The 2018 WCS Global Finals continued at Blizzard Arena on Saturday to decide the winners of Groups C and D. Stats, considered by many the best Protoss in the world, looked dominant throughout two PvP series and advanced from Group C with a perfect 4-0 score. Defending champion Rogue played two much closer series in Group D, but ultimately also booked his ticket to Anaheim.
Stats and Has opened Day 2 in stereotypical fashion. Has proxied a stargate, Stats played a defensive stargate build. Has' oracle was met with a shield battery while Stats' adepts got into Has' base. Both players killed five probes, but Has ended up with the stronger army. He used that advantage to kill Stats' expansion, but never expanded himself. Stats used the tools at his disposal very well, continuously harassing Has' mineral line with an oracle and two phoenixes, keeping his opponent at home. After building up a few immortals, Stats finally moved across the map and ended the game.
The second game on Acid Plant began similarly, with a proxied stargate from Has. Stats' adepts this time scouted it immediately and Has abandoned his plan. Stats went ahead with his 3gate warp prism attack while expanding behind it. Has' full wall came back to haunt him as his stalkers found themselves locked out, and destroying the pylon to get them to safety unpowered Has' own robo. Stats' attack could not be stopped and he took the series 2-0.
Dark immediately sprung into action on Fracture with a proxy hatchery. ShoWTimE responded with two gateways and Dark, upon seeing the reaction, immediately abandoned his plan. ShoWTimE swung back at the Zerg by constructing shield batteries in Dark's natural, destroying the hatchery there, but only expanding late himself. Dark commited to ravagers to bust ShoWTimE's natural but the Protoss held with immortals, shield batteries and sentries. ShoWTimE then sharked around the map, forcing units to be made, but teching to a forge, charge and templar archives and expanding in the meantime. The game stabilized for a few minutes as both players built up their tech and economies. When ShoWTimE finally attacked, his army destroyed Dark's fourth base and while a zealot warpin also took out the third. Dark was able to hang on for a few more minutes, but ShoWTimE, with the superior economy and army, was never going to give up control and took the game with another multi-pronged attack shortly after.
Acid Plant saw standard openings from both—a stargate from ShoWTimE and no aggression from Dark. The first deviation from the norm came from Dark who threw down an evolution chamber for +1 attack. ShoWTimE, meanwhile, added a second stargate. ShoWTimE scouted the evolution chamber and added shield batteries, keeping himself safe. Ling/baneling aggression still found 15 probe kills. Dark attempted a hydra/baneling attack but ShoWTimE held perfectly with a combination of stasis wards, phoenix lifts and perfect forcefields. The Protoss continued to defend well while teching to carriers. Baneling drops found their way in and killed 25 probes, but ShoWTimE then held another attack perfectly as his carrier count rose. ShoWTimE's counter-harassment was very effective as zealot runbys destroyed Dark's fifth base. Both players vied for positioning on the map, but it was ShoWTimE who took the more favorable trades and kept Dark's economy down. Dark's corruptors ultimately could not rival the carriers with high templar support and as ShoWTimE's army steamrolled one base after another, Dark was forced into more and more unfavorable trades until he was finally left with nothing at all, and ShoWTimE closed out the series 2-0.
Classic against Nerchio began with two cautious openings on Acid Plant. Nerchio seemed to gear up for a hydra/ling attack, but never attacked. The game stabilized from there and Nerchio decided for swarm hosts. Classic lost his fourth base to locust pressure, but countered and killed Nerchio's lair with a zealot warpin. Nerchio doubled down on swarm host production, but it was a hydra/baneling attack that finally broke through Classic's third base. The fourth base, however, stayed alive and Classic, recognizing that Nerchio only had swarm hosts to defend his own bases, pulled the trigger and broke through the Zerg defenses with his army, forcing the GG from Nerchio.
Both players opt for standard openings in their second game, with Classic interestingly skipping archon drops after the stargate opening, instead heading straight for immortals and storm. Neither player attacked for a long time. Nerchio finally decided on late swarmhosts and attempted to pressure Classic as he tried to take his fourth base. The base went up untouched, but banelings found 17 probes in Classic's third base. The attack cost Nerchio a lot of units, though, and Classic, realizing this, moved across for a swift and powerful counterattack. Nerchio lost his natural and third base. Classic pulled back, satisfied with the damage done, and came back with another maxed Protoss army full of immortals and high templar. There was only one winner at this point and Nerchio finally conceded when Classic's mothership joined the Protoss army as it wiped out the remaining Zerg expansions.
