oGsSuperNoVa < Metalopolis > oGsTOP —
oGsSuperNoVa < Xel'Naga Fortress > oGsTOP —
oGsSuperNoVa < Xel'Naga Caverns > oGsTOP

One of the most promising of the ex-BW B-Teamers, SuperNoVa met his match in the Round of 16 against teammate TOP. It was an unfortunate pairing for SuperNoVa, as he won his group, but was forced to play in his worst match-up against his opponent's best.

TOP outmaneuvered SuperNova at nearly every turn in both games. In the first set on Metalopolis, he managed to get a tank out at the exact moment when SuperNoVa's blue-flame hellion marine attack came up his ramp, leading astute observers to question SuperNoVa's understanding of 'timing attack.' TOP bundled up the win and shipped it to SuperNoVa's door a few minutes later, in the form of a brutal and patient tank barrage from the low ground into SuperNoVa's main. In a theme for the series, TOP secured air dominance the moment he had a lead, which made it nearly impossible for SuperNoVa to come back. He gg'd after a parade of marines and vikings were unable to finish off a single banshee, but the game was very over by that point.

In the second game, SuperNoVa obtained an early lead and killed off a of couple terrible drops from TOP, but was unable to clamp down on TOP's natural, and had to settle for loose control of the center that could not stop TOP from expanding. Superior upgrades and air control allowed TOP to break SuperNoVa's spread-out tank line in the midgame, and TOP never lost his tank advantage afterwards. Making use of his four starports of production, TOP used small groups of banshees to back SuperNoVa up, slowly gaining ground and eventually forcing SuperNoVa into an all-in army trade that he could not afford. SuperNoVa GG'd and TOP moved into his first Code S Ro8.

MVPGenius < Crevasse > oGsNaDa —
MVPGenius < Xel'Naga Fortress > oGsNaDa —
MVPGenius < Tal'Darim Altar LE > oGsNaDa

Genius and NaDa have had a lot in common in Sc2. Both perpetually advance from their groups, only to disappoint badly in the knockout stages. It was Genius' turn to crash out in this series. Although he didn't play horribly, he was brought down by some questionable strategic decisions, and NaDa played competently to take advantage.

In the first game, Genius went for a 16 nexus on Crevasse (where else?), but was forced to play extremely defensively as NaDa put on heavy MnM pressure early. NaDa didn't overcommit, however, content simply to even out the economy and maintain map control. This proved to be a game winning strategy, as Genius was forced to wait until his tech and army were much further developed before moving out. When he did, he walked head-on into a preset concave from NaDa, and took heavy losses, having to FF his retreat path to avoid losing the game then and there. NaDa responded well, taking the opposite main and preparing a second line of defense midway between the bases. When Genius again tried to break out, this time with fearsome templar support, NaDa simply moved back to his wall of bunkers, and traded armies. Genius fought well, coming out slightly ahead on several skirmishes, as NaDa floundered about trying to get an EMP off. However, NaDa was simply too far ahead economically, and after finally getting an effective EMP off, he took the game immediately, Genius having occupied only three bases for the entire game.

In the second game, Genius went for that fast-dt-strategy-that-never-seems-to-work-because-dts-take-forever. Predictably, NaDa defended with no losses after a FE. He transitioned into drop harass, which was almost entirely ineffective, only managing to kill Genius's exposed twilight council (which was about two thirds of the way through researching charge) with his first drop. This lack of upgrades combined with earlier strategic failure put Genius extremely far behind, and forced him into an all-in attack a few minutes later, which looked close to succeeding until it didn't, and NaDa immediately rolled into Genius' natural.

PoltPrime < Crossfire SE > sC fOu —
PoltPrime < Crevasse > sC fOu —
PoltPrime < Metalopolis > sC fOu —

The second TvT of the day was between much less heralded players, who played a competitive and entertaining series in which sC pulled through.

In the first game on Crossfire, TvT's favorite map, Polt opened with some generally ineffective banshee shenanigans, and then took his expansion. He did this at the expense of his marine-tank numbers, which got hilariously wrecked by a pure marine drop of sC's thanks to token medivac support. sC took the prime position outside of Polt's natural, and used this advantage to take his gold base. Polt sent his entire bio army behind sC's position, but it became trapped when sC reinforced both tower positions. However, sC pulled his entire bio force away from his tank position to go chase Polt's midmap army, which allowed Polt to bust sC's tank line instead. But then, sC turned right around to bust Polt's new tank line with pure marine, also killing his natural. Then Polt swept in his bio and wiped out sC's bio.

Whew! At the end of all that, sC was clearly ahead, having a good tank position on his lower third of the map, and having taken his gold. Polt had more marines, but not enough tanks, and was only mining at his main. Though sC's gold was exposed and under-defended, Polt was unaware of this, and suicided desperately into sC's tank line before gg'ing.

The second game was just as back and forth. The game started with the familiar TvT dynamic of blue-hellion drop vs cloaked banshee, in which Polt, going banshee, should have been on the losing end. But crucially, Polt had gone expand->banshee, which allowed him to take significant economic damage and still come out evenly against the BO disadvantage. After securing two bases, both players moved out into the mid-map and established opposing tank lines. Polt took two medivacs worth of marines to drop sC's main, while sC pulled his entire bio force in defense for reasons that remain unexplained. Polt obviously took this opportunity to break sC's tank line, and delayed sC's third while expanding himself. Eventually, sC broke out, but at the cost of half of his scvs, and after a few skirmishing back and forth, Polt was able to re-establish his position outside sC's third, prompting the gg.

In the final game at close-air on Metalopolis, both players demonstrated exactly how imbalanced terran is. sC floated a factory right into Polt's main and started building hellions, while he brought marines around the front. sC's multi-task proved better than Polt's, albeit with better tools, and he killed off a host of scvs. The fun stopped momentarily when Polt got a tank out, but sC soon after started to rally banshees into Polt's main, killing a huge number of marines and scvs, as well as two supply depots.

