WCS Europe Weekly #3: The art of ZvZ

More WCS Europe coverage Check link for VODs, news and match info

Week 3 results

Week's highlights

Ret vs Thorzain

Both games of the series are classic nailbiters. On one side, there's is the Ret his fans know and love, going all berzerg on his opponent and on the other there's EG's Terran trying to stay alive through endless drops and hatchery hunting against the unending ultralisk hordes of Ret.

Uzer vs Bly

Usually, I wouldn't recommend ZvZs but that's because usually ZvZs are all at the same. Not when Uzer is playing, though, as it seems.

People have been hinting that the Pole might be very very good in the mirror but only today do we see how entertaining he truly is to watch. Again, both games in the series are worth checking out if only to examine Uzer's burrow roach timing or his nydus/swarm host-into-all-kinds-of-stuff play against Bly's ultralisks.

Rest of the week in short

[Group E] Welmu 2:0 BabyKnight - Both games Welmu is put on the defensive from BK's stalker pressure. Once thatis repelled, however, the Fin explodes and rips BabyKnight apart with DT acupuncture and late-game armies of archons and tempests. - VOD

[Group E] Welmu 2:1 Ret - After Ret takes the first game in overwhelming fashion, Welmu deals him two quick defeats on the back of a 2-base blink stalker and a 4-gate zealot timing. - VOD

[Group E] BabyKnight 2:0 Thorzain - BabyKnight takes on the King in the North in almost an hour-long PvT series. Derelict Watcher and Star Staiton make it easy for the games to bloom into macro chaos during which BabyKnight demonstrates why he's among the most feared Protosses in Europe. - VOD

[Group E] Ret 2:1 BabyKnight - In not the most thrilling ZvP of the world, Ret hits BabyKnight with the roach/hydra hammer and swarms his way to the Ro16, sending the Dane down to Challenger after a strong Season 1 run. - VOD

[Group F] Naniwa 2:1 Lucifron - The series features a cheesy and gimmicky Naniwa, who opens with a failed proxy void ray rush but comes back on the back of a proxied robo facility and a 4-gate, making for quite the short match. - VOD

[Group F] Naniwa 2:0 Uzer - Naniwa maintains his aggressive profile from the Lucifron game and is quick to punish Uzer as well. A standard immortal push in game one and a 2-base DT in game two abuse Uzer's delay on overlord speed and give the Swede a hasty entrance into the Ro16. - VOD

[Group F] Lucifron 2:0 Bly - In a very similar fashion, Lucifron takes both games by going the stanards for the match-up bio/mine composition while rushing for +3/+3. Bly never stands a chance against the reckless attacks of the Spaniard. - VOD

[Group F] Lucifron 2:0 Uzer - As Apollo put it, when you're playing against a weaker player, you just sit and defend as you know you're only going to die to a cheese. This is what Lucifron did and although it was regular pressure rather than cheese per so that came from Uzer, Spaniard's defensive posture was there for him to win him the series. - VOD

Photo: eScene.de

Next on WCS Europe

Group G, July 16th, 18:00 CET

[GosuBet] ForGG vs Vortix - This is likely he second most expected match-up for the round after Naniwa/Lucifron. ForGG was the man that dealt Vortix's brother his first loss in season 1 and now he's about to face the vengeance of the Duran family. ForGG's TvZ has been exceptional recently so Vortix has a real chance here. The only problem that might come to haunt the Spaniard is his losses to lesser Terrans than ForGG like Strelok and Pro7ect in recent tournaments.

[GosuBet] Grubby vs Bunny - This is a battle between two Season 1 Ro32 drop-outs who desperately need this opening victory if they are to have the smalles chance of making it through. By rule of thumb, Grubby is a wild card capable of both playing magnificently and lose to less worthy opponents while Bunny is still to make a name for himself. Just for the fun of it though, let's give it to Bunny solely because of the sheer amoung ot TvPs he played on his way to Premier league.

Group H, July 17th, 18:00 CET

[GosuBet] Happy vs Titan - Right now, Happy is looking stellar in every single match-up, TvP especially so. He's most recently beaten the DH Summer champion StarDust and is on a seven-in-last-ten win record, making him a very dangerous opponent. Titan, on the other hand, has never been known for the match-up, has less than desirable amount of televized PvT experience and is quite possibly to start the day with a loss.

[GosuBet] ToD vs SortOf - In 2012, we would've given this series to SortOf without much question. As of July 2013, the Swede looks to be in huge trouble coming out against ToD. SortOf is the not so proud owner of the appalling 22.2% ZvP win rate (his only BoX win to WhiteRa at DH Stockholm) and has won just four map since HotS launched. At the same time, his French opponent is looking fantastic, has a lot of PvZs behind his back, has taken games or series off of Dimaga, Targa, TLO and Stephano and will look forward to adding another severed Zerg head to his collection.

WCS standings

Updated as of July 11th, 2013
1	Innovation	Korea	4500
2	Soulkey	Korea	3500
2	Mvp	Europe	3200
4	HerO	America	2950
5	sOs	Korea	2925
6	Stephano	Europe	2000
7	TLO	Europe	1900
8	Alive	America	1850
8	ForGG	Europe	1850
8	Revival	America	1850
11	Roro	Korea	1625
12	Alicia	America	1600
13	Symbol	Korea	1550
14	KangHo	Korea	1500
15	Dimaga	Europe	1425
16	Ryung	America	1350