[x5.Crescendo]

To celebrate five year’s worth of StarCraft II action, as well as the impending arrival of Legacy of the Void (LotV), ESL have assisted Blizzard in organising LotV Beta events for parts of the SEA region without strong pre-existing eSports scenes. Each region selected will field two players from each qualifier, with a final open qualifier to give eligible players a second chance at glory.

Blizzard and the ESL hope to start planting the seeds of #passion and encourage new players to take a look at the eSports side of the game they enjoy. Full details regarding the overall tournament can be found at esl.gg/seavoid

The second LotV Beta Tournament qualifier was held on 30 August for Singapore. With only 6 players able to play on the day, the odds were very much in favour of mYinsanity's Blysk, but Lobo is well known as a dark horse whose performance in SEA has often seen him taking out tournaments with brackets full of strong players.

Although there was a limited size to the player pool during this qualifier, the games themselves were fast and furious. With a high percentage of Protoss players, the games favoured 1 and 2 base aggressive timings. Hopefully, with Legacy of the Void coming ever closer to release, we might see greater player participation in these events from Starcraft fans in Singapore.

With that being said, please join us in congratulating the two qualifying players for Singapore!

Thomas '[mYi] Blysk' Kopankiewicz
&
Alvin 'Lobo' Toh

Before we take a look at the games, a shout out to Zendex for organising the event and to Insano and Pox for streaming and casting. Please show them some appreciation!

===Let The Games Begin!===

---Handy Links---
VOD Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...QfxuygkwXu0PfI
Brackets: http://play.eslgaming.com/starcraft/...fier/rankings/
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---Winners Bracket Semifinals: Blysk v Squall---

---Game 1 - Terraform---

Blysk opened up with a gateway into Nexus then cybercore. A change from robotics facility, cancelled in favour of a stargate, suggested that Blysk had already decided against using a warp prism to generate adept pressure in the early game.

Squall, given the beta patch being played on had removed MULEs, went straight to three barracks with two reactors, building up a heavy marauder count in expectation of the adept all-ins popular in the PvT meta. A cheeky mothership core revealed Squall's infrastructure and minimal marine count to his opponent, leaving Blysk comfortable with his choice of oracle for harassment.

A scan by Squall had revealed the stargate, though, and Squall increased his marine count and added some turrets at the expense of his economy. While the oracle only killed two SCVs, Blysk's early expansion had resulted in almost double the worker count after the oracle left Squall's base at the 5 minute mark, with the Terran still on one base and showing no signs of immediate aggression.

Well aware of just how far ahead he was, Blysk built up his army swiftly on a two base economy, then built a cheeky third base at Squall's forward 4th base position for reinforcements. The mYinsanity Protoss player then delivered a brutal coup de grâce with chargelots, adepts, and archons.


When ahead, proxy your nexus, because why not?



Squall's one defensive siege tank was focused down by the oracle and an adept, and once the wall was down the adepts phase-shifted on top of Squall's production, ending the game.

---Game 2 - Orbital Shipyard---

Game two opened up almost identically to game one. Blysk gateway expanded and Squall went to three barracks off one base. However this time Blysk felt completely comfortable transitioning straight to a robotics facility. When the first warp prism had finished, he had 4 adepts ready to load up and fly across.

However, this time, Squall had decided to move across the map with his force of marines and marauders, and were halfway across the map when the 4 adepts landed in the Terran's base. Squall turned his army around, but it was too late.

With the LotV warp prism's ranged pick-up mechanic, Blysk made it appear as if the adepts had blink, picking them up and dropping them off as they slowly whittled down the health of Squall's defending SCVs. By the time Squall's army returned, 26 SCVs had died, leaving the Terran with 3 compared to Blysk's 48 probes.


Blink Adepts Imba, David Kim Plz



When Squall's army finally reached Blysk's side of the map, it was decimated by chargealots, immortals, and an archon.

Blysk walked across the map with three immortals, two archons, and enough chargealots to turn a planetary fortress into scrap metal in a matter of seconds.

---Winners Bracket Semifinals: Lobo v Elusory---

Although unstreamed, we were able to obtain the replays to provide a recap for this match.

---Game 1 - Terraform---

Game one saw Elusory open in the bottom right of Terraform with a reaper expand into a fast factory. In the top left Lobo opened with 2-gate Adept into a robotics bay proxied south-east of his gold base, well out of the way of regular scv and reaper scouting paths.

Elusory's reaper did no real damage, but scouted the LotV Protoss opening typical of the current meta, and he placed a forward bunker and ensured he kept his wall up. As a result, the first two adepts only managed two scv kills.

