Pure spawned in orange at 8 while Flash got green at 4 on Great Barrier Reef. Pure opted for a 12 nex which I like because he's not going to be beating Flash with some kind of early cheese, or in a straightup game. Of course, he won't be beating him in a macro game either but that's not his fault so you can't blame him for trying the 12 nex. Amusingly enough Flash was so sure that Pure would 12 nex that he only checked the naturals before moving on with his scouting SCV, although he had to wait till his last try to find Pure. Flash immediately opted for an scv marine vulture break but Pure was prepared for it, having placed a pylon at his natural to add a quick shield battery with two zealots to hold.

Flash attempted to bunker but Pure defended competently, not microing perfectly but still making the right choices to give himself the means to hold it off. Although Pure lost a lot of probes he killed a considerable number of scvs as well, and he had two nexuses to replenish his workers. More importantly he was scouting Flash's main while he held off the rush, and discovered that Flash was taking his own natural rather than opting for some kind of allin. This meant Pure could macro hard without worrying about an imminent attack. As strange as this sounds, Pure's opening actually worked, he'd outplayed Flash and earned a considerable advantage.

Flash sieged up his natural and added a quick third command center to fly out to his back third, exploiting Great Barrier Reefs ridiculous five bases that can be held from a single cliff. Pure sensed that Flash was going to turtle and macro and did the same, quickly adding his own back third expansion. More importantly, Pure also sent a probe in a shuttle up to the island expansion at 2 which if taken unscouted could win him the game. He certainly had no delusions about the type of advantage he'd need to beat Flash, and he looked capable of getting it. Unfortunately for him the shuttle passed over a vulture checking other expansions at the top, Flash immediately giving it a mental flag and sending a floating ebay up to scout it. Seeing the scouting E-bay flying in, Pure wisely decided against expanding at 2. Maybe Flash would have sent that ebay anyway but I think Pure got unlucky there.

Flash's base at 6 was relatively undefended with a single tank and Pure tried to get something going there with a speedshuttle and two reavers, but Flash immediately reinforced it and the reavers were forced to fly away doing no damage due to stupid scarab syndrome. Pure realized a macro game was inevitable and took 12 while Flash continued to expand along his cliff line, taking his mineral only. Both players headed for the late game, Flash with his trademark fast armoury, and Pure with an unusually fast forge and carrier tech. Pure tried a delaying 4 zealot drop in Flash's main, but he only ended up revealing he had yet to finish Zealot speed. After cleaning up easily, Flash immediately tried to push up to 12. A reaver drop in the Terran natural bought a little time and got a few scv kills but it wasn't enough. Pure's mass dragoon he'd been making all game met the vultures head on with success but as the tanks sieged up behind, Pure found himself desperately needing zealot speed. He did have a lot of zealots, having made a standard transition into pure zealots with four high templar in a shuttle.

Pure was forced to engage early and came very close to beating Flash, even without zealot speed. Three of his four shuttle high templar were immediately sniped, both because zealots weren't mixed up in Flash's forces to draw fire and because Flash was deliberately targetting them. Without the storms and zealots to bring down the tanks, the dragoon heart of the army melted and Flash won the day. Flash's remaining army simply pushed over all of Pure's defenseless bases and newly produced carriers to earn the GG.

I know I'm mean to Pure because, well, he deserves it usually, but I was actually impressed here. Throughout the game Pure demonstrated a knowledge of how we was going to win. There was the aim, Flash losing, the means, carrier, dragoon, ht off five bases, and the route, FE into scouting and very hard macro. It's important to stress just how important that is because what it meant was that Pure was focused, everything he did that game was built around getting to that one point where he could win the game. There were some nice attempts at tactics to get him there, like going for the island expansion, but the overall strategy didn't rely on them. Zealot speed had been nearly done, and the main battle really was very close. If Pure had broken even in that battle he would have been on five bases with the full tech tree and carriers, dragoons and ht. I honestly believe that with zealot speed done Pure could have won this game. The strategy wasn't original but at every stage, bar zealot speed, Pure had exactly what he needed. The discipline to not get surplus stuff just because you can is as impressive as the macro and multitasking to get what you do need. Flash just saw a 12 nex, tried to do early damage, failed, sat in his corner camping, moved out, won. Yes, he's really good at it and he pushed out at the exact right timing but still, it felt somewhat like a default option after he failed early game.

Kwark's Player Ratings
Flash: 4 of 5
Flash gets a 4 simply because his game was so uninspiring. He failed early game and just pulled back to his default camp and upgrade mindset. For a game played by Flash it felt very average, still very good Starcraft but not a 5.

Pure: 4 of 5
I'm giving Pure a 4 because he's come the closest to looking like he might beat Flash's PvT straightup since the last OSL finals. Obviously the lack of zealot speed is a huge mistake but being kicked out of the OSL should be punishment enough for that. No need to add me giving him a 3 to his troubles (Wax: If only we could hurt progamers' feelings directly. If only.)

WaxAngel's Match Rating: 3.5 of 5
Standard Flash dominance, while Pure did surprisingly well without actually having a chance.

