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ASUS Pro-AM & FXO Invitational Qualifiers -- Blog

http://www.sc2sea.com/showthread.php?t=4979 - ASUS reference

http://www.sc2sea.com/showthread.php?t=5069 - FXO reference


I guess I'll start with the FXO qualifier -- I missed the first qualifier due to RL commitments, however I was confident that I would qualify in the second qualifiers. There weren't many players in SEA that I wasn't confident against -- I felt at that stage that I had a good chance of besting anyone in Australia (yes, even Mr. Pender) in a bo3. Add into that the fact that four of the best players in SEA (Moonglade, Pig, Mafia, Targa) were all invited, made me think I was a shoe-in to qualify.

Then the qualifier came, and here I am, sans a spot in the FXO Invitational Series (#6). I went into the qualifiers confident as usual -- I feel that if I go into a game without confidence in myself, how can people support me, and how will I be able to play my best?

Then along came Fenner.

He's someone who has, historically, bested me (much like Ninja) in tournament games. I remember a fair way back in a qualifier for a tournament that I can't even recall the name of, he was my first opponent. I had no idea who he was, and I was on skype with Benji as I played (not taking the games seriously enough). He then proceeded to 2-0 me very, very quickly with some unique (read: cheese, from my PoV, although after reviewing the replays he just beat me, plain and simple) ZvZ. Benji heard me rage, drop the call, and I proceeded to beat everyone else in my group to barely squeeze through the qualifiers.

So here he is again, but now I feel a lot more confident in my ZvZ. How could he beat me again, when I had played PiG and gone head-to-head with him, very confidently, merely days before?

I lost 2-0 again. Very quickly. Another disappointing result in a tournament I was very confident that I would be participating in. Add in the fact that it pretty much crushed my confidence going into the ASUS Pro-Am, it was a very pivotal loss for the weekend.

(Additional note -- The FXO qualifiers & The KFC Bucket Cup - reference http://www.sc2sea.com/showthread.php?t=5083 - ran alongside each-other and I did manage to win the KFC Bucket Cup, in which Fenner was a competitor.)

Then came the ASUS Pro-Am weekend. The first day was for the Gamespot amateurs, who had been picked by Dox from their community, so it was merely another day of practice for me. The second day, however, was where it got interesting.

Again, this was another tournament I went into very confident -- especially in matches that weren't ZvZ. ZvZ had always been my weak point, which kind of sucks, because I do indeed live in Australia.

First game was against xGKing.Light - ZvP. My weakness in ZvP right now is purely in the midgame -- I have made lots of mistakes in it, and need to get past it. In the early game, I play very well with my cheesy openings. In the late game, I understand exactly how to approach every sort of Protoss army.

I went into the game with complete confidence that I could beat an (relatively, in comparison to his usual 1000 games) inactive Light. The memory of the first game completely eludes me, but I believe it was a standard roach/ling game holding off his agression. I could very well be wrong, but all I remember is winning it. ^^

The second game was weird. Light hosted the wrong version of Antiga (I play tournament Antiga ZvP very specifically - I scout extremely early, and if they are walling at the ramp, unleash one of many cheeses to punish them, as I feel very vulnerable in the midgame on Antiga) which resulted in us spawning horizontally (9 vs 3), which then put both my overlords in very awful positions for midgame scouting, as well as my whole plan out the door. He beat me with a blinkstalker all-in and then very graciously accepted a regame.

Fool! When we regamed with the correct version of the map (spawning us cross-spawn), I did what I do best - cheese. I built a hatchery in his base, rallied roaches out, and then followed it up with a baneling bust. Thus ending the game with a very delayed 2-0 in my favour.

The next match was a ZvT against YoonYJ -- even though it's easily my most comfortable matchup, I never take YYJ lightly. He's a damn good player and has to be treated as such. Our first game was ended early, due to his power cutting out, but would've been very interesting -- it was on Cloud Kingdom and I had scouted that his initial plan was to go all-in with 3rax + hellions. However, nothing had happened, so we couldn't do anything but regame.

The games from then on proceeded in a pretty standard fashion into a 2-0 in my favour again. I was extremely happy with this win, because it meant that I was one win away from making the top 4, and subsequently, qualifying.

However, it was a lot easier said than done -- the next matchup was against the powerhouse who was recently recruited to iM (and is in the Korean GM this season!), MaFia. I knew that I had a chance in a bo3, as I know a lot about his playstyle.

The first game was a 9pool from myself, as I had heard from others (and experienced it myself) that MaFia was very happily going 15hatch into 16/17pool -- how dare you play so greedily versus me? I was up 1-0 very quickly, and quite possibly, had gotten into my opponent's head. A huge advantage in any series.

The second game, I believe, is probably up there for game of the tournament -- I opened with my new queen+roach timing push that's designed specifically to crush people who take fast 3rds in ZvZ. However, it has one drawback -- if someone opens with 1/1 zerglings, it's very inefficient. Mafia did just that.

However, the game wasn't over. I retreated, built spines, took my own 3rd base and turtled up. Oh boy, did I turtle. MaFia sniped my 3rd base twice before I was able to solidify it with spines + roaches + infestors, but he was still putting on a lot of pressure.

Eventually, it was his 200 supply vs my 144 supply- something that you would see in ZvP, and if anything, it resembled exactly what ZvP has been for the past month. MaFia was continually throwing units at me, in the form of roaches, lings and hydralisks. However, each time he engaged, he was pushing into a spinecrawler wall + superior concave + infestors of mine.

Eventually, over time, he lost more than twice as many resources (in the form of army units) as I had, and I was able to counterpush, kill his fourth, and secure the win.

This meant that I was into the finals of the day -- and, more importantly, qualified for the next day. The important day. Thus, in the finals vs mOOnGLaDe, I remarked that I was going to attempt to create a working mass hydra + queen build -- I was completely intent on just trolling, and probably losing in the first 10 minutes.

However, the build worked much, much better than I thought and the game dragged on for almost an hour. I felt that, at the end of the game, if a strategy I had just made up on the spot (and had half-heartedly attempted to make work) could almost defeat mOOnGLaDe, then I definitely had a damn good chance of taking out the tournament the next day.

I was instilled with confidence, and I feel it definitely shined through the next day.