Live Coverage Thread

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• WCS USA Nationals
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Business as Usual

Day one of the MLG Spring Championships didn't do a lot to differentiate itself from first days in a lot of other foreign tournaments. The group leaders in pool play are familiar names: Leenock, MarineKing, Stephano, and DongRaeGu. There have been some moderately surprising departures from the Winner's Bracket, but nothing totally shocking. Really, the biggest upsets came in the USA World Championship Series National Finals, but there isn't currently anyone from America who has an aura of invincibility in local competition.

As usual, Grubby put up a great performance to tantalize his fans. Even if it doesn't reflect in the final standings, his effort today has been excellent: very narrow series losses to pre-event favorites Symbol and MarineKing, and an easy victory over Dream. The other big surprise in pool play came from Socke's 2-1 victory over DongRaeGu, but at this point a token upset by Socke has become commonplace.

The single most notable game of the day had to be Leenock vs viOLet on Daybreak. After a sneak preview of what was to be during the previous game when Leenock teched to desperation ultras, both players ran almost mirror builds in getting to ultras. Neither side could gain much of an advantage, and at one point they had enough ultralisks between the two of them to take up the whole screen. Leenock eventually pulled out the win with the help of a surprise tech switch to brood lords, but not before viOLet made him worry about a base trade.

It's going to be a long day tomorrow, which is good news for those tired of the status quo. Nothing engenders upsets more than a marathon of games.

Live Updates

07:54 GMT (+00:00): daisuki 2-0 NonY. On Antiga Shipyard, both players were once again passive in the early game, daisuki working on roach and ling upgrades. He attacked across the map, catching NonY's army split in two and summarily executing it below the third. daisuki marched into the natural, proceeded to the main, and ended the series 2-0.

07:41 GMT (+00:00): daisuki 1-0 NonY. On Cloud Kingdom, NonY took the unorthodox route of opening gateway in PvZ., and used that to build up an early sentry-zealot task force that took out daisuki's third without losing a single unit and only expending four force fields. Both players then sat back and macrod up to their ideal unit compositions, with Nony finally moving out when he was maxed with around three colossi. He didn't have any way to deal with the flock of brood lords, and with insufficient production to spend all his money, he was overrun and forced to GG.

07:09 GMT (+00:00): ViBE 2-0 Insur. Insur scouted what looked like an 8 pool from ViBE on Antiga, defending it with a cannon in his mineral line. Both competitors played relatively conservatively as they attempted to get into a more normal situation, with ViBE eventually going for iffetsor-oach and Insur a 2-base blink army. Insur was able to invade ViBE's natural, forcing him to pull drones. The Zerg defended, but was left down on the probe count. Insur reloaded his blink army, sniping queens, but eventually ViBE got enough fungals for the blink stalkers to be shut down, ending the game.

06:51 GMT (+00:00): ViBE 1-0 Insur. On Cloud Kingdom, Insur tried to do some damage with early stargate tech, but his void ray play didn't accomplish much of anything. ViBE built up a healthy supply lead and teched to infestors, but most of that supply was in roaches, so he was caugh helpless when Insur's blink finished. ViBE tried to rush for brood lords, and looked like he might break when insur attacked, but once he got some overseers out he took out the DTs and chased off the remainder of that army. ViBE morphed in some brood lords to siege Insur's fourth, clinching the game.

06:30 GMT (+00:00): Ryung 2-1 viOLet. On Entombed Valley, viOLet initially aimed for the roach-bane attack. When Ryung scouted it, he turned around home for double evo and a third. He maxed out and attacked off that same composition, but Ryung's MMMT army won that engagement supremely efficiently. viOLet was never able to get up enough infestors to pin down Ryung's army for the banelings and ultras. Once viOLet's attempted base trade failed, it was all over.

06:19 GMT (+00:00): Insur 2-1 Mystik – Nationals Round of 4 on Antiga. Both players went for standard openers yet again, with Insur opting for a stargate rather than a robo. Mystik got a nice early scout of what was to come and responded by pumping out 10 roaches to hold Insur’s cute little stargate + 4 gate timing. Mystik did his best to counter attack, but Insur did a nice job holding on and grabbing his third base. Mystik wasn’t able to get his economy running before Insur came with his big stalker colossus death ball to take the game.

06:16 GMT (+00:00): viOLet 1-1 Ryung. On Daybreak, viOLet got a little behind early thanks to blue flame hellions, and in the midgame he tried to tech while droning hard. Ryung kept the pressure up in multiple locations in order to deny viOLet the pocket fourth as he planetaried his own. Ryung continued to attack all over the map, but maybe got too cute when he went three-academy nukes. viOLet teched to ultra-ling-infestor, and then there was a huge stretch of the game where viOLet ran away while he tried to gain energy and attacked when he had it. Ryung thought he won multiple times, but eventually he ran out of minerals and the series was headed to game three.

06:15 GMT (+00:00): Huk 2-0 Trimaster – Open bracket play on Daybreak. Huk decided to try out a DT expand against Trimasters standard expand opener. Huk even showed off his massive cajones, dropping a proxy pylon right in front of Trimaster’s base. Trimaster did the standard terran SCV dance while trying to build a turret before he finally got one up. Trimaster landed an absolutely huge drop and then… stream crashed. When it came back up Huk had a 50 food supply lead and a third base. And then he won with a really big pile of upgraded gateway units that smashed Trimaster’s smaller army of MMMG.

06:02 GMT (+00:00): Insur 1-1 Mystik – Nationals Round of 4 on Daybreak. Both players went for standard PvZ expands, 3 base vs. forge FE. Insur chose to be super sneaky and cannon rush the third base but Mystik made an excellent defense of it, putting Insur behind. Insur made the best of his situation, going for a huge +2 blink stalker timing that was too much for Mystik, who had played just a tad too greedy, to hold.

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

05:59 GMT (+00:00): Huk 1-0 Trimaster – Open bracket play on Entombed Valley. Both players went for standard fast expands, with Huk going for a three gate timing after expand that I’ve seen Naniwa do before. Huk’s push proved somewhat effective, giving him a small economic lead despite delaying his tech. Trimaster was able to kill Huk’s building third before archons were out, Huk responded by attacking himself with his chargelot archon composition. Trimaster was too spread out to hold and was forced to tap out.

05:50 GMT (+00:00): Mystik 1-0 Insur – Nationals Round of 8 on Ohana. Both players went for your standard PvZ expand builds, with Insur putting a heavy focus on immortals and sentries before pushing out with a warp prism. Mystik hit Insur’s army with a great surround of roaches, absolutely demolishing him for the win.

05:48 GMT (+00:00): Ryung 1-0 viOLet. viOLet's roach-bane attack initially looked unsuccessful, but patience with banelings let him wipe out 17 workers at the natural, and despite eventually being driven off, he then had a huge economic advantage. Ryung managed to keep up on supply , but his tech fell behind. Fortunately for him, viOlet teched to ultralisks, so he lost (some credit goes to nice harass by Ryung).

05:38 GMT (+00:00): MC 2-0 Heart – Group play on Metropolis. MC decided to play some older school TvP this game, going for a 3 gate pressure expand. MC gets hilariously lucky, going up Heart’s ramp as his marines are walking back from the middle of the map, allowing him to forcefield split the marines on their way back up and take the game with a very simple pressure. And then bounce his way across the stage.

05:31 GMT (+00:00): Puma 2-0 Choya – On Daybreak. Both players went for expand openers, with Choya even going for nexus first. Puma decided he could be greedy too, proxying a third expansion at the 12 o’clock position, following that up with two fast engineering bays. Choya tried to be greedier, going triple forge (by accident) while getting Templar chargelot ready for battle off of three bases. Puma’s greed paid off in time to net him the win, hitting a brutal MMM timing with ghosts and upgrades, exactly the hardest possible thing for Choya to deal with using his chosen build.

05:23 GMT (+00:00): MC 1-0 Heart – On Shakuras Plateau, MC went for a very cool one base blink observer timing. MC aggressively blinked on top of Heart’s army and then defensively blinked to the low ground with trademark fantastic micro. Heart’s stim finished in time to make things a little interesting, but it ended up being futile compared to MC’s economy by the time the next battle went down.

05:18 GMT (+00:00): Puma 1-0 Choya – (Open Bracket) On Entombed Valley. Puma went for the quick 1 rax expand into heavy barracks play. Meanwhile, Choya actually went for a very interesting one gate expand into DT and robo. Choya barely held Puma’s initial marine pressure with stalker micro and a single dt (only after losing a few probes though). Puma’s next big push was too much for Choya’s fragile build and he took the game with it.

05:09 GMT (+00:00): Alicia 2-1 Polt. Polt rushed cloak banshees, which was unfortunate as Alicia's gateway attack ran over Polt's paltry defenses at the natural. Polt tried to hang on, but when the observer spawned, it was all over.

05:07 GMT (+00:00): Illusion 2-1 Hawk – (Open Bracket) On Cloud Kingdom. Both players opened with fast expands, with Hawk opting for a roach bane timing. Hawk opted to pull back and drone up in the face of Illusion’s great defense. Illusion was able to do some damage with a bio force, forcing Hawk to get infesters with his third base. Once Illusion was able to take out Hawk’s single massive army and the constructing greater spire, he was able to roll him over with his amazing economy for the final victory.

04:59 GMT (+00:00): Alicia 1-1 Polt. Alicia's superior upgrades and better tech let him storm his way to victory over Polt on Entombed Valley.

04:56 GMT (+00:00): Stephano 2-0 GanZi. Stephano did the same roach-bane bust, but this time GanZi didn't see it coming at all, and with fewer units and and a less substantial wall, he suffered even more damage than last game. Stephano once again put a lid on any medivac shenanigans, and when Stephano finally rolled in with his army, the tankless Ganzi had no hope of stopping the roach-ling-bane army.

04:55 GMT (+00:00): Idra 2-0 KawaiiRice – (Nationals Losers Bracket) On Shakuras Plateau. Idra again showed off the creep spread capabilities of his mass queen opener (6 of them) while grabbing a quick third base. Idra made the deadly mistake of attacking before his banelings were morphing, costing him some drones to Kawaii’s well executed marine maurader hellion timing. Kawaii used some nice drops in the midgame to try and slow down Idra, who was able to spread creep quite deeply into Kawaii’s territory while relying on a mostly ling army for map control before infestors were out. Idra was left to macro for too long, hitting a massive ling bane infestor timing to take the game.

04:54 GMT (+00:00): Apparently I missed Polt-Alicia Game 1 because my stream froze

04:47 GMT (+00:00): Hawk 1-1 Illusion – (Open Bracket) On Daybreak. Hawk opened with some great ling pressure, taking out a lot of Illusion’s SCVs before going into the mid game. Hawk used a great counter attack combined with a great engagement to seal the deal. Illusion tried to hold on by floating into his main, but tactics like that can only last so long before Hawk attacked with his massive army to take the game.

04:39 GMT (+00:00): Idra 1-0 KawaiiRice – (Nationals Losers Bracket) On Antiga Shipyard again. Both players must have been frustrated after last matches regame as there were reasons to think that either player was ahead. Kawaii went for the Qxc style bunker creep contain but Idra easily denied it with his two queens. Idra went for an identical opening as last game, this time able to hold Kawaii’s initial pressure without much difficulty. This time Idra attacked right before his main wave of ultralisks came out, but he was still able to hold back Kawaii, forcing him to hold the high ground and try to grab his fourth. Idra’s first attempt wasn’t enough to break Kawaii on the highground, but the second time was the charm to give Idra the game (after some drawn out banshee play artificially extended the game for a bit).

04:38 GMT (+00:00): Stephano 1-0 GanZi. Stephano geared up for a roach-bane bust on Antiga, and while he didn't take out many marines, he did get 10 SCVs. After a small bit of back and forth, GanZi was left in a sizable supply deficit, and his drops were never effective. Eventually, Stephano easily steamrolled thorugh GanZi's main army to end the game.

04:29 GMT (+00:00): Illusion 1-0 Hawk – (Open Bracket) On Antiga Shipyard. Battle of the Vile/Quantics! Illusion opened with a cool fast expand timing, hitting stim and +1 attack at the same time with hellion backup. Hawk stayed on two base, opting for fast double upgrade ling bane. Hawk held both phases of Illusion’s pressure, with both players executing some nice micro. Hawk went for the three base muta bane timing that is so often used on Antiga. Illusion barely held the big timing and was able to immediately push back to secure his fourth (apparently still a gold base) and with it the game.

04:17 GMT (+00:00): viOLet 2-1 Leenock. On Antiga Shipyard, viOLet just made slightly better decisions, and had a slightly better economy early - slightly more drones, slightly earlier third. This gave him a huge advantage in the number of units, and Leenock's upgrade advantage was not enough to hold off the overwhelming force. viOLet made a strike into Leenock's base to consolidate his advantage, and when Leenock's counter failed, he GGed out.

04:14 GMT (+00:00): DongRaeGu 2-0 Heart. On Cloud Kingdom, DongRaeGu was once again the one controlling the map and the game. Heart played excellent defense, finally movign out when he was satisfied with his army composition and upgrades. The players went for a base trade, each player taking out two opposing bases, but when Heart finally got to DongRaeGu's natural, he went for the greater spire and ultralisk cavern instead of the evolution chamber, which proved the difference in the following engagement and the rest of the game.

