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by KwarK, Milkis and Waxangel
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Waxangel/paralyze_s.jpg)
What's the beauty of having two other writers? The "editor" doesn't actually have to do any work. Well, not on the news posts anyway. I'm putting quite some effort into finding a fourth writer. By putting in that time now, I'll earn it back in the future by having these posts on auto-write for the rest of the league.
This week we have Kwark providing his expert insight in battle reports, Milkis with his salacious analysis of the group selection, and me writing these two paragraphs here. Enjoy!
Round of 16, Week One
Quick Results
Quick Results
+ Show Spoiler [Quick Results] +
Group A:
Flash 0-1
Kal 1-0
Paralyze 0-1
Hyuk 1-0
[VOD]Flash < Aztec > Kal
[VOD]Paralyze < Gladiator > Hyuk
Group B:
Jaedong 0-1
HiyA 1-0
Calm 1-0
HoGiL 0-1
[VOD]Calm < Gladiator > HoGiL
[VOD]Jaedong < Pathfinder > HiyA
Group C:
Stork 1-0
Mind 0-1
Sea 0-1
Shine 1-0
[VOD]Stork < Pathfinder > Mind
[VOD]Sea < Icarus > Shine
Group D:
free 0-1
Hydra 1-0
Fantasy 0-1
Modesty 1-0
[VOD]Fantasy < Icarus > Modesty
[VOD]free < Aztec > Hydra
Flash 0-1Kal 1-0Paralyze 0-1Hyuk 1-0[VOD]
Flash < Aztec > Kal[VOD]
Paralyze < Gladiator > HyukGroup B:
Jaedong 0-1HiyA 1-0Calm 1-0 HoGiL 0-1[VOD]
Calm < Gladiator > HoGiL[VOD]
Jaedong < Pathfinder > HiyAGroup C:
Stork 1-0Mind 0-1Sea 0-1Shine 1-0[VOD]
Stork < Pathfinder > Mind[VOD]
Sea < Icarus > ShineGroup D:
free 0-1Hydra 1-0Fantasy 0-1Modesty 1-0[VOD]
Fantasy < Icarus > Modesty[VOD]
free < Aztec > HydraBattle Reports
by Kwark
Group A
+ Show Spoiler [Flash vs Kal - Aztec] +
So, Flash vs Kal on Aztec. As Wax pointed out I'm a bit out of the loop thanks to the evils of MMORPGs. Still, I expected the game to be awesome because Flash is the best and Kal always used to be hilariously bad against Flash. Kal usually managed to get a commanding lead by being good at PvT and then decide to attack at the worst time which is always fun to watch. Out of the top protosses he had the most potential and the least success against Flash.
Anyway, Flash got yellow at 4 and Kal orange at 12. Good times.
Flash opened with a pretty standard rax cc build, solid against both 13 nex and against early pressure because of the ability to bunker the choke. Meanwhile Kal rushed to robotics and reavers, denying the scv scout entry to his main but allowing the lack of an expansion nexus to be seen. Flash knew enough to rush to an ebay, reasoning that if Kal had no expansion the biggest threats were from fast dark templar and reaver builds.
The moment the reaver was done Kal pulled off an extremely nice timing attack. Flash used a tank and turret combo to secure his main against a potential reaver but that left his natural open. Flash mispositioned the first tank to arrive on the scene, and Kal was able to snipe it very easily with his reaver. Flash tried to repair his bunker for a second, but a reaver blast make him immediately reconsider. The situation could have been much worse for Flash, but he had wisely began work on a second bunker immediately after Kal started to attack. This second bunker was complete as the first one went down, buying him enough time to wait for his second siege tank.
Flash was able to hold onto his natural but Kal had clearly thrown a spanner in the works. Even though Flash still had a slight economic advantage due to his greedy rax-cc opening, he was way behind in tech and infrastructure. With his expansion and second gas up, Kal was free to tech to stargate while Flash didn't have anything past a factory and an engineering bay. A shuttle with two reavers kept him temporarily contained while Kal rushed to carriers.
Without an academy for comsat, Flash was forced to guess Kal's strat and incorrectly went for turrets + mines. As both players took their third bases Kal was in a decent position, having invested heavily in tech without risking much or getting harassed at all. Eventually, Flash got a star-sense scan on the carriers and adjusted surprisingly easily considering how late he had discovered them (Kal already had two carriers out). He put down mass turrets to prevent any small-scale carrier attack while he transitioned to making goliaths. In the meanwhile, Kal took a freebie base at 11:00.
Kal's massive investment in expansions, carriers and every tech limited his army size while Flash had pulled a massive amount of tanks out of nowhere with practically no vultures. His seamless switch to goliaths left him with a very impressive army and he moved down from his souther plateau and into the center of the map. Without speedlots, templars, or arbiters, Kal didn't have the tools to face a tank heavy army head on. As Flash pushed up Kal had no choice but to deploy his paltry ground force in a delaying action than allow Flash to cross the map uncontested. Kal's counter-attack ended up being suicidal while barely denting Flash's bases, but it did succeed in forcing Flash to recall his troops.
