Sharp and Best have had a very even record of 3-3 in their encounters in the ASL. Both players have knocked each other out in groups once, but have never faced off in the bracket stage. Their first encounter would prove to be an exciting and action packed series.

Game 1: Radeon

Sharp spawned in the top right, while Best spawned in the bottom left. With cross spawn positions, neither player opted for any sort of greedy economic opener. However, Sharp would take the early economic advantage with a rax expand, while BeSt opened standard with a core first. It looked like on the supply and money chart that after his 2nd pylon, Best initially started a probe, then cancelled it to start a zealot, but cancelled the zealot once he saw the cross map spawn and opted for a normal 23 nexus. All that is to say, Sharp was firmly in the driver’s seat after Best had to alter his build to match Sharp’s economic-focused opener.

The game settled down, with Sharp playing a safe and compact Terran, building up to the standard 5 factories, while Best chose to go for 2 base arbiter. Once his 5 factories had finished, Sharp added a 3rd command center as he pushed towards the center of the map. Best had no choice but to respond with more gateways and could not afford to take a 4th base. On even bases and starting to feel like he had no other option, Best attacked into a well fortified Terran army with his first stasis, which ended poorly.

The Terran fortress is too strong to break.

Now, down in supply and with an incredibly delayed 4th, Best couldn’t do much except wait for Sharp’s inevitable maxed 2/1 push. As Sharp’s army got dangerously close to Best, Best had no choice but to commit to another attack. He stasised a few tanks and a vessel, and while he managed to crash his zealots onto Sharp’s tank line, Sharp was simply too well upgraded and had too much supply for Best’s army to effectively deal with.

A great zealot surround, but there’s simply too much Terran.

Sharp 1-0

Game 2: Blitz Y

Sharp spawned on the top side while Best spawned on the bottom side. The early game harass saw Best pylon scout and gas steal while Sharp went for a safer 10 rax to prepare for the potential zealot aggression. No aggression came though, as Best went for a gasless nexus, but not before Sharp stalled it with an ebay block. On the other side of the map, Sharp had sneakily started his command center near his ramp, rather than on the spot. As Best’s zealots peaked past the bunker to check, they would find nothing building.

Mindgames from Sharp.

Without any information, Best was forced to build a forge and a cannon to guard against any potential Terran cheese that was approaching. But such cheese never materialized, and seeing the command center with a second peak with his dragoon would confirm to Best that Sharp had outwitted him. Once again, it felt like Sharp was in control of the game.

Best would attempt to use reavers as his way for coming back into the game, but Sharp was adequately prepared with early goliaths to push away any attempted shuttle. Then Best, with either a total misclick or getting mind controlled by Sharp, uncharacteristically ran his goons into a turret and several mines, causing him to take considerable damage and lose a few goons.

Poor control.

Then Sharp, also seemingly getting mind controlled, launched an attack with practically no vulture support, and got caught by Best’s stream of zealots, leaving him with his pants down and retreat as his only option.

Caught between zealots and a hard place.

While Best couldn’t end the game immediately, the battle was a decisive one. Best climbed to an insurmountable 50 supply lead on 4 bases while Sharp struggled to secure his own 3rd. Seizing his advantage, Best smelled blood in the water and would launch wave after wave of attacks on Sharp’s third.

Endless onslaught.

Sharp would persist for a few more moments in the game, but ultimately had no answer to Best’s constant attacks and would be forced to tap out.

Series tied 1-1

Game 3: Citadel

Another cross spawn game with Sharp spawning at the top right and Best at the bottom left. This time, it would be Best who played for the economic advantage, going 12 nexus against Sharp’s factory expand. Sharp would try to catch back up in economy, opting for a very fast 3rd CC off 1 factory. It would go unpunished, as Best had opted for a passive 3 gate obs rather than any sort of reaver harass. After spotting the 3rd base, Best would double expand to try and retake the economic lead. A slower game developed, with Sharp taking his 4th base and looking like he was going to go for a split map macro game. However, Best had no intentions of a long game, and would bring his entire army to Sharp’s fourth, looking for a bust.

