SEACL
Round of 8 Round Up Missed out on the SEACL? Have no fear!
Our very own LennX is here!
To give you a brief recap
of what's hap-
pening.
Ok sorry I shall stop this (this lame bad rap was written by crAzerk not lennx) Enjoy the recaps!
Rekanise(9oclock) starts off with a 4WG while Roz(6oclock) went for a more econ 4WG. Rekanise tried to applied pressure with his faster 4WG but Roz manged to hold it off by pulling his probes.
Then both of them stablised and macroed up. Roz decides to go for +1 while Rekanise opting for robo tech. Both of them decided to get a 3rd around the 17minute mark while having a minor skirmish outside of Rekanise base. Roz still have a supply lead of 30 over Rekanise at this point after holding off the 4WG push early on. he begins to warp in HTs to morph into archons for the splash damage. After having 4 archons and +3 weapons, he pushes into Rekanise natural. Archons splash and sentries guardian shields win the battle for Roz even as Rekanise tries his best to micro his stalkers. And Rekanise has to gg out.
It was cross spawn on Terminus. Maltiso(3oclock) went for a pool first into hatch opening while Roz (9oclock)decides on a safe 3gate expand. Mid game arrives. Maltiso going for a fast lair and 3rd expo. Roz is content to stay and 2bases and slowly get a nice deathball. 3mins later at 14minute in game, Maltiso is maxed out on 4bases ,getting a 5th(at 6oclock base 2nd nat), while Roz 3rd is up. Colossus tech is up and thermal lances is being upgraded. Roz ninjas in a 4th at the 12oclock natural as Maltiso moves into Roz natural with his 100% hydras army. After spotting the colossus, Maltiso wisely backs off.
Getting corrputors and doing some drone/spine crawlers trick to get his army to 217 supply against a near max protoss army of 180. The armies then clashes on creep. Excellent FFs holds the hydras at bay while the colossus killed a few hydras and backing off towards the safety of non-creep land. Undeterred, the zerg army swarm forward onto creepless ground. Slow hydras are painful to watch. Another engagement occurs and another round of excellent FFs appeared for Roz. Maltiso managed to clear all colossus bar one at a huge cost. He has lost his whole hydra army. Roz marches to Maltiso 4th, clears away any Zerg biological lifeforms as the remaxing process was happening. and backs off to the safely of creepless ground.
The remaxed Zerg army consisted of hydra,lings. Splitting his forces, Maltiso demanded his lings to destroy any potential bases at the 12oclock area while his hydras moved towards Roz nat with some corruptors that survived the 1st engagement. 2nd engagement happens. What happens when a deathball meets half a Zerg army? The zerg loses everything while the Protoss just dust off any Zerg stains from their armour.
Marching onwards towards the Zerg main, Roz forces a cancel on Maltiso 4th. Maltiso valiantly threw everything at Roz including his kitchen sink to no avail and tapped out.
PvP. 4WG vs 4WG. Round 2; fight!
After all the standard BO opening of a 4WG, Roz(9oclock) ninjas in a probe into Rorschach main. Rorschach counters with a proxy pylon at the gold base and kills off the wanna-be ninja probe of Roz. Roz won the 1st skirmish around the xel naga tower but has to back off as Roeschach 2nd round of 4 stalkers threatens his main. Rorschach moving up into Roz main but a mis-timed FF from Roz resulted only in blocking the zealots and not the stalkers. At this time, Roz murmur of prayers of his 3rd and 4th warp gate to be done were heard pretty loudly. There is a sc2 god afterall. But alas Rorscahach zealots were already beside those stalkers of Roz that were warpping in now, tickling them with their psi blades. Just a few meters away from the tickling situation, laser beams can be seen emanating from stalkers and flying into probes.
Losing those probes hurts Roz economy so much that he decided to gg out instead of hoping that Rorschach somehow made a mistake.
inF.330 < Rorschach
Revenant spawns at 1 oclock with a pool,hatch,gas opening. Rorschach spawns at 7oclock with a 3gate expand. Both transitioning into a nice macro game with skirmishes here and there for map control. drops 2 evo chambers for +1 meele and armour along with hydra den; goes for 6gate,1robo,hallu and +1 weapons.
Mid game 2 around 12 minute mark, a shrine for the ducks is spotted along with some cannon wrapping in. Maybe the protoss army is getting ready for a push. decides to expands for a 3rd base, getting +2 meele and armour and teaching lings on how to get an adrenaline rush. The fabled ultralisk caverns is spotted too. Map control is firmly in hands but the DTs spawns. DTs doesn't do much.
After clearing 2 DTs and one free observer, Revenant pushes into Rorschach 3rd catching his army unaware and forcing a cancel on the nexus. The army then clashes in the middle of the map. Revenant lack of range upgrade most likely was the cause of him losing the battle along with some nice FFs from Rorschach. Also another point to note is that an ultralisk cannot solo an immortal. They are called immortals for a reason. Immortals dies to marauders or tanks not some whimsy zerg unit of doom.
Winning the battle means you are free to expand! A protoss expandsion pops up at the 9oclock position leaving Revenant lings confused as they ran into the 5 oclock expansion instead. Purple, purple, purple, like purple purple purple ohhhhhh like a deadly zerg creep creep creep. Rorschach at this point notices that the creep is creepily creeping towards his main but his lone robotics bay is idling. Never has a need for an observer been so great. One do not simply march into the creep mordor marshes.
Deciding something is up with the 9oclock expansion, Revenant rushes lings in taking out a cannon before retreating as the lean mean Protoss army charges there. Revenant does another ling run by moments later and he manages to take the nexus out. Now the army is really baying for blood.
Blood lust does not pay. Rorschach engages right at the edge of the creep thinking that his newly done Psi storm will help save the day. But his army is a lean and mean one. The zerg army was not so lean but way meaner. The protoss was no more.
Rorschach went from (^-^) winning in the previous game to (G_G).
Xel naga Fortress. Why this map is used I do not know since TestBug is a way better map in this writer humble opinion.
Storm spawns at 11oclock as while Revenant spawns at 7oclock as . hatch first, gas steal roaches in respond to reactor hellions. 111 expand for terran while giving away 2 free hellions. 7roaches went up the ramp and 4 roaches went down the ramp. Killing HuT in the process and one supply depot. Annoyed with the loss of a depot, storm taunts with factory and barrack swapping tech addons in front of the roaches camping below the ramp. Meanwhile his lone viking was happily killing OLs. Storm finally decides to get his expo round 10minute game time and siege tech is done. Revenant is happily on 2 bases too as a Zerg but spire is almost completed and baneling nest is on the way. Of course as I typed this, revenant gets his 3rd and making me type more.
Mutas are finally out, picking off a dropship with 8 marines inside. Moving onwards to storm natural, those mutas picks off a 95% completed turret and a refinery delaying any Terran tech. Those marines are hapless running around trying to scare away mutas to limited effect. 3rd base is kicking in for Revenant now and he is going mass upgrades. +1meele, +1 air, +1 ground armour. Storm decides to get another factory up, armoury is also completed so thor is here!
Mutas are also harassing Storm main. Come on kelly shift your cam view to Storm main. I have no idea what the mutas are picking off. Judging from the production tab, I'm assuming one depot and a tech lab got picked off. Mutas goes into Storm main again picking off one turret and 2 more depots. With a critical mass of mutas, Storm only answer is to pray for his thor to pop out and dropping extra supplies to prevent supply block. The thor does pops out outside the main and getting stuck between the factory and armoury as it attempts to squeeze into the main. Threatening to squish the depots if they do not lower, the thor finally manages to get into the main, getting a volley off on stacked mutas and saving the OC.
In the meanwhile, Revenant got 3 more bases at the right side of the map and sending in kamikaze lings and banelings into Storm tank line. Tanks are now gone leaving only 3 thors. Another wave of lings should be able to seal the deal. But magic boxing mutas have other ideas. 3 thors and 2 turrets cannot win mutas with magic and Storm has to gg out.
aLtkeLLy.722 (somewhere) ~ Han (somewhere) @ Crevasse
Kelly spawns on 8oclock on Crevasse. Han spawning somewhere esle as . Judging from the early drone scout timing, it should be a non cross spawn spot. It is also noted that kelly wasted her APM, I mean warms up her hand by order her scouting OL to scout in a heart shape pattern a la HuK. She takes the outside expo which has more mineral and gas patches. Alas when Han base was scouted at 11oclock, she saw that his expo was already up while hers was less than 50% done.
