Fire, Storm and Blood [OSL Ro8-1]

Flash, the Terran General, opened at 7 while Jaedong, Master of the Swarm, spawned at 11. Jaedong’s spidy sense was off today – as he sent his overlord to 1. Neither player opted to try anything fancy, Flash opting for 1rax CC and Jaedong 3 hatch. Jaedong shows us some fancy drone micro which almost kills one of Flashes SCVs.

Flash opts for a highly defensive set up at his natural. Rines are posted all around his natural preventing any overlords from entering. Once he is sure that there are no more scouts around – he plants 2 extra barracks simultaneously. The first medic joins the Marnie battalion and they move out for some early pressure.



2 Firebats join the fray, followed while Jaedong is hurriedly planting sunkens at his natural. Flash storms Jaedong’s natural with his small force dealing some minor damage, but not losing anything. Another firebat and medic join the attacking party. Soon, a stream of firebats is leaving Flash’s base and Flash attacks. With nice micro, and 4 barrack firebats reinforcing his army – he quickly topples Jaedong.

It was all over in a flash. Flash prepared a nice firebat strategy which in my opinion has strong strategic points.

• First problem was that he needed to find a way to break the sunk line
  
• In his YGClan interview, Sync stated that the secret to his sunkbreak was in fact the firebat
  
• Firebats take 3 hits from Sunkens, and can deal with Lings very easily allowing the rines to kill the sunkens
  
• Flash knew that Jaedong would opt for a mutalisk build, so would be limited to ling/sunk only in the early game
  
• By preparing a firebat heavy opening he could abuse this fact, and strike before mutas were out leaving Jaedong helpless

It was a nice strategy, and Flash pulled it off well. The pressure is on Jaedong to perform next week, or be eliminated.

- I came into this game expecting lots from Flash. His series against Jaedong was brilliant, even on some though maps. With nothing to lose I expected him to come out all guns blazing



- Both players opted for the standard opening but Flash was quick to deviate. He cut SCVs got 3 rax and started churning out masses of Firebats. With some nice control from Flash, he walked all over the Zerg giant

- It was a nicely planned and timed build by Flash and it reminded me a lot of his game on Katrina against Jaedong. He only has to win one more game to get through, and if he prepares well for the next match he could very well make it.

!!!Disclaimer, this may sound very very weird!!!

The Protoss Revolutionary looked out upon his troops. He had suffered many defeats in recent times against the Swarm and Dominion, but this time his adversary was his own kin. The Protoss General from CJ stood across the battle field from Bisu. Each commander placed his nexus on the contested region known as ‘Katrina’ – Bisu warps in his forces at the 9 o’clock position wearing the noble color Yellow.

The Revolutionist issued frantic orders to his legions of probes- “Get that pylon up! We must build a Gateway immediately! Get to scouting!”. The probe was ordered to 12 to find his adversary, then to 3, but found the CJ General at the 6 o’clock position wearing Blue war paint. Meanwhile the Protoss base camp was taking shape, 2 giant Gateways had been warped in from Aiur and the first Zealot infantry were arriving.

The brave scouting probe encountered the first Zealot of his opponents. The Revolutionist’s scout moved around the Zealot, and snuck in to see all of his rival’s technology. He saw 1 gate, without gas – he must have expanded thought the Revolutionary, and sent his probe to Check. The evil Generals scout had reached the Protoss base camp, the first Zealot attempted to take him down before it could reveal his plans to his adversary, but alas, the probe entered the base and saw everything. His 2 gates, his Assimilator and his freshly started Natural Nexus.

The Scouting probe in Much’s main served him well, and he had seen all that he had. The Revolutionist knew he would fair well against his opponent – who had started his gas much later than he had. Bisu ordered the construction of his Cybernetics Core and his zealots to guard his large ramp. Within moments, enemy Zealots were sighted – “Attack!!” yelled the General. A skirmish broke out between the 6 zealots. Despite being trained in the art of micromanagement well, the 3 Zealots of Bisu were forced to retreat after reducing the General to 2 zealots. Reinforcements had been scouted on the horizon and the Revolutionist had ordered his forces to retreat.

The reinforced group of Zealots entered the Revolutionist base and headed towards the Probe population. “Call forth the Dragoons!” exclaimed the Revolutionary – and instantly 2 dragoons warped in from the Gateways and saved the Probe population from severe losses. He had won the first battle – taking only a few probe losses. He ordered his research team to increase his Dragoon’s range, and sent off his victorious defending squad to pressure the General.

The General had also reached the technology of Dragoons and sent them into battle to force the Revolutionist back. Bisu was not afraid, and as his new recruits arrived he pushed into Much’s main – killing a dragoon in the process. Bisu’s forces were now able to damage the General’s base camp. Much had noticed the oncoming army and had warped in a Shield Battery – much to the surprise of the Revolutionist. Bisu had noticed his adversary was low on militia, so took the precaution of warping a Robotics Facility from Aiur.

