EPT
2002 SKY Ongamenet Starleague Semi-finals
Slayers_`Boxer` vs. Elky
Well, as written above, today's games were between Elky and Boxer. There were many opinions on the subject up to now. Elky was on a roll, taking out many famous terran players in his run to the semis. On the other hand, the legendary status of Boxer was enough to win him much support. The opinion polls Ongamenet held clearly showed who was ahead in recognition and popularity; Boxer was expected to win by more than 70% of the polltakers for each game.
An interesting fact was that Elky used the ID "Choi in Gyu's Jeja," which means "Chrh's student." Nazgul tells me that Elky had practiced with Chrh, and also learned many of his build orders. Anyway, to the games -.-!
Pictures of maps here
Game 1: Neo Bifrost
Boxer started the game at the starting point on the right, which obvious left Elky at left. Boxer scouted very early, before he even started his first supply depot. Elky scouted at an ordinary time. Bother players went for a regular supply depot then barracks build, but Elky made his barracks at the 12:00 expansion, in order to float his barracks over to Boxer's mineral only natural. Boxer used his barracks to wallin his base instead. Boxer seemed intent on scouting any hidden strategies that Elky could have used, thus using 2 SCVs to scout out certain spots on the map. Oddly, he didn't find the rax making at 12, or he simply ignored it (he made his 2nd supply depot at his mineral only nat, so he probably wasn't worried about being floated).
The way Ongamenet brings up a big picture of the map and explains possibilities of the game really got in the way during the early game. What Boxer's quick SCV scout might have been doing in Elky's base, when his 2nd SCV left his main, and so forth are thing that I wonder about.
The game went forth without much happening, both players went for 2 factories alongside 2 machine shops. Elky's flying rax tried to make a marine at Boxer's mineral nat, but it was forced to run by a single SCV and a supply depot that had seen it a long way off. Both players made a vulture 1st, for scouting and harassing purposes. Their plans verged off with the 2nd unit to come from their factories.
Boxer continued to produce vultures, and the 2 spinning machine shops were most definitely researching ion thrusters and spider mines. From Elky's factory came a tank.
Elky's vulture had gone around the long way around the side of the map, boxer dispatched it with 2 vultures, hiding the true number of his vultures somewhat. 2~3 vultures had already gone out the front door to start harassing. Elky was also intent on pressuring, having sent his first tank out to attack.
The tank and the vultures met in the center of the map. Boxer's vultures quickly laid a few mines preventing the tank from moving back or forward, an quickly continued onto Elky's base. First setting up a few mines near Elky's entrance, the vultures went on to see what damage they could do. Elky already had 2 more tanks out, and they repelled the vultures laying mines next to them without loss. Elky also started a command center at his mineral nat, while going for armory tech.
Boxer continued to go for heavy vultures, making only vultures out of his factories. After amassing about 5~6 of them, he went for his 2nd attack on Elky's choke. Elky's tanks were placed outside his choke, 1 in siege mode, the other one in tank mode. Boxer swarmed the tanks that were in the semi open position, placing mines at precise spots that would prevent retreat. Elky microed the best he could as well, unsieging his tank and moving them away from mines the best he could. However, the vultures were simply too many, and Boxer's mine placement too good for Elky's tanks to make it. Boxer had 2 damaged vultures left to run into Elky's main.
Fortunately for Boxer the vultures had mines left in them, and they quickly places mined in front of Elky's factories. The vultures went on to shoot up Elky's SCVs. A tank emerged from Elky's factory only to be destroyed by mines. SCVs chased the vultures around, forcing Boxer to micro them.
More vultures arrived on the scene, planting more mines in front of the factories. Elky's next round of units from the factories were goliaths, but they could not help him at all. Mines in front of his factories, and a continuously mounting number of vultures in his base forced Elky to concede the game.
This game ended very quickly, and in an unexpected way. Nothing much to say, other than that.
Game 2: Gaema Gowun
Boxer started at 2:00, Elky started at 5:00. Boxer choose to scout in an unorthodox way on Gaema Gowun, building his barracks at a standard time in a not so standard place: the middle of the map. After it completed, he sent the building SCV one way, and a marine from the barracks another way. Elky used the usual method of sending an SCV from his main. Both players floated their barracks and sent them to scout after they were done using them (as soon as it was done, in Elky's case).
