We die among the stars tonight [OSL Ro8-2]

The two combatants open across from each other on the Zerg favored map Fantasy II. Flash orders his slave SCV’s to mine at 7, Gaema Gowon, while Jaedong mutates his bugs at 1 ,Nostalgia.. Jaedong opts for a 9 pool and uses the gas trick to squeeze an extra drone out. Flash opens with his standard 1 rax. Flash’s scouting SCV passes by the Zerglings as they depart for Flash, thus giving him ample time to send a couple SCVs to block his ramp and prevent major damage.

Flash shows us some smooth ramp micro and easily defends the onslaught. Meanwhile Jaedong has planted 2 additional hatcheries and entered 3 hatch mode. Flash starts a Command Center inside his main, ready to float down below, while pumping some marines incase more lings come. Once Flash gets his first medics out, the small MnM army cruises into the nat and clears the Zerglings ready for his new Command Center.

Jaedong adds a Spire and pressures Flash with Zerglings, forcing him to stay home. Flash fast techs to Starport, before building a single Turret. Things look grim for Flash as mutas head towards his Natural; which is defended by 2 Turrets. Jaedong expands to the RoV (5) Main while harassing some more. Jaedongs harass is top notch, slaughtering many helpless SCV and a medic. The harass is painful, but not deadly – Flash is still in this game.

The first lurkers for Jaedong are now morphing on his bridges, but Flash has his first Science Vessel out in time to prevent he lurkers from running in. Flash shows us that Science Vessels are the best counter to Mutalisk and irradiates one in Jaedong’s flock, forcing Jaedong to separate them and to stop his harass. While the Mutalisks recover health, Jaedong reinforces his small lurker force with Zerglings and another Lurker.

Jaedong tries to pressure with his forces, but there is just too many units in Flash’s natural and he is forced to retreat. Flash seizes this opportunity to push out with his forces and push the Zerg Master back. Jaedong’s Hive finshes and he immediately starts his defiler mound, and has about 10 Lurkers come for reinforcement. Flash continues to add Vessels and Tanks to his ball which is becoming more and more scary by the second.

Flash sends his Vessels to irradiate Jaedongs burrowed lurkers which are residing on the RoV cliff area – only to lose one to Scourges and some MnM due to sloppy control. Jaedong delays the impending fight between the armies long enough to get his defiler tech out. The moment those defiler are added to Jadongs army he heads straight for Flash’s main. He burrows his lurkers like a wall preventing Flash from returning home for defense, while a mass of Zerglings, Lurkers and Mutalisks storm into Flash’s nat.

Flash manages to defend using irradiate, but another force is already on the move for Jaedong. Jaedong expands to the Xeno Sky Main (11) and tries to sneak some lurkers onto the Gaema Gowon natural cliff, despite not getting any SCV kills, Flash’s sloppy control means that the Lurkers score plenty of rine kills before dieing. Meanwhile, Jaedongs new army throws themselves at Flash;s army that was stranded in the middle.




Flash’s ball retreats quickly, trying to minimize the damage. But somehow, Jaedong has 2 lurkers planted right outside his natural – rest assured that those two lurkers scored a good 8 mnm kills before dieing. Then Jaedong came at him again, this time with swarm. This forced Flash army north – towards Xeno Sky but was interrupted by a waves of Zerglings and swarm which pushed him back into the lurkers. Thankfully the swarm wore off, and Flash somehow survived.

Flash launched another initiative, and moved directly into the middle of the map. Once onto the high ground outside the Nostalgia bridges, Jaedong placed 2 perfect swarms forcing Flash to retreat. Flash edged towards Jaedong’s main, but was constantly repelled by Lurkers, Zerglings and Swarm.

He needed to shut down that Xenosky expansion before a 4th gas could be secured, so a small raiding party was dispatched via Dropship to decimate the resident drones and destroy the hatchery. Despite the best efforts of a few valiant Lurkers, the raiding party killed everything the expansion had to offer. Flash finally took his mineral only, about 18 minutes into the game. Flash’s dwindling ball was being pushes around the map by Jaedong’s Zergling-Lurker-Defiler combo which is ever so potent.

