WCS Europe Results (Group E)

WCS Europe Group E is in the books and featured one upset versus predictions.  I missed the games live, but thankfully the VODs are up so game descriptions are below.

 BlinG 2  StarDust 1

 

One of two upsets, unpredictable PvP gave the win to the otherwise unremarkable British Protoss.  Game one BlinG went for a proxy dark shrine into an expand; StarDust figured out the DTs late and took some damage; both players then got blink and StarDust's aggression was held off easily; the Korean tapped out after BlinG destroyed his army.  In game two both players went for DTs (BlinG again with the proxy), but StarDust took minimal damage while BlinG took much more; the British Protoss evened things up with a DT drop, but then went for a risky third base which StarDust attacked with his larger army and won the game.  In the final match StarDust went for blink while BlinG went for an early expand; BlinG's immortal production was good enough to halt the four-gate and won him the game.  Decision making and scouting determined the series and there was no luck involved with the result.

 Happy 2  Bly 1

A predicted result.  Game one Happy went for early aggression and managed to get his hellion/reaper force into the main and killed a bunch of drones; Bly went for the usual muta/ling style; Happy attacked with 1/1, getting even further ahead; Bly held off the following attack as Happy went for a marine/hellbat/mine composition; Happy then lured Bly's army far away from his bases and hit him with a secondary army, but couldn't quite snipe a hatch; Happy did the same thing again and this time took out Bly's natural; Happy then added thors and simply rolled over Bly's army.  In game two Happy again went for three barracks and again did significant damage with hellions (this time in the natural); Bly built roaches and was able to save his third as Happy attacked it with his army; Happy's follow-up killed the third and defended his natural from a roach runby, but Bly's muta/ling army was able to overwhelm Happy's and killed his natural while the Terran dropped and killed his fifth--Happy had no way of defending his main with Bly camped outside it and was forced tap out.  In the final game Happy went for a quick three CC's and e did good damage with his reaper opener; Bly stayed on roach/ling for a long time, allowing Happy to do further damage with drops; mutas slowed down the aggression so Happy went for a frontal push with his full army (including thors), before again splitting his forces; ultras (and brood lords) were added to Bly's composition and Happy lost most of his army taking out Bly's fourth; Happy was able to take out the fifth with a drop and forced a cancel on the fourth; as Bly was moving towards an attack Happy killed the fifth yet again; more and more infestors were added to Bly's composition and he attacked Happy's sixth and forced him to abandon the base; Happy built up a huge raven/viking army and in the final confrontation was able to crush Bly for the win.  I was surprised that Bly did not attempt early aggression against Happy, although the Terran's conservative openings likely would have stopped it.

 BlinG 2  Happy 1

 

The second upset of the day as Happy was unable to handle BlinG's style.  Game one BlinG went for a fast three bases off a stargate, with his oracle accomplishing nothing; Happy responded with an attempted drop, but it was spotted and he was forced to withdraw; BlinG took a quick fourth which Happy scouted immediately--his army (including hellbats and ghosts) killed the base; BlinG made the tech switch to colossus (from zealot/archon) before Happy was into full viking production and the Protoss shredded the bio army and won the game.  In game two BlinG went for the same three quick bases with a stargate and this time his oracle did some damage; Happy attacked the third, but was forced back; Happy then dropped the second and attacked the third which killed a bunch of probes; Happy repeated the tactic, dropping the main instead of the second; BlinG pushed forward with his army, but didn't accomplish much; Happy went for a two-pronged attack on the third and fourth, with both were deflected, but a subsequent attack on the fourth killed it; BlinG then took half his army and suicided it into Happy's army, losing all his colossus (whether this was a mistake in strategy or simply a mistake I wasn't sure); Happy killed the third and the fourth (again) and BlinG tapped out shortly afterwards.  In the final game BlinG went four-gate which Happy did not scout, assuming it would be another stargate opening; the Terran just barely held off the push, but lost a ton of SCVs in doing so; BlinG saturated his natural while Happy delayed retaking his own; BlinG added blink and a third, but his next push didn't break Happy; the Terran did some successful counter aggression until Happy took a bad engagement, losing a ton of units due to force fields; BlinG teched to colossus and his army ran over Happy.  This is a series Happy could have won, but BlinG played well and deserves full value for the win.

