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Banner by pachi. Screenshots from the GSL Round of 64.
GSL Season 3 RO32 Foreigner Special: Liquid`Ret
By Lovedrop
By Lovedrop
Remember when we promised you more stuff on the GSL? Here it is.
The lack of time and the massive amount of games often have our viewers stumped on what they should watch. While our recaps do a great job at solving that dilemma, the recaps themselves require an intensive amount of time to edit them to perfection which often delays them. It is our ultimate goal to provide contents coverage at a reasonably quick speed, and at the same time, not jeopardizing their quality. One way is to have a more in-depth version of our recaps. Given limited time, we had to narrow down our list of possible participants and it is no surprise that fans are most interested in the international participants in the GSL. These specials will cover their games with a summary/analysis portion and a post-game interview. Without further ado, let us indulge in our first interviewee, the Dutch maestro Jos de Kroon.
![[image loading]](/staff/Lovedrop/gsl3/ret/pic1.jpg)
Z8 Game 1 - Metalopolis T2
+ Show Spoiler [Show Recap] +
With cross-positions, Ret is confident in his ability to fend off early pressure and goes 15 hatch. The same thought goes through TheBest’s mind as he opts to go for 1 barrack fast expand. After his FE, TheBest grabs both of his refineries, looking to quickly push up the tech tree. Double factories are on the way for TheBest, with the first churning out hellions along with the infernal pre-igniter upgrade. While building his lair, Ret sacrifices an overlord to take a peek at TheBest’s three factories, and promptly throws down a roach warren. Meanwhile, blue-flamed hellions make their way across the map to Ret’s base, where there are little defenses against them. The hellions trot their way into the main forcing Ret to split his drones and significantly reduce mining time. The roaches clean up the mess in the main and TheBest optimistically sends out another batch of hellion, but does not deal enough damage to justify their worth in minerals.
Ret’s three hatcheries along with a fourth morphing in allows him to re-drone exceptionally quick, and TheBest looks poised for a two base timing push. The Terran mech army moves along the northern pass and TheBest scanning what’s ahead of him to siege his tanks in time. Ret goes a full circle with his roaches in order to make a delicious sandwich. The roaches flank but siege tank fire is just brutal against clumped up roaches, but supplies are now cleared for the deadly Brood Lords. TheBest takes out the natural and tries to walk up the ramp, but unfortunately thors are unable to maneuver themselves around broodlings and TheBest bottlenecks himself at the bottom of the ramp. TheBest stubbornly tries to force himself up the ramp but once all his anti-air is gone, brood lords still remain and Ret still has healthy expansions.
TheBest only started his third command center after his attack has been thwarted, and no vikings have graced the field. The overlord prevents TheBest from taking the 5 o’clock expansion, so he moves his CC and troops to the gold expansion. At the gold he’s met with roaches and brood lords and a dance off between corruptors, Vikings, and thors ensue. Ret catches the mech army out of position and drops roaches into TheBest’s main, forcing him to pull back everything he has to defend. While brood lords are no longer a threat at the main, another batch of roaches attack the gold natural. TheBest has no choice but to move out with his immobile army and is met along the upper passageway with a maxed roach army, who demolishes the mech and Ret is up 1-0. [22:54]
Ret’s three hatcheries along with a fourth morphing in allows him to re-drone exceptionally quick, and TheBest looks poised for a two base timing push. The Terran mech army moves along the northern pass and TheBest scanning what’s ahead of him to siege his tanks in time. Ret goes a full circle with his roaches in order to make a delicious sandwich. The roaches flank but siege tank fire is just brutal against clumped up roaches, but supplies are now cleared for the deadly Brood Lords. TheBest takes out the natural and tries to walk up the ramp, but unfortunately thors are unable to maneuver themselves around broodlings and TheBest bottlenecks himself at the bottom of the ramp. TheBest stubbornly tries to force himself up the ramp but once all his anti-air is gone, brood lords still remain and Ret still has healthy expansions.
TheBest only started his third command center after his attack has been thwarted, and no vikings have graced the field. The overlord prevents TheBest from taking the 5 o’clock expansion, so he moves his CC and troops to the gold expansion. At the gold he’s met with roaches and brood lords and a dance off between corruptors, Vikings, and thors ensue. Ret catches the mech army out of position and drops roaches into TheBest’s main, forcing him to pull back everything he has to defend. While brood lords are no longer a threat at the main, another batch of roaches attack the gold natural. TheBest has no choice but to move out with his immobile army and is met along the upper passageway with a maxed roach army, who demolishes the mech and Ret is up 1-0. [22:54]
Ret did that right thing by putting up a roach warren when the hellions were coming, the info came a bit late as he lost a few drones but then fended off the next attack soundly. His decision to bring the roaches around the back was questionable, as the front was extremely vulnerable. The roaches came back too late and the outcome of the battle did not change.