But of course, Polt was still sorta fine economically, because he had been intending to FE, and had two orbital commands. Only the need to scan for banshees kept him economically behind. Eventually, sC took his expansion before Polt, and survived some half-hearted banshee harass. sC decided that he had to attack as soon as he could, as his follow-up was mass bio and could not wait until Polt had too many tanks. He hit Polt with plenty of time to spare, as Polt had only just begun to research siege mode, and rolled through. GG.

IMLosirA < Terminus RE > SlayerS_Alicia —
IMLosirA < Metalopolis > SlayerS_Alicia —
IMLosirA < Tal'Darim Altar LE > SlayerS_Alicia

This was supposed to be an exciting clash of two of SC2's rising stars and Code A phenoms. Instead, it was a one sided beatdown, as Alicia had no answers for LosirA's early game roach ling timing. It should be noted that LosirA's attack, which aims to hit before the protoss can really afford to begin stalker production, has been around for some time, but after this series, it became nearly standard on ladder against the common three gate expand. Its counters, good scouting and less risky teching, were not practiced by Alicia in this series.

In the first set on Terminus, Alicia three gate expanded but scouted poorly and was caught unawares in midmap by the vanguard of LosirA's attack, forcing early FF's. When LosirA brought the brunt of his army in, Alicia was unprepared, with his zealots stuck in his army, and a cannon only half of the way done. Eventually, at the cost of every force field and probe support, he was able to hold, but LosirA had map control with a swarm of zerglings, and was taking his third. Alicia here should probably have taken his third and turtled, but instead he tried to reply with an immortal/stalker/sentry ball that got shredded by LosirA's rush to hydras. Poor scouting, a theme of this series, this time hurt LosirA, as he was badly outmaneuvered, and pushed back. Then, it was LosirA's turn to attack again, and he finished the game off in good style with baneling drops on Alicia's third while carpet bombing the main protoss army at the same time.

In the second game, Alicia was completely out to sea, opting for a three gate void ray, before taking his expansion. This was completely unaffordable, and despite an earlier cannon, Alicia could not kill off LosirA's roach attack as he had almost no stalkers, and then his single void ray was useless against LosirA's speedy zergling reinforcements. With his base going up in flames, Alicia conceded the series and his GSL May dreams.

Play by Play: The game starts with a fan sign of Nada's body! So nice! In the meantime Nada has gotten his gas and is going for a reaper expand to get some information and perhaps even deal some damage. Top meanwhile has not gotten any gas and just straight up expands after barracks. Nada is adding a Nada twist to the standard reaper expand by getting a second reaper while grabbing his second gas.

Top double gases as reapers and an SCV charge the front of the ramp, killing a couple marines and an SCV. Nada uses his now completed factory to begin blue flame hellion production while both players begin a starport. Top begins going tank marine medivac while Nada is gearing up for a blue flame drop and adding on a second factory. Nada loads up a blue flame drop and Top loads up a marine drop. Nada uses blue flame hellions to clean up Top's drop at home while his own drop reaches Top's main. The blue flame hellions do some great damage and Nada is now up 10 SCVs and grabbing his third base.

Nada has begun tank production out of the second factory, doing a similar build to what Mvp did in the Code A semifinals. Both players continue dropping each other but Nada gets the better end of that deal, roasting almost all the SCVs in the main and natural. It is now 11 SCVs against 36. Top feels pressured to go for a big push as his economy is in shambles. As Top begins to move out, more blue flames come in and force Top to be all in. The siege tanks at Nada's front allow him to hold the push and force Top to gg.

Analysis:

In this game, Nada was executing a similar build that Mvp used twice versus Bomber in Code-A finals, with which he went 1 and 1. In the game Bomber won, he really exploited the big hole in this build, the lack of early game production. As siege tank counts are low early on, it leaves Nada really vulnerable for a time. The way to beat Nada's build is to see it coming and then just hit a timing push (I think tanks would work as well, not necessarily just marine maurader) and kill him before he gets enough tanks so that he can just sit behind them and harass constantly.

Top's sim city was pretty terrible, and explains a lot of his losses at his

Main:



and Natural:



If you wall off your mineral line with depots and then put a bunker behind the mineral line, nothing is going to be harassing you. Sure, the bunker behind the minerals is a little extreme, but sim city is essential for defending blue flames, and Top's was terrible.

The double reaper expand by Nada was great, though I'd advise against incorporating it into your ladder play, as it required some great micro from Nada to really shine. Killing a few marines and SCV or two, is in some games, enough to get ahead all game long.
Double Reaper:

Play by Play:

Top has cut SCV production at 11 and is going for a proxy 2 rax! He's taking a huge risk, as he hasn't even scouted Nada's position. Nada doesn't check the watch tower so he misses the proxy two rax while he himself is one rax fast expanding. Nada is also scouting Top's base last, not aware of what is coming. Nada pulls some SCVs and manages to kill Top's SCV that was building a bunker. Nada holds with the SCV count now equalized, a bad situation for Top with a much later expo and barracks add ons. Top immediately double gases while Nada is adding on more barracks, still no factory. Nada is only up 3 SCVs on Top but has much better production. Top knows he needs to take a risk and so sneaks a fast third base. Nada adds on a late factory and is gearing up for a big marine stim timing - still no siege mode for Top.

Nada kills the rocks and then decides to pull back, getting a more delayed siege then Top. Top goes for a big marine drop that a missile turret is able to delay long enough for Nada to get back and defend, losing only some marines in the process. Nada takes a third base and as a his drop hits the natural of Top he scouts the hidden third. The drop does some huge damage to the SCVs while one marine is off killing even more SCVs at the hidden third. Nada begins rolling out with his tank marine force, up 20 food on Top. A marine force splits off and heads for the third base. Top is beginning a fourth base as he is forced to float his third and the big slow push vs. slow push begins in the middle of the map. Nada loads up for a huge marine drop that Top actually scouts a floating CC. The drop kills off the command center and some marines but not much else as Top takes a fourth base.

