After what he went through, it would be understandable if he collapsed.

The sheer rollercoaster of emotions would be enough to cripple a lesser will.

Not today. Not aLive.

After taking on the three players who looked the strongest in the group stage (MarineKing, Polt, and NesTea, in order), aLive made it to the finals of his first major live tournament. He was taking on a formidable PvTer in Squirtle, whose double forge and double colossus builds had been giving Terrans fits all tournament. He didn't blink though. aLive sprinted out to a quick 2-0 match lead, putting him on the brink of victory. In the third game, his cheese looked like it worked, but as it petered out, he had to move on to another game. In the fourth game, he once again looked like he had it locked up, only to somehow lose again. He wasn't even close to winning the fifth game of that set.

Another player might have gone crazy at that point, twice thinking he'd won, only to have a series reset. After that crazy comeback, Squirtle had all the momentum and the crowd on his side.

aLive held strong, though. For the first game in the new set, he deftly executed a cheese despite having it scouted, gaining him back the momentum. The second set was a blind counter victory, maybe not showing his skill, but reinforcing his belief in victory. The third game was a long macro game, and though aLive was ahead early, it looked like the door was open for a Squirtle comeback. With incredible perseverance through the doubt that must have been in his mind, aLive slammed that door shut, seizing the trophy.

Couldn't Quite Catch 'Em All

Squirtle's run at this tournament shouldn't be ignored. He was one of eight players from the open bracket to qualify for group play. He was the only open bracket player to make it through groups to the championship bracket. And today he played a true marathon schedule, losing in the first round of the winners bracket before grinding all the way through the losers bracket. In doing so, he took down three of the best terrans in the world (MarineKing, MMA, and Bomber), and battled through a questionable regame against NesTea. By the time he reached the final, his strategies had been exposed and he must have been exhausted, but even when he was on the brink of defeat he never gave up. Squirtle deserves huge props for his effort this weekend.

Out in the Blink of an Eye

Even a double elimination system wasn't enough to prevent MarineKing and NesTea's exits from seeming all too quick. After dominating the first two days of competition, each of these players lost two consecutive series, and just like that were out of the tournament. NesTea made it further, finishing with an admirable third place for somebody many were writing off as washed up. MarineKing has to be disappointed with his performance. After recent excellent play in foreign tournaments and a huge performance in GSTL the day prior, his quick descent out of the tournament courtesy of aLive and Squirtle was rather shocking. These two players would do well to take more out of the start of this weekend than the end.

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Recent Updates

06:53 GMT (+00:00): aLive 3-0 Squirtle. With both players FEing, a small clash happened in the center of the map. It was aLive who came out on top, giving him the early map control. The forward pylons he set up from there were well hunted, and as both players moved into upgrades, aLive set out with a pair of medivacs full of marines. Dropping them in the protoss base, he killed only as small number of probes. Squirtle's solid defense let him transition nicely into a macro game, grabbing tons of upgrades out of two forges, and teching to blink stalkers and colossi off three bases. aLive took his own third, massing vikings. Squirtle hallucinated a number of colossi to tank early viking volleys, but still barely lost the first engagement. He seemed to be effectively attacking the third with blink stalkers, but aLive's constant reinforcements were too much for Squirtle, and unable to keep up with the macro after having his warp gates depowered by a drop, Squirtle couldn't hold on. aLive is the new IPL Champion!

06:31 GMT (+00:00): aLive 2-0 Squirtle. Neither player expanded early in this game, aLive rushing cloaked banshees. Squirtle , for his part, only planted a nexus with his twilight council halfway done, then going into DTs. aLive's starport was perfectly placed to spot squirtle's forward pylon, but coudn't take it out before Squirtle's hallucinated phoenix gave vision for a pair of DTs to warp in. Squirtle, though, had no detection whatsoever against the cloaked banshees, and when aLive scanned and killed the DTs, the championship was once again one game away from being claimed.

06:21 GMT (+00:00): aLive 1-0 Squirtle. aLive chose a proxy 2rax with pure marines, sending SCVs out to bunker up Squirtle's natural. Despite scouting it, Squirtle couldn't prevent the first bunker from completing, and after sacrificing almost all his probes and most of his zealots taking down the second bunker, he tapped out.

05:58 GMT (+00:00): Squirtle 3-2 aLive.In the fifth and deciding game on Antiga Shipyard, aLive's one rax FE was up against was up against Squirtle's one gate FE. Each player then added two more of their basic unit producing structures. aLive teched for stim and starport, and his pair of bunkers was enough to fend off Squirtle's first attempt at aggression. With a false sense of security, aLive salvaged one of his bunkers right as Squirtle ran up the ramp, and well before medivacs arrived, Squirtle busted the natural and then, with a couple more warpins, broke into the main and sent us to another best of five.

05:37 GMT (+00:00): Squirtle 2-2 aLive. Both players started with fairly conservative standard opening, Squirtle thinking about a greedy fast 4gas but cancelling the second and third when he spotted a small number of marines on the map. His observer crossed the map to spot aLives's reactored starport, forge, and heavy marine production, and he wisely turned around instead of attacking into an army whose stim upgrade had just finished. aLive loaded up a pair of medivacs and snuck around Squirtle's vision to drop in the main, but Squirtle's forces were close enough to defend. aLive sprinted in a couple marines to the natural to pick off a sentry and re-unloaded his medivacs in the main, only to lose everything. Squirtle teched to colossus and chargelots, but having seen immortals in his drop, this time aLive started viking production much sooner. As both players took their thirds, aLive continued to try to drop to no avail, especially with Squirtle's tech switched high templars ready to feedback incoming medivacs. The two armies jockeyed around the middle of the map, neither able to get into a good enough position to take down a base or fully engage. They clashed a number of times, and when aLive landed a huge EMP on 5 high etmplars, he took that as his cue to rush in, destroying Squirtle's army. It looked like he would win right there, but he impatiently rushed way too far in, losing his whole army and finding himself way behind in tech and economy with Squirtle's 4th base up and running. aLive never took a fourth base, even bizarrely long-distance mining from his would-be fourth. When Squirtle was maxed on high-gas units, aLive still only had 150 food and four ghosts. The caster management on the final engagement wasn't perfect for Squirtle, but the army disparity was too much, sending the series to a fifth game.

05:09 GMT (+00:00): Squirtle 1-2 aLive. With a gasless FE, aLive started pumping marines and never stopped for the next 5 minutes, putting Squirtle in such a dire position that he had to pull probes. When he was finally repelled, he regrouped at his own natural while starting a 3rd CC, grabbing all 4 gasses, and starting on infantry upgrades and tech. For his part, Squirtle continued with the colossus rush build that gave him so much success in his earlier TvPs.He pushed out with two colossi, forcing aLive to abandon his third. aLive, never able to get a proper army together after his early aggression, couldn't hold it off. Squirtle stopped a drop at his own main to secure the game and hold on to his tournament life.

04:49 GMT (+00:00): aLive 2-0 Squirtle. aLive's first thought was a 2rax, but after Squirtle scouted that, he switched to cloaked banshees while Squirtle planted seven gateways. He moved out just as the first banshee popped out, arriving at the natural to find aLive with two bunkers. The force fields did a decent job of preventing repairing, but Squirtle had scouted the attack moving across the field, and had even more bunkers prepared. aLive wisely sent his very first banshee directly across the map to kill workers, managing a decent amount before the observer spawned. Squirtle was well prepared for aLive's next couple banshees, fending them off while he teched for immortals and churned out upgrades. The banshees may have even worked against aLive, drawig troops to the very spot he would later try to drop. aLive's harassing raven scouted Squirtle's colossus tech, prompting him to load up 4 more medivacs, dropping into the protoss main base while another infantry group charged the natural. In both places, aLive's army had the edge, and Squirtle GGed out, leaving aLive one game from the championship!

04:30 GMT (+00:00): aLive 1-0 Squirtle. aLive scouted Squirtle's proxy stargate attempt, forcing a cancel, then took his marines and marched across the map, walking in a gap in the forcefields to get up Squrtle's natural ramp and take out the Nexus there. Squirtle eventuallly repelled that force, but only after losing even more probes. By this time, aLive had his own natural well secured, with 4 barracks pumping out infantry. Once more infantry upgrades finishe,d aLive ran against the map once again, stimming to try to get up the natural ramp. This time, Squirtle's force fieldsl were impccaple, blocking movement and trapping a few units at time. Sentry energy doesn't last forever though, and as it depleted and aLive's reinforcements alived, he continued to pressure the choke. Squirtle teched for zealot charge and psi storm, even charging out to meet aLive head on. With a small drop ravaging his base and all his zealots evaporated, Squirtle tapped out of the first game.

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Winners Bracket Games on Both Streams

MMA vs MarineKing - 17:00 GMT (+00:00) - Winners Round One

• Game One: Against MMA's CC first, Marineking went for reactored marines, hellions, and quick medivac. MMA got a bunker up before MarineKing could do much time, but MarineKign just lifted into the main to kill 12 SCVs. MMA defended well though, even picking off a medivac. MarineKing stuck on one base for a long time as he teched for siege and banshees, finally expanding extremely late. When his siege tanks arrived, he tried again to bust the natural. MMA's vikings and marauders broke that contain, and he then turned around to try to drop MarineKing. Initially unsuccessful, he hung around with some marines until he was able to distract MarineKing and do heavy damage in the natural. MarineKing turned around to go on the offensive, and with a critical mass of siege tanks, MarineKing was able to force MMA to abandon his natural and eventually the game when his last-gasp drop couldn't do enough and his planetary at the 3rd fell.
  
