EPT
Writer: XXTN
Graphics: Meru
Editor: lichter
After 8 months waiting,
Scarlett has finally made it to the round of 16. It had been a frustrating year for the red haired zerg in WCS AM despite some strong showings in other foreign events. She was eliminated in season 1 by Heart and TooDming in the Ro32, while she lost to hendralisk in Challenger League in season 2. This time, however, she advanced second in one of the harder groups in the first round by avenging her loss to TooDming. 
Heart continued his imperious form by winning both his sets to become the group winner.![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/lichter/WCSAM/2014/season3/wcsampremgrpf.jpg)
The day’s first match featured an awkward and clumsy TvP between Heart and Seed. A few minutes into Catallena and it was clear that both guys had no interest in the late game. Heart quickly went up to five rax on two-base while Seed invested in a two colossus/blink stalker all-in. By a sheer stroke of luck, Seed caught several full medivacs mid-map and took full advantage of his larger army supply to close out game one. Heart immediately struck back on Overgrowth with some early marine/hellion aggression which killed 20+ probes as Seed was rushing to colossus tech. While Seed did manage to claw his way back in with a dark shrine, he inevitably lost the final fight with no upgrades against 2/2 bio. With the series tied up, Heart gambled on the final map with an early hidden third base. Luckily for Seed, his star senses led him to the ninja expand before it could pay for itself. Now once again, Seed went for another big colossus/blink stalker attack, which could have potentially sealed the series. However, the former GSL champ blinked far too aggressively, allowing
Heart to barely hold and win the match. The huge North American fan favorite, Scarlett went on to crush TooDming in the second series. In the first game, TooDming opted for a 1/1 mass speedling all-in on Nimbus. It was still a dicey situation for Scarlett, but she managed to hold comfortably with beautiful roach control. She then took the offensive by sniping her opponent’s roach warren and third hatch. Down a base and in drones, TooDming simply could not keep up in macro and upgrades. Still, Scarlett waited to get maxed before finishing him off. Game two began in a similar fashion with TooDming pooling lings off two-base yet again. He managed to run a good amount of lings through a hole in Scarlett’s wall, but it was still not enough to finish her off. Things were looking grim for the Canadian zerg, but her roaches came out just in time and she pulled off another incredible hold. TooDming tried to drone up but fell to the ensuing roach counterattack.
Scarlett continues to thrive in ZvZ as she made short work of TooDming.Shortly after losing to Scarlett, TooDming dropped a quick 0-2 series to Seed in the loser’s match. The Korean protoss opened with an oracle in game one and tricked his opponent into over-droning. With about ten zealots, he was able to snipe the third hatch. Seed then followed up with a big gateway push and steamrolled the zerg with overwhelming numbers. Now up 1-0, Seed chose a bizarre immortal/sentry all-in on Catallena. He moved out with only one immortal, which allowed the attack to hit earlier. For some reason, TooDming stubbornly refused to sacrifice his early fourth and kept fighting a protoss ball tucked behind a mineral line. After a few minutes of struggle,
Seed pumped out enough units to tip the scale in his favor. With that, TooDming would fail to make it to the Ro16 for the first time this year.In a repeat of season 1, Scarlett and Heart once again met in the winners' match. Unfortunately for the Acer Zerg, the result was the same: Heart was triumphant and advanced 2-1. The Axiom Terran continued to change our perception of his play by winning both macro games in the series. On Deadwing, he once again displayed his immaculate marine splitting to win engagements he looked destined to lose. His jawdropping micro has become a trademark of his play, and not even Scarlett could find a way to wrestle him into the ground. She resorted to a different approach in game 2 as she attempted to bust Heart with roaches and zerglings. Though he was able to hold initially, the follow up roach baneling attack was finally able to pierce his main. Though Heart had hellbats in Scarlett's bases, she was able to clean it up with the queued roaches and the Axiom Terran had no choice but to gg. The final game of their series was also a tit for tat as they entered the mid game on even ground. But Scarlett was caught being a little too aggressive and unawares of her surroundings when a medivac was able to sneak past her overlords and mutas. The drop in her main was able to kill the spawning pool and the spire, halting her production.
Heart's followup push proved to be deadly as Scarlett could not gather enough forces to repel it, and the Axiom Terran's work was done for the evening.Her defeat at the hands of Heart meant that she'd have to overcome the fallen champion Seed. Both players had beaten TooDming 2-0 to make it to the final match, but Scarlett would not be denied from the Ro16. Nimbus was the scene for their first encounter, and it lasted well over 20 minutes. It appeared it would be a quick game when Seed was able to sneak a probe into her main, and the cannon rush was unscouted until the first cannon had already started. Scarlett could not prevent her natural from falling, but she was able to limit the damage. She held on, and Seed waited until the 12th minute before committing to another big attack. He had amassed a gateway army with one voidray, and Scarlett decided to defend with hydras as they traded units at the zerg third. With impeccable micro, Seed looked within inches of victory when he was able to take down the third and press on into her main, but Seed's army ran out of steam. This gave Scarlett the time to switch into mutas, and Seed's lack of tech beyond gateway units came back to haunt him. Though he would try to build phoenixes off two stargates, Scarlett's switch back and forth between mutas and hydras ensured she always had a composition able to attack. The third base for protoss became untenable when the zerg maxed out, and Seed was forced to concede one of the best games of the evening. The Dignitas Protoss looked deflated after that, and he surrendered game 2 with much less struggle. The protoss attempted to take a third base on gateway units alone, but it was hit hard by Scarlett's 12 minute roach hydra max. Seed valiantly tried to defend until he was able to squeeze out colossus, but
Scarlett already had 5 bases and vipers by the time he had stabilized. The torrent of zerg was too much to hold, and Seed reluctantly ended the evening in third place.It was a disappointing day for the former GSL champion in his first WCS AM appearance since switching from GSL, but it was hard to argue that Heart and Scarlett were not the best players on the evening. He'll have to wait until next year to make his mark while the two stalwarts of the American scene will hope to make a splash in the final season of the year.
WCS America Premier League Ro16 Players (12/16)
Jim, Pigbaby, HuKHyuN, Jaedong, Check, viOLet, ScarlettNeeb, iaguz, Polt, HeartNext: WCS AM Premier League Ro32 Group G
Monday, Aug 12 6:00pm EDT (GMT-04:00)
TaeJa vs hendraliskXiGua vs HerO
GL
