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News 1 History ToKoreaWithLove, June 08 Ongamenet ProLeague results 050604

A quick overview of saturday's games - not because i'm lazy, but becuase the games was pretty one-sided affairs, and really not worth writing many pages about.



Round one : Soul vs Hanbit



Game 1 : HOT/Autumn vs TheWind/Ccoma on Vertigo Plus



The godfavored Hanbit 2v2 team was back on the stage, and everybody expected them to win this easy. Easy is just not the word; for in a sweet match that reminded me of every single one of ElkY's matches, HOT and Autumn somhow managed to edge out a win. This after throwing mass basic units at well-defended bases and choke points for an eternity, and nothing was really decided untill HOT got mutas in the air and razed TheWind's nexus.



Score : 1-0 Hanbit



Game 2 : Control vs ToeContinued(T) on XenoSky



A short match, really - or it should have been short. Control is known for his lethal TvT, and despite this Continue guy's "gosu wgt record", I'm not betting on him.



Control took charge right from the go and gathered up a few kills on his first vulture. Both took their expands, and Control continued the pressure with a siege of Continue's main (the classic setup below the cliff), and looked to be winning right away. His foe had no dropships, and it was just a matter of taking over the natural cliff.



Now here is where things get stupid. Copycat Control is so much of an oov fan that he ignores the clearly game-winning advantage and just goes insanely many wraiths. Like a seasoned veteran toying with a newbie; Control built wraiths from what must have been 10 ports, takes total map control and after what must have been half an hour finally forces Continue out of the game. Good show, but hardly needed.



Hanbit wins 2-0! (again)



Round two : SK T1 vs GO



Game 1 : Zerglee/Rainbow vs Rage/Oversky on The Huntress



In the standard mirror ling/zlot affair, SK T1 took early map control, and in a sweet move Rainbow walled in Oversky with cannons and zealots while Zerglee ran over Rage with mass lings. OverSky tried to steam the tide with a whole 8 sunkens, but was ultimately overrun.



Score : 1-0 SK T1



Game 2 : Boxer vs Midas on Requiem



Boxer has not been his lethal self as of late, losing virtually every game in the SKY tourney. Midas is one of the upcoming terrans we keep hearing about, and he recently beat Yellow himself.



But does Boxer care about upcomers? No way. Midas looked to get the better deal from the start when he got the bunker/tank setup right above lim's base. Sneaky Boxer delayed his dropship to float the port away from midas' eyes, but once he got it in gear - oh man. His two tanks, two goliaths and lone vulture took care of Midas' whole standing army, his mineral line and random bases structures. Midas had another base up and kept playing, but it was all over and Boxer emerged victorious a few minutes later.



SK T1 wins 2-0! Comments (7) Manifesto7, June 06 Liquibition 14: Legionnaire vs Ogogo Wooo!! New liquibition! After a bit of a hiatus, team liquid’s showpiece, liquibition, is back on track. In the last round, Legionnaire defended his title vs Ret. Because it had been a while since Leg had had to defend his title, a worthy challenger had to be found, and few are more worthy than the current WCG champion, Ogogo! The format for this Liquibition was a best of 5, winner take all.



Game 1: Nostalgia



And it’s on! Ogogo spawned at 11, and guessed well, sending his overlord down towards Legionnaire who had warped in south of him at 7 o’clock. Leg’s build was a gate/core build, working towards a stargate for corsairs, as well as adding a forge for +1 attack upgrades. Ogogo, who started with a typical 12 hatchery/11 pool build, veered from the normal course of things by quickly expanding to the 1 o’clock main once his initial zerglings had popped up. Things were looking up for Leg, as the delayed lair by Ogogo meant that his corsairs had a chance to do some damage. Unfortunately for him, Ogogo had quickly put up a spore colony, which helped limit his overlord losses early on.



Finding that his corsairs would not be effective early, Leg switched up his tactics, warping in a citadel for zealot speed while looking to secure his expansion. A scouting probe found Ogogo’s expansion at 1 o’clock, and started up a pylon to which a gateway was added once it was done. The first real action of the game started up when Legionnaire sent his first 4 zealots from his base to 1 o’clock. Ogogo did not have enough zerglings at that point to defend against the zealots, so he decided to counter into the protoss main, but achieved little. Leg made it up to 1, but two hastily made sunken colonies, as well as some freshly hatched lings managed to save the fledgling expansion.



During these early stages of the game, Ogogo had been content to try and establish his expansions, and he was now gearing up to lurkers, hoping to set up a containment of Leg’s base. Before they could be made, however, Leg again went to threaten 1 o’clock, sending seven zealots from his main, as well as having 4 made from his proxy gate that Ogogo didn’t know about. Again Leg ran through the middle into Ogogo’s lings, but again he was able to slaughter them with his speed and attack upgrades. Knowing that he did not have the mobile forces to save his expansion, Ogogo made sunken colonies out all but a few of his drones at 1 o’clock, ending up with seven sunkens just as Leg attacked. Leg destroyed a couple of the colonies, but as Ogogo brought fresh troops from home to corner the zealots, Leg was forced to retreat without killing the expansion in the face of mounting casualties.



This victory for Ogogo gave him the time he needed, as protoss was forced to ease off the pressure in order to secure his natural expansion. Ogogo did not disappoint, as he dropped down four hatcheries and started on double upgrades for his zerglings as well as a hive for the andrall gland upgrade. Leg moved out again with a small zealot force, while making templars at home, and searched the open expansions making sure that Ogogo was not taking the map right under his nose. There was no worry of that though, as Ogogo was just making 1/1 zerglings from his eight hatcheries. With Leg roaming the map, Ogogo sent a solid stream of zerglings south and across the bridges to Leg’s natural. He obviously wasn’t too worried about his micro, as a straight line of zerglings ran into some well-placed storms by Leg and a wall of zealots. Ogogo wore down the defences to a nub, but he was unable to break through to shut down the natural expansion. This massive loss of at least sixty lings didn’t faze Ogogo though, as he had already made another huge army. Leg was in tough as Ogogo again attacked, this time from across the bridges and the land bridge just to the west of that. Again Leg defended well, and despite losing his Nexus, he didn’t lose the game.



Trying to rebound, Legionnaire expanded to the 5 o’clock main, and morphed archons to battle the waves of zerglings. Now 2/2, Ogogo’s lings formed up again to attack the protoss base, and again he was rebuffed without ending the game. Leg defended well with his massively outnumbered troops, as one of his archons reached the astronomic heights of 58 kills. In the end, however, Leg could not keep up to the zergling production of Ogogo, and the increasing zerg upgrades made the difference as Ogogo finally broke through to win the game.



1:0 Ogogo > Legionnaire



Well, this was a tough opening matchup for Leg, as Ogogo is spectacular on Nostalgia. A gutsy move, taking another main before his lair, but it worked for Ogogo, as he was able to both keep his expansion and defend against an early sair, then shift into high gear with his massive cracklings. Leg’s build was not the greatest, as it limited his early ability to pressure Ogogo’s expansion, and his corsairs were not a factor in the game.



Game 2: Into the Darkness



This is a new map from the MBC league, using the space tile set, so I’ll take a minute to describe it. It is a regular sized map, but with only two main bases @ 3 and 7 corners. A large ramp from each main leads down to a gas natural expansion at 6 or 12, which is joined via a land bridge to a mineral only expansion closer to the interior of the map. The middle portion of the map is quite small, with avenues leading off to expansions at 9, 11, 3, and 5. The overall effect is a map divided into as many as 9 smaller islands, all connected by bridges or land bridges. There are a lot of routes for units to travel, so it is easy to avoid confrontation, and base defence is a major factor as counter attacks could be repeated and devastating.



Legionnaire drew the lower position at 7, while Ogogo started at 3 with a pool/gas build. Leg again went for a gate/gas build working towards templars quickly. Three minutes into the game, Ogogo came down the map with 6 fast zerglings, but was seconds too late to get up Leg’s ramp, as his second zealot had just arrived, relieving the probes that were set up for defence.



Both players took their first expansions at this point, with Ogogo putting down his third hatchery before his lair; allowing him to quickly mass up his drone count, as well as to get started on his lurkers. He tried to probe Leg’s forces with a ling raid, but it was ill advised and he lost them all to Leg’s burgeoning force at his natural. This loss was not critical however, and Ogogo still looked good with a lurker ling force being massed at his mineral only expansion, where he had dropped down two hatcheries.



Leg had been using his secure position to make a force of zealots, dragoons, templars and observers, and he moved out after the failed ling attack. His forces came straight up the middle and were surprised, as Ogogo was also moving south along the same path with his 1/1 lings and lurkers. Leg got off a couple storms, which took out all of Ogogo’s lings at once, but there were too many lurkers to stay and fight, and Leg was forced back towards his natural with Ogogo in hot pursuit. Leg again stood his ground well though, and he took apart Ogogo’s ling reinforcements, so that Ogogo had to back his lurkers off in fear of losing them all.



Leg again moved out, this time going up the east side of the map, looking for any stray zerg expansions. Ogogo used this move to counter at the protoss natural, forcing Leg back to his base to defend. In a mirror of game one, Ogogo used his large numbers of hatcheries to tech to 2/2 cracklings, and sent waves down to the protoss base. Leg, as usual, defended well, but Ogogo then switched up to hydralisks and almost instantly had another large force ready. With Leg unable to leave his base for fear of a counter attack, Ogogo was free to expand to 11, and continue to mass his upgraded hydras. With a superior economy and map position, Ogogo sent his hydras down to the protoss base and ran over it, taking a 2-0 lead in the series.



2:0 Ogogo > Legionnaire



Another tough game for Leg. Despite winning most of the head to head battles, he could not put any pressure on Ogogo for fear of losing his expansion. That map is a nightmare for PvZ if the zerg is able to take both its expansions. I think that Leg needed to take a page from Nal_Ra or KTF-Autumn and go cannon crazy. That static defence combined with a few high templars would have allowed him to move about the map with less worry.



Game 3: Parallel Lines



Another map that I was not familiar with, so I’ll take a second to talk about this one too. A very striking map visually, this desert tile map is divided into two large landmasses, with a trench running from the northwest to the southeast corner. There are two starting spots on each half, 5 + 9 on the lower half and 4 + 11 on the upper half. There are two expansions for each main, as well as a corner expansion for a total of seven mineral sites per side. (As I write this I realize that maybe there are only 2 mains to start, one on each side, but I haven’t seen enough games on this map to know if the starting points can be on the same side or not, I am sure someone can clear this up).



Ogogo started at 5 o’clock, sending his overlord north and expanding quickly to his natural. It was all on the line here for Legionnaire (@11), as he went for a gate/gas build for the third straight time, as well as a nexus at his natural just before his core warped in.



Ogogo’s intentions were soon apparent, as he researched drop and speed upgrades for his overlords, as well as range and speed for hydralisks. I was again amazed by Ogogo’s almost supernatural ability to judge time, as his spire completed for scourge just as the first corsairs appeared in the air for Legionnaire. He looked to take control of the air traffic with double stargate corsairs, and things looked good for Leg as he caught Ogogo’s first 12-hydra drop crossing the canyon in the middle of the map. Just as it looked like Leg would deal a devastating blow to Ogogo’s early chances, Ogogo called down a dozen scourges to chase the sairs back to the protoss main, allowing the hydras to carry on to the expansion. Leg had also been teching to reavers, and had one reaver plus a few cannons for defence. Ogogo dropped his hydras just out of range, and then stormed the expansion, using the good range of the hydras to kill the reaver after only one scarab fired. The canons, combined with some brave probes managed to save the expansion, but Ogogo was still able to kill 1 of Leg’s 2 robotics facilities.



Ogogo, who had used any advantage very well thus far in the series, again capitalized on this small victory to expand twice on Leg’s side of the map, at 3 and 4. Leg, also taking a quick breather, tried to take the 10 o’clock expansion on Ogogo’s side, but Ogogo’s psychic powers came into effect again, and he scouted the expansion with an overlord just as the nexus warped in. Despite the relative success of his first hydra drop, Ogogo must have felt concerned about trying to ferry troops across with the growing number of corsairs, because he switched up to mutalisks and scourge, making large amounts of each. It was with these new mutas that he forced the protoss to cancel his nexus at 10, but it wouldn’t be the last battle over that expansion.



Legionnaire countered this loss by trying to reaver drop Ogogo’s expansion at 3 o’clock, but again the mutas arrived to take care of them before the hatchery could be destroyed. Leg countered with his now numerous corsairs (11 of them + upgrades), but Ogogo spread his mutalisks out well and both players fought to a standstill. With 4 gas though, Ogogo was looking good and FLEETS of scourge were flying around the map now. Groups of 12 patrolled the canyon between the two areas, and Ogogo rapidly built up a large muta force on the strength of his four gas sources. In a costly move for the protoss, those roving groups of scourge found Leg’s corsairs, and like a magnet they attacked from all sides, taking down all but two corsairs. This was a costly loss for Leg, because although his corsairs were upgraded, and he had three stargates, Ogogo’s production was far superior.



The 10 o’clock expansion was taken again, this time by Ogogo, but Leg used a stray probe to cannon this attempt, and both players focused their collective might at this spot, ready to battle it out for this territory. Leg dropped a couple reavers amongst his cannon, and backed them up with all of his corsairs. Ogogo countered this move by bringing all of his mutalisks, as well as about 20 scourges that swooped in from behind. The corsairs, now 2/2 (but no shield), took a beating, but backed up by a few cannons Leg managed to come out on top, halting the expansion and forcing Ogogo to withdraw. Ogogo came firing back quickly with fresh troops to force a retreat, not wanting Legionnaire to be able to secure the expansion.



Legionnaire killed 3 o’clock with reavers, as both sides took a minute to mass up some more forces. This pause in the action clearly showed that Ogogo was pulling ahead, as he had maybe thirty mutalisks with

1/2 upgrades. In addition to this he was working on a greater spire for devourers. Both players used their forces to trade expansion kills, but protoss needed to hold onto something, as his expansions were far outnumbered by the zerg’s. Repeatedly both players tried to expand while killing their opponents expansions, neither of them looking for the knockout punch. This style worked to the advantage of Ogogo, and his force of scourge, mutalisks and devourers soon outstripped Legionnaires ability to make corsairs. Once Ogogo felt his advantage was enough, he switched to hydralisks, filled up 12 overlords, and dropped them onto Leg’s side of the map. After destroying yet another expansion attempt by Legionnaire, the protoss was forced to type GG, making Ogogo your new liquibition champion.



3:0 Ogogo > Legionnaire



Legionnaire was just unable to stop the economy of Ogogo, and that was really the difference in all three games. In the last one, Leg really needed to try and get a ground force to take care of the zerg expansions at 3 and 4 on his side, as they provided so much gas to Ogogo. For his part, Ogogo played with perfect timing and poise, making all the right moves and picking his strategy well on each map.



So another round of liquibition is over, and a new champ has been crowned! I don’t know when the next round will be played, but whoever it is will be in tough against a strong zerg like Ogogo. The replays are uploaded in the replay section, so gogo and enjoy.



Cheers,

Mani~

Comments (41) Arbiter[frolix], June 04 Gillette OSL Week Six Group A: Iloveoov (Choi Yeon Seong) v [Oops]Reach (Park Jeong Seok) on Namja Iyagi



With Nal_Ra and GoodFriend eliminated, Reach and Oov had already booked their places in the quarters. So what was at stake in this game? Maybe, just maybe, the status of tournament favourite. When they clashed in the MBC team league final Reach lost after trying double proxy gateway and a pylon to stop the wall-in. This time out Reach (protoss at one o'clock) sneaked his probe into his opponent's main for a gas rush, then followed it up with an ineffective manner pylon. Oov (terran at the 11 o'clock position) returned the favour, taking the protoss vespene not once, but twice, quickly cancelling the second building refinery. Reach's shenanigans in Oov's main meant he was extraordinarily late with his first gate. Reach built up a small complement of zeals, standing watchfully at his ramp, while Oov was playing it safe with a meagre squad of marines to help fight off any early attacks.



As both players shifted over to more orthadox play, dragoons, vultures and tanks, Reach took a stab at Oov's wall with his zeals but quickly saw there was nothing to be gained. Oov broke out of his main with vultures and marines as Reach, now equipped with a robotics facility, went airborne with his first shuttle. Reach's loaded shuttle tried to stealthily glide across the top of the map but was spotted by a couple of Oov's flitting vultures. Reach signalled reaver as he warped in his support bay.



Both players now took their naturals, Oov slightly before Reach, who still seemed to be playing catch-up following the fun and games in the opening moments. While Reach looked to be slightly hurried, Oov was simply gathering momentum, raising the factory count and massing the metal. Reach was putting together an impressive looking gathering of zealots, crowding in the middle of his main. However, as in his game with Nal_Ra, Oov showed here that when he was ready to strike he was able to strike hard and fast and take advantage of the slightest weakness in his opponent's set-up. Before Reach even knew what was going on, Oov had stormed across the map and set up a rock solid containment at the bottom of Reach's ramp. Reach weighed up his options and instead of trying a desparate breakout he tried a desparate counterattack with a triple shuttle drop on Oov's main plateau. His strike team of zealots, backed up by one dragoon and a dark templar caused some disruption but, again mirroring the Nal_Ra game, Oov rallied his SCVs to neutraluise the threat.



The containment was complete. Oov had Reach in a bear hug and started to squeeze, breaking onto the plateau and getting in amongst the mineral line with vultures. It was only a matter of time for Reach as Oov's SCVs constructed bunkers in Reach's main and the tanks moved in. Reach tried one late reaver drop at Oov's natural but once again it was the SCVs who extinguished the threat, surrounding and destroying the protoss robot with its safehaven shuttle hanging uselessly in the air off to the right.



Iloveoov (3-0) finished top of Group A, with [Oops]Reach (2-1) second.



The question, the question that haunts the Gillette OSL: can anyone stop Iloveoov?





Group B: Zeus (Jeon Tae Gyu) v Doggi (Choi Soo Beom) on Requiem



Despite his loss to JulyZerg, last season's losing finalist, Zeus (1-1), would have been extremely confident of qualifying for the last eight once again, needing a win against the overmatched Doggi (0-2). Zeus (protoss at 3 o'clock) did not have to wait long to book his place in the quarterfinals. Doggi (terran at six) could not even save his wall as Zeus simply rolled over him. First two zeals pressured the terran wall, with just a single lonely marine standing behind his barracks able to provide any return fire. When Zeus' first dragoon arrived at the frontline the writing was on the wall for Doggi. Zeus clinically destroyed the lone marine and set about knocking down the supply depot. Four SCVs rallied to repair but as a second dragoon joined the battle the depot exploded and the protoss strike force surged through the breach. At long last Doggi's overwhelmed terrans caught sight of a siege tank but not for long. Zeus pursued the lone tank through the terran base and destroyed it. With new reinforcements arriving all the time from the nearby protoss HQ, Doggi signalled gg and bowed out in undistinguished fashion from this season's OSL.



JulyZerg (3-0) topped Group B in style, with Zeus (2-1) finishing second.



Ongamenet may be taking a long hard look at their qualifying procedures. While Doggi was being made to look like an amateur, Boxer, Yellow, Junwi and Chojja were watching the latest Starleague on television.





Group C: [Red]Nada (Lee Yoon Yeol) v GoRush (Park Tae Min) on Mercury



Always strong, always among the favourites, Nada (1-1) was under threat of making an embarrassingly early exit from the Starleague. Following his unexpected defeat to IntotheRainbow two weeks ago, Nada faced an all or nothing battle against Suma GO's GoRush (1-1) on Mercury. No difficult mathematics here, the winner would go through, the loser would go home.



Nada (terran at 11 o'clock) opened with straightforward double barracks, while GoRush (zerg at eight o'clock) expanded immediately to the nine o'clock position with just one sunken for defence. Nada's first marine force moved out towards GoRush's position at nine o'clock but he withdrew it quickly without skirmishing, waiting for his imminent academy to help strengthen his assault. Nada was waiting for his academy as GoRush mutated his lair and hydralisk den but the zerg player was also expanding to a slightly unusual position, mutating a new hatchery towards one o'clock, just a short way from the main thoroughfare connecting the two mains and along which Nada's marines were walking back and forth. What was going through his mind?



