Today's Group B players all have a tale to tell and even more to prove as long lived veterans of the scene. For a fate that was only decided last week, their destinies so soon cruelly unfold tonight. Their mental fortitude, arduous hours of practice, and perseverance are put to the test to break into the Ro8.

Shine starts the interview with remarks of confidence, only fearful of EffOrt's ZvZ. He treats Larva dismissively as a free ZvZ win, assuring his entrance of the group even if he loses the predicted winner's match versus EffOrt. He's eager to break his confident McGregor persona.

Larva on the other hand already denotes the difference in mindset. He only thinks of winning, the mentality of a true champion that Shine doesn't have apparently. As the transformed McGregor, Larva has taken an interesting route in training. Practicing against amateurs, he believes focusing on the fundamentals is important. Furthermore, upon receiving tips from Jaedong and being confident of winning, his prospects are as bright as his sunglasses.

The next player, EffOrt, for the first time in the tournament surprisingly cuts deep. Not afraid to break away from modesty, he says even though Larva is confident, he's clearly shaking. He says about hero, in typical flattery fashion right out the gate, that he's a better player than himself. He further raises hero on a pedestal, describing him as a solid, consistent zerg he's lost a lot to. For him, tonight's games will be his opportunity to overcome his ZvZ against hero.

Hero doesn't take any of that BS. He knows EffOrt regularly praises his opponents, but in the booth he's focused. He takes EffOrt's comments in stride as a mind game. Admitting to his weakness in ZvZ, he replies plainly that in order to overcome his ZvZ frailty, he's been practicing hard. He enters today's competition with fresh ideas to approach the matchup.

Shine vs. Larva:
In the first match to start the morning, Larva spawns to the right. Will he fall before the bracket stage like all of the times before? The opponent to decide spawns on the left. Shine, last season's finalist who seeks to redeem himself as a champion looks upon Larva as a mere stepping stone.

For a game whose top players successfully switch to and excel in poker, Larva and Shine would be no exception. ZvZ displays mental acuity, intense mind games, and gambles, all required to win in top competition. Do they go all in? Play safe? Fold? In the position of my opponent, what would I be thinking? Standing at the ready with their cards spread, an incredible mind game that in no other matchup would be as salient is shown.

Strategically, the precedent build for Crossing Fields is 12 hatch due to the long rush distance and the guaranteed first scout. For a player to 9 pool would be a huge gamble, but for both players to 9 pool? That's not where the show even begins to start. Larva with his poker face in an incredible display of reading minds thinks one step ahead. As Shine goes 9 pool, anticipating Larva would 12 hatch, Larva already predicts Shine's simple ruse. Larva delays his lings from moving forward in anticipation, toying with such a rare possibility.

For Larva, what he is doing requires an iron gut. Not only did he think of such an incredibly elaborate scenario of both players going for a risky build, he delayed his ling route; a move that would prove detrimental versus a 12 hatch. The delayed attack would've given Shine, had he 12 hatched, ample time to make lings and a sunken to defend efficiently. For Larva, his tactical maneuver would work in only one remotely possible situation. And by fate, the largest gamble made in the entire season pays off. As Shine slowly turns his cards to Larva, revealing his 9 pool lings, Larva can't help but smirk.

With an incredible setup, the only part left was Larva's execution. His lings go around the top and lie in wait for the decisive moment. Meanwhile, Shine's lings arrive to Larva's ramp to see four lings. Battle ensues as Shine attempts to go around the perimeter of Larva's base looking for an opening.


Meanwhile, during this chaos, Larva's trap is sprung. Despite being seen by an overlord, Shine loses two lings carelessly milliseconds after both players' zergling speed finishes. Now, why would a top Zerg like Shine lose two lings so carelessly even when his overlord had vision of Larva's lings so clearly?

Make no mistake - losing the two lings was no blunder on Shine's part - that was calculated genius by Larva. From Shine's perspective from the very moment he entered Larva's ramp, he immediately assumed Larva went for a 12 pool. He also assumed Larva must've taken his backdoor expansion already. The only noticeable difference between a 9 pool and a 12 pool would've been the drone count. However, Shine already at a slight build order disadvantage and dealing with a micro intensive ling battle had his attention focused elsewhere. What would break the 12 pool illusion for Shine would be how fast Larva's speed upgrade completed. Larva, thinking swiftly enough made sure to use his backstabbing lings to kill off two reinforcing lings shortly after speed finished.

A class act of deception, multiple factors lead up to that moment: using the map's backdoor expansion strategically, having only four lings at the ramp to make his build look like a 12 pool, and sending in the backstabbing lings only when the zergling engagement occurred when Shine would be most distracted. Shine was simply too tunnel visioned and overtaxed, believing that Larva went for 12 pool, and focusing on the ling battle. There would be no remote reason to have to look at the minimap.

Shine with too few lings at home ends up losing several drones while Larva sits pretty with plenty of defending zerglings. In the muta followup, Shine is too far behind to contest Larva's superior economy. Through his genius, Larva shatters the confidence and image of mystique of Shine. In an incredibly brief game, Larva reigns victorious in the game of wits.


Hero vs. EffOrt:
Spawning to the left, the underdog, is hero. To the right spawns EffOrt, the Zerg who has yet to translate his online skills into tournament success.

Hero starts with a 12 pool, but curiously makes the spawning pool and gas at nearly the same time when he has 250 minerals. Typically, a zerg makes a spawning pool as soon as they have 200 minerals and an extractor 10 seconds later. His build emphasizes faster teching while EffOrt's 12 hatch has a mineral advantage. Hero's 12 pool timing is slightly un-optimal versus a 9 pool, but is still flexible enough to defend. Hero purposely went for the build with EffOrt going 12 hatch in mind. The reason why hero took his gas so quickly is made evident as the quiet early game quickly comes to pass. Hero has slightly faster tech to his name but less mineral income, falling behind EffOrt's 3rd base. Building up to mutas quickly, hero hurriedly makes two scourge and several mutas, flying over to EffOrt's base.

In an incredibly tense moment of the game, in a rehearsed timing from hero, his scourge arrive just as EffOrt's mutas spawn. Both scourge hit their targets as the situation quickly spirals into a sprawling chaos. Hero quickly kills off many of EffOrt's initial forces and a handful of drones. However, one of hero's scourge absentmindedly dives into an overlord and hero suffers a scourge hit by EffOrt. Hero's reinforcing scourge make the situation increasingly dicier. Unfortunately for hero, EffOrt's reinforcing units are enough to fend off hero's deadly offensive.

While killing off a few drones, EffOrt's much faster 3rd base and gas income quickly overtakes hero's 2 base offensive. Now, hero failing to do critical damage with his risky strategy is put in dire straits.


In EffOrt's counterattack, mediocre muta vs. scourge micro by hero and several overlords lost put hero behind. Barely surviving, the victory is costly as Hero's reinforcements barely hold off Effort's attack while Effort gets ahead more with his 3rd gas.


In the aftermath, EffOrt taking advantage of Hero's low muta count sends a horde of scourge in. Again, Hero displaying nerves fails to muta micro sufficiently losing all of his mutas.


Hero desperately attempts to catch up with his own 3rd gas just completed, but he lingers painfully far behind. In Effort's following second attack, he mercilessly hammers the last nail in Hero's coffin, a cape of scourge to suffocate Hero.

EffOrt vs. Larva:
EffOrt spawns to the center left of Gold Rush, meeting unexpectedly Larva, spawning in the bottom right.

Both players begin with a 12 hatch, but Larva's overlord scouts EffOrt first. Seeing EffOrt's second overlord and no lings coming, Larva feels safe to make only 4 lings and the rest drones. A two, then three drone advantage over EffOrt who plays safe with the first eight lings gives Larva a steady advantage. Taking advantage of EffOrt's lack of scouting at his natural, he slips by several lings ready to backstab. He also makes a creep colony unknown to EffOrt, expecting EffOrt to attack blindly in a huge risk.

Then, the moment Larva was waiting for finally comes. EffOrt runs his lings single file to Larva. Reinforcing lings, and a sunken colony at his natural and main are beginning to be built by Larva. Larva already predicts his natural to not hold completely as he goes all-in on a backstabbing maneuver. To make matters worse, EffOrt had made two additional drones instead of lings that could've been used to defend.


EffOrt's doom slithers past insidiously right under his nose


On the other side of the map, EffOrt desperately tries to blast through Larva's well prepared defense.


EffOrt's now decimated force is unable to break Larva's final wall of defense. The remainder of his forces are cleaned up as back home he's lost his spire, spawning pool, and several drones. Larva with the final blow defeats EffOrt with zerglings. An incredible balancing act by Larva pays off as he crushes the opposition.


In the winner's interview, Larva mentions how because the matchup was a ZvZ, he heavily expected what build Shine was doing. In next level deception, Larva reveals that on stream, he purposely went for 12 hatch often to put his opponent at ease.

In preparation for EffOrt, Larva had studied several of EffOrt's videos. From that, Larva saw how EffOrt would saturate his natural with several drones, giving himself the comfort to drone generously.

Shine vs. Hero:
In the next game, hero spawns at the 12 o'clock and Shine spawns in the bottom right. Hero takes advantage of the unique terrain of the map, making his natural hatchery at the center right semi-island base with an overgas build. Shine going 12 hatch has curiously enough sent his first overlord clockwise as opposed to the standard counterclockwise direction.

Strangely enough, the scouting decision has unexpected rewards for Shine. Hero expecting Shine to scout normally assumed Shine spawned in the center left. Hero then takes his expansion in the direction that would've been farthest away from the center left. That happened to be uncomfortably close to Shine's main. Luckily for hero, an even more bizarre circumstance develops:


Shine's overlord en route to hero misses the semi-island expansion by a pixel. In an act of incredible genius or most likely dumb luck, hero gains a significant advantage.


Shine, assuming hero took the expansion farther away from him starts attacking the top left base's eggs.

Shine's moment of victory is on the edge of his fingertips as the last egg is finally knocked down. His lings hurriedly enter...only to find nothing. Shine in shock realizes the dire situation as he hastily makes spores for hero's faster mutalisks. Investing in lings heavily, Shine's economy is set back heavily as his supply teeters off. Hero's initial mutas picking off a few drone kills sets the snowball effect into play.

Eventually, hero mounts a large enough muta force to overwhelmingly take out Shine's main base defenses. Defeat a matter of time as hero is double Shine's supply, Shine concedes in a tragic loss.

Hero vs. EffOrt:
In the final game to end the night, on Fighting Spirit, hero spawns in the bottom left and EffOrt spawns in the bottom right.

Abruptly, the game ends just as it begins. EffOrt plays a greedy 12 hatch while hero in an antithesis plays the 9 pool. On a 4 player map, the increased risks of 9 pooling have lured EffOrt into a false sense of security. For any novice, this would mean immediate death, but even EffOrt has come back from similar situations versus hero online.


EffOrt attempts to drone drill, stalling for lings. However, hero with uncharacteristically good micro for once brushes off the drone defense. Several drones die and EffOrt's lings are left to waste. Hopelessly outmaneuvered and outnumbered by hero's lings, Effort takes another early exit. In an unexpected turn of events, favorites EffOrt and Shine have been defeated.

Larva and hero advance to the Ro8!