Get ready for a long weekend of Brood War because we've got a special treat for you. There will be a double serving of awesome BW action this week as the TLS round of 8 is casted across both Saturday and Sunday. Saturday will feature two top-level TvZs as invites Skzlime and Michael battle it out against SouthPark and TerrOr while on Sunday, our last remaining Protoss player Dewalt will take on Sziky even as Spanish hero eOnzErG duels with the wildcard random player NeMu.

Blood is in the water as these eight players fight for a spot in the semifinals of the first ever TLS. Reaching the semifinals will mean a 3/4 chance of making the money and perhaps more importantly, grant a direct seed into the Ro16 of the next TLS season. With such high stakes and even higher calibre players, the games are certainly going to be exciting.

Join Sayle and Elegant on Saturday, Mar 16 8:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00) and Sunday, Mar 17 8:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00) for some epic Brood War action!



Group C — Total Recall

Game 1

Both players opened with standard expand builds on Neo Jade, with dOTY at the eleven o'clock position and eOnzErG at the seven o'clock position. The early and mid game was quite passive, punctuated only by small amounts of light harassment performed by both players.

Stuck on two bases versus eOnzErG's rapidly expanding base count, dOTY decided to move out with a zealot, corsair, and high templar force with limited dark templar support. Poor positioning and mis-micromanagement of storm on dOTY's part results in eOnzErG a good trade out of the engagement between the two armies just outside of the Protoss natural. dOTY retreated to the safety of his cannoned wall and pushes back the Zerg units after consolidating his forces.

Poor positioning of key units continued to plague dOTY's play at this point. The loss of critical high templar in his force during an attempt at a second push out from the natural severely limited his hopes to establish a break out from his contained position on two bases. Fortuitous positioning of a group of hydras at the one o'clock position allowed eOnzErG to deny a developing zealot drop. After the failure of a final attempt to break out, dOTY conceded defeat.

Game 2

On Neo Jade, dRaW, who started out at the seven o'clock position, opened with a gas-less one-gate zealot expand versus TerrOr, who spawned in the one o'clock position and who opted for a more normal FD. Despite the somewhat non-standard opening, Protoss play transitioned to a normal style as the mid game developed.

TerrOr's vultures allowed him to delay dRaW's third for a little bit of time, but map control in the game shifted to the Protoss player because of the Terran player's more defensive style of play.

A total of nine factories allowed TerrOr to build up a significant mech force and move to the center of the map. dRaW moved rapidly in response, catching the tanks unsieged. However, despite the initial positioning advantage, the sheer strength of TerrOr's mech army forced the Protoss army back to his base. A timely stasis from dRaW turned things completely around for the Protoss player, gaining him the upper hand and, in turn, forcing TerrOr back.

dRaW placed cannons at the ten o'clock position while simultaneously denying the eleven o'clock expansion with forces summoned to that location with a recall. Unfortunately for dRaW, that recall split his army effectively in half, and when battle was joined in the center once again, the Protoss forces were completely outnumbered. In an attempt to save his units, dRaW performed another recall, brining most of his units to the Terran third at the 1 o'clock position. TerrOr pushed ahead with his units at the center, leaving the Protoss units summoned to his third to be mopped up by reinforcement units.

Desperation DTs were simply not enough for the Protoss player in the face of such a significant Terran advantage, and dRaW was forced to concede defeat.

Game 3

On Neo Ground Zero, TerrOr, at the seven o'clock position, opened with a one-factory expand build, while eOnzErG, at the eleven o'clock position, opened with a three-hatchery style. Vultures were the name of the game for TerrOr, as he researched both mines and speed, as he made them the key component of his strategy to defend against early ground-based pressure and to deny expansions.

However, eOnzErG's mutalisks ran amok in TerrOr's main, doing significant damage. After his attack, eOnzErG took the nine o'clock and three o'clock expansions and created a lurker-ling ground force for a future attack.

Critical science vessel snipes in combination with the strength of the Zerg army proved too much for TerrOr to handle, and he was forced to concede defeat.

Game 4

Early mind games by dRaW started the game off on a bad foot for dOTY as he wasted a small amount of time to scout for proxy cheese in the center of the map, Neo Ground Zero, where nothing can actually be built. dRaW established a manner pylon in the middle of dOTY's mineral line, delaying dOTY's dragoon-centric build slightly.

