[ThSL] Round of Eight Preview

The first game of the Ro16 started off on Circuit Breaker, GTR opened with a one-gate-core expand, while intrigue opted for something a little more sinister – going one-fact with a second proxy fact inside GTR's main. However an in-base scout forced intrigue to cancel the proxy. Intrigue continued her two-fact back at home while she faked an expansion with a bunker and tank at the natural. Vultures massed, intrigue moved out and forced her way into GTR's main, laying mines around the base. Goons rushed back to defend against the harass, probes scurried towards the natural, crossing paths with the goons as they arrived up the ramp, unfortunately this triggered two mines and instantly wiped out all the probes.



GTR wasted no time and moved on to the next game.

Game two took place on Fighting Spirit, both players opened with the same build, intrigue elected another aggressive build, this time using a starport. The vulture harass continued but GTR kept his cool this time and dealt with it. With his third up, he replenished any lost probes quickly. Meanwhile, intrigue grabbed a third factory and, while still on the one base, attempted to set up a small contain with mines and a single tank. In spite of intrigue's efforts, GTR easily broke through with his superior goon count.

Intrigue finally decided it was time to expand, more vulture harass attempts were made but yielded little results. At that point GTR's supply doubled that of intrigue's, so he mass-expanded, adding more production facilities while his units completely surrounded intrigue. Unable to move out, intrigue started building dropships. Unfortunately, as her dropships flew out, half were blown out of the sky by goons; the dropship numbers continued to fall as they flew into enemy troops and soon intrigue was left with just a lone dropship. Realizing it wouldn't do much she typed out, taking it to a third and final game.

Tau Cross is the final battlefield for the two moderators, GTR opened with the ever-popular 10/15, while intrigue went three-fact with a starport, looking to take advantage of the platforms overlooking the natural. GTR struck early and broke through the natural and into the main, SCVs were pulled with mines and tanks used to hold off the assault, meanwhile intrigue had dropped tanks at GTR's natural cliff while his vultures attacked the third, both expansions fell while intrigue retook his natural after clearing out the assault. GTR did the same and quickly replaced his natural, starting up another third at five o'clock. intrigue spotted the faraway third and took the opportunity to keep GTR’s probe count low via vulture harass. GTR attempted a counter attack, but at the costs of his own expansion. GTR then scrambled to take another base, opting for the far away five o'clock once again, all the while intrigue macro'ed up with his superior economy. intrigue moved out for a final attack, storms casted along with stasis but the Terran firepower proved too much. intrigue made his way to GTR's last mining base and began the demolition, GTR rushed over but lost more units to stray mines and further weakened his military strength. Without any means to stop intrigue’s force, GTR typed out.


The former BW strategy moderator opened with a forge-expand, while the haiku grandmaster settled on a twelve pool. Two probes would delay Trozz from putting down his natural hatch until lings arrived. Chill then transitioned into his four-gate-two-archon build, except with five gates instead. Trozz got his lair as he transitioned into three hatch muta. A decent number of zealots headed out towards Trozz’s third where they found sunkens and mutas flying over, without a large enough force Chill moved his units towards the natural where an archon joined in the fight and decimated the mutas. Amidst all the chaos a DT slipped into the main and went to work on the drones. The archon destroyed the natural and the main was left a wasteland by the DT strike, Trozz had no choice but to attempt a counter attack with his remaining mutas. However, much of the damage was mitigated by cannons and the growing number of goons. The game looked bleak for Trozz as the archon and DT duo continued to tear down buildings in the main.

Chill assembled his goon and zealot brigade, moved out, and dealt the final blow without much opposition.



Game two took place on Sins Peak of Baekdu, Chill awkwardly forge expanded and even had the audacity to cannon rush, Trozz held it off easily enough and retaliated – trading all his lings for Chill’s cannons. Chill built on his awkward forge-expand with other buildings as he shifted into sair/reaver. Trozz continued with his four-hatch hydra. Reavers allowed chill to take his third rather easily while he slowly accumulated his force. Trozz, having lost to mass reavers before, attempted to end the game early with a large speedlord-hydra drop, which might have won him the game had Chill not seen the blob of overlords and used his corsairs to obliterate the entire drop along with the payload.

Trozz quickly took his fourth as he raced up the tech tree. Chill decided it was time to move out, and denied Trozz's fifth base while he took his fourth and continued pumping reavers. Chill's reavers, with the help of d-web, blew Trozz's army away and allowed him to defend against cracklings under swarm with relative ease. Trozz made every effort to stop Chill – plagues, ensnare, devourers, guardians, dark swarm – but Chill continued his path of destruction and levelled every base he came across with frightening speed. Trozz fought on, but his resources ran low and his bases were few. Meanwhile, Chill massed game-ending carriers back home. Trozz mustered for one final attack, but alas Chill’s reaver firepower proved too potent and Trozz typed out.


The only PvP in the Ro16, Kiante opted for an economic build, the twelve nexus. 2Pac opened with one-gate, skipped the zealot, and got a core instead.

On scouting the fast expansion, 2Pac threw down two more gates and started pumping out goons. Kiante's zealots scouted the three-gate, which prompted him to plant cannons at his natural.

2Pac‘s goons tried, and failed, to bust down Kiante's cannons, so he transitioned into DTs with a shuttle to drop them in. However, Kiante had already produced some DTs of his own, using the DTs along with his goons he busted into 2Pac’s main.

2Pac sent his shuttle out despite the attack at his base, his last attempt to stay in the game was blown to pieces, literally, as the shuttle crossed over Kiante’s well placed goons.

In the second game, 2Pac stuck to his strengths and opened 1-gate with early zealot pressure, a steady flow of zealots streamed into Kiante's main, which ran amok and sniped probes constantly. 2pac followed this up by adding two more gates and a templar archive. Having cleared the threat from his main, Kiante attempted to strike back, but 2Pac’s three gates gave him reprieve. 2Pac’s DTs spawned and upon Kiante seeing the assassin’s silhouette he immediately typed out.



For the third and final game, the openings were reminiscent of the first; 2Pac went with the one-gate and an early scout that tipped him off, while Kiante’s build was the twelve nex yet again. Zealot pressure was applied, along with several disruptive manner pylons. Kiante kept his focus throughout, and continued to fight the zealots with his own. Eventually the cross-map distance permitted Kiante to outnumber 2Pac and reclaim his base.

Kiante's dispatched zealots gave him a glimpse of what was to come, mass goons, which sparked mass cannons at the natural.

2Pac quickly went on the offensive with several unsuccessful attempts at taking down the cannons. In a bold (and somewhat desperate) move 2Pac sent his entire control group to snipe the lone pylon powering all the natural defenses, but bold moves come with great risks and 2pac paid a dear price for the pylon – all of his goons.

A severe blow dealt to 2Pac’s army, Kiante took a third base without a worry and continued to grow his army, switching into offensive mode and overwhelming 2Pac’s natural. More reinforcements arrived and at that point not even 2Pac’s desperation-DTs could save him.


The first two games in this series concluded rather shortly. The first when Cambium was caught off guard by a tank-heavy two-fact while he was one-gate expanding, leaving him without sufficient units to deal with N.genuity's early blitz.

The second game was a little more interesting, Cambium boldly twelve nex’ed on Match Point. N.genuity attempted a bunker rush, but probes and zealots tore it down without much trouble. N.genuity followed with a two-fact but Cambium held the ramp with his zealots (micro-less vultures may have also played a part). Unable to inflict any damage to Cambium’s twelve nex, N.genuity immediately called it quits.



The third game ended up being longer than the first two combined. N.genuity opened with 1-fact into port, with the aim of harassing Cambium, while Cambium pressured with a two-gate. Marines deflected the early zealot harass, so Cambium turned up the heat, adding an extra gate and producing goons. N.genuity held the blitz using siege tanks, mines and his SCVs to block.

More harassment took place as the game progressed; players expanded and continued to lose workers and small portions of their armies in skirmishes.

Bizarrely, N.genuity decided to put down several extra CCs, at one point having more CCs than factories. Supplies grew and N.genuity felt it was time he moved out. This began a slow and methodical push that forced Cambium back and allowed him to tear down an expansion.