Flash had been playing amazingly up to this point where he made his first mistake. After crushing Kal's ground force, he divided his army incorrectly. Too many goliaths accompanied his main tank force to Kal's third base at 3:00, which gave Kal the easy option of sacrificing that base while he countered Flash's own third expansion with carriers. Flash could have had his cake and and ate it too, but he ended up having to hastily do as much damage as possible before returning to defend himself.
The end result of the expansion trading was very favorable for Kal. He still had his 11:00 base running fine, and Flash no longer had the kind of map control that would let him embark on a map-long attack to stop it. Furthermore, Kal hadn't lost any carriers, and was now reaching the critical mass where he could threaten a disastrous counter if Terran dared to move a few screens away from his bases. Only a hidden expansion at 10 was keeping Flash in the game.
Going against a protoss with a safe expansion and a constant threat of counterattack, there was little Flash could do. He had to choose between keeping his main and having a presence on the map. With Kal outmining him Flash chose to sacrifice his main and a quick dt switch punished the lack of comsats. It was the choice between a slow death by suffocation or a last blaze of glory, so you couldn't really blame Flash there.
Kal showed a very clear, very logical plan this game. Pressure him with the opening then massively invest in carriers and economy simultaneously. Cover for a weak midgame with the idea of threat and keep reavers containing to limit scouting. By taking a fourth on the opposite side of the map he forced Flash to have to push towards it or let the carriers build up and then he denied Flash most of the timing window with a counterattack. Flash however still had enough of the timing window to win it if he acted decisively to deal with the threats at hand, namely carriers at 6 and the nothing at 3. By sending the goliaths with his main force he allowed Kal to start tearing 6 and 5 up and forced himself to spend valuable time redeploying rather than inflicting damage.
Match Ratings
Kal: 5/5
Flash: 4/5
Game: 5/5
Wax's take: 8/10
It was really surprising how much punishment Flash's rax-CC build could take and still go into the mid-game strong, just because it gives you such a good economy. But Kal's carrier use really shined this game, largely because Flash's very late mech upgrades meant he couldn't just sit back and annihilate interceptors like he did in all of their past meetings.
Flash vs Kal on Aztec. As Wax pointed out I'm a bit out of the loop thanks to the evils of MMORPGs. Still, I expected the game to be awesome because Flash is the best and Kal always used to be hilariously bad against Flash. Kal usually managed to get a commanding lead by being good at PvT and then decide to attack at the worst time which is always fun to watch. Out of the top protosses he had the most potential and the least success against Flash.Anyway, Flash got yellow at 4 and Kal orange at 12. Good times.
Flash opened with a pretty standard rax cc build, solid against both 13 nex and against early pressure because of the ability to bunker the choke. Meanwhile Kal rushed to robotics and reavers, denying the scv scout entry to his main but allowing the lack of an expansion nexus to be seen. Flash knew enough to rush to an ebay, reasoning that if Kal had no expansion the biggest threats were from fast dark templar and reaver builds.
The moment the reaver was done Kal pulled off an extremely nice timing attack. Flash used a tank and turret combo to secure his main against a potential reaver but that left his natural open. Flash mispositioned the first tank to arrive on the scene, and Kal was able to snipe it very easily with his reaver. Flash tried to repair his bunker for a second, but a reaver blast make him immediately reconsider. The situation could have been much worse for Flash, but he had wisely began work on a second bunker immediately after Kal started to attack. This second bunker was complete as the first one went down, buying him enough time to wait for his second siege tank.
Flash was able to hold onto his natural but Kal had clearly thrown a spanner in the works. Even though Flash still had a slight economic advantage due to his greedy rax-cc opening, he was way behind in tech and infrastructure. With his expansion and second gas up, Kal was free to tech to stargate while Flash didn't have anything past a factory and an engineering bay. A shuttle with two reavers kept him temporarily contained while Kal rushed to carriers.
Without an academy for comsat, Flash was forced to guess Kal's strat and incorrectly went for turrets + mines. As both players took their third bases Kal was in a decent position, having invested heavily in tech without risking much or getting harassed at all. Eventually, Flash got a star-sense scan on the carriers and adjusted surprisingly easily considering how late he had discovered them (Kal already had two carriers out). He put down mass turrets to prevent any small-scale carrier attack while he transitioned to making goliaths. In the meanwhile, Kal took a freebie base at 11:00.
Kal's massive investment in expansions, carriers and every tech limited his army size while Flash had pulled a massive amount of tanks out of nowhere with practically no vultures. His seamless switch to goliaths left him with a very impressive army and he moved down from his souther plateau and into the center of the map. Without speedlots, templars, or arbiters, Kal didn't have the tools to face a tank heavy army head on. As Flash pushed up Kal had no choice but to deploy his paltry ground force in a delaying action than allow Flash to cross the map uncontested. Kal's counter-attack ended up being suicidal while barely denting Flash's bases, but it did succeed in forcing Flash to recall his troops.