SpeCial opened the second series of Group D with a reaper expand and quick wall-off at the natural. Rogue snuck out a drone before the reaper got to his base and took an early third base. He then committed to a lot of zerglings, but only afterwards scouted SpeCial's wall at the natural. Rogue hid his zerglings for a later counterattack, but this only allowed SpeCial's hellions to find completely undefended drones in Rogue's main base, killing 11 of them. A cloaked banshee found 5 more, putting SpeCial in a strong midgame position. He used his banshees and a raven to clean up nearly all of Rogue's creep spread. As 2/2 neared completion, SpeCial pushed out with his bio/tank army and simply ran over Rogue's fourth base. The Zerg army of ravagers and banelings could do nothing against the bio army with anti-armor missiles, and SpeCial took the first game.
SpeCial took initiative in their second game, throwing down a very early third command center in his main base, following it up with hellions and cloak. Rogue's response was to just drone freely. SpeCial, meanwhile, added cyclones and a raven, then threw down two additional factories to go into mech. SpeCial went across to pressure with hellbats, cyclones and the raven, but Rogue used that opportunity to run zerglings into the Terran bases, killing 23 SCVs. At the same time he was able to defend SpeCial's attack, and the Mexican Terran found himself too far behind to continue.
Game three began similarly to the previous one, with SpeCial again opting for a quick third command center with hellions and banshees. Rogue, however, researched overlord speed early on and got a quick lair for drops. This led into a powerful roach/queen all-in. A huge anti-armor missile allowed SpeCial to hang on, but at the expense of 23 SCVs. Rogue built up another wave of units but turned around when SpeCial's banshee intercepted his roaches on the map. Instead he tried to find the necessary damage through zergling and roach drops while adding swarm hosts. SpeCial, however, added barracks and bio upgrades, transitioning to a bio/mech hybrid army. Rogue's swarm hosts traded very efficiently, finding multiple tanks and cyclones. SpeCial was able to kill 10 drones with a drop on the other side and even destroyed Rogue's fourth hatchery, but the continued swarm host trades wore him down gradually. With 2/2 upgrades finishing for Rogue, he finally pushed through SpeCial's defenses at the third base and forced the GG.
To decider the winner of Group C, Stats and ShoWTimE met in what promised to be the ultimate defensive PvP showdown. And both players did open with the most generic, safe opening—a stargate and phoenixes. Both identified the state of the game and added another stargate after expanding. Stats made the decisive move by utilizing his much faster phoenix range for a timing attack when ShoWTimE's range had not even started. The game didn't end right there, but with an advantage in every regard, Stats ran away with it. When ShoWTimE's phoenixes were caught and killed on the opposite side of the map, the German tapped out.
The second game began with varied build orders as Stats again opted for the phoenix opening, but ShoWTimE got blink instead. Stats' six initial adepts were warded off easily and ShoWTimE then applied pressure as his blink upgrade finished, but Stats had shield batteries ready in time to defend. The game slowed down from there. ShoWTimE researched charge and began building immortals before taking a third base. With +2 attack ahead of ShoWTimE's, Stats moved out to pressure his opponent's third base after his own had been delayed. Adepts found their way into the natural of ShoWTimE and put him at a probe deficit, while both players traded quite evenly at the third base. This naturally favored Stats and with more adepts finding even more probe damage, the followup attack finally broke ShoWTimE and sent Stats to Anaheim.
Classic and Rogue played the final series of Day 2, with both choosing standard openings on Acid Plant to start off. Classic put on some pressure with four adepts while teching to his archon drop after stargate opening, but Rogue threw down a nydus worm and put it straight into Classic's natural. The Protoss survived after a brilliant hold, but found himself down a base and at a worker deficit. The game normalized from here, with Rogue transitioning to swarm hosts. As Classic chased down Rogue's roach army, zerglings snuck into the natural and killed a few probes. Classic's aggressive posture on the map kept Rogue's swarm hosts away from his bases but zerglings sniped it anyway, putting Classic all-in with his attack. Rogue held and took the first game.
