The rise of Kwanro[saM]

A long time ago a Zerg player by the ID [NC]...Yellow reigned as the number one zerg in the world. Nicknamed "Storm Zerg" - he championed the era of "poor zerg" and was an agressive tactical player. Time elapsed, and a new Zerg emerged using the ID Julyzerg. Taking the scene by storm, his hyper-agressive play and unparalleled mutalisk micro before the advent of the overlord trick earnt him the nickname "The God of War". For a long time Julyzerg embodied the hyperagressive zerg movement against the trend of 'management' styles characterised by Gorush.

As July and Gorush entered a less dominant phase, zerg players were left struggling without any hope, until Savior[gm] arrived. Turning heads in UZOO MSL after decimating Nada in his prime, he went on to become the most dominant player in MSL history - reaching 5 consecutive finals, winning 3. His style? Perfection. He was Gorush on steroids, his management and macro were unmatched by any player and his defiler usage revolutionised zerg playstyles.

In this period of protoss domination, who is the next hope of zerg?

The new face of agressive zerg

Humble Beginnings

Kwanro[saM] caught teamliquid's and the world's eye at the age of fifteen. In 2005, Kwanro played a Terran player by the ID Eyepoint (thought to be pepe[z-zone]) in some Amateur Korean Tournament. Uhjoo, having the eye he does for excellent replays, found the replay of this match, and uploaded it to teamliquid.

On March 30 2005 19:42 Amnesty wrote:
Yah that was yummy.

On March 30 2005 19:27 EvilTeletubby wrote:
"delicious" is always a good word to describe a replay

What happened in this game to cause such comments in comments section?

Kwarno spawned at 7 and Eyepoint at 11 on the map nostalgia. Kwanro opened with the standard 3 hatch build into lair. Normal zergs usually get lurkers or spire as soon as the lair is completed, however Kwanro is not a normal zerg. The moment his lair is completed he morphs two evolution chambers and continues to ling hard. Eyepoint opts to contain the zerg and bunkers both exits from Kwanro's main. Kwanro techs den and then lurkers lurkers quickly after the dual evo.

At the conclusion of the +1 Melee/Armour upgrades, and with a couple lurker to bolster his ling army, kwanro tried to break out at the 9 expo. Eyepoint reacts quickly and in no time his army is reinforcing his two bunkers and kwanro's attack is repelled. Kwanro rebuilds his army and tries to break out at the nat but is once again repelled. After failing to break out a third time at the 9 expo, Kwanro decides to use tactics to outwit his opponent. Kwanro uses about 12~16 lings as a minority attack against the natural blockade, and as sure as haji loves lecaf, Eyepoint sends his army to repel the attack. Meanwhile, with eyepoints troops dispositioned, the main strike force of kwanro with 2-2 easily crushes the bunkers at the 9 expo freeing himself from the contain. As soon at the army reaches the bunkers at the nat kwanro simply runs his minority attack team away with 6~ ligns to spare.

Eyepoint, realising his folly too late, send his army up to outside the 9 expo on the main ground of nostalgia. A brief tussle between armies ensures, but both retreat. With the aid of some more reinforcements, kwanro moves out and crushes Eyepoints army while simultaneously sending a blob of lings to dispatch the contain outside his natural. Kwanro probes Eyepoint for weakness, but cannot find anything so expands to 9, 4 and 5 and reaches hive tech in time to start 3-3. Eyepoint now resorts to drop tactics, but fails with his early dropships to deal much damage. Kwanro's army at this point consists purely of zerglings with crack and 3-3.

Eyepoint realises that kwanro is mostly ling, and builds firebats to counter. He drops a dropship full on kwanro's 5 expo, killing it and moves onto 6 where he drops again. Kwanro rushes in with his army of lings and repels the attack. Most zergs would have run away from 5bats+meds, but kwanro demonstrates some amazing control and minimizes the splash damage dealt and dispatches the drop without major causalities. After the phase of Dropship use, Eyepoint picks up his balls, and move out with a 50/50 mf ratio, tanks, vessels and medics. He begins to siege the 9 expo with his tanks, and takes down 3 of the 6 sunks defending the expo before rushing in with his army. Kwanro's first ultra's pop, and his army of lings/3ultra rush in and destroy the entire army against all odds - without any drone losses. Now with a definitive upperhand, Kwanro proceeds to destroy the terran. He shows his tactical ability in forcing eyepoint to move his army from base to base and picking off workers at eyepoints third nat - eventually forcing a gg.