Jaedong got a nice plague off on Flash’s cornered forces and quickly followed that up with a wave of Scourges launched at his Vessels. Flash lost about 3 of his Vessels putting him in big trouble. Meanwhile, Jaedong had expanded to the RoV Natural, no sooner had it hatched, Flash had a dropship send out a raiding party to dispatch of it. This time Jaedong was prepared, and a series of Lings and Lurkers cleared the drop.

Flash had been doing some expanding of his own and had taken the 6 island. But Jaedong was not one to let such things go away unpunished, and had a small fleet of Mutalisks proceed to rape the island expansion. Jaedong pushed Flash’s army back once more, just as Flash sent a small force to clear the mutalisks from 6. Flash knows that in order to win, he needs to take down the RoV main and natural. He pushes towards the base, but can’t get close due to a defensive swarm.




Jaedong launches everything he has at Flash’s army and in a few quick moments, Flash’s entire army is butchered mercilessly. Despite a successful drop to stop Jaedong’s newest expansion at 11, it was only a matter of time before the freshly build Ultralisks were pounding away at Flash’s natural. With a decimated army and a burning base, there was nothing else he could do but concede the game. After flailing around for a couple seconds he typed gg.

At the end of the day, the late 3rd expansion cost Flash the game. Sure, there were a couple micro mistakes which didn’t exactly help, but the 3rd expansion came so late, and even later was the 3rd gas. By the time he had taken his 3rd his main was almost dry, and by the time his island was up both main and natural were essentially empty. Jaedong cruised on 3 bases for the most of the match, and once he got to 4 it was all over.

- As a recent Flash convert, I had high hope for Flash to take the series. But this map is Fantasy II – a map which heavily favors Zerg over Terran. Flash should be able to make a game of it here, I mean he did against Jaedong on Blue Storm, but I don’t see him taking this game

VOD

- Flash’s army was like a ball of string, and Jaedong was a cat. Jaedong toyed with that ball the entire game, and whittled it smaller and smaller until it reached Breaking point. It was tossed around the map and it never really got to do any damage.

- Flash lost this because he delay his 3rd expansion for a long time. Jaedong was cruising on three gas for the most part of the game. After Jaedong attack his main for the first time, Flash should have taken his 3rd expansion and try to out produce his adversary. Instead, he stayed on 2 base and waited until he had run out of minerals in both bases to expand. Jaedong stayed calm and fended off the ball until he had 4 gas running at which point he just broke through Flash with ease.

The decisive map would be the Protoss haven Katrina. Fortunately, neither player decided to change race to Protoss, so we have ourselves a decently balanced map in which out Terran and Zerg combatants can do battle. Flash opened at 3 while Jaedong takes 6. Interestingly enough, Jaedong was at 6 the last time the two fought here.



Jaedong does the standard 12 hatch to natural, and Flash does the standard 14 CC. In a not so surprising move, Jaedong builds his third hatch before pool, and builds it to the right of the Geyser for faster mining. Flash erects a quick factory, suggesting that he wants to play mech again on this map. As the first factory finishes, Flash starts a second. Just as the second Factory starts, Jaedong starts his Spire – atleast he won’t be playing Hydra this time. Jaedong sends a small strike force of Zerglings at Flash, but thanks to the power of the Terran wall and repair, those Zerglings didn’t do a thing.



The first 6 goliaths walked off the production line just in time for the trademark Mutalisk harass. Flash had next to no turrets, and was forced to defend solely with Goliath. But, the mammoth range that Goliaths have proved enough to repel Jaedong’s harass. Jaedong played it cool and expanded twice – once to his center expo and once to 7. Jaedong continued to try and find gaps in the Terran base, but alas he could not. Those Goliaths were doing an excellent job of stopping Jaedong’s mutalisks.