![[image loading]](/staff/Lovedrop/gsl3/ret/g1b1.jpg)
Roaches were no match for mech.
TheBest did not capitalize on his advantage and rashly force his way up the ramp, but the thors were never known to be units of great maneuverability. While he was able to kill some of the brood lords, his anti-air is now completely gone and Ret's other expansions are still safe and sound.
![[image loading]](/staff/Lovedrop/gsl3/ret/g1ramp.jpg)
A foolish decision to try and attack the main.
Ret's brood lords cleaned up the ground army and now TheBest is starving for minerals. Ret wisely uses his BLs to harass the newly set up gold, which forces vikings from TheBest. Another weakness exposed by Ret is the immobility of mech, dropping the main simultaneously.
![[image loading]](/staff/Lovedrop/gsl3/ret/g1dual.jpg)
Two-pronged attack.
Frustrated that he cannot take a third and doom is imminent, TheBest has no choice but to push out and his forces get decimated.
![[image loading]](/staff/Lovedrop/gsl3/ret/g1b2.jpg)
Clean sweep.
The game swings greatly in favor of Ret after the first mech army was cleaned up. Heavy macro play favors the Zerg and the execution of TheBest's two base timing mech push was far from perfect. Had he chosen to shut down Ret's third and fourth, the game would've ended a bit differently.
Roaches were no match for mech.
TheBest did not capitalize on his advantage and rashly force his way up the ramp, but the thors were never known to be units of great maneuverability. While he was able to kill some of the brood lords, his anti-air is now completely gone and Ret's other expansions are still safe and sound.
A foolish decision to try and attack the main.
Ret's brood lords cleaned up the ground army and now TheBest is starving for minerals. Ret wisely uses his BLs to harass the newly set up gold, which forces vikings from TheBest. Another weakness exposed by Ret is the immobility of mech, dropping the main simultaneously.
Two-pronged attack.
Frustrated that he cannot take a third and doom is imminent, TheBest has no choice but to push out and his forces get decimated.
Clean sweep.
The game swings greatly in favor of Ret after the first mech army was cleaned up. Heavy macro play favors the Zerg and the execution of TheBest's two base timing mech push was far from perfect. Had he chosen to shut down Ret's third and fourth, the game would've ended a bit differently.
T1 Game 2 - Steppes of War Z7
+ Show Spoiler [Show Recap] +
Ret risks the hatch first on a map with such short rush distances and TheBest wastes no time to rally his marines towards it. The first two marines pick off a few drones before they are forced back to the main, where TheBest is making a factory. Ret loses an overlord without seeing a starport has gone up, and decides to drop a baneling’s nest. The attack comes seconds later from TheBest with marines/hellions/medivac. The banelings are unable to deal maximum splash damage as TheBest utilizes his medevac to load up the injured units. Ret loses a large amount of zerglings and also a queen, but for the meantime, able to push TheBest back.
TheBest makes a swift tech switch to double starport banshees, while aggressively upgrading the blue flames for the hellions. TheBest moves out with three banshees, and takes out Ret’s queens one by one and evens out the series.[11:24]
TheBest makes a swift tech switch to double starport banshees, while aggressively upgrading the blue flames for the hellions. TheBest moves out with three banshees, and takes out Ret’s queens one by one and evens out the series.[11:24]
Ret took a huge risk with hatch first on Steppes of War. His reponses from seeing rallied marines was a bit over the top, but it was to make sure that he was able to fend off a two barracks attack.
![[image loading]](/staff/Lovedrop/gsl3/ret/g2b1.jpg)
A fake two barracks push while teching behind it.
TheBest had great control to counter the banelings, a unit that would decimate hellions and marines alike. Ret made the correct response and there was not much else that could've been done.
![[image loading]](/staff/Lovedrop/gsl3/ret/g2b2.jpg)
Safe from banelings inside a medivac.
The pre-ignitor upgrade is lethal, but it was the banshees that finished Ret off. Some might criticize that he should've tried and hold it off and he blew it by not transfusing his queen, but that's debatable. The third queen was in the main, and there were three banshees. The second queen had sub-150 energy, meaning one transfusion. Had TheBest micro'd back the damaged banshee, the queen would still have fallen. With his earlier losses, it was better to not push the rock up the hill and start afresh in game three.
![[image loading]](/staff/Lovedrop/gsl3/ret/g2b3.jpg)
Nail on the coffin.
A fake two barracks push while teching behind it.
TheBest had great control to counter the banelings, a unit that would decimate hellions and marines alike. Ret made the correct response and there was not much else that could've been done.
Safe from banelings inside a medivac.
The pre-ignitor upgrade is lethal, but it was the banshees that finished Ret off. Some might criticize that he should've tried and hold it off and he blew it by not transfusing his queen, but that's debatable. The third queen was in the main, and there were three banshees. The second queen had sub-150 energy, meaning one transfusion. Had TheBest micro'd back the damaged banshee, the queen would still have fallen. With his earlier losses, it was better to not push the rock up the hill and start afresh in game three.
Nail on the coffin.
T11 Game 3 - Jungle Basin Z5
+ Show Spoiler [Show Recap] +
A double gas is scouted out by Ret’s drone, and the expansion of TheBest is completely empty. Predicting hellions, Ret plays it safe to begin a roach warren. TheBest attaches a tech lab to the barracks and a reactor to the factory, pumping out marauders and hellions respectively. Ret pokes two roaches up the ramp and sees TheBest’s forces and turns around. The concussive shell catches one of the roaches and the other one flees back to warn his comrades. Zergling speed, a spine crawler, and a baneling’s nest are all under construction as Ret prepares to defend this early mid game push. The queens are able to snipe out the medivac but the rest of TheBest’s units march into the ramp to clear out Ret’s attacking units. 24 zerglings hatch and cleans up the remaining marauders. Now that all the queens have been demolished, TheBest’s sole viking has all the time in the world to hunt overlords.
TheBest prepares to go all-in, dropping two additional barracks and researching stim pack. He begins his attack by first dropping the hellions in Ret’s natural, splashing a huge shot on Ret’s zerglings, bringing the majority of them down to the red. TheBest stims up the front and damages the spine crawler. Ret does not pull his slow banelings back in time as they are severely crippled off-creep. Constant healing by the medivac keeps the marauders at full health, and Ret pulls all the drones at his natural to defend. TheBest backs down below the ramp, successfully funneling the drones. TheBest reinforces his push with streams of units and Ret’s zerglings are slowly dying. As the medivacs empty their tank, Ret desperately tries to hold with all of his drones. The stimmed units and micro are just too much for Ret to handle and our beloved Dutch hero is knocked out of the GSL.[15:02]
TheBest prepares to go all-in, dropping two additional barracks and researching stim pack. He begins his attack by first dropping the hellions in Ret’s natural, splashing a huge shot on Ret’s zerglings, bringing the majority of them down to the red. TheBest stims up the front and damages the spine crawler. Ret does not pull his slow banelings back in time as they are severely crippled off-creep. Constant healing by the medivac keeps the marauders at full health, and Ret pulls all the drones at his natural to defend. TheBest backs down below the ramp, successfully funneling the drones. TheBest reinforces his push with streams of units and Ret’s zerglings are slowly dying. As the medivacs empty their tank, Ret desperately tries to hold with all of his drones. The stimmed units and micro are just too much for Ret to handle and our beloved Dutch hero is knocked out of the GSL.[15:02]
Ret wasn't paying attention when his roaches turned around to attack the force that was chaing them, losing both of them in vain. The placement of the spine crawler was good as it can poke down the ramp, funneling more units, but it was too forward and had no time to morph in. Zergling speed barely kicked in when TheBest is already in front of Ret's base.
![[image loading]](/staff/Lovedrop/gsl3/ret/g3p1.jpg)
An army designed to kill early-game Zerg.
His zerglings pop and Ret is safe, but they would've taken less damage if speed was done. TheBest says no to expo and Ret knows this. Ret makes a spire instead of getting baneling speed, a structure that does not come into play at all in this game. An all-in attack was on the way, and that 200/200 went down the drain. The hellions soften up the zerglings a lot and there was another attack from the front.
![[image loading]](/staff/Lovedrop/gsl3/ret/g3p2.jpg)
Good multitasking.
Ret should've pulled back his banelings before they went off creep and a few were sniped. TheBest puts the two hellions in front to have vision and when the banelings came forward, they were sniped by the marauders on the low ground. Very good unit control by TheBest, the marauders are beastly tanks with medivac support. He was so close of holding it off.
![[image loading]](/staff/Lovedrop/gsl3/ret/g3p3.jpg)
So close.
An army designed to kill early-game Zerg.
His zerglings pop and Ret is safe, but they would've taken less damage if speed was done. TheBest says no to expo and Ret knows this. Ret makes a spire instead of getting baneling speed, a structure that does not come into play at all in this game. An all-in attack was on the way, and that 200/200 went down the drain. The hellions soften up the zerglings a lot and there was another attack from the front.
