TSL3 on Liquipedia
This weekend the TSL wraps up when Thorzain and NaNiwa play live from our secret New York batcave. Thus far its been quite the ride with a lot of amazing games, but life gets busy and there are tons of Starcraft tournaments happening these days, you know? Who can be expected to follow every game in every tournament? It is hard for me sometimes and Starcraft is all I do.
To help my fellow fan I've compiled a list of memorable games, originally it was a top 10 but now there are 12 games so its like a hotdog pack that gives you 20% more! You could probably watch all of these in one sitting but I wouldn't recommend it as some are 50 minute back and forths that involve the map being mined out. Maybe you should space it out and watch a few a day, to maintain the right level of excitement without being too excited.
A few are for pure entertainment because they played out weird, and some are simply close games with evenly matched gamers. They are in no particular order, enjoy reliving the magic.
oGs.MC vs mouz.ThorZaIN
Round of 8, Tal'Darim Altar
+ Show Spoiler [Circumstances and Details] +
Round of 8, Tal'Darim Altar
+ Show Spoiler [Circumstances and Details] +
In ThorZaIN's first match against GSL champion FruitDealer, he surprised us all when he was able to dispatch of him with relative ease. In his second round, he killed TSL2 winner Tyler, again as a bit of an underdog. His third match was against oGs.MC, recently coming off his second GSL win. Being the unknown against a well established opponent is kind of his thing.
Well by game 4 Thorzain found himself up 2-1, and the fight MC put up here is astounding. His back against the wall in the series, he opens with a nexus first build and the game goes into long-haul mode. By the 25 minute mark Thorzain has 3/3 on his bio units, against 0 armor for MC yet thanks to using 3 robos for immortals he is able to not only hang on but push Thorzain back repeatedly. Very long, very cool PvT.
Well by game 4 Thorzain found himself up 2-1, and the fight MC put up here is astounding. His back against the wall in the series, he opens with a nexus first build and the game goes into long-haul mode. By the 25 minute mark Thorzain has 3/3 on his bio units, against 0 armor for MC yet thanks to using 3 robos for immortals he is able to not only hang on but push Thorzain back repeatedly. Very long, very cool PvT.
Zeerax vs MYM.Mondragon
Round of 32, Crevasse
+ Show Spoiler [Circumstances and Details] +
Round of 32, Crevasse
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Mondragon is the biggest wild card of any wild card in Starcraft history. Having not played in any notable tournaments before TSL, no one had seen him play. Is he good? Is he practicing? No one knows. No one ever knows. Chill summed it up best.
And Christmas was awesome. Bulgarian Protoss ZeeRaX made void rays, Mondragon made himself famous when he made roaches. Roaches and more roaches, forever enshrining his place in SC2 history.
I don't want to know. I want to close my eyes until the actual day of the match. Why spoil Christmas?
And Christmas was awesome. Bulgarian Protoss ZeeRaX made void rays, Mondragon made himself famous when he made roaches. Roaches and more roaches, forever enshrining his place in SC2 history.
IM.MVP vs Mill.Adelscott
Round of 32, Metalopolis
+ Show Spoiler [Circumstances and Details] +
Round of 32, Metalopolis
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Another GSL winner facing against someone who is mostly known for being good and European. The story of the early rounds. After beating Mvp with heavy gateway play in game 1 (his signature move), he opens game 2 on Metalopolis with a nexus before gateway build.
Mvp is unable to kill it right away, but does manage to take control of the game through much of the middle. Adel manages to hold on, only by the most narrow of margins time and time again to take Mvp to a late game with the advantage.
Mvp is unable to kill it right away, but does manage to take control of the game through much of the middle. Adel manages to hold on, only by the most narrow of margins time and time again to take Mvp to a late game with the advantage.
IM.NesTea vs ESC.GoOdy
Round of 32, Tal'Darim Altar
+ Show Spoiler [Circumstances and Details] +
Round of 32, Tal'Darim Altar
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GoOdy make tanks. GoOdy smash.
While it seem all of Europe knows that, NesTea must not have received the memo because he seems surprised at the mech builds in this series. This is a series where many of us completely counted out the German's ability, after all he is a passive Terran against a previous GSL winner.
