After Game 1 on Lost Temple it was loser’s choice of maps, so whoever gets the win here is at an advantage of more than just a game in the series. Seemingly ElkY was way confident in his random skillz as to not go for it with his Terran right away tho, but only after getting in the important loss after the first game of PvP. Legionnaire started right off with an ofensive push into PokerSuperStar’s base, which eventually succeded ( --; ) and to top it off, there was absolutely nobody whosoever to block the upcoming DTs of Leg’s while ElkY went for Reavers himself. SomeMiss indeed.
ElkY’s choice of Nostalgia for Game 2 might seem strange, but the frenchman likes TvPs on it, so huk. Leg however pretty much read all of his moves right away, and with a hidden expansion on one of the mains he succeeded in breaking the wind of the Terran’s M&M+Tank attack. ElkY managed to tear down Leg’s natural eventually, however soon the presence of the extra expansion was felt, and with constant attacks from every side it was Sacre bleu! for the french armies.
Ah, Namja Lyagi and (the systematical dismantling of) Legion’s legions. Leg’s zealot/probe (huk) drop didn’t do much to prevent ElkY’s 1 fact expansion, and even tho Leg expanded himself, PokerStar denied those with tank drops and abuse of mineral-onlys from behind the mains. Of course one expansion would look rather weak on ElkY’s behalf, so he goes for another one, and soon enough the Protoss is outproduced quite alright. ElkY keeping it decent with drops around the map, and then; the Push. Leg tries to recuperate with Carriers, however it’s all too few, too late – ElkY blocks their routes with Turrets-lines (a’la Maginot), and Wraiths finish off what the Goliaths don’t.
Legion feels da power as he chooses Jim Raynor’s Jungle for their next match, and goes fo
r some pretty safe 3 gate expansion, while ElkY expands with Vultures himself. Both armies constantly engulf in some pretty fierce battles for every little corner of the land as ElkY tries to take half of the map for himself, and Legionnaire attacks wherever he can. Vulture-raids, Zealot drops, you name it! And Leg goes for Carriers of course. Having half the map for himself, it’s not that difficult from here – ElkY tries to counter where he can, but finally concedes.
Legionnaire now faces a Random on Paradoxxx II, and quite an art game it became eventually, never mind the MU (PvP). Even tho Leg had to start off with a corsair, the follow-up DT-HT-drop evened out his chances (it actually seemed to be a game-ender already). Both players dropping each other to no end now, and Leg (being the Carri-n00b he is) goes for them flyers again. ElkY catches up with some of his own, which Leg tries to thwart with a DT-drop (however managing to get one of his DTs stuck between a pylon and the Stargates – unable to move – on which he’d later lay the fault for this loss on -_-; ) That however still goes better than ElkY’s drop on Leg’s second island exp – he loses all his shuttles to some odd defending cannons just like that --;. Eventually tho ElkY plays a Reach and goes for the middle with Carriers of his own and DAs for some serious backup. Some 4 or so Carriers change sides from here on ’till the end of the game (Leg to ElkY and back) and eventually the frenchman prevails without any economy, but a sizeable force of flyers.
Legionnaire tries to finish it off quickly with a Zealot-rush on P2H Desert into the opened gates of ElkY's main. However that’s as far as he got and it was ElkY’s turn to counter-rush. At the begin it seemed like only a set-back for Legionnaire, as he was forced to give up his natural, however eventually it turned into the total downfall of the Protoss’ main. ElkY managed to aquire some timely expansions himself, and after that it’s Coup de Grace. Leg tried to withstand the onslaught with Zealot-drops and eventually (sigh) Carriers, but to no avail.
Still having the well needed momentum however, it was all Legion needed in order to finally seal the matches off: Guillotine (Leg decapitating the frenchman with their own methods!) was his choice of the final encounter, and it went all as planned, too. ElkY’s Bamboo-push is broken, and DTs do their dirty work in the Terran worker lines. Soon the frenchman is outexpanded and outproduced, and Leg secures the victory quite safely from here.
Legionnaire : 4 - 3 : ElkY
So that’s about it for this time, Some Miss for the defending warrior, and Legion is now back again to await his next challenge...
...which I – as of yet – have no clue about, so let’s just wait and see who it’ll be --;;
-Mynock