- One player played very well, but his opponent played amazing. Watch this right now!
- One player played very well, usually with a great micro move/strategy. A must-watch game.
- One player played solid, his opponent played average. If you have time, watch.
- One player played average, the other played poorly. Don't bother watching unless you're a fan.
- One player played very badly. Not worth watching at all.
No stars - One player failed, usually in a very hilarious way. Actually very watchable just for laughs.

Ro16
LotzePrime vs NexLiveForever -
MakaPrime vs LegalMind -
CoolTSL vs oGsTOP -
oGsInCa vs sanZenith -
TesterTSL vs [ oGsHyperdub -
Rainbow vs CheckPrime -
AnyproPrime vs oGsEnsnare -
ClideTSL vs HongUnPrime -

Quarterfinals
NexLiveForever vs MakaPrime -
CoolTSL vs oGsInCa -
TesterTSL vs Rainbow -
oGsEnsnare vs HongUnPrime -

LiveForever opens 2 rax play, dropping a reactor to get early marines with a few marauders for an early push. Lotze misses on his forcefield but holds off the attack with probes as he waits for his immortal to pop. Liveforever gets a dropship out but finds no open holes in Lotze's one-base play. The game transitions into colossus-backed warp units as the terran stays on bio with viking support. An engagement at Lotze's front puts Lotze ahead but the vikings dispatch the colossi and the Protoss declines to counter. Both players expand and trade some blows with LiveForever making a huge mistake in failing to finish Lotze's expansion nexus with marauders when he had the chance.

LiveForever drops in the main of the protoss and sneaks in to snipe the expansion at the same time. Lotze cleans up the army, but with no economy he's unable to reinforce his counter attack and is forced to concede as the marauders pound away on his stalkers.

- A fairly standard, uneventful game. Lotze repeatedly lost his colossus to vikings and was never able to put any pressure on the Terran.

LiveForever starts off with a proxy factory across the map, landing it in Lotze's base while he simultaneously sends a marauder an two marines up the ramp, building a bunker and forcing the probes off the mineral line. He manages a few probe kills but his bunker is held off by the brave miners. Meanwhile, LiveForever techs quickly up to banshee with cloak. Lotze's observer is across the map and Lotze, frustrated and flustered, chronoboosts his robo but fails to make an observer leading him to GG immediately.

- LiveForever's build was nice and obviously made Lotze uneasy. The late scouting by the Protoss resulted in a short game.

NEXLiveForever - A-
Played a solid game 1 despite his potentially ruinous miss on the nexus snipe. His build obviously caught Lotze off guard in game 2, but he seems like more than a one-trick pony.

LotzePrime - C
Lotze just seemed outclassed in this series, and clearly flustered in game 2. He's still a good player, and we'll probalby see more of him in a future GSL.

Maka gets 2 barracks with one proxied at the gold expo. Legal, going 2 gate, forcefields the ramp during the first attack but fails to split the army. Constant re-inforcement from Maka overwhelms the Protoss quickly as he loses too many units before his immortal can arrive, and he GG's after a very quick game.

- Nice rush from Maka, and a forcefield micro mistake from LegalMind made it even stronger.

Maka goes 2 rax again, both in base this time, and delays his add-ons to get 6 early marines out before adding a tech lab and reactor. Legal warps in three gates and both players decide to expand. Legalmind decides to try an ill-fated attack on Maka's fortified natural, losing almost all of his army while leaving Maka with a huge army. Maka puts on pressure and finishes the game gracefully with a nuke at the expo, forcing Legal to push out to kill the ghost. Legal loses his remaining units and taps out.

- The nuke was a nice touch, but LegalMind handed this game to Maka.

MakaPrime - A
Maka seems in good shape and remains a force to be reckoned with.

LegalMind - C-
He made some baffling decisions and overall played very uninspired.

Cool morphs his hachery first and creates two queens while TOP gets a reactor for his fast factory, immediately sending two hellions right at Fruitdealer and getting 5 drone kills. Meanwhile, he gets a banshee out but has to stay at home when Cool counters his front with some roaches. TOP makes a CC to land at the island, but cool quickly drops some creep, forcing TOP to land out of position. Cool switches to some muta harass, but TOP gets thors out to mitigate the damage. Both players get a quick 3rd base, with Cool dropping a 4th hatch at the gold soon after.