04:09 GMT (+00:00): Idra 0-0 KawaiiRice – (Nationals Losers Bracket) Antiga. Both players opened with fast expand goodness, Idra getting a quick third with roaches and queens while Kawaii built his quick third off a reactor hellion. Idra got a perfect scout of the quick third as well as the tech speed of Kawaii with an overlord, allowing him to plan out exactly how he wanted to react. Idra reacted with plenty of drones into an infestor/roach/ling/ultra composition. Idra smashed Kawaii’s initial push with his composition, delaying Kawaii’s fourth base for even longer. Kawaii macro’d out a ton of tank marine maurader tank to hold the counter push and take his fourth, forcing Idra to need Brood lords next (by the way, Idra fans will happy to note how amazing his creep spread was this game)….and then disconnect into regame! Yipee!

04:01 GMT (+00:00): Leenock 1-1 viOLet. Leenock went quick bane nest on Daybreak and tried to attack viOLet's natural, but he was supply blocked while teching and then fully scouted, only managing to take out 3 workers and a spine crawler when he attacked. Both players got their third bases up around the same time, and both went ling-infestor while teching to hive. Leenock was extremely patient with his burrowed infestors, finally revealing them to fungal viOLet's own bunch of infestors. When the ultralisks finally arrived, buth sides traded blows a number of times, each building a frankly ludicrous number of ultras over the course of the game. In the end, Leenock was better able to preserve low-health ultras, and a tech switch into brood lords sealed it for him.

03:54 GMT (+00:00): DongRaeGu 1-0 Heart. On Entombed Valley cross positions, Heart went CC first and never put any early pressure on, letting DRG do anything he wanted. When Heart finally tried to push out, DongRaeGu had the answer for everything Heart tried to throw at him, and the terran was finally forced to GG.

03:33 GMT (+00:00): viOLet 1-0 Leenock. On Metropolis, Leenock went hatch-gas-pool, and viOLet pool-hatch. viOlet tried a bit of ling aggression and was repelled by some banelings. Both players got their third bases up and the midgame swung back and forth, but eventually viOLet got an advantage via mining more gas. Leenock delayed with his infestors until ultralisks arrived, but at the cost of his third base. Leenock saw a wall of spines ready for his last-gasp counterattack, and GGed.

03:29 GMT (+00:00): Grubby 1-0 Dream. On Cloud Kingdom, both players were more conservative early on, but Grubby teched to DTs. Dream pushed out with MMM as he tried to take his third, dropping in the main and attacking the natural, both unsuccessfully. Grubby's warp prism then arrived in the terran main, doing a ton of damage with DTs and zealots as he chased off the terran army and took his own third, and continued to be a pain with his DTs and press his advantage with his army. Dream eventually realized the futility of his situation and GGed.

03:25 GMT (+00:00): Siphonn 2-1 HayprO – (Open Bracket) Shakuras Plateau (close air is apparently possible). Haypro opened with a seven pool, luckily Siphonn went forge first and got a cannon up in his main to defend. Siphonn kicked it old school with a three gate expand before deciding to push with a gateway army. Haypro did his best to hold with lings and spines and barely did so after losing his natural expansion. Haypro continued massing 1-1 lings and barely held on for a little longer before being overwhelmed by Siphonn’s constant two base reinforcements

03:20 GMT (+00:00): Polt 2-0 Ganzi – (Pool Play) Entombed Valley top and bottom spawns. Polt opened with the fancy proxy maurader pressure which I hear works pretty well against command center first. Ganzi barely got a bunker up in his main to defend, having to float his expansion into his main. Polt barely held Ganzi’s initial push with SCV’s and a cloak banshee, the banshee giving Polt a nice SCV advantage before dieing. Polt opted for Marine Maurader into tank while Ganzi went for the more standard marine tank fare. Polt barely held Ganzi’s force at his front while attacking with a separate MMM army to take the game

03:14 GMT (+00:00): Grubby 1-0 Dream. Grubby went with what looked like relatively innocuous 4gate pressure, but Dream was way too greedy on two bases and couldn't stop Grubby.

03:10 GMT (+00:00): MarineKing 2-0 Symbol. Symbol used all his resources and queen energy on building a roach army, but it accomplished almost nothing. MarineKing's tried a banshee-supplemented poke at Symbol, ad was reppelled. As MarineKing moved across th emap with his Tanke-MMM force, Symbol did a ton of damage in the main in the main with mutas before returning home to clean up the army. The next engagement was more decisive thanks to baneling speed, but MarineKing was still able to claim the gold base and position his tanks well to take out Symbol's fifth. Four base vs four base, MarineKing's army was too strong even when six brood lords arrived.

03:08 GMT (+00:00): Haypro 1-1 Siphonn – (Open Bracket) Cloud Kingdom. Siphonn opened with an interesting single gateway pressure into expand that Haypro denied quite impressively. Haypro decided to take advantage of his lead with a well-timed baneling bust that smashed through Siphonn’s unprepared front for the win.

03:03 GMT (+00:00): Polt 1-0 Ganzi – (Pool Play) Metropolis close air. Both players took advantage of the map positioning and opened banshee expand with Ganzi opting for cloak. Polt’s banshee did an incredible amount of damage (22 SCV kills) while Ganzi’s was denied after no damage was done. Polt immediately capitalized on his advantage to finish off Ganzi with a simple marine tank timing, taking the game with ease.

03:00 GMT (+00:00): Siphonn 1-0 Haypro – (Open Bracket) Antiga. Both players went for the standard forge FE vs. quick 3 base openers. Siphonn went up to eight gates with immortals off of two base while Haypro droned up into the standard roach ling fair. Haypro snagged a few units in the middle map, but ultimately only got a sentry out of it. Haypro got an absolutely fantastic surround on Siphonn’s army, buying some time for his next wave of units and spine crawlers to finish. Siphonn’s constant zealot warp ins combined with his immortal retention allowed him to barely take out Haypro’s third and the with it the game.

01:53 GMT (+00:00): Socke 2-1 Heart. Socke took his natural rather quickly on Metropolis and defended it excellently to gain an excellent advantage, but Heart got back in it with some cute drop play. He wasn't able to do anything on follow-up drops, and Socke amassed an enormous zealot force to force Heart out of the game.

02:41 GMT (+00:00): MarineKing 1-0 Symbol. After a bit of a back and forth early game on Cloud Kingdom, Symbol ended up losing his third to a relatively small force of marines due to having no lings. He spawned it again, but lost it again to a now-upgraded infantry force as MarineKing took his own third. Symbol's tech finally arrived, and he attacked with banelings and speedlings to wreak havoc at MarineKing's third. MarineKing defended the next wave, pushed out to take down the third yet again, and from there it was only a matter of time.

