Here’s some photos from the LAN party on Saturday 11 February. It was a great event with everyone having fun on games including L4D2, TF2, SC2, LoL. We also had some free pizza as well, nom nom! Look out for the next event people!

Disclaimer: This photo was not taken at our event

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When we first started getting our team together for the CSL, we had a few goals in mind, one of which was to make sure we beat ‘the other place’. Things looked promising as our final team was coming together, with a bunch of skilled players forming our ‘core’. Time went on and we had ups and downs in the league, going up against a wide range of skilled amateurs and professionals alike. Then the Oxford match came, and we put our game faces on.

Set 1 Robert ‘RoberP’ Taylor (T) vs Oliver ‘Thesper’ Britton (Z) – MLG Shattered Temple

The first set actually happened a day before the official match date. It opened up into a pretty passive game with a few tense moments, particularly when RoberP wisely backed out of the centre of the map at around the 10 minute mark, before he can be overwhelmed by the quickly growing Zerg army. Things continued to be passive until around the 20 minute mark where all the high tech units entered play. Broods, Ultras and Infestors came out, but proved to be insufficient against Rob’s interesting Raven play, sniping the Hive and Greater Spire at one point as well as crushing some infestors, as highlighted in the screenshot below that occurred during the closing moments of the 45 min game.

You can't leave!!

Set 2 Paavo ‘Zorvalk’ Parmas (Z) vs Dax ‘Peisistratos’ Andrus (Z) – MLG Dual Sight. 

Both players opened up with the same speedling expand build which developed into some ling/bane micro battles. No serious damage was sustained (i.e. no banes popping large numbers of drones) by either side, until just before the mutas came out where Zorvalk snuck a few lings into the opponent’s main and took out a few drones, giving him drone count lead. Both players then tried to secure a 3rd, but Peisistratos managed to force 2 cancels from Zorvalk with a ling advtange. Even though Zorvalk’s spire was finished slightly later, he was able to get his mutas out faster and secure map control by taking out 3 overlords, whilst Peisistratos struggled to take out 1 as a result. With extra production from a macro hatch, Zorvalk was able to produce enough lings to pull of a triple pronged attack, killing some overlords and around 20 drones, therefore enabling him to secure the muta lead as well, sealing the victory.

Triple pronged attacks aren't pleasant to deal with

Set 3 Bogdan ‘bogdan’ Tataroiu (P) and Daniel ‘Teaspoon’ Murrell (Z) vs Joel ‘Fruitdealer’ Ward (Z) and William ‘Squigly’ Faulks (T) – Ruins of Tarsonis

The Oxford Zerg took a risk by opening hatch first, which paid off as the Cambridge roach rush/4 gate aggression was unable to break through the defence. A pre-emptive bunker at the top of the lower ramp proved to be invaluable as it bought extra time for Squigly’s stim to finish, and we all know how good stim is against low tier units. Pressing their advantage, the Oxford team was able to push through into the Cambridge base and deal crippling damage to Bogdan’s economy before taking the set.

A solid defence moments before stim finishes

Set 4 Daniel ‘dan’ Lowe (T) vs Laurens ‘Laurens’ Lemaire (Z) – MLG Xel’Naga Caverns

Both players decided to go for reapers, with Laurens making 5 compared to just 1 from Dan who decided to invest in an early CC instead. The extra reapers failed to pay for themselves as they were lost in a suicide attack, killing only 3 SCVs before dying. Switching into ghosts, Laurens decided to follow up with an engagement… on Dan’s ramp… with a depot wall at the top… and 2 bunkers… Needless to say, he lost the battle and sacrificed map control, allowing Dan to make full use of his extra CC and take his natural. Pushing with MMM and a siege tank, Dan breaks Laurens’ defence and takes the game.

The reaper attack was quickly snuffed out

As a Zerg player I’m only too familiar with terrain associated frustrations such as this

That brings the match to a 3-1 victory for us which, at the time of writing, brings us 3rd in our division. Check our progress here. Hopefully we can  continue our success and slay some more nerds!

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