An ode in creep and white

After four weeks of amazing games, the HDH Invitational #1 concluded on May 23nd. We had the chance to see innovative plays, unbelievable comebacks, mis-micro situations, feats of ingenuity and much, much more. With no clear winner till the very end, this international tournament delivered tons of moments worth remembering.

Right from the start, with the first stream on April 25th, the participants in the HDH Invitational showed us that they deserve every single bit of bracket space. Let's take a quick look at how the tournament progressed and in conclusion we will put the cherry on top with a detailed battle report of the Grand Final.


The Ro16 was mainly marked by Nony's awesome Phoenix play versus mOOnGLaDe, when he showed how genuine, creative and at the same destructive he can be. On the other side of the brackets, TheLittleOne burned his way to the next round with some beautiful Hellions in the third games versus Artosis and CauthonLuck swiped KawaiiRice away in a dynamic and intense TvT.

The Ro8 was a bit less of an experience as the only thing notable was TLO's Infestor punishment in his game against CauthonLuck along with a first game that can well be included in textbooks under the chapter "How to deal with TvT contain". Nony and Nazgul also managed to bring us a good show, demonstrating the fragility of PvP mirror and the power of DTs when unleashed in the right time window.

The semi finals, however, stepped up to their rank and delivered some breathtaking action. WhiteRa managed to defeat TLO 3-2, losing the first PvZ-s but winning the next three PvP matches and coming back from situation that most of us would probably think of as a dead end. Idra, on the other hand, completely dominated Nony 3-0, showing us the power of the Hydralisk both in face-to-face combat and when they are pouring from Overlords' stomachs.

Thus, we come to the Grand Final where WhiteRa had to face Idra to sort out who will win the first place prize of $1500 USD. Those two talents managed to bring us a set of action packed games with the result walking a thin edge almost till the very end.



Game 1. Lost Temple: The game developed pretty much like a normal PvZ would with Idra getting his expo early and WhiteRa teching for Robotic Support Bay and Colossi. Amassing a large army of Hydras, Zerglings and Corruptors and pouring Overlord creep all over, Idra pushed against Ra's base, easily sniping Colossi and main ground army along the way. Outnumbered by far, WhiteRa had to give the first game to the American.

Game 2. Blistering Sands: Typical for BS, WhiteRa walled off his choke and applied early pressure with his initial Zealots but when Idra fended them off, the game progressed through the standard path again. Both of the players started to macro up their ground armies and eventually the clash came on Idra's 3rd base by the Xel'Naga tower. Poorly initiating WhiteRa's forces without any way to deal with the Colossi, Idra lost every single unit of his to the Thermal Lances and the result was now tied.

Game 3. Kulas Ravine: This game was erratic from the start. Trying to throw Greg off balance, WhiteRa did the most logical thing - cheese Idra's creep off! Walling Zerg's choke with a Pylon and a Forge and warping in some Photons shortly after, the Protoss seemed to have quite the edge. However, Idra's expo was already operational and with the extra Larvae and the help of some dedicated to the swarm Drones, Idra managed to stop the cheese and the game entered a soft-reset phase with WhiteRa losing a lot of buildings and Idra - a lot of drone time. Both players relaxed for a while and started to rebuild their tech and army. Soon, however, Idra's pesky Lings managed to destroy the first set of back-door rocks to Ra's base and was knocking on the second. Knowing that he has to do something, Ra pulled his forces put on the choke in the worst time possible. The rest of Idra's Zerglings invaded the main and after a few beautiful snipes the game was over. 2:1 for Greg.

Game 4. Desert Oasis: Desert Oasis is a map that has hosted a number of epic, long and twisted games through the beta. But this one proved shorter than many of us have expected. Deciding to not open for the quite standard Void Ray rush, WhiteRa opted to do a 4-Gate timing push, trying to catch Idra's fast expo Hydralisk opening off guard. And so he did, managing to push just in the right time when Idra was droning his mineral lines. Facing only a few puny Spine Crawlers and just the basis of Zerg's future army-to-be, WhiteRa's ball of death just rolled on, tying the score.

Game 5. Metalopolis: When Protoss and Zerg spawned at the top and bottom position respectively, the fans of the swarm probably cheered in delight, seeing the best possible variant for a macro game. Deciding to be a bit unorthodox this time, Idra skipped Corruptors and implemented Infestors as his Colossi counter. However, that did not work quite as he has probably hoped to. When the maxed-out armies clashed, few brilliant Force Fields pushed the Infestors back, disabling them from doing anything of worth. The massive force of many Colossi and even more Gateway units wiped every single molecule of Zerg carapace from the streets of Metalopolis. Idra bad-mannerdly left the game.

Game 6. Steppes of War: Steppes is always tough for Zerg and with such pressure on the shoulders of Idra it was even harder. Being forced to stay at one base, Idra faced enormous early Zealot pressure but his decision to go for Roach Warren just barely saved his life for a while. However, WhiteRa's expansion was already going up while Zerg was still on one Hatch. Knowing that there is little to do, Idra rushed his forces of few Roaches and a bit more Speedlings to WhiteRa's Gateway/Forge/Cannon wall-off. Trying to lure Zealots out of the choke, Idra started to attack the gateway and his plan almost worked, but WhiteRa managed to show amazing micro, pulling his Zealots back in the last second, just on time to block the incoming Speedlings. Furiously biting at the solid Protoss wall, soon every single unit of Idra was dead and he typed GG. WhiteRa vs Idra - 4:2.

Thus ended the HDH Invitational #1 with WhiteRa managing to snatch the win along with the $1500 USD for the first place. Sadly, due to problem with Battle.net, the replay from the Bronze Final between TLO and Nony has not been streamed yet, but hopefully we will have the chance to see it at a later stage.

In conclusion, stay tuned to GosuGamers.net as the topic will be updated with VODs of the Grand Final and we will also bring you some other cool stuff related to the tournament really, really soon. And for all of you who didn't manage to catch some of the older games feel free to follow the VOD links in the previous coverage topics as well.

Links
TeamLiquid.net - HDH Invitational thread
GosuGamers.net - VODs