NSSL Ro16 Group A Recap



After last night's fairly straight forward GSL group, today's games proved to be the straight opposite. In a funky group with no clear favorite and four players who had shown promising results and play recently, (Z)Leenock came out on top after wrestling (P)Super into submission in a nail-biting series and then rolling over (P)Terminator with his vintage midgame aggression. Super eventually followed him into the Ro8 after being made to work for it by (T)FanTaSy and Terminator.

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The opening match set the tone with a hard fought series between Terminator and Fantasy. The former SKT terran showcased a definite fondness of CC first builds. Terminator played a modern, heavy upgrade focused style, delaying storm and additional gas geysers in favor of better upgrades and more STUFF which eventually overwhelmed Fantasy. After losing game 2 due to poor control of his phoenix/colossus army, Terminator turned to a mindgame in game 3 and found himself in the Winners' Match, as Fantasy wasn't ready for his proxied gateway followup after oracle opening. A clutch timewarp prevented his SCVs from repairing his bunker and the game easily spiraled Terminator's way after he broke through the initial defense.





Game 3

Overgrowth

Super P1 RATING:

After opening with an aggressive +1 pressure build, Super fell back on a third base supported by blink and robo tech. He held admirably against Leenock's continued roach/ling aggression and was able to keep up with Leenock's multitasking. Simply surviving the following mutalisk transition as well as a giant roach/hydra attack was highly impressive, even though his eventual moveout with colossi was already met with vipers and wiped out. He may have had a better shot by teching to templar and defending his fresh 4th base.

RATING:

After Leenock got away with a cheeky 3-hatch opening, he defended Super's +1 aggression easily. He decided to keep up unit production and put heavy pressure on Super's building third base. After a good defense by Super, Leenock's mutalisks and ling runbys did barely enough damage to keep him at bay for long enough to allow Leenock to squeeze out a few vipers and crush Super's attack decisively enough to take the game.

Z7 LeenockRATING:

A clever 3-hatch build, taking the third first and then hiding the second drone, got Leenock ahead early on and he had no trouble dealing with Super's pressure build at all. His own counteraggression though was also defended well initially, until mutalisks and a big ling runby changed the game. A sloppy roach/hydra attack with 80 supply up on Super almost allowed a way back for the Invasion protoss but all in all Leenock played a strong, fast paced and intelligent game. Even in such a frantic, scrappy game he identified the need for a viper transition early enough to eventually close out the game after all.



Leenock had less trouble against Terminator, as his vintage aggression worked out much better and Terminator wasn't able to put up the same kind of fight Super did.
Leenock seems to have found his stride again, playing to his own strengths with relentless aggression and fast, clever tech switching to exploit the openings he creates himself. And, perhaps most characteristically, he still excels in scrappy games like almost nobody else.

Game 3

Catallena

Super P5 RATING:

Super chose a really standard PvT build in blink -> robo, but added his own twist to it by not taking a fast third as usual, but trying for a gateway/colossus attack instead. With a single forge in place he was able to transition even though it was scouted and well anticipated, and a smart DT switch forged his way back into the game. Once in the driving seat, Super never let go, defending Fantasy's drops easily while pressuring his opponent by blinking into the main with colossus support. Once his third was up and running, a simple push was all he needed to eliminate Fantasy.

RATING:

Both players with their back against the wall, tied at 1-1 in the Losers' Match, went for fairly standard openings. Fantasy once again opened CC first into 3rax, while Super chose a basic blink -> colossus opening with a single forge. Instead of expanding though, Super added on a number of gateways and prepared to hit a 2-base attack. Fantasy was entirely prepared though and with three bunkers and two widow mines as well as enough units to defend, Super didn't even attempt to attack. Instead, perhaps a bit desperately, he added a dark shrine at home and snuck them into Fantasy's base with a warp prism. The invisible protoss snipers ended up turning the game on its head as Fantasy lost a lot of SCVs, two addons and even got two medivacs worth of units caught while he was focusing elsewhere. Super then came back to finish the job and finally pushed through the front after securing his third.

T1 FantasyRATING:

Fantasy looked outsmarted by Super, quite frankly. He did well to sniff out the initial 2-base attack and reacted well to defend it, but got completely caught off guard by his opponent's DT transition. Not only did he never scout the Dark Shrine until it was too late, he also had no vision on the map or in his main to spot the warp prism, as well as no turrets in place. To make it all worse, he got caught out on the map a few times and allowed Super to pick away at him even further. Credit to him for the initial defense, but he could have done better to capitalize on it.



Super then rode his impressive PvP to a narrow 2-1 win over Terminator. The series featured PvP at its finest, with two proxy-intending probes meeting awkwardly in the middle of the map in game 2. Neither player did proxy in that game, but Terminator basically won it with one DT against Super's gateway -> blink aggression. On the final map, King Sejong Station, Terminator DID proxy, but Super's clutch probe surround killed a stalker and a zealot. Super easily held the all in from there and quickly capitalized on his better economy by simply producing more stalkers and breaking out towards the proxy, forcing Terminator to surrender the final series of the day.