[OSL] 2010 Bacchus OSL- RO8 Week Two Text by Waxangel Graphics by SilverskY

Banner by SilverskY by KwarK, Milkis and Waxangel





This week's content

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Results and Battle Reports



Preview: Semi-Final One





I'm sorry, but there's something that's been annoying me for a long time that I simply must address.



The worst part about writing for TeamLiquid? Those f***ing front page preview boxes. Seriously, each week I just want to fill in "JUST READ THE GODDAMN POST." But noooo, I gotta go and write some generic synopsis that's essentially the same thing every week. What's worse, there's TWO boxes to fill in. So basically I put in some mindless drivel for the big box, and then condense that drivel again for the small box on the side.



Thus, I am now recruiting a full-time preview box writer. Please contact me for details.





Round of 8, Week Two



Quick Results



+ Show Spoiler [Results and VODs] + Match A:

Fantasy 2-0 ►Advances to Semifinals

Hyuk 0-2 Eliminated



[VOD] Hyuk < Icarus > Fantasy

[VOD] Hyuk < Gladiator > Fantasy

[VOD] Hyuk < Aztec > Fantasy



Match B:

Calm 2-1 ►Advances to Semifinals

Mind 1-2 Eliminated



[VOD] Calm < Aztec > Mind

[VOD] Calm < Pathfinder > Mind

[VOD] Calm < Icarus > Mind



Match C:

Modesty 2-1 ►Advances to Semifinals

Kal 1-2 Eliminated



[VOD] Modesty < Gladiator > Kal

[VOD] Modesty < Aztec > Kal

[VOD] Modesty < Pathfinder > Kal



Match D:

Stork 2-1 ►Advances to Semifinals

HiyA 1-2 Eliminated



[VOD] HiyA < Pathfinder > Stork

[VOD] HiyA < Icarus > Stork

[VOD] HiyA < Gladiator > Stork

2-0 ►0-22-1 ►1-22-1 ►1-22-1 ►1-2 Thanks to flamewheel for formatting.



Day Two Interviews



Battle Reports



by Kwark



Fantasy vs Hyuk





+ Show Spoiler [Game Two - Gladiator] +



Hyuk remained on two bases and headed to lair with a fast second gas, but made the interesting choice of skipping spire, going for a hydralisk den and a fast evolution chamber instead. Meanwhile, Fantasy rushed out three rax and an academy for an early ball of mnm to pressure with. These could not achieve much though as Hyuk had just the choke at his natural to defend, but at the same time Hyuk couldn't get a drone past these M&M to start a third base. After scanning Hyuk's base and finding no threat of mutalisks, Fantasy quickly cancelled all his turrets which was a pretty awesome move.



With lurkers, Hyuk was finally able to contest Fantasy's map control, still staying on just two bases in what was a pretty bad position. There was no credible threat to Fantasy, and he was well on his way to late game tech with two ebays and science vessels on the way. Although Hyuk established some map control, his third base was further delayed by a well placed scv at the 10 expansion, and by the time he managed to take it he had already reached defiler tech. When Fantasy pushed out to attack the new third base with a huge army, Hyuk realised he had no option but to counter Fantasy while using defilers to stall at home. Unfortunately Fantasy could not be forced into withdrawing, as he had anticipated such a move from Hyuk. Bunkers full of stimmed firebats and marines ripped through Hyuk's crackling heavy army and the attack was stopped. On the other side of the map, Fantasy marched on to victory. GG.





Hyuk's build here was simply bad. I'm not sure what he was trying but you can't go two gas hive ZvT. You simply do not have the gas to make the scourge to kill vessels, which is necessary to keep your defilers alive and fighting. What will always happen is that the Terran will mass up units like tanks and science vessels which must be countered by gas heavy units like scourge and defilers. What we saw here was exactly that. Hyuk spent the first 8 minutes on two gases, then realised he couldn't fight Fantasy's army and just all-ined with whatever he had. It was really quite pathetic. I have no idea why he didn't go for mutalisks rather than lurkers, they at least would have given him the map control to expand to another natural, go three gas hive and then take a fourth gas while he got defilers. Hyuk's execution wasn't terrible, he just had no idea what he was doing. Fantasy played modern TvZ and won, I guess he's competent though.



Wax's Take: This game was instructive of why it's so hard to open lurkers instead of mutas in ZvT (unless it's an all-in bust). The very threat of mutas, without actually having any out, can force Terran users to keep all of their early M&M at home. This allows the kind naked expanding to a third gas that is commonplace in ZvT. When Terran knows you're going lurkers first, he can just sit outside of your natural for a very long time, unless you want to commit to making lurker-ling in large numbers. By that point, you might as well go for an all-in bust. With zero map control, Hyuk was contained to two bases for most of the game, and it was no surprise that he lost.





Match Ratings



Kwark:

Hyuk - 1/5 (play more Icarus?)

Fantasy - 4/5 (I have no idea if you played well or not)

Game - 1/5



Wax:

Hyuk - 1/5

Fantasy - 3/5

Game - 1/5



Hyuk spawned at 11 in teal while Fantasy got 5 in red on Gladiator . Hyuk opted for a twelve hatch, eleven pool, thirteen hatch opening while Fantasy did a blind thirteen cc. This was the optimal start for Fantasy, as he had the better macro based opening.Hyuk remained on two bases and headed to lair with a fast second gas, but made the interesting choice of skipping spire, going for a hydralisk den and a fast evolution chamber instead. Meanwhile, Fantasy rushed out three rax and an academy for an early ball of mnm to pressure with. These could not achieve much though as Hyuk had just the choke at his natural to defend, but at the same time Hyuk couldn't get a drone past these M&M to start a third base. After scanning Hyuk's base and finding no threat of mutalisks, Fantasy quickly cancelled all his turrets which was a pretty awesome move.With lurkers, Hyuk was finally able to contest Fantasy's map control, still staying on just two bases in what was a pretty bad position. There was no credible threat to Fantasy, and he was well on his way to late game tech with two ebays and science vessels on the way. Although Hyuk established some map control, his third base was further delayed by a well placed scv at the 10 expansion, and by the time he managed to take it he had already reached defiler tech. When Fantasy pushed out to attack the new third base with a huge army, Hyuk realised he had no option but to counter Fantasy while using defilers to stall at home. Unfortunately Fantasy could not be forced into withdrawing, as he had anticipated such a move from Hyuk. Bunkers full of stimmed firebats and marines ripped through Hyuk's crackling heavy army and the attack was stopped. On the other side of the map, Fantasy marched on to victory. GG.Hyuk's build here was simply bad. I'm not sure what he was trying but you can't go two gas hive ZvT. You simply do not have the gas to make the scourge to kill vessels, which is necessary to keep your defilers alive and fighting. What will always happen is that the Terran will mass up units like tanks and science vessels which must be countered by gas heavy units like scourge and defilers. What we saw here was exactly that. Hyuk spent the first 8 minutes on two gases, then realised he couldn't fight Fantasy's army and just all-ined with whatever he had. It was really quite pathetic. I have no idea why he didn't go for mutalisks rather than lurkers, they at least would have given him the map control to expand to another natural, go three gas hive and then take a fourth gas while he got defilers. Hyuk's execution wasn't terrible, he just had no idea what he was doing. Fantasy played modern TvZ and won, I guess he's competent though.Kwark:Hyuk - 1/5 (play more Icarus?)Fantasy - 4/5 (I have no idea if you played well or not)Game - 1/5Wax:Hyuk - 1/5Fantasy - 3/5Game - 1/5



+ Show Spoiler [Game Three - Aztec] +

Fantasy won 2-0.





