After a long wait, the GosuCup play-offs went on their way yesterday, Sunday, September 25th. Seven top tier player indulged in furious battles for the €1,500 prize pool and the first ever Razer GosuCup championship title.
The Quarter Finals
Socke vs 
AdelscottThe first GosuCup quarterfinal was a nail-biter of its own, the two protoss masterminds going head-to-head in terms of sets. Adel opened the Xel’Naga Caverns set with an offensive 4-gate into second nexus plus blink, but Socke smelled the timing window and hit when Adel’s army was significantly smaller.
Adelscott sprung back in the second game with a very peculiar build, going 2-gate into phoenixes, which both got him all the scouting information he needed and also scouted Socke’s DT tech, which allowed the French to cannon up in time and deny any harass. As neither player could do any damage to the other, they fell back to moments of passivity, expanding their tech with Adel adding immortals and blink while Socke staying on the defensice, researching charge and also daringly take a third at the 14th minute mark. The latter made Socke taste his own medicine as Adel’s +2/+1 timing attack caught the German in the roughest spot, evaporating his army istantly.
The war of equilibrium continued in the next two sets as well. Once again Socke got the lead by hiding a proxy warp-in pylon and going for the offensive 4-gate, catching Adel just as he was moving out to make his own attack. Adelscott tried to go back but he was already too far out in the map so he had to search for revenge in set 4. The latter was played on Belshir Beach and began by Socke going for 2-gate blink but he soon found himself soft-contained by Adel’s 4-gate attack. Being really hesitant about trying to break the “siege” (to Socke’s defense, there weren’t really many ways for him to do it anyway), Socke just stayed contained until Adel got blink of his own, which completely sealed the deal in his favor.
In the final game on Shakuras, Socke went for double gas with the intention to tech heavily but was unfortunately interrupted by Adel’s 4-gate. But to my and many other’s surprise, Socke displayed a perfect micro during the defense and with the help of his reinforcements, he held Adel marvelously and even got a supply lead. All that was left to do was launch a blink counter attack to force a GG out of Adelscott.
Nerchio vs 
BlinGPvZs usually tend to be longer than protoss mirrors but that was not the case in GosuCup’s second quarter final between Bling and Nerchio. The Polish protoss (and one of the favourites for the first place) was handled an early set lead as BlinG carelessly moved out with a small 3-gate army to pressure Nerchio’s third base, without even throwing a reinforcing pylon. Nerchio’s defense hit BlinG like a jackhammer for the 1-0.
What followed bedazzled everyone that was tuned in to the tournament. Nerchio opened the game with a remark regarding BlinG’s playstyle which apparently threw the protoss off balance as once he spotted Nerchio’s pool-first build (a strong threat to his nexus first opening) and lost his building probe down at his ramp, BlinG gg-ed, giving us probably the fastest non-6pool PvZ in the history of StarCraft.
BlinG’s play in the third game was marginally more entertaining as he opted for the cheesy and unorthodox 4-gate/warp prism off of one base. BlinG continuously tried to hurt Nerchio via zealot warp-ins and blunt frontal attacks but neither did him any good as zerg’s roach timing was spot-on. After several more unsuccessful attempts, BlinG gg-ed out, sending Nerchio to the semi finals.
DarkCell vs 
KasKas versus DarkCell was a match that I was very excited about, being eager to see more of the American’s ZvT and against one of Europe’s finest terrans to that. The series itself, however, did not start very positively for DarkCell as after defending Kas’ bunker rush and preigniter harass, the zerg delayed taking his third for so long that when he considered it to be the time it was no longer an option. Kas swung from the right corridor, hitting Zerg’s natural from behind with a hellion/tank/bio timing push. Without the sufficient economy, DarkCell had no chance to produce enough units to chase Kas away and was now down 0-1.
