Last week's recommended game began with Tempest placing a pylon before scouting. Iris blocked the early scout with a barracks-first opening and depot wall but clearly any rush he'd been planning was now spoiled. With the early arrival of Tempest's probe, Iris abandonned any rush build he was planning and quickly switched to a fast expand build. Tempest built a robotic's facility in the middle of the map to ease into reaver harass later. Both players naturals completed at the same time and Tempest used that timing for a pincher attack on Iris' natural, dropping a reaver and dragoon on one side of the natural while attacking Iris' front with three dragoons. The attack was a success but thanks to his beefy SCVs and single-marine bunker, Iris was able to prevent the attack from ending the game. Still, Iris lost a large number of SCVs + mining time and was most certainly behind. In an effort to take the pressure off himself for a moment, Iris dropped two tanks above Tempest's natural. The strategy was overwhelmingly successful, not because he got many probe kills, but because Tempest used all his units to defend, and Iris lost neither the dropship nor his two tanks.

Tempest chose to rush to Arbiters and was producing his first Arbiter as his third base was warping in. This early tech decision allowed Iris to catch up a bit in macro, and since Iris already had a starport+addon, he wasn't particularly behind in tech, either. Iris' early set-back was still affecting him by the time Tempest's first Arbiter was done, however, as he was 50 supply behind at that point.

He was catching up, though, and was only 40 supply behind when Tempest executed his first recall on top of Iris' main command center. The first recall did surprisingly little damage, killing a few SCVs and a couple supply depots before Iris could clear it out, but soon after Tempest launched a second recall. With this one, Tempest destroyed Iris' starport and science facility, setting the terran's tech behind. As some form of consolation, Iris was only 30 supply behind Tempest at the end of the second recall.

Tempest followed quickly with yet another attack, this time rushing uncloaked units into Iris' front lines. This proved to be a major blunder since Iris was only 13 supply behind afterwards.

Iris chose to push toward Tempest's northern expansions immediately after Tempest's blunder, and although Iris forfieted highground to Tempest's remaining forces, his well positioned Vultures protected his tanks from Zealots while the Tanks forced Tempest's Dragoons to withdrawal. As Tanks rained down fire upon one of Tempest's Nexuses, Tempest mounted a more coordinated defense, landing a stasis on the majority of Iris' attack force. However, by this point, the two players were even in supply, and Iris' reinforcements were able to protect his stasis'd units. With little in his way, Iris began a comeback by taking out his opponent's expansions, reducing Tempest to two mining bases (with the natural very close to empty). In a last ditch effort to recapture the momentum, Tempest recalls into Iris' factories. He destroyed one factory and an armory, though it wasn't enough.

When Iris finishes usurping the northern bases and threatens Tempest's newly created expansions to the south, Tempest concedes, his speedy tech and over aggression having cost him a massive advantage and the game.

Tempest warped in at 5 o'clock and Iris at 9. Iris walled in at his ramp in preperation for a fast expansion at 11 o'clock while Tempest went 1 gate cybernetics core (at 13 supply). before expanding himself. Iris gets a dropship as soon as he possibly can and drops two Vultures into Tempest's main. Although the drop was spotted, the speedy vultures manage to kill four probes before Tempest deals with them.

Iris drops three more Vultures into Tempest's main, but Tempest has some drop play in mind as well, and Zealot bombs two of Iris' five defending tanks. Simultaneously, Tempest launches an attack into Iris' natural with eleven Dragoons, able to take out two more tanks before Iris' SCVs and bunker drive the dragoons away. Iris continued to drop vultures with less and less success while Tempest took his fourth base and started to mass units in ernest.

In an effort to slow Tempest down, Iris dropped a tank and two vultures behind Tempest's expansion at 4 o'clock and then pushed out to take out Tempest's mineral only at 3 o'clock and then set up a contain outside Tempest's natural. Tempest was able to stage a beautiful flank, though and decimates Iris' army. Tempest capitalized on his advantage by sending wave after wave of protoss units at Iris' natural and into his main, overrunning the crippled terran. Iris concedes, having invested too much of his early economy into mostly ineffective drop play.

Tempest opened with a proxy robotics facility just southwest of Iris' main on Destination. Iris scouted the proxy with a marine shortly after it completed, and opened with 1fac1port. Tempest is able to save his robotics facility momentarily, but knowing what's coming, Iris was able to place a bunker in his mineral patch and spoil the reaver harass with a wraith.

Unwilling to relinquish his lead, Iris moved out with four Tanks, destroyed Tempest's proxy pylon, and then prevented Tempest from taking an expansion. Tempest walls in his main with pylons, but this serves only to prevent his own army from establishing a presence on the map. Unable to recover, Tempest slowly loses the game, and the series. Iris moves on to the semifinals!

Jaedong opens with a 9 pool gas-trick and EffOrt with a 12 hat, 11 pool, 10 gas. Having placed his expansion hatchery at 13 supply, Jaedong hid his first six Zerglings from EffOrt's overlord, then launches his delayed zergling attack. EffOrt is almost entirely unprepared for the assault but is able to utilize his drones to fend Jaedong off. After successfully defending, EffOrt shows no hesitation in countering Jaedong. It seemed as though Jaedong was relying on his reputation to protect him from a counter as he's woefully underprepared for it and concedes quickly.

Jaedong opens with a 12 hat and EffOrt with a 9 pool speed. EffOrt scouts Jaedong's Overlord, and immediately sends his first zerglings to Jaedong. Jaedong does what he can to defend but is simply outnumbered from the start and falls further and further behind before he finally GGs. EffOrt Advances to the semifinals by outplaying Jaedong. Wow!

Game unnecessary.