Classic really switched it up on Blueshift, teching immediately to a robotics bay for warp prism speed and disruptor drops. However, Rogue ran zerglings into his base and killed 4 probes, scouting Classic's hidden tech buildings. Classic followed the drop up with colossus and a gateway explosion. Rogue was able to barely survive the initial attack, losing a lot of drones in the process. Classic built up for another attack, but lost his prism with a colossus to hydralisks, significantly delaying and weakening what looked like a powerful second wave. Rogue only had to stall for a few more seconds before collapsing on Classic's army and taking the series, advancing to BlizzCon.
The WCS Global Finals continue on Sunday, featuring the Losers' Match and the Decider Match of all groups. Every series will see a player eliminated from the Global Finals as only four players will join Maru, Serral, Stats and Rogue at BlizzCon.
Thanks to the downtime between games we get insta recap! :D
I was impressed by Rogue, ShoWTimE and Classic today. Even Nerchio was putting up a good fight and Special almost beat Rogue.
Rogue kind of broke Classic mentally so if Nerchio manages to beat Special he could beat Classic as well.
Tomorrow will be even more interesting with TY vs Neeb potentially, Classic vs Nerchio/Special fighting for his life, and ShoWTimE with a very probable rematch against Dark.
Stats' play was dominant and perhaps showed a step up from last year. Rogue started looking wobbly but soon regained his composure, he's still looking like a monster. Looking forward to seeing how far these two will go.
Pretty good showing by everyone (except Has I guess) with a special mention to Stats. Classic should still get out of his group pretty easy but he will have to up his game if he want to go far, there's no good match up comming his way in the ro8.
On October 28 2018 08:00 Nakajin wrote: Pretty good showing by everyone (except Has I guess) with a special mention to Stats. Classic should still get out of his group pretty easy but he will have to up his game if he want to go far, there's no good match up comming his way in the ro8.
Stats is such a PVP god this year (16-2 in offline matches), only lost 2 very close series to Trap and Zest. This especially favors him considering his ro8 opponent is very likely a Protoss. (Neeb, sOs, Zest, Classic all have a good shot getting out)
On October 28 2018 08:28 yht9657 wrote: Stats is such a PVP god this year (16-2 in offline matches), only lost 2 very close series to Trap and Zest. This especially favors him considering his ro8 opponent is very likely a Protoss. (Neeb, sOs, Zest, Classic all have a good shot getting out)
On October 28 2018 08:28 yht9657 wrote: Stats is such a PVP god this year (16-2 in offline matches), only lost 2 very close series to Trap and Zest. This especially favors him considering his ro8 opponent is very likely a Protoss. (Neeb, sOs, Zest, Classic all have a good shot getting out)
Inb4 he loses to ty
He can probably take any other player but for some reason TY just has his number.
On October 28 2018 08:28 yht9657 wrote: Stats is such a PVP god this year (16-2 in offline matches), only lost 2 very close series to Trap and Zest. This especially favors him considering his ro8 opponent is very likely a Protoss. (Neeb, sOs, Zest, Classic all have a good shot getting out)
Inb4 he loses to ty
He can probably take any other player but for some reason TY just has his number.
Yea maybe TY finds it hard to choke against such a nice personality.
On October 28 2018 08:00 Nakajin wrote: Pretty good showing by everyone (except Has I guess) with a special mention to Stats. Classic should still get out of his group pretty easy but he will have to up his game if he want to go far, there's no good match up comming his way in the ro8.
I mean Classic is 4-3 in maps against Serral this year, including a 3-0 at IEM Katowice. He lost 1-3 in a third place match at WESG. Classic is looking very strong - I hope we get to see Serral vs Classic round 3, I think it could go either way.
On October 28 2018 08:00 Nakajin wrote: Pretty good showing by everyone (except Has I guess) with a special mention to Stats. Classic should still get out of his group pretty easy but he will have to up his game if he want to go far, there's no good match up comming his way in the ro8.