As became a trend in TSL, this was not wholly true. This game on Tal'Darim goes the distance, with GoOdy making mechanical units and NesTea trying to out flank him, when some mistakes in the Zerg's army positioning lead to a base trade scenario that goes down to the last units.
While it seem all of Europe knows that, NesTea must not have received the memo because he seems surprised at the mech builds in this series. This is a series where many of us completely counted out the German's ability, after all he is a passive Terran against a previous GSL winner.
As became a trend in TSL, this was not wholly true. This game on Tal'Darim goes the distance, with GoOdy making mechanical units and NesTea trying to out flank him, when some mistakes in the Zerg's army positioning lead to a base trade scenario that goes down to the last units.
Liquid`Jinro vs mouz.Morrow
Round of 32, Xel'Naga Caverns
+ Show Spoiler [Circumstances and Details] +
Round of 32, Xel'Naga Caverns
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TSL3 will end with Sweden vs Sweden, but it also began with some dual-Swede action. Unlike a lot of the other games, there aren't any outside circumstances that made this especially exciting, aside from them both being very good players playing at the top of their game.
Jinro opens with a bunker and as MorroW defends it the game transforms into a sweet back and forth battle tha shows a lot of good jockeying for position.
Jinro opens with a bunker and as MorroW defends it the game transforms into a sweet back and forth battle tha shows a lot of good jockeying for position.
FXO.Qxc vs MVP.Genius
Round of 32, Xel'Naga Caverns
+ Show Spoiler [Circumstances and Details] +
Round of 32, Xel'Naga Caverns
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Back when we thought the Korean players would dominate easily, Qxc was considered an underdog against the man who stomped through Blizzcon like it was nothing. Qxc showed we maybe underestimated him when he beat Genius' phoenix play in game 1, and what followed was one of the longest games in TSL history.
The game starts with an unorthodox reaper opening, the goes into what seems like a normal PvT midgame on Xel'Naga - players fighting for the center and eyeing to split the map. From there all hell breaks loose as Qxc uses mid-game reapers attacks, cloaked ghosts, and nukes.
The map becomes not only split but nearly mined out, with each player mining the very last of their resources as the game ends.
The game starts with an unorthodox reaper opening, the goes into what seems like a normal PvT midgame on Xel'Naga - players fighting for the center and eyeing to split the map. From there all hell breaks loose as Qxc uses mid-game reapers attacks, cloaked ghosts, and nukes.
The map becomes not only split but nearly mined out, with each player mining the very last of their resources as the game ends.
SlayerS_Boxer vs FnaticMSI.Sen
Round of 16, Crevasse
+ Show Spoiler [Circumstances and Details] +
Round of 16, Crevasse
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When Boxer beat Prae.NightEnd and made it to the Round of 16, people were ecstatic. The timing for his next match was amazing: he had just dropped out of Code S and there were questions about how good his TvZ really was. His opponent, fan favorite Sen, had just shown some incredible games in the GSL World Championship Showmatch and it looked like the Terran master might roll over and die without note.
When the series becomes tied at 2-2, Boxer shuts down fears about his current shape. As viewers we end up being pretty lucky, as we get to watch this incredible game 5, a tense and hilariously aggressive game on Crevasse with everything on the line. It was really hard to pick out a game from this series, they're all worth watching and at least until this weekend its still a strong contender for best overall series.
When the series becomes tied at 2-2, Boxer shuts down fears about his current shape. As viewers we end up being pretty lucky, as we get to watch this incredible game 5, a tense and hilariously aggressive game on Crevasse with everything on the line. It was really hard to pick out a game from this series, they're all worth watching and at least until this weekend its still a strong contender for best overall series.
dignitas.Naniwa vs ESC.GoOdy
Round of 16, Shakuras Plateau
+ Show Spoiler [Circumstances and Details] +
Round of 16, Shakuras Plateau
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By the time this game was played, NaNiwa was well known as the champion of MLG Dallas, while GoOdy was still mostly shoehorned as "guy who makes tanks". The series msotly played out that way, with GoOdy making tanks and NaNiwa sometimes stopping them. In this game three, the series was tied at one game a piece and out of nowhere one of the most fun games of TSL happened.
