The round of 16 finished with a bang, Hint advancing beating Shuttle and Ample. Shuttle almost getting knocked out in the process. Mong beating hero might be considered an upset, but not really, hero getting knocked out because of his ZvT happens a lot. The biggest upset of the week was sSak getting knocked out of the tournament, losing to Lazy twice, only going 1-4 in total. The quarterfinals features favourites up against weaker opponents, there are however two possibilities of upsets. Read further to find out!

This is the first week that I haven't had to write recaps myself! It looks like our coverage is back on track thanks to kerpal and N.geNuity. Much thanks. The article starts with kerpal's recaps of group A,B, and D, with N.geNuity on group C. Read the recap here. The recaps are followed by the recommended VOD section, and closes with some previews of the quarterfinals by yours truly. The quarterfinals starts in !

*Scan was late and forfeited to the losers' match.

Lazy and sSak opened on Neo Electric Circuit with a steady macro game. Lazy could perhaps have pressured better in the midgame, but sSak took advantage of the passivity to take a fast fourth. Seeing this, Lazy pressed forward but was unable to deny the Terran expansion. Lazy struggled to level the economic playing field due to good vulture aggression by sSak, and another failed attack against the Terran fourth. Switching tactics, Lazy used aggressive recalls to harass while finally getting back on a good economic footing. After much sparring back and forth, sSak attempted to break the Protoss sixth base (one of only two still mining) but in return lost his own fourth, which was his only remaining source of income. Lazy was able to defend and so won the game. In game two Lazy chose to open with DTs after his expansion on New Wind and Cloud, but sSak was fully prepared in time, while building up for a strong two base push. Lazy was contained despite his fast arbiters and was unable to break out. Lazy was forced to tap out.

Lazy went back to a safe and slow three base play for the third game, which was well suited to a map that makes it difficult for Terran to rush a third base. sSak tried to take an island third, which opened him up to harassment as Lazy took a fast fourth and fifth, and began to transition to carriers. Lazy traded his ground army efficiently with good storms and switched into heavy carrier production. sSak attempted to push out but was crushed by a speed zealot templar force. Knowing the carriers were coming, sSak conceded the game.

Terror was given a walkover after Scan failed to show up, sending us straight to the winners' match. Lazy once again used the map to go corsair reaver, which Terror fought with mutalisks and scourge. Catching Lazy's first shuttle for free Terror was able to control the corsair count and subsequently the game. Although Lazy stabilized, he was in no position to contest the game.

sSak was gearing up to play the final match against Lazy when Scan finally arrived, and a gracious Sonic allowed him to play, although lag issues forced Sonic to cast from sSak's stream.
sSak played very aggressively, killing a number of Scan's SCVs and using his scouting barracks to trap Scan's army outside his main. Both players transitioned to starports, but it was sSak's wraiths that were able to snipe Scan's dropship. Scan fell too far behind, and chose to throw in the towel.

sSak and Lazy met again for a best of three final match that should hold few surprises. Again sSak chose to take a very fast third on New Electric Circuit, and Lazy responded with a reaver and a fast double expand when sSak's defenses proved too strong. Lazy's aggression was enough to defeat sSak's tanks, but not enough to defeat the SCVs that joined the fight.
sSak held Lazy to four bases with vultures while securing a fourth for himself, but when Lazy put sSak's defenses to the test they crumbled. sSak surrendered his fourth and was driven back into his natural. sSak fought on valiantly, but even though he was able to re-establish a fourth, Lazy took almost every other base on the map, and counter attacked with recalls to force sSak out of the game.

In the second game, once again macro is played and once again sSak falls short and Lazy wins. Two series were played that day and it really seemed like Lazy had sSak's number, in an upset victory. Considered by many as the best TvP'er on Fish, sSak has been shown up here 4-1 and knocked out in the round of 16.






hero vs. Mong is the matchup that will decide this group, and both players demonstrate their discomfort in the first game. Both hero and Mong seem hopeful that chance will throw them an easy win and both suffer for it in the early game. Mong's mech play is heavy on vultures but low on damage done, while hero's hydra drop play seems to be lacking the sort of magic it takes to break through the turtle's shell. hero has no answer to Mong's slow creep style and Mong takes the game easily.
Mong attempts a tech build of some sort in game two, but it is never fully revealed as he combines a low unit count with over aggression and is killed by about twelve zerglings. In game three Mong goes CC first, which hero is able to delay with his drone while responding by going for three hatcheries and gas before pool. In the midgame hero launches a devastating backstab which might have set him far ahead, except that he leaves his third open to being sniped by five marines. hero reaches hive in plenty of time, but is unable to contest Mong's control of the map. Stuck on four bases against five-going-on-seven hero is unable to compete.

