Bomber <KTV Foxtrot Labs> MMA

Opening the series on an atypical map, MMA started in the top left and Bomber in the bottom right. The game lagged for a second just for kicks, but the game resumed. Both players opened gas first, but MMA took a faster 2nd gas and a sooner starport for a cloaked banshee. Bomber took a similar route, but decided to build a raven after his banshee instead of cloak. The Red Bull terran also built his CC sooner, forcing MMA to try and do some damage. He was only able to net a few SCV kill however, and lost the banshee to the raven and some marines and a viking. On the other side of the map, Bomber's lack of cloak meant he had not much to do, and a widow mine placed intuitively took down his own banshee on the retreat.

Both players transitioned into the mid game by building their third CCs even as the banshees were flying overhead. There was a short passive phase in the game as both players cranked out upgrades and tanks, but MMA prioritized upgrades over army. Bomber, the duke of doom drops, repeatedly attempted to find a hole in MMA's defense, but MMA was aware of Bomber's ideas and was able to deny any drops in the mid game. It was Bomber once again that pushed out first, inching closer and closer with his tanks and marines. Both players traded shots and positions, but the skirmishes in the middle gave Bomber the opportunity to make his move. With MMA's 2/2 finishing sooner and 3/3 being upgraded, Bomber squeezed his way through MMA's defense for a doom drop in the main. Drawing the army inside, Bomber also diverted a force to the third, denying it for a few minutes. Another doom drop in the main solidified Bomber's lead, but MMA was still in it with his superior upgrades.

The game came to a head when Bomber was able to catch MMA's tanks in the middle of the map. This allowed Bomber to take the gold safely and camp on his opponent's side of the map. With a superior economy, Bomber was able to pump out marines with greater volume. MMA had to commit units in order to safely secure his own gold base, and Bomber once again took a chance with a gigantic doom drop. With his main being ransacked by tanks and his army being wrestled to the ground, MMA was suffocating. Bomber was now 100 supply ahead and shelling the gold base, and MMA had no choice but to tap out after an exhilarating first game.

Bomber <Deadwing> MMA

Defeated in his own map pick, MMA felt the pressure entering Deadwing. The players spawned vertically with MMA upper right and Bomber at the bottom. MMA followed last game's plan, opening gas first again, while Bomber opted for rax first. The RedBull terran chose to go reaper-expand, in contrast to MMA's quick cloaked banshee. Bomber was able to scout the starport with his reaper, but it wasn't all of MMA's plans. It was going to be a 1/1/1 one base attack, and MMA moved out with a small group of marines and a tank. MMA used his banshees to get Bomber out of position, and he was able to siege the natural while laying down bunkers. Bomber had his armory done though, and he was able to push back the attack with his hellbats. 13 SCVs were killed, but MMA's expansion was only just beginning, and the game was even.

Entering the mid game, Bomber expanded again with a third CC. This meant that his defenses were spread thin, and MMA attempted to take advantage with a 2 base push. He was once again able to deal near-critical damage on Bomber's army, but his drop in the main was repelled with many losses. Bomber was once again down in SCVs, but his third gave him a chance of climbing back in the game.

As Bomber postured himself on his 3rd base, MMA simply walked into the natural at 19m and opened fire on the CC and more SCVs. With multiple drops at other bases, MMA slowly pushed his advantage, preventing Bomber from establishing a solid position. Bomber attempted drop pressure of his own, but was quickly shut down. Drawn thin, he put the majority of his army at the front, giving MMA a window to drop again and kill more tanks and SCVs. As he threw down his 4th, Bomber once again tried to apply pressure with drops. Though they were denied, Bomber was able to safely establish his 4th. Bomber took a slight supply lead at 28:45 with a push into the center of the map, dropping a slew of hellbats on MMA's army. MMA dropped 3 full medivacs in Bombers natural, while also attacking at the 5th, which divided Bomber's army into multiple chunks. After drawing Bomber's weakened army into the center of the map, MMA encircled the unsieged tanks and wiped out what was left, taking the win at 31m.

Bomber <Catallena> MMA

Both players opened gas first again, with MMA going for a 1/1/1 in contrast to Bomber's banshee. MMA dropped a mine and some marines, allowing him to pick off a few SCVs and chip away at a few buildings. He was also preparing vikings for his defense, giving him air superiority. After taking out three banshees and a raven, MMA secured a slight supply lead. Positioning himself aggressively below the main, MMA was shelling Bomber's production, forcing Bomber to take inefficient trades in order to keep his buildings alive. MMA kept the pressure with drops and tanks, but Bomber was eventually able to clean up the attack. Behind this, MMA was already building a third and taking his upgrades, setting him up for a strong late game.

Realizing that he was behind, Bomber decided to wager the game on 2 bases. Bomber pushed through the middle with all of his units but his clock was running out as 2/2 was ticking away. The Red Bull terran attempted to force the issue, and MMA took favorable trades as he held out for his upgrades. Unable to find a hole through the center of the map, 2/2 finally finished and Bomber was on the ropes. One push too far gave MMA the opportunity to stim forward and obliterate Bomber's army, and he took a lead in the series against the TvT wonder.

Bomber <Overgrowth> MMA

Again, both players opened gas first. MMA was the first to push out with his hellion, only to be pushed back by a wall-off from Bomber. Bomber opened blind banshee, only to have it be picked off by a single viking. MMA nabbed a faster natural CC, as he contained Bomber inside his main. After nearly picking off his natural, MMA continued to apply pressure onto Bomber. At the 10 minute mark, MMA established a tank siege just to the left of Bomber's natural, preventing mining from the natural. Bomber tried to land at his 3rd and regain control with a quick 3 mules. Unfortunately for the RedBull terran, MMA smoothly sieged again, pushed the army back and killed the CC. As he pushed into Bomber's natural, Bomber was forced to make a desperate push into MMA's natural.

Bomber slowly crawled back into the game, retaking control of his half of the map. MMA attempted to sandwich Bomber's force, only to be cut off by the reinforcing army from the north. Bomber tried again to doom drop into MMA's main, but the now cliche move was spotted and intercepted, causing him to lose 2 full medivacs. After the two terrans danced around in each other's naturals, they both decided "to hell with it" and began a full on base trade. MMA walked into a trap from Bomber, caught in a complete wrap around. With calm micro, the Acer Terran stimmed and tossed SCVs at Bomber's tanks and took the series 3-1.

Bomber <Merry Go Round> MMA

MMA wins 3-1 and advances to the semi finals!

San <Merry Go Round> Life

Life opens up with a 3 hatch before pool build, and San goes for a gate/gas combo. In San fashion, he adds more gateways and starts to warp in zealots at a proxy location while Life continues to add reactionary zerglings to defend from a potential aggressive push. A spine cralwer is added for defense at the natural of Life, while San continues the Sangate pressure to no avail. The creep spread starts and Life takes the advantage in the economy, while San recuperates on his 2 bases. San goes for a warp prism/sentry push while Life goes for a ling/hydra push, with the latter demolishing the former. Life takes a 1-0 lead in the series.

San <Overgrowth> Life

The second game on overgrowth shows both players going for an expansion before production. Life continues on his success with his 3 hatch before pool, and San goes for a gateway follow up to his quick nexus, folowed by a robo. Life gets a money scout out of a zergling and see's the immortal all-in plan from San, and prepares for defense. San circumvences with a warp prism, and cuts workers at 45 in preparation of an all-in. Life, recognizing this early, started army production at 53 drones, the perfect amount, and mounts his defense at his third base. The soultrain commences, with Life losing a chunk of his army, and San correctly prediction where the army of Life is. A warp prism flies into the main base of Life, while Life goes for a counter attack in San's natural, demolishing the nexus and all related structures around. Fairly even trades occur in the natural of San, and as San lost his natural base, he is forced into an all out attack position. He pushes out with his sentry/immortal based army, which is perfectly countered by Life, and San leaves the game to make it 2-0 Life.

San <Nimbus> Life

Again, Life goes for a 3 hatch before pool while San goes for a gate/core opening. In classic style, San goes for the sangate build, but his closest pylon gets shut down by scouting zerglings, as Life starts his defensive preparation. As supply depots lower and raise, San initiates the aggression on the far spread creep, and gets pushed back. A massive amount of queens and zerglings are able to deflect the mass amounts of zealots put out by San, and San goes for a macro game by dropping his 3rd nexus.

Going into the mid-game, Life goes for the swarmhost tech and San scouts it with a hallucinated phoenix, reacting accordingly with colossus tech and another robotics bay. A misstep out of San results in his army being out of position when Life snipes a robotics facility in the third base of San. In retaliation, San is able to pick off the 4th of Life with great forcefields and masterful positioning of his mothership core, and gets out unscathed with his stalkers. An archon/zealot drop at Life's natural stalls Life's efforts of applying pressure on the protoss army, and San starts to churn out his ultimate Protoss army. San clears creep while Life expands throughout the map, taking all bases in his half of the map. A big trade happens in the middle of the map, with Life taking the advantageous position, only losing 3 corruptors to the 40 odd supply of Protoss army. Static defense is added from Life, while the golden armada is achieved from San.

As both players continue to take expansions throughout the map, they hit money-bags status and start to look for chinks in the armor. Life gains the first advantage, by pulling in the mothership and sniping it in a matter of miliseconds, followed by some oracles. He continues to spread the creep while San effortlessly mines from his never-ending expansion. An hour into the game, after an overcommitement to tempests, Life is able to break the armada line of San, and with a large bank stored up, San decides it's time to quit and Life takes the series 3-0.

Life wins 3-0 and advances to the semi finals!

herO[jOin] <Nimbus> Classic

It was a strange decision to pick Nimbus as the first map, as PvP mind games are escalated by the multiple spawn positions and difficulty of scouting. Still, herO took a big risk by opening with an 11 gate and quick 2 gasses while Classic chose a more conventional 12 gate. This allowed herO to start his stargate a fair bit sooner, and both players decided that phoenix was the way to go. Unfortunately for Classic, he was unable to scout herO's main, and his attempts to be aggressive with his phoenixes failed. Both players expanded, but Classic oddly chose to take the outside base as his natural, perhaps to fool herO into thinking he was all inning. He would not be fooled however, as herO was constantly on Classic's side of the map with his phoenix advantage. Realizing that the base was exposed and vulnerable, herO warped in a big set of warpgates to go on the offensive. With his army unable to engage due to herO's phoenix lead and his base under attack, Classic was repeatedly forced to take poor engagements. With endless phoenix pressure and a growing gateway force, herO took the map after scaling Classic's front door.

herO[jOin] <King Sejong Station> Classic

In the second game, both players opted for the more economic route of 13 gate, followed by double gasses. herO chose to go for a stargate once again, while classic built defensive sentries foreshadowing a fast expansion. Following his nexus, Classic warped in a stargate of his own for phoenixes, and it looked like another case of Classic playing with a phoenix disadvantage. He was able to defend well, however, and it looked like herO had no choice but to try and catch up economically with a later natural. The CJ Entus ace would attempt a dark shrine, but it would only reach half way before Classic was able to scout it. With a twilight and robo, it looked like Classic was all but certain to hold. herO, realizing his gambit had been revealed, cancelled the dark shrine and instead readied a large blink stalker attack.

After minor trades throughout the map, herO was at Classic's front door trading blink for units. Classic had built an observer first from his robo despite seeing the dark shrine cancel, and was frantically trying to chronoboost his immortals. With a blink in the main, herO forced Classic to fight through his sim city, and three glorious force fields further closed the choke. herO repeatedly blinked in and out for maximum efficiency, before swinging into the natural for a decisive strike. With more force fields at the ramp, Classic could not defend his natural and he was forced to tap out under the rain of stalker fire.

herO[jOin] <Merry Go Round> Classic

It seemed like herO had Classic's number in the series, and both players continued down the same path with late gates and double gas. But with his Blizzcon run in jeopardy, Classic decided to proxy a stargate. Characteristically, herO elected a 1 gate twilight build, while Classic chronoboosted his oracle. He was able to catch herO's initial stalker out of position, and his risk was repaid with 6 probes and a sentry. Throughout the aggression Classic was able to get blink himself and launched an attack to whittle down herO's forces. Even a DT shrine could not save herO, and he was forced to concede the game.

herO[jOin] <Overgrowth> Classic

With one game in his pocket, Classic continued to play sneakily with an in base 2-gate. herO scouted it too late with double gas and a cyber core, and he was unable to deflect the cheese. His pylon powering his gateway repeatedly fell, and even a mothership core was not enough to save his probes. By the end of it herO was reduced to 5 probes, and he had no choice but to give Classic a tie in the series.

herO[jOin] <Catallena> Classic

Down to the rubber match after such a commanding lead, herO attempted an aggressive strategy with an 11 gate and gas. Classic on the other hand played safe. It was a reverse of the third game as herO chose stargate versus Classic's twilight, but herO was unable to kill enough workers to pay for the investment. As a result, Classic was able to research blink and take an expansion much sooner, and herO knew he had to make a decisive move. He began to cut workers in order to bolster his army for an attack, but Classic had no trouble deflecting the assault with his blink and overcharge. herO continued to press on hoping that his blink micro would prove superior, but the combination of a slightly better economy and high ground advantage proved insurmountable. herO's lead evaporate as his blink stalkers fell one by one, and Classic completed the reverse sweep in dramatic fashion.

Classic wins 3-2 and advances to the semi finals!

TaeJa <Nimbus> INnoVation

Both opened gas first into barracks, teching up to starport. INnoVation went for a reaper and hellion after his first marine for map control. His early raven and viking don’t deter TaeJa, who got a fair number of SCVs with his first banshee. INnoVation responded with a successful hellbat drop of his own but misses TaeJa’s real plan: a midgame bio push with viking/banshee for air dominance. Due to some initial sloppiness TaeJa lost his raven and banshee, and the attack stalled out.

The delicate dance between TaeJa’s bio and INno’s mech began in the middle of the map. TaeJa managed to outmaneuver his opponent and takes out a significant chunk of INno’s tank force. From there he put his foot on the pedal, constantly trading armies to delay the dreaded mech push and protect his secret transition into battlecruisers. Yet he couldn’t prevent INno from taking his fourth and fifth. This bit him in the ass as INno managed to assemble his deathball and plant himself outside TaeJa’s fifth. TaeJa eventually crushed this army at the expense of losing his fourth and fifth bases.

