Live Coverage Thread

• Winners Round 2
• Winners Round 1
• Updates via @TeamLiquidLive

What's On Stream

Central: Done until tomorrow.
Gameplay: Done until tomorrow.
Station 3 POV: Done until tomorrow.
Station 4 POV: Done until tomorrow.

Everything As Expected

If tournaments are to be characterized by what made them different or unique, then perhaps it is most fitting to praise and label Spring Arena 2 for how normal things seemed on the first day. A lot of players from Korea qualified, and in turn they came in and won. Those who play in the GSL displayed the skill that makes them GSL contenders. MC got revenge on GanZi for this week's Code A, Heart continued to be a thorn in Huk's side. Goody made tanks and Idra lost to Protoss, Socke specifically. Stephano is the only foreigner still in the winners bracket, and he looked good on his way there.

In a day of fairly normal things, Grubby found a way to stand out by beating Oz. Known for his PvP, it looked as if Oz had chosen the Dutch Protoss to be his warm up match and then got the wind sucked from his sails when Grubby outperformed him in two straight games. There is a kind of poetic justice here, as if GSL semi-finalist thought he could push around a weaker gamer only to be punched right in the face by him.

Though, all Grubbies aside, the most outstanding performance of the day goes to Polt. After a close game 1 where DongRaeGu simply outplayed him by the thinnest margin in every category, he looked all but dead in game 2 when a poorly coordinated attack led to a miraculous win with marines and thors. And again in game 3, after letting a legion of lings into his base it appeared he was down for the count until the "throw everything you have at your enemy" last-ditch attack not only killed the Zerg army but did so with just enough troops left over to advance to the next round.

Exactly how he won, we may never know. Perhaps it was pure force of will, simply sheer power by magnitude of heart.


Day One Update Log
+ Show Spoiler [Update Log] +

Winners Round Two

• Game One: Cloud Kingdom – Grubby commited 3 cannons to delaying viOLet’s third, but was unable to finish it off. He then advanced with the usual PvZ mid-game army, but violet had a great flank that cut off reinforcements. Grubby was just able to finish off the hatchery before losing his whole army save two immortals. viOLet pushed across the map while retaking his third and working on roach upgrades, and once burrowed movement was completed viOLet took out grubby’s third and moved into his base. Grubby responded by counterattacking, including a devastating immortal drop into the main. viOLet lost almost all of his economy, but Grubby lost his economy and his army.
  
  
• Game Two: Metropolis – Grubby didn’t spot viOLet’s third, and tried a sentry ramp block drop, but a perfectly located spore crawler thwarted that. viOLet macro’d up safely, continually assaulting Grubby’s natural but never fully breaking it. Grubby did well with a warp prism at viOLet’s third and even took down the fourth a couple times. viOLet switched to mutas, catching Grubby off guard and doing enough damage to spell his eventual demise.
  
  
• viOLet 2 - 0 Grubby

• Game One: Cloud Kingdom. DRG kept control of the map due to incredible creep spread, denying Polt expansions for long enough to get an ultra-broodlord-infestor army. Polt couldn't keep up in the end and died to the massive Zerg army.
  
  
• Game Two: Back and forth game on Tal'Darim, armies clashing multiple times and trading in the center but it was over when DRG underestimated one of Polt's final thor-marine-tank force and engaged poorly, letting the Terran get into his base and win.
  
  
• Game Three: After a normal early and midgame, DRG crept into Polt's main while the Terran army was killing tumors in the middle of the map. He killed nearly all the SCVs, which triggered an attack from Polt and despite an awesome surround by DRG was able to win the fight just barely and somehow eeked out a win with his last few marines streaming across the map.
  
  
• Polt 2 - 1 DRG

• Game One: Stephano 1-0 Ret. Entombed Valley – Ret opted for early gas as Stephano went early hatch. Ret tried to pressure with speedlings but pretty much only killed lings, and Stephano’s counterattack nabbed a queen before being forced to retreat. Both players moved to take their thirds, and in a furious micro battle at Stephano’s natural, the Frenchman’s banelings didn’t connect. Still, Stephano’s economy was too strong, and as his army was fought off, Ret GGed.
  
  
• Game Two: Antiga Shipyard – In the second game it was Ret who went hatch first, while Stephano went pool first. Off one gas, Ret went speed then baneling nest, running some spedlings in Stephano’s main to see a baneling nest of his own, then setting up a half-wall at his front. Stephano got his third up earlier, and Ret put down his own third and a macro hatch as he moved back and forth across the map. A long battle ensued below Ret’s natural and third, and once again Stephano’s economic advantage carried him to victory.
  
