WEEK 8
All Kills A Plenty
Seriously They're Everywhere
This past week there were four matches! Whoa. More games! More fun!
Unfortunately there ended up being a similar amount of games as a normal week when three of them ended in all kills. That doesn't mean that the quality of games suffered, at least. This batch has some of the closest games in the league yet, complete with awesome efforts from foreign favorites Thorzain, NaNiwa, Fenix, and Moon.
As the season winds down each week becomes more important, each match separating the men from the boys with very real consequences for failing to meet expectations. There is still just enough play left to allow for more than a few terror-filled moments from fans and players alike, as teams chances hinge on single games and battles.
Here we are. Two weeks to go.
You can find more info on Liquipedia
Two weeks to determine who goes home, and who remains.
Unfortunately there ended up being a similar amount of games as a normal week when three of them ended in all kills. That doesn't mean that the quality of games suffered, at least. This batch has some of the closest games in the league yet, complete with awesome efforts from foreign favorites Thorzain, NaNiwa, Fenix, and Moon.
As the season winds down each week becomes more important, each match separating the men from the boys with very real consequences for failing to meet expectations. There is still just enough play left to allow for more than a few terror-filled moments from fans and players alike, as teams chances hinge on single games and battles.
Here we are. Two weeks to go.
You can find more info on Liquipedia
Two weeks to determine who goes home, and who remains.
Here is the tale of two groups.
Week 8
Venus Group
vs
F.United against SlayerS
by confusedcrib
+ Show Spoiler [Overall results] +
SocceR < Bel'shir Beach > Taeja - 3.5/5
Moon < Tal'Darim Altar > Taeja - 3/5
ThorZaIN < Antiga Shipyard > Taeja - 3.5/5
NaNiwa < Terminus RE > Taeja - 2/5
F.United 0 < 4 SlayerS
Venus Group
vs
F.United against SlayerS
by confusedcrib
+ Show Spoiler [Overall results] +
SocceR < Bel'shir Beach > Taeja - 3.5/5
Moon < Tal'Darim Altar > Taeja - 3/5
ThorZaIN < Antiga Shipyard > Taeja - 3.5/5
NaNiwa < Terminus RE > Taeja - 2/5
F.United 0 < 4 SlayerS
F.United opened with WeMadeFox's SocceR, a player desperate to prove himself in SC2. SocceR went up against the often underrated Taeja. Taeja used a nice one rax expand into quick four rax pressure to get ahead, following up his huge lead with a two base timing to end the game. The game wouldn't have been all too spectacular, but Taeja used some of that trademark SlayerS tactical brilliance to make the game very exciting.
F.United was hoping to show off Moon's talent against Taeja and sent him out next. Moon executed a fantastic hold of Taeja's hellion marine timing while teching to lair. Moon had a great idea in going for a baneling bust counter, but Taeja's banshee and drop hit Moon's unprotected main at the same time. Both players held, each taking serious damage in the process. The game went macro, with Moon making some great decisions capable of beating any lesser player. Despite having a huge advantage, as many Zergs have learned through defeat since the beta, it only takes one bad engagement to lose the whole game.
The One Bad Engagement
Moon got over confident at the twenty minute mark and made the fatal engagement, losing to Taeja.
F.United decided it was time to throw out our dream boy ThorZaIN to shut down Taeja. Slayers_Banshee got nearly 20 SCV kills on an unprepared Thorzain, giving Taeja a huge lead early on. Thorzain went for the standard viking harass followup.
Just Your Standard Three Viking Harass
Unfortunately, as usually happens with cute things like this, he lost all of his vikings in the retreat. Taeja hit a brilliant off-the-cuff timing to turn a lucky win from a banshee into one worthy of respect.
Finally, it all came down to our Swedish super hero NaNiwa to prevent an all kill. Things went smoothly for both players through the opening phase of the game all the way up until Taeja was able to use a huge drop to eliminate Naniwa's third base for free. Naniwa ventured into the middle of the map, down but definitely not out. After he caught a few of Taeja's units out of position he got over confident and went for a doomed attack.
Not Such a Good Engagement
The loss was impossible to recover from, and the coveted all-kill went to Taeja.
What to Learn
Game One: Strong Micro and tactical play can turn a solid opener into a win
Game One: Strong Micro and tactical play can turn a solid opener into a win
In Taeja's game against Soccer, he went for four barracks pressure to follow up his one barracks fast expand. This pressure opener is solid, allowing for gas to be allocated to fast medivacs, and is often used by the SlayerS team. Taeja's micro and tactics turned the solid opener into a win as he split up his marines to kill five of Soccer's stalkers for almost no marine loss. A pressure opener turned into a fatal blow, as great micro from Taeja lead to an abundance of probe and unit kills, essentially giving him the game with a strong two base follow up.
Game Two: The importance of well timed transitions
In game two, Moon outplayed Taeja in my eyes, using great decision making to drive his economy while containing Taeja's. Moon knew he was ahead, and was itching to remax with infestors and brood lords to take the game. He sacked all of his army for almost nothing, and Taeja was able to sprint in and kill Moon before his reinforcements were in a good enough position to take back the lead. Had Moon timed his transitions better, or sacked his main army slower, he could have easily won with infesters out.
Game Three: Don't be afraid to deviate from your timing
In Taeja's game against Thorzain, he got a huge lead early on with his cloaked banshees. Thorzain's follow-up viking harass managed to equalize economies though, meaning that had Taeja waited to hit a pre-determined timing attack, it probably would have failed and given Thorzain a chance to come back. Instead, immediately after killing Thorzain's vikings, Taeja followed up with a timing that he knew Thorzain wouldn't be able to stop.
Game Four: Zealot Archon has a small timing window, and don't get greedy
Naniwa had some great macro in the final game of the evening. Protoss was ahead in almost every single aspect, economy and tech, but threw it away in a greedy maneuver. After losing his third base, Naniwa felt further behind than he was, and after catching a few units in the middle of the map, he went for a poorly executed attack that cost him the game. His Zealot Archon composition without storm got absolutely rolled by Taeja's MMMG. Had Nani waited for colossus and just kept expanding, it could have been a very different game. also his 2/2 upgrades finished right after the engagement, which isn't good either.
vs
Most Valuable against Prime
by bobq
+ Show Spoiler [Ratings] +
Most Valuable against Prime
by bobq
+ Show Spoiler [Ratings] +
Tails < Xel’Naga Fortress > MarineKing 2/5
DongRaeGu < Daybreak > MarineKing 2.5/5
DongRaeGu < Dual Sight > anypro 3.5/5
DongRaeGu < Metalopolis 1.1 > BBoongBBoong 2/5
DongRaeGu < Tal’Darim Altar LE > Optimus 1.5/5
MVP 4 > Prime 1
DongRaeGu < Daybreak > MarineKing 2.5/5
DongRaeGu < Dual Sight > anypro 3.5/5
DongRaeGu < Metalopolis 1.1 > BBoongBBoong 2/5
DongRaeGu < Tal’Darim Altar LE > Optimus 1.5/5
MVP 4 > Prime 1
Choose your adventure: Pictures or text!
+ Show Spoiler [Recap in pictures!] +
Good! DRG needs to be put in his place!
Whatevs, dude
So... About that preparation...
kekeke!
+ Show Spoiler [Recap in text!] +
In the inaugural game Tails’ timing push off a 3-gate expand put him appreciably ahead; forcing MarineKing to lift his orbital and lose significant mining time. MarineKing was having none of that shit, and busted out his own marine-marauder-ghost timing attack to totally crush Tails right before charge finished.
Then the Gu happened.
Against DRG MarineKing’s hellion fast-expand flowed quite naturally into a marine-tank timing push, fortifying the ramp to the Zerg natural and starting the slow crawl of death. His caution proved to be his undoing; DRG used the extra time the slow push gave him to crank out 50 zerglings before launching a brilliant three-pronged attack that cleared out almost all of MKP’s units. The remaining zerglings headed straight across the map to clear out MarineKing’s natural, and from there DRG’s economic lead just compounded. A final push involving soooo many banelings capped off his win.
Prime decided the next sacrifice to the power of the Gu would be anypro. Having seen DRG’s high-economy build last game, anypro went with a nexus-first build to try and keep up. He actually ended up almost completing his nexus before the Gu’s hatch had even started. This wasn’t something DRG was taking sitting down; he promptly threw down a third and quickly shot up to 70 drones. It wasn’t until anypro pushed out with his first colossus that DRG built actual “units”, so he had to fight a holding action and sack his third to survive. Anypro proceeded to pull back and not build any more colossi, and DRG proceeded to build about a dozen corruptors. You’d think that would put anypro into a winning position, wouldn’t you? He even had some great zealot harass, but some key fungals and never ending waves of zerglings overcame even that. Eventually all those useless corruptors turned into brood lords and forced a gg.
As is the way of these things, having failed with P and T Prime turned to Z. BboongBboong and DRG both expanded early, but only BboongBboong was foolish enough to actually build drones. His Dong-ship just stayed at 22 drones, cranked ling-bling, and beat the crap out of him.
It’s telling that the announcers had to remind us that MVP does indeed have players on their team who are not DongRaeGu. They really can’t blame us for forgetting that, though.
Week 8
Jupiter Group
vs
Incredible Miracle against New Star HoSeo
by Divinek
+ Show Spoiler [Results] +
Jupiter Group
vs
Incredible Miracle against New Star HoSeo
by Divinek
+ Show Spoiler [Results] +
Happy <Tal'Darim Altar> Sage 3/5
LosirA <Antiga Shipyard> Sage 1.5/5
LosirA <Dual Sight> Tassadar 1.5/5
LosirA <Xel'Naga Fortress> Jjakji 2/5
LosirA <Metalopolis> Shuttle 1/5
LosirA <Antiga Shipyard> Sage 1.5/5
LosirA <Dual Sight> Tassadar 1.5/5
LosirA <Xel'Naga Fortress> Jjakji 2/5
LosirA <Metalopolis> Shuttle 1/5
Not going to hide it: Sage is currently my favourite player in this league. Fortunately for him Happy is no slouch and this game promises entertainment.Sage opens up with a cute build comprised of DTs and a warp prism, holding Happy in his base and doing moderate damage. When Happy tries for some counter aggression, a never ending wall of forcefields stops his army dead while Sage gets his 3rd up and running. He never lets the pressure stop, harassing with DTs, blinking stalkers behind mineral lines until he trades much of his army for the Terran 3rd. When Happy tries for the counter attack in a similar manner he ends up over committing and Sage rolls him over countering his counter attack. That'll teach him!
In game 2 both players go for the best economy they can muster early on; Sage with the forge FE and Losira expanding to the gold immediately. Sage builds his way up to a wonderful zealot archon timing attack, which unfortunately meets a mass of zerglings in open ground allowing for far too much of a surround. With his attack failing completely Sage is unable to stop the counterattack of Losira.
Tassadar opts for a quick 3 zealot pressure followed by some DT harass while Losira opts for completely shutting this down. With no gain from his quick tech option, Tassadar tries for an attack which fares well until Losira gets a group of lings into the protoss main, killing every probe and unpowering gateways. From here it’s all too easy for Losira to defend the protoss assault.
Next Jjakji jumps right into his game trying to damage Losira with some bunker pressure, fortunately for the Zerg he is very capable of making many lings early on. Jjakji ends up losing quite a lot for doing no real damage and giving the zerg an early lead. Again we see a player performing a strong push on Losira, threatening to end the game until a group of zerglings run into the main much like last game. This distraction proves enough to allow some great baneling splashes to bust up the scary push. From this point Losira’s macro simply takes over the game until he crashes through the Terran army ending the game.
In the last game Shuttle, like his predecessors, tries for some early harass against Losira, this time trying hellions! Unfortunately for him Losira demonstrates that he can stop all kinds of harass, but Shuttle does take the kind of risk required to win this game in a hidden 3rd expansion. Star sense lets Losira scout this early enough that the Terran can’t garner any real gains from it. Shuttle tries for a desperation attack to make something happen but Losira a-moves all over this with his usual death ball. From here the game is a laugh until Losira completes his all-kill, handing NSHS their first loss.
F.United opened up with our Swedish super hero NaNiwa against TSL's Unknown Heart. Heart started with a three barracks build that tricked Naniwa into thinking he was being all-inned when, in reality, Heart was using his aggressive build to take the gold base. Naniwa played it out brilliantly though, using amazing micro to come out on top despite having less than half the economy of Heart. Despite a big lead, Naniwa showed the danger of staying on zealot-archon for too long, as his army was obliterated by MMMG. And by obliterated, I mean Heart lost five food compared to Naniwa's eighty.
F.United sent out the handsome Peruvian Fenix to shove a stake into Heart. Fenix demonstrated the superiority of mech TvT over bio mech when executed at a high level. With essentially free hellion harass combined with an impenetrable tank force, Fenix held Heart's aggression while using hellions to secure an economic advantage and take the game.
TSL decided to go with Clide, the invincible monster and winner of every GSL*. Clide decided to open with defensive blue flame hellions (including banshee defense) before expanding. This put him way behind Fenix's slightly more risky build right off the bat. The game went super late game TvT, and Clide got to learn how Thor, Raven, Viking, Battlecruiser is superior to pure viking.
*Facts according to Artosis may not be facts
TSL decided that their Zerg player RevivaL would revive their chances of being all killed by Fenix. Fenix opened hellion, but upon seeing Revival's roaches made a smart switch to marine maurader medivac tank, using the mobility of MMM to pressure Revival. Despite some great macro from Fenix and some not -so-great macro from Revivial, Revival made nine broodlords when Fenix had one viking, and Revival took the game. It was pretty heart breaking.
Lyn was the next choice for F.United, hoping he could take out RevivaL. Lyn opened with huge two barracks + SCV pressure that Revival easily held with some great micro and decision making. Lyn then stayed on two bases while allowing Revival to get up to four with absolutely no pressure. Revival easily took the game by just waiting for Lyn to push out with his 100 supply army and dominating it with a 200 supply force with superior upgrades.
It was up to the Swedish clutch ThorZaIN to take out RevivaL. He did just that, showing off some amazing play in game six. Thorzain played a very patient style, with a focus on upgrades and SCVs, using the bare minimum to defend until he was near invincible against muta-baneling. Thorzain played brilliantly.
Just Giving The Best Game of The Series, No Biggie.
It all came down to ThorZaIN vs. aLive, with aLive undoubtedly preparing to snipe the Swede. Thorzain took a large lead early on with two rax pressure that did some huge damage. Thorzain expanded behind it, even getting a turret up for banshee defense. After multi -pronged hellion harass, Thorzain was actually behind in SCVs despite his early lead. As the game equalized, Thorzain played brilliantly against aLive's pure mech style, but ended up losing to a banshee.
Fantasy? Fantasy! Fantasy.
Fantasy
by bobq
Sigh
by bobq
Sigh
You know fantasy league, I want to love you. I really do. I want to believe that I could study the scene, pick a team, and make a competitive run at the top. And over these last few weeks, you almost had me fooled. Points were reasonably well distributed; there weren’t any seemingly-random all-kills that catapulted people to the top by (almost) blind luck. Sure, there were upsets, and some people over performed and some people underperformed. All within reason, though. The whole thing seemed almost sane...
But then there was this week. Then there was him. Don’t get me wrong, there was some other wacky shit in fantasy this week, like Losira and Taeja getting all-kills, but I’d just like to gripe about DongRaeGu for a bit.
He’s just too good at this. His all-kill this week makes him 10-0 this season. He’s won every single game his team’s put him out for, and since the rest of his team just isn’t very good, that means they put him out an awful lot. Of a possible 16 wins in his team’s appearances, he has 10. Want to have a winning fantasy team? You’d better have picked DongRaeGu! It’s almost impossible to not have an at least passable team with him on it. The leader board is a list of people who picked the best supporting cast for the unstoppable beast.
Speaking of leader boards, since fantasy points haven't fully updated for this week, we don't have an update! Hooray! This is kind of hilarious, because before I realized points weren't updated I was ready to crow about Dooooooor sneaking into the top ten without DRG on his team, but now I get to feel silly for thinking that was even possible. Oh well! I'm just going to pretend it's true, since I want it to be so bad.
Next week! An important week! They're all important at this point really, unless you're one of the teams already eliminated. Sorry FXOpen.
It is very refreshing to say that F.United is undeniably the favourite coming into this match. They have been performing amazingly, and despite their match against SlayerS their other showings have been spectacular. Also be serious: Prime? Hah! They haven't had the strength in their lineup necessary to take an entire match. They have few, if any, players of the caliber required to knock out strong opponents, as their 'ace' MKP has been severely under performing in team games. 4-2 F.united.
Let's be honest, besides their ownage-fest against the foreign team last week SlayerS has been sucking. Big time. They haven't looked like their previous form at all and are going to have an extremely difficult time making the playoffs. The team right behind them in the Jupiter Race for Last Place is one that even with the strength of Kratoss can't manage to do well in a team league. This will truly be a match for morale more than any thing, which ever team wins this game may be the one that gets fired up enough to actually make an impact for the rest of the season. 4-3 Slayers.
Here we have a team that has never really done well, against a team that is looking absolutely amazing this season. What is there to say about this match other than I really hope sage falls victim to cheese and Puzzle can dominate? Should be an easy win for NSHS but...not going to bet my shirt on it. 4-2 nsh.
Enjoy your time, because the first season of GSTL is coming to a close. We are nearly at that time which will crown new kings and forget aging gamers, a time that will test the mental toughness of player and coach alike. Post season time.
A toast for future all-killers.
This GSTL update was brought to you thanks to Divinek, confusedcrib, bobq, and Heyoka in no particular order. Thanks to HawaiianPig for the graphics! The GSTL is pretty awesome so we are likely to will do this in the future, check back soon to find results or berate your favorite player for losing.