EPTLive Coverage Thread
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Live Updates
04:43 GMT (+00:00): Cya tomorrow
04:38 GMT (+00:00): IdrA 2 - 0 MajOr. Shakuras Plateau: While MajOr played a standard hellion expansion style, IdrA once more went for the fast mutalisks that won him the series against Illusion. There was no easy victory for IdrA this time around, however, as MajOr had sufficient defenses up. That didn't stop IdrA from committing to muta-bane-ling for an extended period, however, and he hit MajOr hard when he moved out to take his third base. As the game played out, IdrA showed he knew exactly what he was doing, transitioning into a traditional hive composition just before the Terran army started to look a little scary for just an lair phase army. MajOr was too late on preparing for IdrA's brood lords, and with just marine tank against them, was forced to GG out.
04:18 GMT (+00:00): IdrA 1 - 0 MajOr. Daybreak: Major, having won his previous series against Ostojiy with mech, took a similar approach against IdrA. He put IdrA in serious trouble with hellion runbys but eventually the game stabilized and after a good hold with roaches, IdrA developed a brood lord composition and coupled with clutch corruption casts, won out over Majors thor heavy army.
04:02 GMT (+00:00): viOLet 2 - 0 Gix. Cloud Kingdom: After both players took three quick bases to start, viOLet used his mutalisk tech to buy him enough space to add on a fourth base as well. giX tried to hit viOLet as the fourth base completed, but viOLet has transitioned into roaches and infestors to hold the attack easily. giX attempted to tech up to brood lords to try and overcome the resource disadvantage, but couldn't survive viOLet's roach-hydra-infestor push.
03:50 GMT (+00:00): viOLet 1 - 0 Gix. Daybreak: Able to secure a much faster third base than Gix on Daybreak, viOLet safely rolled his economic advantage into a victory of overwhelming numbers at the lair stage.
03:48 GMT (+00:00): Daisy 2 - 0 Caliber. Metropolis: Daisy 4gated against Calibers 2gate and when the attack came, Caliper immediately gg'd out.
03:47 GMT (+00:00): Daisy 1 - 0 Caliber. Daybreak: Caliber played it safe with a stargate build but Daisy was on top of his game with blink stalkers. Caliber tried to forcefield his ramp to stop the fast attack but the moment the first blink stalker entered the main it was all over for Caliber.
03:34 GMT (+00:00): IdrA 2 - 0 Insur. Ohana: The game followed a similar script to game one, but IdrA was able to hold off the pre-hive attack even more easily. Insur never had enough breathing room to adjust his composition against brood lords and infestors, and was forced to GG out.
03:30 GMT (+00:00): Ryung 2 - 0 qxc. Daybreak: QXC chose to utilize bio and Ryung chose mech. Ryung was nearly impenetrabe until he moved out at the 18 minute mark. It looked dark for QXC. He lost the scvs at his natural and his fourth but he held on, orchestrating a triple flank to free his natural. Unfortunately he was on borrowed time and Ryung continued to patiently squeeze the life out of QXC with his flawless mech and secured his 2-0 victory
03:28 GMT (+00:00): Ryung 1 - 0 qxc. Entombed Valley: Ryung opened aggressively with marines-hellion and contained qxc in his main. He couldn't break up the ramp but he held qxcs natural for minutes while he took his own. qxc eventually pushed out with tanks and forced Ryung back but QXC asked for a pause, citing hand numbness. Within a minute later he stated he was ready and the game resumed. Ryung, with the early lead from containing QXC, maxed out faster and smoothly sieged QXCs natural. QXC couldn't make up for the 80 supply difference and tapped out.
Day Three Update Log
+ Show Spoiler [Past Updates] +
03:18 GMT (+00:00): TheStC 2 - 0 DeMusliM. Tal'Darim Altar (wait what?): TheStC opened up with a reactor-hellion build, which turned out to be just the right thing to do on the rampless map. DeMuslim had opened with a starport build, and marines and hellions coming out one at a time were no match for the double hellion production of TheStC. After inflicting early economic damage on his opponent, TheStC continued to pile on the pressure while taking his own natural. Even assault mode vikings were deployed to pressure his opponent, and it started to become clear that DeMusliM was only delaying the inevitable. Eventually TheStC whittled DeMusliM down to the bone, ending the series.
03:13 GMT (+00:00): IdrA 1 - 0 Insur, Daybreak: The game played out in a standard ZvP pattern, with both players playing greedy openings, and Insur then trying to hit a three-base attack before IdrA had brood lords. IdrA cut it close on defense, even losing his fourth base in the process, but he survived long enough to push out his ultimate unit. From there, he slowly caught up ground, as Insur was behind on tech and unable to engage the brood lord-infestor force directly. Insur went for a belated carrier transition, but by then it was too late. IdrA had secured more bases and had added an overwhelming number of brood lords and infestors to his army, leaving Insur no choice but surrender.
03:09 GMT (+00:00): MajOr 2 - 0 State, Daybreak: Major decided on an unorthadox approach to TvP again, this time with hellions and cloaked banshees. State had a well timed robo, but his observer wasn't able to protect him from taking a big hit to his harvester count early on. Major capitalized on his lead with drops and stretching his opponent while preserving his own units. Eventually the supply advantage was so great that Major simply walked into the protoss natural and overwhelmed his opponent.
03:05 GMT (+00:00): TheStC 1 - 0 DeMuslim. Entombed Valley: TheStC edged ahead in the early mid-game, following his banshee attack with a marine-tank push to punish DeMuslim's fast expansion. Demuslim was able to defend himself, but was forced to sacrifice many SCVs in the process.
Afterward, the game transitioned into three base marine tank vs three base marine tank, with TheStC holding a slight edge. TheStC was able to get aggressive first, and goaded DeMusliM into a poor engagement. TheStC continued to compound his lead, until he was able to flatten DeMusliM in a game ending engagement.
02:57 GMT (+00:00): MajOr 1 - 0 State, Entombed Valley: Both players with fenced each other into the mid game until Major had enough and went full Bit by Bit, pulling his scvs and overloading his opponents natural. State tried to micro against it but with only gateway units, Major easily pushed through him with medivacs and bio.
02:39 GMT (+00:00): Binski 2 - 0 Ganzi. Antiga Shipyard: Ganzi wanted to take charge in Game 2 but couldn't make it work. He opened with banshees that barely kept things even. Every time he moved out, Binski had a backstab drop waiting to invade his main base. At 13 minutes Ganzi had snapped and walked cross map and sieged Binskis natural, then elevatored into his main. Ultimately however, the backstabs killed Ganzis economy and Binski bided his time and made a heroic marine charge to clean away his containment, and a production cycle later, he walked across the map and finished off Ganzi 2-0
02:30 GMT (+00:00): MKP 2 - 1 Spanishiwa, Metropolis: Spanishiwa decided he would try to play mass muta-bane-ling off of a four base economy, but this time MKP was ready for him. He was more than happy to match him blow for blow, using his famous marines backed by tanks and medivacs to crush Spanishiwa in engagements and take the series.
02:28 GMT (+00:00): Major 2 - 0 Ostojiy. Daybreak: Major opened with banshee hellion and transitioned into hard mech. Ostojiy had the right upgrades in the mid game but ultimately held on to roaches for too long with too little result and by the time Major maxed out on supply and upgrades, brood lords were still no where in sight. Although Ostojiy fought hard, Major played TvZ Mech with inspiring precision and without faulty decisions.
02:25 GMT (+00:00): Binski 1 - 0 Ganzi. Entombed Valley: Binski dominated throughout the game with faster reactions, a bigger army and better upgrades. Ganzi couldn't find any leverage against his opponent until Binski sieged outside of Ganzis third. Ganzi brilliantly evacuated his marines, took a circuitious route around the containing army and while Binski was still oblivious outside Ganzis third, the Korean Terran crashed into his opponents base and evened the odds. Binski, despite the loss of his third, still held the supply and upgrade lead. He dropped at Ganzis third and the upgrades and medivacs took over, killing the majority of Ganzis army and economy at once for a 1-0 lead.
02:24 GMT (+00:00): IdrA 2 - 0 Illusion. Shakuras Plateau: It initially seemed that Illusion had gotten the better of IdrA's fast mutalisk build when he snuck marines and hellions into the Zerg main with a medivac elevator. However, after he killed off a number of IdrA's drones, it turned out that he didn't have the troops at home to properly defend the incoming mutalisk counter-attack. IdrA hounded Illusion with mutas, adding in zerglings and banelings with a mind to finish the game off if there was a chance. However, Illusion managed to scrap together a defense and stabilize, and IdrA had to content himself with a massive lead in army and economy. Staying on muta-ling, IdrA inflated his economy and troop count to overwhelm Illusion for good.
02:10 GMT (+00:00): MajOr 1 - 0 Ostojiy. Antiga Shipyard: MajOr didn't go for the neck but he didn't make a mistake in this game. He kept his opponent on three bases and whenever Ostojiy tried to claim the center and engage, Major held it off. Although Ostojiy showed poise by using a nydus to get his ultralisks around the siege wall in the center of the map, his lack of economy from lack of expansions meant he could not transition to brood lords, allowing Major to confidently take game 1 with bio tank alone.
02:09 GMT (+00:00): MKP 1 - 1 Spanishiwa. Cloud Kingdom: MKP hit back instantly, harassing well enough with his hellions-banshee expand build to force an early GG from Spanishiwa.
