KOTH: Sen vs PJ

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The match between PJ and Sen has had it's problems. It has been delayed several times and had some other issues. However it has now been played. We appologise for the poor coverage, but this post will explain and try to rectify it in some small way.

The gosugamers King of the Hill has been a prestigious event for a long time and features some of the best players outside of Korea. ToT)Sen( was the reigning champion after taking the hill from mYm.A2. The new challenger was mYm.PJ. The match was agreed to and a date was set. Sadly this date was moved around due to players not being able to play at said time. This interfered with the coverage naturally. For the first two dates a shoutcaster was ready to bring you all the action live, but that became more and more difficult as the delays went on. In the end the two players played on the date eventually agreed upon, but at a later time and without any admins or shoutcasters present. Naturally we did initially not recognize this as a GosuGamers King of the Hill match, but we have decided to do so now. We are also discussing new rules in order to prevent this kind of situation in the future.

Battle Reports
As a small bandaid on the missing coverage I will give you some battle reports. If you don't wish to know the results prior to watching the replays, please download them here and stop reading.

Game 1: ToT)Sen( versus mYm.Pj @ Rush Hour
PJ warped in with his usual protoss at 11 o'clock while Sen spawned at 7. Sen opted for a pool first on 12 quick gas plus ling speed upgrade. Sen's natural hatchery was further delayed a bit thanks to some nice probe micro from PJ. PJ chose to go with a forge first fast expansion build. Sen seemed to have been delayed quite a bit actually and chose to take the 5 o'clock natural shortly after his own natural.

PJ chose to guard himself with cannons and tech to templars while Sen had a surprisingly low drone count when his lair finished early and the hydra den not far behind. Sen also put down a spire as he started moving towards PJ's natural with lurkers. PJ was quite happy to not try to delay him much, but rather put some cannons at the ramp of the 1 o'clock main and take that.

If the action had been at a low until now, it quickly changed. Sen had in fact been very cheap with his lurker/ling army. It consisted of 3 lurkers and a few lings only. PJ seemed a bit confused about what to do as Sen suddenly had 12 mutalisks taking down cannons and probes in the middle of his base. Templars were out and storm was researched, but Sen skillfully avoided the worst of it and managed to take down the nexus. GG, 11minutes.


Sen dodging storms while killing off PJ's main

Game 3: ToT)Sen( versus mYm.Pj @ Gaia
Game 2 was a very short game where Sen rushed successfully. We do sadly not have a replay of this. Game 3 however started with PJ at 6 and Sen at 7. PJ chose to go with a 1 gate cybernetics core build, while Sen went pool, gas and then expanded to his natural. Again the ling speed was researched quickly and while PJ teched to a StarGate, Sen went for a 3rd hatch at his expo. As the single corsair got 2 overlord kills and a good look at Sen's base, PJ was busy putting down a templar archieve and a forge. Sen had not yet completed his Hydralisk Den by the time the corsair popped and quickly added an evolution chamber for a spore colony at his natural to protect his overlords.

As PJ's first DT warped in he also put down 2 Cannons at his natural, while Sen was working on his spire. However Sen decided this would be a good time to attack, just before the cannons finished. He didn't do bad but as a cannon finished he decided to run past with his remaining lings. 6 lings or so and they started going to work on PJ's drones in the main while PJ seemed content to let a single DT follow them around. These lings got a good look around and more than a few probekill before they bought it. PJ seemed content to secure his main and natural while pumping goons and HTs mainly from his 4 gates. Meanwhile Sen had put down a Queens nest and was hard at work on a Hive. He also had dual evolution chambers. I think we all know what that means. At this point Sen has his main and natural plus the 9 o'clock expansion up and running. PJ is trying to get 3 up on it's feet, but is being delayed by a single lurker due to some bad storming and his late Observatory.


The decicive battle, Zerg coming out on top.

Sen decides to attack PJs natural while he is busy dealing with the lurker, but it is nicely handled by PJ and Sen has to withdraw quickly. Sen additionally delays the expansion at 3 twice, after the lurker was finally killed, with lings forcing PJ to cancel his nexus and cannons. At the same time the Ultra Cavern is up and speed and 2/2 is halfway done. Sen takes the 12 o'clock natural and shortly after the main while PJ tries to take the South East expansion in the middle. Sen moves in with a big hydra, lurker, ultraling army and devastates PJs forces. After this Sen keeps expanding and harassing while harrassing with lings. When PJ has established his SE expo in the middle and tries to take the NE one to cut the map in two Sen moves in with a massive ultralisk army. GG.


GG.

Game 4: ToT)Sen( versus mYm.Pj @ R-Point
PJ starting at 11 opted for a 2gate zealot opening while Sen's overlord went the wrong way and he chose pool first then a 3 hatch build for R-point. PJ applied some early pressure but Sen had his lings out in time and after a sunken was up PJ just stood outside thinking about how he was down 3-0 already.


Too late with the zealots.

He did however put up a cybernetics core and a 3rd gateway, but as the goons made their way to the zealot contain lings poured out from Sens base. Sen made quick work of the contain and charged PJs base. With some reinforcement lings it was over before it had really started.


Sen not understanding the word contain and keeping his title.

Congratulations to ToT)Sen( for his first successfull defence of the GosuGamers King of the Hill throne. We will have to try and make it more difficult for him next time so it doesn't end up 4-0. As I said earlier we will also take steps to make sure the coverage improves drastically and that this event gets the coverage it deserves.

Links
GosuGamers - KOTH feature
GosuGamers - Replays