Ahh.. Hey guys. This blog’s going to be about the GreenForest E-Café Tournament, so if you don’t want to be spoiled don’t read :P~

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 1

Alright.. I arrived at California in the LAX airport on Friday, a day before the event with my dad. Xeris picked us up and we stayed at his place for the entire trip (thanks for the hospitality J~). I tried to get some practice games on Xeris’ laptop but shortly after starting a game against my teammate Fenix, I quickly realized that the laptop was unable to smoothly play Starcraft 2 (I killed my own tank somehow… haha..).

Anyhow, Xeris’ dad had brought his desktop back home (a weird story behind that…) and it took us until midnight to get it all set up thanks to a busted DVD drive! I managed to get maybe three games in but I definitely did not play up to my expectations. Disappointed, I attempted to get some sleep (which I was also unsuccessful at, with Xeris’ cat walking all over the floor and even licking my hand once. I think I got maybe 20 minutes of sleep? :().

Day 2

Well, we woke up at around… 8? Usual morning routines, shower, etc… Got to the event a bit before it was supposed to have started and what not. Xeris, my dad and I pulled up at GreenForest. Many familiar (and unknown) faces greeted us – the EG players, PsyonicReaver, spectators and other players from TeamLiquid. It took a while to get everyone inside. The staff at GreenForest were all very friendly as we entered. A lot of players’ pictures were taken as we were directed to the computers.

The group stages were very tedious. Being in the last group, I stood/sat around for several hours until it was my turn. Of course, most of the people that advanced were usual favorites. I don’t think there were too many surprises there. For myself, I beat Duffman and Ekke to advance.

After the group stages, things really began picking up – since there were only 16 people left, we didn’t have to wait for players to set up their gear over and over again. (On that note, I definitely think I had the biggest mosuepad at the event. xD) In the round of 16, I was able to defeat Evil Geniuses’ Incontrol in a very intense series 2-1.

My first game was on Delta Quadrant. Spawning on bottom right against bottom left, I used IntoTheRainbow’s TvP build. Before the series began, I had checked the timing for when to send my scv to get the proxy factory down at exactly 100 gas, so I was very confident it would work out well. I got into Incontrol’s base with my hellions, saw stargate, and attempted to build a starport at base while doing my standard harass. A minute or two later, I looked back at my base to find no starport and hurriedly built it. A void ray soon got in my base and despite numerosu probe kills from earlier, the late starport had cost me the game.

The second game on Lost Temple saw us doing similar builds once again – me spawning at 12 and Incontrol at 3. However, this time I did not float a factory into his base. I did hide it in bushes, however. I was relatively successful with my initial pressure, killing many probes yet again. This time, my starport was built on time and we did not see a repeat of game 1. The tense point of the game came when his void ray entered my base. My viking lived by the most miniscule amounts of hp thanks to scv repair. From there I just massed up units, contained Incontrol and won.

Game three on Metalopolis put us once again in close positions. I opted for a three barracks build similar to one the Root Terrans favored (drewbie, Qxc, CauthonLuck), whereas Incontrol decided on a phoenix into dark templar build. Before the phoenix harass had begun, my reaper scouted a twilight council at the back of his base. I thought, “What could this be for?” and a few seconds later placed an engineering bay in fear of dark templars. Luckily, my instinct was right and the turrets saved me from elimination. I counter-dropped Incontrol dealing significant damage and shortly sealed the game with a mid-game push, taking the series 2-1 and advancing to the round of 8.

My next opponent was none other than Duffman once again, a Terran player from sMi. However, I quickly swept the series 3-0, as he seemed unable to cope with my early pressure plays. The others who had advanced to the semifinals were PainUser, Qxc and Inka. Stomach rumbling, I quickly packed up my equipment and we went to a restaurant next door to eat. As we left the venue, we noted the stage being built on the parking lot as well as the progamer booths.

When we got back to Xeris’ home, I got some TvT practice with Neans and watched over some replays before sleeping.

Day 3

On Sunday, the event started very late – around 5:30 PM. In the morning, our team had a clan war against Mouz. For myself, I suffered a narrow 1-2 defeat to HasuObs, a Protoss player. I attempted to get some more practice in for the quickly approaching semifinals games, but heat and exhaustion laughed in my face. I was content to watch two Morrow replays, which were key in my later games.

We arrived once again at the GreenForest venue to see an unfamiliar figure being surrounded by people. He was quickly identified as Day[9], who everyone knew as the icon of Starcraft 2 and one of the premier casters. We exchanged greetings and went inside.

The first semifinals game to be casted was Inka versus Qxc, where Inka won (3-2? I think that was the score). From watching that series, I noted that Qxc had only prepared one build for TvP – eventually, Inka must have realized the same thing and just began blind countering it.

Afterwards, I had my own semifinals series against PainUser.

Game one placed us in close rush distances on Metalopolis. I took a very early lead in the game, killing many marines and even two supply depots with our respective fact port openings. However, a cloaked banshee soon changed the game into PainUser’s favor, killing tens of scvs and crippling my economy. I was left slightly shaken as I tapped out.