Bisu’s forces tried to take the Battery down – but the General sacrificed his Probe populous to defend. More forces arrived for the Revolutionary and victory was in his grasp. He added more gateways to increase his recruitment rate and begun an observatory – so he could get a closer look at what his opponent was up to.

“DARKK TEMPLARRRR” exclaimed the Dragoon forces as one of their brethren exploded into a pool of blue goo before their eyes. The forces retreated in confusion, similar to how woodlice scurry away when exposed to sunlight. The Revolutionist remained calm despite the presence of Dark Templar – he calmly warped in a Forge and constructed an observer. The Dragoon army poured into Base Camp and immediately set about blocking the entrance.

The Dark Templar began to attack the Revolutionists forces, and the dragoons started to take damage. “WHERES THE OBSERVER?” exclaimed the helpless Dragoons. Within moments, a newly constructed Observer was on its way to the battlefield. In 3 decisive movements, the Dark Templar were repelled. The Dragoons moved from defense back into attack – and advanced rapidly towards the general.

Much had erected a number of cannons for defense, but this did not phase Bisu. His forces move in and attacked. The battle was ruthless and many Dragoons from both sides were butchered. The Cannons fell, but there was trouble in the Revolutionist base camp. Probes were being slaughtered like dogs in a Chinese restaurant by Dark Templar. Quickly, Dragoons moved in and quelled the threat to the population. For protection against further harass, a cannon warped in from the homeworld.

Meanwhile, the army of the Revolutionist had lain siege to the Generals base. More and more of the Dragoon legions arrived for Bisu as the General looked on helpless. As the main Nexus was destroyed, so were the General’s hopes and dreams. He bitterly ordered a full scale retreat to the region known as ‘Blue Storm’. Bisu was pleased with his victory – but knew the battle was not won yet. He gave chase, another confrontation was on the cards.

Essentially, this game made no sense. Much opened with a 1gate expo build and transitioned into a slow dark templar build. Bisu had ample time to prepare, it was easily to tell Much was up to something as well – in the end the weird build failed. And Bisu emerged victorious.

- Much has been looking solid in PvP and I came into this expecting him to play a nice standard game and with superior mechanics take Bisu down. Bisu has been inconsistent lately so I wouldn’t trust him in a long macro game – so I expect him to probably try a goon/obs heavy build and catch Much with his pants down.



- Well this game came out completely different to what I planned. Bisu played a nice solid macro game while Much came out with a pathetic DT build. Much’s build made absolutely no sense to me.. after pressuring with 2 gate, he cut units to get his templar tech out faster. Thus, when his pressure was cut down by Bisu all Bisu had to do was march over with his 2 gate goon and kill Much’s 4 defenders. Easy game for Bisu.

- This game told me nothing about how Bisu was holding up with the impeding team switch or how his skills are coping after his miserable group games. Overall this game was lost by Much – I don’t know what he was thinking, but he needs to step it up if he wants to defeat Bisu next week.

Luxury and Frozean would do battle on the newly re-instated map Fantasy II. Luxury had the honor of spawning in the Gaema Gowon position (7), while Frozean opened at the Xenosky position (11). Luxury has his maphack on today, and sends his Overlord straight to Frozean giving him time to re-direct his scouting drone towards his natural – where he starts a hatchery. Frozean on the other hand opens with a Comman first build, quickly followed up by 2 barracks. Luxury pools at 12 and gases soon after. One his lings pop, he walls his main with 2 lings and started Lair tech – looks like he is trying his luck with Jaedong’s Blue Storm build he used on Flash.

As soon as the Lair is finished, Lux starts a spire as expected, about the same time as Frozean starts his academy. Lux applies some Ling pressure to force some static D from Frozean. Luxury begins building mutalisks as Frozean starts his ebay,. Frozean moves out with a nice little force only to crash head on with Luxury’s mutalisk/ling troop heading north. A skirmish ensures, with the result being a stalemate.



Lux expands to the RoV nat (5 natural) and goes about harass with his growing mutalisk force. Luxuries mutas harass Frozean’s natural a bit, scoring a couple SCV kills before heading into the main to kill whatever he can. Luxury’s control is ridiculously good, and kills a good wad of units and turrets before leaving. Luxury is still massing a large amount of mutalisks, much like Jaedong did against Flash. However, there is no sign of guardians yet.


Within moments, the mutalisks have flown around Frozeans base and are harassing Frozean’s nat again – killing many helpless marines. Lux is literally just building mutalisks and drones, as his muta cloud grows larger and larger. He returns to Frozean’s main to harass somemore – and gets some Turret kills. Frozean seems completely helpless against the harass – his army just can’t match the mobility of Lux’s mutalisks.