• Game Two: MMA's Cloaked banshees weren't able to cause much damage, killing a few marines but barely any SCVs. MarineKing upgraded his marines, moving across the map at the perfect time to take out MMA's natural. When MMA's tech lab was sniped before it could finish stim, he recognized the futility of his situation and GGed.
  
• MMA 0 - 2 MarineKing

Polt vs aLive - 18:00 GMT (+00:00) - Winners Round One

• Game One: Polt's perfectly-timed scan caught aLive's cloaked banshees just beginning, letting him prepare a defense for the eventual tank-banshee push. Polt amassed a massive marine-medivac army, faking toward the third but then charging the main, doing some damage but falling quickly to blue flame hellions and reinforcing tanks. Polt continued to use his better mobility to threaten multiple areas, both the third and outside the natural. Polt eventually built up enough tanks that aLive's viking and upgrade superiority wasn't enough to hold everywhere at once, handing Polt game one.
  
• Game Two: Although base trades were a common sight in the fist two days of TvT, this was certainly the earliest of any, only ten minutes in. aLive's tank/banshee/marine army was much stronger than Polt's expeditionary force, and when Polt's army was destroyed, he GGed out.
  
• Game Three: On Antiga Shipyard, aLive chose the same hellion-medivac-marine push that MarineKing did in his first game vs MMA, dropping straight into the main and gaining a nice economic advantage that carried him into the midgame. With superior upgrades, aLive initially controlled the middle of the map and was able to get better positioning. When Polt finally took the middle, aLive continued to pepper his main with drops and then ran marines around to Polt's third to take out the CC. This forced Polt to move out, but he didn't have enough to confront aLive's army head-on. He even lost a clutch of tanks in a move command error, but a great siege positioning and elevator play let him destroy a huge amount in aLive's main. Polt temporarily took the central base, but aLive task forces took out that and stopped mining at the third for some time. With neither player mining much, both were reluctant to engage. In the end, it was aLive who was better able to keep mining, and after a suicidal marine attack into sieged tanks, Polt GGed.
  
• Polt 1 - 2 aLive

Bomber vs Stephano - 18:00 GMT (+00:00) - Winners Round One

• Game One: On Daybreak, both players seemed largely content to sit back and macro for the first ten minutes. Bomber finally tried to make something happen with drops and then pressure on Stephano's fourth, taking out the base. Nicely placed tanks forced Stephano to abandon that position. Bomber kept up the pressure, but huge fungals by Stephano delayed long enough for brood lords to come out. Bomber was caught with his pants down when the brood lords arrived, without a single viking. Stephano continued to press that advantage until bomber was forced to give up.
  
• Game Two: Not wanting to give Stephano as much room to breathe, Bomber attempted a marauder-hellion attack. Stephano sensed it coming, though, and built a ton of roaches which defended easily with a smattering of zerglings. Stephano counterattacked with a big batch of zerglings and roaches, and after his own failed pressure, Bomber didn't have nearly enough to defend.
  
• Bomber 0 - 2 Stephano

NesTea vs Squirtle - 19:00 GMT (+00:00) - Winners Round One

• Game One: NesTea did an excellent job of preventing forward pylons to discourage any early aggression for Squirtle, who teched to immortals and blink against NesTea's upgraded roach army. As NesTea maxed out, he attempted to pressure both the third and natural while taking his own fourth. His burrow shenanigans were well shut down by an observer from Squirtle, and the immortals and stalkers mowed through underground roaches. Squirtle immediately counterattack, and NesTea was never able to muster a response.
  
• Game Two: Up one game, Squirtle took a risk with 4gate DTs. NesTea was caught completetyl off guard with no evo chamber or lair when the Dark Shrine was finished, losing his third for it before finally getting detection. Squirtle transitioned to blink and robo, but never got up a mass of immortals, so NesTea's roach army was able to bust through Squirtle's front to end the game.
  
• Game Three: Squirtle's forge FE and pylon block got him his natural up first. Undeterred, NesTea instead put his first expansion up at the third. Once that hatchery popped, he turned his production to exclusively zerglings and roaches, finding Squirtle with not nearly enough units to defend his expansion or main.
  
• NesTea 2 - 1 Squirtle

MarineKing vs aLive - 20:00 GMT (+00:00) - Winners Round Two

• Game One: MarineKing lost surprisingly little to aLive's proxy marauders, despite not scouting it. aLive looked in a lot of trouble on the counterattack, until his bunker at the top of his ramp completed just in time. MarineKing caught aLive offguard with a followup drop, taking out 11 workers. MarineKing stuck on 1 base, setting up shop below aLive's base to do nice damage until his banshees were taken down. aLive's double OC actually put him at a nice economic advantage, and when aLive pushed forward he caught MarineKing unsieged to do a lot of damage. alive caught MarineKing trying to sneak a third base to fuel his mech army, but lost his whole force and didn't take down the command center. aLive continued to utilize his mobility to keep the tank count low through quick attacks and drops, eventually amassing enough tanks himself to halt MarineKing's fourth and halt mining at the third, eventually choking him out of the game.
  
• Game Two: aLive went for an in-base CC and upgraded infantry while Marineking expanded behind hellions and a banshee. aLive had just enough marauders and marines to hold off the early aggression. Marineking's follow-up siege push forced aLive to abandon his natural, just as he himself had to lift his natural CC thanks to a small bio task force. Neither player was able to push into the main. Once again the armies went around each other, MarineKing's tank-marine army pushing through the center to kill aLive's natural while aLive's double drop assaulted MarineKing's nat once again. Although the game didn't end right there, aLive suffered much more damage, surrendering after a couple more waves of reinforcements for MarineKing.
  
• Game Three: Just like in game 1, aLive tried proxy marauders, and just like in game 1, it didn't do anything, and just like in game 1, MKP's counterattack was halted by a bunker. This time, MarineKing's tepid banshee play left him behind in economy, so he couldn't sufficently defend aLive's drop play. Once aLive had sieged tanks in MarineKing's main, MarineKing was forced to give up the series and head to the Loser's Bracket.
  
• MarineKing 1 - 2 aLive

Stephano vs NesTea - 20:00 GMT (+00:00) - Winners Round Two

• Game One: NesTea caught Stephano overdroning, and used that early advantage of an extra round of zerglings to end the game before Stephano's economic advantage could kick in.
  
• Game Two: Once again it was NesTea on the early offensive, trying to sneak a spine cralwer on the edge of Stepahno's creep to go along with a round of Zerglings. Stephano defended easily this time, sending out a gaggle of zerglings to try to delay NesTea's natural while saturating his own and working to banelings and upgraded roaches. NesTea scouted Stephano's banelings, and both players took their thirds at almost the exact same time. When the first major battle was joined, Nestea had a slightly lower roach count but was able to defend thanks to closer reinforcements, sending Stephano scurrying home. Stephano had better upgrades, but Nestea was adding Hydralisks to the mix. While a major battle was taking place at NesTea's third, Stephano was sneaking burrowed roaches in to NesTea's main and nat, causing enough economic damage o give him the advantage in the next engagement went Stephano's way, with another burrowed roach force giving him enough economic advantage to end the game.
  
• Game Three: NesTea's fantastic splitting neutralized Stephano's 1-base baneling play, and when NesTea's counterattack left Stephano with almost no drones, Stephano tapped out, sending NesTea to the Winner's Final.
  
• Stephano 1 - 2 NesTea

NesTea vs aLive - 00:00 GMT (+00:00) - Winners Final

• Game One:NesTea sensed aLive's one-base cloaked banshee and had plenty of preparation, preventing any major damage through use of queens, spores, and overseers. When aLive moved forward with tons of SCVs, marines, and hellions to supplement the banshees, he took out the natural with the help of reinforcing tanks and even moved into the main before finally being cleaned up. As NesTea retook his natural and third, he built up a big flock of mutas that ended up controlling the midgame. aLive sat back and built up a marine-medivac tank force that eventually was enough to take out NesTea's 3rd and supressed attempts to settle a new one. Never able to get enough of an economy, NesTea was eventually forced out of the game after aLive settled his own third.
  
• Game Two: aLive built up a ton of upgraded marines then supplemented them with medivacs early. He executed a nice trap at the smoked watchtower on Daybreak, surprising anumber of roaches. When the medivacs arrived, aLive loaded up two to go in the main base and snipe the spawning pool. NesTea's spire finished around the same time as baneling speed, as aLive started pumping out tanks. aLive tried a couple more drops before mutas established air superiority. After some excellent medivac snipes over the terrarium between aLive's second and third base, NesTea rolled in with a huge ling-bane force to take out aLive's third, although giving up his own fourth in the exchange. As aLive moved forward to try to resecure his third, NesTea rolled in with more banelings, catching the tanks unsieged, only to explode most of his banes on tanks. NesTea continued to leverage his greater economy to produce mass banelings, killing aLive's new third with banes alone. He continued to backstab with zerglings as aLive moved out with his whole army to NesTea's third. NesTea had enough banes to take out all of aLive's first wave of tanks and still have some left over. As aLive continued to try to pressure the Zerg bases, NesTea simply continued to morph wave after wave of banelings until they finally connected with aLive's marine force. Never able to get his third going, aLive found himself spread too thin for all of NesTea's attacks. NesTea finished the game with some nice fungals, tying the series.
  
• Game Three: Some early marine/bunker aggression forced NesTea to pull drones, but didn't have any great consquence. aLive was supremely prepared for nestea's baneling bust, and as all of the banes either exploded on barracks or were shelled down by siege tanks, aLive took game three with ease.
  
• Game Four: aLive again tried to bunker NesTea's hatch first, this time not even completing the bunker. He then teched for blue flame hellions, checking for a third and not finding one due to Nestea's macro hatch in his natural. As he built up a squadron of blue flame hellions, aLive also added a viking to harass overlords and a medivac full of marines. His attempts to break into the zerg natural met with resistance, aLive dropped the main, finding no success there either. Once NesTea's spire completed, he was able to shut down the drop and viking play. aLive then took his third and attempted to frustrate NesTea's mining at his fourth. NesTea was the first to move out significantly, stopping mining at aLive's third. When aLive attempted a counterpush, he was met with NesTea's fungals and banelings, and a few small drops were shut down. aLive went for one last push, and caught NesTea's brood lords unsupported, and although his own main was ravaged by backstabbing zerglings, NesTea didn't have enough of an infestor count to pin down aLive's marines. The game then took a turn for the base race, and with each player on only one mining base, NesTea simply didn't have enough ground dps to stop aLive's marines, spelling his descent to the loser's bracket.
  
• NesTea 1 - 3 aLive

aLive vs Squirtle - 02:00 GMT (+00:00) - Grand Final

• Game One: aLive scouted Squirtle's proxy stargate attempt, forcing a cancel, then took his marines and marched across the map, walking in a gap in the forcefields to get up Squrtle's natural ramp and take out the Nexus there. Squirtle eventuallly repelled that force, but only after losing even more probes. By this time, aLive had his own natural well secured, with 4 barracks pumping out infantry. Once more infantry upgrades finishe,d aLive ran against the map once again, stimming to try to get up the natural ramp. This time, Squirtle's force fieldsl were impccaple, blocking movement and trapping a few units at time. Sentry energy doesn't last forever though, and as it depleted and aLive's reinforcements alived, he continued to pressure the choke. Squirtle teched for zealot charge and psi storm, even charging out to meet aLive head on. With a small drop ravaging his base and all his zealots evaporated, Squirtle tapped out of the first game.
  
• Game Two: aLive's first thought was a 2rax, but after Squirtle scouted that, he switched to cloaked banshees while Squirtle planted seven gateways. He moved out just as the first banshee popped out, arriving at the natural to find aLive with two bunkers. The force fields did a decent job of preventing repairing, but Squirtle had scouted the attack moving across the field, and had even more bunkers prepared. aLive wisely sent his very first banshee directly across the map to kill workers, managing a decent amount before the observer spawned. Squirtle was well prepared for aLive's next couple banshees, fending them off while he teched for immortals and churned out upgrades. The banshees may have even worked against aLive, drawig troops to the very spot he would later try to drop. After scouting Squirtle dropping his third, aLive's harassing raven scouted Squirtle's colossus tech, prompting him to load up four medivacs. He dropped those into the protoss main base while another infantry group charged the natural. In both places, aLive's army had the edge, and Squirtle GGed out, leaving aLive one game from the championship!
  
• Game Three: With a gasless FE, aLive started pumping marines and never stopped for the next 5 minutes, putting Squirtle in such a dire position that he had to pull probes. When he was finally repelled, he regrouped at his own natural while starting a 3rd CC, grabbing all 4 gasses, and starting on infantry upgrades and tech. For his part, Squirtle continued with the colossus rush build that gave him so much success in his earlier TvPs.He pushed out with two colossi, forcing aLive to abandon his third. aLive, never able to get a proper army together after his early aggression, couldn't hold it off. Squirtle stopped a drop at his own main to secure the game and hold on to his tournament life.
  
• Game Four: Both players started with fairly conservative standard opening, Squirtle thinking about a greedy fast 4gas but cancelling the second and third when he spotted a small number of marines on the map. His observer crossed the map to spot aLives's reactored starport, forge, and heavy marine production, and he wisely turned around instead of attacking into an army whose stim upgrade had just finished. aLive loaded up a pair of medivacs and snuck around Squirtle's vision to drop in the main, but Squirtle's forces were close enough to defend. aLive sprinted in a couple marines to the natural to pick off a sentry and re-unloaded his medivacs in the main, only to lose everything. Squirtle teched to colossus and chargelots, but having seen immortals in his drop, this time aLive started viking production much sooner. As both players took their thirds, aLive continued to try to drop to no avail, especially with Squirtle's tech switched high templars ready to feedback incoming medivacs. The two armies jockeyed around the middle of the map, neither able to get into a good enough position to take down a base or fully engage. They clashed a number of times, and when aLive landed a huge EMP on 5 high etmplars, he took that as his cue to rush in, destroying Squirtle's army. It looked like he would win right there, but he impatiently rushed way too far in, losing his whole army and finding himself way behind in tech and economy with Squirtle's 4th base up and running. aLive never took a fourth base, even bizarrely long-distance mining from his would-be fourth. When Squirtle was maxed on high-gas units, aLive still only had 150 food and four ghosts. The caster management on the final engagement wasn't perfect for Squirtle, but the army disparity was too much, sending the series to a fifth game.
  