Attacking into an intrenched Terran position is usually not a great idea…

But the bust would go poorly, and Best had no future plans of securing a 5th and 6th base. Sharp’s economy was kicking in as he continued to add factories while Best was now playing catchup. He added a second robotics facility to play for shuttle/templar, while Sharp was perfectly content with sitting back to build his unstoppable mech army. The stalemate would be broken as Best launched his first shuttle-recall into Sharp’s 4th base, forcing a lift.

Shuttles pretending to be an arbiter.

Sharp did not overcommit to the defense, keeping enough units back at his 5th base to push away Best’s attempted two-pronged attack. Once the zealot drop had been cleaned up, Sharp launched his maxed push. Best used storms to slowly whittle away at the tank count, but Sharp had an endless amount of tanks. After securing the center of the map with his tanks and keeping the bulk of Best’s army pinned in his natural, Sharp would slowly chip away at Best’s satellite bases.

Sharp pins back Best.

Best launched a counter into Sharp’s 5th base, but even after dealing good damage, it was simply not enough. Sharp had too many bases while Best slowly mined out, and once Best’s last remaining bank dried up, he admitted defeat.

Sharp 2-1

Game 4: Apocalypse

Best spawned bottom left while Sharp spawned bottom right. With his back to the wall, Best gambled, going pylon scout to try for a gas steal, but lost the 50/50 as he went to the top spawn first. Sharp opened standard factory expand, but switched up his tech, going for vulture speed over mines. He snuck 2 vultures into Best’s main, getting 5 probe kills, then another couple at the natural with his next set of vultures.

A disastrous vulture runny.

Best looked to be behind again while Sharp’s vulture speed meant moving out was impossible for Best. And the harass would not stop, as Sharp would again and again try to get vultures through Best’s army to continue his economic harass. Eventually, Best had enough goons at home to deal with the constant flow of vultures, but Sharp had already amped up his production to 5 factories while Best remained on 5 gateways with reavers. Sharp expanded to his third while putting pressure on Best with his army, and snuck 3 vultures around the back into Best’s third, where the pylon wall was not tight.

Pretty sure an ultralisk could fight through there.

With his economy decimated, Best had to counter, and succeeded in wiping out the Terran army.

Best charges down the ramp.

Unfortunately, he didn’t have enough leftover units to deal any economic damage. While Sharp’s tank count had been reset, Best’s economy was weak. Even securing a 4th base was difficult, as Sharp would run circles around Best’s army with his vultures, sniping probes moving to build the nexus. However, Sharp did end up making one crucial mistake, which was forgetting his starport and science facility to get +2 attack. Instead, he used what he had to push once he was maxed, attacking with only 1/1 instead of 2/1. Best’s army bravely met the Terran’ mass in the middle, and stopped the push. The missing +2 upgrade was a critical mistake.

No +2, no win.

However, Sharp had secured his 4th behind the push, and like the first attempted bust by Best, the Protoss army had been traded off, leaving very few units to counter. Further, Best was again not looking to secure a 5th or 6th base, meaning the Terran macro was soon outpacing the Protoss. Without an economy, Best’s army was getting torn to pieces by Sharp’s vultures, which finally had +2 attack. Once Sharp had remaxed, and this time having his +2 attack, Best’s army struggled to find a winning fight. Sharp would calmly set up outside of Best’s 4th to shell it while forcing Best to take unfavorable trades.

A valiant defense, but it’s not enough.

The long, drawn out siege of Best’s 4th would ultimately see the nexus come crumbling down, and with it, his hopes of advancing. He tapped out, with Sharp celebrating emphatically at his first semifinal appearance since the debut season of the ASL.

Sharp wins 3-1 and advances to the semifinals!

So far this ASL has mainly delivered some quality PvT action, including one of the most entertaining game in recent years, courtesy of Mini! While this series gave us the first really high quality TvZ encounter, with some excellent moves and a great finale. Although Rush seemed a little shaky, he still brought enough to make it fun, while herO really showed why it’s almost always correct to make spawn more drones.

Game 1 – Troy SE

The first game starts on this season’s ‘funny’ map, which we have sadly not seen nearly enough so far. (Bring back Nemesis please!) herO, spawning top left, plays it safe by opening with overpool into 11-hatch. Rush wins the opening poker with an 11-rax semi-wall at bottom right.