  
• Stephano 2 - 0 Ret

• Game One: Inori 1 - 0 Losira. Entombed Valley - Inori's manner pylon delayed Losira's third, but little did he know that Losira's true intention was a quick baneling bust. Seeing the zerglings on the way, Inori got back just in time with his stalker to stop the detonation. Losira is further set behind as Inori's stargate units began their harassment, and after walling off his third, Inori pushed through from 6 warp gates + star gate for a simple victory.
  
  
• Game Two: Losira loaded up another platoon of ferrarilords with the same intention, and this time successfully pushed Inori back, with an extra slice of detonation in Inori's mineral lines. After the first time, Losira's guerilla tactics failed to yield the same result and once it was time for two maxed armies to clash, Losira's composition was much less ideal and the battle ended hugely in favor of Inori. Losira's economy did not allow him to conscript the same army again, and Inori sandwiched Losira's army at his fourth and annihilating the last bastion of Zerg defense.
  
  
• Inori 2 - 0 Losira

• Game One: Cloud Kingdom. MC the unpredictable protoss, had two expansions by the 7 min mark. Ganzi had no answer to MC’s quick 3 nexus, which allowed MC get ahead immensely. Ganzi moved out only to meet a army that crushed him.
  
  
• Game Two: Metropolis. Ganzi opened with a single barracks proxy and attempted to bunker MC’s ramp, failed. Ganzi expanded and transitioned into cloak banshee while MC took his third. About 10 probes lost to banshees later, it turned into a macro game where both players maxed. MC unit composition was too strong for Ganzi, as he barely had any vikings to deal with collosus in the last fight.
  
  
• MC 2 - 0 GanZi

• Game One: Daybreak – Socke forced Symbol to take the middle base as his third with a cannon behind the minerals, but his gatewap units were unable to shut it down early. Symbol caught out the first immortal-blink stalker skirmish army as Socke was taking his third, but lost his own fourth to DTs. Socke continued to do a good job of harassing with warp prism warpins, but he was unable to properly protect his colossi, leaving his army unable to keep up with Symbol's.
  
  
• Game Two: Tal’Darim Altar – This time Socke pylon blocked Symbol’s natural, so he plopped down a hatch next to the rocks at the third and then one at the natural once he took down the pylon. Symbol never took down the rocks, which let Socke save a ton of energy when he came with his attacking force to the third. Symbol saved his third when Socke puzzlingly swung around towards the natural, only to get caught out of position, then was able to snipe the twilight council before blink finished. Socke tried again to take down the third, but he was chased back across the map and when his robotics was destroyed, so too was his hope of winning this series.
  
  
• Symbol 2 - 0 Socke

• Game One: Entombed Valley - Blue flame could not stop Leenock's roach/zergling bust, but the food disparity was less than 10 minutes after due to Leenock's third being delayed. As soon as Rain's army is seen with creep vision, Leenock streamed zerglings into the third and simultaneously surrounded Rain mid-map for an easy game one victory.
  
  
• Game Two: Metropolis - Rain went for a gasless expand and almost lost when Leenock's zerglings ran by to say hello. The blue flame hellions was stopped dead in their tracks at the other end of the map. Leenock's mutalisks made their way across the map 9 minutes in, but Rain had already properly prepared with turrets and thors, greatly delaying Leenock's third. Rain had trouble getting up a third of his own, and Leenock pressed that matter by dropping a fourth seconds after his third completed. By the time Rain was able to push out, Leenock was maxed on roaches and focus fire negated any hopes of reparable thors. Now, all Leenock has to do was wait for overlord drop to finish and an easy pick-up into the main lifted Leenock into the next round.
  
  
• Leenock 2 - 0 Rain

• Game One: Entombed valley. HuK opened 3 gates and a robo before taking a nexus, which didn't do much but delay Heart's expansion. Heart dropped with his first 2 dropships and killed Huk's natural because his army was camping Heart's ramp, HuK went all-in but couldn't break through.
  
  
• Game Two: Huk proxied 2 gates and went for 3 gate pressure up Heart's ramp, Heart refused to make a bunker until it was too late and Huk broke down the door and killed him.
  
  
• Game Three: Heart lost his first handful of MM to some great forcefields by Huk, and then Huk went on the offensive with blink and killed the starport before medivacs were out. However Huk lost his stalkers to a misclick and Heart powered on with 2-2 marines and went on to win against the 0-0 Protoss army.
  
  
• Heart 2 - 1 Huk

Winners Round One

• Game One: Cloud Kingdom, Killer took an early third and did no damage to Ret's third with his first gateways. Ret made a lot of drones, then made a 3 pronged attack with pure roaches and ran over Killer.
  
  
• Game Two: Daybreak, Killer tried a colossus expand into his third but it gave Ret enough time to get infestors and brood lords. Ret won the first battle and never lost the lead from there.
  
  
• Ret 2 - 0 Killer

• Game One: Daybreak. Your typical PvZ. Protoss opens FFE and Zerg goes for quick 3 base. Violet makes 19 drones as soon as Alicia’s 8 gateways finish. Although the attack was late, Violet completely destroys the attack extending his lead even further. Violet is now double the supply of Alicia, able to do anything he pleases. Multi-pronged attacks force Alicia to GG.
  
  
• Game Two: Antiga Shipyard. Once again FFE by Alicia and quick 3 hatch from Violet. Alicia tries to pressure with a voidray and a few zealots, Violet defends with ease while making 15 drones. Alicia macro’s up and goes for another attack at Violet’s third, convincingly defends the zerg army and now it’s a base race scenario. Alicia has fortified his main with cannons and sentries. Violet engages Alicia’s army and loses.
  
  
• Game Three: Tal’Darim Altar. FFE into Phoenix, while Violet goes for the ling infestor based style into quick broodlord. Alicia harassing expansions with warp-prism warp-ins but has no answer to the massive amount of broodlord infestor at his natural. Vortex is Alicia’s last ditch effort to try and win this game, Violet retreats to the middle and spreads out his army. The vortex catches a few infestors and 2 broodlords, while 15 more broodlord reign terror on top of a fungle’d army.
  
  
• Violet 2 - 1 Alicia

• Game One: Antiga Shipyard - Bly shattered Polt's bunker wall with a roach/baneling bust 9 minutes into the game and forced Polt to pull back into the main. With his hellions in tact, Polt pushed forward looking to do some damage, and using his superior macro to climb back into the game. With tanks slowly swamping up the map, Bly's ultralisks headed down narrow paths at the third into their doom, and Polt's inspiring comeback gave him the lead in the series.
  
  
• Game Two: Cloud Kingdom - Polt's hellions did everything right: deny the third, kill queens, pick off tumors and Bly had no answer early game. Polt's third went up uncontested, and on the virtue of macro alone, Polt powered his way across the map. Bly's overall sloppiness gave him no hope of making it out of this game. Once Bly's third had fallen and Polt triumphantly walked to the fourth, it was time for Bly to gather his thoughts and get ready for the games tomorrow.
  
  
• Polt 2 - 0 Bly

• Game One: Cloud Kingdom – Bling chose the typical Forge FE into robo mass gateway, moving out with a warp prism and 3 immortals. He was light on sentries, using almost all his energy on the first engagement at DRG’s third, and despite some cute warp prism immortal micro, he was chased off with no real losses. Bling regrouped back at his base and powered up for another round of attacks, taking out DRG’s third and fourth, but he never took his own third, and DRG’s expansions past the fourth powered his army to victory.
  
  
• Game Two: Shakuras Plateau – This time Bling went for Stargate behind forge FE, adding a robo afterwards. Spawning Close air, he moved out with three void rays and a warp prism with 3 sentries and a stalker inside. DRG was well prepared with spores and queens, chasing Bling out to the center of the map. When he returned, DRG had plenty of units, and with the attack failed, he GGed out.
  
  
• DRG 2 - 0 BlinG

• Game One: Metropolis – Losira took a quick 3rd in response to Mook’s Forge FE, and although his sacced overlord didn’t spot the robo or stargate , he did spy Mook’s own 3rd. Losira chose to power drones and triple evo while adding a 4th and two macro hatches, using roach upgrades to send a small force around the map. He tried a drop into the main, but was unable to depower most of the gateways, and his main roach-banedrop-ling force was repelled easily. It looked like LosirA would never break the front thanks to Mook’s high-tech army, but he was able to stretch the Protoss army across half the map to finally get a favorable engagement, and from there Mook could not keep up economically.
  
  
• Game Two: Antiga Shipyard - Losira’s early pool wreaked havoc at Mook’s Forge FE, doing enough damage that Losira felt safe taking the gold as his first expansion, only taking his natural once his early ling aggression ended. As losira added a hatch at his natural and what would normally be the 3rd, MooK moved out on the strength of a ton of gateways. Losira sacrificed everything in his natural, but was finally able to take out the forward pylons, and then build up enough of an army to chase off the Protoss. Mook never took his third, and after eliminating some dancing zerglings, his paltry army fell before the main Zerg force.
  
