Match Rating: 10/10
Click here to display the full match recap and commentary (spoilers)
Game 1 – Shakuras Plateau – After almost getting disqualified for arriving late, Kyrix went into this match with little time to prepare. Despite both players’ reputations as aggressive players, both used economy-oriented openings in cross positions. Kyrix went hatch first while Foxer put his barracks at his natural and fast expanded behind marines.
For the first of many times, Kyrix got a quick baneling nest. Foxer got a factory with tech lab for tanks and another two barracks. Kyrix tried to baneling bust the wall off at Foxer’s natural and broke through, but Foxer’s marines were spread expertly, minimizing damage. Unlike a typical all-in baneling rush, Kyrix was getting his third base up by this point. After refreshing his marine numbers, Foxer moved off to apply pressure. Kyrix tried to head him off with banelings in the middle of the map, but Foxer’s marine micro was again good enough to spread his marines and win the battle. He chose to attack Kyrix’s third, but in tighter quarters Kyrix’s banelings, now with upgraded speed, cleaned up the attack.
Foxer dropped marines in Kyrix’s main and shot down five overlords. When the inevitable wave of speedlings and banelings zoomed down the creep towards his force, he picked up again and flew away, having taken no losses. Kyrix got a spire up and added mutalisks to his composition, and both players streamed armies into the middle of the map. Foxer’s immaculate marine micro meant they actually fought pound for pound with the banelings, while Kyrix’s aggression meant he never built up a critical mass of mutalisks. In fairness to Kyrix, any let off on his part and Foxer’s unrelenting attacks would end up in his bases, not in the middle of the map.
Somehow in all the micro and macro, Foxer upgraded his marines and took a third base. He began to get the advantage, with his marines, medivacs, and tanks slowly pushing Kyrix’s ever-smaller groups of speedlings, banelings, and mutalisks across the map and into Kyrix’s natural. Foxer actually managed to snipe the spire at this point before getting pushed out. Kyrix rebuilt it and started using more roaches. He had a fourth base by now, but so did Foxer. Even on bases, Foxer fought a grueling campaign with intricate micro that finally broke Kyrix’s defense and won the game.
Game 2 – Lost Temple – Spawning in close positions, both players used very similar openings to the previous game. Kyrix went hatch first while Foxer did a gasless marine fast expand. He walled off the natural with barracks and then pressured with his early marines. His micro was more than sufficient to defeat much larger numbers of slow zerglings and even snipe a queen, but when zergling speed finished his marines were forced to run back to the natural.
The moment the pressure was off, Kyrix got his baneling nest out, and just like before he prepared for a bust. Foxer saw the banelings with a floating factory and tried to put two engineering bays in front of his wall-in, but the banelings arrived while they were only half complete and smashed through the wall-in. Although Foxer’s micro made his marines seem almost invincible against banelings, with the wall down the speedlings following up destroyed his army and won the game.
Game 3 – Steppes of War – Same openings a third time, hatch first and marine fast expansion, despite the close distance. Foxer again pressured with early marines and a few SCVs, but Kyrix made enough zerglings to defend easily. The counterattack looked dangerous, but Foxer pulled SCVs and his absurdly good micro allowed him to defend without canceling his expansion. Kyrix got a baneling nest in response, of course, but also took the gold expansion. Foxer walled off the ramp to his expansion, but Kyrix made more than enough banelings to destroy the wall. Foxer as usual spread his marines to deal with the banelings, but again zerglings poured through the gap. The onslaught was enough to force Foxer to retreat into his main and lift his expansion. Apparently thinking the game won, Kyrix started making banelings right in Foxer’s main, but Foxer’s remaining marines and a few hellions managed to repel the attack and retake the natural. Kyrix starting getting roaches in response, but never stopped the speedling pressure. Always defending, Foxer wasn’t able to rebuild his wall, and eventually the relentless speedling assault defeated him.
Game 4 – Scrap Station – Kyrix went hatch first, but Foxer changed his play, getting a fast gas for the first time in the series. Instead of going marine fast expand, he went with two starport banshees of a single base. Against Kyrix’s build in the first three games, this might have resulted in an instant victory, but this time he got a reasonably fast lair. But Foxer didn’t bother with researching cloak, he just focused on churning out banshees. Not surprisingly, he proved to have expert banshee micro. With his first two, he sniped one of the queens, then retreated to repair. Kyrix made more queens to defend and started a spire at his expansion. Up to four banshees now, Foxer returned to Kyrix’s main and, with the help of two more that came in during the attack, killed all the queens. From there he devastated Kyrix’s drones. The fleeing drones led the banshees to the natural, where they sniped the spire. From there, Kyrix was obviously doomed, though he managed to get a few spore crawlers up in his natural. Foxer destroyed Kyrix’s tech in his main with two banshees while the rest kept the natural in check, forcing Kyrix to concede.
