHe very vulnerable.
Just barely blasts that spire-- Was it worth it ?
Suppy tried to counter-attack with the eight mutalisks he was able to get out, but he was met with several well-placed turrets and a few marines that drove them off. Since he was constructing a second spire at the time, he really wanted to conserve the mutalisks that he had, rather than throwing them away on a harassment that wouldn't be that effective. When he saw that HasHe had completely transitioned into producing mostly marines and did not yet have a factory, he decided to throw up a baneling nest. HasHe felt confident about pushing with the small force he had gathered up, which was marine-heavy, not having seen the baneling nest.
It didn't go so well
The eight mutalisks and remaining speedlings cleaned up HasHe's forces pretty nicely. Afterwards, rather than trying to take a third base and macroing up, Suppy decided to push into HasHe's base, knowing that there would be no army left to defend. He cleaned up the remaining marines that had just come out fresh from the barracks and then continued to fire on the barracks, slowly destroying them and camping them to prevent any more marines from coming out. At the same time, he stopped SCVs from building turrets to defend the barracks. HasHe had absolutely no factory tech and could do nothing against the onslaught of mutalisks. Finally, speedlings came with the mutalisks to clean up the missile turrets and SCVs. Afterwards, HasHe tried to throw down some bunkers at his third to hold off but was forced to concede.
No marines are safe when mutalisks are camping
Semifinals:
SuperiorWolf (Suppy)
vs. Cheese ![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/images/Picon_small.png)
+ Show Spoiler +
Again, I was given a choice of which games to cover for semifinals, and rather than casting another TvT, I decided to cast a PvZ, and followed Suppy once again. I'd also like to note that this is the first time a Zerg player has made it to OWC semifinals since the first Open Wolf Cup, back in June.
Game one:
+ Show Spoiler +
Game two:
+ Show Spoiler +
Game one:
+ Show Spoiler +
The map that was chosen for the first game was Metalopolis, and Suppy spawned at the left position while Cheese spawned at the bottom position. Both players opened pretty standard, until Cheese went for a very obvious 4gate push, not even hiding his gateways. Three of which were spotted by zerglings that went up the ramp, trying to check out Cheese's build. That was the first big mistake he made.
![[image loading]](http://puu.sh/86A)
Suppy reacted perfectly, throwing down more spine crawlers at his natural with the perfect timing to hold off the push. Cheese got overeager in his attack, thinking he had enough to defeat the spinecrawlers, and made his second big blunder in not backing off. His poor forcefields didn't help his zealots at all, either.
![[image loading]](http://puu.sh/86w)
![[image loading]](http://puu.sh/86y)
After losing all of his forces, Cheese was forced to fall back to his main base, where he tried to expand. However, Suppy, realising he was ahead, went straight for mutalisk harass and was relentless on Cheese's two bases, bouncing back and forth with ease. He even used speedlings when Cheese moved his forces out of position. By the time that Cheese had blink prepared, it was too late. His economy was basically shot, and there was nothing he could do to come back. He conceded after losing most of his stalkers outside of his base to about twenty-five speedlings.
![[image loading]](http://puu.sh/86E)
Sometimes two zerglings up the ramp is all it takes to scout a 4gate that is badly positioned
Suppy reacted perfectly, throwing down more spine crawlers at his natural with the perfect timing to hold off the push. Cheese got overeager in his attack, thinking he had enough to defeat the spinecrawlers, and made his second big blunder in not backing off. His poor forcefields didn't help his zealots at all, either.
Sometimes in a matter of seconds your army goes from this size...
to this size
After losing all of his forces, Cheese was forced to fall back to his main base, where he tried to expand. However, Suppy, realising he was ahead, went straight for mutalisk harass and was relentless on Cheese's two bases, bouncing back and forth with ease. He even used speedlings when Cheese moved his forces out of position. By the time that Cheese had blink prepared, it was too late. His economy was basically shot, and there was nothing he could do to come back. He conceded after losing most of his stalkers outside of his base to about twenty-five speedlings.
Too many mutalisks to handle
Game two:
+ Show Spoiler +
After losing game one, Cheese decided to pick Blistering Sands for his map. He went for the fairly common gateway forge walloff, favouring a fast expand. Instead of building gateway units, though, Cheese built cannons, wasting many early valuable resources.
![[image loading]](http://puu.sh/86F)
Immediately after scouting the wall, Suppy went right for the destructible rocks, being extremely aggressive. He worked off of one base, cut drones, got a roach warren, and began scratching away at the destructible rocks. Luckily for Cheese, he had a pylon positioned by the rocks, and was able to spot this. Again, he built cannons in order to defend his position. He had a second gateway, but still refused to build units out of it.
