[VODs&Reps] Jaystar vs Ssak + Jaystar commentary

Fighting Spirit:

I've played this map the most, and I feel that double gate opening is very effective on this map. I saw ssak at 1, and saw his marines, so I knew he was going with the SK push. I chose to place my goons at 12, and move them downwards to avoid the main entrance [avoid mines], and waited for opportunities for him to move out so that I can move the goons in. Ssak played extremely safe, and did not push out, so I was already behind from the opening because I made eight goons before I put down my nat.

I made small gains afterwards, but ssak managed to kill off my third, so I was instantly put at a disadvantage. This disadvantage became bigger and bigger due to skill differences, and naturally lost the game.

Circuit Breaker:

Four player map, and farther spawns than FS, so I chose to fast expand. I chose tech after fast expand so that I can have faster goon range to preparation for SCV + rine + vulture + bunker [i.e. typical Terran response to FE]. Ssak also chose FE, when I saw his SCV with my Zealot from 1 o'clock, I knew he was at 5. After I saw his bunker, I knew he also went FE, so I shot at his bunker with my ranged goons [to make him lose minerals and mining time] and harassed with my reaver and upgraded shuttle speed. I attacked from the front while harassing, hoping to upset the tempo/pace [this is a commonly discussed topic in the current Chinese scene, talking about the tempo and pace of a player, post in the bottom if this doesn't make sense], and there was also the possibility that I could win right then and there. Ssak defended very well, but I still killed SCVs with my reaver. I knew T only had 2 gasses, so I chose to go with carriers, which is how I won. Ssak's push was a little careless, and I knew I had won after I fended it off.

Destination:

Everything went as I had planned for this game. I prepared for FE and hide robo behind his nat. I also prepared ahead of time that if he went with an SCV counter, I would give up my natural and defend the high ground, and use reavers and DTs. I was a little greedy in the game, and made a zealot instead of dragoon for a quicker robo. This caused ssak to sneak in his vulture. Luckily I killed it with my probes. I was also lucky that ssak started building tanks instead of vultures [to siege vs to push and harass]. Afterwards, I won with my reaver and DT. Went exactly as I had planned.

Aztec:

My stategy going into this game was forward gateway -> zealot -> goon. I studied his games from before where he opened standard SK, and wanted to keep him in the low ground. Unfortunately, ssak opened with Barracks FE, and immediately prepared for reaver drop, so my strategy did not work as planned.

The key point of the game was that I forgot to upgrade Stasis, and did not start the research until I had 90 energy for my first arbiter. This allowed ssak to successfully push towards my 3rd. I waited for my stasis, and did not push back. If I had stasis, I would have probably broken out of the contain.

I was very nervous in this game because I felt I was very closing to winning three games. I didn't play as well as I did in the first three.

Medusa:

I chose a no-robo fast carrier build for this map because there is no quick third gas. Carriers are also very good on this map.

I built up a large army in the beginning while teching to carriers. Ssak played very cautiously, and I did not find a single opening to attack with my large army. When I finally attacked, it had a terrible outcome because I lost all of my army and my 4th. I didn't even buy myself some more time to build more carriers. Medusa has a very flat centre and I was not about to walk around the terran army. I also realized that I forgot to upgrade interceptor capacities towards the end. It was overall a very regretful game.