Most of TeamLiquid was eager to see HuK's first broadcast match. I was also eager to see some new-look Zerg play from Losira and Revival, two players that seemed up and coming. The group started off with Losira having a slight hiccup in Game 1 on Crevasse, unable to hold his third against the relentless 2-base blink pressure of LegalMind. Losira would stabilize in Game 2, holding off a 4-gate on Xel'Naga and then easily breaking LegalMind when he transitioned into an expansion. Losira then finished off Game 3 on Terminus in dominating fashion, carpet bombing and easily rolling to the victory behind a wave of banelings and roaches.

In the second match, Loner started off with some nice harass on Terminus, but his marine-tank army was caught unsieged by August's MMM force. In Game 2, August aggressively won the positional war on Metalopolis, abusing the front and outer edge of Loner's base. Loner was constantly forced to fight in bad spots into sieged tanks.

The third set opened on Tal'Darim, where Curious jumped to an early lead but quickly lost the game due to a failed baneling bombing and nice DT harass from HuK. There were some really large and fun battles in this game, and it really showed HuK's ability to slowly wear down his opponent. Game 2 was a quick one, as HuK easily steamrolled Curious after nice forcefields trapped a group of lings for free.

The last set had two guys playing on different levels, and it showed. Revival was on top of everything -- creep spread, army movement, economy management, etc. It's not often you see a Zerg successfully defend most of his bases while simultaneously limiting the Terran's expansions. Revival did that in Game 1 on Xel'Naga, and after seeing that display, Game 2 was just a formality. Indeed, the iconic picture of Game 2 would be a small terran army consisting mainly of siege tanks attempting to run from 10+ broodlords.

This week we'll see the four winners face off against each other. Losira shouldn't have much trouble with August's relatively weak TvZ, but the real show will be HuK vs Revival, which should be a close, well played match.

Player Grades

IM.LosirA - A-
SlayerS_LegalMind - B
ST_August - B+
LonerPrime.WE - C+
TLAF-Liquid`HuK - B+
ST_Curious - C+
TSL_Revival - A
ZeNEXButterflyEffect - C

Day 2 of Code A proved just how treacherous and unforgiving the path to Code S is. Fan favorites collided with up and coming talents, and the outcome was pretty brutal. A bunker rush that did way too much damage paved the way for Virus in the first game as Moon was left too far behind to handle the inevitable thor tank marine push. Moon seemed to settle in on Crevasse however. He made great use of zergling baneling flanks to beautifully defend multiple well-positioned marine tank pushes until Virus eventually ran out of resources and typed out. With the series tied 1-1 Virus opted for the same build, but made great use of Xel Naga by positioning his stim tank push in the back hallway. Moon once again set up a nice ling baneling flank, but a slight mis-timing cost dearly, the terran ball able to clean up each half of the zerg army with ease. Two attacks later Moon broke the position and narrowly saved his natural expansion, but the damage had been done. A few production cycles later Moon made a last desperate stand at his natural, but Virus was not going to be denied as he rode his early lead into the round of 16.

HayprO battled long and hard in set 2 with former Broodwar pro GanZI, but the hometeam hero was unable to ever truly establish a third and was eventually starved out of a grueling game 1. Terminus Re offered plenty more expansions but again great positioning and pressure by GanZI kept HayprO scrambling to maintain steady income. After an incredibly hard fought back and forth midgame a great elevator move put GanZI in a commanding position, and poor broodlord positioning cost HayprO more than he could afford to lose.

The third match started with a passive macro fest, both players building up a three base army, Coca attacking the protoss natural as he maxxed out, but Ace’s stalker colossi ball held the roach corrupter attack with ease. Nerves getting the best of him Coca continued with the aggression, and good use of drop was able to take out Ace’s fourth. Ace now under pressure he attacked the zerg gold 5th, and the game quickly descended into chaos as both player’s macro and control slipped. DTs cleaned up a majority of CoCa’s drones, but Ace lost his colossi stalker ball in the process. Coca’s production capacity from 5 hatcheries proved the difference as Ace was overwhelmed by the last desperate push in a somewhat sloppy game 1. The second game began with Ace forge fast expanding on Scrap Station, but Coca had prepared a fast hydra timing push that quickly tore down the rocks between bases and caught Ace with a couple stargate units and no colossi yet. A dramatic hold at the natural choke let Ace get a colossi out and prolong the game. Ace pushed out with 4 colossi but the uninterrupted zerg economy was prepared; Ace had great forcefields and was able to take out the zerg roach hydra, but he forgot to focus fire corruptors, and without colossi support the constant roach hydra production was too much for Ace to hold. Ace packed his bags for IEM, but Coca’s trip to Ro16 was the real prize.