Flash had been playing amazingly up to this point where he made his first mistake. After crushing Kal's ground force, he divided his army incorrectly. Too many goliaths accompanied his main tank force to Kal's third base at 3:00, which gave Kal the easy option of sacrificing that base while he countered Flash's own third expansion with carriers. Flash could have had his cake and and ate it too, but he ended up having to hastily do as much damage as possible before returning to defend himself.
The end result of the expansion trading was very favorable for Kal. He still had his 11:00 base running fine, and Flash no longer had the kind of map control that would let him embark on a map-long attack to stop it. Furthermore, Kal hadn't lost any carriers, and was now reaching the critical mass where he could threaten a disastrous counter if Terran dared to move a few screens away from his bases. Only a hidden expansion at 10 was keeping Flash in the game.
Going against a protoss with a safe expansion and a constant threat of counterattack, there was little Flash could do. He had to choose between keeping his main and having a presence on the map. With Kal outmining him Flash chose to sacrifice his main and a quick dt switch punished the lack of comsats. It was the choice between a slow death by suffocation or a last blaze of glory, so you couldn't really blame Flash there.
Kal showed a very clear, very logical plan this game. Pressure him with the opening then massively invest in carriers and economy simultaneously. Cover for a weak midgame with the idea of threat and keep reavers containing to limit scouting. By taking a fourth on the opposite side of the map he forced Flash to have to push towards it or let the carriers build up and then he denied Flash most of the timing window with a counterattack. Flash however still had enough of the timing window to win it if he acted decisively to deal with the threats at hand, namely carriers at 6 and the nothing at 3. By sending the goliaths with his main force he allowed Kal to start tearing 6 and 5 up and forced himself to spend valuable time redeploying rather than inflicting damage.
Match Ratings
Kal: 5/5
Flash: 4/5
Game: 5/5
Wax's take: 8/10
It was really surprising how much punishment Flash's rax-CC build could take and still go into the mid-game strong, just because it gives you such a good economy. But Kal's carrier use really shined this game, largely because Flash's very late mech upgrades meant he couldn't just sit back and annihilate interceptors like he did in all of their past meetings.
+ Show Spoiler [Hyuk vs Paralyze - Gladiator] +
I confess I don't actually know who Paralyse (Editor's note: please indulge KwarK's insistence on British English spelling) is. But that's a good thing in a way because all my favourite players are actually out already. Even Bisu, who I love to hate, is gone. So I guess it's time to get used to some new faces.
Paralyze started at 2 in pink while Hyuk got 8 in red on Gladiator. Hyuk opened overpool while Paralyse went for a standard forge nexus opening with two cannons which I hate him for. Hyuk took a quick expansion at the natural at 5 and used his first zerglings to stop Paralyse scouting his natural and the lack of a hatchery there. When you can see your opponent only has six lings and they're all chasing your scouting probe an entire map's distance away, one cannon is one too many imo. Anyway, Paralyse continued to play far too roboticly for my liking while Hyuk took his natural to go three base and proceed to lair.
Paralyse's scout probe stayed alive forever and managed to see the three hatch spire while he threw down three gateways with a citadel himself, hoping to exploit a timing window. Hyuk's three hatch spire, five hatch hydra build was a fundamentally defensive and greedy build, using scourge and wallins to hold while getting the drone count needed to fund the hatcheries. Paralyse gambled that mutalisks wouldn't be on the way immediately and tried to slow down zerg's economy by forcing defensive expenditures against +1 speedlot pressure. A late stargate addition with +1 air attack provided insurance against a possible late mutalisk switch.
The zealot attack went horribly but still managed to kill several drones which was still a fairly good catch at that phase of the game. Paralyse was free to continue to macro up himself and tech while continuing mass zealot pressure with limited success. Hyuk was feeling the pressure but could still freely expand to his fourth base at the 5 main due to his sunken-lurker defense at the 5 natural. Paralyse responded with a dt drop at 5 with corsair support although the mass scourge were more than capable of fending that off. Paralyse took his his third.
Hyuk was in a very confident position now though, he'd been powerdroning behind his lurker wall and was up to seven hatcheries with double upgrades on the way and four gas. Paralyse invested very heavily in the midgame combination of dragoons and high templar, hoping to get enough to break through before the defiler crackling combination came out to finish them off. Hyuk's defence held solid with mass lurkers while Paralyse only had two gas and was forced to go very zealot heavy to transition into the gas units needed for late game and simply couldn't inflict the damage.
Paralyze could not get to a simultaneous three gas state until too late, and he was stuck trying to break through lurker and cracklings defenses with a low tech army for too long. Continually outmaneuvered by cracklings and unable to get a critical mass of reavers, the zealot heavy force was in trouble. Hyuk added another expansion at 7 and his army composition simply presented more challenges that Paralyse had the money to deal with.
GG
Paralyse had a good plan this game. He scouted very intensively and worked out what his opponent was doing and how to counter it. His correct guess that the Zerg was going for scourge defensively gave him total map control to pressure and expand as he wished but he didn't exploit it. Paralyse was very reliant on both the dt drop doing a lot of damage, which it didn't, and his third expansion, which was poorly chosen. The mineral only is nice if you can get it but in the late game it's worthless, it didn't offer him any transition options and moving from a dragoon heavy midgame to a reaver/ht lategame can be pretty ugly. Paralyse was in total control of the midgame and when the lurkers came out to end the harassment phase somehow Paralyse was two gas behind. His ideas were good but he had no idea how to exploit them. Hyuk for his part just stuck to his guns, macroing and camping and making endless amounts of drones. Then he simply killed his opponent with hive tech. It wasn't especially fancy but he displayed competence throughout.
Match Ratings
Paralyse: 3/5
Hyuk: 4/5
Game: 4/5
Jaedong
Wax's Take: 4/10
I don't know how a Protoss player like Kwark could possibly have enjoyed a game that involved gateway units impaling themselves on lurkers and cracklings.
Paralyze started at 2 in pink while Hyuk got 8 in red on Gladiator. Hyuk opened overpool while Paralyse went for a standard forge nexus opening with two cannons which I hate him for. Hyuk took a quick expansion at the natural at 5 and used his first zerglings to stop Paralyse scouting his natural and the lack of a hatchery there. When you can see your opponent only has six lings and they're all chasing your scouting probe an entire map's distance away, one cannon is one too many imo. Anyway, Paralyse continued to play far too roboticly for my liking while Hyuk took his natural to go three base and proceed to lair.Paralyse's scout probe stayed alive forever and managed to see the three hatch spire while he threw down three gateways with a citadel himself, hoping to exploit a timing window. Hyuk's three hatch spire, five hatch hydra build was a fundamentally defensive and greedy build, using scourge and wallins to hold while getting the drone count needed to fund the hatcheries. Paralyse gambled that mutalisks wouldn't be on the way immediately and tried to slow down zerg's economy by forcing defensive expenditures against +1 speedlot pressure. A late stargate addition with +1 air attack provided insurance against a possible late mutalisk switch.
The zealot attack went horribly but still managed to kill several drones which was still a fairly good catch at that phase of the game. Paralyse was free to continue to macro up himself and tech while continuing mass zealot pressure with limited success. Hyuk was feeling the pressure but could still freely expand to his fourth base at the 5 main due to his sunken-lurker defense at the 5 natural. Paralyse responded with a dt drop at 5 with corsair support although the mass scourge were more than capable of fending that off. Paralyse took his his third.
Hyuk was in a very confident position now though, he'd been powerdroning behind his lurker wall and was up to seven hatcheries with double upgrades on the way and four gas. Paralyse invested very heavily in the midgame combination of dragoons and high templar, hoping to get enough to break through before the defiler crackling combination came out to finish them off. Hyuk's defence held solid with mass lurkers while Paralyse only had two gas and was forced to go very zealot heavy to transition into the gas units needed for late game and simply couldn't inflict the damage.
Paralyze could not get to a simultaneous three gas state until too late, and he was stuck trying to break through lurker and cracklings defenses with a low tech army for too long. Continually outmaneuvered by cracklings and unable to get a critical mass of reavers, the zealot heavy force was in trouble. Hyuk added another expansion at 7 and his army composition simply presented more challenges that Paralyse had the money to deal with.
GG
Paralyse had a good plan this game. He scouted very intensively and worked out what his opponent was doing and how to counter it. His correct guess that the Zerg was going for scourge defensively gave him total map control to pressure and expand as he wished but he didn't exploit it. Paralyse was very reliant on both the dt drop doing a lot of damage, which it didn't, and his third expansion, which was poorly chosen. The mineral only is nice if you can get it but in the late game it's worthless, it didn't offer him any transition options and moving from a dragoon heavy midgame to a reaver/ht lategame can be pretty ugly. Paralyse was in total control of the midgame and when the lurkers came out to end the harassment phase somehow Paralyse was two gas behind. His ideas were good but he had no idea how to exploit them. Hyuk for his part just stuck to his guns, macroing and camping and making endless amounts of drones. Then he simply killed his opponent with hive tech. It wasn't especially fancy but he displayed competence throughout.
Match Ratings
Paralyse: 3/5
Hyuk: 4/5
Game: 4/5
JaedongWax's Take: 4/10
I don't know how a Protoss player like Kwark could possibly have enjoyed a game that involved gateway units impaling themselves on lurkers and cracklings.
