With July_Zerg waiting in the final following his amazing win over Iloveoov last week, the second semifinal had a lot to live up to. The divisive Silent_Control faced former champion [Oops]Reach in a best of five clash to see who would meet July in July and who would move to battle Oov for third.
Game One on Nostalgia
Control (terran at five o'clock) was obviously anxious to make sure his opponent wasn't planning an unorthodox strategy because he sent an early SCV off to scout, before Reach (protoss at 11) had even despatched a probe from his main. Once he had located the protoss veteran and confirmed that the situation was as he was expecting, Control opted for a one factory early expansion build, while Reach was going double gate ranged dragoons/observers. There was early drama as Reach spotted Control's relatively undefended early natural expansion and immediately propelled his first army of six dragoons towards the terran base. As his force approached the outskirts of the terran expansion he held his forces on station, deciding not to directly assault the base, which had now been garrisoned with three siege tanks.
Reach's early thoughts of breaking open the game by vaporising the terran had been put on hold but he was heading up to four gateways with still no sign of an expo. Suddenly the Ongamenet audience uttered a collective gasp of amazement as Control switched into unorthodox overdrive and started construction of not one, not two, but four barracks and an academy. Reach quickly started warping in his templar archives as it became apparent that his roaming observer drifting across the terran main had caught sight of the mass construction project. As Reach teched to templar, marines, medics and firebats were pouring out of Control's barracks. As Reach again thought about attacking but decided against it the first dark templar glided stealthily across the Nostalgia landscape, ready to cut down advancing marines.
Reach was now up to six gates, finally had his natural and was expanding to the 12 o'clock position as gas became more important than minerals, but Control's marine force was reaching formidable proportions and still growing, powered by the surging terran economy. As his marine and tank army reached critical mass, Control started his advance. Reach tried to hit the moving terran forces to break up the advance and buy time for the arrival of his high templar. By the time the templar reached the front line the front line had almost reached them as Control closed in on the protoss natural. A squad of marines disappeared in a storm of blue lightning and Reach desparately tried to take out the terran tanks with marauding dark templar but failed. The table-turning power of psionic storm had arrived too late for Reach as his natural fell and the terran army triumphantly scrambled up the ramp and into the alien main.
Control was expanding to the three o'clock position. Even as his entire main was reduced to rubble, Reach stayed in the game and expanded to one. Control was not to be denied and there was no chance of a protoss resurgance. Control took out the 12 expo and the new one o'clock base even as Reach started yet another new nexus at seven. Control closed in on the seven expo and Reach finally conceded a shocking loss.
Silent_Control 1 - 0 [Oops]Reach
Game Two on Requiem
Trailing after his devastation in the first game Reach ( at the three o'clock position) went for the jugular in an attempt to level the match. He immediately discovered his terran opponent at the nearby six main and slowly sizzled the SCV building Control's first depot with a determined probe. A second probe arrived and Reach started to warp in a pylon near the terran ramp, signalling cannon rush. Control tried to counter with a second barracks and four marines stationed at his wall made a desperate bid to stop the single protoss photon cannon seconds before it finished warping in. Reach's lone zealot forced them to retreat and as the cannon finally appeared near the ramp the terran forces were imprisoned.
With his cannon holding the ramp, Reach's zealot strode into the terran main in search of easy prey, forcing Control to rally his SCVs to shield his meagre marines, cutting off his mineral flow as Reach asserted his immediate dominance over the game. More zealots were pouring out of the protoss base and heading for the terran main. Reach's force of four entered the terran base and he sacrificed them to take out a number of SCVs and further disrupt the terran economy.
With two barracks and no factory, and imprisoned by a single cannon, the end was near. Three dragoons marched menacingly into the terran main and Control left the game.
Silent_Control 1 - 1 [Oops]Reach
Game Three on Mercury
After providing early easy pickings for the protoss, Mercury had turned into something of a killing ground for the templar armies, with IntotheRainbow, Reach himself and Kingdom all succumbing to defeat here. Having been cut down to size in the second game, Control would have been hoping the downward spiral continued for the protoss as game three opened. While Reach opted for double gate ranged dragoons and observers, Control went for a double factory opening but immediately started work on an early starport.
Two dragoons rallied quickly to the terran wall and opened fire, then a third, but the inevitable arrival of siege mode put an end to any prospect of a break in. Control was now in the process of manufacturing a dropship but Reach, without seeing the early starport, retreated his dragoons to his nexus for defensive duties.His first observer caught sight of the starport just as Control was ferrying a flock of vultures over the right hand divide out of his main. Control's dropship then tried a vulture drop at Reach's main, but with observers providing essential vision of the map Reach was waiting and neutralised the drop easily. Having delivered a blow to his terran opponent, Reach took his natural and started an expansion at the five o'clock position.
Control continued to strive for harassment to unblance his protoss nemesis but the strength and mobility of Reach's growing zealot and dragoon army prevented any real damage as Reach judged his economy strong enough and started warping in two stargates followed by a fleet beacon. Control now started work on his natural expansion.