Game one on Neo Electric Circuit is exactly what you would expect from Killer's ZvP. He makes drones, he makes zerglings, Pusan tries every trick in the book but still leaves the game shortly after Killer takes a fourth base.
In fact, I wrote that during Sonic's 'message from our sponsor', and it turned out that in fact Pusan fought a long and at times epic battle for the first map, secured a fourth and was even able to do some good storm-drop harass. Not that he was ever going to win, but still. In game two Killer attempted a zergling bust. Pusan was able to defend it, although Killer did get some zerglings into the main. Killer recovered with a mutalisk midgame. Pusan was able to take a third, and he was also able to drop four dark templar into Killer's main and destroy everything, but he wasn't able to prevent Killer from smashing his army in the middle of the map and then leveling his third. He won all the wrong battles and lost the war decisively.

If Killer wasn't playing, you might be forgiven for thinking that ZvT was a hard matchup to play. Killer demonstrates that the better player will always find a way. Killer is better at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end, demolishing the mech play that made hero look so helpless. A great one to watch for anyone who doesn't like Mong too much. Pusan put Killer to the test on this map, and was perhaps hoping that hero would fail where Killer succeeded. Unfortunately for Pusan, he doesn't scout that well and hero kills him dead. hero looked like he was preparing for a fast lurker build, and made a few early hydras. Pusan was hoping to go reavers, but made only a single cannon and looked very silly.

Once again, hero's ZvT faces the relatively tame challenge of beating Mong, arguably the fourth best TvZ player on Fish. hero plays to his strengths by opening two hatchery mutalisk build and getting a number of SCV kills. Mong attempts to be aggressive before vessels and finds out the hard way why it is that Terran didn't used to do that ("Lurkers? What lurkers? Oh! THESE lurkers"). hero uses Neo Electric Circuit's extra minerals to make zerglings in throngs, smashing Mong's push so convincingly that defilers are out and laying dark swarm in Mong's natural before he can escape. Mong gg's out of the game.

Having been schooled by Killer in the winners' match, and again there by hero, Mong is looking for his mojo. It remains elusive as he misreads hero's fake hydra den and so loses many of his SCVs as he scrambles to build turrets. Mong catches a break when his drop successfully snipes hero's defiler mound, and again when hero remakes a hydralisk den instead of a defiler mound. By the time hero discovers his mistake there is no recovering.

With everything on the line the third game is a cagey affair with both players keeping it as safe as they can. Still, when Mong pushes towards hero's third, he is able to kill the lurkers and the third. hero does a good job of trading down Mong's tank count, but Mong is playing lategame TvZ against hero's early midgame ZvT. hero makes an attempt at holding on, but Mong is too far ahead.






Group C in the round of 16 posed the question of whether the tosses Tyson and Hi could match up against the offbeat timing attacker HiyA and back-to-back-to-back SRT champ Sea. Tyson and Hi both scraped by in second place in their groups full of relatively cheesy play.

The first series tested whether the amateur Hi could stack up against the SOSPA staple HiyA. Hi came out playing the odds blindly and going for a proxy gateways and cyber core on Neo Electric Circuit. HiyA suspected something was up and actually turned his scouting SCV around to check for the proxy. HiyA had been going for a two factory build anyways, and setting up a bunker and siege mode he defended a goon attack easily. Spotting a zealot, HiyA knew that gas was being spent on tech, but Hi showed the resilience of a Protoss dedicated to cheese horticulture. Hi took down HiyA’s depot in the wall-in and got in the base with DTs, eventually giving him the game.

