GSL Ro32 Day 4

The final day of the Ro32 is here, bringing us even more spectacular players – from the only non-Korean left in the tournament to unbelievably solid competitors such as TheWind, Hyperdub and Ensnare.

The main question here was could TLO beat Hyperdub and be the only foreigner to advance to the Ro16. Well, he had to face the oGs terran monster Hyperdub, who is not a player to be beaten easily. At the other end, TheWind was to beat AnyproPrime if he was to be the third Zerg advancing to the top 16. The table below shows how all that went.

GSL Ro32 Day 4

oGs Hyperdub

2-1

LiquidTLO

DAVIT

0-2

Clide

Bleach

0-2

oGsEnsnare

AnyproPrime

2-1

oGsTheWind

oGsHyperdub vs LiquidTLO
Now you HAVE to believe me when I say that I literally cannot describe the first game. It is your obligation as a gamer to register at GOMTV and watch that first game on Xel’Naga caverns. As redundant as it may sound, it will be unprofessional to recap it in a recap article! I will just say that after the initial opening (TLO going for quick Armory for Thors and aggressive upgrading, and Hyperdub sneaking a Banshee tech near TLO’s main) and the containment near TLO’s natural, the game went so crazy that is, once again, indescribable. We saw offensive nukes, defensive nukes, Battlecruisers, huge Viking lands, economy cat-and-mouse, miss-micro frustrations and generally over 30 minutes of non-stop action. Seriously, I am not permitted to talk about it – just go and see it.
Game 2 on Kulas Ravine was also crazy intensive. The spawning locations being both on top only made things more hectic. Again opening with the fast Thor, TLO opted to go for a fast CC as well, but soon found himself contained once again, as Hyperdub was again going straight for the classic Viking/Tank. TLO had to make some nice decisions and one of those was to win the Viking wars. Having the sight advantage he managed to climb the high ground and put himself some pressure on Hyperdub’s expo but was in turn denied by the two Banshees that soon popped out. Vikings continued to be traded and eventually Hyperdub went ahead. Using some beautiful scans to decrease TLO’s tank number and maintaining the containment till the end, the Korean was able to apply deadly pressure to TLO, tying the score.
Everyone would be exhausted after two games of such length. And Hyperdub did not intend to play a third one. By throwing two very quick proxy Barracks and waiting for five Marines, he just shot TLO apart, who was, unfortunately going for a quick Factory. Only five minutes after the start, TLO had to GG, leaving the rest of the tournament Korean only.

DAVIT vs Clide
The first game deviated just in the beginning when Clide opened with a delayed Reaper for scouting but soon both players were going Cloak Banshees. Looking to get an edge in this Banshee mirror, Clide threw a Raven in the mix and some Vikings to negate any possible harass that may come his way. Thus, while DAVIT’s Banshee was trying to do her job (futilely), Clide’s already had 14 kills and growing. Having twice the smaller economy, DAVIT knew that the only way he could win was push. He tried that twice and got humiliated and trampled every step of the way. When the final battle came, DAVIT just fell apart as he was massively outnumbered.
The second game on Temple was way more fun (if you count total raping fun). Clide was on fire right from the start and he managed to snipe two constructing SCVs with his delayed scouting reaper, hugely delaying DAVIT’s tech. Moreover, DAVIT completely misread his opponent and he went for quick Raven, anticipating a Banshee harass. Clide, however, was going for a completely different type of harass. Dropping some hellions near the mineral line, he managed to kill some SCVs and a MULE. The second drop repeated the success, getting yet another MULE. For his third attempt, Clide used turreting Raven and when he was done he was 13 harvesters ahead of his opponent. The final outcome was similar to the first game.

Bleach vs oGsEnsnare
Spawning on Lost Temple, Ensnare opted to also go for some heavy harassment as Clide did before him. While his opponent Bleach was quickly teching to Templars, Ensnare built a Raven and a Banshee with his Starport tech and some Tanks through the Factory and went for a double harass, sending the Banshee to the main mineral line and dropping the Tanks at Protoss’ fast natural. Protoss tried to sneak an additional expansion but he also knew that he had to push in order to pull Ensnare’s forces back. However, his attack was easily deflected and Ensnare was up 1-0.
The adjacent positions on Quadrant made the second game even more intense. Trying to end the game quickly, Ensnare opened with a Rax build, aiming for a Marauder/Marine timing push and he almost succeeded but Bleach’s Void Ray tech managed to push Terran’s forces back. Thing would’ve worked even better for Bleach if he watched his fliers more closely and did not lose so many of them. In addition, Ensnare’s perfect tactical decisions lead to a counter drop at Protoss’s main while assaulting the Void Rays with Vikings, splitting Bleach’s army in two and making his micro life tough. After some tough fights, Bleach lost all his Void Rays and surrendered.

AnyProPrime vs TheWind
Now you have to know by now that both these players are really, really good. Thus, I was not awfully shocked when the game went to a third match and did not end in a 2-0 slaughterfest like matches 2 and 3.
Starting on Metalopolis, Anypro opened like most of the Protosses do nowadays against Zerg – aggressive 3-Gate push. Anypro managed to apply huge pressure to TheWind who opened with Hatch first, but was really careless with his defenses back home and the Zerg managed to sneak some Lings in his main on two times that hurt Anypro’s economy a bit. With help from some Queens and Spine Crawlers, TheWind pushed the Protoss forces back and threw a quick third hatch at his natural and expanding to a third base soon after that. Taking this moment of passivity, Anypro managed to tech quickly to Colossi and Blink Stalkers while his opponent was massing Hydras and Roaches and Corruptors. However, overpassivity is always bad as TheWind soon found out. Because, you know, it is impossible to fight the Protoss army on equal grounds and when Anypro pushed at TheWind’s third, the Zerg had quite the experience. Although he managed to take down the Colossi, Anypro’s constant reinforcements soon overwhelmed TheWind.
Game two on LT started with Anypro going for quick Nexus and soon he was economically ahead of TheWind. However, the cunning Zerg had a devious plan. Rushing a Nydus tech, he sneaked a work at Anypro’s main and with the help of some persistent Roaches managed to take down the main nexus. The second worm popped at Protoss’ natural High Ground, denying gas and mineral patches. TheWind tried to finish the game with yet another worm in the main, spitting Hydras all over the place but got repelled and Protoss had the time to collect his thoughts and organize his late-game plan. Which, sadly, was not particularly awesome as Zerg was way ahead in bases. Anypro tried to expand as away from TheWind as possible, but the Zerg units were everywhere. Anypro even managed to acquire a large Stalker army and to kill quite a lot of Tier 3 units, but at the end of the day he just couldn’t handle Zerg’s macro.
The final game developed much like the first with Anypro opening with very aggressive 3-Gate push with proxy Pylon at Zerg’s main, who was going for Roach/Speedling army. TheWind soon was in dire straits as the Protoss managed to climb his ramp (yeah, very unpleasant) and kill off his Roach tech. However, for a minute it seemed that TheWind would be able to hold that off as he killed most of Anypro’s army, but as soon as Protoss regrouped his armies he was able to push for the win.

Thus ended all four days of Ro32. We now advance to the top 16, dominated entirely by Korean players. We should pay our respects to both Artosis, Torch, TLO and Idra (and especially the latter two as they were able to advance to the Ro32) – the only non-Koreans that managed to reach the televised matches.

We remind you that the Ro16 will end on Monday, 27th and we will try to bring you another recap as soon as possible.