Bacchus 08 OSL Week 3-2

Savior would have had no motivation for this game, he was playing on a map that didn't matter in a game that didn't matter. Sea on the other hand found himself in a must win position so lets see what happened...

Savior spawned at 11 while Sea set up his base @ 3. Savior does the logical Zerg opening on this map and 9 pools, using the extractor trick to maximize his economy. Sea in turn responded just as terran should with a 2 rax opening. Savior chucks down a hatch it his ramps as his lings leave his base. The lings from Savior's 9pool just pass by Sea's scouting SCV giving Sea ample time to wall his ramp with SCVs before the lings arrive.



On the ramp, Sea screws up his micro creating a gap for Saviors lings to run past. In Savior's better days that would have been enough for him to ride the advantage to an easy victory. Savior missed the hole and killed an amazing 2 SCV for 6 lings.

The rest of the game was simple. Sea just pumped rines from his 2 barracks and marched over with 4 rines and destroyed Savior with excellent micro. Sea made Savior look like a D Zerg who loses every game if his 9 pool fails. It was an abysmal effort by Savior at best which lasted less than 5 minutes, and carried on the pattern of terrible group stage games.

Sea > Savior

Thus here's a final look at Group A;

1. BeSt (SK Telecom T1) 2-1
1. Jaedong (Lecaf Oz) (Seed) 2-1
1. Sea[Shield] (MBCGame HERO) 2-1
4. sAviOr (CJ Entus) 0-3 -> eliminated to ODT

So we have Jaedong, Best and Sea fighting for 2 spots next week in the tiebreakers.

Flash has everything to prove this game. His games against Free on loki showed that he wasn't a carrierphobe anymore; but could he take on the BirdToss? Stork on the other hand could do as he pleased, he was already qualified for the next round.

Stork warped in his Nexus at 1 while Flash set up at 7. Stork sent out an early probe straight for Flashes main, just before he could steal the gas Flash starts his refinery. Stork then opted to build a Zealot while kept Flash defending his SCVs. While Flash was preoocupied with defence, Stork started a Nexus (before Gas and Core). Flash responded to this with his own 1fac expo; we were in for a nice long macrofest (finally)

Stork followed up his fast expand with his normal Reaver build. Flash had obviously been studying Stork's style and knew that reavers were just around the corner so had really early goliaths in before the shuttle even got close to him. He also started a 3rd CC. With range finished, Flashs's goliaths made short work of Storks reaver.



Before stork got a moment to breathe, Vults had poured into his base and scored major probe damage. A handful of goons delayed Flash's CC flying to his min only expo until Flash pushed forward with 4 tanks, goliaths and a vult or two. Stork showed some great control and halted flash's push quite easily, sniping the front two tanks and a number of vults for only 3 goons. As reinforcements were added to Flash's push he pushed up into the min only and repelled Stork's army.

Flash then adopted a very interesting midgame strategy, with his fast armory he rushed +1 weapons and with an early Science Facility he was able to start +2 right away. Stork was on the scv hunt again with a fresh reaver/shuttle. But those goliaths were paying for themselves as they took down a second Reaver by Stork; the odds were really being stacked against Stork now.

With his advantage building, Flash decided it was safe to start his 4th simultaneously with Stork. Both of them took their respective corner expos. Flash pushed across the high ground looking to secure his half of the map, but thanks to a lone DT he was pushed back to his min only. Stork demanded SCV blood and had a third reaver headed towards Flash's minline. This time the reaver scored some minor damage, along with 2 helpful dark templar. Flash rushed his vultures and goliaths back to defend his nat from the harass and managed to kill a third reaver.

Flash was eager to make the leap to victory and gathered with 150 supply up in preparation to move out. Stork, with his 150 psi army spread his troops out waiting for Flash to make the push across the divide. In a daring move, Flash raced his vultures across the devide and sniped all 4 of Storks high templar stacking the odds firmly in his favor. Stork seized the moment and assaulted Flash's troops.