As Nada started to go on the offensive with marines, firebats and medics, GoRush made his bid. Nada was setting up camp outside the nine o'clock expo but GoRush had three lurkers and a swarm of zerglings heading straight for the terran main, catching a surprised Nada with no siege mode and no turrets. The whole season was on the line for Nada. GoRush tried to advance his lurkers in amongst ling cover but lost one as Nada defended tenaciously. The whole game hung in the balance. Trying to advance again, GoRush lost a second lurker as Nada targeted the dangerous burrowers. Nada was almost out of the trap and he finally put out the fire with a comsat scan taking care of the last lurker. Counterattacking swiftly, Nada's marines and firebats raced round to destroy the hidden hatchery just in time before a mass of zerglings reinforcements arrived.



Detection difficulties ended with the arrival of Nada's first science vessel and he was clearly in the ascendency as his new force of marines and siege tanks rumbled across the Mercury landscape towards the nine o'clock expansion. Five tanks blasted GoRush's line of sunken colonies as Nada turned the screw on the expo. GoRush's last desparate attempt to counterattack came to nothing. The tanks survived the zergling onslaught, signalling he rest of the zerg base would soon fall. A crestfallen GoRush bowed out of the Starleague.



Nada (2-1) won the group, having beaten second-placed Silent_Control (2-1) in their game.





Group D: Xellos (Seo Ji Hoon) v TheMarine (Kim Jeong Min) on Nostalgia



TheMarine, beaten handily by Jju and Kingdom. Zero wins. The last week of the group stage. Yet still, despite his poor form, TheMarine had a chance to make the next round. If he could overcome fellow terran Xellos on Nostalgia he, Xellos and Jju would all have one win and two defeats and play off for the final qualifying spot as Devil Toss Kingdom relaxed and waited for the quarterfinal line-up to take shape. No doubt Jju was cheering TheMarine.



Xellos (terran at one o'clock) sporting his new trimmed look, and TheMarine (terran at seven o'clock) both opened two factory, although TheMarine looked to be slightly behind very early. The two players' scouting barracks passed each other in the centre of the map, with a solitary Xellos marine firing determinedly at the enemy building. Xellos appeared to be outbuilding his opponent from the very beginning and sent out his first squad of vultures backed up by one siege tank to secure the Nostalgia double diagnal roadway. As Xellos set up his defensive position and started work on a new command centre there was still no sign of a single tank rumbling off the production lines for TheMarine. He was slowly but surely building up a massive flock of vultures from three factories while taking his natural.



All was quiet on the Nostalgia front, the only sound being the grenades from TheMarine's vultures as they took potshots at Xellos' barracks which had cheekily landed in TheMarine's main, momentarily blocking in a group of factories.



Suddenly the the entire game erupted into utter chaos. Xellos launched a full scale assault on TheMarine's expansion. Unknown to him, TheMarine's vulture squadron had sneaked round the back of the advancing army and mirrored events at his own base with a huge attack on Xellos. At opposite corners of the map vultures were swooping on defenceless buildings. Both mains were full of rampaging enemy armies obliterating everything in sight. Devastation had ensued.



Xellos finally lifted his buildings and his command centre slowly floated towards a new home at the 12 o'clock position. Meanwhile, TheMarine sprang a surprise. In the bottom right hand corner of his rapidly disappearing main, a single wraith reported for duty from a previously unseen starport. As TheMarine attempted to attack Xellos' relocated command centre at 12, Xellos' own forces were racing back to the smoking ruins of his original main. On his mind just one objective: save his armoury. Despite the destruction, if the armoury fell the game would belong to TheMarine as his lone wraith would be unopposed and able to bring down an excruciatingly slow destruction upon Xellos' defenceless building and units. It was almost as if TheMarine did not quit comprehend the importance of the armoury, as he was slow to target it. Xellos surrounded it, destroyed the attackers and assembled a goliath to guard his new mineral line. Bizarrely, TheMarine's fleeing command centre took a diagnal route to the one o'clock position and set down amid the remains of his opponent's original base. However, with just two wraiths and Xellos preparing new air defences he knew it was a lost cause and typed out gg.



Kingdom (3-0) easily won Group D. Xellos (2-1) took the second qualifying place





So the qualifiers for the last eight are: Iloveoov, JulyZerg, [Red]Nada, Kingdom, [Oops]Reach, Zeus, Silent_Control and Xellos. Comments (30) Manifesto7, June 02 OGN Challenge League Group A and B Losers Final This week featured the two players from both group A and B that already had one loss. The players played a best-of-three series with the winners advancing to the Duel League, and the losers out of the running all together. A couple of housekeeping notes, I didn’t put up the Sync vs Salmosa liquibet and only Autumn vs Soni was on liquibet, for no better reason that I am a retard. I made it worth two points, because I thought it was the only matchup, but from now on it will only ever be one point… Also, at the end of the reports I included a recap of the last couple months of the current Challenge league. The results of all the games, and who is still in the running are included.







Match 1: KTF-Autumn (p) vs Sir@Soni (z)



Game 1: Requiem



Soni had the support of the crowd on his side, as 59% voted him to win the best of three series against Autumn. Soni (@12) opened with a hatch/pool build, and then after fighting off some early zealot pressure from Autumn, put down a third hatchery in his main base before his gas. Autumn (@6) opted for a citadel/ archives/ forge after his initial harassment, setting himself up nicely for an expansion.



After the initial engagements, Soni got his lair and put down a spire, looking to take advantage of his early surplus of larvae. Once his first few mutalisks had popped, he sent them down to harass Autumn’s newly made expansion. Autumn had tried to sneak into the zerg base with a few speedy zealots while the mutas were away, but Soni had protected his choke well with eight sunken colonies, a number that would grow later on in the game. With the success of his mutalisk harassment, and with Autumn playing very conservatively, Soni felt confident as he first expanded to the 2 o’clock position, and then again to 11 and 5. With all the muta harassment, and Autumns apparent inability to mobilize his defence, Autumn was forced to cannon up his main and his expansion, using up more time and resources. The cannons were not enough at his main, however, as Soni sent a wing of mutas in to destroy the cannon and scatter the probes.



At this point in the game, I thought that Soni had it easily, but Autumn came back to make a game of it. After massing six or seven corsairs out of his two stargates, the tide began to turn as Sonis mutas were forced to run from engagements, and his overlord count began to rapidly dwindle. Soni had expanded to the top right corner by this point, and he also made devourers to counter the large number of corsairs that were rampaging unmolested around the map. Other than the sairs, Autumn had very few units, just a couple archons and zealots guarding his choke, backed up by about 10 cannons. Soni had been spending the last few minutes getting double upgraded ultralisks, and with the ultras and zerglings, he began taking nearly every expansion on the map. Protoss had expanded to the 7 o’clock expansion, as well as the bottom left corner, but he really had very little in the way of a land army. He also warped in a fleet beacon, but he would have to hurry the production of carriers as Soni’s force was getting huge.



Eighteen minutes into the game, Soni brought his ultra/ling force crashing down upon Autumn’s main and natural, tearing both of them to the ground. Autumn held on well for another ten minutes, using his carriers and corsairs to dodge swarms of hydralisks, but it was inevitable that he would lose. Soni plagued his carriers, and in the end, he just had too much economy for Autumn to deal with.



Soni > Autumn Game 1. Time: 33:45



Didn’t I just say last week that I had not seen a long game on Requiem? Well I did this week, as Soni and Autumn put forth an effort of over half an hour. One cute trick in this game was Autumn abusing the probe AI to get a probe through the mineral line at his natural to set up in the corner expansion. It didn’t matter however, as Soni had this game won once he killed the protoss main.



Game 2: Mercury



The pressure was on Autumn this game, as he was facing elimination if he lost. He opened up at 11 o’clock, and started with a gateway and forge. This forge turned out to be a good idea, because when he found Soni at the 8 o’clock position he managed to force the zerg to cancel his natural hatchery with a proxy pylon and cannon. Soni re-laid the hatchery in his base, but as is often the case on this map for zerg, he was being contained inside his own base. Autumn had a small force of zealots guarding a couple cannons at the zerg bridge, so with the zerg contained he started to tech up to templars and take his natural expansion.



About now the only thing going well for Soni was the fact that his scouting drone had still been outside his base when the cannon had come, so he was able to expand to the 5 o’clock main. In his main base, Soni had now gotten a spire and he began to harass Autumn’s main with his mutas. In reality though, Soni needed to do more damage than just harassing to stop Autumn. The protoss player simply shrugged off the mutalisks and repeatedly attacked the zerg base with zealots and archons.



Soni held on for a while, despite losing key buildings, and Autumn seemed content to take every expansion on the map while not following up his attack on the near helpless zerg. This break in the action allowed Soni to build up a good number of mutalisks, and he had moderate success inside Autumn’s unprotected main base, killing many buildings. In the end, however, Autumn had way too much money, too many cannon, and Soni wasn’t able to amass enough of a land army to escape from his main.



Autumn > Soni Game 2. Time: 18:45



Autumn came storming back in this game, dominating Soni early on. One thing for Autumn to work on is his finishing ability. This game should have been over in 12 minutes, but Autumn would not, or could not, finish off the zerg.



Game 3: Namja Iyaga



Did I say there was pressure in the last game? I think you could times that by ten for this third and final game. Autumn took charge early in game two to secure the win, and he would have to show that same poise in game three to snatch the spot away from Soni. Soni is no slouch himself, beating Gundam on the first day of the Challenge League in April.



Both players started off well, with Soni (@11) scouting across to Autumn (@1), with Autumn also sending his probe in the right direction. Soni decided to play safe and place his second hatchery at his ramp, which allowed his first zerglings to defend against the inevitable zealot pressure from Autumn. For the third game in a row, Soni went for a spire, while Autumn went again for a citadel and forge. Both of Soni’s ramps were being blocked by zealots early on, so mutas turned out to be a good choice, as Soni was able to scatter this early containment by harassing Autumns main, killing a couple cannons and hammering away at the returning zealots. This move allowed Soni to take his natural, and although Autumn made moves to attack it, he could never follow through with his early troops, as he had to keep his archons at home for defence.



With both players secure with their naturals, they traded attacks, with Soni managing to kill a few probes, but neither player doing any real damage. Protoss tried to expand to the 5 o’clock main, but Soni’s mutas stopped that attempt cold, while he expanded to 9 o’clock himself. Autumn again tried to attack the zerg natural, from the top ramp this time, but Soni had made twelve sunkens which quickly forced Autumn to turn around. Deciding he had had enough of the mutalisks, Autumn dropped down three stargates, and quickly made a huge force of corsairs, enough that zerg overlords only took 4 or 5 pulses to die. These corsairs helped stem the tide of zerg, and even though Soni was taking more expansions, it took him a long time to mass any kind of army, as his overlords could not stay alive for any length of time. Autumn took 12 o’clock and surrounded it with about forty cannons, effectively cutting off the top ramp leading to Soni’s natural.



Soni was up to ultralisks by now, having used up the last of his mutalisks fighting corsairs to a standstill in an epic battle at his expansion at 3 o’clock. Although he was able to get a fairly large army of ultra/lings, he truly had no place to go. Autumn had surrounded all of his expansions with cannons, and there were probably eighty of them on the map. The commentators were laughing so hard at Autumn, and I finally understood one phrase of theirs, as they commented on Autumn’s playing style as a “Cannon Festival”. With no where to go with his land army, and carriers being pumped out on the protoss side, Soni really had no where to go. He put up a spirited defence with defilers, but in the end, he had lost far too many overlords to mass an effective army. I skipped through the last ten minutes of the VOD, and while Soni managed to drag it out, the game was over.



Autumn > Soni, Autumn advances to the next round. Time: 29:16.



I have NEVER seen so many cannons in a televised game. The commentators were laughing throughout the game at how ridiculous it got. I understand that Autumn had been harassed by muta in the two previous games, but this was overkill. Whatever works however, as Soni could not attack anywhere, and pretty much just ran around the map chasing carriers as he had nothing to attack. Why he did not use dark swarm, I will never know, but by the end of the game I was crying for some swarm. Autumn advances to the Duel League, and Soni, despite a good showing, is out.



Match 2: Sync (playing as KTF-Qoo)Blaze) (t) vs Salmosa (z)

Crowd Prediction: 61% Sync

Game 1: Mercury



Salmosa spawned at 9 o’clock, going for a standard hatch pool build early on. Then, maybe taking a page from Yellow last week, he put a third hatchery at the 6 o’clock main on the far side of the geyser, away from the minerals. Sync was unaware of this hatchery, but it didn’t matter much. He got a quick academy after his two barracks, and went down to Salmosa’s bridge with 6 marines, 6 firebats, and 4 medics. Although Salmosa had put down three sunken colonies, Sync sliced through the small number of zerglings, splattered the drones, and blew apart the sunks. With the loss of his natural, Salmosa tried to regroup, but Sync showed good poise and finished it quick.



Sync > Salmosa Game 1. Time: 8:52.



Game 2: Requiem



I don’t know if Salmosa had just given up, or just was trying to be cute, but he opened this game with a four pool. He ran across the map from 9 to 3, but Sync managed to defend with his first marine and his large number of scv. After a second attack, Salmosa gave up as he had no chance of victory.



Sync > Salmosa, Sync advances to the next round. Time: under 5 minutes.



Truly, a disappointing effort from Salmosa on this day. The first game he misjudged the power of Sync’s firebats, but the second game was just horrible. I would think that if you were fighting for your place in the duel league, you would not resort to a four pool in your final game. To me, that speaks of a real lack of confidence in your own ability.



League Overview to this point,



Here is a list of the original groups, the results of the games over the past two months, and who is going on to the finals of the Challenge League and to the start of the Duel League.



Starting Groups

Group A: KTF-Autumn, Oversky, Gundam, Sir@Soni

Group B: Eros~Rage, Salmosa, Sync, Qoo)Max

Group C: Jinsu, Nal_Rock, MuMyung, Yooi

Group D: Boxer, Mingu, Eji, Sasin)Child

Group E: Yellow, ArtofTerran, Midas, Legend_SJHR

Group F: Chojja, Freshen, [Oops]Cloud, Stay[HyO]



Week 1: Groups A+B

A Oversky > Autumn, Soni > Gundam

B Salmosa > Eros~Rage, Qoo)Max > Sync



Week 2: Groups C+D

C Nal_Rock > Jinsu, Yooi > MuMyung

D Boxer > Mingu, Sasin)Child > Eji



Week 3: Groups E+F

E Yellow > ArtofTerran, Midas > Legend

F Freshen > Chojja, Stay[HyO] > [Oops]Cloud



Week 4: Groups A+B

A Oversky (2-0) > Sir@Soni (1-1), Oversky advances. Autumn (1-1) > Gundam (0-2) Gundam eliminated

B Qoo)Max (2-0) > Salmosa (1-1), Qoo)Max advances. Sync (1-1) > Eros~Rage (0-2) Rage eliminated.



Week 5: Losers from groups C+D+E+F

C Jinsu (1-1) > MuMyung (0-2) MuMyung eliminated

D Eji (1-1) > Mingu (0-2) Mingu eliminated

E Legend (1-1) > ArtofTerran (0-2) ArtofTerran eliminated

F [Oops]Cloud (1-1) > Chojja (0-2) Chojja eliminated



Week 6: Winners from groups C+D+E+F

C Nal_Rock (2-0) > Yooi (1-1) Nal_Rock advances

D Boxer (2-0) > Sasin)Child (1-1) Boxer advances

E Yellow (2-0) > Midas (1-1) Yellow advances

F Stay[HyO] (2-0) > Freshen (1-1) Stay advances



Week 7: Tie Breaker for Groups A+B

A Autumn > Sir@Soni 2 - 1, Autumn advances

B Sync > Salmosa 2 – 0, Sync advances



Players still to play for their spots:

Midas - Legend - [Oops]Cloud - Freshen - Yooi - Jinsu - Eji - Sasin)Child



The next two weeks will be the deciding games for those players with 1-1 records from groups C+D+E+F. Once that finishes up, the undefeated players will fight for the top spot, which ensures them entry into the next StarLeeague. The remaining eleven players will be gearing up for their matches in the Dual League.



Cheers,

Mani Comments (13) ToKoreaWithLove, June 02 OnGameNet SKY Proleague 020604 Round one : Hexatron Dream Team vs Pirates Of Space

Hexatron Lineup: Love, Jinsu, Assem, ElkY

POS Lineup: BlueK (aka Joyo), Fable, Juni, July



:// Rant : The Live VOD is kinda blurry so it might have been someone else than Fable, but that was what I got out of it //:



Game one : Game 1 : Love/Jinsu (Hexatron) vs BlueK/Fable on The Huntress



Despite their speed bump last week, Love(p@4) & Jinsu(Z@7) used to be one of the better 2v2 teams in the SKY. Lately more and more teams are coming up with good 2v2 teams - but nobody can really get a hold of Hanbit. And the 2v2 games is important; Hanbit is right now ranked #1, and can owe a lot of that to their kickass HOT/Autumn 2v2 team. POS brings out the inexperienced 2v2 team of BlueK(P@1) and Fable(z@11). This should be interresting.



All players open normal builds; going a little longer than usual with everybody zerg doing 3 hatch and tosses 3 gating - Love even taking it to the next level with a 4th gate.



With these kind of build, mass units are running around reallly quick, and it's hard to get a good idea thru the low-quality live broadcast. The Hexatron team seems to get the best part of the deal when they out-position POS right outside Fable's main and get the better part of the not-combined POS forces. Fable is naturally hit hard, but manages to hold without the biggest drone losses.



But nevertheless, Hexatron got the momentary advantage and after gathering another army, sets out to relive Fable of his army, drones and base. It works out quite well, POS dosnt have enough to hold the zerg base ,and Fable falls to the combined Zealot/zergling might. BlueK tries a sneaky counter on Love, but is quickly fought off.



With Fable now out of the game and BlueK on his own, Heaxtron simply gathers the largest group of lings and zealots I've ever seen and walks over BlueK with a laught. Hexatron takes the first win in convincing fashion.



As we've seen before, the key to these mass basic level 2v2 fights is keeping your forces together and preventing the opponents from doing the same. Hexatron did this is the first fight, and from there on they stayed on top and finished in style.



Score : 1-0 Hexatron



Game 2 : ElkY vs POS_July on Gulliotine



To be brutally honest; I'm partially hoping ElkY will lose this game. Not because I don't like ElkY or is an avid July fan, no, but I'd really like to see what Assem have been doing down in the Hexatron headquarters all this time. Now ElkY used to be feared TvZ, taking care of zergs left and right in his prime. But why would that matter; July just went 3-0 in his Gilette group, taking care of the premier toss player Zeus, the TvZ specialist Casy and well .. Doggi on his way. Not the hardest group but tough enough for a newcomer.



Anway, things get going. ElkY(@11) opens standard 2 rax build, while July get things running right from the start with a quick 9 pool speedling build. ElkY had foresight enough to wall in his choke and hold fine. Is also up to some trick with a proxy rax building right below July's 2nd nat. Floats it over to the zerg base and sets on building. Looks like our ElkY could be on his way to a quick victory right away, but July, aiming for a 1 hatch lurker build, spots the rax with a lucky lord and fights it off with hydras. Camera shows a quick glimpse of the Hexatron coutch shaking his head as the rax is discovered.



But ElkY didnt spend it all on the party, he also busts out with a small infantry group. July shows off excellent zergling micro to cut down the marine numbers, and with lurkers running from his base he eliminates the rest quick. ElkY, in deep shit now, gets a bunker done just as the lurkers start running around his base. Saves his scan addon with a few hp left, but July has in the meanwhile burrowed lurkers everywhere and ElkY has no means of dealing with them.



JulY shows he is for real (did anybody really DOUBT?) with a quick humiliation of the Elkster, bringing Assem on the stage.



Score : 1-1





Game 3 : Clutch (t) (aka Assem) vs POS_Junitoss (p) on XenoSKy



Well, my wish got fulfilled, but now I'm worried about the liquibet points:o Neither of these guys have any real experience; Juni made like one brief show in the mbc minor, I think, while Assem is a white sheet for everybody. XenoSky should favor toss a little, but nothing big.



Assem(T@2) looks almost bored from the start - also sports an almost scary resemblance to Hugh Grant .. and I get the feeling I should stop caring how these guys dress, look or smell. Things run fairly standard as build orders go; terrans opens 2 factory tank into a fast expand, while Juni also safes things with a 1 gate - obs - 2nd gate build, and expands right after Assem (he spotted it with an obs). Also takes a sneaky expand down at the 6 island.



