After the long while of futile attempts to bring Igor and Joyo together for some hardcore action (full with such meaningful discoveries as realising that Tuesday night in Brazil is Wednesday
morning in Korea, etc...) it so happened in the end that Hellghost had to forfeit this match due to personal and family problems. T_T
But! When in doubt, reach for the first guy in your MSN list! By lucky coincidence (and a "~" before his name) it happened to be ElkY, hey.
So, this week (month, *cough* year?) we have ElkY (Random) vs Joyo (fucked - being a race picker). Alas, since I had iNet problems for some while, it couldn't be helped but to let a complete lollypop (Legionnaire --p) run the show down while I was quietly being away. Not only didn't he manage to force Joyo to play some decent race instead of giving in to the situation and choosing random himself in some of the games, but he also absolutely didn't give a damn about the maps, so now we're stuck with two ~5 min rush games, the rest being 3 games on Nostalgia with a 4-1 (ElkY wins) final score.
Anyway, a little guide to the games:
The first one is a 9v6 TvZ on LT, with Joyo being the Terran one. Quite comfortable with the race Joyo makes a hidden barrack in the lower-right portion of the center of the map after turning on his maph..., I mean noticing ElkY's Overlord sneaking in from below, then quickly turning back (since ElkY was playing Random after all). Joyo then adds a 3rd barrack inside his base, followed by the offensive bunker at ElkY's natural, and after that being finished, a 3 rax worth flow of marines towards the Zerg expansion. At the end of "the battle at Sixesnat" the bunker eventually gets crushed, however the 4 marines manage to pull down the expansion hatch as well. A brief pause as Joyo is gathering his M&M force, and t
he game is decided.
1-0 for Joyo
The second course consists of a Protoss d'ElkY et Zerg de Joyo (ugh) d'un plat de Nostalgie. It's not as tasty as it sounds tho :\. Joyo (@5) goes for an early shot at the game with speedlings launched blindly at the closest location (@1), however as they reach ElkY's (@11) base the ramp is sealed with Zealots. A corsair soon leaves the Protoss base, however Joyo already has an expansion with a spore colony on it. He tries to be as annoying as possible with his lings, while teching to mass hydras, while ElkY expands himself, and goes for mass Zealots. The Protoss expansion attempts are foiled by hydras, however when it comes to the decisive battle in the center - after lots of guts spilled on the ground and lots of psi dissolved in thin air - some Zealots are still left standing, indicating the outcome of the game. Joyo tries to secure an expension at 6 with sunkens and some lurks, however that is soon overrun by a horde of +3 attack Zealots.
1-1
With Leg organizing his precious porn collection in some dark corner of the office the combatants boot up Nostalgia again, this time however with a more apropriate matchup: ElkY (T) @5 vs Joyo (P) @11. ElkY gets rushed early on by a Zealot and a 'goon, however - being used to this kind of treatment - this attempt is countered rather effectively by a flock of SCVs and the upcoming units. The frenchman proceeds to expand ElkY-style, so Joyo decides to strike with his primary 'goon core, later supporting his push with the help of the auxiliary Reaver strike-force. Some interesting skirmishes ensue around the Terran base, however it doesn't bring Joyo much, since ElkY - being true to himself - expands yet again to the 6 o'clock expansion, and then - again not breaking any habits of his - manages to defend it with his SCVs. From here onwards ElkY is on the roll, taking the center, maintaining the pressure, systematically dismantling his opponent's front lines. GG.
2-1 for ElkY
Ah, the nicer one of the bunch. ElkY getting his Terran at 7 vs Joyo's Protoss at 11 (yes, still feeling nostalgic, the two) the opening is that of the previous one: ElkY going ELkY, and Joyo trying a rush (with a pylon in Terran's base? --). However, learning from the previous one Joyo goes for a quick double-expand himself blocking the entrance to the 12 expo cutely with two pylons. However ElkY goes for an expansion at 5's main himself. That latter one soon gets assaulted by part of Joyo's 'goons, so ElkY starts maneuvering his forces around his bridges in order to get the rest of them to stay on guard while his cheap illegal black workers try to save the day. But just in case they don't, why not start another exp at 9? The piled up forces soon make their presence felt as Joyo tries to storm the front, only managing to go thru on the second attempt. Those get driven out eventually tho, and the battle for the center begins again. Oh and ElkY has another exp at 1 o'clock -_-;; The match then turns into a "Find the exp - Hide the exp" variaton of the tag-game, with Joyo trying to expand in all the places not yet being taken, while ElkY mysteriously manages to outproduce the Protoss guy's 10 gates with 6 factories of his, while *still* managing to pile up tons of cash. Roughly around the 26 min. mark Joyo goes "SHEPAL!" (as my korean lollypop-informant tells me) noticing the 9 expo already been mined-out to the bone by his opponent. Both players soon reach their food-limits, as the map is already half-empty resources-wise. Joyo goes for Arbiters, recalls some stuff into ELkY's main, and puts the DnD sign on the ramp with stasis. ElkY - curious as to what is going on in there - knocks harder with his Vulture-throng, and eventually breaks the lock down, however not without taking some reasonable damage. The same trick didn't work half as well being executed at the newly established Terran headquarters over at 7 o'clock tho, yet Joyo still seemed to have the upper hand on things, if not for one minor factor: minerals. It turned out Joyo's expansions gave in to the pressure of the Particle Beams a lot earlier than the Terran ones. Joyo tries to make the final push still having some juice left in his facilities, yet he is soon forced to give in due to being left with 1 running base to ElkY's 3. Nice game ~.~b
(I once had a dream of me (T@1) fighting together with Sasuke (T@1) vs Zabuza (P@5) here on Nostalgia. It went somethin' like this :o)
3-1 for ElkY
The coup de grace is quick and painless (ElkY reached back to his ancestral past and used a Guillotine): a 2 gate rush with Zealots from 11 o'clock vs Joyo's Zerg at 5. I guess Joyo might have believed he will be facing a typical for this map early-exp, but alas he was mistaken -_-.
Game 4-1: ElkY wins pot with a pair of Aces.
As for the upcoming opponent, I'll try to decide soon and will put a bet up then. In the meanwhile ElkY maintains the trend of messing up the Liquibet, as this current one is considered cancelled -_-;;
-Mynock