Unfortunately IEM Sao Paulo and ASUS ROG Winter were on at the same time, so it was neigh on impossible to watch both comprehensively. ROG had the better lineup, but IEM also had some great names and interesting results. ABomB pulled the biggest upset knocking out Code S Terran Bbyong (the success was a fluke as he got destroyed 3-0 in the round of eight); hellokitty was awful (losing to Shakti); Bomber kept trying combat shield pushes against TLO which cost him a chance in the quarter finals (TLO had no hope against herO); other than Polt (who lost to jjakji), no one challenged herO on his way to a repeat victory.
Below are notes I had for a few specific matchups (groups A and B):
Below are notes I had for a few specific matchups (groups A and B):
Bomber 2 puCK 0
puCK could not handle drops in either game
Bomber 2 jjakji 0
Bomber 2 jjakji 0
Bomber did great damage to jjakji's army with a banshee and rolled him with a marine/tank push; a great marine/mine drop and then an all-marine army by Bomber, using excellent tactical decisions, took out the third and wrecked jjakji
puCK 2 WM 0
Macro puCK went colossus/void vs roach/hydra and won a base trade; WM went for a one-base ling all-in that was scouted and neither it nor his nydus transition worked
jjakji 2 puCK 0
Macro puCK went colossus/void vs roach/hydra and won a base trade; WM went for a one-base ling all-in that was scouted and neither it nor his nydus transition worked
jjakji 2 puCK 0
puCK went for a bust, but jjajki had stim and held it easily; jjakji went for a ton of units and puCK had no answer
Shakti 0 TLO 2
Shakti went for a baneling bust, but TLO scouted it and killed him with a counter attack with roaches; Shakti went muta while TLO went roaches and killed the third, Shakti went for unupgraded ultras which helped repeal TLO's infestors, but then he fell to TLO's own ultra switch
Shakti went for a baneling bust, but TLO scouted it and killed him with a counter attack with roaches; Shakti went muta while TLO went roaches and killed the third, Shakti went for unupgraded ultras which helped repeal TLO's infestors, but then he fell to TLO's own ultra switch
MC 2 hellokitty 0
MC went with stalker/DT pressure and while hellokitty dealt with the DT's easily enough he could not handle the stalkers and tapped out. MC went stalker/oracle the next game and ended it even quickly.
MC went with stalker/DT pressure and while hellokitty dealt with the DT's easily enough he could not handle the stalkers and tapped out. MC went stalker/oracle the next game and ended it even quickly.
MC 2 TLO 0
MC cannoned TLO's third at the gold, held off ling pressure, but forgot warp gate research and struggled to hold off a massive roach push that killed his natural, MC transitioned to double star gate and expanding and crushed a follow-up roach attack and TLO was unable to hold off void ray pressure--the most fun game of the tourney thus far. MC went for a two-base push (gateway/void) and TLO droned a little too hard and didn't have enough units to defend.
MC cannoned TLO's third at the gold, held off ling pressure, but forgot warp gate research and struggled to hold off a massive roach push that killed his natural, MC transitioned to double star gate and expanding and crushed a follow-up roach attack and TLO was unable to hold off void ray pressure--the most fun game of the tourney thus far. MC went for a two-base push (gateway/void) and TLO droned a little too hard and didn't have enough units to defend.
Shakti 2 hellokitty 1
hellokitty went stargate, but Shakti was able to cancel the third and hid his muta switch which wrecked hellokitty's robo transition. hellokitty went for a zealot/DT push which killed the third and Shakti died to the follow-up gateway push while trying to transition into mutas. hellokitty went for zealot pressure with the mothership core and followed it up with a blink push that Shakti delayed enough to crush with roach/ling and slowly ground down hellokitty for the big upset (the game was very entertaining as well).
TLO 2 Shakti 0
hellokitty went stargate, but Shakti was able to cancel the third and hid his muta switch which wrecked hellokitty's robo transition. hellokitty went for a zealot/DT push which killed the third and Shakti died to the follow-up gateway push while trying to transition into mutas. hellokitty went for zealot pressure with the mothership core and followed it up with a blink push that Shakti delayed enough to crush with roach/ling and slowly ground down hellokitty for the big upset (the game was very entertaining as well).
TLO 2 Shakti 0
TLO denied the third and overwhelmed Shakti. TLO went for a huge baneling attack to win.
Various New & Notes
-It was amusing to watch DieStar raging at Arthur in the current ZOTAC Cup, as the Polish player challenged his inner avilo (he lost 3-2 to the Korean); despite facing blink all-ins on the ladder it took the Terran until the third game to figure out how to hold it off
-David Kim announced balance changes and it's an interesting mix: Daedalus Point's absurd natural ramp will shrink (which seems a little too late to change--unlike Newkirk City last year, which was fixable, I don't think there's a save for DP); the energy cost of Time Warp for the Mothership Core will increase (a tweak that may slow down some Protoss all-ins, but doesn't seem significant); Ghosts no longer need their energy upgrade which seems to have no rhyme or reason, but I don't think hurts any of the matchups
-Idra announced his retirement from SC2 involvement, which mercifully saves us enduring his work as an analyst on casts; I'm not a fan of his shtick and have his disappearance from the game is a positive (has he ever been anything other than negative?)
This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)
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