Mind vs Calm







+ Show Spoiler [Game Two - Pathfinder] +



Meanwhile Mind made a second barracks and an academy and kept trying to scout Calm's natural, although he missed the second extractor which may have tipped him off to mutalisks. Calm saved up six larva and the spire finished just before the comsat that scouted it. Mind started producing turrets and they finished just seconds before the mutalisks arrived. In a brilliant move, Calm drew Mind's M&M towards the main while a pair of zerglings infiltrated the natural and tore down a turret. The mutalisks then looped around to the natural and killed the two remaining turrets and a lot of SCVs and before the marines got back.



What then happened can be best described as Calm trying to one up Stork's display of harass on Pathfinder from last week. The mutalisks flew around Mind's base wreaking havoc everywhere, getting to spots before the mnm could respond. The mutas simply killed Mind. Every new marine immediately joined the defensive effort, while Calm pumped straight two hatch mutalisks with just enough drones to power it. Turrets were being produced and destroyed constantly, scvs being sniped, marines getting trapped in small places and dying. In fact I'm just gonna produce another MS Paint.





that happened... AND IT WAS AWESOME



Of course this wasn't quite as sexy as Stork's display of harass abuse on Pathfinder because Stork wasn't the least bit all-in, and he would have been ahead economically regardless of the outcome. Still, it was pretty impressive. The close air distances and long ground distances between main and natural on Pathfinder made it very easy for Calm to pull the marines out of position and kill the isolated turrets, and he exploited this brilliantly. However I can't help but feel that a bunker at the bottom of Mind's natural would have saved him a lot of trouble. This is not the first map to favour mutalisk harass and to render isolated turrets useless, and Terrans have adapted in the past by using bunkers in key locations. It seems strange to me that Mind didn't think to do this. Still, GG.



Wax's Take: I really loved how the early game strategies built up the match. 12 pool mutalisk all-in is an extremly powerful, yet predictable strategy on Pathfinder. Mind was well aware of this, and took a calculated risk by bringing a build order that would give him an overwhelming economy after a brief window of danger. The timing on his turrets was perfect down to the second, and it was clear that he was confident in his ability to survive. It was a statement of "You attack, I'll defend, and may the best man win." Unfortunately for Mind, that man was Calm.



Match Ratings



Kwark:

Calm - 5/5 (not for skill but for pure entertainment that was nice)

Mind - 2/5 (you died to mutas, sorry)

Game - 5/5 (watch this!)



Wax:

Calm - 4/5

Mind - 2/5

Game - 4/5



Calm spawned in blue at 8 while Mind got purple at 4 on Pathfinder . Calm went for an overgas pool while Mind opted to begin a wallin at his natural with his depot and then thirteen cc. I particularly like Calm's build against a likely thirteen cc because it's an optimized 2 gas mutalisk rush, the moment pool finished he already had one hundred gas for lair and an expansion on the way. His zerglings were out in time to deflect Mind's scout and his spire was about as fast as it's possible to make one.Meanwhile Mind made a second barracks and an academy and kept trying to scout Calm's natural, although he missed the second extractor which may have tipped him off to mutalisks. Calm saved up six larva and the spire finished just before the comsat that scouted it. Mind started producing turrets and they finished just seconds before the mutalisks arrived. In a brilliant move, Calm drew Mind's M&M towards the main while a pair of zerglings infiltrated the natural and tore down a turret. The mutalisks then looped around to the natural and killed the two remaining turrets and a lot of SCVs and before the marines got back.What then happened can be best described as Calm trying to one up Stork's display of harass on Pathfinder from last week. The mutalisks flew around Mind's base wreaking havoc everywhere, getting to spots before the mnm could respond. The mutas simply killed Mind. Every new marine immediately joined the defensive effort, while Calm pumped straight two hatch mutalisks with just enough drones to power it. Turrets were being produced and destroyed constantly, scvs being sniped, marines getting trapped in small places and dying. In fact I'm just gonna produce another MS Paint.Of course this wasn't quite as sexy as Stork's display of harass abuse on Pathfinder because Stork wasn't the least bit all-in, and he would have been ahead economically regardless of the outcome. Still, it was pretty impressive. The close air distances and long ground distances between main and natural on Pathfinder made it very easy for Calm to pull the marines out of position and kill the isolated turrets, and he exploited this brilliantly. However I can't help but feel that a bunker at the bottom of Mind's natural would have saved him a lot of trouble. This is not the first map to favour mutalisk harass and to render isolated turrets useless, and Terrans have adapted in the past by using bunkers in key locations. It seems strange to me that Mind didn't think to do this. Still, GG.Kwark:Calm - 5/5 (not for skill but for pure entertainment that was nice)Mind - 2/5 (you died to mutas, sorry)Game - 5/5 (Wax:Calm - 4/5Mind - 2/5Game - 4/5



+ Show Spoiler [Game Three - Icarus] +



By the time the mutalisks arrived Mind had plenty of turrets so Calm simply expanded to the natural at 9 and started a hydralisk den to do a standard transition. Some ambitious mutalisk play managed to get inside the turret defences and inflict minor damage, but Calm didn't need them to achieve that much. His plan was to go for he late game again, as in game one. The mutalisks continued to delay Mind and annoy him as much as possible while he waited for his first vessel to push.



Calm macroed up a very respectable lurkerling army by then, which held Mind up in the middle of the map while defilers and his fifth hatchery were coming online. Mind needed to hurry and hit before consume was done, but he let a zergling flank pull his army out of position and he got caught by a lot of lurkerling. As he attempted to regroup Calm performed a flank with his reinforcements that decimated the rest of Mind's army. Mind lost map control briefly, and it cost him the 5:00 expansion he had been building in the meanwhile.



Calm was now where he needed to be, with a fourth gas going up at the 9 main while consume upgrade was complete.

Mind resorted to what he knew worked: drop play. Two dropships dropped 9 in plain sight while Calm's scourge watched on nearby, a repeat of his his poor late game multi-tasking as in game 1. Although the first drop was contained Mind quickly followed with another, using his vessels to clear the ground for the dropships to have maximum effect. However Calm's kept his nydus alive this game, and he was able to quickly reinforce with more lurkers and defilers with a single excellent plague hitting all the dropped units. As Mind scrambled to retreat, his vessels paid the price for their aggression, losing a number to scourge.



Calm decided to hit back with drops of his own and the game suddenly got very messy with multitasking failures on both sides. Two ultralisks, a defiler and some zerglings dropped Mind's main, but the defiler attack moved with the ultralisks, proceeding straight into the awaiting fire of marine rifles. Meanwhile Mind's push towards Calm's natural got plagued and annihilated by ultraling as it sat under a swarm. Another drop at 9 was able to kill the hatchery, but Mind's main army was destroyed and he'd allowed a few ultras and cracks to rampage around in his main for quite some time. The victorious ultraling pushed into his expansion at 5 and it was over. GG.





Calm didn't play as incompetently as last week. He showed some signs of being able to play Zerg lategame, albeit not perfectly. There were still clear examples of his multitasking simply not being there when he needed it to be but Calm didn't open up his drops to the main this week as he did last. Calm got a lot done with lurkerling at the end of the midgame and Mind did well to regain ground with his drops but he needed to try harder to exploit Calm's weaknesses. Smaller drops on multiple fronts would have been considerably more dangerous than repeatedly hitting 9 in my opinion.



Wax's Take: It was worrisome to see the poor state Calm's reaction time and multitasking was in. Whatever happened to the Calm who gave Flash a run for his money? Hm, what happened to the Mind that was any good at all, for that matter?



Match Ratings



Kwark:

Calm - 3/5

Mind - 3/5

Game - 4/5



Wax:

Calm - 3/5

Mind - 2/5

Game - 2/5



Calm spawned at 12 in yellow while Mind got purple at 3 on Icarus. Calm opened twelve hatch, twelve pool while both players quickly discovered each other's starting position. Mind went for one rax cc and Calm added a hatchery and extractor on thirteen. This left them in a relatively even position regarding their ability to macro up. Calm proceeded to three hatch two gas lair as you'd expect while Mind went two rax academy and quickly pumped out a lot of mnm, hiding them on his ramp. He pushed out to hit the timing just before mutalisks were out but Calm plugged that gap with three sunkens while saving up nine larva.By the time the mutalisks arrived Mind had plenty of turrets so Calm simply expanded to the natural at 9 and started a hydralisk den to do a standard transition. Some ambitious mutalisk play managed to get inside the turret defences and inflict minor damage, but Calm didn't need them to achieve that much. His plan was to go for he late game again, as in game one. The mutalisks continued to delay Mind and annoy him as much as possible while he waited for his first vessel to push.Calm macroed up a very respectable lurkerling army by then, which held Mind up in the middle of the map while defilers and his fifth hatchery were coming online. Mind needed to hurry and hit before consume was done, but he let a zergling flank pull his army out of position and he got caught by a lot of lurkerling. As he attempted to regroup Calm performed a flank with his reinforcements that decimated the rest of Mind's army. Mind lost map control briefly, and it cost him the 5:00 expansion he had been building in the meanwhile.Calm was now where he needed to be, with a fourth gas going up at the 9 main while consume upgrade was complete.Mind resorted to what he knew worked: drop play. Two dropships dropped 9 in plain sight while Calm's scourge watched on nearby, a repeat of his his poor late game multi-tasking as in game 1. Although the first drop was contained Mind quickly followed with another, using his vessels to clear the ground for the dropships to have maximum effect. However Calm's kept his nydus alive this game, and he was able to quickly reinforce with more lurkers and defilers with a single excellent plague hitting all the dropped units. As Mind scrambled to retreat, his vessels paid the price for their aggression, losing a number to scourge.Calm decided to hit back with drops of his own and the game suddenly got very messy with multitasking failures on both sides. Two ultralisks, a defiler and some zerglings dropped Mind's main, but the defiler attack moved with the ultralisks, proceeding straight into the awaiting fire of marine rifles. Meanwhile Mind's push towards Calm's natural got plagued and annihilated by ultraling as it sat under a swarm. Another drop at 9 was able to kill the hatchery, but Mind's main army was destroyed and he'd allowed a few ultras and cracks to rampage around in his main for quite some time. The victorious ultraling pushed into his expansion at 5 and it was over. GG.Calm didn't play as incompetently as last week. He showed some signs of being able to play Zerg lategame, albeit not perfectly. There were still clear examples of his multitasking simply not being there when he needed it to be but Calm didn't open up his drops to the main this week as he did last. Calm got a lot done with lurkerling at the end of the midgame and Mind did well to regain ground with his drops but he needed to try harder to exploit Calm's weaknesses. Smaller drops on multiple fronts would have been considerably more dangerous than repeatedly hitting 9 in my opinion.Kwark:Calm - 3/5Mind - 3/5Game - 4/5Wax:Calm - 3/5Mind - 2/5Game - 2/5



Modesty vs Kal







+ Show Spoiler [Game Two - Aztec] +



Modesty took a quick third hatchery at 9 and started pumping drones while heading to lair and everything proceeded in an entirely standard fashion. Kal added a second gas, started ground attack upgrades and zealot speed but with only a single gateway pumping zealots. A corsair scouted and killed overlords with air attack on the way in an attempt to emulate last weeks' success. Modesty added three more hatcheries in the greedy 6 hatch style that is fashionable as of late, two at walling positions at each of his natural expansions, and another at the 8 main base. However in an unusual twist on the standard build Modesty used a few mutalisks and scourge to defend against the zealots rather than hydralisks and a wallin. Kal had insufficient corsairs to take the mutalisks on and simply wasn't expecting them, lacking air defence in his main and not escorting his zealots with corsairs.



Kal produced more corsairs and went for a zealot corsair attack at 12, trying to break in and clear a route for DT harass. Modesty left his defense to his sunken colonies and newly produced units and counterattacked Kal's natural with his mutalisks instead. Both players lost a lot of workers, Modesty losing more drones but wiping out Kal's army while Kal was forced to evacuate his natural. Kal continued to try and get some results out of his corsairs by escorting a shuttle to the 8:00 side bases, where a DT and HT racked up a reasonable number of drone kills.



In the big picture, it still appeared that Modesty had an advantage since he had successfully established four bases and six hatcheries without taking any major damage. While Kal had taken an expansion at 6, it was a mineral only base that would be worthless in the late game. Kal needed to break Modesty in the midgame or face certain defeat.



Sure enough, Kal came out with a massive Protoss army consisting mainly of the midgame supercombo of dragoons and high templar. He hit Modesty at the 9:00 natural expansion, but by sniping the observer Modesty was able to cause a crucial delay. A great many poorly aimed storms were wasted on very few lurkers and as a result cracklings and hydralisks were able to chip away and defeat the attack. Kal was forced to back off and take another expansion at 7, this one with gas. By this point Modesty was exactly where he wanted to be, with his defiler tech rendering the dragoon heavy army obsolete while his nydus network connected his four gas bases.



Kal continued to press the attack with primarily gateway units, trying to make some headway into the 9:00 base. Despite having terrible micro against storms, Modesty was able to snipe observers, get good plagues and continue to hold. The game degenerated into an ongoing battle of attrition at the 9:00 base in which lurkers cut down plagued zealots and dragoons while scourge sniped observers. Eventually, Kal ran out of steam and was forced to back off.



Modesty used the breathing room to drop the gas expansion at 7, bringing it to 100 hp even while taking fire from Kal's newly produced reavers. However the follow-up drop failed completely, and the nexus survived while many units were wasted. In the meanwhile, both players took additional gas bases, Modesty at 11:00 and Kal at his central expansion. With more resources on Modesty's side of the map, it did appear that time was on his side.



The inevitable late game switches happened, two robotics reavers with darchons from Kal and ultralisks with lurkers and defilers from Modesty, and lines were drawn across the map. For some strange reason, Kal refused to take the remaining gas base on his side of the map, at 3:00. Kal's speed upgraded shuttles kept striking Modesty's new expansions with success but with the two main bases of each player drying up, Modesty was still left with a substantial resource advantage.



With his reaver count rising to five and both flavours of archons Kal decided to make his move. Unfortunately for him, the centre of Aztec is very open and open areas do not favour reavers, archons or storm. Although he was able to push through and make progress against the Zerg units, he was making a long, corner to corner trip from his main to the Zerg expansions at the opposite end. He found himself bogged down in continual flanks, having to keep redeploying his reavers and eventually losing his shuttles. He was literally crawling for the last of the journey, making his way across the bridge into the rock ground below 11:00. There he was greeted by a narrow ramp, sunken colonies, spore colonies, lurkers, and defilers.



Though Kal had killed hundreds of zerg units on his way to 11:00, his army was overwhelmed in the end. Despite Kal's constant harass, Modesty was outspending him and keeping him contained. Ka's remaining bases quickly ran out, and he didn't have the money to preserve a belated attempt to expand to 3:00. Modesty's strategy of attrition had worked, as he used the openness of Aztec to draw Kal in and wear him down with pure macro in spite of his poor micro. Kal found himself out of bases to take and out of minerals to defeat the Zerg. GG.





This was a very rare breed of game, a Longinus era PvZ. Modesty played the map and the player well; his six hatch mutalisk scourge was able to deflect Kal's timing attack with ease while still making a considerable investment for the late game with control over two of the starting locations on a three player map. His strategy was correct and while the execution was patchy at times he was always ahead on paper.



I feel Kal was playing better Starcraft in terms of macro and micro but after allowing Modesty to put himself in that position by using the exact same build twice, he couldn't do all that much. The one critical attack on 9, hitting before hive tech finished, failed because there were too few observers for which I feel we can rightfully criticise Kal. Last week Modesty refused to leave the game forever, instead showing us all how annoying a Zerg can be if he makes lurkers and snipes observers. This week we saw him do the exact same thing. Kal had produced one shuttle, and then attacked several minutes later with just one observer. There must have been a lot of robotics downtime and against an opponent who shows he loves to block attacks with observer sniping that is pretty terrible. That attack was Kal's one shot to win the game before a secure four gas hive off two main bases kicked in on a three player map. He had to waste all his storms on lurkers, the attack faltered and the game was lost.