I mean Classic is 4-3 in maps against Serral this year, including a 3-0 at IEM Katowice. He lost 1-3 in a third place match at WESG. Classic is looking very strong - I hope we get to see Serral vs Classic round 3, I think it could go either way.
Classic would need to play a lot better than he played against Rogue.
Rogue said when he won Katowice he was gonna take it easy until blizzcon. So it shouldn't really be a suprise if he looks better here than at the last few events
Was a bit disappointed in Classic today. He still has great chances to get out of his group but his execution seemed off. Maybe just a shaky first day, but Stats and Showtime looked a bit more impressive.
Looks like we're most likely going to get at least a few rematches. Pretty interested to see how those will pan out cos the rematch curse tends to be very strong. Really loved how Showtime played today against Dark but it was still a bit nail-biting and I wouldn't be surprised if Dark comes back and crushes him. I also feel like TY is just gonna proxy the hell out of the Neeb, cos it seems like a bit of a weakness of Neeb.
On October 28 2018 16:29 Fango wrote: Rogue said when he won Katowice he was gonna take it easy until blizzcon. So it shouldn't really be a suprise if he looks better here than at the last few events
to be honest he dindt look that hot vs Special, g2 Special had a brainfart then G3 was very close. And Classic gave g2 for him for free, so i dont know....
On October 28 2018 16:29 Fango wrote: Rogue said when he won Katowice he was gonna take it easy until blizzcon. So it shouldn't really be a suprise if he looks better here than at the last few events
to be honest he dindt look that hot vs Special, g2 Special had a brainfart then G3 was very close. And Classic gave g2 for him for free, so i dont know....
I haven't watched the games yet but people's comments seemed to indicate Rogue looked hot. Maybe not.
On October 28 2018 16:29 Fango wrote: Rogue said when he won Katowice he was gonna take it easy until blizzcon. So it shouldn't really be a suprise if he looks better here than at the last few events
to be honest he dindt look that hot vs Special, g2 Special had a brainfart then G3 was very close. And Classic gave g2 for him for free, so i dont know....
I haven't watched the games yet but people's comments seemed to indicate Rogue looked hot. Maybe not.
Yeah no Rogue looked by far the worst out of the group winners.
On October 28 2018 16:29 Fango wrote: Rogue said when he won Katowice he was gonna take it easy until blizzcon. So it shouldn't really be a suprise if he looks better here than at the last few events
to be honest he dindt look that hot vs Special, g2 Special had a brainfart then G3 was very close. And Classic gave g2 for him for free, so i dont know....
I haven't watched the games yet but people's comments seemed to indicate Rogue looked hot. Maybe not.
Yeah no Rogue looked by far the worst out of the group winners.
Which doesn't tell much because Maru and Serral dominated hard and Stats was impressive.
I'd say Rogue looked like he'd never lose to Classic the player, but it's hard to gauge his form against other opponents, wasn't a good showing vs SpeCial
On October 28 2018 16:29 Fango wrote: Rogue said when he won Katowice he was gonna take it easy until blizzcon. So it shouldn't really be a suprise if he looks better here than at the last few events
to be honest he dindt look that hot vs Special, g2 Special had a brainfart then G3 was very close. And Classic gave g2 for him for free, so i dont know....
I haven't watched the games yet but people's comments seemed to indicate Rogue looked hot. Maybe not.
Yeah no Rogue looked by far the worst out of the group winners.
Which doesn't tell much because Maru and Serral dominated hard and Stats was impressive.
On October 28 2018 16:29 Fango wrote: Rogue said when he won Katowice he was gonna take it easy until blizzcon. So it shouldn't really be a suprise if he looks better here than at the last few events
to be honest he dindt look that hot vs Special, g2 Special had a brainfart then G3 was very close. And Classic gave g2 for him for free, so i dont know....
I haven't watched the games yet but people's comments seemed to indicate Rogue looked hot. Maybe not.
Yeah no Rogue looked by far the worst out of the group winners.
Which doesn't tell much because Maru and Serral dominated hard and Stats was impressive.
It tells us that Rogue wasn't impressive.
