EPT
Cloud vs Casy
Game 1 – Peaks of Baekdu
[Indent]Cloud (1) built his barracks near the middle of the map while his younger brother Casy (7) kept everything in his base. Both players built 2 marines and a very typical rine/SCV micro battle ensued. They both lost a pair of marines and an SCV, so in the end neither player came out on top.
[Indent]Both players opened with a 2 fact vulture build, but Casy added a third factory while Cloud built a starport instead. Cloud began to add goliaths to his army and Casy continued to produce vultures. It paid off big time during the first few battles for Casy. He was able to kill a number of goliaths with mines as the two players battled for control of the high ground above Cloud’s mineral line. After covering it with mines, Casy planted a siege tank and began to fire upon his opponents SCVs. Cloud eventually killed the tank with his retreating wraith, but Casy had already done decent damage and had easily deflected the wraith earlier from damaging his SCVs with some goliaths.
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/ManaBlue/Shinhan_OSL_Week_5_1/casy_cloud_game_1.JPG)
Casy surrounds enemy goliaths with well placed mines.
[Indent]Casy continued to lay on the pressure by sneaking some vultures into Cloud’s main to kill SCVs and shortly after he sieged another tank above the main mineral line. Cloud shifted his SCVs to a freshly built CC at his natural and decided to attack Casy’s nat with everything, ignoring the firing tank on the cliff. He had no success, losing everything in his attack and was forced to quit.
Casy > Cloud
[Indent]Casy had some incredible vulture control and mine placement that made vultures look like a direct counter to goliaths. His play was tight and his strategy of controlling the cliff was well executed.
Game 2 – Cultivation Period
[Indent]Cloud (3) opened with a 2 fact build and this time it was Casy (12) that used a starport build. Casy did a little damage with his first cloaked wraith before he was fought back.
[Indent]The first large battle took place in front of Casy’s main entrance. Both players showed off impressive micro and their units danced to maximize damage. Casy used a lone wraith to hit and run Cloud’s army and pick off 2 tanks, but Cloud was able to kill the wraith with goliaths and noticing that one of Casy’s tanks had only 10 hp left, he brought in a vulture to deliver the final blow before it fell to tank fire.
[Indent]Casy took advantage of Cloud’s lack of mobility and took the upper right hand expansion quite quickly. He was now producing dropships and was increasing his factory count while Cloud expanded to his natural. Cloud brought up SCVs to mine the mineral patch at the top of his base in order to open the path and attack Casy’s expansion at the upper right hand corner while Casy harassed his natural with tanks. Opening the path turned out to be a poor decision though, as Casy walked in a group of units aided by dropship reinforcements. By the time Cloud had fought the assault off, he had lost many SCVs and buildings. He knew he needed to retaliate, so he sent all of his tanks to attack the upper right. Casy attempted to defend with SCVs and a few tanks in dropships, but Cloud had too many units and held his position, firing upon the expansion. Casy lost the upper right, but had already expanded to the upper left, so the expansion count was still equal and Cloud had far fewer SCVs. With Cloud’s units out of position, Casy was also able to siege up behind his opponents natural and forced Cloud to lift his CC.
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/ManaBlue/Shinhan_OSL_Week_5_1/casy_cloud_game_2.JPG)
Casy takes advantage of the door his brother opened for him.
[Indent]Casy was now producing wraiths from 2 ports and had a decent sized goliath/tank army as well. He attacked Cloud’s main and overwhelmed his brother. With nothing but a fresh expansion at 9 o’clock, Cloud was forced to type out yet again.
Casy > Cloud
[Indent]Casy is just a better TvT player than Cloud, it’s as simple as that. His attacks are well timed and his unit choice was always effective. No wonder this kid did so well last OSL against Oov.
Casy wins 2:0 and moves on!
Zergman vs GoRush
Game 1 – 815
[Indent]GoRush spawned at 5, Zergman at 1, and both players used the exact same build order for the first 5 minutes. Gas first, followed by a pool at 11/12, lair, hatch, and spire. They don’t call it a mirror match up for nothing!
[Indent]GoRush was able to stop Zergman’s early attempt at taking a new main with some zerglings, but his air army was somehow smaller than Zergman’s. They had about even muta numbers, but Zergman had scourge support and was able to kill off nearly all of GoRush’s original set of mutas after chasing them around the map for a while. Zergman then proceeded to harass GoRush’s economy and he racked up a number of drone kills before being pushed away by new mutas.
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/ManaBlue/Shinhan_OSL_Week_5_1/zergman_gorush_game_1.JPG)
Dude! Where are your units? (Easy pickin's for Zergman)
[Indent]GoRush was forced to lay down some spore colonies at his main to make up for his apparent lack of air defenses which gave his opponent the opportunity to expand to his natural (As if it mattered, 815 has no gas at the nat!) and eventually a new main. But before the expansion at the 11 o’clock main was productive, GoRush destroyed it with a well executed zergling raid. Due to the threat of a counter attack, Zergman was forced to keep his mutas at home and could not defend it.
[Indent]An inevitable muta/scourge battle followed and despite being outgunned, GoRush won by a very narrow margin, mostly due to poor scourge targeting on Zergman’s part. Zergman, however, had reestablished himself at the 11 o’clock main in the meantime and had the necessary defenses to kill off GoRush’s small attack force.
[Indent]Seeing that his opponent was comfortably mining from his main, nat, and a new expansion across the map, GoRush made it easy on himself and gave up.
Zergman > GoRush
[Indent]Zergman took the lead early on with his decisive win in the first muta/scourge battle. For some reason GoRush had less units, even after following the same BO. It was Zergman’s superior spending choices, GoRush’s poor economic management, or more likely a combination of the two that caused the outcome.
Game 2 – Rush Hour
[Indent]Once again, both players chose the same build order but GoRush (7 o’clock) decided to place his 12 hatch at his natural while Zergman kept it in his main at 3 o’clock. They also both built up large zergling armies, which essentially cancelled each other out…
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/ManaBlue/Shinhan_OSL_Week_5_1/zergman_gorush_game_2.JPG)
It’s a blood bath for both sides!
…but more important than the first large clash was the couple of zerglings that Zergman was able to sneak into his opponent’s main. GoRush lost a number of drones and was caught on camera sighing in disappointment.
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/ManaBlue/Shinhan_OSL_Week_5_1/gorush_pissed_game_2.JPG)
*Expletive Deleted*
[Indent]Despite his low drone numbers, GoRush was able to win the next couple of zergling encounters and even harassed Zergman’s drones with a few zergling survivors of the battles. His economic disadvantage became apparent when the game progressed to spire tech though, as he was only able to afford some scourge to try and defend against his opponent’s mutalisks. GoRush was in bad shape and matters were getting worse as he carelessly allowed a pair of scourge to kill his opponent’s scouting overlord, making his air defense efforts even more difficult.
[Indent]As GoRush lost drones to a lone muta, he attempted to break Zergman’s ramp with zerglings, but it was no use. Zergman’s economic advantage was clearly kicking in now and he overran GoRush with zerglings.
Zergman > GoRush
[Indent]Zergman is really showing his ZvZ chops. He seems to have a real knack for timing and unit choice in this matchup. I’m not a real fan of ZvZ in general, but even I can appreciate this guy’s skill.
Zergman wins 2:0 and moves on!
[Indent]That’s all for the first day of the 16 man tournament. Some great match-ups are lined up for the coming weeks and you can check them all out here in Honest Tea’s scheduling post.
