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Daily Recap: GSL Las Vegas

Wait, this isn't GSL? It certainly feels that way, with foreigners falling to Koreans left and right. Perhaps it shouldn't be a surprise, with the sheer amount of top Koreans at IPL Las Vegas, but nonetheless it is disheartening to see the upsets being so few and far between. Certainly there were great runs from foreigners - Scarlett and Illusion to start, and SaSe maybe more expectedly, but the undeniable tale of the day was Koreans reasserting themselves as the dominant force.

Group A: Guess Who's Back
With everyone so quick to claim that NesTea is washed up, past his peak, and falling behind, he seems to have taken this tournament as the opportunity to prove them all wrong. NesTea went 4-0 today against solid Korean competition, and his games were some of the easiest we saw in all of today.

Group B: These Are Not The Units You're Looking For
Except for a bizarre game two between MarineKing and White-Ra, the first two series in this group were fairly one-sided. The final series, probably the most anticipated of the day, between MarineKing and Stephano didn't disappoint. Stephano clearly caught MKP off-guard with his aggression in the first match, building an insurmountable lead. In the second and third matches, the frenchman once again looked to be in a good position, but both times he went for ultralisks instead of the more conventional brood lords, and both times it turned out poorly.

Group C: Capitalize
The theme of the games in this group was taking advantage of opportunities. In every case, the loser left a door open. In every case, the winner sprinted through that door and slammed it shut behind him. Polt looked good in his wins, but not so dominating that the group feels finished. Depending who comes from the open bracket, this one could still be up for grabs.

Group D: Missed Chances
IdrA's 0-2 match record belies his actual performance on the day. Showing a timing-tight, ling-backstabbing vT style, he looked strong in all but one of his losses. Multiple times he seemed only 15 seconds away, a couple key units more, or one enormously clutch scan away from taking games. MMA's TvZ was strong as always, and although Bomber did show weakness in that matchup, he was surprisingly dominant in his matches against MMA.

Open Bracket: Scarlett Fever
The big story, of course, was unknown Zerg Scarlett coming out of nowhere to shock everybody except hardcore Iron Lady followers. Qualifying for a free trip to the tournament from Canada by winning a Playhem tournament, this lady impressed in warmups, then astonished everyone by taking out BumblebeePrime in the very first round. Proving it wasn't a fluke, she also took out DeMusliM (2-0, at that) and ddoro, barely lost a winnable series against Oz, and finally succumbed to GoldenLight. Her story overshadowed the great runs of VileIllusion (who beat Zenio, Ryung, and Oz, among others) and SaSe (the last foreigner standing in the Open Bracket, eliminated one round from pool play). In the end, although the theme of the open bracket was Koreans overrunning foreigners, the story everyone will remember from day one of IPL4 is how Scarlett burst onto the scene.

Recent Updates

06:54 GMT (+00:00): Curious 2-0 HuK. HuK chose the 8-gate again, but this time Curious wasn't prepared for it. HuK easily took down the third, and when he found himself unable to do further damage in the zerg natural, he wisely retreating and gassing up. Well-placed force fields thwarted Curious's attempted aggression. HuK was in a very confident place, but actually overextended, caught offguard with insufficient tech against burrowed movement speed +1 roaches. Curious had unstoppable momentum at that point, advancing into the groups tomorrow.

06:41 GMT (+00:00): Curious 1-0 HuK. HuK first aimed for an 8-gate, one of his favorite builds on this map according to Axslav. Curious might have known this too, as he scouted it almost immediately. HuK changed tactics to charge and dark templars, but Curious scouted that too, and reacted with a big roach push that strolled into Huk's natural. HuK had chargelots take out the zerg third, but it clearly wasn't enough and he quickly GG'd.

06:18 GMT (+00:00): HuK 2-0 Virus. After a quick restart to get on the right version of the map, HuK tried for some Blink Stalker aggression, but didn't manage to do a lot besides sniping the tech lab upgrading combat shields. Virus had a nice advantage, but didn't really use it, only managing a failed drop and still not getting combat shield. He did tech to Ghosts, but great feedbacks neutered the majority of those ghosts, allowing HuK to take the lead. HuK impatiently went for the "anti-timing" (joining battle just before his upgrades finished), but his army was so overwhelming that he eliminated Virus.

05:56 GMT (+00:00): HuK 1-0 Virus. We didn't really see anything because of an Xsplit mistake. Apparently it was a successful 5gate by Huk.

05:27 GMT (+00:00): SaSe 2-0 Golden. Sase built a ton of phoenix and killed a ton of overlords and queens. Knowing that Golden would turn to hydralisks, SaSe then went straight for storm while continuing the harassment. Golden repeatedly attacked SaSe's third. The first time was defended by storms, but the second time he was successful in taking out the Nexus. Now with his back against the wall, Sase needed to move out against a roach-maxing Golden. SaSe had enough blink stalkers with supporting higher tech units to take out a number of roach armies and eventually end the game.

05:10 GMT (+00:00): SaSe 1-0 Golden. SaSe's cannon rush worked spectacularly against Golden's hatch first on Tal'Darim Altar, and from then on it was just a matter of maintaining the advantage until Golden gave up.

Live Update Log
+ Show Spoiler [Update Log] +

04:44 GMT (+00:00): Bomber 2-0 PartinG. MMA chose proxy marauders, but Bomber scouted it and immediately aimed for cloaked banshees. The banshee was very successful, supply blocking MMA, and then tanks and marines brought into the main finished the game. That finishes Group Play for the day!

