EPT
Both players had already been eliminated by the time they faced each other on Namja Iyagi, leaving the main topic of interest whether the reigning champion would crash out 0-3. Friend (terran at 2 o'clock) survived an early scare after Ra (protoss at 10) pyloned his ramp. Having escaped the quick loss, Friend slowly and methodically began building his force for the horizontal push towards Ra in the opposite corner of the map
Nal_Ra looked inscrutable, but one cannot help feeling that, having reached two finals in a row, he was merely going through the motions here, unmotivated by a previously determined first round exit. Perhaps looking to keep the game relatively short, he prodded and probed, keeping Friend at arm's length while producing early carriers from two stargates. Just as Ra was readying to deploy his fleet, Friend scanned it, giving him the forewarning he needed to fend off the first wave. With the early win eluding Ra the game went, literally, back and forth across the top of the map, with Friend continually chipping away at the carriers with his teams of goliaths. Meanwhile, with Ra seemingly asleep with regard to scouting, Friend was securing expansions down the right side of the map.
Friend was putting up determined resistance to the endless flow of carriers, with goliaths and then various fleets of wraiths. However, once Ra woke up to the expo axis along the map's right side he started to turn the screw. Patiently he started to attack the expos while neutralising Friend's attempts to counter. A double high templar drop at 5 and Ra began squeezing the terran economy. Friend was trying desparately to counterattack but one by one the expos were falling and his valiant attempts to rebuild them took up the last of his precious resources. He showed some good goliath micro to hold off a carrier/high templar assault but the mineral supply was running dry. There was one last attempt to counter with a force of vultures, but with the coffers well and truly empty he signalled gg.
Friend (0-3) should yet show that he is not outclassed in the Starleague but, as expected, he was well and truly outclassed in this group. Ra (1-2) looks out of sorts and the aura of invincibilty he has been projecting for the last few months has faded. Up next week, the group decider between Oov and Reach.
Group B: July Zerg (Park Sung Choon) v Casey (Han Dong Ook) - Requiem
Casey's fate was in his own hands with one win and one loss and he boasted a strong record against zerg, while July Zerg (2-0) had already qualified for the next round. Nevertheless, Casey's hopes were left in ruins within minutes as July four-pooled and mugged him.
Three drones mining, one mutating, July Zerg (zerg at 6 o'clock) went for broke as the unsuspecting Casey (terran, 12 o'clock) opted for an orthadox two-barracks build. As the early six lings sped up the map past Requiem's distinctive centre cross Casey's scouting SCV caught a glimpse of them and he frantically tried to switch into defence-mode with a bunker at his choke. Too late. The lings ran riot, taking time out to splatter a couple of marines even as they obliterated the SCVs.
Short and sweet. July (3-0) looks strong and confident. Casey just looked sick. Zeus will surely secure the second qualifying spot when he faces the seemingly overmatched Doggi next time out.
Group C: IntotheRainbow (Kim Seong Chae) v Silent_Control (Na Do Hyun) - Mercury
Coming off a convincing win over the machine-like Nada, and playing on Mercury (favouring toss 4:0 over terran), Rainbow will have had high hopes of securing a spot in the last eight at the expense of Hanbit's Silent_Control. Rainbow (protoss at 8 o'clock) opted for ranged dragoons and reaver, while Control (terran at 5) went for two machine shop-equipped factories and all three upgrades.
Rainbow tried some light reaver harassment as both players took their naturals. However, this uneventful beginning belied the rapid collapse which was to come. His attention distracted momentarily, Rainbow's shuttle, which had been hovering around over the terran forces, ran into trouble. He dropped off his reaver and dragoon but they were quickly destroyed and Control rapidly went on the offensive, pushing quickly towards the protoss natural. Finding himself short of speedlots and with his main ground force out of position, Rainbow saw his expansion destroyed. Control's vultures moved in to deliver the killing blow, racing around to the back of the toss main and attacking the remaining probes. Another flock of about 10 vultures began pouring into Rainbow's base. He made a final attempt to complicate matters with his second reaver but to no avail.
Short but not sweet. Silent_Control (2-1) is now sure of a place in the last eight. Rainbow (1-2) is out. Next week, the under threat Nada faces GoRush for the second qualification place.
Group D: Kingdom (Park Yong Ook) v Jju (Byun Eun Jong) - Nostalgia
Kingdom (2-0) was already through to the quarter-finals and has looked at the very top of his game, while Jju (1-1) desparately needed the win and will have been hoping Kingdom felt like taking a rest in this game. Kingdom (protoss at 1 o'clock) toyed with the emotions of the excitable OGN announcers when he sent a scouting probe out to find Jju (zerg at 7) without first building a pylon. The announcers detected that, as is so often the case, Kingdom was up to something and they appeared deflated when he almost immediately then built an orthdadox pylon at his main. Then he took them by surprise again: he really was up to something. As Jju started up his orthadox natural hatchery Kingdom was warping in a sneaky pylon behind the right side of the mineral line, signalling the cannon rush he has used so effectively before. Realising what was going on, Jju cancelled his hatch, remutated it at the top of his ramp, and then tried to increase his mineral flow with a new expo at the nine o'clock position.
While Jju mutated his lair and hydralisk den, ignoring the single cannon outside his main, Kingdom was playing off one gate with two forges, core and Citadel of Adun. One forge was in his main and another blocking in his offensive cannon at seven, another idea Kingdom has used successfully before. As he upgraded his zealot speed and warped in his templar archives, Kingdom built a third forge, intending double upgrades and anticipating the eventual loss of the forge at seven.
With a force of speedlots and one dragoon, Kingdom set out to take the game to the still off-balance Jju. Taking a stab at the zerg main, Kingdom's troops were forced to retreat by defenders backed up by a sunken at the top of the ramp. Without pausing, he changed tack and headed for the nine o'clock expansion. Two sunkens and a few defenders were enough to inflict losses as Kingdom retreated again, having damaged the expo.
The heavy weaponry was starting to appear, with archons and lurkers making their first forays. Kingdom's new force of zeals, archon and one dark templar was marauding around the middle of the map, then overwhelmed the damaged expo at nine, leaving Jju trying to fight against a supreme toss opponent off only one base. Kingdom was ascendent but may have prolonged the game with an ill-advised attempt to delay Jju retaking the seven natural, leading to the loss of two archons with very little to show for it.
Jju tried to buy himself some more time by means of lurker and ling drops. A one overlord foray to the one o'clock position achieved little; four loaded overlords found a spread of cannons waiting for them at Kingdom's three o'clock expo. He had more success with a six-'lord drop at Kingdom's main, as for one moment it looked like Kingdom would be left without any gateways thanks to a swarm of dropped zerglings. He tried to follow this with a desparate mass zergling assault at three but Kingdom calmly defended with his probes and allowed his surviving cannons to mop up the lings. Kingdom didn't rock, never mind fall. He put corsairs into the air, obliterated six advancing overlords, and showed Jju that the drops were over with. Realising his cause was now hopeless, Jju bowed out.
Unbeaten and looking unbeatable, the bookish Kingdom (3-0) flashed a devilish smile and wave at the cheering crowd as he headed into the quarters. Up next week, the clash of the terrans as Xellos (1-1) takes on TheMarine (0-2).
to bad rainbow lost 
Never thought mensrea and WaxAngel would have competition
