[Stallion]

Originally Posted by NXZ

I don't think Stallion necessarily did justice to those last 2 games so as is my duty as (the player) I'm going to give my opinion on the 2 games I participated in.

+ [Game 1 vs HavoC] +

First off vs HavoC, I picked Terminus after realizing it was the version that allowed a quick third with less minerals, with an entrance to the third guarded by rocks. I was incredibly nervous before this game, HavoC had just used a solid 2 rax play to defeat Eldrid (despite the fact he nearly blew it even after killing 2 overlords and a hatchery for free at the beginning) and with my hate for all things bunker I didn't really want to play. However Eldrid, immediately after his game says to me, "He wasn't good, you would've crushed him on any other map NXZ". I felt much more confident after this as I went into the lobby and the countdown began. I spawned in the top position while ovie scouting to the left and began my build. Going for a standard 15 hatch 15 pool with a gas later on I defended HavoC's early bunker shenanigans with drones (or a ****** bunker as BsK put it :P), while he moved out with his reaper which I defended with zero drone loss. I continued my build normally, grabbing 1-1 ups, macro hatch, a third, while massing up some speedlings. Once I had a decent group of lings I moved out across the map to his base and began working on his rocks. However with my terrible reaction time his first 4 speed reapers destroyed all but 4 lings as I retreated. I immediately unburrowed my spine and tried to put it to the main where he would jump up with his reapers. However it timed out so that the reapers jumped up and 2 shot it before it could finish burrowing. After some dancing with reapers and lings (me attacking his reapers when they jumped up then retreating when he jumped down because I expected him to jump one up to get sight range to kill my ling from the low ground, however this didn't work out as he just leaped all of them up and when i realized this I sat at the edge of the cliff waiting for the suicidal maneuver) I defended the reapers and got 4 roaches out while securing my third and extra gases. HavoC then began dropping me with the first one catching me out of position at his base which i defended after losing an extractor. The second with 2 medivacs (1 more than last time!) did slightly more damage as I told my control group "1" to go defend (normally my lings are 1 in zvt) however this did not work out well as this was the one roach on the other side of the map trying to keep watchtower control while killing his third rocks. This drop did a lot more damage then I'm pretty sure he dropped again with 3 medivacs and sniped my pool before I reacted (CURSE MY SLOW REACTION TIME, WHEN I WAS WATCHING THE VODS I LOOKED LIKE SOME DIAMOND SCRUB :P). After defending this he dropped once again with 4 medivacs which arrived as my infestors popped this time I crushed all of his units and caught 2 medivacs with fungals. At this point, my 2-2 was coming up and my baneling speed was about to finish, so I moved out across the map and morphed in a group of banes and attacked him. After sneaking through his wall my infestor/ling/bling rolled through his weak low upgraded marine marauder(for those roaches earlier I think) tank ball and took the game after killing all but 5 scvs and his nat OC while forcing his third to retreat. After defending his drops which sniped my third I went in for the kill with my lings catching his nat OC (previously his third) and taking it to really low red hp (it was gonna burn down) before rushing up into the main and destroying his last remaining troops. YES, I'd pulled out a win for crux and tbh i was rather disappointed in HavoC's play, he had a very late third on terminus and I felt like he reacted poorly to the map and the easy macro capabilities that it brings. However, after watching the vod on Spoon's stream I was disgusted with my play, I hated it, with a huge passion, I watched my slow reactions to drops and sighting things on the minimap time and time again and decided that in order for me to reach the top I just had to "be" better and so that was what I resolved to do (this was after the clanwar was over though btw).

+ [Game 2 vs GriM] +

Next game was on dual site vs GRiM. This pick was really weird to me, to be more specific not the player pick but rather, the map pick. They wanted to play a pvz on dual site? From the beginning I knew something was up. Anyways, the game began and I spawned on the right position with him on the left. I figured he wouldn't open ffe here and I feel much more confident going speedling vs 1 base builds, regardless i could still roach or bane the hell out of his expansion if he tried to ffe on this map. My overlord scouted no ffe and so I expanded comfortably with his nasty little probe JUST escaping past the zealot into his base. He went for a stalker pressure build, leaving the zealot behind as he used the stalker to secure map control. However, He didn't retreat quick enough as I used my first inject on 8 lings which easily cleaned up the stalker and approached his ramp. I picked off his low ground pylon before retreating. Later on as he moved down the ramp with 2 sentries and a zealot I ran in with my lings and picked off both sentries despite his forcefields. 3 HerO lings escaped the deathtrap that was one zealot blocking his main with two force fields and another zealot blocking the bottom of the ramp. I held positiong the lings and legged it the moment the first force field ran out. With this being the last game and everything I had already made a spore at my nat just in case and had melee on the way. I sacced an overlord which couldn't die to his all zealot army which scouted his dt shrine prompting me to add more spores and get an overseer immediately when my lair finished. My lings at his nat got attacked which after taking a glance at them saw the dt's shadowy thingy and heard its unique attack sound. At that I retreated while pumping lings to defend some kind of attack. As he moved out and began to put up a pylon I poked forward with my lings sniping the probe and spotting an archon. I immediately ran around and countered, killing most of his probes and his dt shrine before retreating. I engaged his army at my ramp after he held my initial attempt of engaging him with my nat drones and lings. My newly build lings from the main charged down the ramp with my counter attack lings surrounding from the other side. Unfortunately this fight went wildly in his favor with me killing some probes and an archon and maybe 1 zealot and him wiping out most of my lings. I retreated to the main and pulled all my drones and lings and my one queen to fight his army as this final fight began my 2-1 finished and i held with a little over 10 drones a queen and a large group of lings, during the fight I morphed an overseer with which I countered killing his nat nexus before running into his main past the broken wall off (lol) and killing the dt that was his last hope of a comeback. With that he gg'd and we won!!!!! YEH.

In fact, let's place crux players in Blizzard cup group A.

+ [HerO award for player expecting to sweep tournament but getting cheesed out.] +

Doc takes this one :P you know what I'm talking about doc

+ [MC award for performing well and just making it through the group] +

Stallion performed really well in his 3 games despite some poor scouting in his final pvp game. With that run he takes this award

+ [Stephano award for getting owned by tournament format.] +

Eldrid takes this one with his almost auto lose map in xel'naga caverns.

+ [DRG award for playing zerg and finishing first in the group.] +

I take this one, despite my games being pretty one sided, I feel like it didn't show the domination required that would allow me to get the mvp award (who looked much more unstoppable then DRG in the group stages btw), besides DRG and I both play zerg so I take this one.

+ [MvP award for being a baller and getting cheated out of his rightful first place group spot because of maps and format] +

OK so this goes to 2 players, cruxBoss and cruxMyth both players were our potential next choices but due to tournament format, couldn't participate.

That raps up my recap of the night. It was a great experience and I hope we can play again with Nerve again sometime.

haha you realise iit was cruxBoss or cruxVhoR and cruxMyth? :P