EPTDay 2 Live Coverage
Latest Updates
22:16 GMT (+00:00): Congratulations ThorZaIN!
22:12 GMT (+00:00): ThorZaIN 3 - 1 Polt. Shakuras - Polt went for a marine-hellion elevator build, while ThorZaIN once again went for a marine heavy fast expansion. ThorZaIN managed to sniff out the attempt from Polt, and defended his FE to take a big economic advantage. He was able to turn that advantage into an even bigger one by hitting with a large infantry attack before either player had stim, killing off a lot of Polt's army while hurting the Korean's already lagging economy.
From there, it was only a matter of time for ThorZaIN, but Polt fought tooth and nail, knowing his tournament life was on the line. ThorZaIN played calm and collectedly, waiting Polt out until he was forced to go for one last desperation attack. The attack came as expected, and when it failed, Polt had no choice but to GG.
21:31 GMT (+00:00): ThorZaIN 2 - 1 Polt. Antiga - ThorZaIN opened with an unusual FE into four-rax marine, but ended up coming fairly even against Polt's banshee expand. After thwarting Polt's marine-banshee-tank pressure, ThorZaIN went on the offensive himself, sending his army the long way around the map to avoid the watchtower and set up a low ground position below Polt's main. From that position, ThorZaIN achieved two very important snipes with his marines, taking out tech lab researching stim for Polt, and also taking down a large number of tanks that were unguarded. Without stim or tanks, Polt simply could not fight ThorZaIN considering both players were going infantry based, GG'ing out a few minutes later.
21:09 GMT (+00:00): ThorZaIN 1 - 1 Polt. Ohana - ThorZaIN decided to go for mech, while Polt chose to go marine-marauder-medivac instead. Having beat SjoW earlier in the tournament in a similar situation with a base trade, Polt opted to try and tackle ThorZaIN's faster mech push head on. However, PDD's proved to be super effective against marauders, ThorZaIN was able to crush the infantry and push into Polt's natural to even up the series.
20:56 GMT (+00:00): Polt 1 - 0 ThorZaIN. Cloud Kingdom - Though their openings differed slightly, Polt and ThorZaIN played an eerily symmetric game, keeping closely adrift of each other in army and supply through-out. Both players went three-base marine tank, and both players sent out splinter forces to take down their opponent's third bases while retaining some defenses at home. However, the game deciding difference was in Polt's favor, as he managed to intercept and destroy ThorZaIN's force as it tried to retreat home after taking down the third base. ThorZaIN could simply not compete after losing such a sizable chunk of his force, and GG'd out soon after.
20:41 GMT (+00:00): And here we go. The finals are live!
Past Update Log
+ Show Spoiler [Update Log] +
20:32 GMT (+00:00): ThorZaIN 2 - 1 Monster. Ohana - Monster attempted to disrupt ThorZaIN early on with speedlings, but with good micro and awareness, ThorZaIN was able to secure three bases safely and build up a strong economic base. This lead into a mid-game push before Monster had his hive tech ready, putting the Korean Zerg in a tough spot. Monster was unable to buy himself any breathing space, and by the time he had ultralisks were out, ThorZaIN was already encroached in too good a position to lose.
20:09 GMT (+00:00): ThorZaIN 1 - 1 Monster. Antiga - ThorZaIN looked ahead to a longer game, going for a quick three bases. On the other hand, Monster went up to three bases and then committed to trying to kill ThorZaIN at the lair stage, making masses of mutalisks and banelings. Monster had enough in him for two attacks, but after both were thwarted, he GG'd out knowing that he had gone all-in and lost.
19:57 GMT (+00:00): Monster 1 - 0 ThorZaIN. Cloud Kingdom - ThorZaIN came with a strong two base push build that eventually allowed him to kill off Monster's third base as he went for infestor-ling. ThorZaIN looked like he was in a good position after that push, but Monster did well to take expansions at other locations, all while rushing up to hive and ultralisks. Typically harbingers of defeat, Monster used his ultralisks very effectively in tandem with infestors and quickly swung the tide back in his favor. After breaking through both ThorZaIN's third and fourth bases, he collected the GG.
19:32 GMT (+00:00): Polt 2 - 0 Ret. Ohana - Ret and Polt played another late macro game, putting their end game compositions together before committing to any important engagements. Ret was the aggressor once he got brood lords out, and tried to push into Polt's third base. However, things went wrong for him both home and away, with Polt able to kill off the brood lords while a medivac drop took out some tech in Ret's main. Ret then tech switched to ultralisks, but without sufficient banelings or infestors to support them, there nothing but wasted space as Polt took the series.
19:10 GMT (+00:00): Polt 1 - 0 Ret. Daybreak - As usual for Daybreak, both players went took multiple bases on their sides of the map and build up strong economies. When Polt moved out with his maxed out army, Ret decided to divert half his army for a backdoor attack while keeping some at home on defense. This resulted in a strange trade where Ret hurt Polt's economy, but also had to sacrifice his third base - making it overall a better situation for Polt. Ret then went up to brood lords, but was unable to pair them with a sufficient supporting force, and rolled over by Polt's army.