Game 5 – X’el Naga Caverns – It took five games but finally Foxer walled off with his opening buildings. Kyrix went his usual hatch first. Foxer got a factory, then starport, then a banshee, but he only made one starport this time. While the banshee harassed zerglings in the middle of the map, he built a command center on the low ground. Zerglings tried to pressure but his marines defended fairly easily with the help of the unchecked banshee firing from above. While this was happening, Kyrix got a hidden third expansion in the upper left. After getting his usual baneling nest, he made his banelings behind the grass beside Foxer’s natural. The banshee spotted them and Foxer’s insane micro was able to handle the defense. With his first medivacs, he dropped Kyrix’s distant third base, killing the drones with his marines. Kyrix’s newly hatched mutalisks arrived just in time to drive off the attack and save the hatchery.
This sparked a long serious of battles in the center of the map with speedlings, banelings, and mutalisks fighting Foxer’s marines and medivacs. Much of the fighting was near Foxer’s expansion, but this game he had sieged tanks to clean up anything that got through. After massing up an unusually large force, Foxer pushed Kyrix’s third and won a battle there, losing his medivacs but driving away the mutalisks. From there he destroyed the hatchery and killed a lot of overlords.
Instead of rebuilding his third where it had been, Kyrix took the gold base. By now his creep was all the way down encroaching on Foxer’s natural expansion, so Foxer moved out and scanned to take down some of the creep tumors. Kyrix meanwhile added roaches to his composition and won a battle in the middle of the map. Instead of sending his reinforcements there, Foxer massed them and then countered up the other side towards Kyrix’s gold. Kyrix managed to save it with his remaining mutalisks and what was now a mostly roach army. Foxer meanwhile finally got the creep off his gold expansion and, starved of minerals because of the constant, pressing need for units to fight Kyrix’s aggression, floated the orbital command from his mined out main base to the gold. Kyrix poked but the siege tanks drove off his roaches.
Although he looked like he was finally in a position to defend with each player essentially on two bases (since their mains were mined out), Foxer probably thought Kyrix had taken at least one more base, because he pushed out with his army. Mass roaches cleaned up his force and pushed down to the gold expansion, forcing Foxer to lift. But meanwhile he had been switching to mass marauder, and this new compsition throws back the roach army and allows him to retake the gold base. Kyrix hadn’t rebuilt his mutas, instead going for roaches and banelings. Loading his banelings into his overlords, he tried to defeat the marauder marine armies using baneling drops to complement the roaches, but Foxer’s micro was too good, sniping the overlords before they got close enough to drop. Foxer now pushed in on Kyrix’s almost mined out gold base and Kyrix, never having been able to expand due to the unbelievable amount of fighting, was elminated.
Commentary: My pick for the best series so far in either GSL. Games 1 and 5 were back and forth battles full of intense action and amazing skill. Both players were stretched to their limits, and while they made occasional mistakes (like Foxer not getting shields for his marines in game 1) their ability to micro the constant battles while expanding and macroing (not to mention creep spread in Kyrix’s case) was incredible. Games 2, 3, and 4 weren’t nearly as epic, but they showcased the players’ battle of wills: Kyrix’s confidence in his baneling play despite game 1 and Foxer’s search for an early answer to Kyrix’s busts.
For the first of many times, Kyrix got a quick baneling nest. Foxer got a factory with tech lab for tanks and another two barracks. Kyrix tried to baneling bust the wall off at Foxer’s natural and broke through, but Foxer’s marines were spread expertly, minimizing damage. Unlike a typical all-in baneling rush, Kyrix was getting his third base up by this point. After refreshing his marine numbers, Foxer moved off to apply pressure. Kyrix tried to head him off with banelings in the middle of the map, but Foxer’s marine micro was again good enough to spread his marines and win the battle. He chose to attack Kyrix’s third, but in tighter quarters Kyrix’s banelings, now with upgraded speed, cleaned up the attack.
