First things first, this was the highlight of the day



In standard Korean fashion, the night started off with a TvT between GuMiho and Hack. In non-standard Korean Terran fashion, the match was eye-gougingly terrible. GuMiho did the standard opening of losing his initial viking to a rally point into losing his three initial hellions in a stupid, greedy run by. Hack did a follow up push that could have ended the game, but due to lazy execution, it only gave him a double worker advantage. Then Hack and GuMiho both controlled so poorly and made such terrible decisions that the game went on for another 15 minutes, with Hack coming out on top thanks to two banshees + having air control. Zero adorable Zenex Puppies out of five.



FXO then sent out Leenock to try his luck against Hack. In a match made in Idra heaven, there were no engagements all the way up to the seventeen minute mark. Leenock originally used counter attacks to stall Hack's advance, but then realized that he actually had enough production, economy, and upgrades to just attack move with muta ling. The attack didn't quite finish the deal, but the ten broodlords and forty banelings sure did. This match was a great example of what can happen if you leave Zerg alone for fifteen minutes. One non-threatening Zenex puppy out of five.

Zenex sent out Puzzle next, deeming Leenock a big enough threat to use him. I might be old fashioned, but constantly floating 2.5k, 1.5k doesn't seem like good macro from Leenock (especially off of only three bases). Leenock powered off of his three bases just as long as Puzzle did, but only upgraded his ranged attack and nothing else. Leenock engaged with roach, baneling, infestor, broodlord, but was crushed by Puzzles 3-1 army. Leenock had no fear though, as he was floating plenty of money to rebuild, so he decided to re-max on roaches. After his roach attack failed he decided to rebuild pure roach three more times before Puzzle showed him how bad of an idea that was. Two Zenex puppies with a bad idea out of five.

I feel really bad for asd. He used to be "asdfOu," making the positioning of the "f" directly correlated to the hilariousity of the name. Now he's just FXO_asd, which is not nearly as clever nor hilarious. Either way, asd was FXO's choice to take on Zenex Puzzle. Asd went for the 1-1-1 banshee, marine, tank all in. A combination of luck and positioning led to Puzzle holding the all in and taking the game. Two and a half bit by bit puppies out of five.

FXO decided that only the best could take out Puzzle. TheBest shocked everyone by going for a marine tank all in. Puzzle was in the best possible position to win the game as he was able to delay the all in for at least five minutes with a force field contain/slow retreat. Puzzle just controlled his army too poorly in his retreat, losing too many units in the process and lost the game. One of the best puppies out of five.



Zenex sent out Line to try and rush TheBest for the win. Unfortunately, TheBest was out to ruin fantasy leagues everywhere with his solid mech build. He used blue flame to provoke roaches and then followed up with four factories on two base, delaying his third base but almost ensuring the death of Zerg's in the process. After killing off Line's third, Line didn't have a good enough composition or positioning to defeat TheBest's mech army. Three puppies that are better than expected out of five.

For the final game Zenex sent out another zerg, Coca. TheBest faked the same build as last game but instead went two port banshee. The banshees did some damage but didn't quite take the game. TheBest followed up again with his interesting two base mech build, barely having enough SCVs to repair his thors against Coca's mutalisks and take the game. Two and a half surprisingly clutch puppies out of five.

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Vine begins the series with a standard PvP build involving blink stalkers and an expansion, while JYP ops for the unorthodox (as far as Koreans go) colossus timing attack. The attack does succeed in breaking the natural and allowing him into the main, however Vine demonstrates why blink is all the rage in Korea currently. Creating a base trade scenario that nearly wins him the game…except one blink too many cost him the game trying to defend against a larger army instead of killing the remaining buildings.

oGs fakes an MC and instead sends out STC! Being a champion of macro he walks directly down that path, with his Protoss opponent following with a DT expand that is unfortunately not accompanied by any early damage. Poor building placement costs JYP both his dark shrine and his citadel while STC builds his third command center. From here the Protoss charges into the Terran army, coming out with an even trade. However, an even trade only means STC’s superior economy can allow him to outproduce his opponent and blast through his remaining forces

In the beginning of the next game STC hardly gives his opponent a moment to breathe with seemingly constant multi-pronged harass involving hellions, marines, and drops; in the end killing over 30 workers. Once mutas come out to deny the harass, STC forces an engagement where Revival, oddly, comes out slightly ahead. A few mistakes from each side allowing the battles to go back and forth are eventually decided by some sick baneling bombs that makes cleaning up the army with a muta ball all too easy.

He’s at it again folks! Much like his last team league game, NaDa decides on 2 rax pressure again and though it doesn’t end the game this time he gets some drone kills. From here he macros up a big army and Revival busts through his natural and ends the game. Neat. Maybe.



No fake out this time, we got the real MC for game 5! With that, the man himself does a walled off fast expand. This wall itself is a very key point to note, because the next 15 minutes of the game involve Revival busting it about half a dozen times and MC defending every time after losing only the buildings. Each time this happens both players have a few more units and a bit better tech, but with MC constantly stuck at his choke Revival creeps all over the map eventually overwhelming the protoss units and securing his 3-kill!

Fenix vs. wOn

3.5/5

Fenix opened with one barracks maurader pressure and managed to catch wOn's first sentry out of position, but Fenix mismicro'd and let it escape to place the essential force field to hold the Terran's early pressure.



Fenix could have won the game with that first push if it wasn't for the mismicro. He followed up with a cloak banshee before expanding but wOn's templar rush payed off with a key feedback on the first banshee to delay for an observer to hold the second.

Fenix's drop play did some nice damage all game long, not doing anything game ending but it helped him make up for being behind from his late expand. Fenix managed to hold wOn's archon zealot timing with a massive number of EMPs to weaken the archons. Fenix maged to get himself a huge SCV lead with his drop play and multi-pronged harassment.

Despite not being entirely prepared for colossus and missing key EMPs, Fenix was able to hold wOn's attack by sacrificing his fifth base. Fenix had a well timed engagement at the 30 minute mark while he was transitioning into mech. He was able to use recently spawned Thors to hold a counter attack from wOn's few remaining units. Unfortunately, minutes later Fenix sacced too many units by greedily running into wOn's main and only taking out two robo bays before his units were killed off. After, Fenix engaged out of position; with storms on all of his units and a perfect surround, wOn crushed Fenix's army and took the game a few minutes later.

In Summary,

Fenix showed some pretty amazing play this game, using an aggressive opening to throw Protoss off early on, using drops and multi-pronged attacks all game long, and setting up for a mech transition with a ton of ghosts. Fenix had only two main problems, and they're what unfortunately lost him the game.

First, the mech transition was a nice idea but he really needed a second armory to upgrade vehicle armor for his thors, Mech transitions in TvP are a nice idea, but un-upgraded Thors just don't hold up to a 3-3 Protoss ball.

Second, Fenix controlled his infantry units very well, with nice kiting of zealots and viking control, but he always seemed to miss EMPs on three or so high templars off to the side that would storm his army in every engagement.

You could argue that a third issue was that he was sacrificing too many units in his harassment, but that's a difficult statement to quantify as his drops did some nice damage throughout the game. The run into the main near the end of the game definitely didn't do him any favors though.

ThorZaIN vs. wOn

4/5

Thorzain hit a brilliant timing early on, using four barracks, a high marine count, +1 attack, and two medivacs to instill a high dose of pain to his opponent. During this timing at about 11 minutes into the game, Thorzain showed some fantastic micro to minimize unit losses and demolish wOn's army, forcing him to sack his natural expansion just to stay in the game.



Behind the timing attack, Thorzain continued to macro up while grabbing a third base and a ghost academy. 14 minutes in Thorzain had a 30 worker lead over his opponent with a small but highly efficient army. Thorzain's next timing at the 16 minute mark was the decisive battle that allowed Thorzain to take the game.

In Summary,

Thorzain's play this game was jaw dropping, his timing at the 16 minute mark is a must watch engagement that was flawlessly executed. He got the bare minimum EMPs off on the Archons of wOn, leaving plenty left over for his hidden High Templar. Thorzain's expansion + push timings were crafted in a magical Day 9 heaven, in which every push had an expansion behind it. Thorzain just played fantastically this game, clearly out classing his Korean opponent in both his macro and micro.

ThorZaIN vs. GuineaPig

wtf/5

GuineaPig opened up hatch first into some small roach pressure to harass Thorzain's one barracks expand into a fast two factory. Thorzain pushed out with a small initial force, setting up a soft contain and then used reinforcing units to make it a hard one. Ever wonder what it looks like when roach Hydra attacks into siege tank marine?



