Game 1 – Casy vs. July
Peaks of Baekdu
Casy got the bottom main and July the top. July hatched first at his nat and after deflecting Casy’s bunker rush with drones, worked his way up to lurker tech. Casy took his natural as well and lost a good amount of infantry fighting off lurkers on the low ground behind his main mineral line.
July switched to mutas and harassed like a champ, getting a tank along with the usual turrets/SCVs/rines. He took 2 other gas expos once he had control of the middle of the map and made quick work of Casy’s first break out attempt with loads of lings and a handful of lurkers. Once he had defilers mixed in he pushed his way into the Terran nat quite easily and took the game.
July picks off unguarded tanks as he harasses the Terran natural.
July > Casy
July had incredible macro and ling usage mid game. Once he forced Casy back the first time it was obvious his harass had already won him the game.
Game 2 – Bisu vs. JiHyun
Arcadia
Bisu fast expanded with a forge in the bottom right main while JiHyun 3 hatched and placed a forth quickly at the natural to the bottom left main. Bisu built up some Reav/Sair and massed up some gateways in his main, ready to tech switch. JiHyun got lurks first to fire at the blocking forge and gate at the opening to the toss base and hydra/ling dropped Bisu’s main just before 2 defensive cannons could warp in. Bisu was forced to double back and clear his main out with his mainly goon/reaver army. He then moved out and killed a huge stack of overlords with his sairs and fought a very cool goon vs hydra battle in the middle…that he won incredibly enough!
Bisu kills JiHyun’s hydra army with the obvious counter…goons!
Once he had killed his opponents main hydra army in the center, it was simply a matter of providing a shuttle for his reavers to be sexily microed around in and he steamrolled the Zerg main with goon/reaver. Very cool game and unit choice indeed.
Bisu The Zerg Killer > JiHyun
Holy god, Bisu is incredible. In a no toss OSL, he’s wiping the floor with every Zerg he meets. Let’s hope it continues.
Game 3 – GoodFriend vs. Yellow
Arkanoid
GF (bottom left) begins an early CC next to the blocked nat to the right of his main, while Yellow (top left) morphs an early lair for fast mutas. GF 3 raxed and had a good number of MnM to defend with, but Yellow’s incredible muta micro gave him a number of rine kills that any other Zerg would have no business getting. Yellow continued to harass well, but eventually GF broke out of his main and began tearing through neutral buildings to get to the Zerg home land. Yellow got lurkers morphed in time to stop GF from entering his main, but he needed to sacrifice a lot of mutas to do it.
Yellow made his way to hive tech after taking his 2 naturals and fought with GF for possession of the middle after a cute unsupported guardian attack at the Terran natural, but he lost expansions to infantry drops and was falling behind economically.
A great game of defiler and vessel use ensued. I don’t have the time to do it justice, but there were many cool plague and swarm moves from Yellow. In the end however, GF’s dropship raids got the best of his economy and Yellow didn’t have enough units, dark swarm or not, to fight off the Terran machine.
GF keeps Yellow reeling with constant MnM drops!
GoodFriend > Yellow
Yellow looked to be playing a strong game, but he left his expansions too vulnerable to dropship attacks. For a tight map he sure got the run around from GF.
Game 4 – Canata vs. TheRock
Tau Cross
Rock (top right) opened with 2 gate goon while Canata (bottom right) pushed forward with the typical luna/midas style rines and tank and dropped mines behind with vults as he forced the goons back. Rock pursued dt tech while he took out mines with sacrificial zealots. He forced his way into the Terran main and did major damage, killing defending tanks and vults. Canata was on his toes, but had a chance to get back in the game as he vulture dropped Rock’s main and killed tons of probes. The vults were fought off, but the same could not be said about the goons and arriving dts. Canata’s main was totalled and after some cute harassing with cloaked wraiths, Rock got some cannons warping and finally took the win.
Canata pretends he’s still in the game by killing probes as his main is laid to waste.
Rock > Canata
Rock had some brilliant game sense in this one. It was as if he knew where every mine was even though he saw almost none of them being laid. His kamikaze zealots definitely won this one for him.
Game 5 – Light vs. Zergman
Peaks of Baekdu
Light (bottom) one raxed into academy tech and quickly took his natural. Zergman (top) hatched at his nat and killed all of Light’s initial infantry when the Terran attempted to walk past his sunk line and into his main. Zergman went spire and did an incredible job harassing. He killed turrets at Light’s nat with lings while he harassed the main mineral line with mutas and when infantry came to force him out he flew over to the now naked natural and forced the Terran to retreat his SCVs.
Light eventually got his nat back, but when he attacked Zergman’s upper left hand corner gas expansion, the Zerg let him have it and threw everything at his main and nat. The nat was lost entirely and SCV kills were plentiful in the main. Once Zergman had lurkers morphed, the Terran had no chance. He had been completely harassed to death.
Honestly, I can’t even remember when this pic was taken because Zergman’s mutas barely ever left the Terran main!
Zergman > Light
Zergman had better muta control than Yellow did tonight. What does that tell you?
Game 6 – GoRush vs. Cloud
Arcadia
Cloud (bottom right) opened with a fast fact for vultures while GoRush played a standard nat hatch into spire game. Cloud’s first 2 vults did nothing and the second 2 forced drones off of the nat min line for a while, but overall it didn’t seem effective.
GoRush then built up some muta/ling and picked his butt for 10 more minutes, uselessly prancing around Cloud’s main. The game eventually worked it’s way up to a gong show of defilers and guardians and I watched in amazement as GoRush continued to allow Cloud to live.
That’s GoRush, retreating 7 mutas from a marine and a half-built turret… Wha?
GoRush > Cloud
This game should have been half as long, with half the tech, and half the boring.
Recommended VOD of the night:
Without doubt, Bisu vs. JiHyun is the winner. Bisu defended against drops with grace and attacked with gutsy and effective timing. Zergs beware.
Hope you enjoyed the reports. The round of 24 will be over before you know it and then the real pressure will be on.