Foxer dropped marines in Kyrix’s main and shot down five overlords. When the inevitable wave of speedlings and banelings zoomed down the creep towards his force, he picked up again and flew away, having taken no losses. Kyrix got a spire up and added mutalisks to his composition, and both players streamed armies into the middle of the map. Foxer’s immaculate marine micro meant they actually fought pound for pound with the banelings, while Kyrix’s aggression meant he never built up a critical mass of mutalisks. In fairness to Kyrix, any let off on his part and Foxer’s unrelenting attacks would end up in his bases, not in the middle of the map.
Somehow in all the micro and macro, Foxer upgraded his marines and took a third base. He began to get the advantage, with his marines, medivacs, and tanks slowly pushing Kyrix’s ever-smaller groups of speedlings, banelings, and mutalisks across the map and into Kyrix’s natural. Foxer actually managed to snipe the spire at this point before getting pushed out. Kyrix rebuilt it and started using more roaches. He had a fourth base by now, but so did Foxer. Even on bases, Foxer fought a grueling campaign with intricate micro that finally broke Kyrix’s defense and won the game.
Game 2 – Lost Temple – Spawning in close positions, both players used very similar openings to the previous game. Kyrix went hatch first while Foxer did a gasless marine fast expand. He walled off the natural with barracks and then pressured with his early marines. His micro was more than sufficient to defeat much larger numbers of slow zerglings and even snipe a queen, but when zergling speed finished his marines were forced to run back to the natural.
The moment the pressure was off, Kyrix got his baneling nest out, and just like before he prepared for a bust. Foxer saw the banelings with a floating factory and tried to put two engineering bays in front of his wall-in, but the banelings arrived while they were only half complete and smashed through the wall-in. Although Foxer’s micro made his marines seem almost invincible against banelings, with the wall down the speedlings following up destroyed his army and won the game.
Game 3 – Steppes of War – Same openings a third time, hatch first and marine fast expansion, despite the close distance. Foxer again pressured with early marines and a few SCVs, but Kyrix made enough zerglings to defend easily. The counterattack looked dangerous, but Foxer pulled SCVs and his absurdly good micro allowed him to defend without canceling his expansion. Kyrix got a baneling nest in response, of course, but also took the gold expansion. Foxer walled off the ramp to his expansion, but Kyrix made more than enough banelings to destroy the wall. Foxer as usual spread his marines to deal with the banelings, but again zerglings poured through the gap. The onslaught was enough to force Foxer to retreat into his main and lift his expansion. Apparently thinking the game won, Kyrix started making banelings right in Foxer’s main, but Foxer’s remaining marines and a few hellions managed to repel the attack and retake the natural. Kyrix starting getting roaches in response, but never stopped the speedling pressure. Always defending, Foxer wasn’t able to rebuild his wall, and eventually the relentless speedling assault defeated him.
Game 4 – Scrap Station – Kyrix went hatch first, but Foxer changed his play, getting a fast gas for the first time in the series. Instead of going marine fast expand, he went with two starport banshees of a single base. Against Kyrix’s build in the first three games, this might have resulted in an instant victory, but this time he got a reasonably fast lair. But Foxer didn’t bother with researching cloak, he just focused on churning out banshees. Not surprisingly, he proved to have expert banshee micro. With his first two, he sniped one of the queens, then retreated to repair. Kyrix made more queens to defend and started a spire at his expansion. Up to four banshees now, Foxer returned to Kyrix’s main and, with the help of two more that came in during the attack, killed all the queens. From there he devastated Kyrix’s drones. The fleeing drones led the banshees to the natural, where they sniped the spire. From there, Kyrix was obviously doomed, though he managed to get a few spore crawlers up in his natural. Foxer destroyed Kyrix’s tech in his main with two banshees while the rest kept the natural in check, forcing Kyrix to concede.
Game 5 – X’el Naga Caverns – It took five games but finally Foxer walled off with his opening buildings. Kyrix went his usual hatch first. Foxer got a factory, then starport, then a banshee, but he only made one starport this time. While the banshee harassed zerglings in the middle of the map, he built a command center on the low ground. Zerglings tried to pressure but his marines defended fairly easily with the help of the unchecked banshee firing from above. While this was happening, Kyrix got a hidden third expansion in the upper left. After getting his usual baneling nest, he made his banelings behind the grass beside Foxer’s natural. The banshee spotted them and Foxer’s insane micro was able to handle the defense. With his first medivacs, he dropped Kyrix’s distant third base, killing the drones with his marines. Kyrix’s newly hatched mutalisks arrived just in time to drive off the attack and save the hatchery.