Flash spawned in purple at 11 while Pure got yellow at 5 on Eye of the Storm. Pure again went 13 nex, with Flash scouting it late as he mis-read two scouting peons crossing at at 7 as meaning Pure was at 1. This meant he actually scouted the 13 nex last in spite of cross positions, although just as in game one, Flash demonstrated he was fairly sure Pure would 13 nex anyway and only scouted the naturals. Flash responded with a late expansion of his own after factory and four marines letting Pure reap the maximum advantage of his 13 nex. Flash switched into macro and camp mode, starting a third cc in the top right of his base to fly to 12 while fortifying his ramp while Pure took 3. Strangely enough Flash didn't even attempt basic map control with vultures the way many players would, prefering to go pure tanks.

Pure sent his army to check 12, saw it was untaken and pulled back seconds before the cc flew into view, missing his opportunity out of bad luck more than anything else. He probably couldn't have ganked the cc but tank support hadn't moved in yet. When an observer scouted 12 thirty seconds later he saw the expansion but Flash had walled up the chokes with depots. Pure made a nice attempt to break it, battering the wall down with mass dragoons while a bulldogging shuttle pulled a lot of tank fire. He killed several tanks and scvs before more tanks arrived to force Pure away. Even so, Pure did a decent amount of damage with the attack. In the mean time Pure had set himself up for the late game with arbiter tech, ten or so gateways and a fourth base at 6. His 13 nexus had allowed him to completely skip the early game and use a single dragoon attack to distract Flash through the midgame, setting himself up for the late game early.

However Flash understood the situation just as well and decided against his usual 2 armory strategy, instead making nine factories for a hanbang rush. Flash pulled every unit he had, including his stationary defence, and massed into a giant blob to cross the map. Cross position slow pushes on Eye of the Storm are difficult and Flash got around that by going for an allin tornado push. Pure immediately divided his forces, one half pushing at the undefended 12 while the other half threatened to go for Flash's natural and rally point, forcing Flash's push to turn around. This is brilliant because Pure knows that any units coming out of Flash's factories will be outnumbered and destroyed by his army while if Flash ignores it and tries to do the same to his gateways he can just make dts while killing the comsats. Flash's early nine factory allin comes at the expense of vessels and Pure surely recognized this fact when he neglected the safety of his main.

Flash blinked first, turning his army around to block the flank towards his main and then sending his entire army to relieve 12 where the dragoons were picking off scvs. Although he was able to clean it up he was still being considerably outmined, now at two and a half bases against four while Pure already had arbiters out. Pure simultaneously expanded to both 1 and 7 so whichever direction Flash pushed in would be the wrong direction. Having defended 12, Flash immediately pushed again, and the two armies clashed in the middle of the map. They traded units in a roughly even battle, and the survivors somehow decided to run past each other, the surviving half of Pure's army heading north to 12 while Flash's went for 3. Flash was able to break the pylon wall at 3 but before he could kill the nexus the pressure at 12 forced him to pull his army back. Every probe and scv at 3 and 12 died became casualties of total war, but the advantageous terrain at 12 let Flash re-secure it fairly easily. While Flash relieved 12, Pure was unable to safely mine 3 before Flash cut it off with his next major push headed towards Pure's natural.

Both players flooded Pure's natural with units, and unfortunately for Pure, Flash's superior macro and combat micro meant he was able to take an excellent position right outside the choke-wall. Another counterattack on the undefended 12 killed yet more scvs, rendering Flash truly all-in with only a few workers and two of his three bases near mined out against the six bases of Pure. However Flash had taken position on all of Pure's gateways, as Pure had been very late in building gateways at his other bases.

Pure tried to decentralize his production with a lot of investment in both the 1 and 7 bases. However, he also continued to suicide the units produced at his main into the meatgrinder at his main choke. Flash solidified the contain at Pure's natural with turrets and depots, leaving Pure cut off from his expansions. Vultures hit 3 while tanks hit 6 before the belated gateways at 1 and 7 had time to kick in. Pure wasted his last two arbiters trying to break out of his natural again and when that failed Flash was able to roll over 7, forcing a GG.

This was a very tense, very scrappy game. Flash reacted badly to Pure's build, letting Pure play the way he wanted. It was only when Pure was already in the late game that Flash seemed to wake up and realise that he would suddenly playing 3 bases vs 6 with no map control, cross positions, against arbiters. His allin was a ballsy decision, as was the decision to tornado, but I don't think he should have won. Pure needed to either go two stargate arbiters or have far more ht. He simply wasn't mining enough gas from his expansions. At no point in that game was Flash really comfortable and I think at the end if Pure had recalled his army out of his main and retaken map control, fuelled by the new gateways and income at 1 and 7, he still would have been in it. It was only the mass suicides into the fortified defense at 4 that finally put the game beyond his reach. An impressive game by Pure and an uninspiring game by Flash. The kid can macro but strategically and tactically he was outplayed here. That's not to say Pure's strategy was brilliant (it was basically 13 nex, win) but a passive counterexpansion and a third is pretty much the worst way to play against that. Flash won this with an allin and some excellent macro but he made it hard work for himself, and if Pure had improved his army composition (Wax: or been 10% better at macro and micro) a little he could have taken game 2.

