[TCL4] Week 3 (11/15, 11/17, 11/19)

SEA Grandmasters approaching!
by Bakery

      TCL4 has come to its third week, this Tuesday at 7:00 P.M. (GMT +08:00), we will be bringing you Xeria Gaming, playing against the combination of clan Nw + clan WYD, NWYD! Both of the teams are at 0 win/ 1 loss, meaning that after this match, one of the teams will have a record of 1 win/ 1 loss, with a 50% win rate, and the other team will inevitably drop to 0 win with 2 losses, and this makes a huge difference when going on to the third match! Under this pressure, we hope every player can do their best and use their potential to the fullest! We also hope that Xeria Gaming has already fixed the internet latency issues, and play out the games with no regrets!

      Zerg players will love to see tonight’s match-up! Both teams have over 4 Zerg players on their player list, meaning that except for our 5th round, 榮榮 v.s. iaguz , every match will be involving a Zerg! (YAY!)

      Back to our topic, according to the information from xGKingBenji, all 7 players are Grandmasters ranked players in the 4th season on SEA server! Including Azazel , who fell to LoVeStorM’s chat tactics last game, Vendetta , a solid Protoss players and first-timer on TCL, and Baron , who left a great impression since TCL2. For the Bo3s, they have JazBas , a great Zerg player, but unfortunately lost to Sen by 1:2 during Blizzcon, iaguz , one of the best Terrans on SEA server, Light , the greatest of the Protoss warriors in SEA who fought with Luway last week, and Mafia , who holds 5 different GM accounts on SEA top 20, and defeated WizardStorM in last week’s ACE match.

      As for NWYD, they have the ex-professional player Blanc as the vanguard, followed by the swarm of Zergs, Rex , Hike , Janyr , and SeRa , with the two Protoss Rich and 榮榮 lurking between. I believe everyone already knows how their styles and strengths are, so I won’t be elaborating on that anymore!

      Will NYWD take their first victory with the help of the fierce Zerg: JanyrWYD, or will Xeria Gaming show their Grandmaster powers and sieze the win from NWYD? Please tune in tonight’s TCL4!

The great comeback of xGking, NWYD takes the two losses in a row

by Bakery

First three rounds, Bo1:

First round was on Daybreak, NwBlanc (T) v.s. xGKingAzazel (Z)

      NwBlanc opened with a wall-off, reactored hellions, on the other hand, xGKingAzazel went hatch-first, and built a Spine Crawler after the Spawning Pool to defend the early hellion harass. Blanc increased the hellion count to 6, trying to spot the zerg from expanding and spreading creep. Azazel stayed calm and droned crazily, ultimately massed some zerglings to take out the Terran forces. While Blanc was morphing a Planetary Fortress in his third, Azazel took his third and fourth at the same time, bringing his drone count to a whopping 105! Blanc massed another push and cleared one expansion of Azazel, but having such a great advantage economically, Azazel pumped out a large army to defend, and eventually pushed back to Blanc’s base, forcing a GG, and also taking the lead for Xeria Gaming, 2:0.

The second round, NwRex (Z) v.s. xGKingVendetta (P) on Shattered Temple

      The players spawned close positions. Vendetta played a solid opening with 1-gate, Cybernetic Core, FE, then built a large amount of Gateway for an attack. On Rex’s side, he did speedlings opening, and sneaked a random expansion. While defending Vendetta’s attack, Rex replenished his Roaches on a timely manner, though Vendetta tried to Force Field the ramp, but resulted in a failure and let the Roaches attack close-up. Rex then went for a counter with all the Roaches, and took down Vendetta subsequently. The points had come to 2:2.

Third round, Xel’Naga Fortress, NwRich (P) v.s. xGKingBaron (Z)

      Baron started out with a speedling opening, followed by an expansion, while Rich opened with a standard 3-gate sentry FE. After seeing his opponent going for a FE, Baron decided to go for a timing attack with a combination of Roaches, with zerglings swarming in! Rich didn’t just start panicking, and used the Sentries to defend the fierce army using Force Fields. After that, Rich went for a counter, and used the evil Force Field to block off Baron’s ramp to his natural. Baron knew he couldn’t do anything with his rally point being controlled, GGed and left the game. Now NWYD will be taking the lead at 4:2.

Last four rounds, Bo3:

The fourth round, NwHiKe (Z) v.s. xGKingJazBas (Z)

      First match’s map will be Daybreak. Both players went for a mirror opening, using hatch-first, speedling tech, and banelings, preparing for a battle of the better microer. HiKe constantly exchanged 2 banelings for 2 banelings to ensure the attack route of his zerglings, on the other hand JazBas tried to attack with minimal baneling loss. Both players went for the exchange after their opponents had entered their bases, but after a huge mismicro from JazBas, where he lost a ton of zerglings to one bangelings, he called out GG and left the game. HiKe 1:0 to JazBas.

      Second match, Metalopolis, spawning cross positions. Hike opted for an early zergling pressure before expanding to counter JazBas’ hatch-first. After defending the attack, JazBas countered with a mass of zerglings, rushed into the HiKe’s main base took out the Queen, and started massacring the drones. NwHiKe got his banelings out in time to defend the attack, but JazBas GGed directly, saying the internet latency is too high to play ZvZ, which needed a lot of micro. The points of the two teams have come to 7:2, NWYD taking the lead.

Round five, ex-professional gamer 榮榮 (P) v.s. xGKingiaguz (T)

      Their first match will be on Tal’darim Altar. Both players did a CC/Nexus first build, while 榮榮 opting for a 7-gate blink stalker with an observer added in, and iaguz expanding to his third safely after defending 榮榮’s first wave of attack with bunkers. 榮榮 the took advantage of the huge map and sneaked an expansion at a random position, researched zealot’s charge, and attacked with Archons mixed in. On the engagement, 榮榮 pursued iaguz’s MM ball after they stimmed for a retreat, but little did he know this it was a trap! But榮榮 didn’t just give up after his troops had been eliminated, he researched Psionic Storm and tried to accumulate more forces. After seeing榮榮 going for Archons, iaguz started ghost production, and the match in going into a late game play: the gorgeous EMP versus Psionic Storm. Although the engagements are beautiful to see, 榮榮 started to lose to iaguz’s accurate EMPs and his army production speed. Eventually, 榮榮 GGed, and iaguz took his first victory.

      The second match starts on Xel’Naga Fortress. 榮榮 became quite determined, and directly went for a proxy Robotics Facility, along with a 3-gate for a timing attack. iaguz, on the other hand, used a 2-rax opening and walled off the ramp with supply depots and bunkers. After seeing the wall off with observers, 榮榮 Chrono Boosted the observer for high ground site and focused fire on the supply depot, leaving iaguz in the hell of supply block! iaguz can’t take it anymore, and tried to run down the ramp to clean off the observer, however, at the same time, 榮榮 cut the marine ball on the ramp and mopped up the whole force, leaving iaguz nothing left except for a GG, making it 1:1 in the round.

      The final match for the two will be on Antiga Shipyard. Iaguz decided to FE with 1 rax, and turtle up with massive amounts of bunkers. On the other hand榮榮 went for a 4-gate Stargate build using Void Rays. However, iagus had his bunkers in the front, and marines in the mineral line for defense. 榮榮, not being able to do damage in the first attack, let iaguz gain a great economic lead. After massing out marines and taking out榮榮’s forces, he knew he couldn’t beat that army and GGed. Xeria Gaming gained 3 more points, taking it to 7:5, with NWYD taking the lead.

Round six, JanyrWYD (Z) v.s. xGKingLight (P)

      First map, Daybreak. Light started chatting “wo ai tai mei” and at the same time building tons on Pylons and Cannons in Janyr’s hatch first expansion. After denying Janyr’s expansion, Light started his own expansion. Janyr directly went for another a macro hatch in the main, trying to try his last chance by dropping Nydus Worms. Unfortunately, both attempts were scouted and denied by probes, Janyr desperately built his 2nd and 3rd expansions, and at the same time trying for a run-by using zerglings. Knowing he is having a great lead economically, Light expanded even more to enlarge the difference, and prepared for a Protoss troop parade, making Collosi, Void Rays, and even a Mothership. Janyr didn’t give up yet, he went for a 4th expansion, and Infestors, harassed with Roaches, and yet another Nydus Worm with Ultralisks in production. However, Light finally pushed out with his huge army. Janyr fought to the last minute, but still couldn’t turn the tide over, and GGEd. Xeria Gaming 1:0 lead.

      The second match of the two was on Shakuras Plateau. After seeing Light going for a FFE, Janyr used a small technique and built an Evolution Chamber to block his opponent’s front entrance! At the same time the Evolution Chamber is destroyed, Janyr sent in a zergling force to harass Light’s main. After defending this harass, Light started to repair his economy, and prepare to fight with a 2 base 8-gate strategy. At this time, Jamyr had his third base up, and produced Roaches for the up-coming attack. Originally, he was going for a surround using the wide open terrain between the natural and the third, but Light instead used a counter-surround: he stopped half of the Roaches on the ramp, and took out the other half with his forces! With his expansions being taken out one by one, Janyr can only type out GG to leave the game. Xeria Gaming finally had their comeback with a points leading at 8:7!

Round 7, the last ACE match! NwSeRa (Z) v.s. xGKingMafia (Z)

      Match one: Metalopolis, close positions by air. Both players opened with hatch first, speedling, but SeRa went for a Roach Warren to defend first. on Mafia’s side, he massed a large number of zerglings and banelings and tried to attack before SeRa’s Roaches reach a critical mass. Using Spine Crawlers and Roaches, SeRa successfully defended the two attacks, accumulated enough Roaches, and went for a counter! But Mafia knew this was coming, and started to change to Roaches with Spine Crawlers to defend too. Using his home base advantage, Mafia defended SeRa’s attack too, and fought back with even more Roaches. SeRa finally couldn’t take it anymore, typed GG, and led Xeria Gaming to their final match point!

      Round 2: Daybreak. Due to the large map, both players went for a hatch first. Mafia went for a late gas economic opening, while SeRa stopped droning early to do a Roach/zergling timing attack. But everything was under Mafia’s Overlord’s surveillance! Mafia made enough zerglings and banelings in time for the defense! After that, Mafia directly went for a counter. Seeing the irreversible game, typed out GG and ended today’s last match. Finally, Xeria Gaming won the match with 12:7 against NWYD.


      NWYD started well but ended not quite as satisfying. After the 4th match, they still had the lead at 7:2, but after that, they didn’t gain any more points. Losing all the Bo3 matches, Xeria Gaming successfully made their comeback. This also shows us how good the players are in their latter rounds, especially Mafia in the ACE match. With the points being so close, he still tool out SeRa with 2:0. SeRa himself said in the chat channel that Mafia had known all his moves, leaving him a tough fight to face. On Mafia’s first match, he is also the ACE match player, and coincidentally defeated WizardStorM with 2:0, now his strengths are even more unpredictable. The next teams to play against Xeria Gaming must be warned, beware of the Mafia!

Replays VOD downloads: http://sc2clan.tw/f/viewtopic.php?f=260&t=9509#p96063

Against your own fellow countrymen, who is gonna cry GG?

      Tonight will be our 8th match in TCL season 4, with Legacy versus NewBlitz, both from Mainland China. Being teams with the same origin, will they show any sympathy for their opponents, or will they mercilessly conquer their enemies, even though they are their fellowmen?

      Speaking of NewBlitz, although they are a new team, they have some powerful background. Formed from team New, Etd, and BlitZ, NewBlitz has some great players such as lovett. However, we couldn’t seem to recognize any familiar players, did the masters changed their looks, and obtained a new identity? Nonetheless, the ranks will tell no lies. EtdVioiv, EtdBigxiao, BabyLasT all are ranked Masters with 1200 points, and they even have EtdNostalie now, a GrandMaster on the China server. For team Legacy, who didn’t do quite well in their last match against inFi, this match will also be a great challenge.

      But why do we see Captain Lee (a famous detective in a drama series in Taiwan) giving us the frowning look? Let’s see… WHAT? NewBlitZ placed a silver ranked player for the 6th round, and a gold ranked player for the ACE match! Is this just a just a training experience for CaRen and 暖暖, or are they over-confident, believing that they will definitely win the first 5 round? Just as we are hesitating, Captain Lee frowned even more! Let’s take a good look this time… we actually have seen 暖暖 in TCL2 before, and he is definitely a great Terran player. NewBlitZ this time not only is coming with a fierce combination, but they must have something up their sleeves for their players in the last two rounds!

      Although fighting against their fellow countrymen, can Legacy take the victory from NewBlitZ and prove themselves in TCL4, and keep the light of victory keep on shining? We will just have to tune in for the match tonight at 7:00 P.M. (GMT+08:00) – Legacy v.s. NewBlitZ.

Lightning speed blitz to the end

By ArieS

      Did Blitz, originally meaning the fast paced changes of the battlefield, started to affect the broadcasting length also? During tonight’s games, we only completed one Bo1 match and two and a half Bo3 matches. NewBlitZ won by default on two Bo1 matches, and due to a player placement error, the most anticipated ACE match, 暖暖 v.s. alphaLegacy resulted in a default win for 暖暖 since alphaLegacy is a professional player in team IGXY.

      In the only Bo1 round, KoscleeCxx sacrificed himself to demonstrate a fact of life: when you leave your home, make sure you lock the door, cuz even if there are no thieves, zerhlings will be running by, just to see if there are any SCVs around to pick off. Although KoscleeCxx used a frog leap strategy to kill of a large amount of EtdBigxiao’s workers, all is too late, and gave in the first game’s points.

      The next Bo3 round, Legacy attempted to change their luck and replaced their player. However, although their relief pitcher EarthLegacy (T) scouted his opponent’s intentions on fast expanding, he became overly committed to the attack and lost all his army. He might have lost the battle, but the war is still going on. EarthLegacy again turtled up a mass of marines, and along with some tanks, he went for a heroic all-in, and this attack almost brought the City of BabyLasT to ashes! However, at the brink of breaking down, BabyLasT used his economic advantage to the greatest, and finally defended this attack, and saw the long wanted GG. Since a player change counted for one loss for team Legacy, BabyLasT’s win has brought NewBlitZ another 3 points.

      Next, EtdNostalie had shown us the true powers of a Grandmaster on the Mainland China server. In this ZvT, he was under constant pressure of Crazymartian’s Hellion opening/marine tank transition. Nonetheless, with his amazing sling/bling/muta micros, Nostalie prevented Crazymartian from gaining lead on the engagements. On the 2nd match, he even summoned the great Ultralisk to heat up the party, taking another win from Crazymartian.

      Lastly, our finaly Bo3 round, the ACE match PvZ with EtdYello v.s. EtdSun. Will they show any mercy to their former teammates? Apparently not, for Yello, actions are more than words, and showed our vast audiences how to shoot the sun down. In the two matches, both player went for an economic opening. But every time Sun tried to drone up more to gain a large lead economically, Yello came along, busting through his door, declaring dominance over his territory. Finally, NewBlitZ achieved a complete victory, taking every single point on the seven rounds.

      This Saturday, TCL4 will be bringing you Kamikaze versus Xeria Gaming! In the past two weeks, Xeria Gaming has already fought with the Champion and runner-up of TCL3. After losing their first match to StorM, they immediately proved themselves by a great come-back when encountering NWYD, leaving a great impression on the viewers along with the players. Compared to Xeria Gaming, this is team Kamikaze’s first appearance on the TCL series. However, we still have great expectations towards them, and we will definitely know more about them after this match. Kamikaze means “Divine wind” in direct translation from Japanese. Using such a name with supremacy, Kamikaze sure wants to achieve some great goals. Let’s first take a look at the player roster.

      On Xeria Gaming’s side, all of the players have been on the battlefield at least once this season, and we already know they are really competent players on the SEA server. Compared they Kamikaze, they sure have the advantage of more experience on the TCL games. As for team Kamikaze, most of them are active players on the Americas server, and of course, every one of them has achieved Masters Ranks! After looking at the players, we definitely need to take a look at the race match-ups. If you love to see civil wars, you are in luck! We have all three same-race match ups on 5 rounds of the total 7 rounds. Wanna see the heart grasping Zergling/Baneling wars? The extreme micros of PvP 4-gate? Or the ultimate confrontations of bio balls and mech armies? This is definitely the match to see. Will Xeria Gaming make Kamikaze pay their entrance fee, or will the new team from Japan show their courage? Everything will be on 11/19, 7:00 P.M. (GMT +08:00), be sure tune in!

      Ladies and Gentlemen, another AK (all kill) in our TCL season 4! Our first timer, Kamikaze, paid a great tribute to Xeria Gaming in this 3 hour long game. No matter what the match-up is, what maps they play on, Xeria Gaming completely dominated their opponent and showed us all a brilliant match. Today, they’ve finally proven themselves to the audience, that they are indeed a team to be feared.

Round 1, Bo1, Holon (Z) v.s. Azazel (Z) map: Daybreak
+ Show Spoiler +

Round 2, Bo1, Ash (T) v.s. Baron (Z) map: Xel’Naga Fortress
+ Show Spoiler +

Round 3, Bo1, MasterGoDx (P) v.s. Vendetta (P) map: Shattered Temple
+ Show Spoiler +

Round 4, Bo3, nemuke (T) v.s. JazBas (Z)
+ Show Spoiler +

Round 5, Bo3, PSiArc (T) v.s. iaguz (T)
+ Show Spoiler +

Round 6, Bo3, Crimson (P) v.s. Light (P)
+ Show Spoiler +

Last Round, Bo3, breek (Z) v.s. Mafia (Z)
+ Show Spoiler +

      After this game, Xeria Gaming gained 19 more points, and became first place in group A! I believe no one will dare to belittle this strong team anymore. Although being placed in the same group as last season’s Champion StorM, they will surely be able to play out some great matches! TCL, we will see you next Tuesday!