The NASL Nutshell: Week 1

by: Marcus in: Gaming & Tech Uncategorized on: April 18, 2012

Hey guys, Marcus here with the first installment of Gosu.com’s weekly NASL wrap-up/prediction party! But first, I want to talk about some of the major changes that have taken place within the league. The Bitterdam combo as well as the relatively unknown Frodan have been introduced as headlining casters. The NASL has also made a commitment to having all of the games played live (except when they’re not). Their the new studio set up along with the community/EU/NA update segments create more of a “Sportscenter” feel to the whole production. These are some very cool (and much needed) developments all around.

Now for the games. I’m going to be honest, these aren’t Code S matches, guys. It’s kind of hard to switch from witnessing the revolutionary “Marineking landing his factory to separate his foe’s natural and 3rd” at MLG to “Hey, baneling drops are kinda neat.” If this first week is any indication, the NASL still values quantity just a bit more than quality. Of course, that doesn’t mean they weren’t entertaining games.

The main theme of this last week seemed to be in ZvP: Zerg getting way far ahead after deflecting whatever 2-base Protoss aggression came their way, but then not being able to hold onto their lead. Many games ended with a 2-3 base Protoss deathball push and the 4-5 base Zerg being paralyzed by a better controlled army composition. Game one of LiquidNonY vs. aTnDarkforce is the perfect example of this (ditto LiquidTLO vs iSAxslav). Darkforce and TLO were certainly not alone. Notably, Tt eSPORTS’s White-Ra tried to mix it up by going to 3 bases against LiquidSheth by the 6 minute mark. It sure raised some eyebrows, but the opening came out a little wonky and not quite fleshed out yet. There were also match-ups like TT1 vs Stephano, which was as close as it sounds.

There were a few upsets, but the only one that caught everyone’s attention was FXOStrelok’s 2-0 over EGHuk. While the result is stunning, I wouldn’t read too much into it, seeing as EGHuk has GSL on his mind. Preparing for a Korean style Terran is a whole different ballgame as compared to FXOStrelok’s macro-intensive approach.

With so many ZvPs, I thought I’d go over the main theme once again in this week’s…

Game of the Week

The game of the week is mousesport’s Morrow vs. SlayersPuzzle, game 3. It started off normal as can be, 3 bases for Zerg, 2 bases for Protoss.  In these circumstances, the Protoss has duty to do real damage before the drone count gets out of control. Puzzle opts to go a step further and throws down a Stargate to execute an off-time 4gate plus voidray all-in. Morrow is able to hold it off despite a force-fielded ramp, and losing his then-building lair. When all is said and done, Morrow quickly remakes his main hatch and looks to be in great shape going into the midgame.

Morrow unprepared for the air play at first

However, Morrow overreacts, perhaps worried that the lost of a hatch has set him farther behind than was true. He builds a Nydus and prepares for an all-in of his own. Despite his misread, the maneuver puts Morrow into a favorable base-race situation after Puzzle  pushes with his army while Morrow able to destroy his economy from behind with a sneaky nydus outside the would-be third of Puzzle. Morrow is able to scrape a few resources here and there after the mains start to fall. Puzzle fights on for an impressively long time, but is forced to GG out after his zero income army loses steam, solidifying the upset in favor of Morrow.

Hydra charge, tally ho!

The true key to Morrow’s victory was that Hydras were the correct answer to everything Puzzle had. Puzzle critically lost two of his first three Colossi due to a bad engagement on creep, and was never given time to built the count he needed to take on a hydra-heavy army as it literally chewed through his immortals and stalkers.

Predictions for this Week!

Division 1
Zenio vs Hwangsin 2-0
Puma vs Stephano 2-1
Brat_OK vs TT1 2-0
Cloud vs Nightend 2-1

Division 2
Ryung vs Crazymoving 2-1
Hero vs Dimaga 2-0
Sjow vs Hasuobs 2-1
Darkforce vs Demuslim 2-1

Division 3
Sen vs TLO 2-0
Ganzi vs Rain 2-0
Mana vs Axslav 2-1
Strelok vs Vibe 2-1

Division 4
Alicia vs aLive 2-1
Thorzain vs Ret 2-1
Lowely vs Catz 2-1
Cruncher vs Select 2-0

Division 5
Puzzle vs Polt 2-1
Morrow vs Jinro 2-0
White-Ra vs MC 2-0
Targa vs Sheth 2-0