Despite an old reputation for cheesy, aggressive play, NaNiwa has done a good job in the last months of showing he is capable of many styles. Not here, in this game he attempted to proxy 2 gates, and when that failed miserably he immediately built a nexus that was forced to be canceled. Adding the sweetest of cherries on top of unique build cake, he went from there into 1 base 4 gate. Waxangel was so moved by it he chronicled NaNiwa's journey in a blog that details the history of the two.
Despite an old reputation for cheesy, aggressive play, NaNiwa has done a good job in the last months of showing he is capable of many styles. Not here, in this game he attempted to proxy 2 gates, and when that failed miserably he immediately built a nexus that was forced to be canceled. Adding the sweetest of cherries on top of unique build cake, he went from there into 1 base 4 gate. Waxangel was so moved by it he chronicled NaNiwa's journey in a blog that details the history of the two.
Empire.Kas vs mouz.ThorZaIN
Round of 4, Crevasse
+ Show Spoiler [Circumstances and Details] +
Round of 4, Crevasse
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Thorzain said before this match that TvT was his weakest matchup, and Kas is well known for having one of the best TvTs in Europe. Thorzain an underdog again? Shocking!
Thorzain pulls a crazy defense here to give a super action packed TvT, using superior upgrades on his marines to "run circles around Kas" as Lovedrop puts it.
Thorzain pulls a crazy defense here to give a super action packed TvT, using superior upgrades on his marines to "run circles around Kas" as Lovedrop puts it.
coL.CrunCher vs MYM.Mondragon
Round of 16, Metalopolis
+ Show Spoiler [Circumstances and Details] +
Round of 16, Metalopolis
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CrunCher, hot off his victory over IdrA got to show his skills in PvZ a second time. This game 4 had a series of earlier interesting games, Mondragon using his patented roach skills in one and CrunCher the same style on Shakuras that he defeated IdrA with.
This game was immediately following a cannon rush on Tal'Darim, making it that much more intense and exploding the live report. Mondraon tries an interesting opening involving a lot of mutas, and it seems to work but Cruncher masses up a typical Protoss late-game army and freely roams the map, very intense and tight game.
This game was immediately following a cannon rush on Tal'Darim, making it that much more intense and exploding the live report. Mondraon tries an interesting opening involving a lot of mutas, and it seems to work but Cruncher masses up a typical Protoss late-game army and freely roams the map, very intense and tight game.
dignitas.Naniwa vs coL.CrunCher
Round of 8, Shakuras Plateau
+ Show Spoiler [Circumstances and Details] +
Round of 8, Shakuras Plateau
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CrunCher came into this match known almost solely as "destroyer of IdrA and Mondragon", perhaps making him the most hated Protoss all year. NaNiwa was regarded largely as the favorite, as people tend to do when they go 24-0 at MLG.
CrunCher is rather hardy though, taking some games off NaNi and keeping the series close. While this is a PvP, its also a very weird PvP and has some entertaining play. Cruncher opens with phoenix while NaNi makes fast colossus, the players take some bases and have some real skirmishes. In PvP! That is just how amazing TSL is.
CrunCher is rather hardy though, taking some games off NaNi and keeping the series close. While this is a PvP, its also a very weird PvP and has some entertaining play. Cruncher opens with phoenix while NaNi makes fast colossus, the players take some bases and have some real skirmishes. In PvP! That is just how amazing TSL is.
Liquid`Tyler vs mouz.Strelok
Round of 32, Tal'Darim Altar
+ Show Spoiler [Circumstances and Details] +
Round of 32, Tal'Darim Altar
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Champion of previous TSL, Tyler shows his stuff. Tal'Darim has proved itself to be an awesome PvT map overall, this one opens with Tyler doing a double forge build he was known for at the time.
He ends up behind at a point in the midgame but a miraculous zealot is able to pull him back in, good solid PvT play on a big map.
He ends up behind at a point in the midgame but a miraculous zealot is able to pull him back in, good solid PvT play on a big map.
The story each game tells is the most interesting part of Starcraft. Each match is a new chapter in the life of our game, a new waypoint where a career unfolds and the scene marches towards destiny. There are many good games in the TSL not listed here, make a case for others and share the love. I got excited re-watching these and remembering how funny they were, hopefully you do too.