A short first person view shows Assem managaing his base at a frightening speed. Not quite Boxer yet, but fast nevertheless. He is also getting another command center, btw. Juni tries to halt the terran buildup with some reaver harass, but dosn't do much. His scret island expansion is also found by a floating barrack. Assem is now up to 3 bases and adding up some serious fac count. Unless juni does something usefull now Assem will get mean on the troop count.



But like progamers tend to; he does! Takes advantage of the wide open main with a 4-shuttle doom drop and just keep shuttling troops inn - leaving the terran main a smoking ruin. Assem hangs in there as best he can, but Juni keeps up the punishing drops and eliminates the terrans bases one by one and just pours it on like rain on a romantic summer night. Assem hangs in there as best he can, and somehow manages to get a decent force going to clean stuff up. Unfortunately it does no good, as Juni is now way superior and simply drops again untill everything terran is gone. With a dissapointed look, Assem types out.



A quick game, really. Assem extended himself and wasnt properly prepared for the first big drop. Then did a costly mistake by not smacking it down big at once (he had a buttload of tanks down at his mineral only), giving Juni the freedom to keep the drops running and by the time Assem realized it was turning into a problem - it was too big a problem to handle.



POS wins 2-1



Round 2 : Toona SG vs KTF M@gicians

Toona Lineup : Sir@Soni, Nada, Silver, TheRock

KTF Lineup: Reach, Nal_Ra, autumn, Chojja



Game 1 : Nada(T)/silver(Z) (Toona) vs Autumn(P)/Chojja(Z) (KTF) on Vertigo Plus



Teams are cross-mapped today, with Nada(@10) teaming with Silver(@4) and Chojja(@2) playing with Autumn(@8).



Nada opens with a 2 rax wall off bunker build, but Autumn is on to it and wasted no time to cannon NaDa's main! Chojja meanwhile runs around the base, harassing with zerglings and NaDa looks dead right away. His partner is in no position to help; he went many sunken and lair right away, having only 6 lings. But who am I trying to fool - NaDa just SOMEHOW kills the warping cannons with marines and scv's, while Silver is already at lair. How does he DO that? Chojja even made a costly mistake of leaving his main undefended, so Silver's 6 slow lings got a free kill on his spawning pool!



With Nada free to roam the map, Chojja try to even things by morphing his own spire (Silver has his going), but that won't help Chojja. With no pool to get sunkens and NaDa/ Silver has the strongest m&m;/ling combo ever seen on this map - all going medival on poor Cho's base. Chojja has no means of survival and is eliminated quick as a rabbit in an eagles nest.



Autumn is hanging in there, keeping Toona at bay with dts while getting his expand - but dts are useless vs the roaming mutas from Silver, and Autumn gives up when his expansion is killed.



Nada and Silver gives a cool high five after the game, drawing cheers from the fans



Score: 1-0 Toona



Game 2 : Sir@Soni vs Nal_Ra on Nostalgia



I know I promised to straighten up, but I just gotta get this. Sir@Soni gotta be the CUTEST player in pro circuit. I really wonder where his leagion of female fans are. Just give the guy a chance to make it in the big ones, and I'll bet he rivals Yellow and Boxer on the female side. On the gaming side, he should be no match for even the slumping Ra.



In a weird move, Ra opens 1 gate zealot rush, with what looks like insanely late gas. Soni, who went exp-pool, loses a drone to the early zealots, but is free to power drones. Sets up a sunken and jumps to 3rd hatch, while Ra is clearly running for zergling burners with +1 coming and teching for speed. Unfortunately for Ra, Soni has it all well under control - his overlord is not moving anywhere and everything is wide open.



Ra finally gets rid of the overlord with a goon, but Soni knows everything now and jumps to 4 hatch and hydra den. Ra moves out with zealots, but have to move back as Soni abuses the two entrances and goes to hit on his main. Changes forcus and goes for and expand instead, while pressuring with his zealots. But zerg has a surprise - for oh man! That is many hydras from Soni!



I'm sorry, let me rephrase myself. It was supposed to be - "Oh man! That is such a perfect flank from Ra!". Yep, Ra did the perfect flank yet AGAIN and Soni loses everything! Ra also takes care of the new zerg expand up at 2! And did anyboyd say "Sun God"? I'm filing a complaint - "Storm God" is the correct term. Soni's hydra forces are just not getting anywhere in this weather. To make things even worse; Ra is setting up another expansion and will soon be outmining the zerg.



Soni is heading head first down the steepest hill in korea now, not getting more expansions and Ra is adding gate after gate and his forces seems unstoppable. The camera guys takes the time to show a quick glimpse of Reach smiling proudly of the game.



Sir@Soni tries to make a game out of this with a last force of hydras, lings and lurkers, but Ra is well defended and Soni is just not getting anywhere.



Ra makes the end brutally short; takes his massive army and ignoring lurker spines, sunkens and bridge advantage he steamrolls over the struggling Sir@Soni



Score: 1-1





Game 3 : TheRock (Nal_Rock?) vs [Oops]Reach on Requiem



I'm sorry, but this really seems like a bad joke. If you ask people about the 3 greates protoss players ever, you will get Reach in the list 9 out of 10 times. Seems like a bad choice to put a no-name like TheRock vs Reach, the hero toss himself. On the other hand, almost any player KTF could send out now would have the same legend status as Reach - that's just how overpowered this team is.



Reach(@9) opens 2 gate - and in a sweet move manages to manner pylon Rock. No big problem tho - Rock has solid zealot numbers and holds the following zealot rush just fine, while dealing with the pesky pylon quickly. A funny scene takes place on Rock's ramp, where both players have two zealots on the ramp and constantly switching hurt ones for fresh ones..



Rock eventually breaks out with a larger zealot number, and both players now have goons to help out. Rock is amazingly holding the stronger army, and takes it to Reach for some head to head. Too bad for him, Reach shows classy micro and ends up on top. Reach, now sporting observers and a 4th gate, takes his turn attacking, while also securing an expand.



TheRock, who went speedlots , sets out to even things. In a heated battle, Reach realizes he is outnumbered and brings his probes into the fray. Again he shows stronger micro and surprisingly ends up on top. TheRock tries to come back with an expansion of his own combined with another attack, but Reach has the advantage now and after smashing TheRock's attack, he walks over the inexeperienced protoss player.



TheRock plays a good game, but Reach shows why he is a living toss legend and handily takes care of the opposition.



KTF wins 2-1!





Next week:



Soul(4-2) vs Hanbitstars(5-0)

Suma GO(2-3) vs SK T1(2-3)



Gogog liquibet! Comments (36) Arbiter[frolix], June 01 Gillette OSL Week Six Five players are already through to the quarter-finals but on Friday night the remaining three qualifiers will be decided. At least two big names, Nada and Xellos, are under serious threat of not making the cut, while Zeus will be confident up against the outclassed Doggi. Here is the schedule for the final week of the Gillette OSL group stage.



Broadcast begins Friday June 4, 7pm KST.



Group A: [Oops]Reach (Park Jeong Seok) v IloveOov (Choi Yeon Seong) on Namja Iyagi



Both players are 2-0, have seen off champion Nal_Ra and have already qualified for the quarter-finals. The winner of this game will win the group, the loser finishing second.



Group B: Zeus (Jeon Tae Gyu) v Doggi (Choi Soo Beom) on Requiem



July Zerg (3-0) has already qualified for the last eight as group winner following his four-pool mugging of Casey last week. Zeus (1-1) needs to win to secure second in the group and avoid a playoff for the second qualifying spot.



Group C: [Red]Nada (Lee Yoon Yeol) v GoRush (Park Tae Min) on Mercury



Silent_Control (2-1) is through. Heavy hitter [Red]Nada unexpectedly went down to subsequently eliminated IntotheRainbow two weeks ago and finds himself in a do or die match against GoRush. Nada will actually win the group if he can take this game.



Group D: Xellos (Seo Ji Hoon) v TheMarine (Kim Jeong Min) on Nostalgia



Kingdom (3-0) has already qualified in style as group winner. TheMarine (0-2) looks a shadow of his former self but, astoundingly, could still force a playoff for the second qualifying spot if he can triumph over Xellos (1-1). Comments (12) Legionnaire, May 29 ITV League update. Previous results (May 13th):

http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=13676



Ranking League format details:

http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=13526



The groups:



Group 1 (spots 1-4): JulyZerg (z), s.s.m.~Silver (z), ggon (r), [Oops]Reach (p)

Group 2 (spots 5-8): Chojja (z), SuMa_Black (z), Silent_Control (t), SC_Side (z)

Group 3 (spots 9-12): [SouL]TheWinD (z), SuMa)OversKy (z), [GsP]JJu+___+ (z), SKTelecom_iloveoov (t)

Group 4 (spots 13-16): fOru (p), KTF_TheMarine (t), Ogogo[Inca] (z), KTF_YellOw (z)



Results for May 20th:



[SouL]TheWinD > SuMa)OversKy on Highway Star

SKTelecom_iloveoov > [GsP]JJu+___+ on Lost Temple 2.3

SuMa)OversKy > [GsP]JJu+___+ on Evolution Warp Gate II

SKTelecom_iloveoov > [SouL]TheWinD on Evolution Predator II



**Update**

Results for May 27th



Firstly, some notes:

a) I apologize for the late reports: I was particularly busy last week . None of the games were too spectacular, though, so not much point in writing reports =P.

b) This week, iTV's music was all new stuff .

c) I didn't typo Chojja's name: he was using "KTF_CJoJJa" .

d) During Chojja's game vs Black, they showed a nice close-up of Chojja's wicked-fast hands .

e) For some reason, Evolution Warp Gate (the first version) was used this week instead of version II o.Oa .