Nada decides that it's time to go for an attack on the third as Top moves out for a counter attack. Nada has too many marines and is able clean up the counter attack and then crush through what little remained of Top's army for the win.

Analysis:

The proxy two rax was a big risk for Top:

Despite evening out the SCV count, it didn't do enough damage to warrant the delayed expansion, gases, and barracks. Nada continued playing out the game extremely well, in the words of Artosis, he really knew how to get more ahead.

Nada could have easily sacrificed his lead had the marine timing failed, but he pulled back after killing the rocks. He also did some great scouting to kill Top's drop attempt and even was scouting likely hidden bases:

It's incredibly important to recognize that you're ahead and then play very carefully so that you don't lose to any "sneaky" plays. From that point on Nada was able to just out macro Top and take the game.

Play by Play:

Top goes for a one rax expand while Nada is two raxing, not proxying very far out of his base though. Top manages to scout the proxy rax and immediately begins a bunker. The bunker finishes and Top sustains minimal losses, only behind two SCVs on Nada but with an earlier gas and an extra barracks, basically the reverse of last game. Top is still afraid that the attack will continue though and hasn't floated his command center yet, allowing Nada to actually pull ahead. Nada has a small lead as a drop heads over from Top. No damage is dealt or taken as top pulls back and begins pushing cross map. Nada has a similarly timed siege mode but a much faster stim and +1 attack. Top re drops in the main and Nada cleans it up. Top has some aggressive positioning on Nada as Nada begins a third base.

Top is two basing very hard, going two factory tank and begins his third as Nada's completes. Nada critically fails to notice a change in position by Top, and sacrifices two tanks to find out. Nada decides to go for the bust anyway. Nada crushes through Top's front lines but Top has a lot of reinforcements backing up the front. Both armies are poking out at each other and due to the factory lead, Top is getting many more tanks but less upgrades and marines.

Both armies circle around for positioning and Nada is awkwardly stuck between Top's fourth base and his own base. Top goes for the counter and kills a huge number of SCVs as well as busting into the production line. Meanwhile, Nada is trying to ferry up to the high ground from the fourth and is caught before the tanks all land, allowing Top to hold Nada's counter with little damage taken while Nada has lost his natural and now has Top's tanks separating his main from his third base. At this point the game is essentially over, as Nada goes for one last drop to try for some damage but once it is cleaned up, Nada goes for a desperation push out of his main and is forced to gg.

Analysis:

Unlike last game, Nada managed to do some good damage with his two rax, arguably enough to put him ahead. In this game Top opted to delay his third base in order to afford a second factory producing siege tanks while Nada took a faster third and had more marines then Top.

Nada showed in his infamous games against MarineKingPrime that he is not the best player at handling awkward base trade situations. Nada played it out very unsure of himself, and the ferrying idea was good in theory but was executed in a very rushed fashion, leading to Nada losing large number of units with no pay off. I have no idea who was ahead when the base trade occurred, Nada had more economy and marines, while Inca had more tanks. We'll never know who would have won without the base trade.

Play By Play:

On the only three player map in the GSL, both players gear up to one rax fast expand. Nada is just seconds behind as he rushed for the second supply depot wall in to ensure that he wouldn't be scouted. Both players are doing mirror builds, grabbing their double gas as the natural finishes. Nada manages to scout the fast expand while Top is still unsure. Nada is getting a faster stim and barracks attachments while Inca is opting to get as many units out as possible before going for the attachments (likely due to not scouting Nada's fast expand).

Both players are still mostly mirroring each other, even down to seeing each other's drops go out. Predictably, both drops are pretty easily denied, with Nada coming out slightly ahead. Nada is again going barracks heavy and Top tank heavy. Nada moves out while trying to secure his third while Top is spread out in the middle of the map. Nada's higher marine count allows him to crush through Top's spread out tanks and then drop in the main immediately after. Nada uses some good control to hit the main, but most importantly was able to secure his third base. Nada shreds through all of Top's SCVs and forces the gg to take the series.

Analysis:

I had to rewatch this game a couple more times to figure out just what the heck happened, I mean Nada took a third base and still had enough to 1a through Top. Going into the battle Nada only had 4 more food then Top. In the battle, Top only lost 20 food though, I realized then that it had to be a combination of over saturation, positioning, and reinforcements sitting at home.

Nada was pushing out all at once with all of his units, and he seemed to be up on food in terms of pure army. From there he was able to dominate through Top's army, which must have been due to some bad tank positioning:

Ya don't do this.



I have to assume that that is just a really poor way to position siege tanks, it gave Nada a huge concave and only one tank was firing at a time.

Nada 3-1

Nada: B+, Nada plays an excellent standard TvT, his style just straight outplayed Top's, his big weakness is still base trades and unorthodox play though.

Top: C-, Top still goes for the big siege tank style TvT, but his positioning was lackluster, his drops seemed forced, and he lacked creativity. I was very unimpressed.

Play by Play

Losira opens speedling expand, apparently concerned about sC's nature to open aggressively and control the game (Nestea talked about this in an interview). sC is building up marines behind his two rax and throws down his natural, also picking off a scouting overlord. Losira has a pretty healthy ling count and is using them to start chipping away at the rocks protecting the third.



sC pokes out to scare them off, leaving the rocks at half health. sC manages to sneak an SCV into the main to scout Losira's tech. sC begins moving cross map with his three rax marines while adding tech labs and getting stim and marauders. Losira gets good positioning with his mass speedlings, killing off the whole push. sC doesn't seem to really care, and is researching combat shield and stim, getting ready to attack again with a big 4 barracks timing. As his back rocks fall sC has set up a secondary wall to protect his natural.



sC continues adding on barracks while Losira gets a late lair, a fast third, and a big drone count. sC decides that it's time to begin the endless assault out of his huge barracks count and begins moving cross map. Losira's baneling nest is very late but he is nonetheless pumping roaches and lings, beginning an infestation pit, and researching +1 melee attack. The big push hits Losira's third base and is barely cleaned up by roaches and zerglings. But the scary part of this attack was not the first wave, but the ones coming next. sC is producing 15 marines at a time and constantly reinforcing.