Cambium retaliated, heading north to an undefended expansion, and soon a large-scale base trade transpired, both players lost their mains along with all production facilities/tech. They then scrambled to take other bases to recuperate.
Cambium‘s mobility meant he was able to move around and take control of the map while N.genuity huddled up in his own corner and slowly built up his Terran strength.

Feeling sufficiently bolstered, N.genuity pushed out again, and another large-scale battle took place. Superior upgrades and some terrific use of both D-matrix and EMP swung the battle in N.genuity‘s favour, which led to more demolished Protoss expansions.

Cambium gathered his strength and waited for the right time to engage; when the time came, he dealt a severe blow to N.genuity‘s numbers, forcing the Terran commander back home.

N.genuity slowly regrouped once again, while Cambium played ‘find the Terran’s extra expansion’. Another Terran push resulted in another ruined Protoss expansion. Cambium maneuvered his units around the map, cutting off vital Terran reinforcements, and another small base trade ensued. Another engagement between the armies followed, great zealot bombs and a nifty surround quickly killed N.genuity‘s army. Another attack on N.genuity‘s last mining base meant he was all out of steam, one last engagement with a nice stasis finally brought the game to a close – Cambium stood victorious.





The first game started off with metal reproducing the standard forge-expand, while Kau, the pioneer of the ‘Kauncer Zerg’ play style, opened with twelve hatch. Some great probe harass led to two dead drones and a denied third. Kau slammed down his hydra den along with a spire and started researching ventral sacs for overlord drops. Two mutas were made in an attempt to mislead his Protoss foe, while a slowverlord dropped two lurkers inside Metal’s main, bypassing the cannons at his natural.

Metal eventually dealt with the lurkers, but more drops were planned. A group of speedlords arrived, this time with a larger payload. Unfortunately for Metal, he would move his forces away just as Kau made his drop. Lurkers and hydras unloaded and Metal hesitated a little too long to engage, which gave time for Kau to burrow his lurkers. When he did decide to engage, the lurkers shred his zealot-heavy army in to pieces.

More drops arrived and metal did the best he could to fight it off, but eventually lost his nexus as well as some vital tech. On the plus side he stopped Kau from taking his third multiple times with a hero DT.

Kau teched to hive and got his greater spire, the two mutas produced earlier made their transition into guardians and began bombarding the natural mineral line. Kau continued his campaign inside Metal's main, but some nicely placed storms and a few units allowed Metal to reclaim what was left of it. At this point, Kau still didn’t have his third up and Metal was distance mining with a hefty bank account. Metal patiently built up an army as he dealt with more drops and the guardian harass.

Kau would finally get his third base but it wouldn’t stay up for long, Metal moved out with his goon force and some high templar.

Storms wrecked large groups of hydras and goons leveled the third, cutting off resources. Kau suddenly found himself with neither money nor any means by which to stop Metal from invading the natural, resulting in a quick ‘gg’.



Game two started off with Kau sending out a drone right away, perhaps looking to proxy hatch, a tactic with which Kau has made something of a name for himself, between ThSL and the Gem League. The drone didn’t find Metal and was instead used to form a second base at five o’clock; Metal played out the forge-expand. Kau got his lair and a spire while Metal started planting pylons and cannons outside Kau’s natural, eventually securing that expansion for himself. Kau’s mutalisks took flight and harassed the main and natural, later completely destroying both. Metal turned the base at Kau’s natural into his new stronghold and surrounded it with cannons; he also took a second base. Kau teched to hive, built up a guardian force, and along with his hydras he busted Metal’s new main. Kau moved onto Metal’s second base but was stopped cold by cannons, mass storms and sairs.

Kau took a third but his drone count was dismal, as was his economy. Metal on the other hand had a large bank and happily mined from his two bases.

A frustrated Kau attacked again and finally broke through all the cannons at Metal’s base, proceeding to tear down the nexus. Metal massed gateways at the center and pumped out zealots, which overran Kau’s remaining hydras. Kau switched back to mutas, his last chance at success. Immune to zealots the mutas destroyed the pylons powering Metal’s gateways.