Cool does a cute baneling drop on the island, but TOP does some drops of his own, distracting Cool in his main as he also drops the gold expo, killing the hatch. TOP starts flying around the map with dropships , harassing expansions and the main. Cool prepares for an attack with muta/ling/infestor/baneling-drop as TOP sets up a defensive position with a mass of siege tanks. Cool opens up the middle of the map during an attack, but TOP pushes it back only to run into a freshly produced 15 ultralisks. Cool continues to stream in to the main and TOP has to GG.

- Both players operated at a very high level this game, but Cool's macro and hive timing made the difference.

TOP gets an early reaper as Cool forgoes an early expo for one base lair. Cool loses a few lings but receives no major damage. TOP moves into hellions as Cool gets aggressive, making a nydus network and sneaking it into the corner of the terran base. The lings stream in, but the hellion pre-igniter upgrade finishes soon after and TOP is able to roast the lings. TOP sends a couple of hellions at Cool and finds an empty base, with the flames cooking up some drones and causing the zerg to concede.

- A cute cheese attempt, but Cool was uanble to damage the Terran and TOP took a relatively easy win.

Cool opens with a 14 hatch and finds TOP going fast factory in the adjacent position. The reactor lets TOP get 2 hellions out fast, killing several drones before the roaches and drones kill them off. TOP produces a banshee and is able to easily hold off the roach counter attack, killing drones and roaches indiscriminately. TOP decides to double expand at the same time Cool takes his gold. Cool takes a 4th base and continues to churn out roaches and lings as TOP stays on mostly thor/hellion. Cool takes advantage of the immobility by dropping in the main of TOP, reloading and escaping with his units before TOP can get home to defend.

Cool drops an expo and hits the main to stall the Terran push while he gets his ultralisks out. After TOP cleans up the drops, he moves out with a huge thor force, but Cool's new ultras annihilate them with splash damage in a tight area. Cool starts dropping ultras at the expos as he expands more and more. TOP is unable to stabilize his economy and has to GG soon after as the ultras stop across the plains and mow through the final force of thors.

- Another great game by Cool. Ultras arrive just in time again and cut through the thor army that TOP spent all game building up. Cool's clutch harass and hive timing stalled TOP's attack just enough.

CoolTSL - A+
In his hardest series yet, Cool shows us perfect management, macro, and timing in games 1 and 3. You could see it in his relieved celebration afterwards just how much he respected TOP and how difficult this particular series was to him.

oGsTOP - A-
Top played well enough to beat any other Zerg, but Cool is just so far above the other Zerg players right now. Top played well, but you have to bring something extra when you come at the king. Top just didn't have that special something.

Inca seems to want to open with a proxy gate in San's base, but San reads his mind and sends a probe to scout it immediately. Both players go to 3 gateways and a robo on one base, San getting an immortal and Inca skipping it and going straight to colossus. Inca gets a slightly faster expansion, and both players start to macro up as they attempt to get a read on each other with observers. The middle is busted down and both players posture and play a game of "3rd expo chicken". The giant armies clash and Inca's colossus formation and control comes out ahead, causing San to GG as Inca's probes flood into the fight.

- A rather uneventful game with a single deciding battle, Inca made the most of his advantages despite being slightly behind after his failed proxy plan.

Both players open fairly standard, with Inca taking both gas and stealing San's gas. Inca jumps to 3 gate with a stargate and San mirrors him exactly. Inca sets up a position outside San's base, expanding behind it, but San charges his voidrays up on his buildings and is able to break out. The two engage at Inca's expansion, both trying to hold their charge on their voidrays. San breaks into Inca's main and keeps up pressure as inca desperately tries to hold on vs constantly warping units and rallied voidrays. Despite losing probes and not mining from his expo, Inca micros from behind to hold on, surviving against the waves of units battering his front. San, mining out his main with no expo and losing his units to Inca's superior micro, taps out of the game and the tournament.

