In the first game Bisu showed Jaehoon who is the master of PvP, sniping his reaver, killing a ton of probes with reaver harassment before overwhelming him with his 3 base economy. On Fighting Spirit, viewers familiar with Larva were surprised with how he handled Mind's 8 barracks despite opening 12 hatchery. Larva was able to slaughter SCVs putting Mind even more behind after the failed bunker rush. From there, Larva won comfortably just as hive finished.

Larva showed a different side when he faced Bisu's early game pestilence. He played behind the whole game and was taken out with a midgame push by the Ninja Toss. On Arcadia 2, Mind punished Jaehoon's double nexus severely and pulls off a successful pre-critical-mass-carrier push. The awaited continuation of SSL's controversial series saw Bisu trying not one, but two proxy shenanigans that failed against Mind's always solid defenses. Mind failed kill him before carriers became dangerous but he eventually won when a base trade scenario ensued. Despite Jaehoon already out of contention, he made Larva work for a chance at a tiebreaker. He had excellent zealot and sair harass but still ended up trading 2 bases for 1. Defilers and a lack of resources sent Bisu, Mind and Larva to the tiebreakers.

Tiebreakers:
The rematch of between Bisu and Larva proved more of the same, with Bisu simply outclassing the inept play of Larva. Against Mind, Bisu let go of his cheese game and double nex'd. The silence of the midgame exploded into a devastating recall from Bisu; a huge mine daebak and killed an armory. With his upgrades delayed, Mind couldn't prevent his mech from getting turned into shredded metal and allowed Bisu into the Ro8. In the do-or-die third match, Larva turned to the unconventional- getting a quick 3rd of off 2 hatcheries. Mind punished 2 attempts hard with only seconds for margin of error. With his 14 CC opening, he eventually picked Larva apart and advanced into the next round.


The first matchup wasn't even close from a mindgames perspective. Sharp read his teammate Bale and was easily one-step ahead all game into an easy win. HiyA versus Last on Match Point was an equal affair until Last's vultures massacred all of HiyA's natural SCVs. HiyA tried to equalize with some midgame pressure on Last's natural but Last was already ahead enough to seal the pressure and win 4 bases to 2.

On Arcadia 2, Bale sent HiyA's 2 barracks bunker rush flying and then used his advantage to pump out guardians and devourers. HiyA knowing he's behind, went for a last ditch sunken bust. That too got shutdown while his nat was torn down by guardians. A matchup between arguably the top TvT'ers today saw Sharp expertly slowing down Last's pressure with clever dropship usage. Sharp went ahead in expo count all the while stopping anything Last did in it's tracks prompting him to GG. After impressing in his dissection of HiyA, Bale laid an egg and did a horrendous ling bust. It wasn't a pretty sight afterward, giving Last the Ro8 spot. Sharp's seed into the Ro8 is already assured at this point and he proved his worth again demolishing HiyA the same way Last did.


From TvTs to ZvZs. EffOrt displayed his savvy versus the recently returned Golden Mouse Winner. He made July pay dearly for skimping on zerglings while getting a fast spire. Up next, we had an epic cross-position TvZ on Arcadia 2. Rush opened with starport expo. ZerO's mutas shutdown the wraiths but was unable to protect his third and fourth bases. Rush went after ZerO's mass expos and transitioned to mech. ZerO's strategy came to fruition when he held his new bases and hit the mech switch with a muta switch. It threw off Rush and soon lings were running all over the map, GG.

It wasn't any better for Rush in his game versus EffOrt. After a failed 8 barracks bunker rush, EffOrt just systematically gained advantages and simply outplayed him. July tried a proxy hatchery FS but was spotted when ZerO saw the overlord scout direction. July tapped as soon as he saw a finished spire. EffOrt versus ZerO was uneventful and was basically decided by ZerO winning a single muta battle, and headed 3-0 into the Ro8. The final game saw Rush doing factory expo on Arcadia 2. July went with hydralisks, lurkers and drop tactics to show the God of War can still put on a clinic against Terran.



The game between Free and Sea saw the unveiling of Arcadia 2 for the first time since it was last used in ~2006. It quickly sparked debate about map balance when Free failed to do decent midgame damage and Sea contained him hard with close-spawn advantage into GG. On Circuit Breaker, GuemChi threw sSak behind with reaver-dragoon in the early game and rampaged through his third and natural later. sSak was able to save himself by retreating but the damage was already done bringing the game to a swift end.

Free and GuemChi started out with mirror builds on FS. Free lost his 2 reavers in an army trade which allowed GuemChi to take a third and use his economy to leverage Free. Sea mixed things up with a TvT bunker rush but was still taken out by sSak in the trend of TvTs in the Match Point; vultures feeding on SCVs. Up next we had the longest game of the Ro16. Free found himself in a close-spawn game versus a Terran on Arcadia 2 but this time he went for arbiters. After encountering pestering drop play, Free recalled on sSak's main and snipes both armories before +2 attack finished. The key to the game was Free's success in holding his expos on the far side. It was a frenzy of pushes and push breaking but in the end 2 mining base toss won against 1 mining base terran. Finally, GuemChi put everyone else in the tiebreaker, using a clutch stasis to smash Sea's entire army. Sea GG'd seconds later because GuemChi lost only ~2 goons.

Tiebreakers:
Free got off to a great start by beating Sea then destroyed sSak in what can only be described as stasis galore. Sea beat sSak on Fighting Spirit, a game which could easily be considered the best game of the Ro16, but ultimately fell to Free in the next match on Match Point resulting in Free advancing in second place.