  
• Losira 2 - 0 Mook

• Game One: Antiga Shipyard. Typical long Stephano-style TvZ. They both contest the center for a long time and though Stephano is able to control it for a long time, Ryung's army gets too powerful and kills an ultra-broodlord-infestor force to win.
  
  
• Game Two: Metropolis. Long back and forth game, Ryung denies his 5th base and controls much of the midgame, kills a lot of things including Hive with incredible drop play, but Stephano comes back with good positioning and micro at Ryung's natural and kills the Terran army to win.
  
  
• Game Three: Cloud Kingdom. Stephano started with a ling-baneling-roach bust which didn't do much damage but stopped mining for a while, and then defended drops well and made a big army. Ryung made a poor attack in the center and the game was over when Stephano pushed it back easily.
  
  
• Ryung 1 - 2 Stephano

• Game One: Shakuras Plateau. After defending Inori’s ineffective DT drop, ThorZaIN goes for a 4 medicvac doom drop. ThorZaIN in a favorable position destroys everything in Inori’s main to take the game.
  
  
• Game Two: Entombed Valley. Both players opt to go for the macro route, quick 3 bases. Armies meet in the middle but don’t engage until they feel they have a positional advantage. Constant army trading, Inori now 5 base, late game protoss army. ThorZaIN trying to press forward before it’s too late. Massive amounts of ghost keep Inori at bay, allowing ThorZaIN to snipe expansions. ThorZaIN’s army now trapped and is forced to fight in a tight space, Inori completely destroys his army. ThorZaIN taps out.
  
  
• Game Three: Cloud Kingdom. Inori 1 gate expands, quickly adds another 4 gates for a total of 5. Probe production cut at 32, pushes into ThorZaIN natural and forces him to lift. ThorZaIN secures his natural once again, moves out with a few maruders/marines/medicvacs but Inori has way too much stuff back at home. Inori pushes back with a ton of blink stalkers to take the series.
  
  
• ThorZaIN 1 - 2 Inori

• Game One: Cloud Kingdom - Tefel's banelings came faster, but before his front defense had been weakened by speedlings. Tefel failed to keep his mineral line in check and with half a dozen banelings, Leenock took out half of Tefel's drones. As a result, Leenock's third remained untouched while Tefel's was continuously denied. Tefel's infestors landed huge fungals and with hydras now in play, Leenock's mutas are less than ideal. Leenock amassed his own hydra/roch army, and fortified his third. Tefel failed to push up either ramp and with his own third destroyed, had no choice but to tap out.
  
  
• Game Two: Antiga Shipyard - Leenock's ramp was guarded by two queens and zerglings and Tefel once again failed to notice that banelings had destroyed his mineral line. Leenock squeezes just enough units into the main to end the game with less than 10 minutes on the clock.
  
  
• Leenock 2 - 0 Tefel

• Game One: Cloud Kingdom. Back and forth PvZ, Sleep kept pressuring but couldn't do enough damage, Huk won several key engagements after brood lords were out and took down the army when infestors ran out of energy.
  
  
• Game Two: Daybreak. After opening with 3 void rays and fighting Sleep's army well, they went to a pretty normal midgame. When Huk attacked, Sleep countered and lead to a near-base-trade but Sleep got the better of it by killing all of Huk's probes and saving 3 of his own bases. Sleep made 40 mutas and won.
  
  
• Game Three: Antiga Shipyard. After each player gets to 3 bases with little action, Huk attacks with a big +2 stalker-zealot-immortal force and destroys Sleep's bases before Sleep can do enough damage with mutas.
  
  
• HuK 2 - 1 Sleep

• Game One: Seiplo tried phoenix play and lost to Heart's MM push.
  
  
• Game Two: Metropolis – Heart’s cloaked banshee did minimal damage, but the followup tank-banshee-marine-raven push was too much. Seiplo’s stalkers were completely neutralized by the point defense drones, leaving his immortals naked in front of oncoming marines.
  
  
• Heart 2 - 0 Seiplo

• Game One: Antiga Shipyard - Both players head towards blink with robo play, but Oz is ahead in everything. Oz's decision to expand means his army is skimped, and Grubby caught Oz off-guard multiple times with offensive blinks. A warp-in decimated Oz's main mineral line, and Oz GGs with only seven probes remaining.
  
  
• Game Two: Daybreak - Oz expanded extremely early and managed to scout Grubby's dark shrine. The DTs ended up completely useless, but Oz did not push his advantage and continued to follow Artosis's golden rule. Relatively, Grubby's third went up quicker than Oz's, and Oz maxed out by the 18 minute mark. The "war of the worlds" engagement went in favor of Grubby as his army was sandwiched, and Oz's army disappeared. Grubby danced his colossi to the other side of the map and bounced Oz to the loser's bracket.
  
  
• Grubby 2 - 0 Oz

• Game One: Shakuras Plateau - Select expanded while staying on low-tier units, but Rain's control of his banshee and hellions ravaged Select's mineral line. Rain sets up in the middle and with watchtower control, dominates the map, even sniping Select's third in the process. Heading into the late game behind on all fronts was just a matter of time before Select is forced to abandon game 1.
  
  
• Game Two: Daybreak - Select's turrets covered all the wrong spots and Rain's cloaked banshees once again punished him for it. Select's choice of taking the middle third instead of the conventional side base looked like it was paying off, but a huge mishap as he miscalculated and walked into a fortified position cost him the game. MVP: Point Defense Drones.
  
  
• Rain 2 - 0 Select

• Game One: Drawn out battle on Tal'Darim, MMA whittled down MC's economy with drops and a nuke and eventually won the war of attrition as their armies constantly ran into each other.
  
  
• Game Two: MC opened DT and held off a large 2-base push from MMA, they went on to trade blows repeatedly but when MMA tried to drop with 2 medivacs MC took the lead with a counter-attack and held control of the game to win.
  
  
• Game Three: Cloud Kingdom. MC opened with some light pressure on 4 gates after expanding, but never committed. Instead of taking a third he made colossus and succeeded in hiding them, attacked with a huge stalker-sentry-colossus army and MMA couldn't hold.
  
  
• MC 2 - 1 MMA

• Game One: Socke pressured Idra's third with DTs but couldn't do damage. However once he morphed them into archons they proved to be powerful enough to take down the base and roll over the Zerg army.
  
  
• Game Two: Cloud Kingdom - Socke forge expanded and went forward for a +1 zealot push, but the probe died before a proxy pylon could be placed. With the push delayed, Idra's roaches popped in time before he suffered any major damage. The second push came with blink, and Socke's control overwhelmed Idra's supply lead, clinching the series 2-0.
  
  
• Socke 2 - 0 Idra

• Game One: Cross Spawns on Antiga Shipyard. Each player attempted to establish their own 3rd while shutting down their opponent’s, but only Symbol was successful in doing so for any length of time. Symbol’s ensuing mutalisk harass attempts were not as damaging as Dream’s drops, but he was able to tech to Brood Lords and establish his 4th and 5th at the nearby third and main. After a while of jockeying back and forth over the center high ground, Symbol’s brood lords and corruptors paired with clutch fungals to win the game.
  
  
• Game Two: Cloud Kingdom – Both players followed roughly the same plan of attack as before; Symbol chose double evo muta and Dream 3rd right after siege. This time, Dream was forced on the defensive as his harass attempts were less successful, allowing Symbol to set up an earlier fourth. Dream tried to set up his own fourth, but despite having difficulty dealing with ling runbys, he closed off the gaps and Symbol couldn’t find a way to properly engage with his ultras. Symbol finally revealed his brood lords when he had over a dozen of them, steamrolling Dream’s army. Dream tried to take advantage of the lack of mobility with drops, but eventually the corruptors and infestors caught up, and it was GG.
  
  
• Symbol 2 - 0 Dream

• Game One: Ganzi started a banshee before dropping his second CC, but Goody was prepared for it and get his expansion up much quicker. Although Goody had a larget army and defender's advatange, Ganzi's better control allowed him to slowly sieged up Goody's natural. Ganzi slowly spreads the contain to Goody's third, preventing him from expanding while going up to four bases of his own. Goody eventually breaks out to expand, but the macro has already kicked in and Goody has no chance against a superior army.
  
  
• Game Two: Entombed Valley - Ganzi again opened banshee before expo, but with cloak this time. The banshees did minimal economic damage, but did forced a lot of scans. Ganzi took his air advantage into breaking Goody's tank line, but Goody's fortress could not be broken as thors joined the mix. Skirmishes gave neither an advantage and Ganzi decided to skirt around the army and went for a base trade. Goody dragged his tanks across the map as quickly as he could, but the damage has been done.
  
  
• GanZi 2 - 0 GoOdy