With the Round of 24 behind us, we move on to part 2 of the group stages with the Round of 16. The addition of the top four from last season seeded into each of the groups kick things off to an exciting (and sad) start with the Group of Death! Fan favourites and the best foreign players clash in the very first group. Hope you're not lactose intolerant as Group B comes with the Cheese King and a Terran player that's been on fire recently. Who will make it out, and who will be left behind to lick their wounds? You definitely don't want to miss any of the games this weekend.

Find out more about this week's groups and the players in the recaps and previews below and make sure to tune in with Sayle on Saturday, Jun 22 7:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00) for Group A and Sunday, Jun 23 7:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00) for Group B.









The first game of group E took place between the Terran player TTF and the Zerg player Napoleon on Jade. TTF opened with command center first and transitioned into an all-in mech play against Napoleon, who scouted the Terran build and prepared his defenses accordingly. After TTF built up a tank-heavy force with the intent to move out across the map to attack, Napoleon beat him to the punch and used his mutalisks to force the Terran player to stay back to defend the natural. This move put TTF on the defensive, and caused him to miss his opportunity to attack effectively with his mech force. When TTF finally moved out, Napoleon was completely prepared for it and defended it handily with the help of broodlings. TTF sought to draw out the game by turtling up on three bases, but the Zerg player ended up winning that battle of attrition, having been able to take a majority of the bases on the map with the map control afforded him throughout the game.

The second game of the group featured the Protoss player WandS versus the Terran player TerrOr on jade. WandS scouted the Terran two-factory build with his scouting probe and initial zealot. With that initial zealot and an additional dragoon, WandS was able to kill off a significant number of early marines. TerrOr was then able to sneak vultures into WandS’ base and scout the incoming arbiters. With the arrival of the arbiters came the mid game, and both players built up on three bases in preparation for an eventual attack. The Protoss attack finally came when, with hallucination, WandS was able to get an arbiter into the Terran main only to recall a force of dragoons directly into a minefield. In an attempt to make up for that setback, WandS attempted to establish two bases at the top right position of the map. As the Terran late-game spearhead left the base, WandS was able to delay it substantially with the help of stasis and storm and took the advantage in the game to win.

The winners match of the group featured Napoleon versus WandS on Match Point. Napoleon relied on mutalisks and scourge, despite seeing that his opponent was building a very large number of scourge. WandS also supplemented his army with zealots and archons, taking advantage of the Zerg player’s poor composition, and won the game.

For the losers match, TTF faced off against TerrOr in a Terran mirror on Match Point. TTF started things out very aggressively with a proxy barracks that ended up being scouted by his opponent. TerrOr was able to hold off the initial marine attack with the help of SCVs. At this point in the game TTF went one factory and one starport against TerrOr’s two factories, and he was able to hold off a marine and vulture attack sent out by TerrOr with the help of good timing on the building of blocking buildings and good vulture micro. As the mid game developed, TerrOr took advantage of his map control and took two more bases compared to his opponent. TTF attempted a last-ditch attack into TerrOr’s natural, but this was thwarted by more minefields and he lost the game.

In the final game of the group, played on Fighting Spirit, TerrOr opted to go for a three barracks and factory all-in against Napoleon. The Zerg player was able to hold off the early game Terran attack with hydralisks and he followed this up with an attempt at aggression, an action which promptly lost him a number of hydralisks in the attack. TerrOr attempted a bust for a second time, this time with siege tanks, and was able to siege up the Zerg natural and disrupt mining and production. By the time Napoleon headed out of his natural to attack, TerrOr had already set up two bunkers full of marines as well as a number of additional troops and siege tanks. Napoleon’s attempt failed, and he was eliminated from the group.




The first game of this group featured the Terran player, Andreyy, versus the Protoss player, G5, on Jade. G5 started the game off by stealing the Terran player’s gas and killing off an SCV with his scouting probe. After a small attack on the Terran natural. G5 performed a zealot drop on his opponent’s main base that killed off a number of tanks. In the midst of all of this, Andreyy produced units off four factories and pushed out to make an attack on his own but was met by an effective Protoss concave that forced the Terran player to give up the attack despite a heavy number of dragoon losses. Andreyy attempted to attack an undefended Protoss base at the bottom right, but G5 was able to block off that base with building warp-ins before the vultures could arrive to do damage. By the end of the game, G5 was in a position to be able to build carriers, and he won after some poor micromanagement on the part of Andreyy.

The second game of the group featured the Protoss player, Dewalt, and the Zerg player, SouthPark, on Jade. Dewalt attempted a cannon rush behind the minerals of SouthPark’s third at the top left position, but his pylon placement was not ling-tight, and the cannon rush failed. Dewalt’s wall-ins continued to suffer as the wall outside of his natural was also not ling-tight. The Zerg attack on the natural however, despite being able to kill off the gateway that was part of the wall, led to the loss of a large number of zerglings for relatively little gain. In the mid game, while SouthPark attacked the protoss third, Dewalt attacked both the Zerg main and the top left position and did significant damage to the Zerg player’s economy. Dewalt followed this up with storm drops on both the main and natural of his opponent. Despite these setbacks, and continued storm drops, SouthPark was able to kill off the third while Dewalt was forced to kill off his own buildings in order to resolve a pathing block in his main. Dewalt then ended the game with a devastating attack that was able to overcome his opponent despite the appearance of ultralisks on the field.

