Starcraft 2 fans, Dreamhack Summer 2011 is right around the corner, so it is time to get you more excited than you already are. Buckle down and get ready for yet another fantastic Esport Event!
What can you expect to find in this live blog:
• An overview of all the players
• Written coverage of the Main Stream matches, including ratings
• Overview of the match results troughout the tournament that will be updated after the match reports at night
• A blog story about me sleeping 24 hours after the tournament
***To my greatest regret I will not be able to do write-ups for day 2 and day 3. I was planning to do this but my wrists are in shambles. Sadly it feels like my arms and wrists died last night. I sincerely apologize to the community, and hope a mod or someone can take over or use any of this material.***
Content:
♦ The Player List
♦ The Group Brackets
♦ The Write-ups of all Matches
The Players
#1: Virus "The Beast" Naama
• Santeri Lahtinen - Finland
Notable Achievement
• DreamHack Winter 2010 Champion
Recent Result
• 2011 Nettiliiga.fi Season 1 Finals Runner-Up
#2: oGs MC the "Kratoss" Protoss
• Jang Min Chul - Korea (South)
Notable Achievement
• Two time Champion of the GSL Code S tournament
Recent Result
• 3rd at MLG Columbus 2011
#3: Duckload White-Ra the master of "Special taktiks"
• Oleksiy Krupnyk - Ukraine
Notable Achievement
• Winner 2010-2011 DreamHost Root Gaming WARZONE Tournament
Recent Result
• 2011 Dreamhack Stockholm Invitational Runner-Up
#4: aTn Socke the most lethal "sock master" in the universe
• Giacomo Thüs - Germany
Notable Achievement
• 2011 Justin.tv StarCraft 2 Invitational #2 Winner
Recent Result
• ESL Pro Series Germany Season 18 Finals Winner
#5: Dignitas.Bischu
• Jesper Johansson - Sweden
Notable Achievement
• 2010 SK Gaming EU Champions Trophy #3 Winner
Recent Result
• 2011 ASSEMBLY Winter: SteelSeries Challenge Ro32
#6: Esuba.PredY
• Tomáš Pospíšil - Czech Republic
Notable Achievement
• EU ZOTAC Cup #24 Winner
Recent Result
• EU CraftCup Lite #15 Runner-Up
#7: MYM.XlorD
• Daniel Spenst - Germany
Notable Achievement
• MIA
Recent Result
• MIA
#8: EG.Idra "The Gracken" "Grack" "Grackinator"
• Greg Fields - USA
Notable Achievement
• 2011 IGN Pro League North American Invitational Winner
Recent Result
• MLG Columbus 2011 4th Place
#9: Empire Kas "The Destroyer"
• Mihaylo Hayda
Notable Achievement
•2011 TeamSpeak TeamLiquid Open #8 EU Winner
Recent Result
• ESL EU Go4SC2 Cup #108 Winner
#10: Dignitas.Naniwa "MLG Dallas 2011 Untouchable"
• Johan Lucchesi
Notable Achievement
•2011 Major League Gaming Pro Circuit: Dallas Winner
Recent Result
• Black Dragon League Winner
#11: FnaticMSI Sen
Who?
• Yang Chia Cheng - Taiwan
Notable Achievement
• 2011 GSL World Championship Asia Qualifiers Winner
Recent Result
• 2011 HD World Tournament 3rd Place
#12: (Grubby) Grubby "The Orc Chieftain"
• Manuel Schenkhuizen - The Netherlands
Notable Achievement
• 2011 Copenhagen Games Razer Domination 3rd Place
Recent Result
• MIA
#13: mTw Dimaga "Muscle Zerg"
• Dmytro Filipchuk - Ukraine
Notable Achievement
• 2011 HD World Tournament Runner-Up
Recent Result
• 2011 SK Gaming EU Champions Trophy (May) Runner-Up
#14: TLAF-Liquid`Jinro "The Gorilla Terran"
• Jonathan Walsh - Sweden
Notable Achievement
• 2010 Major League Gaming Pro Circuit Dallas Winner
Recent Result
• FXOpen King of the Hill Episode 2: Korea Winner (Last Man Standing)
#15: TLAF-Liquid`HuK "Hoodie Toss"
• Chris Loranger - Canada
Notable Achievement
• 2010 Major League Gaming Pro Circuit: Raleigh Winner
Recent Result
• 2011 Terror Australis Invitational Winner
#16: TLAF-Liquid`Ret
• Jos de Kroon - The Netherlands
Notable Achievement
• 2011 ASSEMBLY Winter: SteelSeries Challenge Winner
Recent Result
• Highest score NASL Season 1 currently
#17: imba.FXO Strelok
• Eugin Oparyshev - Ukraine
Notable Achievement
• 2011 HD World Tournament Winner
Recent Result
• EU ZOTAC Cup #57 Winner
#18: Empire.Happy
• Dmitry Kostin - Russia
Notable Achievement
• 2011 ESL EU Go4SC2 Monthly Final #12 Winner
Recent Result
• 4pl.de Close Combat #2011-51 Winner
#19: MǂLalush
• Faton Rekathati - Sweden
Notable Achievement
• 2011 4pl.de Close Combat Finals (March) Winner
Recent Result
• ESL EU Go4SC2 Cup #103 Winner
#20: MǂAdel
• Benoît Strypsteen - France
Notable Achievement
• 2011 Gamers Assembly Main Event Winner
Recent Result
• ESL EU Go4SC2 Cup #112 Winner
#21: RoX.KIS.BRAT_OK
• Pavel Kuznetsov - Russia
Notable Achievement
• 2011 Geil Black Dragon League 3rd Place
Recent Result
• 2011 ESL EU Go4SC2 Monthly Final #13 Winner
#22: mouz.ThorZaIN "The Underdog"
• Marcus Eklöf - Sweden
Notable Achievement
• 2011 PokerStrategy.com TeamLiquid StarLeague Winner
Recent Result
• MLG Pro Circuit Columbus 2011 9th Place
#23: Dignitas.SjoW "The Blind Terran"
Who?
• Jeffrey Brusi - Sweden
Notable Achievement
• The Gathering Easter 2011 Winner
Recent Result
• MLG Pro Circuit Columbus 2011 13th Place
#24: mouz.HasuObs "PvP Puppet Master"
• Dennis Schneider - Germany
Notable Achievement
• 2011 Ultimate Gaming Championship Winner
Recent Result
• ESL Sennheiser Cup #14 Winner
#25: MYM.SaSe
• Kim Hammar - Sweden
Notable Achievement
• The Gathering Easter 2011 Runner-Up
Recent Result
•The Gathering Easter 2011 Runner-Up
#26: mouz.MaNa
• Grzesiek Komincz - Poland
Notable Achievement
• 2010 Winter DreamHack SteelSeries LAN Tournament Runner-Up
Recent Result
• 2011 SHOUTCraft Invitational 3rd Place
#27: TLAF-Liquid`Tyler "NonY"
Who?
• Tyler Wasieleski - USA
Notable Achievement
• 2011 PAX East Team Liquid Showmatch Series Runner-Up
Recent Result
• MLG Pro Circuit Columbus 2011 19th Place
#28: PlayZoneFury
• Sebastian Pesic - Sweden
Notable Achievement
• GameCreds Cup #6 Runner-Up
Recent Result
• ESL EU Go4SC2 Cup #109 Runner-Up
#29: mouz.MorroW
Who?
• Stefan Andersson - Sweden
Notable Achievement
• 2011 ASSEMBLY Winter: SteelSeries Challenge Runner-Up
Recent Result
• 2011 SHOUTCraft Invitational Runner-Up
#30: EG.Machine "The MACHINE"
• Bryce Bates - USA
Notable Achievement
• 2010 NC Gaming Invitational Winner
Recent Result
•MLG Pro Circuit Columbus 2011 15th Place
#31: FnaticMSI.TT1
• Payam Toghyan - Canada
Notable Achievement
• 2010 Major League Gaming Pro Circuit: Dallas Runner-Up
Recent Result
• 2011 Pokerstrategy.com Call4Kings by HomerJ.de Runner-Up
#32: FOXMoon "The Fifth Race (WC3)"
• Jang Jae Ho - Korea (South)
Notable Achievement
• 2011 Intel Extreme Masters World Championship Runner-Up
Recent Result
• MLG Pro Circuit Columbus 2011 8th Place
#33: srs.SushiLicious
• Lennart Roest - The Netherlands
Notable Achievement
• MIA
Recent Result
• MIA
#34: ST.July "God of War"
Who?
• Park Sung Joon - Korea (South)
Notable Achievement
• 2011 Intel GSL Sponsorship League Season 2: Code S Runner-Up
Recent Result
• MLG Pro Circuit Columbus 2011 12th Place
#35: ST.Bomber
• Choi Ji Sung - Korea (South)
Notable Achievement
• 2011 LG Cinema 3D GSL Sponsorship League Season 3: Code A Winner
Recent Result
• 2011 LG Cinema 3D GSL Super Tournament Games
#36: TLAF-Liquid`Haypro
• Hayder Hussein - Sweden
Notable Achievement
• 2011 ESL XMG Series Cup #1 Winner
Recent Result
• 2011 PAX East Team Liquid Showmatch Series Winner
#37: DignitasmeRz
Who?
• Tim Olsson - Sweden
Notable Achievement
• EU CraftCup #07 Winner
Recent Result
• ESL Viking Cup #28 Runner-Up
#38: VirusElfi
• Samuli Sihvonen - Finland
Notable Achievement
• Gigabyte Cup #1 Winner
Recent Result
• Gigabyte Cup #1 Winner
#39: SK.Jimpo
• Jimmy Wölfinger - Sweden
Notable Achievement
• ESL Viking Cup #31 Final Winner
Recent Result
• EU ZOTAC Cup #50 Winner
#40: MǂTarson
• Tomasz Boroń - Poland
Notable Achievement
• 2011 ESL EU Go4SC2 Monthly Final #07 Winner
Recent Result
• ESL EU Go4SC2 Cup #113 Winner
#41: ESC.GoOdy "Panzer General"
• Sascha Lupp - Germany
Notable Achievement
• GameCreds Cup #5 Winner
Recent Result
• EU ZOTAC Cup #60 Winner
#42: mYm.Cloud "COokieMonster"
• Carlo Giannacco - Italy
Notable Achievement
• 2011 Ultimate Gaming Championship Runner-Up
Recent Result
• 2011 ESL EU Go4SC2 Real #100 Invitational Runner-Up
#43: CN!MoMaN
Who?
• Emmanuel Marquez - France
Notable Achievement
• 2011 ESL US Go4SC2 Monthly Final #07 Winner
Recent Result
• 2011 ESL US Go4SC2 Monthly Final #08 Runner-Up
#44: FnaticMSI.Nightend
Who?
• Silviu Lazar - Romania
Notable Achievement
• 2011 TeamSpeak TeamLiquid Open #14 EU Winner
Recent Result
• The Gathering Easter 2011 3rd Place
#45: MǂDieStaR
• Marcin Wieczoerk - Poland
Notable Achievement
• ESL EU Go4SC2 Cup #95 Winner
Recent Result
• RageQuitTV Open #5 Winner
#46: GGNaugrim
Who?
• Mattias Ottosson - Sweden
Notable Achievement
• EU CraftCup #13 Winner
Recent Result
• ESL EU Go4Sc2 Cup #110 3rd Place
#47: Winner of DreamHack Summer 2011 BYOC Qualifier#48: Runner-Up of DreamHack Summer 2011 BYOC Qualifier
The Group Brackets
Group A
[0 : 0] SK Jimpo – Terran
[0 : 0] Cyber Nation MoMan – Zerg
[0 : 0] Dignitas NaNiwa – Protoss
[0 : 0] Liquid Ret – Zerg
[0 : 0] Imba FXO Strelok – Terran
[0 : 0] Liquid Tyler – Protoss
Group B
[0 : 0] RoX.KiS BRAT_OK – Terran
[0 : 0] Millenium DieStar – Terran
[0 : 0] mTw DIMAGA – Zerg
[0 : 0] Mouz Morrow – Zerg
[0 : 0] Fnatic NightEnD – Protoss
[0 : 0] Alternate Attax Socke – Protoss
Group C
[0 : 0] Grubby – Protoss
[0 : 0] EG IdrA – Zerg
[0 : 0] Dignitas merz – Terran
[0 : 0] Virus Naama – Terran
[0 : 0] Empire Kas – Terran
[0 : 0] MYM SaSe – Protoss
Group D
[0 : 0] Millenium Adelscott – Protoss
[0 : 0] MYM ClouD – Terran
[0 : 0] oGs MC – Protoss
[0 : 0] GG.net Naugrim – Zerg
[0 : 0] Fnatic Sen – Zerg
[0 : 0] Fnatic TT1 – Protoss
Group E [0 : 0] Dignitas Bischu – Protoss
[0 : 0] PlayzoneFury – Terran
[0 : 0] Liquid Huk – Protoss
[0 : 0] Millenium LaLush – Zerg
[0 : 0] WeMade Fox Moon – Zerg
[0 : 0] Millenium Tarson – Terran
Group F
[0 : 0] Mouz Hasuobs – Protoss
[0 : 0] Startale July – Zerg
[0 : 0] EG Machine – Zerg
[0 : 0] Dignitas SjoW – Terran
[0 : 0] srs Sushi – Zerg
[0 : 0] Mouz Thorzain – Terran
Group G
[0 : 0] Virus elfi – Protoss
[0 : 0] ESC GoOdy – Terran
[0 : 0] Liquid Jinro – Terran
[0 : 0] Esuba Predy – Terran
[0 : 0] Duckload White-Ra – Protoss
[0 : 0] BYOC
Group H
[0 : 0] Startale Bomber – Terran
[0 : 0] MYM XlorD – Zerg
[0 : 0] Empire Happy – Terran
[0 : 0] Liquid HayprO – Zerg
[0 : 0] Mouz MaNa – Protoss
[0 : 0] BYOC
Live Match Report Main Stream Saturday 6-18
--Starting at 10 am CEST Saturday--
Day 1 Report
Group A & B
Set 1
Morrow < Metalopolis > Dimaga
Morrow < Crevasse > Dimaga
Game 1 - Rating: ♦♦♦♦
Morrow < Metalopolis > Dimaga
Morrow spawns in the south position on Metalopolis as the Red Terran, while Dimaga spawns as the Blue Zerg in the East position. It is a close-by-air spawn in this match. Dimagas overlord scouts Morrows base and they both know they are close by air now. Dimaga opens with a Hatch first followed by a Spawning Pool and Extractor, while Morrow opens with a 1 Rax Fast Expand.
Morrow decides to drop a bunker at Dimagas ramp and applies some pressure with his low marine count. Dimaga runs his lings to Morrows base as response, while researching Metabolic Boost. Morrow has to move back to try and take out the lings. Two more barracks are on the way for Morrow, while he cleans up the zergling threat.
Dimaga gets a fairly early Lair at 6:10 and gets an early Third. Speed finishes and Dimaga tries to kill some scvs with a run-by, but only kills 1 scv. Morrow is doing a smart thing by getting early combat shields before stim, while Dimaga gets an Infestation Pit early to go into his popular Infestor play.
Morrow is doing a timing attack with blueflame hellions and combat shield finishing, it looks extremely lethal. Dimaga is preparing while his +25 energy infestor upgrade is being researched.
Morrow manages to take out a lot of creep tumors to reduce the Zerg surface area for easy flanks. Meanwhile he sneaks a bunker into the third. Dimaga manages to clean up Morrows whole timing army with some amazing Infestor fungals + zergling swarming, surrounding the whole army of Morrow.
Stim and +1 infantry weapons finish up, and Morrow goes for a drop with 1 medivac. Meanwhile Dimaga gets to Hive tech and +1 melee attack. Morrows drop manages to pick off some drones, while Dimaga is getting Neural Parasite, Ultralisks and Adrenal Glands.
Morrow is staying on 2 base extremely long, getting the +1 vehicle weapons, +2 infantry weapons and +1 infantry armor, and does a drop on Dimagas 4th base. Dimaga chases it off and is getting +2/+2 melee upgrades and the Ultralisk armor upgrade.
Morrow manages to get up his third, is getting 3 factories, lots of tech lab Raxs and a Ghost Academy, to deal with the ultralisks and infestors better. Morrow is slowly falling behind on economy and decides to move out a bit. Dimaga goes in for the kill but Morrows manages to hold on miraculously. Unfortunately an insane amount of reinforcements are on the way from Dimagas camp, but Morrows positioning gives him an amazing advantage against the mass zergling swarm.
During all of this action, DImaga manages to get +3/+3 upgrades, another expo and a Spire. Another heavy battle commences, and Morrow actually holds it again! Some amazing positioning shows exactly how much of a difference it can make. Morrow is going for some drop play while Dimaga has an insane amount of spine crawlers ready at his bases, but the new Expansion still gets sniped by the marine drops.
Greater Spire finishes for Dimaga and is going for some Broodlords. Morrow is getting a few thors meanwhile and a lot of command centers while starting his +3 upgrade. 8 Broodlords are now in production for Dimaga and Morrow has some ghosts ready to snipe them down. The battle ensues yet again and the ghosts snipe a bunch of the broodlords, but Dimaga crushes Morrows whole army in a matter of seconds and only a few marine reinforcements + medivacs remain, while he desperately tries to get 3 planetary fortresses up. Dimaga breaks through and Morrow GG's!!
Game 2 - Rating: ♦♦
Morrow < Crevasse > Dimaga
The second game is on Crevasse where Morrow spawns at the Northeast position, Vs Dimaga on the Southeast position. Morrow seems to be going for a Command Center first, while Dimaga opens with a Hatch first at his backdoor expansion into a spawning pool and an Extractor at the backdoor expansion. Morrow gets his barracks right after the Command Center goes down.
Dimaga scouts Morrows base and sees no gas is taken yet, he gets 2 Queens meanwhile while Morrow finally gets his 2 refineries up. Dimaga knows Morrow will not be able to pressure too much so he favours droning up above army units. Morrow moves out with a few marines to apply some pressure while getting a Factory + tech lab on the Barracks.
Dimaga gets Lair and Metabolic Boost very early, while Morrow snipes an overlord with his marines. Combat shield is being researched before stim again, while he forces Dimaga to make a lot of lings vs the marine pressure. The marines get cleaned up and Dimaga goes in for some counterpressure and takes down the Ramp Rocks.
An Infestation Pit goes down with +25 energy being researched and a few Infestors being built. Meanwhile Morrow is getting Stimpack, Siege mode and +1 infantry attack versus Dimagas +1/+1 melee upgrades. Morrow is getting his 3rd Command Center up quite early to prepare for the late game + a 2nd Factory while Dimaga goes and kills some rocks to open better flank paths to take.
Dimaga has his third up and is already going for a fourth base, Hive is up again and an Ultralisk Cavern is already going down. Neural Parasite and +2/+2 melee upgrades are going up while Morrow is getting his 4th Command Center up with +2/+1 infantry upgrades and +1 vehicle weapons.
Morrow is pushing out and slowly pushes into Dimagas territory while dropping down an insane amount of barracks to keep up macro wise. A Ghost academy is going up while the first Ultralisks are coming out with the Ultralisk armor upgrade. Dimaga moves into the Tank/Marine army and crushes the whole army with good use of Neural Parasite and Ultralisks. Morrow loses a lot of scvs, marines and tanks due to good fungal usage. Morrow GG's out!
Set 2
Tyler < Terminus Re > Ret
Tyler < Tal'Darim Altar > Ret
Game 1 - Rating: TBD
Tyler < Terminus Re > Ret
Tyler spawns in the south position as the Blue TerranProtoss according to Day9 vs Ret spawning as the Red Zerg in the West position. Ret opens with a Hatch first into Pool and Extractor vs Tylers standard 3-gate Protoss opening. Ret is doing his own thing again by getting a superearly 3rd base and a Queen shortly after.
Tyler has no idea about Rets third and just continues to do a 2-gate expand to speed up the expansion timing. Metabolic Boost is going up for Ret together with another Queen and a Roach Warren while Tyler moves out with his 2 sentries and zealot to apply some pressure and force Ret to use larvae on army units. Too bad for him that Ret only makes 4 extra lings to deal with it.
Ret is getting his Lair and an evolution chamber and gets his zergling into Tylers base, where a Twilight Council is going up and gets spotted! Templar Archives is going up and gets spotted as well! Tyler also gets his +1 ground weapons vs Rets 4th base, +1 ranged attack, Roach Speed and a Hydra Den.
Ret decides to poop some creep on Tylers third base location to delay any expansion that could be coming. Oh my god at this point the Main Stream goes offline and we are all waiting in anticipation for it to go LIVE again.
Game 1 has finished and will be recast later today. Ret has won.
Game 2 - Rating: ♦♦♦
Tyler < Tal'Darim Altar > Ret
Tyler spawns as the Blue Protoss at the Southwest position whereas Ret spawns as the Red Zerg in the Southeast position. Ret opens with a Hatch into Pool and gets a Third at 4:00, knowing that Tyler cannot pressure him quite as much as he'd like to. Tyler meanwhile opens up with a 3-gate expand and hides a probe close to Rets base. Ret spots the probe with some pro scouting and kills it with some lings.
A nexus goes down at the natural of Tyler. A roach Warren is going up for Ret together with an Evo chamber and a 2nd gas to facilitate the upgrades. Lair and spore crawlers go down just in case of any Dark Templar shenanigans. Tyler opts for a fast 3rd and 4th gas and gets a Robo up shortly after. Ret decides to get Metabolic Boost and +1 ranged attack, Pneumatic Carapace, Hydra Den and Roach speed. Preparing quite a lethal concoction while Tyler rushes for Colossus.
Economy must be Rets favourite subject, as he gets a very early 4th base to further pimp his army capabilities. He builds a spire in case he needs corruptors and hydra range, using some overlords to spread creep into the middle. But Tyler decides its time to pressure and moves out with a lethal 2 Colossus + Range timing push.
Tyler has overextended himself in the middle of the map, using forcefields to cut Rets army in half but Ret can just move around and inbetween the gaps, just ripping apart everything Tyler has. Ret meanwhile pumps out another salvo of units, totally outmacroing Tyler and forcing him to GG.
Set 3
Morrow < GSL Crevasse > Brat_OK
Morrow < Placeholder Map > Brat_OK
Morrow < Placeholder Map > Brat_OK
Game 1 - Rating: ♦♦♦
Morrow < GSL Crevasse > Brat_OK
Morrow spawns in the NorthEast position as the Red Zerg while Brat_OK Spawns as the blue terran in the SouthWest position. Morrow decides to open with a Hatch first in the open expansion below the ramp, and starting the Pool and Extractor at 17 food. Brat_OK walls off his ramp with a Rax and 2 depots and goes for the Backdoor Expansion to drop a Command Center, getting his refineries up meanwhile.
Morrow is researching Metabolic Boost and sends a drone scout to check out Brat_OKs base. The barracks get lifted and the drone almost gets to see everything before being sniped by a marine. Brat_OK decides to get a Reactor Factory and a few hellions, while getting a Starport and preparing a tech lab. Morrow gets his Lair up and gets his Baneling Nest and a third Queen combined by a third Hatch at the backdoor natural.
Six hellions move out to go for some heavy pressure and Morrow spots it, preparing with banelings and spinecrawlers to deflect it. Cloak is up and enters just as the Overseer finishes. The Banshee does only limited damage before having to retreat. Stim, Siege mode and +1 infantry are being researched while Morrow already has his Spire up and starts making a few Mutalisks and +1 melee and +1 flyer attack incoming.
The hellions move into Morrows base and get annihilated while not doing proper damage at all, and even loses his banshee to the queens at the backdoor expansion during the multi pronged attack.
Centrifugal Hooks is going up and a 4th Hatch gets denied by a slow push by Brat_OK. Combat shields is about to finish but he loses a tank, forcing him to retreat.
Brat_OK decides to do a drop at the Backdoor expansion but gets deflected easily. Morrow is getting +2 melee and +2 flyer attack and a LOT of Lings, Banelings and Mutalisks. A lot of lings get sniped by Brat_OKs forces, a fight ensues on the ramp at Morrows Xel'Naga tower. Brat_OK does a ton of damage before Morrow cleans him up, evening out the score.
Morrow decides to go Swarm style and drops 4 Hatches, an Infestation Pit, Hive, Infestor energy and +1 ground armor. A fight commences at Brat_OKs side and manages to kill off a lot of Morrows army, but here comes the reinforcement wave of Morrow.
Brat_Ok has a great position on the top of the ramp with sieged tanks and tower vision. Morrows 4th base gets sniped, Morrow loses all his mutalisks to the marines. Brat_OK is playing a great game of divide and conquer, cutting off reinforcements and hitting Morrow at multiple locations.
Brood lords get produced and destroyed instantly, forcing Morrow to GG and leaving Brat_OK in a 1-0 position
Game 2 - Rating: ♦♦♦♦
Morrow < Terminus RE> Brat_OK
Morrow spawns in the North position while Brat_OK spawns in the East position. Morrow opens Hatch into Pool while Brat_OK decides to go for a very early Rax into Factory opening, opting for the hellion style once more. A bunker rush ensues where Morrow just crushes it with great drone usage.
The reactor finishes and a Command Center goes down, leaving Brat_OK totally defenseless as he lost his marines in the bunker rush. Brat_OK decides to go and apply some pressure on Morrows base but is quickly scared away by the 2 Queens and almost finished crawlers.
Metabolic Boost is almost finishes while Lair is going up. Brat_OK has a bumpy start again and decided to get Stimpack, siege tanks and more barracks to prepare for the mid game.
Meanwhile in the Morrow camp a Spire goes up quite early, with a low total gas count, so it is a bit of a weird decision, combined with a nice supply block to complement it all. Brat_OK is getting ready for a good push with a medivac, 2 siege tanks and a bunch of marines. The push hits Morrows side and he manages to put himself in a great position. Morrow tries to buy time with his spine crawlers and muta harass, but is scared off by 2 turrets.
Morrow manages to hit Brat_OKs army just when it moves, dealing some good damage but not nearly enough to scare Brat_OK away. +1 flyer attack and +1 round armor get researched with Centrifugal Hooks while a drop hits Morrows main. A lot of drones die before the drop gets killed by the mutalisks. A good move by Brat_Ok all together.
The muta count is now high enough for them to start hitting Brat_OKs third quite hard, picking off the turrets handily. Brat_OKs army is forced to defend the back of the third for a bit. Morrow decides to fake a drop play but does not manage to deceive his opponent with it. +2 flyer and +2/+2 melee upgrades go up against +2/+1 infantry upgrades from Brat_OK.
During all of this, Morrow has taken the map slowly, dropping a few more Hatches and getting a huge lead on Brat_OK supply wise, allowing him to get a lot of tech including infestors.
Brat_OK moves out for an assault and catches Morrows Mutalisks offguard, kgreatly reducing their numbers.
Some burrowed banelings lurk around waiting for Brat_OKs army to come around, but they get scanned and picked off neatly. Experience covers a lot. Greater spire is almost up while Brat_OK slowly crawls forward for the kill.
Some amazing fungal growths pick off a nice amount of units while 13 spine crawlers get made to slow down Brat_OK even more. The Brood Lords are finishing while a drop hits Morrows main, having nearly no effect with Infestors there fungaling the marines.
Brat_OK is forced into full retreat with the Brood Lords being out, a Command Center gets picked off, drying out the resource availability of Brat_OK. Morrow slowly starves out Brat_OK and gets even more Brood Lords, spine crawlers and bases to increase his already decent lead. +3/+3 melee is going up with Adrenal Glands.
Every base of Morrow now has around 8 Spine Crawlers to deny any harass from getting Brat_OK back into the game. This ladies and gentlemen, is how you really draw out a 100% win chance when you build on your lead. A nice stash of resources and larva are being prepared with another bunch of Spine Crawlers to totally annihilate Brat_OK in a moment.
Brat_OK turtles up with a lot of bunkers and a siege line, praying for a miracle. He has 3/3 marines now and a bunch of vikings for the Broodlords. Morrow is getting drop tech and yet another base, while Brat_Ok manages to get up a base too. Morrow is throwing low tech units at Brat_OK to replace them with high tech units.
A fight commences, using the spine crawlers to push forward on the creep, the corruptors fight the vikings with fungal support, destroying the air power of Brat_OK extremely fast.
The remax is incoming for Morrow in the form of all high tech units.
Queens move forward to support with transfuse, and Brat_OK gets completely destroyed despite some nice viking micro. The power of the Swarm prevails and Morrow makes sure to retreat to get another High Tech remax to faceroll right over the remains of Brat_OKs army. A GG gets Morrow back into the set, making it 1-1 with a nice last push including Neural Parasited tanks
Game 3 - Rating: ♦♦♦
Morrow < Metalopolis > Brat_OK
Morrow spawns in the Northeast position versus Brat_OK in the North position. A Hatch into Pool + gas opening vs a 1 Rax FE. Brat_OK opens with his Hellions, going for Blueflame early this time with a THOR, really interesting to say the least.
Morrow gets up his Lair, Third base, Baneling Nest and Spire pretty fast. Centrifugal Hooks get researched and a bunch of Mutalisks. Brat_OK moves out with his Thor/hellion heavy army to punish Morrow. Morrow gets up the banelings, waits on another round of units and goes in fully. Brat_OK is not focusing on the battle and loses his whole army to a baneling/muta/ling composition hitting the units head on.
Brat_OK sends in another group of hellions to try and kill some drones at the third but get cornered by a bunch of lings and banelings. Morrow accidentally finds the two hidden Hellions that Brat_Ok had on standby for some good drone harass, when he moves out with a drone to get a fourth base running.
A Planetary Fortress gets up but not before a group of lings hits the third for some mild damage. Brat_OK decides to move in with his new Thor heavy army and Morrow miscontrols his banelings, losing a lot of them without doing proper damage. Morrow still manages to down the Thors with some proper magic boxing, pulling ahead quite nicely against a crushed mech army. Brat_OK will have a hard time getting up any new army at this point.
Morrow gets a 4th and 5th while Brat_Ok moves in with a suicidal push and it seems that Brat_Ok might actually pull it off and kick Morrow in the nuts. Brat_Ok roasts about half of Morrows drone count with a nice volley of flames, and Morrow is suddenly in an extremely bad position. Brat_OK starts killing off all drones at the third and forces a GG from Morrow, closing the series 2-1
Set 4
Socke < TSL3 Metalopolis > Dimaga
Socke < GSL Crevasse > Dimaga
Game 1 - Rating: ♦♦♦♦
Socke < TSL3 Metalopolis > Dimaga
Dimaga spawns at the South position while Socke spawns at the East position. Dimaga opts for a Hatch first into Pool while Socke decides to get a rather early gate at 12 food. A Zealot is being chronoboosted and seems to be prepared for some heavy pressure on the expansion. Dimaga has no larva available for zerglings at this point while two zealots and a stalker move on down into the Natural.
Dimaga manages to kill the probe that accompanies the zealot, but Socke can continue to do heavy damage, even getting the chance to briefly retreat his zealot to recharge shields while the stalker gets some shots off. A Nexus goes up behind all this pressure but Dimaga has a healthy ling count now and manages to surround the Zealots and go for a counterattack right after. A last second forcefield briefly holds Socke alive, and Socke manages to get his warpgates up and scare away the lings.
Dimaga drops a Roach Warren and an Evolution chamber, getting ready for any air nonsense that might be coming, even dropping some spines for extra defense and getting a Third base.
Two Void Rays are in production at the Protoss camp to really do some pressure while a phoenix rolls in briefly after. The Voids get charged up on the Lair, picks off 3 Queens but the Spore crawlers finish to stop any more damage. Hydra Den finishes and a lot of Hydras get produced while Socke goes into the third with the Phoenix/Void combo but gets repelled by a good Hydra force.
Drop tech, +2 melee attack and roach speed is being researched for Dimaga and Sockes Blink and +1 ground attack finish while he techs up to Collosus, getting a third during all of this.
Dimaga gets up a fourth base and gets Pneumatic Carapace and +1 ground armor, getting ready for some great multi pronged goodness hopefully.
Socke finishes Thermal Lance and positions his army at the natural while a baneling drop moves into the main, destroying almost every probe. Another baneling drop hits the natural base probes destroying Sockes economy!! Oh my god what an unbelieveably lethal blow.
Socke goes in for the heavy push, using forcefields and blink to snipe baneling overlords and any caught units. This amazing push is destroying everything Dimaga throws at it, and an "all-in" push wins Socke the game after Dimaga GGs out.
Game 2 - Rating: ♦♦♦♦
Socke < GSL Crevasse > Dimaga
Socke spawns as the Red Protoss at the SouthEast position, whereas Dimaga spawns at the SouthWest position with a very happy smile on his face still!
Dimaga goes for a Hatch first into Pool while Socke opens with a standard 3-gate style opening, but chronoboosts a Stalker out of the first gateway, dropping a Nexus at his backdoor expansion while poking at the front of Dimagas base.
The stalker is quickly met by 10 lings and is forced to retreat. Time to get a Stargate for some air play, even double Stargate. Dimaga is making a lot of lings and Speed is done, making it really scary for Socke right now. Sockes wall off at the ramp keeps Dimagas deadly ling count out for now, and leaves him clueless about the fact that there is not ONE, but TWO stargates in Sockes base.
Socke is moving out with 3 Void Rays but has no idea about the Spire thats already up, and a bunch of mutalisks spawn just as the air force arrives. Dimaga is now at a great position, fending off the air attack and getting a fast third as response. A hidden fourth Hatch gets built in the northwest, sneaky sneaky Dimaga indeed.
Socke takes a third base of his own, while fighting the muta count with his own phoenix count, using the high mobility to avoid getting hit. Opting for a Templar Archives to get ready for a good end game composition, while Dimaga plans on doing the same by getting ground melee upgrades and a good economy for a later unit switch after forcing a lot of phoenixes.
A DT Shrine goes down together with Blink, +1 and Psi Storm, creating a lethal weapon that can be the end of Dimaga if he does not find out in time. Some DT's move right out to the 4th base of Dimaga to deal some serious damage, destroying it without problems. Dimaga meanwhile checks Sockes 4th, and annihilates it with his highly mobile muta/ling/bling army. Drop tech and +1 air armor gets up for Dimaga and the DT's giggle and quickly run in to do a bit of damage.
A big engagement in the middle, a lot of storms go down but because of Dimagas great positioning on top of Sockes army causes a lot of friendly storm damage, forcing Socke back to his third with heavy losses. Thank god for Socke the DT's caused a large amount of economic damage, giving him another chance to fight. Socke now goes for a fourth base again, this time surrounded by mass cannons vs run-by nonsense.
Dimaga has a lot of banelings, decides to get ready for a drop of doom with the sheer number he has (51) and gets another Base up with an Infestation Pit thrown in the mix. To that Socke the brave Protoss has a crazy bold response by just blindly dropping another expansion with mass cannons. He is slowly transitioning into the uber deathball of Void Ray/Collosi/Mothership, getting air weapons and a Fleet Beacon.
Dimaga moves out with the drops and loses a lot of units, but manages to kill off all the collosi and a lot of probes. His +3/+3 melee upgrades go down together with a Hydra Den, sitting comfortably at a 12 worker lead. It is time for the DImaga thrump card in the form of Ultralisk Cavern and Greater Spire, while Socke finally gets to build the ubersauce Mothership. Royal flush for both.
Some baneling drops hit 3 bases at once, killing an immense amount of probes yet again, bringing him into a great economic lead. He starts getting a lot of hydralisks with the range upgrade, combined with Ultralisks with the armor upgrade and +2 ranged wep attacks. Socke is already going for the +3 air weapon upgrade which will make the void ray mass extremely lethal. He even gets some immortals to get ready for the Ultralisk trample mode.
This game is absolutely crazy, with the amount of tech going down. A truely high tech deathball versus deathball fight will commence shortly, while Dimaga is getting his infestor energy upgrade, and Socke gets his air armor upgrade. It will be baneling drop + ultra/roach/hydra/infestor with maxed melee and 2/2 ranged upgrades vs Mass void/templar/colo/mothership with +2 ground weapons, +3 air and +2 shields. Will the inner SC2 nerd inside of us survive this upcoming spectacle!?
Socke moves in with the Void Rays and recalls them after taking out 2 Hatcheries, some amazing play right there. It is now 23 drones versus more than 50 probes, so Dimaga is forced into a final attack. Socke prepares by making gateway walls, not only for protecting but also for an instant remax ability during the battle.
Queens join the army of Dimaga and it is time! 3/3 melee + 3/3 ranged versus 3/0/2 ground and 3/2/2 air from Socke. Brood Lords get morphed for the final battle now while the Void Rays take out another Hatchery, showing DImaga that is only chance is an all-out attack. The waiting is so tense right now.
Socke moves in the Void Rays to take out some of Dimagas army, and Mass recalls them as soon as the fungal growths hit. Neural parasite finishes. The battle begins, Archons in front, colo too, baneling drops all over the collosi and clean up all ground, but the Mothership/Void Ray combination destroys everything of Dimaga, his army absolutely evaporates. Socke Remaxes calmly and goes in for the kill. Dimaga is forced to GG after what might have been the longest SC2 game in tournament play at 50+ ingame minutes.
Set 5
Naniwa < Metalopolis > Ret
Naniwa < Tal'Darim Altar > Ret
Game 1 - Rating:
Naniwa < Metalopolis > Ret
Naniwa spawns as the blue Protoss at the South position while Ret spawns as the Red Zerg at the North position. Ret opens up with a Hatch into pool while Naniwa does a standard Protoss opening, opting for 2 assimilators early on and getting 2 stalkers to pressure the Zerg and sniping overlords.
Naniwa opts for an early Twilight Council with Blink and 3 more Gates, while Ret is just getting his Metabolic Boost and a Roach Warren. Naniwa fakes his expansion while he builds a proxy pylon for his Blink Stalker push.Ret realizes that the stalker count is a bit high and cancels the spore. Ret spots the push last second but if he can make enough units?
Ret pulls all his Queens and joins them up with the army. Naniwa moves in, forcefields the ramp and annihilates Ret like he is morning breakfast. An amazing mindgame gets Naniwa the 1-0 lead.
Game 2 - Rating:
Naniwa < Tal'darim Altar > Ret
Naniwa spawns in the SouthWest position as the blue Protoss while Ret spawns at the SouthEast position as the Red Zerg. Naniwa opts for a gateway opening instead of going forge expand, and Ret being Ret gets a Hatchery into Pool.
Naniwa is going for a 4-gate while Ret hasn't scouted more than 2 gates. Now he spots the pylon and quickly starts a Roach Warren and some lings, with Speed being long from done. And in comes the push with a proxy pylon being built right next to the Hatchery, more zealot are being warped in and Ret tries desperately to stay alive.
His roach count builds up and he manages to push back Naniwa! But the victory is shortlived when Naniwa warps in 2 more rounds and even briefly supply blocks Ret. It's a back and forth dance on and off the creep, but a perfect forcefield gets Ret into trouble again. Two more forcefields get dropped perfectly and Ret seems to be at a loss. A swift GG brings Naniwa to a 2-0 series win!
Group C & D
Set 6
Sen < Metalopolis > MC
Sen < Shakuras Plateau > MC
Game 1 - Rating: ♦♦♦♦
Sen < Metalopolis > MC
Sen spawns as the Blue Zerg at the North position while MC spawns at the South position as the Red Protoss making it cross map positions. Sen starts of nice with the ever not so sexy extractor trick and decides to go for Pool first and manages to get a Hatchery down while the probe of MC is trying to block it.
MC actually waits until his Cyber Core finishes to build a Stalker as his first unit, followed by a sentry. Sen manages to scout MCs base but is picked off by the stalker, right after that MC throws down his Nexus to get a 1-gate expand going. A Roach Warren goes up for Sen while Metabolic Boost is being researched. Will it be a Roach/Ling timing?
6 Roaches are being made while MC throws down his Stargate and 2nd + 3rd gate, seemingly his new signature PvZ opening, going for a Void Ray as soon as he can. Sen does a small push but quickly spots that he will not be able to break MCs defense and retreats without trouble.
The third Hatch is up while Lair tech is being researched, but MC is used to this timing and moves his Void Ray directly to Sens third base. Sen makes sure that he has proper defense at his third as 2 more Void Rays come in together with a Phoenix. The Void rays get charged up and do a ton of damage while a third Nexus goes up for MC.
Sens Hydras pop out and manages to snipe ALL THREE of MCs Void Rays but with the third Protoss base going up it is hard to say that it's a victory at all. A Robo Facility + some gateways get constructed to make a nice switch to the Colossus/stalker/sentry composition.
It is time to get into higher gears Sen must be thinking, dropping down not one but TWO macro Hatcheries, dropping a baneling nest and a 4th base + getting the +2 melee attack and +1 flyer attack. Some mutalisks start harassing MCs main base and does some moderate damage before being chased away by the Protoss army.
Sen goes for a huge attack on MCs fourth at the gold, MC marches right in with his army, cutting the Zerg army into pieces with forcefields and lasers, literally. MC has an Ace up his sleeves with his upgraded Warp Prism speed, and pushes forward to Sens 4th base. Some perfect forcefields get dropped and Sen is forced to GG shortly after. Amazing play by MC, did not expect such an exploitation of mind games and cover.
Game 2 - Rating: ♦♦♦
Sen < Shakuras Plateau > MC
Sen spawns as the blue Zerg at the SouthEast position and MC spawns at the SouthWest position as the red Protoss. Mc gets a forge down early, planning on a Forge FE with the possibility of cannon rushing any early Hatch, but Sen opens up with a Pool first.
MC manages to block the Hatch with a pylon this time, delaying Sens economy by quite a bit until the lings get there to clean it up. Sen then proceeds to get a very fast Third to try and get a massive economic advantage rolling, knowing very well that MC will not be able to punish him until the Stargate or 5-gate goes up.
Lair goes down, while mass drones are being produced by Sen. Surprisingly, MC manages to keep up on the worker count with constant chronoboosts. MC decides to get a lot of Gateways and Hallucination, preparing for some kind of huge timing push. Sen gets a Roach Warren fast and starts the Burrow upgrade, Roach Speed and Metabolic Boost. He starts making mass units to hold off MC.
The battle commences and some insane forcefields will be the end of Sen. The third base gets destroyed while the ramp gets perma forcefielded, forcing a very fast GG. MC takes the series 2-0.
Set 7
SaSe < Crossfire SE> Kas
SaSe < Xel'Naga Caverns> Kas
Game 1 - Rating:
SaSe < Crossfire SE> Kas
Kas spawns as the blue Terran at the North to NorthEast position while SaSe spawns at the South to SouthEast position as the red Protoss. Kas opens with a 12 Rax 13 Refinery versus SaSe doing nothing out of the ordinary except for dropping a pylon next to the Barracks, just in case a tech lab has to be made.
SaSe manages to get out having seen 4 marines and a gas. Kas is going for a fast Starport while SaSe decides to go and poke Kas with some stalkers, meanwhile dropping a hidden Nexus at the lower right position, getting a Robo in preparation of a possible banshee play.
Kas is still on one base and is getting tanks and banshees, it currently looks like an all-in kind of style because Kas has not seen an expansion of SaSe yet. A Robotics Bay is going down for SaSe with some additional gateway production. He manages to snipe a Banshee quite brilliantly when it tries to manoeuvre away. SaSe drops his third Nexus while Kas gets his expansion up behind a huge timing push, including tanks, banshees and a Raven.
SaSe manages to hold the attack and handily puts Kas on the backfoot. A proxy pylon goes down on the ramp at Kas his side and moves in with a double colossus push. Kas forgets to repair his bunker and his army melts away against the lasers of the Protoss army.
Game 2 - Rating:
SaSe < Xel'Naga Caverns> Kas
Kas spawns as the blue Terran at the SouthWest position while SaSe spawns as the red Protoss at the NorthEast position. Kas decides to open with a 1 Rax Gasless FE whereas SaSe does his offensive pylon play once again, to no effect since there is no addon coming any time soon. Kas gets up into his defensive position in case of a 3 or 4-gate push, but SaSe just takes this opportunity to expand earlier himself.
SaSe is planning for something, dropping a pylon at Kas his natural while adding 2 more gates and a Robo. He moves over with his sentries and forcefields the ramp to slow down Kas his expansion move. Kas decides to just build his third Command Center earlier together with fast siege mode to break out of any contain.
Unfortunately SaSe moves up and manages to oneshot the tank standing at the ramp by using some smart force fields. The economy is now in favor of SaSe, and he decides to just go in for a hard push when he sees the weak positioning of Kas. The Robotics Bay is up and Colossus are being produced together with a Third base! Kas is still forced to turtle up in his main base, unable to do anything while getting picked off slowly.
After a while Kas finally manages to get his natural expansion up, but here comes SaSe with his collosus supported army and force field mania, giving Kas the hardest time. Kas gets completely destroyed by amazing force fields + positioning tactics but the reinforcement wave of marauders manages to push back SaSe by a hair.
SaSe is far ahead and starts adding a lot of structures to facilitate some heavy macro while he takes his fourth, gold base. +2 ground weapons and Zealot Charge gets researched while Kas tries to get his gold up. Here comes SaSe , Kas spreads his units well but he has no chance against the army of SaSe. Kas gets annihilated and GGs out. SaSe closes the series 2-0!
Set 8
Grubby < Tal'Darim Altar> Idra
Grubby < Xel'Naga Caverns> Idra
Game 1 - Rating: ♦♦♦♦
Grubby < Tal'Darim Altar> Idra
Grubby spawns at the NorthEast position as the blue Protoss against Idra who is spawning as the red Zerg at the SouthEast position. Idra opts for a Speedling opening into expand, while Grubby opts for a Nexus first followed by a Forge. Grubby manages to delay Idras Hatch by a few seconds.
Idra sends his first batch of lings to Grubby to do a little poking, but Grubbys cannon will finish in time. Weirdly enough Grubbys wall is out of position and the lings are just battering away at the Nexus while nothing can be done about it until except losing a few probes to kill it off.
Meanwhile Idra manages to get his Third base up and running while Metabolic Boost and an Evolution chamber are on the way. A small skirmish in the middle results in some zerglings killing a zealot, but meanwhile Grubby is going for a double Stargate! Idra manages to spot it all and throws down a lot of sporecrawlers against Grubbys incoming Phoenixes.
The Phoenixes manage to pick off a few Queens, Overlords and drones. Meanwhile six Gateways are being built by Grubby to go for an insane 7-gate push while a LOT of overlords get sniped.
Idra is starting to amass hydras with a nydus worm but with the massive ground army from the seven warpgates things are looking grim for the great American Zerg.
Idra loses all his hydras to Grubbys army, but he throws up another nydus worm that gets taken out by imbalanced probes. Idra tries to hold on against the stalkers and phoenixes with a hydra/ling combination. Grubby is putting on a lot of pressure while teching toward Colossus tech.
The third Nexus goes up but Grubby is a bit careless with his units, and needs to retreat back to his home base.
Another Nydus worm goes up but gets taken out after 2 roaches emerge. A huge engagement ensues at the Xel Naga tower, Idra rushes in on overlord creep and manages to get a strong foothold in the game. A run-by at Grubbys base does some damage.
But another battle ensues and Grubby gets out on top because of sloppy positioning by Idra, Grubby takes out all corruptors and the ground army and has his 4th base up and running.
Grubby decides to push forward to take out Idras 3rd and manages to snipe the Hydra Den. Waves of reinforcements stream in and it is looking bad for Idra again. He takes a final stand and actually manages to kill off Grubbys entire push, unbelievable! Idra manages to get up a lot of bases, getting up to a total of 5, rebuilding his Hydra Den and engaging in the middle.
Grubby loses a lot of units and Idra pushes through into Grubbys base. An insane amount of reinforcements stream in and Grubby GGs, leaving Idra in a 1-0 position in the series.
Game 2 - Rating: ♦♦
Grubby < Xel'Naga Caverns > Idra
Grubby spawns as the blue Protoss at the NorthEast position, while Idra spawns as the Red Zerg in the SouthWest position. Idra opens with a Speedling expand, opting for some extra safety and pressure possibilities. The 2 sets of lings instantly run up to check for any shenanigans, and march up right to Grubbys base with a drone.
Grubby drops down a Stargate right after the drone gets sniped by a stalker, but Idra has an overlord close by that might be able to spot it. Grubby transitions into a 3-gate Stargate build. Idra only spots the 2 gateways being built, possibly throwing him off. Grubby throws down his expansion but Idra decides to start a timing push with a lot of roaches and lings.
Grubbys Void Rays move towards Idras base while Idra moves his army towards Grubbys nat, forcing a Nexus cancel and two more gateways. Grubby is in a very difficult position, with Idra trying to bust down his front door, heavily droning up behind it. Even if Grubby survives this, if his all-in push fails, he will lose. It is up to Idra how this game will end now.
Grubby moves in and goes up Idras main ramp, losing all of his units bar the Void rays to the ground force of Idra. But here come the Queens and Grubby GGs out. Idra takes the series 2-0.
Set 9
Adelscott < Crevasse > Sen
Adelscott < TSL3 Metalopolis > Sen
Game 1 - Rating: ♦♦♦
Adelscott < Crevasse > Sen
Adelscott is spawning at the SouthEast position as the red Protoss, whereas Sen is spawning at the NorthWest position as the blue Zerg. Sen opens up with a Hatch first into pool at his backdoor expansion. Adel opens up with a standard opening up to the Cyber Core, then drops down the Nexus at his backdoor expansion and proceeds to build a 2nd gateway before researching Warp Gate tech.
Sen steals Adels second gas while getting Metabolic Boost and a bunch of drones, while Adel gets his Gateway count up to three. A third base gets built for Sen whilst teching to Lair and getting the Evolution chamber up, setting him up for a stronger lategame play.
Adelscott decides to disrupt the party by getting up to a total of seven gates while moving towards Sen with a bunch of sentries and stalkers. A probe accompanies the army for some key proxy pylons, Sen spots it and starts pumping out a lot of zerglings. The first small attack that Sen does gets nullified by force fields and does not significantly slow down Adels push.
Adelscott moves into the third base of Sen where he is greeted by 4 spine crawlers and mass zerglings and roaches. Reinforcements stream in from both players but Sen manages to push back Adel and quickly starts his counterpush. Adels third is up but here come the roaches and lings. Some force fields get thrown down but is it enough? More lings are streaming in and Adel is getting destroyed, having to GG after a last attempt to stay alive at his main ramp. Sen takes a 1-0 lead in the series.
Game 2 - Rating: ♦♦♦
Adelscott < TSL3 Metalopolis > Sen
In the West position we have the French Protoss player under the name of Adelscott, spawning as the red Protoss, and at the South we have the Chinese Zerg player under the name of Sen spawning as the blue Zerg.
Sen decides to open with a 13 pool, making sure that he can get a Hatchery up quite safely by getting early lings. Adel decides to open up with a zealot + stalker to try and apply some pressure. Sen manages to slip some zerglings into Adels base, doing some damage and seeing everything Adel is doing. But Adel manages to take out four drones in his harass, while dropping his Nexus at the natural expansion.
A large stream of zerglings manages to force a cancel on the Nexus, greatly delaying any economical gain for Adelscott. Sen meanwhile takes his Third base and produces a bunch of roaches and spine crawlers to powerdrone heavily with relative safety. Adel is going for a heavy gateway push to try and get back into the game, but Sen is preparing well, dropping another two spinecrawlers and massing a lot of lings and manages to push Adel back in a small battle filled with force fields and advancing spine crawlers.
Sen drops two macro hatches while Adel returns for yet another big pressure push, but sen greatly outmasses the Protoss army and crushes it completely. The lings move up for a counter and manage to pick off a bunch of stalkers. Adel moves in for one last time and gets totally surrounded by the mighty Swarm. Adelscott GGs out and Sen takes the series 2-0.
Set 10
Idra < Terminus SE> Kas
Idra < Xel'Naga Caverns> Kas
Idra < Crevasse> Kas
Game 1 - Rating: ♦♦♦♦
Idra < Terminus SE> Kas
Kas spawns at the South position as the blue Terran player, while Idra spawns at the West position as the red Zerg. Idra opts for a Hatchery into Pool while Kas goes for an early Factory.
Idra drops a spinecrawler in preparation of possible harass, while Metabolic Boost is on the way, and actually opts for quite an early Lair.
In the Kas camp, a second Factory goes down and the Pre-Igniter upgrade gets researched. Kas moves out looking to do some serious damage with the hellions and manages to do some damage, but Idra holds it off quite well considering the circumstance. Some lings try to stream by at Kas his base but suffer a quick demise by some proper defense mechanisms.
The Spire gets up and Idra prepares all the ling/baneling/muta upgrades while he starts harassing Kas with his muta count.
Quickly taking a third behind this, Idra is hoping to secure his lategame options. The mutalisks manage to take out a lot of marines and even a reactor, being well worth their investment so far. But one pissed off Thor wants to do some serious blasting, unfortunately he does not have as much accuracy as he hoped for.
IDras fourth base goes up, together with +2 flyer attack and an infestation pit. Kas decides to drop Idras 3rd but loses the marines. Kas takes this time to get his third base up and running, getting the +1 vehicle weapons and infantry weapons, increasing his army efficiency a great deal.
But Idra has too much leeway and starts expanding yet again, getting Neural parasite, infestors, a heap of banelings and +1 ground carapace swiftly. Hive goes up and a Greater spire gets built. Meanwhile a slow push from Kas slowly inches towards Idras base, a big battle ensues in which all the Thors get mind controlled and Kas his army gets completely slapped silly. This is the final nail in the coffin that forces Kas to GG out, leaving Idra at a 1-0 position in this series.
Game 2 - Rating: ♦♦♦
Idra < Xel'Naga Caverns> Kas
Kas spawns as the blue Terran at the Southwest position vs Idra spawning at the Northeast position as the red Zerg. Idra gets his Hatchery before his pool, followed by a 17 extractor, very standard. Kas once again opts for the fast Factory, determined to scorch more drones this time.
But no, Kas is going for a fast Starport together with an early Command Center to get ready for lategame play. Kas moves out with his marines to pressure Idra and encounters his lings. He manages to outmicro Idra and forces another round of lings to be built. Idra manages to sneak in his overlord, spotting everything that Kas has going on inside of his base. A banshee is on the way to Idras base while a viking gets into production to snipe some overlords.
Idra prepares by positioning his Queens well and building spore crawlers to push the banshee away at red health. But in return Kas decides to kill some overlords to really annoy the hell out of Idras food management. Siege mode and Stimpack get researched together with +1 infantry weapons. Idra meanwhile gets his spire and baneling nest up and starts his Centrifugal Hook upgrade + a flyer attack upgrade.
Kas drops a marine force into Idras main, doing heavy damage with some stim, getting cleaned up but getting a nice lead. Idra knows he has to step up his game with some proper muta harassment. Kas moves out when he sees Idras units in a bad location trying to defend Idras hidden third base. Idra loses a lot of units and has to build his 3rd at the normal location.
Kas now has combat shields and is moving up to the middle to secure his gold base. This could very well mean the end of Idra, you don't want a Terran equaling on bases but having a gold.
Idra tries to get a 4th up once again, but a marine drop snipes it off before it gets cleaned up by a lot of mutalisks.
It seems like Kas is now way ahead, having a great tank/marine count to start pushing forward with. Some tanks get picked off by the mutas but will it be enough? Kas moves in behind Idras 3rd base, abusing the narrow path for great positioning, Idra counters and does some severe damage to Kas, forcing him to move back. But its too little too late, forcing Idra to GG out, making it a 1-1 series so far.
Game 3 - Rating: ♦♦♦♦
Idra < Crevasse> Kas
Spawning as the blue terran at the Northwest position, we have none other then Kas. Spawning in the Southwest position as the red zerg, we have Idra. A Hatchery goes down at Idras backdoor expansion, and Kas decides to go for a Rax into Command Center. They proceed to kindly scout each others bases where Idra can see the refinery being up, so no weird shenanigan opener so far.
Idra spots some marines incoming with his first batch of lings while teching to Lair, getting Metabolic Boost as well. Kas seems to be opting for a heavier bio style opening this time, looking to do some decent pressure on the zerg. They snipe an overlord to supply block Idra. Kas is going for early stim and ractor on the Factory + double engineering bay. The Starport gets up and +1 infantry weapons gets researched.
Idra meanwhile got his baneling nest and spire up, getting Centrifugal Hooks to deal with the terran threat. Kas is going in with 2 drops just as the mutas pop out, Kas loses everything from the drop play, and now suddenyl Kas is in a dangerous position. Idra darts forth with some mutas and banelings to start battering the front of Kas his base. A hidden third goes up for Idra at the Southeast, abusing his high mobility.
Idra manages to hit Kas with an amazing baneling play at the front of his ramp, blowing up everything, leaving a bloody trail. A second stream of lings come in, and together with the mutas take out Kas his remaining hope of winning. A GG brings Idra to a 2-1 win in this series!
Group E & F
Set 11
July < Shakuras Plateau > Thorzain
July < Tal'Darim Altar> Thorzain
July < Crossfire SE> Thorzain
Game 1 - Rating:
July < Shakuras Plateau > Thorzain
Thorzain is spawning at the Northeast position as the blue Terran, while July is spawning at the Northwest position as the red Zerg. Thorzain decides to build his Barracks at the lower ground to get a nice wall going, while July sneaks in a few extra drones after his Hatchery, before dropping his pool. He smartly patrols around with a drone to spot any bunker rush.
A Bunker does get built on the lower ground of Julys ramp, and July does not see this! But 8 lings pop and get ready to take out any reinforcements of Thorzain, while another batch of lings stays in the natural while a spine crawler gets built. It crawls toward the edge to kill the bunker but it gets salvaged. July chases the marines but almost gets lured into a death trap of marines hiding. He manages to avoid losing many lings and retreats.
The Naturals for both players are up, with Thorzain opting for double factory hellion with pre igniter into tank tech and stim, for an amazing push, while July opts for a faster baneling nest and spire to deal with the terran force. July tries to get a third up at the Southwest but it gets spotted by the hellions and quickly dispose of the hatchery.
Another third goes up with a roach warren, while some muta harras moves into the base of Thorzain. A thor comes out and gets a great volley of, bringing the health of the mutas to yellow.
July burrows some banes at the front of Thorzains base, and Thorzain happily donates a large number of marines to the big BOOMs that follow when he moves right over them.
A lot of roaches get produced, and the 4th base is now up for July. +2 Melee is coming up while Thorzain is getting his +2 infantry weapons. A slow tank push is inching forward, but July is preparing. July runs in and with some great tank spread, Thorzain manages to take out most of the banelings, but the roaches clean up a lot of Thorzains army.
July retreats and makes another 38 banelings, and prepares for another attack. He rolls into the third base of Thorzain that just got up, roaches in front to eat tank fire, and he wipes out all the marines with the banelings. Another wave of banelings is coming with some roaches, Thorzain drops in from behind to snipe some banelings, July runs into Thorzains main but Thorzain manages to choke July, clearing out all of the zerg forces.
Thorzain gets a little breather but some burrowed roaches manage to sneak in and snipe the Armory. Another zerg wave comes in and destroys the Planetary Fortress. Thorzain drops a load of marines into Julys base, trying to do some damage, going for the spawning pool! The spawning pool survives with 105 hitpoints when the drop gets cleaned up.
A large amount of mutas pop and kill off another drop play, but Thorzain caught up in food meanwhile. July continues the muta harras but loses a lot of them, while Thorzain gets up his third and 4th base. Slowly but surely Thorzain stabilizes this game, and shows just how well he can play. 20 mutalisks hit the third of Thorzain and get scared off by mass marines while a drop hits the 4th base of July. The drop gets cleaned up but Thorzain now gets a 5th base, making it even on bases. July decides to attack it with his muta, but some spam repair keeps up the missile turret that protects the base, pushing the mutas away.
July is trying to go for infestor and broodlord, but Thorzain is preparing for a huge push with more then 18 tanks, 2 thors and a lot of infantry. July tries to buy time but Thorzain is moving out before July can get all of his high tech units out. Thorzain tries to push the 5th base but loses a lot of his tanks, while the Brood lords get up!
A big fight goes on, with great fungals being thrown. Ghosts in production but July goes in and destroys a lot of Thorzains army, forcing our terran player to retreat. A huge number of banelings and roaches now support the brood lords and infestors and clean up Thorzains mech heavy army, Thorzain GGs and July takes the first game!
Game 2 - Rating:
July < Tal'Darim Altar > Thorzain
Thorzain spawns in the Southeast position as the blue terran while July spawns at the Northwest position as the red zerg. July opts for a Hatchery, then extractor before pool, while Thorzain goes for a fast Factory. July gets his 100 gas fast for Metabolic Boost and puts his drones back on minerals.
Thorzain goes for a reactor rax and reactor factory, next to his Command Center. Right after, a Starport gets thrown down, opening a lot of options for Thorzain. July is getting his Lair and a spinecrawler for defensive measures. Thorzain gets aggresive with his hellions, while producing a medivac early. Thorzain seems to be going for a heavy timing push with hellion/marine and a medivac, July is unprepared. 26 lings are about to pop but Thorzain has great positioning with lifting units on to the natural ramp of July. Thorzain ambushes the Queens with some hellions from above, and in comes the banshee to continue the pressure.
July tries to hit Thorzains natural with some lings but gets deflected with ease, while Thorzain is getting his third up and is ahead by 10 scvs and 1 base now. July moves in with some mutas to do some damage, picking off some scvs, but at this point it is just a minor inconvenience for Thorzain. It is enough for July to pull up on worker numbers but lacks his third which is only just going up.
Thorzain is getting mass upgrades, Stim and Combat shields, and double engineering bay upgrades, July is getting +1 air, +1 melee, burrow and Centrifugal Hooks. A banshee pops up in the third of July, killing off FOURTEEN drones, insane damage being done right here to the already weak economy of July.
A drop moves towards Julys main while some banelings burrow outside of the natural of Thorzain. July does not spot the drop and Thorzain is running in, killing a lot of overlords and sniping the Spire! Thorzain NARROWLY dodges the burrowed banes as he moves out with his army, cleaning them up with a great scan.
July does a huge counterattack with mass mutas, doing huge damage and killing masses of scvs. Greater Spire goes up in Julys natural, while Thorzain moves toward Julys base. July plans to do a counterattack as soon as Thorzain moves out, but gets spotted. July takes out the third base of Thorzain, but Thorzain moves right into the brood lords morphing, and takes them all out. July loses his 4th base and is in a lot of trouble. A lot of banelings get made but get dealt with by a big group of greatly spread and stimmed marines.
Julys third base gets taken down and Thorzain moves in for the kill. July manages to kill all the marines and takes out all the tanks, but it will not be enough. Another Hatchery falls and Thorzain now has 8 ghosts in his army. A drop moves into the main of July but gets sniped early, when another drop hits Julys last mining base, getting fended off too.
Thorzain pushes out and the final battle ensues. Ghosts snipe a lot of the mutalisks and moves in for the kill. Major snipes going off on the banelings, Thorzain crushing the last base and sniping the counterattacking mutalisks. July GGs out, making the score 1-1.
Game 3 - Rating:
July < Crossfire SE> Thorzain
Idra spots some marines incoming with his first batch of lings while teching to Lair, getting Metabolic Boost as well. Kas seems to be opting for a heavier bio style opening this time, looking to do some decent pressure on the zerg. They snipe an overlord to supply block Idra. Kas is going for early stim and ractor on the Factory + double engineering bay. The Starport gets up and +1 infantry weapons gets researched.
Idra meanwhile got his baneling nest and spire up, getting Centrifugal Hooks to deal with the terran threat. Kas is going in with 2 drops just as the mutas pop out, Kas loses everything from the drop play, and now suddenyl Kas is in a dangerous position. Idra darts forth with some mutas and banelings to start battering the front of Kas his base. A hidden third goes up for Idra at the Southeast, abusing his high mobility.
Idra manages to hit Kas with an amazing baneling play at the front of his ramp, blowing up everything, leaving a bloody trail. A second stream of lings come in, and together with the mutas take out Kas his remaining hope of winning. A GG brings Idra to a 2-1 win in this series!
Group E & F
Set 11
July < Shakuras Plateau > Thorzain
July < Tal'Darim Altar> Thorzain
July < Crossfire SE> Thorzain
Game 1 - Rating:
July < Shakuras Plateau > Thorzain
Thorzain is spawning at the Northeast position as the blue Terran, while July is spawning at the Northwest position as the red Zerg. Thorzain decides to build his Barracks at the lower ground to get a nice wall going, while July sneaks in a few extra drones after his Hatchery, before dropping his pool. He smartly patrols around with a drone to spot any bunker rush.
A Bunker does get built on the lower ground of Julys ramp, and July does not see this! But 8 lings pop and get ready to take out any reinforcements of Thorzain, while another batch of lings stays in the natural while a spine crawler gets built. It crawls toward the edge to kill the bunker but it gets salvaged. July chases the marines but almost gets lured into a death trap of marines hiding. He manages to avoid losing many lings and retreats.
The Naturals for both players are up, with Thorzain opting for double factory hellion with pre igniter into tank tech and stim, for an amazing push, while July opts for a faster baneling nest and spire to deal with the terran force. July tries to get a third up at the Southwest but it gets spotted by the hellions and quickly dispose of the hatchery.
Another third goes up with a roach warren, while some muta harras moves into the base of Thorzain. A thor comes out and gets a great volley of, bringing the health of the mutas to yellow.
July burrows some banes at the front of Thorzains base, and Thorzain happily donates a large number of marines to the big BOOMs that follow when he moves right over them.
A lot of roaches get produced, and the 4th base is now up for July. +2 Melee is coming up while Thorzain is getting his +2 infantry weapons. A slow tank push is inching forward, but July is preparing. July runs in and with some great tank spread, Thorzain manages to take out most of the banelings, but the roaches clean up a lot of Thorzains army.
July retreats and makes another 38 banelings, and prepares for another attack. He rolls into the third base of Thorzain that just got up, roaches in front to eat tank fire, and he wipes out all the marines with the banelings. Another wave of banelings is coming with some roaches, Thorzain drops in from behind to snipe some banelings, July runs into Thorzains main but Thorzain manages to choke July, clearing out all of the zerg forces.
Thorzain gets a little breather but some burrowed roaches manage to sneak in and snipe the Armory. Another zerg wave comes in and destroys the Planetary Fortress. Thorzain drops a load of marines into Julys base, trying to do some damage, going for the spawning pool! The spawning pool survives with 105 hitpoints when the drop gets cleaned up.
A large amount of mutas pop and kill off another drop play, but Thorzain caught up in food meanwhile. July continues the muta harras but loses a lot of them, while Thorzain gets up his third and 4th base. Slowly but surely Thorzain stabilizes this game, and shows just how well he can play. 20 mutalisks hit the third of Thorzain and get scared off by mass marines while a drop hits the 4th base of July. The drop gets cleaned up but Thorzain now gets a 5th base, making it even on bases. July decides to attack it with his muta, but some spam repair keeps up the missile turret that protects the base, pushing the mutas away.
July is trying to go for infestor and broodlord, but Thorzain is preparing for a huge push with more then 18 tanks, 2 thors and a lot of infantry. July tries to buy time but Thorzain is moving out before July can get all of his high tech units out. Thorzain tries to push the 5th base but loses a lot of his tanks, while the Brood lords get up!
A big fight goes on, with great fungals being thrown. Ghosts in production but July goes in and destroys a lot of Thorzains army, forcing our terran player to retreat. A huge number of banelings and roaches now support the brood lords and infestors and clean up Thorzains mech heavy army, Thorzain GGs and July takes the first game!
Game 2 - Rating:
July < Tal'Darim Altar > Thorzain
Thorzain spawns in the Southeast position as the blue terran while July spawns at the Northwest position as the red zerg. July opts for a Hatchery, then extractor before pool, while Thorzain goes for a fast Factory. July gets his 100 gas fast for Metabolic Boost and puts his drones back on minerals.
Thorzain goes for a reactor rax and reactor factory, next to his Command Center. Right after, a Starport gets thrown down, opening a lot of options for Thorzain. July is getting his Lair and a spinecrawler for defensive measures. Thorzain gets aggresive with his hellions, while producing a medivac early. Thorzain seems to be going for a heavy timing push with hellion/marine and a medivac, July is unprepared. 26 lings are about to pop but Thorzain has great positioning with lifting units on to the natural ramp of July. Thorzain ambushes the Queens with some hellions from above, and in comes the banshee to continue the pressure.
July tries to hit Thorzains natural with some lings but gets deflected with ease, while Thorzain is getting his third up and is ahead by 10 scvs and 1 base now. July moves in with some mutas to do some damage, picking off some scvs, but at this point it is just a minor inconvenience for Thorzain. It is enough for July to pull up on worker numbers but lacks his third which is only just going up.
Thorzain is getting mass upgrades, Stim and Combat shields, and double engineering bay upgrades, July is getting +1 air, +1 melee, burrow and Centrifugal Hooks. A banshee pops up in the third of July, killing off FOURTEEN drones, insane damage being done right here to the already weak economy of July.
A drop moves towards Julys main while some banelings burrow outside of the natural of Thorzain. July does not spot the drop and Thorzain is running in, killing a lot of overlords and sniping the Spire! Thorzain NARROWLY dodges the burrowed banes as he moves out with his army, cleaning them up with a great scan.
July does a huge counterattack with mass mutas, doing huge damage and killing masses of scvs. Greater Spire goes up in Julys natural, while Thorzain moves toward Julys base. July plans to do a counterattack as soon as Thorzain moves out, but gets spotted. July takes out the third base of Thorzain, but Thorzain moves right into the brood lords morphing, and takes them all out. July loses his 4th base and is in a lot of trouble. A lot of banelings get made but get dealt with by a big group of greatly spread and stimmed marines.
Julys third base gets taken down and Thorzain moves in for the kill. July manages to kill all the marines and takes out all the tanks, but it will not be enough. Another Hatchery falls and Thorzain now has 8 ghosts in his army. A drop moves into the main of July but gets sniped early, when another drop hits Julys last mining base, getting fended off too.
Thorzain pushes out and the final battle ensues. Ghosts snipe a lot of the mutalisks and moves in for the kill. Major snipes going off on the banelings, Thorzain crushing the last base and sniping the counterattacking mutalisks. July GGs out, making the score 1-1.
Game 3 - Rating:
July < Crossfire SE> Thorzain
Thorzain spawns as the blue terran at the southwest position, while July spawns at the Northeast position. July goes for a Hatch into Pool, while Thorzain moves in with an early bunker rush while building a Factory. July tries to surround the small terran force with some drones, a batch of lings get made and go for the counter. He spots the reactor on the Rax and drops a spine crawler.
THorzain quickly gets a banshee via techlab while keeping the reactor on the rax, fooling July, or so he thinks. But July is making his 3rd Queen and spots the banshee, immediately drops down an evolution chamber to prepare. Thorzain drops down two more barracks and gets siege mode, while July gets a baneling nest, Metabolic Boost and a Lair.
Combat shields get researched while the banshee only does minimal damage. Thorzain only now moves out to take his natural expansion, while July is getting his spire up. Thorzain is pushing out for a bit of pressure and map control, but July sees it coming via the watch tower. No speed on the banelings, but no stim means the banelings connect with the marines and take out almost all of them.
Thorzain still tries to move forward, but July is picking off reinforcements with speedlings. July moves in and picks off all the marines, followed by the tanks. July goes in for a counterpush but stim finishes right at that moment, saving Thorzain for a moment. But the mutas do a lot of damage to the scvs of the natural, followed by a wave of banelings slamming into the forces of Thorzain. The forces of Thorzain are quickly diminishing while muta harass relentlessly batters him.
July takes a third base and the gold as 4th base, getting +1 air and +1 melee attack. Thorzain tries to get his third up despite the harass of July, getting +1 infantry weapons in the meantime to try and keep up with July. He decides to move up with a big slow push, but July now has upgraded banelings, meaning he can move around fast with flanking attacks.
July runs into the natural of Thorzain, taking out the command center despite losing quite some zerglings. Thorzain now has to move out to do something. July knows this and is awaiting him. July runs into heavy tankfire but still takes out the bulk of Thorzains army. July moves into Thorzains front and Thorzain GGs. July takes the series 2-1!
Set 12
Moon < Shakuras Plateau > Tarson
Moon < Metalopolis > Tarson
Moon < Tal'Darim Altar > Tarson
Game 1 - Rating: ♦♦♦♦
Moon < Shakuras Plateau > Tarson
In the northeast, we have Moon spawning as the blue Zerg, while Tarson spawns as the red Terran in the Southwest. Moon opens with a Hatch into pool. Tarson on the other hand is going for a fast Factory, taking out the zerg extractor defiling his 2nd gas with some marines.
Tarson is going for a nice deviation (not really!) by going for a fast Pre-igniter hellion play, while getting his Command Center. Moon is going for a Roach Warren, but hey what is that. Tarson is going for a very early third Command center, while denying map vision for Moon with his hellion patrol. Moon makes a bunch of roaches to defend against any possible hellion nonsense, and moves up to Lair tech.
The baneling nest and evo chamber are going up, but Moon does not have creap spread yet. Moon is getting his third and Tarson spots it with his hellions. Unfortunately for him, Moon outmicros him with his roaches and takes out the hellions. Stim will be late this game for Tarson, while Moon is already getting a lot of melee upgrades, burrow, pneumatic carapace, ventral sacs, an infestation pit and centrifugal hooks. A whole lot in other words.
Tarson is clearing out the overlords in the middle and is only now getting combat shields and +1 infantry attack. Moon already has the +25 infestor energy and is getting another base. Tarson is moving in with a drop at the 4th and manages to kill a LOT of drones (20+) and snipes the hatch.
Moon fungals the marines, but Tarson picks up half of them and drops them on the banelings, wasting all of the banelings on 4 marines. Amazing play.
Moon is now slightly tilting, using his baneling to help kill some rocks ???????, anyways Hive tech is going up but Tarson keeps going in with drops everywhere. Moon has roaches waiting for him but the roaches get taken out in the main, loses a lot in the main. Meanwhile losing the 4th as well as Tarson getting into a great position with sieged up tanks at Moons front door.
Another multi drop goes down while the tanks move in, great fungal growths go off, the zergling count might be enough to deal with the threat, and Tarson is getting into heavy trouble. Moon suddenly is in a great position compared to before, with 20 mutas going up. The mutas instantly snipe the drops of Tarson, two Hatches go up and suddenly Moon looks fearsome.
Tarson has to defend his Third and a heavy overlord drop group goes into the main of Tarson, dropping lings and roaches and sniping the engineering bay. Moon was a bit sloppy and lost 15 mutas when he was attacking Tarsons third.
Tarson moves out for a push, but gets ambushed by burrowed banelings, and Moon forces Tarson to retreat after both sides take some losses. 8 Infestors and mass banelings get made. Tarson pushes and sieges up, he annihilates the banelings and no fungals go off until very late, taking out lots of marines but not enough. Tarson comes in with another big force and sieges up with a great spread to deal with new banelings. Moon loses a Hatchery, but goes in when siege tanks unsiege.
It is not enough, Tarson is pummeling Moon now and pushing through to take out Moon with amazing multitasking. Moon desperately tries to hold on but his forced to GG. Tarson takes the lead 1-0.
Game 2 - Rating: ♦♦♦
Moon < Metalopolis > Tarson
In the north we have Tarson spawning as the red terran vs Moon spawning at the east position as the blue Zerg. It is a close by air spawn. Moon opens with the Hatch > Pool > extractor opening and Tarson opens very standard too, going for the fast Factory, building a reactor and a 2nd refinery. Hellion into banshee? Perhaps, we shall see.
Tarson gets out a set of hellions and finishes the tech lab right before the Starport finishes. Moon is getting Metabolic Boost and an evo chamber + spinecrawler for defense and upgrades. Cloak is going up for Tarson while the hellions start poking the natural in a group of 4. Two more hellions move out, but Moon has a nice wall with the evo chamber and spine, while he techs up to Lair.
Tarson starts picking off Queens with 2 cloaked banshees, while an early 3rd command center goes down next to his 2nd command center being built. Moon opts for a very fast Spire and baneling nest together with a macro hatchery. Moon also goes for a third and it gets spotted by the hellions of Tarson. Here comes a flank and Tarson loses all of his hellions.
The banshee is going to town on the third of Moon, sees Queens coming and kills a Queen smartly. He cannot finish off the Hatchery since the mutas are out now. Tarson has stim now, and is getting combat shields and +1 infantry weapons.
Moon is getting +1 melee an flyer attck with burrow. Tarsons banshee pokes around and kills another Queen of Moon because Moon is being sloppy. Tarson is getting his third base up and running while some mutas of Moon are scouting around the map. Moons fourth goes up but Tarson is moving out. A major clash follows and sieges too late, banelings destroy the whole army of Tarson and Moon goes directly for the third base with some banelings to hit scvs. But he gets denied by Tarson just in time.
Mutas try to harras Tarsons main but to no avail since they are in such low numbers. Mass banelings are being produced for a big roll-by. Here it goes and he crushes Tarsons army and retreats. More expansions go up for Moon as he builds on his advantage to get a better win chance. A drop moves in but gets spotted by Moon and scared away. Moon goes for Tarsons third and banelings have to move back due to Tarsons tanks after the CC is lifted.
Moon catches Tarsons marines and kills them all off with mutas. Lings stream in but Tarson does not want to give up. Moon runs in some lings and kills all scvs at the third. Tarson goes in for the last stand but moon crushes him everywhere, in his base, on the battlefield. Tarson has nothing left and GGs shortly after. Moon ties the series 1-1.
THorzain quickly gets a banshee via techlab while keeping the reactor on the rax, fooling July, or so he thinks. But July is making his 3rd Queen and spots the banshee, immediately drops down an evolution chamber to prepare. Thorzain drops down two more barracks and gets siege mode, while July gets a baneling nest, Metabolic Boost and a Lair.
Combat shields get researched while the banshee only does minimal damage. Thorzain only now moves out to take his natural expansion, while July is getting his spire up. Thorzain is pushing out for a bit of pressure and map control, but July sees it coming via the watch tower. No speed on the banelings, but no stim means the banelings connect with the marines and take out almost all of them.
Thorzain still tries to move forward, but July is picking off reinforcements with speedlings. July moves in and picks off all the marines, followed by the tanks. July goes in for a counterpush but stim finishes right at that moment, saving Thorzain for a moment. But the mutas do a lot of damage to the scvs of the natural, followed by a wave of banelings slamming into the forces of Thorzain. The forces of Thorzain are quickly diminishing while muta harass relentlessly batters him.
July takes a third base and the gold as 4th base, getting +1 air and +1 melee attack. Thorzain tries to get his third up despite the harass of July, getting +1 infantry weapons in the meantime to try and keep up with July. He decides to move up with a big slow push, but July now has upgraded banelings, meaning he can move around fast with flanking attacks.
July runs into the natural of Thorzain, taking out the command center despite losing quite some zerglings. Thorzain now has to move out to do something. July knows this and is awaiting him. July runs into heavy tankfire but still takes out the bulk of Thorzains army. July moves into Thorzains front and Thorzain GGs. July takes the series 2-1!
Set 12
Moon < Shakuras Plateau > Tarson
Moon < Metalopolis > Tarson
Moon < Tal'Darim Altar > Tarson
Game 1 - Rating: ♦♦♦♦
Moon < Shakuras Plateau > Tarson
In the northeast, we have Moon spawning as the blue Zerg, while Tarson spawns as the red Terran in the Southwest. Moon opens with a Hatch into pool. Tarson on the other hand is going for a fast Factory, taking out the zerg extractor defiling his 2nd gas with some marines.
Tarson is going for a nice deviation (not really!) by going for a fast Pre-igniter hellion play, while getting his Command Center. Moon is going for a Roach Warren, but hey what is that. Tarson is going for a very early third Command center, while denying map vision for Moon with his hellion patrol. Moon makes a bunch of roaches to defend against any possible hellion nonsense, and moves up to Lair tech.
The baneling nest and evo chamber are going up, but Moon does not have creap spread yet. Moon is getting his third and Tarson spots it with his hellions. Unfortunately for him, Moon outmicros him with his roaches and takes out the hellions. Stim will be late this game for Tarson, while Moon is already getting a lot of melee upgrades, burrow, pneumatic carapace, ventral sacs, an infestation pit and centrifugal hooks. A whole lot in other words.
Tarson is clearing out the overlords in the middle and is only now getting combat shields and +1 infantry attack. Moon already has the +25 infestor energy and is getting another base. Tarson is moving in with a drop at the 4th and manages to kill a LOT of drones (20+) and snipes the hatch.
Moon fungals the marines, but Tarson picks up half of them and drops them on the banelings, wasting all of the banelings on 4 marines. Amazing play.
Moon is now slightly tilting, using his baneling to help kill some rocks ???????, anyways Hive tech is going up but Tarson keeps going in with drops everywhere. Moon has roaches waiting for him but the roaches get taken out in the main, loses a lot in the main. Meanwhile losing the 4th as well as Tarson getting into a great position with sieged up tanks at Moons front door.
Another multi drop goes down while the tanks move in, great fungal growths go off, the zergling count might be enough to deal with the threat, and Tarson is getting into heavy trouble. Moon suddenly is in a great position compared to before, with 20 mutas going up. The mutas instantly snipe the drops of Tarson, two Hatches go up and suddenly Moon looks fearsome.
Tarson has to defend his Third and a heavy overlord drop group goes into the main of Tarson, dropping lings and roaches and sniping the engineering bay. Moon was a bit sloppy and lost 15 mutas when he was attacking Tarsons third.
Tarson moves out for a push, but gets ambushed by burrowed banelings, and Moon forces Tarson to retreat after both sides take some losses. 8 Infestors and mass banelings get made. Tarson pushes and sieges up, he annihilates the banelings and no fungals go off until very late, taking out lots of marines but not enough. Tarson comes in with another big force and sieges up with a great spread to deal with new banelings. Moon loses a Hatchery, but goes in when siege tanks unsiege.
It is not enough, Tarson is pummeling Moon now and pushing through to take out Moon with amazing multitasking. Moon desperately tries to hold on but his forced to GG. Tarson takes the lead 1-0.
Game 2 - Rating: ♦♦♦
Moon < Metalopolis > Tarson
In the north we have Tarson spawning as the red terran vs Moon spawning at the east position as the blue Zerg. It is a close by air spawn. Moon opens with the Hatch > Pool > extractor opening and Tarson opens very standard too, going for the fast Factory, building a reactor and a 2nd refinery. Hellion into banshee? Perhaps, we shall see.
Tarson gets out a set of hellions and finishes the tech lab right before the Starport finishes. Moon is getting Metabolic Boost and an evo chamber + spinecrawler for defense and upgrades. Cloak is going up for Tarson while the hellions start poking the natural in a group of 4. Two more hellions move out, but Moon has a nice wall with the evo chamber and spine, while he techs up to Lair.
Tarson starts picking off Queens with 2 cloaked banshees, while an early 3rd command center goes down next to his 2nd command center being built. Moon opts for a very fast Spire and baneling nest together with a macro hatchery. Moon also goes for a third and it gets spotted by the hellions of Tarson. Here comes a flank and Tarson loses all of his hellions.
The banshee is going to town on the third of Moon, sees Queens coming and kills a Queen smartly. He cannot finish off the Hatchery since the mutas are out now. Tarson has stim now, and is getting combat shields and +1 infantry weapons.
Moon is getting +1 melee an flyer attck with burrow. Tarsons banshee pokes around and kills another Queen of Moon because Moon is being sloppy. Tarson is getting his third base up and running while some mutas of Moon are scouting around the map. Moons fourth goes up but Tarson is moving out. A major clash follows and sieges too late, banelings destroy the whole army of Tarson and Moon goes directly for the third base with some banelings to hit scvs. But he gets denied by Tarson just in time.
Mutas try to harras Tarsons main but to no avail since they are in such low numbers. Mass banelings are being produced for a big roll-by. Here it goes and he crushes Tarsons army and retreats. More expansions go up for Moon as he builds on his advantage to get a better win chance. A drop moves in but gets spotted by Moon and scared away. Moon goes for Tarsons third and banelings have to move back due to Tarsons tanks after the CC is lifted.
Moon catches Tarsons marines and kills them all off with mutas. Lings stream in but Tarson does not want to give up. Moon runs in some lings and kills all scvs at the third. Tarson goes in for the last stand but moon crushes him everywhere, in his base, on the battlefield. Tarson has nothing left and GGs shortly after. Moon ties the series 1-1.
Game 3 - Rating:
Moon < Tal'Darim Altar > Tarson
In the top right, spawning as the red Terran we have Tarson, wheares our blue Zerg by the name of Moon spawns at the top left position. Standard openings once again, Hatch first > pool > gas for Moon and Tarson opens with a fast Factory. Moons drone is inside Tarsons base and scouts everything. Moon opts for 2 Queens and fast ling speed to deal with the incoming harassment.
Moon drops a spinecrawler and a lot of speedlings to give Tarson a hard time. Moon takes out one of the hellions while Tarson goes for ultra fast stim and a command center in-base. Tarson manages to corner some of the lings, sniping down half the count. A nice wall has been erected by Moon as an anti run-by measure versus hellions. Tarson is getting more barracks and a viking for overlord sniping in the time that Moon gets +1 melee attack and Lair up.
A spire goes up with a baneling nest, and centrifugal hooks gets researched. Moon is getting a macro hatch and burrow while being scouted by the viking of Tarson. Moons third goes up as well while siege mode is nearing completion. Medivacs go in for some drops while mutas are finishing up, Moon misses the medivacs by a hair. But now he spots them with his lings and sends back his mutas to snipe it. Meanwhile another drop hits Moons third base and takes out the Hatchery.
Moon hunts down the responsible medivac and marines and takes it out, but Tarson manages to get up his third during this. Moon burrowed a ling and blocks Tarsons CC from landing. Mutas push at the natural mineral line without doing proper damage. A lot of Hatches and expansions are going up for Moon while he gets his +1 carapace and flyer attack to accompany the +2 melee attack.
Moon loses some mutas during harass and tries to do a push with his army. He quickly decides to move back instead to build up for Hive tech instead. Infestor energy and +2 flyer attack goes up. Tarson moves up to attack, Moon prepares for it by spreading a bit. A scan goes off to spot exactly what Moon is doing. Tarsons army is split when Moon moves in but he fixes his position and forces Moon to retreat. Moon goes in again and gets huge baneling hits off, buying him some time for high tech units.
Tarson goes in again with a big push, fungals slow down the army while the broodlords morph. Fungals take out a lot of Tarsons marines, and Moon overruns Tarsons army completely.
Tarson does a drop in Moons main and gets to kill brood lords with his vikings. A big mistake by Moon right here. The drop is still doing damage, just amazing play but will it be enough for Tarson?
Moon goes in for the final assault, blowing up a lot of marines, the main gets swarmed with lings but gets cleaned. Another wave comes in and Tarson holds again. It's amazing how well Tarson is defending right now and he manages to snipe a Hatchery via a drop. The swarm of Moon is angry and goes in with another wave.
Nine infestors join the army of lings/banelings/mutas, and the final push commences. Moon keeps failing with his attacks and Tarson still lives. A great drop goes into one of Moons mining bases, taking out a lot of drones and the Hatchery. Somehow Tarson is crawling back into the game because Moon is totally out of his playing zone.
Moon goes in for the only expansion of Tarson, taking it out. A large amount of lings and infestors move in and fungals go off, but....TARSON HOLDS AGAIN and a new mining base is going up for Tarson. Another drop is going down and holy check, finally Moon takes out Tarsons base. Tarson GGs and Moon closes out the series 2-1!
Day 2 Live Coverage
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