![[image loading]](http://puu.sh/86G)
![[image loading]](http://puu.sh/86K)
After the rocks are down, Cheese cannot defend. He only has one photon cannon up, and two more warping in, all powered by one pylon. He's trying to warp in another gateway as well, but just simply cannot hold off this push, especially with no gateway units out. Despite being ahead in the worker count 33 to 15, he ends up losing to Suppy's small army that easily runs through the brittle defence.
![[image loading]](http://puu.sh/86M)
Suppy advances to the finals, where KawaiiRice is waiting for him.
Two cannons, assuming direct pressure? Cheese is going to regret this spending...
Immediately after scouting the wall, Suppy went right for the destructible rocks, being extremely aggressive. He worked off of one base, cut drones, got a roach warren, and began scratching away at the destructible rocks. Luckily for Cheese, he had a pylon positioned by the rocks, and was able to spot this. Again, he built cannons in order to defend his position. He had a second gateway, but still refused to build units out of it.
Zerglings are forced to retreat, and the rocks are safe...
Until the roaches arrive
After the rocks are down, Cheese cannot defend. He only has one photon cannon up, and two more warping in, all powered by one pylon. He's trying to warp in another gateway as well, but just simply cannot hold off this push, especially with no gateway units out. Despite being ahead in the worker count 33 to 15, he ends up losing to Suppy's small army that easily runs through the brittle defence.
One cannon vs six roaches, eight zerglings ? You tell me.
Suppy advances to the finals, where KawaiiRice is waiting for him.
Finals:
KawaiiRice
vs. SuperiorWolf (Suppy)+ Show Spoiler +
For the first time ever in an OWC, a Zerg player advanced to the finals. Suppy has a long, hard road ahead of him, though, as he is facing KawaiiRice, one of the top Terrans in the entire United States.
Game one:
+ Show Spoiler +
Game two:
+ Show Spoiler +
Game three:
+ Show Spoiler +
Game one:
+ Show Spoiler +
The map chosen ends up being Metalopolis, and KawaiiRice spawns at the bottom position, and Suppy spawns at the left position. Suppy opens up with speedings very quickly to help him deal with a possible reaper opening from Kawaii, but ends up delaying his expansion while doing so. He also harasses Kawaii by stealing his second gas, but unfortunately is not able to cancel it in time, making his gas steal fairly ineffective.
![[image loading]](http://puu.sh/86O)
KawaiiRice used reapers to try to harass but isn't able to do a significant amount of damage. He sticks with one barracks at first, however, and only produces three reapers. He uses them in a bunker to defend the command center that he recently produced. At this point, both players are fairly even in economy, but KawaiiRice is able to speed up his production significantly by throwing down several more barracks. After his expansion is secured, Kawaii goes into Suppy's base with three reapers in order to scout for tech structures and to see his opponent's unit composition. In an act of random chance, the reapers spot a VERY newly morphing spire and are able to focus it down and then leave. Suppy loses 200/200, unable to cancel, and merely says "wow" into in-game chat.
![[image loading]](http://puu.sh/86R)
Despite losing his spire, Suppy tries to transition again into Mutalisks similarly to how he transitioned against HasHe, but the timing is too off. By the time his Mutalisks got to Kawaii's base, there were already turrets positioned around the mineral line, and Kawaii had several marines with combat shields to push them back. During this time, Kawaii got two tanks and a thor, along with several marauders. Similarly to how Suppy dealt with HasHe, he got banelings. KawaiiRice had too many marauders, however, and positioned them in the front to shield against the banelings. All of the marines were in the back. Afterwards, Kawaii's push won him game one.
![[image loading]](http://puu.sh/86X)
![[image loading]](http://puu.sh/86Y)
Gas steals are so annoying...
KawaiiRice used reapers to try to harass but isn't able to do a significant amount of damage. He sticks with one barracks at first, however, and only produces three reapers. He uses them in a bunker to defend the command center that he recently produced. At this point, both players are fairly even in economy, but KawaiiRice is able to speed up his production significantly by throwing down several more barracks. After his expansion is secured, Kawaii goes into Suppy's base with three reapers in order to scout for tech structures and to see his opponent's unit composition. In an act of random chance, the reapers spot a VERY newly morphing spire and are able to focus it down and then leave. Suppy loses 200/200, unable to cancel, and merely says "wow" into in-game chat.
Boom goes the spire!
Despite losing his spire, Suppy tries to transition again into Mutalisks similarly to how he transitioned against HasHe, but the timing is too off. By the time his Mutalisks got to Kawaii's base, there were already turrets positioned around the mineral line, and Kawaii had several marines with combat shields to push them back. During this time, Kawaii got two tanks and a thor, along with several marauders. Similarly to how Suppy dealt with HasHe, he got banelings. KawaiiRice had too many marauders, however, and positioned them in the front to shield against the banelings. All of the marines were in the back. Afterwards, Kawaii's push won him game one.