Good multitasking.
Ret should've pulled back his banelings before they went off creep and a few were sniped. TheBest puts the two hellions in front to have vision and when the banelings came forward, they were sniped by the marauders on the low ground. Very good unit control by TheBest, the marauders are beastly tanks with medivac support. He was so close of holding it off.
So close.
Our very own beloved
TLAF-Liquid`Ret joins us today after his nail-biting loss to TheBestfOu in the RO32 to discuss what really happened.Ret Ro32: The Aftermath
Brought to you by riptide
Hi Ret, and thanks for joining us. We're all pretty bummed about today's games and how they turned out for you. How do you see your series vs thebestfou?
The games didn't go as I expected. I'm obviously disappointed about losing. TheBestFou used some very strong 1 base timing attacks that he executed very well, sadly I was unable to defend. It is silly when I look back thinking how much I was worried about the 'mid-game' onwards when all I had to do to take any of these games was to stop a rush.
You qualified for a GSL on your first attempt and then proceeded as far as the Ro32. What are your goals for 2011 and the main GSL tournament, and what steps will you take to make sure you're better prepared when you play your next GSL series?
My goals for 2011 are to play as many tournaments as possible and take down some of the big ones. As far as GSL goes, I want to achieve Code S and hopefully have a decent shot at first place consistently throughout the year. It is really a test to see just how much potential I have, given the same training as the other Korean progamers who I’m competing again. There are no excuses to not be amongst the very top.
I will keep practicing with my Liquid teammates over here in Korea, and playing the Korean ladder to get more familiar with all the strategies that are used here as they evolve.
TheBestFou's builds came under a lot of flak on the forums. What is your honest opinion of his play today?
I think he played solid all around. Game 1 he made a very strong timing attack w/ mech which gave me a lot of trouble, I think that was a very good choice given we were cross position and he would've gotten destroyed if he went Tank/Marine. On Steppes of War I anticipated 2 barrack play so much that I sacrificed a lot to be safe against it. His 1 base allin timing was very strong and he showed solid control against banelings. There wasn't much I could do.
In game 3 I honestly feel like I should have never lost that game if I played normally. I clicked the speedling upgrade and it never started, I may have been just under 100 minerals or 100 gas cause I made a roach or something. With speedlings and slow banelings I am confident I can hold off most allins on that map, even though I had never seen the one he did before and it was very hard to guess what exactly was coming. But all in all I think he used his strengths well and made the right choice not going into a macro game with me.
This isn’t often asked of players, but how do you fix your mindset after a loss like this and get back to training for the next event? Does it get easier with experience? What will make you get up tomorrow and throw yourself into another period of preparation?
Heh, I don't really have a choice, but honestly playing competitive Starcraft is very hard on a person. Every loss feels like a punch in the face that knocks you out, and it does not get any easier. I am a fighter though and next time I step in that ring I wanna be the one left standing, so I'm gonna keep trying my best in practice and try to focus harder so I make less mistakes in my next game. I hope a new opportunity to prove myself arises soon, because I feel like nobody's seen even half of what I can do. So there's no way I'm gonna stop now.
OK, by popular request, a question. How the hell do you make so much stuff, man? Is that kind of macro even legal?
This is gonna seem really lame, but SC2 made making units ridiculously easy. I hope soon people will praise me for my decision making rather than my macro, cause that says much more about me as a player.
Finally, if you'd like to improve in one key area of your play by the next GSL, what would it be?
Definitely scouting and prediction, as I believe they are the most important skills a Zerg player can have in their arsenal.
Any shout outs before we go?
I hope everyone tunes in and watches Jinro, the last hope for Liquid in GSL on Wednesday! We're going to work hard to prepare him, and hopefully he can pick up the ball where I dropped it. =) LIQUID FIGHTING~~
Next: TLAF-Liquid`Jinro & special guest EGIdrA + Ro32 Recap.
TLAF-Liquid`Jinro is set to play his match on Wednesday, December 1st. His opponent is none other than WeMade's 
Moon, the War3 legend. The maps are Scrap Station, Xel'Naga Caverns, and Blistering Sands. The maps heavily favors Z, with the exception of Xel'Naga Caverns.Immeadiately following his match will be
EGIdrA going up against IMmvp on the maps Blistering Sands, Steppes of War, and Metalopolis.Stay tuned and thanks for reading !
considering that and the maps ret got this shit is just getting ridiculous. it has to be fixed for the next gsl.
