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Scrimmage report

Ryung 2-0 CrazyMoving
VODs: Game 1 on Ohana /// Game 2 on Daybreak

The first map in this round is Ohana, and knowing that the only way for Zerg to efficiently fight Terran is by taking more bases than their opponent, Ryung was eager to take the third base as soon as possible, especially after his cloaked Banshee harrass didn’t prove very successful. As a result, CrazyMoving managed to take control the majority of the map, right until Ryung collected a large enough army to move out and slowly pick apart the Zerg.

The second map, Daybreak, saw a similar opening by both players: a quick natural by the Zerg and a three-base play by the Terran. Both players attacked at the same time, leaving Ryung at a small advantage since he still had a few marines and two tanks at his base that sufficed to defend the natural. His main army had no problems dealing with CrazyMoving’s third base, which soon led to the decisive gg.

Hero 2-1 Dimaga
VODs: Game 1 on Ohana /// Game 2 on Dual Sight /// Game 3 on Daybreak

Definitely the weirdest match of today and perhaps one of the most interesting matches of the tournament. The first game was skipping rope with terms like nailbiter and stalemate when we saw top tier tech, a base race and Ohana almost completely mined out. After an early three Gateway pressure, executed beautifully by HerO, Dimaga countered by attacking the Protoss’ third base. A baneling drop failed miserably but wasn’t punished right away. We got to see perfectly placed storms on Dimaga’s Zerglings while he steadily teched to Infestors, Ultralisks and Broodlords. A basetrade left both on very little economy, each trying to gather up enough minerals to slowly rebuild their army. Dimaga, with a slight edge regarding the amount of high tech units left in his base, soon had no problems defending HerO’s impending attack.

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The way Dual Sight turned out is almost equally as weird, when, after HerO had made use of his impeccable Storms once again, Dimaga chose to attempt another base trade, despite being far behind. Logically, Dimaga found himself morphing Extractors all over the map to avoid losing and apparently the StarCraft gods were on his side, because even though he had lost the last one, the game didn’t end, leaving Dimaga dumbfounded, but being the good guy he is, he left anyway. The last map, Daybreak, was uneventful by comparison. Forge fast-expand, Stalker and Sentry push, forcefields perfectly separating Zerglings from Baneling for easier killing and gg shortly after. Yeah, that’s how easy games can be between these two players.

Hasuobs 2-1 Sjow
VODs: Game 1 on Ohana /// Game 2 on Daybreak /// Game 3 on Shakuras Plateau

This series has got to be a prime example for the most standard PvT you’ll see at the moment. Sjow goes for a gasless expand in the first two games, follows that up by cloaked Banshee harrass. In the first map, however, his harrass is quite a bit more successful, allowing the Terran’s deathball to take out the Nexus at the natural and forcing a defeat for HasuObs.

The German Protoss chose a more annoying route in the second game, though, Warp Prism dropping Sentries into his opponent’s main to take out huge chunks of his mineral line. This helped his Gateway units and his Colossi to take a lead on SjoW’s bio ball and eventually the game. Being well aware of Terran’s tendencies to fast expand in the current meta game, HasuObs just 4-Gated in the third game on Shakuras, skipped past SjoW’s bunker and wandered straight into his main base, killing practically everything in sight.

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Demuslim 2-0 DarkForce
VODs: Game 1 on Ohana /// Game 2 on Daybreak

DarkForce was simply outplayed in this one. DeMusliM’s cloaked banshee harrass managed to deal a lot of damage to two Queens, but not the economy itself. That didn’t matter much, though, since the mostly Zergling-heavy army was fairly easily gunned down by DeMusliM’s superior tank positioning and Marine control. While DarkForce managed to get a bit ahead in the second game, he didn’t make use of it by applying the final blow but deciding to macro up instead. The passivity came in handy for the Terran by allowing him to build a deathball. The only real danger to him were Mutalisk harrasses which were fended off easily and so he eventually took revenge on the Zerg bases.