 StarDust 2  Bly 1

 

A predicted result as StarDust is a monster in PvZ.  Game one Bly went for a roach/ling attack that StarDust did not see coming and lost to immediately.  Game two StarDust went stargate as Bly set up a big ling attack, but for whatever reason did not push forward; StarDust cancelled Bly's third with void rays, then faked a third causing Bly to triple expand (up to five bases) and drone heavily; the Korean moved out with his colossus/void/zealot army and Bly had too few units to stop him.  In the final game StarDust went for phoenix/zealot pressure which did a lot of damage to Bly's third; the Protoss transitioned into colossus, complimenting it with warp prism harass that didn't accomplish much; Bly responded with roach/hydra/viper; Bly's attack was poorly executed as he only focus-fired one of three colossi he pulled and proceeded to lose his entire army; Bly transitioned into infestor/ultra as StarDust added a fourth and killed Bly's fifth; more passivity allowed Bly to add brood lords while StarDust added tempests; finally the two armies fought and Bly could not hang on as StarDust rolled to the win (he already had phoenix for the inevitable muta switch).  Each of the games featured excellent strategic decisions by the winners (even if Bly's was cheese) and were fun to watch.

 StarDust 2  Happy 0

I thought this would be a closer series, but besides fulfilling predictions it wasn't as dynamic as hoped (Happy struggled to adapt to a Protoss playing standard)--the second game was quite good, admittedly.  Game one StarDust opened normally, but hid his robo to provoke Happy into taking unnecessary precautions (which he did); Happy sent a double drop right over StarDust's army and lost a full medevac and then a pile of SCVs to warp prism harassment; Happy pulled his SCVs for a two-base all-in and got steamrolled.  Game two StarDust opened standard again (going up to colossus and then storm), as Happy went three racks and added hellbats to his composition; Happy made a successful drop (killing off some probes) and was able to harass with them for quite some time; Happy added ghosts as he killed all the colossi in the first fight between armies; StarDust harassed the third with zealots and forced a lift while Happy went into the main and landed his vikings, doing significant damage, but losing all his air units; a subsequent drop killed StarDust's main; the Protoss added a few colossus to his zealot/archon army and storm-dropped the third and sent zealots to the fourth; Happy dropped the fourth, but only delayed mining time there--losing a bunch of ghosts to feedbacks while he wasn't paying attention; StarDust went for a zealot attack with storm on the fourth, distracting Happy who let his entire bio force get stormed in a choke while threatening the Protoss third and Happy tapped out abruptly.  I think Happy could have stayed in the final game longer, but was either on tilt or simply didn't like his odds going forward.

 

StarDust and BlinG move forward as surprises continue in WCS.

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)

WCS America Results (Group D)

Last night's Group D action featured yet another shocking result as Jaedong failed to make it through to the round of sixteen, playing havoc with predictions.  Both Arthur and Has brought the cheese train to the evening and Bomber, although making it through, lost to Arthur.  The VODs are already up and with the exception of the opening match are all worth checking out (even if Has vs Jaedong game #3 makes your head explode).

 

 Arthur 2  Has 0

The expected result, with Has looking very unimpressive in the series.  Game one Has went for early aggression (10-gate), but he lost his pylon-building probe before the pylon was built and getting no damage done; Arthur went for a quick stargate; the oracle wrecked the mineral line as Has was stuck outside Arthur's main--able to snip off the robo, but unable to get up the ramp; Arthur attacked Has' natural, but couldn't kill it as Has recalled his army back; Arthur took a pair of favourable engagements, killing Has' immortals with void rays and forcing him to tap out.  Game two Arthur went for a proxy stargate, but Has spotted it immediately and shut it down; Arthur was able to defend against his opponents aggression as both players had blink; Arthur built up a bigger stalker count and attacked as Has tried to get DTs leading to a base trade, but Arthur had too much and Has tapped out.  Arthur had no problems dealing with Has' aggression in the series and that style is what both would use against their other opponents.

 Bomber 2  Jaedong 0

 

The match everyone was looking forward too was a one-sided stomp from Bomber.  Game one featured standard play from both (a one medevac drop was pushed away easily); once established on three bases Bomber attacked Jaedong's fourth, making that the meeting point of the two armies; the second push from Bomber killed the fourth, held off Jaedong's subsequent attempt to push the Terran back from the third and the Tyrant tapped out.  In game two Bomber went for a three-reaper opening that did some damage as both players continued along with standard play; Bomber sent out a couple of drops which did limited damage, largely preventing Jaedong from being aggressive; Bomber pressured the fourth and Jaedong lost his army three times trying to defend it, gging after the third time.  I don't think Jaedong played poorly, but he had no answer for Bomber--these were the only standard games of the evening.

 Arthur 2  Bomber 1

 

The biggest shock of the evening for me, especially after game one.  Arthur went for a two-base blink attack, but Bomber defended it without taking too much damage (he blindly prepared for it), holding off both the initial attack and the follow-up; Bomber's counter rolled over the Protoss player.  Game two Bomber went for a proxy reaper build that got a couple of kills before he had to pull back; Arthur went for blink again (this time off one base) and Bomber held it off the first two attacks, but not the third (unlike the previous game Bomber had not medevacs).  In the final game Bomber went for the Polt-style three racks while Arthur went for the early expand to the gold base (which did not get scouted), looking for a heavy gateway attack (without blink); Bomber made sure to build his factory and starport this time (unlike in the second game), but Arthur simply had far too much stuff and Bomber was forced to tap out.  I think the lack of scouting killed Bomber in game three, while believing the attack was over killed him in game two.

 Has 2  Jaedong 1

 

This series was one of the strangest I've ever seen.  Has opened forge first and looked for a cannon rush on Alterzim as Jaedong went up to a quick three-hatches; Has cannoned both expansions, but only killed the natural; Has transitioned to stargate, getting nothing accomplished with his oracle, so he made phoenix as Jaedong built roaches; Has' zealot attack was held off and the Protoss player added two more stargates as Jaedong built hydras; the first major engagement went in Jaedong's favour, killing off Has air army and forcing him to tap out moments later.  Game two Jaedong went for a quick three hatches again while Has went for a proxy dark shrine; Jaedong had no idea DTs were coming and they did great damage, killing the third and natural; Has followed up with an attack that killed Jaedong off.  In the final game (the strangest of the three) Has walled off Jaedong's natural with pylons which transitioned into a bizarre cannon rush; as weird as it was, the tactic forced Jaedong to stay on one base for awhile as Has expanded; Jaedong broke the contain as Has prepared for his follow-up all-in; Jaedong went upgrade heavy with a bunch of spines, but Has used a warp prism to attack into the main (avoiding the spines) and Jaedong didn't have enough units to hold off, knocking him out of Premier.  I think insufficient scouting killed Jaedong in game two (the DTs were something he should have prepared for earlier), while Has strategy in game three would never work again--Jaedong was reacting to something bizarre and it caught him off guard.  I think Has will struggle mightily in the future against top players given how obvious it's become that he relies on cheese so heavily.

 Bomber 2  Has 0

 

Bomber knew the cheese-train was coming and held on for the win and a trip to the round of sixteen.  Game one Has opened with a proxy oracle, but Bomber was ready for it an snipped it without any damage being done; Has then went for two different proxies to get himself a dark shrine as Bomber defended against blink stalkers; Has' DT walked to a turret and got killed by SCV's as Bomber was moving his army to kill Has; the Protoss attempted a base trade, but Bomber had kept units in his main and crushed Has.  In game two Has went for a proxy gate in Bomber's base, but Bomber held off; the Terran was unable to immediately kill Has with the counter and the Protoss took the gold while Bomber built up his forces; Has finally attacked, but Bomber crushed his force and went for a doom drop as Has attempted to base trade again--which failed just as it did in the previous game.  This was fun to watch as Bomber did an excellent job fending off Has' various aggressive strategies.

 

Arthur and Bomber move on and I'll be interested to see how the former performs there.

 

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)

WCS America Results (Group C)

Group C's games are in the books and fit my predictions (HyuN and Revival), albeit not Aligulac's (which had ByuN moving forward rather than Revival).  Here's a look at the games themselves:

 ByuL 2  TheStC 0

The expected result as TheStC's TvZ is awful.  The Terran opened with three reapers and while tickling a number of lings, he did not notice ByuL's ling counter which did significant damage; when TheStC tried to move out with hellions lings wrecked his natural and got into the main as well; ByuL's mutas reined supreme and an attempted hatch-snipe from TheStC accomplished nothing--he subsequently killed it with a drop, but ByuL was already twice his supply and taking his fourth, so the game was not in doubt.  Game two both players opened greedy as TheStC eschewed scouting as he followed his opening (going into mech); ByuL's lings got into the main as the depots were not raised; ByuL suicided a small roach army back by queens into TheStC's army, rallying his reinforcements and wearing down the mech army; ByuL went for swarm hosts and TheStC pushed out too early and lost his entire army; roaches walked into TheStC's natural as the depot was not raised (again) and a game that was spiralling out of control just got worse, as the Terran tapped out after a futile counter attack was cleaned up.