Kwanro's exceptional ling usage during this game demonstrates his amazing potential, and it did not go unnoticed. In the 2005 August draft, Suma G.O. picked up Kwanro after he won the 10th courage tournament. For 2 years, we heard nothing from this young zerg - until now.

Kwanro exhibiting the CJ face after defeating Midas

Kwanro's road to the MSL

Kwanro qualified for the 12th MBCGame Survivor League and was placed in the same group as Nada, Midas and Soo. Nada and Midas were heavy favourites to qualify from the group. In set 1 he played against Midas on the Zerg graveyard Monty Hall.

Opening with a x3 expo build, kwanro looked like an amateur - struggling to jump some mineral walls and look very 'unclean' in his play. Midas opened with a 2port tech build with marines guarding each mineral wall to prevent kwanro from seeing. By the time kwamro had started his lair, midas has 2 wraiths building. Midas's first two wraiths score two overlord kills on the way to an unprepared kwanro. Midas picks off overlords and drones as a third wraith arrives. Things do not look good for kwanro.

Midas's wraiths wreck havoc in kwanro's main

Hydras stall further harass, but midas uses the wraiths mobility to his advantage and runs about expos killing drones. Then, from no where - Midas pulls a dropship containing 7marines and a medic - which lays waste to kwanro's other expo.

Midas musters up more wraiths, and midas's marine force wreck stray lords and the remainder of kwanro's main. Kwanro was down 0-1 and would wind up facing Soo in the loser round. This round was on python against the inexperienced protoss Soo.

Kwanro spawned at 1 while Soo spawned at 2. Soo opts to build his pylon in his main and creates a single gate while kwanro overpools. Soo builds an early 2nd pylon to correct mining then adds gas, and Kwanro expands and his first lings pop. Kwanro tests soo's zeal wall, before adding a third hatch and some more lings. Kwanro sees Soo's stargate and runs his 8 lings home. Kwanro sends 10lings back, and tests the wall once again - but loses two to soo's goon. Kwanro has teched hydra now, and easily repels the sair before it gets even a single kill. Kwanro - still running on hatch tech blitzes Soo's expo with speed hydra and lings and trades some units.

The blitz commences

He continues to mass hydra and Soo adds 4 cannons at his expo to make a total of 6. While they are still warping, Kwanro's hydra's rush in, take out the 4 remaining zealots with precision micro, and proceeds to destroy the 3 operating cannons. He then simultaneously destroys warping cannons while avoiding probe fire

The last zealot falls, and with it Soo's chances

As reinforcements arrive, the new cannon cannot stop kwanro's hydras, and kwanro takes the losers game convincingly and with style. The winners game between Nada and Midas was won by Nada, forcing the final set to be played between Kwanro and Midas on desperado - winner stays, loser goes home.

[i]A true CJ man; taken during his match with midas

Kwanro spawned at 4 while midas spawned at 10. Both sides decide that cheese won't be a feature of todays game, and Kwanro 12hatches into 3hatch before pool and midas 14cc's before dual barracks. Kwanro sends some lings towards midas, but pose no threat to his 10~rines - but with speed finishing the commentators goes crazy. Why? Kwanro decides its time for aggression and is pumping 3hat lings. Midas's medics arrive just in time for the lings. Kwanro uses his scouting lord to judge the position of the marines before moving in.

Just look at that ling division

The aftermath

Kwanro demonstrates precision micro, and perfectly flanks midas's rine forces resulting in terran torsos being ripped to shreds by the manic claws of kwanro's lings. Midas's scvs are too late to save the day, but prevent lings from ascending the ramp. Firebats are also ready for midas, but are too late to save the SCV populus at Midas's expansion. Meanwhile, kwanro is sending another wave of zerglings across the map. They dash up midas's ramp and are narrowly defeated by 4 firebats with the last being on 5 hp (there was about 12lings). 2 Stray lings run in, and harass scvs - scoring a kill before being dispatched. 4 more ligns arrive immediately after the previous two, which keep midas occupied and distracted.

