Semi finals recap
Writer: Mr. Jason
Helper: Freakling
LaGFree vs iFU
Game 1 is a P v P on Overwatch between LaGFree.Yugox and iFU.Must. Must goes Gateway scout from his 11 o’clock position and sees Yugox’s 10/11 Gateways at 5 o’clock. He responds with two Zealots before Cybernetics Core and then starts mining gas. While Must’s third Zealot is building, he sneaks his first one around Yugox’s incoming Zealots to go to Yugox’s base. Yugox has expanded after four Zealots, with a Forge for potential Cannon defense of his natural. The four Zealot attack at Must’s ramp is an utter failure. Must loses zero Probes with his two Zealot, one Probe block weakening the Zealots enough for two Gateway Goon reinforcements to clean up. Must’s initial sneaky Zealot denies Yugox’s natural cannons from getting up, dancing around two Zealots coming down the ramp from Yugox. Yugox starts two more Cannons, but they don’t finish before two of Must’s Goons come to micro them down. Dragoons keep coming two by two, and Yugox ggs with only two Gateway Zealot production to defend.
LaGFree 0-1 iFU
Tau Cross hosts game 2, a P v T between LaGFree.Gundan and iFU.spx. Gundan Pylon scouts from 1 o’clock to 6 o’clock, scouting spx second at his 9 o’clock spawn. Spx is going 11 Barracks 11 gas and sees an initial Zealot coming across the map from Gundan’s Zealot/Core/Zealot opening. He leaves a partially completed Supply Depot in his choke to prevent the Zealots from causing any havoc in the Terran base. Gundan adds a second Gateway but still has not started Dragoon range and instead is making a proxy Robotics Facility at 8 o’clock, below spx’s main. Spx moves out with his strong FD (seven Marines, two Tanks, and Vultures with mines researched). Rather than take the normal push path, he moves his Tanks and Marines south and then east through the bridges in the middle of the map, towards Gundan’s natural, while laying mines in his natural to defend any Protoss counter attack. The FD has taken too long getting across the map to do any damage against the five Dragoons and two Zealots out, so spx lays mines outside Gundan’s natural and retreats. Gundan’s first proxy Reaver is finishing during this retreat, and a ninja Probe makes a Pylon in spx’s main choke, blocking the Terran army out and trapping the SCVs inside. Aided by a slow reaction from spx, the Reaver wastes twelve SCVs. Gundan clears a mine blocking his third with a Zealot and makes a Nexus there. With his Robotics Facility on the other side of the map, the Observer situation is a bit akward. Gundan’s fourth Gateway and Citadel of Adun are on the way. Spx sends a single Vulture to scout Gundan’s third, which prompts a five Tank push with Marines sprinkled in supported by his two Factories. Gundan’s Shuttle with two Zealots and a Reaver sees the Terran move out and does what it can to delay it. Spx sieges up a bit outside Gundan’s natural, not quite containing him. Gundan bleeds some Dragoons trying to pick off Tanks but pulls back before killing any. Gundan starts his Arbiter Tribunal and pumps four Gateways of Zealots and DTs while sending his original Reaver to harass. It goes through spx’s natural and main, tacking on SCV, Marine, and Tank kills for 23 total kills before it dies. All the while Gundan has made a new Shuttle and Reaver from his proxy Robo and has researched Shuttle speed. Spx has a Vulture at 6 o’clock denying a fourth base for Gundan at those locations so Gundan takes a hidden fourth at 7 o’clock instead. Spx starts inching his Tanks outside the Protoss natural forward, now with six Factories (one Machine Shop) reinforcing. Gundan takes this opportunity to drop two Reavers into spx’s main disrupting the Terran economy further. While spx’s uses reinforcements to take care of the Reaver harass, Gundan uses his reinforcements to help break spx’s push, and he continues on to pressure spx’s third Command Center still building at 12 o’clock while taking a fifth base at 6 o’clock. Spx brings his army to 12 o’clock to defend and Gundan recalls the undefended Terran main base. Once spx has pulled back his army and cleaned up the recall, the supply count is 138 to 62 in favor of Gundan. More pressure at 12 o’clock combined with another small recall to the main force a gg and even up the score for Gundan and LaGFree.
LaGFree 1-1 iFU
Game 3 is a Z v T between LaGFree.CastrO and, yes, a Terran iFU.AlfiO. CastrO goes 12 Hatch at the 6 o’clock position of Destination which AlfiO scouts and reponds with Barracks Expand. CastrO makes eight initial Zerglings which are able to pick off one SCV at AlfiO’s natural. AlfiO’s followup is gas and an Engineering Bay for a fast +1 weapons upgrade. After a third Hatchery, we see Ling speed with a few additional Zerglings added, as well as Overlord drop research. Shortly after CastrO has the money to start Luker aspect at his Hydra Den as well. His plan for a slow Lurker drop becomes clear as two Overlords float their way to the 11 o’clock position, giving a path to drop into the back of the Terran main. AlfiO is now going up to five Barracks and has added a few anti-Mutalisk Turrets before he scans the Zerg tech to know that Mutas are in fact not coming. AlfiO’s barely misses the first four Lurkers morphing in the middle of the map with his initial Medic Marine push. The push gets to the Zerg natural to see three Sunkens and enough Lurkers and Zerglings to defend. Now the four Lurkers have morphed and CastrO drops them into AlfiO’s main and burrows them behind the mineral line, first taking out the Turret there to force AlfiO to use his Scans for detection. CastrO takes a third base at 8 o’clock and Overlord speed finishes, allowing now for a two Lurker drop at the Terran natural. Again, not many SCVs die and it’s more of an annoyance to AlfiO than anything. AlfiO tries to deny the Zerg third base with his Medic Marine group already on the map, but Castro cleans it up with three Lurkers. Reinforcing Medic Marine pick off some Drones at the third before the Lurkers are properly repositioned. Now with a Tank, AlfiO starts moving out to pressure the 8 o’clock base, but CastrO drops five Lurkers in the Terran main at the same time, denying mining again. AlfiO joins the drop party, sending an eight Marine drop to CastrO’s main which is cleaned up by Lurker Ling before any devastating damage is inflicted. Zerg Hive is finished and a Spire is on the way so CastrO can deny any further Dropship play with Scourge. Both players continue drop harass, but Castro’s drops are far more effective due to AlfiO’s low Tank count, (result of +1 five Barracks opening) and eventually AlfiO can’t clean up the drops anymore. “iFU.AlfiO has left the game”
LaGFree 2-1 iFU
Game 4 is on Colosseum between LaGFree.Dandy and iFU.eOnzErG, a T v Z. EOnzErG spawns at 5 o’clock and opens 12 Hatch, 12 Pool, 11 gas and his first Overlord scouts Dandy at 1 o’clock. EOnzErG morphs his Lair first at his natural (while scouting SCV in main) and then gets Zergling speed. After scouting eOnzErG first, Dandy makes his Command Center before his first Marine and then makes gas and Engineering Bay for the ever so popular quick +1 weapons upgrade. As eOnzErG’s Lair finishes, he makes his Spire, second gas, and sends a Drone to take a third base at 6 o’clock. EOnzErG’s first Mutas poke into the Terran natural, but back out seeing five Turrets. EOnzErG swings the Muta into the main and picks off one Medic. He gathers the reinforcing Muta and harasses the Terran wall, hoping to delay any Medic Marine push before his incoming Lurker tech is ready. +1 weapons upgrade is done on the Marines now and four Barracks are complete. EOnzErG wasn’t able to do any direct economic damage by killing SCVs but he did force twelve total Missile Turrets. As the Muta continue trying to hold in the Medic Marine push, they get caught in between two Medic Marine groups and are forced to engage, killing off some Marines but the Muta count is reduced to five or six. EOnzErG sends a Lurker Ling force across the map and sets up a four stop-Lurker trap a little ways outside the Terran choke. Unfortunately for eOnzErG, one of the Lurkers was not set correctly and started shooting the Medic Marine force too early. Dandy reacts quickly, scanning and killing off the four Lurker with some of his force to spare. A fourth Hatchery and Hive tech are on the way in the Zerg main base. Three Lurkers and some Lings try to delay the Terran force with a backstab but are intercepted and killed off with small loses for Dandy. EOnzErG Hive tech choice is a Defiler Mound and his +1 carapace is started. Dandy gets a bit ahead of himself and runs some Marines headlong into a Lurker patch outside eOnzErG’s natural. Now eOnzErG has a supply advantage of 75 to 68. Dandy reinforces, with some Firebats and Science Vessels now added to his composition. Trying to keep pressure on the Zerg natural, Dandy engages eight or so Lurker in the middle of the map and sits outside the Zerg natural in a contain position. He also begins mining his third base at 12 o’clock while eOnzErG has taken a hidden fourth at the 11 o’clock natural. EOnzErG defends his main with Lurkers and dark swarm, but Dandy uses his contain to start dropping the Zerg natural and third, significantly delaying mining and killing a few Drones. Dandy is floating 2000 minerals and 1000 gas at this point. Even with this bank, he has stopped Tank production and is pumping Vessels from two Starports. Even with no Tanks in his contain force Dandy is still containing eOnzErG with irradiates from his Vessel cloud. The Medic Marine are almost able to bust in the Zerg main but eOnzErG nyduses Lurkers from his third under the dark swarm in his choke to hold. Dandy continues drop harass at the Zerg main, natural and third. EOnzErG now has less than one Drone per patch at all these bases, with only his fourth properly saturated. 