Suppy versus Jason in the final ACE match of the set during an intense start to a final engagement for the win. Credits to Collegiate Starleague

Unexpected Close Battle

On Thursday, March 22 Temple University and the University of Ontario Institute of Technology faced off in a surprisingly close set. This set was part of the Round of 16 for the Collegiate Starleague Starcraft 2 Playoffs. The set was much closer than expected as both teams fought a back-and-forth set. While Temple was the top seed in the match-up, and therefore the favorite to win in the first time, the victory was extremely hard fought.

The Early Game: Temple’s Success

The early matches of the set was mostly a successful run for Temple University as there was a quick 2-0 lead in the series held by the team. This created a scenario where Temple was looking strong and ready to move in for a quick victory.

The first match was between Temple’s Suppy versus Ontario’s beaRs. While bearS kept pressure on Suppy for the early part of the match, Suppy was able to survive each attack early on to build up counter-attacks. Suppy also stabilized after taking some light damage. Eventually Suppy overpowered bearS, causing enough damage to cripple and eventually force a surrender from bearS.

The second match of the set was unique in that Temple’s Protoss player, Tesla, did not go for a more traditional build for the early set of the game. Instead of focusing on economy building and expanding traditionally to a closer base, Tesla created a proxy pylon in the middle of the map. A proxy pylon is a building built in an unconventional area that is not considered a traditional placement. From the pylon placement, Tesla went on to build a robotics building nearby so that he could create powerful units close to the opposing base. In the meantime, Ontario’s player, eXiled who was also playing Protoss, was building a more standard build and was a pixel away from scouting the proxy buildings. However eXiled missed the vision and was unaware of the location of important units that Tesla was hiding.

The match lasted only five minutes as the powerful units of Tesla kept pounding at the main base of eXiled before the quick surrender. At this point Temple had all the momentum going into the next match of the set. From the looks of things it seemed at that point it looked as if Temple was going to win quickly.

The Comeback

With the set at 2-0, it looked as if the two versus two match would end in a victory for Temple. Tesla was back out for Temple, aided by DaddyTugboat against the Ontario Tech duo of beaRs and EhMove. While Temple had the early aggression, Ontario Tech countered with more early aggression as beaRs and EhMove quickly removed DaddyTugboat from the match, leaving Tesla by himself. While Tesla moved out with a few Dark Templars for a stealth attack, but had nothing to gather resources with as all of his probes went down to EhMove’s mass Reaper army. The score turned to 2-1.

The match to follow was between Temple’s CentaurWA and Ontario’s Jason. While the match looked normal at first, CentaurWA went for a risky early play. CentaurWA tried to build a factory right outside of Jason’s base. Jason scouted near his bases, and was able to stop the factory. This prevented it from amassing an army at Jason’s doorstep. From that point, Jason and CentaurWA would be on near equal footing after the initial attempt from CentaurWA. Despite the nearly identical army sizes initially, Jason’s micromanagement of his forces, and defense of his second base made CentaurWA lose almost all of his units, causing CentaurWA to surrender. The score was now 2-2.

The Tiebreaker: One Keeps Playing, The Other Goes Home

Despite all odds, Ontario Tech managed to mass a comeback within the midway point of the set. The game shifted to be anyone’s as Temple sent out their Zerg player Suppy and Ontario Tech sent out the Terran player Jason one more time. The two started even, not taking a risk early in the game as they stayed back and started creating their armies. Both armies stayed close to even levels throughout the early game, with small engagements early on in the round. Most fights were only hit-and-run moves, getting back to safety before taking any major losses.

The mid-game had more action heat up as both sides began to engage in small fights to try and dwindle the opposing army. From there the late game became two power houses as Suppy and Jason laid it all on the line. While Jason landed critical hits on the opposing army, Suppy’s Zerg units were powerful enough to decimate the army supply of Jason,. This fight lead to a late win for Temple.

With the victory Temple moved on in the bracket while Ontario’s hopes were crushed for another year.

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