WCS America Results (Group B)

WCS America's Group B has come and gone with yet another shocker for the foreign scene as Scarlett joined NaNiwa in flaming out of Premier.  The VODs are already up and the group featured some fantastic games.  Here's how they went and how they stacked up to predictions.

 

Heart  2 TooDming  1

 

Heart was expected to win here, but in the one macro game they played TooDming showed good form.  In game one both players were greedy and TooDming let Heart set up a siege line by his gold base; the Zerg could not break it or get anything done with a counter attack and tapped out.  In the second game both players were passive again until Heart did a lot of damage with a hellion push and even more with his follow-up bio attack; TooDming bought himself time with baneling and muta harass (killing the fourth), transitioning to ultra/infestors; Heart killed the fifth and third and re-established his fourth only to lose it to banelings; he lost the next major fight and tapped out.  In the final game Heart added cloak to his banshee play which did some damage and TooDming was late putting his baneling nest down and lost both his third and spawning pool snipped and gg'd out shortly afterwards.

Scarlett  2 MaSa  1

 

MaSa, who played well throughout the day, could have won this series (a testament both to his play).  In game one MaSa went for blueflame hellion, hiding the tech and doing a ton of damage as he transitioned into mech while Scarlett tried to switch from muta/ling into swarm hosts, but could not produce enough in time to defend the big push.  In game two MaSa went for proxy two racks and despite scouting it early Scarlett didn't pull enough drones to prevent the bunker getting up and was forced to surrender; MaSa gave her space to chew down the rocks and get lings to his natural, forcing him lift his CC and creating a contain on his side of the map; Scarlett went for one base infestors which delayed MaSa enough for her to re-take her own natural; Scarlett's heavy upgrades and fungals to combat the bio forces and despite some loses from multipronged attacks, once she had her third and ultras MaSa couldn't deal with her army tapped out (this was a fantastic game and I highly recommend it).  In the final game MaSa went for a more conservative version of two racks and attempted a bunker rush which Scarlett scouted immediately and prevented any damage from getting done; she went for her standard muta/ling as MaSa went five-racks on two bases and lost his entire army as he made a push without stim; the loss gave Scarlett such a big advantage the outcome was not in doubt.  In the end Scarlett's decision making under pressure won her the series, but credit to MaSa who should have won the first two games.

Heart  2 Scarlett  0

 

This was the expected top two in the group, but the games were not close.  Heart opened aggressively with an early stim/medevac push which did some damage, but he accomplished much more with multipronged attacks, keeping Scarlett on three bases (including a great lure of her army over widow mines), and kept taking good engagements which eventually forced her to tap out.  Game two Heart went for a proxy two racks and took out the natural, but unlike MaSa he didn't push his luck and simply went home and began to macro up--Scarlett gg'd out rather than trying to overcome it.

MaSa  0 TooDming  2

 

MaSa was favoured in the match-up and could have taken the series, but TooDming gets full value for the win.  In game one MaSa went for three reapers, who snipped a queen, but then died to lings which TooDming subsequently used to force MaSa to lift his natural; great hellion micro eliminated the contain, but MaSa lost all his hellions to TooDming's next wave of lings; a baneling bust caused MaSa to tap out.  In game two both players wer fairly passive as they went into standard muta/ling versus bio; MaSa initial pushes were held off by TooDming's superior upgrades; MaSa lost his fourth to banelings while killing both of TooDming's fifth's as the Zerg player switched into ultra/infestor; the two exchanged armies and kept fighting well below 200 supply as TooDming slowly went for brood lords; MaSa took out TooDming's fifth base (again), but was forced to abandon his sixth and once TooDming had maxed out he was able to attack MaSa's production and did enough damage to get the definitive edge and win the final fight.  Game two was a fantastic match and I recommend watching it.

Scarlett  0 TooDming  2

 

This series was the biggest shock of the day, as Scarlett was expected to win.  Game one Scarlett went for two-base muta, which TooDming responded to by going roach/nydus--it wasn't scouted and earned him the win (a fun game to watch--I love nydus play).  In the second game both players played passively until TooDming went for a very aggressive ling push with 1/1, but he kept fighting with them at a choke and accomplished nothing--his follow-up attack killed Scarlett's third; from there it became a roach vs roach confrontation as Scarlett was able to even up things using superior upgrades to win the next battle--that advantage, plus an earlier infestor switch, put her in the lead, but Toodming lured her into a terrible fight, encircled her army and ended the game.

 

Scarlett's issues in losing were not NaNiwa's (who seemed impatient and stubborn); she was outplayed by Heart and lost to TooDming due to not being ever vigilant in her scouting.  Her play has been pretty erratic in 2014, so perhaps this shouldn't be as surprising as it seems.  Heart was expected to move on and I'll be interested to see how TooDming does in the next phase of the tournament.

 

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)