In the second day of the Ro16 we had no lesser names. GSL 1 vice-champion HopeTurture, all-time legend SlayerS_Boxer and the new star of the Zerg rage KyrixZenith had to battle out to see their worth.
HopeTorture vs oGsTheWind
Game 1 @ Metalopolis. Despite the cross positions, HopeTorture opened aggressively with double Rax in his main and a triple proxy Rax north of Wind's position. With the help of few SCVs and the furious torrent of Marines that was pouring from his Raxes, HopeTorture marched to Wind's natural, killed the two Spine Crawlers and immediately won the game.
Game 2 @ Lost Temple. As every conscientious Terran on LT, HopeTorture went for Thor Drops in attempt to slow down Wind economically. Probably seeing thousands of unsuccessful attempts to stop this, Wind decided to sacrifice his Hatchery and just counter-attack with his huge Roach army. Although his first push failed to break the ramp, the second one killed the wall-off, sniped the Thor and the Tanks that popped out and annihilated every single piece of SCV, tying the score.
Game 3 @ Jungle Basin. Going back to pure aggressiveness, HopeTorture opened 5-Rax Marine off of one base and marched to Wind's main. However, a moment of hesitation from Terran's side gave the Zerg the chance to build up a Roach army, stall the push and morph a Baneling Nest. Scared to the bone of Baneling bust, Hope retreated to his base and started erecting Bunkers everywhere scoring painfully against himself. The counter-bust did not came at all: Wind decided to go for a macro build and soon Hope was three bases behind Zerg - an impossible battle to win. Although he tried an MMM push and cleaned one of the Hatcheries, Wind's macro was just too much to handle. Hope had to GG out.
Hesitation put HopeTorture in an awful position
MakaPrime vs oGsInCa
Game 1 @ Scrap Station. Wanting to exploit the short drop distance, InCa hid a DT tech which Maka failed to scout. However, having absolutely poor micro, InCa wasted both his Warp Prism and the DTs that were being warped-in (sometime I just think that Protoss players forget that the Prism is also a dropship and not just a funny looking Pylon). Having the huge advantage, Maka pushed towards InCa's natural and although he lost his army and failed to destroy the Nexus he did a nice army trade, remacroing his losses quickly from his Raxes. Knowing that DTs are now useless, InCa tech switched into Colossi and HT but Maka has also predicted that. Marching out with four Ghosts, he EMP-ed the better bulk of InCa's army and laid waste upon it.
Game 2 @ Shakuras Plateau. Maka opened with a one-base play, going for quick double gas into Banshees. Although InCa failed to scout it it seemed that he had a hunch about what was coming and was more than prepared for the attack. Having Observers and Stalkers all over the place, InCa deflected both of Maka's Banshees and put him in an unfavourable position. Maka was behind one base and his main tech was completely useless now. By the time he managed to switch into a macro mode, InCa was pumping robo units that helped him win the game.
InCa defends his expo and puts Maka behind in tech
Game 3 @ Xel'Naga Caverns. On Caverns InCa bravely opened with Void Rays despite the fact that Maka is know for his bio play. He even tried to throw down a Nexus on top of the Stargate tech but a nice timing push from Maka forced a cancel. Furthermore, InCa's sloppiness costed him two of his Void Rays and the Protoss was forced to tech switch into Colossi. Warping in a Nexus for the second time, Inca seemed in control for a while but another poke from Maka killed it and put the Protoss behind even more. From that point on it was a downhill for InCa as Maka exploded with Raxes and Vikings and demolished the Protoss force wherever he engaged it.
KyrixZenith vs oGsEnsnare
Game 1 @ Xel'Naga Caverns. Knowing that he is against an extremely aggressive player, Ensnare wanted to take control in his hands and opened blue Hellions. He managed to do some harassment on Kyrix's natural but eventually got chased away by Speedlings. From that point on, Kyrix applied constant pressure with Roaches and tried (unsuccessfully) to break Ensnare's bunkered-up front. After he saw that there is not much hope in going through the front door, Kyrix threw in a Nydus Worm and started thrashing Ensnare's main with Lings and Roaches. The Terran decided to sacrifice his main and go for a base trade but his Marauders were stopped by the Zerg defence forces. Ensnare struggled for some more but eventually he had to type out.
Kyrix found Ensnare's front hard to swallow
Game 2 @ Steppes of War started peculiar with Kyrix going for a Hatch first and not opening safely with Pool like most Zergs would. On the other side of the map, Ensnare was going for double Rax pressure and soon his Marines were at the front of Kyrix's natural. With perfect Drone control and with the help of the Lings that spawned soon, Kyrix managed to deflect the push and swing the game around. He used his Speedlings to slow down Ensnare's expo and when his Baneling Nest finished he went for his signature massive bust to win the second game.
Ensnare's Marine push turned out to be an embarrassing failure
SlayerS_Boxer vs SangHo
Game 1 @ Lost Temple was probably the most boring thing I have watched for a long time. All 15 minutes both players stood on their side of the map, mining from three bases and amassing their respective armies. When suddenly BLAM!!! SangHo's Phoenix/Colossi army defeated Boxer's bio. Yes, indeed - the game was less enticing than the view of a sleeping beaver.
Game 2 @ Scrap Station. SangHo opened up with double Stargate whereas Boxer was still holding to his strat in the first game - mass bio with whatever auxiliary aircraft he could squeeze in. The mid-game was quite the same as the previous game with only occasional Viking/Phoenix battles to brighten up the scenery. And again the end was painfully similar but this time in Boxer's favour: SangHo just did not have enough Phoenixes and the Vikings cleaned his Colossi with ease.
The complete air dominance was what won Boxer the game
Game 3 @ Shakuras Plateau. My craving for an interesting finished was only partially satisfied with the game on Shakuras. Seeing that SangHo is going for economic build, Boxer teched quickly into Banshees and started to lay havoc on the Probe lines. Unfortunately for SangHo, his Observer tech was far from adequate and he kept losing Probes until eventually he typed out.
I agree: Not nearly enough probes...
I should admit I am highly disappointed with how the All-Star Ro16 ended but it should not by any means cloud your judgement about the rest of the games. Do go to the VODs section of this recap and see the series yourself.
- Day 1 - Battle Report
- Results & VODs
HopeTorture vs oGsTheWind
Game 1 @ Metalopolis. Despite the cross positions, HopeTorture opened aggressively with double Rax in his main and a triple proxy Rax north of Wind's position. With the help of few SCVs and the furious torrent of Marines that was pouring from his Raxes, HopeTorture marched to Wind's natural, killed the two Spine Crawlers and immediately won the game.
Game 2 @ Lost Temple. As every conscientious Terran on LT, HopeTorture went for Thor Drops in attempt to slow down Wind economically. Probably seeing thousands of unsuccessful attempts to stop this, Wind decided to sacrifice his Hatchery and just counter-attack with his huge Roach army. Although his first push failed to break the ramp, the second one killed the wall-off, sniped the Thor and the Tanks that popped out and annihilated every single piece of SCV, tying the score.
Game 3 @ Jungle Basin. Going back to pure aggressiveness, HopeTorture opened 5-Rax Marine off of one base and marched to Wind's main. However, a moment of hesitation from Terran's side gave the Zerg the chance to build up a Roach army, stall the push and morph a Baneling Nest. Scared to the bone of Baneling bust, Hope retreated to his base and started erecting Bunkers everywhere scoring painfully against himself. The counter-bust did not came at all: Wind decided to go for a macro build and soon Hope was three bases behind Zerg - an impossible battle to win. Although he tried an MMM push and cleaned one of the Hatcheries, Wind's macro was just too much to handle. Hope had to GG out.
Hesitation put HopeTorture in an awful position
MakaPrime vs oGsInCa
Game 1 @ Scrap Station. Wanting to exploit the short drop distance, InCa hid a DT tech which Maka failed to scout. However, having absolutely poor micro, InCa wasted both his Warp Prism and the DTs that were being warped-in (sometime I just think that Protoss players forget that the Prism is also a dropship and not just a funny looking Pylon). Having the huge advantage, Maka pushed towards InCa's natural and although he lost his army and failed to destroy the Nexus he did a nice army trade, remacroing his losses quickly from his Raxes. Knowing that DTs are now useless, InCa tech switched into Colossi and HT but Maka has also predicted that. Marching out with four Ghosts, he EMP-ed the better bulk of InCa's army and laid waste upon it.
Game 2 @ Shakuras Plateau. Maka opened with a one-base play, going for quick double gas into Banshees. Although InCa failed to scout it it seemed that he had a hunch about what was coming and was more than prepared for the attack. Having Observers and Stalkers all over the place, InCa deflected both of Maka's Banshees and put him in an unfavourable position. Maka was behind one base and his main tech was completely useless now. By the time he managed to switch into a macro mode, InCa was pumping robo units that helped him win the game.
InCa defends his expo and puts Maka behind in tech
Game 3 @ Xel'Naga Caverns. On Caverns InCa bravely opened with Void Rays despite the fact that Maka is know for his bio play. He even tried to throw down a Nexus on top of the Stargate tech but a nice timing push from Maka forced a cancel. Furthermore, InCa's sloppiness costed him two of his Void Rays and the Protoss was forced to tech switch into Colossi. Warping in a Nexus for the second time, Inca seemed in control for a while but another poke from Maka killed it and put the Protoss behind even more. From that point on it was a downhill for InCa as Maka exploded with Raxes and Vikings and demolished the Protoss force wherever he engaged it.
KyrixZenith vs oGsEnsnare
Game 1 @ Xel'Naga Caverns. Knowing that he is against an extremely aggressive player, Ensnare wanted to take control in his hands and opened blue Hellions. He managed to do some harassment on Kyrix's natural but eventually got chased away by Speedlings. From that point on, Kyrix applied constant pressure with Roaches and tried (unsuccessfully) to break Ensnare's bunkered-up front. After he saw that there is not much hope in going through the front door, Kyrix threw in a Nydus Worm and started thrashing Ensnare's main with Lings and Roaches. The Terran decided to sacrifice his main and go for a base trade but his Marauders were stopped by the Zerg defence forces. Ensnare struggled for some more but eventually he had to type out.
Kyrix found Ensnare's front hard to swallow
Game 2 @ Steppes of War started peculiar with Kyrix going for a Hatch first and not opening safely with Pool like most Zergs would. On the other side of the map, Ensnare was going for double Rax pressure and soon his Marines were at the front of Kyrix's natural. With perfect Drone control and with the help of the Lings that spawned soon, Kyrix managed to deflect the push and swing the game around. He used his Speedlings to slow down Ensnare's expo and when his Baneling Nest finished he went for his signature massive bust to win the second game.
Ensnare's Marine push turned out to be an embarrassing failure
SlayerS_Boxer vs SangHo
Game 1 @ Lost Temple was probably the most boring thing I have watched for a long time. All 15 minutes both players stood on their side of the map, mining from three bases and amassing their respective armies. When suddenly BLAM!!! SangHo's Phoenix/Colossi army defeated Boxer's bio. Yes, indeed - the game was less enticing than the view of a sleeping beaver.
Game 2 @ Scrap Station. SangHo opened up with double Stargate whereas Boxer was still holding to his strat in the first game - mass bio with whatever auxiliary aircraft he could squeeze in. The mid-game was quite the same as the previous game with only occasional Viking/Phoenix battles to brighten up the scenery. And again the end was painfully similar but this time in Boxer's favour: SangHo just did not have enough Phoenixes and the Vikings cleaned his Colossi with ease.
The complete air dominance was what won Boxer the game
Game 3 @ Shakuras Plateau. My craving for an interesting finished was only partially satisfied with the game on Shakuras. Seeing that SangHo is going for economic build, Boxer teched quickly into Banshees and started to lay havoc on the Probe lines. Unfortunately for SangHo, his Observer tech was far from adequate and he kept losing Probes until eventually he typed out.
I agree: Not nearly enough probes...
I should admit I am highly disappointed with how the All-Star Ro16 ended but it should not by any means cloud your judgement about the rest of the games. Do go to the VODs section of this recap and see the series yourself.
- Day 1 - Battle Report
- Results & VODs