Frozean has teched to Vessel in hope that an irradiate could save the day, but nothing is going to save him against the mass of mutalisks. His first vessel dies needlessly to mutalisk harass. Lux knows that its time to end things, and sends in all his mutalisks – which promptly rape every Terran structure and unit. Frozean is helpless – and calls an end to the match.

A truly dominating performance from Luxury. He did an identical build to Jaedong’s series against Flash and pulled it off just as he did. Frozean looked helpless all game – there was simply nothing he could do about that harass. There really needs to be a Terran revolution to solve the problem of mutalisk harass – Jaedong and Lux are just running away rampant atm.

- I really don’t know what to expect of Luxury in this game. He’s such a well-rounded player he could pull anything out. He’s got a strong enough macro to deal with Frozean off a 3hatch, or he could try an all-in and try to break Frozean’s nerves. His strategy will probably revolve around mutalisks, after all he and Shark pioneered the Mutalisk revolution. Frozean will just play it standard, he’ll be concealing as much as he can for the Grand Finals.



- Luxury performs the 2 hatch muta strat that Jaedong pulled on Blue Storm against Flash. The game pretty much was the same too; 2 hatch muta rapes terran base, mutas continue to mass, Terran folds.

- Unimpressive performance by Forzean at best while Luxury didn’t fail to impress. A good game by Lux – and if it weren’t for his Mutalisk antics, it would have been a rather dull game.

And so we came to the final match of the evening – the Protoss Royal Road candidate Best against the OSL veteran Stork. Both players are famed for their PvP so it should be good. The map is Blue Storm and Best warps in at 7 in a nice shade of Blue, while Stork warps in at 1 sporting the cream color. Best opens with the popular 2gate build while Stork opts for the Classic 1gate/gas -> core build. Best’s first zealot heads straight towards Stork – who just manages to squeeze out a zealot in time to block his small choke.

Best has also added a Cybercore as both players start to produce Dragoons. Stork adds a second gate – which basically evens out the builds. Stork tries to pressure with his ranged goons, but it doesn’t get anywhere against Best who chases Stork home – killing a dragoon in the process. Stork plants an expansion and shortly after Best follows. suit. Best’s dragoons stall allowing 2 goons to wander ahead into Storks waiting goons – obviously this mistake is punished by Stork who promptly kills off one of the goons.

Both players have observer tech out and they exchange observers – revealing all the secrets to the other player. Best and Stork must be thinking on the same page today as both players take a very quick 3rd expansion. Stork takes his mineral only while Best takes 11 – which would give him a gas advantage. Stork mobilizes, and pushed north towards 12. A cheeky observer spots this and Best moves in to stop him from advancing towards 11.



Both players start templar tech and Best expands to his mineral only – giving him a 1 base advantage. Stork, in return, adds a forge and upgrades +1 weapons, Best has no Forge in sight – which could prove costly. Best decides to pressure stork with a Zealot/Dt drop. One of Stork’s observers spots the drop, and consequently the drop is defused without incident.

The armies edge around each other, trying to get into a good position to attack – but no skirmish results. Stork takes 5 prepares his troops to cross the divide. But it is Best who pushes across the divide and attacks Stork. At this point, Best has about a 20 psi advantage. But, due to the high ground advantage, +1 weapons and beautiful storming – Stork wins the battle.




He immediately pushes towards Best’s mineral only expansion but quickly changes his mind and traps some of Best’s dragoons – slaughtering the lot of them. Stork decides its time to takes his expansion at 6 and does so while attacking Best again. With a primarily Zealot comprised army, he is able to siege uphill against Best – and some more brilliant storms clinch the battle for Stork.



Stork splits his army, a small raiding party heads north to stop Best from taking 12 while the majority of his forces pressure Best’s mineral only. Best’s forces cannot defend, and more reinforcements storm in for Stork. It is not long before Best is forced to concede the match after facing legion after legion of zealots, templar and archons.

Best’s macro was impressive, but Stork played a smart game. Waiting for Best to attack him while he caught up in macro. In the end, the faster +1 and good unit positioning (coupled with great storm) sealed the game for Stork. Just goes to show, theres more to pvp than macro.

- I’m expecting big things from Best, who’s best matchup is without a doubt PvP. Even if the game doesn’t go his way, I still expect a halfway decent game from him.



- And Best delivers his trademark macro. Most points through the first half of the game he was ahead in psi. But, Stork’s storming coupled with a much earlier +1 weapons clinched the game despite having less units. It took him a couple goes to break Best, but it was inevitable.

- Macro alone is not enough to beat the best PvP out there, if Best wants any shot at a semi-final spot he needs to work on the other areas of his game.