WCS America opened with unexpected results as Group D favorite aLive finished last in the group, letting Hack and ByuL move on.
EG aLive’s chances to compete at Blizzcon have been threatened during today’s Korean filled WCS America premiere league round of 32 series.
The group consisted of aforementioned aLive as well as fellow Terran player Hack, Zerg player Byul, and Protoss player Arthur. Coming first out of the group was Byul, who bested Arthur 2-0 in two convincing victories. The first victory came from an undiscovered three hatch on Frost, allowing the Zerg player to gain a large economic advantage with impunity. In the second match Byul scores advantages via a few zergling run-by's that exploited Arthur’s inattentiveness.
Byul then had two well-earned victories over Hack in the winners match, beating the Terran who bested aLive 2-0 during today’s first round of matches. The second match of the Byul vs. Hack series is definitely worth a viewing - watch as both players base snipe one another until both competitors operate on 1 base economies 30 minutes in.
Arthur’s tactic against Terran is definitely aggression, the Toss, despite his cost ineffective four gate push against aLive still managed to best the WCS Season 2 Finals competitor (albeit aLive attendance was in consolidation for Jim’s inability to attend) in later engagements, gaining the Toss player a 1-0 lead.
During the second match Arthur went early stalker plus mothership aggression which managed, through some stutter stepping and a time warp, managed to wipe out five of aLive’s marines (his entire army at the time). aLive followed up with Banshees, likely hoping that Arthur would repeat his first game’s four gateway play. Unfortunately for aLive, Arthur went 1 gate robotics, allowing him to deter aLive’s banshees with little difficulty. Despite these early advantages, the Protoss player faltered to what seemed like a lack of vision, which allowed aLive to snipe a Nexus as well as a couple of Templars at little cost, picking him up the eventual win. The last match that put aLive out of the round of 32 came in the form of cheese from Arthur. The Protoss player built a proxy gateway that aLive barely missed during his scouting route. Making matters worse, aLive attempted a command center on the low ground and an engineering bay aimed to block a Nexus Arthur didn’t even plan on making, the rest of the match was the predictable consequence of a series of missfortunate plays by aLive.
In the last match of the day between Arthur and Hack we see some pretty unorthodox play. Hack opens with proxy reaper, which deals way more damage than it should have. Arthur responds with a four gate push that doesn’t do enough damage. Unable to overcome the early deficit, Arthur soon falls to Hack’s stim enhanced bio, giving Hack the 1-0 lead. The second and last match of the day unfolded in similar fashion – an early advantage for Hack, this time by forcing a recall from poorly placed mothership core, followed by a push on a photon overchargeless expansion. Arthur follows with a five gate push that like last game, fails to deal the necessary damage. Hack eventually topples Arthur’s meager forces, closing out the series 2-0.
