Game 1: Miso vs Last on Sparkle
MisO is one of two zergs who are often known as "cancers" these days. The other is Calm. The implication is that their games are so subpar that the viewers get cancer from frustration. He is a player who mostly utilizes a variety of all-ins. Even in that respect, he is not considered a stylish all-in artist like Shine, but rather a brutish one (hence the "cancer" moniker).

On an island map that favors zerg but, nevertheless requires a lot of good decision making, Miso showed off his potential by beating the best Terran not named Flash.

Both players chose aggressive openings. Last started with 1-base 2-starport play. Miso opened with a very fast mutalisk build (12-pool gas), perhaps the fastest one. This sort of early game development favors Zerg if it continues into wraiths versus mutalisks. On the other hand, Terran does have a chance to gain an advantage if he defends with turrets at home while attacking with fewer cloaked wraiths.

Last chose to go for the more air-heavy continuation, accumulating wraiths and valkyries. He held air control for most of the game with excellent micro despite the fact that Zerg researched +1 air armor quite early. Indeed, Last won multiple aerial battles throughout the game. However, Miso managed to reduce Last's air force just enough to make air-based harassment unrealistic in the presence of spore colonies.

The turning point of the game came when Miso briefly lost most of his air units while expanding like a mad man. Last had two potential paths to victory. One was to increase barracks and finish the game by landing dropships at multiple Zerg expansions before Miso could rebuild enough air units to defend all expansions at once. This has a decent chance of working but, it's instant gg if Zerg defends in time. The other option, often seen in sponbangs, is to expand one base at a time and transition to a battlecruiser-based map split. This is a safer choice but, seems to have a lower probability of ultimate success and even some probability of a draw.

Instead, Last was overly cautious, investing in a ton of turrets at 1 o'clock. More notably, he even built a ton of turrets at Zerg's 7 o'clock expansion. The turrets delayed his expansion and also the transition to battlecruisers. Perhaps he did not realize how much Zerg was expanding at this point in time. Miso soon reached hive and +3 air armor, at which point Last, having started with a 1-base build and delayed his expansions, could not survive the New Gettysberg level 7-gas Zerg onslaught without the aid of battlecruisers, which were also delayed.


Last won every battle except the last but, only the winner of the last battle sparkled with the glow of victory.

Game 2: Mong vs Snow on Sparkle
Mong had been preparing with his former teammate Iris, hoping to take his game to another level like Larva had. Both Larva and Mong were former second-team players with second-rate skills in the SSL era. Between the two, Mong enjoyed greater success and reputation, perhaps thanks to his meticulous study of standard macro play by Flash on standard maps. Over the last year, Larva seems to have skyrocketed into the top echelon of Afreeca players below Flash while Mong has stagnated. Mong had hoped to address this by expanding the range of his play beyond the most standard of standard games. Due to the uniqueness of the new ASL maps, he may have felt pressure to do so.

At 5am in the morning on the day of the match, Iris and Mong altered their plans. Iris had a flash of inspiration based on the following idea. On Sparkle, the vespene geyser at the natural expansion is concealed by a psi disrupter. Normally, a fast-expanding Protoss player can mine from two geysers. However, it takes a long time for zealots to knock down the neutral building and mine from the second geyser. This leaves a brief timing when Protoss is extremely weak against a 1-base 8-goliath drop because warping in the robotics facility ASAP is a priority on island maps. This means that dragoon range is delayed. Furthermore, the natural expansion is squeezed into a cramped space, making a drop at the natural impossible to stop.

The first part of the plan worked beautifully. Mong made short work of range-less goons and many more probes with his drop and retreated with his dropships intact once a reaver was out to defend. He then prepared to defend against a speed-shuttle reaver drop at his own natural. This was all according to plan. However, Snow's reaver managed to get 10+ SCV kills and escape, equalizing the game.

