GSL Ro32 Group F Recap



Group F delivered a pleasant surprise with (P)Terminator advancing first, besting (Z)Curious before working over (P)herO in a moderately surprising 2-0 win. herO played largely as expected, showcasing marvelous PvZ and PvT while looking subpar in PvP. Despite taking a hit in the winners match against Terminator, he got out in second place.

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The opening match between herO and (T)TaeJa promised to be a ringer, but the games ended in abruptly disappointing ways. TaeJa looked to be in a great spot on KSS after rebuffing herO’s 2 base blink pressure, but a slight miscalculation with the counterattack cost him a potential nexus and most of his army. Forced into pulling SCVs, his final desperate push was stopped cold by 2/2 upgrades and charge. Unfortunately TaeJa didn't receive the luxury of a back-and-forth dance in Game 2. TaeJa was fooled by herO’s early feint and was subsequently caught off-guard with a strong colossus timing.

Terminator vs Curious proved a more complicated affair. Terminator started the series in dominant fashion, controlling all avenues on Overgrowth with warp prism harass until he crushed Curious with +3 attack colossi and storm. Curious struck back on Catallena, neatly sidestepping a cannon rush by taking his third base and the gold. Terminator struggled to catch up throughout the game, and a tragic micro error with his blink stalkers sealed his fate.

Game 3

King Sejong Station

ST.Curious Z11 RATING:

At first Curious looked like he wouldn't last 15 minutes. The first fight was nearly a game-ending disaster; in fairness, few players would be prescient enough to anticipate a second stargate that early on. In spite of his woeful tech disadvantage, Curious made a couple of clever moves to get back into it. Going immediately into infestors and vipers allowed him to win 2 direct engagements, and after the second fight he had Terminator on the back foot. If only he took his sixth base sooner, Curious could have completed a stunning comeback.

RATING:

The best game of the day initially looked like one of the worst. Terminator caught Curious with his pants down by massing phoenixes off 2 bases, decimating Curious’ drone lines as well as resetting his swarm host count. Curious responded by sticking to 4 bases, hoping to build the ultimate lategame army while mitigating any attacks Terminator could muster. The game subsequently dragged on for the next 40 minutes without a pause in action. Curious won most of the major fights but Terminator successfully traded gateway units for buildings at several key points. Eventually the loss of infrastructure was too much for Curious to handle, and he was harried into the top corner of the map like a trapped animal. It was a matter of time until Terminator walked in with the superior army, blanketing the battlefield with storm for emphasis.

P5 JAG.TerminatorRATING:

Formerly known for a colorful array of all-ins, Terminator showed us he could do the unexpected and the mundane in tandem. His funky phoenix gambit paid off and he never fully relinquished control of the map afterwards. Winning alone didn’t mean his performance was personally satisfying. His intelligent grasp of lategame positioning went hand in hand with some sloppy execution. Terminator overextended several times in fights that threatened to erase his lead, and some tech switches had little impact. The other tech switches, combined with stealing one of Curious’ bases, decided the outcome.

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herO’s games versus Terminator ended even more tersely than his first series, except all the advantages fell on his opponent’s side. They butted heads on Overgrowth by opting for blink builds, herO’s timing slightly delayed by a detour into oracle. After some posturing outside Terminator’s natural, herO gets blindsided by an opportunistic blink and loses most of his forces while retreating. Both players went fast blink again on Merry Go Round. Once again (P)Terminator got the better of herO in positioning, pouncing on the latter’s move out and immediately killing his immortal; he quickly ended the game with his superior stalker count.

In contrast to his substandard games against herO, TaeJa looked more reminiscent of his old skill level against Curious. He took Game 1 in standard style, swallowing up Curious’ fourth and third bases with the classic 4M composition. With renewed confidence, TaeJa tried replicating his luck on KSS with a quick 3CC -> maxed-out army with 2/2 upgrades. This time Curious struck before TaeJa ever reached the other side of the map, counterattacking the enemy’s third multiple times when the Liquid Terran was in the middle of the map. TaeJa’s decisions to defend after damage was done were costly – without taking an equivalent chunk out of Curious’ economy, he found himself unable to protect his remaining bases from renewed assaults. The StarTale zerg continued his sneaky ways in Game 3, getting an auspicious runby into TaeJa’s natural early on. It crucially took out TaeJa's +1 attack upgrade, which allowed Curious to hold a powerful hellbat/marine timing. Afterwards, Curious slowly smothered his foe with swift multipronged strikes. Once he added infestors and ultralisks to the mix, TaeJa had no more options.

Curious did not find similar fortune in the deciding match. herO was all over him from the start, seamlessly transitioning from his Oracle opener into blink harass while stopping all counterattacks cold. After killing Curious’ main with a zealot runby, he absorbed the Zerg’s last desperate effort with great forcefields and blink control.

Game 2

King Sejong Station

CJ.herO P5 RATING:

Rarely do we recommend a game for didactic reasons unless one side had an exemplary performance. In this case, herO was the embodiment of anti-SH gameplay. Past the initial build order, he anticipated and countered Curious’ plans at every turn. Eliminating Curious’ fourth crippled SH production and opened the door for debilitating warp prism attacks, preventing the Zerg from assembling anything resembling a functional army. From researching storm to adding 2 more stargates after seeing the spire, herO covered all possible options and gave his opponent no weaknesses to pounce upon.

RATING:

Game 2 opened in the most passive way imaginable, with nexus first against 3 hatch before pool. Curious boldly tried to get swarmhosts without a roach warren, prompting herO to attack the recently finished fourth with a small army. From that point onwards (P)herO crippled Curious with a series of devastating blows. He took out the fourth a second time with 2 colossus in tow, eradicated the third with a huge swell of zealots, and flanked Curious’ last-ditch SH push before it tickled his own fourth base.

Z11 ST.CuriousRATING:

Curious is often praised as one of the most stable lategame Zergs, and it’s clear he wanted a drawn-out affair here. His determination to reach that point backfired horribly though. Just like in the previous game, he failed to scout and prepare adequately for herO’s timing attack. His focus on speedlings made it easy for herO’s army to boldly move up to Curious’ front door. Furthermore, he stubbornly tried retaking his forward fourth when he neither possessed the SH numbers nor the creep spread to justify the decision.

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