4/1 upgraded Ultralisks are now out against 2/2 Marines. During all the drop harass from Dandy, eOnzErG is able to counter with Ultras and Lings at 12 o’clock. Dandy responds by breaking into the Zerg main and killing the Nydus to the Zerg third base. Some hatching Ultralisks are irradiated and the irradiate splash helps to clean up the Terran force. Dandy’s ground force is very meager now with about twelve Marines and a few Medics spread between his main and third base. His saving grace is that he has been pumping two Starport Vessels consistently and has about a control group of them now. The supplies are 86 for Zerg and 83 for Terran. eOnzErG attacks into the Terran main choke with a few Ultras and some Scourge and is able to reduce the Vessel count to something a bit more manageable, though there are still about eight Vessels left. A one Defiler, one Ultralisk task force are able to take down over ten SCVs at 12 o’clock while Dandy is distracted cleaning up Ultralisk in his main. To make up for this economic loss, Dandy sends two Vessels to eOnzErG’s third which irradiate each other and get 19 total Drone and Zergling eraser kills. EOnzErG pushes to the Terran main choke now with Lurker and swarm and sends Cracklings to take down more SCVs at 12 o’clock while he has Dandy occupied with the Lurkers. Irradiates clean up the Lurkers eventually and Dandy resaturates 12 o’clock with the idle SCVs at his mined out natural. Dandy busts into the sparsely defended Zerg main again, this time able to kill off all of the tech buildings. A small group of Ultra Ling counters 12 o’clock, but Dandy pulls back his main force before too many SCVs die. Dandy is now aware of eOnzErG’s fourth base and has been consistently denying mining there with Medic Marine Firebat drops. EOnzErG sends two Lurker to deny mining at 12 o’clock, but Science Vessels counter with an eraser at eOnzErG’s fourth. Without burrow, the Drones can’t escape and the Zerg economy is reduced to practically zero. EOnzErG is at 17 supply with a few Ultra Ling still on the map. Dandy takes his remaining Medic Marine force to kill a new Hatchery at the 7 o’clock main and eOnzErG ggs after his last Ultra Ling attacks is cleaned up at 12 o’clock.
LaGFree 3-1 iFU
Game 5 is a Z v T between LaGFree.Zety and iFU.Scan on Oxide. Zety 12 Hatches at 5 o’clock and Scan scouts this in time to skip Marine and make a Command Center straightaway. Zety follows with a third Hatch while Scan comes with a gas and Factory. While we see the three Hatch Muta we might expect in this matchup on Zerg’s side, Scan has decided to give us some entertainment and is making three Starports. He gets an addon and starts cloak research. Zety has made a total of about 20 Zerglings, but a SCV scout in the middle of the map sees the mass Lings. Zety’s initial Mutas find a sour suprise as they fly into the Terran main for some harass. Cloak is done by now and Scan picks off some Mutas as they try to meet up with the Overlord on the Terran’s natural cliff. Now with detection, Zety tries to micro against the Wraiths, but he seems to have underestimated the Wraith count as well as Scan’s micro. All of the Mutas are killed off with about six Wraiths remaining. Still making only Wraiths, Scan is now ahead 62 to 41 supply. Zety takes his third base at 3 o’clock and also chooses this time to use his large Zergling army, which was waiting patiently in the middle of the map. Scan seems prepared with a two Depot and Bunker wall, and most of the Lings die, with a few making it into the Terran main only to be killed off by newly finished Wraiths before causing too much damage. Scan pokes around the Zerg main and natural with his Wraiths but can’t pick off any Drones as Zety has Spored up. Zety has continued making Lings and tries another runby but he doesn’t kill enough SCVs to get back into the game. A control group of Wraiths go deny any spores from getting up at 3 o’clock and kill off the Hatchery. By the time the Hatchery falls, Scan’s Wraith count is up to about 20 and with no Zerg anti air other than a couple of Spore Colonies, the Wraiths pew pew them down and Zety ggs.