Stork broke Flash's push with ease defying every law of Starcraft. Stork had lost 3 reavers dealing minimal damage, lost all of his high templar to vultures AND had equal psi to Flash yet he won the decisive battle. How did he do it? Quite a number of factors were at work here.

• Flash had no mines planted
  
• Because of his Goliath/Tank heavy build, he was low on vultures
  
• The vultures he did have took significant losses in the high templar raid
  
• Stork's zealots went unchallenged due to the lack of vultures
  
• Stork flanked the tank line perfectly

Having won the first large fight the rest came naturally to Stork. His main army pressured Flash's min only while a small raiding force went for 11. Shortly, Stork had rerouted all forces to 11 and reduced Flash to 3 bases. Flash's army rolled up to the high ground near 11 and seiged up hoping to score some easy kills but ended up trading a handful of tanks for a couple zealots. Luckily for Flash he had 12 online which took the stress off Flash's depleted main.

Stork was macroing like a beast, and had a huge army pushing across the map into Flashs half. While Flash sieged up in preparation, the few goons and templar that had been left at 11 took a stroll down to Flash's min only and in 2 seconds pillaged the SCV line with a nice Psi Storm. Both of storks forces were squelched by Flash quickly, but the damage had been done.

Storks brand new army equipped with a brand spanking new arbiter headed towards 12, but was intercepted by Flash's army. A skirmish ensured which ended favorably for Stork; who killed all of Flash's vultures for very little loss and pushed on upwards to 12 and away from Flash's tanks. With the aid of a nice stasis, Stork was able to prevent Flash from pushing into 12 for a long time, but didn't get the expo. Not to worry, another new army from Stork stabbed upwards taking out a nice wad of tanks. A small break in fighting broke out as both sides restocked their militia.

Stork tried his luck with reavers, again, this time hitting 12. For the first time in the game, the reaver broke about even with Flash's forces by killing a number of vultures. But with that raid came a more elaborate grand scheme. By drawing all of flash's forces north to 12 he had left his tanks exposed. With a few simple zealot runs with arbiter support, followed by a full scale assault; Flashes army was butchered mercilessly.



Stork sent his reaver back to the now undefended 12 and pushed his army across to Flash's minonly; Flash let out a sigh. Stork showed some cute reaver moves, moved out with a large army equipped with 2 arbiters and smashed through everything flash had left. After one more battle Flash typed out.



Stork > Flash

Without a doubt, the best game I've seen from the group stages. To me it was like Stork was mucking around at the start with his Reaver antics and let Flash build up an enormous advantage. Then decided to pick up his game, and macroed like a beast and after a brilliantly timed and executed attack on Flash he stole back the game. From there he rode the advantage from the first fight through to the end of the game. Stork is looking damn strong at the moment, the only player in my mind that can take him down is Jaedong. With that game lets look at how the group looks;

1. Stork (Samsung KHAN) (Seed) 3-0 -> advances to quarterfinals
2. Flash (KTF MagicNs) 1-2
2. Rumble (SK Telecom T1) 1-2
2. Rock (WeMade FOX) 1-2

So we have another tiebreaker, this time for one place. Its shaping up to be a busy Wednesday night!

So we come to the battle of the veterans. July recently has has been playing allins every game while Xellos has been preforming horrendously; going 0-4 in MSL/OSL. But probably most importantly, this game decides if Bisu gets another shot to prove himself. Bisu is relying on Xellos to win so a tiebreaker will occur giving him a 2nd life.

July spawned at 5 while Xellos opened at 11. Xellos sent out an early SCV and halted SCV production, cheese was in the works. xellos started a barracks in the center of the map, and a 2nd scv joined the 1st and started another. July played standardly, with a 12 hatch at nat with a drone for scouting. Unfortunately for July, he narrowly missed Xellos's proxy BBS. July sent a drone out for a 3rd base at 3 while xellos sent his SCV to block the gap between July's 2 geysers.

