Z1 FnaticMSI.Sen < Xel'Naga Caverns > SlayerS_BoxeR T7

Sen clumsily splits his drones to start our second weekend of TSL RO16. BoxeR proxies his second barracks outside of his base, prompting Sen to send his drone all around the map, but he does not discover the second barracks. BoxeR’s attempt to put up a bunker fails and he is forced to pull back, but not before taking another peak with half a dozen marines. Sen sends his hungry zerglings to his enemy's natural to see BoxeR expanding behind his push, but with good micro BoxeR has no problem dealing with the zerglings. BoxeR walls off one entrance to his natural to prevent run-bys. Sen breaks down the rocks giving him access to a third at either location, but decides to drop the third hatch next to his natural instead.

BoxeR attacks Sen’s gold expansion as soon as a hatchery finishes, and Sen attempts to flank from both ends. The muta-baneling army takes out the majority of BoxeR’s army, but the remnants of his original force easily takes care of Sen’s gold. Sen counterattacks and BoxeR is unable to lift his depots in time, but little damage is done due to units continuously popping out from BoxeR’s production facilities. BoxeR moves his bunker/tank line up to secure his own gold. Dropping in Sen's main, BoxeR splits his marines towards the 10 o’clock base and Sen’s gold. Sen has to sacrifice a big part of his economy to withstand both attacks, but is left with very little. Sen tries one more time to clear out the Terran troops camping his gold, but does not have enough banelings and concedes game 1. [21:03]

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Z12 FnaticMSI.Sen < Terminus RE > SlayerS_BoxeR T9

Both players FE as soon as they are able to produce T1 units. BoxeR slaps a reactor on his starport, while Sen grabs all four gas, before taking a quick third base. BoxeR’s first two vikings get free overlords all over the map; using the distraction to octodrop Sen’s third. Once mutalisks are out however, air dominance is turned over to Sen and BoxeR has no way to drop or harass with his vikings. BoxeR decides to try an attack with MM and tanks, but is overwhelmed by banelings and many, many mutalisks.

Sen’s fourth and fifth base are beginning to be saturated, while BoxeR tries his best to fend off the harassing mutalisks (even using medivacs to ferry around clumsy thors). BoxeR pushes at 145 food, hoping somehow to secure a central expansion, but Sen is already maxed on muta-baneling. Sen engages at a horrible angle with his ground forces, losing all of them and mutalisks alone cannot finish the fight (an unusually slow baneling speed upgrade is to blame here). As BoxeR sets up a contain outside Sen’s base, his reinforcements are cut off by Sen's smart mutalisk counter. Sen's economy has been unhurt so far, so he's quickly able to max out again with over 100 zerglings and breaks the contain with ease, forcing the Emperor to gg. [21:43]

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Z12 FnaticMSI.Sen < Metalopolis > SlayerS_BoxeR T6

Knowing Sen cannot spawn at a close position, Boxer proxies two barracks at the opposite gold, but Sen responds soundly by pulling half his drones to defend, stalling for zerglings. Seeing no positive outcome, BoxeR retreats, floats his barracks back to his main, and expands. As soon as Sen eyes BoxeR’s expansion and makeshift wall, he takes a third himself. Sen looks for an opportunity to try a ling run-by, but Boxer reacts quickly enough. BoxeR soon pushes to lay siege on Sen's third base with tanks and marines, lining up just below the lower ramp. Sen engages prematurely and loses a lot of troops trying to dislodge Boxer, putting his expansion in imminent danger. Sen tries to counterattack instead, but cannot get past BoxeR’s building wall at the natural, and eventually has to sacrifice his third base, opting to take the gold instead.

Sen finally cleans up the contain at his third, but loses a lot of units in the process. They are the units that he needed to defend his gold, now under fire from siege tanks atop Xel’Naga Towers. BoxeR can freely double expand from his position, while Sen tries to do the same while under significantly more pressure. BoxeR, seeing mutalisks now harassing his third base, moves forward to counterattack instead. Sen completes a surround with banes and mutas to wipe out BoxeR’s offensive endeavors, pushing him back for the time being. BoxeR's strong economy and macro allows him to quickly rebuild his force and go forward again, but they meet the same fate as the last expedition. The third time’s a charm for BoxeR, being able to wear Sen down with his impressive macro. Boxer drops the main while attacking the left side expansions simultaneously. Sen taps out after intense pressure from BoxeR all game long. [26:09]

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Z7 FnaticMSI.Sen < Shakuras Plateau > SlayerS_BoxeR T1

BoxeR slyly constructs his barracks on the low ground, tricking Sen into thinking there’s a proxy, but Sen’s scouting leaves no area unclear and spots the barracks, and a command center on his exit. BoxeR tries a bunker at Sen’s natural, but quickly gives up on that plan. BoxeR goes three barracks before teching up, and Sen begins a third base without any additional tech buildings. BoxeR sets up a siege line on Sen’s turf to prevent creep spread, but Sen calmly floods the soft contain with an overwhelming amount of speedlings and banelings, pushing BoxeR back behind his wall. BoxeR loads up his 2 medivacs to attempt a drop, but again Sen is prepared and the mutalisks echoed Tasteless’s will, “No one leaves here alive”.

Sen attempts to harass the main, but makes a huge blunder by flying over turrets and losing most of his mutalisks. Boxer does a good job at taking out Sen’s fourth, but his poorly managed and divided push is easily thwarted. BoxeR gets caught grossly out of position with his army far from home and in no position to do immediate damage, while Sen's mutalisks go to town on the Terran main. BoxeR is forced to push the attack and try to get a result, but ends up moving his marines too aggressively ahead of his tanks. Sen thanks Boxer for the gift as he takes out tanks with mutas. With a massive economic advantage, Sen can afford to ram 26 banelings into BoxeR’s third base and SCVs, putting BoxeR at effectively one mining base. With mutalisks destroying all of his buildings back home, Boxer gears up for one final push. The second BoxeR becomes visible on creep, Sen rolls in with pure banelings, annihilating everything in one shove and brings the series to a deciding game 5. [24:33]

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Z5 FnaticMSI.Sen < Crevasse > SlayerS_BoxeR T1

BoxeR once again hides his barracks outside his main, only this time lifts it to complete his wall as he is unable to scout Sen quickly enough. Sen chooses to take his outside natural before his back door. BoxeR techs up much more quickly this game, opting to go straight to starport before any marines upgrades. With a reactor on the starport, Boxer loads up a medivac and sends it out with a viking, and catches Sen completely off-guard, unable to make defensive units due to vikings picking off overlords. A second dropship allows Boxer to strike the main and natural simultaneously, doing almost 2000 resources worth of damage. In the meantime, BoxeR gears up to take his own third, since Sen is not able to push out anytime soon.

BoxeR moves forward with his siege tanks, and Sen seizes the moment that they are unsieged to run in, but his banelings get trapped and blows up the tanks instead of marines. A second wave of banes prompts BoxeR to pick up and go home. A drop catches glimpses of Sen’s morphing fourth, and Sen has to cancel before his units can save the hatchery. Mutalisks maneuver around the marines in the middle to pick off a few tanks, giving Sen time to set up a surround. Sen seems determined to remove Boxer's army from the middle, though they don't pose an immediate danager. A two-front maxed army Zerg rush for Sen ends miserably though, as the tanks and marines were too well-spread out. Behind economically, Sen tries a counter attack to no avail. Sen gives Boxer one more good fight before the growing unit disparity cannot be overcome. BoxeR storms into Sen’s natural, and Sen ‘s failed last-ditch effort catapults BoxeR into the RO8. [22:46]

P9 mouz.HasuObs < Metalopolis > mouz.MorroW Z6

Close air distance on Metalopolis, the match opens as many PvZs do with a 3 gate expand from Protoss, and a pool first into speedling expo from Zerg. Morrow is forced to make a pair of spine crawlers as Hasu's first forces dance back and forth, threatening annoying pressure. He quickly builds and saturates a third, safely expanding away from the Protoss. Hasu takes the cue, and as he is walling and cannoning his third Morrow takes a 4th, nearly covering his half of the map.

Morrow forces an attack between Hasu's natural and third, and his roach-corrupter army is easily stopped by the forcefields of Hasu. Morrow comes back for attempt #2, this time with added hydra support, but is once again repelled by the increasingly scary Protoss army. On the third try the armies largely trade, with Morrow morphing an overseer just in time to stop a few dark templar.

The next time the armies clash Hasu surges ahead, and begins to barrel towards Morrow's side of the map until newly made roaches push him away. As the game falls into a relative lull, both players finish taking their side of the map and the streets of Metalopolis are split evenly.

Morrow makes a series of brood lords, and when he is caught at a bad angle the maxed Protoss army proves to be far superior.[27:17]

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P9 mouz.HasuObs < Terminus RE > mouz.MorroW Z3

Zerg begins with the same pool first fast hatchery build, while protoss switches it up by opening forge, nexus, gateway. Morrow quickly techs up to banelings and the ventral sacs upgrade, a popular choice on this map. Hasu, meanwhile, begins his tech with a void ray and phoenix.

The first drop is incredibly successful, clearing out the main in no time. taking his third before trying again at the main, Hasu counters by launching an offensive with his first 3 voidrays and a phoenix, but does not accomplish much outside of killing an extractor. Morrow once again loads up and drops in Hasu's main, killing the robotics facility and nearly bringing down the recently rebuilt nexus. Meanwhile back home, Morrow has taken his third and is readying a 4th base against Hasu's 3.

Both players build up sizable armies, and a series of skirmishes occur in the center of the map with nearly max armies. Morrow chips away at Hasu's forces piece by piece, forcing the Protoss 4th to be delayed by several minutes in a period when his other bases are nearly mined out. The reduced economy eventually gets to Hasu, and when his army is forced to retreat from the 4th that is finally being mined he taps out and readies himself for a third game. [29:40]

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P7 mouz.HasuObs < Crossfire SE > mouz.MorroW Z2

The third game opens in a familiar manner, speedling expand and nexus after 3 gates. Morrow looks to continue his aggressive play, amassing hydras quickly and making a concentrated effort to spread creep down the main passageway with overlords. His first series of attacks proves unsuccessful, unable to break through to the Protoss natural before the colossus thermal lance becomes active.

Severely behind in units, Hasu's counterattack forces a GG from Morrow before it even reaches the zerg natural. [15:20]

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P7 mouz.HasuObs < Shakuras Plateau > mouz.MorroW Z2

The 4th game of the series opens the same as game 2, Morrow with the same build he has used all day and Hasu opting for forge, nexus, gateway. Hasu looks to play this game the same as his many Aiur brothers, quickly making a stargate for void rays and taking the expansion at 6 o'clock.

Morrow takes an equally fast third base, and pressures 6 while building a 4th hatcery below the base at 12. Thanks to the tunneling claws upgrade, he is able to burrow below a sheet of forcefields and cannons and take out the base defenses though he is unable to break through the stalkers and colossus protecting the nexus still there.

Not to be deterred, Morrow continues to force the issue and throws wave after wave of roaches and hydras at the base, eventually killing the nexus and then retreating. Stopping for a moment only to build a few waves of drones, once the nexus is rebuilt he crashes into it again with hydras, roaches, and corrupters until Hasu's army is defeated and he has to tap out. [22:46]

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P2 mouz.HasuObs < Tal'Darim Altar > mouz.MorroW Z5

The deciding game of the series opened as the previous, Hasu building a forge first and Morrow making an extractor and then pool. From there, Hasu makes a stargate and begins to pump out phoenixes to do his best to annoy overlords and scout. Morrow builds a hydralisk den, and researches drop capability for the second time of the match while getting hydra upgrades.

Hasu's menacing phoenixes spot a mass of overlords and hydras moving towards his base, and he readies troops appropriately. When Morrow arrives at the back cliff he faces a problematic number of stalkers, though not enough to stop him from pushing them back and unloading forces to the top of the ledge.

Once on top, he begins to do what damage he can. Unfortunately for the hydras, a colossus rears his head and begins to shoot lasers of death at them. The hydras do their best to hold, but after extended thermal lance finishes it is all too much and Morrow has nothing left once his attack is over. HasuObs goes on to represent Germany in the round of 8. [14:19]

P11 Dignitas.NaNiwa < Tal'Darim Altar > ESC.GoOdy T7

Both players chase out their opponents’ scouts before revealing their true intentions, with Naniwa making a stargate and Goody continuing up the tech tree. Swapping add-ons and sitting safely behind a bunker, Goody prepares for some cloaked banshee action, but at the sight of the very first phoenix, cancels his plan and begins tanks and vikings.

