Starcraft 2 WCS, Game One – LiquidHerO vs. Oz

Game on folks! The first matches for WCS America have begun, beginning with HerO (protoss)  vs. Oz (protoss). The maps in use today are as follows; Akilon Wastes, Neo Planet S, and Newkirk City. With the large following of today’s WCS tournaments each game will be streamed on the StarCraft 2 main eSports page, or you can click this link here.

To kick things off, our first map is Akilon Wastes! Positioned in your top left corner is Oz, with HerO on the bottom right. 

Game One, Akilon Wastes!

Early on in game one, HerO viciously takes out the natural of Oz and holds his stalkers on the lower end of his ramp to prevent the expand once again. While HerO is distracted at Oz’s ramp, Oz counters with a Warp Prism drop of 1 Immortal and 6 Zealots. Evening the game once again and allows himself to expand.

At a key point in the game, (13:00) Hero scouts Oz’s Stargate and picks it off quickly to delay the imminent Void rays. Prepping his army, HerO begins to create more Stalkers and Immortals but also includes Archons into the mix to counter the Void Rays as he spots two more Stargates being thrown down. 

At 17:45 HerO’s Immortals do a great job at hammering away at Oz’s army while his Void Rays are picked off by opposing Stalkers (HerO) after being caught out of position. Pushing quickly, HerO takes advantage of the low army count of Oz and takes the game at 19:20 for a quick 1-0.

Game Two, Neo Planet S!

We start with HerO in the bottom left and Oz in the top right. The match begins with identical builds with both players opening up with a Zealot. Oz takes the early expansion at 5:00 with HerO still on a single base. HerO tries to push into Oz’s base by bluffing with a hallucinated Warp Prism to distract his units away from the natural, but Oz knows better and disregards it to defend his natural from the impending push of Stalkers and Sentries.

Defending the continued pushes perfectly, Oz lays down both of his Photon Overcharges on the Nexus’ and pushes HerO’s units away, and harasses him towards his own base. 

Knocking on HerO’s front door now is a massive force of Stalkers and 4 Immortals. Without a Mothership Core or a viable army, the GG is given and Oz wins at 14:30. Making the match count at 1-1.

Game Three, Newkirk City!

Starting in the bottom left is HerO with Oz in the bottom right. Early on into game three, both players start safe. However, at the 10:00 mark, HerO pushes heavily into Oz’s base with a mass of Stalkers and Immortals. Oz destroys HerO’s army with an amazing defense of Forcefields and Photon Overcharges, while his Oracle destroys the mineral line of HerO at his natural.

At 15:00 minutes, Oz fights back but ends with a failed push as HerO protects his own natural and overcoming the harassment. Yet, at 19:00, Oz tries once again to get into HerO’s base and successfully does so with Stalkers and Collosi to destroy HerO’s units and inherently wins the game (2-1, Oz) to move on to the next match.