Live Coverage Thread

• Open Bracket
• Pool Play
• Championship Bracket
• WCS USA Nationals
• KeSPA Invitational
• Updates via @MLGSC2Scores

What's On Stream

Red: Done for the night!
Blue: Done for the night!
Premium 1: Done for the night!
Premium 2: Done for the night!

Moving Day

It almost seems impossible for so much to be contained in one day of StarCraft 2. Where to start? Let's go reverse chronologically.

Coming into the KeSPA Invitational, nobody really knew who the favorites were. The players had limited exposure in this new Proleague season, so all we had were guesses and reputations. Everyone knew who the top players were in BW, but the word on the street was that Soulkey, a grand master on the ladder, was the one to beat in the tournament. Flash, just as he's done all career, smashed people's preconceptions. He cheesed out Stork 2-0, which people maybe brushed aside. In his second round showdown with Soulkey, he didn't win as easily, but it was another 2-0 victory for Flash. With how sloppy the other semifinal was, Bisu's defeat seemed almost inevitable, and after a somewhat close macro game one, Flash slammed the door shut so fast in game two that a sleep crowd didn't even have time to get fully excited about it. Indeed, the loudest cheer of the night might have been for Leta's back handspring.

Leading up to the Brood War pros, two SC2 stalwarts played a series so transcendent that it almost seemed unfair for the KeSPA newbies to have to follow them. As seemed fated from day one, it was MarineKing and Stephano who met in a championship bracket winner's semifinal, and boy did they ever deliver. In the first game, Stephano showed flashes of brilliance, but MarineKing's victory was fairly comfortable. In the second game, MarineKing had a crazy build that lead to a heavily upgraded mech army, only for it to all be undone in seconds by an engagement that was nothing short of spectacular. With all the momentum on his side, it seemed like Stephano was on the brink of taking game three. MarineKing refused to give up, and with his immortal bio force, had a miracle defense that eventually led into victory.

There were also some incredible runs from the Open Bracket. PuMa took advantage intermediary seed to make it to pools, and proceeded to win his group. Suppy, relatively unknown to those outside the CSL scene, was the last remaining American after a great run over (among others) SangHo, BlinG, and SeleCT. Monster is making a great run, and is the last one from the open loser's bracket still alive in the championship bracket.

Then there was the USA WCS Nationals, where nobody would have predicted the top three finishers: ViBE, daisuki, and Insur (the first two of whom will face off for the $12000 first place prize tomorrow).

Although the first day was largely devoid of major upsets, Saturday once again delivered its trademark story lines and drama. If this continues to Sunday, it'll be a MLG for the ages.

Live Updates

08:04 GMT (+00:00): Flash 2-0 Bisu. Deja vu of deja vu! On Daybreak, Flash went proxy marauders again, and Bisu had a late gateway. Bisu scouted it immediately and sent four probes to attack the tech lab, but coudn't finish it off before the first marauder spawn. Bisu's probes retreate, then Flash got a bunker up below the main ramp. He got another up at the top of the ramp, barely finishing it before the SCV died. Bisu was pumping stalkers and defended admirably, but eventually lost his second gateway. Flash expanded behind it, but the expansion wasn't necessary, as Flash got together five marauders to wipe out Bisu's remaining forces and clinch the victory, in the game, the match, and the tournament!

07:54 GMT (+00:00) Flash 1-0 Bisu. In an eerily familiar situation on Entombed Valley, Flash went CC first ventically spawned from his protoss oponnent who responded with a zealot. Bisu only built one zealot though, and with Flash seeing Bisu's quicker tech, he decided against the bunker rush. Bisu double expanded and added a bunch of gateways, and as Flash scanned that, he continued to work on his bio upgrades.Flash moved out as Bisu's psi storm was researching, and attacked once his +2 weapons finished. This coincided with Bisu's storm research finishing, forcing Flash to make a fighting retreat. Bisu started catching up on upgrades, and as he chased Flash across the map, he ran out of sentry and templar energy. Flash had built up a huge flock of medivacs, leaving Bisu on the back foot. As Flash maxed, his Ghost tech was finishing and Bisu had just pumped out his first colossus. Bisu landed a few money storms, but he didn't have enough templplar to stop flash, and he couldn't adequately protect his Colossi. When the support bay died before colossus range ended, the game was over and Bisu soon GGed.

07:31 GMT (+00:00): Bisu 2-1 Jaedong. On Cloud Kingdom, Bisu once again went for the stargate opening. Jaedong's single-evo roach build couldn't stop Bisu's quick third initially. He spawned a nydus worm to get his queens to the protoss natural, taking out all the void rays. Bisu was way down in supply, but his immortal-blink stalker army was way more cost effective than Jaedong's roaches. Jaedong added a fourth and saved up to spawn a bunch of infestors, cintining to pump out upgrades and, weirdly, queens. The two armies engaged in the center of the map, with Jaedong's queens tanking, but he couldn't do any damage to Bisu's army. Bisu remaxed and easily won the game.

07:15 GMT (+00:00): Bisu 1-1 Jaedong. On Entombed cross positions, Bisu forge FEd then went gateway again as Jaedong went quick lair. Bisu emphasized he phoenixes this itme, spotting Jaedong's infestor tech as each player took their third. Jaedong tried a ling runby into Bysu's main with an infested terran attack on the third, neither doing a ton of damage. Bisu got his blink up and headed for psi storm as Jaedong's spire and hive finished. Both players took their fourths, and Bisu got aggressive. Jaedong landed a huge fungal to let his brood lords engage favorably, then overextended his infestors and got most of them feedbacked. Bisu attacked again as his mothership was warping in, and finished of all the brood lords. Jaedong frantically spawned a ton of zerglgings, but the main fight combined with a big zealot warpin in the main was too much.

06:58 GMT (+00:00): Jaedong 1-0 Bisu. On Antiga, Bisu's void ray opening let him warp zealots in to Jaedong's main, but Jaedong defended excellently and lost almost nothing while his spire and infestation pit finished. Bisu switched to twilight council, but his failed opening was too much to overcome, and from that point it was all downhill. Jaedong took the gold base and the game shortly after.

06:44 GMT (+00:00) Ganzi 2-0 Socke – Championship round 4 on Taldarim bottom spawns. Socke managed to force some missed mining time from Ganzi and grabbed a couple SCV kills with his stalker zealot pressure against Ganzi’s CC first, but nothing game ending while he expanded himself and rushed colossus. Socke began cutting probes, preparing for a massive old school 2 base colossus gateway timing. Ganzi held the attack at his front while pulling off a drop in Socke’s main to take the series.

06:39 GMT (+00:00): daisuki 2-0 Insur. On Cloud Kingdom, Insur tried a relatively vanilla sentry-heavy immortal push to destroy daisuki's third, but daisuki had more than enough economy, and pumped out tons of roaches and speedlings. He outlasted the force fields, and overran the protoss army to advance to the grand finals of WCS USA Nationals.

06:38 GMT (+00:00): Flash 2-0 Soulkey. On Daybreak, Flash again built his CC first not actually on the normal spot. Soulkey rushed lair, going straight to spire. Flash didn't scan the spire, and his double ebay build didn't have any turrets up when the first 9 mutas arrived. Soulkey was able to kill a dozen SCVs before Flash's stim finished, giving him an effective defense. With Flash trapped in his base, Soulkey droned and worked on upgrades., catching up somewhat thanks to a delayed armory slowing Flash's 2/2. Soulkey continued to invest in mutas before finally switching to infestors. Flash moved out confidently when his siege tech finished, losing a handful of marines to burrowed banelings at his own watchtower then swinging around to pressure Soulkey's pocket fourth. Both players traded blows, Flash forcing Soulkey to delay his hive units. Flash built up a fleet of medivacs, and as his 3-3 finished, he wiped out Soulkey's fourth, moving forward to destroy the third and force the GG. Although Soulkey was supposed to be the best at SC2, it was flash who won the series 2-0, getting a ticket to the finals.

06:33 GMT (+00:00) Ganzi 1-0 Socke – Championship round 4 on Cloud Kingdom. Both players did the standard quick expands, with Socke getting a robo at the same time as a twilight council, switching things up a little bit as he threw down a later dark shrine and started charge. Socke used some cool warp prism harass to delay for his archons to pop just outside Ganzi’s natural. Socke used some interesting maneuvers to keep Ganzi on the back foot while grabbing his third base and going high Templar. Ganzi felt far enough behind that he went for a big doom drop. Socke barely held the super drop pressure, but not before taking a ton of economic damage in the process, losing his third and natural nexuses (nexii?). A minute later Socke knew how far behind he was and just tapped out.