The lack of maynarding drones from Kelly is disturbing. Han pushes into Kelly nat while Kelly was ordering her lings to bite at some destructible debris. Giving Han a free queen, she then attacks into Hans forces and somehow manages a surround on Han roaches. But no roaches died as Kelly accidentally pulls her roaches back just out of range of the enemy. Having deflected the push, Kelly went on the counter offensive.
Hans destructible debris were destroyed and a Kelly scouting ling was sent to its doom. Seeing Han superior concave at the top of the ramp, Kelly attacks into it and almost breaks the line but a wave of roaches reinforcement saves the day for Han. Feeling confident now, Han takes his 3rd. Kelly follow suits getting her in base 3rd, +1 range and a baneling nest that was canceled when it was almost done. Han mass roaches was spotted by Kelly. There were some infestors too and Kelly was just starting on her lair.
With some well played FGs on Kelly roaches and lings, Kelly has to gg out.
Han won Jimdiddy after managing to confuse him 1st by accidentally picking Terran and asking for a rematch. It was a decent ZvZ. Check the stream for the VOD of this game
aLtIaguz.117 (7oclock) ~ Han (3oclock) @ Xel Naga Fortress
Slow pushing tanks works wonder for a Terran player. Critial mass of mutas is good as long as thors backed by marines ain't around. Mutas lings do not work well in enclosed locations. Marines back by full energy medicvacs are very scary.
Marines in bunker are an interesting way to shoo a banshee away but it is not really effective as a banshee can be microed around the bunker. Why is a refinery being selected what the banshee harassment is being talked about?
Vikings are crucial in a tank line war.
Do not unsiege your tank line together in sight of enemies forces. They are easily punished by a stimmed bio ball.
Always guard your expo with a small force at least. This can be the difference between the CC living or dieing.
Rallying into an opponent sieged line feels suicidal, looks suicidal, IS SUICIDAL. Do not try this please. Your soldiers will thank you.
We start off with iaguz asking Kelly on in game chat to keep quiet and she replied that she will make a sandwich in front of her computer.
3gate stargate opening. Fast stim for iaguz. SouJ have seen the lack of concussive shells from iaguz. If only he ran his stalkers past the bunkers and into iaguz main. Last I heard stalkers are pretty fast, no? Pressure seems to be getting to SouJ as he made a few mistakes. Like attacking into bunkers that were being repaired, letting his VRs getting into range of the turret, no focusing on the marines/scvs as he targets the tech lab addon with his VRs. This barracks tech lab add on was researching marine shields at this point with 3 or 4 scvs repairing it and only 2 marines shooting at the VRs with more marines reinforcement streaming in.
After losing most of his army, SouJ retreats back to his base with an angry Terran army moving towards his main. But his FF placement was bad resulting in the whole iaguz army streaming into his base. At this point,Kelly was joking on the stream about how nirvana likes misplacing a FF on the ramp resulting in an incomplete block just like what happened to SouJ. Forcing out a gg due to his not so forceful forcefield placement, SouJ leaves the game.
SouJ leaves with experience of playing in a penultimate match and hopefully the pressure wont get to him for the next SEACL.
aLtIaguz.117 (6oclock) ~ WsWgDementia (12oclock) @ Terminus SE
Let's see now. 11minute mark, Dementia has 3 lings at 3 different watch tower. There is 2 drop ships of 16marines going for 3rd. 3rd got sniped off and 6 mutas pops just in the nick of time to clear the 2 drop ships as they were getting the hell out of dodge city. What happened before? iaguz manged to deny Dementia sacrificial OL scouting at the 6minute mark and later snipes 5 to 6 OLs with his 2 vikings clearing the way for his drops.
