WCS Global Finals
Round of 16

by TL Writers

The World Championship Series 2015 Global Finals are finally here! 16 players have converged on the Burbank Studios to play out the first step of the year's Grand Finale. The matches will be played in single elimination format Best of 5's, with the winning players securing their spots for the quarterfinals taking place at Blizzcon next weekend!

This thread will be updated in real time as the day goes on, both with live recaps and all that surrounds the event. Please share your thoughts and predictions below, or head over to the Live Report Thread for discussions of all things related (and unrelated) to Day 1.

+ Show Spoiler [Updates!] +

herO vs FanTaSy

Game 1 - Iron Fortress

FanTaSy looked on the verge of an unceremonious defeat against a colossus push, but with a combination of grit and opportunism he managed to turn the game around by prompting a semi-basetrade. The game spiraled into gruelling insanity from there, and we can only recommend that you watch the VOD as it becomes available. Fantasy 1-0 herO.

Game 2 - Coda

Game 2 began similarly to the first, with herO amassing colossi and FanTaSy looking to continue the winning concept he established in game 1. However, herO had put some thought into how to combat FanTaSy's elusive brand of aggression, and with cleaner defense he was able to deflect repeated drops. Once the (seemingly inevitable) basetrade commenced, herO was much better prepared to handle FanTaSy's remaining forces, and with nothing to show for it save for a lackluster bio army, FanTaSy had to tap out. FanTaSy 1 - 1 herO

Game 3 - Bridgehead

FanTaSy buckled in for a macro game on two bases, looking towards the late game. herO put on a clinic with early pokes that FanTaSy struggled with defending, putting the Terran on the back foot. The game looked like it might swing back in FanTaSy's favor as he marched across the map with a bio/viking army, but trading the majority of his army for herO's third base proved a poor transaction. Chased back by herO and bleeding units through his retreat, he found himself unable to defend the massive Protoss push. Vikings landed after destroying a pair of colossi, but the Terran had nowhere near enough punch in his army to survive. FanTaSy 1 - 2 herO

Game 4 - Cactus Valley

herO deftly locked FanTaSy into his base with the use of an early stalker/MSC poke, and capitalized on FanTaSy's limited movement with double forge, twilight council and robotics bay. With his tech routes already established, herO then put down additional gateways to prepare for an attack. FanTaSy scouted it and set herO back significantly with a widow mine drop that killed 18 workers, but herO was ready to stand his throw. An attack into FanTaSy's base forced the Terran to opt for a basetrade instead of a head-on engagement, but herO recalled (after having dealt critical damage to the Terran bases) and swiftly shut down any hopes FanTaSy retained of striking back. With nothing left to fight with and an economy worth little more than scrap, FanTaSy conceded the game and the match. FanTaSy 1 - 3 herO

ByuL vs Classic

Map 1 - Coda

Both players started out the game economically, focusing on increasing their income. Classic went for a third nexus, a forge and a stargate off one gateway, getting two delayed oracles, which caught ByuL off guard. 16 drones were picked off for the loss of one oracle, ByuL’s spire being scouted on top of that. The zerg prepared an infestor switch and kept control of the map with speedlings, but the damage had been done and Classic ended the game with a stalker/sentry/phoenix push and excellent force fields. Classic 1 - 0 ByuL

Map 2 - Cactus Valley

In resemblance to last game both players opted for an economic build. Classic did not go for oracles this time though, opting for additional gates and +1 attack instead. Both worked on their macro and tech in a very passive game, before ByuL started to poke with speedlings and burrowed roaches. Getting every tech structure he could get, the Zerg went up to 90 drones very quickly and started to build static defence. Classic moved out with a blink stalker/sentry/immortal army, looking for the kill. For some time it looked like ByuL would be able to hold, landing massive fungals on the protoss army and getting off a blinding cloud, but Classic had too many well upgraded units and forced the GG. Classic 2 - 0 ByuL

Map 3 - Terraform

Starting off in the same fashion as the first two games, the game on Terraform would go all the way to the latest stages. ByuL was able to control the map with speedlings and deny Classic vision, keeping his spire tech hidden. Mutas were able to catch the protoss warp prism, but failed to do any more damage because of Classic’s ironclad defence. After DTs sniped ByuL’s natural expansion the zerg intercepted his opponents’ phoenix fleet with fungals and finished them off with mutas, gaining air superiority. The CJ player, however, failed to capitalize on the advantage, teching up to broodlords. He lacked queens, missing crucial transfuses in the next big battle at Classic’s gold. Though he managed to take out the nexus, he lost his own third to a DT counterattack. Both players continued to posture and threaten the enemy, dealing economic damage to one another. The SKT Protoss used his blink stalkers to snipe ByuL’s hive and draw his army out of position, getting more damage done at the zerg’s gold base. Building up a near perfect army, Classic defended and expanded, beating any attacks by ByuL back. A muta switch in the end wasn’t enough to turn the game around and Classic ended the series. Classic 3 - 0 ByuL

INnoVation vs Zest

Map 1 - Terraform

INnoVation went for a small gamble by opening 14 CC, Zest opted for a safe gateway and gas into expansion. INnoVation followed up with a quick 3 rax into fast stim and combat shields while Zest went for a standard mid game blink into colossus, and added a early Nexus. INnoVation marched across the map like you'd think he'd march to the grocery store, hitting a timing to delay the 3rd. Zest was able to stave it off at the cost of a large number of stalkers. This left Zest open to the follow up drops of INnoVation, who pulled the KT protoss apart and then exploited the lack of attention to snipe the first 2 colossus. Zest GG'ed out shortly afterwards. INnoVation 1 - 0 Zest

Map 2 - Moonlight Madness

INnoVation, this time, opted for a more standard reaper expand into 3 rax, while Zest again went for his standard macro-centric play. However INnoVation was able to blindside Zest with his reaper scout, pulling away the stalker and mothership core, leaving the natural expansion open to INnoVation's runby. INnoVation was able to get in and snipe a big number of probes, delay mining time and destroy the mothership core. The crippling damage turned out to be too much for Zest to handle, as INnoVation then proceeded to systematically drop him to death in the mid game. INnoVation 2 - 0 Zest

Map 3 - Cactus Valley

Due to the size of the map, INnoVation felt confident opening 14 CC again while Zest continued with his standard gateway expand. INnoVation again decided to mix up his play, this time going for a hidden expansion in the top right. Zest continued with his mid-game twilight into robo play, but was tipped off to INnoVation's plans upon scouting the late starport. Zest eventually discovered the hidden base, but at that point it was too late. INnoVation used his supercharged economy to swing a massive SCV pull punch to knock out Zest out of the game, the match, and any hopes of hoisting the Blizzcon trophy. INnoVation 3 - 0 Zest

Life vs Lilbow

Map 1 - Moonlight Madness

Life opened with a standard hatch first while Lilbow went for a gamble by going nexus first. In the mid game Lilbow looked like he was gearing up for his standard mid game of twilight, robo while skipping his MSC. However Life had other plans, getting a small force of lings, ling speed and working on the backdoor rocks. Life added another swell of lings and then flooded into Lilbow's undefended back door, ransacking the main mineral line before flooding into the natural to finish the job and extract a very fast GG. Life 1 - 0 Lilbow

Map 2 - Coda

Lilbow once again opted for a early Nexus, however Life chose to forsake a expansion and go for a 13 pool, 12 gas, getting ling speed and a baneling nest. Lilbow continued the trend of forgoing mothership core, and Life was able to blow through the wall and flood in, causing unbridled carnage and taking the series to match point. Life 2 - 0 Lilbow

Map 3 - Terraform

Lilbow, having learned his lesson, opted for a more conservative opening of gateway first and early scout before deciding on his next course of action. Life however had dialed the aggression to maximum, comitting to a 6 pool and a huge swell of lings. Despite Lilbow having a solid wall up, Life was still able to break it down and inflict great economic damage on Lilbow. Life followed up with ling speed and canceled the natural expansion of Lilbow again, netting another 3 zealot kills. With nothing left to do, Lilbow commited to a 5 gate off 1 base, but Life had read the situation and prepared his expansion with several spine crawlers. Life's map movements were also on point, sniping Lilbow's reinforcements and forward pylons, forcing the Protoss to crash harmlessly against his defenses. Life 3 - 0 Lilbow

Rain vs Polt

Map 1 - Moonlight Madness

Both combatants got off to a normal start, with Polt opting for a WM drop-centric mid game while Rain deviated into a phoenix build into colossus. Polt's careful maneuvers on the map saw him catch and destroy a large number of phoenixes, after which he used his awareness and mobility advantage to strike at Rain's army, sniping a colossus and destroying a large chunk of the Protoss army. Despire Rain stabilizing temporarily, Polt's drop play was unrelenting and he continued doing damage until Rain crumbled. Rain 0 - 1 Polt

Map 2 - Terraform

After a normal early game, both players decided to throw each other a curveball, Polt proxied a bunch of barracks in a corner of the map and aimed to amass a huge hidden army to blindside Rain. The mYi protoss was a bit more mundane, a proxy stargate that transitioned into a proxy void ray bust. The game, for all its weirdness, ended quickly as Rain's rush came online way sooner then Polt's. Rain 1 - 1 Polt

Map 3 - Cactus Valley

This time both players elected to open with standard builds, though they deviated in the mid game, with Polt getting a fast 3rd, and Rain looking to put on some early warp prism aggression. Rain's gambit failed when his harass was cleaned up easily and he lost his warp prism. Polt used his army advantage to get even more bases while upgrading his army and adding on production, giving Rain some respite to take his own 3rd. The calm didn't last long, and Polt unleashed a unrelenting flurry of drops that traded constantly with Rain and prevented him from ever maxing out. The two clashed several times, with neither opponent able to land a killing blow even after a decisive fight between the natural and the 4th of Rain that nearly saw his entire army routed. In the chaos, Rain even managed to get his upgrades and storm, but Polt merely expanded more and eventually got ghosts to put on continuous aggression. Another attack saw Rain barely survive, but this time, he had lost too much of his core army. Polt finally landed the EMP that enabled the deathblow a few minutes later. Rain 1 - 2 Polt

Map 4 - Coda

Rain decided to change it up once more, going for a proxy gateway outside Polt's base. Despite barely (seriously) not scouting it, Polt's reaper opening looked like it would line up well - had he not been too eager to pull SCV's. Polt tried to return the favor by going for a combined attack with a marines, a mine, a medivac and hellions, but Rain was on top of his defense and deflected it easily. Rain pushed across the map and caught an unprepared Polt, forcing the nat CC to lift for a while and further extending his lead. This lead was enough for Rain to take a 3rd and the push across the map for one decisive thrust. Rain 2 - 2 Polt

Map 5 - Iron Fortress

Both players went for a gentleman's agreement to play standard on the last map. Normal openings flowed into regular mid games. Both player's critical tech of blink and stim had finished at 8:30, setting up for continuous battles down the line. With his stim done Polt got a 3rd CC, while Rain set his mind to finishing the game with a clean colossus attack. Polt had other plans, surrounding the army, sniping the critical colossus and crippling the army. It looked like Rain was on the backfoot when a clutch time warp and stalker flank was able to turn the tide, routing the terran army and sniping several full medivacs. This was the cue Rain had waited for to march across the map again, snipe the 3rd and retreat while getting his own 3rd. Despite Polt's best efforts, the Protoss now held the economic advantage, and Rain's army movements were too good, denying any drops and picking off enough units until his advantage became overpowering Rain 3 - 2 Polt

PartinG vs sOs

Map 1 - Terraform

Both players opted for for a gateway/double gas opening. PartinG used his gas to get a earlier robo and immortals to expand while sOs got a stargate and oracles. The oracle harass was enough to force the photon overcharge from PartinG, leaving his nat temporarily vulnerable to attacks, but the rascal's micro was too strong and he quickly stabilized. Not to be outdone, sOs maintained parity by sniping 14 workers with his oracles while expanding. PartinG chose to get a 3rd base, but sOs committed the fatal error of trying to threaten it with a slow zealot/sentry army and lost it all. This prompted PartinG to strike, sniping two colossus and the 3rd of sOs, gaining a overwhelming advantage. sOs tried to go for one last hail Mary, but PartinG had more then enough units to repel the attack and take the first map. PartinG 1- 0 sOs

Map 2 - Moonlight Madness

Staying true to his nature, sOs went for another early oracle and despite PartinG going for his own stargate, still managed to deal damage. PartinG's follow up was once more immortals, while sOs chose blink. Initially it looked like PartinG had the Million Man's base locked down, but sOs' sublime maneuvers managed to pull PartinG out of position enough to snipe a immortal and significant portion of the army. PartinG tried to push across the map with colossus and his remaining army, but in the end it wasn't enough. Parting 1 - 1 sOs

Map 3 - Coda

This time PartinG chose to shake it up with a Dark Templar build. His aggressive posturing managed to blindside sOs, who didn't figure out the danger he was in until it was already upon him. Stalkers warping in to sOs base were joined by the invisible assassins, and sOs was swiftly done away with.PartinG 2 - 1 sOs

Map 4 - Cactus Valley

PartinG once more took the fight to sOs with a phoenix openings into robo. sOs responded with blink, but was unable to prevent the damage from being done or do much damage of his own. PartinG felt confident enough to go for a 3rd base while unbeknownst to him, sOs was preparing for a massive strike. Despite sloppily losing a rallied colossus, sOs was still able to win the fight due to superior positioning and reinforcements, sniping the 3rd. He then used his momentum to get a 3rd of his own and pushed out with a vastly bigger army, enough to crush PartinG once and for all. PartinG 2 - 2 sOs

Map 5 - Bridgehead

This time sOs decided to give PartinG a taste of his own medicine by getting phoenixes of his own. Due to his build order sOs got a two phoenix lead over PartinG, which prompted PartinG to go for a big gateway attack, however sOs defended with flying colors, wiping out the army and all the phoenix while still retaining 4 of his own. From there, he snowballed his advantage further by getting an earlier natural and an additional stargate. But the real magic was playing across the skies, where sOs kept gaining incremental advantages by repeatedly ambushing and destroying PartinG's phoenix force, sublimely controlling and saving his own. Eventually his lead grew so large that he forced PartinG into one last desperate attack, which sOs crushed convincingly. Parting 2 - 3 sOs

Hydra vs Dream

Map 1 - Terraform

Once again eschewing mech on Terraform, Dream opened with a proxy reaper only to be denied from doing direct damage. He did force Hydra to pump out a lot of lings, but it also delayed his stim and marines. With complete knowledge of what Dream was doing, Hydra macro'd freely, his spire finishing before he had even started a baneling nest. His quick investment into mutas paid off eventually as it allowed him to keep Dream on his side of the map. Several successful engagements later and Hydra was suddenly 50 supply up and rolling into Dream's mineral lines with banelings. 1-0 to the WCS champion.

Map 2 - Midnight Madness

Undeterred, Dream attempted more reaper shenanigans on Midnight Madness. What appeared to be a normal reaper expand turned into a bunker in the main, and Dream quickly leapfrogged the zerg in worker count. Hydra had to commit to building slow lings in order to deal with the bunker, putting Dream solidly ahead after that first exchange. Hellion drops soon followed, and Hydra was pushed even further behind. His solution was a desperate nydus attack, but a hellbat drop found the tunnel. Caught without a plan b, Hydra went on with it anyway, only to get shot to bits. Series tied at 1-1.

Map 3 - Cactus Valley

Finally, the macro bio TvZ that Dream had wanted. Despite an early disadvantage due to early lings, Dream stayed alive while keeping his opponent busy with drops. His first few medivacs of units failed to do much damage, but as the game went on and his economy caught up with Hydra's, Dream began to play like it was early 2015. Hydra's over-aggressiveness certainly contributed to Dream's success in holding off attacks, but the ROOT zerg just could not keep up with Dream's drops and frontal attacks in the late game. Dream 2-1.

Map 4 - Coda LE

Realizing that a macro game was to his disadvantage, Hydra decided to execute an early pool on Coda. While he was unable to do much damage aside from marine kills, it did put some unease into the mind of Dream. A big roach attack soon followed, and it managed to kill a dozen SCVs while delaying Dream's infrastructure. From there, Hydra had the space and time to grow his economy and develop his tech as he wished. Dream kept up pace, but the drops that had done damage in game 3 failed to find much of anything in game 4. Hydra's mopped up all the harassment attempts and flicked the kill switch as Dream tried to expand to his 4th. A landslide of banelings obliterated everything Dream had, and a round of reinforcements ended the game. Tied 2-2.

Map 5 - Iron Fortress

With his tournament on the line, Hydra chose to stick with what had been successful. Despite opening economically and even getting a well timed third base, Hydra built a roach warren behind his natural. Dream spotted the third and believed it was legit, and pumped out his medivacs to do some harassment. His units were out on the map when Hydra's roaches began their long walk, but they skirted around Dream's vision completely. Dream felt confident nothing strange was afoot until it was too late; Hydra was at his front door, except there was no door. Or wall. And he was dead. Hydra wins 3-2.

Maru vs Rogue

Map 1 - Moonlight Madness

Maru decided to open greedily with a 14 CC at the nat location while Rogue went for the standard hatch, pool and gas. For his midgame Maru got a medivac and tanks, he ferried them to the high ground location near Rogue's 3rd, intent on doing damage while expanding behind it. However all this action blindsided Maru from the lings working on his backdoor rocks. Once broken they flooded in and forced a lift. In the ensuing chaos Rogue had time to clean up the drop and fly across the map to cancel Maru's 3rd CC while getting roaches. Finally Rogue marched across the map with all his forces and overwhelmed his terran team mate. Rogue takes the lead.

Map 2 - Iron Fortress

Maru once more went for a 14 CC, matching up well against Rogue's hatch first. Rogue then sent a small scouting force of lings on the map that did a surprising amount of damage, killing two SCVs, delaying the landing of buildings as well as forcing some lost mining time. This prompted Rogue to go for a roach nydus play while Maru geared up for a drop and banshee followup. Despite doing massive damage to Rogue's economy, Maru was unable to stop the flood of zerg from the nydus, losing all his SCVs and being forced to tap out. Maru 0 - 2 Rogue

Map 3 - Coda

Maru this time decided to open with a safer reaper expand into a quick 3rd CC. He tried to poke around but got little info. The greed ended up not paying off as Rogue took a page out of Hydra's book and went for a massive roach attack. He amassed them and moved across the map in such a way that Maru wouldn't spot them. When he struck it caught Maru completely off guard, devastating his economy thoroughly. Maru refused to give up though, going on the offensive with drops while trying to rebuild his economy. But Rogue would have none of it, getting up to his mutalisks and flying across the map to camp Maru's production while his forces at home cleaned up the drops. Feeling confident, Rogue even sent a ling force across the map to strike at Maru's 3rds and it was the straw that finally saw Maru GG out. Rogue wins this series 3-0!