 HyuN 2  Revival 1

Another expected result, although it's interesting that HyuN only one with cheese.  Game one Revival went for a ling attack on HyuN's third and did some damage and then killed a lot of roaches in an excellent engagement; Revival made a big push, but could not break HyuN and was forced to retreat; HyuN then attacked with an upgrade advantage, but wasn't able to completely win the engagement; HyuN continued to be aggressive, using burrowed roaches as well as his army, but Revival was able to defend; more and more hydras were added by both players as engagements continued, with HyuN adding vipers to his composition, but the momentum ultimately went Revival's way as he began to hurt his opponent's economy and eventually won him the game; the game featured a lot of use of the contaminate spell by HyuN which was cool to see.  Game two HyuN went for an eight-pool as Revival early expanded and did crippling damage; while the game went on a little longer it was never in doubt.  In the final game HyuN went for an eight-pool and an early baneling nest as Revival early expanded again and quickly won the game and the series.

 HyuN 2  ByuL 1

As predicted again, this was the closest series of the day.  Game one HyuN went for an early third base and ByuL attacked the natural with roaches and lost his entire army, dying to the counter attack.  In game two ByuL was able to cancel HyuN's third and snipped three queens early as the latter was attempting to go zergling heavy (ByuL went for roaches); ByuL gave up his third to the ling attack, but then countered with roaches and won the game.  In the final game featured early ling/bane wars as both players went for mutas; ByuL lost a ton of drones to a ling runby and then lost the first muta engagement, which won HyuN the game.

 Revival 2  TheStC 0

Another set of crushing defeats for the Korean Terran.  Game one TheStC went for a hellion/marauder attack as Revival went for roach/bane, with the former losing all his hellions to roaches, but holding off the attack without suffering too much damage; without medevacs TheStC's attack failed, putting Revival ahead; transitioning to mutas and his army rolled over the Terran.  In game two TheStC went proxy two-racks where he made a reaper first, which was scouted early and while the bunker got up it died immediately and that ended the game.

 Revival 2  ByuL 1

The Aligulac surprise, but following my prediction.  Game one Revival went for early lings and brought the drones along to help the attack, but failed with only two drones remaining he died to the counter attack.  In game two both players were fairly passive as they both got firmly on three bases before the roach wars began, with Revival getting hydras and ByuL making banelings and then infestors; eventually Revival rolled ByuL over.  The final game was crazy, as ByuL went for a massive ling attack and while lost his natural he didn't suffer devastating damage; Revival's counter killed ByuL's queens; ByuL went for mutas while Revival went for roaches; the two exchanged thirds; ByuL left his mutas fighting in Revival's base a little too long (despite killing the natural and the third) as queens and spores were just enough to keep the latter in the game as he killed ByuL's third (again); Revival lost his third again, but ByuL lost almost all his mutas (amusingly, ByuL tried to block the third by burrowing a ling next to a spore crawler); ByuL refused to build anything other than mutas as Revival was stuck on hydras without upgrades and roaches; Revival built infestors as ByuL continued his muta harass, destroying the main completely and killed all his overlords in the natural and then the natural itself; Revival built a ton of spores at his remaining base and then tried to hunt down the muta flock with infestors; eventually Revival killed ByuL's fourth so the latter attacked Revival's base with all his banelings, which did nothing and the mutas attacked the spores and got annihilated, ending the game.  Day9 called this a stupid game (all in good fun I think), but it really was entertaining to watch.

HyuN and Revival move on to the round of sixteen.

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)

WCS Europe Results (Group D)

Group D has come and gone and the predicted players have gone through (San and Dayshi), albeit in reverse order.  San was playing from Korea, which didn't help his cause (his map score was only 5-4), but his PvZ was too good to get knocked out of Premier.  The VODs are up and the games were quite good (I've noted several below, but should add game three of San/Dayshi).

Miniraser  2 TargA  0

 

One of the days upsets, as Miniraser played very well throughout the day.  Game one TargA went for an early expansion, but Miniraser forced a cancel; both players went for roaches, although Miniraser attempted some mind games in faking that he was going for mutas to set up an attack, but the Norwegian's defence was too good to get damage done; both players feinted attacks as they established their third bases; TargA attacked with +2, splitting his roach army into three groups and while he killed a bunch of drones in Miniraser's main, but he lost most of his army doing it and infestors weren't enough to hold back the counter, giving the Swede the win.  Game two Miniraser went for an early ling attack and simply overwhelmed an unprepared TargA for the upset win.