Unaware still of Metal’s hidden base (now heavily fortified with cannons) Kau couldn’t understand why Metal hadn't left the game, some chit-chat prompted Kau to search the map and upon finding Metal's hidden base Kau typed out.



Bioboy opened with nine pool gas and transitioned to hydra/lurk while Jonoman played out the forge-expand, made zealots and skipped the stargate. Aside from the odd poke and a storm drop here and there, both players were content with adding bases and building their armies. Eventually, Jonoman stepped it up a notch and ran zealots into Bioboy’s third where he sniped the hatchery. He kept the pressure up, sending his army out to finish the third, but some nice observer snipes meant he couldn’t penetrate further into the expansion without walking into well spread lurkers. So, Jonoman turned around and set his eyes on Bioboy’s natural. Zealots and goons charged in, defensive swarms were casted, lurkers/hydras came through the nydus but Jonoman was already in too deep with too many units wreaking havok. Bioboy quickly typed out and moved on the next game.

In the second game, Bioboy overpooled with the aim of getting lurkers while Jonoman forge expanded, again skipping sairs. Sunkens and lings deflected some early zealot pressure. Hatcheries were added. Jonoman storm dropped, but some great reaction time allowed Bioboy to pull his drones, unfortunately he put the drones back to work before the HT were eliminated and lost some unnecessarily. Both players expanded and Bioboy moved onto hive with double evo chambers and a defiler mound. Six speedlords made their way into Jono’s main and dropped cracklings/defiler directly over the nexus. Another group of lings/lurkers attacked Jonoman’s fourth under swarm. Despite some fantastic storms the base eventually fell. Bioboy made great use of his defilers, plaguing Jonoman’s army several times.
Bioboy began ultralik production and soon he had Jonoman on the run. Swarms were thrown all over the battlefield, which scattered Jonoman's army around the map, making them easily digestible for ultras/lings.
Bioboy continued his attack and at that point not even perfectly placed storms could stop the onslaught.



The final game took place on Match Point, Bioboy went overpool into four-hatch and lurkers, while Jonoman stuck with the forge-expand. Zealots moved out, but were unable to inflict any damage at the third or the natural, as they were well defended by sunkens and hydras. Lurkers moved out, but many were taken out by zealots before they could burrow. Both players expanded, Bioboy slammed down a spire and took to the skies with mutas. Jonoman went on the offensive and hit Bioboy’s third, Bioboy quickly dropped a fourth, but it was denied by Jonoman while he defended his own fourth from counter attacks. Jonoman set his eyes on Bioboy’s natural and began his attack, lurkers/lings/sunkens took the brunt of Jonoman’s force, storms decimated most of the lings and lurkers. Key observer snipes brought Bioboy some much needed time to reinforce his natural.

Cracklings were dropped in Jonoman’s main and were taken care of by fresh gateway units, but a subsequent crackling drop would take down Jonoman's fourth.

Jonoman brought fresh observers into the battlefield and resumed attacking Bioboy’s natural once again, this time with the help of a reaver. Bioboy threw swarms, plague, and anything else he had available to hold off the attack. Another counter drop by Bioboy proved to be ineffective, and Jonoman continued pounding the natural. Eventually, Bioboy couldn't reinforce fast enough and his defenses succumbed to the constant attacks. After three games Jonoman would subjugate his Zerg foe.


Eager to get their games out of the way, these two played before the new map pool was released and so the first game took place on God’s Garden. Drone went gate first while Skindzer twelve pooled into three-hatch hydra. Both players took their back door expansions. Drone managed to get a nice probe scout, which alerted him of the incoming hydras and he placed cannons at his ramp immediately.

Skindzer got his lair up and soon lurkers were morphed and burrowed at Drone’s natural. Little did Skindzer know, though, that Drone had snuck a probe out and had already secured another expansion down south. Drone snuck another shuttle out, this time holding two cloaked assassins. They were dropped into the natural and main and racked up 27 drone kills between the two before being eliminated. With a large enough army mustered, Drone broke out of the lurker contain, stormed his way into Skindzer’s natural and took the first game.



The second game took place on Destination, Skindzer went gas first, later getting a pool and researching burrow for some tricky play.

Lings were made and snuck around the back ramp with the mineral patch. Drone’s spotter pylon alerted him of the shenanigans and he reacted accordingly. Skindzer attempted the burrow-glitch but managed only to shift a pair of lings through the mineral patch, which eventually ended up dying to cannons. Another attempt to glitch lings were made but the results were similarly underwhelming. Skindzer then denied Drone’s third, in return Drone cannoned Skindzer’s natural mineral line behind the thin wall, which killed drones, cut off mineral patches and even destroyed the unfortunately placed hydra den. Drone macro'ed up and threw a dark archon into his mix. He mined out the back mineral patch and moved out, taking the mineral-only third along the way. Drone moved in on Skindzer’s third, heavily protected by sunkens and lurkers. Drone didn’t have detection; it would be suicide to attack in such fortification, but he was creative enough to used his dark archon to mind-control an overlord and subsequently moved in for the kill, leveling the expansion. Skindzer braced himself for the ensuing attack at his natural with simcity, sunkens, and more lurkers. Stuck on two bases, his natural's mineral line still being cannoned, things looked bleak for Skindzer. All the while, Drone was only getting stronger.

All things considered, Skindzer typed his Blade Runner soliloquy and bowed out gracefully before the last blow could be dealt, sending Drone into the next round.


In the only game to be played on Monty Hall, Redtooh attempted a proxy hatch at Rekrul’s natural, unfortunately for him this was quickly spotted by Rekrul’s floating rax (he chose Terran, we’re told, rather than Random), which set in motion defensive countermeasures. Rekrul planted his barracks next to the hatch and began making marines. Lings spawned and two sunkens were laid, but Rekrul would level all of it with a tank.

Redtooth expanded, adding his lair and spire, but it would all be for naught. Rekrul moved out and strolled into Redtooth’s main with his army (mostly made of anti-air units) and began razing the base. Redtooth made an effort to counter attack, but his chances of success were stifled by turrets and freshly spawned marines.



In the second game, played on Tau Cross, Rekrul (who chose Protoss this time) went for a one-base build, going gate first while Redtooth went nine pool speed. Zealots and probes blocked the entrance, which completely negated the early lings. Redtooth expanded and added a few hatcheries along with a hydra den. Rekrul secured his choke with cannons and made a scout that went out and hunted down several overlords. Eventually, Rekrul moved out to attack while taking his natural. Hydras and masterful simcity forced Rekrul to send his speedlots home.

Redtooth massed hydras and even made a flock of mutas, then decided that the time was right and he went on the offensive, using his mutas to snipe Rekrul’s HT. Rekrul got a few storms off which killed most of the mutas and severely damaged the few survivors. Hydras moved in but Rekrul had something up his sleeve, an arbiter appeared out of the blue and dropped a huge stasis, crystallizing most of Redtooth’s army. Zealots surrounded and killed the remaining hydras; high templar waited for stasis to wear off before rubbing out the rest of the hydras with storms.

Redtooth quickly took a third and got his queen’s nest up, while Rekrul rebuilt his force. Rekrul then maneuvered an arbiter into position at Redtooth’s main to recall a small task force. Storms destroyed large numbers of hydras, but Redtooth fought hard and recovered his main, he even saved his still-morphing hive.

However, Rekrul was relentless and had another army waiting; he took another expansion and moved out once more. Hydras huddled around the simcity as Rekrul invaded, storms slaughtered army and workers alike while the goons and zealots toppled buildings. Rekrul had conquered yet again, and was one step closer to getting his hands on the much-coveted TL stickers that lie at the end of the ThSL.






Rekrul:Hello.

Rekrul:There was this really funny Indian guy who coincidentally owned a bunch of 7-11's named Ned who I used to play poker with in Vegas every Summer at the WSOP. He had a screechy voice. He used to scream things such as "DON'T DO IT DANNNN" when he didn't want me to bet. One summer me and many friends had just got to Vegas and were all drinking at the Wynn poker room and Ned stormed in out of nowhere and screamed in his screeching voice from a distance as he walked up "DAAAAAAN!!! YOU GOT FATTTT!!!!" Everyone laughed at me and continued laughing even after he walked away at which point I said "F***ING NEDLY." No idea why I added a 'ly' to his name. I then subsequently made my video game ID's NeDLy in honor of that moment. Then everyone I know IRL all started calling me NeDLy somehow and it caught on like wildfire.

Rekrul:Of course I can go all the way, it's just a matter of doing it in style, but I think I might sacrifice style for solid builds or cheesy match-up picking/last second race switching if I feel like I have to. I want those stickers.

Rekrul:If Drone beats Kiante and I beat Cambium then me vs Drone would be a very volitile matchup. We both play Random and we both know how to do all-in and economy gamble builds so it could go either way. But I'm hoping Kiante beats Drone because stomping him would be very satisfying.

Rekrul:I've probably played like 50 games in the past 2 years before ThSL was announced on random BW binge days but since this tournament has started I've played a lot, particularly with you (2Pacalypse-) and my bet-game nemesis Smuft. My macro and micro are pretty bad since my peak as a player on Hexatron, but my knowledge of strats/builds and game sense has remained intact from watching Pro BW all these years. I don't know who'd win if my current self played against my old self RvR right now on current maps. My current self knows alot more about up to date BW strategy and likes to use gamble builds, would probably go 50-50 until my old self caught on.


Rekrul:Nothing in particular but I'm glad that’s the starting map. I have extensive experience on Requiem from when I played on Hexatron. Requiem was used very often in Proleague back then and also in OGN qualifiers. It is certainly the map I have seen the most interesting Pro games on in my life as well. Back when I first joined Hexatron, Assem had already been in Korea a while so he would own me like 80-90% of practice games. But then Daniel Lee came over one night and they were thinking about putting Assem out on that map in proleague for some reason (it is a very balanced map except P>T by a bit, which makes it a stupid choice but they were expecting a zerg I think). So Daniel made Assem play me to see how he'd fare vs. Toss just in case and I won 5-0 with Daniel watching. Assem was trying some 2/3-rax M&M timing attack build that the other Koreans had been practicing and I beat it with every type of PvT build on that map. Daniel was extremely displeased, Assem got benched, and Daniel told me I could take the night off and go out drinking. I felt bad for Assem because Daniel didn't realize that Assem's build simply sucked and P>T on that map but I didn't care LOL was ready for some ACTION.

Rekrul:Protoss is my best but I generally play random for fun. My off-race matchups are all pretty good but vs. people around my skill-level I have trouble ZvP (how the fk do you beat archons and storm I don't get it) and TvZ (LOL worst M&M/tank/vessel control ever). Also, I like my offraces more on non-standard maps like Reqiuem, Bifrost etc....playing on maps like Fighting Spirit can get boring. I won't know what race I'm going to play in every match until the countdown starts.

Rekrul:I like to gamble up and mess with people's heads. Hidden expansions, all-in rushes, random scout usage, or normal straight up play. These days I generally get too aggro mid-game instead of taking a more thought out thorough late-game win approach that would win more often. But if I worked on executing that style more effectively I think I would never lose against my two favorites to play against these days (you and Smuft) and BW would become boring so that isn't going to happen. It's more fun beating people in ways that they don't respect to put them on tilt.

Rekrul:It's wonderful... Kiante is hilarious and I still can't tell if he's being serious or sarcastic when he says something blatantly terrible "isn't ideal". SirJolt is always making sure to expand the viewers' vocabulary, improve their abilities to differentiate colors, and to make oddly accurate metaphors about strategies and styles.

Rekrul:My year as an amateur on Hexatron was the best year of my life. Everything was incredible from the moment I got there. Living conditions were tough with lack of air-conditioning, not much choice of food (they called me ONLY RICE MAN! because I'd eat rice with ketchup only sometimes when I was hungry), and 8+ guys all living in a relatively small sook-so. But it didn't matter...I was so enthralled with being in Korea that even days like the day I got lost in the streets of Seoul with no money, no phone, and no sense of direction trying to walk back from Elky/Grrr/MightyAtom's house to the sookso was not stressful and simply an adventure for me. (When Elky gave me directions back to the sookso he mixed up the first left turn with a right one....)

I don't regret anything. I guess it sucks that I never amounted to anything as a BW player (koreans imba!) and transitioned into poker after like 8-months but that was a decision I felt I had to make. All in all even though I failed at acheiving the dream that gave me the motivation to drop out of college and book a flight to Korea, I succeeded in creating a new path for myself and made some of the best friends that I still have to this day. I have so many fond memories: taking team mountain-hikes, Reach's peircing glance, V-Gundam and Joel taking me to a Korean club for the first time, going down to the pyunwijum often to buy snacks/icecream to bribe my teammates into not telling Daniel I started playing online poker, Lovedom pinning the young korean players down on the ground and laughing in their faces while slapping them and s**t talking them, my safe refuge and get-away from the sook-so at Elky/Grrr/MightAtom's house where they pampered me with MANNER TOAST, poker training, and Korean night life training.

Rekrul:We'd bet on everything especially when Elky/Grrr/Smuft/MightAtom and I all lived together. Daily ritual at that point was to wakeup hungover, order some good food, and watch BW on TV while betting. We'd also do RvR battles that would never end and the person who was winning wasn't allowed to quit until the loser had enough. If you're hungry that's too bad the only breaks we took were bathroom breaks. I have had big swings both ways but I'm up a lot I think, I used to dominate the TV bet games because I watched and followed BW more closely than the rest of them combined. My most memorable win was when Savior was going to play Bisu in the finals and Smuft snap offered to give me 8:1 odds because he thought Savior was a lock. After game 1 he still had some hope, but after game 2 the look on his face was priceless as he had already given up. I have a couple memorable losses. One was Boxer coming over to our place and me challenging him to a small bet match me P him T on python where he had to kill two of his starting scv's. I just died to a fac-cc timing attack wtf? Also getting stomped RvR by Nal_rA like 0-5 or 0-6 then trying to pay him at a Nal clan meetup and he created a scene infront of many other people by laughing in my face saying something like "I can't accept money from a friend like that with a clean conscience when I knew I was 100% to win every single game."

Rekrul:LOL of course.

Rekrul:You're a huge favorite to win... so let's make it into a bet match?

Rekrul:Torenhire <3





Both of these players have been members of Team Liquid for more than half a decade, both having signedup in the latter half of 2006. While Jonoman achieved some notoriety back in "the day", Metal[x] represents the crop of current iccup talent. Both players have reached B- at one point or another, and both have shown games already that have shown their flair. To get here, Jonoman triumphed over BioboyAT in a close series, despite the general populace expecting a Bioboy victory. Jonoman has shown us that he can hold his own macro-wise, which tends to be a weakness of old-school players.

Metal[x], on the other hand, played a tough series against Kau, taking him down two games to zero. Kau threw everything including the kitchen sink at Metal[x], but could never quite break down his defences. What is even more impressive is that Metal[x] was playing his off race (Protoss), so we now that, if he needs it, he'll be able to switch to Terran to try and dig himself out of any tough spots he encounters on the road to the finals.

All in all, this series is a tough one to call. Both players come from the same era, but in terms of gameplay they signify at a clashing of new and old. I expect Metal[x] will play Terran (only a fool would choose to play PvP if they could avoid it) and the series will go down to the wire. That said, I expect that Metal[x]'s Terran might just be a little too good for Jonoman; I predict a 2-1 victory for Metal[x].


What a high profile match we have here in the round of eight; In one corner we have the infamous strategy forum moderator Chill. He's been abused by idra's fans, he's beat down combatex, and now he's tearing up the Torenhire Starleague with some crazy builds and remarkably resilient play. The main cornerstone of Chill's play is that he's fine with putting himself at a disadvantage; once there, he’ll use his incredible unit control and trademarked Chill style three-larva-per-hatchery macro to overwhelm his opponents. One interesting point here is that Chill has played only PvZ and ZvP in the THSL so far, so his ZvT remains untested.

In the other corner we have Intrigue who busted her way into the Ro8 with stunning vulture micro, crazy aggression, and (at times) solid macro. Another TL moderator, Intrigue is leading the charge as the only female player in the THSL and will bring a big challenge to Chill in their match. If there is one thing to remember about Intrigue, it's that building extra command centres is entirely optional and I expect to see a lot of one base builds from the enigmatic moderator.

This series will most likely come down to whether Chill is able to resist intrigue's unique brand of aggression. If intrigue is successful, I expect that this will be a short series, but the longer it goes the further that scale tips in Chill’s favour. This is probably the hardest series in the Ro8 to predict, but, if I had to take a stab, I'd call a 2-1 Chill victory, as the forces of good will always triumph over evil (cheese).




David vs Goliath seems to be an apt description of this series. Liquid'Drone, aka ToT)Eriador( has been a fixture of foreign Brood War for years. Coming through WCGs, going to Korea for Blizzard’s WWIs, using ensnare versus Nada, and being one of Liquid's first members, his career has been long and distinguished. Drone is known for his use of crazy strategies to get the job done, with excellent unit control complementing that style and making his early and mid-game quite fearsome.

On the other hand we have Kiante, the relative newbie, having never reached higher than C+ on iccup and only taking up Brood War competitively in late 2009. While he managed to garner a following by streaming his games on Team Liquid over the years, he is mostly known for his BM, strange accent, and use of the word "Fuck" instead of his gameplay. Anointed the "BoringToss" after a cast with Rekrul, it's unlikely he'll be able to stand up to the Norweigan Zerg, who outclasses him in almost every department. This is a fairly easy series to call, as it should be a quick 2-0 to Liquid'Drone, probably in a humiliating fashion.

Note from SirJolt:

Truly, the BoringToss is the master of his art. Even at the point where he’s been asked to build some hype for his own matches, we find him downplaying himself and talking his opponents up. Suffice it to say that we can expect some heroic (but altogether very stale) play from our hero, some straight-from-the-heart strategies that fail entirely to wow an audience.

Whatever else happens, we will watch your games without a sense of anticipation, our heart rates will not climb out of the low sixties. There will be no welling of tears, no gleeful cheers, and no gnashing of teeth. There will be no reavers, there will be no excitement, only the slow and methodical play we’ve come to love from him.

If tears should well, let them be tears of boredom.


It feels like the theme of old-versus-new motif continues through the majority of the Round of 8 of the Torenhire Starleague. In the old school corner there is Rekrul, a veritable legend on Team Liquid. He's been to Korea and played on Hexatron in the early 2000's, played in WCGs as well as countless other tournaments. His play style features a mix of crazy aggression, tempered with hidden expansions that would make iloveoov proud. Before the tournament he was a little out of practice, but his skill has only been rising as he's ploughed through his opponents, and it's going to put Cambium in a rough spot if he's going to be able to bring down Poker Star.

Asked if he was nervous or enthusiastic about the coming match, Rekrul responded, “No […] Failure is not an option.”

Cambium on the other hand has shown some impressive consistency in the THSL. Crushing his group, he ran into N.Genuity in the Ro16 and they played a series of night and day contrasts. With two incredibly short games and one epic one. Cambium showed that he could hold his own in every situation, even when he was behind in the final game, he held his nerve, and ended up winning with some inspired arbiter play. Moreover Cambium's macro seems very solid, something that Rekrul's play has, by his own admission, lacked of late. This makes the series a little more difficult to call.

If Rekrul opts not to do insane early rushes, I believe this series will be quite close, perhaps coming down to how well Cambium can scout for hidden expansions and the like. On the other hand, Rekrul's early unit control and grasp of strategy are downright scary, so it's also quite likely that this could be a quick one-sided stomp. I'll err on the side of caution here and call a 2-1 victory to Rekrul, with maybe two good macro games before a cheese is deployed to finish the series.

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This THSL coverage has been brought to you by HawaiianPig, 2Pacalypse-, Sirjolt, Hyde and Kiante.