Day 6 Recap

The first semifinal got off to a twitchy start. Aggression from both players led to a somewhat awkward start on Newkirk Precinct, with TY’s liberator harass dealing far more economic damage than aLive’s cloak banshee opener. aLive never really recovered from his critical losses, and a follow-up tank / marine push easily forced a GG. aLive quickly fought back though, doom dropping TY on Proxima before his own death push rolled into the natural. He didn’t stop there either, taking the win on Cactus Valley as well. An aggressive start left TY on two bases but with the much bigger army, and all that remained was to see whether he could crack aLive’s three base setup. aLive’s defensive hold held off a far superior containing force, and counter-pushed to deal game-ending damage.

On Honorgrounds, it was TY’s turn to play for the late game. aLive’s banshees were again ineffective, and several poor engagements and drops only saw him drop further and further behind. Once more, it was time for a decisive game on Abyssal Reef, and once more it delivered. A greedy 3CC opener from aLive was scouted and immediately countered by TY with a marine / tank push that seemed to inflict critical losses on a mis-controlling aLive; sieging behind the natural and eliminating 20 SCVs due to a late worker pull. aLive immediately countered, and extracted significant damage, dropping all over TY’s bases and harassing with ravens. In the chaos though, TY managed a critical snipe of aLive’s 3rd CC. aLive kept throwing more and more drops at TY, but his inefficiency and economic defecit began to tell. One further snipe of the main CC, floated to the 3rd was the killer blow, and TY routed aLive’s desperate counter-push to take the game and series.

Next came only the second PvZ of the playoffs. Proxima Station finally saw Stats go for a carrier rush—the first time we’ve seen it from him this tournament—but Dark countered it beautifully. Constant runbys kept Stats wary, while a mass spore wall was constructed and slowly pushed into the centre of the map. In the first (and last) big fight, Dark crushed the army, pouncing on Stats’ positional error to abduct the mothership and force a recall, before routing the remnants of the army. Game 2 on Newkirk featured a far more aggressive start—constant waves of ravager / ling / bane crashing into Stats’ base setup, with the protoss holding on by the skin of his teeth on each occasion—but it too was destined to go all the way to the endgame. As both players mined out, the game centred around a single remaining base on Stats’ side of the map. Dark desperately tried to hold it, surrounding it with his entire army, but Stats crushed through with his skytoss armada and endless storm support.

Cactus Valley saw a swift momentum switch; Dark’s roach / ling all-in was held with flying colours by Stats, and a large adept count crushed the follow-up to give the lead to the protoss. Abyssal Reef continued the theme of zerg aggression, with Dark opting for a ling / bane / queen all-in that was crushed by Stats while an adept run-by gutted his economy. The protoss countered with sentry / immortal, and while Dark defended brilliantly, Stats’ huge lead began to tell, and soon the ex-KT final was confirmed.

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Stats took the lead on Newkirk with strong defensive protoss play, fending off TY’s liberator harass while soaking up the terran’s pushes at the front. A couple of huge disruptor hits softened up the terran army, before Stats crushed through with a stalker / colossus force. Games 2 and 3 though went the way of TY. A proxy factory produced huge dividends as mines went off across Stats’ bases, and his economic lead allowed TY to muster a huge bio force, hitting a timing just before storm.

Game 3 on Abyssal Reef opened similarly, with phoenix adept still the order of the day. With no economic damage this time though, storm finished in time for the first big fight, and the game slowly played out into the late game. Ghosts and tempests came out onto the field of play, but this time it was TY constantly finding damage, cancelling bases and harassing with liberators. Liberators zoned Stats out from a crucial central mining base, and with the protoss’ colossus / tempest army strung out in retreat, TY pounced to eliminate his opponent from the match.

After so many late game scenarios already in the day, it was only so long until Stats snapped, and Paladino Terminal gave him the perfect opportunity—pylon rush with proxy oracles. The phoenix follow-up lifted the cyclones, adepts shaded in below, and oracles rained down death from above for a swift equaliser. TY shot right back in front—effective mine drops dealing early damage on Bel’Shir, before a tank contain, supported by turrets and a bunker, choked Stats out of the game.

With his back against the wall, Stats needed to win on Honorgrounds to take us to Game 7. TY raced ahead, getting to 3-3 while Stats was still on 1-1. A huge medivac drop in the main brought another crucial pair of forge snipes seconds before 2-2 would have finished, and flashbacks of yesterday’s game against ByuN must have instantly haunted Stats. However, this time terran would not be victorious; snipes on those medivacs left TY’s liberator contain without any bio support, and Stats pushed through with a hefty army supply lead. Wiping out TY’s mining bases, he returned home to crush TY’s counter and take us to the ace match.

With everything to play for on Cactus Valley, TY took it back to the same strategy that served him well on Bel’Shir. Tanks and liberators sieged up, and with only a pair of colossi and minimal gateway units available, Stats had no tools to break the contain. His third and natural fell simultaneously, and with his army crumbling, he had no option but to concede the title to TY.

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Recommended Games:

• aLive vs TY (Sets 3 and 5)
  
• Dark vs Stats (Sets 1 and 2)
  
• TY vs Stats (Set 3)