LaGFree 3-2 iFU
Game 6 on Outsider holds a T v P between LaGFree.TerrOr and iFU.Tama. Tama goes for a no Zealot, Goon and Goon range opening while TerrOr walls his ramp and makes a Factory, keeping three SCVs on gas all the while. Terror gets siege first which with three Marines on his ramp is able to deflect three Dragoons coming from Tama. Terror has also gotten a Starport and makes two Vultures with mines and a Dropship, before a Command Center is started in his main to float out later. His two Vulture one Tank drop is able to take out about ten Probes while most of Tama’s Goons are still out near the Terran natural. Tama has gone for a Robotics Facility, second Gateway, and Observatory before taking his natural. He gets aggressive at TerrOr’s natural, using five Goons to snipe off two Turrets and one Tank while only losing one Goon. TerrOr takes his third base at the backdoor 11 o’clock mineral only and does another two Vulture one Tank drop, denying mining at the Protoss main for a bit. Meanwhile Tama has taken his third at the mineral only 6 o’clock. During TerrOr’s drop, Tama did a Reaver drop of his own, getting seven kills before a Wraith and Tanks defend. Tama adds a fifth Gateway and Citadel of Adun while sending another Shuttle with Reaver harass to deny mining at TerrOr’s third. Great to see both players playing to the map with continued drop play. Tama takes his fourth at the 12 o’clock main and secures it from vulture harass with a group of Goons. Seeing this Protoss fourth base as his cue to start pushing, TerrOr begins poking out of his natural at 130 supply with eight Factories and 1/0 upgrades. Tama is adding his ninth Gateway and Arbiter tech. He is flying two speed Shuttle full of Zealots for more harass at 11 o’clock, but pulls them back when he sees TerrOr pushing harder towards his natural. With these Zealot bombs, Tama powers through the Terran position, continuing on to the Terran natural. With his two Shuttles still alive, he reloads them with Zealot sand drops them off at 11 o’clock like he initially intended, causing TerrOr to defend both his natural and third. Tama’s pressure at the natural has forced a lift on TerrOr’s natural Command Center and Tama takes his fifth base at the inside 3 o’clock mineral only. Another Reaver denies mining at TerrOr’s fourth (7 o’clock mineral only) and Tama presses into TerrOr’s natural again with his first Arbiter and three or four groups of Zealot, Dragoon. TerrOr lacks the Tank count to defend his main and ggs.
LaGFree 3-3 iFU
OMFG ace match timeu!!!!
Ace Match
The Players: LaGFree.Dandy (P7), iFU.Scan (T11)
The Stage: Fighting Spirit
The Stakes: A spot in the STL finals for a chance to win $600
While we saw Dandy play a T v Z earlier in the series against eOnzErG, he is Protoss for this match against Scan’s Terran. We see a couple of fairly unorthodox opening from both players. Dandy goes Gateway, Nexus, Gateway, first Dragoon, and then Dragoon range while Scan goes for FD with Starport. Five Goons are out to block the FD and are able to pick off the Tank, but that’s ok because Scan will still have a chance to do some damage with a Vulture drop right? Wrong. Even though the Starport was done, Scan’s Dropship never started building right away like he intended. With two Vultures waiting at 9 o’clock to be picked by a Dropship, Scan realizes that the Dropship isn’t even started and tries to do damage another way. He runs in three Vultures to pick off Probes in the Protoss natural, but they don’t achieve much. Dandy has followed up with two additional Gateways for four total with no Robotics facility or other tech. Dandy begins a-moving across the map, without any Observers, an act most Protoss would cringe at. However, due to his delayed opening and low Vulture count, Scan does not have enough mine laid out on the map and most of them are just shot down by Dandy’s advancing Dragoons. Six Goons quickly make their way into the Terran main. There is no Tank out for Scan, so he tries some desperate SCV defense. SCVs are falling fast and Scan says “gj, gg” sealing quite possibly the biggest upset of this league so far.
LaGFree 4-3 iFU
LRM vs sas
Game 1 on Neo Overwatch is a Z v P featuring LRM)TechnicS and sas.dsaqwe. TechnicS opens 12 Hatch, 13 Pool. Dsaqwe responds with Forge, Nexus, Gateway, Gas, second Pylon, Cannon. TechnicS makes four Zerglings and takes the close third base at 6 o’clock. We see a build he seems to use a lot, 5 Hatch before gas. Dsaqwe makes an early Dragoon to pick of his opponent’s first scouting Overlord and is going for +1 Corsairs and Dark Templar, from one Gateway. Meanwhile TechnicS gets a Hydra Den as his first tech, upgrading Hydra speed, and starts his Lair. The first two Corsairs manage to kill three Overlords before enough Hydras are out on the map. TechnicS upgrades Overlord speed and Lurker aspect, his economy is quite strong as he has avoided making any Sunken or Spore Colonies thus far. A sixth Hatchery is added at the Zerg third base, as well as a seventh for a fourth base at 7 o’clock. Two Evolution Chambers for melee attack and carapace and a Spire are added in the Zerg main. Dsaqwe goes up to eight Gateways with Robotics Facility and continues running Corsairs around the map looking for stray Overlords. At 12 o’clock Cannons are started and a Nexus follows shortly. Dragoon range is about done as a couple rounds of Dragoons are produced. TechnicS is on a Hydra Lurker Ling composition at 118 supply vs dsaqwe’s 133 supply. A Probe is sent to the 1 o’clock base looking to take a fourth base but Lings are there to deny it. Dsaqwe moves his army down the left side of the map, perhaps looking to gain access to a 9 o’clock fourth base while pressuring 7 o’clock, but TechnicS is well prepared for such a movement and has groups of Hydra Lurker Ling scattered about, waiting to flank. As dsaqwe nears the 7 o’clock not even his storms on TechnicS’ unmicroed clumps of Hydras can stop the masses of the Zerg swarm from utterly overrunning his army. Hive is finished and a third Evolution Chamber is started as well as Adrenal Glands (crack). Dsaqwe takes 1 o’clock now and TechnicS takes 3 o’clock. Dsaqwe looks to pressure 3 o’clock but the Cracklings are too efficient against his already whittled down army. A few Goons and High Templar survive and pull back to defend alongside Cannons at 1 o’clock. TechnicS is able to break up the ramp eventually with streams of Hydras and Lings. A nice Lurker egg block on the ramp blocks the reinforcing Protoss army and allows the Lings inside to finish off the Nexus. Zerg 2-1-2 (melee-missile-carapace) upgrades finish as TechnicS expands to the south inside mineral only base. Dsaqwe has still managed to field a respectable army and TechinS seems content to sit back and defend his economic advantage, being on a seven bases to dsaqwe’s three. Dsaqwe heads towards 3 o’clock again knowing he has to attack. Groups of mostly Cracklings attack, quite inefficiently, but eventually it is a mostly Dragoon army is left to fight the Ultra Ling reinforcements. Dsaqwe loses this army and doesn’t have enough left to defend a new expansion at 9 o’clock from the endless Ultra Ling. GG
LRM 1-0 sas
Game 2 is a Z v T; LRM)trutaCz vs sas.LuMiX on Tau Cross. TrutaCz 12 Hatches and leaves a Drone in his choke to prevent any early Marine with Depot block shenanigans (special Tau Cross cheese). LuMiX doesn’t scout trutaCz first try, so he takes his natural Command Center while pumping Marines. His scouting SCV steals the Zerg main gas, cancelling soonafter. Seeing a low Ling count, LuMiX marches across the map with his first four Marines as a Factory is building back at home. Four Lings are out by the time the Marines arrive at trutaCz’s natural, and they are killed off with a Drone pull accompanying the Lings. A second Factory, Engineering Bay, and Armory (+1 weapons) are building as well as a Bunker to secure the Terran natural. TrutaCz is going three Hatch Muta and takes the empty main base at 10 o’clock as his third. LuMiX has been making pure Goliath from his two Factories and now is researching +1 infantry weapons and stimpacks. He goes up to five Barracks and waits to build up his Medic Marine force before any kind of attack. TrutaCz takes a fourth base at the 11 o’clock natural and +1 air carapace finishes around the same time. LuMiX is keeping his Goliath up against the back wall of his main, hoping to catch some free Mutalisks flying in unaware. TrutaCz is making almost pure Muta, with some Lings and Scourge to complement. Once he has a force of twelve 1-0 Goliaths, three groups of 1-0 Medic Marine, and three Tanks, LuMiX makes his push towards the Zerg natural. This really needs to deal some damage as TrutaCz has been on four bases for a bit now. The push hasn’t quite arrived in time, as 45 or so Muta and a few Lings rip through the Terran force without much trouble when it arrives outside the Zerg natural. The supplies are now in favor of trutaCz 142 to 81. Feeling a tech switch is in order, trutaCz adds a Hydra Den and two Evolution Chambers for missile and carapace upgrades. The remaining Mutas go attack the Terran main, getting some SCVs before Terran reinforcements ward them away. A new Terran push comes out, this one consisting of six Goliaths, two Tanks, three groups of Medic Marine, and two Science Vessels. TrutaCz uses about three control groups of +2 carapace Mutas supported by a control group of Hydras to thwart this newest push. The Zerg now has seven bases, six with gas, secured. A now almost purely Medic Marine forces heads to 11 o’clock and drives through the initial Hydra and Muta flank. TrutaCz saves the Drones from this base and rallies 1-1 Hydras from all his Hatcheries to kill the 2-2 bio force before any economic damage is suffered. The supply counts are 160 to 90 in favor of Zerg. LuMiX starts his third Command Center at 7 o’clock and attacks with Medic Marine and a few Tanks towards the 3 o’clock Zerg base. Hydras come from both sides as LuMiX nears the bridge outside the 3 o’clock and trutaCz takes another decisive battle. gg from LuMiX
LRM 2-0 sas
When I saw the matchup for game 3, I couldn’t contain my excitement. Here we have the foreign king, LRM)Sziky taking on sas.Draw in a Z v P on Destination. In addition to both players being at the top of the foreign Broodwar list, Z v P and P v Z are their best matchups respectively.
Sziky Overpools at 12 o’clock, making six Zerglings to test Draw’s wall. Seeing the Ling count with his scouting Probe, Draw makes a second Cannon and pulls three Probes to fill the gaps in his wall and support the single Cannon. Draw makes good use of his scouting Probe blocking the Zerg third base and planting a Pylon to block it further. Once he sees the Lings leave his front door to kill the Pylon, he cancels the second Cannon. Great optimization. As Draw sends his Probe back to the Zerg main for more scouting info, two additional hatched Lings are waiting on the Zerg ramp to kill it off. Sziky is doing normal stuff, Lair then Ling speed. Once speed is done, Sziky uses his seven Lings to attack the unprotected Protoss natural assimilator. Draw brings his two Zealots and one Dragoon over to defend, and Sziky uses this window to run the Lings behind the natural mineral line and up the main ramp. Probes are drilled back to the Protoss main in a quick reaction, and only three Lings make it inside. With the Dragoon making Szikylings a bit less scary, Draw is able to kill off the Lings without losing a single Probe. A lesser player would have simply died to those three Lings outright. Meanwhile Draw has started a Stargate, +1 ground weapons and added a second gateway in his natural to boost his Zealot count. Sziky gets +1 air carapace after his fourth Hatchery and adds a fifth Hatchery as well. Draw goes up to six Gateways and starts Zealot speed, timed to finish around the same time as +1. Five Zealots and one Goon peek up the ramp at Sziky’s third, but go back home to wait for the upgrades and one Archon to be ready after seeing two Sunkens finished. Draw’s Zealot Archon attack heads towards the Zerg natural, but +1 Mutas and Scourge are out. He pulls back so the Archon can help defend the main. Sziky picks off a few Probes in the Protoss main before the Archon makes it home to support the Corsairs; Psi storm research is almost complete. Back on the Zerg side, Sziky is preparing a +1 missile Hydra followup, researching Hydra speed first. He is also macroing up appropriately, taking the backdoor mineral only fourth and going up to eight Hatcheries. A second Evolution Chamber is added for carapace upgrade. The Mutalisks find their way to the Protoss natural for some light harass, picking off three Probes before the Corsairs eat and kill off the remaining scourge. Draw attacks the Zerg third now with about twelve Zealots, two Archons and two High Templar. He tries to storm the mineral line but the Drones are drilled away just in time. Wisely, the Protoss army falls back, avoiding any incoming Zerg flank. Around the time of this attack on the third. Draw ferries four Zealots into the Zerg main to kill off the Spire and most of the Drones there. He picks back up the two High Templar that were originally in the Shuttle and drops them off for some nice storm damage to the Zerg economy at the natural and mineral only. Some leftover Mutas are denying cannons from going up at Draw’s 5 o’clock third base so Draw brings his army back to this location. Sziky is now producing Hydras from his first five Hatcheries and Drones from the three at his mineral only. The Hydra count is up to about 50 and Sziky starts streaming them down to 5 o’clock to prevent mining from starting there. Mutas give their last breath taking out of a couple of High Templar which were storming the incoming Hydras. The Hydra army is able to push through to 5 o’clock and morph into Lurkers there. Draw’s first Observer arrives right on time to be able to clean up the couple of Lurker that managed to hatch. About two control groups of Hydra Ling run down the map and intercept two reinforcing High Templar throwing down storms upon their death. One High Templar is waiting at the 5 o’clock, and with the help of a few Cannons and Goons holds of this secondary Hydra pressure and secures the third Protoss base. Sziky has started his Hive and taken his fifth base at 10 o’clock. Draw moves his army up to the 3 o’clock highground to secure a fourth base. The game feels on even ground. A Defiler Mound is started in the Zerg Main and Sziky has a slight supply advantage at 135 to 130. Zerg upgrades are 0-1-2 (melee-missile-carapace) to +3 Protoss ground weapons. Taking advantage of Sziky’s lack of Spire and Scourge, Draw sends a Speed Shuttle with High Templar to 10 o’clock, where it waits patiently for a Drone transfer. Sziky seems aware of this and delays his transfer. With Cannons done at 3 o’clock, the Protoss army comes down into the middle of the map and pushes into Zerg territory, testing the waters. Draw pulls back onto his side of the map, again avoiding any possible flank, and goes back to defend 3 o’clock, which is under attack from some Cracklings under dark swarm. Draw stays active with his army but a second attack at 3 o’clock with Lurkers in the mix forces another defense, with storms and Zealot Archon cleaning up the Lurker Ling under dark swarm after a few cannons fall. While the Protoss army is occupied on the east side Sziky expands to his sixth base at 9 o’clock. Sziky continues with Defiler Ling attacks down the east side of the map, and even starts a seventh base on the Protoss half of the map at 8 o’clock. Looking to force the Zerg back, Draw drops three DTs into the Zerg main which slice down the Hive just before any Overlords make it back for Lings to kill off the DTs. Crucially Sziky had not researched Overlord drop yet, taking any potential late game drop play out of the equation for the moment. Cannons finish at Draw’s 8 o’clock fifth base while he sends his army back to 3 o’clock to defend yet another Lurker Ling Defiler attack. Only the south mineral only base has not been taken yet, and Zerg is at 200 supply to a 163 supply Protoss. Draw tests the defense at 9 o’clock with Archons, Goons, and High Templar, but the Lurker and Sunken defence is enough to hold. With most of the Protoss army away, Lurkers under swarm fight close enough into 3 o’clock to deny mining and reinforcing Lings take down the Nexus. Sziky has a reasonable bank but Draw now has two relatively fresh expansions at 7 and 8 o’clock, while 3 and 9 o’clock are both about half mined out. No other bases have minerals remaining. Sziky now sends some sacrificial Drones from 10 o’clock to their death, freeing up supply for more army. The Hive is remorphed (lost in earlier DT drop) and Overlord drop is researching. Leaving a few units behind to defend 8 o’clock, Draw brings most of his army for an attack on 3 o’clock and reclaims this base with Goon, Archon, Reaver, and High Templar. Sziky counter attacks 8 o’clock and the Nexus there falls. Both players are right around 120 supply now, but Draw has a mineral bank of 1700 to Sziky’s 200. Eac are mining from a single nearly mined out base. With 7 o’clock now exposed, the Zerg attack continues in that direction. There Cannons fall and a lack of Observers and attention from Draw means that two reavers die to Lurkers and mining is denied. Draw sends a new Observer over to save the 7 o’clock. Draw has started a Nexus at the half mined out 3 o’clock. Sziky attacks up both ramps, his Lurkers freezing the Protoss army due to a lack of Observers or Cannons. The one Observer on the map comes back from saving 7 o’clock to save 3 o’clock. Draw relocates his army back to 8 o’clock, finding this position more important than 3 o’clock, which Sziky is able to claim again. Both players are quite low on money, each hovering around 200 minerals. The game becomes quite tense. Reavers, High Templar, Hydralisks, and Defilers dance in and around Draw’s 8 o’clock base. Scarabs and psi storms are thrown at the Zerg army while Sziky looks to weaken the position with as many plagues as possible. Sziky holds an 85 supply of mostly Hydra Lurker Ling Defiler to Draw’s 95 supply of Archons, a few Goons and Zealots, and the crucial Reavers and High Templar. Draw has been taking advantage of Sziky’s focus on attacking 8 o’clock to do Reaver drops at 3 o’clock and kill off all of the Drones there. Sziky pulls all of his Drones off gas at his other bases to come mine the few minerals left here. The Zerg mineral bank is 135 with 1600 minerals left to mine, while the Protoss banks holds 800 mineral with 2000 minerals left to mine at 7 and 8 o’clock. Four High Templar and a Reaver on the 8 o’clock highground continue to hold of Hydra Ling that continuously poke away at the Nexus. Sziky is now completed mined out and has a final army of about three control groups of Hydra Ling on the 8 o’clock low ground area. He rushes up, hoping he can somehow finally break through this Protoss stronghold. The ever present scarabs and psi storms fall unforgivingly on the Zerg army once again and Draw holds. “gg” comes from Sziky with only 20 minerals left to mine at 8 o’clock. These are the only minerals remaining on the map. WHAT A GAME!
