EPTMatch 1: LeenockfOu
v NSHoSeo_Tassadar 
VODS
Game 1:
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Xel'Naga Caverns
Leenock gasless pool expands. Tassy gets an early stargate for a void ray, then expands after three gates. Leenock gets some defensive spore crawlers and a roach warren with +1 missile attack. He changes his mind, canceling the roach warren in favor of a lair and a macro hatchery. He keeps the +1 missile attacks though, and remakes the roach warren alongside his hydralisk den after his lair finishes. Tassadar meanwhile has been building up his gateway count and ground army after expanding off of three gateways. He starts teching pretty hard, building a robo and a twilight council at the same time while upgrading +1 weapons. His army seems very weak at this point though, as he has just seven sentries, a zealot, two stalkers and a void ray at the 10'00'' mark. Leenock takes his third and gets an infestation pit.
Tassy moves to take his gold once blink finishes and he has some observers on the field. Leenock continues upgrading +2 ranged, gets +1 melee, and gets baneling drops. Tassadar takes his gold, techs to colossus and starts a very early +3 weapons while still on just +1 armor. Leenock takes his gold and builds a spire and hive as the two armies dance around the center cavern. Tassadar fleshes out his tech tree with both templar buildings and takes his fourth, leaving only the two lateral expansions on the map unclaimed. Leenock doesn't even bother with mutalisks, immediately building corruptors and morphing his spire into a greater spire within seconds of it finishing. Tassadar starts some DT harassment, but gets shut down by static defenses and a quick fungal.
When both players max at 20'00'' in, the protoss army has four colossus, four high templar, and a mainly stalker ground army. Leenock has six brood lords, four infestors, 36 banelings in overlords, and about sixty supply of a roach/hydra mix. Both players seem to have a fairly low worker count for this late in the game. Leenock has just 74 drones, and Tassadar has 62. At some point, a bunch of Leenock's drones have gone towards a huge spine crawler wall in the middle the map. Both players start suiciding units to free up supply. Tassadar sees the brood lords for the first time and builds two extra stargates for void rays. But when the first, and last, battle finally comes, Tassadar doesn't yet have anything to deal with the brood lords as his stalkers have to run from the baneling drops, so his roach/hydra/brood army is easily able to avoid the four templar and roll over Tassadar's units and gold base. Tassy gg's.
A long passive game on both sides where each player tried to out-tech the other. I think this hurt Tassadar, because he ended up making a lot of tech structures that he didn't get a lot of value out of. For instance, he made an early stargate that made just a single void ray and one later phoenix the whole game. He also teched to templar and researched storm for just a couple successful casts, and made only four colossus from his robo+thermal lance tech. I think he just tried to do too much and ended up with a very cream-of-wheat army.
Leenock 1-0
Leenock gasless pool expands. Tassy gets an early stargate for a void ray, then expands after three gates. Leenock gets some defensive spore crawlers and a roach warren with +1 missile attack. He changes his mind, canceling the roach warren in favor of a lair and a macro hatchery. He keeps the +1 missile attacks though, and remakes the roach warren alongside his hydralisk den after his lair finishes. Tassadar meanwhile has been building up his gateway count and ground army after expanding off of three gateways. He starts teching pretty hard, building a robo and a twilight council at the same time while upgrading +1 weapons. His army seems very weak at this point though, as he has just seven sentries, a zealot, two stalkers and a void ray at the 10'00'' mark. Leenock takes his third and gets an infestation pit.
Tassy moves to take his gold once blink finishes and he has some observers on the field. Leenock continues upgrading +2 ranged, gets +1 melee, and gets baneling drops. Tassadar takes his gold, techs to colossus and starts a very early +3 weapons while still on just +1 armor. Leenock takes his gold and builds a spire and hive as the two armies dance around the center cavern. Tassadar fleshes out his tech tree with both templar buildings and takes his fourth, leaving only the two lateral expansions on the map unclaimed. Leenock doesn't even bother with mutalisks, immediately building corruptors and morphing his spire into a greater spire within seconds of it finishing. Tassadar starts some DT harassment, but gets shut down by static defenses and a quick fungal.
