All four matches were, from one point of view, Europe vs America clashes with the best players from both continents fighting to defend their honour. After two days of streaming and shoutcasting, no clear winner came forth as the result remains tied - two to two. Let's take a look at the matches played and see where did it go wrong for the ones who lost.
| HDH Invitational Ro8 results | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
  Idra | 2-0 |  ret | ||||||||||||||||||||||
 Nazgul | 1-2 | Nony | ||||||||||||||||||||||
 WhiteRa | 2-0 |  Tasteless | ||||||||||||||||||||||
 CauthonLuck | 0-2 |  TheLittleOne | ||||||||||||||||||||||
TheLittleOne vs CauthonLuckThe first match-up in the series was also the most phenomenal one with both players walking the thin line between victory and defeat.
Opening on Metalopolis, CauthonLuck found himself situated at the 8 o'clock, while TLO spawned as Terran at 12. Trying to make a Marine/Hellion harassment off of one base (which did not do any damage at all), TLO woke up minutes later just to find himself contained by CauthonLuck, whose Tanks, Bunkers and Marines, supported by a single Viking, prevented any attempts to expand to the natural. TLO, who was transitioning to Thor drop all that time, was now forced to fight against the ropes. In devious attempt to come back to the game, the German sent a Banshee to opponent's base and claimed five SCVs before finally falling to two Vikings. Additionally, seeing that there will be no chance of grabbing the natural, TLO floated two Orbital Commands to the 2 and 3 o'clock minerals and came far ahead in economy in very short time. In contrast, CauthonLuck was so overcommitted to this occupation that he easily forgot the backbone of every Terran dominion - the SCV. With his expo not saturated at all and one of his Refineries unoperational, CauthonLuck started to fall behind in army count with tremendous speed - a mistake you cannot make against TLO, who easily massed Marauders, supported by a Thor and Medivac, and unquestionably crushed the contain forces and whatever was left of Cauthon's army.
The second game was on Lost Temple, this time TLO fighting for the swarm in a breathtaking TvZ. Preferring to delay his expo for a while in favour of more economical background, TLO had the perfect response to CauthonLuck's Hellions and his two Queen standing on the ramp did not allow any harassment. Later, Cauthon added a few Marauders to the mix trying to actually do some damage besides boring his army to death, but five perfectly placed Spine Crawlers denied him again. It was about the 12-minute mark when the first Infestors hit the field and the tables turned. Fungaling his way out of his base, TLO managed to break the contain with the help of Hydras and Speedlings in addition to his casters. And from there on commenced a one-sided slaughter, as TLO cast excruciating Fungals over and over on top of Cauthon's Marauders. Again suffering from overcommitting to the contain, Luck was already behind in terms of harvesters and just could not keep up with Zerg's macro adequately.
IdrA vs retThe only ZvZ so far in the tournament ended in a blink of an eye. The first game was played on Lost Temple (for no apparent reason, to be honest) with both players spawning in the top adjacency. Preferring the macro play, the two zergs opened with a 15 Hatch followed by a Spawning Pool and gas. This is where the builds deviated, as IdrA put his money into immediate Roach Warren and ret went for fast Evo Chamber for +1 ranged. As the game progressed, IdrA decided to cheat on his macro style and push ret. His storming Speedlings and Roaches furiously entered ret's base just to encounter... absolutely nothing. Frustratingly noting, that he forgot to make any units, ret GG'ed out.
On Metalopolis, the chance for ret to come back developed quite differently. Planning to deny IdrA's macro, the Dutch Zerg opened with a Speedlings build with intention to snipe Drones and whatever else he can. But IdrA sure does know how to play defensively and his Roaches, blocking the ramp, gave no chance to the pesky force of ret. Slowly macroing up from two Hatches and amassing a ton of Roaches, IdrA just marched forward and squished ret with ease.
Nony vs NazgulThe third game that comes to our attention is Nony playing against the beast from Europe Nazgul in a blood PvP.
The battle on Metalopolis began when the two players spawned at the top positions and Nazgul, deciding to exploit the short distance by warping in 3 Gateways for a much larger army, but thus delaying his Robo facility. Which was a perfect opportunity for Nony who, truthful to his unorthodox style indulged into sheer madness, going for Dark Templar rush despite their huge cost and ridiculous build time. However, it was all worth it, as due to the late Robo of Nazgul, the Templar managed to own probes quite a bit, undisturbed by the lack of Observers. When finally the DTs got fended off, Nazgul was behind 13 probes and a lot of mining time. Grasping the advantage, Nony threw three more gates and marched in for the win, melting Nazgul's Colossi and Sentries with nearly no casualties.
Nazgul, however, is a force to be reckoned with and the game on Steppes of War proved precisely that. After deflecting Nony's first push with great use of Force Field, Nazgul quickly transitioned his Gateway/Core build into 4-Gate and also threw down an expansion. Scouting that with his Observer, Nony realised he is behind in terms of economy and started to warp in a Nexus of his own but too late. Nazgul's 4-gate Mass Sentry push completely dominated the battlefield splitting Nony's army phenomenally forcing him to GG.
Kulas Ravine was Nony's map of choice for the deciding match and there must have been a reason, as crushing Nazgul was as easy as an afternoon's dream. Exploiting the gap in Nazgul's tech-heavy Blink build, Nony timed his 2-Warp push with surgical precision catching the Dutch off guard. Having the size advantage with 2:1 ratio, Nony demolished whatever Stalkers Nazgul had in his main as well as the probes that come to aid. Nony vs Nazgul - 2:1.
Tasteless vs WhiteRaAmerica vs Europe. Random vs Protoss. Shoutcaster vs Pro Gamer. The battle which will determine who will face TheLittleOne for a place in the finals.
Sadly, the games were slightly less passionate than this intro. Both games developed in the same way and the same build orders. WhiteRa chose to execute a 4-Gate push much like Tastless did against his brother in the Ro16 and his opponent went for the more tech-heavy 2-Gate/Robo. The "Rock, paper, scissors" game ended unfortunately for Tasteless as WhiteRa pushed whenever it was necessary that is just before the Robo tech kicked in and the number of Immortals was scarce. Despite impressively microing to his best, Tasteless just couldn't overpower Ra's enormous army and mannerly typed GG WP, conceding the place in the Semi Finals to the Ukranian.
That being sad it is time to take a look at the Ro4 brackets.
Yes, it does seem epic. And what is even more exciting - in any case Europe will face America in the Grand Final, an end much appropriate for such international tournament.
The Ro4 will be BO5 in contrast to the BO3 games so far. Husky and HD has also released a map pool and order for the games and it is follows:
1) Kulas Ravine
2) Scrap Station
3) Metalopolis
4) Steppes of War
5) Lost Temple
We are still missing any information about match deadlines and stream dates but hopefully some new information will be fed very, very soon. Also, check out the links below for the VODs from the Ro8.
Links
TeamLiquid.net - HDH Invitational thread
