EPT![[image loading]](/staff/Tadzio/GOMS3/aiclassic3w.png)
Banner thanks to Pachi
Both of last Sunday's matches were between teammates, the first
Flash and 
HoeJJa, and the second pitted 
Shuttle and Hwasin. There wasn't much hope for HoeJJa coming into his match with Flash, but he gave an excellent effort, and showed remarkable form in the first game of the night. Flash, of course, was as amazing as we've come to expect from him. Shuttle vs Hwasin was a much sloppier series, and its outcome was in doubt up until the final moments of game 3. The series between teammates was clearly an emotional one for Shuttle, as at the end, he looked weepy-eyed and even a little shamed. On to the battle reports!Results
Ro16 - Day 2
Flash vs HoeJJa
+ Show Spoiler [results] +
Shuttle vs Hwasin
+ Show Spoiler [results] +
Recommended Game
+ Show Spoiler +
Ro16 - Day 2
Flash vs HoeJJa+ Show Spoiler [results] +
Flash > Hoejja
Flash > Hoejja
Flash > Hoejja
Shuttle vs Hwasin+ Show Spoiler [results] +
Hwasin > Shuttle
Shuttle > Hwasin
Shuttle > Hwasin
Shuttle > Hwasin
Shuttle > Hwasin
Recommended Game
+ Show Spoiler +
Flash vs HoeJJa Game 1 on God's GardenHoeJJa spawned in blue at 2 while FlaSh got cross positions at the bottom right in pink. Clearly knowing HoeJJa's game he opened with an aggressive 8 rax in the middle.
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![[image loading]](http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/4127/flash1e.jpg)
HoeJJa is the clear underdog here and would be looking to gain an edge over his teammate with the build orders, either rushing or attempting an ambitious economic build. FlaSh clearly knew his opponent and inflicted some very heavy damage with his bunker rush. HoeJJa responded to the rush with drones but couldn't stop the bunker from completing and was forced to use his drones to prevent FlaSh from reinforcing.
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![[image loading]](http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/8030/flash2y.jpg)
Although he kept only 2 marines in the bunker he was forced to take 9 drones off mining, 5 of which died. That was extremely damaging to his economy early on, leaving him with 2 bases but only 9 drones to mine them. The inevitable vulture swiftly cleared up HoeJJa's 10 lings as FlaSh expanded to his back natural. FlaSh opted for speed vultures and an attempted runby which was smoothly blocked by HoeJJa with fast hydralisks and a sunken colony. However on 2 bases apiece and with FlaSh getting a fast armoury to defend against any threat from the air he was at a clear advantage. HoeJJa teched to lair and added a spire while taking his back natural expansion, although still with a very low drone saturation. Recognising his economic advantage FlaSh turtled up and surprised the commentators by adapting into mnm despite his fast armoury. Behind and playing to his strengths HoeJja rushed to hive off of 3 bases and 3 gas with no intention of contesting map control or taking another expansion until his fast defilers were out. FlaSh contained him and besieged his lurker defence with tanks but was eventually pushed back by defilers working with lurkers and zerglings, however FlaSh just pulled back to a wider contain, microing out of each swarm while continuing to take kills and taking his natural himself.
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![[image loading]](http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/7726/flash3z.jpg)
HoeJJa exploited the size of the map to start sending small groups of zerglings, lurkers and defilers around the main terran ball, disrupting circulation and damaging FlaSh. Although his main ball was uncontested, apart from being plagued over and over, his natural expansion was repeatedly pressured by lurkers under dark swarm. HoeJJa showed some truly impressive defiler usage to match FlaSh over and over on equal bases. However FlaSh stopped HoeJJa from expanding by excellent dropship harassment. God's Garden forces a zerg to take another main base late game while denying the same to Terran and although he continued to push FlaSh's army around and score small victories he was unable to stop the dropships from destroying his first two expansion attempts at bottom right and his third at the top left. HoeJJa took the natural to top left and held it with 7 lurkers but made the mistake of pushing out to confront FlaSh's army. FlaSh microed well, getting a wide concave on the exposed army, and destroyed HoeJJa's army at the top left while a drop killed all the drones at his back natural.