18:54 GMT (+00:00): Ret vs Polt is on!
18:20 GMT (+00:00): ThorZaIN 2 - 0 Socke. Cloud Kingdom - With both players going for fairly typical two base play, Socke failed spot ThorZaIN's two medivac drop in time and had to deal with stimmed marines and marauders in his base. Socke's micro was less than ideal, and ThorZaIN took an advantage after doing a fair amount of damage with the drop. Socke had a chance to take control of the game once storm research completed, but ThorZaIN simply added ghosts to his army and was able to cruise into the semi-finals.
18:02 GMT (+00:00): ThorZaIN 1 - 0 Socke. Daybreak - Socke opened with a 3-gate pressure/expand build against ThorZaIN's fast expansion, but found himself mired in a tricky situation. He ran his troops by ThorZaIN's defending bunker, only to see ThorZaIN casually lift off his command center and effectively trap the Protoss army inside the natural. The quarry trapped, ThorZaIN only needed to wait until stim finished to kill off the Protoss army, after which he needed only to counter attack to take the game.
17:54 GMT (+00:00): Socke vs ThorZaIN starting up!
17:32 GMT (+00:00): Monster 2 - 1 Nerchio. Cloud Kingdom - Monster went at Nerchio aggressively with zerglings and banelings, but Nerchio managed to hold off to take the lead. Nerchio then furthered his advantage with some speedling harassment of his own, but made a fatal judgment error by producing too few units afterward. When Monster attacked again with speedlings and banelings, Nerchio was unable to hold.
17:22 GMT (+00:00): Monster 1 - 1 Nerchio. Metropolis - Nerchio seemed to get ahead early on after he got some speedlings into Monster's base to cause some trouble. However, he was did not have enough defenses against Monster's ling-bane counter attack, and was forced to GG out.
17:12 GMT (+00:00): Nerchio 1 - 0 Monster. Daybreak - Nerchio and Monster showed how exciting ZvZ could be when played at a high level, trading blows in a back and forth game where Nerchio was able to triumph in the end. Early game ling-bane tactics led to mutalisk tech on both sides, and both players utilized the mobility of their units to try and deny each other's thirds. In a crucial moment, Nerchio was able to take destroy Monster's third base, and used the breather to transition into a roach-infestor army before his opponent. Monster fought hard to try and make up lost ground, but eventually fell to Nerchio's resource advantage.
16:53 GMT (+00:00): Nerchio vs Monster begins!
16:26 GMT (+00:00): Ret 2 – 1 Genius on Antiga. Genius went for a quick third following only minor void ray harass, and Ret choose to do a hydra-roach bust before the colossus came out. He attacked before thermal lance while Genius only had a single colossus and killed the third while pushing into the natural with his army, forcing Genius out.
16:12 GMT (+00:00): Ret 1 - 1 Genius. Shakuras - A zergling runby messed up all of Genius' plans after fast expanding, and Ret was able to stop his two timing with ease. Genius turtled up and try keep playing, but he only delayed his demise after the failed all-in.
15:54 GMT (+00:00): Genius 1 - 0 Ret. Daybreak - With Genius going for a quick three bases, Ret decided to secure his side of the map and tech quickly to brood lords. The situation looked good as Ret as he used his massive economy to build up a strong hive army, but he committed the cardinal Zerg sin of leaving his brood lords unprotected, and they fell to Genius' blink stalkers. Ret never got over the loss of his first major brood lord first, and lost after a few more rounds of attacks from Genius.
15:37 GMT (+00:00): Genius vs Ret starting, first game on Daybreak.
15:07 GMT (+00:00): Genius vs Ret coming up!
15:03 GMT (+00:00): Polt 2 - 0 SjoW. Cloud Kingdom - With both players going for marine-tank, SjoW took the economic lead with effective harassment. However, Polt hung on to the army lead with a higher tank count, and once SjoW over-committed to a poor attack, he was able to counter-attack and win without too much trouble.
14:48 GMT (+00:00): Polt 1 - 0 SjoW. Ohana - Sjow went for a two base mech build which allowed him a very dangerous mid-game push supported by a raven with two PDDs. Having gone all bio in response to mech, Polt decided to base-trade instead of trying to fight SjoW's army head on. While Polt managed to stall and scrap together a defense at home, SjoW did a poor job of defending his own base. Polt eventually stopped SjoW's attack, whereas Sjow was unable to kill Polt's forces, .
14:31 GMT (+00:00): Ro8 starting, with Polt vs Sjow! How exciting!!!
12:41 GMT (+00:00): And now we break until the RO8!
12:39 GMT (+00:00): Genius 2 – 0 SaSe on Shakuras non-cross. SaSe took an earlier third and Genius won by attacking him before it paid off, as SaSe was trying to add archons to his army.
12:38 GMT (+00:00): Nerchio 2 - 0 Hyun. Metalopolis - A drawn out macro game ensued where there were close calls on both sides, but Nerchio's ability to interfere with Hyun's expansion attempts and better selection of engagements saw him through in the end.