In the winners match between G5 and Dewalt on Match Point, G5 brought the viewers of the Teamliquid Legacy Starleague back to Mazur’s cannon rush game by walling off his opponent from his natural with a pylon, forge, cannon, and gateway wall. While the configuration was proved to be not tight against zerglings in previous games, the combination ended up being successful against zealots. In response to this development, Dewalt went for a two-gateway robotics build while G5 followed up his cannon contain with more gateways. Dewalt finally broke out of the wall and built a base at his natural while building dark templar. The dark templar were not that successful in racking up economic damage, but a follow-up reaver drop was able to do a bit more than distraction damage to G5’s economy. With a third base, however, G5 was still in the economic lead, even after losing a number of dragoons in an attack outside of his opponent’s natural. Despite getting a large number of probe kills with further reaver harassment, G5 was allowed the economic advantage for far too long in the game and was able to overwhelm Dewalt and advance to the next stage of the tournament.

Andreyy met Southpark in the losers match of the group in a game played on Match Point. SouthPark went for the familiar nine pool build. In response, Andreyy shifted to a two barracks with bunker build in his base. Andreyy was able to catch a number of SouthPark’s zerglings left unattended outside of the Terran natural, and was able to kill them on the way to attacking the Zerg natural. SouthPark built six sunkens for defense while building mutalisks. After forcing a cancel on the Zerg third, Andreyy was able to put his opponent in the position of having to go for an extended two base hive play as the mid game continued. At the end of the game, Andreyy had the advantage and was able to claim the win and move on to the final game of the group.

In the final game of the group, Andreyy competed against Dewalt on Fighting Spirit to see who would gain the last spot in the next stage of the tournament. The initial engagements of this game took the form of a few of Andreyy’s units built off a siege expand meeting Dewalt’s dragoons in the center of the map and being forced back to the natural. Behind this, Dewalt transitioned his opening into a two base arbiter build. Both players continued to build up on three bases as the mid game developed. Dewalt was able to take control of most of the map and thus was able to build bases on the bottom half of the map. This base advantage proved critical in the late game, as the game developed into a general melee, as Dewalt was able to flaunt his advantage by building a stack of bases in a column in the center of the map. Dewalt took the victory, and the final spot in the next round of the tournament, eliminating Andreyy from the Legacy Starleague.



Group A is insane. Stacked with fan favourites and skilled players. The best foreign player, the best foreign Terran, the best Protoss in the Round of 16, and my favourite foreign player. This group gives me headaches trying to predict. Saying Sziky is going to lose is just a bit too out of my mind for me to do. Before the Round of 24, I didn't think Bizzy was active enough to pose a threat against top tier players. Recently though, after seeing him stream and potentially caring a bit more about the game I think he has the biggest shot at advancing alongside Sziky. Bizzy seems to be weak against Zerg, but I don't think he will have to play against Bakuryu and Sziky is just an auto-loss anyway. The opening matches are Sziky vs Bakuryu and Bizzy vs dRaW. Sziky is incapable of losing and dRaW still doesn't seem to get PvT. Bizzy and dRaW will rematch in the final match as dRaW's PvZ is the best around. Bizzy will take the regame.






Group B is incredibly evenly matched in skill. With Michael being inactive, Cryoc in beast mode, LancerX not choking, and Julia being himself. Michael would be the clear favourite but he has lost to Cryoc a lot lately. The opening match is very fittingly Michael vs Cryoc. This is like the fourth time they've met in a month and Cryoc has kept winning. I believe it's time for Michael to not choke and win. Julia is very good at winning against Protoss and we are pretty far into the tournament, so LancerX is sure to choke. Michael should win the ZvZ against Julia and Cryoc should win against LancerX as he still chokes. Cryoc's superior TvZ should prove to be too good for Julia. Cryoc's incredible run should continue.

Player	Staff Picks
Sziky (11)
	Sayle, Epoxide, GTR, SirJolt, Kiante, kjwcj, itsjustatank, ]343[, Falling, KristofferAG, bioboyAT
Bizzy (7)
	2Pacalypse-, Sayle, Epoxide, kjwcj, itsjustatank, Nagisama, bioboyAT
dRaW (6)
	2Pacalypse-, GTR, SirJolt, ]343[, Falling, Nagisama
Bakuryu (2)
	Kiante, KirstofferAG

First off… Wow, that Group A… is so stacked with fan favourites it's unfair. To have to choose between arguably the best foreign BW player, a Terran player, a fellow otaku, and a person who said he’d teach me BW after helping with his homework was ridiculously difficult. While the brain says Sziky/Bizzy but the heart wants dRaW and Bakuryu to also advance. As expected, almost all of TLS staff picked Sziky and Bizzy to advance while a few others picked dRaW or Bakuryu to advance instead of Bizzy. Only 2pac and I are foolish enough to believe Sziky won’t advance.

Player	Staff Picks
Michael (10)
	Epoxide, GTR, SirJolt, kjwcj, Kiante, itsjustatank, ]343[ Falling, KristofferAG, bioboyAT
Cryoc (7)
	2Pacalypse-, Sayle, Epoxide, SirJolt, kjwcj, Nagisama, bioboyAT
Julia (7)
	Sayle, GTR, Kiante, itsjustatank, ]343[ Falling, KristofferAG
LancerX (2)
	2Pacalypse, Nagisama

The predictions for Group B were a bit more spread out among staff members as they were all split between Michael, Cryoc and Julia. The Cheese King takes the majority of the votes by the staff with Cryoc and Julia close behind. Unfortunately for LancerX, only two staff members picked him to advance. That’s not to say it’s impossible, since last week we saw both groups with complete 2-0 upsets from the underdogs.

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That's all for now! Join us on Saturday, Jun 22 7:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00) for the cast of Group A and Sunday, Jun 23 7:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00) for Group B! And as always a big thanks to our sponsors: