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TeamLiquid.net KT-KTF Premiere League Games of the Week, Week Seven:
GoRush (Park Tae Min) v [Red]Nada (Lee Yoon Yeol) on Luna
Nada (terran at five) has been crushing opponents in true Nada style over the last five weeks, including a scintillating win over Reach last time out. He tried to take the initiative early against GoRush (zerg at 11) with a bunker rush, unsuccessfully as the zerg drones rallied to neutralise the threat. GoRush took a stab at the terran main but found more marines guarding the ramp and started to tech to lair. With his lair completed, GoRush started a spire at the back of his natural and as marines approached his expansion he morphed two sunkens for protection. In trying to bar his expo and his main ramp, GoRush had built his sunkens very high and Nada darted his marines and medics underneath, moved to the back of the expansion and started to attack the spire. Somehow GoRush managed to envelop the invaders with his drones and kill the attacking force.
Having made two attempts to sieze the game by the scruff of the neck Nada settled back and took his natural, erecting turrets against the muta threat. GoRush tried some muta harassment but found the terran base well defended. The zerg player expanded to seven.
Nada now looked to attack again, sending his marines out towards the zerg natural. In their absence the zerg mutalisks swooped into the turretless section of the terran main, firing at the structures. Meanwhile, Nada's infrantry force launched into the zerg defences, oblitering sunken colonies left, right and centre but just as it looked as if he would break through lurkers arrived and the mutas returned from the front line for a simultaneous attack on the terran army. GoRush immediately counterattacked but Nada quickly erected a bunker for defence.
GoRush caused more problems in the terran main with muta harass and was teching to hive, following it with a greater spire. Nada moved out to try to peg back the zerg economy with an attack on the seven expo but GoRush moved to intercept and had enough sunkens there to hold off the attack. GoRush now had a defiler mound and after catching an army of marines out in the army with a lurker hold that ripped the rines to shreds he expoed again to two.
The zerg army was now expanding rapidly, with lurkers, lings, guardians and a defiler, and the swarm moved on the terran natural. A single dark swarm helped the zerg forces breach the expo as guardians bombarded it from a different angle. Nada held on as long as possible but was eventually forced to lift his command centre, only just saving it from destruction. Unable to deliver a killing blow, GoRush withdrew and reinforced. Nada retook his natural and tried some dropship attacks at seven, easily dismissed by the zerg. However, he did manage to destroy a new hatch at eight while taking the six expo himself.
Nevertheless, GoRush was massing dangerously with lurkers, hydralisks, defilers and now ultralisks as well. He sent part of his gigantic army to wipe out the six expansion while his main army simultaneously assaulted the terran natural again. Dark swarm and masses of ultralisks rumbling over the terran infantry signalled the end for Nada.
A superb victory for GoRush, who held off Nada's early offensives before storming back and swarming over the terran army.
Nal_Ra (Kang Min) v Boxer (Lim Yo Hwan) on Luna
Ra (protoss at eight) opened with a two gate range build against Boxer's (terran at five) one factory expansion. Boxer quickly erected a bunker and turrets to secure his early expo as Ra went for robotics facility and observers while taking his own natural. As he warped in a Citadel of Adun, Ra sent a shuttle with two zeals and a dragoon towards the terran main but could find no suitable dropping point at first. As he teched to archives he dropped the small harassing force and attacked a supply depot to little effect.
The opening to the game had been rather sterile but the fireworks began as Boxer expanding army moved out to the centre. Ra had expanded to nine and his sizable army of zealots and dragoons threw themselves at the terran push, backed up by psionic storm. While destroying a large number of tanks and vultures Ra could not break through and had to withdraw. Boxer had taken the six expo and was establishing dangerous control of centre of the map with giant flock of vultures. Ra charged into the centre again with masses of zealots and dragoons, obliterating the entire terran army at high centre. However, Boxer had a substantial number of tanks sieged at low centre.
Ra, who was now waiting for carriers, launched an offensive against the new terran expansion at the one o'clock position with the main part of his ground forces. Even as his expo fell, Boxer siezed the moment and rumbled towards the undefended protoss natural, obliterating it with tanks, vultures and goliaths. Ra had a new expansion at 11 but Boxer's army started moving up the map towards the surviving protoss mineral sources.
Ra's new force of carriers plus his army of dragoons clashed with the advancing terran army but Boxer had too many goliaths and the protss expansion at nine came under fire. Ra had sent two zeals to cause havoc at the undefended terran expansion at six, following this with his carriers, eventually destroying the command centre. Boxer had raided the protoss expo at 11 with vultures, clearing out the probes and was roaming the centre of the map with large army of goliaths supported by tanks. Ra attacked with his reinforced yet dwindling ground army, storming entire groups of goliaths while at the same time attacking the newly rebuilt one expo with his carriers then the new terran expansion.
As the smoke finally cleared both players were without expansions and without minerals, leaving Ra's carriers to fight it out with Boxer's goliaths. Boxer appeared to be on top and a scintillating game was finally decided when Ra's carriers were caught out in the open and sniped down to just one lone capital ship, convincing Ra to quit.
