The NASL Nutshell: Week 2

by: Marcus in: Gaming & Tech Uncategorized on: April 24, 2012

This last week was crazy good for any Starcraft fan with a robust internet connection (and a few dollars to spare). Between Dreamhack, MLG, and the NASL, I must have been watched nearly six hours of Starcraft every day. Of course, this copious content output makes keeping up with all the leagues is a challenge. Even tougher than that is being a player, I can’t imagine keeping up with everything.

Historically (and I use that term loosely), the NASL has been treated as the proverbial runt of the litter for both players and viewers. This week we saw another Stephano forfeit, which is too bad seeing as Stephano vs Puma could’ve been the match of week . There was also THIS little tiff:

…discussing the forfeit of Ganzi due to his double booking, choosing to attend MLG Spring over his NASL match against Rain (another high level match everyone was looking forward to). With its long form format, we’ll have to see how big of a problem these sorts of scheduling conflicts become for the NASL. MLG, of course, has plenty of history scheduling over smaller events (particularly in Europe).

The NASL has, however, been growing its clout by officially backing save-enabled maps as a solution for Battle.net disconnects. This move, if nothing else, should ratchet up the respect from both the community AND the players. Blizzard has, of course, outright dismissed these maps as hacks and doesn’t seem have any intent on budging. Still, bravo for NASL for being willing to not only inform its viewers of this solution, but also lend support to solving some of the technical issues marring the scene.

There were some pretty good matches this week, as well as some silly ones. The hour long base trade into base switch into triple army trade between Dimaga and HerO gave me traumatic ToD vs Happy flashbacks from Dreamhack last year. But Slayers Ryung vs iSCrazyMoving game 1 on Ohana deserves the honor of this week’s…

Game of the Week

Ryung opens with two port cloaked banshee, which catches CrazyMoving totally off guard. Due to some shockingly poor targeting, the surprise attack’s damage is minimal. CrazyMoving sees no tanks and wisely elects to respond with aggressive two base muta/ling/bling. The following attack looks scary for Ryung, but it loses steam before too much damage is done to the Terran’s natural. Ryung is left with a mineral line full of 1 hp SCVs, much to the frustration of his Zerg opponent.

After the dust settles, Ryung is on 3 bases and CrazyMoving has just started his 3rd, a tough spot for any Zerg. CrazyMoving uses his more mobile force to pull Ryung back and forth, threatening with lings at the natural and attacking the third with Mutas. Ryung eventually gets caught with his tanks in the open. CrazyMoving sees the opportunity and attacks. The result is a 3 base Zerg vs 2 base Terran.

Ryung, getting closer to mining out, masses up his well upgraded army and moves out to put the pressure back onto Zerg. CrazyMoving make a few key micro mistakes and is indecisive about his banelings, causing him fall way behind in the resources lost. He fights on for a while with some excellent Muta control, but the push is too strong. His fourth is history as the Terran army rolls onward. CrazyMoving sees that attacking into the push is impossible and goes for a counter attack. Ryung, however, is too well fortified at home. CrazyMoving is forced to tap out with a GG.

CrazyMoving was in a very good spot following his attack at Ryung’s third, and his muta ball was a real force with 2 attack upgraded. What allowed Ryung to create the unstoppable push was his flawless upgrading. By the time the push came, Ryung’s marines and tanks were so strong that no amount of under-upgraded lings/bane could engage barring a massive mistake in control. CrazyMoving’s tech simply wasn’t where it needed to be.

Predictions for this week!

Division 1
Cloud vs TT1 2-0
Stephano (should he play) vs Brat_OK 2-0
Puma vs Hwangsin 2-0
Zenio vs Haypro 2-0

Division 2
Hasuobs vs Darkforce 2-0
Sjow vs Diamga 2-1
HerO vs CrazyMoving 2-1
Ryung vs Nony 2-0

Division 3
Strelok vs Axslav 2-1
MaNa vs TLO 2-1
Sen vs Rain 2-1
Ganzi vs HuK 2-1

Division 4
Catz vs CrunCher 2-1
Ret vs Lowley 2-0
aLive vs Thorzain 2-1 (Most anticipated match!)
Alicia vs IdrA 2-1

Division 5
MC vs Targa 2-0
White-Ra vs Jinro 2-1
Polt vs MorroW 2-0
Puzzle vs qxc 2-0