Naniwa, confident with the intel from his phoenixes, is first to expand. Vikings are too slow to catch phoenixes that continue picking off SCVs left and right. Naniwa stops producing from his stargate to begin colossus production, fully equipped with thermal lance. Goody does not stray from his trademark mech play, and is churning out units out of four factories. With a hefty food lead and phoenix/observer vision, Naniwa expands again. This time, Goody isn’t too far behind, and as the third CC makes it way over, the phoenixes zoom by for a sneak peak.

Naniwa is the first to make a move as his colossi get in range of Goody’s natural to begin harassing the gas, then the mineral line itself. Testing which path is safer, Naniwa sacs two zealots to scout, and then decides to squeezes his army down the southern entrance to Goody’s third. Half of the tanks are already in position, and while Naniwa chews through the SCVs at the expansion, the leftover vikings and mech units evaporate Naniwa’s army in seconds. Goody rides the momentum to surge forward to the middle of map, only to have to retreat because dark Templars are chopping up his army bit by bit.

Goody’s floating barracks scouts Naniwa’s fourth, and blue flame hellions feasts on defenseless probes. Moving Naniwa’s army out of position, Goody sieges up below Naniwa’s natural, cutting off any possible back-up to his isolated expansions. Naniwa, while being down almost 50 food, has no choice but to engage. Naniwa pokes in and out of siege tank range, but eventually his numbers dwindle down to a mere 71 food before yielding to Goody’s iron army. [23:02]

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P7 Dignitas.NaNiwa < Crevasse > ESC.GoOdy T5

Goody decides to tech up to banshees before expanding to his backdoor natural, drastically delaying his CC, while Naniwa expands straight off a single gateway. The banshee scores single digit probe kills before it gets chased away, and Naniwa wastes no time and grabs an extremely quick third, seconds before the 10-minute mark of game 2. Goody loads up 4 hellions to drop into the main, a banshee in the back, and 2 hellions in the front to prep up his three-prong harass. Unfortunately, Naniwa is more than prepared, cleaning up in all three areas without losing a single unit.

As zealot charge and +2 weapons finish, Naniwa breaks down the backdoor rocks and charges into Goody’s outside natural. The zealot eventually dies from hellions and tank fire, but Goody’s vikings cannot finish the colossi fast enough. With warping reinforcements, Naniwa stretches the food lead by 50 and Goody gives the GG, evening up the series one apiece. [15:40]

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P7 Dignitas.NaNiwa < Shakuras Plateau > ESC.GoOdy T1

Naniwa sends out an early probe to proxy pylon just below Goody's main. His probe gets chased around once it gets inside, but Naniwa continues with his plan, dropping a gateway, followed by another, forcing Goody to pull nearly all his SCVs to stop it from going up. Naniwa eventually cancels the second and stops his aggression. Naniwa tries to expand, but his probe at the Xel’Naga tower warns of incoming infantry, and Naniwa cancels his nexus and drops additional gates, winding up at 4. Goody bunker contains Naniwa, preventing him from expanding. Back at home, Goody techs while making a CC himself.

Naniwa proxies a pylon at the 4 o’clock natural and begins warping in units. Another pylon gets placed right below Goody’s ramp, now walled off with supply depots and bunkers. The stalkers poke up the ramp, granting vision, and Naniwa warps in zealots on the high ground. Breaking down a supply depot, stalkers plainly walks into the main, snipes Goody’s single tank, and continuously chip away Goody’s SCV count. Not letting his macro slip, Naniwa is on top of reinforcing his army, and when there are more stalkers than SCVs, Goody throws in the towel after quite a peculiar game 3. [10:10]

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P11 Dignitas.NaNiwa < Xel'Naga Caverns > ESC.GoOdy T7

Goody sends out 2 SCVs with his first marine + marauder, looking to contain Naniwa and slow down his expansion. Naniwa chronoboosts out 2 stalkers and a zealot, fending off Goody’s units and the micro wars in the middle ends up with Goody losing all his units. Naniwa expands while Goody turtles up, in fear of a strong warpgate attack. Goody pulls half a dozen SCVs along with his MM army for a stim+combat shield timing attack, but Naniwa catches on to his plans. Not having enough units originally, Naniwa pulls all of his probes at the natural to completely shut down the attack, and hold on until the first immortal comes out.