04:43 GMT (+00:00): GanZi 2-1 PartinG. Parting chose not to go for a standard game, but GanZi's build seemed well tailored for it. The Terran gained an early advantage, and although he didn't attack until he maxed, that advantage was enough for GanZi to easily triumph in the ending battle despite good forcefields by PartinG.

04:33 GMT (+00:00): Bomber 1-0 MMA. Clear crowd favorite MMA went for the more conservative build, with Bomber trying the 14cc. MMA beelined for cloak banshee, but his tentative handling of it let Bomber prepare a decent defense. Bomber then went for a marine drop into MMA's main, evening out the SCVs killed in one fell swoop. Bomber continued his aggression as he macroed up, setting an earlier third and working on upgrades. Bomber had commanding leads at multiple points, but MMA held on with nice baiting into tanks and medivac snipes. MMA went for a last-gasp base race, but Bomber's economic advantage was too much and MMA threw away ay chance he had attacking a planetary.

04:26 GMT (+00:00): GanZi 1-1 PartinG. In a blast from the past, GanZi went for a 1-1-1 attack reminiscent of PuMa a few months ago. GanZi had really nice banshee micro, and Parting's defense wasn't quite enough.

04:14 GMT (+00:00): PartinG 1-0 GanZi. In a move that took everyone by surprise, GanZi went for an extremely fast expansion at the island closest to PartinG's base on Sanshorn Mist. PartinG detected it right when his warp prism was popping out, but GanZi had his own medivacs by that point, defending the base. With that economic advantage, GanZi kept the pressure on the rest of the game. PartinG continually barely defended by the skin of his teeth though, and was able to prevent GanZi from doing much economic damage. PartinG finally took a supply lead again 23 minutes in, also stockpiling a lot of heavy gas units while GanZi's tech was still not very impressive. In the decisive engagement, GanZi was just barely unable to take out PartinG's fourth nexus and GGed after losing his army.

04:07 GMT (+00:00): MMA 2-0 IdrA. Idra killed a lot of SCVs early with two ling attacks into the natural - one when MMA knew he didn't have a wall, and one when MMA thought he had a wall but it wasn't full. Seeing blue flame, IdrA chose to go for heavy roaches with some infestors, and realy nice fungals held MMA off for a while but reinforcements and banshees let MMA continue attacking. Idra went for another backstab into the third, doing decent damage but a bunker was ready to defend it. MMA's forces are eventually too much, and unable to match the production, IdrA GGs.

03:52 GMT (+00:00): MMA 1-0 IdrA. IdrA's very nice early aggression shut down mining at MMA's natural for a while, and also let him put up his own third. The attack also delayed MMA's banshees enough that IdrA could set up a nice defense, losing almost nothing. MMA then moved out to take out IdrA's third, and even timely infestors and transfuses weren't enough to finish off the army. IdrA had some zergling upgrades finish and more infestor to pop out, but MMA's macro is too much. IdrA didn't have sufficient army to take on more than one of MMA's multi-pronged attacks, and GGed after losing his third and his army.

03:32 GMT (+00:00): Now Playing: Secret - Love is Move.

03:28 GMT (+00:00): Bomber 2-1 Idra. Once again Idra did a really nice backstab, thanks in part to Bomber leaving his depot wall down, but Bomber's enormous hellion/marauder push was too strong, and Idra was forced to GG with not nearly enough to defend.

03:13 GMT (+00:00): Bomber 1-1 Idra. Bomber went for the same build as last game, but this time was somewhat more successful, taking out 14 drones before finally being fended off. Multiple times it looked like Bomber would do even more damage, but he was just barely unable to deal a truly significant blow. In the main divergence from the previous game, Bomber then moved into heavy mech production, with blue flame, siege, and thors already in production by the time Idra put down his third. Idra chose to go for heavily upgraded roaches and overlord drops, and took advantage of the Mech immobility to wreak mayhem in Bomber's base. Somehow Bomber held on, and with Idra unable to deal the finishing blow (some help due to an enormous drone BBQ), Bomber maxed out and then took out all of Idra's burrowed infestors with a decisive scan.

02:57 GMT (+00:00): IdrA 1-0 Bomber Unable to do significant early damage, Bomber sat back and macroed. When he finally moved out, Idra's massive ling backstab took out the Terran third. Idra's third was lost in the trade, but he had a hidden fourth, enabling him to tech to ultras against the marine-tank army. While he had infestors alive, it was hugely successul, but he did lose most of his infestors in one battle. Bomber started stockpiling marauders as Idra stuck with ultralisks despite having creater spire, and idra's reduced infestor count just didn't have enough fungals to deal the killing blow. Eventually the economic advantage was just too much, and Bomber was forced to GG when he ran out of units.

02:32 GMT (+00:00): Oz 2-1 Scarlett. Oz's first main attack didn't arrive sufficiently early to beat hydras, but Scarlett's counterattack was only moderately successful, not doing significant damage. Her next attempts as she teched up still didn't do a ton of damage. Continually maxing on roaches and going for attacks on the Protoss base, she kept the pressure on, leaving two nexuses at half armor and preventing any fourth. At the end, Scarlett was left with too many hydras and corruptors and not enough brood lords or infestors, and after a decisive battle Oz sent her to the lower bracket.

02:30 GMT (+00:00): Polt 2-0 MC. Polt's trademark marauders moved in to take out MC's natural expansion, and from there on it was simply a matter of strangling the Protoss out. MC attempted some warp prism play, but it was never able to do enough damage to take the pressure off and he was forced to GG as he could never get a new second base yet.

02:15 GMT (+00:00): Polt 1-0 MC. The key moment of the game was when Polt stimmed forward with a decently sized MMM group, not only sniping MC's third nexus but also spotting the first colossus, allowing him to start up viking production. When MC got across the map, Polt's own Barracks worked against him, blocking him from the Protoss army, but after the force fields expired he stimmed forward and took out MC's entire army. Polt was then able to split up his army into two groups that each did huge damage, one to MC's structures and one to MC's army, forcing the GG.

01:57 GMT (+00:00): Oz 1-1 Scarlett. This was an insane back and forth game. It looked like Scarlett might win right off the bat, with very aggressive ling play busting the forge FE. Next it was Oz putting pressure on and nearly killing the Zerg third, before Scarlett's roaches turned around and couldn't quite kill the Protoss third. In the defining midgame battles, Oz had just a little bit too much tech for Scarlett, with his colossi and immortals supplementing the stalker ball to give him an edge over Scarlett's pure roach armies. Infestor tech was too late, and Oz cleanly finished the second game.

01:53 GMT (+00:00): MC 2-0 PuMa MC once again went for the bust at the natural, and this time Puma held it off with a high ground sieged tank. His banshee in MC's base got 30 probe kills, giving him an enormous lead. Both players continued to tech up, MC going for colossus and charge, and Puma already starting viking production and working on upgrades. Puma perhaps sat back too long though, letting MC catch up and even win battles with very nice force fields. MC's storms in the next two battles after that were huge, and as more and more rallied in he finished the comeback.

01:36 GMT (+00:00): Scarlett 1-0 Oz. Scarlett jumped out to an early lead, eventually getting up to a 40 supply lead before Oz was able to take of sentries and colossi in chokes midgame to level the playing field. Scarlett built up a huge flock of mutas and accompanying gaggle of infestors, forcing Oz to try to delay until storm and a mothership hit the field. The mothership arrived just as the fight commenced, and with no vortex or storm, the huge Zerg army won through, giving Scarlett game 1.

01:31 GMT (+00:00): MC 1-0 PuMa. With perfect timing, PuMa sent a banshee into the protoss mineral line just as MC warped in to try to break the terran natural. The banshee killed 12 probes, and PuMa was able to hold his natural. MC did some cute play to trap tanks and kill some more SCVs with drops and highground vision, and then PuMa then made the mistake of the game when he lifted up the barracks that was researching stim, not realizing it until the next major battle (which he lost). As MC dropped the fourth with a pair of archons, the bulk of his army went for the main. Puma kited nicely away from the chargelots, but a storm on his army pretty much ended the game.

01:05 GMT (+00:00): Polt 2-1 PuMa. Just when Polt looked to be solidifying a macro advantage, PuMa dropped in the main, drawing Polt's attention away. He took that opportunity to press in the main army, severely reducing Polt's tank account. Overconfident from this, he charged into Polt's army by the central watch tower but was demolished there. Polt took that opportunity to clear out PuMa's third, solidifying his economic and army advantage. PuMa attempted to drop in on that small force, but lost his troops as they were dropped one by one and Polt easily steamrolled him for the GG in the final battle.

00:59 GMT (+00:00): Khaldor interviewing DeMusliM over on the supplementary stream.

00:46 GMT (+00:00): PuMa 1-1 Polt. In a reversal of last game, this time it was Polt with the lead and Puma catching tanks unsieged, then using that advantage to ride out the rest of the game for a victory. Third game coming up.

00:45 GMT (+00:00): HD interviewing SeleCT on the second stream.

00:40 GMT (+00:00): SeleCT 2-0 NasD. NasD went for a one-base Marine-Tank-Raven push, and Select defended his two bases with only minor losses. After a short while of macroing up, he counterattacked, sneaking around behind NasD's army to take out the natural and forcing the GG with some nice tank positioning.

00:21 GMT (+00:00): Polt 1-0 PuMa. Puma easily defended Polt's cloaked banshees, losing almost nothing. Polt did maintain better map control, and his earlier third gave him an economic Lead. Puma's mastery of the air gave him a huge midgame advantage, but an unsiege at a key time lost him almost all he worked for. He tried to regain an advantage with a ninja planetary in the bottom right, but Polt had too much of a lead by that point and eventually choked Puma out.

23:44 GMT (+00:00): MarineKing 2-1 Stephano. Stephano was in a decent position, but once again chose to stick with Ultralisks. MarineKing's excellent positioning and micro let him triumph in battle after battle. A lone infestor took out a huge chunk of SCVs with double fungal but it was too little too late and MarineKing marauded through Stephano's half of the map, taking the game and the series.

23:19 GMT (+00:00): MarineKing 1-1 Stephano. MarineKing went for early banshees and didn't do a ton of damage, but for some reason Stephano teched to ultralisks. MarineKing's MMM+tank army was too much for Stephano's ultraling+infestor, forcing a game three.

23:02 GMT (+00:00): Stephano 1-0 MarineKing. After a restart, Stephano's early roach-ling aggression was perhaps surprisingly effective, putting him at a 50 supply advantage. MarineKing did get up siege tanks and blue flame hellions, but Stephano was so confident in his lead that he put up proxy hatches at three different locations outside the Terran Base. Finally loading up his army in overlords, Stephano dropped on MarineKing's army, forcing the GG.

22:51 GMT (+00:00): viOLet 2-0 Jinro. A huuuuuge baneling bust, supported by lings and mutas, rolled into Jinro's natural, and the Liquid Terran was forced to GG.

22:49 GMT (+00:00): According to Smix on twitter, the disconnect was due to Stephano's computer, not battle.net. You can put away your blizzard-labeled ptichforks for now.

22:40 GMT (+00:00): Disconnect in the Stephano-MarineKing game have to restart.

22:39 GMT (+00:00): viOLet 1-0 Jinro. Jinro defended upgraded ling aggression well, but had no Vikings when the Brood Lord+Infestor swarm appeared. He lost too much of his army to that initial surprise, and didn't have the production to stay in the game for long afterwards.

22:12 GMT (+00:00): MarineKing 2-1 White-Ra. MarineKing tried the 2rax, but White-Ra held it fairly easily. A well timed probe scout caughtthe fact that MarineKing was staying on 1 base, and White-Ra continued to hold off MarineKing's MMM aggression. White-Ra did lose his first colossus, and in overextending to the middle of the map, lost most of the rest of his army. At that point 2base vs 2base, MarineKing eventually wore down White-Ra's army over repeated engagements at the protoss natural. Last-gasp DTs weren't enough to turn the tide, and White-Ra was forced out.

21:52 GMT (+00:00): DeMusliM 2-0 RuFF. DeMusliM's excellent Banshee control put him in an early lead, and his blue flame followup iced the game for him. DeMusliM had some difficulty finishing him off, but eventually built up enough tanks to end it.

21:41 GMT (+00:00): White-Ra 1-1 MarineKing. With MarineKing stubbornly staying on infantry units, White-Ra's tech advantage won him battles all through the game. Early on it was sentries trapping squads while chargelots attacked, and later on it was Colossi melting whole armies together.

21:38 GMT (+00:00): DeMusliM 1-0 RuFF. DeMusliM overpowered RuFF easily in game one, with early aggression leading to a later easy push and win.

21:20 GMT (+00:00): MarineKing 2-0 White-Ra. White-Ra used the rarely-seen gate-nexus-forge build, which left him rather vulnerable to Marineking's mass hellion build. The first group of 4 hellions killed almost 20 probes, and while the second and third waves didn't do much damage, a huge group of about 20 proved too much for White-Ra to handle. A zealot drop in the Terran main was moderately successful, but not nearly enough so to make up for the devastation at home. A last-gasp push with archons was easily held off by a mixed factory defense force, sealing the gg.

20:53 GMT (+00:00): CatsPajamas interviewing Stephano. Apollo and Doa have signed off, with Cats and Painuser ready to take the main stage.

20:50 GMT (+00:00): Stephano 2-0 White-Ra. White-Ra's strong push eliminated Stephano's third base, but he then lost the bulk of his sentries in an ill-advised overextension into the zerg natural. Stephano's macro was still strong, and with White-Ra only on 2 bases, he was unable to keep up. Eventually, Stephano's enormous roach army overpowered White-Ra's forces and forced the GG.

20:37 GMT (+00:00): Hawk 2-0 Machine. Machine had the earlier infestors this time, but he was spread too thin and Hawk's massive Roach army was eventually enough to overrun Machine's many bases.

20:30 GMT (+00:00): Stephano 1-0 White-Ra. Early on, White-Ra was in a fairly strong position. The tides turned when Stephano hid a base in the top left for a very long time. White-Ra looked to be in a good position after sniping Stephano's Greater Spire despite three transfuses, but there were already too many Brood Lords spawned and a neural parasite on the mothership sealed White-Ra's fate. White-Ra tried to hold on as long as he could, but there were simply too many high gas units for Stephano.

20:24 GMT (+00:00): Hawk 1-0 Machine. Hawk's better upgrades and earlier infestors make all the difference, easily taking a decently long win over Machine.

19:45 GMT (+00:00): NonY 2-0 Hashe. NonY's two-base turtle worked again, eventually moving out with a big stalker ball supplemented by Immortals and Colossi. The crucial part were the High Templar that landed enormous storms in the Terran natural, ending the series.

19:42 GMT (+00:00): aLive 2-0 TAiLS. This time it was aLive with the serving of cheese. His Marine/SCV attack was pretty successful, but the bunker he completed wasn't in range of the natural nexus. The economic damage he did early was still enough, though, to win him the game in he end with a stronger army.

19:27 GMT (+00:00): aLive 1-0 TAiLS. TAiLS tried for some proxy robo shenanigans, but aLive scouted it and killed the robo. As his paltry army was caught and killed, TAiLS was forced to gg.

19:23 GMT (+00:00): Nony 1-0 Hashe. Hashe wasn't able to do much damage early game, and Tyler's Colo/Immo-supported force easily held off an eventual BitByBit and won on the counterattack.

19:15 GMT (+00:00): Apollo and DoA have taken over for HDUser on the main stage.

19:10 GMT (+00:00): NesTea (translated by Smix) being interviewed by Megumixbear on the main stream.

19:05 GMT (+00:00): NesTea 2-0 TAiLS. TAiLS hid a pylon in NesTea's main, but perhaps moved too soon when he revealed himself after only one warpin cycle of +1 sentries and zealots. NesTea easily maxed on burrow movement roaches again, and ran free in all three Protoss bases, eventually forcing the GG after remaxing.

18:49 GMT (+00:00): NesTea 1-0 TAiLS. NesTea maxed on roaches while TAiLS had only 116 population worth of 1 attack blink stalkers, and as NesTea's burrowed movement arrived, TAiLS found it impossible to hold him off. Even a pair of immortals weren't enough to stave off the GG.