Six zerglings spawn and shepherd a drone across the map to top left. Everyone knows that drones feel safer in closed spaces, so the lings kindly shut the door on the way out by killing the assimilators. Terran builds the natural command centre on 19 supply and starts gearing up for bringing the hurt.

Two barracks production and a very short path are difficult to deal with for Zerg. But three sunkens colonies on the high ground should be enough, right?

Just barely busted.

Wrong. Firebats are surprisingly tanky and the infantry just barely wins the fight, with a single firebat and two medics remaining. herO tries to save the day by sending his drones to fight, but it isn’t quite enough. A few zerglings trickle in to try to save the day, but Terran also has reinforcements on the way. Eventually the first clutch of mutalisks takes to the skies and cleans up the marines, but not before the hatchery falls. herO rebuilds the hatchery quickly as he still has decent mineral income (making drones is good). The mutalisks don’t find any free damage as the Terran air defences are ready.

Rush starts producing siege tanks while the marines and mutalisks do the stim shuffle and fresh sunkens start morphing at the Zerg natural. The swarm also adds a queen’s nest and an evo chamber, while Terran builds a starport. Both players keep gearing up for the next big battle. Realising that he is under pressure, herO adds even more sunken colonies and in the process messes up his gas mining.

The mutalisk flock gets lost in the Terran base and suffers significant damage for too little gain although they manage to snipe one tank. Rush needs no further invitation and sends out a Big Bio Ball with artillery support. Zerg manages to scourge the first vessel and has completed morphing a greater spire, but, *cough*, yeah. No. Greater spire isn’t the answer to this particular question, or many other questions if we’re honest.

There are no lurkers. There is no dark swarm. Shredded mutalisks rain from the sky. The Terran army breaks through the sunken line again. And during all this Rush had the time send an airborne squad of special forces to the top left. The pilot narrowly dodges some scourge and when the paratroopers blow up the nydus, herO throws in the towel.

Game 2 – Citadel

Spawning in the top left, herO starts with another overpool. Rush goes for a slight variation with a 10-rax in base. This is a smart move as it denies easy information to the first overlord, which picked the correct direction. The overlord knows that it has to get more information and peeks into the main. This daring manouvre nearly costs it dearly, but it just manages to float to safety.

Saved by a whisker

The first zerglings don’t get anything done. Construction begins on the natural command centre and a lair also starts to morph. Once again, Rush adds a second barracks. herO goes straight for spire tech and also plants his third hatchery at the bottom left natural. Mutalisks start sharking around, but don’t engage, while the overeager marines get carried away wasting several rounds of drugs, needlessly straining the military healthcare system.

A hydralisk den and a queen’s nest morph at the third base and drones start to trickle in to start harvesting resources. Yep, drones are good. Meanwhile Rush’s units appear to be on lunch break and nothing much happens for a bit. A little move out, then back to the natural. Then a little moveout, and back to the natural, you get the picture. Only the intelligence services seem to be working hard to gather information on the enemy. The natural has two sunkens, a hive is morphing. Rush orders some valkyries and executes a traitor marine. Discipline must be maintained.

We’ll never know what that marine did. And that’s probably for the best.

Further scans reveal that lurkers are now morphing at the third base. Somehow this is the right time for a very large bio force to actually start moving across the map. They push the mutalisks away and two valkyries arrive to secure the air. But at the last moment Rush decides against attacking the Zerg natural, probably judging correctly that he doesn’t have quite enough firepower. The pressure of the situation must be telling because he also starts to construct a second science facility.

The replenished mutalisk flock picks off a few marines in the centre of the map and two scourge connect with valks, but don’t kill anything. We are now 11:00 minutes into the game. herO, droning like there’s no tomorrow, has a strong 3 base economy, while Rush still doesn’t have tanks or vessels. In a somewhat desperate looking move the Terran army has a go at the Zerg third, but two sunkens and seven lurkers, including four of them stacked are just a little bit too much for pure bio…

Just… no.

herO feels confident in his defences, so he adds two macro hatcheries and starts morphing his fourth base. With no attacking opportunity, Rush starts to take his mineral only. Before Terran gets a third refinery an ultralisk cavern is on the way. I was scratching my head a bit about what Rush was doing. Was he suffering an existential crisis? Had he just given up on life (and ASL) for some reason? Did he feel bad about crushing herO in game 1? Does he actually secretly like the cuddly Zerg workers? We will never know…

Existential crisis

Whatever the cause of this momentary lapse, Rush seems to suddenly pull himself together: he builds some dropships and starts a fourth command centre. So far no lurker has been killed and several defilers have full energy, including the one at the drop target location.