06:28 GMT (+00:00): Alive 2-1 Golden – Championship round 4 on Entombed cross positions. Golden had his trademark great creep spread to deny his hellions while going two base infestor + upgrades. Both players grabbed their third bases while getting their production geared up for the midgame. Alive again went to hit his attack right before brood lords were out and again took the game with his powerful three base timing.

06:26 GMT (+00:00): daisuki 1-0 Insur. On Ohana, Insur went stargate then used that high ground vision to warp in a round of zealots, which wreaked havoc in the main. daisuki built up a ton of drones and queens and eventually chased off Insur, sprinkled with a few ling counterattacks. He teched to corruptors, hydras, and roaches, which normally wouldn't perform well against a robo-centric protoss army, but daisuki's four-base macro was too much for Insur. He remaxed, pushed forward, and assaulted the third. In a seemingly endless battle at that base, daisuki crashed endlessly on the rocks of Insur's blink stalkers. He finally maxed then attacked, and that was what was needed, ending the first game.

06:15 GMT (+00:00): Alive 1-1 Golden – Championship round 4 on Antiga. Golden didn’t quite kill Alive’s hellions with a speedling surround, but managed to spread 13 creep tumors at a time anyways, accomplishing the same goal of denying hellions. A smart ling counter from Golden forced Alive to lift his third while Golden got his infestor tech up and running. There were so many creep tumors that small group of forces took multiple scans to clean up an area. Alive hit a very smart bio timing as the greater spire was morphing. Despite Golden’s amazing Fungals, Alive had a massive upgraded bio force that tore through Golden’s lings too easily, taking him the game.

06:17 GMT (+00:00): Flash 1-0 Soulkey. On Antiga Shipyard, flash went CC first into quick third CC and double ebay behind reactor hellions, as Soulkey planted his third shortly after. Soulkey pooped out some overlord creep then burrowed a zergling to slow Flash from plantig his third when he floated it over and took a fourth of his own. Flash got his whole army caught by a pair of fungals and forced to retreat, then started siege mode. He patiently sat back and finally moved out to take the center once he had a sizable siege tank force, then planetaried the gold. Soulkey used burrowed infestors to draw tank fire and flanked with ultras as 3/3 finished, but it still wasn't enough to unseat Flash from the watch tower. Flash then moved forward to take out Soulkey's fourth and fifth, a the cost of his planetary. With each player reduced back to three bases, FLash floated his main Orbital out to the gold. Soulkey massed up infestorsto shell the mineral line, then caught flash unsieged and moved in. It still wasn't enough, and once flash was able to clean up the infestors and bring in reinforcements, he had the game clinched.

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

Open Bracket

• Game One: Daybreak. Suppy had a difficult time dealing with Select’s superb early game bunker rushing skills, and in typical Select fashion, he only needed a bunker and some marines to take the game
  
  
• Game Two: Antiga. Select decided to go bio, hitting a marine timing that suppy easily denied with his ling + queen opening. Suppy did a great job denying select’s forces in the mid game, forcing him to continue upgrading and expanding with his marine tank force. Suppy was able to deny Select his fourth base for most of the late game while Select used drops to keep Suppy under control. Despite playing from behind almost all game long, Select was able to hold on for much longer than I thought he’d be able to with some fantastic micro and multitasking. After holding Select’s onslaught of multitasking, eventually Suppy was able to get his army big enough to finish off Select for the win.
  
  
• Game Three: Entombed Valley. Select wasn’t afraid to put everything on the line, opening with a double 11 barracks with one proxy just outside his base. Suppy did manage to clean up Select, but only after losing his hatchery in the process. Suppy showed his high level of skill, managing to get out infesters and drone up to make the game stay interesting for quite a while longer, unfortunately for him, Select doesn’t make enough mistakes for him to come back.
  
  
• Suppy 1 - 2 SeleCT

• Game One: Antiga (with gold bases). After your typical fast expand goodness, Fitzy started quick upgrades into a lair while Spades geared up for a hellion marauder timing. Fitzy’s 1-1 and speed all finished just as Spades’ push hit is front and he barely cleaned it up, losing spine crawlers and lings in the process. Oh. And Hive before third base, this guy is doing some Catz level of crazy stuff. Fitzy was able to go toe to toe with Spades despite being behind in economy, employing some neat zerg tactics to maintain a massive army. Fitzy was able to use a nice mix of broodlords, ultralisks, queens, and corrupters to finish spades off after denying his fourth base. On a small side note, Fitzy employed some sexy creep spread tactics all game long.
  
  
• Game Two: Open bracket round 4 on Cloud Kingdom. Spades tried a 1 rax double expand that Fitzy immediately spotted. Spades decided to go greedy all the way, immediately getting double upgrades for his bio before starting his factory. Fitzy responded by playing exactly the same as last game, with a quick hive and a delayed third base. Spades had a nice advantage in the mid game, but never attacked, allowing Fitzy to get his crazy late game zerg going and take the game. A quick note about Fitzy, he has amazing creep spread and awesome late game tactics. Definitely someone to watch going forward in this tournament.
  
  
• Spades 0 - 2 Fitzyhere

• Game One: On close air Shakuras, ThorZaIN beelined for cloaked banshees, but Illusion was well prepared with turrets and two orbitals. The first banshee survived two scans, and retreated home to join the main siege -marine army while the second banshee resumed the harass. ThorZaIN moved across the map as his siege tech finished and ambushed Illusion's main marine force. Illusion wasn't quite able to effectively flank ThorZaIN's army in time to save the natural, and his drop attempts were easily shut down by ThorZaIN. The next big push by the Spoon Terran was enough to end the game.
  
  
• Game Two: On Antiga Shipards cross positions, it was Illusion who went for a single uncloaked banshee. He found a lot of marines from ThorZaIN and summarily retreated, swapping addons everywhere to start pumping out infantry. Illusion stayed active with drops while ThorZaIn kept his army more consolidated, but their could gain a real advantage. In the mid-game tank position wars, ThorZaIN attacked just before Illusion's 3-3 finished, and after wiping out Illusion's army steamrolled to victory.
  
  
• ThorZaIN 2 - 0 Illusion

• Game One: PuMa's banshee-hellion attack was unsuccessful in shutting down the third initially, but when he came back he was able to kill two dozen drones spread over Ret's three bases. Ret tried a roach attack at PuMa's third, but was shut down by a pair of thors. Ret seemed to be out of it as PuMa pushed across the map, but a great ling backstab killed almost thirty SCVs to even up the game and get him some time to tech to brood lords. He was never able to get a fourth base up though, and could only morph in a small handful of brood lords, which was not enough for the decisive victory he needed to stay in the game.
  
  
• Game Two: Ret did a single gas steal on Entombed vertical positions, spying PuMa's barracks play. He tried a ling-roach attack to bust PuMa's natural, but only managed to stop mining for a short while. Ret managed to gett his third up and teched to +1 attack mutas, which could get almost no harass done. They played a huge role in smashing PuMa's next attack, and then with better numbers built up did a large deal of damage in PuMa's natural. He looked to be in a good position, but his baneling-centric attack never connected with PuMa's marines. He added infestors to his unit composition, and looked like he might be able to hold off PuMa's next attack, but GGed when he ran out of energy.
  
  
• Ret 0 - 2 PuMa

• Game One: Cloud Kingdom. Sase opened with his trademark spin on standard builds, switching up the ordering on the standard forge expand into robo. Sase deftly handled Sleep’s mutalisk harass until he had a big enough army to shove in and kill Sleep as brood lords were morphing.
  
  
• Game Two: Daybreak. Sase opened the same way as last game, but this time went 8 gate for a huge two base timing rather than grabbing a third base. Sleep’s lings hit a huge counter attack, but he lost his third in the process. Sleep’s infesters popped out just in time to kill all of Sase’s unspread sentries, allowing him to survive the big attack. Sase decided that he was too far behind to grab his third base, and went for one last big timing. A counter attack forced Sase to be all in and Sleep held with mass infested terran and roaches, netting him the game with smart play.
  
  
• Game Three: Metropolis. Sase grabbed a quick third off of a robo and Sleep responded by grabbing a fourth base and starting upgrades with infesters. Sase’s immortal, sentry, Templar timing hit before brood lords were out for Sleep, doing too much damage for Sleep to recover against constant warp in waves of stalkers and zealots.
  
  
• SaSe 2 - 1 Sleep

• Game One: Daybreak. Select opened with his standard proxy 11 barracks, but Golden spotted it with a nice drone scout. Even after being spotted, Select was still dangerous with his initial marines, getting a couple of kills before they’re finished off. Golden held Select’s bio pokes in the midgame with his ling bane army, delaying long enough for infesters and hive to complete. Despite just playing some crazy long TvZs, Select was able to hold on well into the late game; however, he just wasn’t quite ready for Golden’s huge Brood Lord army.
  
  
• Game Two: Entombed Valley. Select postured with his initial marines, ready to show off his early game control, but Golden was adequately prepared for it. Golden rushed for hive while Select continued macroing up. Golden was able to hit some nice ling infester counters, nearly killing off Select who was seconds away from raising his supply depots in time. Golden used some great late game control to deny Select a fourth base and take out his late game army.
  
  
• Golden 2 - 0 SeleCT

• Game One: On Cloud Kingdom, neither player was very active in the first ten minutes. aLive moved out with a MMM army to try to shot down Huk's third, although he split up his army and tried rather innefectual drops instead of a frontal attack. HuK built up a huge archon-chargelot army an easily shut down aLive's third, prompting aLive to move out across the map and take out HuK's third. aLive, feeling confident, was caught totally off guard by a switch to colossus, and had to catch up via some nice drop harass. With neither player able to successfully take a fourth, the next battle was the decisive one, and aLive's EMPs and vikings wiped out HuK's high-gas units before the battle even really began.
  
  
• Game Two: On vertical spawns Entombed Valley, aLive took advantage of the map architecture to drop behind the minerals at the natural and at the third at the same time, building an army advantage off two base each. HuK's first colossus spawned and was trapped by buildings, easily picked off by aLive. aLive's Ghosts arrived just in time for crucial EMPs as Huk's storm tech finished, and that was GG.
  
  
• HuK 0 - 2 aLive

• Game One: On Cloud Kingdom, BlinG tried a low-ground pylon to warp in to Oz's base, but with impeccable force fields and a timely immortal, it was repelled. Both players headed for blink from there and took their naturals. BlinG's blink finished first but he was unable to do anything with it, and when Oz's own blink finished he pushed across the map to take out BlinG's natural and force the GG.
  
  
• Game Two: On cross positions Antiga, BlinG was able to do a pretty solid amount of damage with his phoenixes before Oz could get blink out. BlinG built up an immortal-centric army to support his phoenixes and pushed across the map to bust Oz's natural, then main.
  
  
• Game Three: Oz got an early pylon with 3 zealot warpin in BlinG's main to do a decent amount of damage, then trapped three of BlinG's stalkers with sick force fields to take an early lead. Oz built up some immortals to go with his sentry-centric army and moved across the map to take out BlinG's natural, eventually finishing the game and the series.
  
  
• Oz 2 - 1 Bling

• Game One: Shakuras. Both players opened with funky tech + expands, showing how well optimized a lot of TvT builds have become. Thorzain’s delayed banshee was able to secure a lot of kills, but Clide evened the score with a nice hellion drop. Thorzain managed to spot Clide’s third base and punished Clide’s mech army for not being in position by getting a bunch of SCV kills. Clide tried his best to hold on against Thorzain’s multitasking while building up his mech army and harassing with hellions but took a ton of damage in the midgame. Thorzain showed off a cool transition to sky terran, rendering all of Clide’s tanks useless in the late game and giving him the win.
  
  
• Game Two: Antiga. Clide went for a neat little blue flame with marine medevac timing, but he got a little unlucky with his execution and Thorzain cleaned it up very easily. Thorzain countered with his bio force before siege mode finished, and that was essentially the game. Thorzain sealed the deal a minute later with a big drop to finish Clide off.
  
  
• ThorZaIN 2 - 0 Clide

• Game One: Not shown on stream
  
  
• Game Two: Daybreak. Despite some nice preparation from Fitzy, Rain’s two cloak banshees still killed 15 of Fitzy’s workers. Fitzy went for his trademark super quick Hive into ultras while Rain grabbed his third and continued upgrades. Rain pushed out, using the pressure to grab his fourth base. Fitzy again showed the power of his cool style, able to clean up Rain’s army and take out his fourth base as well. Rain held on through and managed to out-control Fitzy’s army in the late game, picking it apart for the win with a ton of tanks and vikings.
  
  
• Rain 2-0 Fitzyhere.

• Game One: Metropolis close air. Gatored was able to open with a nice stalker pressure while grabbing a super quick third base. Gerbil responded by doing his best with mutalisks, but ultimately not being able to accomplish much damage. After Gatored’s economy was fully running he pushed out with immortals and gateway units to take the game convincingly.
  
  
• Game Two: Daybreak. Gatored went for your standard quick gateway timing to try and punish Gerbil’s quick third. Gerbil was droning too hard without fully scouting gatored, and didn’t have enough to hold his bases without losing a ton of drones in the process. The follow up warp in attack was enough to finish off Gerbil for the win.
  
  
• Gatored 2 - 0 Gerbil

• Game One: Entombed Valley. Both players fast expanded, but Eifer went for a very quick third into a gateway heavy style. Kawaii managed to set up a bunker in time to secure his army and easily took out Eifer’s third base with a small army. Eifer barely survived Kawaii’s three base MMM ghost attack with colossus popping out, but the Viking follow up proved too much for Eifer to hold.
  
  
• Game Two: Shakuras. Eifer fast expanded into colossus while Kawaii went for the standard MMM fare. Eifer made a huge mistake, not seeing a drop load up despite having an observer over Kawaii’s army. That mistake cost him the game, as Kawaii’s drop hit Eifer’s undefended main. Eifer went all in with his attack, Kawaii held it, and forced Eifer to gg.
  
  
• Eifer 0 - 2 KawaiiRice

• Game One: Not Shown
  
  
• Game Two: Open losers bracket round 6 on Antiga. Sandbox went for a really weird (i.e. bad) two base roach timing that LZ easily shut down with reactive lings and spines. Sandbox attacked with his roaches while LZ continued to counter with speedlings. Both players consistently denied each other’s third bases until LZ got ultralisks out and both players secured third bases. Sandbox was able to secure a fourth base with his roach infester army and took out LZ’s waddling ultras for the win.
  
  
• LzGaMeR 0 - 2 Sandbox

• Game One: Daybreak. Both players decided to play 12 minute no rush as both were comfortable just macroing up and grabbing their 3rd/4th bases. Idra tried to some damage with his mutalisks, but Tails mitigated the, quite easily, sustaining almost no losses. Tails hit Idra just as his Brood Lords were morphing, but Idra held on long enough for them to finish and repel the attack. Tails got to discover firsthand that although Colossus are really good, they’re not good enough to shoot Idra’s air units. Idra cancelled sixteen building buildings for extra brood lords and took the game with them.
  
  
• Game Two: Open losers bracket round 7 on Cloud Kingdom. Tails did a smart little delayed cannon rush that Idra denied very calmly. Tails grabbed a third base (later cancelling it) and went into a blink with + 2 attack timing. Tails forced an unprepared Idra to leave the game (some would assume that he was quite upset about Tails’ trickery).
  
  
• Game Three: Shakuras Plateau close air positions. Tails went for a very cute +2 blink with observer timing, planning to blink into Idra’s main and use high ground sentries to block the ramp. Despite somewhat pulling it off, Idra held very well, with Tails miss allocating his precious time in Idra’s main base. Idra’s counter attack finished off the crippled Tails to net him the win.
  
  
• IdrA 2 - 1 TAiLS

• Game One: not shown
  
  
• Game Two: Daybreak. Sheth built a few more lings then is standard in his opening, able to deny Ver his natural expansion until his delayed hellions were out. Sheth’s overlord managed to scout blue flame, allowing his roaches to be prepared to defend. That still didn’t stop Ver from doing damage though, netting well over 100 worker kills with his hellions over the course of the game. The harass couldn’t kill Sheth’s double upgraded brood lords though, giving Sheth the game before Ver’s late game raven strategy could get off the ground.
  
  
• Game Three: Open losers bracket round 7 on Antiga cross position. Sheth again went roaches with a third base, but this time wasn’t messing around with any hellions, executing a roach ling timing that forced Ver to lift his natural and take a lot of damage. Sheth looked ahead before the stream crashed, with a nice army of ling bane roach that did significant damage to Ver’s army.
  
  
• Sheth 2 - 1 Veritus

• Game One: Cloud Kingdom. A few lings got into Huk’s base before his cannon finished, forcing Huk to delay quite a bit of mining and delay his production. Huk still got four gates up in time to do the, older, zealot warp in timing. Huk followed up with more gateway aggression, grabbing a third base behind it and a twilight council. Monster was able to clean up the pressure with lings delaying for his mutalisks to pop. Huk cancelled his third while teching to Templar and mitigating Monster’s harass (which manage to kill Huk’s forge researching +2 attack). Monster took the game with a huge baneling/ling/muta timing against the still two base Huk, Monster was able to delay his third for too long.
  
  
• Game Two: Daybreak. Both players macro’d up with fairly little pressure since Monster was able to easily deny Huk’s proxy pylon for his 7 gate. Monster was able to delay’s Huk third for a significant amount of time with just a few units while simultaneously denying Huk’s warp prism. Monster went for a really cool three pronged roach timing that absolutely demolished Huk with his fresh third base.
  
  
• HuK 0 - 2 Monster

• Game One: Not Shown
  
  
• Game Two: Daybreak. Lucky opened with a single gas, indicative of things to come against Clide’s command center first into a quick third command center. Clide held Lucky’s baneling timing due to a second bunker, putting Lucky behind. Clide followed up with a super powerful delayed blue flame timing which Lucky held in the only way possible, with a perfect ling baneling surround. Despite executing a powerful attack, Lucky was still behind, desperate to catch back up through expanding and counter attacks. Lucky traded his entire army for Clide’s fourth base, putting him down 40 food to Clide. Clide was able to attack with his powerful tank based army for the win… or at least that’s what should have happened if it wasn’t for a perfect engagement from Lucky that managed to clean up a vastly superior army to his own. Lucky then used mass infestor to prove how amazing he is in scrappy situations and actually come back over an amazing deficit to take the game. Seriously, Lucky showed some amazing decision making in this game and had to play his hardest to take this.
  
  
• Lucky 2 - 0 Clide

• Game One: Cloud Kingdom. Liquid teamkill on the final round of the losers bracket! Yippee! Sheth used some nice ling pressure to nearly kill Ret’s expansion, but Ret held with some intense micro. Ret took a huge risk to flood speedlings in order to try and take Sheth’s third out while he was teching to Mutalisks, but some big baneling hits negated Ret’s entire pressure. Sheth was able to use his big ling count to kill some drones and force two cancels on Ret’s third, delaying long enough for infestors. Sheth held Ret’s desperate attack to solidify himself the win.
  
  
• Game Two: Daybreak. Sheth went hatch first against Ret’s delayed but still quick expand. Sheth hit a huge ling bane timing, overwhelming Ret who had only 3 banelings.
  
  
• Ret 0 - 2 Sheth

Championship Bracket

• Game One: On Cloud Kingdom, PuMa was headed for the typical hellion-banshee attack when he was rudely interrupted by around 10 roaches, which stopped all mining at the main and greatly neutered the push, letting him drone heavily behind it. PuMa kept trying with the same units but was never able to get much momentum, and when DongRaeGu executed a huge ling runby to to cripple PuMa's economy and abort blue flame research, the deficit was insurmountable. PuMa teched to thors and was started on siege research but he died before that could happen to a maxed zerg army.
  
  
• Game Two: On vertical spawns at Entombed Valley, DongRaeGu utilized an extremely similar build. He met a more prepared PuMa, and was only able to kill five SCVs so he retreated and teched to mutas. PuMa continued to build up marines and blue flame hellions, and DongRaeGu had no answer when PuMa's army finally arrived at the Zerg natural.
  
  
• Game Three: In the deciding game on cross spawns Metropolis, PuMa wasn't able to pressure any of DongRaeGu's bases effectively. The Zerg player had ample creep spread, comfortably kept an expansion ahead of PuMa, and had excellent upgrades. DongRaeGu ran an effective ling runby into PuMa's natural and main, then maxed on ultras and lings, catching the tanks out then bringing in infestors to finish off PuMa's army. The final blow was four dozen speed banes rolling in and evaporating the remainder of PuMa's forces.
  
  
• PuMa 1 - 2 DongRaeGu

• Game One: On Antiga Shipyard, Stephano went for an extremely quick third, MarineKing with a relatively quick third himself then double ebay. MarineKing forced stephano into roaches to defend early hellions, then loaded up two medivacs to harass Stephano's main. As MarineKing moved out to rebuke Stephano's gold base, Stephano set up a three-way flank, but light on fungals, MarineKing bulled through at the loss of his tanks. MarineKing took his own gold base, and whe the next wave of tanks arrived, moved forward to snipe some infestors and set up camp outside Stephano's third. Stephano had some cute infested terran play to break the tanks, but MarineKing had way too many infantry upgrades and finished the game.
  
  
• Game Two: On cross positions Entombed Valley, MarineKing went CC first, then a third OC off only one bunker before adding four more barracks. Stephano geared up for a roach-bane bust, but seeing the barracks wall, sniped the tech lab and retreated. MarineKing then transitioned straight to double armory mech, moving out when 1/1 hit to slow creep spread at the sacrifice of a tank. Stephano went for hive off four bases, making a dive into MarineKing's fourth but retreating in the face of the growing mech army. Stephano played spectacularly patiently, retreating and positioning to finally catch MarineKing off guard, rolling in with fungal and banelings to take out almost the entire army. Stephano was on six bases at that point, with fully upgraded ultras, and eventually rolled over MarineKing to force a game three.
  
  
• Game Three: In the decisive game three on Cloud Kingdom, MarineKing pushed out to try to shut down Stephano's third, and spotting a gaggle of roaches, turned around for home, where crucially there was no bumker. MarineKing moved out and killed all the baneings before they finished morphing, barely defending but losing SCVs in the effort. Stephano switched into double evo and lair, and MarineKing moved out again when his medivacs arrived, but was unable to break Stephano's third, letting him start the infestation pit as MarineKing started his third. MarineKing continued to ramp up his bio infrastructure as he landed his third, and somehow defended a HUGE attack of Stephano's. MarineKing somehow kept defending, moving out across the map to catch Stephano bereft of infestor energy, and his enormous fleet of medivacs kept his bio force alive seemingly forever. Stephano went for a desperation base trade and burrowed banelings on the main ramp, but it was in vain as MarineKing advanced to face DongRaeGu.
  
  
• MarineKing 2 - 1 Stephano

• Game One: Cloud Kingdom. Lucky managed to sneak some lings past Axslav’s cannon, forcing some lost mining time and delaying production. Axslav went straight into robo and a quick third while Lucky prepared for the standard roach ling mid game. Lucky switched things up, going for a ling, bane, roach, infestor composition, but with some amazing forcefields and great micro, Axslav held on while getting his colossus and mothership up. Axslav used a great vortex to take out Lucky’s low tech army, making it look like all he had to do was counter for the win. Lucky did his best with a desperate counter attack, but actually ended up turning around and killing Axslav’s army that was out on the map trying to finish off bases. Lucky appeared to be behind, but out of nowhere managed to hit a big attack with roaches and ultralisks. Axslav barely held the attack with the coolest most clutch mothership I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately, Lucky finished him off uneventfully with follow up roaches just a couple minutes later
  
  
• Game Two: Entombed Valley. Lucky again some lings into Axslav’s main, costing a few minerals in mining time yet again. Axslav showed some nerves, queing probes completely on both nexus’ while still floating 700 minerals. Axslav got another fast third base while Lucky continued gearing up for a standard Zerg midgame with an early fourth base and infestors. Axslav let a counter attack do a ton of damage in the late game, buying Lucky time for his massive number of broodlords to finish morphing. Despite some nice blinks from Axslav, without a mothership he didn’t have enough to hold the giant brood lord infestor based army.
  
  
• Axslav 0 - 2 Lucky

• Game One: Cloud Kingdom. Monster went for a huge ling bane timing to try and shut down Sheth’s expand, but Sheth was very well prepared, giving himself a small advantage despite some good baneling hits from Monster. Sheth did his best to try and get some spine crawlers up to hold monster’s surprise roach baneling timing, but ended up being under prepared for the strong attack, giving Monster the win
  
  
• Game Two: Daybreak. Sheth went hatch first and monster decided to counter by pulling (almost) all of his drones with his initial lings for aggression. Sheth ran his drones all over the map while building lings to defend his main. Sheth didn’t have any drones to continue mining for his ling production and had to let Monster get his spine crawler up. Monster was too far ahead, rallying lings to Sheth’s base and having a completed spine crawler, and Sheth was forced to tap out.
  
  
• Sheth 0 - 2 Monster

• Game One: Antiga. Ganzi opened gas before barracks for a quick factory and starport while Thorzain went gasless expand and went up to 4 barracks. Thorzain made an incredibly smart decision to pull only 4 SCVs to calmly push back Ganzi’s marine hellion timing, meaning that Thorzain’s economy was way ahead with the earlier CC. Despite a nice opening from Thorzain, Ganzi was able to abuse the large cliff into Thorzain’s main to slow push in with medevacs and take the game.
  
  
• Game Two: Metropolis close air. Ganzi got some okay damage done against Thorzain with his proxy marauder pressure, forcing two SCVs to constantly repair a supply depot. Thorzain did some nice damage of his own with a hellion drop while finally killing the mauraders at his front with his marines and a couple SCVs and expanding. Thorzain wasn’t able to get his second bunker up in time and lost a ton of SCVs to Ganzi’s follow up hellion timing, costing him the game.
  
  
• ThorZaIN 0 - 2 GanZi

• Game One: not shown.
  
  
• Game Two: Antiga. Golden didn’t quite kill Alive’s hellions with a speedling surround, but managed to spread 13 creep tumors at a time anyways, accomplishing the same goal of denying hellions. A smart ling counter from Golden forced Alive to lift his third while Golden got his infestor tech up and running. There were so many creep tumors that small group of forces took multiple scans to clean up an area. Alive hit a very smart bio timing as the greater spire was morphing. Despite Golden’s amazing Fungals, Alive had a massive upgraded bio force that tore through Golden’s lings too easily, taking him the game.
  
  
• Game Three: Entombed cross positions. Golden had his trademark great creep spread to deny his hellions while going two base infestor + upgrades. Both players grabbed their third bases while getting their production geared up for the midgame. Alive again went to hit his attack right before brood lords were out and again took the game with his powerful three base timing.
  
  
• Golden 1 - 2 aLive

• Game One: Cloud Kingdom. Both players did the standard quick expands, with Socke getting a robo at the same time as a twilight council, switching things up a little bit as he threw down a later dark shrine and started charge. Socke used some cool warp prism harass to delay for his archons to pop just outside Ganzi’s natural. Socke used some interesting maneuvers to keep Ganzi on the back foot while grabbing his third base and going high Templar. Ganzi felt far enough behind that he went for a big doom drop. Socke barely held the super drop pressure, but not before taking a ton of economic damage in the process, losing his third and natural nexuses (nexii?). A minute later Socke knew how far behind he was and just tapped out.
  
  
• Game Two: Taldarim bottom spawns. Socke managed to force some missed mining time from Ganzi and grabbed a couple SCV kills with his stalker zealot pressure against Ganzi’s CC first, but nothing game ending while he expanded himself and rushed colossus. Socke began cutting probes, preparing for a massive old school 2 base colossus gateway timing. Ganzi held the attack at his front while pulling off a drop in Socke’s main to take the series.
  
  
• Socke 0 - 2 GanZi

Pool Play

• Game One: On Daybreak, Socke went quick double gate, then both players went straight to DTs before expanding. Socke's first three DTs got into Oz's base and took down the robo before the observer could get out, and once Socke got his robo safely up, it was GG.
  
  
• Game Two: On Antiga, Socke picked up an early gas to rush out warp gate tech. He caught Oz going for robo and twilight council, but Oz had just enough sentry energy to force field the ramp and deter any potential warpins from low ground pylons. Both players teched towards blink, Oz getting that research done first but Socke starting his natural sooner. Oz never lost any of the extra army his more conservative build afforded him until the decisive battle at Socke's natural, where the Korean protoss easily rolled over the German.
  
  
• Game Three: On Cloud Kingdom, Oz teched to Robo as Socke wetn for blink. Both players danced around the center of the map a lot, with Socke finally making his way into Oz's main to take down a major Artosis pylon. Oz couldn't defend his natural against Socke's 1-base blink play, and it was GG.
  
  
• Socke 2 - 1 Oz

• Game One: On Daybreak, ThorZaIN went heavy hellions supplemented by a banshee against Symbol's four-queen macro-hatch safe build. It delayed the third slightly, but couldn't do much at Symbol's bases or against Symbol's marauding roaches. Neither player got a ton done in a back and forth midgame, with ThorZaIN bizarrely researching strike cannons. Each player basically filled out their tech tree, Symbol unloading a bunch of zerglings in the main but not doing a ton of damage. The diversion was enough for Symbol to break through ThorZaIN's tank line in the center of the map, but couldn't break ThorZaIN's pocket fourth planetary. He teched to Brood Lords, and when the second wave of those arrived, ThorZaIN didn't have near enough to answer for them.
  
  
• Game Two: On Antiga Shipyard, Symbol went heavy queens early and his creep spread was ridiculous. Unchecked, he upgraded his lings and pumped out a big round of mutalisks that easily sniped some tanks. ThorZaIN successfully took down Symbol's gold base, at the cost of his own army. Symbol lost his own fourth but traded it for ThorZaIN's third, teching to brood lords. ThorZaIN saw the flight of broods heading towards him and unsieged his tanks, just in time for a swarm of lings to sweep over them. ThorZaIN's next couple armies were taken care of by a fungal-supported army, and he was forced out.
  
  
• Symbol 2 - 0 ThorZaIN

• Game One: Entombed Valley. Alive hit a nice marine timing to take out Violet’s quick third, putting him behind. Violet amassed a huge number of upgraded lings, banes, and roaches, but lost his third to a drop from Alive while he was out of position. Despite almost coming back with an extremely cost efficient engagement, Alive’s production was too strong for Violet to keep up with and he was forced to gg.
  
  
• Game Two: Metropolis close air positions. Despite doing some nice damage with an early cloak banshee, Alive didn’t have enough to hold Violet’s big attack off of three bases without losing almost 50 workers. Alive managed to come back into the game with some calm pushing and great harassment to even things up. Violet’s army proved too large for Alive’s thorless composition and he overwhelmed him for the win.
  
  
• Game Three: Cloud Kingdom. Despite what was looking like a great defense from Violet, Alive managed to kill his spine crawler, and with take with it the game
  
  
• viOLet 1 - 2 aLive

• Game One: SaSe had a miracle defense to save his forge FE from DongRaeGu's small group of zerglings early, but at the cost of DongRaeGu getting three bases up extremely easily.Each player adde another base, then DongRaeGu repeatedly assaulted SaSe's third - less successfully at first in the face of hallucinated phoenixes, then more successfuly. When SaSe finally got enough defense there, DongRaeGu ran into the main and took out the nexus and psi storm tech, then ran back over to the third and took out that nexus. SaSe, fed up, pushed out across the map, but had no defense for DongRaeGu's carpet of banelings and was forced out.
  
  
• Game Two: On Cloud Kingdom, SaSe got his third base up relatively easily, but so did DongRaeGu his fourth. DongRaeGu built up a flock of mutas and teched to Infestors as SaSe did the same thing with blink stalkers and high templars. SaSe killed DongRaeGu's first maxed army pretty easily, just as the greater spire finished. SaSe continied to trade efficiently, but the economic disadvantage was too much and it was all over when the brood lords arrived.
  
  
• DongRaeGu 2 - 0 SaSe

• Game One: On vertical spawns entombed valley, thorzain plopped down an expansion then went up to five barracks. MarineKing had been going reactor hellion, and when he scanned ThorZaIN's build, he went to cloak banshees. ThorZaIn moved out around 50 supply, taking out eight SCVs and a number of hellions before finally petering out. MarineKing's attempt at retribution flopped when he lost his banshee immediately, but he then kept up unrelenting pressure while me macrod furiously. Finally, he sat back a bit to max out, then finished the game with an easy push.
  
  
• Game Two: On Antiga Shipyard, ThorZaIn went gas first as MarineKing went 14cc. Thorzain's cloaked banshee didn't catch MarineKing by surprise at all, doing only minimal damage but keeping MarineKing pinned in his base. MarineKing loaded up four medivacs full of marines and tried a pair of ill-fated drops in ThorZaIN's base while taking his own third and both sides worked on their upgrades. MarineKing was able to engage at great times for comparative upgrades, and his ability to keep his medivacs alive played a huge role in his eventual win.
  
  
• ThorZaIN 0 - 2 MarineKing

• Game One: Metropolis. Things open fairly standard, with Golden using some nice drone micro to deny cannon pressure with ease. Golden shut down Grubby’s warp prism harass just as easily as he did the cannon pressure, continuing to show his skill at handling weird situations. Golden hit Grubby’s unprepared front with the standard roach ling timing and took the game .
  
  
• Game Two: Metropolis. Things open standard yet again, but this time Grubby followed up with a big 8 gate blink. upgrade, warp prism timing. Grubby used his prism and blink to take out Golden’s unprepared third while simultaneously harassing his main with a smaller group of units. Grubby’s army was too large for Golden to hold without his third base, and he was forced to gg.
  
  
• Game Three: Cloud Kingdom. Grubby tried the cute little cannon rush on the third base of Golden, but Golden knew that the new queen range could actually hit that cannon from the high ground, easily denying it. Grubby decided on the same robo build as game one, grabbing a quicker third base this time. Grubby managed to pull off landing the drop this time, with Golden making an uncharacteristic slip up allowing it to land. Golden and Grubby went toe to toe with roach ling against gateway immortal for a long time before Grubby finally got the momentum to push Golden back. The stream then crashed a bunch after Grubby denied Golden’s fourth base. When the stream came back, Grubby had a clutch mothership to repel Golden’s attack and took the game with his superior economy and army.
  
  
• Grubby 2 - 1 Golden

• Game One: On Entombed Valley cross positions, PuMa's 1rax FE matched up against viOLet's hatch first. PuMa executed the now-familiar heavy hellion, few banshee attack to force viOLet to build a ton of roaches and banshees, keeping him in check. viOLet showed a rarity in TvZ, the hydralisk, as PuMa moved into an upgraded mech composition. viOLet never got an answer for PuMa's enormous tank count, forced to GG after his last-gasp brood lords died quickly.
  
  
• Game Two: On Metropolis, PuMa snuck his expansion until almost 5 minutes in when it was finally spotted by an overlord, but it was all for naught as viOLet's early round of lings forced it to lift for an extra two minutes anyway. PuMa built one uncloaked banshee to make ViOlet think he was using the same strategy, then went full-on bio. viOLet had some initial success with mutalisks, but those soon died nd he was never able to get up enough of an infestor count to accompany his main army and deal with PuMa's forces.
  
  
• viOLet 0 - 2 PuMa

• Game One: On Cloud Kingdom, Oz tried his usual immortal then blink rush, but MC broke through the main ramp with one base gateway aggression (in part due to a flubbed forcefield), easily taking out the first immortal then riding that to victory.
  
  
• Game Two: On Metropolis, MC rushed for blink as Oz hurried to Dark Templars. The dark shrine finished even before MC's blink technology, and although MC did blink in to Oz's main, he had no detection which meant no hope.
  
  
• Game Three: On Daybreak, MC opened stargate, sending his first couple of phoenixes and scouting Oz's half-warped dark shrine. Oz didn't cancel it, instead opting to plant an expansion at his natural and add blink tech. Oz used his DTs to spawn an archon, but Oz's sentries were too good on the first attack for MC. The President Toss ran around to try the entrance from the third, but was once again repelled. MC wasn't able to break through to Oz's natural nexus, and with only one base of his own, MC GGed.
  
  
• MC 1 - 2 Oz

• Game One: Entombed Valley cross positions. Socke opened with a cute 2 gate pressure/scout into blink + expand while Sase went straight into robo and from there into colossus. Despite some very nice stalker control, Socke didn’t have enough to hold Sase’s devastating timing attack.
  
  
• Game Two: Cloud Kingdom. Sase opened with a nice 2 base pressure into robo, scouting Socke’s blink build while getting six probe kills in the process. Sase denied the counter pressure from Socke, forcing Socke to expand while Sase geared up for another colossus/immortal all in. After picking off a colossus, Socke made the great decision to force a base trade while going DT. Socke managed to pick off Sase’s observer, guaranteeing Socke the game.
  
  
• Game Three: Daybreak. Socke denied Sase’s early pressure with a cool phoenix opening and then looked like he was going to win with his counter attack. Sase’s immortals proved too powerful for Socke though, giving Sase the game
  
  
• SaSe 2 - 1 Socke

• Game One: On Cloud Kingdom, ThorZaIN FEd then went up to three barracks, easily fending off Grubby's early aggression at the cost of a few SCVs and a bunker. ThorZaIN built up an upgraded bio force, moving out when his reactored medivacs arrived. Grubby had stuck on his 3gate aggression for too long, and didn't have nearly enough to stop ThorZaIN in the main or natural.
  
  
• Game Two: On Tal-Darim Altar, Grubby got the favorable clockwise spawn. Both players worked largely on tier one units and upgrades as they took their thirds. ThorZaIN spotted Grubby's templar tech as storm research commenced and started working on ghosts. As the players neared max, they jockeyed for position near the intermediate watch tower. Grubby tried a flank, but the timing was far from perfect, so ThorZaIn won the crucial battle and proceeded to take out Grubby's third. ThorZain seemed to be irrevocably ahead, but he had way too many air units, leaving his ground army extremely weak. He lost a lot of his first two dozen ghosts to storm, but the second massive group finally cornered Grubby for some nice EMPs that forced the GG.
  
  
• Grubby 0 - 2 ThorZaIN

• Game One: On Daybreak, both players largely sat back for the first ten minutes. DongRaeGu loaded up for a roach drop as he neared max, doing a decent amount of damage before being chased off by blink stalkers. DongRaeGu, attacking three places at once, sniped the cybernetics core, then a bunch of sentries and the nexus at the third. DongRaegu continued the pressure while he droned up and added infestors, aborting new attempts at the third nexus multiple times. Oz attacked and took out the third, but he was trapped by the infestors, and still only on two base, that was his doom.
  
  
• Game Two: On Shakuras Plateau close air, the players were once again content to sit back for ten minutes. DongRaeGu caught Oz off guard, killing all his sentries between the second and third. DongRaeGu built up a huge amount of infestors, easily cleaning up Oz's blink stalker attack. With his army decimated, Oz GGed.
  
  
• DongRaeGu 2 - 0 Oz

• Game One: Entombed Valley cross position. Both players opened with fast expands, even grabbing quick thirds against one another. Marine king followed up with an extremely cool mech/bio composition, that only he seems to be able to pull off correctly, even getting double mech upgrades with bio attack. MKP went power overwhelming, barely having to micro in order to kill off Golden’s fourth while securing his own before brood lords were out. Marine Kings composition and macro proved too strong for Golden, defeating him with his follow up attack.
  
  
• Game Two: Metropolis cross positions. MKP opened the same as last game, grabbing a super-fast third base while Golden powered on two bases to infestors before expanding again. Golden wasn’t able to keep up at all with MKP’s fantastic macro and expansion pace, giving MKP a very decisive win with plenty of mule drops all over his army. (nearly the entire game MKP was up a base over his Zerg opponent)
  
  
• MarineKing 2 - 0 Golden

• Game One: On Tal'Darim Altar, Rain spawned clockwise from JYP, popping out a scouting reaper before heading into conc shell marauder, which JYP spotted with a nicely placed probe and surrounded to cut his losses. JYP powered up for an 8gate, which was thwarted before it even got off the ground as Rain scouted it and took out the forward pylon, so he diverted to zealot charge. Rain tried to set up below JYP's natural, but was fended off pretty easily so he ran for ghosts. The two armies jockeyed back and forth below JYP's natural, with battling EMPs and Storms swinging the balance. Each player had four bases, and with rain falling further and further behind in upgrades, he looked doomed. Rain went for a base trade as he lost his only mining base, and when JYP ran into the choke in his own main, he took EMPs right in the face and lost what looked like a won game.
  
  
• Game Two: On Entombed Valley in vertical positions, JYP tried a proxy stargate at the bottom central fourth, but it was scouted and thwarted by Rain's marines. Rain continued to produce marines, taking out JYP's natural but not spotting the hidden third. Rain returned to macro off three bases, and his next big push steamrolled JYP to end the match.
  
  
• Rain 2 - 0 JYP

• Game One: On Antiga Shipyard, ThorZaIN did the typical hellion-banshee play, following it up with upgraded bio then supporting tanks. Golden had excellent creep spread for his ling-infestor army while he rushed for brood lords on only three bases. The brodo lords spawned just in time to stop ThorZaIN's initial push, so ThorZain took advantage of brood lord immobility to load up a big drop in the main while he pumped vikings. ThorZaIN planetaried up the gold, and attempted to flank Golden's army on the watch tower, but crucially Golden held air superiority through infestors and corruptors. With ThorZaIN never able to take out the brood lords, he eventually had to GG out.
  
  
• Game Two:
  
  
• ThorZaIN 0 - 1 Golden

• Game One: Daybreak. oZ decided on opening DT expand against Sase’s robo expand. oZ’s first DT was easily denied as the observer left the base just as it was by the DT. The game went into the midgame, Sase with a huge Colossus lead due to his faster robo. oZ was able to do the impossible, using absolutely fantastic micro and upgrades to come out on top of a colossus army without having any for himself. After denying Sase’s third and getting colossus for himself, oZ was too far ahead for Sase to come back and after one final engagement he took the game.
  
  
• Game Two: Cloud Kingdom. Sase again went for his cute little 2 gate pressure attack, but oZ was adequately prepared with his early game sentries. Sase went straight into Colossus, just as we saw against Socke while oZ opted for blink observer. Sase’s army had a good try at eliminating oZ’s, but oZ was able to hold his expansion, using his high immortal count and great blink micro to take the game
  
  
• Oz 2 - 0 Sase

USA Nationals

• Game One: On Ohana, daisuki went hatch first. Mystik got speed quickly then added his own natural hatch, and sent out four lings to scout daisuki's baneling nest. Each player went single evo roach to take their third, daisuki adding another evo as both players teched to lair. In the end, daisuki's few supply blocks left him behind in economy, and his hydra-raoch army fell before Mystik's infestor-roaches despite poor infestor control.
  
  
• Game Two: Anticipating a hatch first from Mystik, Daisuki went 10 pool. He pulled all his drones with the first batch of lings and tried for an offensive spine crawler in the main. Mystik initially went even gas before pool, cancelling that and getting 10 lings out, but it wasn't enough to fend off daisuki's all in.
  
  
• Game Three: Close air on Shakuras, daisuki went baneling nest before ing speed to hold off Mystik's early pokes. Neither player did any real aggression as each went for a third and lair, until daisuki caught Mystik supply blocked and was able to force a cancel on Mystik's third. Mystik desperately double expanded, but was unable to hold the fourth. Both players went for the same techs as game one, but this time it was daisuki with teh economic advantage, and his hydra-roach army this time overcame Mystik's infestors and roaches.
  
  
• daisuki 2 - 1 Mystik

• Game One: On Ohana, it was mirrored pool-hatch. Builds diverged when IdrA went speed then banes, and daisuki went banes then speed. daisuki delayed his third to rush for infestors, and did a surprising amount of damage with a ling-baneling attack at IdrA's third. As both players tried to take their fourth, IdrA maxed on roaches and moved across the map, but lost all of his infestors without fungaling on the retreat and immediately GGed.
  
  
• Game Two: On Daybreak, Idra rushed for lair and all four gas as daisuki did his usual conservative opening. Idra's quick infestors left him economically behind with a slower third. He tried a nydus play that was easily shut down and looked to be doomed until his spot-on fungals demolished daisuki's army and built him an insurmountable lead.
  
  
• Game Three: On Cloud Kingdom, daisuki went 1 base speedlings and banes. IdrA defended the first wave successfully, but daisuki was unrelenting and got into the main to kill a number of drones, with the third wave finally finishing IdrA off.
  
  
• daisuki 2 - 1 IdrA

• Game One: On Ohana, Insur went stargate then used that high ground vision to warp in a round of zealots, which wreaked havoc in the main. daisuki built up a ton of drones and queens and eventually chased off Insur, sprinkled with a few ling counterattacks. He teched to corruptors, hydras, and roaches, which normally wouldn't perform well against a robo-centric protoss army, but daisuki's four-base macro was too much for Insur. He remaxed, pushed forward, and assaulted the third. In a seemingly endless battle at that base, daisuki crashed endlessly on the rocks of Insur's blink stalkers. He finally maxed then attacked, and that was what was needed, ending the first game.
  
  
• Game Two: On Cloud Kingdom, Insur tried a relatively vanilla sentry-heavy immortal push to destroy daisuki's third, but daisuki had more than enough economy, and pumped out tons of roaches and speedlings. He outlasted the force fields, and overran the protoss army to advance to the grand finals of WCS USA Nationals.
  
  
• daisuki 2 - 0 Insur

KeSPA Invitational

• Game One: Antiga. Fantasy opened by putting his first barracks in an interesting position behind the mineral line at his natural, also grabbing his gas. SoulKey grabbed a gas while going hatch first, but only put one drone in it. Fantasy geared up for a standard hellion/marine stim timing, letting some lings slip by into his main despite having hellions out on the map. Meanwhile SoulKey also went standard, going muta ling bane off of two bases. Fantasy used some fantastic control to maximize the length of his marine hellion contain, unfortunately for him, Soulkey got a perfect surround and killed a ton of Fantasy’s units. Both players got later third bases than are usually seen these days in the matchup and, reminiscent of days past, both players poked off of two base armies at one another. Soulkey managed to get infestors out and used counter attacks to take out Fantasy’s economy at key times. Soulkey bought enough time for broodlords to come out. Into the late game, Soulkey was able to deny Fantasy’s harass until he eventually got a big enough army out to take the game after denying Fantasy’s fourth base for a long enough time.
  
  
• Game Two: Cloud Kingdom. This time SoulKey skipped his gas, preferring the queen build that is so popular now-a-days. Fantasy decided to do the hellion cloak banshee into third base build, hoping to catch Soulkey off guard with his fast third base secured by roaches. SoulKey spotted the banshee with his overlord and was easily prepared to deal with it and the hellions. Despite technically being “prepared,” Soulkey took a lot more damage from the banshees than he should have, allowing Fantasy to pay for the tech route. Drone kills are nice, but when SoulKey is attacking your main with roaches and you only have a single banshee to defend, you’re in a pretty bad position. Fantasy was forced to gg, having too thin a defense at home to deal with Soulkey’s roaches.
  
  
• Fantasy 0 - 2 Soulkey

• Game One: On Entombed Valley vertical spawns, Flash started his expansion and first barracks around the main time. Stork sent out a pair of zealots, but Flash was unperturbed, killing the probe in his main and chasing off the zealots once he had a handful of marines. Flash pulled his SCVs with a half-dozen marines, planting a bunker at the bottom of Stork's main ram. Flash was able to kill all the probes that were at the natural and kill the Nexus, then trap Stork's main army out of position. Stork held on to his main and re-expanded 11 minutes in, teching to desperation DTs, but Flash's lift into Stork's natural overcame the force fields t clinch him the win.
  
  
• Game Two: On Daybreak, which notably isn't in the ProLeague map pool, Flash tried proxy marauders, but unable to finish a bunker, didn't do a ton of damage. Each player soon had their natural up - Flash a while before Stork, and then teched up. Flash moved out when he had a pair of medivacs, and Stork's 4gate robo left him just enough to defend his natural. He successfully hid his tech tree (chargelots and psi storm) enough to delay Flash's ghosts, but Flash evaded Stork's first couple storms and did a solid amount of damage in Stork's main to keep his supply lead. Flash landed some nice EMPs to neutralize most of Stork's templar, and after Flash took down army after army, Stork was finally forced to GG.
  