Wax's Take: Despite letting Modesty take more than half the map, Kal still had enough map control to expand at will for quite some time. Instead of expending money on pointless gateway unit pushes against a hive zerg, Kal could have just taken the 3:00 base and gone for a fearsome five gas Protoss, maybe even enticing Modesty to waste units attacking him instead. On a side note, there was something strangely noble about Kal's final too little too late push which killed A LOT of units before meeting its inevitable demise.



A lot of action, but overall not much substance.



Match Ratings



Kwark:

Kal - 4/5

Modesty - 4/5

Game - 5/5 (you don't get PvZ like this often anymore)



Wax:

Kal - 3/5

Modesty - 3/5

Game - 3/5



Modesty spawned at 12 in orange while Kal got green at 4 on Aztec . Modesty went for an overpool while Kal scouted him correctly and went for a standard forge response. Kal failed at blocking Modesty's hatchery but did at least succeed in going forge nexus cannon rather than cannon before nexus. However, in an effort to undo any credit I would have given him, he added a second cannon instead of a gateway.Modesty took a quick third hatchery at 9 and started pumping drones while heading to lair and everything proceeded in an entirely standard fashion. Kal added a second gas, started ground attack upgrades and zealot speed but with only a single gateway pumping zealots. A corsair scouted and killed overlords with air attack on the way in an attempt to emulate last weeks' success. Modesty added three more hatcheries in the greedy 6 hatch style that is fashionable as of late, two at walling positions at each of his natural expansions, and another at the 8 main base. However in an unusual twist on the standard build Modesty used a few mutalisks and scourge to defend against the zealots rather than hydralisks and a wallin. Kal had insufficient corsairs to take the mutalisks on and simply wasn't expecting them, lacking air defence in his main and not escorting his zealots with corsairs.Kal produced more corsairs and went for a zealot corsair attack at 12, trying to break in and clear a route for DT harass. Modesty left his defense to his sunken colonies and newly produced units and counterattacked Kal's natural with his mutalisks instead. Both players lost a lot of workers, Modesty losing more drones but wiping out Kal's army while Kal was forced to evacuate his natural. Kal continued to try and get some results out of his corsairs by escorting a shuttle to the 8:00 side bases, where a DT and HT racked up a reasonable number of drone kills.In the big picture, it still appeared that Modesty had an advantage since he had successfully established four bases and six hatcheries without taking any major damage. While Kal had taken an expansion at 6, it was a mineral only base that would be worthless in the late game. Kal needed to break Modesty in the midgame or face certain defeat.Sure enough, Kal came out with a massive Protoss army consisting mainly of the midgame supercombo of dragoons and high templar. He hit Modesty at the 9:00 natural expansion, but by sniping the observer Modesty was able to cause a crucial delay. A great many poorly aimed storms were wasted on very few lurkers and as a result cracklings and hydralisks were able to chip away and defeat the attack. Kal was forced to back off and take another expansion at 7, this one with gas. By this point Modesty was exactly where he wanted to be, with his defiler tech rendering the dragoon heavy army obsolete while his nydus network connected his four gas bases.Kal continued to press the attack with primarily gateway units, trying to make some headway into the 9:00 base. Despite having terrible micro against storms, Modesty was able to snipe observers, get good plagues and continue to hold. The game degenerated into an ongoing battle of attrition at the 9:00 base in which lurkers cut down plagued zealots and dragoons while scourge sniped observers. Eventually, Kal ran out of steam and was forced to back off.Modesty used the breathing room to drop the gas expansion at 7, bringing it to 100 hp even while taking fire from Kal's newly produced reavers. However the follow-up drop failed completely, and the nexus survived while many units were wasted. In the meanwhile, both players took additional gas bases, Modesty at 11:00 and Kal at his central expansion. With more resources on Modesty's side of the map, it did appear that time was on his side.The inevitable late game switches happened, two robotics reavers with darchons from Kal and ultralisks with lurkers and defilers from Modesty, and lines were drawn across the map. For some strange reason, Kal refused to take the remaining gas base on his side of the map, at 3:00. Kal's speed upgraded shuttles kept striking Modesty's new expansions with success but with the two main bases of each player drying up, Modesty was still left with a substantial resource advantage.With his reaver count rising to five and both flavours of archons Kal decided to make his move. Unfortunately for him, the centre of Aztec is very open and open areas do not favour reavers, archons or storm. Although he was able to push through and make progress against the Zerg units, he was making a, corner to corner trip from his main to the Zerg expansions at the opposite end. He found himself bogged down in continual flanks, having to keep redeploying his reavers and eventually losing his shuttles. He was literally crawling for the last of the journey, making his way across the bridge into the rock ground below 11:00. There he was greeted by a narrow ramp, sunken colonies, spore colonies, lurkers, and defilers.Though Kal had killed hundreds of zerg units on his way to 11:00, his army was overwhelmed in the end. Despite Kal's constant harass, Modesty was outspending him and keeping him contained. Ka's remaining bases quickly ran out, and he didn't have the money to preserve a belated attempt to expand to 3:00. Modesty's strategy of attrition had worked, as he used the openness of Aztec to draw Kal in and wear him down with pure macro in spite of his poor micro. Kal found himself out of bases to take and out of minerals to defeat the Zerg. GG.This was a very rare breed of game, a Longinus era PvZ. Modesty played the map and the player well; his six hatch mutalisk scourge was able to deflect Kal's timing attack with ease while still making a considerable investment for the late game with control over two of the starting locations on a three player map. His strategy was correct and while the execution was patchy at times he was always ahead on paper.I feel Kal was playing better Starcraft in terms of macro and micro but after allowing Modesty to put himself in that position by using the exact same build twice, he couldn't do all that much. The one critical attack on 9, hitting before hive tech finished, failed because there were too few observers for which I feel we can rightfully criticise Kal. Last week Modesty refused to leave the game forever, instead showing us all how annoying a Zerg can be if he makes lurkers and snipes observers. This week we saw him do the exact same thing. Kal had produced one shuttle, and then attacked several minutes later with just one observer. There must have been a lot of robotics downtime and against an opponent who shows he loves to block attacks with observer sniping that is pretty terrible. That attack was Kal's one shot to win the game before a secure four gas hive off two main bases kicked in on a three player map. He had to waste all his storms on lurkers, the attack faltered and the game was lost.Kwark:Kal - 4/5Modesty - 4/5Game - 5/5 (you don't get PvZ like this often anymore)Wax:Kal - 3/5Modesty - 3/5Game - 3/5



+ Show Spoiler [Game Three - Pathfinder] + Editor's note: One day, I will make an extensive highlight reel of players who went forge-nexus-cannon and got punished by a speedling runby, just for Kwark). Rather than repeat last weeks defeat with three hatch lair -> five hatch hydra, Modesty went for a quick hydralisk den and a group of hydras off of just three hatcheries.



Kal smelled cheese but didn't know which one, responding with a lot of cannons at the front of his base while going for his standard speedzealot play. Unfortunately for him Modesty was attempting to abuse the open sides of the mains to emulate the harass play others had found so successful on this map with a quick drops using slow overlords. Amazingly, Modesty got two overlords right next to Kal's main without getting caught by corsairs, and by the time Kal realized the plan, hydra-ling were already being elevatored into his main. Kal's zealots were way out of position outside of his main, and his economy suffered as they scrambled to return.



Things got crazy.