12:34 GMT (+00:00): ThorZaIN 2 - 0'd Cytoplasm in some unstreamed games.
12:30 GMT (+00:00): Monster 2 - 1 Seiplo. Cloud Kingdom - Monster opened with an offensive hatchery at Seiplo's natural, which seemed to mess up Seiplo's plans. Seiplo tried to play for a two base timing attack after cleaning the hatchery, but Monster had enough troops to stop it easily and win the game.
12:21 GMT (+00:00): Seiplo vs monster now on Empire.TV
12:19 GMT (+00:00): Socke 2 - 0 MorroW. Metropolis - With both players blocking one anothers' naturals, neither player got their expansion up until around 30 supply. MorroW ended up taking his third first, so Socke chose that as his point of attack. MorroW defended well until he was caught completely off guard by Socke's DT tech, and with no evo chamber or lair even started, he GGed out.
12:18 GMT (+00:00): Nerchio vs Hyun starting up on PGL. Hyun won the first game off stream.
12:17 GMT (+00:00): Sjow 2 - 0 LiveZerg. Antiga Shipyard - As SjoW's 1-1 finished, he pushed out to get some breathing room for his third, but LiveZerg limited the damage taken. Sjow continued to try drop harass during the midgame, not doing a ton of damage. Each player took a middle expansion, and in the ensuing series of engagements in the middle high ground, LiveZerg's ultralisks could never connect for good damage on SjoW's marines.
12:14 GMT (+00:00): Genius 1 – 0 SaSe on Metropolis cross. Genius opened phoenix which did very little, but he transitioned to double robo colossus faster and when their big midgame armies fought he demolished SaSe with superior laser numbers.
12:13 GMT (+00:00): Ret 2 - 0 elfi. Shakuras - Elfi went for a forge FE into fast two gate zealot pressure, sacrificing his zealots to take down Ret's third. However, his loss of zealots allowed Ret to counter attack and bring things to even. Elfi transitioned into two stargate play, but Ret had enough spore colonies to defend himself. Once hydralisks were out on the map, it didn't take long for elfi to fold.
12:04 GMT (+00:00): Polt 2 – 0 Protosser. Metropolis non-cross - Polt did the marine-marauder build he eliminated Stephano from MLG Columbus with. Protosser saw it with his first group of roaches and put up a fight but couldn't flank well enough in the end.
12:04 GMT (+00:00): Socke 1 - 0 Morrow. Cloud Kingdom - Socke's midgame 8-zealot push was repelled nicely by MorroW's 3-evo wall at his natural, letting morrow catch up in tech. Never able to take a third, though, MorroW couldn't repel Socke's eventual archon-blink push.
12:00 GMT (+00:00): Ret 1 - 0 Elfi. Ohana - Elfi went for a two base immortal + gateway unit timing, but Ret was able to hold on with mass roaches. There wasn't much for elfi left to do after his failed all-in, and he GG'd out to Ret's mass burrow-roach counter attack.
11:55 GMT (+00:00): Polt 1 - 0 Protosser. Antiga - Protosser's endgame brood lord army got trapped in the middle of the map as it assaulted Polt's fourth base and died, Polt cleaned up from there.
11:55 GMT (+00:00): SjoW 1 - 0 LiveZerg. Cloud Kingdom - In a game that went late, SjoW ended up having too many tanks and marauders providing support for his marines and medivacs for LiveZerg's infestor-ultra army to do significant damage. LiveZerg went for the base trade as he got a few brood lords, but the army difference was too much and SjoW took game 1.
11:32 GMT (+00:00): Brackets up for RO16 :o
10:22 GMT (+00:00): Waiting on brackets!
22:16 GMT (+00:00): Congratulations ThorZaIN!
22:12 GMT (+00:00): ThorZaIN 3 - 1 Polt. Shakuras - Polt went for a marine-hellion elevator build, while ThorZaIN once again went for a marine heavy fast expansion. ThorZaIN managed to sniff out the attempt from Polt, and defended his FE to take a big economic advantage. He was able to turn that advantage into an even bigger one by hitting with a large infantry attack before either player had stim, killing off a lot of Polt's army while hurting the Korean's already lagging economy.
From there, it was only a matter of time for ThorZaIN, but Polt fought tooth and nail, knowing his tournament life was on the line. ThorZaIN played calm and collectedly, waiting Polt out until he was forced to go for one last desperation attack. The attack came as expected, and when it failed, Polt had no choice but to GG.
21:31 GMT (+00:00): ThorZaIN 2 - 1 Polt. Antiga - ThorZaIN opened with an unusual FE into four-rax marine, but ended up coming fairly even against Polt's banshee expand. After thwarting Polt's marine-banshee-tank pressure, ThorZaIN went on the offensive himself, sending his army the long way around the map to avoid the watchtower and set up a low ground position below Polt's main. From that position, ThorZaIN achieved two very important snipes with his marines, taking out tech lab researching stim for Polt, and also taking down a large number of tanks that were unguarded. Without stim or tanks, Polt simply could not fight ThorZaIN considering both players were going infantry based, GG'ing out a few minutes later.