• Game Five: In the fifth and deciding game on Antiga Shipyard, aLive's one rax FE was up against was up against Squirtle's one gate FE. Each player then added two more of their basic unit producing structures. aLive teched for stim and starport, and his pair of bunkers was enough to fend off Squirtle's first attempt at aggression. With a false sense of security, aLive salvaged one of his bunkers right as Squirtle ran up the ramp, and well before medivacs arrived, Squirtle busted the natural and then, with a couple more warpins, broke into the main and sent us to another best of five.
  
• aLive 2 - 3 Squirtle

aLive vs Squirtle - 06:00 GMT (+00:00) - Grand Final Part Two

• Game One: aLive chose a proxy 2rax with pure marines, sending SCVs out to bunker up Squirtle's natural. Despite scouting it, Squirtle couldn't prevent the first bunker from completing, and after sacrificing almost all his probes and most of his zealots taking down the second bunker, he tapped out.
  
• Game Two: Neither player expanded early in this game, aLive rushing cloaked banshees. Squirtle , for his part, only planted a nexus with his twilight council halfway done, then going into DTs. aLive's starport was perfectly placed to spot squirtle's forward pylon, but coudn't take it out before Squirtle's hallucinated phoenix gave vision for a pair of DTs to warp in. Squirtle, though, had no detection whatsoever against the cloaked banshees, and when aLive scanned and killed the DTs, the championship was once again one game away from being claimed.
  
• Game Three: With both players FEing, a small clash happened in the center of the map. It was aLive who came out on top, giving him the early map control. The forward pylons he set up from there were well hunted, and as both players moved into upgrades, aLive set out with a pair of medivacs full of marines. Dropping them in the protoss base, he killed only as small number of probes. Squirtle's solid defense let him transition nicely into a macro game, grabbing tons of upgrades out of two forges, and teching to blink stalkers and colossi off three bases. aLive took his own third, massing vikings. Squirtle hallucinated a number of colossi to tank early viking volleys, but still barely lost the first engagement. He seemed to be effectively attacking the third with blink stalkers, but aLive's constant reinforcements were too much for Squirtle, and unable to keep up with the macro after having his warp gates depowered by a drop, Squirtle couldn't hold on. aLive is the new IPL Champion!
  
• aLive 3 - 0 Squirtle

Losers Bracket Games on Both Streams

MMA vs Polt - 19:00 GMT (+00:00) - Losers Round One

• Game One: Both players teched straight to banshees, only Polt proceeding to cloak. He picked awayat the edges of MMA's base, unable to do significatn damage thanks to plenty of scans. It turned out that the banshees were only a distraction, and when Polt's main tank-marine force reached MMA's base, he was unable to defend it.
  
• Game Two: With both players largely content to sit back, not much action happened. Both worked on infantry upgrades, with polt getting his third up first but MMA keeping up nicely on macro. the first action of the game was an MMA drop taking oun an engineering back, but seconds after the researching upgrade completed for minimal impact. In the midgame, MMA left his tanks at home and roamed around with armies of marines and medivacs. He lost one army to a sandwich, but was later able to work through a planetary and orbital at the same time as Polt's whole army was chewing through his own third and fourth. Both players then maxed on two bases, and MMA finally moved out to take cotrol of the center of the map.Trying to secure his thrid, Polt's attack into an entrenched MMA was unsuccessful. MMA traded some marines for the planetary third while Polt lost even more to the back of MMA's army. Unable to ever get a new third up, Pollt was forced out when he lost his final group of tanks.
  
• Game Three: After an in-base CC, MMA went for tank and a viking. Polt tried cloaked banshees and sent out marines with his first banshee, which got quickly sniped, as did the second. MMA moved out confidently with three tanks, and was subsequently forced back by Polt's superior marine count. The two continued to jockey over map control in the mid game, MMA gaining a slight economic advantage via an earlier third. Polt had a decent push into MMA, but stuck around too long. When MMA dropped Polt's main, he had almost nothing to defend, and by the time MMA's main push came, Polt didn't have enough to defend his third. MMA lost his army and had mining at his third halted, but his advantage was too great and Polt could never come back, always behind in tank count.
  
• MMA 2 - 1 Polt

Bomber vs Squirtle - 20:00 GMT (+00:00) - Losers Round One

• Game One: Squirtle beelined for colossi on Metropolis close air. Bomber tried a number of small engagements with bio, but when the main push of Squirtle came through, he was only able to pick off one of the three colossi and tapped out.
  
• Game Two: Bomber's 1-base marauder-hellion attack got a bunker up in range of Squirtle's natural, but did surprisingly little damage after that. When Squirtle cleaned it up and counterattacked with a number of stalkers, Bomber couldn't muster enough of a force to defend, and GG'd out wIth a "StarTale fighting~"
  
• Bomber 0 - 2 Squirtle

MMA vs Stephano - 21:00 GMT (+00:00) - Losers Round Two

• Game One: MMA's 1-rax FE picked off Stephano's scouting overlord on Cloud Kingdom, then transitioned into a heavy bio style with only a few factory backup units. Stephano added some roaches to his large zergling group before teching to infestors, roach upgrades, and spire.MMA utilized individual medivac drops to try to harass various Stephano bases, sending out a big group of five fully loaded medivacs just as Stephano moved across the map with his first brood-ling-infestor force to take down MMA's fourth. MMA unloaded the medivacs in a great place behind Stephano's natural while another army took out Stephano's fourth, third, and many new spawning bases, taking advantage of the immobility of brood lords. Fed up, Stephano moved across the map to prevent any of MMA's attempts at a fourth while triple-expanding himself. MMA's fantastic multitasking let him continue to assault Stephano's bases, but he never knew about the base at the very top left until it had been mining for quite some time. Stephano sat back to mass up a brood lord army. When he moved out, he sieged MMA's planetary fourth for over a minute and finally killing it, but losing his all his remaining bases except the main at the same time. From there, it was just a matter of MMA pressing his economic advantage.
  
• Game Two: MMA poked in with hellions before switching to banshees, but Stephano was well prepared with spores, queens, and lair tech for an overseer. Even so, MMA managed to take down Stephano's newly-hatched third. MMA continued his Banshee harassment as Stephano retook his third and teched to infestors and speed banes. By forcing fungals on his banshees, MMA's infantry force was much more affective against stephano's lings and banelings. MMA proceeded to try some drop play at Stephano's bases across the top of Metropolis, which also scouted and took out a hidden fourth at the center left main. MMA gathered up a large force and tried to push out across the map, but was met by Stephano's full-energy infestors and newly spawned ultralisks, which cleaned up that push handily. In response to the ultras, MMA worked on upgraded ghosts, including readying nukes. When he finally launched the nukes,the first one hit almost nothing, but the second landed perfectly on Stephano's army running between drops at the main and third. MMA continued to deny any third for Stephano, using nukes both to assault bases and try to prevent army movement between bases. In response to Stephano's message of "more nukes please", MMA moved across the map with a tank and marauder-heavy army, spreading his tanks well. His remaining nukes largely whiffed, but he had enough marauders and snipes to chew through Stephano's ultralisks, even dropping down MULEs to cut off avenues of retreat. When he finally ran out of army and resources, Stephano gave up.
  
• MMA 2 - 0 Stephano

Squirtle vs MarineKing - 21:00 GMT (+00:00) - Losers Round Two

• Game One: Seeing MarineKing's 1-rax FE, Squirtle delayed his warpgate to get his own expansion out ASAP, only to be trumped by MarineKing's third CC in his own base. As MarineKing worked on his infantry upgrades, Squirtle went straight to colossus and six gateways. MarineKing took the third and started adding on medivacs just as Squrtle moved out across the map towards his offensive pylon, in good position to threaten MarineKing's third base. Squirtle attacked exactly when his second colossus arrived, losing both the orbital and all the SCVs mining there. MarineKing retreated to his natural to try to set up a good concave, but was never able to gather enough army to hold Squirtle's huge army.
  
• Game Two: On Sanshorn Mist, MarineKing's SCV scouted Squirtle's nexus first, trying to put up a bunker for an incoming reaper. The reaper did a nice bit of kiting to harass Squirtle until the first stalker arrived, getting 3 probes and a zealot. Squirtle dropped two forges after the robo, rushing his upgrades and starting immortal production. MarineKing countered with heavily upgraded MMM (+1 attack, stim, combat shield), but Suirtle's excellent force fields let him pick off units little by little until MarineKing had to retreat. MarineKing regrouped with a second wave and tried again to break the natural, getting split by force fields and losing a medivac that tried to lift those trapped units behind. When his blink and colossus tech arrived, Squirtle assaulted MarineKing's third, taking it down. For a third time, MarineKing moved across the map to try to break Squirtle's natural, only to be sandwiched, losing his army and then the game on the counterattack. After looking so strong all weekend, MarineKing is out!
  
• Squirtle 2 - 0 MarineKing

Squirtle vs MMA - 23:00 GMT (+00:00) - Losers Round Three

• Game One: Squirtle set back MMA's natural a few seconds by sniping the SCV with a harassing probe. With no scouting information, MMA overreacted to Squirtle's single zealot, pulling workers for a bit and setting up a bunker. MMA then snuck an expansion in the bottom right base (on Atlantis Spaceship), giving him a decent economic advantage as Squirtle rushed for colossus on 2 bases. Squirtle readied a similar push to the one that did in MarineKing in the first game, this time moving out with three colossi instead of two. Along with a pylon snipe, this let MMA get up a ton of infantry upgrades, barracks, and medivacs, but it still wasn't enough. MMA had no solution to the force fields and colossi of Squirtle. With his natural razed and main base in flames, MMA GGed.
  
• Game Two: MMA opened with a reaper, picking off a few probes and generally harassing Squirtle's FE. After it died, he was left without much information, forced to buidl a turret at his main while rushing for fast reactor medivacs. Squirtle used his game 2 build against MarineKing, pumping double upgrades and starting immortal production while teching towards blink. He successfully fended off MMA's attempted double drop in the main, then started colossus tech. MMA continued to hang around the periphery of Squirtle's bases, poking in to draw forcefields before loading up 4 medivacs to fly around behind Squirtle's main. The medivacs weren't able to accomplish anything, and when Squirtle blinked forward to ponce on them, MMA was caught totally off guard. Squirtle thrust across the map, reinforcing with forward pylons and engaging below MMA's natural. With most of his army lost in those medivacs, MMA didn't have enough to defend, and Squirtle advanced to the Losers Final!
  
• Squirtle 2 - 0 MMA

Squirtle vs NesTea - 01:00 GMT (+00:00) - Losers Final

• Game one:NesTea's 11 pool gave him nice map control, so he briefly considered expanding to the gold before going for the more safe expansion at his own natural. The relative safety of home was put to the test against Squirtle's 3gate. It wasn't enough, as Squirtle's relentless warpins took down drones, queens, zerglings, and eventually spine crawlers for the GG.
  
• Game Two: As NesTea was preparing a roach/ling bust aimed for the Protoss natural, Squirtle stnuck a probe in to see the rallying roaches. He set up a ton of cannons at his natural, leaving NesTea to only take down the forge before retreating. Squirtle moved into stargate play to counter NesTea's then-3 base roaches, and his first void/phoenix foray was rebuffed after taking out only an extractor. At the third, supported by zealot warpins, he was more successful, taking down a queen, some roaches, and a number of drones before finally losing his void ray and zealots. Back at home he was expanding, teching to colossi, and working on upgrades, while NesTea continued roach upgrades and stared his spire. Squirtle moved out across the map to catch small groups of hydras and roaches, and arrived at NesTea's bases just in time for blink to finish. Nestea's mutalisk play was more effective than it maybe should have been against Squirtle's blink stalkers and upgraded phoenixes, but it turns out that's because Squirtle was wrecking NesTea's buildings in three different places. With almost no production remaining, NesTea was forced out.
  
• Game Three: NesTea's response to a forge FE by Squirtle was upgraded 3base roaches with speedlings. Squirtle, though, was pumping out immortals almost nonstop since his robo finished, pushing out with 3 immortals, a warp prism, and an observer on the way. NesTea executed a roach backstab, and with both players ravaging one anothers' naturals, Squirtle evacuated all his probes. NesTea didn't want to commit to the base race, coming home with his roaches. Squirtle's perfect force field wall bought him some time, but even warp prism immortal micro wasn't enough and NesTea staved off elimination for at least one more game.
  
• Game Four: NesTea's 3hatch no gas zergling aggression caught Squirtle with his pants down, teching for stargate and with a whole in his wall at his natural. With dozens of zerglings running rampant in his base, Squirtle recognized the futulity of his cause and GGed.
  
• Game Five: Undeterred by the previous game's result, Squirtle once again went forge FE into stargate. Able to fully flesh out his plan, he added 7 gates, intent on pressuring NesTea's pylon-delayed natural and far-away fourth on Tal'Darim. The first void ray did only minimal damage, and NesTea remained active with his zerglings and roaches, preventing forward pylons. It wasn't enough, as force fields dissected NesTea's first army. For a brief moment it looked as though a second wave of roaches would be enough to hold off Squirtle, but Squirtle had too much reinfercing power and NesTea lost his third. NesTea tried a desperate attack into the Protoss natural, but was forced to burrow, losing the whole army when an observer spawned. Poor rally points lost Nestea yet more units - and then a pause?
  
• Game Five Take Two: The regame started off in a similar manner to the original. Squirtle, once again spawning clockwise from NesTea, once again forge FE'd and built a pylon to block NesTea's own expansion. NesTea took it down faster this time, just after taking both extractors in his main. Squirtle chose stargate again, and his cyber core was just barely in range to see the first morphing baneling. A huge forcefield made NesTea waste most of his banelings, and since he was supply blocked at 44 for so long, his reinforcements didn't arrive in time to get through the gap in the wall before it was rebuilt. About a dozen zerglings did break a gateway to get back in, and Squirtle stopped mining for way longer than he should have, including one big group that was idle well after the zerg threat was eliminated. Squirtle sent his lone void ray (thanks to the stargate being unpowered for a while) over to NesTea's base, where it did almost nothing.NesTea expanded to the same relative spot as before, losing it once again to Squirtle's first big push. NesTea teched for upgraded roaches once more, with Squirtle heading for immortals and blink while harassing with a small group of phoenixes. NesTea prevented Squirtle from taking his third, then briefly tried an ill-advised sandwich attack on the bulk of Squirtle's army. As Squirtle neared max, he moved across the map. NesTea tried some muta raids on Squirtle's main, where he was repelled and forced back home, only to meet yet more blink stalkers and phoenixes. With almost no army left, NesTea ceded the game and the series.
  
• Squirtle 3 - 2 NesTea