The game's deciding episode came as Control again tried to disrupt his protoss opponent with a vulture drop. The dropship ferried the vultures into the top of the protoss main next to the two golden stargates. Yet, bizarrely, having clearly seen the two stargates and heading up towards six factories, Control declined to make any goliaths. He continued to roam the map with his dropships but Reach was still denying the terran any opening at all. As if finally realising that the dropship strategy was achieveing nothing Control started to move across the map towards the protoss base with his force of vultures and tanks. Reach twice harassed the push with his zealots and dragoons, slowing the terran progress as his first two carriers drifted silently towards the battlefield. Battle was well and truly joined, with the terran army defenceless to assault from the air and still no sign of a single goliath.
Perhaps suffering from some kind of denial, the defenceless Control was actually trying to expand to the centre left position, efforts quickly eviscerated by the protoss carrier force. Control tried one more pointless vulture drop at the protoss main, dealt with firmly by two newly-arrived carriers. Control went out with a whimper as Reach siezed the lead in the match.
Silent_Control 1 - 2 [Oops]Reach
Game Four on Namja Iyagi
With Reach one game from victory and tensions rising in the Ongamenet studio, game four opened in comical fashion with the OGN umpire dropping from the game just a few minutes in. The game continued as planned with Control (at the 10 o'clock position) and Reach (at seven) sending out scouts to search the twilight landscape for their opponent. Reach decided to warp in a secret pylon at the one o'clock position but made no further use of it as he went for orthodox ranged dragoons and observers. Control once again opted for a one factory, early expansion build. Reach harassed the terran wall with first two, then three dragoons but was predicably forced to retreat when Control's siege mode kicked in.
Reach decided to take his natural then sent his growing force of dragoons to take up position outside the terran base. Control managed to sneak two vultures past the protoss units for some harassment of Reach's expansion, dealt with by the protoss pro with a few losses. Control was now up to six factories and started to expand his perimeter with his ever-increasing army of tanks and vultures. Reach made efforts to break open the terran position with a zealot and dragoon force supported by a swooping zealot bomb but was forced to retreat as Control held his position firmly. Control immediately counterattacked with a force of vultures, circling them round the map and into the protoss natural expansion, once again taking out a number of valuable probes before being destroyed.
With the terran heavy metal reaching frightening proportions Reach wanted to put some carriers in the air, with two stargates warping in at his main. The Relentless Control once more finessed a vulture strike force into protoss territory, this time causing havoc in the alien main and forcing Reach to withdraw forces for defence. Control timed his strike perfectly. As Reach was recovering from his defensive effort and still waiting for carriers to arrive, Control's heavy metal army rumbled across the Namja Iyagi landscape. Reach desperately tried to disrupt the attack and buy some more time for his slowly warping capital ships, but there were too few zealots and dragoons, no sign of high templar, and far too many tanks. The terran advance was unstoppable. Control's army blasted into the protoss natural, rapidly sending it up in smoke. Meanwhile, Reach was trying to equalise, having moved his surviving dragoons round to the back of the terran expansion, but was unable to break in and retard the terran economy. Control had all the momentum, his army surging up the ramp and onto Reach's main plateau. Two carriers were now in the air but could do little as the terran army ignored them and set about dismantling the protoss main.
Even as his gateways went up in smoke, Reach had a new expansion at three and soon started another at one o'clock. Control finished off the protoss main with a new raiding force of vultures, tanks and goliaths as Reach positioned his carrier fleet, now numbering four capital ships, to try to inflict damage on the terran natural. Control's goliaths, now continually rumbling out of his factory complex, put paid to hopes of a serious protoss counterpunch, forcing the carriers to take refuge over the nearby cliff.
From such a dominant position the result was never really in doubt for Silent_Control, although he laboured to finally finish off his protoss opponent. Reach used storm, dark templar assassinations and his gradually dwindling carrier fleet to prolong the game but was eventually forced to concede.
Silent_Control 2 - 2 [Oops]Reach
Game Five on Nostalgia
So the match came down to a deciding clash on Nostalgia. Control may have taken game four but it was hard to conclude that he headed into the final game with any real momentum, having made very hard work of finishing off a beaten Reach on Namja Iyagi. Nevertheless, Control had already notched up one win over his protoss opponent on this very map earlier in the match. What had each player learned from that earlier clash and how would their strategies change?
Control (at the seven o'clock) position once again opened with a one factory early expansion build, while Reach stayed with the solid and flexible double gate ranged dragoon/obs opening. Reach again offered up some early harassment of the terran wall and managed to destroy two repairing SCVs. He also opted to use a double pylon construction to barricade the small double ramp plateau near the terran main, often used as a convenient vulture escape route.
After his siege mode upgrade was completed and his second command centre was ready, Control lifted it off and deposited it next to his natural mineral line and set about solidifying his early expo. However, this time Reach was waiting. Reach had a sizable force of dragoons holding position just outside terran base. Just as the Ongamenet announcers started to express their surprise that Reach was still playing off only one nexus against a functioning terran expo, the protoss player's first shuttle glided down the map towards the terran natural. He timed his dragoon advance sublimely, thundering into the terran natural just as zealots swooped out of the protoss shuttle to assault the guarding tanks. Control tried to rally his SCVs to keep his tanks alive but confusion reigned in the terran natural as the tanks started shooting at each other in an effort to destroy the marauding zeals. Dragoons, temporarily free from withering tank fire, were pouring into the terran natural. As the zealots finally disappeared in wisps of smoke the dragoons focused fire to finish off the final tanks, siezing control of the sector and forcing the command centre to lift and evacuate.