Other Games:
Yellow (Hong Kin Ho) v Kingdom (Park Yong Ook) on Requiem
Those monitoring Yellow's resurgence, as I have been, may well trace the beginning of his powerful return to top form to his demolition of Kingdom in the Dual Tournament, and this clash resembled that game in many ways. Yellow (zerg at three) opted for a pool-first build, while Kingdom (protoss at six) went forge first with two cannons at his main nexus. When Yellow's lings arrived at the protoss main Kingdom got a nasty shock, as his cannons were just too far away from his assimilator to prevent it being destroyed, a serious setback for the protoss pro. Yellow was now expanding and putting up a third hatch in his main, while Kingdom suddenly converted to triple gate zeals to try and put pressure on his opponent. Kingdom's first force of zealots set out to scout the zerg base but ran into a rapidly growing swarm of lings and hydras. Realising they were completely outgunned, the zeals fled back towards the protoss main, with Kingdom desperately trying to put up cannons at the base of his ramp to defend his main. The cannons were too late and Yellow's forces surged into the protoss base, demolishing all the toss gateways and finishing the game.
Iloveoov (Choi Yeon Seong) v Xellos (Seo Ji Hoon) on Nostalgia
After a restart due to defective audio on the part of WCG champion Xellos, both players settled into two factory openings, with Oov (terran at 11) emphasising early vultures against Xellos' tank, vults and goliaths. Oov took his natural much earlier than his opponent and Xellos (terran at seven) made a valiant attempt to sieze a massive early advantage by taking down the expansion, destroying Oov's sieged tanks. However, only one goliath survived the assault and the attack fell just short. Iloveoov proceeded to use his economic advantage to take control of the map and set up a containment at Xellos' double roadway. Oov then proceeded to set up multiple expansions, at five, 12 and one, with Xellos expoing to nine. Oov had an ironclad ground containment and Xellos tried to emulate Sync last week by taking to the air with dropships. However, his attempts to ferry troops to set up at Oov's own double road came to nothing. He took down a new Oov expo at the six position but after failing to destroy the five expo and seeing his dropships obliterated on their return to base by Oov's new fleet of wraiths, Xellos realised that he had no hope of catching up to Oov's giant economy and left the game.
Mumyung (Seong Hak Seung) v [Oops]Reach (Park Jeong Seok) on Requiem
Looking to rebound from his defeat at the hands of Nada last week, Reach (protoss at 12) opened with a forge first build followed by an attempted cannon rush behind Mumyung's main mineral line at six. Fast-morphing sunkens dealt with the cannon rush and Reach early expoed with cannons at his choke. Mumyung went for lair, den and spire. As expected, Reach warped in a stargate and robotics facility as he went for corsairs and reavers, while Mumyung took advantage of the hiatus to expand to five and 11. Despite mis-microing and losing two ships to scourge, Reach was steadily increasing his corsair count to combat Mumyung's mass mutalisk. Upgrading constantly at his core, Reach started to take control of the skies as mutalisks and scourge melted in the melted in the face of ceaseless corsair fire. Reach started to systematically attack the zerg expansions. One could be forgiven for thinking his single reaver was cloaked in black and wielding a giant scythe as it racked up an astounding 45 kills... yes you read that correctly... 45 kills as it obliterated defenders and drones at five, 11 and the six main. Having cleaned up on the ground, Reach started wiping out Mumyung's slothful collection of overlords as he switched to gateways and zealots to mop up the remains of Mumyung's infrastructure. The zerg player tried one last desperate counter at one with a pack of hydralisks but the game was already decided.
July Zerg (Park Seong Joon) v GoodFriend (Lee Byeong Min) on Requiem
Having been knocked out of the OSL on Friday night, July was looking to rebound against the unpredictable Friend, who looked utterly unbeatable in ending Yellow's perfect start to the Premiere League the week before. July (zerg at six) early expoed while Friend (terran at 12) tried a curiously late bunker rush as he seemed to be caught in two minds. With the bunker rush neutralised, the game went into a kind of stasis, with neither playing actually engaging the other. By the time July started some muta harass he was already starting work on his hive. Both players had built sizable armies but they missed each other by going different sides of Requiem's central cross. Friend set up tanks near the zerg natural but July quickly brought his giant army of lurkers, zerglings and mutas, and swamped the terran force, obliterating it entirely and siezing control of the game temporarily. July now had a defiler mound and greater spire on the way and was steadily retreating his lurkers in the face of a newly-advancing tank, infantry and science vessel army. Dark swarm and guardians turned the terran army around and July soon had cracklings and ultralisks. Still with his economy undisturbed, July built up to mass ultras and put an ineffective Friend out of his misery.
On a side note, look out for some superb dropship micro by GoodFriend, which occurs 19 minutes 20 seconds into the game. He drops marines out quickly to kill off pursuing scourge, reloads them then sees more scourge coming and pirouettes his ship in a tight circle while at the same time redropping marines. The ship eventually falls to a third scourge attack as Friend tries to drop a July expo.
Cloud (Cha Jae Ook) v ArtofHan (Han Oong Nyeol) on Arizona
Both players opened with two factory, Han (terran at seven) going for vults and tank, Cloud (terran at seven) an armoury for goliath and tank. Han quickly went up to three factories and took his natural significantly earlier than his opponent. The story of his game is one of consistent vulture harassment by Han, as he pumped vults out of his factory and continually circumvented Cloud's army to break into his opponent's natural and main. Twice Han destroyed a host of SCVs by sneaking into Cloud's main, also killing a collection of miners at Cloud's natural as Cloud foolishly tried to take out four vultures with a group of SCVs. With his SCV count dangerously low, Cloud could not stay with Han's production level. Han expanded up the right side of the map and broke through Cloud's tank line at low centre to end the game.
TheMarine (Kim Jeong Min) v Rage (Kim Hwang Joon) on Arizona
TheMarine (terran at eight) opened with a one factory expo build against the two gate ranged dragoons of Rage (protoss at two). As Rage warped in a support bay and waited for a reaver, TheMarine came at him and set up a containment near the protoss natural while at the same time expanding again to five. Rage tried to get some counter play with his reaver at the terran natural, killing some SCVs and forcing the rest to flee temporarily but he could do no real damage. After seeing his natural destroyed from long range by TheMarine's tanks, Rage tried to break out with zeals and dragoons but found there were just too many terran units. With TheMarine working off three bases to Rage's one it did not take long for the terran army to overwhelm the hapless Rage, who went down to his seventh defeat.
Sync (Byeon Kil Seop) v Terato (Park Jeong Kil) on Requiem
Sync (terran at six) walled in with a depot and rax and opted for a one factory one starport build against Terato's dragoon/obs opening (at nine). After fighting off a fierce assault on his wall and managing to trap one of his own SCVs with a rebuilt depot, Sync tried to drop Terato's first expansion at the 12 position. However, the ship was seen by Terato's first observer and he managed to kill off the invaders after a dangerous combat which saw some of his transferring probes picked off by vultures. Sync kept the pressure on with repeated vulture drop raids on the protoss main and despite Terato's best efforts he was unable to avoid losing yet more probes, leaving his mining count low. As Sync tried again to attack the 12 expansion Terato showed excellent poise and control to block the ramp with a single dragoon, confusing the vultures and enabling the pursuing protoss army to destroy them. Terato expanded again to one and Sync to seven. Both players attacked their opponent's new expo, Terato forcing the command centre at seven to lift. However, Sync's army of metal was growing rapidly and he moved out towards the centre and after a brief stand off it was engaged by the main protoss force. Unfortunately for Terato his zeal bomb was ineffective and his dropped high templar, for whatever reason, never stormed the advancing terran army. Sync continued onward, passing the central cross and surged towards the one o'clock expo. Terato was now severely outgunned and, unable to defend the expansion at one, he typed out.
IntotheRainbow (Kim Seong Jae) v Chojja (Jo Yong Ho) on Requiem
Rainbow (protoss at nine) played much of this game as if on valium as he was battered by the quick-thinking Chojja (zerg at six). Rainbow tried a forge-first build, with one cannon next to his nexus followed by two gateways. Chojja went pool first, expoed then teched to lurker after fighting off Rainbow;s only moment of near-success with five zealots managing to get inside the zerg main. Rainbow then proceeded to start warping in two templar archives, only just realising his blunder in time to cancel the second one as it finished warping. Chojja used his first lurkers to stop the warping protoss natural expansion and disrupt the mining in Rainbow's main, with no cannons in range of the back of the mineral line. Rainbow then tried to expand to 12 but found that base under attack from lurkers after Chojja sneaked a couple past the cannon at the nearby ramp. After this fire was finally put out Chojja proceeded to drop 12 and take down the nexus completely as he continued to smack Rainbow around all across the map. Despite some temporary success with a templar drop at Chojja's new expo at seven Rainbow finally folded completely when his new natural was obliterated by lurkers and hydralisks.
And the TeamLiquid.net Player of the Week award goes to GoRush, who survived an early Nada blitz to storm back and dominate the reigning champion, sending the terran to his first defeat since the opening week. GoRush is now hovering in equal third place in Group A, having downed both Oov and Nada during the tournament yet somehow contriving to lose to Cloud.
Standings after week seven:
Group A:
Yellow 6 - 1
Sync 5 - 2
GoRush 4 - 3
Iloveoov 4 - 3
TheMarine 4 - 3
Cloud 3 - 4
Goodfriend 3 - 4
Mumyung 3 - 4
Nal_Ra 3 - 4
IntotheRainbow 1 - 6
Group B:
[Oops]Reach 5 - 2
[Red]Nada 5 - 2
Chojja 4 - 3
July Zerg 4 - 3
Xellos 4 - 3
ArtofHan 3 - 4
Boxer 3 - 4
Kingdom 3 - 4
Terato 3 - 4
Rage 0 - 7