18:38 GMT (+00:00): TAiLS out to an early lead in the best hair competition

18:28 GMT (+00:00): Now playing: EXID - Whoz That Girl

18:22 GMT (+00:00): NesTea 2-0 aLive. aLive went for the slightly delayed 2rax on Sanshorn Mist, but NesTea scouts it with a drone and easily holds it off. NesTea follows up with a massive 2base baneling bust. aLive tries to counter with banshees, which do a considerable amount of damage, and eventually hellion drops, but Nestea's defense is too strong, and Mutalisks win him the game and the match.

18:00 GMT (+00:00): NesTea 1-0 aLive. aLive did some nice early damage with banshees, but at the crucial moment of the match NesTea caught his whole army while tanks were unsieged and aLive couldn't defend from that point, dying to constantly rallied lings.

17:46 GMT (+00:00): As Lani checks in with casters Wolf and Khaldor on the LiveU stream, our first game is starting!

17:43 GMT (+00:00): PainUser and HD are the first casters up. aLive and NesTea are in their booths, looks like the games will start soon.

17:40 GMT (+00:00): The intro is live, with CatsPajamas narrating. We get our first shot of the stage. Hi Anna!

17:36 GMT (+00:00): An ominous countdown clock appears... what will happen in 4 minutes?

17:30 GMT (+00:00): Back on the main stream, we find a White-Ra interview.

17:28 GMT (+00:00): Lani is back with the roaming cam over at the LiveU Roaming Camera!

17:26 GMT (+00:00): Now playing: After School - Shampoo.

17:21 GMT (+00:00): Now playing: Rainbow - A. Fun fact, the shirt lifting choreography was banned from the live broadcasts in Korea.

17:13 GMT (+00:00): From the LR thread: "It looks like we'll be delayed just a bit before we can kick off the main stage games." Now playing: Girl's Day - Nothing Lasts Forever

17:12 GMT (+00:00): The stream is live! Tune in for some Bubble Pop

17:11 GMT (+00:00): From stream chat: "Mod joshsuth: Hi guys. Delays as expected. =)"

17:05 GMT (+00:00): Looks like there's some difficulty getting the streams running.

16:45 GMT (+00:00): 15 minutes til go time!

All Group Stage Games on IGNProLeague Main Stream

Group A

FnaticRC aLive, IMNesTea, MvPTAiLS
two open bracket players.





aLive vs NesTea - 17:00 GMT (+00:00)

• Game One: On Cloud Kingdom, aLive did some nice early damage with banshees, but at the crucial moment of the match NesTea caught his whole army while tanks were unsieged and aLive couldn't defend from that point, dying to constantly rallied lings.
  
• Game Two: aLive went for the slightly delayed 2rax on Sanshorn Mist, but NesTea scouted it with a drone and easily held it off. NesTea follows up with a massive 2base baneling bust. aLive tries to counter with banshees, which do a considerable amount of damage, and eventually hellion drops, but Nestea's defense was too strong, and Mutalisks won him the game and the match.
  
• aLive 0 - 2 NesTea

Tails vs NesTea - 18:00 GMT (+00:00)

• Game One: NesTea maxed on roaches while TAiLS had only 116 population worth of 1 attack blink stalkers, and as NesTea's burrowed movement arrived, TAiLS found it impossible to hold him off. Even a pair of immortals weren't enough to stave off the GG.
  
• Game Two: TAiLS hid a pylon in NesTea's main, but perhaps moved too soon when he revealed himself after only one warpin cycle of +1 sentries and zealots. NesTea easily maxed on burrow movement roaches again, and ran free in all three Protoss bases, eventually forcing the GG after remaxing.
  
• Tails 0 - 2 NesTea

Tails vs aLive - 19:00 GMT (+00:00)

• Game One: TAiLS tried for some proxy robo shenanigans, but aLive scouted it and killed the robo. As his paltry army was caught and killed, TAiLS was forced to gg.
  
• Game Two: This time it was aLive with the serving of cheese. His Marine/SCV attack was pretty successful, but the bunker he completed wasn't in range of the natural nexus. The economic damage he did early was still enough, though, to win him the game in he end with a stronger army.
  
• Tails 0 - 2 aLive

Group B

MarineKingPrime, Mill.Stephano, Tt.White-Ra
two open bracket players.





Stephano vs White-Ra - 20:00 GMT (+00:00)

• Game One: Early on, White-Ra was in a fairly strong position. The tides turned when Stephano hid a base in the top left for a very long time. White-Ra looked to be in a good position after sniping Stephano's Greater Spire despite three transfuses, but there were already too many Brood Lords spawned and a neural parasite on the mothership sealed White-Ra's fate. White-Ra tried to hold on as long as he could, but there were simply too many high gas units for Stephano.
  
• Game Two: White-Ra's strong push eliminated Stephano's third base, but he then lost the bulk of his sentries in an ill-advised overextension into the zerg natural. Stephano's macro was still strong, and with White-Ra only on 2 bases, he was unable to keep up. Eventually, Stephano's enormous roach army overpowered White-Ra's forces and forced the GG.
  
• Stephano 2 - 0 White-Ra

MarineKing vs White-Ra - 21:00 GMT (+00:00)

• Game One: White-Ra used the rarely-seen gate-nexus-forge build, which left him rather vulnerable to Marineking's mass hellion build. The first group of 4 hellions killed almost 20 probes, and while the second and third waves didn't do much damage, a huge group of about 20 proved too much for White-Ra to handle. A zealot drop in the Terran main was moderately successful, but not nearly enough so to make up for the devastation at home. A last-gasp push with archons was easily held off by a mixed factory defense force, sealing the gg.
  
• Game Two: With MarineKing stubbornly staying on infantry units, White-Ra's tech advantage won him battles all through the game. Early on it was sentries trapping squads while chargelots attacked, and later on it was Colossi melting whole armies together.
  
• Game Three: MarineKing tried the 2rax, but White-Ra held it fairly easily. A well timed probe scout caughtthe fact that MarineKing was staying on 1 base, and White-Ra continued to hold off MarineKing's MMM aggression. White-Ra did lose his first colossus, and in overextending to the middle of the map, lost most of the rest of his army. At that point 2base vs 2base, MarineKing eventually wore down White-Ra's army over repeated engagements at the protoss natural. Last-gasp DTs weren't enough to turn the tide, and White-Ra was forced out.
  
• MarineKing 1 - 1 White-Ra

MarineKing vs Stephano - 22:00 GMT (+00:00)

• Game One: After a restart, Stephano's early roach-ling aggression was perhaps surprisingly effective, putting him at a 50 supply advantage. MarineKing did get up siege tanks and blue flame hellions, but Stephano was so confident in his lead that he put up proxy hatches at three different locations outside the Terran Base. Finally loading up his army in overlords, Stephano dropped on MarineKing's army, forcing the GG.
  
• Game Two: MarineKing went for early banshees and didn't do a ton of damage, but for some reason Stephano teched to ultralisks. MarineKing's MMM+tank army was too much for Stephano's ultraling+infestor, forcing a game three.
  
• Game Three: Stephano was in a decent position, but once again chose to stick with Ultralisks. MarineKing's excellent positioning and micro let him triumph in battle after battle. A lone infestor took out a huge chunk of SCVs with double fungal but it was too little too late and MarineKing marauded through Stephano's half of the map, taking the game and the series.
  
• MarineKing 2 - 1 Stephano

Group C

SK_MC, TSLPolt, EG.PuMa
two open bracket players.





Polt vs PuMa - 23:00 GMT (+00:00)

• Game One: Puma easily defended Polt's cloaked banshees, losing almost nothing. Polt did maintain better map control, and his earlier third gave him an economic Lead. Puma's mastery of the air gave him a huge midgame advantage, but an unsiege at a key time lost him almost all he worked for. He tried to regain an advantage with a ninja planetary in the bottom right, but Polt had too much of a lead by that point and eventually choked Puma out.
  
• Game Two: In a reversal of last game, this time it was Polt with the lead and Puma catching tanks unsieged, then using that advantage to ride out the rest of the game for a victory. Third game coming up.
  
• Game Three: Just when Polt looked to be solidifying a macro advantage, PuMa dropped in the main, drawing Polt's attention away. He took that opportunity to press in the main army, severely reducing Polt's tank account. Overconfident from this, he charged into Polt's army by the central watch tower but was demolished there. Polt took that opportunity to clear out Puma's third, solidifying his economic and army advantage. Puma attempts to drop in on that small force, but loses his troops as they're dropped one by one and Polt easily steamrolls him for the GG in the final battle.
  
• Polt 2 - 1 PuMa

MC vs PuMa - 00:00 GMT (+00:00)

• Game One: With perfect timing, PuMa sent a banshee into the protoss mineral line just as MC warped in to try to break the terran natural. The banshee killed 12 probes, and PuMa was able to hold his natural. MC did some cute play to trap tanks and kill some more SCVs with drops and highground vision, and then PuMa then made the mistake of the game when he lifted up the barracks that was researching stim, not realizing it until the next major battle (which he lost). As MC dropped the fourth with a pair of archons, the bulk of his army went for the main. Puma kited nicely away from the chargelots, but a storm on his army pretty much ended the game.
  
• Game Two: MC once again went for the bust at the natural, and this time Puma held it off with a high ground sieged tank. His banshee in MC's base got 30 probe kills, giving him an enormous lead. Both players continued to tech up, MC going for colossus and charge, and Puma already starting viking production and working on upgrades. Puma perhaps sat back too long though, letting MC catch up and even win battles with very nice force fields. MC's storms in the next two battles after that were huge, and as more and more rallied in he finished the comeback.
  
• MC 2 - 0 PuMa

MC vs Polt - 01:00 GMT (+00:00)

• Game One: The key moment of the game was when Polt stimmed forward with a decently sized MMM group, not only sniping MC's third nexus but also spotting the first colossus, allowing him to start up viking production. When MC got across the map, Polt's own Barracks worked against him, blocking him from the Protoss army, but after the force fields expired he stimmed forward and took out MC's entire army. Polt was then able to split up his army into two groups that each did huge damage, one to MC's structures and one to MC's army, forcing the GG.
  
• Game Two: Polt's trademark marauders moved in to take out MC's natural expansion, and from there on it was simply a matter of strangling the Protoss out. MC attempted some warp prism play, but it was never able to do enough damage to take the pressure off and he was forced to GG as he could never get a new second base yet.
  
• MC 0 - 2 Polt

Group D

ST_Bomber, EG.IdrA, SlayerS_MMA
two open bracket players.





Bomber vs IdrA - 02:00 GMT (+00:00)

• Game One: Unable to do significant early damage, Bomber sat back and macroed. When he finally moved out, IdrA's massive ling backstab took out the Terran third. IdrA's third was lost in the trade, but he had a hidden fourth, enabling him to tech to ultras against the marine-tank army. While he had infestors alive, it was hugely successul, but he did lose most of his infestors in one battle. Bomber started stockpiling marauders as IdrA stuck with ultralisks despite having creater spire, and IdrA's reduced infestor count just didn't have enough fungals to deal the killing blow. Eventually the economic advantage was just too much, and Bomber was forced to GG when he ran out of units.
  
• Game Two: Bomber went for the same build as lats game, but this time was somewhat more successful, taking out 14 drones before finally being fended off. Multiple times it looked like Bomber would do even more damage, but he was just barely unable to deal a truly significant blow. In the main divergence from the previous game, Bomber then moved into heavy mech production, with blue flame, siege, and thors already in production by the time Idra put down his third. IdrA chose to go for heavily upgraded roaches and overlord drops, and took advantage of the Mech immobility to wreak mayhem in Bomber's base. Somehow Bomber held on, and with IdrA unable to deal the finishing blow (some help due to an enormous drone BBQ), Bomber maxed out and then took out all of Idra's burrowed infestors with a decisive scan.
  
• Game Three: Once again IdrA did a really nice backstab, thanks in part to Bomber leaving his depot wall down, but Bomber's enormous hellion/marauder push was too strong, and IdrA was forced to GG with not nearly enough to defend.
  
• Bomber 2 - 1 IdrA

MMA vs IdrA - 03:00 GMT (+00:00)

• Game One: IdrA's very nice early aggression shut down mining at MMA's natural for a while, and also let him put up his own third. The attack also delayed MMA's banshees enough that IdrA could set up a nice defense, losing almost nothing. MMA then moved out to take out IdrA's third, and even timely infestors and transfuses weren't enough to finish off the army. IdrA had some zergling upgrades finish and more infestor to pop out, but MMA's macro is too much. IdrA didn't have sufficient army to take on more than one of MMA's multi-pronged attacks, and GGed after losing his third and his army.
  
• Game Two: Idra killed a lot of SCVs early with two ling attacks into the natural - one when MMA knew he didn't have a wall, and one when MMA thought he had a wall but it wasn't full. Seeing blue flame, IdrA chose to go for heavy roaches with some infestors, and realy nice fungals held MMA off for a while but reinforcements and banshees let MMA continue attacking. Idra went for another backstab into the third, doing decent damage but a bunker was ready to defend it. MMA's forces were eventually too much, and finding himself unable to match the production, IdrA GGed.
  
• MMA 2 - 0 IdrA

MMA vs Bomber - 04:00 GMT (+00:00)

• Game One: Clear crowd favorite MMA went for the more conservative build, with Bomber trying the 14cc. MMA beelined for cloak banshee, but his tentative handling of it let Bomber prepare a decent defense. Bomber then went for a marine drop into MMA's main, evening out the SCVs killed in one fell swoop. Bomber continued his aggression as he macroed up, setting an earlier third and working on upgrades. Bomber had commanding leads at multiple points, but MMA held on with nice baiting into tanks and medivac snipes. MMA went for a last-gasp base race, but Bomber's economic advantage was too much and MMA threw away ay chance he had attacking a planetary.
  
• Game Two: MMA chose proxy marauders, but Bomber scouted it and immediately aimed for cloaked banshees. The banshee was very successful, supply blocking MMA, and then tanks and marines brought into the main finished the game. See you tomorrow!
  
• MMA 0 - 2 Bomber

Open Bracket Games on IGNProleague Stream 2

Nony vs Hashe - 19:00 GMT (+00:00) - Winners Round One

• Game One: Hashe wasn't able to do much damage early game, and Tyler's Colo/Immo-supported force easily held off an eventual BitByBit and won on the counterattack.
  
• Game Two: NonY's two-base turtle worked again, eventually moving out with a big stalker ball supplemented by Immortals and Colossi. The crucial part were the High Templar that landed enormous storms in the Terran natural, ending the series.
  
• NonY 2 - 0 Hashe

Hawk vs Machine - 20:00 GMT (+00:00) - Winners Round One

• Game One: Hawk's better upgrades and earlier infestors make all the difference, easily taking a decently long win over Machine.
  
• Game Two: Machine had the earlier infestors this time, but he was spread too thin and Hawk's massive Roach army was eventually enough to overrun Machine's many bases.
  
• Hawk 2-0 Machine

RuFF vs DeMusliM - 21:30 GMT (+00:00) - Losers Round One

• Game One: DeMusliM overpowered RuFF easily in game one, with early aggression leading to a later easy push and win.
  
• Game Two: DeMusliM's excellent Banshee control put him in an early lead, and his blue flame followup iced the game for him. DeMusliM had some difficulty finishing him off, but eventually built up enough tanks to end it.
  
• RuFF 0-2 DeMusliM

viOLet vs Jinro - 22:30 GMT (+00:00) - Winners Round Two

• Game One: Jinro defended upgraded ling aggression well, but had no Vikings when the Brood Lord+Infestor swarm appeared. He lost too much of his army to that initial surprise, and didn't have the production to stay in the game for long afterwards.
  
• Game Two: A huuuuuge baneling bust, supported by lings and mutas, rolled into Jinro's natural, and the Liquid Terran was forced to GG.
  
• viOLet 2-0 Jinro

SeleCT vs NasD - 00:00 GMT (+00:00) - Losers Round Two

• Game One: The stream cut out during the game.
  
