EPT
Loser's round of 8 was played - well, two weeks ago, but our reports are never late, the games are early. Enjoy, and the games between he and chojja + oov and jju will be done tomorrow.
Game 1 : Nada(t) vs Yellow(z) on Rush Hour
The best zerg player ever has never managed to get thru the best terrans. Every single time there has been a Boxer, a Nada or a Xellos on some serious drugs stopping the storm zerg from going all the way. Facing a best of 3 versus one of his archnemesises (yellow has two:o) does not look good - on paper.
Game 1 has Nada(@7) being annoying and not allowing Yellow(@11) to kill his scv before the hydra den is started and lair is done. Yellow, with his expansion secure, morphs a few sunkens and goes about his lurker tech. The zerg pro was obviously drunk last night and his poor sunken placement gives Nada's first small m&m group free space to run up his ramp. Yellow defends surprisingly well with a few hydra and his drones, but drone losses are less than good and Nada, confident in the achieved money advantage, turtles while building the standard terran battlegroup.
Yellow, going back to his roots, switched to muta after producing a few lurkers. Cathes Nada with his pants down and no base defense, but stimmed marines run back and Yellow wrecks less havoc than expected. Nada is forced to change his game plan and wait for a vessel, so Yellow have time for more expansions and is switching back to a lurker based army with lings and mutalisks for support.
A quick jump to hive have Nada getting nervous, but he is somehow unable to break Yellow's few lurkers untill ages later when Yellow had all the time in the world to bring defilers to life. Nada's army looks a lot less scary under orange clouds, and Yellow shows why he is the storm zerg. A line of dark swarms chases Nada all the way back to his natural, and mass lings with a few lurkers got the best of the terran army. Yellow runs out of steam before breaking the terran natural, but Nada is left in the dark and resolves to dropship harass while taking another base.
Yellow, looking the best I've seen him in forever, takes out the dropship with continous scourge attacks and also pushes all the way to the terran natural with more dark swarms covering the lurkers and lings. Nada only saves his natural by abusing mass vessels, but loses his new base to more lings and is back to only his natural. Nada, on the losing side, takes a last desperate battle group and sets out to buy himself some time. A surprised Yellow is caught with his pants down and loses his original natural to stimmed + matrixed m&m, but answers back by taking out the entire group - covered everything in swarm and filled the skies with a mass of scourge killing vessels.
But Nada finally bought himself some much-needed time, and moves out with a large army. Yellow meets Nada in the middle of the map, but his numbers are few and even dark swarm can't turn this tide. Nada takes down the zerg main and continues thru the remaining expansions. Yellows is not giving up, but Nada is unstoppable now and after some tricking the storm zerg types out.
Nada 1-0 Yellow
Game 2 : Nada(t) vs Yellow(z) on Luna "The Final"
Fun fact: Yellow insured his hands/fingers for $65000 if I remember correctly. I wonder if all the other progamers did the same - or why they can actually insure separate body parts .. wonder what I can make on my body hair. Not like I need it.
Not so fun fact (If you are a Yellow fan): Yellow is down 0-1 after game one, and Nada needs only one quick win to take the series and stay in the MSL. He edged out a win vs the best Yellow I've seen in years a few minutes ago, but I doubt he'll rush himself to another one here.
Nada(@11) is probably the most predictable series player ever. Once he gains advantage he gets rushy and tries to finish things fast. His rax inside the zerg base is spotted by lings from Yellow(@1) and Nada is forced to cancel. Has meanwhile been building from two main raxes as well, but that 5 marine 2 medic force ain's worth much. He is forced to camp outside the zerg natural while Yellow run zerglings into the undefended terran main.
Things get ugly when Yellow harasses and brings a mass of reinforcing lings, and Nada loses all his marines before two firebats can clear the base. Yellow has meanwhile teched all the way to mutalisks and while Nada lands his expansion cc there is nothing he can do against Yellow's muta/ling attack. Nada's infantry melts before the swarm and the terran champion types out.
Nada 1-1 Yellow
Game 3 : Nada(t) vs Yellow(z) on Neo Requiem
Nada and Yellow are both hot shit in the MSL - Nada ranked #1 and Yellow #3. I can only randomly guess that oov has the #2 position. The last game of the series is played on Neo Requiem. Prior to the start I can see Nada closing his eyes in prayer while Yellow is pointing at the map name and laughing.
Yellow(@4) goes expansion at his natural followed by a quick pool. All before building a 2nd overlord. Nada(@9) scouts early, but his double raxes are placed close to the main cc and no rush can be performed. Yellow gets gas for that early hive while Nada takes his own gas and goes about producing marines. Both keep the scouting up, Yellow with a few lings and Nada by moving his medic-less army around.