Losira doesn't have baneling speed just yet, and sC is able to use some great micro to keep up the pressure with pure marine. Losira is trying to squeeze out infestors but is very low on money as sC is just constantly streaming more and more marines in. Losira is forced to pull drones to help defend momentarily, before he finally gets enough roach-bane to force sC to stop and regroup for a second. It's only for a second, as sC almost immediately resumes his constant stream of barracks units into Losira's base..

In the midst of one of these attacks, sC sneaks a group of marines around and is just able to pick off Losira's critical third base. With that base gone it is much more difficult for Losira to keep up with sC's stream of units, especially as sC's own third base completes. Losira has a small but efficient force of infestor, baneling, roach but it isn't enough kill the big attack and the reinforcements. Losira barely has enough larvae at this point to produce equal numbers of zerglings as there are marines, not nearly enough, and is unable to spend his gas, now at 1,000 for lack of minerals. Losira tries a few zergling counter attacks, but this merely delays the big push from sC that is able to finish the game convincingly.

Analysis:

This is a somewhat random memory, but check out Idra vs. Cloud game two from the NASL if you are having some trouble with this kind of play from sC. Idra sees it early and is able to even hold it close position metalopolis. The trick with Losira was that he just didn't prepare in time. Against these tempo based plays, the minute you have enough to deal with one wave of reinforcements you just win the whole game and trample your opponent.

For the first attack wave, Losira did not even have a baneling nest and barely held with the number of zerglings he had. Losira just had uncharacteristically sloppy scouting this game and wasn't prepared for the big attack. The game was super exciting to watch though, hence the 5/5

Play by Play

Losira is opting for hatch first while sC is going for a two rax opening. sC is opting for a double scout to find out Losira's position as soon as possible. sC begins the assault and pulls half of his SCVs. Losira begins a spine crawler and pulls drones as well as zerglings while a bunker is building. sC uses some fantastic micro to come out way ahead in the battle.



SCV's repair the now completed bunker as it kills the spine crawler and the natural expansion. sC has too many marines for Losira's zerglings to kill and sC even adds on a third barracks. Losira is just waiting, far too far behind to come back. Using his drones and his remaining zerglings, Losira is able to hold on for a little longer as sC checks around the map for hidden expansions. Losira realizes how far behind he is, 10 drones to 26+ SCVs and ggs.

Analysis:

The good old 2 rax + SCV all in hasn't been done in a while, and the last place you would expect it is on Tal'darim altar. Losira reacted correctly, pulling the drones to delay for the zerglings and immediatley getting a spine crawler. Even when reacting correctly though it requires great micro to defend until the crawler pops. Losira made two huge mistakes:

Lings focusing SCVs



The bunker finishes:

Play by Play:

Losira speedling expands while sC again goes for a two barracks expand. It's interesting that sC is so intimidating in the matchup that he forces a speedling opening. sC immediately double gases and his natural finishes at the same time as Losira's. sC kills a scouting overlord and begins a factory along with a third barracks. Losira gets a much faster baneling nest than game one but it looks like sC is getting siege tanks and siege mode. sC playing standard really seems to be playing mind games with Losira as he is being so careful about defense and delaying tech.

Losira does the delayed lair, fast third base style over the muta expand style while sC is still gearing up for standard marine tank play. Losira makes an interesting choice of expansions, taking sC's third base. As sC begins to push out, Losira goes for a big counter attack but doesn't really do too much damage, just getting a few depots and SCVs. The counter did buy enough time to finish baneling speed though. sC actually got a very fast third base and is about to discover that Losira's third is in place of his own. sC easily stomps out a counter attack while killing off Losira's third.

sC continues standard play, getting more barracks and factories. sC is now up a base on Losira, never a position a zerg wants to be in. Losira is getting a very late spire as the big marine tank force is moving forward. sC gets four free overlords, adding insult to injury. And then, sC is out of position against a wall



and loses nearly everything



Losira is still down a base though, nullifying the advantage of crushing that push. Losira uses some nice counter attacks but sC is just not going to allow that third base to go up for Losira. sC doesn't show the best control, losing tanks to mutas and marines to banelings but still has enough to force another cancel on Losira's third. Losira is doing some pretty desperate muta harass to try and come back into the game, nearly mined out of his main and natural.

At this point Losira finally has his third base up but is behind in upgrades and tech, with thors now out on the field. Losira begins burrow research, hoping to score some baneling land mines. Losira does a big counter to sC's third but it is thwarted by reinforcing marines pretty easily. sC's fourth base completes, but at least Losira's harass has been good enough to keep him behind by only 10 workers. Doesn't really matter though, with sC's fourth base complete as a planetary and Losira only having one mining base it is only a matter of time before sC pushes in and forces a gg.

Analysis:

Apparently Losira plays a much better standard ZvT then sC? After Losira lost his third base and didn't even have a spire he wasn't going to come back. But just the fact that he lasted an extra 15 minutes tells you something. If Crossfire had an easily accessible fourth base, he might have even been able to come back.

The obvious question is why did Losira take sC's third? I think that Losira for some reason was almost certain that sC would do another bio all in. The game plan was (I think) to wait until sC's bio army reached his base, counterattack and base trade, and Losira would have the extra base advantage. This hypothesis is supported by the fact that he got a baneling nest much faster than last game. sC playing standard was about the perfect counter to this build by Losira.

sC 3-0

sC 3-0

sC: C+, His macro game in game three was just absolutely terrible, in game one he felt shoehorned into all inning due to being "zergling contained," and in game two he 2 raxed all inned. I'm sure his play is better, and maybe in game three he just got lazy after pulling so far ahead, but his play was just very lackluster in this particular series.

Losira: C, Losira did not have very good scouting and was just playing really off his usual great ZvT in this best of 3. He micro'd incorrectly in game two, didn't scout correctly game one, and made a poor decision in game three.

Sangho got this far in the tournament on a hope and a prayer, Inca however did it by having amazing PvP (arguably the best on the planet). In the first game of their series Inca spawns at 11 o’clock with Killer across from him at 5. Both protoss decide on a 4 gate, with Inca’s being the faster of the two. In a beautiful move of star sense/luck Inca places a pylon just outside of Killer’s base only moments after his units leave. This created potential for a pincer maneuver or backdoor attack on the main. Inca favours the latter option, sniping a few key probes before the micro wars ensue. Demonstrating some magnificent stalker control, in combination with is ever so slightly better econonmy Inca is able to take the game once his stalker count becomes just that much stronger.



Inca really shows his beastly talent in this match up here in the first game. Everything I’ve always been screaming at players to do in terms of stalker micro he basically accomplished here, really impressive showing in such a simple looking game.

Killer begins the game to the north, opening with the 3 stalker rush hoping to prevent the problems from last game from reoccurring. Sir Inca of Aiur to the south shows us he favours 4 gate as much as he did last game. What initially appears to be a strange supply block from the PvP virtuoso is really part of his plan to take a hidden expansion in the far east. Killer attempts to capture some value from his stalker lead by pressuring early. However, Inca turns the tables with some beautiful forcefields at his ramp, pushing a few units into his base and to their demise. Following through on this momentum Inca techs to colossi, while Killer does the same after changing his mind from an initial choice of Templar tech. Killer appears to be duped into believing a one base timing attack with colossi is coming, having no idea of Inca’s hidden expansion. He does hold off the initial assault partly due to the narrow choke into the natural, however the reinforcing stalkers are in far greater number than anticipated and he simply cannot hold them.



What more is there to say, killer got punk’d! this game.

Hoping for a sweep Inca spawns at 7 o’clock, diagonally from Killer in the upper right. We start off wi…WHAT’S THAT A FORGE?! Despite Killer’s excellent gate placement to catch the usual low ground building spot we would expect from a rush such as this, we soon remember that Inca is no usual cheesy ladder protoss. Inca says “Nah bro I don’t play games” and throws the pylons and cannons right behind Killer’s mineral line. Killer’s response is to immediately expand to his natural while trying to pressure with a stalker during the fall of his main. A lone cannon on Inca’s ramp is enough to stave off any kind of counter aggression from killer. The game ends from some simple math, Inca has more everything; warpgates, probes, and units. The stalker blob oozes itself all over Killer, completing the sweep for Inca!



Man this guy is good! Or is Killer just bad? Or both? Either way finishing off your series with a cannon rush is one flashy way to shut someone out. Overall I wouldn’t rate this series as very ‘good’ simply because Inca straight up outclassed Killer, but it certainly did have its moments of excitement and entertainment all via the winner.

Inca 3-0

Inca 3-0

InCa - A
Inca looked absolutely unstoppable in this series, if only it were a sure PvP road to the finals he'd be almost a guarantee to actually take a GSL title. The only reason he doesn't get an A+ is he didn't really have to flex his protoss muscle to its greatest extent in this series against Killer.

Killer - B
He didn't play terrible, Inca really is just that much better.

Anypro opts for a fast expand off a forge in the 2 o’clock position, where Nestea, hailing from 8 o’clock places his expansion later than the protoss. However, he techs to an extremely quick lair and sends out 3 drones towards his opponent’s base…what?! What’s this? His overlords are DROPPING CREEP? Nestea uses his drones to plant spine crawlers right outside the natural nexus! And there’s NOTHING Anypro can do about it! The nexus dies, with a gateway as bonus; Anypro responds with a voidray but this only comes out after the spines have destroyed everything in their reach. Anypro does rebuild the natural nexus but Nestea simply pushes with hydras and kills it again. WOW.




Look out protosses playing on the ladder after this game; I’m giving it 5 stars simply on the principle of sheer AWESOME.

It almost goes without saying that Anypro decides against a forge fast expand this game in his southernly position. Instead he races to voidrays, backing his expansion up with dual stargates; his hope here is to force hydralisks with the aggression from voidrays. This is meant to play right into his hand as his next tech choice is the mighty colossus. Nestea has no problem playing right into this program, sitting back on his spores and queens while teching right to those very expected hydralisks. What follows demonstrates just how good Nestea is, and just how shaken up Anypro is from the previous game. Nestea makes hydralisks and attacks with them, just as Anypro had anticipated; however, it kills him. Yes that’s right, Anypro died to the unit composition he was hoping for.



This game was extremely uninspiring but I think it really demonstrates the psychological factor that plays a large component in best of series. I’ll certainly say that I think Nestea is better than Anypro, but he still shouldn’t roll over him that easily.

Up against the ropes this is Anypro’s last shot to turn this series around and mount a comeback against what is looking to be an unbeatable monster in Nestea. Anypro (@ 1 o’clock) is in trouble right from the beginning missing a pylon and letting a preventable zergling into his base to scout his stargate, which he then cancels and replaces with some gateways. Nestea (@ 7 o’clock) produces a ton of speedlings to keep Anypro honest with the sentry count. Nestea goes for a natural bust similar to the previous game with hydra ling. However he is unaware that Anypro went double stargate AGAIN after his initial cancel, and an unusually large phoenix count takes Nestea's army by surprise. Nestea attempts a few more breaks with hydras but the phoenixes stop these further tries in their tracks. From this point on the phoenixs rule the sky, doing insane economic damage to compound the lead. Eventually Nestea gathers enough forces for one final bust, but is forced to GG after his attack is thwarted.



Anypro began with a shaky start but eventually steadied himself and took the game by out thinking the man with a thousand IQ.

Finally the players begin in locations only a stone’s throw away, with Anypro to the east and Nesetea to the North. Anypro is able to safely structure his forge fast expand this game and Nestea responds with a fast third. Showing a slight hint towards a more passive tone, at least for the openings, Anypro techs to 2 stargate phoenixes clearly giving them more ice time for the clutch performance last game. Nestea fancies himself some banelings while continuing on the expansion trail to his 4th base. Anypro attempts an assault on the main via his voidray + phoenix fleet, this is quickly thwarted by a batch of corrupters. Using his three base lead, Nestea baneling busts right on through Anypro’s natural. This protoss man attempts to hide in the shell of a turtle, deluding himself that he has any hope to hold out against the ever increasing empire of Nestea. It is not to be so, the never ending amount of zerg units easily roll over the remaining protoss stronghold.

Nestea won 3-1

NesTea - A
While Inca may have swept did you SEE Nestea's creativity. That build in game 1 was worth an A+ by itself. He might have dropped a game to some sneaky phoenix play, but Nestea is the clear favourite going into the next round.

Anypro - B+
Anypro tried, he really did. Can anyone blame him for losing game 1? It's pretty difficult to recover from being shell shocked by a build on TV. He still did manage to pull himself together enough for a strategical win in game 3. I don't know if Anypro will ever have what it takes to actually win a GSL but if he keeps on improving who knows.

Play by Play:

Inca grabs both of his gases at the standard time for protoss, as Nada is executing a standard 1-1-1. Inca proxies a starport:



Inca attempts a zealot stalker poke at Nada's ramp, but is denied by a bunker. Inca adds on three more gateways, looking to get aggressive as well as making a void ray. Nada is expanding while throwing down an armory and a starport. Nada begins a raven and uses a hellion to spot that Inca still hasn't expanded. A thor is in production as Inca's third void ray comes out.

Three seems to be the magic number as Inca goes in for the push, though he microes his zealots very poorly, getting stuck behind his sentries. Even so, Inca is able to have one void ray survive long enough to kill Nada's newly produced units, and streams of units off of three gateways is enough to force the gg from Nada.

Analysis:

Clearly Nada's build is susceptible to this timing/all in from Inca. If the second bunker had finished in time:



It's possible that Nada could have held, especially considering that Inca even micro'd incorrectly with two zealots not attacking as he ran up the ramp. Nada's scouting was also subpar, after scouting with the hellion that there was no expansion and scanning the main, he really should have checked for proxy locations, suspicious of not seeing many units or an expansion. On a side note, ThorZain mentioned that he suspected Nada had been going for his thor build until he was attacked by voidrays.

Play by Play:

Nada goes for a one rax marauder concussive shell pressure/expand while Inca is again building an early proxy pylon. Inca proxies a fourth warp gate while Nada expands behind some marader pressure. Nada is scouting with the SCV for proxies this time but actually scouts just below the cliff that the proxy fourth gateway is hidden on. Nada is adding on some barracks, but will need many bunkers to survive, especially considering that this is a two gas four warp gate, with plenty of forcefields.

Inca leaves a probe at his natural for the reaper to scout, helping to convince Nada of a typical three gate expand. Nada feels a litte more comfortable, only getting one bunker and adding on all of his attachments at once. Nada is beginning a second bunker as Inca goes in for the attack, with a primarily sentry zealot force. Forcefields stop the repair and severely fragment Nada's army. Inca is able to kill off Nada's remaining forces and force the gg.

Analysis:

It is completely possible to stop a four warp gate with a one rax fast expand. Nada was just doing a greedier version, and rightly so. He saw the probe at the natural combined with the correct number of units for a three gate expand:



Against a player like Inca though, Nada really should have scoured the map with his SCV and reaper, as he scouted just below where the proxy actually was. Had Nada been more unsure of a fast expand, he would have delayed his attachments for more units, maybe even delayed stim, and gotten more bunkers. With that it would have been easy to hold, but Inca really played some mind games, leaving that probe at the natural for Nada to spot.

Play by Play:

Inca goes gas first - the only protoss build I've ever seen that is gas first is oGsMc's four gate void ray all in. Artosis mentions reading the gas count on the geyser to check it's timing, something very unlikely for Nada to do because of how rare this build is. Inca proxies behind the third base of Nada and Nada goes reaper first marauder expand to scout Inca out. Inca only has one gas, which he allows Nada's SCV to spot, making a void ray all in seem even less likely to Nada.

This time Nada spots the proxy stargate with his reaper and manages to kill it off. Inca reacts by skipping a wave of units out of his four warp gate and expanding instead. Nada is adding on bunkers and researching stim, obviously affected by Inca's cheesy nature this series. Inca manages to snipe out Nada's scouting reaper before it sees anything while adding on a very fast forge for +1 armor. Inca is also rushing for zealot charge while Nada adds on more barracks and a reactored starport.

Inca is going high templar very quickly off of two base, and only has zealots and sentries at home to defend. Inca gets a third base down at just about the same time as Nada, enticing Nada to attack into it. Inca spots two drops that were heading out to his natural but forces Nada to abandon them and pull back. Nada looks to hit a big timing as both thirds complete but pulls back after seeing Inca's forces. A few zealots and a cannon are enough to temporarily delay a double drop by Nada.

Nada is able to kill pick off Inca's natural and begins building "Bunker Hill" to try and contain Inca. Nada is up 30 food but doesn't micro against Inca's storms while retreating.



After the psionic dust settles, Inca is far enough ahead to just 1a into Nada's base and take the series.

Analysis:

Inca's victory was very impressive, he was down 30 food and still able to just push through Nada and kill him. A huge factor was the fact that Nada did not have ghosts, handing the tech advantage to Inca. To add to this painful fact, Nada didn't micro against the storms of Inca. Nada also didn't have a big medivac count to do some nice drops or healing.

Nada's scouting this whole series was really sub-par. The main thing that a Terran is looking for in TvP is if the Protoss is going colossus or high temps. If colossus, the Terran gets a lot of vikings, if high temps, the terran gets good upgrades, ghosts, and medivac count. Nada was low on medivacs, good on upgrades, and had no ghosts. A terran should be thrilled when they do not have to go viking against a protoss, as then they can pump medivacs like it's nobody's business. Medivacs, upgrades, and ghosts are all essential for dealing with gateway play, and Nada only had one of those essential components.

Nada played way too defensively and passively all game long, obviously afraid of being all inned. After scouting the all in and killing the stargate, Nada should have been a lot more confident; instead he continued making bunkers and never attacked.

Inca 3-0

Inca 3-0

Inca: B+, while every game was some kind of cheese, it was some of that famous Korean cheese. Each was well thought out, from the position of the proxy, to the recovery if it failed.

Nada: D+, Though all of Inca's cheeses were well planned, they were still very holdable and not particularly creative. Nada kept his initial scouting SCV alive in all of the games and even built a scouting reaper in games two and three. Nada had no excuse not to scout for proxy locations, and lost the whole series for it.

The best way I can describe this series is that it left a sour taste in my mouth; I felt like both players were so much better than the games that they displayed.

Before getting into the individual games, I'd like to mention that the series was quite interesting in that sC opened with 2 rax into expand, and Nestea with a gas-pool-speed expand in all five games. For Nestea, doing this all-around safe build was very much in line with his adjust and adapt Zerg philosophy. As for sC, he wrung a lot of mid-game variety out of his one opening build.

sC took the initiative straight off the bat, trying to set the the tone of the series with a 5 marine 4 SCV rush. Regardless of success or failure, the bunker rush was a pretty good move to begin the series. sC planned to go 2 rax opening for every game of the series, and by rushing hard in the first game, he forced Nestea to always prepare for the possibility of cheese, even if he was really just expanding and playing safe behind his two rax.

And in this case, the rush was a wild success. Even though they had started diagonally on Metalopolis (12:00 vs 6:00), and Nestea had opened with a pool before hatch build, sC compensated with some awesome building and unit placement to gain a huge advantage.



As we can see above, Nestea committed a major error here by simply attack moving and not realizing that the SCVs were on STOP (pointed out deliciously by Artosis). This made the zerg units ignore the non-attacking SCVs, effectively forcing them to face marines protected by a very tight barricade. Though Nestea did survive this attack, his drone count was so depleted that he GG'd out rather than drag the game out any longer.

Was it wise for sC to go for the same 5 marine 4 SCV rush again? Having lost to such an attack in the previous game, Nestea pumped out a lot of lings to stop the attack (though sC did kill a queen). Still, if it was sC's intent to plant the thought of “wow, is this f***er really going to cheese me every game?” in Nestea's head, then I suppose you can say it was a success. When you look at the series as a whole and see the expand into mid game push strats sC would use in the following games, he really did use his first two games to set it up very well. Of course, if Nestea was smart enough to see through those mind games....

Back to the game. Allowed to live past the six minute mark, Nestea showed what would be his base plan for the entire series: late lair, fast three base, adapt to whatever the opponent does (he managed to delay his lair till the 10:20 mark). On the other hand, sC showed the first of his versatile 2 rax follow-ups: 2 fact blue flame hellions for a marine + hellion push.

In line with his famous adaptability, Nestea pumped out a ton of roaches just in time to defend the attack, forcing sC to go home. However, sC did some good baiting with his retreating marines to lure the roaches away and allow his blue flame hellions to backdoor.

Nestea could have stopped this backdoor if he had been slightly more attentive, but it ended up being a costly micro mistake similar to the bunker fiasco of game one. Drones got toasted, and things were looking pretty bad. If Nestea had lost the series, we would be busy jumping aboard the “too old, too slow” bandwagon.

In the end, this early trouble was just a chance for Nestea to show off his championship chops. sC made one mistake which Nestea exploited to the max.

Glad with the success of his hellions, sC tried to follow up with some marine tank pressure at Nestea's third base. Unfortunately for sC, he took up a camping position just outside the base, unable to do any immediate damage. Even worse, sC did not bother to reinforce this position, which let Nestea just wait until he had enough units to crush the position.

At the same time as he was was crushing half of sC's marines for free, Nestea was also transitioning to mutalisks. Sans twenty marines and any predictive ability, sC was was tugged along by Nestea's mutas on a leash, trying to put out fires and gain some sense of stability. All of this set up a great multi-expansion macro base for Nestea, who surged ahead of sC by fifty supply.

Eventually sC tried to take his gold base, and was crushed by this totally overpowering force.

Though game two gave us a few glimpses, game three was a full on reminder that Nestea is just as happy to be a total macro-whore – as greedy as any of the foreigners out there – if given free reign to do so. I imagine that Idra enjoyed this one more than the famed final game of this series. Tal'Darim was what allowed this game to play out like it did, since it causes 20+ minute max army games no matter what happens in the beginning.

Once more, Nestea went for three bases off a late lair, and prepared to fend off whatever his opponent threw at him while droning up. SC chose to expand very quickly instead of pressuring this game, following up into three barracks and fast reactor medivacs.

For having gone medivacs fairly early, sC never had drops at the right times or places. It was essentially a free-expand macro game straight from the start, yet all sC could do with his drops was pick at the edges of Nestea's defenses. There wasn't even any ground pressure from sC, who was going for a maxed army off 3 bases with no concern for his opponent's play. With shocking ease, Nestea went up to six bases.

Nestea wasn't quite done getting every single thing he desired when sC departed on his max-out push, but it wasn't that hard to buy a few more minutes of time. Since he just so happened to be sitting on a ton of drones and minerals, it was too easy for Nestea to plop down a couple dozen spine crawlers while he got 10 broodlords.



