The qualifiers of the third season of TeamLiquid Legacy Starleague are now over. Last week we had a group selection where our very own Sayle pulled the names out of a bag, which gave us the round-of-24 groups. In this write-up we're gonna provide you with a preview of all round-of-24 groups, as well as recaps of our third and fourth qualifier. After that you can see our detailed preview of the first two groups that are played this weekend, A and B. And as usual, to close it all off, you can read staff picks from the first two groups and see who they think will win.

We're entering the proper tournament of the final season of our TeamLiquid Legacy Starleague. As promised, after this season will come a TLS Championship with at least $2,000 in prizes. It will be interesting to follow how our last season progresses as an interlude to the big championship.

So don't forget to tune in this weekend at the Saturday, Oct 05 5:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00) for the first two groups of the round-of-24.







After previous Zerg-dominated tournaments, at first glance this round-of-24 appears to have a fairly impressive racial balance. Zerg players make up 11 of the 24 players, which leaves us with 7 Terran and 6 Protoss players. The groups were selected by using the old fashioned method of pulling names out of a hat. This has fortunately resulted in groups where the races are very well distributed, so we are guaranteed to see plenty of every match-up.

This TLS sees the emergence of several dangerous newcomers who have the potential to upset some established names. Here are a few of them:

In group A is DragOn who has qualified for his first TLS despite consistently achieving very impressive ladder results. Maybe his style doesn't translate so well to the unforgiving tournament format, but if he can play to his potential, then he could be a dark horse to advance.

In group B, the Zerg player Zaraki enters the tournament after gaining second place in the first qualifier. His decisive loss to fellow Zerg trutaCz in the final of that qualifier is worrying for him as he faces a Zerg-dominated group. In addition, andrey is a strong player who only has to practice one match-up. However, Zaraki is an experienced player who knows how to practice hard when he needs to, and so has the potential to surprise his opponents.

Finally, in group E is MaD. He has only ever played in the very last TLS qualifier, where he managed to take second place, narrowly losing 2-1 to ZZZero in some excellent games. MaD has a significant advantage in that there are not a large number of his replays available to study, which could leave his opponents vulnerable to his strategic style. However, he has been selected into arguably the most difficult group, alongside two very strong Protoss players, doTY and G5, and the consistently good OctZerg. It would be an extremely impressive achievement for MaD to advance from this group, but he might just have the ability to manage it.

Every group is sure to provide us with a tense set of matches, as there is an interesting blend of races and styles. Can experienced players such as dOTY, skzlime and andrey step up and establish themselves as real contenders to take this championship out of Zerg hands? Will Zerg players such as trutaCz and Bakuryu once again dominate their opposition? Or will we see of some of the new challengers show that they have the skill to compete with the best? In any event, we will see a very high level of skill, and some exciting and varied games!






The first game of the first semifinal opened on Destination, with DragOn at the twelve o'clock and Andreyy at the six o'clock positions. DragOn took advantage of the two-player layout of the map to successfully gas steal in his opponent's main. Left with little other option, Andreyy built a healthy army of marines and moved to apply pressure at the enemy natural, but DragOn's two-gate zealot opening was sufficient to hold the attack. The micro war continued as a renewed bio army with medics tried the attack again, and met the same fate against a zealot/dragoon composition. With no major damage done on either side, the players took expansions and teched to a more typical mech versus gateway/templar mid-game. DragOn made the first move, with an attempt to establish a forward third, but he suffered an immediate setback when a scouting party of vultures was able to deny the nexus. Not content to allow himself to fall behind, the Protoss double-expanded and made good use of a single DT to delay the Terran's third. The full armies finally engaged as Andreyy leapfrogged his army towards a fresh enemy expansion. The battle was a decisive victory for the Protoss, who was able to deal crippling damage with well-placed storms on the tanks that were funneled onto a narrow bridge. DragOn scored another victory shortly after, preventing several drops from finishing off a badly-damaged nexus at the ten o'clock. The two armies then moved along opposite sides, inflicting massive damage on both sides against critical mining bases and bringing the game to a much lower economy battle. Although both players made good progress, the Protoss made better use of his late-game tech, using a chain of recalls and storm drops to further damage Andreyy's infrastructure and worker lines. The tanks moved to snipe an important nexus at the nine o'clock, and in response an army of dragoons forced yet another lift at the crucial four o'clock command center. Andreyy continued his campaign along the left side of the map with some good tank positioning and favorable engagements, but the superior supply count and mobility of the Protoss army ensured that any form of committed aggression would be severely punished. Knowing he could not afford the production he needed to challenge the Protoss army, Andreyy conceded defeat.

In the second game of the match, which pit Andreyy at the four o'clock against DragOn at the twelve o'clock positions on Neo Aztec, both players again adopted unorthodox openings. The Terran chose a siege expand and built a wall on the lower end of the map's reverse ramp to ensure safety from a possible proxy gate opening. Meanwhile, his opponent went with the aggressive dragoon production offered by a 10/15 gate opening, and immediately moved to pressure the southern natural. Andreyy faced minimal losses when the two early-game armies engaged by his second command center, largely thanks to his early siege mode research. He then moved to press his advantage with an early attack towards the Protoss natural, but his opponent used a high dragoon count to cut off the force at a favorable location, shutting down the aggression. Both players then took their third and fourth bases in a fairly passive mid-game. DragOn finally took the initiative, mounting a successful attack just as the Terran fourth began mining. The Protoss then mounted a double recall into the enemy main as he took multiple bases all over the map. Andreyy moved to deny two expansions at the three o'clock position, but split his forces in doing so and lost his invading force. When the remaining mech followed this same path in a final bid to gain some footing in the game, DragOn recalled into the Terran main and secured his victory in the game and match.



The finals of the third qualifier began on Destination with an overpool opening from the Macedonian player, OctZerg, at the six o'clock and a forge-cannon-nexus FE from the Canadian player, DragOn, at the twelve o'clock. The Zerg chose not to test a questionable wall at the Protoss natural, and instead invested in a high economy five hatch before gas midgame. He also delayed hydralisks to get spore colonies in time to deny the initial corsair, and he managed to kill the sole Protoss air unit without losing an overlord. He also caught an early zealot squad on his ramp, which prevented any damage in the early game. DragOn moved to catch up in economy with a quick third base at the two o'clock. Unfortunately, for the Canadian, the first wave of hydralisks moved to the fresh expansion just before high templar could arrive to secure it, and the position was forfeit. The two armies continued to skirmish out on the map with good control from both players. Back in the Zerg main however, OctZerg was assembling a massive flock of mutalisks. At first sight of this force DragOn gave a ‘gg.’

The next game of the match found OctZerg on Neo Aztec threatening aggression with a nine pool speed at the eight o'clock, but DragOn at the twelve o'clock played it safe with a triple cannon at his FE. OctZerg, not wanting to let a very aggressive opening go to waste, tried a run-by but dealt almost no damage. This left both players on even bases as the Zerg invested in lurkers and a spire against the stargate in the northern main. The Zerg made no effort to catch up in economy, and relied instead on a lurker slow drop and contain to catch up to his opponent. DragOn's late robo allowed these to deny mining and do some damage. OctZerg then showed his hand by throwing a massive army at the Protoss wall, where it was easily repelled with storm and good army placement. Finally, both players took additional expansions, with the Zerg in particular taking a greedy three bases in a very short time. With an army recently slain and most of his income gone to establishing further economy, OctZerg was looked quite vulnerable and DragOn sensed it. The Protoss moved against the most exposed of the enemy hatcheries, and, with the help of excellent storms, won a decisive victory outside the Zerg base. Reinforcements streamed out to his army as he razed once expansion after another, and, by the time the Protoss reached the Zerg natural, not even dark swarm could protect OctZerg from defeat.

The deciding game of the match opened on Fighting Spirit with Zerg at the ten o'clock versus Protoss at the one o'clock. DragOn moved his scouting probe into position to block the twelve hatch opening, but the hatchery drone scored a miraculous victory in the worker duel at the natural. DragOn then responded with a forge-nexus opening which lead to standard corsair play, while the Zerg went straight to lair for defensive scourge. After having sniped several corsairs, OctZerg invested in a fleet of mutalisks to make good use of his researching +1 air armor. His opponent continued corsair production and the players entered an exceptionally air-focused mid-game. The Zerg managed to handle the corsair count with large numbers, but the complement of cannons and archons prevented him from doing real damage with his expensive air force. The full armies finally engaged as the Protoss made his first move towards OctZerg's distant third and fourth. DragOn softened the army with more great storms and dealt significant damage to both the expansions and armies that he encountered at the Zerg-controlled bottom-left. The Protoss moved further and further into the lead and pressed OctZerg's multitasking to its limit. He denied the twelve o'clock and nine o'clock with ground forces and terrorized overlords at the seven o'clock. He alsostorm dropped the natural. His macro went into overdrive and punished the Zerg's greed. DragOn fertilized the fields of Fighting Spirit with a river of Zerg blood until OctZerg was forced back down to his main and natural against the six bases of his opponent. The Zerg's final effort brought his entire army into the four o'clock base, where five non-rallied reavers waited to crush the remaining chance at victory for the swarm.





Since this was the last open qualifier, it represented the final chance for ambitious players to qualify for the TLS proper. It also meant the last chance for the less gosu among us to play in the TLS at all.

The first semifinal was between Braintoss and ZZZero. Braintoss, a Protoss player from Australia, appeared as a mysterious player in comparison to the Zerg player ZZZero from Poland, who has been fairly active in recent times. The first game was on Destination, with Zerg at the south and Protoss at the north. ZZZero opened with a nine-pool that was deflected while at the same time he sent a drone around to mine out the minerals. Braintoss was so busy directing his probe around the Zerg main that the zerglings were able to run into his base.

Despite holding off the zerglings, Braintoss was forced to use his zealots to defend and to build a cannon on top of his lost mining time. Braintoss counterattacked with speedlots as ZZZero took advantage of the situation to take a quick fourth base. However, there were enough hydralisks out to destroy the zealots.

Braintoss then built up a large force and was eventually able to push out of his base. He took a couple of small engagements but ZZZero was able to surround and destroy the Protoss force outside his natural. By then, it was then only a matter of time before ultralisks and zerglings forced the ‘gg.’

The second game, on Neo Aztec, saw ZZZero spawn at the nine o’clock, while Braintoss started at the twelve o’clock. ZZZero demonstrated that he was not above tricky play with a fast speed zergling with fast lair opening. The zerglings were able to prevent the probe scout, and ZZZero began to build his spire.

With a corsair, Braintoss was able to spot the mutalisks in sufficient time to allow him to prepare adequate cannon defenses, and he was able to deflect the mutalisks without much trouble. However, he neglected to build a second cannon in his main and he also stopped producing corsairs. This allowed ZZZero’s muta-scourge follow-up attack to annihilate his main and, despite a good storm, there was nothing that Braintoss could do. The ‘gg’ followed soon after as his zealot counterattack could not do enough damage.

The second semifinal match was between the Terran player MaD and the Zerg player Modesty. Having not participated in any other qualifier, MaD needed to reach the final in order to secure a place in the next stage of the tournament.

On Destination, MaD opened with an engineering bay to block the Zerg natural while he took his own gas. This delayed Modesty’s natural expansion largely, and MaD took advantage of this with a vulture that was able to destroy all six of his opponent’s initial zerglings. Continuing to keep the Zerg player off balance, MaD built a starport and a wraith to pick off overlords, and he also built a second barracks. Once MaD had a dropship, he dropped a group of marines and a medic into the Zerg base along with a few vultures for mines.

MaD continued to execute his devious plan by moving out with a powerful marine-medic-tank force and taking up a position behind Modesty's natural. Modesty tried and failed to break it and he left the game when he realized there was also a dropship full of marines in his main.

On Neo Aztec, Modesty tried to forestall MaD's plans by opening with nine-pool with speed. However, he went the wrong way on the map, and thus the zerglings were unable to accomplish much. Modesty then built an early spire for two-hatch mutalisks. When the time came for the attack, however, MaD's defense was excellent, and the mutalisks were also not able to achieve much. Modesty was essentially all-in on two bases while the number of marines and missile turrets he faced continued to grow.

The skill gap between the two players was made evident as mutalisks after mutalisks were taken out. Before too long, a huge marine force moved across the map into Modesty's natural and ended the game.



In the first game of the final match, ZZZero spawned at the north of Destination while MaD spawned at the south. MaD once again blocked the Zerg natural with an engineering bay. MaD nicely took out the overlord at his natural with his initial marines and he followed up this play with a factory.

After seeing a vulture, ZZZero responded with a calm three-hatch hydralisk build. He found himself to be supply blocked after MaD's wraith killed several overlords. MaD then dropped marines into the Zerg main and natural, but ZZZero was able to clean them up with relative ease at the cost of a few drones.

MaD moved out with a powerful force of marines and tanks, but ZZZero had already built up a large number of hydralisks and he was able to hold off the attack after a close fight. Realizing that he held the advantage, ZZZero took two additional bases and, rather than the standard rush to hive tech, he opted to stay on lair tech and build up massive numbers of hydralisks and lurkers. MaD built up another army of marines, backed up by several tanks, and pushed slowly across the map. ZZZero descended on the force when it was in an awkward position and he cleaned it up decisively.

A second attack by MaD met with more success, as it narrowly won the second fight on the right-hand side of the map. He even got as far as the Zerg third base, but the reinforcement hydralisks destroyed the remainder of the Terran force. After that point, despite some efficient defense of the third base on the part of MaD, ZZZero was able to use his overwhelming economy to take the first game.

In the second game, on Neo Aztec, MaD walled off outside of his natural to take a quick expansion. ZZZero went twelve-hatch but then took his gas before pool, a move that demonstrated his intention to go for very fast two-hatch mutalisks.

MaD decided to go for mech against the threat and, with good missile turret placement, he was able to deflect the mutalisks. ZZZero then attacked the front with mutalisks and zerglings, but MaD was just able to hold off the attack. As the goliath numbers grew, MaD moved out of his base and the two players traded blows in the middle of the map. MaD then took out a lot of drones with a group of raiding vultures and, once he had established four bases, he moved out with a large mech force.

It looked as though the game might have ended there and then, but as MaD approached ZZZero's natural, enough mutalisks popped out to eliminate the few goliaths and then finish off the tanks. This created some problems for the Terran player, but his excellent vulture harass had crippled the Zerg economy. With his large number of bases, MaD soon had a fresh army, and a crushing advantage that won him the game.

In the third game, on Fighting Spirit, ZZZero opened with a nine-pool. MaD went for a standard one-rax expand, but he then constructed two fast factories in an unusual move. He used a few vultures to run into the Zerg main while establishing strong defenses at home. At this point, both players showed their intentions. ZZZero began building queens while MaD constructed additional barracks' for a bio-mech push.

When the attack came ZZZero appeared to be slightly underprepared, which allowed Mad to take out his natural uncontested. However, queens took out the seige tanks and large numbers of lurkers finished off the remainder of Mad's forces after they tried to run into the Zerg main.

ZZZero took no damage from MaD's attempts to harass his way back into the game, and he also denied the Terran solid map control. With hive tech and a strong economy, ZZZero shut down MaD's expansion. He even infested a command center after it had flown back into the Terran main.

MaD did well to hold onto the top left base, but an attempt to move across the map was crushed by ultralisks and zerglings. There was no way to left to hold out against the Zerg, and MaD was forced out of the game.




The first group of the TLS 3 round-of-24 features some of the toughest competition and most even match-ups of the bracket. It will be a trial by fire for our first competitor, the Protoss player from Canada, DragOn, who is competing in the main tournament for his first time. DragOn is the victor of the third qualifier this season, where he showed impressive and patient play against the Zerg players INF3cted and trutaCz, as well as against the Terran player, Andreyy. Second in the group is the Terran skzlime, who is one the few players who has advanced through group play in both seasons. skzlime took third in the first TLS, and he is among the best the foreign scene has to offer. He also has a particularly strong TvP. However, he is not the only Terran in Group A, as the German player, Cryoc, has also been selected for this series. Cryoc looks to be the wild card of the group, because even though he has taken games off of some of the best players out there he also found little success in the group stages of the last season. Closing out the group is a familiar face to any TLS viewer, the Zerg player from Poland, trutaCz. trutaCz remains one of the best players who has unable to advance through the group stages to date, parly because he has been perpetually seeded into some of the most difficult groups of each tournament. The Zerg player easily took the first qualifier and he now looks to be in excellent form. He may well be looking for revenge against skzlime for eliminating him from TLS Season 1.

The first game will pit DragOn against trutaCz on Destination. While OctZerg failed to test DragOn's weak wall on this map in the qualifiers, trutaCz is unlikely to be so generous. The Canadian will have a solid chance in this game if he prepares well and shows the best of his safe late-game play, but he is undeniably fighting against the odds versus trutaCz, who will likely move on to the winners match. The second game of the group will host the rarest of all match-ups, a Terran mirror between skzlime and Cryoc. The two players have a history of competition, with a head-to-head score favoring skzlime 3-2. This game should depend largely on who is the most active and well-prepared, but, on paper, skzlime looks to be the clear favorite. In a winners match on Neo Aztec between trutaCz and skzlime, I would again give the edge to the Zerg. Aztec is a notoriously difficult map for Terran in the match-up, and trutaCz has a strong ZvT and is on top of his game. This same map would then host a TvP between Cryoc and DragOn. The Canadian had no trouble dismantling Andrey on this map with solid late-game play, and Cryoc is relatively weak versus Protoss and should get eliminated in this game. A final match between DragOn and skzlime would close out the group on Fighting Spirit. The Terran would be favored to advance, forcing DragOn to an early exit from TLS.






Group B is one of the two Zerg-dominated groups in this season's round-of-24, and is the first in TLS history to feature three players from the same nation. This group will also give us a healthy mix of new and old blood. Modesty, of team iFU, will make his TLS debut in this group. Modesty, an American, is one of the more unknown of the players who are going into this stage of the tournament, as he has with only a short history on TLPD and his unremarkable run in the qualifiers give him just enough points to compete. Michael, on the other hand, has advanced through the group stages of both of the previous tournaments and he is a clear danger to all of the players in the group. Michael has a well-known reputation for using prepared builds and will be hoping to outperform his performance from last season, when he lost an extremely close and tense series against TerrOr in the final game of their round-of-eight match. Andrey is a fortunate addition to the group, as he will be playing Terran against the three Zergs, and he is by now a familiar face from his many deep qualifier runs in all three seasons of TLS. Andrey has been eliminated at the round-of-24 in both previous tournaments but will he now be faces his best chance ever to advance. The final player of Group B is another first time qualifier, the Zerg player Zaraki, from Spain. Zaraki made an impressive run in the first qualifier before being stopped by trutaCz in the finals, but he appears to struggle in the crucial ZvZ match-up that could decide his fate in this group.

The first game of the group will feature Modesty versus Zaraki on Destination. Zaraki is most likely the favorite between the two, with a longer and more successful history than his opponent, but he will be competing in his weakest match-up shortly after his very one-sided ZvZ elimination in the first qualifier. Meanwhile, Modesty did manage a 2-1 victory over the very capable Zerg player, INF3cted, in the most recent qualifier, which could foreshadow an upset. The next game will be between Andrey and Michael, also on Destination, and should provide an exciting contest for group dominance. Both players tend to favor prepared builds, and on an already unorthodox map they will need to be ready for just about anything. ZvT is a very strong match-up for Michael, and he will be the clear favorite to take the game. The winners match should also go to the once runner-up, as neither of his possible opponents are likely to display the ZvZ prowess needed to compete with a player who has won games and series against players such as Bakuryu, trutaCz, and TechnicS. Meanwhile, Andrey could have an uphill battle playing TvZ on Neo Aztec, but the history speaks for itself: Andrey eliminated Modesty from two of the four qualifiers this season. Finally, a deciding match on Fighting Spirit between Zaraki and Andrey could be the most evenly matched battle of the night. I'd give Andrey the edge, but if Zaraki can hold into the late game his chances for an upset could be very real.

Player	Staff Picks
DragOn (4)
	HawaiianPig, 2Pacalypse-, Sayle, Poetic[AoV]
skzlime (6)
	Epoxide, BisuDagger, itsjustatank, Falling, Nagisama, Selenus
Cryoc (1)
	Nagisama
trutaCz (9)
	HawaiianPig, 2Pacalypse-, Sayle, Epoxide, BisuDagger, itsjustatank, Falling, Poetic[AoV], Selenus

With the start of the tournament proper, we once again get to see who the TL staff members think will win. All the staff who voted picked trutaCz, and the second vote was split between skzlime and dragOn. Skzlime is always a usual staff favourite because he is the one in the group who has gone the farthest in previous TLS tournaments. This is the first TLS that dragOn has qualified for, and many of the staff are ready for him to advance. Despite Cryoc’s performance in the last TLS, he unfortunately received zero votes from the staff besides myself. The other players in his group will not make it any easier for him. His situation looks grim and his chances of advancing may be as likely as me getting a job anytime soon. Fight on, Cryoc!

Player	Staff Picks
Modesty (0)
Michael (10)
	HawaiianPig, 2Pacalypse-, Sayle, Epoxide, BisuDagger, itsjustatank, Falling, Nagisama, Poetic[AoV], Selenus
Andreyy (9)
	HawaiianPig, 2Pacalypse-, Sayle, Epoxide, BisuDagger, itsjustatank, Falling, Nagisama, Selenus
Zaraki (1)
	Poetic[AoV]

The numbers speak for themselves. Just about all of the staff members who voted think Michael and andreyy will advance. Hawaiianpig even called it “ez bets." Poetic was the one person to differ slightly, as he picked Zaraki, but even he hopes his votes do not become true. The picks are not all too surprising, as both Michael and andreyy have qualified for previous TLS tournaments, with Michael having gone as far as the finals. In comparison, Modesty and Zaraki have both only qualified for the first time. If the results of previous TLS groups are anything to go by, upsets can happen and who will advances are not certain until the games are played. Tune in this weekend to see whose bets wins them the most ESPORTS dollars!

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That's all for now! Join us on Saturday, Oct 05 5:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00) for the cast of Groups A and B! And as always a big thanks to our sponsors: