July begins with quick infestor tech on a macro hatch while creator uses his sentry heavy army to take a fast 3rd. July responds to this by making so many banelings and crushing through the Protoss expansion. Creator retorts by denying the Zerg 4th and attempting to follow through into the natural, but July holds on by the skin of his teeth. While July’s map control appears to be potent, denying expansions and limiting unit movement, Creator always picks his battles in an excellent formation and location. After July stops his base Creator responds to his lack of army by going right for the jugular, and succeeding.

Game 2 is pretty simple as far as PvP goes. Ace rushes to DTs, while Creator rushes to immortals – and what comes with immortals is the ability to see all. Creator’s observer arrives precisely when a DT tries to enter his base, after stifling this quick try his immortal based army is way too much for Ace.

In the third game Creator tries for an early push with sentry + blink stalker, unfortunately his attack hits right as infestors pop and the fungal/ling combo is enough to hold the attack off but not before killing the 3rd hatch. After this both players continue teching up to colossus and ultra respectively. With a sneak warp prism move, Creator ends up losing his ultra and ling tech to DT, Creator replies with an ultra drop in the Protoss main doing a smaller portion of damage. Though the game is somewhat even up to here it all turns upside-down when Curious sends a control group of lings to kill a Protoss expansion, catches two lone colossus, finds Creator's army in a very bad position and decimates it.

Next, Curious decides to hatch first against a seemingly inferior player, whereas Annyeong decides to punish him for this with a quick pool. As soon as Annyeong’s speed finishes first the game goes completely down hill for curious. With his lings being untouchable and banelings neutralizing any further resistence Annyeong is able to complete the upset against curious.

In hopes for ST to get back on the winning track Squirtle is sent out. He tries a very similar push to what we’ve seen before with sentry and blink stalker, though he executes it much better. Fortunately infestors are amazing and allow this push to be stopped yet again. From here squirtle over extends and loses too many units for too little gain, allowing Annyeong to build more and more infestors. Many people may not know this but there is a direct relation between infestor count and chance to win. The fungals and infested terrans become too overwhelming even for Squirtle’s final five archon assault.

Finally it is time for Bomber. The startale ace tries for some early pressure to start the comeback road, unfortunately he is sent packing home by some quick zerglings. Despite a well chocked terran natural, Anneyong filters in a beautiful baneling bust, crippling much of Bomber’s economy. With a little help from three base mules, Bomber gets back on his feet and sets up a nice siege contain on the Zerg natural. This contain becomes forfeit once broodlords are on the map. Anneyong overextends his own siege position with his broodlords, losing all of them. A sick Viking spread in tandem with a drop in the zerg main all but seals the game for Bomber until his final push takes out the zerg 4th.

Down to the wire, now is the moment for MarineKing to make his debut. In this clash of the Terran aces MKP stays true to his name with an early marine push against Bomber’s blue flame hellions, managing to bust into the main...barely. Bomber rebounds by pushing back with a very tank heavy mech force. Thanks to his nice leapfrogging MKP isn’t ever allowed to engage optimally so both players end up trading armies, marauders for tanks. MKP sneaks his marauder force into Bomber’s main inflicting devastating damage. A blow that proves to be too much to recover from as the endless marauder waves overwhelm Bomber’s turtled up tank base. (If there was ever a lone unit to break siege tanks!)

Happy played a baller harass-heavy terran, with hellions moving into banshees and finally culminating in BCs. Keen’s more standard bio-heavy play took some heavy hits early, but it looked like he was creeping back into the game as the effects of the harass wore off, but when Happy brought down the CattleBruiser hammer Keen had absolutely no answer.

MVP pulled a GuineaPig out of their hat next, and he in turn pulled a full eight colossus out of...somewhere? Not going to go there. That turned out to be a bad idea though; Happy maneuvered into a great position that let his viking fleet knock the colossus down well before the bio herd had been thinned. With 50 supply down the drain, GuineaPig’s gateway army couldn’t hold a candle to the remaining MMM, and it wasn’t long before the gloat-mules started dropping. GuineauPig persevered, though, so Happy transitioned into a strategy seen more often in TL Attack than the GSL: the gloat-nuke. Because really, nothing says “I don’t respect you as a player” quite like intentionally blowing up your entire army in a playoff game. Even this didn’t quite shame GuineaPig into leaving, but when Happy’s follow-up army crushed pretty much all his stuff, he finally tapped out.



Having just failed with PvT, MVP promptly went back to the well and sent out Genius. The game started off with similar expansion builds and kept pace with each other until 90-ish food, but somehow (maybe his third was a bit earlier? Maybe he’s just that good?) Happy was able to build a pretty significant supply lead before the players actually really engaged. 130 is larger than 100, and that was pretty much that.

MVP decided three losses into a do-or-die playoff match it was finally time to get serious, and sent out the only player on their team who wins games: DongRaeGu. Happy led off with a half-hearted bunker rush, but it wasn’t until DRG was putting up his third that Happy set out with a serious marine-tank timing push, which looked pretty scary until a perfect ling flank wiped out all the marines, leaving a half dozen tanks for DRG’s mutas to feast on. That was the last time it even looked like Happy might win; DRG spent the rest of the game running him around with muta harass, ling attacks, and all-around badassery.

Sitting on a healthy 3-1 lead, IM felt comfortable sending out Yonghwa to tire DRG out before the inevitable Nestea. Yonghwa’s stargate opening managed to kill about two overlords, while DRG’s infestor rush smashed in and took out Yonghwa’s natural. For a second it looked like Yonghwa’s counter might capitalize on the Dong’s depleted energy, but it turned out fungal + roach is pretty good against stalkers. Who knew?

In a continuation of “Operation Exhaust DRG”, IM sent out Losira. It was telling that while their builds were exact mirrors, Losira’s looked like it was on a second or so time-delay. Losira opted to be the aggressor anyway, and spent a chunk of banelings doing very little damage as a precursor to a +1 roach timing push. When the dust settled, both players were once again sitting almost precisely even. From there it was an absolutely phenomenal back-and-forth game, with non-stop edge-of-your-seat roach-infestor pushes for twenty minutes. Seriously, just go watch this.

With the series evened up, IM released the first of their one-two punch, sending out MVP (the player) to show MVP (the team) who’s boss. DRG, perhaps still thinking of the last game, went with a strong roach timing push and traded his early army for a significant amount of MVP’s SCVs. Unfortunately for him, he forgot to rebuild units and simply kept massing drones, right up until MVP’s counter-push showed up on his doorstep. He tried to churn out some last-minute banelings, but it was too little, too late. DRG had fallen, and all that stood between IM and victory was... Some other MVP player. And we know how well they tend to do.

The other MVP player turned out to be Tails. MVP (the player) smelled blood in the water and went straight for banshee harass into a one base 1-1-1 timing push. Tails managed to fend the banshees off with minimal losses, at which point he set up a small sentry-heavy force outside MVP’s base. Some clutch forcefields delayed MVP’s push long enough for all six of Tails’ gateways to start churning out units, and long enough for MVP to realize that with no expansion he was very much all-in. MVP brought most of his SCVs with his push, but even that wasn’t enough to deal with the supply lead Tails had accumulated by that point. MVP’s banshees survived to keep harassing, but the damage was done and all MVP could do was prolong the inevitable.



Nestea showed his confidence quickly, responding to Tails’ forge fast expand by taking the gold as a quick third. Tails’ early push at the gold was an utter failure, but it distracted Nestea just long enough to let a squad of DTs sneak into his main. Through some fluke of fate, Nestea had put up a spore crawler at both of his expansions, but not his main, and ended up losing his (morphing) lair and his pool. Tails’ opted to follow up with a third of his own, while Nestea countered with a big roach drop. Tails just barely fought off the drop and began colossus production, while Nestea supplemented his roaches with hydras and started reloading for another drop. Unfortunately for him, he loaded his overlords in sight range of Tails’ pylons, and all it took was one quick blink for zerg blood to start raining from the skies. Tails’ immediately started marching across the map, forcing Nestea to crank out everything he could to defend. With no spire, Nestea turned to baneling drops against Tails’ death ball, but Tails’ excellent blink splits kept way too much of his army alive.

Nestea was forced to gg. MVP completed their 5-4 upset, and if Tails keeps playing like this, he and DRG might be all MVP needs to take them to the finals and beyond.

As I was falling asleep watching IM vs MVP I suddenly had a wakeup call. Through my sleepy eyes I witnessed an unknown Protoss going toe to toe with none other than MVP. Lately, Protoss players have been waiting for someone to bring some hope to enlighten their path as the GSL code S is becoming Terran VIP only. Today, Aiur may have found a new messiah.



The map is crossfire SE, a place where tanks feel at home. Ok it’s also a pretty good map for Protoss with choke points at every corner but still, there are a lot of Terran contain and timing pushes that are scary. Crossfire is undeniably made for mech play.

Tails decided to open up with two gates. It’s not the first time we have seen it but it’s rare enough to raise an eyebrow. The idea here is to create two fast stalkers to defend/apply pressure and expand. After a little poke, tails realizes MVP is most likely doing a 1-1-1 build and decides to go for a contain.



MVP is pumping out banshees and researching the cloak ability. This is where Tails first really impresses, his timing is perfect. The Protoss has two observers in time to maintain the contain a little longer and to defend at home.

That brings us to the ten minute mark, MVP just broke the contain and Tails is dropping five gates to reach a total of seven. Protoss is at 71 population with a well saturated second base and MVP has a fearsome force of marine/tank/banshee and 62 population. But still, even if I know this kind of army in MVP’s hands is just hell raining on his opponent, I just can’t seem to see tails losing, his build is the perfect counter and strangely enough it seems he isgiving the rhythm in this match. Like a boxer with light feet, he is dancing around MVP tiring him out until he can knock him out.



MVP hasn’t even reached the middle of the map and Tails' macro is already kicking in. He has already made a second immortal and reached 100 population, while MVP is showing a mere 70. The timing once again is perfect. Artosis is crying out loud how sick the build is, I keep my eyes open to see something incredible, a Code-B Protoss is about to show us the way.



The way Tails took the fight was a little scary. He made a rookie mistake that a lot of Protoss make, the kind that can lose locked games. Most of the Protoss players have their units in one group and when they attack, the stalkers being faster, the zealots are behind doing nothing.

In the end, even if it was clearly a mistake on Tails’ end, the fact is he was so much ahead that he could attack-move and watch MVP’s army melt. Somehow MVP managed to micro and save some units, notably five banshees that allowed him to stay alive. Unfortunately Tails was too far ahead.

Here Artosis made a comment about how the Stargate saved Tails, because of a phoenix that chased the banshees. I do not agree. No, in the end, I think that Tails’ build and play style before the push was so perfect MVP could not recover after the battle. That’s how good Tails’ build is.

The final battle, even if Tails did a mistake with zealots, was a walk through. All Most Valuable's players were standing while IM looked devastated. And as I was already going to Liquipedia, wondering where this Protoss came from, a player cast a shadow on the set just by standing up.

Yes, ladies and gentleman, it was time for giants. IM was decided not to kid around and the ultimate baller was ready to wage war. Nestea was setting up in his booth.



“It was good while it lasted” I thought to myself. I’m sure I am not the only one that was thinking that while we had the nerd basher himself warming up. And as expected, things took an ugly turn pretty fast.

The map is Antiga shipyard, the opponents are cross-position and Tails is going for the standard forge expand opening while Nestea is droning like a mad man.

The game took an unexpected turn when Nestea decided to take the gold base as a third. The fact is this base is pretty hard to defend, being totally open at the middle of the map. While Tails scouted it, we are waiting for some kind of reaction from the Protoss before the economy boost from the gold starts kicking in.



As expected Tails is trying to put some pressure on the gold with sentries and zealots which is pretty successful. But at this point, things look grim for the Protoss. He couldn’t prevent Nestea from taking the gold, he lost some sentries trying to put on pressure and he is still on two bases. As a dark shrine finishes up, we all know that if he wants to have a fighting chance, something big has to be done with the dark templars.

As a Starcraft enthusiast, there is no better satisfaction than to wait desperately for David to compete with Goliath and to see a good match. At the 10 minute mark we have 100+ population for the god of Zerg while Tails sits at 66.

Protoss has to capitalize on Nestea's greed, Zerg has no lair. As Tails attempts a run by in the main with three dark templar, we see a helpless Nestea with a spore on his natural just watching DTs enter his main where there is no detection at all.

The three invisible killers are soon joined by four friends thanks to a pylon placed nearby. Seven dark templars is a lot, and faster than I can say it, Nestea has lost all the buildings in his main. In a split second, the game flow is completely reversed as things start to get difficult for the three-time GSL winner. Two base versus two base, Nestea is finally able to make overseers but the damage has been done. 130 population versus 90, Tails is back in.

While Protoss is trying to apply pressure with blink stalkers and sentries, Nestea takes another base and researches ventral sacs. While Tails is taking a third and teching to colossus, Nestea goes for a monster drop in the Protoss main.

This already crazy game has gone crazier. Chaos in the Protoss base as he tries to get back in his main trough the labyrinth of buildings. Creep is spreading fast and roaches are destroying everything. What seems like a positional advantage quickly became hell for the Zerg. Tails constantly reinforcing took advantage of the multiple choke points created in his base. In a matter of minutes what seemed like a shipwreck became a perfect defense.



Tastosis is frenetic, the public is astonished and I am speechless. We are all wondering what Nestea has up his sleeves to make a comeback after getting his drop repelled. Zerg: 113 population, Protoss: 100, both on three bases but Nestea still has a gold.

The god of Zerg has not said his final words. He starts pumping out hydralisks and get ready for a massive drop. He is almost max as the protoss is at 160 population. We know it’s going to be hard for Nestea but it all depends on this drop if. Hydralisks are known for their huge dps and he can very well destroy the main base of tails with a successful drop.

At this point Nestea takes his time and seems a little indecisive. While Tails sees the overlord preparing for a new drop, he waits for the perfect timing to come with a good blink, destroying them on their way. Nestea’s entire army get slaughtered: game over.



This match that started okay ended up completely epic. A relative unknown Protoss that only came far in the Code A once just took down the two best players of the world in a decisive fashion. As always the GSTL is bringing the best out of Starcraft. This match looked like a final sneaked-preview but one thing is for sure: it’s going to be hard to do better than what we just witnessed.

Teams are famous for their star players; players with personality and unique style to their play attract fans. Often, those fans will go on to pledge support to their players’ teams, doggedly following their progress through the team leagues. New Star HoSeo represents the diametric opposite – their players have become stars almost solely for of their performance in the team league. As a relatively recently formed team, their participation in the GSTL begins with this first regular GSTL season. Already though, they’ve established themselves as a force to be reckoned with, with several players having become immediately well known after impressive GSTL showings.

In Protoss' darkest hour, the brothers Sage, San, BanBans, and Tassadar are poised to lead their team to victory. Hoseo, their first outing concluded with Sage's all-kill against (then) fOu over Sirius, asd, sC, and finally Leenock. Until then, Sage had been practically unknown; his rise to prominence would be an omen for New Star Hoseo, a sign of things to come.

Their second round ended in much of the same way when Jjakji, a Terran not seen since GSL Open 2, slashed through FXOpen in short order. In the fifth week they faced their hardest test to date, against StarTale. Tassadar and Sculp started out the match, managing to score three kills between them before StarTale deployed Bomber in an effort to turn the match around. What followed was a battle on Bel'Shir Beach that saw creep spread across the map and right to Bomber's natural before the conclusion of the game, an elegant image to accompany the strangulation of StarTale’s last hope.

Hoseo’s following match in week eight was the only match they dropped all season, putting them the wrong end of a Losira all-kill. To finish off the regular season they took on the already-eliminated ZeNEX. Seal placed his team into a solid first place for the group with another HoSeo all-kill, a one game lead that stayed despite rival StarTale's 4-1 victory the following week.

With three of their matches ending in all-kills for their team, NSHS has put the spotlight on their players as able to perform. Just as SlayerS' team of unknowns gained stardom by winning GSTL tournaments, NSHS looks to show the world they too can conquer the team league.

There is a hunger in New Stars Hoseo that will not be denied, a yearning for success that drives them, turning each player into an all-killing machine. Theirs is a team of players raised to glory by GSTL victories, and if we can only be certain of one thing it’s that they won’t have that glory wrested from them without a fight.

New Stars Hoseo doesn’t have star players; it has tomorrow’s star players.

Every once in a while you encounter a team that, on paper, looks average – pedestrian even – but that has the records and consistency of championship level play. A team without a star-studded lineup, lacking the many individual titles of an edifice like IM or SKT. Growing up, my dad was fond of labeling the 1991 Minnesota Twins as one of those teams; they were simply a group of men who combined to form a collective greater than the sum of their parts, a well-oiled machine whose parts worked in perfect harmony.

TSL often appears to be one of those teams. Certainly, they have their share of strong players; Killer has always been above average, while Clide and aLive are both regular GSL names, but they lack the flair and personality often associated with star-level play. Rather, TSL’s players have combined to form a lineup that not only wins consistently, but does so with an efficiency that proves a stark contrast to the styles of other “star” players.

TSL is now lined up to play Prime in their next match. Indeed, their first GSTL match was against Prime, but both teams have come a long way since those faltering first steps. That first match began with Killer winning and concluded when PuMa won three more games over BBoongBBoong, MarineKing, and Polt to drive Prime into the ground. Now, with PuMa off to EG and Polt at TSL, we can safely say past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Their second match wasn't until the fourth week, this time against SlayerS. The series came right down to the wire, a final game between GanZi and Killer, from which TSL narrowly escaped with the win.

Their third day of play came against oGsTL, one of many series in which I projected TSL as the underdog. JYP and Revival stepped in to prove me wrong, dancing through oGs with precision and elegance, in a set of games that showcased the potential Revival holds as a Zerg ace. The following week they played against F.United, where I once again predicted they’d have a hard time. When ThorZain took out Revival in one of his spoon-style-Terran games it looked as though TSL might be in a spot of trouble, but a decisive win from aLive in the end put the team at 4-0.

The final week saw TSL matched against MVP in a largely unimportant series as both teams were already locked in for playoffs. Clide, perhaps upset at his loss to Fenix two weeks prior, brought his best game and walked away with the all-kill and saved his team's record from the blemish of a loss.

In the playoffs, TSL looks set to keep up the momentum they’ve been building throughout their tear through the group stage. TSL is a team set to dominate not with flashy play styles or cocky celebrations, but with consistent demonstrations of solid play and refined builds. They look to achieve the championship that has eluded them in individual leagues.

Everything in its right place, every part working in concert, a harmony that is more than the sum of its parts, an entity more brutally efficient than its components; as one, TSL is reaching for the title it has been denied so far.

TSL has found great success in the Team League, and upon first glance, it's not easy to see why. With their highest ranking player ever (before Polt switched over) only making it to Code S round of 8, it's hard to believe that TSL rolled over greats like SlayerS and oGs. In the meantime, Prime has a much more star-studded lineup, but still barely made the playoffs.

The All-Killer: BBoongBBoong.Prime. With no notable accomplishments other than his team league performance, he is a tough opponent to prepare for. He consistently gets at least one kill for Prime, and even when Prime loses, he still does his part.

Most Well Balanced Team: Without a doubt the reason for TSL's supremacy in the GSTL is it's player and race balance. Killer is a top Protoss, Revival a top Zerg, and Clide/aLive are top level Terrans. TSL does well because their strength is so spread out, that they win through a war of attrition, not one of star players.

What's Ruining E-Sports: This match has a lot of drama behind it, as Polt recently switched to TSL from Prime. TSL seems to be a team that seriously prepares for the GSTL and I'm sure Polt will have plenty of information to share.

My Prediction: TSL (5:2) Prime. Prime has some good players, but their line up isn't as deep or diverse as TSL's.




So basically MVP's games go like this: they get one win, and then DRG gets the rest of them, or they put DRG out first and he just wins right away. It's kind of sad for MVP though, as the person behind DRG in kill count for their team is Genius with two, for the whole season. NSHoSeo though is the complete opposite. All of their player perform extremely well, despite being very underestimated.

Most Likely to All Kill That Isn't DRG: Jjakji. Korean Terrans are pretty good I hear, and Jjakji is no exception. While Sage is probably a better player, MVP will be prepared for him, but I wouldn't be surprised if they let Jjakji slip through the cracks.

Train Everyone to Snipe DRG: Seriously. Get everyone on New Star HoSeo prepared to snipe him, because with him down your next biggest threats are Genius and sC.

Best Chance to Snipe DRG: Sage is probably the best bet to snipe DRG. Sage was able to overcome both FXOSerious and FXOLeenock. You don't want to throw a Terran at DRG, as they're all "ezpz" for him.

Prediction: NSH (5:3) MVP - I think after three kills someone can stop DRG...right?