EPT
Let’s begin with the 2 washes of the day:
Goodfriend vs IntoTheRainbow
Rush Hour
This game started out looking like a pubby LT game on East with GF at 7 o’clock using a 2 fact vult build (with both upgrades) and Rainbow at 3 using a ranged goon/obs build. Rainbow laid down a greedy expansion as 2 goons guarded his ramp and GF built a Starport for dropship harass. Rainbow protected his main from the potential drop with a group of goons as GF’s dropship roamed around the map without any units in it.
Using his opponents lack of units and poor positioning to his advantage, GF brought 3 tanks and a marine from his main along with the vultures he opened with and attacked the expansion as he suicided the empty dropship into goons at the main mineral line. After mining up the expansion area and engaging siege mode, GF melted Rainbow’s entire army with 3 tanks. GG (<- Of course, I’m using the phrase loosely)
GF > Rainbow
I really don’t understand why Protoss players continue to expand so early on this map. Losing repeatedly in 8 minutes makes each successive user of these build orders look like more of a pylon than the one before him. Pusan -> Stork -> Rainbow -> Who’s next?
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/ManaBlue/Shinhan_OSL_Week_3/super_mana_potion.gif)
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/ManaBlue/Shinhan_OSL_Week_3/half_mana.GIF)
1 and a half BlueManas for this sorry performance. The only highlight I saw was the appearance of a certain crimson haired sexy beast in the crowd.
GoRush vs Nal_Rock
Peaks of Baekdu
GoRush (@ 7) opened with a 9 pool and Rock (@ 1) opened with a gate/core build. With good building placement, Rock was able to block the double ramp entrance to his base with 2 zealots…which would have been really cleaver if he hadn’t lost it to GoRush’s 10 lings. So Rock had 1 fresh zealot to replace the 3 that died, 2 lings running around in his base, and a secret hatchery building on the high-ground overseeing his main mineral line.
Things were bad for Rock. He was losing probes to ling harass, couldn’t even afford to tech past his fancy core as he had to pull probes off of gas, and had more lings pouring into his base since he didn’t have the zealot numbers to block the choke point anymore… or so it seemed. Whether it was a gross misuse of units on GoRush’s part, brilliant micro from Rock, or more likely something in between, GoRush lost every single ling to 3 zealots and clumps of probes. From there Rock just had to block his choke point from more harassing lings and go out with small lot forces to kill the proxy hatch over his min-line and the oddly placed Zerg expansion in the upper left corner of the map.
Nal_Rock > GoRush
This game had the makings to be fun, but GoRush got cocky and threw his army away at a very inopportune time. He basically gave Rock the game from there. Rock didn’t even play that well. He compromised his choke, got harassed and messed with and was so disoriented near the middle of the game that he forgot he had a core built already and built a second one…then waited for it to finish before building a stargate. He never even needed it, as he won the game with nothing but zealots.
1 BlueMana out of 5 if only for the laugh I got staring at Rock’s core as he waited in anticipation for his second one to finish…what a doofus.
Now for the 2 “meh” games of the day:
Casy vs Stay
815
Casy (11) and Stay (1) both expanded to their naturals early on. Casy built a factory outside his main so he could walk a MnM/Tank force over to the Zerg sunken wall and wipe it out quickly. He succeeded, and went on to kill Stay’s expansion on the 3 o’clock island with a marine drop. From here Casy simply contained Stay in his main and expanded like he played Zerg. Stay made a couple of drop attempts but ultimately he couldn’t damage Casy’s spread out economies. Casy was so mineral rich he was even able to build a Big Game Hunters style turret wall around Stay’s 12 o’clock island.
Casy > Stay
Although this game was nearly a half an hour long, not much playing needed to be done past the 10 minute mark. Stay played an uninspiring game and got pushed around the whole time.
2 BlueManas for this game. Casy looked good, utilizing a tight BO and quite frankly it looked like he came to play that day. Too bad his opponent wasn’t up to it.
Pusan vs Jju
Cultivation Period
Pusan (12) opened with a forge and 2 cannons for an early expansion while Jju (9) started with a speedling build. One would normally expect the Zerg to take it to the Toss in this situation, breaking through the neutral buildings to poke holes in enemy defences. Well Jju wasn’t in an arty mode that day, so he decided to play it like Ride of Valkaries and expand twice; one at his natural and one at the 6 o’clock nat. Pusan had a mixed bag of units including sairs for scouting, a bunch of lot/goon and a couple templar. By the time he left his base to attack Jju, there were sunkens up at both naturals and lurk/ling defenses. Jju was being a jerk and microing his hydras to pop observers and high templar, which really didn’t seem to matter as Pusan was using virtually no storm and letting his templar go astray often. Jju worked up to ultra/ling and ran over Pusan’s final attempt at an army.
