TeamLiquid Legacy Starleague Season 3 is finally coming to an end. And what an end it is. For the third time in a row, Sziky has found his way to the finals. In the tradition of TLS, his opponent will be another Zerg, this time a Polish player trutaCz. Third place match will be between the second place finisher last season, TechnicS, and a Protoss player DragOn.

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 and Elegant on Saturday, Nov 23 6:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00) for the grand finals.






Game one of the first semifinal series between the Zerg player, Sziky, and the Protoss player, DragOn, took place on Destination. DragOn spawned at the top position of the map, while Sziky spawned at the bottom position of the map. Both players took their expansions, and DragOn, in particular, focused on a more mineral-intensive speed zealot strategy. Speed zealots were sent against the Zerg third, where they were able to do a significant amount of damage and take out the hatchery at that position despite the presence of sunkens and the arrival of mutalisk reinforcements. Sziky sent his mutalisk force out against the Protoss main in response to the previous attack, but he was forced to pull his units to defend after DragOn sent another large contingent of speed zealots against the Zerg third once more. After a bit of a lull, Sziky sent mutalisks against the main and natural, and he picked up the supply advantage in the game despite DragOn’s continued attempts to counterattack.

The second game of the series was played on Neo Aztec. Sziky spawned in at the twelve o’clock position, and DragOn spawned at the five o’clock position of the map. DragOn opened with the intent of going for zealots and corsairs, and he took his second gas at a much earlier point in the game than in the last in order to do so. Sziky built a large number of scourge and hydralisks in order to deal with the Protoss player’s air threat. As the mid game developed, the two armies met in the center and DragOn took a somewhat favorable engagement out of it. In the final engagement, DragOn’s massive Protoss army became far too much for Sziky to handle, despite his skillful snipe of the observers.

In the third game of the series, which was played on Andromeda. Sziky spawned in at the bottom left position on the map while DragOn spawned in at the bottom right. DragOn forge expanded, but left a gap in his wall which allowed Sziky to run his zerglings into his base to do a bit of damage and to scout the Protoss player’s tech choices. After doing a bit of damage to a group of transferring drones near the top left position, DragOn attempted a run-by of his own with zealots into the Zerg base. With impeccable drone drilling and the appearance of hydralisks, Sziky was able to clean up the Protoss attack, and he sent his units directly to his opponent’s base to bust the defenses and to win the game.

The fourth and final game of the series was played on Polaris Rhapsody, where Sziky spawned in at the top left position of the map and DragOn spawned in at the bottom right. Sziky went to three bases while DragOn remained at two. DragOn sent zealots against the top right position, but his units were taken out with effective drone drill and zerglings. The Protoss player’s corsair count was severely diminished by mutalisks and scourge, and this allowed Sziky to pour it on with mass mutalisks and zerglings and win the game despite DragOn’s supply lead in the mid game.

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The first game in the Zerg mirror series between TechnicS and trutaCz was played on Destination, where TechnicS spawned in at the top position while trutaCz spawned in at the bottom. trutaCz was able to contain TechnicS on one base in the early game, and TechnicS went for a two-hatchery mutalisk build off only one base in response. trutaCz was able to the subsequent air battle between the competiting groups of mutalisks and scourge, and, despite TechnicS having killed trutaCz’s natural with two zerglings, trutaCz won the game.

Neo Aztec was the map used for the second game, and TechnicS began that game at the five o’clock position, while trutaCz began at the eight o’clock position. The two player’s initial zerglings battled it out at trutaCz’s ramp, but trutaCz was able to retain the defender’s advantage. Afterward, trutaCz was able to get into TechnicS’ base in order to snipe the spire. The game went downhill from there for TechnicS, who finally lost the game after having been caught out in a bad position where he was unable to micro his mutalisks effectively against both his opponent’s mutalisks and scourge at the same time.

On Andromeda, the map used for the third game, trutaCz spawned in at the bottom left position while. TechnicS spawned in at the top right. TechnicS went for an in-base hatchery on twelve supply. In comparison, trutaCz went for a spawning pool at nine supply. As he had the ability to produce zerglings from two hatcheries earlier than his opponent, TechnicS was able to build a large number of zerglings, but the numbers did not prove to be decisive for him as excellent sunken placement and the emergence of mutalisks onto the field prevented TechnicS from doing any substantial damage. However, as the game progressed, TechnicS was able to win a war of attrition against his opponent after gaining the economic advantage in the game and getting just enough decent engagements to offset trutaCz’s skill.

