As there were no zergs at the event, the brackets were chock-full of terrany goodness. Fenix came into his TvT with drewbie having lost no games prior, and after taking game 1 decisively it looked as if he may cruise through anything IEM threw at him. Drewbie took an early lead in game 2 and kept it however, then with the help of a proxy in game snagged a 2-1 score in the series. Fenix came back from huge food deficits in the next two games to advance, playing a game in the 5th set that surely the game of the tournament.

Qxc found an easier road to the finals as his aggressive use of medivacs and timing pushes in each game allowed a steady advantage to build as he whittled away at HuK game after game.

Master of surprises, HuK opened the series with a mothership rush followed by a carrier rush. The first game looked as if it could go either way, but in the end drewbie dealt with both without breaking a sweat. In game 3 colossus and storm overtook the terran army, and in games 4 and 5 colossus/immortal/sentry were enough to beat back the marine and marauder pushes for protoss to capture the third place title.

In TvP both of these players played a similar style earlier in the weekend, but in TvT they showed quite different play. Qxc opted for less medivacs, producing more tanks and viking heavy forces where Fenix repeatedly built up large marauder/marine armies that he could scatter throughout the map thanks to a huge compliment of healing dropships.



Part in thanks to his style, part in thanks to his incredible multitasking and overall mechanics, Fenix took down the series in 4 games and was crowned IEM America champion. It is truly a treat to watch him play TvT, he is all over the map and has beautifully coordinated attacks in multiple places at once.

Last weekend in the Big Apple, Fenix, the Peruvian super-star, the Terran nightmare, returned to the world of eSports with a bang. For some, this is anything but a surprise, for others...well, the others simply don't know who Fenix is.



In StarCraft: Brood War, Fenix was one of the best Terrans outside Korea. After coming second to Idra in the 2009 GOMtv StarFeeder Valor tournament, Fenix qualified 7th of 48 for the 2009 PokerStrategy.com TSL with a 108-35 record on ICCup. From there, Fenix knocked out the German Wunderkind Kolll and advanced to the Quarter Finals, along with Idra, as the only representative of the Terran race. There he lost to the original Templar of Twilight himself, Mondragon, 2-3, but his dynamic play established him as one of the best foreign Terrans in the world.

In February, Fenix left Mouzsports to play in the Fnatic Rookie Draft, a Brood War tournament designed to put together a team for StarCraft 2's release. Undefeated through the group stage, Fenix went on to win the whole thing with only a handful of losses. Now playing alongside other top-notch players like TTOne and Gretorp, Fenix has taken his first, major victory in StarCraft 2. Fenix's RTS skill has just begun to peak, his success in Brood War already beginning to show in StarCraft 2.

For those of you who didn't get a chance to watch IEM NYC, or could only catch a couple games, the biggest surprise of the tournament was Fenix. Not that he won it, but because he did so in such a demanding fashion. Undefeated with 6 wins and 0 losses in the Group Stage against Silver, Qxc, and KiwiKaki, Fenix had not only momentum, but very solid TvT wins when he faced Drewbie in the Semi Finals – the player who Fenix came 2nd to in the IEM qualifiers.



In his two games against Qxc, Fenix played very safe and solid games, his expansion timing, unit positioning, and reaction time shutting down Qxc's signature aggressive, harassment based strategies. In game one of his series against Silver, Fenix played a very tight game. A safe tank expand opening put him ahead economically, and with missile turrets and 400 apm reaction time, Fenix held off Silver's harass with ease. This game Fenix showed us how sick harassment when it's not gimicky, but grounded in a robust strategy. Game two, on the other hand, was very close. Fenix felt the hurt of high ground siege on Lost Temple and only cloaked banshees saved him from losing at the 12 minute mark. However, a meaty mid-game army and well-timed expansions pulled him back into the lead and allowed him to take the game.



Fenix's games against KiwiKaki made for yet another great series. At times it really looked like Fenix was going to lose, but he would always come back with a two-pronged attack, or somehow make bio harass play work against mass colossus, and pick away until KiwiKaki was backed into a corner and forced to concede the game. This put Fenix into the Semi Finals, and the closest series of the tournament. After winning game 1 via an aggressive 3rd expansion, Fenix lost his first game of the IEM finals, his big mistake trying to siege-contain Drewbie without air to give vision. Game 3 Fenix lost 1 rax FE vs. marauder cheese, and game 4 he won with a well timed bio-push before Drewbie built up a critical mass of tanks. In game 5, arguable the closest of the tournament, Fenix had a stroke of luck when 3 of Drewbie's tanks focused a CC while their infantry allies were torn to shreds in a failed, but potentially deadly, timing push. Up over 20 food, Fenix counter-pushed, delaying mining and widening the food gap to 30. Drewbie played extremely well through the rest of the game, but could never get back the map control he once had, or an edge in units.



In the finals, Qxc chose not to opt for the harass heavy play he tried to pull off in the group stage, and tried to match Fenix in a macro game peppered with harass. Each game played out similarly, usually with the winner taking a decisive lead when his opponent made a mistake and consolidating his advantage through the rest of the game.

Fenix steamrolled the group stage, only ever really threatened in the Semi Finals. His strong Brood War mechanics and safe build orders aided him immensely against gimmicky strategies, allowing him to win games by superior macro, timings, and army management. When StarCraft 2 settles down and standard strategies become established, Fenix will be one of the players left as dangerous as he was before.