EPT
2020 Global StarCraft II League: Super Tournament 2If the first day of the Super Tournament was packed with tightly contested matches, day two delivered beatdowns galore. Three series ended in 3-0 sweeps, with only the final series between Maru and Cure being competitive.
Stats lived up to his 'Shield of Aiur' moniker against Dream, handling Marine-Tank pushes with ease to take his first two map wins. Stats then went on the offensive, using a proxy-Stargate Void Ray strategy to complete his 3-0 sweep.
INnoVation vs Armani followed a similar pattern, with the machine going up 2-0 with Cloaked Banshees followed by overwhelming macro. INnoVation changed things up with an aggressive strategy in game three, opening once again with Banshees but following them with a fast Hellbat attack. Armani was caught off guard by the surprise attack and was forced to concede his 0-3 defeat.
The third sweep of the night went to Rogue, who successfully navigated a trio of hazardous and creative openers from Bunny. A proxy 4-Barracks all-in in game one went completely unscouted, but Rogue somehow managed to buy time and shut down the attack with speedlings. With the drastic all-in having failed, Bunny was soon forced to GG out. Bunny took aim at Rogue with an early Hellbat attack in game two, but once again found the Zerg defenses too solid to pierce. Rogue eventually snowballed his early lead into a win, though some wasteful engagements with Muta-Ling-Bane saw the game drag out for longer than expected.
Bunny's third and final gambit was a so-called 'eco-cheese,' as he played incredibly greedy and got four Command Centers in seemingly record time. While Bunny got away with this strategy unpunished, his macro definitely seemed a notch below INnoVation's as he was unable to leverage his economic advantage into a victory. Rogue was able to hold out against Bunny's bio forces with Hydra-Ling-Bane until he got Lurkers and Vipers out on the battlefield, which he used to pick apart Bunny and clinch a 3-0 victory.
Viewers who waited through the 3-0 sweeps were rewarded with a delightfully competitive series between former teammates Maru and Cure, with Maru barely triumphing in the end by a 3-2 scoreline.
The two players started off with an old-fashioned Marine-Tank war, with Cure coming out on top due to being quicker and more decisive in a base trade. Maru tied things up in game two, dragging the game out and eventually out-executing Cure in a Raven war. Maru then put himself on match point in game three, using a fast Tank push to punish Cure's more economy-oriented opener. But Cure was quick to tie the series again, winning in similar fashion to game one by being a step ahead of Maru in a Marine-Tank base trade.
The deciding fifth game saw Maru play for a standard three-base macro game while Cure looked to apply some early/mid-game pressure by staying on two bases for longer. Unfortunately for Cure, his Tank push failed to inflict much damage, and Maru eventually rode his economy and tech advantage to a third victory.
Coming up: Super Tournament 2 will continue on Wednesday, Dec 09 8:00am GMT (GMT+00:00) with the quarterfinals.
![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/GSL/2020_21/st2/stbracket_3.png)