Modesty hadn't dropped enough hydralisks in Kal's main to fight straight up with the zealots, so he used some very good shoot and scoot micro to lead the speedlots on a merry chase around the nexus while taking potshots at probes. In the meanwhile, Kal's corsairs were roaming the map and killing a lot of overlords, but Modesty still managed to find gaps through which he could slowdrop additional hydralisks into Kal's main. Modesty was only dropping a handful of hydralisks at a time, but even at that rate he began to outpace Kal's one gate zealot production, forcing Kal to field his probes on defense as well. Modesty's economy had completely stopped growing, but Kal couldn't reap the benefits of FE as his probes were chasing hydralisks around.



It looked like Kal could finally take a breather once a reaver came out and cleaned up the hydras, but Modesty had already moved onto his next trick. Overlord speed and lurkers finished around the same time, and Modesty performed a dual lurker drop behind both mineral lines. Kal's economy was almost shut down completely, but he used the shoot-your-own-zealot-with-a-scarab trick to clear the lurker in his main and get at least one base worth of mining. Judging that his reaver was sufficient for defense, Kal sent out some speedlots for some minor retribution, but did not succeed at really hamstringing Modesty's economy.



With an observer out, it seemed that Kal had finally held the attacks and secured himself again hydralisk or lurker attacks from any angle. Kal even had the presence of mind to go for a reaver drop, since a man so intent on attacking often has no defenses of his own. Alas, Modesty had already made a second tech switch, this time to mutalisks.



During the hydralisk drops, Kal had lost a number of his corsairs as he tried to hunt down overlords. What seemed like a minor mistake then suddenly appeared as if it could be be a game deciding error. Kal had not trained dragoons at all and had stopped corsair production long ago, and was completely unprepared to deal with mutalisks and scourge. He had cannons in his main but not enough, and both his stargate and gateway were in his main. His natural had no room to build any production facilities so he simply could not produce units. Kal counterattacked with reavers and zealots and killed some drones but with his main lost there was nothing he could do so he GGed.



Wax's Take: It was amazing how Modesty was always strategically one step ahead of Kal. He was always making Kal deal with one threat, and then moving onto a new one before there was time to prepare. First he forced many cannons at the front in and exploited Kal's empty main, then he surprised Kal with lurker drops just when he was getting a handle on the Hydras, and finally he switched to muta-scourge after Kal had completely devoted himself to countering hydralisk den tech.



A truly unique game, a rarity in any day and age.



Match Ratings



Kwark

Kal - 3/5 (pretty nice defence given the circumstances)

Modesty - 4/5 (pretty insane multitasking to actually pull that off)

Game 5/5 (very entertaining)



Wax

Kal - 3/5

Modesty - 5/5

Game - 5/5

Kal spawned at 8 in red while Modesty got 4 in yellow on Pathfinder . Modesty overpool hatched while Kal went for a forge expand which was all very standard. Modesty then opted to add a quick third base off of just four zerglings and Kal again decided he needed two cannons and two probes to hold a good wallin against four zerglings (). Rather than repeat last weeks defeat with three hatch lair -> five hatch hydra, Modesty went for a quick hydralisk den and a group of hydras off of just three hatcheries.Kal smelled cheese but didn't know which one, responding with a lot of cannons at the front of his base while going for his standard speedzealot play. Unfortunately for him Modesty was attempting to abuse the open sides of the mains to emulate the harass play others had found so successful on this map with a quick drops using slow overlords. Amazingly, Modesty got two overlords right next to Kal's main without getting caught by corsairs, and by the time Kal realized the plan, hydra-ling were already being elevatored into his main. Kal's zealots were way out of position outside of his main, and his economy suffered as they scrambled to return.Things got crazy.Modesty hadn't dropped enough hydralisks in Kal's main to fight straight up with the zealots, so he used some very good shoot and scoot micro to lead the speedlots on a merry chase around the nexus while taking potshots at probes. In the meanwhile, Kal's corsairs were roaming the map and killing a lot of overlords, but Modesty still managed to find gaps through which he could slowdrop additional hydralisks into Kal's main. Modesty was only dropping a handful of hydralisks at a time, but even at that rate he began to outpace Kal's one gate zealot production, forcing Kal to field his probes on defense as well. Modesty's economy had completely stopped growing, but Kal couldn't reap the benefits of FE as his probes were chasing hydralisks around.It looked like Kal could finally take a breather once a reaver came out and cleaned up the hydras, but Modesty had already moved onto his next trick. Overlord speed and lurkers finished around the same time, and Modesty performed a dual lurker drop behind both mineral lines. Kal's economy was almost shut down completely, but he used the shoot-your-own-zealot-with-a-scarab trick to clear the lurker in his main and get at least one base worth of mining. Judging that his reaver was sufficient for defense, Kal sent out some speedlots for some minor retribution, but did not succeed at really hamstringing Modesty's economy.With an observer out, it seemed that Kal had finally held the attacks and secured himself again hydralisk or lurker attacks from any angle. Kal even had the presence of mind to go for a reaver drop, since a man so intent on attacking often has no defenses of his own. Alas, Modesty had already made a second tech switch, this time to mutalisks.During the hydralisk drops, Kal had lost a number of his corsairs as he tried to hunt down overlords. What seemed like a minor mistake then suddenly appeared as if it could be be a game deciding error. Kal had not trained dragoons at all and had stopped corsair production long ago, and was completely unprepared to deal with mutalisks and scourge. He had cannons in his main but not enough, and both his stargate and gateway were in his main. His natural had no room to build any production facilities so he simply could not produce units. Kal counterattacked with reavers and zealots and killed some drones but with his main lost there was nothing he could do so he GGed.KwarkKal - 3/5 (pretty nice defence given the circumstances)Modesty - 4/5 (pretty insane multitasking to actually pull that off)Game 5/5 (very entertaining)WaxKal - 3/5Modesty - 5/5Game - 5/5



Stork vs HiyA





Oh hey I found a prettier stork.



+ Show Spoiler [Game Two - Icarus] + Editor's note: it was probably searching for a proxy robo?). Having learned his lesson from game one, HiyA invested in defending against a reaver rush despite having no idea what Stork was doing. It actually was a correct guess, but far too early. Stork would eventually make a reaver, but only after he got his third base, observer tech and a few more gateways.



The reaver drop finally came and, with the help of two zealots, killed three tanks. This is pretty inexplicable given how late it was but I guess HiyA really didn't want to use a wraith, mines, vultures or anything else that can stop zealots and reaver micro. Instead we had the fairly embarassing situation where tanks were wasting their shots on zealots and actually shooting each other rather than doing anything constructive.



Stork was surging ahead in the macro game, heading for eight gateways while the two base HiyA opted for drop play out of a fast starport. Expanding to 1:00 turned out to be a bad decision for Stork, as it was just a step away from Hiya's main. Stork was very unprepared for a two tank, four vulture drop, and even had a pylon wall that stopped his own units from defending. Although he eventually got around to defending, he could not make it in time to save the Nexus, and was cost ineffective in dislodging Hiya's units as well.



The next stop for Hiya was the ledge above Stork's natural which was dropped lost temple style, momentarily reducing Stork to just one mining base. Again it was dealt with eventually, but it was a painful operation for Stork who had only one shuttle. He lost a lot of mining time, and even more units.



Stork tried to surreptitiously expand to the far side of the map at 7, but his probes passed over a mine and alerted Hiya to the expansion's location. HiyA's dropships responded and four tanks landed at 7, enough to bring the nexus down before Stork's army could arrive.



Meanwhile HiyA had consolidated the area around his natural with mines, turrets and tanks and had secured a third base at 4:00, actually going one base ahead of Stork. Despite his map control Stork couldn't seem to find a place to expand and although he eventually retook 1, other attempts 7 and 11 were thwarted by vultures. By the time they were back on an even base count HiyA was ahead in supply and moving into the center of the map.



