With only three matches left to be played, TY, herO, Rogue, and ByuN met on the fourth straight day of thrilling games to see who would return to Korea as an IEM champion.
TY opened the series with proxy cyclones. Having survived the attack, herO moved into dark templars. They failed to make an impact, however, leaving herO to tech into colossi and blink. TY steadily built a supply lead, ending the game with a bio/viking push on herO's third
TY's tank push only killed five workers, but, his bio/viking was once again too much for herO's colossi based army to handle. On the defensive after losing the first fight, herO got up to five bases, but never got a foothold, with TY eventually taking the game.
herO's proxy stargate was scouted, but herO got a pair of oracles out before moving into two base blink pressure that forced TY to lift his natural. When the dust settled TY went for a tank push, but herO forced TY into a dead end drop which prompted an abrupt concession.
Both players safely reached three bases in game four, but herO's adept warp ins killed more than thirty SCV’s. herO let up on the pressure, teching to storm and colossi instead of pressing. TY reached four bases but could do nothing against the eventual push.
TY had a much larger army by the time he broke out of herO's mass oracle/mothership core contain, but herO stalled long enough to even the army supply. TY went for liberators, but simply didn't have enough against herO’s Blink and Storm, dropping a third straight game to send herO to the finals.
After Rogue took a quick 1-0 in the series with a ravager all in, ByuN evened the score. Rogue went for roach based aggression once more, but this time ByuN held, moving into a bio/tank army which prevented Rogue from establishing a fourth base. Even on bases, Rogue’s army was whittled away at until there was nothing left.
Tied 1-1, Rogue cracked ByuN’s siege on his third and teched into ling/bane/muta. His harassment negated, ByuN lost the first sizeable fight to go down 60 supply. From there, Rogue added ultralisks into his army. ByuN’s inability to muster a response put him down 2-1.
ByuN’s went for three rax reaper on Sequencer, but was easily rebuffed by Rogue. On four bases and safe from attack, Rogue’s zergling run by breached ByuN's natural and killed his fourth. Banelings and mutalisks joined in to close things out, sending Rogue to the finals.
The combination of proxy oracles and a massive attack with glaives were enough to put herO up 1-0 in the finals. Rogue scrambled to defend with queens and slow banelings, but could not prevent herO from bouncing from base to base until Rogue had nothing left.
Game two looked to be going herO's way, but constant banelings drops prompted an attack from herO that crippled Rogue's army but only killed one of his five bases. Meanwhile, hydralisks were gutting herO's main, who left the game when he saw Rogue's brood lords.
Having lost his third to a ling flood and six workers to a queen drop, herO went for a two base all in that was thwarted by queens and hydras. Forced to turn tail and run, herO conceded when Rogue closed in on his building third.
After two base hydralisks and a two base adept attack failed to end the game, thing moved into a standard hydra/ling/bane, immortal/high templar/archon contest. Rogue's lurkers put him over the top, though, as herO's lack of detection put Rogue one game away from victory.
herO opted for double prism harass in game five, but Rogue didn't give an inch. He killed off both prisms before streaming across the maps with zerglings and lurkers. Having focused on immortal production, herO had no observers with which to see the burrowed lurkers ravaging his natural and main. With no production and no detection, herO tapped out, ceding the series to Rogue, making him the IEM Shanghai champion.
This marks Rogue's first Premier Tournament win in his five year SC2 career.
Been a long time coming to see a Premier win from him, but I'm glad he's done it. And no one can look at that bracket and say he's had an easy road either (unlike some other lesser known IEMs).
On July 30 2017 23:51 207aicila wrote: Been a long time coming to see a Premier win from him, but I'm glad he's done it. And no one can look at that bracket and say he's had an easy road either (unlike some other lesser known IEMs).
GSL level competition in an IEM format. great win.
This IEM was probably one of the best there has been. Great games, commentary, production was on point, the crowd seemed to love it. This and Homestory really have showed a lot of love for sc2
On July 31 2017 01:00 Thomasmarkle wrote: This IEM was probably one of the best there has been. Great games, commentary, production was on point, the crowd seemed to love it. This and Homestory really have showed a lot of love for sc2
And we saw a solid 50% of the group stage games!!!!!!!!!!
On July 31 2017 02:30 Twinkle Toes wrote: Finallly a zerg champion! Didnt watch it live, were the semis and finals any good?
Some great games in there for sure, definitely recommend catching up on those matches (though Rogue vs ByuN less than the others).
Of the semis and finals, I thought Rogue vs. ByuN was by far the best series and that's only somewhat influenced by the fact that I hate ByuN. (his facial expressions during the last game were soooooo tasty)
TY herO was pretty one sided the entire way though not always towards the same player. Rogue vs. herO had some weird games, but not your standard weird Rogue games as he was playing fairly standard.
i think we can lay the reapers-being-imba idea to rest now...
zerg players plz stop whining, you have no room to whine with 7 air range queens ^^
it's hilarious....every single time terran is nerfed it's because one player (maybe two) in the world is so good at controlling certain units or compositions so it becomes "too strong."
i'm sorry but i don't believe you should be able to defend everything before the 8 minute mark with just queens and lings. it was a big mistake buffing queens in the broodlord infestor era, and it was an even bigger mistake buffing them in lotv with the air range.
On July 31 2017 02:30 Twinkle Toes wrote: Finallly a zerg champion! Didnt watch it live, were the semis and finals any good?
Some great games in there for sure, definitely recommend catching up on those matches (though Rogue vs ByuN less than the others).
Of the semis and finals, I thought Rogue vs. ByuN was by far the best series and that's only somewhat influenced by the fact that I hate ByuN. (his facial expressions during the last game were soooooo tasty)
TY herO was pretty one sided the entire way though not always towards the same player. Rogue vs. herO had some weird games, but not your standard weird Rogue games as he was playing fairly standard.
EPT
TY, 
herO, 
Rogue, and 
IEM Season XII - Shanghai