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![[image loading]](http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/466/flash4.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://img55.imageshack.us/img55/7684/flash45.jpg)
With his weak 3 base economy broken and barely hanging onto map control HoeJJa GGed.
It was a good game and HoeJJa demonstrated some of the best defiler usage I've seen, holding his own against FlaSh on equal bases and a low drone count with extremely effective dark swarms and plagues. Had he not been devastated by the rush it would have been a more even game.
Flash vs HoeJJa Game 2 on Heartbreak RidgeFlaSh got orange at 3 while HoeJJa got white at nine. Again knowing with certainty that HoeJJa would fast expand he sent out one of his starting 4 scvs to go 8 rax at 6 o clock. This build would be extremely vulnerable to any fast pool, his barracks out of position for defence and his main completely empty, but FlaSh was evidently sufficiently sure of his read on his opponent to risk it. HoeJJa saw FlaSh's scouting scv come from a weird angle and immediately scouted towards the barracks, seeing the first marine on its way. However it didn't matter, the drones were immediately sent to defend the natural but were blocked by a supply depot placed in the choke. A bunker went down behind it and there was simply nothing HoeJJa could do.
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![[image loading]](http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/968/flash5.jpg)
He sold his natural at the last moment and headed towards hydralisks to break out but the damage was done, a 1 base, 1 hatchery zerg isn't going to do much. FlaSh floated his barracks into HoeJJa's main, removing any chance of HoeJJa catching him by surprise. FlaSh countered the fast hydralisks with 2 factories and double upgraded vultures, buying a lot of time with mines and forcing HoeJJa to play defensively or risk losing his drones to harass. FlaSh built up his mech army and took his natural, forcing HoeJJa to go allin or be at an unwinnable economic deficit. HoeJJa massed his army, morphed half into lurkers and attempted to push towards the minefield. FlaSh combined mines with goliath range for an unorthadox defence, sniping overlords with lethal consequences.
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![[image loading]](http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/2729/flash6.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/6854/flash7.jpg)
HoeJJa tried his allin anyway and GGed as the mines wiped out his army.
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![[image loading]](http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/9734/flash8.jpg)
This was a very effective cheese build, forcing HoeJJa to play 1 base then scouting his 1 base tech with the floating barracks. His goliath mine combination was a nice touch but to be honest the game was over before it started.
Shuttle vs Hwasin Game 1 on God's GardenThe vod of this game broke a few minutes in. References to the first game in later games suggest Shuttle attempted some kind of ambitious goon break and failed. Hwasin won.
GG?
Shuttle vs Hwasin Game 2 on Heartbreak RidgeShuttle opened with brown at 9 while Hwasin got yellow at 3. Sending out his 5th probe he proxied a gateway near Hwasin.
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![[image loading]](http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/4308/shuttle1.jpg)
Hwasin played cautiously, scouting for proxies and finding the gateway. However his barracks was sufficiently late that he was forced to make a second while Shuttle stole his gas. The building placement gave Hwasin no gaps to exploit and outmicro zealots and he lost several marines before eventually regaining control of his base. By this point Shuttle had his cybernetics core up and range on its way. Shuttle and Hwasin engaged in a micro war by his proxy gateway, Shuttle attempting to buy time for his 2nd dragoon to finish by harassing the spread out marines.
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![[image loading]](http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/3963/shuttle2.jpg)
He won the micro war, his dragoon finishing a second before the gateway went down, and Hwasin was forced to build a bunker and expand. Dragoons with range besieged the bunker and very nearly killed it which would have ended the game.
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![[image loading]](http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/3961/shuttle3.jpg)
However scvs saved it and a gang of 4 repaired it constantly until the tank eventually finished to push them back. Shuttle's own expansion was up seconds later and his third followed immediately along with observers. Shuttle proceeded to tech up off just 2 gateways while powering his economy, building up for the end game. Hwasin went for 4 factories with a starport before taking his own third, opting for a middle build between timing attack and counter expansion. I don't like this at all because it gives Shuttle as much time as he likes to get to do his late game protoss macro thing. Shuttle's observers saw this and he just moved up to 6 bases while massing gateways and Hwasin was in really bad shape by the start of the late game. Shuttle did an ineffectual recall but was back at 200/200 almost immediately and was sufficiently confident to take the centre expansion as well as the top left. The players reached a standoff at the 12 mineral only and although Hwasin's slow push and mass tanks eventually secured the area Shuttle was again, immediately at 200/200 again with 3 arbiters.
