The first semifinal series opened on Destination with trutaCz at the twelve o'clock and Andreyy at the six o'clock. Both players opened gas first, but the Terran remained in the dark after a choice to ebay block the Zerg natural with his first SCV.

The builds developed into one-base starport versus two-hatch muta, and the unupgraded marines of andrey struggled to hold the first wave of aggression. The Polish Zerg pressed his advantage with plus-one air and committed to the attack. Andreyy was forced into an increasingly desperate defence. Finally, the marines engaged with the support of a single irradiate that threatened to put a stop to the harassment. In a pivotal moment of misfortune, the spell was cast just as its target died, resulting in a waste of the precious vessel's energy. trutaCz then cleaned up his opponent's army with trademark impeccable control, and Andreyy was forced to surrender.

Neo Aztec hosted the next game of the series, where trutaCz's nine pool stood against Andreyy's two barracks opening. The Terran easily blocked the early pressure and he then moved to abuse the reverse ramp at the natural with a bunker rush. The Zerg sent a drone drill to support his low zergling count, but was funneled to a slaughter by the well-positioned marines. A second round of zerglings moved to save the natural hatchery, and that wave surrounded the bunker and drew its fire. In a moment of clutch decision making, Andreyy unloaded the marines and targeted the weakened hatchery. He managed to kill it before the zerglings could finish their job.

Down to one base and a with a crippled worker line, trutaCz made a desperate investment in lurkers against the strengthening Terran one-base marine and medic force. Andreyy built a bunker in his natural, faking an expansion, but trutaCz managed to engage efficiently and break the position. With knowledge that his opponent was weakened, the Zerg retook his natural and prepared to enter the midgame on decent footing. However, he had no response to a medic marine drop that razed his tech structures and secured a Terran victory.

The deciding game of the series opened on Fighting Spirit with a twelve hatch at the four o'clock and a fast factory at the one o'clock position. Andreyy raced to goliaths in order to support a pure mech composition, but this left him vulnerable to early hydralisk zergling pressure that denied his natural. trutaCz then added substantial mutalisk support to his ground forces outside of the Terran main and he moved in for the kill. The goliath force, not yet at critical mass and struggling to engage against a varied Zerg army, was unable to keep the swarm at bay. As his factories burnt to the ground, Andreyy conceded the game and the first spot in the finals.


The first game of the series opened up on Destination with EnjoYmE as Protoss at the twelve o'clock position and Zaraki as Zerg at the six o'clock. EnjoYmE opened with a forge-cannon-cannon-gateway build that featured a rather inefficient placement of his structures. Zaraki capitalized on this weakness with a large zergling run-by after an overpool opening. That force largely survived its journey into the main based and cleaned up the probe line. With his base and economy devastated, the Protoss conceded defeat.


The second game on Neo Aztec put our Protoss hero at the 12 o'clock and his Zerg opponent at the four o'clock. EnjoYmE opened with a nine pool gas trick against a forge-cannon-cannon-nexus build. Both players feinted a bit of pressure, but they allowed the game to progress to a standard corsair and templar versus scourge and hydralisk midgame. Zaraki held off the plus-one zealot pressure at his third with good defensive preparation and control, and both players expanded in the aftermath of that event. The Protoss takes a comfortable supply lead and moves towards the Zerg's third again, which by then heavily defended with sunkens and lurkers. The attack hit hard with great storms, but the entrenched position was too strong in the end and the attack was broken before it could do economic damage. Meanwhile, a hydra lurker backstab destroyed the Protoss third. EnjoYmE survived, and he was able to maintain a supply lead and reestablish his lost base. His opponent, in the meantime, invested in hive tech and thus he gained a solid upgrade lead. As the Protoss expanded again, both players went after each other's thirds again, but only Zaraki was successful. With no response to ultralisks and zerglings with defiler support, the German lost his fourth and was knocked out of the first qualifier.


