Iris began the series with a bang. Spawning at 3 o'clock, he walled off his main and proxied his factory at 6 o'clock. Flash began with a much more conservative build and scouted Iris' proxy as it completed. Iris' reaction to being discovered was to place a second proxy factory and start producing goliath to contain/pressure Flash.

Flash, unable to prevent the proxy or force a lift from his opponent, concentrated on defense before sending four goliath to Iris' undefended main. The goliath caused some damage to Iris' SCV line but they were poorly micro'd and Iris was able to remove the threat by defending with SCVs.

Iris followed up his initial pressure with a third factory (within his main) and a starport for a dropship. Flash maintained his defensive stance and began mixing tanks into his army but was interrupted when Iris simultaneously attacked Flash's front and dropped behind, surrounding the defending army. Overwhelmed, Flash GGs and Iris takes the early lead.

Iris spawned at the northern base and proxied his barracks to set up better vision in the early game. Flash scouted the proxy and harassed Iris' SCV but only mananged to delay construction of the barracks slightly, as Iris sent out a second SCV to support the completion of the barracks.

Both players made one marine and lifted their barracks to scout before expanding after one factory. As the builds continued to mirror one another, both players made two vultures and a second factory. As Flash began his machine shop, however, Iris created a third vulture and moved out to meet Flash's two scouting vulture. Flash retreated for defense and started producing tanks and goliath with two machine shops. Iris made a third factory and produced a vulture heavy army before completing his second machine shop. Finally, the player's builds reconverged as Flash added two more factories and Iris added one for a total of two machine shops and two naked factories for both players.

Each player then took steps to establish their postion on the map, Iris by placing mines and Flash by sieging tanks and destroying Iris' barracks. As Flash was positioning to take 8 o'clock, Iris launched an unsuccessful attack and lost all his vultures and six tanks. At this point Flash began pumping massive numbers of vultures to supplement his army and he moved out to remove Iris' natural expansion.

While his command center was taking damage from two siege tanks, Iris mined out his backdoor and attempted to surround Flash's invading forces. Flash scouted the attempt and defended against it, but vultures from the front were able to take advantage of Flash's distraction and a mine eliminated Flash's tanks, saving the expansion.

Flash's third and starport were up by the end of the engagement and Flash was in good shape to end the game as he began to produce wraith.

Behind, Iris chose to attack 8 o'clock, but Flash's tank position was exceptional and the attack merely lost him several tanks as Flash's wraith entered the fray. Flash followed by double expanding to 9 and 4 o'clock, dropping two vultures into Iris' main and running 4 vultures into Iris' backdoor to kill the SCVs at Iris' natural. While Iris was dealing with the harass, Flash used the opportunity to break Iris' tank-line by dropping four goliath and four tanks onto the army. A stray mine went off during the drop, cutting Iris' tank-line to ribbons. Not willing to let up on the pressure, Flash drops Iris' main again, this time with a substancial force, ending the game. Iris GGs and the series is tied.

Flash started at 10 o'clock and Iris started at 2 o'clock. Iris proxied a barracks in the middle of the map while Flash placed his in the middle of his natural's choke. Iris' proxy went off without a hitch as Flash failed to scout it before the attack came which began with 2 marines just as Flash placed his natural command center. Flash lost all his natural's SCVs before Iris sent a wraith follow-up. The Wraith did minimal damage, however, as Flash's goliaths chased them around his base and he caught up by producing SCVs from two command centers.

Iris then expanded behind his tanks, taking a break from attacking Flash, instead setting up position in the middle of the map with his superior tank numbers. The game quickly turned into a siege micro contest and Flash displayed a much better understanding of how to position siege tanks, consistently wearing down Iris' army as his superior economy asserted itself.

As Flash claimed the third main, Iris pushed into Flash's tank-line with unsupported tanks. His initial volley did substancial damage, but his tanks were clumped and unable to overrun Flash's reinforments. Instead, Iris took out 7 o'clock's stacked-temple back-door and marched into Flash's fresh expansion. Missile turrets on the high-ground gave Flash an early warning and he was able to protect his expansion, and again Iris hit a brick wall.

To console himself, Iris prepared to take the 1 o'clock expansion, but as he finished his command center (on the high ground of his main) he noticed that Flash was starting a command center at 1 o'clock. So, Iris ferried in a large mass of siege tanks to force a cancel. Unfortunately, he again sieged his tanks in a massive clump, and rather than cancel his CC, Flash dropped on top of Iris' army and tore it to shreds.

With a 50 supply advantage, Flash began roaming the map with his dropship fleet, attacking at strategically important locations, removing Iris' units, and then moving on after adding the territory to the umbrella of his protection. This increasingly squeezed Iris' territory, making it uncomfortably small. Iris made one more (futile) attempt to force his way into Flash's main before conceding defeat.

If Flash doesn't already love Neo Medusa he should after this game. Flash leads the series and extends his amazing winning record on Neo Medusa.

The first deciding game of the series began on Shades of Twilight, a new map in the GOM map pool. Iris started at 7 o'clock and placed his barracks at an outward position. Flash began with a more compact base layout at 4 o'clock.

Both players intended to fast expand, but Iris sent out an SCV and some marines to attempt to delay Flash's expansion. The attempt failed utterly as Flash's micro proved to be better and his expansion was not delayed at all. Flash returned the aggression almost immediately, sending two marines and two vultures to Iris' natural where they were able to kill a vulture before Iris' reinforced and eliminated the early threat.

As Iris continued to produce vultures, Flash began making tanks and the game started to resemble the events of game 2 on Destination. As Iris tested Flash's defense with his vultures he was met with a mixture of tank/goliath that easily repelled any aggression. Iris continued to look for the nonexistant hole in Flash's defense (losing precious units in the process), Flash took his third at 6 o'clock and continued to macro an army.

At 130 supply, Flash sent two dropships (four goliath, two tanks) into Iris' main and secured a foothold within Iris' territory. Flash then expressed a desire to take the 3 o'clock expansion by dropping a few tanks there and rooting out Iris' scouting vulture. This was a bait. When Iris' mobile attack force moved to 3 o'clock to prevent the expansion, Flash immediately dropped on top of it, demolishing the army. This triggers a massive push by Flash towards Iris' second expansion at 9 o'clock. Unable to defend, Iris chose to counter by dropping Flash's production facilities, but is rooted out before he can destroy even one factory.

Flash then double expands, making it 5 base to 2. Iris made one last desperation drop into Flash's base, but it is immediately crushed and Iris GGs.
FLASH IS YOUR NEW GOM CHAMPION!

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