• Game Two: NasD went for a one-base Marine-Tank-Raven push, and Select defended his two bases with only minor losses. After a short while of macroing up, he counterattacked, sneaking around behind NasD's army to take out the natural and forcing the GG with some nice tank positioning.
  
• SeleCT 2-0 NasD

Scarlett vs Oz - 01:15 GMT (+00:00) - Winners Round Three

• Game One: Scarlett jumped out to an early lead, eventually getting up to a 40 supply lead before Oz was able to take of sentries and colossi in chokes midgame to level the playing field. Scarlett built up a huge flock of mutas and accompanying gaggle of infestors, forcing Oz to try to delay until storm and a mothership hit the field. The mothership arrived just as the fight commenced, and with no vortex or storm, the huge Zerg army won through, giving Scarlett game 1.
  
• Game Two: This was an insane back and forth game. It looked like Scarlett might win right off the bat, with very aggressive ling play busting the forge FE. Next it was Oz putting pressure on and nearly killing the Zerg third, before Scarlett's roaches turned around and couldn't quite kill the Protoss third. In the defining midgame battles, Oz had just a little bit too much tech for Scarlett, with his colossi and immortals supplementing the stalker ball to give him an edge over Scarlett's pure roach armies. Infestor tech was too late, and Oz cleanly finished the second game.
  
• Game Three: Oz's first main attack didn't arrive sufficiently early to beat hydras, but Scarlett's counterattack was only moderately successful, not doing significant damage. Her next attempts as she teched up still didn't do a ton of damage. Continually maxing on roaches and going for attacks on the Protoss base, she kept the pressure on, leaving two nexuses at half armor and preventing any fourth. At the end, Scarlett was left with too many hydras and corruptors and not enough brood lords or infestors, and after a decisive battle Oz sent her to the lower bracket.
  
• Scarlett 1-2 Oz

PartinG vs GanZi - 04:00 GMT (+00:00) - Winners Round Five

• Game One: In a move that took everyone by surprise, GanZi went for an extremely fast expansion at the island closest to PartinG's base on Sanshorn Mist. PartinG detected it right when his warp prism was popping out, but GanZi had his own medivacs by that point, defending the base. With that economic advantage, GanZi kept the pressure on the rest of the game. PartinG continually barely defended by the skin of his teeth though, and was able to prevent GanZi from doing much economic damage. PartinG finally took a supply lead again 23 minutes in, also stockpiling a lot of heavy gas units while GanZi's tech was still not very impressive. In the decisive engagement, GanZi was just barely unable to take out PartinG's fourth nexus and GGed after losing his army.
  
• Game Two: In a blast from the past, GanZi went for a 1-1-1 attack reminiscent of PuMa a few months ago. GanZi had nice banshee micro, and Parting's defense wasn't quite enough.
  
• Game Three: Parting chose not to go for a standard game, but GanZi's build seemed well tailored for it. The Terran gained an early advantage, and although he didn't attack until he maxed, that advantage was enough for GanZi to easily triumph in the ending battle despite good forcefields by PartinG.
  
• PartinG 1-2 GanZi

SaSe vs Golden - 05:00 GMT (+00:00) - Losers Round Six

• Game One: SaSe's cannon rush worked spectacularly against Golden's hatch first on Tal'Darim Altar, and from then on it was just a matter of maintaining the advantage until Golden gave up.
  
• Game Two: Sase built a ton of phoenix and killed a ton of overlords and queens. Knowing that Golden would turn to hydralisks, Sase then went straight for storm while continuing the harassment. Golden repeatedly attacked Sase's third. The first time was defended by storms, but the second time he was successful in taking out the Nexus. Now with his back against the wall, Sase needed to move out against a roach-maxing Golden. Sase had enough blink stalkers with supporting higher tech units to take out a number of roach armies and eventually end the game.
  
• SaSe 2-0 Golden

HuK vs Virus - 05:45 GMT (+00:00) - Losers Round 7

• Game One: We didn't really see anything because of an Xsplit mistake. Apparently it was a successful 5gate by Huk.
  
• Game Two: After a quick restart to get on the right version of the map, HuK tried for some Blink Stalker aggression, but didn't manage to do a lot besides sniping the tech lab upgrading combat shields. Virus had a nice advantage, but didn't really use it, only managing a failed drop and still not getting combat shield. He did tech to Ghosts, but great feedbacks neutered the majority of those ghosts, allowing HuK to take the lead. HuK impatiently went for the "anti-timing" (joining battle just before his upgrades finished), but his army was so overwhelming that he eliminated Virus.
  
• HuK 2-0 Virus

HuK vs Curious - 06:30 GMT (+00:00) - Losers Round 8

• Game One: Huk first aimed for an 8-gate, one of his favorite builds on this map according to Axslav. Curious might have known this too, as he scouted it almost immediately. HuK changed tactics to charge and dark templars, but Curious scouted that too, and reacted with a big roach push that strolled into Huk's natural. HuK had chargelots take out the zerg third, but it clearly wasn't enough and he quickly GG'd.
  
• Game Two: HuK chose the 8-gate again, but this time Curious wasn't prepared for it. HuK easily took down the third, and when he found himself unable to do further damage in the zerg natural, he wisely retreating and gassing up. Well-placed force fields thwarted Curious's attempted aggression. HuK was in a very confident place, but actually overextended, caught offguard with insufficient tech against burrowed movement speed +1 roaches. Curious had unstoppable momentum at that point, advancing into the groups tomorrow.
  
• HuK 0-2 Curious

Notable off-stream results