SC2Improve Winter League Qualifier #4 Recap
The fourth Qualifier for the SC2Improve Winter League 2013/2014 was another to remember as we saw fan-favourite Ukrainian Zerg DIMAGA win the event, qualifying to the RO16 of the Winter League. He had a solid run through the lower half of the bracket - dropping only a single map against AvaTaR in the semi-finals. He took a walkover in the final when Noname forfeited due to it being late.
We didn't get to see many games from DIMAGA, due to the lack of a final and generally only managing to catch the other side of the bracket. What we did get to see of him was very impressive - some solid anti-mech play against Aquamarine followed up by a great response to an 8-8 Double Proxy in game 2 saw him through the RO8.
In the RO4 he played against AvaTaR, of which we only saw the third game on stream. What initially seemed like a great defence from DIMAGA, recognising something was up and placing spore crawlers at a perfect time to deflect the Dark Templar opening from his opponent, quickly turned scary as he lost his Lair to an unexpected 4 Dark Templar drop. Fortunately he was simultaneously denying his opponents third base, allowing him to stay in the game.
Unable to get his third base up AvaTaR committed to a two base all-in - but what could have been a game ending opportunity to move into the natural of his opponent, force-fielding his opponents army out quickly turned sour as DIMAGA came in from all sides and the force-fields were non-existent until it was too late.
We are very excited to have DIMAGA in the RO16. As a tournament organiser it is always great to have popular players qualify to your event - but it's even better when it's someone as great as DIMAGA. Just talking to him briefly after the event it became apparent just how nice of a person he is. We wish him the best of luck in the RO16!
Our game of the week from this Qualifier was Game 3 between TomikuS and Noname. TomikuS came through the quarterfinals in a very exciting ling-bling based series against Love Your Girlfriend's Korean player Mamuri. It's a series which is definitely worth a watch if you are looking for something back and forth, relatively short and extremely intense. You can find Game 1 linked below.
But to Noname vs TomikuS - a BO3 TvZ for the semifinals. The series opened up with a victory for Noname on Polar Night, where he did game ending damage with a Hellion Banshee opening. Game 2 saw TomikuS abuse Noname's aggressive play with the Hellion Banshee, using ling counter-attacks to sever the Terran's economy. Soon after Noname was forced into an all-in push, which TomikuS was well prepared for with a wall of spines and counter-attacking roach drops. TomikuS took the game to even it out to 1-1.
Game 3 of this series is our Game of the Week as it was a classic Bio-Mine vs Ling/Bling/Muta TvZ - one of our favourites here at SC2Improve. Consistent trading on either side of the map is what makes this game so great.