The first game of the first qualifier's finals pit Zaraki at the twelve o'clock against trutaCz at the six o'clock on Destination. The Polish Zerg opened with a none-pool against his opponent's twelve-pool expand. Zaraki invested in zergling speed and lost two early drones to ling pressure.

His opponent teched straight to mutalisks, gaining a large window of air control. Although spore colonies kept the Spanish Zerg alive against the mutalisk pressure, they were unable to prevent a combined zergling and mutalisk force from taking control of his ramp and chipping away his workers and infrastructure. Excellent micromanagement against a mutalisk counter and several waves of scourge sealed the victory for trutaCz.

The second game opened on Neo Aztec, perhaps coincidentally, with a nine-pool gas build from Zaraki at the nine o'clock and a twelve-pool expand from trutaCz at the twelve o'clock. Zaraki was unable to deal damage with his initial zerglings he was forced to tech to mutalisks with the support of only a single gas. Behind in economy and unsuccessful with his anti-scourge micro, Zaraki moved a large army of slow zerglings toward his opponent in the hope of catching his opponent off-guard. When he was unable to do so, both players saw an opportunity for harassment and they went after each other's mains. The larger air force of trutaCz easily did greater damage, and his opponent acknowledged the situation with a GG.





In a scene that has often seen a shortage of Terran players, Andreyy has been a reliable source of high level, interesting and occasionally calamitous Terran play in the TLS. His opponent Cosy has consistently made strong runs into the later stages, so this promised to be a close fight in the round of 16.

On Fighting Spirit Andreyy spawned at the 1 o clock and Cosy at the 5 o clock. The game started with an early pool for the Zerg, to which dredre responded oddly by placing a bunker next to his command centre rather than blocking his ramp. He then moved into a 1-base build with 2 barracks and stim while Cosy safely defended against with 4 sunkens at his natural while teching up to 3 hatch mutalisks.

Andreyy took his natural and pushed out with a powerful marine force, catching some mutalisks and attacking Cosy’s third base ramp just before lurkers hatched. With some beautiful micro, dredre took out lurkers, zerglings and mutalisks to finish the fight with only 3 marines, one of which had 12(!) kills. However, as reinforcing Zerg forces streamed in, the group of marines which had rushed to help ended up dying suicidally to lurkers, ending the threat.

As the game developed, the Zerg reached defilers and took a fourth base while Terran units massed outside. Andreyy attempted to elevator his army into Cosy’s third base, narrowly avoiding a second scourge hit to his only dropship, but good plagues and swarm made the attack a failure. It looked as though Terran could be in serious trouble as vessels exploded and marines died, but behind the attack Andreyy had taken a fourth base and made a mech switch. As Cosy went to take the 9 o clock expansion, Terran tanks and marines moved out to block it. A sexy emp on a defiler made the attack very close, but the Terran was forced back with heavy losses.

After stabilising, Cosy launched repeated ultraling attacks towards the 11 o clock. These were met by huge minefields and tanks on the high ground but there was action everywhere as Cosy maintained the pressure and also dropped a large force into dredre’s main while dredre shut down a Zerg expansion at the 3 o clock. The drop wreaked havoc and also arrived just in time to spot the first battlecruisers emerging. These moved over to the 9 o clock expansion. Every drone fell, but plaguu and hydralisks got rid of the battlecruisers before they destroyed the hatchery.

Now on 6 bases, Cosy made a concerted attempt to attack Andreyy’s natural, but was held off by the 4 base Terran mech. Undeterred, Cosy retook the 3 o clock and also took the centre expansion, prompting dredre to push towards the 9 o clock with a powerful tank-marine force. Cosy’s vast swarm was able to crush the attack and then flood into the 11 o clock, leaving Andreyy with no mining bases. After an excellent game of non-stop aggression from both players, the Terran surrendered to allow Cosy to move onto the quarterfinals.


In the first semifinal on Destination, Doty fast expanded against a 9pool from Kenzy. Kenzy managed to run 3 zerglings past the cannons, but some effective probe control meant that Doty did not lose a single probe and the zerglings died without fulfilling their potential.

Kenzy decided to go straight for lurkers off his 3 bases while only using his spire for scourge. He attempted to run lurkers and zerglings behind the probe line at the Protoss natural but Doty was on the ball and was able to block them with probes and zealots before they could move past the cannons. In response to the lurker threat, Doty build a reaver as well as building up his corsair fleet to counter the mutalisk switch of Kenzy.

Kenzy hatched a large number of scourge to deal with the corsairs and shuttle, but Doty had no intention of going for reaver harass. Instead, he produced as many dragoons as possible, and marched towards Kenzy’s third base with a terrifying force of dragoons and corsairs, supported by a reaver. The mutalisks were unable to do much to stall the attack, and Doty was able to take a good position to fight Kenzy’s small hydra-lurker force. The Protoss army crushed through, took out the third base, and Kenzy gg’d.

The second game was on Neo Aztec. We saw an overpool from Kenzy which prompted Doty to attempt a pylon block at Kenzy's expansion, but the probe arrived fractionally too late. Kenzy took a quick 3 bases while Doty fast expanded. However, instead of the standard quick stargate Doty started his citadel extremely early. This was followed by 4 gateways, as Doty showed his intention to hit Kenzy with a quick +1 speedzealot attack. Kenzy was entirely unaware of what was happening, as he continued to produce drones.

As Doty moved out with his initial attack Kenzy realised what was going on and quickly built emergency sunkens and as many hydralisks as possible. The battle at the Zerg third base was very close as the zealots quickly took down the 2 sunkens before reinforcing hydralisks and zealots fought a back and forth battle. The closer reinforcement route for Kenzy meant that he was just able to take the fight, as he demonstrated sound mechanics and unit control.

However, Doty did not intend to give Kenzy any respite as he swiftly transitioned into 2 stargate corsairs. These were mildly successful, killing a number of overlords before the scourge and mutalisks of Kenzy pushed them away. This was followed up by a massive zealot-templar attack which again pushed into Kenzy’s third base and was barely held at bay. Doty was doing a masterful job of keeping the Zerg off balance, and now swept in with a large corsair fleet to destroy large numbers of overlords which supply capped Kenzy, while Doty took his own third base. Doty now had a large supply lead and map control while Kenzy held a strong defensive position above his ramp with lurker-hydra.

A drop into Doty’s main pulled Doty out of position while Kenzy moved the rest of his army out towards the Protoss natural. Clearing his main was expensive, but Doty was able to do so and then had just enough force remaining to break out through the contain at his natural. At this point, Doty was holding 5 bases against 3 for the Zerg and after a failed final drop attempt, kenzy gg’d out of this excellent semifinal.


The players faced each other on Destination. Non opened with an unusual 2 barracks build against a 2 hatch lair from Octzerg. Non built an early factory, and walked an early force of marines towards the Zerg natural which took Octzerg by surprise. A nice drone surround and zerglings were able to finish them off for the loss of his lings and 2 drones. However , a second force of marines was less successful as they were met by more zerglings and despite nice micro, only one marine survived.

Octzerg was in a strong position at this point. His mutalisks hatched and looked as though they would be able to deal some severe damage to Non. However, Non was able to perform an efficient defence with turrets and marines. Octzerg’s mutalisk micro was not good enough to overwhelm the Terran and after science vessels came out, Non was able to inflict heavy damage and move out of his base. Repeated irradiates were too much for Octzerg’s remaining mutalisks and the firepower of Non’s marines allowed him to knock out Octzerg’s third base and brought him to the bridges of the Zerg. Octzerg held off Non by building 5 sunken colonies.

The game looked like it was all but over, but a mutalisk attack at Non’s natural destroyed the command centre and every scv there before Non was able to retake control. Octzerg had also managed to tech up to hive and build some guardians, but the spiralling number of science vessels meant that they were annihilated. After he retook his natural, Non was able to irradiate all of his own vessels to erase all of the drones. This ensured that Octzerg could not complete an impressive comeback and left him with no choice but to surrender.

The second game on Aztec began with a 9pool from Octzerg. This threatened to be game-ending, but despite no blocking scvs excellent marine positioning meant that the zerglings died without achieving much. Non then decided to make a quick factory and 2 starports for mass wraiths. The wraiths were able to destroy a reasonable number of drones, but the hydralisk numbers were swelling. As soon as his speed upgrade completed, Octzerg sent a force of hydralisks towards Non’s base. These killed the defensive bunker very rapidly, and were only held off at the cost of numerous scvs.

Non managed to take his natural, and despite Octzerg’s threatening mutalisk switch, valkyries and turrets ensured that they could not do much damage. A follow-up lurker attack halted mining at the natural before tanks on the low ground were able to deal with the danger.

Another lurker attack into the natural killed a number of scvs and again halted mining before it was eventually cleared out. Meanwhile, Octzerg had taken a third base and decided to go for a drop into the main of the Terran while taking a fourth. Although Non held on for a while longer, Octzerg’s defilers were able to swarm the natural. Relentless Zerg aggression wore him down and ended the game shortly afterwards.

The deciding semifinal game between these players was on fighting spirit. Both players opened standard with a 12 hatch for Octzerg at 7 o clock vs a 1 rax expand for Non at 5 o clock. Non stole Octzerg’s gas and then strolled out to Octzerg’s natural with his initial 5 marines. Some poor marine control made them less effective than they had been on destination and they died easily to drones and a handful of lings. Octzerg decided to counterattack with a large speedling force but some effective repair and well-timed firebats allowed Non to clean them up without losing more than a few scvs.

Octzerg then secretly expanded to the 12 o clock and held off an ill judged attack on his natural with 5 sunkens. Mutalisks and lurkers gave Octzerg map control and allowed him to take a fourth base at the 11 o clock. However, despite being in the dark about the fourth base, Non built up a powerful push with 3 tanks and a vessel and was able to break into Octzerg’s natural. They destroyed the defiler mound before consume completed and then ran into the main base, taking out all the tech buildings. Although Octzerg rebuilt what he could at his 11 o clock and attempted to counter with 2 ultralisks and some lurkers, Non’s overwhelming position forced Octzerg to gg.


In the first game on Destination, Doty clearly had a plan. He began by stealing Non’s gas and sending zealots to harass. The first zealot managed 2 kills before dying, and forced Non to build a larger number of marines than he would have liked. Non was then able to float out his second command centre, building a bunker at the bridges to defend. Crucially, the early pressure meant that the Terran had no detection, and Doty had no intention of allowing Non to stabilise and take advantage of his faster expansion. He was following up his aggressive opening with proxied gateways to produce dark templar. When they arrived Non had no way to fight back and after Doty destroyed the machine shop before mine research could finish, Non was forced into the early gg.

In the second game on Aztec, Non decided to fight cheese with cheese, building a second barracks in his natural. This was scouted by Doty who built a forge for cannons, but the scv pull began just as the cannon was started. It looked like the game might end there and then, but a moment of delay from Non as he reorganized his scvs outside Doty's natural meant that the cannon completed and the Terran scv train was forced to turn around.

At this point, with a large number of marines and no factory, Non had few options. He decided to expand behind a bunker while Doty teched up to reavers, but Non was far behind as his factory was only just beginning construction. Doty walked into Non’s natural with his reaver, dragoons and zealots, crushing the meagre force of marines and the single medic to win the game and qualify for TLS3!












That about wraps it up for this week's coverage of the TLS. Be sure to tune in this Saturday and Sunday at 17:00 GMT (+00:00) for another exhilarating cast. If you missed last week's cast, you can catch the VODs for Qualifier #1 and Qualifier #2.

Players. It's your time to shine! Registration is open for Qualifiers #3 and #4.



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