The quarter finals match between JangBi and YellOw[ArnC] may have been overshadowed by the gut wrenching OSL finals between Stork and Fantasy, but for these two players nothing else existed right then. Unfortunately the games were rather one-sided.
JangBi and Yarnc met earlier this MSL, in the Round of 32, where JangBi came away spotless from the group and Yarnc had to take down Flash in the loser's finals. After JangBi defeated Memory and Yarnc defeated type-b in the Ro16, here they were facing each other yet again. Yarnc has really blossomed since his twin brother Luxury left OGN and joined KTF, coming into his own as a really good zerg player. JangBi has been on a roll lately as well, tearing it up in the proleague and the MSL alike. But, like Thunderdome, two men enter and only one leaves in this quarter finals. On with the games!
Game 1 @ Destination
Jangbi spawned in the bottom position and Yarnc set up shop at the top position. Yarnc fast expanded like so many zergs before him, placing his hatchery down at his natural expansion at 12. Jangbi notices this with his scouting probe and places his nexus down before forge and other buildings. While Yarnc techs to lair and gets a spire, Jangbi swiftly obtains a templar archives and stargate, meaning Yarnc would have dark templar to look forward to shortly. The first dark templar gets spotted by an overlord at Yarnc's third base, but moves away from the base, leaving the dt to start tearing up drones and sending them reeling back to Yarnc's main.
A second dt slips into Yarnc's main with only a few hitpoints left and hides in a corner, biding his time. Jangbi's first push consists of a few archons, a group of zealots and corsairs, completely nullifying the mutalisks Yarnc had spawned earlier. This force almost takes down the Yarnc's third base, but lurkers save the day here, as Jangbi hasn't gotten observers just yet. Que the dark templar hiding in Yarnc's base. The dt shreds a bunch of drones, then escapes into the shadows yet again. Some impotent attempts from Yarnc to harass ultimately does nothing to prevent a giant ball of archon, dragoon and zealot army with high templar support to roll out of Jangbi's base and simply walk over Yarnc's army. Yarnc watches his second expansion fall and surrenders.
Game 2 @ Byzantium 2
Yarnc clearly wasn't happy with the outcome of the first game and decided a five pool would teach Jangbi his place. When Jangbi's probe spots the zerglings he simply plops down a pylon by his nexus, followed by a cannon. The zerglings take out the supporting pylon, but are unable to kill more than a few probes before being driven off. Jangbi's forge falls, but he is safe for the meantime and is content with teching up to templar archives.
He tries to expand once again, throwing up a pylon and a forge, only to have it torn down by a wave of speedzerglings. During their frenzied attack a lone dark templar slips out and starts heading toward Yarnc's base. When the zerglings arrive at Jangbi's main Jangbi continues to keep his head cool and traps almost all the zerglings with his units, picking them off and sustaining very little damage. A wave of deja vu hits as the dark templar sent up earlier starts sniping undefended drones in Yarnc's main. As they scurry off, the dt almost kills off the spawning pool but is forced into hiding. While Yarnc's mutalisks attempt to harass Jangbi's natural expansion, this dt resurfaces and snipes a few zerglings, a few more drones and the spawning pool before dying. Archons and zealots move up a little while later to finish the job. Yarnc's frustration must be growing as his every action is swatted aside and he soon surrenders. 2-0 to Jangbi.
Game 3 @ Medusa
Yarnc started out in the bottom position and Jangbi in the top left. Yarnc opted to go for a quick pool and gas opening, which would send signals of speed zerglings should Jangbi spot it. And spot it he did, but his probe got taken out rather quickly and so he didn't see that Yarnc started his lair upgrade almost before his second hatchery was plopped down. It would be mutalisks again, Yarnc hoping that this time it would work. Jangbi sensed something was up and built a cautious cannon by his mineral line.
Jangbi had decided to go sair/reaver this game and so was already prepared to produce a large amount of corsairs. Yarnc's harassment did inflict some damage, but the ever-growing corsair fleet was soon able to chase away those pesky mutalisks. The first reaver drop began with a dud scarab, and as the scourge took down the shuttle Jangbi was hoping to get at least a few drone kills with that reaver. Luckily for him, Yarnc obliged him by sending his drones back to the minerals before the reaver had gone down. 5 drones were destroyed as a result of this. Yarnc had constructed a hydralisk den and a few hydralisks, but the corsair numbers were such that they could ignore spore colonies and hydralisks alike and take down almost every single overlord Yarnc had. The mutalisks attempted to bring the corsair fleet home to offer some respite, but to little avail. The next reaver that came took out a significant amount of drones while the corsairs took down the newest batch of overlords and Yarnc would have no more of this. He surrenders and Jangbi is through to the semi-finals!
The Protoss Prevails
Yarnc's stubborn refusal to change tactics and Jangbi's calm, collected play sealed the deal on this one. There were precious few moments during the games where Jangbi could be said to be in any trouble, and those few moments were handled with swift and efficient action. Not the most exciting of games perhaps, but a good showcase of how to defeat mutalisk builds as protoss.
Next week the remaining two quarterfinal matches will be played. firebathero and Bisu will square off on November 6th and Nada vs free takes place two days later, on Sunday the 8th of November.
Links
YouTube.com - Source - VODs
