All eight were introduced individually to the crowd. July Zerg was sporting a brand new shaved head for the quarters, gone was the dyed blond thatch. Oov and Kingdom walked down the aisle into the arena in startlingly bad new SK T1 uniforms. While Oov's fairly sizable frame * almost* managed to pull it off, Kingdom's more 'bookish' build certainly did not. In the pre-match interviews a nervous Nada told the announcers that he needed to boost his confidence.
Game One: Iloveoov (Choi Yeon Seong) v Zeus (Jeon Tae Gyu) on Requiem
Oov spent the group stage foiling the machinations of two top protoss opponents, with both Nal_Ra and Reach resorting to the unorthodox to throw their seemingly unstoppable terran adversary off his stride. Now it was Oov's turn. Following his demolition at the hands of Zeus in an exhibition match just weeks before the start of the Starleague, Oov may have been determined that his protoss opponent was not going to knock over his wall for a second time. He decided there would be no wall. Iloveoov (terran at nine o'clock) opened with two barracks and late gas, while Zeus (protoss at three) opted for the relatively standard dragoons with range, little suspecting the firestorm that was soon to engulf him.
Zeus' one zealot skirmished with a few marines at the entrance to the terran main before being destroyed, as he warped in dragoon after dragoon. Deep in the terran main, Oov was constructing his academy, with not a factory in sight.
The decisive moment came mere minutes into the game. Oov moved out of his main with a strike force of marines, firebats and medics. This was to be a suicide mission into the heart of protoss territory. As Zeus' dragoons circled around one side of Requiem's unique central cross, Oov's forces, whether by accident of design, scurried unhindered around the opposite end. High on stim the marines and firebats, with medics trying as best they could to keep up, surged into the protoss main untouched. Zeus, reacting to an imminent deadly assault on his mineral line, swept his probes away to safety as his dragoons marched back to defend. Oov saw his chance. Ignoring the probes he went straight for the nexus. A horrified Zeus, suddenly realising what was happening, turned his probes around and called them in to defend the nexus.
The marines and firebats blasted away at the nexus, surrounded by probes and newly arrived dragoons. It came down to a race. Could the desparate defenders destroy the suicide squad before the nexus collapsed? The marines were obliterated as the nexus fizzled and smoked, its structural integrity failing. Finally it came down to a lone firebat spewing flames at the nexus. With his last blast, the firebat saw the nexus vanish.
Shaking his head in disbelief, an astounded Zeus realised his only hope lay in a swift counterattack. However, Oov was ready, with a single bunker surrounded by SCVs enough to hold off the dragoons and seal victory.
Iloveoov 1 - 0 Zeus
Game Two: July Zerg (Park Seong Joon) v Xellos (Seo Ji Hoon) on Nostalgia
Statistically Nostalgia was narrowly favouring terran over zerg (33-29) and Xellos had a winning record on the map, with seven wins and four losses. However, interestingly three out of those four losses were to zerg opponents. Furthermore the 'Perfect Terran' had looked anything but perfect in the group stages while July Zerg seemed to have come of age, topping his group unbeaten.
Following the astounding opening game, this second affair followed a more orthodox path. Xellos (terran at five o'clock) opened with double barracks and academy while July Zerg (zerg at one) went 12-hatch and teched up to lair. Xellos' first force of marines and firebats headed towards the zerg base only to find, as expected, two sunkens and a third morphing in to block their path. Xellos steadly built up his force of ground troops, while starting work on his first factory followed by a starport. Meanwhile the zerg were waiting for the first appearance of their heavy support, lurkers.
July's first four lurkers plus lings skirmished with the terran forces, forcing them to retreat and pursuing. At the same time, the swarm had a surprise, as July Zerg had managed to fast tech to overlord speed and transport. Lurker and lings loaded into the lords and headed for the unsuspecting terran enclave. Here July may just have made his first mistake as he chose an early drop at the top of the terran plateau instead of heading the mineral line. Xellos' marines and tanks, aided by comsat scans, destroyed the invading forces at minimal cost. Even as he came to terms with this disappointment, July Zerg found himself having to defend a perfectly timed double counterattack. Xellos, now equipped with a single dropship, simultaneously launched a successful assault on the new zerg expansion at three o'clock and dropped onto the swarm's main plateau. The zerg drones were forced to flee the battle scene at one o'clock before the swarm's defenders could rally to force a terran retreat.
Xellos took his first expansion and saw his first 'explorer reporting' at his starport, ready for detection duty. Despite the detection, July Zerg was able to draw the terran forces into a couple of held lurkers, shredding marines. Although building his force of marines and medics with tanks and a single science vessel providing support, Xellos was forced to halt his push up the map towards the zerg. As Xellos' forces waited nervously, called to a halt on route, July launched his new lurker/ling army onto a wide circling maneouvre around the left side of the map. Sensing danger, Xellos withdrew his army and July, now morphing his hive, pulled back his army from the battle that never was.
With skirmishing coming to nothing, and perhaps strangely having given up on the drops despite his earlier success, Xellos made his move overland. His forces advanced up the map, suddenly threatening to cut off July's reconstructed expansion at the three o'clock position. Before July was even aware of what is happening Xellos cut the zerg territory in two, isolating the underdefended expo from the main zerg bases. Sensing a decisive blow to the zerg, Xellos' forces moved into position and, with support from a newly arrived science vessel, eradicated the expo.
Instead of trying to manage the crisis, July Zerg went for broke, throwing everything he had at the terran natural. It was not enough. Two bunkers helped rob the zerg assault of its momentum and the lurkers and lings that had hoped to lay waste to the terran expansion were destroyed. With a free hand to attack, Xellos rolled over the zerg natural destroying everything in his path and headed into the main, simultaneously expanding to the six o'clock position. July Zerg, realising the end was imminent, bowed out.
July Zerg 0 - 1 Xellos
Game Three: Silent_Control (Na Do Hyeon) v Kingdom (Park Yong Ook) on Namja Iyagi
If Iloveoov is the immovable object of this Starleague then Kingdom has thus far been the irresistable force, sweeping imperiously through the group stage, defeating terrans Xellos and TheMarine on the way. Silent_Control, after being slapped around disdainfully by Nada, managed to get out of an unpredictable group by overturning Kingdom's SK teammate IntotheRainbow.
Opening their match on Namja Iyagi, Silent_Control (terran at five o'clock) followed Oov by declining to wall in but unlike the SK terran he opted for double factory. Kingdom (protoss at 11) went for double gate ranged dragoons. After repelling some early dragoon harassment, Control broke out of his main with three tanks and a small squad of marines, necessitating Kingdom's dragoon force's withdrawal diagnally across the map. Control seemed to have been caught in two minds. Two vultures and some SCVs joined his advancing troops and it suddenly seemed as though he had some kind of Gundam containment in mind but he had not really gone for it with any kind of commitment and with Kingdom's two gates warping in new dragoons he was able to chip away at the advancing forces.
After dashing any hopes Control may have had of setting up a containment, Kingdom now decided the time was right to take his natural. After some light vulture harassment/scouting, sneaking a couple into Kingdom's main, Control followed suit with a new command centre. Kingdom quickly expanded again to the 12 position, staying ahead of his terran opponent. As Kingdom took his new expo, Control was increasing his factory count to five.
Thus far Control had been leaning heavily in favour of tanks, with few vultures to lay mines for protection. However, now he switched over to vulture production and after assembling a sizable enough flock he chose to launch an attack on Kingdom's new 12 o'clock expansion but despite his best efforts to take advantage of the vulture's mobility the attack achieved little. With his healthy economy in full swing, Kingdom was assembling an ever larger army of zealots and dragoons. He now judged his economic situation strong enough to support carriers and started to warp in his first stargate while expanding further to the one o'clock position, once again staying one ahead of Control, who was constructing a new base at six o'clock. With the minerals flowing in at an increasing pace, Kingdom started his second stargate and a fleet beacon.
Perhaps bidding to keep Control's attention occupied elsewhere while the carriers arrived, Kingdom launched a minor drop on the terran main with one dragoon and two zealots, while expanding yet again to nine. Although Control had two expos of his own and had increased his factory count to seven he simply was not doing anything as Kingdom steadily took over the rest of the map. With carriers on their way, and having failed to do anything to retard the protoss economy Control was now forced to play catch-up with massed goliaths while attempting to increase his own mineral flow with a new command centre at seven.
Sensing that if he prevaricated any further the game would slip completely beyond him, Control at last attacked, getting the best of a pitched battle and forcing a temporary protoss retreat. Attempts to go any further stalled, however, thanks to the power and mobility of Kingdom's fleet of capital ships. Control attempted to change direction and launched a pre-emptive strike on Kingdom's newly warping expo at eight. However, it was too late to seriously damage the protoss economy. Kingdom's carrier fleet, with heavy dragoon support, hit the withdrawing goliaths hard and swept down to take out two terran expos at the bottom of the map. Kingdom's fleet was now reaching frightening proportions and he was upgrading in two cyber cores. With the carriers being ably supported by dragoons there was little hope for Control. Kingdom's forces tore through the terran natural and into the main. In a final display of his superiority Kingdom positioned his dragoons to trap Control's helpless goliaths outside the main plateau as the carriers commenced laying waste to the terran buildings utterly untroubled.
Silent_Control 0 - 1 Kingdom
Game Four: [Red]Nada (Lee Yoon Yeol) v [Oops]Reach (Park Jeong Seok) on Mercury
Prior to the game Nada signalled to the crowd that he felt he was not playing up to his expected standard and was lacking a little confidence. If so, this relatively untroubled victory over former champion Reach could spell problems for everyone remaining in the tournament if it fine tunes the machine.
Nada (terran at three o'clock) reacted quickly as Reach (protoss at 12) sneaked a fast probe into the terran main, starting his refinery immediately to foil any attempt at a gas rush. Reach, who seems to have become enamoured over the last few months with using warping structures to attempt to disrupt his terran opponents, started a pylon at the side of Nada's first factory to momentarily delay the building of a machine shop. As this quick trick fizzled with little effect, Nada settled into a double factory build while Reach went for ranged goons followed by observer tech and support bay.
As both players expanded, Reach went for a reaver drop to Nada's main, forcing the SCVs to flee to safety. As Nada's tank force moved into position to counter the threat Reach demonstrated some shuttle and reaver micro but was unable to do any significant damage to the terran setup. Nada stationed forces to defend his choke as his economy moved up to full speed.
Massing his forces, Nada easily fended off a dark drop before beginning his advance towards the protoss base. The game was decided by one sizable battle as Reach threw everything at the encroaching terran army in an attempt to break the back of his opponent's forces. Reach's zealots and dragoons thundered into the terran front line but did not get much further as it appeared that Reach, for whatever reason was seriously delayed in microing his zealots in amongst the terran tank force. By the time the zeals reached the tanks the protoss forces were almost depleted and the attack was easily repelled by Nada. Sensing Reach's storm had blown itself out Nada surged forward and seized the game by the throat. He set about efficiently dismantling the protoss base at 12, showing some fast reactions to target advancing and dropping high templar before they could envelop the terran army in blue lightning. With little reinforcements warping in, the protoss forces were outmanned and outgunned. Tanks and vultures closed in on Reach's main while Nada launched a simultaneous attack on Reach's new expo at 10, signalling there was no hope.
[Red]Nada 1 - 0 [Oops]Reach
The second round of games will be played on Friday June 18, 7pm KST. For Zeus, July Zerg, Silent_Control and Reach there are no more second chances.