Despite looking like an inevitable loss, the Liquid terran held on with some incredible harassment and multipronged attacks. He tried to stretch his opponent thin, diverting his attention from TaeJa’s expansions to the right side of the map. But INnoVation eventually caught onto TaeJa’s intentions and started getting active. He denied TaeJa’s far expansion with a cute double tank siege; he gladly traded some bases in exchange for retaining his core army; he parried several pokes at his fourth and made TaeJa pay whenever the latter overran his small packet of defenders. The key clincher was an intelligent switch into banshees, which perfectly countered TaeJa’s lack of anti-air.

TaeJa <Merry Go Round> INnoVation

Both players go for gas first again, with the same followup coming from INnoVation. With his reaper he scouted TaeJa’s medivac drop. TaeJa decided not to follow through with his planned strategy, and both players return to a macro game. Oddly enough TaeJa opted to challenge INno in a head-on mech vs mech battle. Even more surprisingly, the Liquid terran outmaneuvered his experienced foe in record time. A drop in INno’s main killed 10 workers, and INno’s attempted counterpush ended in abject disaster. Losing his entire air force and most of his hellions, the SKT star was slowly driven back into his base.

Then INnoVation’s keyboard broke and we were treated to a long, relaxing break.

Then INnoVation capitalized on his tactical rest and gg’ed.

TaeJa <King Sejong Station> INnoVation

In a dangerous change of pace, INnoVation opened with 14 CC. TaeJa continued with the standard gas-rax and attempted to punish with a tank siege right outside his opponent’s natural. It went relatively well but TaeJa did not manage to get many SCVs with his ploy. The banshee followup went considerably better, with his two banshees ravaging both mineral lines. This lovely slaughter was sadly interrupted by another drop. After the game was resumed, INno’s rebuttal with his own banshee managed to even things up in terms of worker count.

The SKT terran was grievously short on anti-air though, and TaeJa exploited it with a run-by composed of starport units. INnoVation could do nothing but watch as TaeJa camped his production facilities. He attempted to do something with a desperate counterattack, but TaeJa had fortified his third.

TaeJa <Overgrowth> INnoVation

More pauses. INnoVation's gears began to falter. The quiet within the booth was irritating, and soon it led him to stubbornly question the purpose of his existence. Was his accursed drive to win all SC2 tournaments truly the key to happiness? Was it worth the terrible cost to his mechanical soul, his mechanical life? Could he perhaps, somewhere in Blizzcon, find true love and fulfillment if only he could leave this damned booth?

His beady eyes slowly dimmed as he slipped into memories. His mental gaze envisioned the silent sea of observers huddled in the dark, all strange faces from stranger lands. A solitary girl stood out to his statistically keen eyes. She sat tenuously on the edge of his seat, her large almond eyes looking upwards in halting confusion. She was beautiful in a way that made INno want to embrace her in loving comfort. For a brief moment INnoVation paused and considered the possibilities. SKT abhorred children and intimate attachments. Such a future, such a girl would never be accepted as part of his identity. He was designed for colder things...

Finally the game unpaused. INno cleared the unclean thoughts from his mind and prepared for the match.

Both players returned to the norm with their gas-first builds. This time TaeJa elected for one gas, similar to his opening on Merry Go Round, and he soon tried to replicate the same drop with marines and a widow mine. INnoVation's raven opening shut it down cold. Both players accordingly decided that bio would be the best composition for the map. INnoVation attempted to get away with a greedy 3CC opening, but TaeJa seemed perfectly poised to punish it with a common marine/tank timing. INno's idea to take the forward third appeared to be a game-deciding error, and TaeJa quickly set up a contain at his foe's natural.

Amazingly, INnoVation broke this initial contain with a SCV pull and good timing. From there he absorbed every wave of the never-ending assault. He then held off a huge drop at his natural while backstabbing TaeJa at the latter's natural, and even crushed a large swell of reinforcements with a nice concave. But all this defense came at a great cost to his composition. INnoVation's tank production had withered down to nothing and he could not properly capitalize on his victories. Smartly TaeJa continued throwing jabs, and landed a huge sucker punch with an unspotted doom drop in INnoVation's main. The SKT terran tried to counterattack but TaeJa had already retreated most of his anterior army into his base.

TaeJa blew through the back door of the booth, stumbling on the door edge in his excitement. INnoVation briefly leaned back in his seat. Out of the corner of the eye he spotted a blur of movement. The girl had already gotten up out of her chair, and her silhouette rapidly shrunk into the gloom of the auditorium.

He exhaled for what seemed like an eternity.

TaeJa wins 3-1 and advances to the semi finals!