In game two HiyA did a standard one fact expo, but made a fast push off of a second fact with three tanks and speed vultures in cross map positions. A fierce micro battle resulted in HiyA keeping all three of his siege tanks alive outside of Hi’s natural, and siege mode completed to let him wipe out the expo and establish a small contain. Hi’s last hope was a reaver harass that never landed a much needed scarab shot on SCVs; as well as failing with a two shuttle two reaver harass attempt later on. From there, HiyA comfortably took out the attempted third bases of Hi, and won easily with superior forces.

In game three, Hi showed no intention of wanting to play a long game. Hi pressured with a zealot zealot goon opening from a slightly forward gateway, while HiyA did a typical mine expand. HiyA didn't get a scout of the main base, but did see no natural expo at the FD timing; mines in the front defended an attempted goon bust, and with siege finishing HiyA thought he was safe.



As HiyA moved out some, a four man DT squad charged in taking down the tanks, letting goons get into the base and kill the natural CC. HiyA didn't die though, and he set up a small squad of tanks on the low ground outside of Hi’s natural. Hi continually bled off units at his front, and small goon squads circling around to cut off reinforcements were instead taken out themselves. Eventually HiyA had too strong of a contain on Hi as he rendered the Protoss' third base unusable.

The second series began with Tyson opening with a 10/15 gate on Neo Electric Circuit that Sea scouted in plenty of time. Sea took his backdoor expo with a siege mode wall off at the front while Tyson backed off and double expanded. This set the tone of the game as both players tried to out expand each other, with Sea keeping up until four bases. Tyson quietly went to carrier tech as Sea maxed out with 2-1; Sea waltzed over to the Protoss natural, but was greeted by the carriers. Sea ran around taking out the fifth and sixth bases of the Protoss, but in the meantime the carrier force grew larger and Sea began to mine out (and lose his fourth to the carriers). Eventually, the carrier fleet proved too strong and backdoored their way into Sea’s factories as Tyson established expos around the map.

Game two with cross positions on New Wind and Cloud had an FD against the goon expo from Tyson, but Tyson did not scout Sea. With his first goons not able to slow down Sea from walking straight to the natural, Tyson needed his four goons to hold off the standard Terran early game push; however, two goons glitched up and let Sea get a fair number of probes in addition to trading army forces. Sea went to a three fact to followup with heavy speed vulture production to try to kill Tyson; after Tyson initially defending very well with eight goons, Sea established a siege position on the high ground won the game when Tyson eventually was forced to try to break out.

Game three was perhaps the best game of the night, as Sea opened with a gasless expo and took extra safe precautions. Tyson failed with a delayed DT drop harass after expanding, but Sea’s own dropship and vulture harass didn’t result in much. A six base Tyson vs a four base Sea commenced once again in this game, but things heated up when Tyson recalled into the island expo successfully and also failed a recall into Sea’s third. This left Tyson with very little units to actually combat Sea, who took out Tyson’s expansions on the left side of the map then moved to the bottom right. Tyson never had the full engagement he needed, and never had the high enough gateway count to just throw units away in uneven trades. After recalls on top of armies, storms, and scrappy fights, Sea starved out Tyson, despite having very little economy for himself at the end.



The losers' match between Tyson and Hi had a wonky game with DT vs DT PvP, that resulted in successful cannon defense vs. cannon defense. Hi began upgrades early and took his backdoor third a little bit earlier than Tyson, and both waited until they had large armies to engage. Tyson’s 0-0 goon and storm heavy army melted against a 2-0 Hi heavy on zealots and archons.

The winner set of HiyA and Sea was a quick TvT where HiyA went for two fact vultures into goliath, while Sea had gone for a one factory vulture vulture expand. Sea couldn't keep up with the production from HiyA, especially after having some delaying beginning a machine shop before realizing what was coming at him. Sea quickly lost.

The final set saw Hi go for a center gate gate core to try a dragoon bust against Sea. However, Sea had done a standard response of a siege expand with an engineering bay, letting the dragoon attack be defended just as HiyA had done but this time also stopping the DT followup easily.



Game two was cross positions on New Wind and Cloud, where Hi faced the same situation as Tyson had with four goons in his expansion vs. an FD push, but Sea actually messed up his micro this time. Hi went for a speed shuttle and reaver that died to turrets. Sea pushed to the Protoss third early on, but actually got cleaned up without much damage inflicted. Hi transitioned to carriers, but Sea was able to go ahead and take out the Protoss third and essentially kill the Protoss as carrier's were out of position killing Sea’s corner expansions. Sea grouped up some forces and easily took the game when the eventual final engagement occurred.






Again, we see Terran's taking advantage of the easy third available on Neo Electric Circuit to open mech against Zerg. Larva initially looks strong, defending the first push with well timed queens. Unfortunately he cannot take it into the late game and loses convincingly after some sloppy play. In game two Ample plays bio and Larva is unaccountably ill prepared, taking huge damage to a very standard marine timing. The game continues for form's sake, but Larva is really in no position to contest it and leaves just after his first lurkers are killed.

Hint opens some dark templar in game one, but Shuttle is ready with his observers in time. Not only that be he displays sublime progamer micro, tricking a zealot through the backdoor stacked temples to confirm. The game stabilises and becomes quite passive, with both players taking a fourth and attempting some light harassment. Shuttle is the first to dare aggression and takes a lead by canceling Hint's fourth while trading armies relatively evenly, but as Hint re-establishes he is able to delay Shuttle's attempts to take a fifth, keeping him in the game. Shuttle still has a tech advantage as he has added templar to augment his reavers, and Hint has no reavers still. Shuttle wins a series of engagements and his advantage snowballs out of control, winning him a well fought game. Game two sees Hint taking quick second base and defending well against Shuttle's goon reaver aggression. Cleverly opting to counter with a handful of dragoons when Shuttle pushes, forcing Shuttle in to a win or die situation. Hint is able to hold, and so secures the win as his counter attack ravages Shuttle's base.

Game three sees a return to standard play for PvP, and by that I mean nexus first for Hint and I don't play Protoss, but didn't Sayle once say something about how incredibly viable nexus first openings are? For all I know this is totally standard. Hint gets away with it, and to no-one's surprise (except Shuttle) follows up with DTs, getting a number of probes. Hint takes another play from the same book and hides an expansion. Then snipes Shuttle's third with zealots while securing a fourth. The inevitable engagement occurs some time later, with Shuttle having no real tech advantage (except a dark archon, which I think was more for the style points anyways) is unaccountably victorious. Look, go watch the game, maybe you can figure it out. Shuttle finally manages to scout the hidden base, snipes a nexus and for the first time is on even bases with Hint, and then loses almost immediately. I don't even.

Thankfully Hint and Ample are able to calm my confusion in the winners' game (apart from my confusion as to why a winners' game should contain Hint and Ample). Hint goes two base carrier and Ample makes a midgame switch into marine tank. I flip my writing desk and Hint storms to victory. Figuratively.

In a game which neither Hint nor Ample can confuse, Larva faces Shuttle to stay in the tournament. Shuttle boldly chooses to play corsair reaver, which Larva counters with burrow plays. Larva defends well but is delayed in taking a fourth base, and still has a pure hydralisk army when Shuttle pushes out, making a head on engagement foolish. Possibly worried about going into the lategame on even bases, Larva tries to break Shuttle's natural, but is flanked by the returning Protoss army, losing everything. Larva's only advantage now is his good zergling upgrades. Shuttle's storms are good, but cracklings repopulate faster than storms. After some back and forth, Shuttle adds reavers back into his force and is able to take the game.

Lastly, we see Ample vs. Shuttle for the final best of three series. In game one Ample is able to take the advantage in the midgame and although Shuttle fights a valiant refugee battle he is finally defeated. In game two Shuttle is initially driven back by an early push from Ample, but he is able to break the siege contain with his first shuttle. Ample, however was not overcommitted, so is able to hold the fast third base he secured. Shuttle is playing catch up but nonetheless smashes Ample's next push and denies his attempt to take a fourth. Shuttle plays out a long and effective macro game, and despite impressive resistance from Ample he is ultimately able to close out game two. Ample has shown impressively steady TvP in this series, going blow for blow with what was widely regarded as the best PvT with Movie on Fish until Bisu and JangBi returned to muddy the waters. With everything on the line in game three, the two engage in yet another PvT of epic proportions. Shuttle repeatedly denies Ample's fourth and finally switches to carriers as Ample mines out. Ample concedes the game as they are revealed.

In this new section we list all the good games from the previous stage of the tournament for your viewing pleasure! The games are handpicked by me, KristofferAG, and kerpal, the games are in no particular order. Enjoy!

Wow Lazy, just wow. That round of 16 group performance was not something I was expecting. Prior to the group Lazy's PvT was sub 40%, with 0-4 lifetime stats against sSak. Lazy ends up going 4-1 against sSak. How? Through cheese and Protoss with their invisible bullshit you might think, I certainly did. Apparently none of that happened. Lazy won four solid macro games. HiyA did really well in his round of 16 group, only losing to some already mentioned Protoss stuff in his opponent Hi. Winning against Sea in the winners' match was the highlight. With his 4-0 against Shuttle in last seasons round of 16 group solidifies his talent in TvP with amazingly sharp timing attacks early on.



HiyA is 7-2 lifetime against Lazy, with the most recent six games all going in HiyA's favour. I fear for HiyA's life though, he has a tendency to get crazy (another word for stupid) losses against Protoss. Lazy is an MBC Toss and they are infamous for inducing dumb losses, especially when they have been playing well, they are bound to disappoint. It could either be a close call or HiyA could stomp, depending on what the MBC gods have to say about it. Lazy could upset, and this could very well be one of the last chances HiyA gets to go to another grand final.

Lazy 2-3 HiyA.



Terror advancing to the quarterfinals, going 2-0 in both of his groups is not exactly something I expected. The explanation is simple. He has only played three games in total. But, he is 4-0 out of his groups and those included best of three's, how does that add up? In the round of 32 Hi had trouble with his mother and Terror got a game given to him for free and the second game was an early pool into gg. He later won against Zeus in the winners' match. In his round of 16 group Scan didn't show up and he went straight to the winners' match winning against Lazy instead of losing to sSak who should have been there to knock him out. Terror should outright not be here. Sea on the other hand is most deserving of being here. Sea is 7-2 so far in the tournament. He is about to be 10-2.



Sea has a 70%+ win rate against Zerg, and has won three finals against Killer. No Zerg can win against Sea. The discussion ends here. Sea will end up in the semifinals, we might see yet another gold. Five times, here we go.

Terror 0-3 Sea.



I'm so mad that Hint advanced, him 2-0'ing this group is incomprehensible for me. Hint isn't good enough to be in another quarterfinals. At least with ZeLoT, he is this goofy guy that always does this hilarious stuff, he has his charm. Hint doesn't have that going for him, he is like Shine, destroying better players and fan favourites with stupid builds that are no fun. Shuttle vs. Hint is a rematch of the second match in their recently played round of 16 group. Shuttle played amazing in his round of 32 group, winning against Killer and 2-0'ing the group. In his round of 16 group he was close to getting knocked out, losing initially to Hint 1-2, and almost losing in the final match against Ample.



Shuttle recently won against Sky, Brave, and Tyson. Hint winning the first time was a fluke. In a best of five Hint shouldn't stand a chance. He will cheese his way to two victories though, the score might look close in the end, but Shuttle winning the series is almost guaranteed. Please for the love of god don't lose Shuttle.

Hint 2-3 Shuttle.



Mong has actually played some really nice StarCraft as of late. Winning against Sky and Cola in his round of 32 group convincingly, and losing one game to a cheese from Scan. In his round of 16 group he played two amazing series against hero, and got crushed but Killer, but that's not something we can blame him for. Had he gone up against anyone but the ones I have picked to advance he would have destroyed them. Unfortunately for him, he won't stand a chance against Killer. Killer has been playing his way through the group stages without much fluff. Only losing to Shuttle, period. Him and Sea are the only ones that can stop him that are left in the tournament.



Mong is 5-14 lifetime against Killer, with his most recent wins in April and March. Getting so crushed on such a map as Neo Electric Circuit, which is greatly favoured in TvZ, isn't helping his case. I find it hard to see Mong winning even one game. The games will probably be pretty good though. I look forward to seeing Mong trying to win one.

Killer 3-0 Mong.