IM overtake Azubu in a GSTL PvZs galore

Squirtle still undefeated in the GSTL

The Protoss line-up of IM went against the Zerg swarm of Azubu in a seven-game series in today's GSTL. YongHwa, First and Squirtle scored for IM to bring them a most crucial victory.

After all the ling/baneling aggression in yesterday’s Code S (as well as the number of nydus/roach backdooring), the first and only ZvZ of today’s GSTL went back to the mutalisk mirror norm as ByuL took on BboongBboong in the opening game.

Not particularly known for his ZvZ, the ex-Fnatic player ByuL visibly struggled against Bboong. The Azubu Zerg, who played a few high-quality mirrors last season against HyuN and RorO, was on top of the game from the first second. He took his geysers faster knowing that the game would be all about mutalisks and with that won the first few engagements to put ByuL on the disadvantage. As if that wasn’t enough to put the IM Zerg in trouble, a fly into the main and a snipe on the spire certainly sealed his faith and Azubu took the lead 1-0. 

YongHwa was called forth to battle Bboong and thus began the PvZ marathon that would last till the end of the series. Spawning for his second game, Bboong opened with standard double evo speedling but had to immediately transition out of it, spotting the colossus tech of YongHwa. Roach production was started but YongHwa was already on the move. Dancing around the bottleneck areas of Red City and abusing the power of force fields, YongHwa sliced and diced countless waves of roaches to tie the score.

As one Azubu Zerg fell, another came in to replace him – the original member of the roster Violet himself. Scouting the phoenix opening just in time allowed Violet to set up static defenses and go full roach from there, busting the natural wall of YongHwa, taking down the cyber core and forge. Although YongHwa stabilized a bit and managed to get his third base up, having a wide-open and welcoming entrance could only lead to worlds of pain. The Zerg swarmed again and by the time YongHwa succeeded in cleaning it all up, the game-ending mutalisk transition arrived.

Like the others before him, Violet reign was, too, short-lived. IM pitted him against IEM Katowice champion First and although Violet played around with his hydra/swarm host/corruptor composition decently well, he simply lacked the mobility to deal with the DT drops and zealot warp-ins which ultimately sliced him to pieces.

First was not only the defeater of Violet but also the only player to stay in the booth for more than two rounds. His next match against Sleep started a bit awkwardly as First forgot to research Warp Gate – essentially negating his intention to 4-gate – and had to transition into eight gates instead. Two Stargates were added later in the match-up and First’s late-game prowess kicked in – a phoenix harass into a massive colossus ball hit Sleep like a shovel, putting IM in the lead for the first time in the series.

Dangerously close to defeat, Azubu logically called for Symbol. Once again, viewers were treated to early roach aggression thrown at the Protoss and while First held for the first minutes thanks to his high void ray count, a hydralisk transition did not sit well with his stomach. The score went back to a tie and the final, seventh game had to be played.

Knowing that losing here might mean not making it through to the playoffs, IM summoned Zerg slayer extraordinaire Squirtle and on Whirlwind he and Symbol played arguably the best game of the series. For more than 30 minutes of intense action, Symbol threw at Squirtle everything he had – queens, fungals, infested terrans and regular army alike, pushing him all the way to his side of the map and nearly taking his life. By the power of growing archon count, however, Squirtle was able to persist, hold the last big Zerg wave and counter attack for the kill, taking the precious win for Incredible Miracle.