In response to dRaW's expansion play, dOTY opted for shuttle harass. However, dRaW's large dragoon advantage allowed him to push dOTY's forces back to a point just outside of his natural. This advantage manifested itself even further when it allowed him to take out dOTY's attempt at a push when his reaver was ready.

dRaW moved to a position of contain outside of dOTY's natural, and play shifted to the mid game. dOTY was able to reestablish a strong force, and the two armies once again met in the center of the map to fight. Despite the reaver numbers, dRaW's dragoon concave, in combination with dark templar and dOTY's lack of detection, allowed dRaW to gain the upper hand in the engagement.

Professing his love for Sayle and Elegant, as well as his apologies to them, dOTY was forced to concede defeat, eliminating him from the Legacy Starleague.

Game 5

In the rematch elimination final, TerrOr once again opened with an FD, while dRaW opted for DT play. The early and mid game was relatively passive, as TerrOr transitioned into a familiar three-base turtle mech style, while dRaW went for arbiters and took expansions at various locations across the map.

TerrOr's mech army pushes back dRaW's forces in the mid game with good positioning, and dRaW attempted a recall of his units to the Terran third in response. The recall attempt failed, and dRaW was forced to concede defeat while expressing his opinion about the dynamics of the Terran versus Protoss match-up.



Group D — Total Recall II

Game 1

On Neo Jade, Skzlime, starting out at the seven o'clock position, opened with a one-barracks gasless expansion build, while Ramms, starting out at the five o'clock position, opted for a one-gate expansion build. Ramms built a number of dragoons in the early game, forcing Skzlime to sink minerals and sacrifice mining time repairing his bunker until siege tech was finally researched. After the destruction of Skzlime's vulture counterattack, the game transitioned to the mid game.

Ramms took two expansions at the two and three o'clock positions, and teched to arbiters with recall. When the tech completed, he recalled a force into Skzlime's base, directly into spider mines, causing the premature death of all of the ground units involved. Despite this setback, Ramms was still in a position to continue building expansions and retain map control with units in the center.

Poor engagements on the part of Ramms allowed Skzlime to move to the center position and establish an expansion. However, his Protoss opponent retained the economic advantage, as well as an upgrade advantage. After an unfortunate disconnect from Skzlime, both players agreed that Ramms had been far enough ahead to merit a victory.

Game 2

This game is an absolute must-watch for those of you who might have missed it. Both players opened with standard expand builds, with trutaCz starting out at the eleven o'clock position and Dewalt starting out at the seven o'clock position of Neo Jade. As the game progressed, Dewalt set the tone for how the game would continue on from that point with speedlot harass and dark templar drops followed up almost immediately by a storm drop at trutaCz's third, killing a significant amount of drones in the process. Despite the advantage, good lurker placement on the part of trutaCz allowed him to stabilize.

The mid game saw the map split north-south between the two players, and the slugfest truly began. Both players established fully-maxed armies and began to throw them against each other. Hordes of reavers obliterated entire control groups of Zerg units, Ultralisks ran rampant across a dark blue twilight tileset field, high templars were sent spinning endlessly, and even dark archons built for maelstrom made an appearance in the large fracas that was the mid to late game.

The frenetic action lasted for nearly 50 minutes before Dewalt was finally able to break through and force trutaCz to concede defeat.

Game 3

On Neo Ground Zero, Dewalt, starting out in the eleven o'clock position, opened with a two-gate expand, while Ramms, starting out in the one o'clock position, opted for two-factory play. Ramms was able to set up a siege contain outside of Dewalt's natural, but this was beaten back by the Protoss through good positioning.

The failure of Ramm's strategy left him at a significant economic disadvantage to Dewalt's more standard play. Despite his attempts to set up a third base to catch up, Dewalt slowly bled Ramms out and forced him to concede defeat in this game.


Game 4

On Neo Ground Zero, Skzlime, starting out at the one o'clock position, opened with a one-barracks expansion build against trutaCz, who started at the five o'clock position and who opted for a three-hatchery mutalisk-based play.

The game started off on the wrong foot for trutaCz, however, as he ran a large number of zerglings into Skzlime's natural before his mutas were ready, perhaps in the expectation that there would only be a light force in the way at that point in time. Unfortunately for him, his zerglings ran straight into a large marine force, and the attack failed with a number of premature Zerg unit losses as a result.

Ruining the fun, the replay bugged out, forcing a text recap to have to be read live to the audience. The following is a transcript:



Game 5

In the final elimination rematch between Ramms and Skzlime, Ramms spawned at the one o'clock position of Fighting Spirit, while Skzlime spawned at the seven o'clock position. Ramms opted for a one-gate expansion opening, versus Skzlime's FD choice. As the game progessed toward the mid game and beyond, Ramms developed an economic advantage as Skzlime turtled a bit in the beginning. However, good engagements on the part of Skzlime got him back into the game and, indeed, allowed him to gain the upper hand. Ramms was forced to concede defeat, and was eliminated from the Legacy Starleague.





The player pool for the TeamLiquid Legacy Starleague has been dwindling down each week, and with the round of 16 behind us, it is now time for the top 8 to battle it out in the elimination bracket quarterfinals. The composition of the top 8 has become what looks like the best we could have asked for, with four Zergs, two Terrans, one Protoss, and one Random player. The four Zerg players are: SouthPark, Michael, eOnzErG, and Sziky. As for the rest, we have two Terrans, Terror and skzlime, while dewalt takes up the Protoss spot. We also have NeMu playing Random.

Elimination Bracket Quarterfinal


The quarterfinals will be the most epic matches to date. Each player is at the top of their game currently, and with so much pride on the line you can guarantee they will come prepared.

For the first match-up of the top 8 we have SouthPark, the Zerg player from Poland, matched up against skzlime, the Hungarian Terran. SouthPark is a player who barely made it to the top 16, going 2-1 in the round of 24. However, he took the top spot in his round of 16 group with a very convincing 2-0 victory. We predicted him to have a tough time getting out of group A, and he proved us completely wrong, especially with his win over TechnicS, one of the tournament favourites. This was possibly due to ZvZ currently being his best match-up, with his performance in the other two being noticeably weaker. We will have to wait and see. His opponent this time around, skzlime, is one of those players of whom we aren't too sure about. Before the round of 16, in which he was seeded, there was talk about him being out of shape despite past wins in some major tournaments, most notably his all-kill in the last Gambit's Cup. However, advancing to the round of 8 shows that he is a strong contender and that we should not count him out. In the end, we believe skzlime will have the edge over SouthPark, especially with ZvT not being SouthPark's most solid match-up.

TheEmulator's Prediction

skzlime 3-2 SouthPark


The second match-up of the top 8 is between the American Zerg player, Michael, and the Peruvian Terran player, TerrOr. Michael was another one of the seeded players who went straight to the round of 16. Not too much was known about his current level of play, other than the fact that he is a strong Zerg player on team sas. Michael did amazing in his round of 16 matches, going 2-0 over strong players like NeMu and one of the tournament favourites, Bakuryu (Mustache Zerg). This proved that his seed was indeed not wasted, and that he was a contender along with the other top players. TerrOr, on the other hand, has been one of the most solid players throughout the TLS so far. He was one of the highest point accumulators in the qualification stage, and he has consistently crushed his opponents in the main tournament. In the round of 16, he took out one of the tournament favourites, Protoss player dRaW, while only losing one game to eOnzErG. This series will be a great one, however we feel that Michael is one step above TerrOr at the moment and that he will probably take the win.

TheEmulator's Prediction

Michael 3-1 TerrOr


The third match-up is one of the most anticipated of the quarterfinals. We have one of the top players in the whole thing, eOnzErG, the Zerg player from Spain, against one of the 'Dark Horses' of the tournament, our Random player from Bulgaria, NeMu. This is one of those match-ups where anything can happen, and that is why it is so interesting. Logic tells us that eOnzErG will win, however, NeMu has been one of those players throughout the tournament who has proven everyone wrong multiple times. He continues to show improvement with each passing week. eOnzErG has been fairly consistent thus far, managing to go 2-0 in one of the hardest groups in the round of 16. NeMu, on the other hand, continues to just barely scrape by, and there is always that possibility it will happen again. It is tough to say who will win this series, although we feel like NeMu has an edge with going Random. We will have to wait and see the results to this amazing series.

TheEmulator's Prediction

NeMu 3-2 eOnzErG


In the last series of the top 8, we have the Russian Protoss player, dewalt, facing up against the Hungarian Zerg player, Sziky. Sziky is one of the strongest players in the foreign community without a doubt. He matches up toe-to-toe against some of the top Korean players, such as Pusan, Sky, and HiyA. He has also beaten all the top foreign players such as dRaW, Bakuryu, Pike, and others on multiple occasions. He was also one of the seeded players who went straight to the round of 16. However he did not perform at 100% in that round, going only 2-1 and getting 2nd place in his group. However, his loss was seen more of a lucky win for SouthPark than anything, and it should not be taken as an indicator of his play in the top 8. dewalt is another top playerm who was named Protoss of the year in 2012. So far in the TLS he has performed exceedingly well, going 2-0 in both the round of 32 and the round of 16. With this streak, he will be a tough opponent for Sziky. However, we still see Sziky taking this series, although it will be quite close.

TheEmulator's Prediction

Sziky 3-2 dewalt






SouthPark vs Skzlime

Score	Staff Picks
3-2 SouthPark (3)
	SirJolt, ]343[, mustaju
3-2 skzlime (3)
	Sayle, TheEmulator, Hyde
3-1 skzlime (3)
	2Pacalypse-, Jonvvv, corumjhaelen
3-1 SouthPark (2)
	HawaiianPig,itsjustatank
3-0 skzlime (1)
	Epoxide

Talk about balanced, the TLS staff is almost perfectly divided over who they think is going to take this match. Six months ago, this vote probably would have looked a lot different with Skzlime being the favorite, and even in the TLS staff picks so far, SouthPark has always been an underdog getting only 3/10 votes in the round of 24 and 1/8 votes in the round of 16. It seems that his shocking 2-0 over Sziky and TechnicS in the round of 16 has earned him a few supporters since then, but can he live up to their expectations in a non-ZvZ?

Michael vs TerrOr

Score	Staff Picks
3-1 Michael (5)
	SirJolt, Jonvvv, Hyde, Sayle, corumjhaelen
3-2 Michael (3)
	2Pacalypse-, TheEmulator, ]343[
3-2 TerrOr (3)
	HawaiianPig, Epoxide, itsjustatank
3-0 Michael (1)
	mustaju

It's the battle of the Americas and if TLS staff are to be believed, North America (Michael) has this in the bag. Then again, the staff also thought TerrOr would go out in the round of 16 and look where we are now. Michael's performance in his round of 16 group was impressive, but TerrOr seems to be hugely underrated. In fact, a couple of high level foreigners I've spoken to (including one round of 8 participant) think that if Michael doesn't prepare well for this match, TerrOr would in fact be the favorite. Either way, TerrOr's quirky TvZ strats matched up against the CHEESEKING are sure to produce some entertaining games!

eOnzErG vs NeMu

Score	Staff Picks
3-2 eOnzErG (4)
	Jonvvv, TheEmulator, Hyde, Sayle
3-2 NeMu (4)
	Sirjolt, mustaju, Epoxide, itsjustatank
3-1 eOnzErG (3)
	2Pacalypse-, ]343[, corumjhaelen
3-1 NeMu (1)
	HawaiianPig

Fun fact: the number of staff voting for NeMu has grown exponentially every round of the TLS. In the round of 24 he had just one vote, in the round of 16 he got two, and here in the round of 8 he has five staff members picking him to advance. At this rate if he makes it to the final, he'll be the overwhelming favorite! Having said that, NeMu has been a major underdog in both group stages so far and scraped through with 2-1 scores both times. Compare that with eOnzErG, who has been a staff favorite the whole tournament and dominated his round of 16 group, and we have quite an exciting David vs Goliath battle.

Dewalt vs Sziky

Score	Staff Picks
3-1 Sziky (5)
	SirJolt, Jonvvv, Hyde, mustaju, Sayle
3-2 Sziky (3)
	HawaiianPig, TheEmulator, corumjhaelen
3-2 Dewalt (3)
	2Pacalypse-, Epoxide, itsjustatank
3-0 Sziky (1)
	]343[

If we ignored TLS results, I think the staff picks for this match would have gone a lot more in favor of Sziky with a 3-0 for the Hungarian Zerg being a distinct possibility. While he is still a clear favorite, Sziky's shaky performance in the round of 16 (almost getting knocked out by an out-of-form G5) coupled with Dewalt's undefeated TLS record against heavyweight Zergs trutaCz, eOnzErG and vOddy means that several staff members think this will be a close match. 2Pacalypse-, Epoxide, and itsjustatank have even gone as far as predicting a win for our last protoss hero. In a tournament full of upsets, can Dewalt really pull off the greatest upset of them all?

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That's all for now! Join us on Saturday, Mar 16 8:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00) and Sunday, Mar 17 8:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00) for the two-day cast of the round of 8! And as always a big thanks to our sponsors: