HerO has slayed yet another team-mate of his during his DreamHack Winter run. On the stage of DreamArena, the protoss ace of team Liquid demolished Ret to advance to the grand final with a 3-1 victory.
HerO's crusade towards his first ever grand final began on Antiga with a double stargate phoenix/void ray opening which Ret could not scout for all his overlords were worth.
Understandably, Ret had was under heavy pressure but the macro beast knew prefectly well how to behave in such situations. His hydra tech came momentarily and the gaps in his defenses closed quickly. Ret continued pumping hydras also adding roaches to his composition but the production tab showed a spire and later a +1 air attack in the making. Air units did not make an appearance until greater spire was done and with brood lords now in his possession, Ret moved out to pressure Hero's centre expansion. The protoss, however, was hesitant about giving away this position to say the least and an offensive blink underneath Ret's brood lords led to their immediate death and the GG.
Game two was played on Daybreak and saw Hero opening with 5-gate and +1 attack but later transition into a dark shrine. That set Hero quite behind supply-wise which was the green light for Ret to enjoy the style of zerg he likes best - power up drones, max out lightning fast and batter down you opponent who can only sit and heed your overwhelming swarm of units.
For their third map, HerO chose Metalopolis and went on to completely fool Ret with yet another DT opening. HerO created a diversion with a few zealots and stalkers at Ret's ramp, drawing zerg's attention away from his third which he hit with four DTs, slashing it down in seconds. To his credit, Ret did his best to recover from this disadvantage but that early loss was the worst thing that could have happened to Ret. The Dutch tried to come strong with ling run-byes and roach surrounds but Hero seemed to be everywhere. 2-1.
Photo by: GosuGamers.net
The fourth map seemed to be extremely beneficient for Ret as Tal'Darim Altar would provide a lot of opportunities for him to get his macro going. The zerg was soon sitting on four bases and turned his gaze to Hero's third - a savoury dish to ravish to say the leaast. Ret persistently sent army after an army but the Nexus stood solid agaist all odds. Meanwhile, among all this chaos, HerO managed to zealot-kill Ret's fourth and instead of re-expanding immediately, Ret switched to, basically, an all-in mode , hoping that his roach supply advantage would be enough. That it wasn't as HerO's late-game composition had storms to back it up and as the supply difference began leaning towards protoss' favour, Ret typed out, wishing his team-mate good luck in the final.
HerO moves on to face Puma in the last match of DreamHack Winter 2011. The Liquid protoss looks amazingly strong and it seems that could be his tournament. HerO showed no mercy in either the group stage or the play-off bracket and has grown to be the most feared player at this tournament. His recent history versus Puma also speaks in his favour (2-1 victory at Providence), but the EG terran is looking stronger as ever. Puma is known for his tournament consistency and deep knowledge, understanding and excellency at the TvP match-up so predicting this final series is a sketchy job at best. Before the night is past, though, DreamHack will crown its Winter 2011 champion after what we can hope to be a PvT Bo7 to remember.