This sparked a long serious of battles in the center of the map with speedlings, banelings, and mutalisks fighting Foxer’s marines and medivacs. Much of the fighting was near Foxer’s expansion, but this game he had sieged tanks to clean up anything that got through. After massing up an unusually large force, Foxer pushed Kyrix’s third and won a battle there, losing his medivacs but driving away the mutalisks. From there he destroyed the hatchery and killed a lot of overlords.
Instead of rebuilding his third where it had been, Kyrix took the gold base. By now his creep was all the way down encroaching on Foxer’s natural expansion, so Foxer moved out and scanned to take down some of the creep tumors. Kyrix meanwhile added roaches to his composition and won a battle in the middle of the map. Instead of sending his reinforcements there, Foxer massed them and then countered up the other side towards Kyrix’s gold. Kyrix managed to save it with his remaining mutalisks and what was now a mostly roach army. Foxer meanwhile finally got the creep off his gold expansion and, starved of minerals because of the constant, pressing need for units to fight Kyrix’s aggression, floated the orbital command from his mined out main base to the gold. Kyrix poked but the siege tanks drove off his roaches.
Although he looked like he was finally in a position to defend with each player essentially on two bases (since their mains were mined out), Foxer probably thought Kyrix had taken at least one more base, because he pushed out with his army. Mass roaches cleaned up his force and pushed down to the gold expansion, forcing Foxer to lift. But meanwhile he had been switching to mass marauder, and this new compsition throws back the roach army and allows him to retake the gold base. Kyrix hadn’t rebuilt his mutas, instead going for roaches and banelings. Loading his banelings into his overlords, he tried to defeat the marauder marine armies using baneling drops to complement the roaches, but Foxer’s micro was too good, sniping the overlords before they got close enough to drop. Foxer now pushed in on Kyrix’s almost mined out gold base and Kyrix, never having been able to expand due to the unbelievable amount of fighting, was elminated.
Commentary: My pick for the best series so far in either GSL. Games 1 and 5 were back and forth battles full of intense action and amazing skill. Both players were stretched to their limits, and while they made occasional mistakes (like Foxer not getting shields for his marines in game 1) their ability to micro the constant battles while expanding and macroing (not to mention creep spread in Kyrix’s case) was incredible. Games 2, 3, and 4 weren’t nearly as epic, but they showcased the players’ battle of wills: Kyrix’s confidence in his baneling play despite game 1 and Foxer’s search for an early answer to Kyrix’s busts.
NEXGenius vs. StHopeTorture
Match Rating: 7/10
Click here to display the full match recap and commentary (spoilers)
Game 1 – Lost Temple – In close positions on Lost Temple, HopeTorture opened two barracks while Genius got an early stargate. Genius’ first void ray was actually spotted by marines in the middle of the map, and while HopeTorture looked like he wanted to push, he had to keep his forces at home to defend against the void ray harassment. Genius kept making void rays out of the single starport while expanding to his natural. HopeTorture tried to punish him for skimping on ground units and moved his marines and marauders to the natural, forcing a cancel. A force field on the ramp kept his army out of the main, so HopeTorture moved back and expanded himself. Genius built his expansion again at about the same time. Now with three void rays, Genius kept poking the marines and SCVs. When he had four, he brought his ground army to the choke. HopeTorture had a turret in front of his natural, but with the help of force field cuts his forces easily overwhelmed HopeTorture’s defenses and won the game.
Game 2 – Delta Quadrant – After standard openings in far positions, Genius made a proxy twilight council and did a blink rush. Unfortunately for him, HopeTorture was rushing to cloaked banshees. Genius’ eight stalkers blinked up the ramp just as the first banshee arrived in his base. Although his stalkers did quite a bit of damage, the cloaked banshee in his main took out almost all his probes and forced the few survivors to flee. Genius managed to get an observer out, but HopeTorture had put several bunkers around the mineral line in his main. Genius’ blink micro kept the game going longer than one would think, but eventually the observer was sniped and cloaked banshees cleaned up the stalkers.
Game 3 – X’el Naga Caverns – HopeTorture built a proxy factory in the far right of the map and did a thor repair rush. Genius went fast robotics and didn’t have a huge amount of units defending. When the marines, Thor, and SCVs arrived at his ramp, he placed a force field behind the Thor that kept out the marines, but the SCVs were up with the Thor, making it essentially unkillable. Another build order victory for HopeTorture.