Dayshi  2 San  1

 

Another upset as Dayshi handled the TvP match-up without much difficulty.  In game one San went for an early expand and blink, while Dayshi went for a widow mine drop that did some damage; San responded to the pressure by taking a third and getting colossus as Dayshi went up to five barracks; Dayshi threatened the third, but couldn't break it so went for a doom drop in the main which snipped the natural and crippled the colossus count--shortly afterwards San tapped out.  Game two Dayshi went for the same opening and once again did damage with widow mines while preparing for either a blink attack or DTs--instead San went for an early third (again); Dayshi was unable to pressure San like he did in the previous game and instead the Korean attacked with a big colossus/archon army and rolled over the Terran.  In the final game Dayshi went for an ebay block on the natural as he skipped the reaper opening, but continued with his widow mine strategy; San went for blink as his opponent prepared for an all-in, but once again the Korean skipped the attack so Dayshi went for yet another widow mine drop which was pushed back; San went for heavy upgrades while both players took their thirds; San attacked the third, but Dayshi held with both players losing their armies in the encounter; the Frenchman built ghosts (no doubt blowing the mind of ForGG) and good emps won him the next two fights along with the game and the series.  While not the most dynamic games of the day, Dayshi did an excellent job of being ready for all-ins while having a transition beyond it.  Incorporating widow mines was a great anticipation of the upcoming balance patch, and he's apparently one of the only Terrans that's figured out ghosts are pretty good in the match-up.

Dayshi  2 Miniraser  0

 

A very straightforward win for Dayshi whose macro overwhelmed his opponent.  In game one both players opened standard and passively; Miniraser built a ton of queens as he went for the usual muta/ling style and Dayshi went for the Polt-style of drilling the front; the constant attacks slowly created a supply lead for Dayshi and eventually he crushed his opponent.  Game two Dayshi lost his reaper to drones, with both players then sitting back and macroing until Dayshi made a disastrous hellion/banshee push, losing all the former to a ling surround and losing one of his two banshee's to a spore crawler due to inattention; despite all the mistakes Dayshi's macro was impeccable and he maintained a supply lead, making his bio/mine push before Miniraser was fully ready for the attack; the Swede managed to hold off the initial push, which lead to another pause as both expanded; a re-maxed Dayshi won the game with his next push.

San  2 TargA  1

 

The final result was expected, as even with lag TargA could not hold off San's incessant attacks.  Game one San went for the gold expand while TargA went for an early two-base roach/ling attack which San held off easily (taking no damage) and giving him a huge supply lead; TargA tried to survive the immortal/sentry attack with a counter attack of his own, but San had already walled in his main and gave up the gold base to simply kill TargA (the game is worth watching just for San's defence of the first attack).  In game two San went for another immortal-sentry attack and TargA built early roaches again, but took a third this time rather than staying on two bases; TargA again went for the counter while San attacked (also building a ton of spines) and San again gave up his natural while bypassing TargA's third, going for the natural; this time TargA held without losing a base, putting him far ahead (transitioning to swarm hosts) with the game no longer in doubt (although San made it much closer than it should have been).  In the final game (the only macro game from the Korean in this match) TargA made a bunch of lings and donated them to San's sentries for whatever reason; San again went for the immortal/sentry composition while taking a third; his small army took out TargA's third without suffering any significant losses as he teched up to blink; TargA tried to take his forth while rebuilding his third (heading towards swarm hosts), setting up a roach counter that San spotted with his observer and shoved away; San killed the fourth and sent his warp prism into the main as he recalled to deal with TargA's roaches; San took his fourth while killing TargA's natural; a roach counter killed two colossus that had no support, while warp prism harassment killed the hive and the fifth; TargA moved his swarm hosts to kill San's third while the prism killed his own third; lings went after San's fourth, but could not kill or gut it; TargA lost his fourth (again), and he began to tech up to infestors; San's army rolled over TargA's third and attacked the swarm hosts directly and crushing it, long before the infestors could impact the engagements.  The final game was excellent, as both players went for multipronged aggression (albeit San's was more effective).  San's macro against Zergs in general is fantastic (ala his recent win over Life or DongRaeGu months before that).

San  2 Miniraser  1

 

The expected result, although Miniraser played well.  Game one San went for early warp prism harass and killed some drones in Miniraser's main and third; San then went for an immortal/sentry attack that Miniraser had built a ton of roaches to defend against; Miniraser went for a huge surround, which didn't crush San's army, but forced him to pull back briefly; the next attack was successfully surrounded and San was forced to tap out as his army was destroyed.  Game two Miniraser stayed on two bases much longer than the previous game and his attempted expand was cancelled as the Zerg went ling/infestor; San took an early third (faster than Miniraser) while getting DTs and blink; Miniraser lost a bunch of lings pressuring the third and needlessly a pair of creep-spreading queens to zealots; San took his fourth as Miniraser began to tech up to ultras (which fit the style, but was an odd choice given how immortal-heavy San was, even if they were backed up by a million queens); San cancelled the fourth and set up harassment possibilities all over the map; San took a fifth as Miniraser tried to establish his fourth, struggling against constant harassment (eventually making it safe with a ton of spines); San went for a carrier transition (with preparation for a muta switch), giving Miniraser the time to get a fifth base up; San finally attacked, losing his ground army, but killing Miniraser's fifth (while losing his attempted sixth); Miniraser spent his bank on corrupters, but San was already building void rays and the Zerg got completely wrecked.  In the final game Miniraser went for a quick three hatches along with speed as San applied four-gate zealot pressure which Miniraser held without significant losses; San transitioned to a third and blink as Miniraser went for muta/corrupter--San scouted it early and dropped double stargates to deal with it; Miniraser took a poor fight, but the pressure allowed him to secure his fourth and start a fifth/sixth; San took out the fifth while defending his third, and then killed the third and fifth while pressuring the fourth; when Miniraser lost his fourth he had to tap out.  The second game was fantastic (San made carriers work!) and throughout the PvZ's it was interesting to see the all-in tools used for early expands and defence when San went for a macro game.  I liked Miniraser's play, despites making mistakes here and there, and there's a chance he could challenge for Premier again.

 

So Dayshi and San move forward, bringing three out of four Terrans into the round of sixteen (Protoss are 3-3 and Zergs 2-4).

 

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)

News & Notes (February 24th)

Jinro wrote a fantastic opinion piece not long ago about the current stat of SC2; it's worth quoting extensively:

-From my initial reading [Team Liquid comments about the game] I was sort of expecting SC2 to be in a horrible place with "no hope for the future" (if you get the reference, you're pretty old school by SC2 standards), every game an all-in or a swarm host camping fest. But I've got to say, after having now watched IEM Sao Paulo, ASUS Rog, plenty of GSL and Proleague matches as well as most of the games from the on-going IEM Cologne... what I have seen in these games and what I expected from the comments in threads beforehand, could not be further removed. I can very honestly say that in terms of watchability, the game has never been even close to where it is at now. Let me give you a few examples of the state of the game when I left [Wings of Liberty]. WoL had some really good periods too (the era that produced Nestea vs SC was amazing), but not only would I say that maps now are better, but so are the players, and the actual base game.

-Jinro talks about how balance whining and turtling go all the way back in StarCraft, giving examples from Brood War.

-How was it solved? Game evolved, maps got better, etc. I'm not saying SH [swarm hosts] is the exact same situation, but it's not such a horrible unit that it needs to be removed from the game --- if people had seen some of the games that occurred back during this period of PvZ today, they would have probably called for the BW designers heads. I don't think Blizzard are as clueless as people make them out to be. HotS is a far better game than WoL [agreed], todays maps are so far beyond what was available just 2 years ago that it's not even funny. I've been laddering a bit lately and the only map I mind getting at all is Habitation Station, and it's not even a big deal. Compare this to 2011 or early 2012, laddering was honestly a pretty sad experience sometimes with how bad the maps were, and looking back I think this was at least a small factor in killing my motivation to play. I'm not at all trying to say that the game is perfectly balanced, or that there isn't a lot of room for improvement still, I just don't get this extreme pessimism I sometimes see perpetuated in this forum. We have gone from "Chat channels? People want those?" to a region unlocked game with free to play arcade, from "Ladder maps and tournament maps should be different, tournament maps are too confusing for casual players"... to, well, pretty clearly todays map pool does not follow this creed.

This certainly echoes my more limited experience in SC2 (I didn't follow the Brood War scene and came to Wings of Liberty fairly late).  These days, most games in HOTS the better player wins (as long as it's not a best-of-one), which was not the case before.  The current complaints about Protoss aren't about a late game death ball, but instead about minor tweaks related to all-in tactics in the early game (which may or may not be imbalanced--I think Terrans have figured out how to handle early blink play and virtually no one complains about oracles anymore).  Even the swarm host in ZvP can be solved with a few tweaks here and there (I still think the unit leads to boring games, but it's something that can work).

Something that Jinro brought up was how good the recent non-WCS season tournaments have been lately and it's worth asking why that is.  There were IEM, ASUS ROG, etc last year--why are they so much better now?  I believe it's because of the WCS point system.  Despite all the criticisms of the framework Blizzard imposed on the scene last year, top players have realised that to get a shot at BlizzCon they need to participate in other premier tournaments.  Last year mid-tier Koreans like HyuN, Revival, YoDa, Leenock, and StarDust won trophies, but other than StarDust none of these players have come close to repeating those performances.  The top Koreans, when able to participate, are now coming and that's resulted in fantastic games.

I watched some of XMG's Balance Test Showcase (put together by ToD) and it was interesting to see MaNa beat FireCake's swarm host turtle style with mass tempest plus mothership.  The game wasn't entertaining, but the change to the tempest does mean Zerg has to be more active when going for that style (it's somewhat map dependent however, as FireCake was 1-1 against MaNa's approach when turtling).

 

I caught some of Breakout's qualifier on Friday (February 21st) and saw a fantastic TvZ between intense (Terran) and Kreos (Zerg)--here's the VOD of the first game (which is the most entertaining).

 

Patrick Howell O'Neill writes about the gender gap in Esports, where a study found that 90%-94% of viewers are male (most of whom are in the 19-25 age bracket).  O'Neill mentions some of the sexism that exists within the community, but doesn't connect it with broader trends (is there more or less than in other related communities?), doesn't explore why so few women watch Esports (he seems to imply it's related to sexism, but doesn't go into it or why that doesn't seem to impact the much more balanced numbers in Korea), doesn't examine if the ratio is improving or declining (and what either trend might mean), and doesn't explore what is an interesting reality.  To hazard a guess, I wonder if Esports is on the same track as regular sports, where very male-dominated hobbies broaden over the years (with increasing female participation) to become more equitable.  That trend is occurring in the broader gaming community, so presumably it will hit Esports as well.  Regardless, hopefully others will look more in depth into the topic.

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)

WCS Europe Results (Group C)

WCS Group C has wrapped up and featured yet another upset according to predictions as ForGG fell out of Premier (yet another Terran who refuses to build ghosts vs templars)--BabyKnight making it through.  The VODs can be found here and the quality of the games was much better than Group B.

VortiX  2 Lilbow 1

 

This was the expected result, albeit Lilbow put up a good fight.  Game one VortiX went for early speed off one base before double expanding, which caused Lilbow to take his natural late and go for four-gate pressure at the third that moved up to a seven-gate; Lilbow was very careful with his engagement, using a ramp as his retreat point and slowly chipped away at VortiX's army until he the Spaniard was forced to tap out.  In the second game both players went for early expands with Lilbow going for a stargate/phoenix before moving up to colossus; VortiX went ling/infestor moving towards ultras; Lilbow attacked with blink and +2 and took out the fourth, but the ultras arrived and he was forced to retreat as VortiX moved towards brood lords; VortiX attacked with his army, killing most of Lilbow's army and allowing VortiX's next army to run the Frenchman over.  In the final game Lilbow went for a pylon block on the natural and VortiX choose not to take the third, instead taking the time to kill the pylon; Lilbow pressured with a pair of stalkers and the mothership core, leading up to immortal-sentry as VortiX responded with roaches; VortiX abandoned his third as he sent all his roaches to Lilbow's natural, forcing the recall; the Spaniard did the same thing again and the players went into a base trade where the Frenchman lost both his bases while his attack was stopped and he tapped out.

ForGG  1 BabyKnight  2

The first upset of the day, as ForGG was nowhere near the form he showed at ASUS ROG.  The first game BabyKnight went phoenix and despite that ForGG went for heavy drop play, losing one medevac, but getting other drops in and denying BabyKnight's third; ForGG subsequently killed the re-built third as he caught BabyKnight out of position; the next push ran over the Protoss army as the Dane was attempting to switch over to templar/archon (losing his third yet again)--the game went on a little longer, but the outcome was not in doubt.  In game two BabyKnight went for a blink play and ForGG responded with tanks; ForGG tried to send a counter attack as he defended, but he walked them past the proxy pylon and he lost the marines; BabyKnight was adding a robo as he kept the pressure on and then killed ForGG when he tried to move out again.  In the final game both players opened passively as BabyKnight went for colossus/blink and used the latter to deflect ForGG's first push; the Terran kept pushing the third despite losing engagement after engagement (his struggled to dodge storms and refused to build ghosts); BabyKnight chased his army all the way back to his third and ran over his army, ending the game.

VortiX  2 BabyKnight  1

Another expected result, albeit not the expected match-up at this phase.  BabyKnight struggled throughout to deal with multipronged aggression (something he showed to a lesser extent against ForGG previously), and I liked VortiX using attacks as a way to defend himself.  Game one began fairly passively as BabyKnight went for an oracle as VortiX applied roach pressure and did a lot of damage using burrow play (transitioning into swarm hosts); BabyKnight could not handle multipronged roach pressure, taking critical damage as VortiX moved towards brood lords, eventually running BabyKnight over.  In game two both players played passively as VortiX went for swarm host/roach again, moving up to brood lords, but he took a terrible engagement and lost all his swarm hosts and most of his brood lords, giving BabyKnight a huge edge; VortiX re-made his brood lords and killed the fourth, but BabyKnight had tempests out, killed the brood lords off and VortiX was re-building swarm hosts out as BabyKnight pushed forward with his army and he tapped out.  In the final game BabyKnight went for DTs, but they didn't accomplish much and VortiX overwhelmed his small army.

ForGG  0 Lilbow  2

 

The biggest surprise of the day, earned through a mix of Lilbow playing well and ForGG playing poorly.  Game one Lilbow went for blink, but ForGG scouted it early and was able to prepare and held it easily; Lilbow transitioned into templar and used them to crush ForGG's attack so badly that the Terran gg'd out (once again ForGG made an attack he didn't need too and refused to do anything to counter templars).  In game two both played pretty standard with ForGG going for a widow mine drop that didn't accomplish much; Lilbow went for zealot/archon and ForGG sent out multiple drops to harass as Lilbow used a warp prism to the same effect--Lilbow defended better than the Terran who lost a ton of units in his main; ForGG then went for a doom drop which set off a base trade as Lilbow took out ForGG's natural and Lilbow lost his main and third along with all his production; Lilbow survived ForGG's initial attack as both players attempted to recover and re-expand; despite ForGG having a much bigger army after the initial chaos, he kept bleeding units in bad engagements which eventually gave Lilbow a huge lead and his subsequent army won the game (this was the most entertaining game of the day).  Just like in the first game ForGG threw away an edge by being overly aggressive, but kudos have to be given to Lilbow for exploiting his mistakes.

Lilbow  1 BabyKnight  2

 

The final match of the day was extremely close and I wish Lilbow had aimed for more macro-style contests in games two and three rather than the risky ones he ultimately employed.  Game one BabyKnight went for a phoenix-based push while Lilbow defended his earlier expansion with immortal/stalker; BabyKnight killed his opponent's mothership core, but he lost his entire army in the fight; BabyKnight transitioned by taking his natural and harassing with phoenix as Lilbow got blink; Lilbow moved out, giving the phoenix free reign over his probe line; Lilbow's massive stalker army destroyed all of BabyKnight's immortals as the two exchanged armies; Lilbow attempted to take a third triggering an attack from BabyKnight; but the Dane lost his entire army (again) without killing a base and had to tap out.  In game two Lilbow went for a proxy gate in BabyKnight's natural, which was scouted in time to allow the Dane to defend it without taking much damage; Lilbow responded with a four-gate, which he used defensively to hold off BabyKnight's counter (with great micro), but he remained far behind and despite making it incredibly hard for BabyKnight to kill him he had to tap out.  In the final game both players went for blink; Lilbow went for an attack which he had to recall as BabyKnight countered and did a lot of damage; BabyKnight took an expansion as Lilbow went for DTs and the Frenchman did a lot of damage with them; Lilbow was still behind and went for a one base all-in, but couldn't break BabyKnight who took the game and series.  I think Lilbow has a good shot at being in Premier again.

 

VortiX and BabyKnight move on, while ForGG became WCS Europe's first Korean casualty.

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)