With Day 2 of MLG's Summer Arena for StarCraft 2 now firmly underway, we've summed up the most interesting matches from yesterday and posted them for you below! Catch up on the weekend's festivities with this Day 1 Recap -- and if you're not sure who to pull for, check out our Top8 predictions!
Sheth (Z) vs Ryung (T)
Game 1 Cloud Kingdom: The game opens with players taking their expansions before any other buildings. Unsurprisingly, Ryung follows this up with reactored hellions, while his Zerg opponent goes up to four queens and starts a roach warren. Things start to look bad for the Terran when he throws down double e-bay because Sheth takes his third only as a proxy hatchery to pump out roaches while he throws down a Baneling Nest. Sheth's attack hits Ryung's barely-defended natural hard, and all the while Sheth starts droning up, gets double evolution chamber and even takes his fourth. Meanwhile, his attack does a fair amount of damage, killing the SCVs on the low ground, forcing the Orbital Command to lift and cutting down a lot of Ryung's aggressive units.
With Ryung being behind in every way except upgrades and Sheth focusing all his larva into droning up, the game slows down as both players macro up. Finally, with supplies at 170 for the Zerg and 150 for the Terran, Ryung begins his aggression. As he starts by sieging up Sheth's fourth and taking it out. From here the game spirals out of Sheth's control, despite being able to get infestors and even Broodlords, he is never able to maintain his fourth, fifth, or sixths bases. Ryung is able to be aggressive and keep his opponent behind in expansions while adding a third, fourth, and fifth. Finally, after a slugfest of a game where Sheth refused to give up and Ryung refused to let up his aggression, Sheth is forced to all-in with his remaining Corruptors, Infestors, and Broodlords, being on four bases to Ryung's six. When the Terran army is the last one standing, Sheth is forced to GG.
Game 2 Antiga Shipyard: Sheth opts for a hatch first whereas Ryung opens with a one-rax expand. This game starts incredibly standard, with Ryung reactoring out some hellions to put pressure on Sheth while he goes up to six queens and takes a third. Both players had begun teching up and getting upgrades when the first exchange happens. While Sheth's queens are out spreading creep and his lings are out on the map, Ryung's six hellions are able to slip into the natural and kill twenty workers before being dealt with. Ryung is now in an economic lead, so he claims his third and continues to macro up while Sheth is unable to put any pressure on his opponent until his Mutalisks are out.
Finally feeling secure in his lead - and having no clue that mutalisks are on the field - Ryung moves out with his marines, but as creep has now expanded to the center of the map, Sheth smells blood and goes for it. He takes out the marines and then moves into Ryung's base, taking out tanks, the third, and plenty of SCVs and Supply Depots. With a 60 supply lead, Sheth takes a fourth, fifth, and sixth, while Ryung is forced to turtle up and stay on three bases. Despite being behind Ryung, continues his drops, even taking out one of Sheth's bases. But when Sheth goes in for an attack he gets shut down and Ryung is able to close the supply gap. Still stuck on three bases, though, Ryung has to do something fast; he decides to move out, claiming not only the center, but even Sheth's undefended Broodlords as they morph. Finally taking a lead in the game again, Ryung is able to claim the center gold expansion and use his multi-tasking to hit multiple of Sheth's bases and again pull Sheth apart, regardless of his strong lead in the middle game. Up 100 supply Ryung, moves into the main and natural of Sheth, killing his remaining army and forcing the GG.
Ryung 2-0 Sheth
Oz (P) vs viOLet (Z)
Game 1 Antiga Shipyard: viOLet opens with a normal Spawning Pool and Hatchery, but Oz goes Nexus first into double gateway! Oz sends his first two stalkers and a zealot across the map to deal some damage before viOLet's third is even up. viOLet, who only built a handful of Zerglings, is not able to defend as well as he would like, but is able to take out the stalkers and zealot. He follows this up with very heavy ling aggression. Regardless of his finished wall and warped-in sentries, viOLet's lings get into the natural and main, killing probes and sentries, completely negating any advantage Oz had gained with his pressure. Now playing from behind, Oz tries to tech up a bit getting out Immortals, but viOLet is on top of his macro and gets up a large army of Zerglings and roaches. Getting up to about 170 supply, viOLet moves across the map and absolutely crushes the out-of-position Protoss as he's trying to take a third.
Game 2 Daybreak: Again, Oz opens with Nexus first, but this time follows up with a more normal Forge. After getting his wall up, Oz starts putting a little pressure on with two stalkers and 1 zealot. Following this, the Protoss player gets greedy and takes a very early third, starting it at 6:30! He follows this up with a delayed stargate, getting two Void Rays to control the map. viOLet is not able to scout the fast third, even with his overlord placement, and starts to enter a normal macro. He's not able to scout the third until 9 minutes in, and at this point it is up and running. viOLet continues to posture around the map in an attempt to find an opening to deal damage, but on three base versus three base he just can't find an opening. Oz, rather than teching up, chooses to take a fast fourth, which is faster than viOLet's third! Without any way to pressure his opponent and falling more and more behind, things spiral downhill for the Zerg. Finally, the maxed-out Protoss puts an end to the 150 supply Zerg.
Game 3 Cloud Kingdom: Unlike the last two games, Oz chooses not to put the early pressure on and both players play very standard. viOLet quickly goes up to three bases and Oz takes his natural and ascends the Twilight Council tech tree. As both players advance their tech trees and expand their armies, Oz decides to take a fairly normal third. Seeing this, viOLet gears up for some aggression, attacking the natural and third. But Oz is ready and able to perfectly split his army to deal with the Roach/Zergling threat; having defeated the Zerg army, he moves across the map to put on the pressure. The Zerg player attempts to slow the army down, but Oz is unfazed and moves into the Zerg's third, thoroughly crushing it. viOLet GG's after this.
Oz 2-1 viOLet
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- Keegan "HornetSting" Gallick.