Anytime settled back. He felt good, in a rhythm. His opponent had one
field of minerals left, and no way to deal with his air. He was still
in the field, but only out of stubbornness. Terran metal fell in
heaps, and a full wing of carriers was far too powerful for his
opponent to deal with. Finally, the factories began to crumble and
Anytime knew victory was his. -Manifesto7 So1 Finals: Slayers_`Boxer`
vs Anytime[gm]
With the domination of Bisu and Stork at the moment , it is easy to
forget who started the Neo-Tosses. Who was celebrated as Aiurs-hope
and the saviour of the proud race only to fall into the shadow of his
little brothers.
But the season is here and Autumn-Toss is coming.
My feelings for Anytime is stronger the for most progamers. I started
following the proscene around 2004 at a time when protoss was the
inferior race.
I realize now that I must have arrived just when the old generation
consisting of Nal-Ra and Reach was fading away. Terran and Zerg was
dominating with Oov, July and Savior and tosses going far in
tournaments where rare.
Because I was playing protoss I thought the game was unbalanced and
was rooting for every protoss gamer I could find a battle-rapport on.
For me when Anytime showed up it was a revelation. It him who showed
me a way to beat the horde of zergs and the metal of terran.
Anytime is great when he is in form. His DT usage, his reaver drops,
his carrier micro and his incredible macro makes an unstoppable
formula.
He is equally bad when he isn't in form. Looking at Anytimes career-
his periods of winning is always followed by a period of bad play and
losses.
After his win in the final of So1 OSL against Boxer his game just
died. Losing against mediocre members of the swarm and
has-been-terrans, no-one could recognize the man we had seen pull
armies out of nowhere and dominating the maps with his incredible army
control.
Again after his second place in Shinhan 2006-2 OSL, he lost all of his
proleague games against tosses, was eliminated from MSL survivor by
Darkelf and didn't win a single game in OSL.
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzqnU3O_qH4]
Out of the individual leagues Anytime began a new era- "Anytime the
team-player".
Successfully leading his team to a second place in last Proleague, his
losses was either to monsters like Hwasin, Bisu and Stork or to cheese
against Shrudder.
The only real question-mark in the game against Upmagic where he plays
unresponsive and with bad micro.
So this leads us to Anytimes form this season. He obviously is in one
of his winning periods at the moment, but will he be able to lead
Lecaf to victory and even more interesting, (at least for me ) when
will he be able to get back into the individual leagues.
His weakest match-up is obviously PvZ . HIs wins against GGplay and
Gorush doesn't really make up for losing against players like Aqua,
Rumble and Firefist.
Though he has never faced Saviour (correct me plz?) few people have
doubts how that would turn out.
What is worth to consider here it that Anytime has won the last six of
the PvZs he has played. Not versus good opponents (Chojja excluded)
but I think this can still be seen as he is improving his play.
So to be able to gauge his chances of success this season I have
written small reports from each game he has played this season. His
record is impressive enough but how is the actual quality of the
games?
vs Piano -Monty Hall
Piano is simply not good enough. Anytime delays him with a Dt drop in
his far to spread-out base where he manages to kill 3 depots and a
couple of SCVs.
While Piano is busy trying to stop the harass, Anytime takes 2 expos
and then just steamrolls Piano when the later tries to move out.
vs Oversky- Katrina
This game is by far more Overskys loss then Anytimes win. Oversky 9
pools against Anytimes double Nex in the back. Any good player would
have been able to gain an advantage this way but the execution is just
painful to watch.
Oversky attacks at the wrong time, runs into defended cannons and
can't take out lonely zealots even when Anytime makes micro mistakes.
He also decides to, instead of expoing himself, build a hidden hatch
next to Anytimes base which of course is discovered. After that
Oversky is so behind that he just gg:s Anytime doesn't even leave his
turf.
vs Sangho- Blue storm
Sangho one of the [shield]:s are not very experienced but he manages
to make an entertaining game against our hero. Anytime warps as purple
in the northwest and Sangho as yellow in the southern regions.
Both players start out identically with 2 gates and scouting
each-other. When they realize that the other has 2 gated as well both
of them see the futile in rushing,the path between the bases Blue
storm is too long. Instead they use their 3 zealots to not very
successfully chase down each-others scouting probes.
While they do this both players expand to the easily protected
minerals outside their bases and gets gas at identical timing.
While the cyber-cores warps in, the probes are being mayonarded.
Anytimes expo is a little bit faster up, since he built it before the
cyber. After a few seconds the two rivals are getting gas from two
bases as well and they are ready for the midgame.
With the arrival of goons the now 90-years old scouting probes are
finally chased away. Mr-Autumn builds a citadel to be able to get his
beloved DTs. Sangho warps a robotics and follows Anytiimes lead with
a citadel soon after.
When Anytimes DTs come he has a shuttle ready for them, but on the way
to his opponents base an observer catches a glimpse of the stealth
warriors before they are beamed into the shuttle.
This is when Sangho makes a huge mistake, figuring that the lone
cannon at his expo is enough to chase away the intruders, he continues
to Anytimes base with the observer. He is so sure about this that he
even backs home with his goons to his main in case the drop should
come there.
One of the DTs die to the cannon but the other one stay back hiding.
When Sangho figures the danger is gone and return with his probes, the
DT sees its chance, and manages to get 8 probe-kills before it is
picked of.
Sangho tries a similar drop but now it is to late and Anytime easily
kills the templars with only the loss of a goon and a gateway.
Both players makes a new base at the expo to the left of their bases.
Anytime tries a storm drop, but Sangho has cleverly has placed pylons
on the outside cliffs to his base. This gives him time to run away
with his probes before the high templars unleashes their psyonic
forces. One of the templars gets left behind by the shuttle and killed
off.
Seconds after Sangho does a similar drop which kills 6 probes. It
seems that the players are once again on equal grounds.
We can see Sangho killing off the purple shuttle just before the
camera shows Anytimes army. It seems twice the size of Sanghos.
As Ol' Dirty bastard said "Dont fuck with ma crew!" (Macro get it!!)
Anytime destroys Sanghos "hidden" expo at 10 a clock while building
his own at 5.On the way back Sangho ambushes and the two forces
collide.
The armies are about equal but Anytime has better positioning and
manages to come out on top.
Chasing Sangho back to his 9 a clock expo, Anytime rushes the expo
outside Sanghos base with his new-built forces consisting of 7 zealots
and 3 templar. Before Sangho is able to fight back the attackers- all
of his drones at the expo are killed.
A little cocky with his 4 bases against 3 Anytime don't pay attention
to his army and Sangho manages to strike it while it is spread out and
kills a lot of it with minimal losses .
After a failed stormdrop from Sangho, Anytime attacks the newbuilt
yellow base at 10 and destroys it. Sangho reply with finally razing 5
a clock. All of his goons dies while focusing their fire on the nex
and now Anytime has a massive lead.
Aware of this the Sashin-toss attacks and soon the gg is heard.
vs Mind - Blue storm
Anytime is more known for his execution and macro then for his
innovation and "crazy builds". I can see why..
This game Anytime shows how to NOT execute a proxy build. He builds
his pylon outside Minds base. While it is warping he harasses Minds
SCV who is attempting to build a wall. He then leads it back to the
place of the pylon showing his strategy. Obviously Mind
attacks the gateway with 5 SCV:s but instead of giving up the his
plan, Anytime pulls 4 probes from his minerals to and marches across
the map to defend his gate. When more SCV:s arrive Anytime has not
only lost a gateway but also invaluable mining-time.
Anytime dosn't give up, but tries another proxy gate. This one is
scouted as well and he is forced to cancel. Now Mind has 1 barrack and
full mining, while Anytime hasn't even started to warp a gate in his
main. The first few marines makes 6 probes explode before they are
chased of.
Mind backs off and decides to build bio-mech of one base to finish
the game. Anytime realizing how behind he is tries to 2 gate while
getting a expo at his natural.
Anytime tries an attack with 3 zeals and 4 goons but are pretty easily
fended off. He is also forced to cancel his expansion and he losers
one of his goons, that could be used for a flank against the push that
is coming, to a mine.