Game two saw us on Steppes of War – a popularly known close rush distance map. For this game, I used the build I had observed from the Morrow replays – a 1 barrack marauder expand into 4 barracks. PainUser, on the other hand, had prepared a barrack/factory/barrack rush. However, when he had attacked, I had a similar force – as well as stim researched. When I saw a banshee fly towards my base, I decided to bring half my scvs and all-in straight into his base, quickly securing game two.

Game three was played on Junk Yard, a map I doubt many are familiar with. I myself had played maybe three games on it at most. We had a pretty even start, I think. I opened with a similar build as game two, where PainUser opted for some sort of siege expand to his high yield and went for cloaked banshees once again. We had a pretty close stalemate up until he busted my backdoor and countered my main. From there, banshees wrecked me and I was forced to concede.

Game four was definitely one of my most disappointing games. Upon review, it was also clear to me that PainUser had more experience in the late-game matchup, although I felt I had a more solid early-midgame overall. We spawned cross-positions on Lost Temple (me 6, him 12). We set up our tank lines in the middle and fought for air control using Vikings. In our first confrontation, I took a devastating early lead using hunter seeker missiles, winning the air battle easily. But during this, PainUser had already added up to 8 starports and surprised me with his large viking count several minutes later. Without doing so myself, I was forced to concede yet again, losing the series 1-3.

The result was very disappointing to me. I was pretty frustrated for dropping a series where I held advantages for half the games I lost. But I guess I need to practice more…

Anyhow, my third place match against Qxc was somewhat humorosu. I wanted to make it in time to watch Inka vs PainUser on the stage match. However, it was Terran vs Terran, a matchup that is notoriosuly long and tediosu for tank lines and viking battles lasting an eternity. After a brief interview with esunited.net, we played our games.

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The first match of the series was played on Lost Temple. We spawned close rush distances (me 12, him 9). I quickly decided upon a very aggressive Thor rush opening. Although it sounds silly, it is very strong when you bring scvs along – the repair factor makes Thor rushes almost impossible to stop. Qxc’s plan was to marine drop my main while turtling – however, I just sent the rest of my scvs to his base in response to the drop and quickly cleaned up game one when my second Thor arrived.

Game two was, once again, on Steppes of War. Qxc opened a bit more aggressively with a bunker rush, and I was thrown off. Instead of opting for my usual barrack expand play, I went for some weird one-base build. My expansion was much later than his. However, deciding that I was too far behind to win a straight up game, I just grouped all my scvs and all-ined into his base. This surprisingly worked – however, I lost all my marines and a banshee wrecked havoc upon my marauder/tank composition. I had about four marines left that were rallied – they could have dealt with the low hp banshee. However, qxc had quickly blocked his ramp with landed Vikings and sealed the game. (Upon review of the game, I could have taken the game easily if I just brought my marauder/tank back to protect the marines…)

In the third game, we opened on Metalopolis on close rush distances. Scouting this, I chose to play much more aggressively than before – so far, he had seemed uncomfortable with my early pressure plays. A mass marine/3 helion push into cloaked banshees was able to break up Qxc’s ramp and disrupt his economy. I followed this up with three barracks and tank/viking – the game ended shortly after another ramp break with stim. I pulled ahead in the series, 2-1.

And on the final game, Qxc chose Delta Quadrant. We spawned on cross positions – me taking 2, and him on 7. I opened with a comfortable barracks expand, whereas Qxc opened fact port. Scouting this, I quickly decided upon an all-in marauder/marine/scv  attack with half of my natural scvs. The tech opening Qxc chose was easily crushed by the sheer amount of units I had. He was forced to concede. consequently placing me third in the tournament.

I quickly packed up my gear and went outside to watch the finals – luckily, game 1 of Inka vs PainUser was only halfway through. I figure there must have been a lot of technical issues, or there was a lot of entrance ceremonies and whatnot. PainUser’s performance on stage surprised me for sure. He took the series 3-1, winning $1,000, some Intel hardware and a trophy. After a series of interviews on stage and inside the café, we (EG players, PainUser, Zelniq, Xeris and I) went out to eat at a Denny’s before calling it a night.

Day 4

Monday morning was very bittersweet. My regret at the loss to PainUser was never truly realized until I was flying back home (three hours to emo at yourself does that to you sadly L). However, it was undoubtedly true that he had more experience than I did at the TvT matchup. Hopefully next time we meet that will change.

 

Thank you for reading my lengthy blog (clocking over 2,000 words, haha…)~

If I have any fans – please cheer me on in future events!

Shoutouts to MSI, Steelseries, Bigfoot Networks, UGame and Slappa for all your support!

Special thanks to my teammates and friends (mizore :P~).

Also, if you live near Ventura, California, please consider dropping by at the GreenForest cafe. The owners are very passionate about supporting the growth of e-sports, as evidenced by the tournament and their hard work in organizing the event as well as building the stage.

 

Interview with ESUnited.net