It is therefore to Stork's credit that he flattened HiyA's army. Despite losing all over the map for several minutes and having been behind in economy and supply, Stork simply rolled the mass tanks with shuttles and storms. He'd been unable to get the gas he needed for an arbiter transition so he just defeated the late game Terran army, with its vessels and upgrades, using psi storm. It was truly incredible. As he pushed his opponent back his dragoons got bogged down in mines and he took unnecessary losses cleaning up the mines but it was still a resounding victory that was only tainted by two tanks dropped at 1 killing probes.



Stork was able to take another expansion at 11 but his probe count had been suffering all game. Despite having returned to even base counts, HiyA hadn't lost any scvs while Stork's four bases had spent half their time not mining and were undersaturated from constant probe losses. Stork had opted to make units rather than probes to defeat HiyA's army and while that was the correct choice, HiyA replaced his units more quickly.



HiyA pushed again, and this time Stork lacked the income to build another force capable of conjuring up a magical victory. After losing his army Stork GGed.





I really liked how both players played this game. Stork showed faultless PvT execution. His reaver harass continued to defy even the most optimistic expectations of fans. Also, breaking a Terran push when both players are at one hundred and fifty supply using only dragoons, zealots and high templar is a remarkable feat. Stork displayed amazing macro and micro this game.



However HiyA's strategy was exactly what a macrotoss isn't equipped to deal with, especially on a map such as this one. The macrotoss expands, makes gateways, makes units and then expands in a self perpetuating cycle of map control. By going dropships HiyA bypassed the map control and kept hitting Stork in the wallet until even the PvT master couldn't take anymore, only offering fights on his own terms. Stork should have kept his robotics more active, more observers would have helped and more shuttles could have cleaned up the drops on his ridge faster.



Also, taking 1:00 may be a solid decision if you expect short air distances to work for you (harassing with reaver while having it nearby to kill vultures at for example) but if you suspect that your opponent might want to harass your cliff, then suddenly both of your expansions are open to easy harassment. Stork appeared to be completely surprised that a Terran may want to drop tanks on a ridge by his natural, which is odd. Stork's perfect play was marred by fairly sizable strategic gaps which made this a little disappointing for me. Still...





Wax's Take: Kind of silly of Stork to get caught so unprepared, but at the same time Hiya really maximized the pain you can cause with good dropship use. Had Stork expanded to 11:00 instead of 1:00, or made two shuttles, he probably still would have taken some damage. But it would not have been so bad to the point where he was running off two bases for most of the game, and it would have made the game much more winnable.



And of course, Stork's siege-break was a true HOLY SHIT moment.



Match Ratings



Kwark:

Stork - 4/5

HiyA - 4/5

Game - 4/5



Wax:

Stork - 3/5

Hiya - 4/5

Game - 3/5



Stork spawned at 12 in red while HiyA got yellow at 3 on Icarus . Stork did the exact same opening as in game one, going zealot - dragoon - range - expansion, while HiyA went for a rax cc with a bunker. Dragoons with range attacked the bunkers, scvs repaired and a tank was produced in very standard fashion. The only slightly unusual thing was Stork's very fast third base at 1 which was almost scouted by HiyA's floating ebay (). Having learned his lesson from game one, HiyA invested in defending against a reaver rush despite having no idea what Stork was doing. It actually was a correct guess, but far too early. Stork would eventually make a reaver, but only after he got his third base, observer tech and a few more gateways.The reaver drop finally came and, with the help of two zealots, killed three tanks. This is pretty inexplicable given how late it was but I guess HiyA really didn't want to use a wraith, mines, vultures or anything else that can stop zealots and reaver micro. Instead we had the fairly embarassing situation where tanks were wasting their shots on zealots and actually shooting each other rather than doing anything constructive.Stork was surging ahead in the macro game, heading for eight gateways while the two base HiyA opted for drop play out of a fast starport. Expanding to 1:00 turned out to be a bad decision for Stork, as it was just a step away from Hiya's main. Stork was very unprepared for a two tank, four vulture drop, and even had a pylon wall that stopped his own units from defending. Although he eventually got around to defending, he could not make it in time to save the Nexus, and was cost ineffective in dislodging Hiya's units as well.The next stop for Hiya was the ledge above Stork's natural which was dropped lost temple style, momentarily reducing Stork to just one mining base. Again it was dealt with eventually, but it was a painful operation for Stork who had only one shuttle. He lost a lot of mining time, and even more units.Stork tried to surreptitiously expand to the far side of the map at 7, but his probes passed over a mine and alerted Hiya to the expansion's location. HiyA's dropships responded and four tanks landed at 7, enough to bring the nexus down before Stork's army could arrive.Meanwhile HiyA had consolidated the area around his natural with mines, turrets and tanks and had secured a third base at 4:00, actually going one base ahead of Stork. Despite his map control Stork couldn't seem to find a place to expand and although he eventually retook 1, other attempts 7 and 11 were thwarted by vultures. By the time they were back on an even base count HiyA was ahead in supply and moving into the center of the map.It is therefore to Stork's credit that he flattened HiyA's army. Despite losing all over the map for several minutes and having been behind in economy and supply, Stork simply rolled the mass tanks with shuttles and storms. He'd been unable to get the gas he needed for an arbiter transition so he just defeated the late game Terran army, with its vessels and upgrades, using psi storm. It was truly. As he pushed his opponent back his dragoons got bogged down in mines and he took unnecessary losses cleaning up the mines but it was still a resounding victory that was only tainted by two tanks dropped at 1 killing probes.Stork was able to take another expansion at 11 but his probe count had been suffering all game. Despite having returned to even base counts, HiyA hadn't lost any scvs while Stork's four bases had spent half their time not mining and were undersaturated from constant probe losses. Stork had opted to make units rather than probes to defeat HiyA's army and while that was the correct choice, HiyA replaced his units more quickly.HiyA pushed again, and this time Stork lacked the income to build another force capable of conjuring up a magical victory. After losing his army Stork GGed.I really liked how both players played this game. Stork showed faultless PvT execution. His reaver harass continued to defy even the most optimistic expectations of fans. Also, breaking a Terran push when both players are at one hundred and fifty supply using only dragoons, zealots and high templar is a remarkable feat. Stork displayed amazing macro and micro this game.However HiyA's strategy was exactly what a macrotoss isn't equipped to deal with, especially on a map such as this one. The macrotoss expands, makes gateways, makes units and then expands in a self perpetuating cycle of map control. By going dropships HiyA bypassed the map control and kept hitting Stork in the wallet until even the PvT master couldn't take anymore, only offering fights on his own terms. Stork should have kept his robotics more active, more observers would have helped and more shuttles could have cleaned up the drops on his ridge faster.Also, taking 1:00 may be a solid decision if you expect short air distances to work for you (harassing with reaver while having it nearby to kill vultures at for example) but if you suspect that your opponent might want to harass your cliff, then suddenly both of your expansions are open to easy harassment. Stork appeared to be completely surprised that a Terran may want to drop tanks on a ridge by his natural, which is odd. Stork's perfect play was marred by fairly sizable strategic gaps which made this a little disappointing for me. Still...Kwark:Stork - 4/5HiyA - 4/5Game - 4/5Wax:Stork - 3/5Hiya - 4/5Game - 3/5



+ Show Spoiler [Game Three - Gladiator] +



With three bases up Stork went into macro mode, a ring of turrets and mines denying any reaver harass or observer scouting. Fortunately for Protoss fans Stork's decision to blindly go six gateways and focus on ground troops somewhat countered Hiya's choice to go for a five factory push. Even so, Stork would still have to work hard to resist a strong mid-game push.



HiyA was forced to fight for every inch of ground as he made his way to Stork's base, as a single reaver-shuttle combination bought a lot of time and cut into the vulture count. In the meanwhile Stork was adding even more gateways and rushing to zealot speed. When Hiya grabbed a tenuous foothold just outside of the Protoss expansions, Stork made an important decision.