With his first two dropships loaded, Rush is finally ready to take the initiative. In a beautifully coordinated attack vessels soften up the lurkers, valkyries take out the scourge and two dropships unload at the Zerg fourth. We quickly learn that Rush doesn’t love Zerg workers after all, as his troops slaughter a whole labor of drones in cold blood. I heard rumours that the commander of the paratroopers has been remanded on war crimes charges.

Combined arms tactics Alexander would have been proud of.

The remaining marines get cleaned up efficiently by a precision plague. But four more dropships are on the way. They also manage to unload, but there are too many lurkers to threaten the base. Still, a bunch of Zerg units get killed, including a couple of defilers, and supplies are looking healthy for Terran.

Six science vessels are slowly gaining value. When the last lurker at the Zerg third gently passes out of existence the marines punch forward, taking down the sunkens, sniping a defiler and blowing up the nydus. Because the lurker cover is too thin, a small group of bio simply walks past the dark swarms.

Going for a stroll under a tangerine sky.

Zerg takes a lot of damage, but crucially, the economy keeps humming. (Yep, drones are…) A juicy plague allows the mutas to kill five vessels. Rush immediately counters with a drop into the undefended Zerg main. The spire goes down, but ultras hatch and start to clean up the marines. And then battle cruiser support arrives, and once again (illegally I should add) starts targeting civilians.

Size really isn’t everything.

Staying true to the spirit of this game, herO counter-attacks with ultra-ling into the Terran 3rd and 4th bases. Rush barely holds, but loses a lot of bio in the process. Let’s say that ultras under swarm are not amazingly easy to fight with marines and eventually the Terran fourth is overwhelmed. A big engagement in the middle looks like something out of a promotional video: ultra-ling vs marine-medic with battlecruiser support. The ultras trample the infantry and move on.

Box art promo fight

Finally the superior Zerg economy wins the day. Rush tries to take 12 o’clock, but he can’t sustain his defences and taps out. After the game both players look like they lost. Brood war can be very harsh on the spirit sometimes.

Existentialism competition

Game 3: Neo Dark Origin

herO spawns in the top left and, once again, goes overpool into 11-hatch. Rush gets the better opening once more with an 11-rax, scouting on 15 supply. Although somewhat late, the SCV still gets in and sees the lair starting to morph. Rush follows up with a second barracks and a fast-ish gas, looking to put on some pressure.

As soon as the lair finishes morphing, the spire starts. This time Zerg morphs the third hatchery in the main and also adds two sunkens at the natural to stay safe. HerO does his favourite thing in the whole wide world and gets in a round of drones after the first four mutalisks. But Terran scanned the greed play and correctly delays the turrets somewhat.

The Zerg flyers eventually apply some pressure, but don’t get much done. Rush starts two quite early starports, and the swarm secures the close third base and starts to evolve a hive. The mutas keep the Terran ground army close to the Terran base until the first lurkers burrow in the middle.

By the time of the first serious engagement, herO is almost even in supply. He really knows when to press ‘d’. Lurkers are waiting behind the bridges on the Zerg side. Two get irradiated immediately. And then Rush gives the order to attack. The results are not pretty.

Ouch. What was that?

Mutas ambush a group of reinforcements. The expeditionary forces are no match for a fresh round of lurkers and the whole Terran expeditionary force gets completely wiped out, including the scientific and medical staff.

Defilers wag their tails in giddy anticipation of the coming blood bath as they make their way towards the Terran base. One dies from sheer excitement radiation poisoning, but its brood brother conjures up a dark warm at the entrance to the Terran natural. And that is that.

Game 4: Radeon

Given that herO went overpool three games in a row, Rush takes a risk and throws in an 8-rax opening. And luckily for Terran, Zerg has opted for a 12-hatch. Unluckily for Rush, the scouting overlord finds him first and gets the full information.

The positions are very close (we had close spawns in all games), so the first marine arrives very quickly. herO doesn’t want to get caught out and sends six, no eight, no TEN(!) drones out to defend. The bunker starts a little distance away from the natural.

[center]herO loves drones and drones love herO.

The drones overwhelm the bunker and the Terran units are forced to run. The space-boys manage to kill two workers before getting overwhelmed. Back at herO’s base we realise that he has morphed exactly zero zerglings so far, so his economy is off to a fine start. Did I already mention that drones are good? Yes? And that herO rather likes them? Ah, OK, sorry.

Because Rush scouts this too late he fails to punish the lack of zerglings even though he had five marines. Instead he starts to construct a command centre. The lair starts morphing around the time the CC is only one third finished.

Rush adds a second barracks and gets a refinery and academy. herO morphs a spire immediately after the lair pops. Satellite control spies the third hatchery in the Zerg main, so Terran can adopt a defensive posture for now. This game herO doesn’t skimp on the mutalisks. He got the drones earlier you see…

Rush’s setup is decent though. Four missile turrets are ready and the marines are at his natural. Once again, Zerg takes the bottom left natural. This time the factory starts a little earlier. And two firebats have snuck out for a private BBQ.

Quiet R&R

While the factory is still under construction, hive is already on the way. Meanwhile Rush tries to poke out on four rax production. But the supplies are far too close for comfort, partly because the mutalisks are effectively harassing the Terran’s natural mineral line. More civilians being targeted.

Rush goes for two starports again and finally sends out a large bio force. The mutalisks buy a little bit of time, so two lukers manage to burrow before the attack hits. Even though the Zerg air force is out of positions, the marines can’t get into the Zerg expansion.

The supplies are telling.

The defiler mound finishes before the first vessels are out. And just for fun herO also morphs the least useful building: a greater spire. How many times has this actually done anything in ASL? Once? Maybe twice? Will it do anything here? (You know the answer…) Those resources could’ve been drones!

Terran takes his third expansion much faster this time. While herO goes for his favourite four-lurker stack once more. Having enjoyed the drops in game 2, Rush orders a little more where that came from. herO realises his earlier mistake and decides that he could do with a few more drones, so he starts his fourth base.

Everything looks pretty normal at this point, but then the game starts to go crazy. The Terran forces are mostly across the map near the Zerg natural when the swarm attacks from a different direction with a lurker-ling-defiler brood. Rush is forced to lift his third CC.

Backdoor man critter

The Terran chain of command seems to have broken down as most of the army, including four loaded dropships, idle around outside the Zerg base. When communication channels are finally restored the dropships are ordered South to attack the Zerg expansion.

Maybe there is some psi disruption in the air, because Zerg also has trouble coordinating their forces. Scourge idly float on the wind like so many leaves and watch the dropships unload in complete safety. The defiler is out of position and the lurkers aren’t buried.

“Communication breakdown” – Led Zeppeling

This time the parachute regiment does take down the fourth base, but the dropships are caught out in the open and shot down by mutalisks. At the same time Rush regains control of his third base. And shortly after that the drop is cleared up by a combined muta-ling force.

The upshot is that both players are back on three bases and the army supplies are close. But importantly Zerg has a tech lead, especially after herO’s ultralisk cavern is done. Rush does have a large army, including six fresh science vessels and he takes the initiative to hit the Zerg’s third base again.

Impact: A+; Medical research ethics: F

Mutalisks successfully prevent a small group of Terran units from establishing a new base in the bottom right natural. Ultralisks join the field and get greeted by a cleansing dose of irradiation. A small ergling counter-attack gets repulsed.

And then we are treated to the frantic finale! Rush’s vessels have finally worn down the Zerg defences and he goes in for the kill. Too few Zerg reinforcements come out of the nydus network. The defiler is too late and the whole bottom left gets wiped out. Meanwhile there is scary counter-attack pouring into the Terran natural with dark swarm and ultralisks, which forces the command centre to lift.

Grand Finale

The Terran home guard gets overwhelmed as the main army scrambles back desperately. All the ultralisks get irradiated, but in the chaos most of the SCV’s get slaughtered. Rush doesn’t have any income and not enough material to hold on so he taps out.

GG.

Here’s to another non-TvT final, and hopefully a quality TvZ semi!

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• Source: https://tl.net/forum/brood-war/623841-asl17-ro4-preview-take-off