LucifroN wins 100 Euros in ZOTAC Cup #23

After several hours of cup play, a close final came to a close in ZOTAC's 23rd edition with the Spanish powerhouse Pedro Moreno "LucifroN" Durán winning over Carlo "ClouD" Giannacco by 3-2.

The Terran player from team fnatic left 511 players behind, and accomplished first place in Sunday's regular tournament, taking home 100 Euros. Although he managed his grid quite easily, LucifroN had some difficulties against his Italian opponent in his last battle. Going over the full five rounds, LucifroN, who played in the finals of the Go4SC Cup #39 the very same day, secured his win on the last map in the finals.

Game 1: Blistering Sands
Lucifron starts the game by building a proxy rax for early reaper harass outside the destructible rocks in Cloud's main. Cloud however holds it off quite well, and by the time the reapers retreat is ahead in the worker count. After that both players play fairly passively, with Cloud ahead of Lucifron in supply throughout most the game. After a quick snipe on Lucifron's 3rd expansion and several unanswered viking kills, Lucifron makes a last ditch attack and types out. Cloud leads 1-0.

Game 2: Desert Oasis
Both players open with a 1-1-1 build, with Lucifron favoring early Vikings and Marauders, while Cloud opens with a cloaked banshee. The banshee manages only a single kill before Lucifron kills it. Not to be discouraged, Cloud stops several drops from happening with excellent map control, and eventually takes a huge win sniping several Vikings when Lucifron attempts a drop at the bottom of Cloud's main. Lucifron retreats and repairs his air army, adding on several two Banshees to supplement his smaller Marauder force. Cloud attacks, losing his entire ground and air army but taking Lucifron's Marauder's down and grabbing the gold expo at the 3 o'clock position. However Cloud has lost too many units at this point, and Lucifron has added several tanks to his army. An engagement at the 3 o'clock gold decimates Cloud's forces, and Lucifron walks through the rest of Cloud's base. Series is tied at 1-1.

Game 3: Metalopolis
Players spawn with close air positions, with Lucifron at the 12 o'clock and Cloud at the 2 o'clock. Lucifron goes for a fast expansion with Marauders to defend, while Cloud gets a 1-1-1 build going and harasses with a hellion drop. The 3 hellions delay the command center landing at the expansions for a few seconds before being dropped behind Lucifron's mineral line, killing two marines and around 6 SCVs. Meanwhile Lucifron is starting to tech up, while Cloud is getting a cloaked Banshee.Although the Banshee manages to escape with 7 kills, Lucifron has a much larger army and makes a huge drop in Cloud's main, averting the siege tanks cloud has set up and doing pretty significant damage to Cloud's worker count. Lucifron then hits Cloud's expansion at the front, taking out 2 siege tanks and several more workers. Cloud manages to drive out Lucifron with a few vikings and Marauders, but ultimately loses to Lucifrons superior macro. Lucifron leads 2-1.

Game 4: Steppes of War
Both players open up with an early factory to try and grab fast siege tanks. Lucifron pushes up to the front first, however he arrives just as siege tech finishes and is unable to push up. Cloud gets a viking up and manages to get a few shots off on one of Lucifron's tanks, which barely escapes in the red. Lucifron attempts to bust the front, but is held off by Cloud's superior positioning with his siege tanks. Cloud sieges his tanks up below Lucifron's natural, scoring some good hits on the expansion. Lucifron manages to bust with Marauders, however Cloud's reinforcements clean up what's left of Lucifron's forces and Lucifron types out. Series is tied again 2-2.

Game 5: Delta Quadrant
Lucifron spawns at the 10 o'clock position and scouts Cloud at the 2 o'clock. Cloud's scout is killed by Lucifron's Marine before entering his base, leaving Cloud in the dark. Both players get a hellion and Cloud pushes Lucifron's front, losing all of his units. Cloud starts to ad on Vikings, while Lucifron gets a cloaked Banshee. The Banshee gets 8 kills before it goes down, and both players expand. In between battles Cloud builds several Siege Tanks, while Lucifron opts for a Viking Banshee play. After killing off Clouds smaller Viking force, Lucifron harasses all around Cloud's base by landing and lifting his vikings to do serious damage. Cloud manages to weaken all the Vikings, but then loses to a huge Marine Marauder force that Lucifron has been building during his harassment. Cloud types out, and Lucifron wins 3-2.

Like in Altitude's first open tournament, the first four places were all Terrans. Will this dominance be captured when the new patch is released? Find out next Sunday, when all the players will participate in another tournament.

Links
ZOTAC Cup - (Brackets)