NGL vs nGize

Raptor vs nGize just ended and we lost with a 2-3 score. Startmap was SV and I personally expected check to start, to counter knoff. They started with vortix and we with knoff. The game was pretty one-sided and knoff could finish him without any big problems. They choosed lucifron on SV vs knoff(mistake from nGize to not start with him if he wanted to play SV vs knoff). Lucifron killed 2 grunts in early game and got knoffs lodge canceled once which gave him an advantage. Knoff tried to creep up his hero levels and went up pretty fast from 50 food while lucifron waited longer and saved more gold. After a big fight knoff had to call GG. At this point we had some discussions if me or thorzain should play, thorzain ended up playing on MV without any success. The game started off great for thorzain killing SH and some raiders + canceling lucifrons expansion. At this point it looked great in the game but it changed when MK got killed, a bat destroyed thorzains zeppelin over the trees and all his units got killed + MK again. Lucifron made mass bats vs gryphons and thorzain couldn't make any comeback from the bad midgame.

It was now my turn to step in as the last Raptor player. I picked TR vs lucifron where I feel secure/stable vs orc atm. He tried some lame mass wyverns strat(on closeposs!!?), I pushed him to death quiet fast. The idea was to attack before he got his armor upgrade on his towers/burrows and it worked perfectly. Last and the deciding game was vs check on MV. I had in mind he would play potm and mass t1 with expansion so I scouted his fast expo really good and took it down exactly before it got up. I canceled his expo for a 2nd time and he changed his expo placement to his natural side. I had a good feeling in the game that this was going great and I just had to push him with 50 pop and finish it. I picked panda as a 2nd hero(which I regret) instead of BM or naga that would have been a better choice now afterwards. The push went so-so, not very good not very bad. I lost alot of units, so did he. The key thing was that I couldn't get his expansion down. I was forced to back after taking alot of damadge on my heroes and he got the time he needed to get up alot of units/scrolls. It was GG and I feel abit sad but hey, it could have gone worse!
Tomorrow im playing my dear friend ToD in ngl, will be lots of fun if we find a decent host.
And 2 hours later wc3l vs colorful!!
Cheer for Raptor!! Ciao