A couple of key fungal growths allow GuineaPig to stay in the game while teching to broodlords. At the twenty six minute mark Thorzain used some brilliant viking spread to deny GuineaPig's attempt at an attack. Thorzain used some great drop play to keep GuineaPig contained on four bases, abusing his immobile force. GuineaPig made an unexpected transition to ultralisks and was able to bust Thorzain temporarily. Finally, 40 minutes in, GuineaPig was reduced to long distance mining and Thorzain finally took the game.

In Summary,

This was without a doubt the weirdest TvZ I've ever seen. GuineaPig was only on four bases for nearly the whole game and before every battle I was certain he was going to be on the losing end of it. Somehow his use of literally every single Zerg unit (except mutalisks) was able to nearly kill Thorzain many times. Thorzain only won because he was able to constantly shut down GuineaPig's fifth base by abusing GuineaPig's lack of mutalisks. When the roach hydra and infestor ling compositions are both used in the same match, you know something weird is going on.

ThorZaIN vs. Noblesse

4/5

Thorzain's reaper expand was able to do some nice damage in killing an SCV and a hellion, all while spotting that a banshee would be on the way from Noblesse. Thorzain was barely able to hold Noblesse's hellion marine banshee timing with his own blue flame hellions, but after the engagement both players were relatively even.

Despite losing some SCVs to a hellion drop from Noblesse, Thorzain's third base was completed before Noblesse's was even started. Things got weird once the third bases were up, with the compositions being Thor, tank, hellion, viking form Noblesse, and hellion, raven, viking, banshee, from Thorzain. As the armies clashed I had no idea who would come out on top. Thorzain used a plethora of PDDs combined with just a few banshees to devastate Noblesse's army.

Noblesse was able to hold the counter attack with a few thors. Thorzain then abused the immobility of his opponents army by sneaking blue flame hellions into Noblesse's third base, taking out nearly every SCV. Noblesse desperately threw his army at Thorzain's...



...and despite trying to come back with hellion harass, Thorzain's battle-cruisers forced Noblesse to gg soon after.

In Summary,

I have no idea if I just witnessed the evolution of TvT or just a really weird game. Thorzain's opening of mass blue flame hellions combined with ravens allowed him to control the early game. After the early game harass had ended, I was amazed to witness Thorzain's wacky composition devastate viking thor - which I would assume to be the counter composition to Thorzain's banshee, viking, hellion, raven. This game was entertaining, weird, and definitely worth watching.

ThorZaIN vs. Genius

1/5

Unfortunately, Thorzain decided to all in against Genius, executing the marine tank banshee timing. Genius barely held with a combination of good force fields and probe pulling. After the engagement Thorzain was actually ahead in the worker count. but with no expansion Thorzain chose to all in again. This time Genius held easily and took the game.

In Summary

I'm just upset that I didn't get to see another one of Thorzain's amazing macro TvPs, but all inning when he had macro'd every other game has a good line of thought behind it.



SocceR vs. Genius

2/5

Genius was setting up for a dark templar rush while Soccer was going to go for a four warp gate. Genius was able to kill Soccer's probe as it was laying a pylon, making it clear to Genius that he was being four warp gated. Genius decided to play it safer and go three gate blink rather than dark templar and Soccer expanded behind his failed four gate. Genius' blink micro overcame Soccer's four gateways worth of units and he took the game.

In Summary,

Soccer carelessly lost his probe and couldn't four gate, pretty much demonstrating what happens when four gates fail. Expanding was really his best option, but Genius got a pretty easy win.

NaNiwa vs. Genius

3/5



Naniwa looked to be doing the three stalker rush, anti four gate build, but he threw down a hidden extra two gateways and a proxy pylon. Nerd hearts everywhere froze when Genius threw down his greedy fast robo in response to seeing what he thought was Naniwa's anti-four gate opening. Naniwa's dupe worked, easily crushing through Genius' greedy build.

Thorzain's games were amazing, Naniwa did exactly what he had to do to win, and Fenix was very fun to watch.

Q: Congrats! How does getting your first team win in Korea feel? Did you expect to win 3 games when you stepped into the booth?

