[2:1]
fnatic.Minhyuk		WE.LiKe

MinHyuk hasn’t been looking that good this season. Sure, he has won most of his matches, but those were against teams currently occupying the bottom of the scoreboard. When faced with harder opposition such as Remind and HoT he has, after a bit of struggling, thrown in the towel.

Like on the other hand has won all his matches this season, last playday against Grubby. However, a mirror between two orcs of this skill level can go either way. A single fumble at the wrong time and you lose your SH or BM and thus the game. A hard to predict series indeed...

Game 1 (GW):  GW can be an interesting map for orc mirror matches since the open space advantage applies to both players there is room for improvised strategy and sneaky moves. But, for the most part they play just like on any other map: BM/SH grunts/raiders/walkers.

Since the players spawn next to each other it is rather likely to turn into a hectic game rather than a macro game. Both players go item hunting at the same merchant. Like sells his tp-scroll and buys a circlet to gain an edge and MinHyuk decides to back away and creep somewhere else. He too sells his TP to buy a circlet.

Like catches MinHyuk’s BM healing at the fountain, dusts it and slays it. That, and the creeps at the fountain earns him lvl 3. Like uses these newfound powers to hunt down and kill one of MinHyuk’s grunts too, giving him a definite edge.

After killing a second grunt his BM is chased off, but the chase heads right into Like’s maw and the roles are quickly reversed.

The supply difference may be slight, but the xp-difference is an entire level. Like gathers his forces and attacks his opponent’s base. All the setbacks MinHyuk suffered up to this point catches up to him and he is utterly destroyed.

Game 2 (TR): For the second game MinHyuk decides to go for a change of pace. Creeping for items on TR isn’t nearly as easy when the enemy has easy access to your base.

And, in this case it’s even a close spawn! *Sigh*... It’s been a while since I saw some variety in orc mirrors. Why doesn’t anyone play the Rotterdam strat anymore?

Anyway, Like quickly gets himself into trouble by trying to be fancy (maybe this is why no one takes chances), building his item shop midway between his and MinHyuk’s base while he goes off to item-creep the ogre magi.

Unfortunately for him MinHyuk has some harassment planned for him. He runs into the shop and takes it apart, proceeds to Like’s base and takes the shop he was building there down as well. At first I thought MinHyuk would take this opportunity to push his opponent, but he changes his mind and leaves Like to heal while he creeps a bit himself.

Like chases after and manages to turn the tables on him.

Both players return to creeping and MinHyuk lucks out on the item drops on one of the empty spawn points: a tome of xp and vampiric aura! On the other hand, Like attacks just as he starts creeping this camp crossmap and since he doesn’t have a tp-scroll Like has time to take down his spirit lodge before MinHyuk gets there.

The following battle is rather even since MinHyuk has the aura and Like has walkers. The battle moves up towards the merchant with very little change at first, but with a lucky critical strike MinHyuk takes down Like’s lvl 3 BM.

Unfortunately, his own BM is low on health and surrounded by enemies. It goes down and Like’s SH gets away while Like has more than enough units to take down MinHyuk’s. However, MinHyuk cleverly buys his BM back from the tavern just as Like’s SH passes. SH down!

MinHyuk now has his lodge back up and running again, and afterthe players creep a red spot each the playing field is now leveled: same supply, same levels. They get into a large battle at the tavern.

 Note that both players get a kodo beast as they hit 50 supply to maximize the damage potential of their armies. Also notice that they both go for their opponent’s beast immediately as the battle begins, if at all possible. After kodos raiders are targeted.

MinHyuk hits lvl 5 on his BM first, and for a long time it looks like he is winning but suddenly Like traps and kills his lvl 4 SH. At first I thought this was it, but it turns out to work in MinHyuk’s advantage.

He buys back his SH from the tavern which obviously becomes a target for Like. Like chases it up to the goblin shop while MinHyuk whittles away at Like’s BM. Just in time he manages to buy a invulpot and catch the fleeing BM. The BM is slain, followed shortly by the now defenseless SH.

I didn't know losing your shadow hunter was a gosu move... Well, you learn as long as you live!

What a close game! And what a spectacular ending. Just goes to show that thinking on your feet is one of the most important skills in wc3.

Game 3 (SV):  SV is once again a change of pace. While it has distances similar to TR it does have healing fountains and puts to the test who can most efficiently use them and limit his opponents access to them.

Similarly to what Like did in the previous game MinHyuk solo-creeps the ogre magi, grabbing a large mana potion which could come in handy later. Simultaneously, Like creeps 2 green camps. MinHyuk proceeds to creep the fountain with Like on his tail (figuratively).

Like doesn’t manage to do much though, and instead he opts to creep the other fountain. MinHyuk manages to steal a creep there, but Like counters by killing one of his grunts. After that there is some light creeping while they acquire identical tech varieties. MinHyuk compensates for his grunt-loss by doing a nice dual-creep steal at the left gold mine.

Finally a real battle ensues, and Like is being a bit impatient. He almost kills MinHyuk’s SH but turns his troops around too soon, leaving it alive with just a few hp to spare.

Instead MinHyuk is the one who snags a SH-kill. MinHyuk has been microing better in general and taken down all of Like’s tech units. While both BMs are at lvl 3 MinHyuk’s BM is stuffed with circlets. Note that in both this and the last game the evasion item has been sold. Being able to evade a few hits isn’t nearly as useful as being able to dish out damage quickly.

I'm just gonna pop off for a bit. I'm feeling a bit knackerd... Keep the party rollin'

Having taken control of the match MinHyuk backs away to creep his SH to lvl 3 in preparation for the final assault. Like does the same but is too far behind on experience. He takes a great risk, trying to creep a red camp, and MinHyuk is around to punish the attempt.

MinHyuk absolutely destroys Like. Not only does he have hero advantage, he has even brought a kodo to the battle to give him an extra edge. Both bring peons along to block larger units and as spirit link slaves.

MinHyuk begins to sequester Like’s lands, building an item shop in his base as he moves in for the kill. During the battle MinHyuk appears to be tense as his micro starts to suffer slightly and he uses items ahead of time. However, it’s too little and too late. With a violent roar Like’s BM falls and he surrenders.

All this land we survey will be ours... as soon as we can get rid of these bothersome native tribes... Yes, a voodoo lounge over there would be lovely!