However, the unscouted robotics bay produced a warp prism and 4 adepts warped in at its pylon. The Adepts moved out on foot to reinforce the first two while 4 zealots were warped into the Terran's main. While Elusory tried to minimise SCV losses and build cyclones, the warp prism brought the 6 adepts into the main and warped more in, followed by a round of stalkers.


Even the pros had trouble defending this kind of attack at Redbull Battlegrounds



Elusory's cyclones and marines did not have the room to manoeuvre, and the Terran was forced to gg as his defenses were decimated.

---Game 2 - Orbital Shipyard---

Liquipedia Plz: Lobo reveals his inspiration for game 1 at the start of game 2



Elusory, spawning in the bottom left, once again opened with a reaper expand into a fast factory. Lobo opened with a gateway expand with a single adept into stargate.

The Terran's reaper scouted the expansion, but was deflected from the Protoss main by a mothership core and shot down by the adept. It was then the adept's turn to cross the map so that Lobo could determine the best course of action for his stargate.

Although a wall-off prevented access, Elusory revealed his cyclone/marine composition, and Lobo transitioned into phoenix and zealot production.

Harassment with phoenixes did little damage, killing some scvs and delaying a third command centre at the cost of 1 phoenix. Lobo ambitiously built a pylon and gateway at Elusory's 3rd. Simultaneously, however, Elusory had sent 2 cyclones and 3 scvs across the map and killed three zealots before Lobo could bring his army back home, cancelling the Protoss harassment at the cost of one cyclone.

Elusory cleared out his third and expanded while Lobo took his own third. The Terran teched to liberators while the Protoss finished charge, went up to 7 gateways, and added templars.

At 8 minutes Lobo moved across the map with his chargealots and templar, morphing the latter into four archons while starting reinforcing pylons and a gateway.

Elusory tried to take Lobo by surprise, setting up a concave and sending out some scvs to trigger the zealot charge, but the Protoss numbers were equal with the Terran's and the cyclones were caught out of position with the remaining phoenix flanking to lift cyclones and harass medivacs. The stimmed marines were forced to retreat, but even with stutter step the chargealots' bonus damage cut them down swiftly.


Imbalot Archon: still a good composition in LotV?



Lobo added more archons then pushed into Elusory's third, crushing the Terran's remaining defences

---Winners Bracket Finals: Lobo v Blysk---

---Game 1 - Bridgehead---

Lobo, making use of the new LotV economy to maximise the power of cheese, opened with a proxy 4gate. Blysk opened with a fast stargate, walling off the entry to his base completely.

Lobo put on sustained aggression with zealots and adepts, but Blysk was successful in maintaining a wall-off while fending off the assault with a stalker and mothership core.


A desperate, yet successful, defence against a proxy 4gate



At the same time, Blysk's oracle found no anti-air defences in Lobo's mineral line, and forced his 4-gating opponent to tap out as his workers were melted one by one.

---Game 2 - Ruins of Seras---

Lobo elected to open with two gateways into a proxy robotics facility. Blysk opened with a gateway into proxy stargate.

With an oracle heading towards Lobo's main, Blysk took his natural expansion and started a robotics facility. However, his oracle did no damage, being deflected by a photon overcharge.

Lobo, continuing his penchant for 1-base aggression, went up to four gateways and prepared a large assault with zealots and adepts. Lifting his zealots and adepts into Blysk's main, Lobo warped in another round of zealots and began his assault.

Blysk fought back with adepts, probes, and photon overcharge - buying as much time as he could for the immortal he had in production. At the last moment, when a warp in of stalkers from Lobo had shot down the mothership core and threatened to kill Blysk's last adept, the immortal exited the robotics facility in the middle of the battle, destroying two damaged stalkers within seconds of arrival.


MVP Immortal



Lobo, with his army destroyed and with only one nexus compared to Blysk's two, knew he would not be able to match Blysk's ability to ramp up an economy for a viable mid-game strategy and typed gg.

---Game 3 - Terraform---

Blysk, spawning top left, opened in the same fashion he did on Ruins of Seras and created an expectation of yet another stargate opening. Lobo, falling for the ploy, opened stargate and made phoenixes. Blysk, however, had already decided on a sneaky proxied dark shrine in the north of Terraform.

Lobo spots a dark templar warping in to the north of his natural with his phoenix, and tries to get a sentry in place - however, he warps in next to a pylon without gateway or nexus support for a rapid warp in, allowing the DT access.

Lobo built an oracle but had not realised that, in the current patch being played on, the detection spell envision had been removed. With those two missteps, brought about by a lack of familiarity with the constantly-changing beta patches, Lobo was knocked into the lower bracket to face Metroplex in another PvP while Blysk was the first to qualify for Singapore with no maps dropped.