Meanwhile, Kwanro is adding a spire and a second gas. The 4 lings kill off a firebat with 1 casualty and continue to harass workers. Midas has a small mmf force now who dispatch the lings at the expo - once again too late to save all but 1 scv. But yet AGAIN Kwanro has a stream of lings heading off towards midas and while the main force of midas is dealing with the harassment lings, they run straight up midas's ramp - killing the two newly made rines.

About 8 lings survive inside the main and they commence harassment of SCVs, while those who didnt make it up, go and harass Midas's expo - forcing a division of his army and just as this occurs Kwanro's spire is finished. Poor midas... Midas's scvs are spending more time in transit running from Kwanro's zerglings as Midas's army is incapable of keeping up with their speed. Finally he manages to kill the zerglings in his main, not without retreating his scvs from his expo.

An eerie silence occurs in the match, where are the follow up wave of zerglings? Nowhere - Kwanro has spawned mutas. Harassment ensures. Midas's defence of the harass is first class - losing a single marine in the first 'round' of harass. Kwanro turns his attention to Midas's expo - and brings some zerglings along for the ride. But midas is too quick - the attack is repelled. Kwanro goes at midas once again - but midas holds strong.

Midas defends well

More lings arrive, and mutas harass midas's main - drawing out his marines. This time kwanro's harras is much stronger scoring many kills. Kwanro, master of the diversion, uses Midas's displacement to his advantage, and sends in his lings to attack the expo - which is reinforced by the mutas fresh from their harassment duties.

Where are the defenders?

Once midas's main armies arrives, it is promptly raped by ling/muta with almost no muta losses. More lings are arriving, and destroying midas's nat, while mutas keep midas's army inside his main - all scvs at expo die... again... The Nat cc falls, and more and mroe lings arrive for kwanro - who now has hydra tech, but that will not be necessary. A large muta fleet arrives, and destroys the south end of midas's main and then midas's whole army - and you will expect by now, Kwanro's entire ling force run up the empty ramp and midas looks hopelessly lost - before the next wave of reinforcements arrive midas throws in the towel.

Midas was dominated from start to finish

Kwanro had advanced from his group into GOMTV MSL Season 3.

Kwanro's style

Unlike the sea of blandness that is emerging in the new generation - Kwanro is an exciting player. His games reminds me of the early bisu and sea games of aggression and strategy. He is without a doubt in my mind the next generation of agressive Zergs, following on after the "God of War" - July.

Undoubtedly, Kwanro is a micro player who understands the dance of the Zergling. And it is perfectly justified to say that his trademark unit is the Zergling. His ability to control zerglings and use them to win battles that other players would lose is remarkable. Shortly, we will see that his ability to control zerglings allows him to win ling battles where he has inferior numbers.

However, when the ability to showcase his zergling micro is impossible or indeed his micro in general, things start to go wrong. This was perfectly evident in the game where midas dismantled him. Hence the trick to defeat Kwanro is to force him into a submissive position or one where he simply cannot attack. Entering into a macro war, however, is NOT the answer. By doing so, you forgo the early game aggression and if you give Kwanro an inch - he'll run a mile. Midas's heavy macro build in the final set of Survivor against Kwanro shows this - Kwanro just ran around him in circles with zerglings wearing him down into a messed up bloody pulp. One particularly definitive feature of his playstyle is his ability to create diversions with mutalisks/zerglings and create room for another strike which deals a lot of damage.

Kwanro's zvp and zvz is relatively untested at high levels, being 1-1 in both mu's and showcasing vastly different styles in both matches in each mu. This will be talked about when those games are encountered.

