Gillette OGN StarLeague Preliminary Matches

base. It turned out to be unnecessary however, as iloveoov simply did not have enough firepower early on to prevent his wall from being breached. He sent his hapless scvs to fight, but Zeus simply backed up his goons and picked them off. By the time iloveoov finally popped out his tanks, he stood no chance to Zeus� growing army and typed GG.

I was disappointed with this match, as I was hoping to see more of the map in use. That was, after all, the whole point of the exhibition matches (as well as to fill up a couple hours on the schedule I guess).

Match 2: Kingdom vs JulyZerg on Requim

As the second match got underway, I was sure that it would be a better game than the first. After all, it featured my favourite zerg player, JulyZerg on a map that neither player had played on TV before. July, at 8-7 overall in OGN play, was up tough though against Kingdom, a protoss player on a mission lately. He qualified for the StarLeague along with TheMarine by defeating Sync and TheMarine in the Duel league, and was trying to bounce back in the StarLeague to avenge his loss to Nal_Ra last time around.

Kingdom warped in his Nexus at the 12 position, while July spawned at the 3 position. This worked in Kingdoms favour from the start, as his scouting probe found the zerg base quickly, and slightly delayed July�s second hatchery which eventually found a home just below his ramp inside his main base. Seeing the close positions, Kingdom put down a second gateway, and his scouting probe was joined by his first zealot inside July�s base before his first six zerglings were half done. Kingdom harassed July�s drones, forcing them to slither from patch to patch without ever returning any minerals. They got down and dirty with the first zealot, suffering a casualty until lings popped to alleviate the pressure. By this time, however, that lone crusading zealot was joined by 2 more, and although all of July�s larvae were being used to make zerglings, July did have enough time to mine 100 gas for speed. With a total of 5 zealots now inside of his base, July was forced to fight with both lings and drones, which cost him four more drones further reducing his economic capacity.

Smelling blood, Kingdom put down a third gateway and continued to pump zealots, not worrying about tech while he sensed this advantage. In fact he didn�t have his assimilator up until he was 7 minutes into the game. After another attack on July�s main base, in which 1 sunken colony, 12 lings and eighty percent of July�s drones were forced to defend and destroy his zealots, Kingdom put down both a citadel as well as a robotics facility. In the mean time, July frantically tried to boost his drone count, and started on a very late lair, which would eventually lead to a spire.

Unfortunately for July, his spire never got much use. After Kingdom upgraded his zealot foot speed, he barged into July�s main base yet again, managing to run by the 2 sunken colonies that were defending the zerg ramp. After destroying the nearly completed spire, he turned his attention once again to July�s mineral line. July managed to defeat the already wounded zealots, but as he sent his remaining lings for a counter attack, a deadly protoss shuttle landed in his base. A reaver popped out and commenced the distribution of death amongst the zerg drones. After the first scarab garnered 10 kills, thanks to some grouped drones, JulyZerg tapped out.

Two fast games, to early protoss beatings. It appears that there is no end in sight to the re-emergence of protoss as a race to be feared.

Game 3: NaDa vs Jju on Guernica

To the chagrin of Zerg players everywhere, Guernica is a map that makes it tough for zerg players to get that early expansion. And as Jju went up against NaDa, there was no way that Jju could try anything too risky, as NaDa would take advantage of it in an instant. Jju has a decent ZvT record at OGN at 10-5, but when going up against NaDa, these records mean very little. NaDa, on the other hand, was in the same boat as iloveoov, his opponent in the near future. Two factors would be at play here, how much he prepared for his opponent on a new map, and whether his hair would obscure his vision. He�s looking a little shaggy.

Jju, starting at the 1 o�clock position, placed his first hatchery at his choke, while Nada walled himself in with a depot/barracks wall. Jju quickly followed his first hatchery with a second at the 12 o�clock expansion; however it was delayed due to a pesky scv, so Jju had no secrets from Nada. The opposite was also true, however, as Jju�s overlord was in a nice position to see Nada�s lack of marine production from the wall barracks for quite a while until Nada�s only 2 marines shooed it away.

After his wall, Nada went for a fast factory, and then up to 2 starports, going for a wraith build. Maybe sensing this because of the minimal marine numbers, Jju went for a hydralisk den, but did not tech up to a lair for quite some time. It turned out to be a good decision for him, because while Nada was performing some mild overlord and drone harassment, Jju massed up an army of twelve hydras and knocked on Nada�s front door. Like the big bad wolf, but without the questions, Nada�s wall was knocked in and Jju came pouring inside. Nada�s two marines had taken shelter inside a bunker, but other than that, Nada only had 3 vultures with no upgrades for defence. He isn�t a pushover though, and between the bunker, vultures, and a healthy dose of scvs, Nada managed to defeat the attack. This attack has set Nada back, however, and has given Jju a respite from the wraiths, as Nada slowly lost them in his harassment of Jju�s expansion and main. Jju put down his 4th hatchery and continued to pump hydralisks with both speed and range. Nada changed up his strategy to a metal army, and scattered mines across the map. The early success of the mines was evident as some unwary hydralisks got turned inside out by a crafty mine, so Nada took the opportunity to take the 7 o�clock main. Jju�s lair was very late, and it took him a while to get his overlord speed researched, but he was not idle in the mean time.

Nada came up from 5 o�clock with a large metal army made up of tanks, vultures and goliaths. Just outside of Jju�s base he was met head on by Jju�s enormous hydra army, numbering at least 30. Jju had perfect position as none of his hydras were caught behind the others, allowing them all to fire at the same time. With the superior firing arch, Nada�s vultures didn�t have the chance to lay any mines, so there was nothing to stem the tide of hydras. Jju�s army took heavy losses from Nada�s sieged tanks, but Nada was left with nothing. With his base right there, Jju rapidly called together his reinforcements and set off towards Nada�s 7 o�clock expansion. Nada must not have been expecting such a mammoth defeat in the last battle, because he had no defence there whatsoever. Jju razed the expansion in no time, while Nada tried to counter at Jju�s main with another tank/vulture force. Again Jju stops Nada in his tracks, and this gives his army at 7 the opening it needs. It heads straight towards Nada�s main, waling in virtually unopposed and manages to kill 2 of Nada�s 3 factories. Nada was left with only 1 factory and 4 tanks when Jju retreated and Jju began to drop drones on the middle section of the map, ready to take over economically. It wasn�t necessary however, because his next attack on the terran was a frontal combined with a four overlord drop. Nada saw the writing on the wall, and typed GG.

I thought about this game for a bit after seeing it, and it seemed to me that Nada either underestimated his opponent, or didn�t care too much about this match. Either way, good solid play by Jju combined with uninspired, almost careless, play by Nada allowed Zerg to reign supreme on this day.

Game 4: TheMarine vs Xellos on Valley of Wind

Well, we were guaranteed at least one terran victor today, as the last game was an all human matchup between TheMarine and Xellos. (Although it is debatable how human these two players are. Marine is on an unnatural tear and Xellos is unable to make any kind of facial expressions.)

The last game was on the map I was looking forward to most, Valley of Wind. It is the only two player map of the four, but its layout is intriguing, as each player is granted control of half the map right of the start. Your opponent�s base is only accessible by ferrying troops to his portion of the map. What really got me going for this match up was that in TvT on this map, the side of the map you control overlooks the expansions of your opponent. This is going to lead for some mad scrambles for territory in future showdowns.

Marine opened with a fast expansion to his mineral only, thus avoiding an early tanking of his natural, while Xellos opened with a factory CC build, which would allow him to take his gas natural, as well as allow him to defend the cliff behind it with siege tanks.

Marine built two factories, and quickly built another CC at his gas expansion. Both players also sent scvs up to their �ridge� of the valley to build a turret line to limit the effectiveness of dropships. The action began as Marine sent 2 tanks over to the cliff above Xellos� gas natural, and they were met by tanks already in place on the low ground amongst the minerals. Combined with the low ground forces, and a couple helpful wraiths, Xellos managed to force the tanks back out of range. In the mean time, he was attempting to do the same thing to Marines newly build gas natural, and had more success as he halted mineral mining. An interesting aspect of this map, however, is that there is a lot of room to build in the main bases, and Marine just floated his CC over to the other side of his geyser, out of range, and was able to at least reap the benefits of two gas sources. Undaunted by the early setback, Marine expanded again to the 11 o�clock expansion, and put up 3 starports and another factory.

By this time Xellos had turned his attention to the territory above his gas natural, and began trying to get rid of Marine�s remaining turrets and forces there. In addition he prepared 3 dropships for assignment, filling them with 4 tanks and 4 goliaths. Marine, with his ever growing wraith fleet managed to pick off many of Xellos� tanks due to a lack of turrets above his natural, and then retreated back to his main to take care of the 3 dropships that had found their way into his base. With Xellos� economy running out of steam, and Marine still with his mineral only expansion and his corner expansion, things began to look grim for the youngster. Marine re-established control over the cliff above Xellos� gas expansion, and also took control of the southern cliff as well. With no defence in place, Marine ran through Xellos� fledgling mineral only expansion without batting an eye or messing up his hair. Marine was now in a position to pound the Valley floor of Xellos� main base with tanks on both sides of the valley. Through careful use of his wraith force, Marine continued to focus in on his opponent�s tanks, allowing him to drop tanks onto the valley floor and squeeze inwards. With nothing left, Xellos typed GG and Marine emerged triumphant.

Marine really worked over Xellos with superior strategy this game, and never really looked like he was in any kind of trouble. The mid-game wraith force gave him the edge, as Xellos relied on too few turrets and goliaths, and as a result lost many tanks unnecessarily.

Game Notes

- I enjoyed checking out the new maps, but to be quite honest, the games themselves were rather one sided. It seems as though some gamers take any appearance on TV seriously, while some of the vets weren�t too worried about the outcome of anything exhibition.

- The maps I thought were most enjoyable were Valley of Wind and Guernica. Valley of Wind is the most strategically deep map with the most possibilities, and gives players a unique grant of land at the beginning of the game.

I would have liked to see more of Guernica, but the game was quite short. The middle expansions look like they could be abused by siege tanks from all sides. It will be interesting to see what style this map takes.

- Gillette is definitely getting their advertising money out of this venture. Remember those old home video editors (or the Simpsons episode) where you could star swipe to the next scene? Well every time the commentators switched to the first person view, a huge razor swept across the screen, flashing the Gillette name, as a visual segue. In addition, the name was all over the studio, including July�s headphones. I guess for the amount of money they are spending, they want to use it to its fullest potential.