When both players max at 20'00'' in, the protoss army has four colossus, four high templar, and a mainly stalker ground army. Leenock has six brood lords, four infestors, 36 banelings in overlords, and about sixty supply of a roach/hydra mix. Both players seem to have a fairly low worker count for this late in the game. Leenock has just 74 drones, and Tassadar has 62. At some point, a bunch of Leenock's drones have gone towards a huge spine crawler wall in the middle the map. Both players start suiciding units to free up supply. Tassadar sees the brood lords for the first time and builds two extra stargates for void rays. But when the first, and last, battle finally comes, Tassadar doesn't yet have anything to deal with the brood lords as his stalkers have to run from the baneling drops, so his roach/hydra/brood army is easily able to avoid the four templar and roll over Tassadar's units and gold base. Tassy gg's.
A long passive game on both sides where each player tried to out-tech the other. I think this hurt Tassadar, because he ended up making a lot of tech structures that he didn't get a lot of value out of. For instance, he made an early stargate that made just a single void ray and one later phoenix the whole game. He also teched to templar and researched storm for just a couple successful casts, and made only four colossus from his robo+thermal lance tech. I think he just tried to do too much and ended up with a very cream-of-wheat army.
Leenock 1-0
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Dual Site
Leenock goes for speed first. Tassadar rushes for dark templar off of one base. Leenock isn't totally prepared for the DTs, but gets up spore crawlers in time to save his natural. Tassadar expands behind his aggression
and attacks with three archons, a bunch of zealots and some sentries while Leenock has only speedlings and slow banelings. Leenock loses his natural, but eventually forces Tassadar to retreat with a speedling counterattack. Leenock re-expands and tries to take a third afterward, but cancels it when Tassadar moves against it. Tassadar sees the third has been canceled, and tries to attack the natural with a zealot/archon heavy ground army/ But Leenock has infestors out, which fungal all the zealots in range of the spine crawlers! Tassy is forced to retreat. Meanwhile, Leenock has been sniping probes at the protoss natural with small zergling attacks, and has managed to equalize the worker and base counts. Leenock even equalizes the food counts after intercepting the retreating protoss army with speedlings! Both players take their thirds.
Now equal to his opponent in most respects, Leenock gets a spire and a hive at almost the same time and follows it up with a quick greater spire. Tassadar techs to high templar and storm. Both players take their golds, but Leenock suicides a bunch of zerglings to force Tassadar to cancel his. Once he has eight brood lords, Leenock gets +3 melee and adrenal glands. Leenock forces another cancel at Tassadar's gold, but Tassadar returns in kind.
When both players are happy with heir army compositions, Tassadar with pure gateway and Leenock with a dozen brood lords and infestor/ling, the two players' units take two different routes to their opponents' bases, completely missing each other and initiating a base trade. Both players annihilate all of each other's bases. The game states is left with 4 archons, 17 blink stalkers, and 3 high templar against 2 infestors, 10 brood lords, and 28 banelings in overlords. The biggest difference is that Tassadar is able to secure Leenock's old gold with twenty probes, while Leenock is forced to remote mine from the depths of Tassadar's main with six probes. The armies go for another very tense trade when they both think they know where the other's last buildings are. Leenock catches all of Tassadar's twenty probes in a fungal except two, one of which builds another nexus all the way across the map! Tassadar kills Leenock's last hatchery, sees a single missed extractor and rushes across the map to kill it. Leenock kills all of Tassy's buildings but doesn't know about the newly built nexus! Leenock is forced to gg just before he is eliminated from the game.
A much more exciting, long, and tense game. I love it when players quickly quickly decide on a course of action in an exotic endgame scenario.
Tassadar 1-1
Leenock goes for speed first. Tassadar rushes for dark templar off of one base. Leenock isn't totally prepared for the DTs, but gets up spore crawlers in time to save his natural. Tassadar expands behind his aggression
and attacks with three archons, a bunch of zealots and some sentries while Leenock has only speedlings and slow banelings. Leenock loses his natural, but eventually forces Tassadar to retreat with a speedling counterattack. Leenock re-expands and tries to take a third afterward, but cancels it when Tassadar moves against it. Tassadar sees the third has been canceled, and tries to attack the natural with a zealot/archon heavy ground army/ But Leenock has infestors out, which fungal all the zealots in range of the spine crawlers! Tassy is forced to retreat. Meanwhile, Leenock has been sniping probes at the protoss natural with small zergling attacks, and has managed to equalize the worker and base counts. Leenock even equalizes the food counts after intercepting the retreating protoss army with speedlings! Both players take their thirds.
Now equal to his opponent in most respects, Leenock gets a spire and a hive at almost the same time and follows it up with a quick greater spire. Tassadar techs to high templar and storm. Both players take their golds, but Leenock suicides a bunch of zerglings to force Tassadar to cancel his. Once he has eight brood lords, Leenock gets +3 melee and adrenal glands. Leenock forces another cancel at Tassadar's gold, but Tassadar returns in kind.
When both players are happy with heir army compositions, Tassadar with pure gateway and Leenock with a dozen brood lords and infestor/ling, the two players' units take two different routes to their opponents' bases, completely missing each other and initiating a base trade. Both players annihilate all of each other's bases. The game states is left with 4 archons, 17 blink stalkers, and 3 high templar against 2 infestors, 10 brood lords, and 28 banelings in overlords. The biggest difference is that Tassadar is able to secure Leenock's old gold with twenty probes, while Leenock is forced to remote mine from the depths of Tassadar's main with six probes. The armies go for another very tense trade when they both think they know where the other's last buildings are. Leenock catches all of Tassadar's twenty probes in a fungal except two, one of which builds another nexus all the way across the map! Tassadar kills Leenock's last hatchery, sees a single missed extractor and rushes across the map to kill it. Leenock kills all of Tassy's buildings but doesn't know about the newly built nexus! Leenock is forced to gg just before he is eliminated from the game.
A much more exciting, long, and tense game. I love it when players quickly quickly decide on a course of action in an exotic endgame scenario.
Tassadar 1-1
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Terminus RE, Leenock clockwise
The game starts with QXC admitting to having cheated on the Brood War campaign as both players expand before anything else. Tassadar goes for a stargate, but Leenock gets spore crawlers out and takes his third. Tassadar gets a void ray and three phoenix, which he uses to gain sight into the main for zealot warp-ins, which do a lot of damage to Leenock's economy since he has been quickly teching to infestors and doesn't have a lot of defense against zealots. Tassadar's main attack comes in the form of a huge chargelot wall that sweeps in after Leenock loses all of his infestors to phoenixes, and Leenock quickly has to gg.
Leenock seemed to have felt way too safe in this macro-est of macro maps. He teched and expanded very fast, and so had only zerglings to fight against zealots, which traded very inefficiently and put him too far behind.
Tassadar 2-1
The game starts with QXC admitting to having cheated on the Brood War campaign as both players expand before anything else. Tassadar goes for a stargate, but Leenock gets spore crawlers out and takes his third. Tassadar gets a void ray and three phoenix, which he uses to gain sight into the main for zealot warp-ins, which do a lot of damage to Leenock's economy since he has been quickly teching to infestors and doesn't have a lot of defense against zealots. Tassadar's main attack comes in the form of a huge chargelot wall that sweeps in after Leenock loses all of his infestors to phoenixes, and Leenock quickly has to gg.
Leenock seemed to have felt way too safe in this macro-est of macro maps. He teched and expanded very fast, and so had only zerglings to fight against zealots, which traded very inefficiently and put him too far behind.
Tassadar 2-1
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Tal'Darim Altar, cross positions
Leenock gasless pool expands. Tassy goes for a forge-first expand. Leenock gets an early lair right after his natural's hatchery finishes. It turns into a spine crawler push, but the timing is a bit late and so only kills a forge and a gateway. Tassadar responds with a stargate AND dark templar. Leenock gets a fast spire, a macro hatch, and a third. Tassadar's dark templar kill a good number of drones as Leenock's mutalisks come into play. Tassadar responds to the spire play with blink and high templar. Leenock eventually kills the dark templar and techs to essentially everything you can get get off lair tech: infestors, roaches, baneling drops, but no hydralisks. When Leenock maxes off of mutalisks and roaches, Tassadar has just 140 supply. Leenock makes a questionable engagement with roaches and mutas straight up against blink stalkers and loses everything. But with Leenock now on four bases he is able to quickly re-max and take another huge food lead.The armies jockey for position on the map but there isn't much action aside from tepid DT harassment for a while.
Leenock once again goes for his quick tech to brood lords as Tassadar sends a blink stalker army to kill his fourth base. Leenock retreats to to defend, but Tassadar repositions his army in time and makes a great blinking stalker concave to destroy the roaches which are getting stormed over and over again. Tassadar moves against the natural for killing blow, pops six brood lords as they are morphing, and forces Leenock out of the game.
That was a crazy, strange game on both sides. I don't think Leenock knew exactly how to transition out of the spine push against DTs as he never seemed to take control of the game despite being very far ahead in supply for most of it. I think the game finally turned when Leenock lost his mutalisk, as it passed the initiative back to Tassadar's very mobile blink stalkers.
Tassadar wins 3-1
Leenock gasless pool expands. Tassy goes for a forge-first expand. Leenock gets an early lair right after his natural's hatchery finishes. It turns into a spine crawler push, but the timing is a bit late and so only kills a forge and a gateway. Tassadar responds with a stargate AND dark templar. Leenock gets a fast spire, a macro hatch, and a third. Tassadar's dark templar kill a good number of drones as Leenock's mutalisks come into play. Tassadar responds to the spire play with blink and high templar. Leenock eventually kills the dark templar and techs to essentially everything you can get get off lair tech: infestors, roaches, baneling drops, but no hydralisks. When Leenock maxes off of mutalisks and roaches, Tassadar has just 140 supply. Leenock makes a questionable engagement with roaches and mutas straight up against blink stalkers and loses everything. But with Leenock now on four bases he is able to quickly re-max and take another huge food lead.The armies jockey for position on the map but there isn't much action aside from tepid DT harassment for a while.
Leenock once again goes for his quick tech to brood lords as Tassadar sends a blink stalker army to kill his fourth base. Leenock retreats to to defend, but Tassadar repositions his army in time and makes a great blinking stalker concave to destroy the roaches which are getting stormed over and over again. Tassadar moves against the natural for killing blow, pops six brood lords as they are morphing, and forces Leenock out of the game.
That was a crazy, strange game on both sides. I don't think Leenock knew exactly how to transition out of the spine push against DTs as he never seemed to take control of the game despite being very far ahead in supply for most of it. I think the game finally turned when Leenock lost his mutalisk, as it passed the initiative back to Tassadar's very mobile blink stalkers.
Tassadar wins 3-1
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Tassadar is the first protoss to reach the Code A finals.
Match 2: ZeNEXPuzzle
v IM_happy 
VODS
Game 1:
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Happy goes for a very fast cloak-less banshee off of just one early gas which he sets up to expand behind. Puzzle gets a gate, a robo, and expands. Happy gets infernal pre-ignitors and a raven as his banshee does no damage. Puzzle gets three immortals, which is good for him because Happy seems to be meching. Happy goes in and kills all of Puzzle's natural's probes with his hellions, but Puzzle just counterattacks with his immortal/gateway army and easily wins.
That was either a brilliantly crafted build that went slightly wrong, or Happy just teched way too fast and lost.
Puzzle 1-0
That was either a brilliantly crafted build that went slightly wrong, or Happy just teched way too fast and lost.
Puzzle 1-0
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Dual Site
Happy 2-raxes, one proxied and lets one of Puzzle's probes into his base. At 4' Happy bitbybits across the map, but his units fall to stalkers despite some questionable micro by Puzzle. Happy stays in the game, but Puzzle easily goes for 3-gate robo with blink and an observer for a quick win.
Whoops. Puzzle luckily skipped his first zealot there. I wonder what Puzzle losing so many stalkers to stim-less marines means for his chances of winning a PvP.
Puzzle 2-0
Happy 2-raxes, one proxied and lets one of Puzzle's probes into his base. At 4' Happy bitbybits across the map, but his units fall to stalkers despite some questionable micro by Puzzle. Happy stays in the game, but Puzzle easily goes for 3-gate robo with blink and an observer for a quick win.
Whoops. Puzzle luckily skipped his first zealot there. I wonder what Puzzle losing so many stalkers to stim-less marines means for his chances of winning a PvP.
Puzzle 2-0
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Terminus RE, cross positions
Happy bunkers the bottom of Puzzle's ramp to ensure a safe one-rax expand. Puzzle happily just builds three gateways, breaks the bunker, and expands himself. Puzzle is able to smash his way up Happy's ramp, kill most of his army, and then just back off and start macroing off of three gates and a robo. But when Happy tries to finally establish his natural, Puzzle attacks, kills a medivac full of bio, and wins, giving us our first PvP finals of any GSL tournament.
Puzzle wins 3-0
Happy bunkers the bottom of Puzzle's ramp to ensure a safe one-rax expand. Puzzle happily just builds three gateways, breaks the bunker, and expands himself. Puzzle is able to smash his way up Happy's ramp, kill most of his army, and then just back off and start macroing off of three gates and a robo. But when Happy tries to finally establish his natural, Puzzle attacks, kills a medivac full of bio, and wins, giving us our first PvP finals of any GSL tournament.
Puzzle wins 3-0
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I am always puzzled when players try unconventional tactics that lose so easily.
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Tassadar and Puzzle are actually just the third and fourth protosses to make it to a GSL final of any sort, the two others being MC and Inca in Code S.