YuGiOh started off the 4th match with a bang, but his fast baneling play couldn’t knock out Leenock, and the counter speedling harass into mutalisks was too much for YuGiOh to keep up with. In game two YuGiOh attempted an economic approach with a fast expansion, but this game Leenock opted for baneling play and succeeded in killing all but 6 of YuGiOh’s drones. Leenock expanded and the game stabilized, YuGiOh managed to hold Leenock’s mass roach push with brilliant fungal growths on a ramp, trapping roaches within range of a few spine crawlers. Roach infestor armies danced around crossfire’s winding paths, but despite YuGiOh’s better fungal growths, Leenock’s 2-2 upgrades won him a spot in the Ro16.

Player Grades

ST_Virus - B+
FOXMoon - B-
GanZi - A
TLAF-Liquid'HayprO - B
ZeNEXCoCa - B+
ST_AcE - C+
SlayerS_YuGiOh - B-
LeenockfOu - B+

Day 3 of Code A RO32 brought a diverse group of players together. Former finalist TSL_Rain opened his campaign with his patented bunker rush against the new zerg. Yeah holds it off with ease and drones like a madman. Rain decides to stay on 2-base forever agains the expanding Zerg, and his slow push fails miserably. Yeah and his 50-worker count advantage easily bash the Terran into submission.
The second game brings an early semi-allin push from Rain with hellion/tank/marine. Yeah is caught off-guard and is forced to sack his expansion. With a contain up Rain begins to work on upgrades and economy and his army is caught out of position on numerous occasions, and it almost seems as if Yeah is clawing his way back. The Terran finally learns to keep his army together, and the large lead is barely converted into a close win via drops and a large marine/tank push.
The final match on Xel'Naga Caverns sees 2 factory worth of tanks into a very late expo, while Yeah grabs the sneaky 9-o'clock position. A strong mech push off 2-base hits Yeah's 4th base, which he decides to give up. The zerg counterattacks to wipe out the Terran expo but is repelled. Rain destroy's the zerg natural after a score of banelings run straight into a Thor. From that point on, Rain methodically takes out the remaning zerg strongholds, staying on 2-base the whole game.

Newly recruited SlayerS_Alicia began the series with a Forge FE into a 5-gate push. Junwi throws waves of lings/blings into the expo but the Protoss holds with good cannon placement and sentry FF's. A mostly stalker army gets larger and larger, and with phoenix support, the mutalisks are rendered benign. A basetrade is initiated late into the game as both players lose the majority of their production buildings. Poor unit control from Junwi loses him a multitude of mutalisks and speedlings. His lategame choice of muta/ling against a blink stalker + sentry army proves foolish as Alicia kills everything in sight.
The second game on the new map Crossfire sees a fairly normal 3-gate expo for Alicia while Junwi stubbornly continues his steadfast use of muta/ling. Phoenix play from the Protoss gives him strong air control as he kites the mutas and picks up queens at his leisure. Alicia moves out with a fearsome army and the zerg decides to try for a basetrade once again. This time however, he runs into cannons and the stalkers warping in to defend forces him to engage the bulk of Alicia's forces. By this time Junwi has lost an incredible amount of tech and units and the mutalisks and corruptors simply show up to be slaughtered.

The zergs for today go 0-3 in their series' today with the Australian mOOnGLaDe falling to JJun (formerly Destination). Read in detail about this match in the foreigner recap segment. JJun showed some slick multitasking and will be a fearsome opponent in the upcoming rounds.