The fourth and final game in the series was played on Polaris Rhapsody, where trutaCz spawned in at the top position while TechnicS spawned in at the bottom position. After a relatively calm early game. fighting began in earnest with the appearance of mutalisks and scourge. The two players danced their mutalisks and scourge against each other, in the attempt to get an advantage over the other player. After repeated engagements, trutaCz finally got the air advantage over his opponent and won both the game and the series.










Everyone expected at the start of the season that Sziky would return to the final once again. The third final appearance in a row just cements how dominating Sziky really is, getting there without much trouble and winning the finals handily. The two previous finals have also both been ZvZ's. Coincidentally Sziky's opponent has always been the second best Zerg in the scene, Michael in season one and TechnicS in season two. At the start of the season trutaCz didn't look like his old self, previously being considered among the top four Zerg along with Sziky, Michael, and TechnicS. Getting knocked out as early as in the round of 24 was very unlike him; losing to Bakuryu and Ramms. This season I didn't think he would go very far, when he got paired up against eOnzErG in the quarterfinals I instantly wrote him off. trutaCz looked a lot better than eOn in that series even though it went to game five. In the semifinals he had to face TechnicS and I wrote him off once again. trutaCz looked even better in this series, winning in dominating fashion with a 3-1.

This final is going the be the closest yet. trutaCz in a roll in ZvZ, winning against Zaraki, eOnzErG, and TechnicS. Arguably two of the current best Zerg players. I don't think any Zerg other than Sziky has been winning in ZvZ this convincingly. What's not in trutaCz's favour is that they already met in the round of 16; where Sziky took the best of three series 2-0, and we can't discard the Sziky factor. This is going to be the closest final yet. trutaCz has the possibility to take it to game seven, and the very slim chance to upset. I'm having a feeling that Sziky will take home his third title in a row.

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Maybe it's just Protoss talking in me, but I'm actually more excited about the third place match than the grand finals. Dragon displayed some impressive performance in his games against Julia where he made an epic comeback. This time though, he's facing a Bulgarian powerhouse TechnicS, who will undoubtedly display the reason on why Zerg has seemed favorite against Protoss for so long. That's exactly the reason on why I expect these match to go back and forth between these two players. I have a feeling that maps will play a big role in dictating the style of games. That's why I give favor to TechnicS on Destination where it's much easier for Zerg to expand around and contain Protoss. Neo Aztec is more harder to call, but seeing DragOn dismantle Sziky on this map in round-of-4, I expect him to win against TechnicS as well.

Last three maps could go either way, but my Protoss bias is starting to show and my predictions reflect that. Though in my defense, it's not bias alone that made me pick DragOn to win this series. Following the DragOn through the series, I've noticed something quite uncharacteristic of foreign BW players, practice. Watching his play, it definitely reminded me of dRaW's games where players actually prepare for their games. On the other hand, TechnicS himself said that he hasn't been practicing that much lately and instead relies on his experience to carry him to the victory.

Player	Staff Picks
Sziky (4)
	Sayle, Epoxide, itsjustatank, Nagisama
trutaCz (2)
	2Pacalypse-, Selenus
DragOn (4)
	2Pacalypse-, Sayle, itsjustatank, Selenus
TechnicS (2)
	Epoxide, Nagisama

It’s finals time! Or, better known as: the day we pay Sziky $300. Once again, and not surprisingly, we have another ZvZ final. Like any sane TLS staff member (and just plain regular human being in general) you’d probably bet your Liquibets/PS4/XBone/car/house and any other worldly possessions on the fact that Sziky will just steamroll the finals. However, TLS apparently doesn’t appear to have a sane leader running the show. With 2pac screaming, “Banishment this world!” (sic), he’s betting on trutaCz instead of Sziky to win! Has 2pac finally lost his marbles? According to him, he claims to have secret information that may or may not be related to the destruction of a certain Zerg player's alarm clock. Selenus feels that there might be some weight (that of a rock required to smash an alarm clock) behind those words and has decided that it is the time to cash in big on ESPORTS dollars by following 2pac’s bets. They are the sole two staff members to vote for trutaCz, while the rest, seemingly more clever, of the staff voted for Sziky.

In our not-to-be forgotten 3rd/4th place match, we have a non-ZvZ between DragOn and TechnicS. DragOn has made an astonishing run in his first time in the TLS and it’s no wonder that just as many staff are voting for him to win as they are voting for Sziky to win. However, the more realistic staff members *cough* Epoxide and myself *cough* have already bowed down and accepted our new dominant Zerg Overlords*. All hail the Overmind and its cerebrates! m(_ _)m

*that worked better than I expected.

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Join us on Saturday, Nov 23 6:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00) for the cast of the Semifinals! And as always a big thanks to our sponsors: