History was made this past week in the second half of the quarterfinals as we finally saw Flash defeated at the hands of Snow in quite the thriller. 5 games, all pretty intense in their own right were needed for this outcome. His first loss versus a protoss in a BO5 in 11 years! Let that sink in for a second. Flash may have played well, but Snow was a tad better as he knocked out the defending champion!
The Mini vs Larva series had its own surprise for us as Mini utterly destroyed Larva, not giving him a chance to even grab a game. It was a result that few expected, despite the unfavourable map pool for the zerg, considering Larva's ZvP. For more details on what transpired, please read Ty2's recap of both series. This set up a Mini vs Snow encounter with the winner moving on to meet the winner of Rain vs hero, the first series of the semifinals.
Furthermore, this also means that next ASL, there will be three seeded protoss players in the Ro16, a first! For the semifinals, Rain vs hero has been previewed by Ty2 while BLinD-RawR has previewed Mini vs Snow. With the games set to start in , let's get hyped for PvZ and PvP action!
Larva on Sparkle: "It belongs in the default map folder"
Game 1 on Third World:
The game begins with Mini spawning in the bottom left and Larva spawning in the top right. Mini opens fast forge expand while Larva opens the typical 3 hatch spire. Mini acts swiftly to deny Larva's third at the 1 o'clock just barely with a pylon. Larva gets a prospective third base at the top right center denied by another pylon before settling on the bottom left center base.
Moving into the midgame, Mini has now made two stargates and a robotics facility. In a clumsy error, Mini loses a corsair at his natural to Larva's first two scourge. Then, in a perfectly timed maneuver, Larva sends in a second pair of scourge that snipes the shuttle just as it spawns.
Mini drives back against the momentum, taking a third at the base above his main and sets up to attack Larva's third. He drops briefly before retreating once seeing Larva has sent hydras to attack his scarcely defended natural. Mini, realizing Larva's invested in only hydras, sends his control group of corsairs to Larva's natural. Larva, who opted to send most of his hydras to Mini's natural, has paid the price, leaving most of his overlords to the slaughter of the corsairs.
The situation looks steadily worse for Larva, who has been a sitting duck with no presence on the opposite side of the map. Larva's trump card is then revealed - overlord drops.
Loading the hydras into the overlords, Larva swings the hammer down onto Mini's main. Mini rushes to ferry reavers, and gradually, the once formidable drop starts to peter out.
Larva continues the attack with a second incoming drop, but the attack pales in the face of more reavers. Mini, now on two robotics facilities, a bustling third base economy, and the drop attacks all but stopped, looks to be in a commanding position.
Now Mini's turn to return the favor, a speedlot attack made from gateways on the opposite side kill off Larva's third and deny any further bases. A followup drop at Larva's main, then natural plummet Larva's supply even further as one last hail mary drop is all, but too small to overwhelm. All options exhausted and bases razed, Larva admits defeat.
Game 2 on Gladiator:
Larva down 0-1 spawns in the bottom left while Mini spawns in the top right. Mini, starting off adventurously, goes 1 Gate FE. Larva opens an overpool, making plenty of lings to defend the initial zealots. Mini, hampered by the cross positions, opts to send the first zealot to Larva's 7 o'clock third in a tight nook accessible to only 2 lings.
Larva finishes the zealot off, moving his zerglings to pressure Mini's natural, which in place of a forge already has a cybernetics core. Mini moves his zealots out, triggering larva to attempt the ling runby. Mini, in planned foresight, blocks the natural with a pylon and pulls probes, neutralizing the 8 ling attack. Larva, now in a compromising situation, is pushed to make a sunken at his third while making speed hydras to pressure Mini's natural.
As the zealots are sent to the fortified third, Larva has already sent hydras to knock down Mini's front gateway. Mini's zealots eventually find a good battle, killing off lings in too few numbers. The zealots progress to Larva's natural and main, leaving Larva to micro uncomfortably close to his mineral lines, losing a few drones.
Mini, once again in a dominant position, now leads with a HT/zealot army, poking into Larva's third, and then his natural.
Before long, Larva's stunted economy is showing, bearing an army too pitifully small to hold back the onslaught. As the storms and speed zealots break the natural, hydras and drones alike razed, Mini swiftly wins a second game.
Game 3 on Sparkle:
Larva, now one game away from a 0-3 clean sweep, must find a way to win on the unorthodox map Sparkle. He spawns in the top right, and Mini spawns in the bottom left. Larva opens 3 hatch before pool while Mini opens Nexus first.
Larva, once again like the first game, kills the first shuttle with scourge. Mini hurriedly retreated his corsairs in the panic, leaving the drop overlords to roam freely. Larva, now with hydras loaded, slowly veers his way to establish his third undisturbed.
Mini, taking his third and now fourth, shifts to move his two shuttles to Larva's natural. While he razes Larva's natural, Larva knocks down Mini's fourth.
The game looks relatively even until Mini's next large drop at Larva's main, complete with four reavers and corsairs with d-web, wreaks havoc. The connecting nydus picked off, Larva's hive soon follows. Another swift drop at Larva's top left base is the last nail in the coffin, Larva defeated 3-0.
An unfortunate series, Larva's negative sentiments of Sparkle, the first new map when it was released, appear to have echoed haunting woes of what was to come.
The game begins with Mini spawning in the bottom left and Larva spawning in the top right. Mini opens fast forge expand while Larva opens the typical 3 hatch spire. Mini acts swiftly to deny Larva's third at the 1 o'clock just barely with a pylon. Larva gets a prospective third base at the top right center denied by another pylon before settling on the bottom left center base.
Moving into the midgame, Mini has now made two stargates and a robotics facility. In a clumsy error, Mini loses a corsair at his natural to Larva's first two scourge. Then, in a perfectly timed maneuver, Larva sends in a second pair of scourge that snipes the shuttle just as it spawns.
Mini drives back against the momentum, taking a third at the base above his main and sets up to attack Larva's third. He drops briefly before retreating once seeing Larva has sent hydras to attack his scarcely defended natural. Mini, realizing Larva's invested in only hydras, sends his control group of corsairs to Larva's natural. Larva, who opted to send most of his hydras to Mini's natural, has paid the price, leaving most of his overlords to the slaughter of the corsairs.
The situation looks steadily worse for Larva, who has been a sitting duck with no presence on the opposite side of the map. Larva's trump card is then revealed - overlord drops.
Loading the hydras into the overlords, Larva swings the hammer down onto Mini's main. Mini rushes to ferry reavers, and gradually, the once formidable drop starts to peter out.
Larva continues the attack with a second incoming drop, but the attack pales in the face of more reavers. Mini, now on two robotics facilities, a bustling third base economy, and the drop attacks all but stopped, looks to be in a commanding position.
Now Mini's turn to return the favor, a speedlot attack made from gateways on the opposite side kill off Larva's third and deny any further bases. A followup drop at Larva's main, then natural plummet Larva's supply even further as one last hail mary drop is all, but too small to overwhelm. All options exhausted and bases razed, Larva admits defeat.
Game 2 on Gladiator:
Larva down 0-1 spawns in the bottom left while Mini spawns in the top right. Mini, starting off adventurously, goes 1 Gate FE. Larva opens an overpool, making plenty of lings to defend the initial zealots. Mini, hampered by the cross positions, opts to send the first zealot to Larva's 7 o'clock third in a tight nook accessible to only 2 lings.
Larva finishes the zealot off, moving his zerglings to pressure Mini's natural, which in place of a forge already has a cybernetics core. Mini moves his zealots out, triggering larva to attempt the ling runby. Mini, in planned foresight, blocks the natural with a pylon and pulls probes, neutralizing the 8 ling attack. Larva, now in a compromising situation, is pushed to make a sunken at his third while making speed hydras to pressure Mini's natural.
As the zealots are sent to the fortified third, Larva has already sent hydras to knock down Mini's front gateway. Mini's zealots eventually find a good battle, killing off lings in too few numbers. The zealots progress to Larva's natural and main, leaving Larva to micro uncomfortably close to his mineral lines, losing a few drones.
Mini, once again in a dominant position, now leads with a HT/zealot army, poking into Larva's third, and then his natural.
Before long, Larva's stunted economy is showing, bearing an army too pitifully small to hold back the onslaught. As the storms and speed zealots break the natural, hydras and drones alike razed, Mini swiftly wins a second game.
Game 3 on Sparkle:
Larva, now one game away from a 0-3 clean sweep, must find a way to win on the unorthodox map Sparkle. He spawns in the top right, and Mini spawns in the bottom left. Larva opens 3 hatch before pool while Mini opens Nexus first.
Larva, once again like the first game, kills the first shuttle with scourge. Mini hurriedly retreated his corsairs in the panic, leaving the drop overlords to roam freely. Larva, now with hydras loaded, slowly veers his way to establish his third undisturbed.
Mini, taking his third and now fourth, shifts to move his two shuttles to Larva's natural. While he razes Larva's natural, Larva knocks down Mini's fourth.
The game looks relatively even until Mini's next large drop at Larva's main, complete with four reavers and corsairs with d-web, wreaks havoc. The connecting nydus picked off, Larva's hive soon follows. Another swift drop at Larva's top left base is the last nail in the coffin, Larva defeated 3-0.
An unfortunate series, Larva's negative sentiments of Sparkle, the first new map when it was released, appear to have echoed haunting woes of what was to come.
The Holy Battle
Game 1 on Third World:
The long awaited series begins with Flash in the bottom left and Snow in the top right. Both players opt for expand first builds, but Flash curiously enough has made his expansion on the opposite side. All the while expanding, Flash's blocking SCV at the ramp is tickled by Snow's scouting probe.
Flash attempts a scout of Snow's main by sending an SCV through the metal fence, only to be repelled by dragoons. Snow's probe soon makes a full scout of Flash's natural at the north of his main. Snow's probe then kills not only the SCV tickled earlier from blocking the ramp, but also the retreating SCV repelled by the dragoons!
Flash, unshaken, treads onwards with a fast marine siege tank push and a dropship. Snow ferries two dragoons to the opposite side that annoy Flash's expansion.
Flash quickly drops two siege tanks onto the ledge of Snow's natural, and hurries to ferry the marines. Just as the marines unload, Snow unloads a reaver right next to the helpless siege tanks. Scattered to the wind, even the dropship does not live to tell the tale.
Flash painstakingly kills the immortals dragoons at his expansion, even forced to pull his SCVs at some point. Flash slowly makes his way to his natural, each step of the way under the watchful gaze of Snow's reaver.
Flash finally establishes his third, but his transferring SCVs find a way to make things worse. A reaver scarab pokes its head in...
and lands. Of the 12 SCVs, only one survives. Setback after setback, Snow's two stargate carriers and third expansion look all the more grim for Flash. Deciding to not sit back, Flash poses a small ground attack to Snow's isolated third. Snow, pressed to attack, marches his army to Flash's front door. Amassing an impressive fleet and supporting ground army, Snow makes his last attack of the game, ending in Flash's timely demise.
Game 2 on Sparkle:
Snow leading the series spawns in the bottom left while Flash is at the top left. Snow, looking to make strides on his game goes for the unexpected one base DT drops. In the meantime, the all too unknowing Flash merrily goes CC first into starports.
The shuttle, now loaded with two DTs, ominously moves to the top left, Snow clairvoyant of Flash's spawning position. The crux of whether or not Snow surely wins not just the game, but the series, is made here as Snow unloads the DTs. Flash has taken the proper precautions, armed with comsat stations, but a lack of a ground army. He hurriedly makes a vulture from his factory as Snow splits his DTs among the two bases.
The engineering bay completes, the building SCV miraculously avoiding the DTs every move. Snow, truly committed to the attack, sends in yet another two DTs just as the DT in the main is killed.
A turret in Flash's main saves the day as the DTs pick off SCVs near the edge of detection. Flash gradually builds up enough scans to kill the remaining DTs, but not without losing mining time and several more SCVs.
Amidst the chaos, Snow's expansion is now only starting and the two players' economies appear relatively even. Unfortunately for Snow, he has no stargates to contest the air, limited to just high templar tech.
Flash, somewhat flustered, absentmindedly loses two wraiths, hovering a second too long right above a group of Dragoons. Flash expands to a third while Snow's strategy of mass shuttles grows apparent with every second, and a warping-in third robotics facility.
Upon scanning, Flash sends his wraiths in, trading two wraiths for two shuttles. In a game of cat and mouse, Snow is poking in from every angle trying to land his ground units. He finally does so at the 9 o'clock, landing four dragoons.
Flash quickly transitions to a full mech army, factories aplenty, while Snow looks to expand at the bottom right base. Sent to the 9 o'clock is an expanding shuttle, but it gets shot down, along with the four dragoons shortly after by Flash's wraiths.
Snow makes his own move, maneuvering his shuttles along the right side of the map to Flash's 12 o'clock third. Flash, a few seconds too late to save all of the SCVs, sends in defending dropships.
Snow, taking advantage of the disorder, sends a single shuttle with a reaver in tow into Flash's completely exposed natural.
Despite the impressive SCV kills, Snow was unable to make a swift getaway with his shuttles, tethered by the wraiths. In all, an expensive army of DTs, dragoons, reavers, and several shuttles died while Flash's army is left largely intact. The supply favoring Flash in his army count, Flash is in a promising position to counter.
Flash drops the bottom right, an attack left unscathed by Snow's meager defensive drop. The bottom right finished, Snow drops once more at Flash's 12 o'clock. Despite both players reduced to their main bases, Flash is ahead. Shown in the leading supply, Flash has retained a few more dropships worth of units and an oppressive air force.
Snow, desperate to expand, drops units at the 6 o'clock. Flash, eyeing to clean up Snow's units at the 12 o'clock, instead turns around to attack Snow for the game deciding move. His wraiths pick off undefended HT in the main, and also prevent Snow from sending his shuttles in. Flash's units, now at the heart of Snow's production, land the killing blow. Snow, in a futile attempt drops with the units he has left, but the effort is all but wasted.
Game 3 on Gladiator
The series now even, Flash spawns in the bottom left and Snow is at the top right. Both players open standard; Flash going 1 Factory Expand and Snow opening 1 Gate Cyber Core Expand. Flash maneuvers his units for an early push, but is hampered by the cross positions. Snow in the opposite corner with reaver in tow is caught off guard, spotting the push only with the moving out shuttle. Before Snow can take advantage of the high ground terrain, Flash has already made his way to Snow's natural.
Snow's reaver is reduced to the red and several dragoons and a handful of probes are lost in the battle. Flash continues the pressure with speed vultures entering the fray. Both players in the tense skirmish eventually disengage, Flash escaping with two of the four siege tanks and Snow left with bruised dragoons. Altogether, Flash's push has put him at an advantage, occupying Snow's reaver from harassing his mineral line, and probes losing mining time.
Snow, crawling to Flash's natural tries to return the favor with a paltry two dragoons and two reavers. After the brief skirmish, Snow does a reaver drop at the edge of Flash's natural that gets little done.
More appetizers of the battlefield occur, first with vulture harass at Snow's mineral only third, and then a vulture drop at his main. While harassing, Flash has been building up a terrifying tank count while expanding to his own third. Snow in the meantime expands to a fourth and has arbiter tech.
Flash finally pushes and is now maxed, precariously moving on the thin ice of Snow's half of the map. Snow, not planning on playing pure defense has already maneuvered an arbiter to Flash's natural. The awkward terrain besets Flash's push, while with one press of a button, Flash is sent into full retreat.
The recall sends Flash's vultures scurrying back home. In Flash's haste, his siege tanks were left abandoned, soon overrun by zealots and dragoons. Snow even recalled on top of the retreating tanks, cutting off another hefty portion of Flash's tank numbers. Snow, having bought time for himself and tactically outplaying Flash, is now flush with resources while Flash is just barely maxed.
Snow wages battle at the 9 o'clock, threatening Flash's fourth. Despite the two stasises, Flash's defense holds strong, laying waste to Snow's army. In the wake of his victory, Flash rushes to besiege Snow's mineral only. A few timely reinforcements however save Snow, just barely pushing back Flash's push. Despite the trade, Snow's evident lack of a fifth base puts him at even bases with Flash.
However, the state of affairs quickly changes with Snow dropping a reaver at Flash's completely undefended fourth.
Volley after volley, Flash's SCVs are blown apart, and with one satisfying final scarab, the rest of the SCVs die.
Flash is in dire straits, forced to make a move with every second leaving him further behind. Using his competing army, his most powerful card, Flash pushes into Snow.
Snow, already a step ahead has already planned a counter recall, landing in Flash's main.
On the other side of the map, some of Flash's siege tanks were left behind and unsieged, prompting Snow to swoop in. Unfortunately, the attack turns to disaster as the arbiters full of energy don't cast a single spell with Snow's supply plummeting. At the same time, another reaver comes to Flash's fourth, once again undefended. History repeating itself, nearly all of the SCVs die.
Staying on four bases for so long and Snow nearly doubling Flash's supply of fifty, the tensions grow high for Snow to take action. Snow ramps up for a decisive attack, gathering his remaining forces and arbiters to stasis Flash's entrenched position at the 10 o'clock. Snow trades his army, cutting down a significant portion of Flash's tank numbers before retreating. With another group of reinforcements, Snow goes in for seconds, making use of the still present stasises before retreating once more.
Both players at a standstill, Snow breaks the short-lived silence with a recall at Flash's fourth. Flash's fourth now gone, his only option left is to attack. Unfortunately, with little over a control group of ragtag units, defeat follows swiftly.
Game 4 on Transistor:
Snow is only one game away from winning against Flash on the protoss favored Transistor. The cards couldn't be more in favor of Snow against a visibly jolted Flash. The game begins with Flash spawning in the bottom right while Snow spawns in the 9 o'clock. Snow opens nexus first against Flash's 1 Rax FE.
Snow is first to move, sending two zealots that Flash defends, pulling several SCVs. Snow follows up with reaver drops while Flash makes a starport. Snow, in a cheeky move, sends an empty shuttle to the unflinching Flash's mineral line before retreating.
Snow, now with a reaver in the shuttle, begins the loathed dragoon elevator. Flash in response pushes with several marines and three siege tanks. Flash, prepared for the base race, pulls his SCVs from the natural.
In the exchange, Flash's defensive wraith bites the dust, forcing Flash to make another wraith.
Snow, realizing he can't push into Flash anymore, brings his reaver back home only to lose it to siege tank fire. The dragoons too few in number are left to a similar fate with Snow conceding. In a highly anticlimactic, short game, Flash evens the series 2-2.
Game 5 on Third World:
The final game begins. Snow spawns in the bottom left and Flash spawns in the top right. Snow makes a gateway at home, sneakily moving his first zealot around Flash's first SCV. To further deceive Flash, a second zealot was made to block his ramp. Flash's first marine dying, he makes a vulture, delaying his siege tank.
Snow, looking to close the game early has made a second gateway and blocks Flash's every attempt to scout his natural. Snow frequently pokes in and out of Flash's natural with his dragoons. In a clever deception, Snow hides his dragoons, only showing their numbers incrementing one at a time to appear like a one gate.
Once Flash has moved his siege tanks down, Snow springs into action, sending his units in for the decisive blow. Two siege tanks and marines fall quickly as Flash is forced up to his main base, surviving on a single siege tank. Snow, capitalizing on Flash's low siege tank count, swoops in every time Flash has a lone siege tank on the low ground.
Snow's position looks continually more threatening. Flash, feeling too far behind, gambles on a hidden base at the top left. Snow, after delaying and harassing Flash's natural, opts for reaver drops while quickly teching to arbiters.
Snow attempts a major ground army and two shuttle attacks with a reaver and DTs in tow. Despite the attack's ambition, Flash's reinforcing tanks hold strong, deflecting yet another fearsome attack. Flash's hidden expansion in the top left meanwhile is scouted by a DT, the routing SCVs bombarded by a reaver. Snow takes the bottom right base, his would-be third blocked by an engineering bay.
Snow with the building momentum prepares his next attack, complete with another two shuttles and an arbiter with stasis. He stasises three siege tanks on the front before moving in with dropped zealots distracting tank fire. The reaver targets clumped siege tanks as Snow's dragoons methodically focus fire siege tanks.
The attack's ambition is met by lukewarm success as the trade falls in Flash's favor. Flash, on the rebound, promptly makes and defends the third from a lackluster force.
The game evened up, Snow then turns to the more standard Carrier production. Flash, not wasting a second starts to push into Snow's half of the map down to the close bottom right base.
Snow takes the opportunity to do a backstabbing recall while Flash's army is outside of his base. Flash retreats a few of his units and splits off the rest to attack Snow's bottom right base. Snow's carriers arrive in the nick of time that coupled with zealots and dragoons prolong the life of the expansion. In a back and forth fight, Snow's bottom right base is felled shortly before being rebuilt, and then killed again.
Vulture harass rages on at Snow's fourth at the center left as Flash gears for another attack.
Snow, however, has other plans, doing a combined carrier and recall attack at Flash's main. Flash, for maybe the last time, pulls all of his units back to defend the recall. Flash, unable to break into his main base that has become Snow's new haven, opts to ferry units to pressure Snow's opposite side bases.
Flash's efforts however pale in comparison to the utter devastation that is his main base. His supply dwindling, his army reduced to scrap, and not a single shred of hope left, Flash can only look on.
A classic matchup, battle has been waged between these two races across several galaxies since time immemorial. Undoubtedly many more battles will be waged in the future. But today, in this battle, Terran has been defeated, and Protoss has triumphed! Handing Flash his first Bo5 series loss against Protoss in 11 years is Snow, your last Ro4 contestant!
The long awaited series begins with Flash in the bottom left and Snow in the top right. Both players opt for expand first builds, but Flash curiously enough has made his expansion on the opposite side. All the while expanding, Flash's blocking SCV at the ramp is tickled by Snow's scouting probe.
Flash attempts a scout of Snow's main by sending an SCV through the metal fence, only to be repelled by dragoons. Snow's probe soon makes a full scout of Flash's natural at the north of his main. Snow's probe then kills not only the SCV tickled earlier from blocking the ramp, but also the retreating SCV repelled by the dragoons!
Flash, unshaken, treads onwards with a fast marine siege tank push and a dropship. Snow ferries two dragoons to the opposite side that annoy Flash's expansion.
Flash quickly drops two siege tanks onto the ledge of Snow's natural, and hurries to ferry the marines. Just as the marines unload, Snow unloads a reaver right next to the helpless siege tanks. Scattered to the wind, even the dropship does not live to tell the tale.
Flash painstakingly kills the immortals dragoons at his expansion, even forced to pull his SCVs at some point. Flash slowly makes his way to his natural, each step of the way under the watchful gaze of Snow's reaver.
Flash finally establishes his third, but his transferring SCVs find a way to make things worse. A reaver scarab pokes its head in...
and lands. Of the 12 SCVs, only one survives. Setback after setback, Snow's two stargate carriers and third expansion look all the more grim for Flash. Deciding to not sit back, Flash poses a small ground attack to Snow's isolated third. Snow, pressed to attack, marches his army to Flash's front door. Amassing an impressive fleet and supporting ground army, Snow makes his last attack of the game, ending in Flash's timely demise.
Game 2 on Sparkle:
Snow leading the series spawns in the bottom left while Flash is at the top left. Snow, looking to make strides on his game goes for the unexpected one base DT drops. In the meantime, the all too unknowing Flash merrily goes CC first into starports.
The shuttle, now loaded with two DTs, ominously moves to the top left, Snow clairvoyant of Flash's spawning position. The crux of whether or not Snow surely wins not just the game, but the series, is made here as Snow unloads the DTs. Flash has taken the proper precautions, armed with comsat stations, but a lack of a ground army. He hurriedly makes a vulture from his factory as Snow splits his DTs among the two bases.
The engineering bay completes, the building SCV miraculously avoiding the DTs every move. Snow, truly committed to the attack, sends in yet another two DTs just as the DT in the main is killed.
A turret in Flash's main saves the day as the DTs pick off SCVs near the edge of detection. Flash gradually builds up enough scans to kill the remaining DTs, but not without losing mining time and several more SCVs.
Amidst the chaos, Snow's expansion is now only starting and the two players' economies appear relatively even. Unfortunately for Snow, he has no stargates to contest the air, limited to just high templar tech.
Flash, somewhat flustered, absentmindedly loses two wraiths, hovering a second too long right above a group of Dragoons. Flash expands to a third while Snow's strategy of mass shuttles grows apparent with every second, and a warping-in third robotics facility.
Upon scanning, Flash sends his wraiths in, trading two wraiths for two shuttles. In a game of cat and mouse, Snow is poking in from every angle trying to land his ground units. He finally does so at the 9 o'clock, landing four dragoons.
Flash quickly transitions to a full mech army, factories aplenty, while Snow looks to expand at the bottom right base. Sent to the 9 o'clock is an expanding shuttle, but it gets shot down, along with the four dragoons shortly after by Flash's wraiths.
Snow makes his own move, maneuvering his shuttles along the right side of the map to Flash's 12 o'clock third. Flash, a few seconds too late to save all of the SCVs, sends in defending dropships.
Snow, taking advantage of the disorder, sends a single shuttle with a reaver in tow into Flash's completely exposed natural.
Despite the impressive SCV kills, Snow was unable to make a swift getaway with his shuttles, tethered by the wraiths. In all, an expensive army of DTs, dragoons, reavers, and several shuttles died while Flash's army is left largely intact. The supply favoring Flash in his army count, Flash is in a promising position to counter.
Flash drops the bottom right, an attack left unscathed by Snow's meager defensive drop. The bottom right finished, Snow drops once more at Flash's 12 o'clock. Despite both players reduced to their main bases, Flash is ahead. Shown in the leading supply, Flash has retained a few more dropships worth of units and an oppressive air force.
Snow, desperate to expand, drops units at the 6 o'clock. Flash, eyeing to clean up Snow's units at the 12 o'clock, instead turns around to attack Snow for the game deciding move. His wraiths pick off undefended HT in the main, and also prevent Snow from sending his shuttles in. Flash's units, now at the heart of Snow's production, land the killing blow. Snow, in a futile attempt drops with the units he has left, but the effort is all but wasted.
Game 3 on Gladiator
The series now even, Flash spawns in the bottom left and Snow is at the top right. Both players open standard; Flash going 1 Factory Expand and Snow opening 1 Gate Cyber Core Expand. Flash maneuvers his units for an early push, but is hampered by the cross positions. Snow in the opposite corner with reaver in tow is caught off guard, spotting the push only with the moving out shuttle. Before Snow can take advantage of the high ground terrain, Flash has already made his way to Snow's natural.
Snow's reaver is reduced to the red and several dragoons and a handful of probes are lost in the battle. Flash continues the pressure with speed vultures entering the fray. Both players in the tense skirmish eventually disengage, Flash escaping with two of the four siege tanks and Snow left with bruised dragoons. Altogether, Flash's push has put him at an advantage, occupying Snow's reaver from harassing his mineral line, and probes losing mining time.
Snow, crawling to Flash's natural tries to return the favor with a paltry two dragoons and two reavers. After the brief skirmish, Snow does a reaver drop at the edge of Flash's natural that gets little done.
More appetizers of the battlefield occur, first with vulture harass at Snow's mineral only third, and then a vulture drop at his main. While harassing, Flash has been building up a terrifying tank count while expanding to his own third. Snow in the meantime expands to a fourth and has arbiter tech.
Flash finally pushes and is now maxed, precariously moving on the thin ice of Snow's half of the map. Snow, not planning on playing pure defense has already maneuvered an arbiter to Flash's natural. The awkward terrain besets Flash's push, while with one press of a button, Flash is sent into full retreat.
The recall sends Flash's vultures scurrying back home. In Flash's haste, his siege tanks were left abandoned, soon overrun by zealots and dragoons. Snow even recalled on top of the retreating tanks, cutting off another hefty portion of Flash's tank numbers. Snow, having bought time for himself and tactically outplaying Flash, is now flush with resources while Flash is just barely maxed.
Snow wages battle at the 9 o'clock, threatening Flash's fourth. Despite the two stasises, Flash's defense holds strong, laying waste to Snow's army. In the wake of his victory, Flash rushes to besiege Snow's mineral only. A few timely reinforcements however save Snow, just barely pushing back Flash's push. Despite the trade, Snow's evident lack of a fifth base puts him at even bases with Flash.
However, the state of affairs quickly changes with Snow dropping a reaver at Flash's completely undefended fourth.
Volley after volley, Flash's SCVs are blown apart, and with one satisfying final scarab, the rest of the SCVs die.
Flash is in dire straits, forced to make a move with every second leaving him further behind. Using his competing army, his most powerful card, Flash pushes into Snow.
Snow, already a step ahead has already planned a counter recall, landing in Flash's main.
On the other side of the map, some of Flash's siege tanks were left behind and unsieged, prompting Snow to swoop in. Unfortunately, the attack turns to disaster as the arbiters full of energy don't cast a single spell with Snow's supply plummeting. At the same time, another reaver comes to Flash's fourth, once again undefended. History repeating itself, nearly all of the SCVs die.
Staying on four bases for so long and Snow nearly doubling Flash's supply of fifty, the tensions grow high for Snow to take action. Snow ramps up for a decisive attack, gathering his remaining forces and arbiters to stasis Flash's entrenched position at the 10 o'clock. Snow trades his army, cutting down a significant portion of Flash's tank numbers before retreating. With another group of reinforcements, Snow goes in for seconds, making use of the still present stasises before retreating once more.
Both players at a standstill, Snow breaks the short-lived silence with a recall at Flash's fourth. Flash's fourth now gone, his only option left is to attack. Unfortunately, with little over a control group of ragtag units, defeat follows swiftly.
Game 4 on Transistor:
Snow is only one game away from winning against Flash on the protoss favored Transistor. The cards couldn't be more in favor of Snow against a visibly jolted Flash. The game begins with Flash spawning in the bottom right while Snow spawns in the 9 o'clock. Snow opens nexus first against Flash's 1 Rax FE.
Snow is first to move, sending two zealots that Flash defends, pulling several SCVs. Snow follows up with reaver drops while Flash makes a starport. Snow, in a cheeky move, sends an empty shuttle to the unflinching Flash's mineral line before retreating.
Snow, now with a reaver in the shuttle, begins the loathed dragoon elevator. Flash in response pushes with several marines and three siege tanks. Flash, prepared for the base race, pulls his SCVs from the natural.
In the exchange, Flash's defensive wraith bites the dust, forcing Flash to make another wraith.
Snow, realizing he can't push into Flash anymore, brings his reaver back home only to lose it to siege tank fire. The dragoons too few in number are left to a similar fate with Snow conceding. In a highly anticlimactic, short game, Flash evens the series 2-2.
Game 5 on Third World:
The final game begins. Snow spawns in the bottom left and Flash spawns in the top right. Snow makes a gateway at home, sneakily moving his first zealot around Flash's first SCV. To further deceive Flash, a second zealot was made to block his ramp. Flash's first marine dying, he makes a vulture, delaying his siege tank.
Snow, looking to close the game early has made a second gateway and blocks Flash's every attempt to scout his natural. Snow frequently pokes in and out of Flash's natural with his dragoons. In a clever deception, Snow hides his dragoons, only showing their numbers incrementing one at a time to appear like a one gate.
Once Flash has moved his siege tanks down, Snow springs into action, sending his units in for the decisive blow. Two siege tanks and marines fall quickly as Flash is forced up to his main base, surviving on a single siege tank. Snow, capitalizing on Flash's low siege tank count, swoops in every time Flash has a lone siege tank on the low ground.
Snow's position looks continually more threatening. Flash, feeling too far behind, gambles on a hidden base at the top left. Snow, after delaying and harassing Flash's natural, opts for reaver drops while quickly teching to arbiters.
Snow attempts a major ground army and two shuttle attacks with a reaver and DTs in tow. Despite the attack's ambition, Flash's reinforcing tanks hold strong, deflecting yet another fearsome attack. Flash's hidden expansion in the top left meanwhile is scouted by a DT, the routing SCVs bombarded by a reaver. Snow takes the bottom right base, his would-be third blocked by an engineering bay.
Snow with the building momentum prepares his next attack, complete with another two shuttles and an arbiter with stasis. He stasises three siege tanks on the front before moving in with dropped zealots distracting tank fire. The reaver targets clumped siege tanks as Snow's dragoons methodically focus fire siege tanks.
The attack's ambition is met by lukewarm success as the trade falls in Flash's favor. Flash, on the rebound, promptly makes and defends the third from a lackluster force.
The game evened up, Snow then turns to the more standard Carrier production. Flash, not wasting a second starts to push into Snow's half of the map down to the close bottom right base.
Snow takes the opportunity to do a backstabbing recall while Flash's army is outside of his base. Flash retreats a few of his units and splits off the rest to attack Snow's bottom right base. Snow's carriers arrive in the nick of time that coupled with zealots and dragoons prolong the life of the expansion. In a back and forth fight, Snow's bottom right base is felled shortly before being rebuilt, and then killed again.
Vulture harass rages on at Snow's fourth at the center left as Flash gears for another attack.
Snow, however, has other plans, doing a combined carrier and recall attack at Flash's main. Flash, for maybe the last time, pulls all of his units back to defend the recall. Flash, unable to break into his main base that has become Snow's new haven, opts to ferry units to pressure Snow's opposite side bases.
Flash's efforts however pale in comparison to the utter devastation that is his main base. His supply dwindling, his army reduced to scrap, and not a single shred of hope left, Flash can only look on.
A classic matchup, battle has been waged between these two races across several galaxies since time immemorial. Undoubtedly many more battles will be waged in the future. But today, in this battle, Terran has been defeated, and Protoss has triumphed! Handing Flash his first Bo5 series loss against Protoss in 11 years is Snow, your last Ro4 contestant!
The Grand Experiment
Rain and hero, two names that despite being in the same tight knit space, somehow by fate or otherwise, appear to elude one another. In the past month, they've only played 8 games in sponsored matches, a record of 5:3 in favor of Hero. Only through the meteorite of the ASL have the two planets' gravitational pulls failed to keep one another at a distance. The pairing is at once electric, yet calm. At once impressing, yet intangible. Both are commendable for their strength, yet wildly different, almost awkwardly so. They have incredibly distinct, juxtaposing tones to their play. Hero, the inventive, relaxed, hardworking, macro-minded, and strong willed. Rain, the brash, impatient, reliant-on-experience, reckless, and automatic-macro-machine.
What we have is a chemical mix of the bizzare and the fascinating, the two players' threads interwoven creating a new fabric in space. For every great player is a new approach to the game, a new style replete with the finer workings of Brood War expounded upon by a player's personality. What we have on our hands is a collision of two players otherworldly to the other. Combined with the daring maps, the tournament pressure, and their unique playstyles, is a recipe for the spectacular. What will soon unfold will truly be the last the world will witness in years. Never again will the world see the stars aligned the way they are tonight.
I say that not only because of the unique maps, or because tonight is the first time Hero and Rain meet, but the fact that the series may be Hero's last with his military service looming on the horizon. Never again may the world see Hero, top zerg, at the height of his career, play another series, much less one like tonight. New territory will be tread, and the very firmament of the earth shaken by the clash of Rain and Hero.
Naysayers may spout a lack of momentum to the encounter due to the map imbalance that rides against Hero. The despair that is Larva vs Mini comes to mind. However, Hero has always set himself apart from the rest of the Zerg flock in more ways than one. Zergs like EffOrt and Larva have playstyles that awkwardly fit into the new maps like a square block in a circular hole. Unlike Effort and Larva, Hero is always changing. Hero is at the drawing board more readily willing to try new strategies and ideas. Like water, he constantly changes shape as he flows unto the constantly changing terrain. Like a fish in a whirlpool, Hero swims with the flow of the current, not against. During the trend shift of Terrans doing 1-1-1, Hero had among the highest success rate in the changing landscape, even against Flash. He employed calm, patience, mind-games, and a quirk for innovation to overcome the new obstacles.
Similarly, for the new maps, Hero has fully embraced new approaches and strategies. Against Snow during the Ro16 group stages, he went for a heavy muta scourge only army, expanding to the opposite side only. In his innumerable practice games, Hero has made work of incorporating defilers into the normal muta hydra into devourer play on Sparkle. Even before, when Sparkle just came out, Hero experimented with faster defilers and at other times pure air armies.
So, be prepared, everyone, for the last experiment we'll see of its kind. Watch what may be the last series of one of the greatest, one of a kind zergs. Watch for the daring maps, probably the last time we'll see such risk taking. Watch for the explosive pairing of Rain and Hero, two incredibly well-matched opponents. What we're going to see tonight will be no domination. Tonight will be a renaissance.
Beyond Crazy
If only beating Flash meant winning the ASL for Snow, but unfortunately not only does he have to beat two more people to do it, one of them happens to be Mini. Mini surprised everyone (well, I was surprised, but I hope you were too reader) in his series against Larva with some of the most superb takedowns this season. Now how will he fare against Snow? Lets find out!
Going by sponbbang numbers, Snow had a 69% winrate (over 26 games) and Mini had a 48% winrate (over 25 games) in PvP with the same pool of opponents in Stork, BeSt, free and Shuttle; a large enough gap that definitely puts the advantage for Snow here.
Some of the things that Mini has always been known to do is to be very aggressive right from the start. Infact, right from his scouting probe, he's always been known, since the beginning his career, to be someone who’d pylon block workers at their patch to keep them from mining then follow it up with his zealot control (best control we’ve ever seen from him). Make no mistake, Mini is going to come bearing fangs the first chance he gets just like he did in his Ro8 series against Larva.
Snow on the other hand is a different kind of beast in the matchup, creative and calculated as shown in his Ro16 games against Stork and BeSt. He is definitely going to be the one who's going to play the maps a lot more than Mini would. It's going to be exciting to see how his reaver control comes into play this series as storms are better than scarab shots and mini is more comfortable with his HT play than his reaver play (which in turn would mean more variety in playstyle for the series). This means that if Snow was to be the aggressor, he only has a small window where he could have a better army and considering his outstanding reaver control, this window can be smashed open pretty good. Reavers are more reliable in a defensive position so if Mini takes the role as an aggressor going into the mid game, he's going to have trouble.
The numbers favor Snow, but I’ve been wrong about Mini before. But I still see Snow advancing to the finals showcasing his immaculate reaver control.
Snow advances 3-1 to the Grand Finals!