But DarkCell’s fury apparently cannot be contained. He started the second set on Metalopolis defensively, spining up to deny hellion pressure and double expanding around the 10th minute. This gave DarkCell the economy he lacked in game 1 and this allowed him to crush every single attack that Kas tried to throw at his fourth. Staying on lings and banelings, DarkCell surrounded and destroyed the terran at every step, finishing the game with a tri-frontal attack at all of Kas’ mining bases. An amazing endurance and multitasking for the tie.
DarkCell won another two victories, using a very similar “I-am-everywhere-crushing-everything” style. On Tal’Darim Altar, Kas tried to cripple DarkCell early with a 2-banshee pressure but got immediately punished by a ling run-by that reduced his SCV count to 14. The terran had to take a long road of stabilizing but every time he geared for a push, DarkCell was there to wipe him with mutas, banelings and speedlings. Although never going above 4 bases, that seemed to work just fine for DarkCell as his opponent was now starving, having used his minerals to set his economy and tech straight. As he was denied a fourth of his own and his final push got crushed, Kas gg-ed out.
The final set was a fiesta for all zerg fans, as DarkCell toyed with Kas with utter ease, tormening him with ling run-byes and destroying every push with every zerg trick there is - baneling bombs, ling surrounds, fungals, you name it! Come the mid-game, Kas was denied every bit of map control and, adding to that his continuous mistakes of moving out with tiny armies, he could not hope to safely reach DarkCell’s premises, let alone do damage. The zerg walked out with a 3-1 victory, sending him to the semi-finals.
The Semi FInals
Nerchio vs DarkCellThe first semi final was quick and merciless, as it befits every zerg mirror match. Nerchio’s roach timings were too much for DarkCell and he lost two quick games, falling to +1 attack on Test Bug (mainly due to overdroning) and then chosing the baneling tech against Nerchio’s warren before speed. Not getting good enough baneling explosions spelled doom for DarkCell and he had to go into the Metalopolis set to fight for his last chance of survival.
Knowing that he is allowed to play a bit risky, Nerchio cut drone production right after his pool was done and went for a 1-base speedling rush. As DarkCell had chosen to take his natural early, he once again fell victim to the process of droning up as his queens could not efficiently hold Nerchio’s advance. That set the score to a 3-0 in favor of the Polish zerg, who would advance to the grand final, awaiting the victor of Grubby and Socke.
Grubby vs SockeGrubby swiftly sprinted to a 2-0 lead as special attention should be paid to his performance on Tal’Darim Altar in set 2. As Socke went for the offensive 4-gate, Grubby called forth the micro spirits from his War3 past, managing every single unit with surgical precision, holding the pressure with one less gateway and even walking out with a supply lead. He then put down a forge and started +1 attack which kicked in just in time to hold Sockes blink follow-up. When his own blink finished up, Grubby had little problem winning the set.
But Socke would not be one of the best protosses in Europe if he would lay down and die after being down 0-2. After scouting Grubby’s low-ground proxy warp-in pylon on Shakuras, Socke stood patiently awaiting Grubby’s 4-gate attack. As the Dutchman spent many units to just walk up the ramp to gain vision, he made Socke’s job of sniping the enemy units as they warp a piece of cake. Socke extended this defensive play on Shattered Temple as well, choosing to go for immortals as opposed to Grubby’s blink tech. As Grubby moved out in attempt to pressure Socke’s natural, he found out just how much immortals hurt stalkers (that is A LOT in case you wonder). The score was tied and the series would go into a final set.
Grubby opened set 5 on terminus by sneaking an expo at the 9 o’clock, far away from Socke’s sight and he even tried to poke the enemy natural but cannons and forcefields made him run back at settle a position at one of the watch towers. The game-breaking move came from Socke as he moved out just as his +1 and blink were done, assuming he had the definite advantage. And that would be true, had he not blinked straight into Grubby’s perfect stalker arc. Despite having upgrade advantage, Socke lost way too many units for him to recover in time. As Grubby’s own +1 finished, it was lights out for the German protoss.