Instead of waiting for zealot speed to finish, Stork attacked Hiya's position with dragoons, zealots, and his reaver before the Terran troops could become fully entrenched. Utilizing excellent reaver against Hiya's clustered tanks, Stork completely overran Hiya and chased him all the way back across the map. With his opponent sufficiently chastised, Stork began to casually expand to every remaining spot on the map and teched to arbiters. He allowed HiyA to creep forward and take his mineral only, though it was a small consolation for his rapidly worsening situation.



Perhaps feeling his opponent was getting a little complacent, Stork threw a massive army of pure zealots and dragoons at his opponent. HiyA was not expanding, pushing or attempting anything at all at the time, I think it was Stork's way of reminding HiyA what was waiting for him on the map if he ever felt like leaving his base. Naturally, Stork lost his army because that's what happens when you attack move into tanks but remarkably he killed almost all of HiyA's tanks too.



Barely a minute later Stork was re-maxed and HiyA was at just one hundred supply. Stork attacked again, this time easily overruning the inferior Terran army. Incredible macro combined with incredible micro were more than a match for anything HiyA could do. GG.





There's not really much you can say about this game that hasn't already been said. Stork used the exact same build in the exact same way in every game of the series. HiyA mixed it up a bit with more turrets and a five fact push that "should" have worked. But that reaver bought so much time and it was cross positions and Stork somehow doesn't need storm or zealot speed to break pushes. After that it was all over, Stork was growing out of control and HiyA couldn't even hope to keep up. Stork's macro play has gaps and I think HiyA played correctly to try and exploit those gaps with that timing attack but the problem is Stork's micro is so good that even at his weakest moments he could still get enough out of his units. At this stage I'm prepared to write off the rax cc opening as simply not working against Stork.



Wax's Take: Eh, I'm more inclined to think that this match was more about Hiya being bad than Stork being good. Hiya's 5 fact push was one of the least fearsome we've seen, though credit to Stork for dispatching it so easily. This really is Stork's specialty though, taking care of inferior PvT players in macro games.



Overall, I think this series was what everyone expected. Stork got to show off his dominating all-around PvT skills, while Hiya showed once again that he's much cleverer than people give him credit for.



Match Ratings

Kwark:

Stork - 5/5 (a perfect game?)

HiyA - 3/5 (hard to judge against that, I don't think you did anything wrong though HiyA)

Game - 3/5 (a bit one sided but still, fun if you're Protoss)



Wax:

Stork - 4/5

Hiya - 2/5

Game - 2/5 (almost a 1/5, but it was entertainingly ludicrous how Stork tried to take every base on the map) Stork spawned at 7 in red while HiyA got yellow at 1 on Gladiator . HiyA again opted for a rax cc opening while Stork again went for zealot dragoon range. Remarkably his first zealot and probe scout were able to net three marine kills with some nice micro, and mistakes on the part of HiyA. The dragoons got range and started attacking the bunker, as before, while Stork expanded, teched to robo, and expanded again, as before. Siege mode finally finished to push the dragoons back but Stork was looking in decent shape having denied his turtling opponent any scouting.With three bases up Stork went into macro mode, a ring of turrets and mines denying any reaver harass or observer scouting. Fortunately for Protoss fans Stork's decision to blindly go six gateways and focus on ground troops somewhat countered Hiya's choice to go for a five factory push. Even so, Stork would still have to work hard to resist a strong mid-game push.HiyA was forced to fight for every inch of ground as he made his way to Stork's base, as a single reaver-shuttle combination bought a lot of time and cut into the vulture count. In the meanwhile Stork was adding even more gateways and rushing to zealot speed. When Hiya grabbed a tenuous foothold just outside of the Protoss expansions, Stork made an important decision.Instead of waiting for zealot speed to finish, Stork attacked Hiya's position with dragoons, zealots, and his reaver before the Terran troops could become fully entrenched. Utilizing excellent reaver against Hiya's clustered tanks, Stork completely overran Hiya and chased him all the way back across the map. With his opponent sufficiently chastised, Stork began to casually expand to every remaining spot on the map and teched to arbiters. He allowed HiyA to creep forward and take his mineral only, though it was a small consolation for his rapidly worsening situation.Perhaps feeling his opponent was getting a little complacent, Stork threw a massive army of pure zealots and dragoons at his opponent. HiyA was not expanding, pushing or attempting anything at all at the time, I think it was Stork's way of reminding HiyA what was waiting for him on the map if he ever felt like leaving his base. Naturally, Stork lost his army because that's what happens when you attack move into tanks but remarkably he killed almost all of HiyA's tanks too.Barely a minute later Stork was re-maxed and HiyA was at just one hundred supply. Stork attacked again, this time easily overruning the inferior Terran army. Incredible macro combined with incredible micro were more than a match for anything HiyA could do. GG.There's not really much you can say about this game that hasn't already been said. Stork used the exact same build in the exact same way in every game of the series. HiyA mixed it up a bit with more turrets and a five fact push that "should" have worked. But that reaver bought so much time and it was cross positions and Stork somehow doesn't need storm or zealot speed to break pushes. After that it was all over, Stork was growing out of control and HiyA couldn't even hope to keep up. Stork's macro play has gaps and I think HiyA played correctly to try and exploit those gaps with that timing attack but the problem is Stork's micro is so good that even at his weakest moments he could still get enough out of his units. At this stage I'm prepared to write off the rax cc opening as simply not working against Stork.Kwark:Stork - 5/5 (a perfect game?)HiyA - 3/5 (hard to judge against that, I don't think you did anything wrong though HiyA)Game - 3/5 (a bit one sided but still, fun if you're Protoss)Wax:Stork - 4/5Hiya - 2/5Game - 2/5 (almost a 1/5, but it was entertainingly ludicrous how Stork tried to take every base on the map)







So GSL team, you wanna make us look bad with your instantaneous news reports? This means war.



Preview: Semi-Final One



Fantasy





VS



Calm





Aztec - Icarus - Gladiator - Pathfinder - Aztec





Milkis: "Sorry, what was that? I was watching MSL."



Fantasy versus Calm. It's almost disgusting to call this a poor man's Flash versus Jaedong -- by that logic, we might as well call any TvZ a poor man's Flash versus Jaedong, right?



But the games played by lesser players are generally more entertaining. After all, most Flash versus Jaedong games were decided through mind games before the games had even started. Like chess masters calculating each move beforehand, the mistakes in these series are not often mistakes due to incompetence but due to thinking too much.



Thankfully, for the rest of us, we have Fantasy versus Calm, who will do none of these things, but play raw, mindless Broodwar instead.



Sure they will be inconsistent, as they have always been. Sure, one of those are bound to have some hilarious fails that will make us giggle. But for those of us who want crass entertainment rather than a predetermined chess games, we have our medicine. It definitely won't feature world class TvZ, but we're bound to see quirky builds, unexpected game sense, and inconsistent skills that make it too difficult for us to call who will win this one.



It's hard to say who has more momentum either. Calm has been building up momentum after his deep slump over the past few months, recovering with his strong(?) individual league performance. Meanwhile, Fantasy started this season strong, then dropped his game, and now is showing signs of recovery. Few players still have as much 'force' behind them as Fantasy.



The maps are bound to make the games even more interesting. Maps like Icarus and Aztec seem to favor Zergs in general, while Pathfinder is bound to give us some hilarious plays given the matchup. Honestly, it's quite hard to call who will win (although something in me tells me that it'll be a Calm vs Modesty finals), but hey, hopefully, we'll all have some enjoyable, hilarious games.





Kwark: "I didn't actually write this."



In EVE online, there are players who are KwarK, and then there are players who are not. Similarly, in Starcraft, there are players who are Stork, and then there's Calm and Fantasy. Though Stork is destined to win it all this season, it's still worth taking an interest in lesser beings, just like I am amused with my underlings in EVE online.



Despite his general inconsistency, Fantasy always brings something to the table for big games. Though Fantasy elevates his play for difficult opponents, I'm genuinely intrigued in whether Calm counts as "difficult" for those purposes. Fantasy probably isn't consciously underestimating Calm here, but I think that it might take a player on the level of Jaedong or Flash to bring out Fantasy's true potential.



