The Razer GosuCup is getting closer to the end as the final spots for the playoffs have been decided. Eight elite players from both North America and Europe battled it out last weekend to determine the next four to advance into the playoffs.
The first game of the group finals was a great Protoss versus Terran match up between Europe's Kas and the North American RSVP. Kas opens up with a proxy Barracks in the hopes of catching RSVP off guard. RSVP was able to discover the proxy Barracks in the center of the map and decided to chrono out a few Gateway units to attack. RSVP pushed Kas' rush back, but not without losing quite a few units to some great Marine micro by Kas.
RSVP kept Kas inside is base for the majority of the game before Kas forces him to run back with a drop. Once Kas was able to mobilize his bio army slowly balled up and moved towards RSVP second natural expansion. The second natural would fall as RSVP's army was not able to push Kas forces back. Kas' timing was almost perfect as he was able to hit RSVP just before Psi Storm finished for RSVP's High Templars. Even with Psi Storm finished, RSVP was not able to stop Kas from sniping the Nexus at his natural expansion as well. From there Kas took a demanding economic lead and it was just a matter of time before Kas took the first game.
Unfortunately, the two players only played one match against each other. The remaining games in the match were postponed, but a walkover was given to Kas as GosuGamers was not able to contact RSVP again after that match.
| Empire.Kas vs. coL.RSVP | ||
| Empire.Kas | 1 > 0 | coL.RSVP |
| Map: Tal'Darim Altar VOD Link | ||
| Empire.Kas | 2 W.O. 0 | coL.RSVP |
| Map: None | ||
The first game was a great back and forth match between the two players. Spades denied an early expansion by BlinG with a Bunker push, but found a 4gate response from BlinG which contained Spades in his base until he got his Medivacs out. Once the Merdivacs were out for Spades, BlinG was pushed back to his natural and found Spades knocking on his doorstep shortly after. An engagement by Spades followed shortly after and BlinG won the battle with a few well placed force fields. Spades was then pushed back to his own base and BlinG slowly balled up an army to take down Spades and the first game.
The second game mirrored the first game quite a bit, except this time Spades was able to grab his natural before BlinG could push him back. BlinG spent most of his time camping outside Spade's base waiting for an opportunity to crash into Spade's natural. Spade however stood guard with SCVs and was constantly aware of a possible push. But BlinG caught Spade lowering his defences for just a second and rushed into his natural. BlinG took the second game and the match with strong Zealot and Sentry play. Without even a GG, Spades would simply type 'impressive' and leave the second game.
| TeamReign.Spades vs Dignitas.BlinG | ||
| RGN.Spades | 0 < 1 | Dignitas.BlinG |
| Map: Xel'Naga Caverns VOD Link | ||
| RGN.Spades | 0 < 2 | Dignitas.BlinG |
| Map: Shakuras Plateau VOD Link | ||
Both players opened with early expansions on Tal'Darim. Major would elect to defend with Marines while AureS chose to use early Reaper harass instead. The harass would be fairly effective early on until Major was able to stabilize with Hellions. Once Major finished his blue-flame Hellion, it was almost non-stop harass. Despite AureS' resilience, he was not able to stop much of the harass and slowly fell behind in food count. Major would eventually take the game and lead.
After the effectiveness of Major's Hellion harass in the first game, AureS elected to play mech as well. However, AureS was still no match for Major's mech as Major seemed to always be one step ahead of AureS in both defending and putting out harass. There were even several times where blue-flame Hellion engagements were quite lopsided in its result with Major wining the battles. Major slowly crept ahead in expansions and in army size and eventually took the final game against AureS. AureS was just not able to find an answer to Major's mech play.
| Sixjax.Major vs AureS | ||
| Sixjax.Major | 1 > 0 | AureS |
| Map: Tal'Darim Altar VOD Link | ||
| Sixjax.Major | 2 > 0 | AureS |
| Map: Testbug VOD Link | ||
The first game of the match once again showed how strong blue-flame Hellions can be. Trimaster opened up with a blue-flame Hellion and Marauder attack on Adelscott that was very effective. Sentries and Zealots melted to the Hellions while the few Stalkers that Adelscott had barely fought off the rest of Trimaster's army. Further harassment from Trimaster's Hellions saw a large amount of Probes incinerated. After amassing a force of gateway units and a single Immortal, Adelscott decided that he was fed up with the harasses and attacked. Trimaster was able to defend against this attack quite well and ended up winning with an even stronger counter.
Game two must have been the quickest game of the group finals, after failing to do effective damage with his early bio push, Trimaster found his army out of position to defend a counter from Adelscott. After losing all his Marauders, Trimaster gg'd.
The match came down to a final game on Shakuras Plateau. This match stretched out longer than the previous with Adelscott doing a Voidray and Gateway unit push into Trimaster's natural. It was repelled several times by Trimaster, but Adelscott set up a contain that would last a large majority of the game. Trimaster would finally make his move by sending out two Medivacs to make a drop. While the drop happened, Trimaster moved out from his base to break the contain and was successful in doing so. Even though Trimaster broke the contain, he was already falling behind Adelscott's economy. Trimaster pushed out and sniped Adel's third base, but was slowly dwindling in numbers. Adel would take the game cautiously, at one point he was at near max while Trimaster was barely at 50 supply. Eventually the game would end in Adelscott's favour and Adelscott would be the last person to move onto the next stage of the Razer GosuCup.
| Millenium.Adelscott vs. coL.Trimaster | ||
| Adelscott | 0 < 1 | Trimaster |
| Map: Metalopolis VOD Link | ||
| Adelscott | 1 > 1 | Trimaster |
| Map: Tal'Darim Altar VOD Link | ||
| Adelscott | 2 > 1 | Trimaster |
| Map: Shakuras Plateau VOD Link | ||
| Razer Gosu Cup Playoffs |
| Darkcell versus Kas |
| Nerchio versus BlinG |
| Socke versus Adelscott |
| Grubby versus Terran |
