[MSL] Dance Dance Revolutionist

Stork traded his first zealot and scouting probe for only one probe kill. Kal opened three gate goon, a build that automatically dies to DT. Fortunately for Kal, Stork went two gate expand and also foolishly lost a dragoon early on:



Kal attacked with superior dragoon numbers and excellent focus fire:



In this next screenshot, the colors look similar, so for your benefit, I've put a bright red circle around each of Stork's defending dragoons:



This game was a build order win by Kal. It's tough to screw up 3 gate vs 2 gate, especially when your opponent wastes a critical unit or two early game.
Kal 1-0 Stork

Kal went one gate nexus after scouting only one gate in Stork's base. However, Stork proxied three gates on the left side of the map, and razed Kal's nexus:



Kal was able to hold his ramp, and the next battle came a full twelve minutes later, with both players maxed:



See that storm in the middle of the screenshot? That was a group of Kal's zealots melting before doing any damage. As a result, Stork rolled over Kal's army with plenty of units left over.



Kal typed out soon after. How the game ended up as a 200 vs 200 battle after Stork secured such an advantage early game was beyond me. Kal was ahead on tech, but not by much.

Stork 1-1 Kal

Kal opened two gate DT and Stork went two gate robo. Stork's probe attempted to push itself through the temple into Kal's base, but failed twice and was unable to see the citadel. While two gate robo normally should have an obs out in time to stop two gate DT, Stork had built several zealots and also researched range before making his robo. Thus, Kal's first DT had a timing window:



The DT swiped nine probes, and Kal used this advantage to secure an extra base. While Stork killed Kal's backdoor mineral base with a DT drop, this delayed Stork's high templars and storm research, allowing Kal to attack:



Kal did not take down the nexus but succeeded in trading armies. With a large economy advantage, Kal ended it a few minutes later when Stork moved out to the center of the map:



I don't understand why Stork switched to reavers late game despite having an archives already. But I doubt it mattered, because at that point Kal was already too far ahead.

Kal 2-1 Stork

Kal opened 14 nexus with cannons. While this build may work on practice partners and low level Big Game Hunters players, it had a none percent chance of success against a top PvP player. Stork saw the cannons, proxied a robo, and eventually pushed in with reavers:







Kal had less units, slower tech, and no eco advantage due to the dozen cannons he had to build. It kind of makes you wonder how many times this build worked back in the STX house and who Kal practiced with.

Stork 2-2 Kal

Both players opted for a very safe robo before second gate. The critical battle occurred both players had seven goons, two zealots, and one reaver each:



As you can see, Stork's attacking units were badly positioned and took massive amounts of splash damage from Kal's reaver. Also, Stork's reaver came in at a bad angle and could not fire as many shots. His army weakened, Stork was forced to keep all his units at his natural choke to stop Kal from containing him at his ramp. Kal faked an attack while his his reaver flew into Stork's main, causing a late probe flee-transfer. As a result, Kal was able to fire off a few successful scarabs:



After returning home to get a second reaver, Kal crushed Stork's army in the middle of the map:



Kal advanced to the semifinals. Stork seemed disappointed but distant, his thoughts clearly dwelling on an OSL Final that was just 48 hours away.

Kal 3-2 Stork

Jangbi opened Sair-DT while Yarnc went four base mutas into lurkers. Jangbi successfully snuck a DT into Yarnc's main. Yarnc saw this but eventually forgot the DT was there.



Nine drone kills later, Jangbi was significantly ahead. Yarnc's mutas melted from the corsairs and archons, and a minute or so later, Jangbi's first standard ground army obliterated Yarnc's hydra lurker force:



Note the 0-0 upgrades on Yarnc's units. Soon after, Jangbi ran over Yarnc's third gas:



Jangbi 1-0 Yarnc

Yarnc five pooled. Jangbi scouted the lings and abandoned his front forge to put up a cannon near his nexus. Even though the two players were at cross positions, the cannon was only halfway warped when the lings arrived. However, Jangbi sent two probes to Yarnc's base and not only killed a drone but also made Yarnc look away from his lings in Jangbi's main:



Even losing his lings, Yarnc was very ahead. He had three hatches and good saturation while Jangbi was on one base and only had one gate. Yarnc used speedlings to shut down Jangbi's first attempt to retake his nat, but then suicided two groups of lings into zealots, probes, and one cannon:



Yarnc's five pool and his unwillingness to play for late game demonstrated his lack of confidence in his ZvP. Instead of building his lead by taking bases and playing defensively, Yarnc tried to go for the kill. Then he let Jangbi sneak a DT into his main despite scouting the archives, which killed five drones, razed his spawning pool, and halted mining.

A few minutes later, Yarnc's muta harass did not do enough damage, and Jangbi attack-moved into Yarnc's natural with three archons and a group of zealots.



Yarnc's bad planning, decisions, execution led to an embarrassing defeat.

Jangbi 2-0 Yarnc

Yarnc opened overpool gas, but as soon as he killed the scouting probe, went lair and resumed gas mining. Jangbi seemed fooled initially, making three cannons at his choke and blocking with probes in anticipation of a speedling runby. However, Jangbi would soon sense that something was wrong when there were no speedlings containing his probe scout.

At this point it was obvious to everyone, including Jangbi, that Yarnc was not going to play straight up. Some type of cheese was coming, and Jangbi added a stargate and cannons at his main and front to prepare for both mutas and hydras. Yarnc's mutas did get some kills, but he skimped heavily on drones. Yarnc needed to kill a nexus but Jangbi's corsairs and cannons didn't let him.



Jangbi progressed to reaver tech, and traded his shuttle, reaver, and two zealots four eight or nine drones:



At this point, everything Yarnc did was a few minutes behind in timing. His upgrades were late, his third base was late, and his hydra switch was late. When Yarnc moved out with hydras, a control group of Jangbi's sairs flew in and killed all his overlords:



Yarnc's twelve hydras saw two reavers and four cannons at Jangbi's choke, and Yarnc conceded shortly after, with three minimally saturated bases and a Protoss opponent with double his supply.

Jangbi 3-0 Yarnc

Player / Matchup / Last 10 / Last 3 Months / Head-to-Head
firebathero / TvP / 9-1 / 6-1 / 2-2
Bisu / PvT / 4-6 / 5-7 / 2-2

Player / Matchup / Last 10 / Last 3 Months / Head-to-Head
free / PvT / 6-4 / 5-1 / 1-0
NaDa / TvP / 4-6 / 2-1 / 0-1