Working together with the SKT coaching staff, his planning for multi-game series is really top-notch. I'm not worried about four of the five maps being fairly macro oriented, since Fantasy has always been creative and resourceful in any situation. Kind of like the time I rigged a dumpster with stolen electricity from the city so I could continue to play EVE Online while I was destitute.



Calm's stock is pretty low right now, but I find it hard to dismiss his MSL championship credentials even now. There was real skill backing his luck two years ago, and that kind of skill never disappears completely. The series against Mind sent a lot of mixed signals, but I'd like to interpret them as generally positive.



His overall macro and micro were very good, and it was only his poor multitasking ability that hurt him. It's definitely something he can plan for and play around, and a lair stage ownage similar to the game on Pathfinder is a real possibility. Also, since Fantasy is not historically a great dropship user in TvZ, I don't mind Calm's chances in a longer game, as long as Fantasy doesn't achieve 4 base late mech.



In terms of skillset, I think it's fairly even. But overall, I think Fantasy has the edge here, largely in part because of his past tournament performance at this level.





WaxAngel: "Of course I'm not mailing it in."



After watching a game or a series, I always ask myself “what did we learn?” When it’s Fantasy or Calm playing, it’s very hard to come up with an answer. Throughout their long careers, we’ve seen them cycle between resounding success and miserable failure for no discernable reason. They are, in short, pattern-less players.



For most players we try to look for trends in results, and often we are rewarded as we discover new tendencies or dimensions in their play. Not so for these tumultuous two. Here’s a painful but demonstrative exercise for SKT fans: Count how many times Fantasy has roped you into thinking he was getting good at bio TvZ. Yup, the purpose of these guys' existence is to confound.



That’s why I could care less that Fantasy took out Hyuk with ease (also, come on, it’s Hyuk) in the RO8, or that he dropped two games to Soulkey in the MSL. A butterfly flapping its wings somewhere in the world is just as good a predictor as any statistical information.



At the same time, Calm has almost tricked me into thinking there’s a pattern to his TvZ. Check his OVER A YEAR since he beat a good TvZ player (Flash on New Year’s Day 2010). Surely that’s a sign that he’s at a disadvantage in this series?



No, I’m not going to take the bait. With two of the greater forces of chaos going at it, there’s no way this is anything but a crapshoot.



I know, it’s very much a cop-out to call this a toss up. But that’s the only way I can truthfully call it. Swear to god, if I had to predict this result to save the universe, I’d flip a coin and feel fine about it.



Well, it should be fun, at least :D



Verdict: Strange but enticing, like a peanut butter and bacon-jelly sandwich.

Fantasy versus Calm. It's almost disgusting to call this a poor man's Flash versus Jaedong -- by that logic, we might as well call any TvZ a poor man's Flash versus Jaedong, right?But the games played by lesser players are generally more entertaining. After all, most Flash versus Jaedong games were decided through mind games before the games had even started. Like chess masters calculating each move beforehand, the mistakes in these series are not often mistakes due to incompetence but due to thinking too much.Thankfully, for the rest of us, we have Fantasy versus Calm, who will do none of these things, but play raw, mindless Broodwar instead.Sure they will be inconsistent, as they have always been. Sure, one of those are bound to have some hilarious fails that will make us giggle. But for those of us who want crass entertainment rather than a predetermined chess games, we have our medicine. It definitely won't feature world class TvZ, but we're bound to see quirky builds, unexpected game sense, and inconsistent skills that make it too difficult for us to call who will win this one.It's hard to say who has more momentum either. Calm has been building up momentum after his deep slump over the past few months, recovering with his strong(?) individual league performance. Meanwhile, Fantasy started this season strong, then dropped his game, and now is showing signs of recovery. Few players still have as much 'force' behind them as Fantasy.The maps are bound to make the games even more interesting. Maps like Icarus and Aztec seem to favor Zergs in general, while Pathfinder is bound to give us some hilarious plays given the matchup. Honestly, it's quite hard to call who will win (although something in me tells me that it'll be a Calm vs Modesty finals), but hey, hopefully, we'll all have some enjoyable, hilarious games.In EVE online, there are players who are KwarK, and then there are players who are not. Similarly, in Starcraft, there are players who are Stork, and then there's Calm and Fantasy. Though Stork is destined to win it all this season, it's still worth taking an interest in lesser beings, just like I am amused with my underlings in EVE online.Despite his general inconsistency, Fantasy always brings something to the table for big games. Though Fantasy elevates his play for difficult opponents, I'm genuinely intrigued in whether Calm counts as "difficult" for those purposes. Fantasy probably isn't consciously underestimating Calm here, but I think that it might take a player on the level of Jaedong or Flash to bring out Fantasy's true potential.Working together with the SKT coaching staff, his planning for multi-game series is really top-notch. I'm not worried about four of the five maps being fairly macro oriented, since Fantasy has always been creative and resourceful in any situation. Kind of like the time I rigged a dumpster with stolen electricity from the city so I could continue to play EVE Online while I was destitute.Calm's stock is pretty low right now, but I find it hard to dismiss his MSL championship credentials even now. There was real skill backing his luck two years ago, and that kind of skill never disappears completely. The series against Mind sent a lot of mixed signals, but I'd like to interpret them as generally positive.His overall macro and micro were very good, and it was only his poor multitasking ability that hurt him. It's definitely something he can plan for and play around, and a lair stage ownage similar to the game on Pathfinder is a real possibility. Also, since Fantasy is not historically a great dropship user in TvZ, I don't mind Calm's chances in a longer game, as long as Fantasy doesn't achieve 4 base late mech.In terms of skillset, I think it's fairly even. But overall, I think Fantasy has the edge here, largely in part because of his past tournament performance at this level.After watching a game or a series, I always ask myself “what did we learn?” When it’s Fantasy or Calm playing, it’s very hard to come up with an answer. Throughout their long careers, we’ve seen them cycle between resounding success and miserable failure for no discernable reason. They are, in short, pattern-less players.For most players we try to look for trends in results, and often we are rewarded as we discover new tendencies or dimensions in their play. Not so for these tumultuous two. Here’s a painful but demonstrative exercise for SKT fans: Count how many times Fantasy has roped you into thinking he was getting good at bio TvZ. Yup, the purpose of these guys' existence is to confound.That’s why I could care less that Fantasy took out Hyuk with ease (also, come on, it’s Hyuk) in the RO8, or that he dropped two games to Soulkey in the MSL. A butterfly flapping its wings somewhere in the world is just as good a predictor as any statistical information.At the same time, Calm has almost tricked me into thinking there’s a pattern to his TvZ. Check his ZvT record . No, you’re not mistaken. It’s been asince he beat a good TvZ player (Flash on New Year’s Day 2010). Surely that’s a sign that he’s at a disadvantage in this series?No, I’m not going to take the bait. With two of the greater forces of chaos going at it, there’s no way this is anything but a crapshoot.I know, it’s very much a cop-out to call this a toss up. But that’s the only way I can truthfully call it. Swear to god, if I had to predict this result to save the universe, I’d flip a coin and feel fine about it.Well, it should be fun, at least :D



By the way, karmic justice for Kal.

I'm sorry, but there's something that's been annoying me for a long time that I simply must address.The worst part about writing for TeamLiquid? Those f***ing front page preview boxes. Seriously, each week I just want to fill in "JUST READ THE GODDAMN POST." But noooo, I gotta go and write some generic synopsis that's essentially the same thing every week. What's worse, there's TWO boxes to fill in. So basically I put in some mindless drivel for the big box, and then condense that drivel again for the small box on the side.Thus, I am now recruiting a full-time preview box writer. Please contact me for details. Administrator Hey HP can you redo everything youve ever done because i have a small complaint?