02:03 GMT (+00:00): IdrA 1 - 0 Illusion. Daybreak: The game began with IdrA showing MMA-esque play, but not in the good way. Taking a fast third hatchery, IdrA was able to squeeze out enough units to defend Illusion's marine-hellion pressure as his hatchery went dangerously into the red. However, having fended off the attack, IdrA somehow managed to order his queens to attack the low HP hatchery, not noticing until it was already gone.
To IdrA's credit, he took this unfortunate turn of events in stride, rebuilding his hatchery and playing the game out normally. He delayed his hive to pump out some muta-ling-bane in the mid game, using them to hold off Illusion's pressure while securing himself a strong economic base. From there, IdrA transitioned smoothly into infestors and brood lords, against which Illusion could not defend himself.
01:57 GMT (+00:00): Spanishiwa 1 - 0 MKP. Entombed Valley: In a huge upset, Spanishiwa took the first map over MKP. Drawing diagonal starts on Entombed, both players sat back and built up their economies to their heart's content. However, MKP was looking too far ahead into the late game, whereas Spanishiwa had his eye on striking hard off four bases and lair tech. A huge mute-ling-bane attack caught MKP off guard, and he had no choice but to GG out.
01:40 GMT (+00:00): Grubby 2 - 1 Rain. Daybreak: After taking the momentum in Game 2, Grubby reversed his fast templar tech path and immediately opened with colossii. Although he seemed behind during most of the game, Grubby transitioned flawlessly from colossii to high templar and back to colossii as his opponent lost key units and became vulnerable to each. Grubby impeccably positioned himself, and without ghosts to equalize against Grubbys templar, all the harassment in the world didn't save Rain from being crushed by Grubbys deathball.
01:22 GMT (+00:00): Grubby 1 - 1 Rain. Cloud Kingdom: Grubby and Rain both opened for the long game. After they sparred in the center of the map, Grubby fell into a defensive zealot archon posture and stopped Rains attempts to harass and attack from two flanks. After Rain turned back, Grubby brought his own harassment with a warp prism and knocked out Rains natural. While Grubby was positioning his final attack, Rain skirted around him and rushed into the Protoss main. Grubby barely held with storms and colossii while attacking Rains base, destroying both the Terran army and production simultaneously to secure his victory
01:04 GMT (+00:00): Rain 1 - 0 Grubby. Entombed Valley: In response to Rains 14CC, Grubby pulled 3 additional probes to help his scouting worker try to deny the low ground expansion in what turned into a 4v4 worker battle at the four minute mark. Rain rolled with the punches and expanded without delay, and it was dubious if Grubby had gained anything with the harassment. Grubby tried again to apply pressure with a handful of gateway units but again came off worse for it, giving Rain a clear economic advantage. Rain got a little too overconfident with his lead and started trying to drop nukes, but he had to start playing more seriously when Grubby started force-fielding and storming his armies. However, Grubby allowed his Templars to become separated from his troops and easily picked off, allowing Rain to smash him later in a perfect engagement.
00:57 GMT (+00:00): Leenock 2 - 0 Apocalypse. Antiga Shipyard: Apoc changed things up with a reaper opening off one base. Leenock coolly left an overlord on top of Apocs barracks and easily stopped the reapers from doing any damage. As Apoc quietly powered up his economy and tech, Leenock morphed a dozen banelings and smashed down the unprepared Terran's front, killing all his units and taking the series 2-0.
00:51 GMT (+00:00): Scarlett 2 - 0 Vibe. Antiga Shipyard: Scarlett opened with a tricky gas-pool opener against Vibe, who had gone for a standard hatch first expand. Scarlett sought out to surprise Vibe with a few injects worth of speedlings, but Vibe played decent defense and the game ended up in a fairly even state.
Scarlett made the better decisions after the initial chaos, opting to go for infestor tech faster while Vibe began early roach production. Unfortunately for Vibe, he wasn't able to get anything done with his roaches, and when Scarlett came out with both roaches AND infestors, he was hopelessly outmatched.
00:46 GMT (+00:00): Leenock 1 - 0 Apocalypse. Daybreak: Apoc went with a standard hellion expansion, while Leenock played slightly unorthodox with a fast lair and a later third base. Feeling secure with marines and additional hellions against Leenocks mainly zergling composition, Apoc took a very fast third base without any reprisal from the Zerg player. Although Leenocks macro was below average, Apoc failed to produce tanks diligently. After a push against the Zerg third fell apart he was overwhelmed by ling bling muta and tapped out.
00:35 GMT (+00:00): Scarlett 1 - 0 Vibe. Daybreak: The first game played out like a typical Daybreak ZvZ, with both players taking three bases and massing giant roach-infestor armies. From an even situation, Vibe seemed to take the lead when he snuck off an infestor hitsquad to take out several of Scarlett's drones during a major battle. However, Scarlett didn't seem to mind the losses at all, and just attacked again with hydralisks added to her army. The hydralisks turned out to make a huge difference, with their added firepower being what Scarlett needed to break Vibe's army and force the GG.
00:32 GMT (+00:00): Sasquatch 2 - 1 GoOdy. Antiga Shipyard: Goody returned to CC hellion banshee as he did in the first game but found Sasquatch had declined to take a fast third. After hanging around bunker rushing the third hatch, Goody returned home to be creamed by the same mass ling-bling-muta that dispatched him in the first game. Although he survived the attack itself, it left his economy crippled. By the time GoOdy could take his third base, 50 banelings, 4 ultralisks, a few infestors and a f@%#ton of zerglings obliterated his army to end the series.
00:14 GMT (+00:00): GoOdy 1 - 1 Sasquatch. Entombed Valley: For the second time in a row Sasquatch found himself dealing some early damage but it didn't really matter as GoOdy just shrugged it off and rolled out with a death push of tanks marine and thors to finish the game at 17 minutes.
00:11 GMT (+00:00): IdrA 2 - 1 Suppy. Antiga Shipyard: Hatch first builds without any aggression led both players straight into the mid-game. From Lair, IdrA started roach upgrades and doubled the roach count of his opponent. Suppy couldn't hold his faster third against Idra's pressure, and despite a faster infestation pit, he even allowed IdrA to start infestor production first. Although both players kept even on upgrades, Idra converted his uncontested third base into a significant supply advantage. Suppy played his heart out and made great engagements despite being in a tough spot and behind economically. Suppy kept up as long as he could but eventually Idra landed the right fungals and Suppy called good game.
00:07 GMT (+00:00): TheStC 2 - 0 Beastyqt. Entombed Valley: With 1/1/1 openers on both sides, game two quickly devolved into chaos. The mutual 1/1/1's caused both players to take a step back and secure their naturals, but afterward both were constantly on the look out for a chance to attack. Beastyqt opted for a mech composition while TheStC went for bio + tanks, giving him some more mobility and opportunities to drop. Much like game one, Beastyqt kept pace for much of the game, but in the end TheStC was just too quick. Beastyqt was outmaneuvered into losing bases and chunks of his army a little bit at a time until he was forced to GG.
00:03 GMT (+00:00): MajOr 2 - 1 HuK. Ohana: With MajOr going for a hellion drop build, HuK's own decision to go for gateway aggression ended up being a disaster. Having sent most of his troops out on the offensive, HuK lost a huge amount of probes to the drop. On the other hand, MajOr caught whiff of HuK's intentions and build bunkers and defenses at home. With his attack thwarted and no economy left, HuK GG'd out.
23:56 GMT (+00:00): Sasquatch 1 - 0 GoOdy. Cloud Kingdom: PanzerGoody opened with a standard hellion-banshee expand build, but Sasquatch already had a roach warren building before the factory completed to keep himself safe. GoOdy pressured with marine-hellion-banshee, but it was to no avail. Moments later, Sasquatch showed GoOdy how it was done with an attack of his own, smashing Goodys ground heavy army with a great lingbling-muta attack that ended the game.
23:55 GMT (+00:00): MajOr 1 - 1 HuK. Antiga Shipyard: Both players abandoned early game aggression to macro off of three bases on Antiga Shipyard. HuK skimped on colossus tech, trying to go straight up to an army backed by templars. MajOr was able to exploit HuK's weak timing with a huge drop in HuK's main that destroyed the Nexus, several buildings, and traded well with HuK's army. Instead of sitting back and trying to recover, HuK moved out with the army he had, but good ghost usage from MajOr allowed him to rout HuK's force and tie up the series.
23:48 GMT (+00:00): TheStC 1 - 0 Beastyqt, Cloud Kingdom: A gentleman's agreement was reached as neither player committed to any major battles until both were cranking out marine-tank off of three bases. Beastyqt seemed to keep pace with TheStC in the max-out fights for a bit, but eventually he started to be outmaneuvered. TheStC was able to take out Beastyqt's natural, and then take out the fourth base as well, taking a dominating economic lead. Beastyqt realized his disadvantage and surrendered quickly to move to the next game.
23:42 GMT (+00:00): Suppy 1 - 1 IdrA, Daybreak: Both players opened with polite hatch firsts but Idra crashed into his teammate's natural with ling bling, killing a queen and some drones. Suppy stabilized and both players took a breather to hit optimal drone saturation and max out on roach infestor. Idra attacked first with a multi-pronged attack, canceling Suppys 4th but at too high cost, allowing Suppy to counter attack. However, once Suppy was lured into his natural, Idra landed great fungals on his ramp and carved out a chunk of Suppys infestors. After both players remaxed on roaches and started hive, Suppy attacked again and caught Idra off guard, landing critical fungals that prevented a proper engagement and turned an even fight into a slaughter, evening the score to 1-1 for Suppy.
23:37 GMT (+00:00): HuK 1 - 0 MajOr. Entombed Valley: MajOr didn't read HuK's plan to go heavy gateway pressure off two bases, moved out too early, and was crushed. The follow-through attack ended the game.
23:33 GMT (+00:00): Revival 2 - 0 Illusion, Cloud Kingdom: Illusion opened hellion CC and this time Revival decided to play past the 11 minute mark. As Revival took his third base Illusion crashed the party with marine marauder hellion but diversity equaled scarcity and Revival crushed the push with a superior force of roaches. As the game reaches 12 minutes, Revival hits another big roach timing and marched through Illusions natural, forcing the Terran out of the game 2-0
23:31 GMT (+00:00): ...And someone has decided that Apocalypse and Kryptonite was not worthy of air time anymore. Suppy vs IdrA next!
23:24 GMT (+00:00): Apocalypse 1 - 0 Kryptonite. Daybreak:
Kryptonite and 
Apocalypse both deferred aggression in lieu of passive, economic openings though Apocalypse used an offensive bunker to delay his opponent's attempt to take his third. Apocalypse then lost a huge amount of scvs to a slow baneling sneak attack, with his main force uselessly in the middle of the map. Taken aback but far from dead, Apoc showed who was the macro master and reached max on marine tank 16 minutes in and started encroaching on Krytonite's territory. To his misfortune, burrowed infestors and ultralisks supported by zerglings and banelings made short work of his supply advantage. However, it wasn't enough for Kryptonite to win one battle, as Apocalypse repeatedly took the supply advantage with his superior macro even after losing a considerable number of forces. Apocalypse eventually teched up to ravens and seeker missiles, the signal for Kryptonite to tap out.
23:14 GMT (+00:00): Vibe 2 - 0 State. Entombed Valley: State tried to play a regular greedy opener on Entombed, but Vibe countered by playing a "DIMAGA-Style" ling-bane-drop style after taking three bases. Hallucinated phoenixes caught whiff of Vibe's strategy, but it was too late for State to prepare properly. Banelings dropped from overlords destroyed everything, from zealots, cannons, to probes. Utterly crushed, State GG'd out.
23:14 GMT (+00:00): Revival 1 - 0 Illusion, Entombed Valley. Illusion opened up with as standard hellion expo while Revival played an extra safe expand opening by adding roaches to his defenses. The roaches turned out to useful for more than defense, and Revival was able to apply some early roach-lnig pressure to forced a lift on Illusion's natural. Revival decided to just end it all, continuing to pump roaches and finishing the game.
23:06 GMT (+00:00): Daisuki 2 - 0 Kirschke, Shakuras Plateau. As expected, both players took fast natural on Shakuras Plateau. Daisuki opted to follow up for mass bane-ling aggression early, and Kirschke was unable to put together a credible defense. Banelings swarmed into Kirschke's base, annihilated drones, and forced the GG.
23:02 GMT (+00:00): VIBE 1 - 0 State. Cloud Kingdom: State opened with a standard three-base macro opener on Cloud Kingdom, but pushed out a bit too early as he suffered a brutal backdoor attack from VIBE. State was left with less than ten probes to harvest with, and was forced into going for an all or nothing attack. The power of immortals and force-fields made it look like State had a chance to pull off a miraculously win, but Vibe was able to throw roaches at his opponent until he was forced to GG.
22:56 GMT (+00:00): Daisuki 1 - 0 Kirschke, Daybreak: In a typical Daybreak ZvZ pattern, both Zergs took three bases on their sides of the map while applying mild pressure with speedlings and banes. Both players opted to transition into mutalisks after lair, and as it turned out, neither player wanted to switch to any other tech. Daisuki ended up getting the upper hand in the war for the skies, and eventually overwhelmed Kirschke's muta-corruptor mix in a final battle with pure mutalisks.
22:51 GMT (+00:00): Suppy 2 - 1 Goswser, Daybreak: Again both players open without early aggression and again Suppy took a faster lair and immediately started infestor production. This game however skipped the mid-gameslugfest and both players went for incredible 12/13 minute hives with greater spires. However before the first corruptor could be morphed, Goswser found a timing and took out Suppys third, leaving him on one mining base to Goswsers three. Suppy countered and bought himself precious seconds to force a détente while he caught up on supply. Suppy used beautiful runbys and constant aggression to chip away at Goswser's lead, and at the end, Suppy was able to bring himself victory with brood lords.
22:48 GMT (+00:00): PuMa 2 - 1 Sheth, Metropolis: There was no funny business in the final match, as Sheth and Puma both opened passively and focused on their own economies. PuMa opened with a similar hellion-banshee from the first game, but cleverly meched behind it instead of going bio. Going for a Mvp-style banshee heavy mech, PuMa was able to deal significant economic damage to his Zerg opponent who had slacked in making anti-air defense. However, Sheth clawed his way back in with great burrow tactics and a doom drop. The game headed towards a base-trade situation around the twenty minute mark, but PuMa had more gas left in the tank and was able to outlast Sheth in the end.
22:29 GMT (+00:00): Suppy 1 - 1 Gowswer, Cloud Kingdom: Both Zerg took similar and standard openings with defensive baneling nests. Suppy diverged with a faster lair and immediate infestors, using zerglings to prevent Gowswer from taking further expansions. Suppy played with a heavy contingent of infestors with zerglings and roaches to support. Goswser sensed Suppy was getting too greedy and threw everything at him, including his macro queens. Neither player could kill the other so they traded armies several times. Both players followed through to brood lords but Suppy with the vastly superior economy came out ahead.
22:27 GMT (+00:00): Scarlett 2 - 0 Insur, Cloud Kingdom: In a similar game as the first, Scarlett easily held off Insur's attempts to pressure before hive with her infestors. After securing her economy, Scarlett was able to crush Insur with brood lords and infestors.
22:22 GMT (+00:00): asd 2 - 0 Spyte, Entombed Valley: Drawing far spawns on Entombed, asd played a standard macro game against Spyte. In a largely unremarkable game, asd simply kept pushing with endless armies produced with his strong macro. Spyte couldn't hold out until he had hive units and was forced to GG out of the series.
22:19 GMT (+00:00): Sheth 1 - 1 PuMa, Cloud Kingdom: Puma looked to bring the series to an end early with two fast barracks proxied just off his own natural. Sheth sniffed out trouble but played it cool with a single spine crawler and four larvae of lings. Puma tried to bypass into the main but won nothing for his trouble. For the second game in a row, Sheth tried his hand at counter attacking, but with dramatically improved success. Sheth turned Pumas stalled push into his own timing and despite a rocky period with ultra infestor, great fungals and great multitasking helped Sheth tie the series with a win.
22:09 GMT (+00:00): Scarlett 1 - 0 Insur. Ohana: In a textbook ZvP stomp, Scarlett held off Insur's three-base, pre-hive timing with a great surround, then bulldozed through with infestors and brood lords.
22:05 GMT (+00:00): asd 1 - 0 Spyte. Shakuras Plateau: Asd beat Spyte with a bunker rush, cheers.
21:56 GMT (+00:00): PuMa 1 - 0 Sheth. Entombed Valley: Puma, chasing the Korean meta, opened with a fast expansion and banshee hellion but Sheth brought the early aggression with a pack of roaches. All the queens in the world couldn't penetrate a cloaked banshee and Sheths game went sideways after hellions entered the battle for his third base. After 17 workers go down, Sheth stabilizes but is left at a disadvantage to Pumas equal bases. Sheth split Pumas army with simultaneous roach and zergling attacks at the natural and third and compounded his momentum by clearing the banshees away. Puma pushes back as Sheth delicately transforms into Hive and snuffs Sheth out before he could reach a critical mass of infestors.
21:45 GMT (+00:00): Still chillin' cuz streams are broken, whee.
21:15 GMT (+00:00): Just chillin'
03:13 GMT (+00:00): IdrA 1 - 0 Insur, Daybreak: The game played out in a standard ZvP pattern, with both players playing greedy openings, and Insur then trying to hit a three-base attack before IdrA had brood lords. IdrA cut it close on defense, even losing his fourth base in the process, but he survived long enough to push out his ultimate unit. From there, he slowly caught up ground, as Insur was behind on tech and unable to engage the brood lord-infestor force directly. Insur went for a belated carrier transition, but by then it was too late. IdrA had secured more bases and had added an overwhelming number of brood lords and infestors to his army, leaving Insur no choice but surrender.
03:09 GMT (+00:00): MajOr 2 - 0 State, Daybreak: Major decided on an unorthadox approach to TvP again, this time with hellions and cloaked banshees. State had a well timed robo, but his observer wasn't able to protect him from taking a big hit to his harvester count early on. Major capitalized on his lead with drops and stretching his opponent while preserving his own units. Eventually the supply advantage was so great that Major simply walked into the protoss natural and overwhelmed his opponent.
03:05 GMT (+00:00): TheStC 1 - 0 DeMuslim. Entombed Valley: TheStC edged ahead in the early mid-game, following his banshee attack with a marine-tank push to punish DeMuslim's fast expansion. Demuslim was able to defend himself, but was forced to sacrifice many SCVs in the process.
Afterward, the game transitioned into three base marine tank vs three base marine tank, with TheStC holding a slight edge. TheStC was able to get aggressive first, and goaded DeMusliM into a poor engagement. TheStC continued to compound his lead, until he was able to flatten DeMusliM in a game ending engagement.
02:57 GMT (+00:00): MajOr 1 - 0 State, Entombed Valley: Both players with fenced each other into the mid game until Major had enough and went full Bit by Bit, pulling his scvs and overloading his opponents natural. State tried to micro against it but with only gateway units, Major easily pushed through him with medivacs and bio.
02:39 GMT (+00:00): Binski 2 - 0 Ganzi. Antiga Shipyard: Ganzi wanted to take charge in Game 2 but couldn't make it work. He opened with banshees that barely kept things even. Every time he moved out, Binski had a backstab drop waiting to invade his main base. At 13 minutes Ganzi had snapped and walked cross map and sieged Binskis natural, then elevatored into his main. Ultimately however, the backstabs killed Ganzis economy and Binski bided his time and made a heroic marine charge to clean away his containment, and a production cycle later, he walked across the map and finished off Ganzi 2-0
02:30 GMT (+00:00): MKP 2 - 1 Spanishiwa, Metropolis: Spanishiwa decided he would try to play mass muta-bane-ling off of a four base economy, but this time MKP was ready for him. He was more than happy to match him blow for blow, using his famous marines backed by tanks and medivacs to crush Spanishiwa in engagements and take the series.
02:28 GMT (+00:00): Major 2 - 0 Ostojiy. Daybreak: Major opened with banshee hellion and transitioned into hard mech. Ostojiy had the right upgrades in the mid game but ultimately held on to roaches for too long with too little result and by the time Major maxed out on supply and upgrades, brood lords were still no where in sight. Although Ostojiy fought hard, Major played TvZ Mech with inspiring precision and without faulty decisions.
02:25 GMT (+00:00): Binski 1 - 0 Ganzi. Entombed Valley: Binski dominated throughout the game with faster reactions, a bigger army and better upgrades. Ganzi couldn't find any leverage against his opponent until Binski sieged outside of Ganzis third. Ganzi brilliantly evacuated his marines, took a circuitious route around the containing army and while Binski was still oblivious outside Ganzis third, the Korean Terran crashed into his opponents base and evened the odds. Binski, despite the loss of his third, still held the supply and upgrade lead. He dropped at Ganzis third and the upgrades and medivacs took over, killing the majority of Ganzis army and economy at once for a 1-0 lead.
02:24 GMT (+00:00): IdrA 2 - 0 Illusion. Shakuras Plateau: It initially seemed that Illusion had gotten the better of IdrA's fast mutalisk build when he snuck marines and hellions into the Zerg main with a medivac elevator. However, after he killed off a number of IdrA's drones, it turned out that he didn't have the troops at home to properly defend the incoming mutalisk counter-attack. IdrA hounded Illusion with mutas, adding in zerglings and banelings with a mind to finish the game off if there was a chance. However, Illusion managed to scrap together a defense and stabilize, and IdrA had to content himself with a massive lead in army and economy. Staying on muta-ling, IdrA inflated his economy and troop count to overwhelm Illusion for good.
02:10 GMT (+00:00): MajOr 1 - 0 Ostojiy. Antiga Shipyard: MajOr didn't go for the neck but he didn't make a mistake in this game. He kept his opponent on three bases and whenever Ostojiy tried to claim the center and engage, Major held it off. Although Ostojiy showed poise by using a nydus to get his ultralisks around the siege wall in the center of the map, his lack of economy from lack of expansions meant he could not transition to brood lords, allowing Major to confidently take game 1 with bio tank alone.
02:09 GMT (+00:00): MKP 1 - 1 Spanishiwa. Cloud Kingdom: MKP hit back instantly, harassing well enough with his hellions-banshee expand build to force an early GG from Spanishiwa.
02:03 GMT (+00:00): IdrA 1 - 0 Illusion. Daybreak: The game began with IdrA showing MMA-esque play, but not in the good way. Taking a fast third hatchery, IdrA was able to squeeze out enough units to defend Illusion's marine-hellion pressure as his hatchery went dangerously into the red. However, having fended off the attack, IdrA somehow managed to order his queens to attack the low HP hatchery, not noticing until it was already gone.
To IdrA's credit, he took this unfortunate turn of events in stride, rebuilding his hatchery and playing the game out normally. He delayed his hive to pump out some muta-ling-bane in the mid game, using them to hold off Illusion's pressure while securing himself a strong economic base. From there, IdrA transitioned smoothly into infestors and brood lords, against which Illusion could not defend himself.
01:57 GMT (+00:00): Spanishiwa 1 - 0 MKP. Entombed Valley: In a huge upset, Spanishiwa took the first map over MKP. Drawing diagonal starts on Entombed, both players sat back and built up their economies to their heart's content. However, MKP was looking too far ahead into the late game, whereas Spanishiwa had his eye on striking hard off four bases and lair tech. A huge mute-ling-bane attack caught MKP off guard, and he had no choice but to GG out.
01:40 GMT (+00:00): Grubby 2 - 1 Rain. Daybreak: After taking the momentum in Game 2, Grubby reversed his fast templar tech path and immediately opened with colossii. Although he seemed behind during most of the game, Grubby transitioned flawlessly from colossii to high templar and back to colossii as his opponent lost key units and became vulnerable to each. Grubby impeccably positioned himself, and without ghosts to equalize against Grubbys templar, all the harassment in the world didn't save Rain from being crushed by Grubbys deathball.
01:22 GMT (+00:00): Grubby 1 - 1 Rain. Cloud Kingdom: Grubby and Rain both opened for the long game. After they sparred in the center of the map, Grubby fell into a defensive zealot archon posture and stopped Rains attempts to harass and attack from two flanks. After Rain turned back, Grubby brought his own harassment with a warp prism and knocked out Rains natural. While Grubby was positioning his final attack, Rain skirted around him and rushed into the Protoss main. Grubby barely held with storms and colossii while attacking Rains base, destroying both the Terran army and production simultaneously to secure his victory
01:04 GMT (+00:00): Rain 1 - 0 Grubby. Entombed Valley: In response to Rains 14CC, Grubby pulled 3 additional probes to help his scouting worker try to deny the low ground expansion in what turned into a 4v4 worker battle at the four minute mark. Rain rolled with the punches and expanded without delay, and it was dubious if Grubby had gained anything with the harassment. Grubby tried again to apply pressure with a handful of gateway units but again came off worse for it, giving Rain a clear economic advantage. Rain got a little too overconfident with his lead and started trying to drop nukes, but he had to start playing more seriously when Grubby started force-fielding and storming his armies. However, Grubby allowed his Templars to become separated from his troops and easily picked off, allowing Rain to smash him later in a perfect engagement.
00:57 GMT (+00:00): Leenock 2 - 0 Apocalypse. Antiga Shipyard: Apoc changed things up with a reaper opening off one base. Leenock coolly left an overlord on top of Apocs barracks and easily stopped the reapers from doing any damage. As Apoc quietly powered up his economy and tech, Leenock morphed a dozen banelings and smashed down the unprepared Terran's front, killing all his units and taking the series 2-0.
00:51 GMT (+00:00): Scarlett 2 - 0 Vibe. Antiga Shipyard: Scarlett opened with a tricky gas-pool opener against Vibe, who had gone for a standard hatch first expand. Scarlett sought out to surprise Vibe with a few injects worth of speedlings, but Vibe played decent defense and the game ended up in a fairly even state.
Scarlett made the better decisions after the initial chaos, opting to go for infestor tech faster while Vibe began early roach production. Unfortunately for Vibe, he wasn't able to get anything done with his roaches, and when Scarlett came out with both roaches AND infestors, he was hopelessly outmatched.
00:46 GMT (+00:00): Leenock 1 - 0 Apocalypse. Daybreak: Apoc went with a standard hellion expansion, while Leenock played slightly unorthodox with a fast lair and a later third base. Feeling secure with marines and additional hellions against Leenocks mainly zergling composition, Apoc took a very fast third base without any reprisal from the Zerg player. Although Leenocks macro was below average, Apoc failed to produce tanks diligently. After a push against the Zerg third fell apart he was overwhelmed by ling bling muta and tapped out.
00:35 GMT (+00:00): Scarlett 1 - 0 Vibe. Daybreak: The first game played out like a typical Daybreak ZvZ, with both players taking three bases and massing giant roach-infestor armies. From an even situation, Vibe seemed to take the lead when he snuck off an infestor hitsquad to take out several of Scarlett's drones during a major battle. However, Scarlett didn't seem to mind the losses at all, and just attacked again with hydralisks added to her army. The hydralisks turned out to make a huge difference, with their added firepower being what Scarlett needed to break Vibe's army and force the GG.
00:32 GMT (+00:00): Sasquatch 2 - 1 GoOdy. Antiga Shipyard: Goody returned to CC hellion banshee as he did in the first game but found Sasquatch had declined to take a fast third. After hanging around bunker rushing the third hatch, Goody returned home to be creamed by the same mass ling-bling-muta that dispatched him in the first game. Although he survived the attack itself, it left his economy crippled. By the time GoOdy could take his third base, 50 banelings, 4 ultralisks, a few infestors and a f@%#ton of zerglings obliterated his army to end the series.
00:14 GMT (+00:00): GoOdy 1 - 1 Sasquatch. Entombed Valley: For the second time in a row Sasquatch found himself dealing some early damage but it didn't really matter as GoOdy just shrugged it off and rolled out with a death push of tanks marine and thors to finish the game at 17 minutes.
00:11 GMT (+00:00): IdrA 2 - 1 Suppy. Antiga Shipyard: Hatch first builds without any aggression led both players straight into the mid-game. From Lair, IdrA started roach upgrades and doubled the roach count of his opponent. Suppy couldn't hold his faster third against Idra's pressure, and despite a faster infestation pit, he even allowed IdrA to start infestor production first. Although both players kept even on upgrades, Idra converted his uncontested third base into a significant supply advantage. Suppy played his heart out and made great engagements despite being in a tough spot and behind economically. Suppy kept up as long as he could but eventually Idra landed the right fungals and Suppy called good game.
00:07 GMT (+00:00): TheStC 2 - 0 Beastyqt. Entombed Valley: With 1/1/1 openers on both sides, game two quickly devolved into chaos. The mutual 1/1/1's caused both players to take a step back and secure their naturals, but afterward both were constantly on the look out for a chance to attack. Beastyqt opted for a mech composition while TheStC went for bio + tanks, giving him some more mobility and opportunities to drop. Much like game one, Beastyqt kept pace for much of the game, but in the end TheStC was just too quick. Beastyqt was outmaneuvered into losing bases and chunks of his army a little bit at a time until he was forced to GG.
00:03 GMT (+00:00): MajOr 2 - 1 HuK. Ohana: With MajOr going for a hellion drop build, HuK's own decision to go for gateway aggression ended up being a disaster. Having sent most of his troops out on the offensive, HuK lost a huge amount of probes to the drop. On the other hand, MajOr caught whiff of HuK's intentions and build bunkers and defenses at home. With his attack thwarted and no economy left, HuK GG'd out.
23:56 GMT (+00:00): Sasquatch 1 - 0 GoOdy. Cloud Kingdom: PanzerGoody opened with a standard hellion-banshee expand build, but Sasquatch already had a roach warren building before the factory completed to keep himself safe. GoOdy pressured with marine-hellion-banshee, but it was to no avail. Moments later, Sasquatch showed GoOdy how it was done with an attack of his own, smashing Goodys ground heavy army with a great lingbling-muta attack that ended the game.
23:55 GMT (+00:00): MajOr 1 - 1 HuK. Antiga Shipyard: Both players abandoned early game aggression to macro off of three bases on Antiga Shipyard. HuK skimped on colossus tech, trying to go straight up to an army backed by templars. MajOr was able to exploit HuK's weak timing with a huge drop in HuK's main that destroyed the Nexus, several buildings, and traded well with HuK's army. Instead of sitting back and trying to recover, HuK moved out with the army he had, but good ghost usage from MajOr allowed him to rout HuK's force and tie up the series.
23:48 GMT (+00:00): TheStC 1 - 0 Beastyqt, Cloud Kingdom: A gentleman's agreement was reached as neither player committed to any major battles until both were cranking out marine-tank off of three bases. Beastyqt seemed to keep pace with TheStC in the max-out fights for a bit, but eventually he started to be outmaneuvered. TheStC was able to take out Beastyqt's natural, and then take out the fourth base as well, taking a dominating economic lead. Beastyqt realized his disadvantage and surrendered quickly to move to the next game.
23:42 GMT (+00:00): Suppy 1 - 1 IdrA, Daybreak: Both players opened with polite hatch firsts but Idra crashed into his teammate's natural with ling bling, killing a queen and some drones. Suppy stabilized and both players took a breather to hit optimal drone saturation and max out on roach infestor. Idra attacked first with a multi-pronged attack, canceling Suppys 4th but at too high cost, allowing Suppy to counter attack. However, once Suppy was lured into his natural, Idra landed great fungals on his ramp and carved out a chunk of Suppys infestors. After both players remaxed on roaches and started hive, Suppy attacked again and caught Idra off guard, landing critical fungals that prevented a proper engagement and turned an even fight into a slaughter, evening the score to 1-1 for Suppy.
23:37 GMT (+00:00): HuK 1 - 0 MajOr. Entombed Valley: MajOr didn't read HuK's plan to go heavy gateway pressure off two bases, moved out too early, and was crushed. The follow-through attack ended the game.
23:33 GMT (+00:00): Revival 2 - 0 Illusion, Cloud Kingdom: Illusion opened hellion CC and this time Revival decided to play past the 11 minute mark. As Revival took his third base Illusion crashed the party with marine marauder hellion but diversity equaled scarcity and Revival crushed the push with a superior force of roaches. As the game reaches 12 minutes, Revival hits another big roach timing and marched through Illusions natural, forcing the Terran out of the game 2-0
23:31 GMT (+00:00): ...And someone has decided that Apocalypse and Kryptonite was not worthy of air time anymore. Suppy vs IdrA next!
23:24 GMT (+00:00): Apocalypse 1 - 0 Kryptonite. Daybreak:
Kryptonite and Apocalypse both deferred aggression in lieu of passive, economic openings though Apocalypse used an offensive bunker to delay his opponent's attempt to take his third. Apocalypse then lost a huge amount of scvs to a slow baneling sneak attack, with his main force uselessly in the middle of the map. Taken aback but far from dead, Apoc showed who was the macro master and reached max on marine tank 16 minutes in and started encroaching on Krytonite's territory. To his misfortune, burrowed infestors and ultralisks supported by zerglings and banelings made short work of his supply advantage. However, it wasn't enough for Kryptonite to win one battle, as Apocalypse repeatedly took the supply advantage with his superior macro even after losing a considerable number of forces. Apocalypse eventually teched up to ravens and seeker missiles, the signal for Kryptonite to tap out.23:14 GMT (+00:00): Vibe 2 - 0 State. Entombed Valley: State tried to play a regular greedy opener on Entombed, but Vibe countered by playing a "DIMAGA-Style" ling-bane-drop style after taking three bases. Hallucinated phoenixes caught whiff of Vibe's strategy, but it was too late for State to prepare properly. Banelings dropped from overlords destroyed everything, from zealots, cannons, to probes. Utterly crushed, State GG'd out.
23:14 GMT (+00:00): Revival 1 - 0 Illusion, Entombed Valley. Illusion opened up with as standard hellion expo while Revival played an extra safe expand opening by adding roaches to his defenses. The roaches turned out to useful for more than defense, and Revival was able to apply some early roach-lnig pressure to forced a lift on Illusion's natural. Revival decided to just end it all, continuing to pump roaches and finishing the game.
23:06 GMT (+00:00): Daisuki 2 - 0 Kirschke, Shakuras Plateau. As expected, both players took fast natural on Shakuras Plateau. Daisuki opted to follow up for mass bane-ling aggression early, and Kirschke was unable to put together a credible defense. Banelings swarmed into Kirschke's base, annihilated drones, and forced the GG.
23:02 GMT (+00:00): VIBE 1 - 0 State. Cloud Kingdom: State opened with a standard three-base macro opener on Cloud Kingdom, but pushed out a bit too early as he suffered a brutal backdoor attack from VIBE. State was left with less than ten probes to harvest with, and was forced into going for an all or nothing attack. The power of immortals and force-fields made it look like State had a chance to pull off a miraculously win, but Vibe was able to throw roaches at his opponent until he was forced to GG.
22:56 GMT (+00:00): Daisuki 1 - 0 Kirschke, Daybreak: In a typical Daybreak ZvZ pattern, both Zergs took three bases on their sides of the map while applying mild pressure with speedlings and banes. Both players opted to transition into mutalisks after lair, and as it turned out, neither player wanted to switch to any other tech. Daisuki ended up getting the upper hand in the war for the skies, and eventually overwhelmed Kirschke's muta-corruptor mix in a final battle with pure mutalisks.
22:51 GMT (+00:00): Suppy 2 - 1 Goswser, Daybreak: Again both players open without early aggression and again Suppy took a faster lair and immediately started infestor production. This game however skipped the mid-gameslugfest and both players went for incredible 12/13 minute hives with greater spires. However before the first corruptor could be morphed, Goswser found a timing and took out Suppys third, leaving him on one mining base to Goswsers three. Suppy countered and bought himself precious seconds to force a détente while he caught up on supply. Suppy used beautiful runbys and constant aggression to chip away at Goswser's lead, and at the end, Suppy was able to bring himself victory with brood lords.
22:48 GMT (+00:00): PuMa 2 - 1 Sheth, Metropolis: There was no funny business in the final match, as Sheth and Puma both opened passively and focused on their own economies. PuMa opened with a similar hellion-banshee from the first game, but cleverly meched behind it instead of going bio. Going for a Mvp-style banshee heavy mech, PuMa was able to deal significant economic damage to his Zerg opponent who had slacked in making anti-air defense. However, Sheth clawed his way back in with great burrow tactics and a doom drop. The game headed towards a base-trade situation around the twenty minute mark, but PuMa had more gas left in the tank and was able to outlast Sheth in the end.
22:29 GMT (+00:00): Suppy 1 - 1 Gowswer, Cloud Kingdom: Both Zerg took similar and standard openings with defensive baneling nests. Suppy diverged with a faster lair and immediate infestors, using zerglings to prevent Gowswer from taking further expansions. Suppy played with a heavy contingent of infestors with zerglings and roaches to support. Goswser sensed Suppy was getting too greedy and threw everything at him, including his macro queens. Neither player could kill the other so they traded armies several times. Both players followed through to brood lords but Suppy with the vastly superior economy came out ahead.
22:27 GMT (+00:00): Scarlett 2 - 0 Insur, Cloud Kingdom: In a similar game as the first, Scarlett easily held off Insur's attempts to pressure before hive with her infestors. After securing her economy, Scarlett was able to crush Insur with brood lords and infestors.
22:22 GMT (+00:00): asd 2 - 0 Spyte, Entombed Valley: Drawing far spawns on Entombed, asd played a standard macro game against Spyte. In a largely unremarkable game, asd simply kept pushing with endless armies produced with his strong macro. Spyte couldn't hold out until he had hive units and was forced to GG out of the series.
22:19 GMT (+00:00): Sheth 1 - 1 PuMa, Cloud Kingdom: Puma looked to bring the series to an end early with two fast barracks proxied just off his own natural. Sheth sniffed out trouble but played it cool with a single spine crawler and four larvae of lings. Puma tried to bypass into the main but won nothing for his trouble. For the second game in a row, Sheth tried his hand at counter attacking, but with dramatically improved success. Sheth turned Pumas stalled push into his own timing and despite a rocky period with ultra infestor, great fungals and great multitasking helped Sheth tie the series with a win.
22:09 GMT (+00:00): Scarlett 1 - 0 Insur. Ohana: In a textbook ZvP stomp, Scarlett held off Insur's three-base, pre-hive timing with a great surround, then bulldozed through with infestors and brood lords.
22:05 GMT (+00:00): asd 1 - 0 Spyte. Shakuras Plateau: Asd beat Spyte with a bunker rush, cheers.
21:56 GMT (+00:00): PuMa 1 - 0 Sheth. Entombed Valley: Puma, chasing the Korean meta, opened with a fast expansion and banshee hellion but Sheth brought the early aggression with a pack of roaches. All the queens in the world couldn't penetrate a cloaked banshee and Sheths game went sideways after hellions entered the battle for his third base. After 17 workers go down, Sheth stabilizes but is left at a disadvantage to Pumas equal bases. Sheth split Pumas army with simultaneous roach and zergling attacks at the natural and third and compounded his momentum by clearing the banshees away. Puma pushes back as Sheth delicately transforms into Hive and snuffs Sheth out before he could reach a critical mass of infestors.
21:45 GMT (+00:00): Still chillin' cuz streams are broken, whee.
21:15 GMT (+00:00): Just chillin'
Group Bracket - Winners Round 1
viOLet vs giX- Game One - Daybreak: Able to secure a much faster third base than Gix on Daybreak, viOLet safely rolled his economic advantage into a victory of overwhelming numbers at the lair stage.
- Game Two - Cloud Kingdom: After both players took three quick bases to start, viOLet used his mutalisk tech to buy him enough space to add on a fourth base as well. giX tried to hit viOLet as the fourth base completed, but viOLet has transitioned into roaches and infestors to hold the attack easily. giX attempted to tech up to brood lords to try and overcome the resource disadvantage, but couldn't survive viOLet's roach-hydra-infestor push.
- viOLet 2 – 0 giX
Caliber vs Daisy- Game One - Daybreak: Caliber played it safe with a stargate build but Daisy was on top of his game with blink stalkers. Caliber tried to forcefield his ramp to stop the fast attack but the moment the first blink stalker entered the main it was all over for Caliber
- Game Two - Metropolis: Daisy 4gated against Calibers 2gate and when the attack came, Caliper immediately gg'd out.
- Caliber 0 – 2 Daisy
Binski vs GanZi- Game One - Entombed Valley: Binsksi dominated throughout the game with faster reactions, a bigger army and better upgrades. Ganzi couldn't find any leverage against his opponent until Binski sieged outside of Ganzis third. Ganzi brilliantly evacuated his marines, took a circuitious route around the containing army and while Binski was still oblivious outside Ganzis third, the Korean Terran crashed into his opponents base and evened the odds. Binski, despite the loss of his third, still held the supply and upgrade lead. He dropped at Ganzis third and the upgrades and medivacs took over, killing the majority of Ganzis army and economy at once for a 1-0 lead.
- Game Two - Antiga Shipyard: Ganzi wanted to take charge in Game 2 but couldn't make it work. He opened with banshees that barely kept things even. Every time he moved out, Binski had a backstab drop waiting to invade his main base. At 13 minutes Ganzi had snapped and walked cross map and sieged Binskis natural, then elevatored into his main. Ultimately however, the backstabs killed Ganzis economy and Binski bided his time and made a heroic marine charge to clean away his containment, and a production cycle later, he walked across the map and finished off Ganzi 2-0
- Binski 2 – 0 Ganzi
Rain vs Grubby- Game One - Entombed Valley: In response to Rains 14CC, Grubby pulled 3 additional probes to help his scouting worker try to deny the low ground expansion in what turned into a 4v4 worker battle at the four minute mark. Rain rolled with the punches and expanded without delay, and it was dubious if Grubby had gained anything with the harassment. Grubby tried again to apply pressure with a handful of gateway units but again came off worse for it, giving Rain a clear economic advantage. Rain got a little too overconfident with his lead and started trying to drop nukes, but he had to start playing more seriously when Grubby started force-fielding and storming his armies. However, Grubby allowed his Templars to become separated from his troops and easily picked off, allowing Rain to smash him later in a perfect engagement.
- Game Two - Cloud Kingdom: Grubby and Rain both opened for the long game. After they sparred in the center of the map, Grubby fell into a defensive zealot archon posture and stopped Rains attempts to harass and attack from two flanks. After Rain turned back, Grubby brought his own harassment with a warp prism and knocked out Rains natural. While Grubby was positioning his final attack, Rain skirted around him and rushed into the Protoss main. Grubby barely held with storms and colossii while attacking Rains base, destroying both the Terran army and production simultaneously to secure his victory
- Game Three - Daybreak: After taking the momentum in Game 2, Grubby reversed his fast templar tech path and immediately opened with colossii. Although he seemed behind during most of the game, Grubby transitioned flawlessly from colossii to high templar and back to colossii as his opponent lost key units and became vulnerable to each. Grubby impeccably positioned himself, and without ghosts to equalize against Grubbys templar, all the harassment in the world didn't save Rain from being crushed by Grubbys deathball.
- Rain 1 – 2 Grubby
Sasquatch vs GoOdy- Game One -Cloud Kingdom: PanzerGoody opened with a standard hellion-banshee expand build, but Sasquatch already had a roach warren building before the factory completed to keep himself safe. GoOdy pressured with marine-hellion-banshee, but it was to no avail. Moments later, Sasquatch showed GoOdy how it was done with an attack of his own, smashing Goodys ground heavy army with a great lingbling-muta attack that ended the game.
- Game Two - Entombed Valley: For the second time in a row Sasquatch found himself dealing some early damage but it didn't really matter as GoOdy just shrugged it off and rolled out with a death push of tanks marine and thors to finish the game at 17 minutes.
- Game Three - Antiga Shipyard: Goody returned to CC hellion banshee as he did in the first game but found Sasquatch had declined to take a fast third. After hanging around bunker rushing the third hatch, Goody returned home to be creamed by the same mass ling-bling-muta that dispatched him in the first game. Although he survived the attack itself, it left his economy crippled. By the time GoOdy could take his third base, 50 banelings, 4 ultralisks, a few infestors and a f@%#ton of zerglings obliterated his army to end the series.
- Sasquatch 2 – 1 GoODy
Illusion vs Revival- Game One - Entombed Valley: Illusion opened up with as standard hellion expo while Revival played an extra safe expand opening by adding roaches to his defenses. The roaches turned out to useful for more than defense, and Revival was able to apply some early roach-lnig pressure to forced a lift on Illusion's natural. Revival decided to just end it all, continuing to pump roaches and finishing the game.
- Game Two - Cloud Kingdom: Illusion opened hellion CC and this time Revival decided to play past the 11 minute mark. As Revival took his third base Illusion crashed the party with marine marauder hellion but diversity equaled scarcity and Revival crushed the push with a superior force of roaches. As the game reaches 12 minutes, Revival hits another big roach timing and marched through Illusions natural, forcing the Terran out of the game 2-0
- Illusion 0 – 2 Revival
Sheth vs PuMa- Game One - Entombed Valley: Puma, chasing the Korean meta, opened with a fast expansion and banshee hellion but Sheth brought the early aggression with a pack of roaches. All the queens in the world couldn't penetrate a cloaked banshee and Sheths game went sideways after hellions entered the battle for his third base. After 17 workers go down, Sheth stabilizes but is left at a disadvantage to Pumas equal bases. Sheth split Pumas army with simultaneous roach and zergling attacks at the natural and third and compounded his momentum by clearing the banshees away. Puma pushes back as Sheth delicately transforms into Hive and snuffs Sheth out before he could reach a critical mass of infestors.
- Game Two - Cloud Kingdom: Puma looked to bring the series to an end early with two fast barracks proxied just off his own natural. Sheth sniffed out trouble but played it cool with a single spine crawler and four larvae of lings. Puma tried to bypass into the main but won nothing for his trouble. For the second game in a row, Sheth tried his hand at counter attacking, but with dramatically improved success. Sheth turned Pumas stalled push into his own timing and despite a rocky period with ultra infestor, great fungals and great multitasking helped Sheth tie the series with a win.
- Game Three - Metropolis: There was no funny business in the final match, as Sheth and Puma both opened passively and focused on their own economies. PuMa opened with a similar hellion-banshee from the first game, but cleverly meched behind it instead of going bio. Going for a Mvp-style banshee heavy mech, PuMa was able to deal significant economic damage to his Zerg opponent who had slacked in making anti-air defense. However, Sheth clawed his way back in with great burrow tactics and a doom drop. The game headed towards a base-trade situation around the twenty minute mark, but PuMa had more gas left in the tank and was able to outlast Sheth in the end.
- Sheth 1 – 2 PuMa
MLG Open Bracket Games
Ryung vs qxc- Game One - Entombed Valley: Ryung opened aggressively with marines-hellion and contained qxc in his main. He couldn't break up the ramp but he held qxcs natural for minutes while he took his own. qxc eventually pushed out with tanks and forced Ryung back but QXC asked for a pause, citing hand numbness. Within a minute later he stated he was ready and the game resumed. Ryung, with the early lead from containing QXC, maxed out faster and smoothly sieged QXCs natural. QXC couldn't make up for the 80 supply difference and tapped out.
- Game Two - Daybreak: QXC chose to utilize bio and Ryung chose mech. Ryung was nearly impenetrabe until he moved out at the 18 minute mark. It looked dark for QXC. He lost the scvs at his natural and his fourth but he held on, orchestrating a triple flank to free his natural. Unfortunately he was on borrowed time and Ryung continued to patiently squeeze the life out of QXC with his flawless mech and secured his 2-0 victory
- Ryung 2 – 0 qxc
DeMusliM vs TheStC- Game One - Entombed Valley: TheStC edged ahead in the early mid-game, following his banshee attack with a marine-tank push to punish DeMuslim's fast expansion. Demuslim was able to defend himself, but was forced to sacrifice many SCVs in the process.
Afterward, the game transitioned into three base marine tank vs three base marine tank, with TheStC holding a slight edge. TheStC was able to get aggressive first, and goaded DeMusliM into a poor engagement. TheStC continued to compound his lead, until he was able to flatten DeMusliM in a game ending engagement. - Game Two - Tal'Darim Altar (wait what?): TheStC opened up with a reactor-hellion build, which turned out to be just the right thing to do on the rampless map. DeMuslim had opened with a starport build, and marines and hellions coming out one at a time were no match for the double hellion production of TheStC. After inflicting early economic damage on his opponent, TheStC continued to pile on the pressure while taking his own natural. Even assault mode vikings were deployed to pressure his opponent, and it started to become clear that DeMusliM was only delaying the inevitable. Eventually TheStC whittled DeMusliM down to the bone, ending the series.
- DeMuslim 0 – 2 TheStC
MarineKingPrime vs Spanishiwa- Game One - Entombed Valley: In a huge upset, Spanishiwa took the first map over MKP. Drawing diagonal starts on Entombed, both players sat back and built up their economies to their heart's content. However, MKP was looking too far ahead into the late game, whereas Spanishiwa had his eye on striking hard off four bases and lair tech. A huge mute-ling-bane attack caught MKP off guard, and he had no choice but to GG out.
- Game Two - Cloud Kingdom: MKP hit back instantly, harassing well enough with his hellions-banshee expand build to force an early GG from Spanishiwa.
- Game Three - Metropolis: Spanishiwa decided he would try to play mass muta-bane-ling off of a four base economy, but this time MKP was ready for him. He was more than happy to match him blow for blow, using his famous marines backed by tanks and medivacs to crush Spanishiwa in engagements and take the series.
- MKP 2 – 1 Spanishiwa
Leenock vs Apocalypse- Game One - Daybreak: Apoc went with a standard hellion expansion, while Leenock played slightly unorthodox with a fast lair and a later third base. Feeling secure with marines and additional hellions against Leenocks mainly zergling composition, Apoc took a very fast third base without any reprisal from the Zerg player. Although Leenocks macro was below average, Apoc failed to produce tanks diligently. After a push against the Zerg third fell apart he was overwhelmed by ling bling muta and tapped out.
- Game Two - Antiga Shipyard: Apoc changed things up with a reaper opening off one base. Leenock coolly left an overlord on top of Apocs barracks and easily stopped the reapers from doing any damage. As Apoc quietly powered up his economy and tech, Leenock morphed a dozen banelings and smashed down the unprepared Terran's front, killing all his units and taking the series 2-0.
- Leenock 2 – 0 Apocalypse
Beastyqt vs TheStC- Game One - Cloud Kingdom: A gentleman's agreement was reached as neither player committed to any major battles until both were cranking out marine-tank off of three bases. Beastyqt seemed to keep pace with TheStC in the max-out fights for a bit, but eventually he started to be outmaneuvered. TheStC was able to take out Beastyqt's natural, and then take out the fourth base as well, taking a dominating economic lead. Beastyqt realized his disadvantage and surrendered quickly to move to the next game.
- Game Two - Entombed Valley: With 1/1/1 openers on both sides, game two quickly devolved into chaos. The mutual 1/1/1's caused both players to take a step back and secure their naturals, but afterward both were constantly on the look out for a chance to attack. Beastyqt opted for a mech composition while TheStC went for bio + tanks, giving him some more mobility and opportunities to drop. Much like game one, Beastyqt kept pace for much of the game, but in the end TheStC was just too quick. Beastyqt was outmaneuvered into losing bases and chunks of his army a little bit at a time until he was forced to GG.
- Beastyqt 0 – 2 TheStC
daisuki vs Kirschke- Game One - Daybreak: In a typical Daybreak ZvZ pattern, both Zergs took three bases on their sides of the map while applying mild pressure with speedlings and banes. Both players opted to transition into mutalisks after lair, and as it turned out, neither player wanted to switch to any other tech. Daisuki ended up getting the upper hand in the war for the skies, and eventually overwhelmed Kirschke's muta-corruptor mix in a final battle with pure mutalisks.
- Game Two - Shakuras Plateau. As expected, both players took fast natural on Shakuras Plateau. Daisuki opted to follow up for mass bane-ling aggression early, and Kirschke was unable to put together a credible defense. Banelings swarmed into Kirschke's base, annihilated drones, and forced the GG.
- Daisuki 2 – 0 Kirschke
asd vs Spyte- Game One - Shakuras Plateau: Asd beat Spyte with a bunker rush, cheers.
- Game Two - Entombed Valley: Drawing far spawns on Entombed, asd played a standard macro game against Spyte. In a largely unremarkable game, asd simply kept pushing with endless armies produced with his strong macro. Spyte couldn't hold out until he had hive units and was forced to GG out of the series.
- asd 2 – 0 Spyte
Apocalypse vs Kryptonite- Game One - Daybreak: Kryptonite and Apocalypse both deferred aggression in lieu of passive, economic openings though Apocalypse used an offensive bunker to delay his opponent's attempt to take his third. Apocalypse then lost a huge amount of scvs to a slow baneling sneak attack, with his main force uselessly in the middle of the map. Taken aback but far from dead, Apoc showed who was the macro master and reached max on marine tank 16 minutes in and started encroaching on Krytonite's territory. To his misfortune, burrowed infestors and ultralisks supported by zerglings and banelings made short work of his supply advantage. However, it wasn't enough for Kryptonite to win one battle, as Apocalypse repeatedly took the supply advantage with his superior macro even after losing a considerable number of forces. Apocalypse eventually teched up to ravens and seeker missiles, the signal for Kryptonite to tap out.
- Broadcast was cut short.
- Apocalypse 1 – 0 Kryptonite
WCS North American Finals
Winners Final:
Scarlett vs ViBE- Game One - Daybreak: The first game played out like a typical Daybreak ZvZ, with both players taking three bases and massing giant roach-infestor armies. From an even situation, Vibe seemed to take the lead when he snuck off an infestor hitsquad to take out several of Scarlett's drones during a major battle. However, Scarlett didn't seem to mind the losses at all, and just attacked again with hydralisks added to her army. The hydralisks turned out to make a huge difference, with their added firepower was what Scarlett needed to break Vibe's army and force the GG.
- Game Two - Antiga Shipyard: Scarlett opened with a tricky gas-pool opener against Vibe, who had gone for a standard hatch first expand. Scarlett sought out to surprise Vibe with a few injects worth of speedlings, but Vibe played decent defense and the game ended up in a fairly even state.
Scarlett made the better decisions after the initial chaos, opting to go for infestor tech faster while Vibe began early roach production. Unfortunately for Vibe, he wasn't able to get anything done with his roaches, and when Scarlett came out with both roaches AND infestors, he was hopelessly outmatched. - Scarlett 2 – 0 Vibe
Winners Round 4
ViBE vs State- Game One - Cloud Kingdom: State opened with a standard three-base macro opener on Cloud Kingdom, but pushed out a bit too early as he suffered a brutal backdoor attack from VIBE. State was left with less than ten probes to harvest with, and was forced into going for an all or nothing attack. The power of immortals and force-fields made it look like State had a chance to pull off a miraculously win, but Vibe was able to throw roaches at his opponent until he was forced to GG.
- Game Two - Entombed Valley: State tried to play a regular greedy opener on Entombed, but Vibe countered by playing a "DIMAGA-Style" ling-bane-drop style after taking three bases. Hallucinated phoenixes caught whiff of Vibe's strategy, but it was too late for State to prepare properly. Banelings dropped from overlords destroyed everything, from zealots, cannons, to probes. Utterly crushed, State GG'd out.
- Vibe 2 – 0 State
Scarlett vs Insur- Game One - Ohana: In a textbook ZvP stomp, Scarlett held off Insur's three-base, pre-hive timing with a great surround, then bulldozed through with infestors and brood lords.
- Game Two - Cloud Kingdom: In a similar game as the first, Scarlett easily held off Insur's attempts to pressure before hive with her infestors. After securing her economy, Scarlett was able to crush Insur with brood lords and infestors.
- Scarlett 2 – 0 Insur
Losers Round 7
Major vs IdrA- Game One - Daybreak: Major, having won his previous series against Ostojiy with mech, took a similar approach against IdrA. He put IdrA in serious trouble with hellion runbys but eventually the game stabilized and after a good hold with roaches, IdrA developed a brood lord composition and coupled with clutch corruption casts, won out over Majors thor heavy army.
- Game Two - Shakuras Plateau: While MajOr played a standard hellion expansion style, IdrA once more went for the fast mutalisks that won him the series against Illusion. There was no easy victory for IdrA this time around, however, as MajOr had sufficient defenses up. That didn't stop IdrA from committing to muta-bane-ling for an extended period, however, and he hit MajOr hard when he moved out to take his third base. As the game played out, IdrA showed he knew exactly what he was doing, transitioning into a traditional hive composition just before the Terran army started to look a little scary for just an lair phase army. MajOr was too late on preparing for IdrA's brood lords, and with just marine tank against them, was forced to GG out.
- Major 0 – 2 IdrA
Losers Round 6
Major vs State- Game One - Entombed Valley: Both players with fenced each other into the mid game until Major had enough and went full Bit by Bit, pulling his scvs and overloading his opponents natural. State tried to micro against it but with only gateway units, Major easily pushed through him with medivacs and bio.
- Game Two - Daybreak: Major decided on an unorthadox approach to TvP again, this time with hellions and cloaked banshees. State had a well timed robo, but his observer wasn't able to protect him from taking a big hit to his harvester count early on. Major capitalized on his lead with drops and stretching his opponent while preserving his own units. Eventually the supply advantage was so great that Major simply walked into the protoss natural and overwhelmed his opponent.
- MajOr 2 – 0 State
IdrA vs Insur- Game One - Daybreak: The game played out in a standard ZvP pattern, with both players playing greedy openings, and Insur then trying to hit a three-base attack before IdrA had brood lords. IdrA cut it close on defense, even losing his fourth base in the process, but he survived long enough to push out his ultimate unit. From there, he slowly caught up ground, as Insur was behind on tech and unable to engage the brood lord-infestor force directly. Insur went for a belated carrier transition, but by then it was too late. IdrA had secured more bases and had added an overwhelming number of brood lords and infestors to his army, leaving Insur no choice but surrender.
- Game Two - Ohana: The game followed a similar script to game one, but IdrA was able to hold off the pre-hive attack even more easily. Insur never had enough breathing room to adjust his composition against brood lords and infestors, and was forced to GG out.
- IdrA 2 – 0 Insur
Losers Round 5
Major vs Ostojiy- Game One - Antiga Shipyard: MajOr didn't go for the neck but he didn't make a mistake in this game. He kept his opponent on three bases and whenever Ostojiy tried to claim the center and engage, Major held it off. Although Ostojiy showed poise by using a nydus to get his ultralisks around the siege wall in the center of the map, his lack of economy from lack of expansions meant he could not transition to brood lords, allowing Major to confidently take game 1 with bio tank alone.
- Game Two - Daybreak: Major opened with banshee hellion and transitioned into hard mech. Ostojiy had the right upgrades in the mid game but ultimately held on to roaches for too long with too little result and by the time Major maxed out on supply and upgrades, brood lords were still no where in sight. Although Ostojiy fought hard, Major played TvZ Mech with inspiring precision and without faulty decisions.
- Major 2 – 0 Ostojiy
IdrA vs Illusion- Game One - Daybreak: The game began with IdrA showing MMA-esque play, but not in the good way. Taking a fast third hatchery, IdrA was able to squeeze out enough units to defend Illusion's marine-hellion pressure as his hatchery went dangerously into the red. However, having fended off the attack, IdrA somehow managed to order his queens to attack the low HP hatchery, not noticing until it was already gone.
To IdrA's credit, he took this unfortunate turn of events in stride, rebuilding his hatchery and playing the game out normally. He delayed his hive to pump out some muta-ling-bane in the mid game, using them to hold off Illusion's pressure while securing himself a strong economic base. From there, IdrA transitioned smoothly into infestors and brood lords, against which Illusion could not defend himself. - Game Two - Shakuras Plateau: It initially seemed that Illusion had gotten the better of IdrA's fast mutalisk build when he snuck marines and hellions into the Zerg main with a medivac elevator. However, after he killed off a number of IdrA's drones, it turned out that he didn't have the troops at home to properly defend the incoming mutalisk counter-attack. IdrA hounded Illusion with mutas, adding in zerglings and banelings with a mind to finish the game off if there was a chance. However, Illusion managed to scrap together a defense and stabilize, and IdrA had to content himself with a massive lead in army and economy. Staying on muta-ling, IdrA inflated his economy and troop count to overwhelm Illusion for good.
- IdrA 2 – 0 Illusion
Losers Round 4
Major vs HuK- Game One - Entombed Valley: MajOr didn't read HuK's plan to go heavy gateway pressure off two bases, moved out too early, and was crushed. The follow-through attack ended the game.
- Game Two - Antiga Shipyard: Both players abandoned early game aggression to macro off of three bases on Antiga Shipyard. HuK skimped on colossus tech, trying to go straight up to an army backed by templars. MajOr was able to exploit HuK's weak timing with a huge drop in HuK's main that destroyed the Nexus, several buildings, and traded well with HuK's army. Instead of sitting back and trying to recover, HuK moved out with the army he had, but good ghost usage from MajOr allowed him to rout HuK's force and tie up the series.
- Game Three - Ohana: With MajOr going for a hellion drop build, HuK's own decision to go for gateway aggression ended up being a disaster. Having sent most of his troops out on the offensive, HuK lost a huge amount of probes to the drop. On the other hand, MajOr caught whiff of HuK's intentions and build bunkers and defenses at home. With his attack thwarted and no economy left, HuK GG'd out.
- Major 2 – 1 HuK
IdrA vs Suppy- Game One - IdrA won off stream.
- Game Two - Daybreak: Both players opened with polite hatch firsts but Idra crashed into his teammate's natural with ling bling, killing a queen and some drones. Suppy stabilized and both players took a breather to hit optimal drone saturation and max out on roach infestor. Idra attacked first with a multi-pronged attack, canceling Suppys 4th but at too high cost, allowing Suppy to counter attack. However, once Suppy was lured into his natural, Idra landed great fungals on his ramp and carved out a chunk of Suppys infestors. After both players remaxed on roaches and started hive, Suppy attacked again and caught Idra off guard, landing critical fungals that prevented a proper engagement and turned an even fight into a slaughter, evening the score to 1-1 for Suppy.
- Game Three - Antiga Shipyard: Hatch first builds without any aggression led both players straight into the mid-game. From Lair, IdrA started roach upgrades and doubled the roach count of his opponent. Suppy couldn't hold his faster third against Idra's pressure, and despite a faster infestation pit, he even allowed IdrA to start infestor production first. Although both players kept even on upgrades, Idra converted his uncontested third base into a significant supply advantage. Suppy played his heart out and made great engagements despite being in a tough spot and behind economically. Suppy kept up as long as he could but eventually Idra landed the right fungals and Suppy called good game.
- IdrA 2 – 1 Suppy
Losers Round 3
Suppy vs Goswser- Game One: Goswser won.
- Game Two: Cloud Kingdom: Both Zerg took similar and standard openings with defensive baneling nests. Suppy diverged with a faster lair and immediate infestors, using zerglings to prevent Gowswer from taking further expansions. Suppy played with a heavy contingent of infestors with zerglings and roaches to support. Goswser sensed Suppy was getting too greedy and threw everything at him, including his macro queens. Neither player could kill the other so they traded armies several times. Both players followed through to brood lords but Suppy with the vastly superior economy came out ahead.
- Game Three - Daybreak: Again both players open without early aggression and again Suppy took a faster lair and immediately started infestor production. This game however skipped the mid-gameslugfest and both players went for incredible 12/13 minute hives with greater spires. However before the first corruptor could be morphed, Goswser found a timing and took out Suppys third, leaving him on one mining base to Goswsers three. Suppy countered and bought himself precious seconds to force a détente while he caught up on supply. Suppy used beautiful runbys and constant aggression to chip away at Goswser's lead, and at the end, Suppy was able to bring himself victory with brood lords.
- Suppy 2 – 1 Goswser
Live Reports: Probe1 and Waxangel
Graphics: Meko
Editor: Waxangel
I guess I need to find the solution at home then.