Having severely disrupted the terran build, Reach now started warping in a nexus at his natural. Control tried to re-establish his expansion, but, with only one tank within defensive range of the mineral line, Reach this time opted for a direct and unsupported dragoon assault, taking out the single tank and forcing the vulnerable SCVs and command centre to flee to safety once more. The struggle went back and forth once more. Control again landed his command centre as Reach, who was now warping in his Templar Archives, sent a new shuttle full of zealots down for an airborne assault. Only one zealot made it out of the shuttle before it was taken out by nearby turrets, as Reach seemed to over-micro the vessel, giving it new instruction before it had time to drop the zealots, and the attack came to nothing.
Control now managed to sneak some vultures out of his base to roam the map, just as Reach was warping in a new nexus at the one o'clock position. Control found the new expo and successfully mined the ramp to keep dragoons, retreating for defensive purposes, from getting up onto the plateau to destroy the attackers. However, at exactly that moment the relentless Reach had dropped four dark templar into the terran main. One was immediately destroyed but the strike force managed to take out the only turret in the vicinity. Control still had no comsat station, leaving the top of his main defenceless as the dark set about scything through units and buildings before Control finally managed to put out the fire with a combination of mines and new turrets. Still with no let up, Reach launched a second dark templar drop, this time onto the inadequately turreted terran natural, causing more devastation.
So far Control had had little time for anything but crisis-management as his protoss foe was coming at him from all directions. Now, at last, he was able to consolidate his expansion and concentrate on building his army. Nevertheless, a devastating and deflating body blow was just moments away. Control was trying to expand his perimeter and secure command of Nostalgia's double roadway exit from his base. Fearful of a frontal assault he had clustered a giant flock of vultures up at the roadway around his two tanks,with mines buried nearby. Like a storm cloud portending Control's inevitable doom a protoss shuttle slowly drifted over the terran forces, dropping suicidal zealots into the very centre of the terran army. All eyes flashed to a deadly spider mine which automatically burst out of the ground and closed rapidly, its programming telling it to think of only one thing, reaching the enemy and detonating. As it cannoned into a protoss zealot it fulfilled its single mission, exploding and taking nine vultures and two tanks with it. The Ongamenet audience and announcers were reeling with shock, while a camera shot of Control showed a player who looked like he was struggling for air.
Reach, now in the ascendency, was re-expanding to one and taking the 12 o'clock expo. His army, stationed at Control's double roadway, was growing fast but he carelessly allowed his shuttle to drift to destruction at the hands of a single terran turret. This meant there was no zealot bomb option available when he subsequently tried to assault the terran frontline, losing a host of zealots and dragoons to tank fire for very little gain. Reach was now undermanned as far as zealots were concerned and could only harass the vanguard of the terran army as it expanded out past the double roadway.
High templar were now levitating across the Nostalgia landscape towards the battlefield but Control had somehow put together another sizable army and was on the move towards the protoss natural. He focused his vultures to take out a number of dangerous high templar as he moved forward. Control was approaching the natural but Reach had a powerful economy and units were joining his army all the time. As the terran army tried to break into Reach's base he launched a triple assault, his frontal attack supported by dragoons flanking from the right and two high templar swooping in in a shuttle to the very heart of the battle. As the templar dropped into the centre of the terran army they covered the terran tanks in a swathe of blue lightning. The protoss regular forces cleaned up the weakened and dwindling terran strike force, leaving Reach in complete command of the battlefield.
Control was trying to increase his economy by expanding to six, while Reach now had two stargates, with a fleet beacon imminent. Control's new force of vultures penetrated the protoss expansion at one through sheer weight of numbers and avoided the defensive cannons by rapidly circling to the back of the mineral line and attacking the probes. However, Reach now had little thought of defence. He launched an all out assault on the terran base, surging into the terran natural. Protoss forces were thundering down the map to reinforce the assault. The terran expansion was defenceless in the face of such a furious assault. Reach's army climbed the ramp into the main and surrounded the remaining tanks... and the match was over.
Silent_Control 2 - 3 [Oops]Reach
A sensational finish to a back and forth match and a credit to the skill and determination of two extraordinary players. Control looked devastated after the final game, his head lolling and his face a study in disappointment. The two players hugged each other after the match as the Ongamenet crowd filled the studio with chants of 'Park Jeong Seok, Park Jeong Seok!'
Pictures from this amazing match can be found here, Silent_Control v [Oops]Reach , courtesy of DJ_Heather.
Control's advance to the semifinals has been the subject of much debate but he eliminated Kingdom and took Reach to five games, demonstrating skill and resilience. Reach heads into his second Starleague final, where he will face the confident July Zerg.