Stats looked to be on solid footing after repelling MajOr's tank push on his third, but the foreign Terran added in liberators to combat chargelots and storm, before pushing into Stats' fourth where he eliminated the Splyce Protoss’ army to take the first game.
MajOr took a second straight game on Ascension to Aiur. After a largely passive start, a maxed out MajOr pushed out with ghosts, liberators and bio/mine. Stats tried to defend with Charge and Storm, but once again got rolled over.
MajOr ramped into a maxed out army with vikings and ghost despite losing ten workers to stalker/oracle pressure. Up nearly fifty army supply, Stats still managed to clean up the Terran army. The players kept fighting, but Stats' was never in danger and took the game.
MajOr suffered a pair of notable setbacks; forgetting Stim and losing 21 workers to adepts and friendly mine hits. He kept building a bio/viking force to combat Stats' colossi and, despite backing Stats into an constrictive position, lost his army, bringing the series to an ace match.
Stats’ early Blink attack killed 12 SCV's. Having taken those losses, MajOr made no move to take a third base. Stats killed more workers with adepts while adding colossi into his army. By the time MajOr pushed out, Stats had more than enough to complete the comeback.
ByuN took a worker lead due to cyclone/marine timing and reaper attack. He kept the pressure on with a siege on INnoVation's natural, but INnoVation flipped a switch with a doom drop while defending at home. Up on supply, the addition of liberators locked up the win for INnoVation.
INnoVation earned a twenty supply advantage after breaking ByuN's contain, but was unable to capitalize on the lead. ByuN made a move for the watchtower, catching and decimating the two separate pieces of INnoVation's army to tie the series.
INnoVation pulled ahead in the series after a mass of tanks and ranged liberators rendered ByuN's bio/tank impotent. With the game in his control, INnoVation slowly pushed across the map until ByuN had not option but concession.
After defending INnoVation's proxy reapers with a CC first, ByuN held a mild lead for much of the game, only to put himself in a bad spot trying to clear rocks mid-map. INnoVation pounced, easily winning the fight and riding a superior tank count and upgrades to a semifinal berth.
Neeb managed to get up to four bases despite suffered early losses to mine drops. TY's lengthy siege on Neeb's fourth turned into a lethal push on the American Protoss' natural that put TY up 1-0.
Neeb and TY made it all the way to five bases in game two. Neeb endured drops and run bys galore albeit with heavy loss, but was unable to win the final fight down a little less than fifty supply, as his immortals and storm failed him against TY's bio.
Having survived the early game, Neeb went for double robo colossi and steadily pulled ahead while talking his fourth. The game came to an abrupt end before thermal lance was even completed, though, as TY moved out and was caught by Neeb's larger force.
In a shocking game four, Neeb continued his comeback with an early move into carriers. TY failed to break Neeb’s third with bio and ghosts. He turned to battlecruiser, but Neeb was able to camp TY's production and, while the armies traded, TY lost his starports and left the game.
Both players traded blows in the early game, with the first big move being an adept attack that killed 34 SCV’s. TY survived, however, and killed Neeb's fourth on the counter. From there Neeb hung around, but was unable to gain the traction required to prevent TY from taking the match.
Dark started the final quarterfinal with a 13/12. soO opened hatchery first, but held long enough to get a baneling nest and transplant his spine crawler to the low ground. Down on workers and bases, Dark tapped out.
soO's three hatchery before pool opening went unpunished. soO maxed out first, but Dark's spire was already in production when soO moved out with roach/ravager. The mutalisk switch allowed Dark to demolish soO’s army and, while he lost his fourth, he evened the series.
soO took a faster lair while Dark opted for a quicker third as they moved into roach vs roach. soO postured, but found no purchase until he reloaded and returned with far greater numbers. Dark was forced to retreat into a poor engagement, putting soO one game away victory.
Dark pushed the pace with ling/bane pressure, but was unable to crack soO who defended on a higher worker count. soO moved into roaches and upgrades, eventually closing out the match with a massive roach force. The victory sent soO to the second semifinal.
INnoVation and Stats settled into a proper macro game on Ascension to Aiur. The first real action was INnoVation canceling Stats' fourth. He backed off for a moment to reinforce with even more ranged liberators before dealing the death blow outside of Stats' natural.
INnoVation started strong in game two, canceling Stats' third base with a bunker/cyclone timing. Stats negated INnoVation's next push at a heavy army disadvantage by catching two medivacs with phoenix, but was unable to mount a defense when INnoVation attacked a third time.
Stats had no answer to ranged liberators on Odyssey. Calling upon Colossi, Storm and disruptors, he was able to clear up INnoVation's push towards his natural, but INnoVation maxed out once more, clearing up Stats' army the second time around to close out the match 3-0.
TY dominated game one. He slowed soO's development by sniping overlords and followed that up with a three pronged attack that killed workers, but more importantly, soO's third. soO had no chance from there and left the game as TY pushed in once more.
soO sensed an opportunity when he spied TY's early third, but failed to execute a roach/queen attack. Safe at home, TY canceled soO's fourth and assembled an overpowering bio/tank army that made quick work of soO's hydra/ling/bane.
soO held firm against early attacks in game three, working his way up to ultralisks, notching a kill on TY's gold along the way. TY fielded an impressive liberator heavy army, but soO's lings gutted TY's economy, allowing his ultralisks and corrupters to close things out.
soO weathered TY's early attack but his third base was significantly delayed, meaning he was even on supply. soO tried to draw TY back as the Splyce Terran pushed across the map, but TY was having none of it, killing soO's fourth en route to booking his trip to the finals.