Proleague

Kwanro has played two matches in proleague - one against KaL; the zerg killer and Hery the nothing killer. Kwanro experienced losses in each game-

Kal prays to Adun while Kwanro gets those hands ready for some micro

Kwanro played Kal on Katrina; he spawned at 3 while Kal spawned at 6. Both players opt for the standard fast expo - kwanro opting for a third hatch in main. Kal denies Kwanro a third expo by means of manner pylon, and kwanro's drone goes home disappointed. Kal begins his tech as expected and Kwanro kills the manner pylon and expands to his center nat while teching lair. Uncharacteristically, Kwanro opts for a spire with low ling numbers. Meanwhile Kal is preparing temp tech with minimal units himself. Kwanro opts for a macro oriented play, and takes a hidden expo at 11 while he starts his mutalisks. 4 zealots try to attack the center expo, but 6lings/sunk repel them. Kal is completely prepared for mutalisks with cannons at expos and 2 archons. Kwanro lays down 4 sunks at his center nat - and Kal moves out with 2 arhoncs and a decent number of zealots. Kwanro's mutas try pick of zealots but with little success. Kal heads for kwanro's main and muta's prepare for the attack. The battle commences, and kwanro picks off the 2 archons with a perfect split of mutalisks.

Those archons don't last much longer

But as a consequence of killing the archons, zealots lay wreck to the main and deal damage to sunks and get some drone kills before being dispatched of my mutas. Kal, by now, has amassed a large dragoon/temp army. Kwanro's many mutalisks rush into Kal's nat - but only get an opportunity to kill 2 cannons before the dragoon mass arrives. Kal sends an archon and 4~ zealots to kwanro's main in retaliation, and has his goon force in the way. Kwanro's mutas and sunks prevent any damage to his main. Kal's very scary goon army slowly moves around the map, and finally reaches Kwanro's main. Goons and Archons assault kwanro's main and sunkens, and all seems to be lost for kwanro. While the fight is going on, Kal finds the hidden expansion and things look worse. Shortly, Kwanro loses all his mutas and sunkens, and loses his main and with it the game.

What did Kal do right? Well, he neutralised the micro play of Kwanro by bringing the fight to him and minimising early contact so that setbacks were managable. Kwanro's choice of build wasn't flash either - as it committed him to many drone losses through sunkens. Kal adapted perfectly, and used a strategy which requires heavy larva investment to counter (heavy goon) which Kwanro didn't have because he had to spend the larva on drones that he had lost. Thus, Kal earned his victory.

The game against Hery was a long drawn out macro war in which Kwanro's late swarms cost him the game - obviously he still has something to learn off savior.

GOMTV MSL Ro 32

Just Kwanro's luck. He lands himself into one of the toughest groups in the MSL. The group consists of the Air Force Exiled Oversky, the surprisingly inform Julyzerg and l'infant terrible - sea[shield]. Kwanro would play oversky in the first round. (Note: there is an excellent Diggity commentary for this game). Oversky spawns at 1 and Kwanro at 2 on python - and due to the close positions both players opt for a 12hatch build, into gas before pool, then lair then third hatch - exactly mirror builds. A small ling tussle emerges, no casualties on either side and both get spire. Kwanro goes heavy on the lings with speed and rushes into oversky's nat. Both sides have roughly equal ling numbers. Kwanro demonstrates why zerglings are his signature unit and easily wins the battle of micro.

Kwanro begins his domination of oversky

Kwanro gains a slight advantage over oversky in the tussle, and typical of Kwanro he takes the ground he's gained and stretches it out extensively. Both sides continue to add lings and both spires complete. Then with a little bit of provoking by Kwanro, their ling armies collide;

From this picture it seems oversky has the greater numbers

Despite having inferior numbers, Kwanro wins the battle convincingly. This major advantage is stretched by Kwanro's harassment of oversky's nat - scoring drone kills. Meanwhile oversky uses his newly built scourges to kill overlords to halt the kwanro train from gaining too much momentum. Kwanro's lings demolish what oversky throws at him, and they run up the ramp and demolish oversky's main and with it a large advantage which gives Kwanro the win.

The game against oversky shows us exactly how not to zvz against Kwanro. By entering into a zergling war with Kwanro you play on his territory - and his zergling control is formidable to say the least. Oversky, like midas before him, was dominated from start to finish never given a breath of air from Kwanro once the attacks started. As I've said before, once this guy gets an edge, he just tightens his grip on the game - much like an Anaconda does - untill his opponent pops.