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![[image loading]](http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/9093/shuttle4.jpg)
Shuttle went for a mass hallucination recall for lulz and recalled his army on top of Hwasin's base at 12. The nearby tanks cleaned it up with almost no losses. Hwasin's wall of tanks eventually pushed into the middle expansion and the top left, splitting the map evenly, but in doing so he spread himself too widely. The only thing that had been keeping him in the game against the much richer protoss had been his abuse of tanks and mines in narrow chokes. Shuttle suicided army after army into Hwasin.
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![[image loading]](http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/9317/shuttle5.jpg)
From 200 psi against 160 supply he went to 140 vs 140, only to be back at 200 a second later. His 30 gateways completed their round of production and he hit Hwasin with a staggering 42 zealots.
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![[image loading]](http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/6307/shuttle6.jpg)
With Shuttle fighting a war of attrition and outproduction there was nothing Hwasin could do. This is a screenshot of most of one of the two armies Shuttle sent at him. It pretty much explains it better than words.
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![[image loading]](http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/5818/shuttle7.jpg)
Hwasin lost his 12 expansion and GGed.
Hwasin's build was bad here. He caught himself in a middle ground between timing attack and lategame upgrades and expansion, suceeding at neither. Shuttle did as every Protoss loves to do, rushing to arbiters, 5 bases and mass gateways completely unharassed.
Game 3 was on Outsider. Shuttle got green at 6 while Hwasin got pink at 1. Shuttle opted for a zealot to wall the ramp with a fast citadel but the scv got in and scouted it. Shuttle cancelled his citadel and instead fast expanded. Hwasin predicted this and opted for a 2 factory rush build with a fast academy just in case Shuttle stuck with his build. Despite Shuttle's very clever probe jumping tricks to scout it he was still unable to block the rush. Shuttle abandoned his natural and took both of his safer natural expansions while harassing with his namesake shuttles. Hwasin locked his ramp down with an extremely tight contain which shuttle was unable to break, despite excellent reaver use, although he was able to substantially weaken it.
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![[image loading]](http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/2007/shuttle8.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/4584/shuttle9.jpg)
Shuttle attempted to break it again with 2 shuttles, filled with 4 zealots and 2 reavers. Despite there only being 3 tanks which were tightly packed he failed entirely, losing 4 zealots, a shuttle and a reaver. However, as in the first game, his macro continued to surge ahead, this time accompanied by reaver harassment which was rather more successful than his attempts to use them against the contain. Realising that Hwasin had over committed to the contain but couldn't counterattack up the ramp with it Shuttle elevatored his army into the middle of the map and rushed into Hwasin's natural using zealot bombs and nice reaver micro to overwhelm the defences and massacre the scvs. Taking a 4th base and upping to 8 gateways he completely outmacroed Hwasin who couldn't even mine from his third because of the threat of the reaver shooting across the mineral line. As in the second game Shuttle just broke out with brute force and attrition, overwhelming a contain made of everything lame Terran had to offer, tanks, firebat bunkers, blocking buildings and mines.
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![[image loading]](http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/5315/shuttle10.jpg)
Hwasin lamed up his natural, holding the key to that third of the map in a single defensive line and desperately clinging to the game with his 4 factories against Shuttle's 12 gateways. In an attempt to lose the game Shuttle refused to defend the mineral line of his expansion at 7, getting it raided by vultures every 30 seconds for the duration of the game.
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![[image loading]](http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/8846/shuttle11.jpg)
Hwasin's vultures competed with Shuttle's reavers in a constant war of harassment and held Hwasin in the game for far longer than they should have. His vultures massacred the probes at the mineral only over and over and killed every single probe at the 7 base and then actually managed to kill the nexus too.
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![[image loading]](http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/3827/shuttle12.jpg)
Hwasin actually got ahead of Shuttle in supply in the middle but couldn't secure his expansions at the top left against shuttles and recalls. Hwasin spent his timing window moving his army the long distance between his bases by land to react to the harassment and Shuttle used the lapse to retake his bases and resume the macro advantage. Another recall shut down another of Hwasin's expansion attempts and Hwasin was forced to choose between saving his main base and pushing the attack before he lost all chance of success. When the dust settled Hwasin was on 101 supply with his main secure but on fire and his army at Shuttle's ramp while Shuttle was on 99 psi. However refusing to stop the attack Shuttle recalled Hwasin's main base again, leaving his own undefended.
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![[image loading]](http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/2156/shuttle13.jpg)
Hwasin again split his army between attack and defence, leaving himself with too few units to save himself or destroy Shuttle. A round of production hit Hwasin's army with over a control group of zealots and dragoons while Hwasin had no factories to compete.
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![[image loading]](http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/7237/shuttle14.jpg)
Seconds later the supply difference was 95 psi to 31 supply and another recall ended it.
GG
This game was decided by the map and style of the players. Outsider gives a macro player 4 quick bases and gives a player with good reaver harassment a field day. A terran player simply cannot respond to recalls or drops on this map because of the long distances between the middle of the map and a late game corner expansion. This map suits Shuttle's style perfectly and it is only because of his awful response to the vultures (just 2 cannons would have saved him 15 minutes of gameplay) that he struggled so hard.
![[image loading]](/staff/Tadzio/GOMS3/GOMbracket16.png)
This week's round of 16 games promise to have a very different feel to them. Not only will there be a lack of teammates begrudgingly eliminating one another, but this'll be the only week that won't feature a "near-Bonjwa" in one of its sets.
The first match of the night will be between MVP and Berserker.
MVP is a brand new Woongjin Stars Terran who's been making some waves in the GOM tournament thus far. He's only been playing in proleague for the past eight months and in that time he's failed to impress, posting a 5-13 record for his team. Still, he's made it this far... In GOM S2, MVP was eliminated by the well liked, but nonetheless fairly weak ZvT player,
FireFist. In GOM S3, MVP has done much better, shocking everyone by eliminating Stork and Shine in their best match-ups. Assuming you're not a Liquibet fanatic, MVP's progress this season will be a pleasant surprise, but as was the case with Shuttle in S1, it's difficult to believe that his progress is sustainable.Enter Berserker. Better known to foreigners as Iris, Berserker is an accomplished CJ Entus veteran who never quite made it to gold in any individual league. A strong terran in all matchups, Berserker was particularly celebrated during his prime for his robust TvT, where between 01/2006 and 09/2007, he went 31-10. These days, Berserker is much less intimidating, but, like
Hwasin, he's still a terror in TvZ. Unfortunately for Berserker, this match concerns TvT, where he's been inconsistent lately. Berserker could not have rationally hoped for a less accomplished Ro16 opponent, but MVP has nothing to lose and that makes him a potential hazard. The second match of the night will feature Tempest and MenSol[ZerO].
Tempest is the KT MagicNs Protoss that eliminated
Jaedong with a powerful timing attack on Medusa in GOM S2. Since then, his PvZ hasn't exactly been stellar, though he did eliminate Hul[Shield] in two straight games on his way to the round of 16. If recent trends are of any concern to Tempest, then MenSol[ZerO] will not be a zerg he wants to face. ZerO's 2009 has been a breakout year in ZvP. Not only is his ZvP 8-3 this year, but he qualified for the OSL Ro16 through the match-up. The Woongjin Stars zerg hasn't been playing pushovers, either. He's beaten
Bisu, Stork, and Kal (aka Goojila) during this stretch, proving he's a dangerous opponent for any protoss at the moment. If Tempest manages to defeat ZerO, it won't be as surprising as his elimination of Jaedong last season, but it'll still be a massive upset.Odds n' Ends
Trozz clues us in on a new deal that GOM's made with Blizzard. Click here to read up on the development.
See you in the Live Report Thread!
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