GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG


AND he wins the fight!


Creator expands. He's ahead by a ton.


Creator holds with two gates and sacrificing his surplus workers. Wow Tassadar is inept. Creator going one base colossus.


WP four gate from Tassadar. I seem to remember him failing terribly at this in a PvP on Metalopolis. Is this right? Three gate robo for Creator.


First PvP of the night, surprisingly.

But we've been in this position before. In IPL TAC1, Mousesports beat QuanticIM in the first set, but lost the second, and Quantic from the winners bracket held on to take the championship. Prime is following that general script now.


It's been more than four hours now, and we're finally approaching the conclusion to this epic set. NSHoSeo is on the ropes. Tassadar is their last hope. PvP, then, if Tassadar wins, it'll be MKP.

Set 7: Creator < Calm Before the Storm > Tassadar


Tassadar? TASSADAR?


Creator attacks, absolutely no micro, fight is way closer than it could've been, but warp-ins of zealots are all he needs. GG. 4-2 for Prime. One game away.


Creator is ahead, but just sitting passively like this is a) boring, and b) not incredibly smart, because of the time you're giving terran to get ahead. Still, PvT snowballs so much, Creator will probably take this. But Jjakji dropping, trying to get lucky.


Creator holds, and is up by 10 workers despite losing 17 in the attack. Creator goes back to macro. Jjakji just now starting his CC. He's in trouble. NSHoSeo is in trouble.


Three rax from Jjakji. Timing attack against Creator's nexus first.


Set 6: Creator < Calm Before the Storm > Jjakji


Jjakji is now the juggernaut terran. This is a good name for him.


Byun hangs on for three minutes, but only three. GG, 3-2 for Prime, but Jjakji is in, and that probably means Prime is in trouble. Creator next.


Jjakji doom drops, and Byun kills Jjakji's third, but Byun can get no farther, and Jjakji keeps doing damage. Absolutely no gas for Byun. Double digits. He's done.


Jjakji with bio and some mech vs Byun's pure mech. Jjakji expanding everywhere. Both are maxed. Byun sieging outside Jjakji's natural, but not doing much yet.


Jjakji tries to end the game with a marine-tank push. Cats and Doa pivot instantly from talking about how good Jjakji's macro is to talking about his questionable engagements.


This is going to take forever. Jjakji doing a good job with banshees, but he won't kill Byun with them.


Set 5: Byun < Calm Before the Storm > Jjakji

Clever of Jjakji to take CBTS away from Creator.


Jjakji time. NSHoSeo leaving San for later, they need to get back on track. But this is a game earlier than Jjakji came out last time, and Prime has only sent out two weak players. They have many snipes possible here. NSHoSeo in deep trouble. But then again, Jjakji has been brilliant.


Byun strikes before storm, and sees it coming in time to dodge. That was Sage's only chance, GG.

3-1 Prime.


1/1/1 from Byun, but a bit of a slow tech and more lower tech units. Sage has expanded and researching storm. Risky gambit.


Set 4: Byun < Tal'Darim Altar > Sage


Seal defends really well, but Byun's masterstroke is to get a marine on Seal's high ground, and picks off an overlord. With many marines beating down his front, a slowly burrowing spine crawler, and only 4 lings able to be made, Seal immediately calls GG.

2-1 Prime.


11/11 again. lol


Set 3: Byun < Daybreak > Seal


Apologies to Maru, but good players simply can't make errors like that.


Maru commits again, but Seal defends again by the skin of his teeth. Meanwhile he's sent zerglings to counter. Maru has a natural CC, but didn't bring his wall up, despite scouting. What the....

Well that's GG. That was so weird. 1-1.


Maru and Seal reach a detente at the natural of Seal. Maru putting his two proxy barracks into Seal's base. This is hilarious. Brilliant by Maru.


SEAL BARELY HOLDS


BITBYBITTTTTTTTTTTTT


Seal pulls a ton of drones, and defends very well. Maru with marines on the map, while Seal is testing Maru's front with lings. Maru runs by Seal's front and does some damage in the main; picking off two overlords and killing a ton of lings.


11/11 from Maru.


Set 2: Maru < Daybreak > Seal


Great marauder spread gives Maru the edge against sculp's tank line, and breaks the back of the mech. GG 1-0 to Prime this time!


Sculp with mech, Maru on bio-tank. Maru ahead, with sculp barely holding on. Maru is up a base.


Maru wins the first fight. He's on two bases, and Sculp is on three. Siege finishing, and a weird tank, viking, raven push from Maru. Sculp managing this horribly.


Set 1: Maru < Atlantis Spaceship > sculp

Prime finally falls! Great play from Jjakji to save his team. Time to do it again!


Jjakji picks a bad engagement at Byun's cliff, but then Byun marches out his front and into Jjakji's repositioned tanks. That's all she wrote! GGGGGGG


Jjakji and Byun trading blows. A good drop of Byun takes some scvs out, and Jjakji snipes some scvs with a banshee. But Jjakji is still ahead on almost everything.


Jjakji does a hellion marine drop, and takes out a bunch of scvs and marines for a single marine and a hellion. Good stuff.


Set 8: Byun < Shakuras Plateau > Jjakji


Well, so now it's Byun (GhostKing) up against Jjakji. If he somehow beats Jjakji, then San will surely be next. Looking really good for NSHoSeo right now. Can someone finally finish Prime?


Both armies maxed, but Jjakji has a ton of vikings this time, and he engages much much better. Creator can't put his units in the right places, and Jjakji wins easily. This is over. A base up for Jjakji. GG from Creator. NSHoSeo up 4-3!


Jjakji draws some blood with a drop that takes out a forge. A few minutes later, a crazy battle ensues, again with multiple stages. Good EMP's from Jjakji and stutterstep micro fend off the chargelots and take out two colossi, but then more chargelot warpins push the terran back. The stalkers and marauders go back and forth, but once Jjakji loses his medivacs, he is forced to leave the field. A lot of drama just ends in a trade.


Finally a fight! Both players have the strength of their armies come late, as marine marauder goes against stalker chargelot, but then colossi force Jjakji back... to his medivacs, where he rallies, runs forward, and wins the fight, taking out both of Creator's colossi.


CatsPJ: "Well, we're finally back at Creator with six gate double forge colossi and twilight off three base."

Shocking.


Creator moving out. Is he not playing turtletoss? Or mindgames?


Set 7: Creator < Darkness Falls > Jjakji


*sunglasses*
YEEEEAAAAAH


Creator coming out for the sixth set. Can Jjakji make him rest for the seventh?


Jjakji retakes the base of MKP's natural, and with excellent control begins to ferry units onto the high ground. MKP tries a final attack, and can't get anything done. Beautiful game from Jjakji. GG from MKP. 3-3, adv. NSHoSeo.


... which Jjakji destroys easily. MKP in terrible shape, just now cleaning up the cliff below his natural and retaking his second base. Another army coming from Jjakji.


Jjakji nearly double MKP's supply and forces his natural to lift. Meanwhile Jjakji is mining fine, and has control of MKP's whole natural area. MKP trying a drop...


Banshees for Jjakji camping MKP's missile turrets, and a scan from MKP doesn't do much. Dual banshees come into both bases to net more kills. That's 20 total SCV kills from the banshees, plus a few more from those early reapers. Timing strike coming from Jjakji.


MarineKing taking a fast expo, but Jjakji going reaper -> hellion -> cloaked banshee -> expo. First reapers do a ton of damage. Banshees on the way.


Doa Pajamas has the implications of this match right. If Jjakji wins, then Prime is out their ace, and must rely on Creator win. No other Prime player has a good chance against Jjakji. But if MKP wins, then NSHoSeo needs San to win out. Unlikely. Of course, Prime having a free series, they're in the best shape overall.


Set 6: MarineKing < Tal'Darim Altar > Jjakji


Serious time for NSHoSeo now. Jjakji coming out. This is crunch time for NSHoSeo, they're in good shape if they win, but they're very nearly finished if not. Could San three kill Prime? Maybe, but the odds are long.


But marauders imba, of course, and MKP macros up, and kills off Sage's army with a great engagement. GG, 3-2 for Prime.


MKP hits at Sage's natural just seconds before 1-1 and colossus hits for the protoss. Sage FF's to not lose the game, but makes no attempt to save his nexus. MKP backs up, but then gets greedy, tries to drop and loses a medivac, then tries to stim and kill a colossus, but Sage FF's in plenty of time and MKP just donates more units.


Sage being cute with sentries and a warp prism. Picks off a supply depot, but nothing else. Doa twice says "force field" when he meant "supply depot".


Set 5: MarineKing < Calm Before the Storm > Sage


Oh hey:



MKP has his third before Seal. MKP has turrets before Seal has mutas. MarineKing with a marauder heavy army, and moves up Seal's ramp, with the marauders at the base. Seal has to use banelings against the marauders, which fails. So do the mutas. That was gorgeous. More IPL Top Plays? 2-2 Prime.


Seal is so far behind from having to worry about MKP's pressure, however, and a marauder-marine push from the terran takes out an evo chamber, two spines, and a ton of creep tumors. Seal saves the baneling nest though. But more pressure coming from MarineKing.


Oh god:



Two rax from MarineKing, and Seal opts for super safety, going pool-first.


So it's business time for Prime. MarineKing out. If he wins, it's time to see who NSHoSeo has prepared. But NSHoSeo should feel pretty good about this match-up anyway, Seal is great ZvT.


Set 4: MarineKing < The Shattered Temple > Seal


MORE hidden banelings take out another chunk of Maru's army. Seal moves in with broodlord, infestor, muta, baneling, ling, and the marine-tank army just turns green and then vaporizes. Immediate GG from Maru, what a great final fight by Seal.



That'll be on IPL's top five plays. 2-1 for NSHoSeo.


Maru drops and moves out, but Seal takes out the drop with muta-bane, and counter attacks with muta-ling, which does a ton of damage, killing many supply depots and killing 20+ scvs. Maru still has a big army, and takes Seal's fourth out, but broodlords are incoming.


Maru gets blown up by baneling land mines, then, moments later, loses another group of marines to another trap. Seal cleverly detonated the farthest out mines first, and when Maru retreated, he didn't know he was standing on more banelings closer to his base.


Quoth NarutO


Maru with nine things on his production tab, and none of them are supply depots. #supplyblock


Maru going three CC hellion, but his first two hellions are comically ineffective. All they do is delay mining, and Seal defends easily with no losses. But next two hellions are helping cancel creep tumors.


The poll for this match was pretty lopsided, but I wonder if the results would change if it was just for the first set?
+ Show Spoiler +


Set 3: Maru < Daybreak > Seal
As called by Type|NarutO


And then Maru pushes and crushes Tassadar's army with good EMPs. 1-1 Prime.


Maru is not surprised at all to see the two base semi all-in and has an easy time defending his front. Tassadar starts his third, and tries to break into Maru's third, which the terran has somehow left completely undefended. Go figure. Tassadar takes down the command center, but Maru is dropping and shuts down Tassadar's newly finished third.


Passivity is the theme to start, as both take their natural quickly, and Maru then takes his third soon after while he moves around the mid-map. Tassadar pretty committed to two bases. Teching to storm.


Set 2: Maru < Antiga Shipyard > Tassadar


Despite his early edge, AnnYeong's refusal to tech fast enough above banelings proves fatal, as Tassadar's two base blink play is more than a match for the range-starved zerg army. After losing his third and his army, AnnYeong concedes. 1-0 NSHoSeo.


Tassadar goes for an early gateway attack that has the potential to kill off AnnYeong's third, and warps in mass zealots, which don't do so well against AnnYeong's baneling tech. AnnYeong staying on ling-baneling almost exclusively. But Tassadar is getting blink, and he has forcefields too...


Opener is: AnnYeong < Cloud Kingdom > Tassadar

Interestingly, Cloud Kingdom has snuck into the map pool for the finals. Nobody is complaining though, because Cloud Kingdom is a great map. I'm sure if it'd have been Steppes of War, we would've had more issues.


And it's live!


Ten minutes to go for the IPL TAC Grand Finals between Prime from the winners bracket, and New Star HoSeo from losers. If you haven't already, go check out our preview of the finals, which includes a recap of the recent action. The live report for the match is here! Happy watching!