When Nada is close to academy tech he does the standard thing and moves out his marines. But Yellow is ready and his evil speedlings bring trouble again! Nada loses his not-stimable, slow marines to a mass of lings and only the few firebats at his ramp can finally stop Yellow. A factory is started close to the zerg natural, but Nada uses all his troops to defend its production and can not stop Yellow from storming his main! Lurkers and lings enter the terran main, and the lack of permanent detection leaves Nada at the mercy of Yellow's burrowed lurkers. Yellow keeps the storm coming and Nada is soon eliminated.
Nada 1-2 Yellow
Game 4 : TheMarine(t) vs Xellos(t) on Raid Assault 2
THe original "by the book terran" TheMarine has not been his dominating self after returning to progaming. His heir, the "perfect terran" Xellos, has not shown much better shape since his win over Yellow in the Olympus OSL (or was it panasonic? Help me out here!).
Nevermind. TheMarine(@6) opens 2 port wraith, but places the starparts on top of the base so Xellos' (@12) scouting rax spots them before anything else(?!?). Xellos picked the 1 port 1 fac build, a very strong opening - against everything but the 2 port wraith build. Quickly gets an ebay to push, but TheMarine switches to tanks and Xellos is pushed back.
A weird turn of events has Xellos switching to 2 port wraith and TheMarine switching to a ground based strat. Feels like Xellos got the best part of the deal with his own natural running and a solid map advantage. He also has cloaking, while TheMarine lost his rax and have to rebuild while Xellos harasses with a lone tank and his wraiths. TheMarine is forced to do an all-out attack with all his units to break the simple offense Xellos set up.
After this small skirmish both players have surprisingly few troops. Xellos, who should be ahead, have a large number of wraiths while TheMarine deploys very little of everything and has no real defense against Xellos' invisible wraith fleet. Xellos even expands down left below TheMarine's base. TheMarine stays in there, but he can't even break the static defense of his opponent and after a small rear attack on Xellos' nat TheMarine gives up.
Xellos 1-0 TheMarine
Game 5 : Xellos(t) vs TheMarine(t) on Rush Hour
Xellos(@11) opens a very cool build with a single tank and vultures with mines vs Themarine's(@3) fast expansion. Xellos fought well with his meager force and TheMarine could not move out too fast because of the mines. But while Xellos' opening was super cute it probably cost him more than he gained, and TheMarine quickly took control and prepared for the long game with an additional expansion.
Both now go dropships and try to gain advantage with harass - TheMarine playing more by the book and Xellos trying really hard to be Boxer. He does a good job at it, but being one base behind is not east, and TheMarine pushes him hard at his natural. Xellos keeps his natural with heavy scv losses, and even kills TheMarine's extra natural, bringing him back in the resource war. Both players go about running dropships around and setting up defense lines here and there. TheMarine expands twice down right, while again pushing Xellos' nat. After eliminating most of the defense there he settles for a containment.
At the same time Xellos does evil things and attacks the two new KTF expansions down right, taking them out. TheMarine is still running three bases and instead of defending goes offensive at Xellos' natural. Xellos finds his nat still mining, but sandwiched between two of TheMarine's tank armies. TheMarine also kicks back by taking out Xellos's new expansion down left. Xellos tries to counter at TheMarine's natural, but is soundly beaten back by a mass of new tanks.
And that pretty much sums it up. TheMarine's cool, safe strat is too much for Xellos to handle this game, and he always seems to be catching up with almost desperate drops everywhere not doing enough damage. Neither player was able to produce any bc force is the end, but TheMarine was simply too strong on the ground and overpowered Xellos.
Xellos 1-1 TheMarine
Game 6 : Xellos(t) vs TheMarine(t) on Luna "The Final"
The last, deciding game of the evening is played on Luna. Wonder if they fixed the silly bug yet? Anyway these two play long games. I need a few exciting Boxer type rush games to keep awake:o
Xellos(@1) and TheMarine(@5) does the exact same build, the same build used on Luna again and again - 2 fac fast expand and then a starport. For the next 12 minutes both show off dropships and build their armies without doing anything.
Xellos breaks the peace by expanding to the top left main, promting immediate response from TheMarine and his now-massive army. TheMarine takes down the expansion and its defenses in no time, but meanwhile Xellos marches his just as massive army down to the other main. TheMarine defends well, and with his main army being almost intact looks to have the advantage once again.
Xellos, realizing his need for more money, expands to his 2nd natural and also sets up a containment outside TheMarine's natural. TheMarine sets out and looks ready to destroy the containment from two sides, but Xellos perfectly drops reinforcements and a massive tank line defends the attack. TheMarine now expands to the 6 mineral only, but Xellos has superior dropship numbers and keeps them handy to defend versus drops from TheMarine.
TheMarine drops the 3 base anyway, but find his troops instantly destroyed betwen workers and defending troops. He breaks out of the containment shortly after, but Xellos spent his time well and has both the 11 and the 7 mains. TheMarine drops the 11 main and pushes his last army into Xellos' natural, but both attacks are stopped cold by defending troops and dropship reinforcements. TheMarine types out and is not happy.
Xellos 2-1 TheMarine
TheMarine and Nada is out of the MSL, while Xellos and Yellow still control their own fates.
