Though the members of group D possessed 10 Starleague final appearances between them, all four were still hunting for their first GSL title. Could Maru complete an all Terran upper bracket or would one of the three Zergs knock him out of the tournament?
soO easily won game one as his early pool met a three hatchery before pool from Losira. Losira evened the series after a roach/baneling timing killed 25 workers. Losira postured with banelings in game three, but his decision not to commit set soO up for a lethal lairless roach attack.
Maru opened three rax reaper in games one and two, but was only victorious in the first. Maru went for a bunker rush in game three which did little more than delay Dark’s expansion, but his follow up attack with four banshees killed Dark's third, setting up a lethal parade push.
Maru continued with three rax reaper in the winner’s match and, although he earned the win in game two with a parade push, he was unable to get real damage done in games one and three. soO was able to establish his third and control both remaining games, surrounding Maru’s reapers en route to victory. The 2-1 result pits soO against Rogue in the quarterfinals.
Losira commanded the later stages of game two against Dark with superior tech. He was not able to win the match, however, instead falling to a pair of early baneling attacks that punished hatchery first openings.
Maru continued his aggressive ways in the final match, but despite taking the second with a hellbat timing, he was forced to settle for a game three. Maru played straight up in game three for the first time. His heavy liberator count and constant harassment were key in chipping away at Dark and cleaning up his infestors, ultralisks, vipers and queens. Having beaten Dark for the second time, Maru will meet ByuN in the Round of 8. The quarterfinals will have only mirror matches.
Soo gonna throw this out there - that's 8 out of 11 tvz's in the ro16 that opened 3 rax reaper..
Curious as to blizzards thought process on this - seems to me as a Terran that you have to open that way frequently enough to make any other opening a viable option - the 2-1-1 he won with in the last game seems to fail very hard under normal circumstances where the zerg isn't pre-planning to defend that.
Personally would like to see a shake-up - reaper nerf and zerg late game nerf or terran late game buff.
On June 04 2017 00:00 Zaros wrote: I'm calling it now SoO is gonna get to the finals only to lose to ByuN's reapers
That was my thought as well. Byun is on for right now. soO is good enough too make the finals. Isn't that always his story? Good enough to get to the finals but not "that guy" everyone is watching destroy all their matches.
EPT
Maru complete an all Terran upper bracket or would one of the three Zergs knock him out of the tournament?
soO easily won game one as his early pool met a three hatchery before pool from 