Julyzerg won his match against Sea, meaning the winners match would be between Kwanro and Julyzerg - two of the most agressive players of all time. They would play on the map Zodiac, and kwanro would spawn at 6 and July at 3. Kwanro opts for a 9pool gas build while Julyzerg opts for a 12hatch. However, he gets lucky and scouts the pool with his overlord, and cancles his hatch and quickly morphs and pool and gas and a creep colony. Kwanro fast techs to lair, and july adds a 2nd hatch. Kwanro's lings arrive at july just as the sunken hatches - and july starts his lair as well. July's advantage begins to grow from his greater drone count. Kwanro steals a drone kill before running away.

As expected both palyers go spire tech - with kwanro's significantly earlier but very behind in the macro battle. July has massed some lings, and repels kwanro's ling forces. Kwanro is forced to sunk from the threat of July's zerglings. Clever micro at Kwanro's ramp ensures July's lings are delayed and the sunk completes in time. However, kwanro left his ramp and allowed July's lings to run up - although no losses occured, he lost many lings. July shows why he is the god of the mutalisk and minimizes the effect of Kwanro's scourges via muta micro leaving Kwanro severly behind - and consequently costing him the game.

Julyzerg played the game perfectly, and got a little lucky with the scouting overlord. Kwanro took a gamble with the 9pool build and if July had scouted in the opposite direction would have come away with the win. But thats the nature of ZvZ - half of it is luck based. July also played very cleverly with this;

July's other key to victory

That sunken of July's served not only to stop the 9pool rush but also removed all opportunity for Kwanro to use his superior Zergling micro and score drone kills putting himself back into the game. Whether July planned the sunk specifically for this or not I'm not sure. But givin Kwanro's style this one building was such a definitive setback to him. But who better to lose to than the most agressive zerg in history.

In the deciding match, Kwanro would play Fakesteve's favourite player - Sea[Shield]. Not many people were expecting anything from Kwanro - and for good reason. Sea is one of the most feared Terrans on the scene. He is unpredictably agressive, yet has amazing mechanics and the ability to switch to a strong macro game. Surely this would be the definitive game for Kwanro. The map of destiny was Blue Storm - the map used in MSL, OSL and Proleague making it the most shared map this season. Kwanro hatched at 7 while sea made his base at 1. Kwanro opts for the agressive 9pool, using the gas trick to get a 10th drone. Meanwhile in the terran camp sea builds himself a single rax. Kwanro takes his expansion and sea walls himself in - as to protect himself from the 9pool. Sea starts his expo CC at the same time Kwanro adds a third hatch.

Kwanro still adds lings to his force and adds gas. Sea also decides its time for gas - and adds his own. By the time it's finished Kwanro has the upgrade which turns his simple zerglings into lethal frenzied dogs - speed. Sea continues to play standardly, adding a acadamy and Kwanro upgrades to lair. Sea floats his CC over his nat, unable to land due to kwanro's lings. About 10seconds later, he opens up his wall and comes out with his army to clear the nat - with 2firebats and 2 medics in addition to about 8 rines. Kwanro, notes the size of the army and adds 3 creep colonies and already has an evo chamber.

Sea moves his forces towards his min only expansion and chases away kwanro's ling force - meanwhile kwanro has just started his spire. Sea hunts down the ling force, so kwanro adds a forth sunk. Kwanro's spire finishes, and mutas begin to come out - and sea adds turrets right on cue. Kwanro's mutas go to harass while sea pratros the upper half of the map with his army scouting for expos. Kwanro runs a drone straight past those forces and starts an expansion at 11.

Meanwhile Kwanro's mutas cause some disruption in sea's base - killing a turret here and there and the odd unit. Kwanro moves his muta force to Sea's expo, and takes down 3/4 turrets before seas army arrives. Sea scouts perfectly, and has a firebat at the hidden expo in no time. Kwanro is forced to retreat his mutas and intercept sea's strike force while sending many lings to deal with the firebat at the expo. Kwanro's lings come back down and together with mutalisks take down Seas strike force.

That mmf force doesnt last very much longer

Having won the first major skirmish, Kwanro techs to hive and adds a forth hatch in main and resumes the muta harass. Sea has sci vessel tech - and even two science facilities! Kwanro has a ferocious stream of lings coming from his main. They spill over into the mineral only expansion position of sea's base ready for a strike on his natural expo. The combined muta/ling attack is ultimately repelled by Sea, who cleverly positions his rines in such a way that they cannot be flanked.

