EPT
You know why there is only one top protoss player nowadays? Blame oov. During the EVER osl he had every major toss player lined up, first taking down an in-form Zeus then beating Reach 3-2 in one of the best TvP series of all time. Kingdom fell prey in the MSL at the same time, and with the exception of Reach they all went into a slump. Reach, a living legend and the most consistent player ever is too good for slumps and continued on his devoted path to winning things. Reach was just knocked down to loser's bracket by the amazing ipxzerg, while iloveoov suffered a more surprising loss at the hands of jju earlier in the tournament.
And now they finally meet. The best TvP player versus the best PvT player. History and the fact that oov has never lost a bo5 against a protoss player ever has him as the favorite. However, Reach is the mudang toss and can never be counted out against anyone.
Oov(@11) opens his strongest opening: 1 fac expand with marines and tanks defending. Reach does the solid 2 gate early range and goons for some light harass. Reach shows off his goon micro but oov's defenses are as tight as they get and Reach pulls back while getting a robo and a reaver. He take the long way around, but runs his shuttle into a turret maze in oov's main. Still manages to take down 3 tanks with his reaver and goon, while at the same time pushing in front and establishing his expansion. Reach' micro is just unbelivable today; keeps his goons just out of siege range and hits everything in front of tanks. Even moves his probes from main to expansion without maynard manouver, so a tank drop will not hurt his entire population. Scary stuff.
Oov is busy doing his thing with massing factories and vultures, but Reach is playing godlike and anticipates every move. Catches a stream of vultures running around to hurt his new 6 expo, leaving oov no openings. Oov plants his mines in the middle and finally catches a few goons, but nothing serious. By now the terran juggernaut realizes that a standard strategy won't cut it versus the Reach we see today, and invites to a massive macro war. Oov sets up a giant line of tanks, mines and goliaths covering the entire top middle of luna, while taking the 1 main and natural. Reach takes the challenge and expands to the entire bottom part of the map while adding about a 100 gateways and two stargates.
Things are looking good for oov at the time; despite his failed harass he has the strongest army and there is no way Reach can break the maggiot line of terran metal covering everything. But Reach thinks otherwise! He goes offensive with everything he has and marches head on into the terran fortifications. Looks like he maxed out on zealots, goons and templars and has do do something to free some supply. I have never in my life seen so many protoss troops disappear so fast - oov's line holds and doesn't seem to take any great damage, despite Reach' best efforts with storms and godly micro.
After the great victory and total annihilation of the protoss army I expect oov to siege down and counterattack into victory, but surprisingly he does not. Reach is the one to take new initiative and run a group of goons and and templar into the relatively undefended 11 area. Oov answers by taking everything he has and attack Reach's bases head on.
Destruction ensures on both sides of the map, with oov losing his 1 main and nat and Reach losing his 5 nat and 6 expand. Oov got the worst half of the deal with only 12 and a bit later 11 main mining again, while Reach kept his 5 main and seems to have tons of money left. Cheater protoss? Oov sets up tank containments at both the protoss bases, reinforcing with everything his 10+ factories can produce. Reach keeps calm versus the punishing pushes and slowly masses troops. Even bring arbiters into play - good choice at this point. A stasis on a few vultures makes a fighting point, every unit counts at this point and both players want control over the frozen goliaths.
Oov does good, but by now it is clear that Reach has a lot more money, and oov finds himself outproduced and outgunned with no effective counter to Reach' godlike storms and quickly reinforced armies. Oov types out as his last minerals run out and his last battle group is covered with storms.
Reach 1-0 iloveoov
Reach played the best PvT game I've seen .. well, ever. He hardly made any mistakes and his micro had Kingdom rubbing his eyes in disbelif. Oov might have thrown the game when he didnt counter quick, costing him two important bases.
Game 2 : Rush Hour
Reach pulled out the important first game win, and everybody expects him to cheese in game two, because, thats his thing. And Nada's thing. And pretty much everybody's thing. Except Boxer who cheeses when he is DOWN 1-2 and have everything to lose. But oov should know this, just as well as Reach should know that oov is practicly uncheesable. To my knowledge his only loss to cheese is the 4th game of the ever final.
Reach(@7) opens standard gate/core, but my eyed does not deceive me, that IS a pylon warping right above oov's base, and that IS a citadel warping inside the protoss main. The dt rush is so quick; oov has a lone vulture out when the archives finish. Can he actually hold this?
Looks bad. He did the speed upgrade first, giving Reach plenty of time to kill scv and bring more dt into the terran base. Oov runs his workers and finally finish the ebay, while planting mines around his base. But here's the thing; mines kill everything. Reach, master of everything starcraft, triggers a mine perfect to blow up 6-7 vultures and pretty much every single scv oov had!
Oov cleans out the mess that is his base, but two lone workers won't cut it. He tries everything he knows, but nothing can stop Reach from walking into his base with everything he wants now. Oov types out.
Reach 2-0 iloveoov
Reach once again disproves a known starcraft fact and oov is down 0-2. I for one still have faith is the best TvP player ever breed, but judging by Reach' play today oov should keep his expectations low for the 3rd game.
Game 3 : Requiem
Oov's spanking 6-1 T
record on requiem beats Reach' lousy 6-4 record. I would not count on that today, for Reach is showing a whole other level of play. I have NEVER seen Reach this good.The 3rd and possibly deciding game has Reach staring 9 and oov starting 3. Both open super safe, almost funny how intimidated oov is by Reach at this point. Oov tries to push with marines and a tank, but ends up hurting when Reach pushes him back with 3 goons and two zealots. Oov is contained in his own base, Reach now working on reaver while oov has 2 facs and a starport. Building turrets and planting mines around his base.
Reach gets offensive with his reaver but can't break the terran defenses and returns without even dropping. Oov drops vultures hind the protoss natural, but Reach leaves his reaver there so oov does no damage. A cc going up at the terran natural, while another dropship is exploring the bottom part of the map.
Oov drops vultures and harasses as best he can while macroing back home and doing whatever he can. Reach still has his lone hero reaver. At a critical point oov moves his impressive army into the middle (the usual : where did all THAT come from), but Reach breaks the push with tripple shuttles and a mass of goons. Reach also getting archives for his trademark storms.
Reach now controls 3 bases and is getting a 4th, while oov is still running main+natural. Reach reaver drops behind the terran natural, but mineral line mess up scarab ai and drop does nothing. Oov still harassing with vultures but does little damage. Oov moves out again, and this time Reach has little troops in the field. A mass of zealots dies to many vultures, and oov gets his push ready. Sets up outside the protoss natural, looking scary. Oov's push is known to be almost unbreakable; Reach might be in trouble.
Nope! Reach kills most of the vultures with a drawn mine, and finishes the push with his impossible storm drop in the middle of the tanks. Oov has meanwhile expanded to the 12 natural, and both naturals have run dry. He is setting up another push behind the cross, trying to buy some time while massing again. Reach is not giving him any; dropping zealots on tanks and shutting down the 12 natural with a lone templar:o (oov has no dropship and can't deal with the templar behind mineral line).
Oov floats his cc to the 12 main, but is fighting a losing battle again. A storm drop at his new 7 base catches scv's again. Reach is harassing everywhere while building an impressive army of everything protoss, still off his two naturals. Oov shows flare when Reach storm drops the 12 main, dodging two storms and losing NO scv's. Great move. His push in the middle looks insanely strong, but Reach don't care and run over it with his massive troop numbers. Shuttles once again storm everything and oov, seing no hope, types out.
Reach 3-0 oov
That last game was just great. Reach showed unbelivable defensive skill versus oov's persistent harass, and he broke every push oov set up.
I'm speachless. Just a few days ago many of our liquiteers involved themselves in a heated discussion : "who can beat oov PvT?". Well, I guess we have the answer : Reach on crack. Reach was just protoss extraordinaire today, striking fear into the heart of terran players all over the world. If oov can't, who can?
In other news, I heard oov applied for a presidental position in the world wide organisation again mines.