Anytime is now so far behind that Mind could take a day off before
continuing with the game. All that can save the protoss now is a
miracle.
But Anytime picks miracles from his eyelids the first thing in the morning.
Miracle nr 1
Defeat 2 tanks 9 marines and 2 medics with 3 goons.
No problem- Anytime just gets 4 more dragoons and a reaver with
perfect timing. then defeats the force convincingly despite
reinforcements from Mind. You can't really say how fantastic this
looks without seeing the game but Anytime goes from a sure loss to
almost even in 5 seconds. He also gets his expo up before Mind.
Unfortunately this doesn't keep up long. Anytime looses his shuttle
with the reaver and again Mind is in the lead. Both players take their
3rd base and Mind pushes out.
Miracle nr 2
Anytime doesn't even care to delay the push instead we waits until
Mind is sieged outside his natural until he does the perfect flank .
With minimal losses and a bad-ass grin on his face, he just wipes the
terran forces away.
As NSDAP put it:
"yo man this kid ain't joking hes dealing minerals in the street of
Peaks of Baekdu"
Meanwhile Mind expands to 5, and soon after Anytime makes his 4:th
base at 10. He is also producing carriers from 2 starports.
A reaverdrop kills some SCV:s at the 5 base before it is shot down by a goliath.
A mecharmy consisting of 15 tanks 30 vults and a couple of goliaths roll out.
Anytime has only 4 carriers and all are low on interceptors. He still
manages to pinch a lot of terran units using carrier micro.All you can
think when the rest of Anytimes forces rushes in is how imbalanced the
matchup looks. The whole terran army in destroyed in just a couple of
seconds.
After this Anytime just abuses his carriers until Mind squeaks out "gg".
I can't believed this game hasn't been written more about . Anytime
does an amazing comeback and just destroys Minds every attempt to
attack.
Sure, Mind does some mistakes and Blue storm might be favoring protoss
but it is still great to watch! One of the greatest comebacks I have
seen.
vs Nada -Python
Nada is not in shape. He has not won a game since before Eddy Murphy
started making shit-movies,and from what I heard, he is more
interested in cuddling his girlfriend then practicing.
The game goes like this:
Nada pushes out- Anytime breaks the push.
Anytime attacks -Nada defends.
ANytime gets an ARBITER and attacks.- Nada dies.
Anytime looks badass. - Nada cries.
Supreme Macro and 2 nice stasis in enough to win the game for Anytime.
vs Much - Baekmagoji
Much 2 gate proxies Anytime goes one gate. Even though he is able go
defend the rush he loses to many probes to survive a midgame pvp.
Not much (get it) to say anytime should have scouted better.
vs Firebathero -Baekmagoji
Anytime does not scout until his first zealot, and thus does not
discover that FBH is 2 raxing. FBH puts a perfect amount of marines at
the choke to chase away the zeal but not to many to make Anytime
suspicious. He even sends 4 marines out before his real army to kill
of any scouts without showing his strategy, and then walks the long
way around to the unsuspecting Anytime.
Anytime has his goons planted at FBHs base when the M&M force strikes,
and only minimal forces to defend with. FBH goes crazy and kills all
probes except 8, the camera zooming in on his victorious face.
At this point FBH makes a devastating mistake. With his economy this
destroyed Anytime really doesn't have any other choice but to make a
quick counter attack. FBH doesn't realize this and decides to expo
while building factories. His tanks are to late to stop the 7 goons
that comes storming the base and Anytime micros perfectly not giving
FBH defense a chance.
Again a bad start for Anytime but a great comeback. FBH have a killer
build but overextends himself.
-
So Anytimes results this season are fantastic but the question is how
will he go against the top players that are out there. The opponents
he has faced so far have not been the best, His only loss is against
cheese but he still has made many mistakes, especially in his
openings. Hwasin, Bisu, Stork or Saviour will not allow a player
back into the game like Mind or Firebathero did.
Anytime will be playing StarChallenge 2007 Season2 on the 14th of
november. In his group are Xellos, Midas and Shark. Against these
players i have no fear that he will lose,and I think we will see his
again in next OSL.
I will be looking forward to see Anytime rise to his former glory.