Nal_rA's Hallucination - Ganzi's Perfection
▶ 23rd April 2009 - 2009 MSL Survivor Tournament Season 1
◆ Group 8 Game 1, Byzantium 3, Jaedong vs GanZi
Hello, this is Nal_rA.
The match I will be focusing on today will be the perfect play Ganzi showed against the current strongest zerg, Jaedong.
Ganzi's build was 1 fact 1 star cc, while Jaedong went no pool 3 hatchery.
It has been a long time since a Terran went fast barracks against a Zerg opponent, and Jaedong made use of that fact well to his advantage. The result was Jaedong starting off with 12 hatch, followed by getting 2 more drones and getting his 3rd hatchery at 13 supply.
Ganzi built a starport after his first factory was completed, and did not immediately focus on building vultures, and instead, calmly scouted his opponent's build with his scouting SCV, after which he got his expansion and then started to build vultures.
The decisions that Jaedong makes after this are the key points that determined who would eventually emerge victorious.
Jaedong decided to pressure his opponent, who was going mech after going 3 hatcheries, and despite the timing being slower than a two-hatchery attack, which isn't that significantly huge, it can be compensated with masses of hydras.
The distance wasn't that far, and and (Jaedong) was successful in showing his opponent the lair timing. From that point onwards, if Jaedong went hardcore 3 hatchery hydra-ling attack, he could have pushed all the way in and at least could have forced Ganzi to lift his command center at his nat.
But Jaedong decided to do otherwise. When Jaedong went to pressure Ganzi with hydralisks, he could have had two thoughts, one in which if the pressure was successful then he would build more hydralisks and continue the pressure, and the other being if the initial pressure wasn't that successful, he would immediately get lair tech and drag the game to mid-macro-orientated game.
Jaedong doesn't always play according to the builds he had prepared, so whether his decision to pressure early game with hydralisks, and whether he decided to change his build in the last minute when he could have pushed into Ganzi's base, only Jaedong himself knows.
Jaedong started off well, but what slowly turned the game around was Ganzi's build order and his great on-the-spot thinking. Ganzi built a command center at his expo after finishing his factory, and if he had gotten his additional factories or a starport late, the game would have leaned in Jaedong's favor.
◆ Ganzi immediately goes to hunt overlords with his first wraith.
After getting a starport, he got another expansion, and because he built a wraith very fast, the game didn't go according to Jaedong's thoughts. As soon as the wraith was built, it started killing all the overlords nearby, starting off with the overlord near his main, followed by an overlord in the center of the map and ending with another overlord killed at Jaedong's mineral-only expo, killing a total of 3 overlords, which blocked Jaedong's supply.
If you see Jaedong's minimap, he did not actually scout the starport itself, but he should have scouted a building being built beside the command center, as it was within the range of the first overlord. Since there wouldn't be a good reason for the second factory to be built there, Jaedong could have guessed that it was a starport.
But he must not have confirmed that a wraith was being built. If he had known about the wraith's existence, he could have avoiding losing his overlords and getting his supply blocked, but he did not, and I think that's why he could attack while having 3 hatcheries.
While his overlords were being killed, Jaedong's spontaneous reaction becomes slower. After his first overlord died, his supply was 30/27. His supply was blocked for 21 seconds.
Right before the overlord in the center of the map died, the overlord which Jaedong built earlier spawned, so his supply become 30/35. Under this situation, he could have gotten 5 more hydras, but given the lack of time between the time the overlord spawned and the death of the overlord in the middle of the map, this was quite difficult.
◆ Strong Terran defense against mutalisks
I also felt that the placement of the turrets were exceptionally perfect, and although Jaedong started off with a good economy, his decisions and his opponent's decisions clashed, and it made me feel as though Jaedong's early economic advantage was no longer there.
While Jaedong might have been regretting his tech switch to mutalisks, Ganzi confidently attacked with his main army. In Ganzi's eyes, the number of mutalisks wasn't small, and because of that, he would have thought that "lurker timing will definitely be late".
Even if lurkers were out quickly, or if he wants being contained, he could have pushed out using his comsat scan. Ganzi did not hesitate to attack, and it was a move that helped him win the battle... no, the game.
All Jaedong could hope for was for Ganzi to make a mistake. Ganzi didn't lose his focus, and made use of the high ground to his advantage in the battle.
Jaedong must have felt lost at this point. Jaedong knew that his opponent was pushing out because Ganzi was at an advantage, and the only thing Jaedong could do was to win the battle without much casualties on his side so as to create a comeback, but Ganzi, who was at an advantage, did not choose the narrow path at 12 o clock between the two hills, and instead chose to make use of the higher ground and tanks to push the battle to his advantage. It was this moment when Jaedong lost all hope.
Not letting his guard down despite his advantage, Ganzi made great use of the higher ground so that even if he were to lose to battle, he would not lose without doing a ton of damage on Jaedong's army as well, and his great decision-making with the mindset of "the outcome will be decided by me" is much admirable.
Jaedong continued to make small micro mistakes during the battle. Ganzi's army size and positioning was good that he would definitely score points in the battle, and because of this, Jaedong had to completely obliterate Ganzi's army, but he mis-microed at such an important timing.
◆ A perfectly-timed attack gave Ganzi his win
Jaedong's units were ready and ready to face Ganzi's, so he had to build up his army size, so Jaedong had no choice but to wait, and he attacked with many lurkers and mutalisks at the 12 o clock side and with many zerglings and a handful of lurkers on the other side.
There were around 9 mutalisks, 11 lurkers and 3 control groups of zerglings, and if Jaedong had attacked with a dozen lings and 5 lurkers from the 12 o clock end and with the rest of the army at the other end instead, he could have achieved a much more favorable outcome.
But having only a split second to do this, it would have been too difficult. He should have attacked with 3 lurkers and 2 dozen lings from the 1 o clock end at the same time, but due to mistake in micro, the 2 dozen lings went ahead first and melted before the lurkers reached the army, and Jaedong's army, including his mutalisks, was obliterated.
Ganzi's focus, as he waited for Jaedong to attack, while also paying close attention to his main by building more factories as he switched tech, followed by his 2nd expansion, facing Jaedong as his opponent was great, and this game can only be described as "perfect".
It was such a great game that if you ask "Where there any areas that could have been improved on or were lacking?", I might have to say "none at all".
I hope Ganzi will continue to show such great games through hard practice, and Jaedong is now a player strong without a doubt ^^
Adding on, I want to say thanks to SKTelecom T1's iloveoOv playing coach, who continues to research and create new builds, increase the effectiveness of strategies, and showed that he can still win games, making Starcraft much more exciting to watch.
Written by: MBCGame Caster Nal_rA
Arranged by: Reporter Shim Hyun - lovesh73@fomos.co.kr
Source: Fomos.kr
Damn, so long to write >___>
Anyway, enjoy! Feedback and corrections welcome!