Jaedong started to churn out a few hydralisks, but was largely focused on producing mutalisks. He added a second spire for upgrades and committed himself to a mutalisk vs goliath war. Jaedong mobilized his Hydralisk army and sent them straight at Flash. They tore down the walling barracks and supply depo – but were repelled by the newest addition to Flash’s army – siege tanks.



Flash’s wall was down, but Jaedong was unable to exploit it. He teched to Hive, and Flash moved out to take his third expansion with a floating Command Center. Once the Hive was finished, Jaedong started a greater spire for guardians. He would use the ancient strategy of Guardian/Hydralisk to break the Terran army. Once Jaedong’s guardians were finished, the killed a handful of SCVs at Flash’s center expo – and Flash moved around the map and headed for Jaedong.

A battle of epic proportions ensured as a massive army of Guardians, Mutalisks and Hydralisks melted against Flash’s ball of metal. After losing the major confrontation, there was nothing Jaedong could do. Flash simply steamrolled ahead, destroying expansion after expansion, Hatchery after Hatchery. It was a sad moment. Jaedong realized that his OSL run was over.



It took him awhile to realize it, but who can blame him. He is the best Zerg in the world, and he was just eliminated from the OSL. Jaedong eventually conceded, and thus ended his title defense.



Flash looked invincible. Jaedong never could keep the number of his mech army under control with any form of mutalisk harass. Once again, the Mech army of Flash proved to be too much for Jaedong, and I don’t know what he could have done better. It seems as though Mech may be the build on choice on Katrina for a while now.

-The question on my mind was what would Flash do. Last time they played on this map he showed off a brilliantly executed mech build. Luckily for him, Jaedong tried to mix it up with Hydra and thus paid the price. This time Jaedong would no doubt play spire first, but what would Flash do?

VOD

- Flash did the exact same build as he did last time, and Jaedong played spire as expected. Jaedong never really could get any effective harass in, and thus couldn’t stop Flash’s mech army from growing exponentially. Even after a brilliant wall break with Hydras, he couldn’t get inside and do anything. Once Flash was comfortable, he just moved out and won easily.

- It was sad to see Jaedong stay for so long, but who could blame him. Flash had done what everyone thought was impossible – beat Jaedong. Indeed the next time they meet in the GSI both players will be eager to edge out the other and claim dominance over their rivalry. Katrina features as a map in the quarter finals and Baekmagoji favors mech – so Jaedong better talk to YellOw and learn how to counter mech before then.

Bisu had been tracking him for a week now. They had fought on the desolate area known as Katrina and Bisu’s forces won decisively. Somehow, General Much had escaped and fled. It had been one full week, and Much had finally arrived at his destination – his homeland Blue Storm. The Revolutionist was out for blood, revenge and passage. Only by defeating the General would he learn of the passage to the Semi-Finals. The Old General was fighting for his life, his back was against the wall and there was no way out. He must fight; lose and be slaughtered, win and be given another chance.

The General had founded a colony at 7 and rapidly began building in preparation for the Revolutionist’s arrival. He ordered one of his loyal probes to scan the area for Bisu. “Meow” said the probe as it glided off on its orders. Much had warped in a Gateway from Shakuras for him to use, he then quickly warped an assimilator and Cybernetics Core to use as well. He had a plan all in his head, he knew to win he must quickly tech.

Suddenly, sounds were heard over the radio - “Nya”, it was the scouting probe. The Revolutionist was here, and building an army at 1. The Revolutionist had followed the same path as himself, but Much was confident in his abilities. Much set his scientists to work on developing additional range for his Dragoons – which were now streaming out of his lone Gateway. The General quickly reasoned that additional recon was needed, and warped in a Robotics facility.

Peering through the small gap in the cliff face, a lone Dragoon spotted Bisu’s forces patrolling. Two dragoons were spotted, and he reasoned the threat was low. “Commence construction of another Nexus!” Demanded the General, “Meow” said the Probe in compliance. Soon, an observatory was warped in and Observers revealed the mysteries of the map to him. His mineral count started to rise as more and more minerals rolled in, thus he ordered 2 more gateways to make a total of 4.

A small observer was investigating the Revolutionists movements. Bisu’s army had moved forward to his mineral only. “Move the Dragoons into position” yelled the General as the metal spiders scurried across the mountains towards Bisu. “ATTACK!!” and his Dragoon regiment opened fire against Bisu’s warping Nexus. With the high ground advantage, victory was in sight.



Suddenly Bisu retreated his forces, “Victory!!” yelled the Dragoons as they stormed carelessly after them – ‘IT’S A TRAP!’ exclaimed Much, unfortunately the Dragoons didn’t listen. With beautiful co-ordination and structure the enemy forces were able to kill a zealot and fire a number of unanswered shots. Quickly realizing their folly, the forces retreated back onto the high ground but were over run by superior reinforcements.

The General’s 3rd base had already warped in, thankfully, but he had suffered a minor loss. Much ordered the fusion of high templar into Archons – and began using his Templar technology to its fullest extent. Something was wrong, something felt very, very wrong. He glanced back to his main base in disgust – a dark templar had ravaged his probe populous, no probe was given time to scream before exploding so no warning was given – all in all he lost about 8 probes to the Dark Templar of Bisu.

The Dark Templar caused much damage – and even managed to kill two valuable High Templar. Soon, part of Much’s army had arrived and dealt with the problem allowing his probes to return to work. The remainder of his army was left on top of his tallest mountain. It was a dragoon which first noticed movement in the distance. “BIIIIIIIIISSSUUUUUU!!” screamed the army – the Revolutionist forces were headed straight for him. They fought bravely, and killed off a few Dragoons – but were forced to retreat, giving up their high ground advantage.



Much to the delight of the General, Bisu retreated. “They must be weak! Follow!” yelled the General – the forces were reluctant but did as they were told. As soon as they had reach the Valley between the two mountains, Bisu attacked from the high ground. The resulting battle was ruthless – Dragoons, Archons and Zealots alike were shredded by the forces of the Revolutionist. The few survivors were chased down, and murdered.



Within a matter of seconds, the Revolutionist had opened fire on the Mineral Only Base. Much’s forces realized it was the end, as each of them gave their life in defense of the General. “STOP!” yelled Much, as he walked out onto the battle field, “Kill me and spare the others”, Bisu joined him on the battle field, drew his Psi Blade, and stabbed it through the old man’s heart.

The Battle was over.

Quite simply, Bisu out played Much in all aspects. His macro was better, his micro was better, his decision making was better and he was more focused. Much simply looked weak in this game, while Bisu looked like his old dominating self, welcome back Bisu.

-Much looked terrible last week, and had a lot to prove this time around. He will probably play standard and try to edge Bisu out in a solid upfront way. Bisu on the other hand will probably do the same, he probably realizes that in order for him to advance through this tournament he needs to have his solid play at its best. Thus, it will be a standard PvP game on Blue storm.

VOD

- Much was outplayed in every aspect imaginable. He made some stupid decisions when it came to engaging, as well as being sloppy on his micro. And I don’t get it – why merge an Archon when you know you opponent is goon heavy and Storm would be the better use of the Templar? Much is on his way down, as are the hope of CJ.

- Bisu played impressively, and it’s good to see that he’s bounced back and made it to the semi finals once again. I’m expecting big things from you Bisu!!

NONE!!

NONE!!

We find ourselves once again on Katrina, this probably won’t be as good as the first game tonight, but meh. Frozean opens at 3 while Luxury opened at 12. Lux went 12 hatch at nat into three hat before pool while Frozean decided that CC first is for noobs, and tried to be cool. Frozean walled off his entrance by building a supply depo, but once Luxury’s scouting overlord had left he canceled it and put down a second barracks.

