Did you watch the Cruncher vs IdrA match during the TSL today? No? Do it now:
It’s one of the best SC2 matches I’ve seen. I watch streams pretty regularly, and todays match was something special.
IdrA is widely recognized as one of the best Zerg players. Cruncher? An unknown protoss player. What makes this interesting is IdrA has a reputation for being an ass. He frequently vacillates between mild mannered nerd and “Oh good god, what’s wrong with the people on Xbox Live?”.
In pre-game interviews, IdrA lets out a little nastyness:
Q: Your first round opponent is a relatively unknown player - Cruncher. What are your thoughts about him?
I’m approaching the match as if it were a walkover.
Q: Are you confident you can beat him? Do you expect him to do any risky strategies against you?
Yes, he’s going to 4 gate all-in both games unless he decides to be clever and make voidrays or DTs.
Which, if you don’t play SC2 is basically the equivalent of calling him a chump. To make a comparison to Street Fighter, it’s like calling your opponent a button masher. The tournament they’re playing in is where the best of the best of the best meet. So, thems harsh words.
The series is a best of three.
Game 1, Cruncher wins in a relatively standard fashion. He rolls out colossus, voidrays, and stalkers. It’s something you see in virtually every high level matchup. IdrA is upset. In chat he sardonically taunts, “boy you’re pretty talented”.
Game 2, IdrA responds with some sick drops. Cruncher builds a seemingly impenetrable wall at the front of his base. IdrA reacts by flying right over the wall and dropping units at the exposed extremes. For the rest of the match he controls Cruncher like a yo-yo.
Cruncher is forced to run back and forth between both ends of his base. At each end he’s warding off hydras and zerglings. As soon as his expansion is clear, his main is infested with more hydras and zerglings. Main cleared? His expansion is already under attack again. IdrA wins.
Good news! More shit talk in the between game chat. “Boy it must suck when skill matters.”
And then what happens? Game 3. Cruncher completely dismantles IdrA. The first 7 minutes of the game are standard as can be. So standard it’s boring. Then Cruncher moves out. In his first strike he sandwiches 5 roaches into a singularity with exceptional forcefields. The chatroom for my stream exploded at this point. No one’s ever seen this before
With the roaches flailing helplessly, Cruncher leisurely picks them off from a distance. IdrA’s on the ropes! Those were his only defense. He’s furiously attempting to build more roaches, but Cruncher is warping his own army right inside IdrA’s base.
Cruncher types a single “:)” as soon as he realizes what he’s done. After all the taunts, all the nastiness, Cruncher’s first and only response is :).
IdrA rage quits.