As we covered in our last post, SC2replaystats.com has a new search feature, allowing you to find the replay you want out of our pool of over a million replays. Today, we used the new Search feature for Elite Members to find some of the longest games played played on Dasan Station, a map known for it’s short rush distance and unusual layout.
Due to the fast rush distance between the two main bases, it’s rare to see a long game in Dasan Station. Additionally, the rest of the map layout makes it easy for your army to be caught out of position: You might be pushing around the side of the map when your opponent pushes through the middle, meaning your army will take forever to get into position. This means even if an early cheese utilizing the fast rush distance doesn’t occur, the game is still prone to abrupt endings and early base-trades.
Thats what makes it so rare to find a 25- minute Grandmaster level TvT. We went through many replays, but eventually decided on this 25 minute TvT replay between Root’s Semper and [Rival] Cuddlebear: https://sc2replaystats.com/replay/3197771
The game opens with some banter between these two familiar rivals which continues throughout the action-packed match.
Surprisingly, aside from some cheeky SCV harass, neither player opens with a build that is ordinarily cheesy or aggressive for TvT.
Instead, the both get an early Cyclone and play it safe. Both players display a knowledge of the map, with Semper sending his SCV through Cuddlebears base and hiding it in the bottom-left corner of the map so he can avoid the Reaper and send the SCV in through the back entrance later for a scout, to ensure his safety, while Cuddlebear abuses a good Siege Tank position to snipe a Barracks Reactor.
The next few minutes are more or less standard TvT fare — flying tank pressure, small drops — only a tad more silly due to the ring-around-the-rosie map layout, causing each drop to do a little more damage than it should. However, in the mid-game they to use the medivacs mobility to sort of counter-act the fact that it can be difficult to get your army from one part of the maps twisted, convoluted layout to another spot.
It might not look like much, but that short flight cut of entire minutes from the travel time for the red Terran, Cuddlebear. Similar doom drops landed in each players main base, but every time, instead of the abrupt endings Dasan is known for, both players barely hold to fight another day. It’s a scrappy game, for sure, and one both players would probably groan at to see highlighted, but sometimes scrappy games can be the most entertaining.
But in the end, Dasan Station gets it’s way. Cuddlebear is significantly up in upgrades (3-3 to his opponents 1-1) but his main is already sieged by a Semper who is up 20 supply. Cuddlebear, with his army caught out of position and too few Medivacs or Tanks to ferry it back and retake his main, decides to go for Sempers own main, taking the long route around — and so begins the base trade.
In some ways, it ends not much different than it started: the distance between their bases is about the same!
With his upgrade advantage, Cuddlebear wins the final fight. Punctuated by a banshee Cuddlebear built from a Starport in Sempers natural (???), Cuddlebear takes the victory.
Once again, you can download the replay here: https://sc2replaystats.com/replay/3197771
More Replays
We went through a lot of replays before deciding on this one, from games where Carriers were built in the first 5-8 minutes of the game to Grandmaster matches on the new Balance Test Map.
A personal favorite of mine when looking for Dasan Station games was a gold level 47 minute game between GenDude and Zeratul: https://sc2replaystats.com/replay/3167998 if you enjoy really creative plays and don’t mind low-level play, this replay is for you — a ton of plot twists in this nail-biter.
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- Sc2replaystats.com staff
Post written by Justin “TheSkunk” Purdy