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).
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.
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.
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 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)
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