Both players used a 2 factory build, making 1 machine shop. Both players went vultures initially. However, Boxer was using them in order to pressure Elky, while Elky seemed content to simply use them to defend when he saw Boxer was committing very strongly to vultures. Boxer got all the vulture upgrades, while Elky simply placed regular vultures on his ramp. Elky's tech choice during all this was to make an armory and starport, while Boxer made a 3rd factory instead.
Boxer used his 12+ vultures to make an efficient minefield at Elky's nat, and went on for tank production. He also started a fourth factory at one point, but cancelled it later. The observer didn't catch them, but both players started command centers as they teched and massed units.
Elky left his base when he had 4 goliaths to accompany his handful of vultures. It was a force capable of killing mines quickly as they popped out of the ground, and Elky definitely didn't want Boxer to be able to bring tanks to reinforce the containment.
Elky had not seen exactly where the vultures had laid their mines, but he had a good idea of where they probably would have. Elky ventures carefully down his ramp, and into his nat. Oddly, Elky's force started walking right over the mines as they went out.
More odd happenings followed as Boxer sent his force of 12+ vultures to engage Elky's force. Elky's force contained goliaths, and he did have a respectable amount of vultures, if still outnumbered by Boxer's. It was not a fight that Boxer could win.
The above two lead to only one conclusion, which was what happened. With Elky's force engaging Boxer's vultures, and right in the middle of the minefield, a dozen or so mines suddenly popped up. Elky's force was decimated. Boxer had allied with Elky in order to keep his mines from reacting to his units.
This would not have been a problem, except for the fact that the use of this trick was against the Ongamenet Starleague rules. The organizers quickly started discussed what they should do when they saw the mines not reacting (or so say the announcers!). The game went on for a bit as they discussed.
There was not much of a game left to watch. Boxer's CC safely landed at his nat and started mining, while Elky's was left floating over a minefield with several tanks reinforcing it. Boxer started his game ending push up Elky's ramp when the organizers called for the game to end.
The decision was to call for a rematch. Apparently, Boxer's team hadn't received the rules for the Starleague somehow, so Boxer had not known that he was breaking the rules. Game 2 started again!
Elky started at 5 again, but Boxer started at 2. Boxer used the same method of scouting, making a barracks in the middle of the map. Elky simply made his rax in his main and floated it, as he had done in the last game. His SCV scout made it to Boxer's main on the first try, and ran about doing it's recon job. Boxer's marine did so as well, but it was also able to harass Elky. Abusing the acceleration and deceleration times on SCVs, Boxer's single marine took shots at Elky's SCV building a factory while 2 others tried to kill him. Though Elky did not lose any of his SCVs, he did have to switch the SCVs building the factories, and had QUITE a few SCVs out chasing the marine at one point. A vulture popped out and killed the marine later.
Both players had gone 2 factory again, and both of them had decided to make at least 2 vultures at first. Elky then branched off into armory tech, and later dropship tech. Boxer went for upgraded vultures again -_-;;.
Boxer's plan changed a bit. He stopped at 4 vultures, switching to tanks at a quicker time. As Boxer's 4 vultures slipped out of his main, Elky's 2 vultures entered Boxer's main from the back door in the mineral nat. They shot some SCVs and got a look at Boxer's tank switch before a tank destroyed them. Boxer's vultures set up a minefield, without trying to test Elky's ramp. Elky was prepared with scvs blocking the ramp and goliaths behind them, anyway.
Both players thought to expand fairly quickly after 2 factories, rather than try to push hard and early. Boxer planned to do so faster than Elky making his command center soon after his tank switch. It was around 600~700 HP faster than Elky's.
Once Elky had around 6 goliaths, they went out into his nat to clear the mines. Waking up only a few at a time, the goliaths were able to take out all the mines without taking any losses. A dropship came out soon after, starting Elky's offensive. Holding 4 goliaths, Elky's dropship hugged the bottom of the map as it headed to Boxer's base.
Boxer's CC had landed, and all of his small number of tanks was there. He had not even started on an engineering bay. Elky's dropship went for the main, which would have been empty, but for 2 tanks coming out of the factories right on time. Unable to land near the SCVs, Elky took a few shots at a supply depot before he picked up and left.
The dropship however, was not the entire offensive. It was just part of it. Boxer's defense was centered around drop protection, for he had only a few tanks to spare. They were placed around his command centers, and the ones at his natural did not cover the wide choke leading into it. Elky had a ground force on the way as the dropship was flying about Boxer's main.
Tank fire did not reach the ramp that went up into Boxer's mineral natural overlooking his gas natural, so Elky's units went up it unharmed. 3 tanks and goliath came by land, while the 4 goliath in a dropship attacked from above. Elky's ground forces went into siege mode to shoot the tanks protecting the nat. His dropship dropped goliaths alongside the defending tanks as well. The attack looked to be going well for Elky, until a large amount of Boxer's tanks went up to take care of the attackers.
Though his attack failed, Elky started mining from his nat during the attack, and started exping to his mineral nat as well. With his natural expansion mining, Elky was quick to be aggressive again. Boxer's defensive line now hit the ramp leading up his min nat, but Elky did not need to walk up. Using the close aerial distance between his nat and the cliff overlooking Boxer's nat, he used a dropship to ferry tanks up 2 at a time. Boxer continued to mass tanks, while teching to dropships as well.
Elky's second attack was with 6 tanks raised to the cliff using dropships. Despite the fact that he had set up his tanks first, Boxer just had more tanks than Elky could at that time. He had been going only tank for a while, forgoing dropship or goliath tech for a while. A single dropship filled with SCVs, and a bunch of tanks took down Elky's attack.
Elky looked to get something out of even failed attacks, starting an expansion at the far away 11:00 main. Boxer had expected this, and a scouting SCV destroyed the building SCV before the command center was even halfway done. Later a dropship would take an SCV accompanied by some more units to complete the CC. Boxer did some expanding as well, taking his mineral nat.
Despite a pending resource advantage, Elky was low on units. Boxer had stopped Elky's attacks cost efficiently using tanks, and now had a good bit of them left over to use. When Boxer had 3 dropships, Elky was had stretched his units across his main, nat, and mineral nat for defense. Boxer choose to attack the main.
Instead of a drop in the center of the SCV line, Boxer decided to drop in a risk free place. His dropships unloaded 6 tanks in the bottom left corner of Elky's main, where none of the defense was even close to hitting them. Boxer destroyed a few supply depots, the armory, and a refinery before packing up and leaving. Elky ended up pulling more defenses to his main, while sending more forces to the completed 11:00 expansion as well. Boxer made more dropships.
Elky had over-extended his defenses by far, while Boxer had highly concentrated firepower flying around in dropships. With the dropships totaling 4, Boxer went for the next target. Elky had nothing at his mineral nat to stop the 8 tanks dropped there. Boxer simply left his tanks there in siege mode while his dropships went off to take care of other business. The 8 tanks at Elky's mineral nat took out the command center that Elky somehow forgot to lift off, while pounding on the SCVs at the first natural as well.
Meanwhile, Boxer's 4 dropships met up with 2 more to take a force no containing goliaths, to the 11:00 main. Elky is forced to give up the expansion, but manages to take out the 8 tanks overlooking his natural while Boxer was occupied elsewhere. Both players still manage to expand during all this attacking, Boxer taking all the gas expansions on the northern side of the map excluding the 11:00 main, while Elky made a hidden expansion at the 11:00 mineral nat.
Things looked direly bad for Elky, Boxer holding a huge troop advantage, and a resource advantage to come soon. Boxer took a few hits as well, having to retreat his troops after a failed 6-dropship drop on Elky's nat, as well as having 2 tanks in a dropship disrupt his new expansions on the northern side of the map. This was but a minor detail however, Boxer still at a huge advantage. After failing to drop Elky's nat, Boxer quickly picked up the remaining troops and put them in the under-defended main. He left the troops there to disrupt gas mining and kill some buildings, while his ships went back for a seemingly unending supply of mech units.
Elky killed the troops in his main, only to have another force dropped onto the cliff overlooking his main. Boxer leaves them there to take care of business, while his dropships go back and ferry a group of troops to the 11:00 mineral nat. That left Elky with no mining bases, masses of mech at the cliff controlling both his nat and min nat, and many mech units clearing up the 11:00 mineral expansion.
Marines and medics (-_-;
arrived to finish Elky off, joining the mech units on Elky's cliff. Elky surrendered.Hmmm... we've seen this pattern on Gaema Gowun before, in the HOT-Forever vs. Reach, and Yellow vs. Reach games. One player aggressively trying to take the other player's cliff, failing, and dying to the counter attack.
Game 3: Neo Forbidden Zone
Elky started at 8:00, Boxer started at 5:00. Both players went for standard t v t builds, going supply, gas, and barracks. They showed different scouting methods once again, Elky creating a marine on the low ground before sending his barracks off to scout, while Boxer skipped the marine and just scouted with his barracks normally. Both players scouted in the wrong direction.
Elky's plan was to go for a fierce ground attack, by floating his factories below to the lower ground, while Boxer's plan was to expand quickly. Elky's build was a 2 factory build with an armory made quickly. Boxer made a factory, a command center, a starport, and then 2 more factories. He too, made an armory for goliath production.
Elky skipped tanks in the beginning, going for vultures and goliaths. His marine had found Boxer's starting point, and his troops went off to attack. At first it looked as if Boxer was going to stop the attack without trouble. He had a goliath at his natural, with 3 factories on lower ground creating even more goliaths as 2 of Elky's gols and a vulture arrived. However, extra vultures arrived, and the mine upgrade completed for Elky. They were able to place mines near the factories, serious hurting the first group of gols out of the factories. The eventual arrival of even more goliaths, and SCVs coming down by dropship, were able to finally chase Elky back to his main.
The attack was unable to finish off Boxer's expand, but it had still helped even the game. Boxer was prevented from mining from his natural for a long time, and Elky had been able to start mining from his own natural during that time. He also had 3 facts running on the lower ground, as well as dropship tech.
Elky continued to attack Boxer, this time using his newly made dropship. Boxer was not expecting an attack in his main so quickly, so the 3 vult + 1 goliath were able to kill quite a few SCVs before they were stopped. However, Boxer got Elky back in the same way, but with significantly more firepower. 2 dropships containing 4 goliaths each quickly retaliated, completely sweeping Elky's main of SCVs. Elky was just barely able to stop them from destroying the command center, by hastily ferrying units up using his 1 dropship.
Elky was eager to get Boxer back for the attack on his main, and assembled a force to push by ground. 3 tanks and 3 goliaths went initially, while reinforcements streamed in from the factories on the ground. This attack was repelled without much trouble by Boxer's tanks on the ground, and the 2 dropships still containing many goliaths. After this, both players settle down to do what they need; Elky recovering, Boxer preparing to attack.
Both players restarted the fighting with drops. The different was that Boxer had 4 ship force of death, while Elky was sending 1 ship of vultures to do some minor harassment. Surprisingly, the two different payloads did a similar amount of SCV damage. Boxer abandoned his main, leaving the vultures to tear up his SCVs. He focused on his goliath/tank in Elky's main, which did the same, as well as tear up many buildings. Elky expanded to the 11:00 natural, brushing off the destruction of his main as something inevitable.
Depite having mechanic units still tearing up his main base, Elky sent another force of his own units by ground. Once again, Elky was easily stopped. Boxer appeared determined to stop the game off only his natural expansion, as he had not tried to resupply his main with more SCVs. Instead, 4 ships took another load of mechanic units into Elky's main to join up with the units already there. They cleaned out the main, and set up above Elky's tanks on the low ground. Elky was forced to lift his factories and move them back into safer territory.
With nothing left to do in the main, Boxer switched targets. A part of the force in Elky's main was moved down to attack Elky's nat. They were moved to the north east of Elky's nat, where tank fire did not reach. Elky was forced to lift off his command center at his natural.
Despite being nearly dead, Elky did not give up. He still had command centers at 11:00(this guy always has CCs building somewhere) and at the 11:00 natural. Boxer has no desire to drag out his victory. His dropships were there as soon as they were done taking care of business at the natural. With nothing else left, Elky took his remaining few tanks and SCVs to attack Boxer's nat. It was easily stopped, and Elky conceded the game.
Boxer outplayed Elky once more....... -_-;; He's really on a roll
Boxer is now on a 10-0 Ongamenet winning streak (9-0 in the Starleague, the other 1 win is from his last Challenge League game). If I combine his records for the current KPGA tour, and the current Starleague, I believe he is 17-2.......... The finals vs. Reach will be interesting indeed!
