WCS America - Check and Pigbaby move on to Ro16

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TL.net ESPORTS

4 Posts

August 06 2014 12:08 GMT

http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/2014_WCS_Season_3_America/Premier

The defending champion (P)

Pigbaby advanced to the Ro16 with his former teammate (Z)

Check, but it was not without a few scares.

Pigbaby began the night with a weird but enjoyable 2-0 against Shana. It was a series that had to be seen to be believed, as game 1 was a planetary nexus rush. Yes, a strat that rarely even works in bronze, was attempted in WCS AM Premier League. The Chinese Protoss had a growing reputation as Has' apprentice, but this was perhaps the silliest cheese in the history of WCS. Unfortunately for fromage fans, it didn't work. Game 2 wasn't quite as strange, unless you count a proxy oracle after an attempted blink attack as strange. This time it was Pigbaby playing with some pizazz, and his oracle was able to score more than a baker's dozen of probes. All the defending champ had to do from there was build an army and attack, and Shana fell in less than 20 minutes.

With such a strange opening set, a return to normalcy was expected for Check vs Illusion. And though it was a bit more standard, there were still a few surprises. Check defeated Illusion as many thought would happen, but it was far from convincing. His wins in games 1 and 3 were both early roach attacks, and both times Illusion had little to defend. When they did go into the late game, Illusion convincingly took the map by incorporating hellions to fry Check's zerglings. The win was all that mattered, however, and the Wayi zerg was in the winners' match.

It was already the weirdest group of the season, but it wasn't stopping there. With Shana in the loser's match against Illusion in a matchup we had not seen from him, viewers were wondering what tricks he'd have up his sleeve. After flipping through the Great Book of Protoss BS, Shana picked the proxy immortal bust, and as it was unscouted until it was at the terran front door, there was nothing Illusion could do. The American would get revenge in the second game, however, as his reaper opening was able to kill 4 probes. Illusion followed that up with a hellion drop, and it was a probe-beque. Shana did have 6 gateways worth of units, but Illusion was already bunkered down at home with tanks and marines. For game 3, Shana's build of choice was a proxy dark shrine. Despite scanning the protoss base just as the DTs were warping in, Illusion was still able to minimize the damage. Unfortunately for him, a 6gate follow up denied him his expansion. Stuck on one base, there was no way for Illusion to build enough units and it was just a matter of time until Shana closed out the series.

For fans of "normal" games, the winners' match was far more standard, even though it lacked the thrills of the other sets. Game 1 on Catallena was a story of poor engagements and forcefields that Pigbaby lost due to his decision making. He was able to strike one back on King Sejong Station, and it was the closest game all evening. Check began with roaches and lings to defend any of Pigbaby's attacks while storing resources for the eventual muta switch. Pigbaby on the other hand relied on blink stalkers before moving into colossus. Like many of these games it careened into a base trade, but Pigbaby's quick decision to take out all the tech ensured he had more units once their economies were dead. The deciding match was more Catallena than King Sejong though, as Check once again got the best of Pigbaby's penchant for attacking. A counter just as Pigbaby left his front door tore down the protoss wall, and it was a slow bleed into submission from there. The Wayi Spider zerg advanced in first, though it was difficult to draw any conclusions from such a weird group.

The final series of the night was a repeat of the first. This time however, Shana tried to play greedy. An early expansion on Overgrowth was doomed from the start when Pigbaby's choice of build was blink. After the contain, Pigbaby repeated his antics in the first series with a proxy oracle, but it was scouted by a hallucination. Shana was able to break out, but suffered the loss of most of his army. His response, of course, was novel: double proxy void rays. It would not make a difference though as he was already 30 supply down, and an attack by Pigbaby into his natural with colossus ended the game. The night would not last much longer, as more shenanigans were afoot on Merry Go Round: proxy dark shrine into an expansion. Pigbaby would not be fooled though, as he was prepared to put down a proxy robo after doing damage with his early gateways. When the observer finished, so was Group D, and the defending champ was through to the next round.

WCS America Premier League Ro16 Players (8/16)

Jim,

Pigbaby

HyuN,

Jaedong,

Check

Neeb,

iaguz,

Polt

Next: WCS AM Premier League Ro32 Group E
Wednesday, Aug 06 10:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00)
(Z)

viOLet vs

Arium

Revival vs (P)

HuK

SFDuality

United States1318 Posts

August 06 2014 12:13 GMT

Poor Illusion. He looked like the better player against both Check and Shana. To get cheesed out in g3 of both series really sucks for him, and also for my Liquibet.