WSVG World Championship 2015- Unofficial Write UP |
With the Maldives event now at a close, it is also the time to start the final parts of the unofficial WSVG write-up. I reccomend reading TOAO-Nais great write-up of the tournament as well,, to be found here viewtopic.php?f=1044&t=116029, though I plan to make mine a little more extensive. I plan to split it into four parts: The first here for the quarter-finals, the next for the semifinals and Winners Bracket final, one for the Losers Bracket and placement matches, and then finally one for the Grand Final, which is in my opinion one of the best sereis of 1v1 AoC ever played, between what is potentially the top 2 players in the world (streamed with 2750 viewers no less!). Here is the write-up for the quarter finals.
Dogao - Yo
1-2
With the finals in the Maldives finally here, a Bo3 Double Elimination system was sued to determine the absolute king of AoC, among the best remaining. An unseeded draw provided an interesting series of initial matches, with the first of the event being Yo versus dogao. The SY player was probably the favorite, but it was clear from the beginning that dogao was going to fight Yo to the very pressure point. Yo daringly opened the Dry Arabia game with an ambitious forward, but dogao was prepared, and with a strong counter against it, Yo was pressured back. With dogao now having the advantage, a swarm of eagle warriors against Yo sent the game in his favor.
In line with his general style, Yo picked a Mayans war in Ghost Lake as his home map. Dogao tried to counter by stealing the boar of Yo early on, but Yo's aggressive style of castles and map control of the entire map slowly put the game in the Chinese players favor. Despite a forward castle that was quickly lost, Yo had the advantage, and always picked the better fights with his plumed archers, forcing a GG from dogao. With the series thereby going into a decisive game of a Viking war in Baltic, dogao seemed to have the advantage early on, with a very strong early feudal age wrestling him control of the water. However, as Yo was losing the water and the game, eh made the quick decision to land dogao, while keeping the impression of still investing in water. As archers stormed dogao, he sacrificed all his economy trying to raise a tower that Yo managed to deny. After this, the game snowballed in Yo's favor, and he managed to secure a narrow 2-1 victory.
In line with his general style, Yo picked a Mayans war in Ghost Lake as his home map. Dogao tried to counter by stealing the boar of Yo early on, but Yo's aggressive style of castles and map control of the entire map slowly put the game in the Chinese players favor. Despite a forward castle that was quickly lost, Yo had the advantage, and always picked the better fights with his plumed archers, forcing a GG from dogao. With the series thereby going into a decisive game of a Viking war in Baltic, dogao seemed to have the advantage early on, with a very strong early feudal age wrestling him control of the water. However, as Yo was losing the water and the game, eh made the quick decision to land dogao, while keeping the impression of still investing in water. As archers stormed dogao, he sacrificed all his economy trying to raise a tower that Yo managed to deny. After this, the game snowballed in Yo's favor, and he managed to secure a narrow 2-1 victory.
JorDan_23 - RiuT
1-2
Possibly the most interesting quarterfinal on paper, was between JorDan_23 and RiuT, two very strong TyRanTs. And the game did start out very close in the Dry Arabia Aztec war, with cautious play from both players, neither willing to take the decisive engagement until the Imperial Age. Here, JorDan took his chance by going arbalests and champions, but RiuT's choice of jaguar warriors proved superior, and the game went in RiuT's favor. Next followed a very close and aggressive grush game on Islands. Despite RiuT seeming strong early on, a strategic tower from JorDan gave JorDan the advantage, that allowed him to pull off an equalizer, forcing the game into a final decider. Here, RiuT picked Double Arabia, and in a Huns war, went aggressive with scouts early on. However, JorDan seemed to take the military advantage, but made the fatal mistake of going into cavalry archers too early. With RiuT exploiting a hole in JorDans wall, the German base was overrun by knights, and the first clash of TyRanTs in the Maldives ended with a 2-1 victory for RiuT, who was ready to face Yo in the next round.
BacT - Lojza
2-1
In the next quarterfinal, BacT faced Lojza, in what was also a potentially very close series. In the Dry Arabia game, Lojza seized an early villager lead, but BacT always seemed to be positioned stronger in the decisive positions. With Lojza unable to capitalize from his early advantage, he surrendered early on, putting BacT ahead. However, Lojza made no mistake in picking Arena in his home map and going Britons. BacT had previously had the luck to defeat Lojzas Britons with Aztecs in the TEC tournament, but this time, the circumstances were in favor of Lojza, who was able to always be a step ahead of Lojza until the Britons time to shine in early Imperial, where BacT was overrun. This meant that yet another round of quarterfinals were to go into a third decider, and as expected, BacT picked a Mayan war of Regicide Fortress as his home map. Here, Lojza seemed with the potential to seize victory with an earlier siege ram upgrade, but BacT was able of picking the better fights, and never let Lojza capitalize on it. As Lojzas economy grew unbalanced, BacT seized the opportunity to crush his opponent, and progress to the semifinals with a 2-1 victory.
TheViper - LoveCheng
2-1
The final quarter final seemed to be the most unbalanced on paper, as favorite TheViper faced SY player LoveCheng, who had surprised many by beating DauT and F1re to reach the Maldives. But LoveCheng proved to have yet even more surprises up his sleeve in the Dry Arabia game. Viper successfully managed to pull off an early boar steal, but then lost four militias clumsily in a failed drush, and then LoveCheng started turning up the heat. LoveCheng obtained level control, and managed to abuse Vipers failure to wall up properly to raid him early on. As LoveChengs economy managed to go unpunished, he reached Imperial Age long before Viper, and started flooding him with eagles. Viper tried to counter wit jaguar warriors, but it was too little too late, and LoveCheng unexpectedly won the first game. Viper picked Team Islands as a home map, and this time seemed to be more in control of his circumstances, gaining the galley lead early on. With his superior micro, the game slowly snowballed in his favor, and Viper pulled the score equal. LoveCheng chose Nomad as a home map, leaving the final outcome of the series partly up to luck, but unfortunately for LoveCheng, it was not in his favor. Viper got a better starting position, and quickly took control of the game. Despite the early scare in Dry Arabia, thereby Viper cruised to a 2-1 victory, that set him up to face BacT in the semifinal, while LoveCheng had to make do with the Losers Bracket.