Going into last weekend, there was a lot of trepidation about this ZOWIE DIVINA tournament.

It wasn't the perfect tournament, but for the most part, fears were assuaged. The stream was really choppy on the first day, probably due to a last-minute switch from twitch to own3d without time to optimize the settings, but the organizers built in a day of exhibition matches so it wasn't a huge deal. There was some stream lag the other days, but as peak usage time ended in China, it got pretty smooth. The production was top-notch, the commentators energetic and ever-improving. The players had more than ample conditions to perform well.

Perform well they did. Flo's play inspired some to call her MarineQueen, Aphrodite's mech was the immovable object opposing armies crashed against, DaSakura had a strong macro style, Läjten showed fun and creative play, and SsQ and Colagirl showed solid allaround play with Colagirl maybe looking the strongest of them all.

The first day was set up as a for-pride East vs West exhibition match, with the competitors split into 2 teams and squared off in a Winner's League-style format. Up first on Metalopolis were the Zergs for both teams, Colagirl and DaSakura. The Canadian performed a 2-base roach-ling attack and twice came close to overrunning her opponent, but Colagirl's defense was too strong and her upgrades eventualy won her the match. Next up, a clearly rusty Läjten lost out to a quick baneling bust on Tal'Darim Altar. In the final match, Flo attempted a marauder-hellion allin from cross positions on Antiga, but was too late and short on troops.

Going into the real tournament on the following days, it was interesting to see how players would adjust from the first day. Were they holding strats back, sandbagging in an effort to gain an edge? Yes and No. Colagirl continued to dominate, looking scarier and scarier as the day went on. The closest she came to losing was in the first match when Läjten tried the same strat as Flo did the previous day but to a Bit By Bit extreme. Flo lost out to only Colagirl, and won matches in style with strong marine attacks or neat drop-centric play. Aphrodite showed some very turtly mech at points, but left open enough doors that players were able to capitalize. SsQ had a fairly straightforward style, and DaSakura followed the same trends as Ret does at times - winning when allowed to drone with impunity but often without enough troops or the wrong troops to defend.

At the end of scheduled group play, 3 players found themselves in a tie for 2nd place, with only 2 able to advance. Aphrodite took the first match against Dasakura's impatient midgame attacks, but lost the second when SsQ's 1-base quick siege attack cleaned up Aphrodite's expansion then main. Now nearing 3am, she told the Duke, the Chinese-English translator, that she was just going to cheese to get it over with. A never-ending stream of reactored hellions sped across Metalopolis and spelled the Canadian's doom, finalizing the group rankings.

The final day looked like it'd follow the trends, with Colagirl taking her first game relatively easily against Aphrodite. The second game turned the tides, with a crazy base trade and nearly 10 minutes with neither player doing significant mining signaling the beginning of the end for the Chinese zerg. In the rubber match, she simply couldn't solve Aphrodite's well-practiced turtle terran. In the other semifinal, SsQ turned the tables on Flo used her own strategy against her in the first game. Flo was able to win the other two hard-fought games, barely containing her joy at securing a spot in the final. Colagirl dominated the 3rd place match, returning to her form of the previous 2 days. Aphrodite's relentless siegeing and hellion poking eventually battered down Flo's walls on Metalopolis, and in the final match on Tal'Darim Altar showed the benefits of good preparation. Flo tried to use drop play to break up the mech turtle, but, having watched that so many times in the previous few days, Aphrodite countered it so well that it almost looked like she was clairvoyant. Over the course of the weekend, Aphrodite improved her decision-making and rode the backs of thors, tanks, and hellions to first place, $5000 cash, and a nifty golden mouse.

Thanks to ZOWIE and PLU for hosting such a nice tournament, and good luck in future tournaments!