02:34 GMT (+00:00): Ranged 2 - 1 Nony – (US Nationals) Entombed Valley top and bottom spawns (not cross positions). Ranged opened stargate into robo while Nony opened blink. Ranged used forcefields to hold back Nony’s stalkers until enough immortals were out to barely hold Nony’s timing. Ranged expanded in a much better position than Nony, who threw down his own desperate expand much later. Eventually Ranged’s economic and tech advantage compounded to the point where he was able to attack Nony and take the game.

02:33 GMT (+00:00): Sase 2-1 BeastyQT – Tal’darim top spawns. Despite fast expanding himself, BeastyQT pulled off a neat bunker pressure on Sase’s natural. Sase expertly held before counter attacking and getting some nice SCV kills before pulling back. Both players pressured eachother until BeastyQT tried to grab a third base. Sase’s two base chargelot Templar army was able to overcome BeastyQT’s MMM ghost to take him the game.

01:03 GMT (+00:00): Heart 1-1 Socke. On Cloud Kingdom, Heart first attacked before medivacs, perhaps hoping to catch Socke before colossi again, but Socke had a much more substantial army so Heart turned around. Heart pushed out with medivac backup, catching Socke off guard and pushing into the natural. Storm finished researching, but it was too little, too late for Socke.

01:03 GMT (+00:00): Socke 1-0 Heart. On Daybreak, neither player did any real early aggression. Heart tried to push out when his first pair of medivacs arrived, but Socke's pair of colossi, together with a lot of force fields, shut that down. Socke continued to push the attack, and Heart was wholly unprepared for Socke's army composition.

02:19 GMT (+00:00): Nony 1 - 1 Ranged – (US Nationals) Cloud Kingdom. Ranged opened blink into robo while Nony opened robo with immortals. Nony couldn’t expand when he wanted to, so he got his own blink and added a third gateway before grabbing his own very delayed expansion. Nony still had the faster colossus this game and appeared to be going for the same two base timing as last game… until he threw down his own third base. Ranged’s quick double forge paid off as his upgrade advantage allowed him to decisively take the battle and the game. (the fact that Nony forgot Colossus range didn’t help him either though...)

02:13 GMT (+00:00): Byul 2-1 Kawaii – Cloud Kingdom. Kawaii and Byul both fast expanded, Kawaii went banshee hellion while building a fast in base third. Standard midgame tactics ensued, marine tank against muta ling. Byul used some nice mutalisk control to harass while grabbing his fourth and amassing a massive ling bane army. Kawaii barely saved his third (just like in game one) against Byul’s massive timing. Kawaii ended up throwing away too many units in failed pushes while Byul teched up to ultralisks and brood lords to take the game, using a smart counter attack to buy time for his broods to morph and finish Kawaii’s army.

02:13 GMT (+00:00): Day[9] and Rob Simpson with the first TvZ HotS battle report on the Red Stream.

02:10 GMT (+00:00): DongRaeGu 2-0 MC. On Daybreak, MC chose a huge gateway attack, but DongRaeGu had huge macro off 3 bases. The first time he was force fielded out, he went instead to snipe the forward pylon, shutting down the pressure. MC retreated to try to get up some tech and a third, but DongRaeGu took out all three nexuses at once with the help of drop tech, proving too much even for MLG's Picture in Picture. MC was forced into an all-in attack, which was surprisingly effective but not quite enough.

01:59 GMT (+00:00): Nony 1-0 Ranged – (US Nationals) Ohana. When the game came up on stream, Ranged had a small food lead over Nony, but Nony had had the faster colossus and forge. Nony added on gateways and high templar to hit a big timing whereas Ranged grabbed a third base instead. Nony’s massive archon colossus timing attack barely broke Ranged’s third to take the game!

01:53 GMT (+00:00): DongRaeGu 1-0 MC. On Metropolis, MC went for void rays and used their vision to warp in on the high ground in DongRaeGu's main to force field the main ram, but DongRaeGu defended it perfectly, chasing off the ground and air forces. DongRaeGu did some minor counterattacking as both players tech switched, DongRaeGu's mutas arriving before blink to snipe sentries and probes. DongRaeGu continued to pressure, expanding his advantage until MC GGed out.

01:45 GMT (+00:00): Byul 1-1 Kawaii –Tal’Darim bottom spawns. Byul went for two base lair while Kawaii prepared for a two base timing. Both players decided to grab their thirds rather than attack and Byul maintained map control fairly uncontested, even into the late game. Byul hit Kawaii with two great ultra/ling/bane engagements to take the game.

01:41 GMT (+00:00): MarineKing 2-1 Grubby. Metropolis - MarineKing proxied marauders with concussive shells and half-started an engineering bay in Grubby's main to help him kite. Grubby held it off only losing four workers, and then took down the tech lab researching stim. Marineking was forced to back off to continue to research, then feigned an attack to the front before double dropping in the main to destroy the Nexus and snipe some valuable immortals. Grubby tried to hold off for a while with some warp prism harass, but MarineKing's momentum was too much.

01:27 GMT (+00:00): Grubby 1-1 MarineKing. On Cloud Kingdom, MarineKing went quick CC as Grubby's was slightly delayed. MarineKing continued to add on CCs at a rapid pace, adding ghosts and vikings. Once he was near-maxed, he went after Grubby's third, and in a battle of casters, MarineKing came out slightly on Top. Grubby utilized zealot warpins and storms for some nice harassment, continually taking advantage of the map to shut down the terran fourth. Eventually MarineKing tried a desparation base trade, but his army was easily wiped out.

01:24 GMT (+00:00): Stephano 2-1 Polt. On Entombed Valley, Stephano had the perfect counter to Polt's TvZ he showed in the first two games, taking him by surprise with a huge ling-roach attack to easily take the game.

01:21 GMT (+00:00): Mystik 2-0 Illusion – Daybreak. Both players went for fast expand openers, Mystik grabbing a very quick third base. Mystik was perfectly prepared for Illusion’s bio timing, holding with a huge ling baneling surround. The hold was successful enough to counter attack multiple times to ultimately take the game with a huge ling baneling muta army.

01:19 GMT (+00:00): KawaiiRice 1-0 ByuL – Antiga. KawaiiRice went for an interesting opener, getting a delayed natural expand but with fast upgrades and tech while ByuL focused on holding his hatch first. ByuL went for the big three base ling bane muta timing; KawaiiRice barely held on for a long time, eventually squeezing out a larger army to take the game

01:13 GMT (+00:00): Stephano 1-1 Polt. Spawning clockwise on Tal'Darim Altar from Stephano, Polt went for a similar push to last game. This time, Stephano had better early-game upgrades, both in lings and banelings, and had better creep spread, which added up to him barely holding. Stephano gained map control and took his third and fourth at the same time before rushing to ultralisks, and with some nice infested terrans to draw fire, Stephano broke though Polt's army at the watchtower. With an unfortunate follow command mixup, Polt was unable to ever catch up in macro, and could never overcome the economic disadvantage.

01:04 GMT (+00:00): Mystik 1-0 Illusion – Antiga. Both players exchanged medium sized armies in the midgame then macro’d up, Mystik went for brood lords and Illusion went for marine marauder tank. After holding a big timing with great fungals, Mystik macro’d up a big broodlord corrupter army that Illusion wasn’t quite ready for to take game one.

01:03 GMT (+00:00): MarineKing 1-0 Grubby. MarineKing's speed reaper didn't do much to disturb Grubby, but Grubby's attempted early aggression was also unsuccessful. He teched for Colossi off 2 bases, with the first one arriving just in time to fall victim to MarineKing's MMM army. MarineKing waited for a few more reinforcements before heading to Grubby's base, and took down two more colossi to end the game.

00:47 GMT (+00:00): Polt 1-0 Stephano. Polt's CC first-double gas on Antiga lead into reactor hellions, which were supplemented by a marauder-heavy bio force to easily take out the Zerg third while claiming his own. Stephano's infestors gave him a surprising win in a mid-game battle, but he couldn't keep up in macro three bases against four, and his quick ultras were no match for Polt's MMM-Tank army.

00:33 GMT (+00:00): Games finally about to start!

00:19 GMT (+00:00): All the intro work is done. By the way, that Unimpressed Flash sign was the "You beat single player? I beat multiplayer" one.

00:12 GMT (+00:00): After Sundance does the intro, he's kicked it over to DJWheat and TotalBiscuit for some more information.

00:00 GMT (+00:00): Just about to kick things off.

Pool Play

• Game One: Polt's CC first-double gas lead into reactor hellions, which were supplemented by a marauder-heavy bio force to easily take out the Zerg third while claiming his own. Stephano's infestors gave him a surprising win in a mid-game battle, but he couldn't keep up in macro three bases against four, and his quick ultras were no match for Polt's MMM-Tank army.
  
  
• Game Two: Spawning clockwise on Tal'Darim Altar from Stephano, Polt went for a similar push to last game. This time, Stephano had better early-game upgrades, both in lings and banelings, and had better creep spread, which added up to him barely holding. Stephano gained map control and took his third and fourth at the same time before rushing to ultralisks, and with some nice infested terrans to draw fire, Stephano broke though Polt's army at the watchtower. With an unfortunate follow command mixup, Polt was unable to ever catch up in macro, and could never overcome the economic disadvantage.
  
  
• Game Three: On Entombed Valley, Stephano had the perfect counter to Polt's TvZ he showed in the first two games, taking him by surprise with a huge ling-roach attack to easily take the game.
  
  
• Stephano 2-1 Polt

• Game One: MarineKing's speed reaper didn't do much to disturb Grubby, but Grubby's attempted early aggression was also unsuccessful. He teched for Colossi off 2 bases, with the first one arriving just in time to fall victim to MarineKing's MMM army. MarineKing waited for a few more reinforcements before heading to Grubby's base, and took down two more colossi to end the game.
  
  
• Game Two: On Cloud Kingdom, MarineKing went quick CC as Grubby's was slightly delayed. MarineKing continued to add on CCs at a rapid pace, adding ghosts and vikings. Once he was near-maxed, he went after Grubby's third, and in a battle of casters, MarineKing came out slightly on Top. Grubby utilized zealot warpins and storms for some nice harassment, continually taking advantage of the map to shut down the terran fourth. Eventually MarineKing tried a desparation base trade, but his army was easily wiped out.
  
  
• Game Three: Metropolis - MarineKing proxied marauders with concussive shells and half-started an engineering bay in Grubby's main to help him kite. Grubby held it off only losing four workers, and then took down the tech lab researching stim. Marineking was forced to back off to continue to research, then feigned an attack to the front before double dropping in the main to destroy the Nexus and snipe some valuable immortals. Grubby tried to hold off for a while with some warp prism harass, but MarineKing's momentum was too much.
  
  
• Grubby 1 - 2 MarineKing

• Game One: On Metropolis, MC went for void rays and used their vision to warp in on the high ground in DongRaeGu's main to force field the main ram, but DongRaeGu defended it perfectly, chasing off the ground and air forces. DongRaeGu did some minor counterattacking as both players tech switched, DongRaeGu's mutas arriving before blink to snipe sentries and probes. DongRaeGu continued to pressure, expanding his advantage until MC GGed out.
  
  
• Game Two: On Daybreak, MC chose a huge gateway attack, but DongRaeGu had huge macro off 3 bases. The first time he was force fielded out, he went instead to snipe the forward pylon, shutting down the pressure. MC retreated to try to get up some tech and a third, but DongRaeGu took out all three nexuses at once with the help of drop tech, proving too much even for MLG's Picture in Picture. MC was forced into an all-in attack, which was surprisingly effective but not quite enough.
  
  
• MC 0 - 2 DongRaeGu

• Game One: On Daybreak, neither player did any real early aggression. Heart tried to push out when his first pair of medivacs arrived, but Socke's pair of colossi, together with a lot of force fields, shut that down. Socke continued to push the attack, and Heart was wholly unprepared for Socke's army composition.
  
  
• Game Two: On Cloud Kingdom, Heart first attacked before medivacs, perhaps hoping to catch Socke before colossi again, but Socke had a much more substantial army so Heart turned around. Heart pushed out with medivac backup, catching Socke off guard and pushing into the natural. Storm finished researching, but it was too little, too late for Socke.
  
  
• Game Three: Socke took his natural on Metropolis rather quickly and defended it excellently to gain an excellent advantage, but Heart got back in it with some cute drop play. He wasn't able to do anything on follow-up drops, and Socke amassed an enormous zealot force to force Heart out of the game.
  
  
• Heart 1-2 Socke

• Game One: After a bit of a back and forth early game on Cloud Kingdom, Symbol ended up losing his third to a relatively small force of marines due to having no lings. He spawned it again, but lost it again to a now-upgraded infantry force as MarineKing took his own third. Symbol's tech finally arrived, and he attacked with banelings and speedlings to wreak havoc at MarineKing's third. MarineKing defended the next wave, pushed out to take down the third yet again, and from there it was only a matter of time.
  
  
• Game Two: Symbol used all his resources and queen energy on building a roach army, but it accomplished almost nothing. MarineKing's tried a banshee-supplemented poke at Symbol, ad was reppelled. As MarineKing moved across th emap with his Tanke-MMM force, Symbol did a ton of damage in the main in the main with mutas before returning home to clean up the army. The next engagement was more decisive thanks to baneling speed, but MarineKing was still able to claim the gold base and position his tanks well to take out Symbol's fifth. Four base vs four base, MarineKing's army was too strong even when six brood lords arrived.
  
  
• Symbol 0 - 2 MarineKing

• Game One: Metropolis close air. Both players took advantage of the map positioning and opened banshee expand with Ganzi opting for cloak. Polt’s banshee did an incredible amount of damage (22 SCV kills) while Ganzi’s was denied after no damage was done. Polt immediately capitalized on his advantage to finish off Ganzi with a simple marine tank timing, taking the game with ease.
  
  
• Game Two: Entombed Valley top and bottom spawns. Polt opened with the fancy proxy maurader pressure which I hear works pretty well against command center first. Ganzi barely got a bunker up in his main to defend, having to float his expansion into his main. Polt barely held Ganzi’s initial push with SCV’s and a cloak banshee, the banshee giving Polt a nice SCV advantage before dieing. Polt opted for Marine Maurader into tank while Ganzi went for the more standard marine tank fare. Polt barely held Ganzi’s force at his front while attacking with a separate MMM army to take the game
  
  
• Polt 2 - 0 GanZi

• Game One: Grubby went with what looked like relatively innocuous 4gate pressure, but Dream was way too greedy on two bases and couldn't stop Grubby.
  
  
• Game Two: On Cloud Kingdom, both players were more conservative early on, but Grubby teched to DTs. Dream pushed out with MMM as he tried to take his third, dropping in the main and attacking the natural, both unsuccessfully. Grubby's warp prism then arrived in the terran main, doing a ton of damage with DTs and zealots as he chased off the terran army and took his own third, and continued to be a pain with his DTs and press his advantage with his army. Dream eventually realized the futility of his situation and GGed.
  
  
• Dream 0 - 2 Grubby

• Game One: On Metropolis, Leenock went hatch-gas-pool, and viOLet pool-hatch. viOlet tried a bit of ling aggression and was repelled by some banelings. Both players got their third bases up and the midgame swung back and forth, but eventually viOLet got an advantage via mining more gas. Leenock delayed with his infestors until ultralisks arrived, but at the cost of his third base. Leenock saw a wall of spines ready for his last-gasp counterattack, and GGed.
  
  
• Game Two: Leenock went quick bane nest on Daybreak and tried to attack viOLet's natural, but he was supply blocked while teching and then fully scouted, only managing to take out 3 workers and a spine crawler when he attacked. Both players got their third bases up around the same time, and both went ling-infestor while teching to hive. Leenock was extremely patient with his burrowed infestors, finally revealing them to fungal viOLet's own bunch of infestors. When the ultralisks finally arrived, buth sides traded blows a number of times, each building a frankly ludicrous number of ultras over the course of the game. In the end, Leenock was better able to preserve low-health ultras, and a tech switch into brood lords sealed it for him.
  
  
• Game Three: On Antiga Shipyard, viOLet just made slightly better decisions, and had a slightly better economy early - slightly more drones, slightly earlier third. This gave him a huge advantage in the number of units, and Leenock's upgrade advantage was not enough to hold off the overwhelming force. viOLet made a strike into Leenock's base to consolidate his advantage, and when Leenock's counter failed, he GGed out.
  
  
• viOLet 2 - 1 Leenock

• Game One: On Entombed Valley cross positions, Heart went CC first and never put any early pressure on, letting DRG do anything he wanted. When Heart finally tried to push out, DongRaeGu had the answer for everything Heart tried to throw at him, and the terran was finally forced to GG.
  
  
• Game Two: DongRaeGu 2-0 Heart. On Cloud Kingdom, DongRaeGu was once again the one controlling the map and the game. Heart played excellent defense, finally movign out when he was satisfied with his army composition and upgrades. The players went for a base trade, each player taking out two opposing bases, but when Heart finally got to DongRaeGu's natural, he went for the greater spire and ultralisk cavern instead of the evolution chamber, which proved the difference in the following engagement and the rest of the game.
  
  
• Heart 0 - 2 DongRaeGu

• Game One: Stephano geared up for a roach-bane bust on Antiga, and while he didn't take out many marines, he did get 10 SCVs. After a small bit of back and forth, GanZi was left in a sizable supply deficit, and his drops were never effective. Eventually, Stephano easily steamrolled thorugh GanZi's main army to end the game.
  
  
• Game Two: Stephano did the same roach-bane bust, but this time GanZi didn't see it coming at all, and with fewer units and and a less substantial wall, he suffered even more damage than last game. Stephano once again put a lid on any medivac shenanigans, and when Stephano finally rolled in with his army, the tankless Ganzi had no hope of stopping the roach-ling-bane army.
  
  
• Stephano 2 - 0 GanZi

• Game One:
  
  
• Game Two: Alicia's superior upgrades and better tech let him storm his way to victory over Polt on Entombed Valley.
  
  
• Game Three: Polt rushed cloak banshees, which was unfortunate as Alicia's gateway attack ran over Polt's paltry defenses at the natural. Polt tried to hang on, but when the observer spawned, it was all over.
  
  
• Polt 1 - 2 Alicia

• Game One: On Shakuras Plateau, MC went for a very cool one base blink observer timing. MC aggressively blinked on top of Heart’s army and then defensively blinked to the low ground with trademark fantastic micro. Heart’s stim finished in time to make things a little interesting, but it ended up being futile compared to MC’s economy by the time the next battle went down.
  
  
• Game Two: Metropolis. MC decided to play some older school TvP this game, going for a 3 gate pressure expand. MC gets hilariously lucky, going up Heart’s ramp as his marines are walking back from the middle of the map, allowing him to forcefield split the marines on their way back up and take the game with a very simple pressure. And then bounce his way across the stage.
  
  
• MC 2 - 0 Heart

• Game One: 05:45 GMT (+00:00): Ryung 1-0 viOLet. viOLet's roach-bane attack initially looked unsuccessful, but patience with banelings let him wipe out 17 workers at the natural, and despite eventually being driven off, he then had a huge economic advantage. Ryung managed to keep up on supply , but his tech fell behind. Fortunately for him, viOlet teched to ultralisks, so he lost (some credit goes to nice harass by Ryung).
  
  
• Game Two: On Daybreak, viOLet got a little behind early thanks to blue flame hellions, and in the midgame he tried to tech while droning hard. Ryung kept the pressure up in multiple locations in order to deny viOLet the pocket fourth as he planetaried his own. Ryung continued to attack all over the map, but maybe got too cute when he went three-academy nukes. viOLet teched to ultra-ling-infestor, and then there was a huge stretch of the game where viOLet ran away while he tried to gain energy and attacked when he had it. Ryung thought he won multiple times, but eventually he ran out of minerals and the series was headed to game three.
  
  
• Game Three: On Entombed Valley, viOLet initially aimed for the roach-bane attack. When Ryung scouted it, he turned around home for double evo and a third. He maxed out and attacked off that same composition, but Ryung's MMMT army won that engagement supremely efficiently. viOLet was never able to get up enough infestors to pin down Ryung's army for the banelings and ultras. Once viOLet's attempted base trade failed, it was all over.
  
  
• viOLet 1 - 2 Ryung

Open Bracket

• Game One: Antiga. Byul went for an interesting opener, getting a delayed natural expand but with fast upgrades and tech while Kawaii focused on holding his hatch first. Kawaii went for the big three base ling bane muta timing; KawaiiRice barely held on for a long time, eventually squeezing out a larger army to take the game.
  
  
• Game Two: Tal’Darim bottom spawns. Byul went for two base lair while Kawaii prepared for a two base timing. Both players decided to grab their thirds rather than attack and Byul maintained map control fairly uncontested, even into the late game. Byul hit Kawaii with two great ultra/ling/bane engagements to take the game.
  
  
• Game Three: Cloud Kingdom. Kawaii and Byul both fast expanded, Kawaii went banshee hellion while building a fast in base third. Standard midgame tactics ensued, marine tank against muta ling. Byul used some nice mutalisk control to harass while grabbing his fourth and amassing a massive ling bane army. Kawaii barely saved his third (just like in game one) against Byul’s massive timing. Kawaii ended up throwing away too many units in failed pushes while Byul teched up to ultralisks and brood lords to take the game, using a smart counter attack to buy time for his broods to morph and finish Kawaii’s army.
  
  
• KawaiiRice 1 - 2 ByuL

• Game Three: Tal’darim top spawns. Despite fast expanding himself, BeastyQT pulled off a neat bunker pressure on Sase’s natural. Sase expertly held before counter attacking and getting some nice SCV kills before pulling back. Both players pressured eachother until BeastyQT tried to grab a third base. Sase’s two base chargelot Templar army was able to overcome BeastyQT’s MMM ghost to take him the game.
  
  
• SaSe 2-1 Beastyqt

• Game One: Antiga. Both players went for the standard forge FE vs. quick 3 base openers. Siphonn went up to eight gates with immortals off of two base while Haypro droned up into the standard roach ling fair. Haypro snagged a few units in the middle map, but ultimately only got a sentry out of it. Haypro got an absolutely fantastic surround on Siphonn’s army, buying some time for his next wave of units and spine crawlers to finish. Siphonn’s constant zealot warp ins combined with his immortal retention allowed him to barely take out Haypro’s third and the with it the game.
  
  
• Game Two: Cloud Kingdom. Siphonn opened with an interesting single gateway pressure into expand that Haypro denied quite impressively. Haypro decided to take advantage of his lead with a well-timed baneling bust that smashed through Siphonn’s unprepared front for the win.
  
  
• Game Three: Shakuras Plateau (close air is apparently possible). Haypro opened with a seven pool, luckily Siphonn went forge first and got a cannon up in his main to defend. Siphonn kicked it old school with a three gate expand before deciding to push with a gateway army. Haypro did his best to hold with lings and spines and barely did so after losing his natural expansion. Haypro continued massing 1-1 lings and barely held on for a little longer before being overwhelmed by Siphonn’s constant two base reinforcements
  
  
• HayprO 1 - 2 Siphonn

• Game One: On Antiga Shipyard. Battle of the Vile/Quantics! Illusion opened with a cool fast expand timing, hitting stim and +1 attack at the same time with hellion backup. Hawk stayed on two base, opting for fast double upgrade ling bane. Hawk held both phases of Illusion’s pressure, with both players executing some nice micro. Hawk went for the three base muta bane timing that is so often used on Antiga. Illusion barely held the big timing and was able to immediately push back to secure his fourth (apparently still a gold base) and with it the game.
  
  
• Game Two: On Daybreak. Hawk opened with some great ling pressure, taking out a lot of Illusion’s SCVs before going into the mid game. Hawk used a great counter attack combined with a great engagement to seal the deal. Illusion tried to hold on by floating into his main, but tactics like that can only last so long before Hawk attacked with his massive army to take the game.
  
  
• Game Three: On Cloud Kingdom. Both players opened with fast expands, with Hawk opting for a roach bane timing. Hawk opted to pull back and drone up in the face of Illusion’s great defense. Illusion was able to do some damage with a bio force, forcing Hawk to get infesters with his third base. Once Illusion was able to take out Hawk’s single massive army and the constructing greater spire, he was able to roll him over with his amazing economy for the final victory.
  
  
• Illusion 2 - 1 Hawk

• Game One: On Entombed Valley. Puma went for the quick 1 rax expand into heavy barracks play. Meanwhile, Choya actually went for a very interesting one gate expand into DT and robo. Choya barely held Puma’s initial marine pressure with stalker micro and a single dt (only after losing a few probes though). Puma’s next big push was too much for Choya’s fragile build and he took the game with it.
  
  
• Game Two: On Daybreak. Both players went for expand openers, with Choya even going for nexus first. Puma decided he could be greedy too, proxying a third expansion at the 12 o’clock position, following that up with two fast engineering bays. Choya tried to be greedier, going triple forge (by accident) while getting Templar chargelot ready for battle off of three bases. Puma’s greed paid off in time to net him the win, hitting a brutal MMM timing with ghosts and upgrades, exactly the hardest possible thing for Choya to deal with using his chosen build.
  
  
• PuMa 2 - 0 Choya

• Game One: Entombed Valley. Both players went for standard fast expands, with Huk going for a three gate timing after expand that I’ve seen Naniwa do before. Huk’s push proved somewhat effective, giving him a small economic lead despite delaying his tech. Trimaster was able to kill Huk’s building third before archons were out, Huk responded by attacking himself with his chargelot archon composition. Trimaster was too spread out to hold and was forced to tap out.
  
  
• Game Two: Daybreak. Huk decided to try out a DT expand against Trimasters standard expand opener. Huk even showed off his massive cajones, dropping a proxy pylon right in front of Trimaster’s base. Trimaster did the standard terran SCV dance while trying to build a turret before he finally got one up. Trimaster landed an absolutely huge drop and then… stream crashed. When it came back up Huk had a 50 food supply lead and a third base. And then he won with a really big pile of upgraded gateway units that smashed Trimaster’s smaller army of MMMG.
  
  
• HuK 2 - 0 TriMaster

USA Nationals

• Game One: Antiga. Both players exchanged medium sized armies in the midgame then macro’d up, Mystik went for brood lords and Illusion went for marine marauder tank. After holding a big timing with great fungals, Mystik macro’d up a big broodlord corrupter army that Illusion wasn’t quite ready for to take game one.
  
  
• Game Two: Daybreak. Both players went for fast expand openers, Mystik grabbing a very quick third base. Mystik was perfectly prepared for Illusion’s bio timing, holding with a huge ling baneling surround. The hold was successful enough to counter attack multiple times to ultimately take the game with a huge ling baneling muta army.
  
  
• Mystik 2 - 0 Illusion

• Game One: Ohana. When the game came up on stream, Ranged had a small food lead over Nony, but Nony had had the faster colossus and forge. Nony added on gateways and high templar to hit a big timing whereas Ranged grabbed a third base instead. Nony’s massive archon colossus timing attack barely broke Ranged’s third to take the game!
  
  
• Game Two: Cloud Kingdom. Ranged opened blink into robo while Nony opened robo with immortals. Nony couldn’t expand when he wanted to, so he got his own blink and added a third gateway before grabbing his own very delayed expansion. Nony still had the faster colossus this game and appeared to be going for the same two base timing as last game… until he threw down his own third base. Ranged’s quick double forge paid off as his upgrade advantage allowed him to decisively take the battle and the game. (the fact that Nony forgot Colossus range didn’t help him either though...)
  
  
• Game Three: Entombed Valley top and bottom spawns (not cross positions). Ranged opened stargate into robo while Nony opened blink. Ranged used forcefields to hold back Nony’s stalkers until enough immortals were out to barely hold Nony’s timing. Ranged expanded in a much better position than Nony, who threw down his own desperate expand much later. Eventually Ranged’s economic and tech advantage compounded to the point where he was able to attack Nony and take the game.
  
  
• NonY 1 - 2 RaNgeD

• Game One: Antiga. Both players opened with fast expand goodness, Idra getting a quick third with roaches and queens while Kawaii built his quick third off a reactor hellion. Idra got a perfect scout of the quick third as well as the tech speed of Kawaii with an overlord, allowing him to plan out exactly how he wanted to react. Idra reacted with plenty of drones into an infestor/roach/ling/ultra composition. Idra smashed Kawaii’s initial push with his composition, delaying Kawaii’s fourth base for even longer. Kawaii macro’d out a ton of tank marine maurader tank to hold the counter push and take his fourth, forcing Idra to need Brood lords next (by the way, Idra fans will happy to note how amazing his creep spread was this game)….and then disconnect into regame! Yipee!
  
  
• Game One, Redux: Antiga Shipyard again. Both players must have been frustrated after last matches regame as there were reasons to think that either player was ahead. Kawaii went for the Qxc style bunker creep contain but Idra easily denied it with his two queens. Idra went for an identical opening as last game, this time able to hold Kawaii’s initial pressure without much difficulty. This time Idra attacked right before his main wave of ultralisks came out, but he was still able to hold back Kawaii, forcing him to hold the high ground and try to grab his fourth. Idra’s first attempt wasn’t enough to break Kawaii on the highground, but the second time was the charm to give Idra the game (after some drawn out banshee play artificially extended the game for a bit).
  
  
• Game Two: On Shakuras Plateau. Idra again showed off the creep spread capabilities of his mass queen opener (6 of them) while grabbing a quick third base. Idra made the deadly mistake of attacking before his banelings were morphing, costing him some drones to Kawaii’s well executed marine maurader hellion timing. Kawaii used some nice drops in the midgame to try and slow down Idra, who was able to spread creep quite deeply into Kawaii’s territory while relying on a mostly ling army for map control before infestors were out. Idra was left to macro for too long, hitting a massive ling bane infestor timing to take the game.
  
  
• IdrA 2 - 0 KawaiiRice

• Game One: Nationals Round of 4 on Ohana. Both players went for your standard PvZ expand builds, with Insur putting a heavy focus on immortals and sentries before pushing out with a warp prism. Mystik hit Insur’s army with a great surround of roaches, absolutely demolishing him for the win.
  
  
• Game Two: Daybreak. Both players went for standard PvZ expands, 3 base vs. forge FE. Insur chose to be super sneaky and cannon rush the third base but Mystik made an excellent defense of it, putting Insur behind. Insur made the best of his situation, going for a huge +2 blink stalker timing that was too much for Mystik, who had played just a tad too greedy, to hold.
  
  
• Game Three: Antiga. Both players went for standard openers yet again, with Insur opting for a stargate rather than a robo. Mystik got a nice early scout of what was to come and responded by pumping out 10 roaches to hold Insur’s cute little stargate + 4 gate timing. Mystik did his best to counter attack, but Insur did a nice job holding on and grabbing his third base. Mystik wasn’t able to get his economy running before Insur came with his big stalker colossus death ball to take the game.
  
  
• Insur 2 - 1 Mystik

• Game One: On Cloud Kingdom, Insur tried to do some damage with early stargate tech, but his void ray play didn't accomplish much of anything. ViBE built up a healthy supply lead and teched to infestors, but most of that supply was in roaches, so he was caugh helpless when Insur's blink finished. ViBE tried to rush for brood lords, and looked like he might break when insur attacked, but once he got some overseers out he took out the DTs and chased off the remainder of that army. ViBE morphed in some brood lords to siege Insur's fourth, clinching the game.
  
  
• Game Two: Insur scouted what looked like an 8 pool from ViBE, defending it with a cannon in his mineral line. Both competitors played relatively conservatively as they attempted to get into a more normal situation, with ViBE eventually going for iffetsor-oach and Insur a 2-base blink army. Insur was able to invade ViBE's natural, forcing him to pull drones. The Zerg defended, but was left down on the probe count. Insur reloaded his blink army, sniping queens, but eventually ViBE got enough fungals for the blink stalkers to be shut down, ending the game.
  
  
• ViBE 2 - 0 Insur

• Game One: On Cloud Kingdom, NonY took the unorthodox route of opening gateway in PvZ., and used that to build up an early sentry-zealot task force that took out daisuki's third without losing a single unit and only expending four force fields. Both players then sat back and macrod up to their ideal unit compositions, with Nony finally moving out when he was maxed with around three colossi. He didn't have any way to deal with the flock of brood lords, and with insufficient production to spend all his money, he was overrun and forced to GG.
  
  
• Game Two: On Antiga Shipyard, both players were once again passive in the early game, daisuki working on roach and ling upgrades. He attacked across the army, catching NonY's army split in two and summarily executing it below the third. daisuki marched into the natural, proceeded to the main, and ended the series 2-0.
  
  
• NonY 0 - 2 daisuki