Naniwa suffers some casualties, but the numbers begin to swing in his favor as stim wears off and the immortal is dealing massive damage. Pumping units out of 5 gates and a robo with the economy of two bases, Naniwa begins to pull away from Goody. Goody gives it one last desperate attempt to have any chance at this game (and series), pulling half of his remaining SCVs in an all-in assault. Force fields split Goody’s army in half, and Naniwa triumphantly knocks Goody out of TSL3. [11:27]

Z6 MYM.Mondragon < Terminus RE > coL.CrunCher P9

Mondragon began with a gasless pool first build, followed by double expanding to the closest expansions. Cruncher meanwhile quickly made a stargate and began voidray production, but not before Mondragon saw the gate with a suiciding overlord. Mondragon continued by producing several queens, an evolution chamber for spores, and "his counter to void rays" in a roach warren.

Cruncher's original air force of 2 void rays and a phoenix are unable to do any damage harassing, and so he gathers up a zealot-stalker-sentry force and brings them all to the front to attack into several spine crawlers. With queens and roaches, Mondragon is able to hold just barely and begins to push back the Protoss forces. His small army is killed, and while Cruncher is making units and taking a third the Zerg double expands and amasses roaches and their upgrades.

Bringing his roach army to the front, he easily kills the forge and bursts through a few cannons to kill the robo and stops mining by burrowing and unburrowing in the mineral line. Facing a largely voidray-stalker army, he focuses down the nexus at the natural and moves on to killing probes at Cruncher's third.

Cruncher stops the attack before his third nexus explodes, but shortly thereafter a gigantic corruptor-roach-hydra army shows its face and he sends out the GG. [19:19]

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Z7 MYM.Mondragon < Shakuras Plateau > coL.CrunCher P2

Mondragon opens pool first once again, getting gas after starting a hatchery at his natural. Cruncher looks to play this game as his last TSL match on Shakuras, getting a forge first and then a nexus and gateway. A stargate follows soon after, making a void ray to break down the rocks to an expansion at 12 o'clock.

Cruncher makes several phoenixes, and attempts to harass but largely just scouts. Mondragon takes a relatively quick third, with Cruncher following suit soon after. Mondragon draws Cruncher's army to the base at 12 when he begins to break down the rocks, and when the Protoss forces are tied up across the map he attacks the front with roaches.

Mondragon then uses drop tech to do the same thing several more times, while securing a 4th. Alternating between dropping units at 12, and attacking where Cruncher is attempting to take a 4th, Mondragon keeps the opposing army busy and in a constant state of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Eventually Cruncher decides he has had enough, and when he reaches a large number of void rays and colossus he charges out into the middle of the map, where he is able to take out small bits and pieces of the scattered zerg army. Mondragon finds himself unable to gather his troops fast enough and is forced out of the game when Cruncher picks apart his last stand.
[23:36]



Z2 MYM.Mondragon < Tal'Darim Altar > coL.CrunCher P7

Mondragon starts with a 14 hatch. Having already started a forge, presumably for a fast expand, Cruncher decides to slap down a pylon behind a tree and build some cannons.

Thanks to a clever pylon wall, the first cannon gets up with ease despite Zerg pulling nearly all his drones. From there victory is easy for Cruncher, as his second cannons kill the natural hatchery easily and the spine crawlers are unable to do damage quickly enough. [5:54]

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Z3 MYM.Mondragon < Metalopolis > coL.CrunCher P12

Cruncher once again begins with an early stargate, while Mondragon does the usual pool first followed by quick second hatchery. Mondragon's suicide overlord catches the stargate, and the initial pressure with void rays is only able to kill a roach warren as spores and queens protect the zerg base.

Instead of roaches this game, Mondragon takes a third while amassing mutalisks. Phoenixes harass, players take bases, a third for Cruncher and a hidden 4th and later 5th from Mondragon. Mondragon tries a double pronged attack, mutas in the main and roaches at the third and thanks to army positioning and storm Cruncher cleans up easily.

In typical Cruncher fashion, when he eventually moves out it is with a very imposing army. Killing the hidden Zerg base, he moves to Mondragon's natural where he is only stopped by a huge mass of spine crawlers and mutalisks. Mondragon build spine cralwers at his chokes, 20 in total, split between two naturals.

Cruncher army, mostly stalkers with several void rays and a few high templars, decides to bypass it completely and blinks into the occupied main base at 6. Now able to get a good angle on the spines, it is a simple matter for him to destroy what is left mining for Mondragon and advance into the round of 8. [29:44]