The never-ending story

Today’s use of cloaked banshee openers on practically every single map a Terran participated in, except for the one during which SjoW was 4-Gated by HasuObs, usually followed by standard bio ball and tank play, left me seriously disinterested in anything Terran. Fortunately, the greatest and most enticing match was played between a Protoss and a Zerg, HerO and Dimaga respectively. It was previously stated that the outcome of this match may define who will take first in this division eventually, and even though the result of 2-1 in HerO’s favor may suggest otherwise, the games were fairly one-sided. That, however doesn’t diminish the strangeness of the first game on Ohana. I want to go a bit into that, because it is so unlike everything I have witnessed in a StarCraft match lately.

The most interesting part of the match is actually that nothing noteworthy happened until the 35 minute mark. A bit of 3-Gate harrass, a bit of poaching here and there, but the supply remained even and all the attacks were denied before any remarkable results were achieved. The critical moment arrived when Dimaga managed to build a Hatchery right next to HerO’s main base. In the process the Protoss became a bit more aggressive, but walking around Dimaga’s army. The resulting basetrade ended favorable to the latter due to Spine Crawlers and Broodlings, keeping most of his high value units intact. After both returned from wiping out each others’ bases they met in the middle, a battle on which HerO seemed to come out on top until Dimaga placed some very vital Neural Parasites on the opponent’s Archons. The next 20 ingame minutes were used to restore each army, resulting in probably the most spectator unfriendly period of the game. HerO, meanwhile has rebuilt the most important structures in his proxy base but ran out of minerals doing so. Perhaps out of frustration or desperation he decided to attack the Zerg from two angles, but to little avail. Even though the Mothership, which he managed to keep alive for the better half of the game, landed a huge Vortex, it was soon Neural Parasited and abused to Vortex a group of Stalkers. Because that attack was deflected with a great advantage for Dimaga, HerO wondered why he would not attack.

Soon thereafter HerO’s frustration took over and he left without a final fight. Despite the game’s novelty and its entertaining qualities, Dimaga’s passivity, especially in the last stages of the game, were painful to watch and would later cost him the series. The funny thing is, though, the way HerO took good care of his Mothership, effectively keeping it out of battles, right until the very last encounter, during which it helped Dimaga maintaining his defense by taking a considerable portion of his own Stalkers out of the game. If you’ve got an hour to spare, you should definitely watch this game above all others today.

Division overview and standings

Division 2 after week two
Demuslim	2-0	+4
Hero	2-0	+3
Nony	1-0	+2
Dimaga	1-1	0
HasuObs	1-1	0
Ryung	1-1	0
Crazymoving	0-1	-2
Sjow	0-2	-2
DarkForce	0-2	-4

There is very little you can read from the current standings. While Ryung is stuck in mediocrity you have to acknowledge that he has already faced the other two Koreans in his division. DeMusliM, however, despite being on top, has only faced two of the supposedly weaker players. HerO’s strong run in GSL Code S as well as in the NASL makes him out to be a top contender for the first spot, even more so after having beaten two of the strongest players. The lost map against Dimaga was little more than bad luck in a base trade scenario.

One can only hope that SjoW will be able to show what he’s really capable of and also that the most recent trend for Zergs not making it very far in tournaments compared to the other races will not take over in this group, too.

Barely clairvoyant: Week 3 on April 26th

Division 2 Week 3 matches

HasuObs

DarkForce

Dimaga

Sjow

CrazyMoving

Hero

Nony

Ryung

After this week is over HerO will be relieved to know that he has already played against three of the presumably closest competitors. A strong PvZ record puts this match against CrazyMoving in HerO’s favor. His teammate NonY will be facing Ryung, giving him a good chance to show what he’s made of and whether or not he can live up to last week’s results. In the all German duel between HasuObs and DarkForce it is up to the latter to make it out of his slump and the last place if he wants to remain as a viable competitor to progress. HasuObs, on the other hand, is highly dependent on the results of the players around him to get further ahead.

As previously mentioned, SjoW will have to score this time around to not fall lower any further, which is going to be tough if this week’s match is anything to go by, even moreso as he is going to play against Dimaga.

The never-ending story: NASL 3 W2D2 recap