- A marvelous game from Inca. San showed some impressive void ray charge juggling, but Inca's stalker micro under extreme pressure won him the game.

oGsInCa - A
Inca never let the pressure get to him, executing perfect battle micro at critical moments.

sanZenith - B
A solid player who gained an advantage but misjudged Inca's micro ability and will have to try his luck next time.

Tester clearly has watched Hyperdub's games agianst TLO, scouting super early for proxy buildings. Hyperdub opens 3 rax no addons, pulling many SCVs and doing an all-in marine SCV attack without ever mining gas. Tester slows it down with two forcefields at the ramp, but Hyperdub busts through. Tester only has a handful of sentries and zealots to defend, and when Hyperdub's bunker completes construction near Tester's warpgates, it looks like Hyperdub will take the game.

But Tester stays calm and remakes his warpgates and a forge in the back of his base while simultaneously delaying the attack as much as possible. After warping in some stalkers and showing some excellent hit-and-run micro, Tester manages to delay enough to get cannons up, which safely secures his nexus. Tester now has triple the worker count of Hyperdub due to the lost SCVs in the attack. Hyperdub attempts to recover, taking his front expansion and adding marauders. But Tester is just too far ahead. Even though Tester plays it super safe, taking his back expansion and waiting for 3 colossus before moving out, his army easily crushes through Hyperdub's marines and marauders.

- Amazing defense from Tester to come back from a dire situation. Hyperdub probably should have pushed in faster, but perhaps he was scared of forcefields and probes. Tester has now defended several all-in rushes perfectly.

Tester scouts super early again, opening standard going 2 warpgate robo and getting an immortal before expanding. Hyperdub opens rax-factory-rax with two techlabs, making a marine marauder hellion army. After scouting Tester's late expansion, Hyperdub takes his own natural, teching quickly to medivacs and vikings. Tester blankets the map with observers, and easily intercepts Hyperdub's first medivac filled with marauders. Hyperdub continues to mass infantry, medivacs, and vikings, while Tester techs to colossus and chronoboosts double stargate phoenix. Tester finally moves out and takes his non-gold third base, and Hyperdub decides to attack. But Tester's phoenix group keeps the vikings away from his 5 colossus, and Tester's army easily crushes Hyperdub's. Hyperdub concedes.

- Hyperdub played too defensive and predictable against a superior player. He should have known that Tester would play this way and prepared a more economically risky strategy.

- TesterTSL - A+
Perfect PvT despite losing eco due to very early scouts. Tester knew he was the better player and never took any risks, knowing that the longer the games go the more likely he will win.

oGsHyperdub - D
Hyperdub was predictably mediocre in game 1 and horrible in game 2. He really should have chose a more risky strategy on Xel'Naga to exploit Tester's conservative style, or at least not engaged with such horrible army positioning at Tester's third base. TLO fans are left wondering, this guy proxy eliminated our guy to play like this in the Ro16? Disappointing.

Rainbow opens rax factory starport, while Check opens roaches, and expands to another main. Check harasses a bit at Rainbow's front, but a hellion gets by and scouts Check's expansion. Check techs to spire and banelings while Rainbow uses a medivac to harass with four marines. Rainbow adds a back expansion and more production buildings (3 rax 2 fac 1 starport). Rainbow does a super slow, methodical push with marine medivac tank, using the map layout to keep his tanks in position. Rainbow hits a timing right before ultralisks spawn, and catches Check's army out of position, running into Check's main. Rainbow loses a huge number of his marines to banelings, but Check is only mining from two bases at this point and cannot fight Rainbow's huge army with just a few freshly spawned ultras. Check GGs.

- Rainbow, known for his 1-base harass play, was extremely passive and methodical. This seemed to throw Check off, who took his 3rd and 4th bases late and was unprepared for Rainbow's slow push.

Check opens hatch first while Rainbow opens rax (tech lab) and factory (reactor). Check fears banshees and gets 3 queens before lair. Rainbow gets a starport and second rax, switching his starport to the reactor and making 2 medivacs to drop marine hellion SCV, but turns around after seeing Check's ling count. Rainbow gets a third dropship and swings all of them around to drop check's expansion. Check engages in a bad position with his lings, unable to surround and taking a ton of damage from hellions in the back of Rainbow's army. Rainbow succeeds in taking down Check's natural lair and spire, and from then on just harasses with dropships in the back and front of Check's main. Rainbow takes out Check's baneling nest and keeps whittling down Check's overlords and army, and Check can do nothing but run around aimlessly with no units that hit air. Once Rainbow's marines reach critical mass, Check is forced to GG.

- One bad engagement by Check opened the door for some scary multi-pronged harass by Rainbow. Check simply couldn't keep up.

Rainbow - A+
Rainbow showed us he can play different styles when needed. His macro and timing was great in game 1, and his multitasking during his harass was terrifying in game 2..

Check - C+
Check was one step behind in game 1, perhaps incorrectly anticipating more harass from Rainbow. Game 2 was a micro disaster that was very uncharacteristic of Check, who normally has great decision making on when to engage.

Ensnare goes 1-rax into CC, hoping to defend with only marines and slow. Anypro plays safe, going two gate robotics, and immediately adding a nexus when he scouts Ensnare's early CC. Ensnare adds more raxes and techs to starport, trading a few marauders for a zealot and sentry energy. Anypro gets colossus and deflects a drop from entering his main. But Ensnare has immediately taken his gold base (PF) and has upped his rax count to 7, along with a ghost academy. As Anypro takes his third, Ensnare harasses with one dropship in the back of Anypro's base, and then his main army catches two colossus out of position, quickly taking them out. That mistake proves critical, as the armies trade, but Ensnare's greater economy and reinforcements end the game.

- Ensnare played awesome. Even though the battle would have been different had Anypro not carelessly lost those two colossus, Ensnare was already way ahead due to his much earlier gold base.

Ensnare opens 1-rax reactor, adding two more raxes and attacking. Anypro gets 2 warpgate, and barely holds, trading his ground army while teching to dark templars. Ensnare retreats, puts up a turret, and techs to a raven and several banshees to complement his marine marauder ball. Anypro takes the gold on his side of the map, while Ensnare adds a CC as well. Ensnare moves out and takes out Anypro's gold, but Anypro has proxied a stargate and the void ray kills 10+ SCV at Ensnare's expansion. Meanwhile the armies engage, and Anypro has a huge number of charge upgraded zealots and stalkers, wiping out Ensnare's army. Back in Ensnare's base, Anypro almost kills Ensnare's expansion CC, but he overextends himself and loses most of his attacking army. Eventually, Ensnare's larger income and growing army becomes too large for Anypro to fight, and Anypro is forced to GG.

- Anypro almost comes back after losing his gold base, microing his ground army and void rays well. But Ensnare's MM banshee unit composition is too strong against a Protoss army without colossus or templars.

oGsEnsnare - A
Flawless play in game 1, he just abused Anypro in every way. Game 2 was a little shaky, which is why he didn't get an A+.

AnyproPrime - B
Anypro was simply outclassed in game 1 despite not playing particularly bad, just economically conservative. In game 2, Anypro played great but a Protoss can only go so far without its power units.

HongUn opens 1-gate robo, while Clide opens reaper to scout and adds a CC and two more raxes. HongUn expands as well. Both players tech, with HongUn getting a few immortals before colossus. Clide pokes, but retreats and loses a few units to forcefield. Clide masses 3 medivacs and harasses with them, taking out the robotics support bay without losing a medivac. Clide moves out with a large MMM army with 8 vikings, and catches HongUn's colossus without anti-air for a split second, killing one. HongUn moves the colossus back, and Clide seizes this moment to stim and attack. HongUn's army is badly outpositioned and Clide easily crushes him.

- Amazing display by Clide. Perfect build, harass, macro, and battle micro.

Clide opens 2-rax expand, while HongUn opens dark templars. Clide uses his first group of units to bust into HongUn's main just as the dark shrine finishes. But Clide inexplicably retreats, probably because he had to double stim. HongUn warps in 3 DTs at a proxy pylon, and Clide is completely unprepared for them. HongUn forces Clide to lift both his CCs and kills several SCVs and other units while taking his own natural. However, HongUn makes a mistake by having all 3 DTs together and loses them all to one scan. But Clide is still way behind, 1 mining base to 2. Clide attempts to harass with medivacs but is denied by blink. HongUn masses 3 colossus, breaks the rocks, and attacks, easily rolling through Clide's much smaller army.