He could be impressive but a bit less than the other top dogs
On October 28 2018 16:29 Fango wrote: Rogue said when he won Katowice he was gonna take it easy until blizzcon. So it shouldn't really be a suprise if he looks better here than at the last few events
to be honest he dindt look that hot vs Special, g2 Special had a brainfart then G3 was very close. And Classic gave g2 for him for free, so i dont know....
I haven't watched the games yet but people's comments seemed to indicate Rogue looked hot. Maybe not.
Yeah no Rogue looked by far the worst out of the group winners.
Which doesn't tell much because Maru and Serral dominated hard and Stats was impressive.
It tells us that Rogue wasn't impressive.
He could be impressive but a bit less than the other top dogs
On October 28 2018 16:29 Fango wrote: Rogue said when he won Katowice he was gonna take it easy until blizzcon. So it shouldn't really be a suprise if he looks better here than at the last few events
to be honest he dindt look that hot vs Special, g2 Special had a brainfart then G3 was very close. And Classic gave g2 for him for free, so i dont know....
I haven't watched the games yet but people's comments seemed to indicate Rogue looked hot. Maybe not.
Yeah no Rogue looked by far the worst out of the group winners.
Which doesn't tell much because Maru and Serral dominated hard and Stats was impressive.
It tells us that Rogue wasn't impressive.
He could be impressive but a bit less than the other top dogs
On October 28 2018 16:29 Fango wrote: Rogue said when he won Katowice he was gonna take it easy until blizzcon. So it shouldn't really be a suprise if he looks better here than at the last few events
to be honest he dindt look that hot vs Special, g2 Special had a brainfart then G3 was very close. And Classic gave g2 for him for free, so i dont know....
I haven't watched the games yet but people's comments seemed to indicate Rogue looked hot. Maybe not.
Yeah no Rogue looked by far the worst out of the group winners.
Which doesn't tell much because Maru and Serral dominated hard and Stats was impressive.
It tells us that Rogue wasn't impressive.
He could be impressive but a bit less than the other top dogs
But he wasn't.
He was vs Classic
He played well in the first game, I wouldn't call taking an advantage from the invincible nydus and running with it very impressive though. And the 2nd game was just a total joke from Classic.
On October 28 2018 16:29 Fango wrote: Rogue said when he won Katowice he was gonna take it easy until blizzcon. So it shouldn't really be a suprise if he looks better here than at the last few events
to be honest he dindt look that hot vs Special, g2 Special had a brainfart then G3 was very close. And Classic gave g2 for him for free, so i dont know....
I haven't watched the games yet but people's comments seemed to indicate Rogue looked hot. Maybe not.
Yeah no Rogue looked by far the worst out of the group winners.
His group was stacked, so it was not easy at all to look impressive.
Thanks to the failures/disappointments of TY and Dark, Stats and Maru didnt have to give everything to dominate.
On October 28 2018 16:29 Fango wrote: Rogue said when he won Katowice he was gonna take it easy until blizzcon. So it shouldn't really be a suprise if he looks better here than at the last few events
to be honest he dindt look that hot vs Special, g2 Special had a brainfart then G3 was very close. And Classic gave g2 for him for free, so i dont know....
I haven't watched the games yet but people's comments seemed to indicate Rogue looked hot. Maybe not.
Yeah no Rogue looked by far the worst out of the group winners.
Which doesn't tell much because Maru and Serral dominated hard and Stats was impressive.
It tells us that Rogue wasn't impressive.
He could be impressive but a bit less than the other top dogs
But he wasn't.
He was vs Classic
He played well in the first game, I wouldn't call taking an advantage from the invincible nydus and running with it very impressive though. And the 2nd game was just a total joke from Classic.
Compare that to how Rogue got obliterated by Neeb in GSL and I think Rogue is back in BlizzCon $$$ form
I thought this time he would get through and grab the trophy. As zerg player I normally cheer for my race, but Classic's approach to the game is a treat to watch.
EPT
Stats, considered by many the best Protoss in the world, looked dominant throughout two PvP series and advanced from Group C with a perfect 4-0 score. Defending champion 
Rogue played two much closer series in Group D, but ultimately also booked his ticket to Anaheim. 
SpeCial opened the second series of Group D with a reaper expand and quick wall-off at the natural. 
