GSL Ro32 Day 1

We are now in the Ro32 of the GSL. The games are more intense, the nerves are shaking, the anxiety and the thrilling going higher. It is time for ownage, upsets and pure war!

I still can’t believe the things I saw in the very first day of the tournament. I was so amazed at some outcomes, some moves and some micromanagement situations that I had double check if everything was the way it is. But first, the results:

GSL Ro32

Idra

1-2

LotzePrime

AugustWerra

0-2

NEXLiveForever

MakaPrime

2-0

jookTo

LegalMind

2-1

TankboyPrime

AugustWerra vs NEXLiveForever
Scrap Station is unbelievably good map for TvT and AugustWerra and LiveForever created such a show on it. After failing their initial Marine drop, their builds deviated, ending with August having a fancy army of Tanks/Vikings/Raven with Marauder mobility against Live’s solid metal of Thors and Tanks. However, we saw no cold war here, as both players moved around the map, trying to get ahead. And LiveForever eventually did by securing the gold, tripling his income as opposed to August’s. AugustWerra tried to do some damage with his Marauders, catching chunks of his opponent’s army off guard, but he could not get past the gold Planetary, although he did manage to take down the third. However, Live just had too much stuff thanks to the gold and when August saw the BCs that came shortly, he had to GG.
The Lost Temple game was shorter. LiveForever once again took his expo faster and with the economic lead he abused the 6-and-9 positions by constantly dropping troops in August’s main, gaining the win.

MakaPrime vs jookTo
In the first game, Maka went for an opening well suited for Desert Oasis – Nitro Reapers – but threw in a fast CC after the first Rax. In response, jookTo went for the Gas before Pool play soon taking the natural and skipping the Roaches entirely, aiming for quicker Spire. Everything was looking good for the Zerg until Maka’s reapers somehow sniped the Spire, placed stupidly along the cliff. Although jookTo already had some Mutas hatching, Maka had a gold expo secured, had placed some nice Turrets and was sitting comfortably on twice the income, pumping Marines like crazy. But you need more than Marines and overconfidence to fight Baneling/Muta as Maka soon found out. Maka lost his gold and lots of his Raxes but somehow managed to manage the crisis, stabilize his economy and get a nice Thor/Tank/Rine army, which crushed the zerg after a horrible engagement from jookTo. With this unbelievable comeback, Maka was ahead one game.
Getting the rush positions on Metalopolis was unfortunate for jookTo as Maka has an incredibly aggressive play. Going 3-Rax reaper with speed, Maka just overmicroed jookTo, killing all of his Roaches and Lings without losing any Reapers. He even sniped the Hatchery before jookTo surrendered.

TankboyPrime vs LegalMind
I gotta tell you, the first game of this series was so awesome that it alone is worth the 20 bucks for the season ticket. It all started normally with Tankboy going 1/1/1 build for Medivacs against Mind’s 3-Gate/Robo. Soon the drop from the Terran came but what a drop it was. With just four Marauders and a Medivac, Tankboy engaged the larger protoss army, managed to kill a Stalker, couple of Sentries, forced many force fields and guardian shields and left… without losing anything! Of course, comments about that guys stealing Boxer’s Dropship micro were in order. The second drop, this time reinforced with a Banshee, killed even more stuff on the expense of… two Marauders. But the terror continued. Leaving his Medivac at home, Tankboy returned with two Banshees with cloak. Spoils of war: 10+ probes, 2 stalkers, sentry and a couple of pylons. Casualties – none. From that point on it was pretty much a matter of overrunning.
With cross position on Quadrant, I bet LegalMinda was happy, because he was not endure all that harassment again. Instead he just simply pushed after his third Gate, climbed Terran’s ramp and finished him right there.
The final game was a straightforward Marauder vs 3-Gate/Colossi. Tankboy held off the first push with some nice bunkers and PDD, but the second attack was just too much and he had to GG out of the tournament.

Idra vs LotzePrime
One of the most anticipated matches for the day started explosively on Blistering Sands with Lotze going for a very aggressive 4-Gate push. With Idra’s rocks down, the Zerg was in a uptight position but Greg barely defended with lots of Roaches, mainly thanks to the speed upgrade. Pushing the Protoss forces back and having the better economy, Idra was up 1-0.
If there is an easy way to beat Idra it’s to trick him. LotzePrime knew that and while faking a 3-Gate/Robo tech, which made Idra go Roaches, he hid a Stargate and warped in three Void Rays. Idra failed to scout that and he GGed as soon as Protoss’ fleet arrived.
The deciding game on Metalopolis was one of the best so far in the tournament. Getting cross positions, Idra went for a fast expo and Lotze once again opened with aggressive Gate build. Hiding a Pylon near Idra’s expo, Lotze began his assault and almost ended the game right there but Idra’s Hydralisks popped out just in time to save his skin. Shortly after, Idra decided to take the gold as his third but that was probably the mistake that cost him the game. By that time, Lotze already had a huge Gateway/Colossus army and his hidden expo at 7 have not been scouted. Putting pressure on Idras third with some beautiful Force Fields, the Zerg virtually could not mine a single mineral for a long time and he was even unable to engage properly. It was only that Brood Lords hit the field that Greg managed to push the Protoss back. That did seem like a victory for a while, but Lotze managed to re-warp his Stalker force quickly and suddenly he was ahead in every single aspect – he had denied the gold for a long time, he had a strong economy and he had been harassing Idra’s 6 for the longest time. When Idra finally found the Protoss base at 7 and failed to take it out he had to surrender the series to Lotze.

Thus, after this first day of games we can say one thing for sure – Zergs are going extinct. We will revisit the other Zergs (and the other players in general, of course) in the next parts of this Ro32 recap. You can find those by following the links below.