Jju > Pusan
Pusan played like he was asleep. With a DT drop so ineffective it didn’t warrant inclusion in the report and lack of attention to HTs that was nothing short of frustrating to watch, this man continues to disappoint against Zerg opponents. It’s a rough time to be Pusan right now.
2 BlueManas out of 5 as a pat on the back for Jju’s conventional and solid play.
Finally, the 2 gems of the game day:
Yellow[Name] vs iloveoov
815
Oov started out at 11 with his typical obscenely early expansion CC near the ramp at his main. Yellow[Name] spawned at 1 and intended to hit Oov hard and early with a one base muta build. His first 5 mutas came at the 7 minute mark and he concentrated his attacks at Oov’s raxes, killing new marines as they were trained. Oov was just starting to build turrets and lost his natural to zerglings once Yellow[Name] killed all of his remaining marines with some nice hit and run muta micro.
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/ManaBlue/Shinhan_OSL_Week_3/yellowname_vs_oov.JPG)
The game was over, but Oov doesn’t like to lose, so he defended with nothing and refused to die for another 10 minutes. Typical cheater Terran. He must’ve been waiting for his hacks to kick in or something.
Yellow[Name] > Oov
This game was over as quickly as many of the weak games, but it was very well played on Yellow[Names] part. His one base muta build is something that is hard to pull off and was clearly specifically designed to dismantle Oov’s typical early expansion style. It showed thought and strategy, which is rare for a Zerg player
and was well executed with some smooth micro.3 BlueManas for this game I was going to give it 4, but I’m imposing a penalty point for the winners lame ass name. GET YOUR OWN IDENTITY YOU CLONE! [Name] clan has got to be the sorriest concept for a clan ever…faceless jerks.
Yellow (The Real One) vs Stork
Peaks of Baekdu
Yellow (1) opened with a 9 pool build while Stork (7) used similar building placement to Nal_Rock to hold his choke point with a couple zealots, which allowed him to tech to core. Yellow expanded to his natural and built a spire, but before it could finish Stork was in the Zerg base with a Reaver and 2 lots. By the time Yellow finally built some Mutas and killed the drop force, he had lost a considerable amount of drones and Stork was very well defended from air attack by goons and cannons.
Here’s where it gets interesting…Yellow disconnected!
They were forced to play a rematch.
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/ManaBlue/Shinhan_OSL_Week_3/stork.JPG)
Game 2!
The players switch places in this new match (Yellow @ 7, Stork @ 1) but something very important does not change…their build orders! Both players open the game the exact same way, with Yellow expanding into Muta and Stork going for a reaver drop. However, Stork altered his build slightly by building an additional goon and a starport before his first reaver. Yellow was also able to sneak some lings by Storks zealots which allowed him to scout the robo and disrupt probe mining a little bit. These little things turned out to be cumulatively significant, however. Stork’s drop came much later than it did in the first game and his reaver and shuttle were killed with only one drone kill to show for it.
Yellow had an impressive drone count going while Stork poked around the map with a fleet of corsairs. Yellow’s Muta/Scourge army danced with Stork’s sairs as both players expanded; Stork to his natural and Yellow to the bottom right corner of the map. Yellow had some success in killing probes at the Protoss natural with his sexy micro and also deflected a reaver drop attempt, so he decided to giver and attack with his now impressively sized hydra/ling army.
It was reaver/cannon/sair against ling/hydra/muta/scourge in an epic battle. Stork did a great job microing probes and his near dead shuttle to maximize the life of his reavers and defended against the first wave of units. Unfortunately, hydralisk reinforcements proved to be too much and he was forced to concede.
Yellow > Stork
Poor Stork. Poor poor poor poor Stork. He got the shaft today seeing as his build was great and he played it beautifully in the first game. This showed great preparation. The regame added an X factor to the game and Stork threw off his mojo with little modifications to his build that slowed things down. Stork really deserved to walk away with this one.
3 and a half BlueManas out of LAME for Yellow’s disconnect that robbed Stork of his win. You can bet some tech kid at OGN got fired for that one.
Well that’s it for the 24 man tournament. If you missed Mani's report on the Friday games that happened after these ones it can be found here.
For an excellent recap of the 24 man tournament, wildcards and qualifiers for the 16 man tournament see jkillashark's Results and Standings thread here.
Of course, many of you are thinking, "24 man what? Wildcard who? 16 man in the what now?" and for you Mani slaved over this fine report outlining the whole thing. With all these tournaments and increased numbers of games it's harder to keep track of things than ever before, so take some time to read the articles that these fine individuals have prepared for you and be sure to make a post showing your gratitude if you found their work helpful.