Game of the Week
Kwark's Player Ratings
Flash: 4 of 5
Pure: 4 of 5

WaxAngel's Match Rating: 3.5 of 5
Flash actually had to work for the win, which is always a pleasant surprise. Pure played well, but you could speculate that a better player could have won from his advantageous position.

Pure spawned in blue at 7 while Flash got Purple at 1 on Match Point. Pure opted for a 13 nex while Flash did a standard depot-rax-gas-factory opening. Because he got to scout Pure on the first try, rather than last like the game before, he was able to take his own expansion much faster with just one marine and a building vulture rather than four marines and a tank like the last game. Pure threw his first zealot at Flash to try and delay the building cc but only stopped it for a few seconds as Flash had kept his vulture back for defence.

Flash started a quick third behind the minerals of his mineral natural while pumping vultures with mines out of his single factory. Despite seeing the mines go down Pure managed to lose a dragoon to the probing vultures. He responded to the light vulture pressure with four quick gateways and a later mineral natural which put him behind as Flash didn't have the factories to put on any real pressure after the vultures. He was just faking and banking on the late observers a 13 nex gives to keep his 1 fac 3 base a secret. It worked well, and by the time Pure knew what was up Flash had four factories and an armoury coming. Although Pure was already building his first arbiter, Flash was still ahead.

Both players took their fourth bases at 11 and 5 respectively and added gateways and factories to mass units once those expansions kicked in. Pure also successfully took the 12:00 expansion, getting cannons up before vultures could arrive to thwart it. Pure moved his army to attack the lightly defended 5:00 from the southern ramp, and used stasis field to block the northern ramp when Flash tried to come and reinforce. While Pure did stop the mining for some time, he failed to kill the CC as Flash had lifted it almost immediately, and got bad value for his money overall because of tank fire from the low ground. Pure followed it up with an expansion at 6 while Flash pushed to 12.

A small push of just three tanks and a handful of vultures were able to take a good position on the 12 base as Pure was still way out of position from the previous attack. Although Pure took care of it when his troops returned, his carelessness saw him take heavy troop losses to a minefield while the mining probes were already long dead. Still having a short term resource advantage Pure tried to quickly switch to carriers, hoping to get them done in time to defend at least one of the neutral expansions. As Flash pushed towards 6, Pure caught Flash out of position and spread too far, and smashed up onto the high ground outside 5:00 with a lot of stasis, dragoons and zealots to take out a chunk of Flash's army. It looked like a victory at first, but Pure turned the tables on himself by pushing into the previously out-of-position tanks in the back.

Flash ended up with a big material advantage, and his victorious army, reinforced by nine factories, pushed up the middle of the map and besieged Pure's mineral only while mass vultures attacked the expansion at 11. Having halted the mining at two bases, Flash moved on to remove 12:00 as well. Pure finally showed his handful of carriers, more than capable of destroying Flash's predominantly ground army, but Flash had sufficient units to suicide the 12:00 base.

Pure's ground army destroyed Flash at 5, while Flash's 9 factory pure goliath reinforcements were able to drive back the underfunded carrier fleet and destroy both the mineral only and 11. This left Flash on just a single nearly mined out mineral expansion while Pure had a very undersaturated expansion at 6 and not enough money for interceptors. Flash was able to use his temporary map control to take 12 and 11 while Pure was unable to transfer any probes to 6, making him unable to pay the costly interceptor upkeep. The carriers were able to snipe the CC at 11:00 in a desperation move, but when they went to 12 they were surrounded by goliaths and destroyed. GG.

Pure showed his carriers twenty seconds too late imo. His transition was great, yet another game he could realistically have won. Pure sacrificed his ground reinforcements for carriers which would be able to save his expansions for just long enough for him to snowball. It was a calculated moment of weakness to avoid an inevitable defeat to mass tanks. But the carriers arrived just too late to save the probes at 11 and Flash was able to suicide tanks to finish off the nexus at 12. With only three goliaths accompanying the mech Pure could have sent his two carriers to start working on the tanks instead of waiting for four. As it was Flash was able to do just enough damage before the carriers kicked in leaving Pure without the economy to reinforce his carriers with dragoons or even a full compliment of interceptors. Still, it was another close game with Flash losing his own expansions and economy at the same time, only just holding out.

I feel Pure upped his game in this series to a more respectable level, borderline good, while Flash for me has shown uncharacteristically poor decision making in all three games. The other aspects of his game, particularly the macro, have all been top notch which is why he still gets 4s but Flash playing this badly (by his standards) makes me worry slightly for how he'll fare against Kal.

Kwark's Player Ratings
Flash: 4 of 5
Pure: 4 of 5

WaxAngel's Match Rating: 3 of 5
Typical domination from Flash, no chance for Pure this time. I read this game different from Kwark; Pure attacking Flash's expansions with his carriers was basically a desperation move since Pure himself had no way of taking any new bases.

Flash won the series 3-0

Flash won the series 3-0

Flash won the series 3-0

Flash won the series 3-0