Without flanking room the attack is doomed to fail

Kwanro morphs his spire into a greater spire and adds an ultra den - which see must see as he adds a second starport. Sea gets in a killer irradiate on Kwanro's muta army and scores some god damage there. Sea moves his army out via the large entrace and around the bend - meanwhile kwanro sends a stream of lings straight through into seas expo. But is intercepted by the army of sea forcing a retreat. Kwanro takes the remainder of his forces and runs around seas army - trying to get into a position to attack the nat. He succeeds in breaking into the nat, but the attack causes minor damage. Sea moves his troops into the min only area of kwanro, while the first ultras are popping for kwanro. Sea moves down off the Basillica ground into a flank by kwanro. The resulting battle is chaos - ultralisks flying from every corner, irradiate everywhere and scourges popping sci vessels - the way zvt should be.

An intense battle ends with victory to Kwanro

Kwanro had gained the advantage over sea - but sea had macroed hard and had a new mmf force ready. Sea moved out to attack and was met by Kwanro's ultra/ling army;

Not this time Kwanro! Sea's firebats prove too much

Kwanro proceeds to retreat to the baillica, while sea takes his min only. Kwanro does what he does best, and sneaks a strike force of zerglings around the back entrance to the min only and launches an amazing flank on sea - but sea's forces prove too much and the attack is repelled - and advantage to sea.

This is what i think of your flank!

Kwanro retreats to seas basillica, and takes the 6 expo. Kwanro draws out seas forces with a fake attack then rushes many lings through to sea's natural - however, sea has thought about this already and has a bunker in place to cut down the lings as they come.

The attack proves pointless

Sea now moves into an attacking position and moves onto the high ground, kwanro launches a half assed attack on sea which gets crushed. Kwanro moves back over to his side of the map and sea occupies the space directly across the divide. Kwanro quickly organises his forces and lauches at sea with everything he's got

All or nothing

Kwaro successfully defeats seas blob and forces him to retreat - equalising the game. However, sea's not a person to take to failure kindly, so returns the favour to kwanro - drawing his ultra's into a corner where they are flanked by sea's reinforcements. Kwanro laughs, and proves that ultralisks are imbalanced by decimating the reinforcements before his own arrive. Another wave of sea's reinforcements are pushed back, but not without some losses and the remainder of the attack is spent killing a andful of scvs. Kwanro gains the advantage as sea is reduced to one mining base. Kwanro finally adds defilers and sea's vessel cloud has almost reached critical mass. Kwanro pulls many troops from no where to launch an offensive on sea's nat.

The vessel cloud proves too strong

Kwanro's forces are repelled by sea's irradiation and he retreats to the min only where vessels take pride in irradiating the ultras remaining. Sea then moves his forces up to retake his min only. Kwanro has added defilers to his army and prepares and assault against sea - only to have his army iraddiated by the vessels nullifying the offensive effort. Another force has amassed - and swarm pushes sea back. But Sea still wins the war - destoying all the ultralisks. Kwanro goes on the offensive yet again, and plagues the vessel cloud. Sea discovers 6 and moves in to attack it - kwanro takes advantage of this and flanks sea's army resulting in...

Sea minimizes the flank once again and wins the fight

But all is not lost for kwanro - in turn for the razing of his expansion - he uses the muta splash trick to wipe out half of the vessel cloud. Sea prevents any hope of rescue for kwanro's expo by planting a science facility to block the choke and prevent any units from entering. Sea looks in good shape, despite a lack of medics. And cuts down kwanro's next offensive. Kwanro gathers his forces once more, and challenges sea on his basillica - with the aid of swarm and a beautiful plague on mnm he forces a retreat from sea. KWanro also expands to 12. Kwanro presses on in the attack - and the combined might of swarm/plague/ultra prove too strong for sea

Sea suffers heavy losses

Sea takes heavy losses from the attack but manages to repell it. Kwanro musters together some reinforcements and keeps pressing against sea. Sea defends well and manages to move back onto the basillica. Sea's blob moves across the divide into kwanro country where scourges kill vessels and plague hits many marines. Sea tries to go north to 12, but is denied by kwanro's lings and some static d. Sea's nat runs dry - and he looks bad economically. He has one last blob in him and moved towards 12. Meanwhile, 2 utlralisks and lings attack seas min only, which only just manages to be stopped by some stray rines. Sea attacks 12, but plague takes it toll and the sunken colonies deciment seas forces, then ultras arrive and clean up. Sea has floated to 5 in this time, and pushes across the map with his plagued mmf. Kwanro takes his time to organise his forces and then pushes down towards seas army on the basillica. With the aid of swarm, he defeats sea's half dead army. Sea now is under great pressure and only just holds kwanro off until kwanro's reinforcements arrive. Sea's economy fails, and he throws in the towel. Kwanro advances to his first major tournament ever!

That was an effort and a half

MSL Ro16
Will the starcraft Gods give Kwanro a break? KWanro gets a bracket in which his first opponent is light followed by either Hwasin or Bisu - is that insane or what? Nevertheless - Kwanro fights onward and has already played one game against Light. The game took place on the map Loki II and was for me, was one of the greatest zvt's of the year.

Kwanro spawned at 7 and Light at 1. Light opened with a standard 1 rax build, while Kwanro opened with 12 hatch 12 pool. Kwanro declared his intensions to play a 3hatch game and laid a hatch at his other nat - occupying all three. Light expanded to his frontal expansion. Light tries to presure with 4~ rines but realises his folly and retreats to his nat - Kwanro sends his lings towards the nat and tests Light's rine count. Typical of kwanro, he continues to add lings while teching to lair. More and more lings come, and he dashes into Light's expo

Kwanro makes light work for his expansion

Some nifty SCV work by Light forces Kwanro to retreat - but Kwanro now has speed and tests light's new bunker by cutting off the marines from it - however they eventuall get inside and kwanro retreats while his reinforcements catchup then he goes in and...

Flanked the bunker perfectly

And after a few tense seconds... the bunker falls and the crowd goes crazy, and the inhabitants of the bunker are killed. Kwanro dashes up the ramp and casues havoc, harass scvs left right and center, Back at home he techs muta. Even firebats can't stop the lings, as kwanro dispatches 2 with ease. However, the stall the rest of the attack. Lings begin to build up outside light's nat, but mutas are building. Light rebuilds the bunker he lost and loads it up, KWanro runs around the bunker and kills one of the turrets at Lights nat - then the mutas arrive. The mutas decimate many rines but turrets stall the harass. So kwanro uses his lings and blitzs lights main dashing past the firebat-loaded bunker at his nat. Mutas finish off the bunker while the zerglings take out strategic turrets.

Teamwork

The mutalisks finish off the turrets, and proceed to kill scvs and firebats lying around. More lings and mutas run up the path towards light as Kwanro's mutas take down a barracks. Kwanro's lings kill the turrets at Light's nat leaving it defenceless to muta - so he retreats it. Kwanro then proceeds to destroy it with his mutalisks.

That CC is going down

Light is in huge trouble - 3 base zerg vs 1 base terran and a sever unit advantage to kwanro. Kwanro harass around with his mutas and kwanro adds lurkers to the mix. But before they can arrive - lings snipe a turret gaurding a barracks and kwanro proceeds to harass it. Light move out with what army he has but cannot even get to his ramp.

You know you're in trouble when you cant leave your base

Mutalisks follow up the failed attempt at leaving and finish off most of the surviving rines. Meanwhile, those lurkers are plodding towards Light. Once they arrive, there's nothing he can do except watch his raxes burn and cenceed the game.

A well deserved victory

The Future?

Kwanro is a promising young player, born on the 21st of February 1990, he is only 17 (18 korean). His next scheduled match is against Light in rounds 2/3 of their series. With a preformance like the last, Kwanro looks set to take this 2-0. His unique style and Zergling mastery makes for exciting and interesting games. And i implore you to check out this bright new hope for Zerg, for one day he will be the next Julyzerg. And thank you for reading this far, i know it was long - but im passionate about this guy ^^

Kwanro fighting!!~~

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The rise of Kwanro[saM]

Completed

Ongoing

Upcoming