Z8 ieS-Ciara < Metalopolis > oGsMC P2

Our reigning GSL champion opens standard, while Ciara grabs his gas only after his pool first opening is half done. Therefore, zergling speed is delayed a little bit. MC chrono-boosted out 2 zealots and rallies them across the map towards Ciara’s natural. After taking care of the pesky zergling running around his base, MC brings 2 stalkers to catch up with his zealots and adds two additional gateways. The proxy pylon is already in place, and Ciara oddly sends all his zerglings to the opposite Xel’Naga Tower.

The battle occurs near Ciara’s potential third, 23 zerglings vs. 5 zealots 3 stalkers. MC micros his stalkers and dances them around the zealots, losing 0 units while all the zerglings eat the full brunt of psi blades. MC warps in 3 more zealots, moves into the natural, cut down more drones, warps in 3 more zealots before Ciara abruptly leaves the game. [7:37]

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Z1 ieS-Ciara < Tal'Darim Altar >oGsMC P5

Ciara once again prefers to go pool first with no speed into expansion, while MC opting to forge fast expand himself. MC delays the assimilators at his natural, and drop down a stargate, but his stalker was unable to deny the scouting drone that key piece of information. In response, Ciara techs to lair and start an evolution chamber, also grabbing a third at the top right expansion.

Void rays are making their way over to Ciara’s natural. The first two void rays are too much for Ciara’s queens to handle, and the void rays are free to hunt overlords while 2 more queens and 8 hydralisks are on the way. Before the hydras are able to take care of the void rays, MC takes out several overlords and put Ciara deep in the red.

MC takes his third as Ciara gets his fourth, and while Ciara has a near maxed army, MC has 10 sentries all with 150+ energy. Ciara is reluctant to engage, but finally decides to right outside MC’s natural. The force fields deny hydralisk participation in the battle, and even with 23 roaches waiting in the wing, the supply is not even. Even the continuous production of roaches cannot stop MC’s army, and once all the drones have been roasted at Ciara’s natural, so has Ciara’s TSL dreams. [18:46]

T9 Loner < Metalopolis > White-Ra P3

The cross position game on Metalopolis began normally, 1 barracks cc with reaper for Loner and expansion off zealot, sentry for White-Ra. As the two expansions begin running, White-Ra makes a forward pylon and amasses a sentry-zealot force to harass Loner. Meanwhile Terran hides a Ghost Academy and begins producing. Loner holds the first attack by sacrificing many of his SCVs, but despite losing a large number of workers he is still in a strong position as his army is largely untouched.

He moves out after a round of production and gets to the Protoss natural before the first colossus, easily taking on the zealot stalker army and killing the nexus. White-Ra is able to stall the inevitable by dancing waiting for a second colossus and dancing them up and down the ramp, but in time is forced to GG.[13:03]

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T6 Loner < Terminus RE > White-Ra P3

White-Ra begins with a 3 gateway sentry expand, while Loner chooses to tech straight to starport and make hellions to drop before expanding. The drop causes minor annoyance, disrupting mining and killing some probes but does not do a ton. As Loner takes his expansion, White-Ra makes a third nexus. Loner chooses to also take his third, right as he scans and sees colossus being produced in the Protoss base. In pure macro mode, Loner is amassing vikings from 2 starports and White-Ra goes up to 2 robos and 6 gates while adding double forge.

White-Ra is maxed and moments away from 2-2 when Loner engages, not even a good emp can save the Terran army. The now blinking, charging 2-2 force barrels through and on to green pastures (Terran's base). Loner taps out. [18:55]

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T7 Loner < Shakuras Plateau > White-Ra P1

The game starts with a 3 sentry expand from Protoss, while Terran chooses a command center after reaper. Loner quickly makes a starport, but his first drop attempt is thwarted relatively easy. The second pass does more, killing a few stalkers and annoying probes slightly. White-Ra begins colossus production while Loner pumps vikings from his starports.

White-Ra then moves straight into double forge upgrades, Loner brings his army into the middle of the map while making a third command center but reuses to attack. Minutes pass while the Terran army sits idle for the entire duration of the command center's construction, allowing Protoss to research blink, charge, and finish 2-2 before saturating its third base.


It was here that Loner decided to attack, long past his timing window. While the armies suffer nearly even loses, the blinking stalkers are able to continually get good angles and chase down stray vikings and medivacs. As each player takes a fourth base, White-Ra kills a dropship before it can unload and morphs archons for the next battle. Both players max armies again, and the protoss ones again comes out on top, his upgrades simply too much for Terran to handle. When he reaches Loner's natural it is over and Loner signals with a GG. [23:36]



White-Ra < 2-1 > LonerPrime.WE

P7 HuK < Shakuras Plateau > HasuObs P1

Huk begins the match with an emphatic "OMG", while getting a 13 gateway, to HasuOb's faster 12 gate 16 core. Not to be deterred Huk continued right on his way towards a 4 gate, though one slightly late. The two scuffle a bit mid map, Hasu eventually settling on a position on his ramp with 3 gateways while Huk gathers forces and pylons below. The first confrontation goes wonderfully for Hasu, he splits Huk's army with a forcefield and is left with a handful of stalkers to 2.

Huk packs it up and goes home, adding a robo, robo bay and an immortal to his army while Hasu adds twilight council and researches blink as his robo builds. After adding a robo bay, Hasu makes a nexus and picks off 3 free stalkers wandering about the map. Huk is forced into a do or die situation, and travels with his first 2 colossus to Hasu's natural where he fights valiantly. Unfortunately it is not enough, as Hasu's expansion has begun to kick in and he is reduced to nothing while staring down Hasu's still in tact forces. [15:48]

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P12 HuK < Terminus RE > HasuObs P9

Huk opened this game with 3 gate robo, while HasuObs made 3 gates and then warped in a twilight council for blink. Huk constructs an immortal even before an observer, and both players begin making pylons around the map. As blink finishes, Hasu takes a peek up Huk's ramp and is forced to blink away when he spots 2 immortals guarding it. Huk chases, but is unable to pin them down in the wide open center of the map.

The casters made comments about playing the Benny Hill theme, which seems appropriate as the game enters a prolonged stage where each player is winding around the map endlessly. Huk gets the better of it several times as he is able to pick off single stalkers before they are able to blink away.

Huk, now armed with 5 stalkers, takes advantage of his superior army and expands. Huk decides to as well, warping in a huge number of zealots making Huk unable to pressure him. Both players add in colossus to he mix, preparing for a large late game confrontation. Huk adds a second robo while Hasu takes his third base, as it finishes Huk moves in to force a battle. Huk's superior colossus numbers prevail, and its off to game 3. [20:08]

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P7 HuK < Crossfire SE > HasuObs P1

The match begins with something tricky going on, as HasuObs has his scouting probe being chased by a zealot in Huk's base he sneaks in a second and hides it in a corner. The plan soon becomes clear, as he brings his gateway number up to 4. Huk, meanwhile, is content with 3 gateways and a robotics.

Huk prepares sentries to hold his ramp, completely unaware of the pylon the hidden probe has built. Hasu begins warping in units and is sure to keep them out of sight, after a few rounds it is time for him to show his plan.

As the sentry patiently waits to forcefield his ramp, Hasu waltzes up behind him and engages. Huk's immortal is not even halfway done, he has no choice but to GG and leave the game. [6:51]



HuK < 1-2 > HasuObs

T8 Liquid`Jinro < Tal'Darim Altar > mouz.MorroW Z11

Morrow opens hatch first, while Jinro skips gas AND barracks to go 15CC. Afterward, Jinro looks to block off the choke with three barracks. With two orbital commands running, Jinro is constantly pumping out marines and looks to tech up with 2 refineries. Morrow gets ready for a high econ baneling bust, and Jinro’s wall while is thick, the tech lab on the outside is extremely vulnerable. Jinro has not even started a tech lab on his factory for siege tanks, and no bunkers are in sight.

15 banelings crash into the barracks wall, nearly destroy all three thanks to splash damage. Jinro smartly lifts the burning buildings to retain his production facilities, but there are just too many zerglings for Jinro to hold and Morrow catches Jinro off-guard and take a quick game 1. [8:47]

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T7 Liquid`Jinro < Xel'Naga Caverns > mouz.MorroW Z1

Jinro goes double barracks before gas, looking to punish Morrow for going hatch first. Positioning his bunker so that his marine is safe from attack, Morrow loses 4 drones before he realizes he cannot take down the bunker without zerglings. The bunker gets up and 4 marines hop in, forcing the cancellation of the forward spine crawler. Morrow then moves another spine crawler forward but it gets taken out before it can root itself to be useful. The bunker remains a nuisance to Morrow, and he is finally able to take care of it after losing 950 resources worth of units.

Back at home, Jinro is ready to expand and uses his barracks and a bunker to wall off the far side of his main’s entrance. Jinro moves out to the Xel’Naga watchtower, but the sight of zerglings streaming in prompt him to quickly turn around and prepare for another possible baneling bust. The banelings ram into Jinro’s makeshift supply depot wall but the narrow choke denies a zergling surround and Morrow has no choice but to retreat.

Jinro loads up two medivacs heading in opposite directions, one aiming for the natural and the other for the main. Morrow expands to the gold and adds an additional hatchery in his main. Jinro’s drops pick off overlords and zerglings but do not deal any significant economic damage to Morrow. Jinro himself is ready to expand to the gold. Even though he’s ahead in supply, Jinro takes a risk and grabs the gold before siege mode is finished. As siege mode finishes, Jinro moves up to the watchtower but Morrow engages before the tanks could be sieged. Morrow easily swallows up the tank with the zergling wave and thankfully for his miracle marine spread, Jinro is able to minimize the damage and holds on.

Jinro looks to counter push but his low siege tank count forces the medivacs to pick up and drop the marines atop the ledge in the middle. A pack of 5 marines try their best to focus down Morrow’s 4th base, but they fall 8 HP short of a successful snipe. The tank placement atop the ledge makes it difficult for units to swing back and forth between the two bases. Morrow swings around the middle and takes out the planetary fortress before Jinro can pull back in time. Thankfully, he already has another CC on the way.

Jinro does not forget about the hatchery and takes it down with ease. Morrow tries to break the mini contain, but banelings are blown up by siege tanks before they can take care of 1/1 marines. With his gold under siege, Morrow makes a last ditch effort to break Jinro but does not do enough damage and is forced to tap out. [21:25]

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T11 Liquid`Jinro < Crevasse > mouz.MorroW Z5

Both players expand at 15 food. Jinro techs up a bit slower this time, grabbing only one gas in favor of a more fortified wall. Morrow gets ready for another hi-econ baneling bust, once again stopping all drone production.

With the barracks in production, Jinro is unable to lift the buildings in time and loses two to the baneling splash. The bunker is not yet complete so he is forced to pull SCVs. Three more banelings crawl their way right in the middle of the SCV ball and in one explosion, Morrow takes out 14 SCVs. Now at a 30 food disadvantage, Jinro reconstructs his wall with his remaining minerals, but it is only delaying the inevitable as Morrow rewinds his clock and duplicate another bust, ending the game and propels him into the RO16. [11:26]