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)