- Very similar sequence as game 2, except HongUn is the player who wins. Clide just did not expect or prepare for DTs at all.

Clide opens 2 rax factory starport, while HongUn opens void rays. The players spawn positions allow for close air distances, and Clide floats his factory to the only dark portion of HongUn's base. Clide waits for 3 hellions before attacking, but cannot micro them effectively because HongUn is attacking Clide's front at the same time. HongUn charges on the Mengsk statue, nicely keeping the void rays charged by having them attack his own stalker. HongUn fails to break the bunker at Clide's ramp, but does slip several ground units into Clide's main. Clide attempts to get out a few vikings, and barely kills off the void rays. But HongUn has too many ground units still in Clide's base killing SCVs. Clide finally GGs.

- Tense game with a lot of action in Clide's base. HongUn's micromanagement of the attack was excellent, while Clide could have done a better job of multitasking his hellions. This series started off so well for Clide but turned into a nightmare very quickly.

HongUn - B+
HongUn won using risky strategies. However, it is smart to use these builds against a player like Clide, and HongUn executed them well. It doesn't matter that he lost the one standard game, the bottom line is he got the series win.

ClideTSL - B
A+, B, C+. Those are his grades for games 1, 2, and 3. Clide played so well in game 1 that the casters were cracking jokes about how he's so good. Clide is a player with many strengths, but perhaps his glaring weakness is an inability to handle nonstandard play.

Maka goes standard tank marine viking while Liveforever ambitiously opens early expansion and hellion drop. The DS goes right by Maka's first vikings, but the damage from the hellions is minimal. Maka's counter drop deals way more damage, killing LF's army and many SCVs. Maka adds a CC and continues to put on pressure, dropping in the back of LF's base while simultaneously sieging the front. LF is unable to hold and GGs.

- Maka easily deals with LiveForever's badly executed hellion drop and was well ahead after that.

Maka opens 2 rax, hiding the second. But LF scouts it, and immediately puts up 2 bunkers. Maka adds a third rax and pulls a lot of SCVs to attack, but by the time he attacks, LF has two full bunkers and a tank with siege on his ramp. No number of SCV marine marauder will break that defense, and Maka loses most of his force. LF counters, pulling his own SCVs, and his attack does far more damage. Their armies trade, but Maka is down to just a handful of SCVs, and LF's reinforcements finish the job.

- Horrible all-in by Maka that he should have never attempted knowing that LiveForever scouted it.

Maka opens rax factory starport CC, while LF opens marine thor. Both players trade marine-hellion armies, but Maka needlessly loses a marine and a hellion attempting to enter LF's blocked ramp. LF does a good job of hiding his tech, and Maka has no idea the thor is coming until it's already out. Maka has a banshee, tank, and marauder to defend, but repairing SCVs from LF make the thor almost invincible. Maka pulls almost all his SCVs and brings the thor into deep red health, but the thor survives and Maka is eliminated.

- Excellent rush by LiveForever. The clutch thor repair made for an exciting finish. Maka has a lot of regrets after game 2, going for the easy win instead of trusting his late game skills.

NEXLiveForever - A-
Recovered nicely from a bad showing in game 1 to play better as the series went along. Nicely executed rush in game 3 earned him a dramatic win over one of the tournament favorites.

MakaPrime - B-
Maka played well in game 1, but his next game is a cautionary tale for favored players attempting to get an easy win. He let LiveForever build some momentum and when Maka tried to play standard again in game 3, it was too late.

Cool 6-pools, scouting with a drone. The positions are diagonal, but unfortunately for Inca, his probe misses the lings as they run, so there's no way for him to seal his choke with buildings. The lings arrive and Inca hasn't even started a zealot. The lings take out the pylon, and Inca pulls all his probes and fights fruitlessly for a few more minutes before dying to more and more ling reinforcements.

- Bad scouting luck and a late first zealot doomed Inca. Cool took a calculated risk and it paid off.

Inca goes 2-gate, boosting out zealots. Cool opens hatch first, but cross positions allow him to easily deflect the rush. Inca expands before getting a forge, but Cool has teched to banelings and attacks before cannons are warped in. Inca cancels his expansion and retreats into his main, walling himself in with many buildings. Cool uses zerglings to break these down, and then spends the next minutes chasing probes with banelings, eventually taking down quite a few. Inca attempts to take his expansion again but is denied by ling baneling again. Inca makes more gates and starts massing an army, but at this point Cool is way too far ahead and has far too many roaches for Inca to fight. Inca leaves the game, no GG.

- This was probably the easiest Bo3 win of Cool's career. Inca really should have abandoned his zealot rush earlier once he saw cross positions, or built a cannon before putting up his nexus.

CoolTSL - A
After a tough Bo3 against TOP a few days ago, Cool receives the equivalent of a bye this round. Everyone seems to be pulling for Cool because so few Zergs are left, if that 6-pool was a cheese by a non-Zerg there would have been way more outrage.

oGsInCa - D
Game 1 really tilted this guy. Inca's play in game 2 was quite bad. He did everything wrong, and even capped it with no GG at the end.

Rainbow opens 1-rax CC, spreading out his units to prevent Tester from scouting. Tester opens 2-warpgate stargate robo, getting two void rays. However, Rainbow has marines and stim, and defends without many losses. Tester expands, making several immortals before continuing to colossus. Rainbow attacks with MMM, but Tester's first colossus arrives just in time and drives the Terran army away. Tester waits for another colossus and then moves out to attack. Rainbow has his army at his center gold, and Tester attacks with bad unit positioning. Rainbow soundly beats Tester's army and counterattacks, ending the game.

- Rainbow mindgamed Tester, who probably expected an aggressive opening. Instead, Rainbow played for an economic advantage. Tester also missed an opportunity to destroy Rainbow's retreating units but misplaced his forcefields.

Rainbow goes for a 2-rax factory starport 1-base build, while Tester gets warpgates robotics and expands. Rainbow attacks once he masses 4 medivacs, and Tester does not forcefield perfectly, losing his expansion. Tester does save a good portion of his army and the two players have a standoff at Tester's ramp. However, Rainbow scans and kills Tester's second observer which was looking at Rainbow's natural. As a result, Tester assumed Rainbow had expanded, and attacks down his ramp with gateway units and immortals. Rainbow easily destroys this attack with a huge arc of Terran infantry and Tester concedes.

- Solid play and strategy by Rainbow

Rainbow - A
Rainbow had a plan and executed it well. He seemed to be able to win even when the openings didn't go his way.

TesterTSL - C+
In arguably the biggest series of his life, Tester played far below the level we've come to expect from him. He lost scouting probes to SCVs, lost void rays unnecessarily, misplaced his forcefields, and attacked at the wrong times. It almost seemed like he was a completely different player than the confident, controlled supertoss that everyone watched in the earlier rounds. Perhaps this was the first time he actually felt the pressure of an evenly matched opponent? Regardless, it will be a long month for Tester until GSL2.

Ensnare opens 1-rax, building a factory near HongUn's base and floating it in. He attacks with a few marines, marauders, and the hellion from the factory and completely dismantles HongUn, who is unable to properly defend his probe line at multiple points.

- Great build and micro by Ensnare. This would be a higher grade if HongUn didn't fold so easily.

Ensnare opens with the same build, and HongUn almost dies again. HongUn loses many probes but defends, and moves out with some stalkers and an immortal, but Ensnare drops the back of HongUn's base. HongUn makes the ridiculous decision to press on with his attack instead of coming home to defend, and loses all his units to a single repaired bunker at the top of Ensnare's ramp. Horrible game.

- Same build without the in-base factory and HongUn still loses to it. The decision not to save his main was especially bad..

oGsEnsnare - A
Ensnare came to play. His strategy was fun, his execution was flawless, and he knew exactly what to do.

HongUn - F
He looked completely lost in both games. In game 2 especially, he turned his units back and forth twice before (incorrectly) deciding not to save his main.