EPT
Writer: lichter
Graphics: Meru
Editor: lichter
Olli's Liquid
TaeJa and 
HerO advanced from Group G. It was not without a few scares as XiGua looked close to breaking their duopoly, but Chinese zerg lost steam as the night wore on, possibly due to mitigating circumstances. He was forced to run 20 minutes to the closest internet cafe due to a power outage in his home, where he had to play on a balmy day. Nevertheless both Liquid players earned their places in the Ro16, even though most of the games were far from impressive.![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/lichter/WCSAM/2014/season3/wcsampremgrpg.jpg)
The evening didn't start well with an odd series between Taeja and hendralisk. After sustaining damage from hellions in game 1, hendralisk attempted a... nydus queen baneling drop strategy. Suffice to say it failed, but game 2 was no better. hendralisk wasn't in a macro mood against the Liquid Terran and attempted a zergling attack before transitioning into roach bane. Despite killing 1/3 of the zerg's worker supply, Taeja decided to gg because he had no units to defend at home. They'd try to make amends in the third game which lasted almost 15 minutes, but hendralisk could not find a way to take a good engagement against Taeja's bio-bat force. It looked like a stroll in the park for
TaeJa, but neither player convinced after such a wonky series.With that out of the way, HerO and XiGua would play the closest series of the evening. XiGua was eventually able to shoot up into the winners' match with a 2-1 victory, but the first map was HerO's. It was classic HerO as he attempted to harass XiGua to death, but his patent inability to close out games gave the Chinese zerg hope. His main army consisted of void rays, phoenix, colossus and a few gateway units, but much of his resource reserve was spent on DTs and zealots in all of XiGua's bases. Despite his large mutalisk flock, XiGua was never able to minimize the damage, and he died a slow death. Feeling confident, HerO attempted a blink stalker sentry 7 gate all in on Overgrowth after an oracle. Though it looked like HerO was about to break XiGua with his blink micro and forcefields, a clutch drone pull and good surrounds from his zerglings allowed the Watermelon Zerg to tie things up. Their final game on Catallena continued their trend of close games, as both players were forced to bounce back and forth between offense and defense throughout the closing stages of the game. HerO's immortal sentry attack was force to recall due to a counterattack, but zerglings in the main had already done damage.
XiGua elected to switch into mutalisks, and HerO had no choice but to resort to warping in mostly stalkers. With a spine crawler forest in his natural and mutalisks doing damage wherever possible, HerO succumbed to the pressure and was shoved down to the losers' match.There he would battle for almost an hour to oust hendralisk in 2 long games. Both games featured nydus canals as the Canadian Zerg tried to use left field strategies to surprise the Liquid Protoss. Game 1 on King Sejong Station featured the foreigner relying on his namesake unit, at one point having over 40 hydralisks. Unfortunately for his fans, he was never able to take engagements that allowed him to push through and punish the protoss economy. HerO only moved out to pull hendralisk's army out of position for drops or to take out outlying expansions, and after pinning the zerg back on 3 bases repeatedly, hendralisk had enough and gg'd. Game 2 was much longer at 36 minutes, but it was another case of HerO playing with his food and tightroping his way to victory. Overgrowth was the scene, and swarm host nydus was hendralisk's choice of build. HerO countered with gateway aggression in order to trade bases, and were both left with a base and a half at most. Trapped by the swarm hosts, the Liquid Protoss had no choice but to take a hidden expansion in the top left, and it would go unscouted until the 22nd minute. HerO was eventually able to break the contain with colossus, but hendralisk held on with vipers and swarm hosts. Unfortunately for him, he was on 2 bases for much the game, and low economy zerg, despite the efficiency of free units, is almost always a recipe for disaster.
HerO patiently sat back on his reemerging economy before finally ending hendralisk's Premier League adventure.The winners' match was a nervy affair for Liquid fans. A victory by XiGua would have meant that only one of Taeja or HerO could advanced to the Ro16. Fortunately, Taeja was able to pull through despite dropping the first map. Their game on Nimbus didn't last long even though both players reached three bases. XiGua amassed lings and banelings, busted Taeja's main ramp, and the Liquid Terran immediately gg'd. It looked like Merry Go Round was going to be a repeat of the last map when XiGua once again built a swell of lings on three bases. His attack with only speedlings was able to reduce the terran army count, but little else. This prompted Taeja to attempt a hellion runby, but another big round of lings ensured they didn't do much damage. Once again, XiGua rallied lings to Taeja's side of the map for a baneling bust, and it would last 4 rounds. In round 1, Taeja was able to hold despite losing stim to banelings. The second round saw some massive balls from Taeja in lifting his 3rd cc, which was part of the ramp, allowing XiGua into his natural. It was another hold, and with the armory done, the remaining hellions transformed into hellbats. Round 3 was held despite banelings blowing up all the hellbats--Taeja of course lifted his cc once again--and round 4 sputtered into a gg. Their quick series didn't last much longer as game 3 was similarly short.
TaeJa hit XiGua with his pants down with a 1/1/1 hellion marine medivac timing, and the zerg promptly died. It didn't look entirely convincing from the King of Summer, but it was good enough for first place.With the teamkill avoided, Liquid fans anticipated a better showing from HerO. It was a close series, but the two Liquid teammates eventually advanced together as HerO defeated XiGua 2-0 in the final set of the evening. It was the best series of the night; his back against the wall and doubters ridiculing his once vaunted PvZ, HerO played like his vintage self as he dismantled XiGua with drops and harassment. There were times when the Liquid Protoss appeared a little too fancy and a little too wasteful, but he was eventually able to close out both games against XiGua's resiliency. The pendelum swung in HerO's favor when a 4 DT drop in the zerg main hit exactly as XiGua was out on the map. Though the Watermelon Zerg attempted a counter attack, it was easily repelled by forcefields and a nexus cannon. By the end of his initial drops, HerO had killed 24. By the end of the game, he had killed 70. The Liquid Protoss chipped away at the bleeding zerg--who, for most of the game, was still higher in supply--until he enough to slice him down the middle. Down a game, XiGua went to the skies in hopes of tying the series, but HerO patiently held back and struck where the mutas were not while defending with his phoenix. Though HerO was repeatedly pegged back to 2 or 3 bases, XiGua could similarly never get his 4th and 5th bases functional. Eventually, the mutas ran out of space to run and
HerO's phoenixes gunned them down like sitting ducks.The teamkill avoided, Taeja and HerO managed to advance together. The former has looked vulnerable due to his wrist issues, and several forfeitures in online qualifiers seem to suggest that he is saving himself for WCS AM. For HerO, this is his first look into the Ro16 for 2014, and he'll have to impress if he's to convince us that he's not on some slow decline. Tonight, however, they rejoice.
WCS America Premier League Ro16 Players (14/16)
Jim, Pigbaby, HuK, HerOHyuN, Jaedong, Check, viOLet, ScarlettNeeb, iaguz, Polt, Heart, TaeJaNext: WCS AM Premier League Ro32 Group H
Wednesday, Aug 13 10:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00)
Bomber vs SlamMajOr vs puCK