The delaying and broodlords turned out to be overkill, as sC hilarious stimmed his marines into the sea of sunken colonies ahead of his tanks, only to have most of them fungaled and instantly killed. Nestea cleaned up whatever was left with brood lords and received the GG.

So, the previous games told us that sC probably should have avoided facing NesTea in a pure macro game. But how about something similar, but on a smaller, more controlled scale?

This time, sC followed up his 2 rax expo with a very fast four barracks attack. Nestea was more than prepared for such a possibility, however, and pumped out just enough speedlings to thwart sC's marine only rush.

But this was just the beginning of sC's aggression, as his many barracks gave him a follow-up infantry push only a few minutes later, this time with stim and combat shields. The timing on this attack was quite good, with Nestea having to scramble to make enough banelings on defense. In a very smart move, sC merely cleared out all of the creep tumors beyond Nestea's natural and retreated before he would have to fight banelings on Zerg territory.

The real attack would come soon enough. SC had skipped starport tech in order to pump four fast siege tanks out of two factories to follow-up his early infantry pressure, giving him a formidable mid game push. Nestea was caught at difficult timing, as he attempted to take a fourth base with a somewhat lacking presence in the middle.

We can partially credit sC's timing here, but we also have to fault Nestea for deciding to throw down with sC's army at this point in the game. SC's MMTank was crossing the center of the map, in one of those positions Morrow describes as “Too wide.” Too narrow positions favors tanks, medium size positions favor Zerg's ability to flank and hit big clusters of marines with banelings, while too wide positions again favor Terran's ability to stim his marines and retreat for-f***ing-ever (in short, Zerg players will whine about being only able to win on perfect battlegrounds). Add the fact that Nestea's creep spread had been severely hampered by sC's previous attack, and it was a recipe for disaster.

And what a disaster! Even though Nestea roach-baneling army caught sC's tanks off guard and didn't take a single shot during their approach, sC's M&M spread and retreat micro was just too good. A forty pop difference opened up after the battle, and sC easily won with his next push.

For the fifth and final time, Nestea(north) opened gas-pool into fast three base while sC(south) went for 2 rax expand. sC's follow-up was a fast stimpak and siegemode push, and for the first time in the series he found a timing to pressure Nestea before he was ready.

By setting up at the bottom of the ramp of the 11:00 base, sC's tanks were able to slowly pound away at the hatchery under the protection of some very advantageous terrain. Nestea was forced to exert quite a bit of resources and effort to dislodge sC from this position, which gave sC all the time in the world to take his third base at 5:00 and even out the base count.

Nestea brought himself a reprieve from the constantly pressuring sC through good use of burrow-banelings, but he would soon be in an unpleasant position if he could not take more bases. SC had solid control of his side of the map and could easily take two more bases whenever he pleased. The situation grew worse for Nestea, as an attempt to take the 3:00 base was thwarted, and a suicide medivac drop killed off the damaged hatchery at 11:00. Nestea did manage to take his gold base during this time, but it was only a hop, skip, and jump away for sC's next push.

Surely enough, sC soon pushed out towards the center of the map and started shelling Nestea's gold base. At this point, Nestea actually had a very sizable army, 20 pop over his Terran opponent. However, Nestea still felt unsafe going for a major engagement, and gave up his gold base while he performed a little bit of counter harassment with mutalisks.

Nestea attempted to take his gold base a second time, and sC game to push it once again. This time around, Nestea was maxed out, and decided to commit to a major battle with sC's main force.
It was an unfortunate decision from Nestea, as the three-times staggered tank line dealt a massive amount of damage to Nestea's force of muta-bane-roach as marines simply retreated out of range. The population counters at the end of the battle said both players were even at around 120, but the story on the ground was entirely different. Nestea couldn't dare touch SC's remaining force, and was forced to give up both his gold and 11:00 base. Instead, he sent his mutas and lings off to destroy sC's third base at 5:00, while sneakily starting a hatchery at the 3:00 base.

It was a turning point in the game. Both players had lost their third bases, while their mains and naturals were nearly dry as well. With the far superior army, sC had quite a few options open to him while Nestea's only choice was defense. And yet, a critical lack of reconnaissance caused sC to go with the very worst option available to him: End the game without expanding.

Because sC did not realize Nestea had a secret hatchery building at 3:00, he rallied all of his forces for a final push into Nestea's main and natural. SC's advanced his push at an excruciatingly slow speed, trying to avoid any annoying mistakes versus Nestea's remaining army, which could still be a nuisance without in-position tanks. All the better for Nestea, as it gave him more time to mine and make more troops.

Though time was all he needed, Nestea made a hasty move that nearly cost him the game. With tanks starting to shell his natural hatchery (long depleted of minerals), Nestea somehow thought it was the correct time to try and bust out. It was not a pretty sight, as his doubleling army was melted by a long line of tanks. Yet in return, sC offered up some of his forces to Nestea as well. Too eager to charge in after crushing the banelings, he allowed four sieged tanks in his rear to be sniped by Nestea's mutalisks.

Somewhere around this time, sC became aware of Nestea's base a 3:00. sC's choice here decided the game. Deeming it was too far and risky to change targets, he continued his push and attempted to take out Nestea's main.

And finally, the advantages of income vs no-income manifested. It did not matter that Nestea had fought inefficiently before, or if he continued to do so till the end of the game. Three infestors to kill ten marines? A well-taken trade for Nestea. 20 speedlings to cut thor HP down a couple hundred? Acceptable. sC's fate had been sealed as soon as he decided to continue pushing into Nestea's main, wasting valuable minutes shooting his worthless hatcheries while drones were mining just a few screens away. While the audience and announcers must have already realized there was only one possible eventual outcome, it did not diminish their cries of elation when Nestea finished the deed, and wiped out the last of sC's forces.