---Lower Bracket Finals: Metroplex v Lobo---

---Game 1 - Orbital Shipyard---

Metroplex opened with 2-gate adept into robo, while Lobo opened 2-gate adept into stargate. Metroplex harassed with his adepts, killing 5 probes. Lobo's oracle killed four probes in retaliation, but a photon overcharge prevented more damage to Metroplex' mineral line.

Lobo, sensing a timing, ran across the map with 6 adepts and the oracle. Metroplex tried a 2-adept drop, but was deflected by Lobo's photon overcharge.

Lobo's oracle baited Metroplex' defending stalkers into his natural while the adepts went to work in the main base mineral line, and what had been a slight worker lead for Lobo turned into a massive lead as his opponent lost another 12 workers, giving Lobo a 15-worker lead.


Disruptors are scary



Lobo began immortal production to bolster his adept army, while Metroplex pushed across with adepts, stalkers, and a disruptor. Lobo held the main push, and while Metroplex preserved his disruptor and some stalkers in a warp prism, Lobo pushed across the map for the killing blow. Even with a disruptor and stalkers causing havoc at home, Lobo's immortal/adept army was enough to force the GG.

---Game 2 - Bridgehead---

Lobo and Metroplex both opened into proxied Dark Shrines however Lobo, still mindful of his third game against Blysk, was the first to place a defensive robotics bay.

The DTs get little damage done for either side, but Lobo had been more diligent in producing probes, maintain strong economy lead throughout the game. Even with a DT drop from Metroplex, Lobo's worker lead continued until more DT drops evened out the worker count.

Lobo hadn't wasted his economic advantage, however, and build a substantial ground army with immortals, adepts, sentries, and chargealots. Metroplex defended the push brilliantly with good army positioning and dark templars, but the frontal attack was just a distraction from Lobo's chargealot warp-ins to Metroplex' natural.

Lobo once more gained a strong worker lead, and took a third base, albeit at the cost of the majority of his army. As Metroplex finally found the time to clean up the units in his natural, a large chargealot run-by from Lobo came up the ramp and destroyed the main nexus.


Chargealots make short work of an unguarded nexus



With the superior economy, and continued economic damage done to his opponent, Lobo took game two.

---Game 3 - Moonlight Madness---

Metroplex, spawning in the north-east, opened with a fast stargate, whereas Lobo opened with a mothership core and an attempted proxy pylon south of Metroplex' main. Metroplex scouted the proxy and chased the probe away, forcing Lobo to delay his own stargate even further as he built it in his own base.

Lobo sent an adept across to scout Metroplex base, arriving just as Metroplex' oracle began its assault. Lobo reacted quickly, pulling his probes and activating photon overcharge, keeping his worker deaths to only three probes lost.

In the meanwhile, Lobo's own oracle crossed the map, but was scouted and deflected without any damage done, leaving both Protoss on even worker counts.

Metroplex used a pylon behind Lobo's destructible rocks to create a warp-in of 4 zealots and adepts. A stasis ward from Metroplex oracle was placed, but Lobo triggered it with a single zealot. Then Metroplex began his assault, attempting to snipe Lobo's robotics facility before an immortal could finish.

Lobo successfully chased Metroplex away and the Immortal arrived, shutting down the aggression. Metroplex, trapped between Lobo's main and the rocks, began breaking them down. However, he was not fast enough, and was caught between the rocks and a much larger army.


Their lives for Aiur



With Metroplex down in army supply, Lobo smelled blood in the water, and pushed across when his second immortal finished. Lobo's army was supported by a voidray and phoenix, warping in reinforcements from a warp prism. He destroyed Metroplex' natural, then contained Metroplex on one base while he cleared up the adepts terrorising his own natural mineral line.

Metroplex tried one last attack, but Lobo caught him out of position with a superior force, and crushed his army to qualify for the main tournament.

===Final Thoughts===

Although heavy illness caused a lengthy delay in my coverage of these qualifiers, it has not dulled my excitement for the event.

With all the qualifiers now being completed, and recaps under way for each, I find myself unable to wait to see what happens when the group stage begins on October 18th.

I'm glad ESL are paying attention to the broader definition of 'SEA' because, given the ANZ Starcraft scene remains strong, it's nice to see other countries targeted for a bit of LotV hype.

GLHF all!
~ x5.Crescendo

[PNStriKE]

Nice work crescendo ! .There is no other countries recap? enjoy reading it

Quick Comments

x5.Crescendo:

More recaps are coming :) Heavy illness has slowed my progress on most projects, but I'm mostly recovered now!