  
• Flash 2 - 0 Stork

• Game One: Cloud Kingdom. Both players went for your standard fast expand goodness, with Calm using some nice early marine micro to kill off a zealot before his bunker was even complete. Bisu went for the standard chargelot archon into third base build while Calm macro’d up a huge marine medevac (with one or two mauraders) force. Chargelot archon is usually pretty good, but when you have flawless studder step macro, marines are better. Calm easily took the game with the smart marine timing.
  
  
• Game Two: Calm again used his amazing marine control to deny Bisu’s standard zealot/stalker push (again without a bunker). Bisu went and copied the old version of Parting’s 3rd nexus into gateway spam, gearing up for the big gateway timing push. Meanwhile Calm did a neat follow up to his fast expand, going delayed cloak banshee into a second factory for thors. Bisu went and hit the timing successfully and beat Calm’s army decisively, but a cloak banshee tore apart his main while a robo was building. Calm’s cloak does eventually run out though, allowing Bisu to finish off Calm for the victory.
  
  
• Game Three: Shakuras cross positions. Calm again showed how fearless he is with his marines, pushing out stalkers very early on (reminds me of puma’s style). More standard fast expand goodness out of both players, with Bisu going standard robo and Calm again preferring marines to marauders. Bisu decided to go chargelot templar again, but this time got a much faster Templar archives and got storm to better deal with Calm’s heavy marine opening. Bisu took advantage of having so many observers to easily deny Calm’s attempt at a mass drop. Bisu and calm traded two base armies, doing their best to come out ahead. Bisu ultimately came out convincingly ahead with storm against an EMP-less Terran army.
  
  
• Bisu 2 - 1 Calm

• Game One: Leta's reaper expand on Antiga led to siege tanks plus double ebay, but he was forced to stay on the defensive, guarding his three bases. Jaedong had massive creep spread and took a fourth as he rushed to hive, ultralisks, and then greater spire. Leta finally moved out to try to command the center while dropping Jaedong's fourth. The drop was successful, but Jaedong cleared up the main army with ample infestors. Leta was relentless with the drops, restricting Jaedong's economy and continually denying him a fourth. Leta couldn't get a fourth of his own, but he kept his army in good health, and Jaedong couldn't muster anything to kill it.
  
  
• Game Two: On Cloud Kingdom, a map not in the Proleague map pool, Leta went reactor hellions as Jaedong went for the safe speedling and roach tech. Leta crucially left the depot on his ramp down when Jaedong went for a ling runby, and as his main was ravaged, he lost his whole army in a failed attack on Jaedong's third.
  
  
• Game Three: On Entombed Valley vertical spawns, Jaedong geared up for the familiar roach-bane aggression. He evaporated a ton of SCVs, but siege finished just in time for Leta to hold his main then lord over the natural. Leta turtled up and took his third, with Jaedong failing a confusing infestor attack into the natural. Leta tried to push out when his 1/1 mech upgrades finished, running into a maxed Jaedong army and losing tank after tank. The drops were crucial once again for Leta, but Jaedong refused to take his foot off the pedal and overran Let's bases to clinch the game and the series.
  
  
• Leta 1 - 2 Jaedong

• Game One: On Antiga Shipyard, flash went CC first into quick third CC and double ebay behind reactor hellions, as Soulkey planted his third shortly after. Soulkey pooped out some overlord creep then burrowed a zergling to slow Flash from plantig his third when he floated it over and took a fourth of his own. Flash got his whole army caught by a pair of fungals and forced to retreat, then started siege mode. He patiently sat back and finally moved out to take the center once he had a sizable siege tank force, then planetaried the gold. Soulkey used burrowed infestors to draw tank fire and flanked with ultras as 3/3 finished, but it still wasn't enough to unseat Flash from the watch tower. Flash then moved forward to take out Soulkey's fourth and fifth, a the cost of his planetary. With each player reduced back to three bases, FLash floated his main Orbital out to the gold. Soulkey massed up infestorsto shell the mineral line, then caught flash unsieged and moved in. It still wasn't enough, and once flash was able to clean up the infestors and bring in reinforcements, he had the game clinched.
  
  
• Game Two On Daybreak, Flash again built his CC first not actually on the normal spot. Soulkey rushed lair, going straight to spire. Flash didn't scan the spire, and his double ebay build didn't have any turrets up when the first 9 mutas arrived. Soulkey was able to kill a dozen SCVs before Flash's stim finished, giving him an effective defense. With Flash trapped in his base, Soulkey droned and worked on upgrades., catching up somewhat thanks to a delayed armory slowing Flash's 2/2. Soulkey continued to invest in mutas before finally switching to infestors. Flash moved out confidently when his siege tech finished, losing a handful of marines to burrowed banelings at his own watchtower then swinging around to pressure Soulkey's pocket fourth. Both players traded blows, Flash forcing Soulkey to delay his hive units. Flash built up a fleet of medivacs, and as his 3-3 finished, he wiped out Soulkey's fourth, moving forward to destroy the third and force the GG. Although Soulkey was supposed to be the best at SC2, it was flash who won the series 2-0, getting a ticket to the finals.
  
  
• Flash 2 - 0 Soulkey

• Game One: On Antiga, Bisu's void ray opening let him warp zealots in to Jaedong's main, but Jaedong defended excellently and lost almost nothing while his spire and infestation pit finished. Bisu switched to twilight council, but his failed opening was too much to overcome, and from that point it was all downhill. Jaedong took the gold base and the game shortly after.
  
  
• Game Two: On Entombed cross positions, Bisu forge FEd then went gateway again as Jaedong went quick lair. Bisu emphasized he phoenixes this itme, spotting Jaedong's infestor tech as each player took their third. Jaedong tried a ling runby into Bysu's main with an infested terran attack on the third, neither doing a ton of damage. Bisu got his blink up and headed for psi storm as Jaedong's spire and hive finished. Both players took their fourths, and Bisu got aggressive. Jaedong landed a huge fungal to let his brood lords engage favorably, then overextended his infestors and got most of them feedbacked. Bisu attacked again as his mothership was warping in, and finished of all the brood lords. Jaedong frantically spawned a ton of zerglgings, but the main fight combined with a big zealot warpin in the main was too much.
  
  
• Game Three: On Cloud Kingdom, Bisu once again went for the stargate opening. Jaedong's single-evo roach build couldn't stop Bisu's quick third initially. He spawned a nydus worm to get his queens to the protoss natural, taking out all the void rays. Bisu was way down in supply, but his immortal-blink stalker army was way more cost effective than Jaedong's roaches. Jaedong added a fourth and saved up to spawn a bunch of infestors, cintining to pump out upgrades and, weirdly, queens. The two armies engaged in the center of the map, with Jaedong's queens tanking, but he couldn't do any damage to Bisu's army. Bisu remaxed and easily won the game.
  
  
• Bisu 2 - 1 Jaedong

• Game One: In an eerily familiar situation on Entombed Valley, Flash went CC first ventically spawned from his protoss oponnent who responded with a zealot. Bisu only built one zealot though, and with Flash seeing Bisu's quicker tech, he decided against the bunker rush. Bisu double expanded and added a bunch of gateways, and as Flash scanned that, he continued to work on his bio upgrades.Flash moved out as Bisu's psi storm was researching, and attacked once his +2 weapons finished. This coincided with Bisu's storm research finishing, forcing Flash to make a fighting retreat. Bisu started catching up on upgrades, and as he chased Flash across the map, he ran out of sentry and templar energy. Flash had built up a huge flock of medivacs, leaving Bisu on the back foot. As Flash maxed, his Ghost tech was finishing and Bisu had just pumped out his first colossus. Bisu landed a few money storms, but he didn't have enough templplar to stop flash, and he couldn't adequately protect his Colossi. When the support bay died before colossus range ended, the game was over and Bisu soon GGed.
  
  
• Game Two: Deja vu of deja vu! On Daybreak, Flash went proxy marauders again, and Bisu had a late gateway. Bisu scouted it immediately and sent four probes to attack the tech lab, but coudn't finish it off before the first marauder spawn. Bisu's probes retreate, then Flash got a bunker up below the main ramp. He got another up at the top of the ramp, barely finishing it before the SCV died. Bisu was pumping stalkers and defended admirably, but eventually lost his second gateway. Flash expanded behind it, but the expansion wasn't necessary, as Flash got together five marauders to wipe out Bisu's remaining forces and clinch the victory, in the game, the match, and the tournament!
  
  
• Flash 2 - 0 Bisu