21:09 GMT (+00:00): ThorZaIN 1 - 1 Polt. Ohana - ThorZaIN decided to go for mech, while Polt chose to go marine-marauder-medivac instead. Having beat SjoW earlier in the tournament in a similar situation with a base trade, Polt opted to try and tackle ThorZaIN's faster mech push head on. However, PDD's proved to be super effective against marauders, ThorZaIN was able to crush the infantry and push into Polt's natural to even up the series.
20:56 GMT (+00:00): Polt 1 - 0 ThorZaIN. Cloud Kingdom - Though their openings differed slightly, Polt and ThorZaIN played an eerily symmetric game, keeping closely adrift of each other in army and supply through-out. Both players went three-base marine tank, and both players sent out splinter forces to take down their opponent's third bases while retaining some defenses at home. However, the game deciding difference was in Polt's favor, as he managed to intercept and destroy ThorZaIN's force as it tried to retreat home after taking down the third base. ThorZaIN could simply not compete after losing such a sizable chunk of his force, and GG'd out soon after.
20:41 GMT (+00:00): And here we go. The finals are live!
Past Update Log
+ Show Spoiler [Update Log] +
20:32 GMT (+00:00): ThorZaIN 2 - 1 Monster. Ohana - Monster attempted to disrupt ThorZaIN early on with speedlings, but with good micro and awareness, ThorZaIN was able to secure three bases safely and build up a strong economic base. This lead into a mid-game push before Monster had his hive tech ready, putting the Korean Zerg in a tough spot. Monster was unable to buy himself any breathing space, and by the time he had ultralisks were out, ThorZaIN was already encroached in too good a position to lose.
20:09 GMT (+00:00): ThorZaIN 1 - 1 Monster. Antiga - ThorZaIN looked ahead to a longer game, going for a quick three bases. On the other hand, Monster went up to three bases and then committed to trying to kill ThorZaIN at the lair stage, making masses of mutalisks and banelings. Monster had enough in him for two attacks, but after both were thwarted, he GG'd out knowing that he had gone all-in and lost.
19:57 GMT (+00:00): Monster 1 - 0 ThorZaIN. Cloud Kingdom - ThorZaIN came with a strong two base push build that eventually allowed him to kill off Monster's third base as he went for infestor-ling. ThorZaIN looked like he was in a good position after that push, but Monster did well to take expansions at other locations, all while rushing up to hive and ultralisks. Typically harbingers of defeat, Monster used his ultralisks very effectively in tandem with infestors and quickly swung the tide back in his favor. After breaking through both ThorZaIN's third and fourth bases, he collected the GG.
19:32 GMT (+00:00): Polt 2 - 0 Ret. Ohana - Ret and Polt played another late macro game, putting their end game compositions together before committing to any important engagements. Ret was the aggressor once he got brood lords out, and tried to push into Polt's third base. However, things went wrong for him both home and away, with Polt able to kill off the brood lords while a medivac drop took out some tech in Ret's main. Ret then tech switched to ultralisks, but without sufficient banelings or infestors to support them, there nothing but wasted space as Polt took the series.
19:10 GMT (+00:00): Polt 1 - 0 Ret. Daybreak - As usual for Daybreak, both players went took multiple bases on their sides of the map and build up strong economies. When Polt moved out with his maxed out army, Ret decided to divert half his army for a backdoor attack while keeping some at home on defense. This resulted in a strange trade where Ret hurt Polt's economy, but also had to sacrifice his third base - making it overall a better situation for Polt. Ret then went up to brood lords, but was unable to pair them with a sufficient supporting force, and rolled over by Polt's army.
18:54 GMT (+00:00): Ret vs Polt is on!
18:20 GMT (+00:00): ThorZaIN 2 - 0 Socke. Cloud Kingdom - With both players going for fairly typical two base play, Socke failed spot ThorZaIN's two medivac drop in time and had to deal with stimmed marines and marauders in his base. Socke's micro was less than ideal, and ThorZaIN took an advantage after doing a fair amount of damage with the drop. Socke had a chance to take control of the game once storm research completed, but ThorZaIN simply added ghosts to his army and was able to cruise into the semi-finals.
18:02 GMT (+00:00): ThorZaIN 1 - 0 Socke. Daybreak - Socke opened with a 3-gate pressure/expand build against ThorZaIN's fast expansion, but found himself mired in a tricky situation. He ran his troops by ThorZaIN's defending bunker, only to see ThorZaIN casually lift off his command center and effectively trap the Protoss army inside the natural. The quarry trapped, ThorZaIN only needed to wait until stim finished to kill off the Protoss army, after which he needed only to counter attack to take the game.
17:54 GMT (+00:00): Socke vs ThorZaIN starting up!
17:32 GMT (+00:00): Monster 2 - 1 Nerchio. Cloud Kingdom - Monster went at Nerchio aggressively with zerglings and banelings, but Nerchio managed to hold off to take the lead. Nerchio then furthered his advantage with some speedling harassment of his own, but made a fatal judgment error by producing too few units afterward. When Monster attacked again with speedlings and banelings, Nerchio was unable to hold.
17:22 GMT (+00:00): Monster 1 - 1 Nerchio. Metropolis - Nerchio seemed to get ahead early on after he got some speedlings into Monster's base to cause some trouble. However, he was did not have enough defenses against Monster's ling-bane counter attack, and was forced to GG out.
17:12 GMT (+00:00): Nerchio 1 - 0 Monster. Daybreak - Nerchio and Monster showed how exciting ZvZ could be when played at a high level, trading blows in a back and forth game where Nerchio was able to triumph in the end. Early game ling-bane tactics led to mutalisk tech on both sides, and both players utilized the mobility of their units to try and deny each other's thirds. In a crucial moment, Nerchio was able to take destroy Monster's third base, and used the breather to transition into a roach-infestor army before his opponent. Monster fought hard to try and make up lost ground, but eventually fell to Nerchio's resource advantage.
16:53 GMT (+00:00): Nerchio vs Monster begins!
16:26 GMT (+00:00): Ret 2 – 1 Genius on Antiga. Genius went for a quick third following only minor void ray harass, and Ret choose to do a hydra-roach bust before the colossus came out. He attacked before thermal lance while Genius only had a single colossus and killed the third while pushing into the natural with his army, forcing Genius out.
16:12 GMT (+00:00): Ret 1 - 1 Genius. Shakuras - A zergling runby messed up all of Genius' plans after fast expanding, and Ret was able to stop his two timing with ease. Genius turtled up and try keep playing, but he only delayed his demise after the failed all-in.
15:54 GMT (+00:00): Genius 1 - 0 Ret. Daybreak - With Genius going for a quick three bases, Ret decided to secure his side of the map and tech quickly to brood lords. The situation looked good as Ret as he used his massive economy to build up a strong hive army, but he committed the cardinal Zerg sin of leaving his brood lords unprotected, and they fell to Genius' blink stalkers. Ret never got over the loss of his first major brood lord first, and lost after a few more rounds of attacks from Genius.
15:37 GMT (+00:00): Genius vs Ret starting, first game on Daybreak.
15:07 GMT (+00:00): Genius vs Ret coming up!
15:03 GMT (+00:00): Polt 2 - 0 SjoW. Cloud Kingdom - With both players going for marine-tank, SjoW took the economic lead with effective harassment. However, Polt hung on to the army lead with a higher tank count, and once SjoW over-committed to a poor attack, he was able to counter-attack and win without too much trouble.
14:48 GMT (+00:00): Polt 1 - 0 SjoW. Ohana - Sjow went for a two base mech build which allowed him a very dangerous mid-game push supported by a raven with two PDDs. Having gone all bio in response to mech, Polt decided to base-trade instead of trying to fight SjoW's army head on. While Polt managed to stall and scrap together a defense at home, SjoW did a poor job of defending his own base. Polt eventually stopped SjoW's attack, whereas Sjow was unable to kill Polt's forces, .
14:31 GMT (+00:00): Ro8 starting, with Polt vs Sjow! How exciting!!!
12:41 GMT (+00:00): And now we break until the RO8!
12:39 GMT (+00:00): Genius 2 – 0 SaSe on Shakuras non-cross. SaSe took an earlier third and Genius won by attacking him before it paid off, as SaSe was trying to add archons to his army.
12:38 GMT (+00:00): Nerchio 2 - 0 Hyun. Metalopolis - A drawn out macro game ensued where there were close calls on both sides, but Nerchio's ability to interfere with Hyun's expansion attempts and better selection of engagements saw him through in the end.
12:34 GMT (+00:00): ThorZaIN 2 - 0'd Cytoplasm in some unstreamed games.
12:30 GMT (+00:00): Monster 2 - 1 Seiplo. Cloud Kingdom - Monster opened with an offensive hatchery at Seiplo's natural, which seemed to mess up Seiplo's plans. Seiplo tried to play for a two base timing attack after cleaning the hatchery, but Monster had enough troops to stop it easily and win the game.
12:21 GMT (+00:00): Seiplo vs monster now on Empire.TV
12:19 GMT (+00:00): Socke 2 - 0 MorroW. Metropolis - With both players blocking one anothers' naturals, neither player got their expansion up until around 30 supply. MorroW ended up taking his third first, so Socke chose that as his point of attack. MorroW defended well until he was caught completely off guard by Socke's DT tech, and with no evo chamber or lair even started, he GGed out.
12:18 GMT (+00:00): Nerchio vs Hyun starting up on PGL. Hyun won the first game off stream.
12:17 GMT (+00:00): Sjow 2 - 0 LiveZerg. Antiga Shipyard - As SjoW's 1-1 finished, he pushed out to get some breathing room for his third, but LiveZerg limited the damage taken. Sjow continued to try drop harass during the midgame, not doing a ton of damage. Each player took a middle expansion, and in the ensuing series of engagements in the middle high ground, LiveZerg's ultralisks could never connect for good damage on SjoW's marines.
12:14 GMT (+00:00): Genius 1 – 0 SaSe on Metropolis cross. Genius opened phoenix which did very little, but he transitioned to double robo colossus faster and when their big midgame armies fought he demolished SaSe with superior laser numbers.
12:13 GMT (+00:00): Ret 2 - 0 elfi. Shakuras - Elfi went for a forge FE into fast two gate zealot pressure, sacrificing his zealots to take down Ret's third. However, his loss of zealots allowed Ret to counter attack and bring things to even. Elfi transitioned into two stargate play, but Ret had enough spore colonies to defend himself. Once hydralisks were out on the map, it didn't take long for elfi to fold.
12:04 GMT (+00:00): Polt 2 – 0 Protosser. Metropolis non-cross - Polt did the marine-marauder build he eliminated Stephano from MLG Columbus with. Protosser saw it with his first group of roaches and put up a fight but couldn't flank well enough in the end.
12:04 GMT (+00:00): Socke 1 - 0 Morrow. Cloud Kingdom - Socke's midgame 8-zealot push was repelled nicely by MorroW's 3-evo wall at his natural, letting morrow catch up in tech. Never able to take a third, though, MorroW couldn't repel Socke's eventual archon-blink push.
12:00 GMT (+00:00): Ret 1 - 0 Elfi. Ohana - Elfi went for a two base immortal + gateway unit timing, but Ret was able to hold on with mass roaches. There wasn't much for elfi left to do after his failed all-in, and he GG'd out to Ret's mass burrow-roach counter attack.
11:55 GMT (+00:00): Polt 1 - 0 Protosser. Antiga - Protosser's endgame brood lord army got trapped in the middle of the map as it assaulted Polt's fourth base and died, Polt cleaned up from there.
11:55 GMT (+00:00): SjoW 1 - 0 LiveZerg. Cloud Kingdom - In a game that went late, SjoW ended up having too many tanks and marauders providing support for his marines and medivacs for LiveZerg's infestor-ultra army to do significant damage. LiveZerg went for the base trade as he got a few brood lords, but the army difference was too much and SjoW took game 1.
11:32 GMT (+00:00): Brackets up for RO16 :o
10:22 GMT (+00:00): Waiting on brackets!
Final Four Bracket
Grand Finals: 
mouzThorZaIN vs TSL_Polt
Semi Final One:
Liquid`Ret vs TSL_Polt
Semi Final Two:mouz.ThorZaIN vs MvPMonster
mouzThorZaIN vs TSL_Polt- Game One: Cloud Kingdom - Though their openings differed slightly, Polt and ThorZaIN played an eerily symmetric game, keeping closely adrift of each other in army and supply through-out. Both players went three-base marine tank, and both players sent out splinter forces to take down their opponent's third bases while retaining some defenses at home. However, the game deciding difference was one in Polt's favor, as he managed to intercept and destroy ThorZaIN's force as it tried to retreat home after taking down the third base. ThorZaIN could simply not compete after losing such a sizable chunk of his force, and GG'd out soon after.
- Game Two: Ohana - ThorZaIN decided to go for mech, while Polt chose to go marine-marauder-medivac instead. Having beat SjoW earlier in the tournament in a similar situation with a base trade, Polt opted to try and tackle ThorZaIN's faster mech push head on. However, PDD's proved to be super effective against marauders, ThorZaIN was able to crush the infantry and push into Polt's natural to even up the series.
- Game Three: Antiga - ThorZaIN opened with an unusual FE into four-rax marine, but ended up coming fairly even against Polt's banshee expand. After thwarting Polt's marine-banshee-tank pressure, ThorZaIN went on the offensive himself, sending his army the long way around the map to avoid the watchtower and set up a low ground position below Polt's main. From that position, ThorZaIN achieved two very important snipes with his marines, taking out tech lab researching stim for Polt, and also taking down a large number of tanks that were unguarded. Without stim or tanks, Polt simply could not fight ThorZaIN considering both players were going infantry based, GG'ing out a few minutes later.
- Game Four: Shakuras - Polt went for a marine-hellion elevator build, while ThorZaIN once again went for a marine heavy fast expansion. ThorZaIN managed to sniff out the attempt from Polt, and defended his FE to take a big economic advantage. He was able to turn that advantage into an even bigger one by hitting with a large infantry attack before either player had stim, killing off a lot of Polt's army while hurting the Korean's already lagging economy.
- ThorZaIN 3 – 1 Polt
Semi Final One:
Liquid`Ret vs TSL_Polt- Game One: Daybreak - As usual for Daybreak, both players went took multiple bases on their sides of the map and build up strong economies. When Polt moved out with his maxed out army, Ret decided to divert half his army for a backdoor attack while keeping some at home on defense. This resulted in a strange trade where Ret hurt Polt's economy, but also had to sacrifice his third base - making it overall a better situation for Polt. Ret then went up to brood lords, but was unable to pair them with a sufficient supporting force, and rolled over by Polt's army.
- Game Two: Ohana - Ret and Polt played another late macro game, putting their end game compositions together before committing to any important engagements. Ret was the aggressor once he got brood lords out, and tried to push into Polt's third base. However, things went wrong for him both home and away, with Polt able to kill off the brood lords while a medivac drop took out some tech in Ret's main. Ret then tech switched to ultralisks, but without sufficient banelings or infestors to support them, there nothing but wasted space as Polt took the series.
- Ret 0 – 2 Polt
Semi Final Two:
mouz.ThorZaIN vs MvPMonster- Game One:Cloud Kingdom - ThorZaIN came with a strong two base push build that eventually allowed him to kill off Monster's third base as he went for infestor-ling. ThorZaIN looked like he was in a good position after that push, but Monster did well to take expansions at other locations, all while rushing up to hive and ultralisks. Typically harbingers of defeat, Monster used his ultralisks very effectively in tandem with infestors and quickly swung the tide back in his favor. After breaking through both ThorZaIN's third and fourth bases, he collected the GG.
- Game Two: Antiga - ThorZaIN looked ahead to a longer game, going for a quick three bases. On the other hand, Monster went up to three bases and then committed to trying to kill ThorZaIN at the lair stage, making masses of mutalisks and banelings. Monster had enough in him for two attacks, but after both were thwarted, he GG'd out knowing that he had gone all-in and lost.
- Game Three: Ohana - Monster attempted to disrupt ThorZaIN early on with speedlings, but with good micro and awareness, ThorZaIN was able to secure three bases safely and build up a strong economic base. This lead into a mid-game push before Monster had his hive tech ready, putting the Korean Zerg in a tough spot. Monster was unable to buy himself any breathing space, and by the time he had ultralisks were out, ThorZaIN was already encroached in too good a position to lose.
- ThorZaIN 2 – 1 Monster
Round of 16
Series are best of three.
RoX.KIS.LiveZerg vs dignitas.SjoW
TSL_Polt vs Protosser
MVPGenius vs Quantic.SaSe
Liquid`Ret vs Acer.elfi
MvPMonster vs Ai.Seiplo
Acer.Nerchio vs TSL_HyuN
mouzMorroW vs aTn.Socke
mouzThorZaIN vs Ai.Cytoplasm
RoX.KIS.LiveZerg vs dignitas.SjoW- Game One: Cloud Kingdom - In a game that went late, SjoW ended up having too many tanks and marauders providing support for his marines and medivacs for LiveZerg's infestor-ultra army to do significant damage. LiveZerg went for the base trade as he got a few brood lords, but the army difference was too much and SjoW took game 1.
- Game Two: Entombed Valley - As SjoW's 1-1 finished, he pushed out to get some breathing room for his third, but LiveZerg limited the damage taken. Sjow continued to try drop harass during the midgame, not doing a ton of damage. Each player took a middle expansion, and in the ensuing series of engagements in the middle high ground, LiveZerg's ultralisks could never connect for good damage on SjoW's marines.
- LiveZerg 0 – 2 SjoW
TSL_Polt vs Protosser- Game One: Antiga. Protosser's endgame brood lord army got trapped in the middle of the map as it assaulted Polt's fourth base and died, Polt cleaned up from there.
- Game Two: Metropolis non-cross. Polt did the marine-marauder build he eliminated Stephano from MLG Columbus with. Protosser saw it with his first group of roaches and put up a fight but couldn't flank well enough in the end.
- Polt 2 – 0 Protosser
MVPGenius vs Quantic.SaSe- Game One: Metropolis cross. Genius opened phoenix which did very little, but he transitioned to double robo colossus faster and when their big midgame armies fought he demolished SaSe with superior laser numbers.
- Game Two: Shakuras non-cross. SaSe took an earlier third and Genius won by attacking him before it paid off, as SaSe was trying to add archons to his army.
- Genius 2 – 0 SaSe
Liquid`Ret vs Acer.elfi- Game One: Ohana - Elfi went for a two base immortal + gateway unit timing, but Ret was able to hold on with mass roaches. There wasn't much for elfi left to do after his failed all-in, and he GG'd out to Ret's mass burrow-roach counter attack.
- Game Two: Shakuras - Elfi went for a forge FE into fast two gate zealot pressure, sacrificing his zealots to take down Ret's third. However, his loss of zealots allowed Ret to counter attack and bring things to even. Elfi transitioned into two stargate play, but Ret had enough spore colonies to defend himself. Once hydralisks were out on the map, it didn't take long for elfi to fold.
- Ret 2 – 0 elfi
MvPMonster vs Ai.Seiplo- Game One: Monster won, not streamed.
- Game Two: Seiplo won, not streamed.
- Game Three: Cloud Kingdom - Monster opened with an offensive hatchery at Seiplo's natural, which seemed to mess up Seiplo's plans. Seiplo tried to play for a two base timing attack after cleaning the hatchery, but Monster had enough troops to stop it easily and win the game.
- Monster 2 – 1 Seiplo
Acer.Nerchio vs TSL_HyuN- Game One: Nerchio, not streamed.
- Game Two: Metalopolis - A drawn out macro game ensued where there were close calls on both sides, but Nerchio's ability to interfere with Hyun's expansion attempts and better selection of engagements saw him through in the end.
