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)