Game 1 – Nada vs TT
Tau Cross
Nada opened with a standard rine/fact build in his main at 1 o’clock. Unfortunately for him, he didn’t scout until after his rax and the first starting location he searched was the wrong one. This caused him to remain oblivious as TT proxied 2 gateways in his base!
TT had scouted Nada first and used Boxer’s technique of checking the mineral patches to find his opponents base without the Terran seeing his probe. He had a zealot in Nada’s mineral line killing SCVs before Nada’s fact was finished. Nada eventually got it up and pumped a couple vults out but it was pointless. He had a handful of SCVs and 2 fresh goons in his base.
Nada shows off incredible micro as he kills all of TTs zealots with 2 vults.
TT > Nada
TT got incredibly lucky and walked away with a lame win. He scouted Nada first, got scouted late and last by his opponent, and had a single rine to contend with when his first zealot rushed in. Nada is going to be pretty pissed come next week. I’d be scared if I were TT.
Game 2 – July vs. Zergman
Peaks of Baekdu
July got the bottom main and 12 pooled into a hatch at his natural. He quickly cancelled it as Zergmans 9 pool lings ran down toward his main. July was forced to build a creep colony to defend himself and as a result, had a slower lair. Both players laid down a spire and hatch in their mains without any type of interaction.
The two Zergs seemed to mirror each other as they built scourge and then killed each others scourge... with scourge. -_- It was anti-climactic as could be and they weren’t about to stop, as they both expanded to their naturals.
With a second gas they both really ramped up their muta/scourge production. Zergman had a larger army partly due to his small gains in the early game and faster BO and partly because he got his second gas slightly sooner which allowed for more scourge.
Zergman attacked and took the game easily. It’s amazing what an extra 30 seconds of gas mining can do in ZvZ.
Scourge lit up the sky as they suicided into July’s Muta’s.
Zerg “I don’t lose ZvZ” Man > July
Zergman is incredibly solid in this matchup. It’s no wonder his stats are so disgusting. His play is so tight he makes his opponents look like shmucks and this game was no exception.
Game 3 – GoodFriend vs. Bisu
Arkanoid
Bisu (5) opened with a fast misplaced nexus at his top natural expansion. Rather than clearing the neutral objects he just placed it above the blockage. The inefficient mining would evidently make up for itself with a faster second economy to ramp up production quicker. GF (11) opened with what has become a typical build on this map for Terran in many matchups by placing a fast CC next to his right natural and lifting it into proper placement once it finished and SCVs had cleared the blockade while it built.
Bisu eventually expanded again to his other natural, this time by clearing the blockage, and later clearing the blockage at the misplaced natural nexus to allow for proper mining of gas, with a large number of probes of course.
Bisu opts to misplace his nexus rather than wait to clear the way.
GF got his economies running as well and once he had a decent goly/tank dropship force, he headed for the little gap near his opponents natural to attempt an attack that has become a standard of TvP on this map.
However, GF placed his tanks extremely close to the edge and Bisu was able to kill them with goons from the outside.
Way to use the range of your tanks to your advantage DumbFriend! He lost 6 tanks this way.
Bisu’s tech was in full swing now. He kept a group of goons around his naturals to protect from the inevitable drops while he built up a group of carriers from 4 gates!
Bisu picks off golies as he takes his Terran opponent apart.
It wasn’t long before the tables had turned and Bisu was the one abusing the terrain of the map. His carrier numbers got insane and he eventually flattened GF entirely.
Bisu The Everything Killer > GoodFriend
Bisu is slowly becoming my favourite toss in this tournament. Is there anyone he can’t beat? Bisu made it look easy defending against the same attacks that all the Terrans have been using to destroy other Protoss players on this map. What a stud.
Game 4 – Shine vs. TheRock
Arcadia
Rock (11) two gate gooned while his Terran opponent, Shine (5), walled his ramp and started a one fact CC build. Both players took their naturals and Rock warped in 2 other proxy gateways on the other side of the map near the natural to the 2 o’clock main. He was obviously trying to warp some units in from a location that would have a mine free walk toward the Terran main.
Shine mined up the middle of the map, as expected, and dropped a third CC at his min only. Then Rock did something crazy... one might even say, Jonathan Walshish... he continued to pump units from his 4 gates and suicided zealots into the mines to clear the way. He pressed on until he made it to the Terran natural and since half of his new goons had a mine free walk, he caught Shine without the proper defences. It was over quickly.
Who needs observers? To quote Rock from his interview after the game, “Zealots are cheap anyway!”
Rock > Shine
Rock played a sexy and aggressive game. He’s not going to let these Terrans feel comfortable with their crazy macro builds anymore!
Recommended VOD of the night:
Bisu’s a winner again. His defence was exactly what was necessary... nothing more. And his Carrier numbers were way more than was necessary.
That concludes the first night of the round of 16. More great games are sure to come.