What decided the game was Snow's two-stage reaver drop. The first 1-reaver drop at a Terran island expansion attracted Mong's goliath force. Exploiting this defensive gap in the Terran main, Snow brought a 3-shuttle doom drop with 3 reavers and dragoons. Siege mode was late to complete because of the 1-base aggression but, Mong had a chance to save the game with good micro. Unfortunately, he bungled the unloading of the goliaths he brought back from the island expansion. He unloaded them one at a time in front of the Protoss invaders and the goliaths went...offline one by one. GG.

Winners' Match: Miso vs Snow on Transistor
All-in man Miso opened up with 9 pool speed. Jaedong praised this choice as a stylish one even if it wasn't optimal, saying that Transistor is good for Protoss because it is easy to defend after economy-first openings. This means that Zerg will counter by droning hard early but, that is good for Protoss, which normally has to play more conservatively on other maps. The proper Zerg mindset is to not let Protoss do what it wants early in the game but, to force his hand.


However, the speedlings did little to no damage while Snow held the ramp. After cleaning up the few lings that got past the ramp, Snow sent a zealot that seemed to end the game by getting 3 drone kills. Miso held on for dear life, but the Protoss seemed to be finishing things off by transitioning to 2-stargate corsairs...or so we thought. Instead, Miso snuck many lings into Snow's base, throwing the Protoss into disarray. He followed up with overlord speed and a hydra all-in. Having raised the tech tree too fast (reavers and DTs to go with stargates), Snow could not defend properly. Why did Snow choose such a risky continuation when he was already ahead by a lot? It may be that Miso was underestimated due to his poor record in sponbangs. After wrecking two of the top five players by ELO in March, the underdog had the last laugh during the post-game interview as his fans chanted his name.

Losers' Match: Mong vs Last on Transistor
Again, Mong had a well-conceived plan on how to tackle a potential TvT against Last, who started his career as a TvT specialist. The strategy was used by Light with great success against Mong in their private practice games.

The plan was based on Transistor's terrain features. The first is the short aerial distance between bases. The second is the two ramps leading into the main/natural isthmus. The third is the large natural expansion area.

Mong opened with 2-port wraiths to take advantage of the aerial distance. Two vultures would be made early to attempt a run-by through both ramps. The barracks would reach Last's base quickly and plant itself in a corner of the spacious natural to produce marines. If all went well, it was potentially a devastating 3-hit combo.

This plan was conceived with the goal of countering all fast-expand builds. Luck shined on Mong since Last expanded in the usual way. However, Last responded perfectly. One ramp was blocked using sim city. The second ramp was blocked by an SCV supported by bunker fire. The barracks was discovered early and did no damage. Mong still had a chance to do damage with 2-port wraiths but, Last managed to kill them off with ease despite the cloaking upgrade.

After losing the wraiths, Mong had to play blind because scans were delayed. At that point, Last opted to take advantage by raising 2 starports of his own to pump out wraiths. Being caught off guard, it was soon GG for the portly Terran. Once again, Last showed off his near-perfect TvT.

Final Match: Last vs Snow on Gladiator:
The final match was a fine example of masterful acting and the thrill of walking the tightrope to make an all-in work.

There is a Korean proverb that says that the darkest place is directly below the lamp. Many cultures have similar proverbs. There is an Indian proverb 'Diya Tale Andhera' with the same meaning.

Snow warped a forward robo and gateway just steps outside Last's natural. With no need for a shuttle, Snow could get the reaver produced quickly without sacrificing dragoon range. Last's marines came dangerously close to seeing the robo, but never bothered to scout that area, which was a mental blind spot in the same way that the area directly below a lamp is.


Some convincing acting by Snow's probe helped keep Last in the dark. After making the initial forward pylon, he pulled the probe to the opposite side of the pylon to attract Last's attention. He sent out another worker to warp in the robo while the initial scouting probe danced alluringly in front of Last's marines, beckoning them away from the hidden buildings.

Once the reaver made its way out of the shadows and busted the bunker at the natural, it was GG. Caught totally off guard, the best Terran not named Flash was summarily eliminated in the Ro24.