» cancelThe first ever official StarGate 2v2 tournament was hosted today. Signups began at 14:00 CET, and the actual event had begun at approximately 16:00. Many good teams managed to show up, and the draw included 32 teams. The semis and finals would be best of three, with the preceding rounds just being a simple one-game series.
The right bracket of the draw saw the powerhouse team of Finland's
ovvi and 
ToT)NoRti( from Germany emerge victorious. They had success in events like wgtour, reaching the final tournament there. Their powerful zerg/protoss combo would be very proficient. Defeating strong teams such as the Polish 
(GN) squad and 
Storm_nor + Astral, they found themselves in the finals.Amazingly, ovvi and NorTi already had opponents waiting. It was the outstanding team of ToT)Mondragon( and Nal_Testie. Their dual zerg combination won wgtour's season 7 2v2 championship, going an incredible 55-0 in the regular season. By taking down other teams like
ash.doLife + TaShada and ReD[SiN] + DoeRaeMe, Mondragon and Testie were in the final round.With ladder points at stake, the two teams readied themselves and went into the battlefield.
Game #1: ToT)Mondragon( (Z, 10:00) &  Nal_Testie (Z, 02:00)versus ToT)ovvi( (Z, 07:00) & ToT)NorTi( (P, 04:00) |
Map:  Martian Cross (Chow Chow) |
| Replay: » Download here |
Mondragon and Testie spawned their trademark double-zerg, while ovvi and NoRti opted to go zerg and protoss. Mondragon and Testie both did 9 pool builds, intending to zergling rush their adversaries. Ovvi also did a 9 pool, sensing his opponents move, but NoRti decided to take a chance with a different strategy. He did a forge that covered half of his choke, and then tried to cannon rush Testie. Testie caught the plan, however, and stopped it with his fast lings. Knowing the rush was on, NoRti constructed a
cannon, a gateway, and also an assimilator. He wanted to get a fast +1 weapon upgrade.
A fast +1 protoss weapon vs zerg is indeed deadly. It reduces the hits to kill a zergling from 3 to 2 for a zealot. Testie ran his zerglings past the cannon, and started to harass NoRti. Both him and Mondragon had begun to expand with their second hatcheries. This was a bold move in a tense game. Ironically, Testie killed norti's assimilator right as he collected 104 gas, so the +1 weapons upgrade started. NoRti fought off the swarm with zealots and probes. Mondragon and Testie did similar 3 hatchery builds, but ovvi had a different idea. He swiftly made 1 hatchery mutas. This sent the other team into emergency mode.
To prevent dying prematurely, ovvi rushed into Mondragon's defenseless expansion. He killed the morphing sunken, and took out drones. As Testie came over to help, ovvi ran into mondragon's main and ran around for a little while. This gave his spire time to finish. The dual zerg squad still managed to run in and kill ovvi's spire, but ovvi already had a group of mutas alive. NoRti's proud zealot warriors attacked Testie's open main with +1, and ravaged everything. Three zealots had 21 kills between them before finally dying. Ovvi saved his lair from the ling attack, but was damaged with only a handful of drones left, and no pool or spire. NoRti was still recovering his economy after losing most of his probes to the initial rush.
Mondragon had prepared for the mutalisk attack, and was protected by spores. Testie had no defense against them in his main, however, and he appeared to have inevitably lost his main hatchery. Fortunately, he thought of an alternate plan. The eye-for-an-eye strategy that Testie concocted worked, and he eliminated ovvi before his main died. This left NoRti 1v2 against two battle hardened zergs. His waves of zealots were barely stopped by Testie, but that wasn't good enough. Mondragon had a second expansion, and 1200 gas saved up for mutalisks. Sensing defeat, NoRti decided to be cute and spell out "Hi" with his pylons, a move that Testie did versus him in the WGTour finals.
| Game #2: ToT)Mondragon( (Z, 03:00) & Nal_Testie (Z, 12:00) versus ToT)ovvi( (Z, 09:00) & ToT)NorTi( (P, 06:00) |
Map:  Dahlia of Jungle |
| Replay: » Download here |
Game two started out similar to game one. All three zergs did 9 pools, and NoRti again made a forge first. However, he would again try an innovative strategy. He put a cannon on his ramp, but simultaneously put a pylon and a cannon on ovvi's ramp as well. This defensive move was smart against the oh-my-god zerg rush that Testie/Mondragon hoped to use. The rush was put down completely. NoRti made a gateway and assimilator. Ovvi and Mondragon did nearly identical 1 hatch muta builds, and Testie tried to three hatchery expand. Showing off nice control, ovvi killed some of Testie's drones before being stopped by both opponents' zerglings.
NoRti tech-ed to corsairs/templar archives, and intended to set up an expansion. Mondragon had a one hatchery advantage on ovvi, and Testie was building up 3 hatchery hydras. Once again, the fatal error was ovvi's lack of production. He died to a strong team of lings/hydras/mutas which took him out quick. Desperately, NoRti tried to double expo with 6 gateways, but he simply didn't have enough time. The swarm reached him, and he conceded. By the time the match was over, Mondragon and Testie had monopolized almost the whole map into their empire.
Congratulations to Mondragon and Testie for winning the first ever StarGate 2v2 tournament. A big thanks to all of you that showed up, and credit to the StarGate team for running another successful, smooth event. Hopefully you can attend the next one!
Ladder bonuses are as follows:
| ToT)Mondragon( and Nal_Testie | 75 ladder points |
| ovvi and ToT)NoRti( | 50 ladder points |
| astral and Storm_nor | 25 ladder points |
Third place was determined by the winner of an extra match played between the two losers of the semi-finals. DoeRaeMe + ReD[SiN] faced off against astral + Storm_nor, and the latter came out as the winner.