- Nerchio 2 – 0 Hyun
mouzMorroW vs aTn.Socke- Game One: Cloud Kingdom - Socke's midgame 8-zealot push was repelled nicely by MorroW's 3-evo wall at his natural, letting morrow catch up in tech. Never able to take a third, though, MorroW couldn't repel Socke's eventual archon-blink push.
- Game Two: Metropolis - With both players blocking one anothers' naturals, neither player got their expansion up until around 30 supply. MorroW ended up taking his third first, so Socke chose that as his point of attack. MorroW defended well until he was caught completely off guard by Socke's DT tech, and with no evo chamber or lair even started, he GGed out.
- Morrow 0 – 2 Socke
mouzThorZaIN vs Ai.Cytoplasm- Unstreamed games.
- ThorZaIN 2 – 0 Cytoplasm
Round of 8
All matches are best of three.
dignitas.SjoW vs TSL_Polt
MvPGenius vs Liquid`Ret
MvPMonster vs Acer.Nerchio
aTn.Socke vs mouz.ThorZaIN
dignitas.SjoW vs TSL_Polt- Game One: Ohana - Sjow went for a two base mech build which allowed him a very dangerous mid-game push supported by a raven with two PDDs. Having gone all bio in response to mech, Polt decided to base-trade instead of trying to fight SjoW's army head on. While Polt managed to stall and scrap together a defense at home, SjoW did a poor job of defending his own base. Polt eventually stopped SjoW's attack, whereas Sjow was unable to kill Polt's forces, .
- Game Two: Cloud Kingdom - With both players going for marine-tank, SjoW took the economic lead with effective harassment. However, Polt hung on to the army lead with a higher tank count, and once SjoW over-committed to a poor attack, he was able to counter-attack and win without too much trouble.
- Sjow 0 – 2 Polt
MvPGenius vs Liquid`Ret- Game One: Daybreak - With Genius going for a quick three bases, Ret decided to secure his side of the map and tech quickly to brood lords. The situation looked good as Ret as he used his massive economy to build up a strong hive army, but he committed the cardinal Zerg sin of leaving his brood lords unprotected, and they fell to Genius' blink stalkers. Ret never got over the loss of his first major brood lord first, and lost after a few more rounds of attacks from Genius.
- Game Two: Shakuras - A zergling runby messed up all of Genius' plans after fast expanding, and Ret was able to stop his two timing with ease. Genius turtled up and try keep playing, but he only delayed his demise after the failed all-in.
- Game Three: Antiga - Genius went for a quick third following only minor void ray harass, and Ret choose to do a hydra-roach bust before the colossus came out. He attacked before thermal lance while Genius only had a single colossus and killed the third while pushing into the natural with his army, forcing Genius out.
- Ret 2 - 1 Genius
MvPMonster vs Acer.Nerchio- Game One: Daybreak - Nerchio and Monster showed how exciting ZvZ could be when played at a high level, trading blows in a back and forth game where Nerchio was able to triumph in the end. Early game ling-bane tactics led to mutalisk tech on both sides, and both players utilized the mobility of their units to try and deny each other's thirds. In a crucial moment, Nerchio was able to take destroy Monster's third base, and used the breather to transition into a roach-infestor army before his opponent. Monster fought hard to try and make up lost ground, but eventually fell to Nerchio's resource advantage.
- Game Two: Metropolis - Nerchio seemed to get ahead early on after he got some speedlings into Monster's base to cause some trouble. However, he was did not have enough defenses against Monster's ling-bane counter attack, and was forced to GG out.
- Game Three: Cloud Kingdom - Monster went at Nerchio aggressively with zerglings and banelings, but Nerchio managed to hold off to take the lead. Nerchio then furthered his advantage with some speedling harassment of his own, but made a fatal judgment error by producing too few units afterward. When Monster attacked again with speedlings and banelings, Nerchio was unable to hold.
- Monster 2 – 1 Nerchio
aTn.Socke vs mouz.ThorZaIN- Game One: Daybreak - Socke opened with a 3-gate pressure/expand build against ThorZaIN's fast expansion, but found himself mired in a tricky situation. He ran his troops by ThorZaIN's defending bunker, only to see ThorZaIN casually lift off his command center and effectively trap the Protoss army inside the natural. The quarry trapped, ThorZaIN only needed to wait until stim finished to kill off the Protoss army, after which he needed only to counter attack to take the game.
- Game Two: Cloud Kingdom - With both players going for fairly typical two base play, Socke failed spot ThorZaIN's two medivac drop in time and had to deal with stimmed marines and marauders in his base. Socke's micro was less than ideal, and ThorZaIN took an advantage after doing a fair amount of damage with the drop. Socke had a chance to take control of the game once storm research completed, but ThorZaIN simply added ghosts to his army and was able to cruise into the semi-finals.
- Socke 0 – 2 ThorZaIN
Live Updates: Antoine, Heyoka and Waxangel.
Graphics: shiroiusagi
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/L4aMz.jpg)
Love the energy and pumping music and stage presence ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/HVff3.jpg)
USA fighting!