In the chaos, you can see nice positioning by Kawaii
That was gg
Game two:
+ Show Spoiler +
Suppy and KawaiiRice play game two on Lost Temple, in the exact same spawns as they did on Metalopolis (Suppy 9, Kawaii 6). Suppy does the exact same opening as last time, delaying his expansion slightly to make sure that he has speedlings to help ward off reaper attacks. He also goes for the gas steal again, this time cancelling it perfectly, repeatedly denying Kawaii his second gas.
![[image loading]](http://puu.sh/871)
KawaiiRice attacks with hellions and keeps the pressure on inside of Suppy's base. He doesn't get a lot of drone kills, but does roast quite a few zerglings, and scouts a spire. That is key. So while Suppy is trying to go for mutalisks, Kawaii is already prepared, has an armory up, and when the mutalisks arrive...
![[image loading]](http://puu.sh/873)
KawaiiRice is up against the exact same build as he was last time, and this time is prepared with more thors and tanks, and when he pushes, it's extremely easy for him to destroy the muta/baneling force that Suppy has, and he takes his second win.
![[image loading]](http://puu.sh/876)
That marine is going to be firing for a long time...
KawaiiRice attacks with hellions and keeps the pressure on inside of Suppy's base. He doesn't get a lot of drone kills, but does roast quite a few zerglings, and scouts a spire. That is key. So while Suppy is trying to go for mutalisks, Kawaii is already prepared, has an armory up, and when the mutalisks arrive...
They are forced to run scared from the one thor
KawaiiRice is up against the exact same build as he was last time, and this time is prepared with more thors and tanks, and when he pushes, it's extremely easy for him to destroy the muta/baneling force that Suppy has, and he takes his second win.
There is nothing left to stop the remaining mech forces, especially with their marine support
Game three:
+ Show Spoiler +
After losing twice, Suppy looks to Xel'Naga Caverns, thinking that the long rush distance will help him play a better macro game against KawaiiRice. He spawns at the top position, and Kawaii spawns at the bottom position.
Suppy opens up exactly the same way he has in the previous games. Quick metabolic boost before expanding. KawaiiRice knows that this is the build that he is going for, and doesn't sweat it when his gas is stolen again. He simply goes hellions and goes for a little bit quicker of a harass than last time. It pays off for him, as he gets a few drone kills but mostly wipes out the entire zergling composition of Suppy. At the same time, he begins producing banshees.
![[image loading]](http://puu.sh/87c)
KawaiiRice has perfect timing with the cloak on his banshees and is able to kill over half of Suppy's drones before he can even get his Lair finished. A spore crawler is going up, but because of the cloak, the FOUR queens that Suppy had become absolutely useless.
![[image loading]](http://puu.sh/87d)
After the spore crawler gets up, the overseer finishes as well, and Kawaii can no longer harass. But the damage has been done. Kawaii has also been macroing in his base this entire time, now having a tank, two thors, several marauders, and about twelve or fifteen marines. Instead of trying to build more drones, Suppy opts to go for an all-in counter attack. Since he had been moving his creep up the map the entire time, he decided to bring his four queen army along with the sixteen roaches he had been producing to Kawaii's front door. Kawaii, the multitasking king with near-perfect mechanics, had an army prepared to deal with it. Even with the transfusions from the queens, the roaches had no chance.
![[image loading]](http://puu.sh/87f)
After holding that push off, the game ended. Suppy conceded, and KawaiiRice took home $50 dollars, getting his second OWC gold medal !
Suppy opens up exactly the same way he has in the previous games. Quick metabolic boost before expanding. KawaiiRice knows that this is the build that he is going for, and doesn't sweat it when his gas is stolen again. He simply goes hellions and goes for a little bit quicker of a harass than last time. It pays off for him, as he gets a few drone kills but mostly wipes out the entire zergling composition of Suppy. At the same time, he begins producing banshees.
KawaiiRice, the Chinese multitasker with over 250 APM!
KawaiiRice has perfect timing with the cloak on his banshees and is able to kill over half of Suppy's drones before he can even get his Lair finished. A spore crawler is going up, but because of the cloak, the FOUR queens that Suppy had become absolutely useless.
This is what Kawaii and we see, but the queens are actually seeing a large blur of death raining hell upon their drones
After the spore crawler gets up, the overseer finishes as well, and Kawaii can no longer harass. But the damage has been done. Kawaii has also been macroing in his base this entire time, now having a tank, two thors, several marauders, and about twelve or fifteen marines. Instead of trying to build more drones, Suppy opts to go for an all-in counter attack. Since he had been moving his creep up the map the entire time, he decided to bring his four queen army along with the sixteen roaches he had been producing to Kawaii's front door. Kawaii, the multitasking king with near-perfect mechanics, had an army prepared to deal with it. Even with the transfusions from the queens, the roaches had no chance.
It just wasn't enough, and these queens are slightly off-creep
After holding that push off, the game ended. Suppy conceded, and KawaiiRice took home $50 dollars, getting his second OWC gold medal !
...
