Yesterday Tasteless and lilsusie were back on set for some more casting action for the Ro128! Some very new names and some more known players got to face off in the fight for advancement.
Before heading into the games, lilsusie had some quite exciting news regarding the Averatec-Intel Classic: It is now sanctioned by KeSPA, meaning the results of the games count toward their official record. The previous season saw some teams opt not to bring in their players due to it not being sanctioned, but this has changed now and most teams have players in the tournament now. Great!
There was also another piece of news that was not as exciting. As many people were probably aware, Idra, who now plays for CJ Entus, played his games yesterday as well, although his games were not broadcasted. Unfortunately, he was defeated in the Ro256 1-2 against NeeL[fOu]. The games may be broadcasted at some point, in which case they will appear on the GomTV website.
As for the games, here are the games and their results:
Averatec-Intel Classic Season 2
Ro128 21st September
Calm> Organ2 - 0
HerO>Barracks2 - 0
Hery > Endless2 - 1
Mingu> GoRush2 - 1
Set 1 - Calm vs Organ
Calm has been around for a while, playing for STX SouL. While not the greatest player on the team certainly, especially not this last season, he should be able to bring down his opponent, who is Organ. Organ is more commonly known as PianO and is not exactly known for his solid 1v1 skills.
Unfortunately, the first game on Colosseum is at this time unable to be watched in it's entirety on the GomTV website. The winner of that game however was Calm, in a rather convincing fashion judging by Tasteless' and lilsusie's comments in the second game.
The second game on Andromeda was text-book zerg dominance over terran. Zerg opened with a fast pool to put pressure on the terran, who promptly and properly blocked off his ramp with scvs and marines. The game proceeded into the slight lull that is standard for this matchup, Calm taking his close expansions and teching to lair, Organ fast expanding, getting engineering bay and academy in the proper times. Organ began constructing his turrets behind the mineral line of his natural expansion, but a couple of zerglings managed to sneak by and delay the construction, meaning there were too few turrets to successfully fend off the mutalisks. The mutalisk harass killed off a number of Organ's offensive units, holding them in the base just long enough for lurkers to begin morphing.
When Organ finally pushed, the lurkers were already in place and his army was left out in the cold just outside Calm's natural expansion. Suddenly zerg units rush in from all sides, completely annihilating Organ's army, and from that point there was no coming back. Calm's micro was superior throughout the game and when the defilers finally popped the final push with lurkers and zerglings commenced and Organ was defeated.
Set 2 - HerO vs Barracks
WeMade FOX's HerO has, much like Calm, been around for a while without really impressing all that much. His opponent, Barracks, is only one year old, progamer age and has not done much at all as of yet. After arriving a bit late and also having some computer differently, the game kicked off.
Barracks must have been inspired by the dropship play that Ssak showed off this Sunday, since his opening was very similar to Ssak's. HerO played this map as per usual, taking his natural quickly and teching to reavers. The first dropship arrived, heading towards the cliff behind the mineral line at HerO's main, but a shuttle with units was already in place. A gracious and elegant ballet of mines, dragoons and tanks ensued in the tight space, with excellent control from both sides, but the dragoon numbers overwhelmed the lone terran units and the dropship was taken out as it retreated.
The counterdrop was much more devastating, coupled with the fact that Barracks lifted his barracks at his choke, allowing HerO to storm in with his ground forces and wreck havoc while a reaver was dropped up by the natural expansion of Barracks. Many, many scvs and tanks went down and Barracks was quite behind and remained so for the rest of the game. HerO simply massed up ground forces, fended up vulture raids, teched to carriers and rolled Barracks without batting an eye.
Game 2 was pretty much a repeat of the first game, sans dropship ballet. HerO's two gate opening against Barracks' 1 fac fast expand meant that the pressure was on Barracks very early, dragoons pouring in and killing units before being driven back by siege tanks. A reaver was dropped, although not to great effect, while carriers were built. All the while Barracks sat on three bases macroing, anticipating carriers and starting to build goliaths. Another raid with goons took out plenty scvs and siege tanks, and after a number of carrier raids and skirmishes the coup de grace was struck. Barracks taps out after his army was reduced to scrap metal and HerO won 2-0.
Set 3 - Hery > Endless
Hery follows the trend of a somewhat more known player, in fact he's been playing since 04, facing off against an unknown. In fact, the young protoss Endless is so unknown that it even baffled Tasteless and lilsusie.
The first game tested Endless' mettle. The protoss opted for a fast nexus into dt rush build, which turned out to be a better choice than expected. Hery had opted for a dropship build to take advantage of the cliff above the main, but even though Endless' robo bay was late, Hery dropped the natural expo instead and was driven off. He also appeared to go for some strange all in build with his scvs streaming towards the protoss base, but aborted when he spotted the dark templar, losing plenty of mining time in the process. Endless decided to counter with a quick arbiter build, which instigated a series of recalls that inflicted heavy damage on Hery's economy. Hery performed some successful counterdrops, but the game seemed to be in Endless' hands. Unfortunately this game was cut off in mid-vod as well, hiding the exact details of the ending. Endless did eventually come out on top, showing that the newcomer has in fact got some moves.
The second game was refreshingly short and intense, at least compared to the long slugfests that were played thus far. Hery opted for a fast starport into vulture drops against Endless' dt rush build, catching Endless off guard and killing off a lot of probes. After this there was some fighting over the cliff above the natural expansion of Endless, a fight that Hery eventually ended up winning and siege tanks made swift work of the nexus. More dropship harassment and ineffective dark templar were the hallmarks of the game, until finally all Hery had to do was macro up and push home. Even though his push was quite ridiculous and was beaten back, Endless opted to surrender anyway, not wanting to prolong the game unnecessarily.
The final game was again played on Colosseum after the voting process, and it was quite uneventful. There was a reaver in a shuttle, which got taken down by turrets and then there was macroing by both sides until they both moved out at the same time. The two armies somehow managed to skirt each other and went straight for the opponent's base. The difference between a group of dragoons and and a group of tanks with vultures is that scvs could to some extent deal with the dragoons, where the protoss could do nothing. The base trade ended heavily in Hery's favor and the game was over before you knew it. 2-1 to Hery!
Set 4 - GoRush vs Mingu
GoRush surely needs no introduction, MSL winner and defeater of NaDa. mingu can claim no such feats, making GoRush the clear favorite for this set.
The servers over at GomTV must've had a hard time, for this VOD was damaged as well. After an intense harassing opening by mingu, expanding behind a rushing zealot and then putting on more pressure against the rapidly expanding GoRush, killing of a ton drones, the momentum shifted in a heartbeat. One second mingu was in GoRush's base, causing mayhem and death, the next he has a ton of lurkers and zerglings at his doorstep, who proceed to push into the protoss main and cause some damage there. The attack was eventually repelled by dragoons and templar of both dark and light variety, but here the VOD ends. GoRush's economy was in absolute tatters however, so it's feasible to assume that he ran out of steam and was eventually overrun. Onwards to game two!
For the second game it was time for GoRush to make good on his name. Starting on cross positions on Andromeda, mingu set up his cannon defense and his nexus, built his stargate, all in good order. GoRush chose the slightly more direct strategy, build a bunch of zerglings and hydralisks and kill the protoss. For a moment it looked like the zerg advance would falter, but reinforcements kept streaming in and the additional cannons that mingu tried to warp in, didn't. GoRush evens the score decisively.
The final game was a long, drawn out battle that GoRush basically threw away with some very strange decisions. Things like building way too many sunken colonies, suiciding mutalisks against corsairs and building devourers instead of ground units to deal with attacks by mingu. There was really too much going on in this final game to go through here, so watch the VOD on the GomTV website for the full experience. Suffice to say, mingu played solidly and GoRush made some very bad choices throughout the game.
Whew! The games this time around were longer and more orthodox than the one's this Sunday, but still well worth watching. Find the vods at the GomTV website linked below as usual, and make sure to tune in on Sunday for more StarCraft, more Tasteless and more lilsusie!
Links
GomTV.net - Vods