LRM 2-1 sas
LRM)Bonyth vs sas.Michael, a P v Z on Colosseum for Game 4. Michael opens 12 Hatch at 11 o’clock which Bonyth scouts in time to go Forge, Nexus, Gateway, Gas, second Pylon, and Cannon. Bonyth leaves the Zerg main with his scouting Probe and sees a third Hatchery at the 9 o’clock third. Michael begins morphing a Hydra Den, using his 6 Lings to deny the Probe from re-entering his main. Zergling speed and then Hydra speed are researched. The first Hydras make their way across the map with still only one Cannon up, but Michael loses four Hydras and six Lings picking off this first Cannon. Bonyth adds four more Cannons with a three Gateway +1 speed Zealot response after making a few Corsairs. Three Hydras sit on the ledge picking away at the Gateway in the Protoss wall. Zealot speed finishes and Bonyth sends out five Zealots to surround and kill off these Hydras. Michael continues streaming Hydras (now with range) and Lings from 3 Hatcheries, but the four Cannons hold. Seeing the bust won’t work, Michael adds a fourth and fifth Hatchery at his third base, hoping to extend the game. Constant Zealot production from Bonyth forces Michael to continue producing Hydras with all his Larva, and Michael ggs as he sees the Zealots oncoming to his third outnumber his Hydras.
LRM 3-1 sas
Game 5 is a Z v T on Oxide; LRM)Pike fighting sas.Skzlime. Skzlime Depots scouts which allows him to block Pike’s intended 12 Hatch and force Pool first, though he loses the SCV scout to Drones. He goes one Marine, Command Center, second Barracks and then takes his gas. Pike goes three Hatch Muta without any Zergling tomfoolery beforehand. Skzlime gets Engineering Bay for +1 weapons and then Academy, all the while staying on two Barracks. Skzlime first move out comes with eleven Marines and four Medics. Pike’s shows superior micro here and is able to kill off all but one Medic from this Terran army. Pike moves his Mutas into the Terran main mineral line to harass more while upgrading Lurker aspect. He whittles down the Marine count again and does significant damage to the economy as well, killing six or seven SCVs. Pike starts +1 carapace and Hive and has a 73 to 64 supply advantage, with a third base up and mining. This is quite a nice position for a Zerg at this point in the game. Three Tanks and a Vessel are out but the Medic Marine count is relatively low due to earlier engagements, making Skzlime’s push rather weak. Pike wanders over on Terran’s east side of the map with Muta Lurker Ling but goes back to hold the more comfortable position at the bridge outside 9 o’clock. The Defiler Mound is morphing as Skzlime moves closer to the 9 o’clock bridge position. Pike looks to engage with Mutas, Lings, and nine Lurkers when Skzlime sieges his Tanks by the inside expansion near this bridge. Skzlime unsieges and pulls back before losing anything but a few Marines. Trying to do some damage before Hive tech is out, Skzlime resumes his push closer to the west bridge. With twelve Lurkers ready, Pike quickly engages to kill off four Tanks and the Vessels, leaving only retreating Medic Marine alive. A third Command Center is complete and a fourth is building in Skzlime’s main, but he is still only mining off two bases. Defiler consume is now done and Pike pushes Skzlime back to his natural with no real way to deal with such dark swarm and Lurker Ling numbers. Skzlime is able to begin mining his third and fourth temporarily but a Lurker Ling Defiler force denies mining at his fourth shortly and another similar force takes control of the Terran natural, killing off most of Skzlime’s remaining Tanks. Pike takes his fourth base at 7 o’clock. Guardians finish at the Terran natural and reinforcing Defiler Hydra finish the game. gg
LRM 4-1 sas
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EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/mB5mTpR.jpg)