Thank you! No, I expected to win the first one and then take it from there. I was really happy because I was able to make up for my Code A loss on the previous day.

Q: You and NaNiwa have only been in Korea for a few days, have you had time to discuss team strategy and settle in? Have you practiced with the other F.United members yet?

Naniwa isn't living in the WeMade house, but me and Fenix are. We've played some with Moon and Soccer, but Moon and Lyn play a lot of WC3 as well for WCG. It takes some time to get used to the pro-house but I'm fine living here for a while.

Q: In your first game, against wOn, you took out a nexus with an early attack. Did you feel the game was yours at that moment?

Yes, I just wanted to make sure I didn't try to end the game too hastily. I regrouped and slowly but steadily took him out.

Q: Some people were referring to you as "spoon Terran" during your TvZs this week, comparing your methodical play to killing someone with a spoon instead of a knife. Have you heard that? Do you like it?

Haha yeah, I saw that. At first I didn't know what it meant but then someone linked me the youtube video, and I remembered that I had seen it before. I don't feel that I play like that but it seems many people do!

Q: GuineaPig had a very large ultra-ling-infestor army that you had difficulty engaging, was your plan at that point to starve him out and outlast him until you had the units to kill his forces?

I felt that I had the game before the ultra switch. It caught me completely off-guard. Outside of Korea not many people play this style so I wasn't prepared. But thanks to my good position before the switch I was able to win anyway.

Q: In your third game you used a Sky Terran style, is that a build you prepared specifically for that map and situation?

It's a build I just started with some days before I left for Korea, so it was a bit of a gamble because I didn't have a good build order with it. But it worked out well because I managed to keep the hellion count up high. I lost a lot of SCVs that I shouldn't have lost, though.

Q: Against Genius you attempted a marine-tank-banshee allin, but he held. What went wrong?

For some reason I wanted to be "safe", even though it's an all-in. Instead of a 3rd banshee I made a raven, that had like 75 energy when the fight started. I also performed a bit sloppy in the engagement and the map isn't very good for it I found out later (because of something I wont go in to).

But yeah, he just did a great job defending it and deserved the win.

Q: Was it disappointing to come so close to an all-kill? What were you thinking going into thet last game?

Well obviously I wanted to win the last game as well, and a bit sad that I didn't get an all-kill. But I'm happy with being awarded MVP of the match!

Q: Any last things? Shoutouts to your sponsors or messages for fans?

Mousesports, for allowing me to go here. MLG and GSL for sending me here, WeMadeFOX for letting me and Fenix live here and play with them in the GSTL. Also thanks to Fenix and NaNiwa for being nice guys and completing the team!

Also my sponsors Intel, MEDION, GeIL, Razer and Sansibar.

Sitting at 0-3, the SlayerS crew must be rather disappointed at their position, if not downright maddened. They have been playing reasonably well in their matches, but not well enough considering they are two time champions of the GSTL, and their lineup is now stronger than ever. I hate voting against F.United but I'm going to do it again, MMA has barely played this season and if things get in dire straits he can come out of reserve to clean up easily. Make me eat my words again United, I'd love to.

SlayerS got it.



Two teams with similar lineups, they are close to equal in terms of depth and overall player strength. MVP gets a slight edge because of GuineaPig (wildcard bitches) who has been known to wreck players out of nowhere occasionally, and of course DongRaeGu, the resident GSTL hero. It's tough to vote against MVP if we can assume DRG will play when it gets down to the wire.

MVP by a hair.



Accomplishments over the past few months make IM look strictly better in every category; if we were to only judge from past performance this would be an easy pick. Looking inside the games, however, is another story. NSHS has an incredible ability for creative play, their Protosses specifically do amazing things no one else dares. Here and there it demolishes an opponent with seemingly little effort. Unfortunately they have to play a team that fields MVP, NesTea, and Losira so 'being funky' is probably not enough.

Time for Sage to ask himself how badly he wants a perfect 4-0 record. Incredible Miracle's lineup is very scary. IM hopefully.



These F.United picks are always a bummer. As much as I want them to win, it doesn't seem particularly realistic to expect them to do it over 50% of the time. TSL's lineup isn't particularly impressive, but Revival looked damn scary last week. I expect this to come down to one of the last games and TSL to squeak away with a victory.

TSL barely.