Game 4 – Metalopolis – In close air positions, HopeTorture initally put a reactor on his first barracks but canceled in favor of a tech lab when Genius’ probe unexpectedly snuck past the marine guarding the ramp. Instead, he built a fairly fast command center. Genius meanwhile made another quick stargate and began building void rays. HopeTorture sent a scouting reaper in and spotted the stargate. Undeterred, Genius kept making void rays and expanded himself. Genius’ void ray micro proved dangerous as he harassed with three void rays and didn’t lose any even when stim finished. However, with some of them damaged, he moved them back to his army and switched to colossus. However, the void rays had already made HopeTorture begin making vikings. Slightly ahead in supply, he moved out with a fairly large army and fought a huge battle near Genius’ natural. Force fields blocked the inital force away from the colossus, but a small group of late arriving marauders darted around the force fields and focused down the colossus. During the fighting the vikings and marines were all destroyed however, which left the void rays the only survivors after they took out the marauders. Both players expanded but HopeTorture had his up first. After adding a ghost or two to his army, he moved out again. This time he bypassed Genius’ army at the natural and instead hit Genius’ third base. The army focused the nexus and destroyed it, then fled from the oncoming Protoss army. Genius chased the army all the way back to HopeTorture’s natural, but the reinforcements were waiting there. This time there were just enough marines to take out the void rays, and the marauders swept away the colossus. From there, the army swung down on to Genius’ natural and won the game and the series.
Commentary: After the amazing Foxer vs Kyrix series, it was perhaps inevitable that this one would be a little disappointing. Both players played well, but games 2 and 3 were decided mostly by build orders. Genius showed that void rays may be underestimated in army compositions, but HopeTorture seemed to adjust after the first game. Game 4 wasn’t one sided, but HopeTorture never seemed like he was in very much danger. It’s another disappointing tournament for Protoss as for the second time running none have reached the semifinals.
Game 2 – Delta Quadrant – After standard openings in far positions, Genius made a proxy twilight council and did a blink rush. Unfortunately for him, HopeTorture was rushing to cloaked banshees. Genius’ eight stalkers blinked up the ramp just as the first banshee arrived in his base. Although his stalkers did quite a bit of damage, the cloaked banshee in his main took out almost all his probes and forced the few survivors to flee. Genius managed to get an observer out, but HopeTorture had put several bunkers around the mineral line in his main. Genius’ blink micro kept the game going longer than one would think, but eventually the observer was sniped and cloaked banshees cleaned up the stalkers.
Game 3 – X’el Naga Caverns – HopeTorture built a proxy factory in the far right of the map and did a thor repair rush. Genius went fast robotics and didn’t have a huge amount of units defending. When the marines, Thor, and SCVs arrived at his ramp, he placed a force field behind the Thor that kept out the marines, but the SCVs were up with the Thor, making it essentially unkillable. Another build order victory for HopeTorture.
Game 4 – Metalopolis – In close air positions, HopeTorture initally put a reactor on his first barracks but canceled in favor of a tech lab when Genius’ probe unexpectedly snuck past the marine guarding the ramp. Instead, he built a fairly fast command center. Genius meanwhile made another quick stargate and began building void rays. HopeTorture sent a scouting reaper in and spotted the stargate. Undeterred, Genius kept making void rays and expanded himself. Genius’ void ray micro proved dangerous as he harassed with three void rays and didn’t lose any even when stim finished. However, with some of them damaged, he moved them back to his army and switched to colossus. However, the void rays had already made HopeTorture begin making vikings. Slightly ahead in supply, he moved out with a fairly large army and fought a huge battle near Genius’ natural. Force fields blocked the inital force away from the colossus, but a small group of late arriving marauders darted around the force fields and focused down the colossus. During the fighting the vikings and marines were all destroyed however, which left the void rays the only survivors after they took out the marauders. Both players expanded but HopeTorture had his up first. After adding a ghost or two to his army, he moved out again. This time he bypassed Genius’ army at the natural and instead hit Genius’ third base. The army focused the nexus and destroyed it, then fled from the oncoming Protoss army. Genius chased the army all the way back to HopeTorture’s natural, but the reinforcements were waiting there. This time there were just enough marines to take out the void rays, and the marauders swept away the colossus. From there, the army swung down on to Genius’ natural and won the game and the series.
Commentary: After the amazing Foxer vs Kyrix series, it was perhaps inevitable that this one would be a little disappointing. Both players played well, but games 2 and 3 were decided mostly by build orders. Genius showed that void rays may be underestimated in army compositions, but HopeTorture seemed to adjust after the first game. Game 4 wasn’t one sided, but HopeTorture never seemed like he was in very much danger. It’s another disappointing tournament for Protoss as for the second time running none have reached the semifinals.
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