July knew something was up and sent out roughly 10 drones to stop the imminent rush. The following skirmish was depressing for any Tushin fan, Xellos microed his 3 marines and 2 scvs around the drones and owned him. Gone are the days of the precision micro that was a JulyZerg trademark. Xellos killed off most of the drones and finished a Bunker.



July tried to counter Xellos by attacking his proxy center barracks, somewhat reminiscent of his game against Xellos on Forte, but ultimately it was too little too late. July's nat went down and his 'counter' was easily repulsed. The jig was up, and July conceded.

Xellos > July

The game was decided the moment July couldn't micro his drones properly and were consequently shredded by Xellos's rines. Short, sweet, decisive and cheesy. So let's look at how the group panned out;

1. Luxury (OGN SPARKYZ) 3-0 -> advances to quarterfinals
2. July (SK Telecom T1) 1-2
2. Bisu (MBCGame HERO) (Seed) 1-2
2. XellOs (CJ Entus) 1-2

With Xellos's victory, a third tiebreaker was forced. Now Bisu has a chance to redeem himself and get into the Ro8. But to do that he has to get through July "allin" Zerg and the slumping Xellos.

So we come to the final game of the night and at stake is another tiebreaker spot. Yellow[arnc] is here to get himself into a tiebreaker situation whereas Much is here to win and place first in his group. Much has been really strong against Zerg lately and with the favorable map he should waltz away victorious.

Much warped in at 6 where Yellow[arnc] spawned at 3 and put his maphack on and sent his ovie straight to 6. Yarnc opted for an 11 hatch 12 pool and Much responded with the standard 14nex. Oddly enough, Yarnc started his third hatch in his main making much's late manner pylon in the center expo useless. Yarnc's 4th hatch went down in the center expo then added a lair and hydraden. Much skipped Sairs and went straight for Temp tech. Yarnc added a spire just as Much's temp tech finished, Much's scouting probe (still alive btw) saw the spire and thus much added cannons at each nexus.



Much proved that you don't need archons or sairs to stop mutas, and with some precision storms and goons he chased the mutas away. Yarnc was persistent with his mutas and managed to keep Much trapped in his main. By the time he broke out Yarnc had lurkers nicely planted in the center expo stalling much's advance. Yarnc added a hatch @ his min only which was briefly harassed by a dt before it was dispatched.

Yarnc was playing a hatch heavy style and already had 6 hatches with 1 more morhping. Yarnc still tried to harass Much with mutas, but more importantly saw that Much had added alot of gateways. Much had been macroing very strongly, not over producing gateways early on, and due to the brief lapse in units caused by the mass hatcheries, Much was able to asset his superior troops numbers over Yarnc.



Much piled on the pressure and pushed deep into yarncs main and proceeded to annihilate every Zerg being and building in sight. And just like that, it was all over for Yarnc.

Much > Yellow[arnc]

I think Yarnc was intending for a hydra drop to stall much's 2 base macro play and allow his hatchery heavy style to out produce him. However, the overlords were forced to drop their cargo prematurely to defend from Much's push. And Much's superior unit count resulted in an easy win for him. So let's see how that affected the standings;

1. Much (CJ Entus) (Seed) 3-0 -> advances to quarterfinals
2. FrOzean (Samsung KHAN) 2-1 -> advances to quarterfinals
3. YellOw[ArnC] (OGN SPARKYZ) 1-2 -> eliminated to ODT
4. BackHo (Lecaf Oz) 0-3 -> eliminated to ODT

This group came out rather simple, Much advances to the Ro8 as D-1 and Frozean advances as D-2. Frozean is lucky to have gotten this far to be honest, if it weren't for Yarnc and Backho breaking down against him then he'd be in Backho's shoes right now. Anyway, no tiebreaks for this group.