Group B
+ Show Spoiler [Jaedong vs Hiya - Pathfinder] +
Jaedong spawned at 8 in blue while HiyA got red at 4 on Pathfinder. Hiya opened with a blind depot rax wall at his natural while Jaedong opted for twelve hatch, eleven pool. Jaedong's overlord could see all Hiya did and Jaedong powered drones happily enough, content to ignore his opponent and macro up. He made his lair at his natural out of sight of the scv and made just four lings to kill the scv. With no pressure at all he could use his gas for a quick lair, add a second gas and not bother with zergling speed. An overlord scout into the main revealed a quick three rax and the inevitable timing push was thwarted with ease.HiYa randomly allined, moving his entire army into the middle of the map with his turrets not done in time. Rather than defending with marines HiYa just abandoned his main base and offered a base trade. JaeDong was killing HiYa's main and HiYa pulled the six marines he had defending his natural to his main leaving it exposed to the zerglings which ran in and overran the natural. JaeDong was just attempting mutalisk harass and suddenly found himself having won the game. This confused him immensely and rather than just mass sunkening his natural or ramp and denying a base trade he tried to transition into lurkers that would never be done in time.
This was remarkably poor by JaeDong. HiYa was messing around in the middle of the map while his main and nat were destroyed with no hope of recovery, as long as HiYa's army did no damage JaeDong had won. However his gameplan didn't involve winning this early so instead of just mass sunkening and finishing HiYa off he tried his slow lurker transition with mutalisks + sunkens to defend. HiYa counter allined and JaeDong was forced to pull his mutalisks back because he wasn't expecting HiYa to actually attack with the massive allin army in the middle. Some terrible decision making and micro left the players somehow even. JaeDong eventually made it to his lurker transition, several minutes after the attack he wanted to use it to defend against, and pushed the advantage again. Some terrible micro saw him throw his lurkers and mutalisks away to a bunker and two missile turrets and somehow the game was still even. JaeDong showing very subpar micro and refusing to adapt to what his opponent was doing, even if the opponent was trying to hand him the win.
JaeDong expanded to 6 and teched hive but HiYa was able to get a big army with tanks and science vessel support up and pushed down the middle of the map. Defilers were on the way but Jaedong didn't have them in time and made a massive amount of lurkers and cracklings instead. He smashed into HiYa with a nice flank and the static part of HiYa's army was decimated, losing every tank. However HiYa's marines pulled back and were able to loop around to pressure 6 while a drop hit the main. Both inflicted heavy casualties, repaying JaeDong for the tank losses. HiYa continued to go very heavy two base pressure with drops although JaeDong took down a drop attempt with scourge.
JaeDong's pressure attempts wasted a lot of defilers while HiYa gave ground and picked off anything vulnerable with science vessels. JaeDong couldn't get any momentum going in the middle of the map and another double drop hit at his main. As JaeDong sent his army to block the drop he discovered he'd actually walled his ramp and although zerglings got up they had no defiler support. He'd been attack moving his army in and lost all his zerglings leaving him with massive amounts of support units and no main force. His main destroyed, JaeDong GGed.
This was a ridiculous game. HiYa made mistake after mistake and JaeDong was too rigid in his gameplan to capitalise on it. He refused to deviate from his game plan to exploit his opponents mistakes, instead sticking to planned timings that he could see were no longer relevant. He missed all his timing windows and threw away units pointlessly. The deciding mistake was incredibly sloppy but by that point I really ceased to care about the game. Both of them were far off their game it was actually painful to watch.
Match Ratings
JaeDong: 1/5
HiYa: 2/5
Game: 0 + 2 / 5 for comedy value
Wax's take: 7/10
I actually enjoyed this match a lot. Sure it may have been sloppy and rough around the edges, but there was always plenty of action going on. In terms of pure entertainment, I think it's the match of the week.
+ Show Spoiler [Calm vs Hogil - Gladiator] +
Calm spawned in white at 11 while HoGiL got red at 8 on Gladiator. Both sent their overlords vertically towards each other and made drones. HoGiL overpooled while Calm twelve pooled which in theory gives him the build order advantage in drone counts etc. However both builds have options. They took their gas at the same time and expanded at the same time however the build left Calm with one more drone. They made the same number of zerglings and took two drones off gas at the same time, mirroring very nicely but with the one drone difference remaining.Calm teched to lair while HoGiL massed lings and went for a slightly later lair and a timing attack. Calm's speed finished at the exact right time and he pulled back into a choke just enough to create a concave with some nice blocking drones too. He defended the attack with relative ease and was left two drones ahead with a slightly faster lair timing.
HoGiL tried another mass ling attack but Calm again created a nice concave and deflected it, adding a sunken to consolidate his lead and give him breathing room to save money and larva for mutalisks. HoGiL tried to hit at the timing just before mutalisks hatched when his massed lings would most outnumber his opponent but Calm simply pulled his drones from his natural and traded ling for ling with sunken support. HoGiL had nothing left in reserve and the mutalisks ended it.
GG
Calm had a slight build order advantage here but it was HoGiL's insistence that he was behind and that he needed to do something to recover that forced him allin. By refusing to just play passive and make an extra drone to equalise he put himself in the situation that he needed to break an opponent who had an overlord over his main. Calm could simply match him zergling for zergling and sit on his extra drone all game, defending with ease and sitting on his advantage while his opponent killed himself.
Match Rating
Calm: 4/5
HoGiL: 2/5
Game: 2/5
Wax's Take: 2/10
If we paid our writers, ZvZ battle reports would earn a 20% bonus.
Group C
+ Show Spoiler [Stork vs Mind - Pathfinder] +
Stork spawned in orange at 4 while Mind got red at 8 on Pathfinder. Both opened fairly standard, Stork scouting very late but otherwise normal with two zealots and dragoon range. Mind pulled some scvs from gas to get a quick command centre but as his scv left Stork's main the dragoon range was cancelled and Stork went into full on dt drop rush. It wasn't a complete all-in as he didn't cut probes too hard, but it delayed his expansion nonetheless. Stork's rangeless dragoons denied any scouting but Mind noticed their lack of upgrade and took no chances with turrets and mines to protect his main. The dt drop did no damage at all and Stork followed it with a pretty quick expansion, observers and two more gateways but he was still behind while Mind was getting all his late game stuff set up. Stork had to resist pressure with just three gateways and he did an excellent job of doing so, somehow managing to tech to arbiters without compromising his defence.Mind took a third at 6 and and Stork his at 2, both preparing for the lategame and transitioning into standard play. The beauty of Stork's transitions left him actually looking not behind at all and he followed it up with a recall in Mind's main, hitting at a sweet spot without mines. The recall put the momentum clearly in Stork's favour as it let him get new expansions up and running.
Stork hit with a full on frontal attack with a massive stasis that really shouldn't have been allowed by an attentive Terran with EMPs. His natural was overrun and he lost a few science vessels, a lot of scvs and his armoury. Although he eventually cleaned it up Mind was unable to get any momentum going afterwards. He threw a load of vultures onto the map to try and disrupt Stork and buy some time and although they did relatively well Stork had the observers and awareness to take no significant damage. Stork just got further and further ahead as the game progressed. Every time Mind tried to push into the map he was flattened and he simply couldn't get another expansion. Stork outmacroed his opponent and won. GG.
Mind was handed this game with a perfectly blocked dt rush but he transitioned horribly. His mindset appeared to be "I'm ahead, therefore I'll play it safe and macro up" whereas Stork was perfectly capable of dealing with a PvT lategame, he already had almost all his tech unlocked. Given an opponent who had no dragoon range, no zealot speed, no storm, no arbiters, no reavers and no real macro going he needed to push and just take the win. Stork wouldn't have been able to muster defenses in time for a mid-late Terran push if it had come. But for playing lategame PvT Stork had everything but the economy and when Mind says "let's macro up" then that's solved. Mind let Stork play this the way he wanted and Stork was solid at playing like that. It makes him difficult to judge but whatever.
Match Ratings
Mind: 2/5
Stork: 4/5
Game: 3/5
Wax's take: 5/10
I still don't understand how you can fail a DT drop and end up with a better economy than Terran. Stork doing something very right, or Mind doing something horrendously wrong.
+ Show Spoiler [Sea vs Shine - Icarus] +
Sea opted for a ten rax that was semi proxied, close enough by air to fly back and wall but far enough to speed up a rush. Shine opted for a twelve hatch eleven pool which was easily bunker rushed. Shine pulled all but three drones and had some success in blocking the passage of marines to the bunker although he lost massive amounts of mining time. He killed four marines at the cost of only around four drones but the economic damage was done while Sea rushed to factory while flying his barracks back.Shine was in terrible economic state, forced to take drones off mining gas and power drones with a sunken to stop potential vultures and a third hatchery. Shine's play was pure economic recovery and safety while Sea attempted to exploit potential openings caused by Shine's delay by going for quick tech. He followed up with a fairly late command centre and a wraith but could do no damage against Shine's defensive hydralisk den.
They ended up with Shine ahead, Sea taking a much later expansion in favour of quick tech while Shine blocked it all with ease. Shine's three hatcheries quickly established map control with mutalisks and Sea was still rushing out tech. Sea ended up with a lot of cool stuff, mine tech, irradiate, vessels etc but no real substance, Sea was in good shape for the late game but Shine was still playing the midgame. While Sea was still mid transition with no medics and only two barracks Shine went for it, clearing the minefield and shoving a ragtag band of speedlings, hydralisks and muta into Sea's natural. Sea simply wasn't expecting it, while he had irradiates which did massive damage to the muta there was nothing to back it up with, his army just wasn't there yet. He was relying on the threat of a minefield to defend while pumping tanks, Shine just hit the timing.
Sea didn't really capitalise on an early game advantage. Shine did a decent job of stopping the bunker rush and Sea's transition into tech rather than an expansion hurt him a lot. Shine was extremely competent at blocking Sea's tech while pumping a lot of drones for a strong midgame. Sea did the opposite, getting a lot of tech for a strong lategame with a fairly late expansion and when Shine hit him in the midgame there was little he could do.
Match Ratings
Shine: 4/5
Sea: 2/5
Game: 2/5
Wax's take: 3/10
The novelty of Shine beating good players with all-in rushes is starting to wear off. Still, it will always be funny versus Bisu.
Group D
+ Show Spoiler [Modesty vs Fantasy - Icarus] +
Modesty got red at 3 while Fantasy got yellow at 6 on Icarus. Modesty opened twelve, eleven, ten for a fast lair macro opening. Fantasy just opened depot rax cc as standard, a very basic macro opening. Modesty rushed to lair in a basic econ two hatch muta rush while Fantasy added a second barracks and an equally standard response. The only notable fact about the game so far being how entirely standard both players' builds were.Modesty added the third hatch at a third gas expansion, not pumping any more drones but not really needing to with the twelve eleven opening. The muta harass was extremely effective, killing several turrets and catching the medics isolated. With them dead the marines couldn't really engage the muta in open ground and a lot of scvs were picked off.
As the mutalisk count grew Modesty came back for another go with a great deal of success, smashing down the turrets, killing the marines who went into the open and destroying the ebay they left behind. The harass continued and Fantasy's defence crumbled losing massive amounts of scvs and turrets. Eventually the starport completed but Modesty saw it coming and pumped out several dozen drones, two more hatcheries and a hydralisk den.
The mutalisks got pretty torn up by a sloppy route out but it was not very significant. Fantasy got some valks out and went for a push and despite Modesty messing up his mutalisk micro it was still deflected with ease. Modesty retook map control and immediately followed with a slow drop of lurkers onto Fantasy's main scv line. The decimated worker count took another blow and as the comsat went down Fantasy had no real way of dealing with them. A drop at Modesty's third killed some drones before it was cleaned up, but his own base floating in the air and on fire. He overran Fantasy's natural with cracklings and lurkers and there was simply nothing he could do. He refused to leave forever but it was very, very over.
The openings were very even. Fantasy didn't attempt to pressure him at all but with a cc after just one marine he was applying a lot of economic pressure. He knew exactly what Modesty was doing and it is to Modesty's credit that it worked. Some excellent mutalisk micro broke through and Modesty never let Fantasy get back up. Very one sided.
Match Ratings
Modesty: 4/5
Fantasy: 2/5
Game: 4/5
Wax's take: 2/10
You can't really use this game as evidence that Fantasy's bio TvZ still sucks. Sure there were some mistakes to allow the muta-ball to get rolling, but once that happens everything you do from there on out is just gonna look bad.
+ Show Spoiler [Free vs Hydra - Aztec] +
free spawned in white at 12 while Hydra got blue at 9. Hydra nine pooled while Free went for a standard fast expansion. Hydra didn't get gas, instead making six zerglings and a quick expansion while Free played it safe with two cannons followed by nexus. He added a gateway at the standard time and then cancelled and rebuilt his nexus by accident.Hydra pumped drones without getting a gas and took a third at the natural at 6, keeping his zerglings at six and building up his economy as fast as he could. A gas and lair followed with both players following standard patterns, three hatch spire against fast corsair with some zealots. Free seemed really behind though, Hydra able to take his back fourth expansion early and go to six hatcheries while Free never seemed to have many units, just a few stray zealots. His zealot speed came too late and mutaliss were already out to clean them up, corsairs again arriving too late.
Free eventually got his gateways down, six gateways making his army look a little less lost and a little more credible. However on just two bases there was really nothing he could do. The mutalisks pinned him down in his main, scourge support forcing Free to use his archon to save himself. Two expansions wouldn't be enough to put him on an economic par with the Zerg and there was absolutely no way he could attack. Hydra just made some hydralisks and ended it. GG.
This was utterly one sided. Hydra just took three fast bases, made a load of drones and then went up to six hatcheries. Free's timings all seemed off, he wasted early corsairs, lost air control to mutalisks and couldn't even pressure. Hydra got really big, really fast and simple attack moved him. My only explanation was that the nexus cancel threw him off.
Match Ratings
Hydra: 4/5
Free: 2/5
Game: 1/5
Wax's take: 2/10
The worst PvZ Free has played in a long time. Possibly the greediest Zerg start I've seen on a ground map ever.
Highlights from the Group Lottery
aka Milkis' better version of last week's post
aka Milkis' better version of last week's post
This season's OSL group ceremonies took on a stark difference from last season's. In contrast to last season's full blown show, the ceremonies this season was kept to a minimum. Last season's group ceremonies were so long that I did not finish covering it -- and in contrast, there is not much to write about this season's at all -- after all, the group ceremony this season was about an hour and 30 minutes, compared to the previous monster that took over four hours.
What changed? The biggest change was the move from a Group Selection to a Group Lottery. Rather than giving players opportunities to snap at each other and giving them the choice of groups, everything is drawn straight out of a box. This led to some hilarious(ly bad) results as the casters tried so hard to keep the lottery draws exciting. This change alone took out a lot of the time -- normally players entered and placed their names, and explained why they had chosen to put themselves in a certain group, and later on, the seeded players were able to swap players in their group as they saw fit.
It's also important to mention that the OSL has always been considered more prestigious than the MSL, which always led the OSL entrance ceremonies to be kept to a minimal. A few hand gestures here and there (Flash entering whilst making a heart with his hands), and of course, Hiya fully dressed in a suit and giving one of his fans flowers, there really isn't much to talk about when it comes to ceremonies itself.
In that case, let's talk about the banter -- which undoubtedly centered around Hiya.
![[image loading]](/staff/Milkis/mslgroupceremony1/KARP.png)
Hiya's Ceremony
Hiya's ceremony of course caught everyone's notice. Hiya mentioned that he had something else planned before, but he had no choice but make do given the situation he was in. Speaking of ceremonies, Hiya is one upping the offer he made last season, where he solicited ideas for ceremonies in his fancafe and bought chicken for the fan whose ceremony idea Hiya used. This year, instead of just buying chicken, Hiya adds that he will personally deliver the chicken if the fan lives in Seoul.
Paralyze then took the spotlight, and given Paralyze's entrance with combs stuck in his hair, it wasn't surprising that Paralyze's hair was the topic at hand. Jaedong even went out of the way to request that he be able to touch Paralyze's hair. Upon touching it, Jaedong added that he would not be able to forget the feeling of Parlayze's hair. Paralyze then stated that he would like to play Flash -- saying that,
Paralyze: "People were saying that you can't beat Flash with Protoss. I would like to play him and win"
To which Flash responded
Flash: "If people keep taunting me, I will use the hand of god to draw that player."
The topic of Kal and how Flash had saved Kal came out, and the WCG Drowning Story was told once again. Kal then says that he sees Flash as his savior and how Kal would buy him a meal or help him practice. When asked if Kal would be "useful", Flash thanks the casters for giving him the an additional opportunity.
Flash then exercised his power to decide which one of the seeded player would draw first. Stork and Free seemed especially superstitious, claiming that they would get bad luck if they went first, and because no one stepped up, Flash had Jaedong, Stork, and Free decide via Rock Paper Scissors, leading to Stork choosing the first group. He creates the WeMade teamkill, and comments how much he likes teamkills. Shine comments that while he's sorry to Mind, he should be able to make it to RO8 with ease.
Jaedong then gets the opportunity, and he is asked which player he does not want to draw. Jaedong answers Hiya, and then the casters reveal that Hiya wrote down that "Jaedong is just another Zerg -- I will beat him, and I will beat a drum while walking down". The context of the "beating a drum" makes the situation even better. Jaedong's name in Korea is Lee Jaedong, and one of the nicknames he had gotten during his mini slump was "LeeJaeDongNaeBook", ie, "Now the Neighborhood Drum", meaning that anyone can come and beat him up. Hiya follows up his attack by saying "Better Jaedong than Flash".
![[image loading]](/staff/Milkis/mslgroupceremony1/DONG.png)
Jaedong, upon hearing Hiya's remarks
Jaedong seems irritated, and suddenly comments how he suddenly wants to pick Hiya. And lo and behold, Jaedong drew Hiya -- and after some conversation, Jaedong also agrees to beat on the drum if Jaedong wins, and Hiya will beat on the drum if he wins.
Another story here. Apparently Free told Hiya that if Hiya makes it to the semifinals, he would retire. Hiya mentions this and says that this is the reason he will play his best. When called on his promise, Free wavers ["I do need to make a living you know"]. Eventually, it is agreed that if Hiya makes it to the round of 4, Free will do any ceremony as chosen by Hiya.
After that, not much happens. Flash draws, and Free is left with the remainder of the group, and the selection ends. Now, of course, there were little side events that went on, but most of them took the place of videos. The first one was about the soccer match held by KeSPA last month, where many players such as Sea showed their true colors. The second one featured the RO16 players taking pictures of themselves, and then using an application that told them what Korean celebrity the players looked like. Finally, the last video featured a simulation of the lottery.
![[image loading]](/staff/Milkis/mslgroupceremony1/STORK.png)
Stork being sensitive and saying he doesn't want to take the picture. He eventually gives in.
All in all, OGN managed to keep the ceremony short this year. To an extent, it is a return to the original form of Group ceremonies, back in 1999 and 2000 where they had group lotteries instead of group selection. The ceremony led to some teamkills and matchups we would not have seen otherwise, but it did not allow for any interesting banter. Hopefully, OGN will be able to find the perfect mix of length and entertainment for the future OSLs.
I was serious!