Previous results (May 20th):

http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=14104



Ranking League format details:

http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=13526



The groups:



Group 1 (spots 1-4): JulyZerg (z), s.s.m.~Silver (z), ggon (r), [Oops]Reach (p)

Group 2 (spots 5-8): KTF_CJoJJa (z), SuMa_BlacK (z), Silent_Control (t), SIdE (z)

Group 3 (spots 9-12): [SouL]TheWinD (z), SuMa)OversKy (z), [GsP]JJu+___+ (z), SKTelecom_iloveoov (t)

Group 4 (spots 13-16): fOru (p), KTF_TheMarine (t), Ogogo[Inca] (z), KTF_YellOw (z)



Results for May 27th:



KTF_CJoJJa > SuMa_BlacK on Lost Temple 2.3

Silent_Control > SIdE on Evolution Warp Gate

SIdE > SuMa_BlacK on Evolution Predator II

KTF_CJoJJa > Silent_Control on Highway Star



1-4: to be determined

05: KTF_CJoJJa (z)

06: Silent_Control (t)

07: SIdE (z)

08: SuMa_BlacK (z)

09: SKTelecom_iloveoov (t)

10: [SouL]TheWinD (z)

11: SuMa)OversKy (z)

12: [GsP]JJu+___+ (z)

13: Ogogo[Inca] (z)

14: KTF_TheMarine (t)

15: KTF_YellOw (z)

16: fOru (p)



Thanks to the mighty Bill307 Comments (16) ToKoreaWithLove, May 28 OngameNet SKY Proleague reports 260504 Round 1 : Hanbit vs Hexatron.



Game 1 : HOT/Autumn vs Jinsu/Love on Vertigo



Jinsu and Love has proved one of the better 2v2 teams in SKY, and why should they not; Jinsu was once part of the best 2v2 team in the world, and love is an old-school, experienced fox. But why would that matter; HOT may not be the zerg king he used to be, but he has a 24-4 2v2 record in team leagues and knows very well what to do.



All player opens standard build, but things differ quickly with Jinsu going for a really quick lair/spire and gambling on high ground defense.



Not the best idea it seems, Hanbit has gone mass basic units and despite Jinsu's best attempts to hold his ramp he is overun with a mere 2 mutas in the air. HOT eliminates him quickly, so no muta damage to his defenseless base.



From there on its merely cleaning up the mess that is love. Autumn does a smart off-cannon below Love's expand, and while Love stays in the game long enough to be annoying, there is really nothing he can do at this point.



Score : 1-0 Hanbit







Game 2 : ElkY vs Sunny on Requirem



The french progamer ElkY(@3) is not in the premier shape we've seen him during his starleague apperances, but he is still a force to be regognized. The unexperienced Sunny should really be no match.



But man does it looks otherwise. Both players open raxes in the middle for scouting, but Sunny does a cool twist and bunkers ElkY's ramp right away. ElkY counters with a hidden fac and switches to two port wraith when Sunny gets tanks to compliment his bunker.



ElkY does no real damage with his hidden vulture build, and Sunny gets his expand up and running despite the anoying wraiths. ElkY, true to his nature, has an expand running and looks to be gearing up things. Breaks out with a mean tank/vulture group - but Sunny is on to it with wraiths on his own. ElkY shows horrible control and loses everything to the silly wraiths from Sunny. Finally gets some gols, but Sunny is now ahead on expands again.



Sunny pushes against ElkY's new expand, and is also looking to go bc's right away! ElkY is losing ground now, but fortunately he still has his hidden expand from earlier, which Sunny is still unaware of. I eat my words, he just found it, and attacks right on with a strong tank/wraith combo. ElkY turns on his desperation mode and saves once again.



This is a real catfight! ElkY finally finds Sunny's hidden expand and gets agressive! Sunny defends as best he can but Elky has things geared into overdrive now - he just keeps up the attacks, while expanding over the map and setting up a strong defensive line in the middle. Sunny, sensing things getting out of hand, takes a large tank force (10+) and pushes against ElkY's main. ElkY with only 2 tanks present looks in trouble, but no worry. With scv's and only a few tanks, he RAPES Sunny's tank force! Man, that was sweet. Sunny has had enought and types out - leaving ElkY with a disbeliving, happy smile.



Score : 1-1







Game 3 : Leg vs Junwi on Guillotine



Our dear Peter again made his "im on tv but wont tell who I'll be playing" posts - but clever heads on the forums figured it should be the "Public Enemy" Junwi. Another great zerg player gone downhill, true (is there any LEFT lately?), but a scary opponent nonetheless. Junwi is the public enemy for a reason - namely his lethal ZvT game. But Peter is P, you say? I am well aware of that, put people who should know their stuff claims he is even BETTER vs P. Peter himself is turning out to be another giant killer, taking care of Boxer last week. Maybe not in the most convincing fashion, but hey! A win on tv vs Boxer is a win on tv vs Boxer.



Junwi(@7), the premier bonehead of this match, opens 9 pool gas as every z player does on this map. Leg(@2) follows the rules like a true australian gentleman, and does the Ra build.



Junwi takes his 2nd gas natural and prepares for some lurker abuse with a lair and a hydra den. Just hope Peter is ready for the very likely quick lurk/ling attack on his choke - he would not be the first to die from that. But luck smiles on him, and a scoting probe gets all the way into zerg base.



Junwi, despite being scouted, continues with his plan and slow drops two lurkers into leg's main. Should be no problem for our leg tho, he already has observers flying around. Leg just ignores the lurkers and halts mining in his main, while running towards Junwi's main with a strong zealot force. A fierce battle ensures, where Junwi barely saves his main at the cost of his whole fighting force. He also drops Leg's expand, but leg fights it off with a few probe losses.



Leg just keeps up the pressure and ignores another drop on his exp - Junwi is on dying ground already and leg is running around in his expansion again! Is forced to run again but goes into the zerg main and makes short work of Junwi's new spire and many drones. Junwi did get some mutas out, which may pose a problem, as leg is low on air defense. I hate when I'm right - leg loses his expansion nexus to the muta wing. Things are suddenly going downhill for leg, who tries desperately to get some damage done now, and is on Junwi's expansion with his trademark dt's, but Junwi did his homework and not much damage done.



In a gosu move, Junwi kills off leg's two archons with only muta. Leg is still trying his best to do damage with roaming zealot groups, but he is clearly fighting uphill and Junwi is running things with a large muta wing, keeping Peter from getting his much-needed expand. Leg hangs in there as long as he can, but Junwi is massively ahead now and gets the best of Leg's last two archons with a massive muta wing.



I'll let leg himself explain what he did wrong



Hanbit wins 2-1









Round 2 : Khan vs KTF



Game 1 : Yellow(z)/Reach(p) vs Ggon(p)/Doggi(t) on The Huntress



While Doggi(@5) haven't done too well in the ongoing Gilette OSL, there seems to be other rules counting for the teamleagues - underdog players have generally done quite well. Fortunately for Doggi, he was way down right and with some gosu building placement managed to hold off Yellow(@1)'s fast ling rush. Reach(@9) did a nice fast goon build to counter the terran m&m; threat. Ggon(@11) was pretty much surrounded by KTF, but did a good job with his basic zealots early on, despite some burrow tricks from Yellow.



But unfortunately for the Khan team - that was only in the beginning. We all know how good Reach plays vs bio, and Doogi just didnt get anywhere vs the mass goons from Reach. Yellow gave the sweetest show with batches of burrowed lings around Ggon's base, eliminating most of his workers with some a-class micro. The game effetively ended when Reach got a few dt's to accompany his goons.



A sweet, classy show from KTF, who dominated their opponents from start to finish. Khan was dead from the very go.



Score : 1-0 KTF







Game 2 : ShinyA(p) vs Nal_Ra(p) on XenoSky



Okai, so Ra is the coolest toss player on the planet, we all know that. Ice is lava compared to this guy - especially in big matches. But it is rumored that he is in a slump, also proven by his elimination from group A in the ongoing OSL. Not to be harsh on the guy - it is a group of death, but he do seems to be going a bit downhill lately. And Shinya is one of the most creative and skilled toss players in korea - he just have some trouble getting on the big stage and prove it.



Anyway, Ra(@11) opens with a naked expansion at his natural. XenoSky(aka Char) is a big map, so stuff like that is usually doable. In fact, mr. Lim Yo-Hwan himself popularized the cc-rax build vs zergs. Shinya, scouting the fast expansion, counters with a pure, standard 2 gate range goon build, and just kept them coming. Ra, with his later goons, lost ALL his expansion probes to superb goon micro from Shinya.



The toss master Ra finally got the annoying goons out of his base, but Shinya, still running off him main base, had teched during the previous battles. Not to anything sneaky like dt's or reavers, but to pure, old fashion speed zealots. He gathers his mean-looking horde and sets out to teach Ra something about fast expands - and man! does he. Ra brings out all his probes to the battle, but Shinya is on to it and Ra folds like a piece of old newspaper.



Shinya shows excellent timing and confidence thru the match - Ra got caught pants down with his fast expand and never had a chance after.



Score 1-1







Game 3 : Siva(z, Khan) vs Sync(t, KTF) on Nostalgia.



I'm telling you, Sync gotta do something serious with his hair. You can't sport a sissy haircut and the toughest face in pro circuit - it just don't match! Siva, on the other hand, does the Ra classic intelligent looks very well, and if this was played in Paris, he would have won the match right away. Fortunately, Seoul is still the staging point, and this is hand-to-screen combat at its finest.



The famed "sparks terran", Sync, should really be running things on this map - no fast 2nd gas for zerg makes it hard enough vs normal terrans, and Sync is known for his mean bio skills. Prediction? Siva, despite his ability to pump lurkers like Reach does goons, is dead.



Man, I'm glad I didnt bet on this game. Sync(@11), looking solid and confident right from the start, has his m&m; groups owning the middle for the longest time. His fast expand is in some small trouble untill his first tank pops out, but nothing serious. Looks like the sparks terran has this just the way he likes it. But man, Siva(@5) proves me wrong. He is just so DIFFERENT. Takes a sneaky fast gas down @ 7, and jumps straight to hive and defilers. Sync kills off the gas expand, but his expand is forced to float from lurkers under swarm.



Siva is clearly running this game, and has defilers running with every battle group - also nicely defending his expansions with lurker and defiler combos - no way Sync is getting those. But thru all this mean harass, Sync just somehow holds calm and keeps his main battle group intact, while also swinging dropships to limit the swarm. He even looks to take over again with a push against Siva's nat.



No way Siva is letting that go - he pushes out with lurkers, lings and defilers again. He has only one running gas expand now, at 9, but he is incredibly defending with a single lurker and a defiler. Oh man, if anyone wanna talk about imbalance



The game is still only halfway played, and things are really a stalemate now. Siva has his first ultras out now, but lacks the mass expands to get the real numbers running - but why would he need that when he supports them with lurkers and defilers! Fierce battles ensures in the middle, with Sync doing his best to keep the ultra/lurk/ling at bay with massive m&m; groups. The main problem for our terran right now is his inability to protect any expands with static defense, as dark swarm renders such useless.



He solved this by hidden expanding to the 7 main, and also keeping Siva occupied with a neat tank drop / bunker setup right across the cliff from his 9 exp. All while Siva tries to increase his income, there are massive battles in the middle, and both players trying to get an edge. Sync will run to attack Siva's 3 exp, and Siva would save it. Shake and repeat about 10 times, and you have the essence of the game in a nutshell.



Siva seems to be getting a slight edge during mid-game, when he sets up more and more expands, while dropping Sync's now only running expand with a ultra/lurker combo - of course defiler supported. Sync looks in deep shit now, his infantry army is pretty much useless vs the swarm-supported .. well, swarm from Siva.



But Sync is on it - shows beautiful control with medics as blockes and Siva can't prevent the destruction of his 3 expand. Both players are now down to their original bases; Sync with his gas nat in gear and Siva with his. Siva takes control of the center with even more dark swarm, ultras and lings, while also adding expands. A quick look at Sync's face shows him dripping in sweat, and Siva is not much better. Siva keeps up the pressure, and Sync's gas nat is floating in the air with the defending bunkers in ruins on the ground.



Sync, desperate now, tries to do some damage with another infantry group, but Siva goes around and forces the terran expand up and fly once again. A quick view of the other team members shows the KTF members in heated discussion, while Ggon of Khan is asleep.



Back to the game; Siva takes care of Sync's main, while Sync ignore it and tries to do damage with a sropship of m&m.; He succedes somewhat, but Siva has his expansions well defended and manages to keep them.



The last big battle of the game was really no battle at all - Siva covered every inch of Sync's expand with dark swarm and plague, and the ran his ultra/ling horde in to clean up. Sync, looking sick, finally gave in and typed out.



wow, what a game. If you can catch this VOD, I suggest you do. Not really a spectacular game, but a real show of micro all the way. 36 min of constant fighting is entertainment for everybody.



Khan wins 2-1!

Comments (20) Arbiter[frolix], May 28 Gillette OSL Week Five Group A: GoodFriend (Lee Byung Min) v Nal_Ra (Kang Min) - Namja Iyagi



Both players had already been eliminated by the time they faced each other on Namja Iyagi, leaving the main topic of interest whether the reigning champion would crash out 0-3. Friend (terran at 2 o'clock) survived an early scare after Ra (protoss at 10) pyloned his ramp. Having escaped the quick loss, Friend slowly and methodically began building his force for the horizontal push towards Ra in the opposite corner of the map



Nal_Ra looked inscrutable, but one cannot help feeling that, having reached two finals in a row, he was merely going through the motions here, unmotivated by a previously determined first round exit. Perhaps looking to keep the game relatively short, he prodded and probed, keeping Friend at arm's length while producing early carriers from two stargates. Just as Ra was readying to deploy his fleet, Friend scanned it, giving him the forewarning he needed to fend off the first wave. With the early win eluding Ra the game went, literally, back and forth across the top of the map, with Friend continually chipping away at the carriers with his teams of goliaths. Meanwhile, with Ra seemingly asleep with regard to scouting, Friend was securing expansions down the right side of the map.



Friend was putting up determined resistance to the endless flow of carriers, with goliaths and then various fleets of wraiths. However, once Ra woke up to the expo axis along the map's right side he started to turn the screw. Patiently he started to attack the expos while neutralising Friend's attempts to counter. A double high templar drop at 5 and Ra began squeezing the terran economy. Friend was trying desparately to counterattack but one by one the expos were falling and his valiant attempts to rebuild them took up the last of his precious resources. He showed some good goliath micro to hold off a carrier/high templar assault but the mineral supply was running dry. There was one last attempt to counter with a force of vultures, but with the coffers well and truly empty he signalled gg.



Friend (0-3) should yet show that he is not outclassed in the Starleague but, as expected, he was well and truly outclassed in this group. Ra (1-2) looks out of sorts and the aura of invincibilty he has been projecting for the last few months has faded. Up next week, the group decider between Oov and Reach.





Group B: July Zerg (Park Sung Choon) v Casey (Han Dong Ook) - Requiem



Casey's fate was in his own hands with one win and one loss and he boasted a strong record against zerg, while July Zerg (2-0) had already qualified for the next round. Nevertheless, Casey's hopes were left in ruins within minutes as July four-pooled and mugged him.



Three drones mining, one mutating, July Zerg (zerg at 6 o'clock) went for broke as the unsuspecting Casey (terran, 12 o'clock) opted for an orthadox two-barracks build. As the early six lings sped up the map past Requiem's distinctive centre cross Casey's scouting SCV caught a glimpse of them and he frantically tried to switch into defence-mode with a bunker at his choke. Too late. The lings ran riot, taking time out to splatter a couple of marines even as they obliterated the SCVs.



Short and sweet. July (3-0) looks strong and confident. Casey just looked sick. Zeus will surely secure the second qualifying spot when he faces the seemingly overmatched Doggi next time out.





Group C: IntotheRainbow (Kim Seong Chae) v Silent_Control (Na Do Hyun) - Mercury



Coming off a convincing win over the machine-like Nada, and playing on Mercury (favouring toss 4:0 over terran), Rainbow will have had high hopes of securing a spot in the last eight at the expense of Hanbit's Silent_Control. Rainbow (protoss at 8 o'clock) opted for ranged dragoons and reaver, while Control (terran at 5) went for two machine shop-equipped factories and all three upgrades.



Rainbow tried some light reaver harassment as both players took their naturals. However, this uneventful beginning belied the rapid collapse which was to come. His attention distracted momentarily, Rainbow's shuttle, which had been hovering around over the terran forces, ran into trouble. He dropped off his reaver and dragoon but they were quickly destroyed and Control rapidly went on the offensive, pushing quickly towards the protoss natural. Finding himself short of speedlots and with his main ground force out of position, Rainbow saw his expansion destroyed. Control's vultures moved in to deliver the killing blow, racing around to the back of the toss main and attacking the remaining probes. Another flock of about 10 vultures began pouring into Rainbow's base. He made a final attempt to complicate matters with his second reaver but to no avail.



Short but not sweet. Silent_Control (2-1) is now sure of a place in the last eight. Rainbow (1-2) is out. Next week, the under threat Nada faces GoRush for the second qualification place.





Group D: Kingdom (Park Yong Ook) v Jju (Byun Eun Jong) - Nostalgia



Kingdom (2-0) was already through to the quarter-finals and has looked at the very top of his game, while Jju (1-1) desparately needed the win and will have been hoping Kingdom felt like taking a rest in this game. Kingdom (protoss at 1 o'clock) toyed with the emotions of the excitable OGN announcers when he sent a scouting probe out to find Jju (zerg at 7) without first building a pylon. The announcers detected that, as is so often the case, Kingdom was up to something and they appeared deflated when he almost immediately then built an orthdadox pylon at his main. Then he took them by surprise again: he really was up to something. As Jju started up his orthadox natural hatchery Kingdom was warping in a sneaky pylon behind the right side of the mineral line, signalling the cannon rush he has used so effectively before. Realising what was going on, Jju cancelled his hatch, remutated it at the top of his ramp, and then tried to increase his mineral flow with a new expo at the nine o'clock position.



While Jju mutated his lair and hydralisk den, ignoring the single cannon outside his main, Kingdom was playing off one gate with two forges, core and Citadel of Adun. One forge was in his main and another blocking in his offensive cannon at seven, another idea Kingdom has used successfully before. As he upgraded his zealot speed and warped in his templar archives, Kingdom built a third forge, intending double upgrades and anticipating the eventual loss of the forge at seven.



With a force of speedlots and one dragoon, Kingdom set out to take the game to the still off-balance Jju. Taking a stab at the zerg main, Kingdom's troops were forced to retreat by defenders backed up by a sunken at the top of the ramp. Without pausing, he changed tack and headed for the nine o'clock expansion. Two sunkens and a few defenders were enough to inflict losses as Kingdom retreated again, having damaged the expo.



The heavy weaponry was starting to appear, with archons and lurkers making their first forays. Kingdom's new force of zeals, archon and one dark templar was marauding around the middle of the map, then overwhelmed the damaged expo at nine, leaving Jju trying to fight against a supreme toss opponent off only one base. Kingdom was ascendent but may have prolonged the game with an ill-advised attempt to delay Jju retaking the seven natural, leading to the loss of two archons with very little to show for it.



Jju tried to buy himself some more time by means of lurker and ling drops. A one overlord foray to the one o'clock position achieved little; four loaded overlords found a spread of cannons waiting for them at Kingdom's three o'clock expo. He had more success with a six-'lord drop at Kingdom's main, as for one moment it looked like Kingdom would be left without any gateways thanks to a swarm of dropped zerglings. He tried to follow this with a desparate mass zergling assault at three but Kingdom calmly defended with his probes and allowed his surviving cannons to mop up the lings. Kingdom didn't rock, never mind fall. He put corsairs into the air, obliterated six advancing overlords, and showed Jju that the drops were over with. Realising his cause was now hopeless, Jju bowed out.



Unbeaten and looking unbeatable, the bookish Kingdom (3-0) flashed a devilish smile and wave at the cheering crowd as he headed into the quarters. Up next week, the clash of the terrans as Xellos (1-1) takes on TheMarine (0-2). Comments (22) Manifesto7, May 27 OGN Challenge League May 25 I had high expectations for this week as some of the winners from previous weeks squared off. The games were held in a large hall located in the city of Kimhae, with about four thousand people in attendance. The players got to climb into their cool looking booths for their games, and the stage was loaded with pyrotechnics that were set off betweens games. There was a very rock concert type atmosphere, or as rock concert as a stadium full of Korean StarCraft fans can get.



Game 1: Stay[HyO] (z) vs Freshen (t) on Requiem

Crowd Prediction: 75% for Freshen



Freshen has been getting a lot of hype in the last little while, as people have been eager to label him as one of the promising next generation Terran players. This week he went up against Stay[HyO], and one would have to think that these are the kinds of games Freshen needs to win if he wants to keep his growing reputation.



Stay opened up at 12 o’clock, starting with a hatchery at his natural and following it up with a pool and gas. Freshen was on the opposite end of the map at 6 o’clock, and he began by blocking off the bottom of his ramp followed by the construction of his second barracks. With the players on the opposite ends of the map, the beginning of the game was cautious, as both players tried to get a secure force.



Once Freshen had amassed a small force of 6 marines, 2 bats and a couple medics, he moved north to check out Stay’s progress and take control of his choke. Unfortunately for him, Stay had eight zerglings laying in wait, and when Freshen got half way up the map, the zerglings attacked and swiftly killed the 2 marines and 2 bats that were left guarding Freshens ramp. Seeing little resistance, the lings came into the terran base and began to claw away at some buildings, harass the scv, and avoid death as long as possible. All of this gave time to Stay, and he took advantage, taking his second gas and morphing some lurkers.



Despite his initial setback, and an unexplainable lack of troops, Freshen was ready to expand and he landed his CC at his natural. His initial small force of MM was still outside of Stay’s base, but they were quickly forced to retreat in the face of 12 lings and 5 lurkers that Stay sent down the map. With no bunker or turret, and with few troops at Freshen’s expansion, Stay was free to push forward with his lurkers and take control of Freshens ramp. With some superior micro, Stay was able to kill any new troops coming up the ramp, while taking care of all the scv at the natural expansion. With nothing left, Freshen had no choice but to tap GG.



Stay[HyO] > Freshen



What’s up Stay[HyO]?! Taking care of business yet again, this zerg looked pretty cool in sending Freshen home with his tail between his legs. I thought Freshen was really slow this game, as his troop count was very low the whole game. His decision to expand when he did was very odd, as he really had no way of holding when Stay attacked. Stay moves on and is getting into some elite company as the Challenge League carries on.



Game 2: Boxer (t) vs Sasin)Child (the unknown zerg) (z) on Namja Iyaga

Crowd Prediction: 95% for Boxer



Finally, I get to watch a game of this zerg player whose name I haven’t been able to see. Sasin)Child went into this game as a severe underdog against Boxer, who is playing with renewed vigor under his new T1 team. No matter where the Emperor goes, he always has the ladies screaming for him at the start of every game, and today was no different.



Sasin opened up at the 7 o’clock position with the pool, gas, hatchery build that seems to be the zerg standard ZvT on this map. Boxer (@5) looked like he was going to wall in and tech, as he put up only one barracks and a depot. He managed to delay Sasin’s hatchery with his scouting scv for a bit, but by building his pool first, initial speedlings shoed away the trespasser.



Five minutes in, Boxer revealed to Sasin what he had been up to. A barracks > gas > academy > barracks build allowed Boxer to rush a force of four marines, three firebats and two medics over to the southwest corner of the map. Sasin was late in putting up his sunken colonies to guard his ramp, and boxer stimmed right on by and into his base. With no defence, Sasin tried to run his drones around Boxer’s force to his natural, but Boxer intercepted and BBQ’ed them in no time. Seven minutes into the game, Boxer was victorious.



Boxer > Sasin)Child



Damn, Boxer makes a good wage per hour if you break it down into seven minute games. It seems destined that Boxer will make the finals in the Challenge League, all that remains to be seen is whether his old foe Yellow will be joining him there.



Game 3: Midas (t) vs Yellow (z) on Namja Iyaga

Crowd Prediction: 83% for Yellow



I am not sure if Yellow takes amphetamines before he plays, but his eyes were looking a little crazy as he warmed up to take on Midas. Maybe it was a good thing for Midas that he was in his own little booth, because I know I wouldn’t want to see that. Anyways, this was a major step up in competition for the terran player, as last week he won a fast game against the inexperienced Legend. He would have to be on top of things to match wits with the zerg master.



Yellow opened with a pool, gas, hatchery build, while Midas started with a typical two barracks build. Yellow did make an early eight lings, and when Midas moved out with his first group of MM, Yellow used them to try and sneak inside his base. Midas was wise to the counter measures though, and two firebats at his ramp cooked the lings before they could get inside. With his force free to roam, Midas set up a bunker on the bottom ramp leading to Yellows base, and he took the rest of his force to the top ramp, containing the zerg early on. Unperturbed, Yellow made his lurkers, destroyed the bunker on the bottom, and tried to move out into the middle area of the map. Midas countered with his MM force from the top ramp, and through some good micro managed to kill Yellow’s early attack. Seeing the lurkers, Midas started up his factory and began producing tanks, but Yellow, being the sly guy that he is, switched up to mutalisks and expanded to eleven o’clock.



Midas again went on the offensive, pulling two tanks up to the cliff behind yellows natural in preparation for a bombardment. This proved to be a bad idea though, as Yellow’s now numerous mutas swooped in and took care of the tanks quickly, limiting their effectiveness. The loss of this forward force was the first real loss for Midas in the game, but the mobility of the mutalisks forced him to draw his remaining medarine forces into his base, as Yellow was intent on picking off wayward scv or any buildings that were not snug up against a turret. After an extensive period of harassment, the mutas finally was chased off, but the time Yellow gained had allowed him to establish the eleven o’clock expansion, as well as to tech to the hive.



Poor Midas. After a promising start, he was forced to withdraw into his base to defend against the mutas. While he had a sizable army, his minerals were running low and he needed to get his expansion, as he had none fourteen minutes into the game. His lack of pressure on the zerg allowed Yellow to move out with his mutalisks yet again, and the harassment continued as he followed up with some lurkers as well. These lurkers burrowed on Midas’ bottom ramp, and using the stop lurker technique, Yellow massacred the marines that so happily chased the mutas around. These lurkers then moved in and shut down the terran expansion, while Yellow threw down an ultra chamber and morphed in a greater spire. Midas again regrouped and started to send his army across the middle of the map towards Yellows base, but things got no better for him. As a counter, Yellow sent several groups of lings as well as his newly made guardians (yes those same muta that he started with) and took apart the terran expansion for a second time. Midas knew his time was short, and tried to trade base kills with Yellow, but with newly hatched ultras, and guards coming back for defence, Yellow held and won the game.



Yellow > Midas



Ok, I swear to god, no one controls mutalisks like Yellow does. If Yaoyuan.com uploads this game, go watch it, because Yellow uses the same mutalisks for about 10 minutes, either as mutas or guards. His control was unbelievable, and Midas’ only real chance was to use some static defence like bunkers and turrets. Because he didn’t, he was forced around the map, and was never able to mount an offence in fear of being countered. Pure rape by Yellow in this game. One can only hope that both he and Boxer make it through to the finals.



Game 4: Nal_Rock (p) vs Yooi (t) on Requiem

Crowd Predictions: 54% for Rock



You know, I have yet to see a long game on this map, so I was really hoping these two could show something special. As the only protoss player today, I realize that Rock has some pressure, but the look on his face when he was playing was one of pure rage. Seriously. The guy looked like he was going to go home and punch a pregnant kitty to death.



Rock started up top (@12) with Yooi stating at the bottom (@6). These far positions didn’t stop Rock from putting on some early pressure. Right off the start, Rock sent an early zealot and a dragoon down to Yooi’s block, which on Requiem is on the low ground of the ramp leading into the base. Yooi had two marines, but the dragoon peppered them while the zealot sliced away at the depot. The addition of a second and then third dragoon forced Yooi to pull more and more scv off his minerals for repair duty. All told, Yooi lost 6 scv to dragoon fire before his tank could get out of his factory to siege up and take care of the dragoons. With this early advantage, Rock expanded to the three o’clock main and started his robotics facility, while Yooi played safe, getting a couple upgraded vultures and then more tanks.



Both players continued to play cautiously, as Rock did not want to give away the location of his expansion to Yooi, and both players also guarded their mineral lines against a drop with many troops. Yooi took his expansion once he had enough tanks to defend it, while Rock dropped a probe off behind his natural, and expanded to the top right corner. The pause in the action was ended abruptly as Rock flew two reavers into the terran main and tried to harvest some scv. Yooi reacted well, as he had two tanks in his own dropship, and the reavers and tanks played hide and go seek in their respective dropships. Yooi eventually did enough damage to the reavers that Rock wanted to save them and he flew off. The terran dropship then headed to 3 o’clock, and seiged up behind the natural expansion within range of the ramp in order to hit any units leaving the base. This proved to be a good move, as it helped split the protoss forces in two, and allowed Yooi to move his main vulture tank army towards 3 o’clock. Yooi set up his push and looked to destroy the protoss expansion, but Rock’s fast shuttles delivered reinforcements into the middle of the fray and the push fizzled.



Based on the strength of his two expansions, Rock quickly recovered and sent his counter attack towards the terran expansion. Although he killed many scv, his dragoons became trapped against the minerals, and tank fire killed every last one. Rock was trying to kill the CC in this attack, but Yooi managed to repair with his last few scv. For a few precious seconds the CC hovered at 50 hp, but as the tank fire cut down the dragoons, the scv slowly got ahead of the damage and managed to save it, triggering a huge cheer from the crowd. Terran had taken the southwest corner expansion, but a roving dropship of Rocks stopped the fledgling expansion before it could be of any real benefit.



At this point in the game, Yooi was still working off just one expansion, while Rock had three of his own. Needless to say, Rock’s army rebounded much faster than Yooi’s, and Rock used this advantage to drop units from 3 o’clock into the terran main. Relentlessly, but with little micro, Rock dropped load after load into the terran main and Yooi’s defences were slowly worn down to the nub. With Yooi reeling, Rock sent his forces from his main base (@12) to hit the terran expansion, and Yooi fell under this combined attack.



Rock > Yooi



Rock dominated Yooi from the outset. With the early harassment and loss of scv, Yooi played very cautiously, going two factory and slow expansion with no vulture harass. Although he tried to tank drop Rock a couple times, he never put the protoss in any kind of position to lose the game. For his own part, Rock expanded smartly, as I really think those corner expansions are valuable on Requiem.





Another week goes by, and the field is getting more defined. Hope you enjoyed the read, and as always, feel free to correct any mistakes or give any comments.





Mani~

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