Now back to the drop ships which just got cleaned up by mutas. HuT and Kelly could be heard hyper ventilating about iaguz not scanning Dementia natural to check for the Zerg army composition, if any. It is noted that as this point, Dementia was still droning and didn't hatch any Zerg army unit to prevent the drop. If iaguz decides to move into Dementia natural, he could have either finished the game off there and then. Or deal too much damage to Dementia for him to make a comeback.
16minute mark - pretty uneventful game so far with both players macroing up. on 4 bases with on 3. Big engagement happens in the middle of the map. iaguz got caught while sieging his tanks up by a huge muta,ling,bling ball. Dementia happily clears the whole army bar one siege tank.
Marines are pretty cost effective. As iaguz went to get his 4th, Dementia traded some lings for 3 siege tanks. A poor FG taking out 3 marines was followed was some better FGs in front of iaguz 4th. Althought iaguz marines were in the red with no medic-vac or thor support nearby, Dementia decides to pull back his muta ball.
Turning point of the game came with he big engagement at the 18minute mark. Dementia lost too many mutas to marines as he cleared almost 90% of the terran army. A drop by iaguz at Dementia 3rd was another factor too. As iaguz got a better bank floated, marines and siege tanks could be remade easily. But Dementia is slowly but surly getting gas capped. Another battle was fought at the 20th minute mark, Dementia 4th base was traded for 3/4 of the Terran army. Dementia is starving for gas now and his muta count is not so scary as before. Another push by iaguz soon after forced a last ditch effort from Dementia but Terran resistance proved too strong. And Dementia ggs out.
So I didn't have time to watch these games so i'm reading them now as I am quite bored, and I am completely confused at various parts of this:
Quote:
We start off iaguz asking Kelly to keep quiet and she goes to make a sandwich in front of her computer.
Quote:
...he targets the tech lab with his VRs. And finally a aLtnirvana FF placement in his ramp.
Quote:
...not scanning Dementia natural to check for the Zerg army composition, if any. This could be a "He drone drone drone, I win" situational. A "what if" indeed.
Theres alot more, but this makes zero sense to me, and actually confuses me as to what you mean by it. Why did he need to scan the army comp? Whats a Nirvana FF?
Then theres:
Quote:
As dinner was more important, LennX was unable to focus much on this match. Sorry jimdiddy!
Which is a situation where I would think watching a replay would be appropriate (Infact I would almost expect every game to be watched on replays so you don't miss anything).
Regarding replays, it's actually something that I've been leaning on tourney organizers to do, but they aren't consistently doing it, apart from some.
Thus the only way that we (writers) can actually get a hold of one is to actually spectate a game. And to do that it involves talking to the admin and the casters and whoever which often doesn't go very well or they may forget to invite you, etc. And this will take double the time too (spectate + review replay to touch up writeup)
So what we have to do is make do with what we have, such as by watching stream.
It would make it alot easier for recap writers if the SOP was for casters (since they're in the semis/finals most of the time, rather than the admins who aren't always in-game) to upload replays within the day of the tournament or perhaps the next morning. This shouldn't take more than 5 minutes? I'm not sure how efficient the replay uploader system is though.
That said, thanks for your feedback Benji We'll work to improve the quality of writeups for sure!
So I didn't have time to watch these games so i'm reading them now as I am quite bored, and I am completely confused at various parts of this:
Theres alot more, but this makes zero sense to me, and actually confuses me as to what you mean by it. Why did he need to scan the army comp? Whats a Nirvana FF?
Which is a situation where I would think watching a replay would be appropriate (Infact I would almost expect every game to be watched on replays so you don't miss anything).
Just some feedback.
Those confusing parts have been rewritten. I hope it will be better now. As for replays, I couldn't find them so I had to depend on the stream mainly. As for the game that I missed, I will re watch it later and do a small write up on it. Lucky, it is divided into parts so it will be better for me given the lack of replays (or I just suck at finding them)
Thanks for the feedback!
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Early game loss = Cheese
Mid game Loss = All in
Late game Loss = Imbalance
Day2 will not be done as the semi writeup is already done and will be up soon. But if you have an eye catching game or something that you think deserves a writeup, please feel free to PM a writer.
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Early game loss = Cheese
Mid game Loss = All in
Late game Loss = Imbalance
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