The upset of the day was Squirtle's quick 0-2 loss to SuperNoVa. The Startale player came into the Code A as one of the favourites and his quick exit will come as a surprise to many. Squirtle goes for Phoenix and Colossi on Scrap Station as he sees the bio-based play from SuperNoVa. The terran reacts by pumping out very many vikings. The island expansion is claimed by Squirtle while Supernova claims the more conventional 3rd base near the watchtower. The terran quickly drops the island and uses his air-advantage to prevent the phoenixes from interfering. The game is gearing towards a large engagement at the watchtower which ends in a weird stalemate. The vikings take out the Colossi before the bio-ball melts, but the vikings are destroyed by the incredible amount of phoenixes.
Both retreat and rebuild their army with the Terran pushing towards Squirtle with turrets and a ridiculous amount of vikings - enough to 1-shot the Colossi. Squirtle is forced to engage into the turret formation with SuperNova clearly coming out on top. Some well-placed EMPs soften up the ground force while the turrets and vikings obliterate everything in the sky and the Toss army evaporates.
Game 2 on Tal'Darim Altar in cross-positions. Squirtle shows his intention to 3-gate expand as Supernova opts for a 1-rax FE with an early reaper. A two-pronged blue flame hellion drop kills an incredible number of probes, with the protoss at half the worker supply. Squirtle decides it's time to attack and hurls his whole army at the bunkered front, but good use of the Raven's PDD easily defeats the push. Meanwhile in the mineral line of Squirtle, another hellion has snuck it's way inside and only 3 probes remain. An inglorious exit for one of the most hyped players in Code A.

Player Grades

TSL_Rain B-
Yeah C+
FXOmOOnGLaDe B-
ZeNEX_Jjun B+
IMJunwi C-
SlayerS_Alicia B
oGsSuperNoVa A-
ST_Squirtle B-

February 28th was not a good day for The Swarm. Ret, Cezanne, and JookTo, all coming from the same practice house, were swept 6-1. In the game JookTo won, on Terminus Re, SangHo opened phoenix to pressure and keep the Zerg in his base. This was unsuccessful on both fronts. JookTo's economy was only dented by the phoenix and while he did not attack SangHo, neither did he stay in his base. Delayed colossus and few gateway units gave JookTo free range to expand and max out. When SangHo finally attacked, he was viciously countered and had his main gutted by a mutalisk ball. SangHo tried to base trade but the Zerg was so spread out that he ended up losing when his last pylon was sniped by JookTo's more mobile mutalisks. After losing game one with an ill conceived hydralisk attack, JookTo won a long macro game but in the end, ultimately lost to one base blink stalkers in close positions in game three. JookTo, who was the weakest, least decorated player in Code S last season, did not last long in Code A either.

Cezanne, the Zerg who beat JookTo in the GSL March Wildcard, fared even worse. Unfortunately for Cezanne he was matched up with a Terran to make for his least favored, 32% match up. On top of this, the Terran was Alive, a member of TSL who had wins over NesTea, Check, and Zenio in major tournaments. In the first game, Alive lost a group of marines and hellions for hardly anything recklessly chasing drones, but a follow up attack with blue flame hellions wiped out an expansion's worth of workers as another group of hellions scouted Cezanne's third and burned it clean, too. Cezanne briefly regained map control when his spire finished but he could only delay the Terran from killing his expansions, not prevent it. On the next map, Alive opened with reapers and hellions but this time they were completely denied by roaches. Alive quickly took his natural and gold base, however, and was able to smoothly mass an army of tanks and marines. Cezanne slowly lost expansion after expansion, but he did put up a valiant, exciting fight.

The biggest upset of the group, besides perhaps Ret's exit, was Maka's 0-2 loss to newcomer MVP_Noblesse. Part of the team that has been making waves with their acquisition of GuineaPig and Genius, Noblesse added to the MVP hype by teching to ghosts on one base and using EMPs to spot and destroy Maka's cloaked banshees, then playing a very safe and solid game on Crossfire in game two. SlayerS team also made headway with M's win over Ret, which can be read about in detail in the foreigner recap.

All in all, day 4 was a sad day for oGs, happy day for TSL, and with three Terrans and one Protoss advancing, foreboding of a January repeat. The new maps, thought to be a boon for Zergs, proved difficult for the Swarm to exploit. Of the seven games with Zerg players, four of them were on the new GSL maps. On the bright side, Brood War veterans M (who beat Free in the 2008 Winter OSL Preliminaries) and SangHo will be advancing alongside exciting newcomer Noblesse and Alive. I expect exciting games from all of these players in the next round.

Player Grades

MVP.Noblesse - A-
MakaPrime.WE - B-
TSL_Alive - B+
oGsCezanne - B
SlayerS_M - B+
TLAF-Liquid`Ret - B
TSL_Killer - B+
oGsJookTo - B-