Circuit Breaker. Effort spawned at seven while Guemchi was at one o'clock. EffOrt successfully kept his enemy in the dark until the initial scouting probe finally managed to get a peek and saw 3 hatch spire. Guemchi did the standard neo Bisu build and got his third as effort turtled on four bases. Effort remained relatively passive with his hydras and preferred not to contest Guemchi's third and his fourth at 12 o'clock. Later a weak hydra attack was easily pushed back by Guemchi on route to probe for any weaknesses on EffOrt's bases. Taking advantage of Guemchi's army absent from his bases he sent another, rather small hydra force to let Guemchi know he still exists. Afterwards it can be summarized into Guemchi strolling around the center as EffOrt tried to catch up with Guemchi's five base economy. With the top expansion heavily fortified, EffOrt sent wave after wave of attacks of varying intensity to take down the base (Guemchi's fifth) at three o'clock; none of which did any damage. When he finally marched out with a full army, Guemchi met it with four reavers in shuttles driving him back. With the path clear, Guemchi marched against EffOrt's base at six. Despite ferocious flanking, storms and scarabs poured forth giving Guemchi the first, crucial victory.Match Point. EffOrt spawned at the top right, Guemchi at the other side. EffOrt suffered a small setback when Guemchi was able to kill the drone that was supposed to morph into the nat hatchery. Other than that, the early game proceeded as usual with plenty of speedlings from the Messiah. EffOrt went hydra scourge into lurkers just like the first game but this time, he went right to work and tore at Guemchi's third base attempt where late obs threw away any hope of saving it. Learning from the last game, EffOrt kept up the aggression, preferring not to take a fourth and instead pumped from 3 bases. Just as the protoss deathball came into the open, a flock of mutas swooped in and made short work of the HT. With pretty much half of Guemchi's firepower taken out of the equation it was just left to the hydras to finish the job. The series was tied at 1-1.

Gladiator. Guemchi spawned at five while EffOrt spawned at eleven. Again both guys with the same build orders. It went along in orthodox fashion except maybe for EffOrt's close third base pattern which seems to be the new hot trend for Zerg users. Guemchi was not content in sticking to the standard meta and decided to transition into reavers after the inital zealot attack. The idea was sound but the execution was anything but. What followed was a comedy of blunders leading to a downed sair fleet plus the shuttle. The two reavers carried by the shuttle went on the longest march across the map with some celebratory storms on drones cheering them on. The two reavers did actually make it back to Guemchi's natural where they were sniped by mutas. After that, OMEKIM appeared yet again when EffOrt showed up at his third completely unobstructed. The base fell and all the probes dead to muta glaives. EffOrt gave Guemchi only a little breather to macro up then proceeded to run around crazy with his mutas and snipe every HT on the map. The probe kills also piled up and it eventually became just too much to overcome. GG

Fighting Spirit. It was truly remarkable that we were blessed with four cross-position games. At eleven was Guemchi while EffOrt spawned at five o'clock. The game opened with some intense zealot harassment. EffOrt went for a sneaky cancel lair hydra bust that was barely scouted by Guemchi -a sequence that prompted the signature "ooh"s and "aah"s. Despite the scouting information, Guemchi did not build enough cannons to repel the hydra bust and promptly got busted. OMEKIMEffOrt prevailed over Guemchi, giving him the ticket to a match with ZerO.

Fighting Spirit. ZerO started at the top right while Free started at the top left. Free scouted ZerO on the first try and blocked his natural hatchery. Instead of dealing with the delay, ZerO planted his second base at three. With a control group worth of lings, he expertly denied scouting as he secretly went for a hydra all-in. The hydras came in quick but Free was somehow able to hold them off just long enough to get enough cannons up. Free planted gates and marched out with a zeal/archon army. Before ZerO knew it, zeals and archons pour into the three o'clock base. ZerO was able to cage him inside with lurkers and hydras but was unable to save a hatchery and his lair. After that Free felt comfortable enough to expand at the top expo spot. However, comfort quickly turned into discomfort when ZerO used a mix of lair units to deny the expansion. ZerO gained a lot of momentum since he lost his third and rallied to deny two more expo attempts and finally surround Free's army, forcing the GG.

Gladiator. Free spawned at five and scouted to see ZerO who appeared in the seven position. It was a standard game from both guys. Free had the standard Bisu build while ZerO went 3 hatch spire and a quick fourth which was perhaps too quick. The first zealot push provided a real scare with the first sunken completing just as the first zealot blade hits a ling. ZerO was able to keep Free out but not for long. Free shifted his attack on the third base and chewed his way through two sunkens and drones pulled from the mineral lines. Zealots and some DTs kept streaming in, completely destroying any semblance of flow in ZerO's plans prompting him to GG.

Circuit Breaker. Perhaps ZerO was determined to avenge his silly loss. He spawned at eleven o'clock and spawned six zerglings before his natural. Free, on one o'clock, went forge cannon cannon in response. To prevent the silliness of the previous game, ZerO stocked up some more sunkens, lings and added spores later for protection against corsairs. Despite the beefed up sim city, Free was some able to stroll through a gap in the natural's sim city and infiltrate the main. Thanks to speedlings, the damage was very minimal. After that the 4-base turtle operation commenced on full. Free noticed the tight security so he took four bases of his own, stretching toward ZerO's main base. With both guys boasting healthy economies, two gigantic forces clashed in the center a couple of times. The back and forth battle resulted in giving ZerO map control which was important in cutting off any attempt by Free to secure a fifth. Free resorted to various types of harassment to even the odds with varying degrees of damage. ZerO has had enough however and dimmed all hope when he unleashed his slow-moving ultralisks. 2-1 in favor of ZerO.

Match Point. ZerO spawned at the top left while Free appeared at the opposite spawn position. ZerO went for 3 hatch muta this time and engaged Free's corsair fleet in a dance for air supremacy. Neither player got ahead in the airspace but ZerO was able to dance Free around enough to lead him to neglect the defense on his warping third. It was only the timely arrival of storm that allowed Free to stay in the game which he used to beat down the hydras storming his front. Free eventually took the mineral only but now has to face a lurker field uphill threatening it. Free went up and with about half of the lurkers killed, ZerO pulled back to his own platform and set his defensive line there. Free, perhaps brimming with confidence of his victory uphill earlier pushed up and overcommitted. ZerO's comfortable economy allowed him to chew away steadily on what was left and he won 3-1.

Semifinals B will feature two old elite veterans, ZerO and EffOrt. These two ZvP monsters have easily defeated their Protoss enemies in the Quarterfinals, but now they face each other in the most tense matchup in the game, ZvZ. Who will advance from this action packed and build order rock-paper-scissors match? Read on!

ZerO’s journey to the semifinals has been a pretty smooth one. He easily 2-0d his Ro32 group where he crushed Britney and PianO. In the Round of 16, where he was placed into a volatile ZvZ group, he kept a cool head and went undefeated, beating EffOrt, July, and Rush. In his quarterfinals match, he easily cruised past Free 3-1 and even managed to take the match on Match Point. Now he stands against the Alien Zerg, EffOrt, in his semifinals.

ZerO’s ZvZ has been playing pretty hot as of late. He’s had EffOrt’s number in two separate occasions in group stages, beating him in the Round of 16 for this tournament, as well as the Terror TEMPTS Starleague in the Round of 16. As of late, ZerO overcame Larva 4-2 in the Spotimes 2 Starleague enroute to his first place finish, and came out on top in his ZvZ group in the Round of 16. On top of that, ZerO is probably one of the only Zergs in the game that has any idea how to play out Hive-tech ZvZs while EffOrt doesn’t have any experience. For this reason, if the games do get drawn out, ZerO will slowly become more and more advantaged.

ZerO has all the momentum going for him, with a recent tournament win and shredding Zergs in group stages. However, it is up to his preparation to be good enough to take a scary Zerg like EffOrt in a Best of 5 series.

EffOrt’s journey to the semifinals has had a few bumps along the way. He dropped a game to a relatively weak Hiya in the Round of 32, but managed to defeat ZeLoT twice to advance. In the same Round of 16 group as ZerO, he only lost his game to ZerO while overcoming July and Rush. His victory in the quarterfinals came against an absolute monster, GuemChi, who had been undefeated and even took the first game in the series. It looked like GuemChi was going to continue to be unstoppable before EffOrt doused his flame and came back with 3 straight wins to take the series 3-1. Now he faces the man who knocked him down a peg in the group stages and he’s hungry for revenge.

EffOrt’s ZvZ has always been top notch. With such high APM and the ability to micro zerglings extremely well, he’s always done well in one of the most action packed matchups. In the KeSPA-era, EffOrt boasted a near 60% win rate, which in ZvZ terms is quite high, considering how rock-paper-scissors this matchup is. He also defeated ZerO in the Spotimes Starleague finals, 3-0. While EffOrt seems vulnerable in the group stages, his series preparation is still one of the best as he has an immense mental fortitude which dates back to his Korean Air OSL win against FlaSh.

EffOrt will show us why he is still one of the best Zergs in the game, coupled with his insane multitasking and amazing Best of X preparation.

Map Pool Analysis: Since this is a mirror matchup, the only thing I will be looking for is how viable Hive-tech/turtling is which favors ZerO.

Circuit Breakers x2:
This map has the potential to evolve into a longer ZvZ game. With a big map and potential cross-spawns, it’s very possible that Hive-tech comes into play. I’ve seen many a time where Zergs will go for hidden expos as well given the size of this map, either on the low-group 3/9 or even far across the map 12/6. But on most standard maps, we tend to see very standard play and no I still feel that EffOrt will be able to take this map.

Gladiator:
With the inverted mains, it’s possible that spores will come into play. However, it also tends to lead to players trying to get immediate zergling advantages by placing them on top of the opponent’s ramp. Thus, this game might end at tier 1.

Fighting Spirit:
Much like Circuit Breakers, a standard map promotes standard play. I expect a normal ZvZ on this map.

Match Point:
2 player maps are always interesting. They give us games like Yellow vs Jaedong which went to Hive. ZerO also infamously did the proxy 12 hatch inside Hyuk’s base. With short rush distances though, a strong zergling attack can potentially end games quickly.

EffOrt to win 3-2.

The first semifinals is a real David vs Goliath story, even though in this case David can make goliaths to fight the Goliath and his carriers....Metaphors! Well all I know is, its Sharp vs Bisu.

Of all the people to make it to the Ro4, Sharp is the only one to do so for the first time ever. Dismissive as it may sound, one cannot argue the sheer luck in the draw of his opponents so far with him playing two non-mirror matches (TvZ against Bale and TvP against Olympus) and showing his prowess in TvT. Now he gets thrown straight into a final boss situation against Bisu. Sharp does like to be proactive with his vultures in TvP, getting into mineral lines and harassing probes or putting mines around to stop the protoss army from advancing. Generally, being a terrorist and usually supplementing that with drop harass too so it is expected that he'll try to tax Bisu's multitasking.

Gladiator is the repeat map in the series in sets 1 and 5 with a 65.9% (27-14) PvT record in the KeSPA era, famous for JangBi's games against Flash and Fantasy with his DT play on them. Low ground mains generally are favoured against Terran in the matchup. If Bisu wants to go shuttle harassment, Sharp should also prepare to go for vulture drops himself and put the harassment back onto Bisu.

Circuit Breaker is coming in at Set 2 so we should expect a standard macro game with Sharp pushing towards getting his 3 bases into a 2/1 timing push while Bisu tries to delay that push with recalls and taking as many bases as he can to macro up his gateway army. Of course, unless Sharp is willing to do a heavy 2 base 4-6 fact push to attack Bisu early on, Bisu's macro might just be too strong to take on in a standard game.

Fighting spirit should play out in a similar way to Circuit Breaker although a two base mid game push would be more likely on Fighting Spirit than it would on Circuit Breaker.

For Match Point, set 4, there are two different ways that Sharp can play. Either, he'll go for the early 2 factory opening and abuse the fast rush distances with his vultures. Alternatively, he can go for the long game and go for vulture drops to harass Bisu constantly while trying to split the map by moving his tank army to take control of his high ground pod. If he does not do this, he can suffer the wrath of 2 gate opening or shuttle reavers and eventually a million recalls while the gateway army destroys any attempt for the terran to even take their third gas. Without early game momentum, there is not a lot that Sharp can do to deny Bisu from his own third gas.

As I mentioned earlier, its a David vs Goliath story here. Sharp needs to turn into fantasy or into his former Samsung teammate TurN and bust out some dank early game terran moves to really push Bisu in this series because the only terran that could have challenged Bisu was taken out by Sharp himself and he needs to prove that he is a worthy opponent.

Bisu advances to the finals 3-0