As Luxury’s overlord crept North to check for an expansion, Frozean’s first marine headed towards Luxury’s base – as well as the majority of his scvs. Lux pulled a number of drones and tried ro prevent the rine from getting close. Frozean showed us what he learned in Marine Control 101 and dodges the drones nicely – and gets to the bunker in time.



Frozean looked good, until Luxury sends a ling counter straight for him. Within a matter of seconds, 5 lings rush into Frozeans empty main and rape the Marine reinforcements and kill some scvs. Frozeans attention is diverted, and Luxury picks off some of the SCVs that are attacking his main hatchery. Frozean just manages to fend off the Zerglings in his main – but this allows Lux the time to kill the bunk in his main.

Frozean returns the SCVs he has left to their mining duties, and fortifies his entrance with a bunker. Luxury starts his lair as Frozean starts his gas. Lux tries to scare Frozean with some ling feints, the lings also stop any scouts from coming out. Lux also starts his spire, and this game is quickly shaping up to look like the game last week.

Frozean moves out with a small mmf force – but Luxury has 4 creep colonies read – all which promptly are morphed into sunkens. Frozean doesn’t even get that far, he changes his mind half way and goes home. Lux builds a scouting muta, then drones hard – making Frozean invest in turrets. Both players expand – Lux to 9’s natural and Frozean to his natural.Once his drone numbers are satisfactory, Luxury continues to build mutalisks and the muta dancing begins. He flies around not taking shots at anything, then returns home.

Luxury has got a Hydralisk Den now, and is upgrading Lurkers. Frozean decides its time to move out, and does so with a decent size mmf force. Luxury plays it smart, and sends his large mob of Mutalisks over to Frozean’s newly built natural. Luxury easily kills the turrets, and Frozean suffers many SCV losses. Meanwhile, Frozean pushes on with his mmf army towards 9. Lux is there in a flash, and his mutalisks harass and stall the group for awhile. Once reinforcements arrive, Lux tries to take down the army with his muta’s – he doesn’t take it down, but comes out about even.

Lux starts his hive, as well as delaying the ball from getting to his natural. Lux harasses Frozeans main a bit more – and Frozean gets fed up, and launches a full scale assault on Luxury’s well protected main. And to nobody’s surprise…



He gets horribly raped. The blob of mutalisks proceed to decimate the turrets at Frozeans natural then Frozean gg’s.

After fending off the initial rush, it was an easy game for Luxury. The rush put Frozean way behind and Lux played it cool, and smart and found himself an easy ticket to the Semis.

- After last weeks rape, perhaps Frozean would try something similar to what he did against Jaedong. I wasn’t expecting much from this round to be honest, it should be over quick.

VOD

- Ok, it was still a rather long game, but it was all over after the initial rush failed. Frozean’s SCV/Rine allin looked to have clinched the game, until Luxury got those lings out and countered – brilliant move. That diverted the inexperienced Terran’s attention just enough for him to pick off the SCVs killing his main hatchery, then take down the bunker

- Dominating performance once against by Luxury, who now has a ticket to the semi finals. Too bad he won’t get to fashion his awesome ZvT next round, as his opponent is definitely going to be a protoss.

nope!

Nope!

So we’ve come to an historic game; the first ever PvP on Troy. Best (green) spawned at 11 while Stork the puppy eater (purple) spawned across the map at 5. Best opted to try an aggressive 2 gate strategy, which could be very well worth it on this map, while Stork opted for 1 gate core. Best obviously had his maphack on, as he scouted directed across the map and found Stork. Upon finding Stork he added a gas – perhaps he had only planned for non-cross position?

Stork followed up his fast tech with a robo, then a second gateway (and range) while Best just added a robo and range. So both players essentially arrived at the same point. Stork now added a Support bay and Observatory; best added a Support bay but only started it once Storks had completed. Both players were playing the same – but Stork was a few seconds ahead thanks to his faster tech. Both players got reavers out, and Stork added two more gateways to a total of 4.

Best decided to move out, seeing as he had superior troops due to his faster 2nd gate. As they crossed the mid point of the map one of Storks observers crossed paths with the raiding party – there would be no surprising Stork. Best also expanded as his force moved across the map. By this time, Stork’s expo was up and was ready to defend it with his life. Due to Stork not having a shuttle, Best was able to out micro him and come away victorious. However, reinforcements (with a reaver) meant that no real damage could be done. Best’s reinforcements were ready, with a newly built reaver – Best attacked. Stork pulled his probe and some VERY good reaver-shuttle micro won the battle for Best – and even managed to kill a large clump of defending probes.



Stork was worried, and warped a Shield Battery at his natural. The game reached a state of tranquility as both players focused on macro. Stork sent off a shuttle for harass and both players teched up to templar. Best too sent out a raiding shuttle – and somehow arrived before Stork’s. His drop scored some minor kills, about 4. Stork decided to back off with his Shuttle after probing Best with an observer.



Best went back inside and tried to get close, but could only fire shots at defending dragoons. Stork, then found a hole in Best’s defenses and sent his shuttle straight for the money. Best had a defensive cannon that just finished warping ready to defend – but Stork’s reaver was able to get off a shot which killed a good wad of probes before leaving.



Both players now had taken shots at each other, and Stork decided to move out and show Best how to pvp. Best went Iraqi on his ass, and dropped a reaver in Stork’s natural –killing a good amount of probes AND dropped dark templar into his main. Stork now had to win the fight at Best’s natural. With the high ground advantage and a surplus of Reavers, Best was able to win one of the better PvP fights I’ve seen in recent times. Meanwhile the sneaky Dark Templar had killed about 16 probes at Stork’s main – he was now severely behind.

After trying his luck one last time, Stork realizes that he couldn’t win and tapped out.

Brilliant game by Best. He capitalized on his unit advantage early on forcing Stork to defend with Probes; that allowed him to take a shot at them and gain an advantage. Then, with some nice reaver drops he extended that advantage. The dual drop as Stork moved out was just the icing on the cake – and made sure that Stork wasn’t coming back any time soon. I must commend Best’s reaver control this game, it was absolutely brilliant.

- Best is my favorite rookie, and a pvp machine at that. After last weeks loss, and Stork’s busy schedule, I expected Best to have practiced this map a lot and have a much stronger strategy on this map than Stork. Thus I expect him to be able to win this game, hopefully he has worked on his control since last week as that was arguably the defining feature of last weeks failure.

VOD

- Best certainly stepped up his control this time around, his reaver control was excellent and in my opinion clinched the game for him. Stork looked to be on the back foot the entire game despite having an earlier expansion and faster tech. Best’s timing was perfect as well – looked like he practiced this map to death and good on him for that.

- Stork played solidly as well, but, it was Best’s feel for the map and superior harass which stole the game away from Stork

So we come to the third and deciding set between these two pvp monsters. The map is Fantasy II, Best (orange) spawns at the Xeno Sky position (11) while Stork (red) spawns at Nostalgia (1). From these positions, Best may be at a disadvantage due to the much easier harass Stork can do – we’ll see how that pans out. Both players continue in the standard fashion – 1gate gas core. Stork does some fancy probe harass with his scouting probe – but it obviously does nothing but annoy Best. Both players add a robo after range.

Stork and Best now deviate from each other; Stork adds a gate while Best adds a support bay. However, the deviation isn’t much as Best adds a gate soon after the Bay and Stork adds a Support Bay after his gate. Best’s reaver comes out faster than Storks, and both armys come out to attack – they meet on the high ground outside storks base. Stork’s army is separated – allowing 5 goons of Best to kill a goon of Storks. However, as Best pushes towards the bridges, Stork’s reaver gets a shot off at the army and somewhat equalizes.

Best retreats and Stork gives chase, as Best’s reinforcements arrive both players dash for the high ground. Best shows great micro, and kills the shuttle and reaver of stork and wins the fight. Best looks to expand, while Stork adds a third gate. Best’s second reaver is out, and the shuttle heads towards Stork. The Reavers head toward Stork and Best attacks – once again showing perfect control he kills the defending goons and reaver.




Having lost his own reaver, he cannot press the attack – but Stork is defending with probes. Best has reaver reinforcements heading toward Stork, and his expo is online. The reaver begins to pound away at the defenders, then in a mismicro Stork snipes the shuttle leaving the reaver helpless, quelling the attack. Best tries to pursue his attack, but is pushed back by Stork’s goon and reaver.

Stork immediately takes his expansion and moves out with his army onto the high ground. Stork’s reaver coasts over into Best’s main from the high ground and fires a shot at the undefended probe line. Luckily for best, Scarab ai saves him from many probe losses. Stork goes in for a second raid only to find all the probes are gone. Best launches a counter raid, but has to micro against some defending goons. Meanwhile, Stork counters will a full scale attack on Best’s natural.



Stork kills the defending reaver, then retreats – while the Reaver in his main is dispatched of by the defenders without any probe kills. Stork gets his reaver into the attack, and presses forward again. Best manages to take down the Shuttle – but at a great expense. Still, he manages to push back storks forces – but the armies came out about even. Both players are happily running on 2 bases. And Best decides not to play aggressive and instead consolidate his position.





After a brief snippet of peace, Best and his legions are off on another attack. Stork defends his bridges heavily with his troops, while sending off his Shuttle to harass Best while he is away. Best moves around the map and sends his army up the Nostalgia side-ramp that leads into the natural. Stork has a scouting pylon there – so is immediately informed of the attackers new direction. Stork’s harassing reaver socres many many kills in Best’s main while Best is fiddling around with his army. In fact the reaver gets a good 18 kills.

Best presses forward with his army, but the ramp means that Stork can defend with relative ease, and Best is put very very far behind. Stork moves out, knowing he has a insurmountable lead. Miraculously, Best has macroed a fearsome army, so he backs off and takes a third base and sends in another reaver raid. This time, it kills 3 defending goons and a nice wad of probes before retreating. Stork returns for a third raid, this time losing a shuttle and his two reavers – but for many dragoon kills.

Stork’s army is impressive, and controls the center of the map. Best takes 12 – but within seconds Stork drops a reaver stopping the expansion attempt. Stork then tries to get a 4th raid in, but is denied by a reaver and a few zealots. Both armies mobilize, and prepare for a war. Stork takes the high ground and Best attacks. With the high ground advantage Best’s army is crushed and Stork marches his forces forward killing everything in his path. He forces Best’s army down into Gaema Gowon. Best has a small army of Archon/Zeal, but against pure goon and reaver that soon melts.

Best has nothing left, and is forced to concede his ticket to the semi-finals to stork.



What an entertaining game. Best gained a rather large advantage and looked very strong until he tried to press the attack through the Nostalgia ramp. Stork fully abused the vulnerability of the Xeno Sky main to drops throughout the mid games. In a way, I felt very sorry for Best – as a large part of his loss came about due to the security of the Nostalgia main and the exposure of his own main. Unfortunately, no one cares. Best will have to fight his way through ODT once more, and Stork gets a nice seat in the Semis.

- After last game, Best will be riding high on confidence. After last game, he looks like he could take this game. And I have every confidence that he will do really well. Stork on the other hand, is looking somewhat flimsy against Best’s fearsome macro, and now reaver control. This will be a big test for him.

VOD

- Best secured himself a very nice lead, then it was shattered by the terrible positions and a mismicro early on. Stork played the defender really well, and just managed to live through Best’s onslaught. The exposure of the Xeno Sky main meant Stork could abuse that and get himself a very nice comeback victory.

- My heart was breaking for Best, as he thoroughly deserved this game. Sadly, he tripped over the final hurdle and allowed Stork to catch up and ultimately win the race. Best looked really good however, and has earned himself quite a reputation now. He should put on a strong showing next OSL.