Koreans crush Group F, Elfi and SEn with a Ro32 exit

Liquid`Hero and MVPDongRaeGu made their way to the playoffs after convicing victories in Group F. The Koreans played to satisfy even the highest expectations and threw tournament favourites Elfi and SEn out of DreamHack Winter.

Koreans declared their excellency in mirror matches with the beginning of Group F. After three close games, DongRaeGu finally pulled off a victory over SEn while HerO ultimately dominated Elfi, showing why he is Sheth's Liquid favourite to win the tournament.

The two compatriots met as the second set of games began but it took them only two games to find the better Korean. After HerO's void ray/phoenix build on Altar did not wield any fortunate results, the ZvP masterpiece came to its end on Terminus as HerO's fast expo build experienced an outer turmoil. HerO thought he was safe behind his cannoned up wall but suddenly waves of lings started flooding in through the rock's through Hero's third. The protoss fought valiantly but had no choice but to let his expansion die. Knowing that he is in a do-or-die spot, HerO marched on with a gateway all-in but all in vain - DongRaeGu had way more hydras than HerO could handle and the MVP zerg comfortably took the temporary first spot in the group.


Photo by: GosuGamers.net

The zerg victory march continued with SEn convincing triumph over Elfi. The Finnish protoss opened the first set with a stargate build but was slowly pushed back by SEn's hydras. As the air units count declined, SEn switched to pure roach and with the help of his double evo tech and expansive tumoring, the Taiwanese put the score to 1-0. The set was sealed on Shakuras as SEn had to fight an uphill battle against Elfi's blink stalkers. During every attack, Elfi abused the topography of Shakuras to its best, attacking through small chokes and highgrounds but SEn's macro could not be contained. Once again relying on pure roach, SEn defended all of his bases successfully (despite losing his main one time) and the combination of expansion pressure plus straight on army dominance brought him the much needed victory.

Nigh the end of group F, SEn stepped in to face HerO to decide which of them will earn the second Ro16 spot (the first going to DongRaeGu who defeated Elfi 2-0 to finish at the top of his group). SEn opened the Terminus set big muta/speedling numbers and used their mobility to establish map control and go to four bases relatively safely. It all turned 180-degrees as a big ling drop in Hero's base melted under psi storms and all it got was the main nexus, which in itself was not such a great victory. Having temporary supply advantage, Hero immediately moved out to destroy SEn's fourth and level the playing field.

As time went by, the game escalated into a big macro conflict with HerO maintaining a threatening blink/storm army while SEn chose to transition into brood lord tech. With his main base destroyed and his other two mined out, HerO's only hope lay in his expansion in the centre. SEn directed all his units (among them 14 brood lords) towards this position but once again HerO's storms were impeccable. The templars and and blink stalkers cleaned up the fliers and HerO swung towards the 6 o'clock where stood two of SEn's bases. As they fell, so did the Zerg.



It took much, much less time to determine the winner on Metalopolis. HerO went for a 5-gate sentry drop - a build aided by SEn's complete lack of adequate scouting. The sentry/zealot drop cleaned the tech in the main and as dark shrine finished, DTs did the same with SEn's third. The Taiwanese attempted to launch an all-in attack with whatevere roaches he had but HerO's defences did not have a single weak point. With a "gg wp", SEn departed from DreamHack Winter.



The last two remaining groups G and H will resume at 21:30 CET. The fate of players like WhiteRa, ToD, Mana, Sjow and Kas remains to be determined.