WCS America Group G is in the books and it's time to look at them in reference to predictions (here are the VODs). Minigun was the main upset (demonstrating an inability to handle widow mines, among other things), as Neeb pulled through. The day featured some great games which I'll highlight in the descriptions below.
Polt 2 Illusion 0
Game one Polt opened with a reaper as Illusion went for a cloaked banshee push with a couple of marines and hellions--Polt scouted it early and held easily; Illusion then pressured with marine/tank backed by banshees--Polt killed both banshees before they could help in an attack; Polt dropped the main and did a tiny bit of damage, but lost his third as he had assumed Illusion pulled his army back; Polt pushed Illusion's third and as he kept the contain killed three of Illusion's attempted drops; Polt finally broke the tank line and while he destroyed it couldn't quite break Illusion, but the American Terran attempted to breakout, losing his entire army in the process and tapped out. Game two Polt went reaper again while Illusion made his own reaper after building a couple of marines; Illusion was able to pick off the reaper and force Polt to pull SCV's to defend, but Illusion lost everything in the micro battle; both players went for hellions as Polt went sent an early drop (marine/hellion)--the drop did a ton of damage, catching Illusion completely off guard; Polt followed up with another drop (using a two-viking escort), but Illusion spotted it and it did no serious damage; Illusion went mech as Polt went bio; the two armies met outside of Polt's third and Illusion won the battle after heavy losses; Illusion set up a contain which Polt pushed back with difficulty; Illusion attempted banshee harass without getting much accomplished; Polt moved out and set up a three medevac drop which killed off a bunch of SCVs; with his fourth established Polt moved towards a battlecruiser transition; Illusion moved out on the map, Polt set up a flank and annihilated his army; Polt went up to six bases and used his bio for complete map control, finally moving out with his first three battlecruisers, won the air battle and Illusion tapped out (incidentally, we got to see how thor's in their high-impact payload do against battlecruisers--not ideal, but not bad either). Game two was a lot of fun to watch.
Neeb 2 
Minigun 1
In the first game Minigun went for a quick three bases and an oracle as Neeb sent out a widow mine drop, with neither accomplishing anything; Neeb made a bio push against the natural with both players exchanging armies, but Neeb's production was too strong for Minigun to hold and he tapped out after the third engagement. In game two Neeb went for the widow mine drop again as Minigun teched to blink; the drop slowed down the blink attack and Neeb was well-prepared so Minigun moved into colossus production; Neeb got caught out on the map with his army, was hit by a time warp and crushed; Minigun forced Neeb to lift the third--from there they fought continually until the Terran tapped out. In the final game Minigun went for the robo as Neeb again went for his widow mine opening; Neeb killed the first zealot and baited out photo overcharge with marines as he took an early third base; Minigun rushed to storm and charge despite the robo; Neeb postured by Minigun's third as a warp prism went into the main--Neeb pushed it away initially, but a second attack with it did some damage; Minigun started building colossus as Neeb continued to posture; the players fought outside Minigun's natural, each dropping close to 100 supply; Neeb went for multipronged attacks as Minigun started to take a lot of damage from mines; after constant fighting Minigun abandoned his fourth and tapped out moments later (this was a great game to watch). Watching Minigun continually run his army through mines as both painful and hilarious.
Polt 2 Neeb 1
Game one Neeb went for banshee play while Polt made his usual reaper; the banshee flew over a widow mine and Neeb pulled it back for repairs and went for a quick third CC; Neeb was able to do some damage when he sent the banshee back, but Polt sent out his own banshees into both bases and Neeb tapped out immediately as he had no detection and had just dropped mules. In game two both players opened with reapers, with Neeb getting two along with an SCV, but Polt was so well defended that Neeb didn't go with the attack; Neeb went mech as Polt sent a small hellion run-by with a banshee--the latter did some damage, but the former were crushed by Neeb's huge hellion count; Polt went bio as he continued to harass with banshees; Neeb's first push ran over Polt's army outside his third and set up a contain of his natural which the Korean could not break, eventually forced to tap out (the game was very similar to Polt's second game versus Illusion). In the final game Polt skipped his usual reaper and built up marines with a widow mine; Neeb went for a marine drop/hellion runby--Polt lost the mine while repositioning it and Neeb killed off a couple of depots without losing much; Neeb followed the attack with a drop which did a little damage as he finished his third CC; Polt forced Neeb to lift his third with marines and sent his raven to harass the main; Polt then went for a doom drop in the main, but it didn't do critical damage--Neeb tried to drop during the attack, but lost it without getting anything done; Polt went for yet another big drop and it did more damage, but nothing devastating--Polt taking his third base behind the attack; Neeb went for a huge attack and Polt went for the base trade; both players gutted each other's bases and floated what buildings they could; Polt rebuilt inside of Neeb's main as Neeb rebuilt on his own third; Neeb suicided up the ramp trying to snipe tanks without accomplishing much; Neeb tried to build a cloaked banshee, but Polt spotted it and destroyed the starport with a drop; Polt was able to sandwich Neeb's marines out on the map, killed them all and won the game--Neeb was without combat shields the entire game. The final game was a lot of fun to watch and I highly recommend it.
Illusion 2 Minigun 0
In game one Illusion expanded early and then made a push with a handful of marines; Minigun went for an oracle and despite Illusion being ready for it allowed some damage to get done; Minigun went for a quick third and blink and was able to hold off Illusion's next push; a third push involved a pitched fight, but Minigun was able to prevent economic damage--Minigun chased the army too far and took a ton of damage from widow mines; Illusion moved forward and set up a mine field as a staging point at the third base which Minigun ran into and tapped out moments later. Game two Illusion went for a quick three racks as Minigun went for blink; Illusion went for an early bio push catching Minigun out of position, but went for trading army rather than going for workers; Minigun attempted a blink attack, but lost almost his entire army without doing any damage; Illusion went up to seven racks on two bases and rallied to Minigun's natural, but eventually he had to stop to build his forces up; the next push required Minigun to pull probes to hold against; colossus held off the next attack, but he tapped out on the following push.
Neeb 2 Illusion 0
Game one both players opened with cloaked banshees with neither doing any significant damage initially, but Neeb's follow-up with his did a ton of damage; Illusion pushed while the banshee was in his base, but couldn't break Neeb who sieged his natural/main; eventually Neeb pushed forward and rolled over Illusion's army for the win. In game two Illusion went for a two marine and SCV push, but Neeb was ready for it and it accomplished nothing; Neeb went for cloaked banshee and the first was killed without doing much damage and his follow-up banshee didn't do much either; Neeb walked his army into siege tank fire and was forced to retreat to his natural; Neeb got a drop into Illusion's main who tried to fight it off with SCVs and took a tremendous amount of damage; Illusion pulled back to the middle of the map and Neeb walked into tank fire again, losing most of his army; Neeb's drop attacked Illusion's natural as the latter sieged Neeb; Neeb attacked Illusion's army with his SCVs and Illusion brought his own SCVs to the fight, but Neeb had too much and earned the win (this was another fun game to watch).
Polt and Neeb move on.
This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)
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