Group 1: (3/10 17:00 KST)
Light 2-0 ► Advances to Round of 32
Grape 2-1 ► Advances to Round of 32
Killer 1-2 Eliminated
n.Die_soO 0-2 Eliminated

[VOD] Light < Circuit Breaker > n.Die_soO
[VOD] Grape < Circuit Breaker > Killer
[VOD] Light < Empire of the Sun > Grape
[VOD] n.Die_soO < Empire of the Sun > Killer
[VOD] Grape < Dante's Peak SE > Killer

Group 2: (3/10 1930 KST)
Horang2 2-0 ► Advances to Round of 32
Shine 2-1 ► Advances to Round of 32
Paralyze 1-2 Eliminated
HiyA 0-2 Eliminated

[VOD] Shine < Circuit Breaker > Horang2
[VOD] Paralyze < Circuit Breaker > HiyA
[VOD] Horang2 < Empire of the Sun > Paralyze
[VOD] Shine < Empire of the Sun > HiyA
[VOD] Paralyze < Dante's Peak SE > Shine

Group 3: (3/12 1700 KST)
Flash 2-0 ► Advances to Round of 32
Hyuk 2-1 ► Advances to Round of 32
Midas 1-2 Eliminated
Food5 0-2 Eliminated

[VOD] Midas < Circuit Breaker > Hyuk
[VOD] Food5 < Circuit Breaker > Flash
[VOD] Midas < Empire of the Sun > Flash
[VOD] Food5 < Empire of the Sun > Hyuk
[VOD] Midas < Dante's Peak SE > Hyuk

Group 4: (3/17 1700 KST)
free 2-0 ► Advances to Round of 32
Tyson 2-1 ► Advances to Round of 32
Where 1-2 Eliminated
Canata 0-2 Eliminated

[VOD] free < Circuit Breaker > Canata
[VOD] Tyson < Circuit Breaker > Where
[VOD] free < Empire of the Sun > Where
[VOD] Canata < Empire of the Sun > Tyson
[VOD] Where < Dante's Peak SE > Tyson

Group 5: (3/17 1930 KST)
Really 2-0 ► Advances to Round of 32
Classic 2-1 ► Advances to Round of 32
HoeJJa 0-1 Eliminated
BeSt 0-2 Eliminated

[VOD] Classic < Circuit Breaker > BeSt
[VOD] HoeJJa < Circuit Breaker > Really
[VOD] Classic < Empire of the Sun > Really
[VOD] HoeJJa < Empire of the Sun > BeSt
[VOD] HoeJJa < Dante's Peak SE > Classic

Group 6: (3/19 1700 KST)
Dear 2-0 ► Advances to Round of 32
Sea 2-1 ► Advances to Round of 32
s2 0-1 Eliminated
Shuttle 0-2 Eliminated

[VOD] Sea < Circuit Breaker > Dear
[VOD] Shuttle < Circuit Breaker > s2
[VOD] Dear < Empire of the Sun > s2
[VOD] Sea < Empire of the Sun > Shuttle
[VOD] Sea < Dante's Peak SE > s2

Group 7: (3/24 1700 KST)
Fantasy 2-0 ► Advances to Round of 32
ggaemo 2-1 ► Advances to Round of 32
Trap 1-2 Eliminated
sHy 0-2 Eliminated

[VOD] Fantasy < Circuit Breaker > Trap
[VOD] ggaemo < Circuit Breaker > sHy
[VOD] Fantasy < Empire of the Sun > ggaemo
[VOD] Trap < Empire of the Sun > sHy
[VOD] ggaemo < Dante's Peak SE > Trap

Group 8: (3/24 1930 KST)
Bisu 2-0 ► Advances to Round of 32
HyuN 2-1 ► Advances to Round of 32
PerfectMan 1-2 Eliminated
Sharp 0-2 Eliminated

[VOD] Bisu < Circuit Breaker > Sharp
[VOD] HyuN < Circuit Breaker > PerfectMan
[VOD] Bisu < Empire of the Sun > PerfectMan
[VOD] Sharp < Empire of the Sun > HyuN
[VOD] PerfectMan < Dante's Peak SE > HyuN

Group 9: (3/29 1700 KST)
Reality 2-0 ► Advances to Round of 32
hero 2-1 ► Advances to Round of 32
Ssak 1-2 Eliminated
Stats 0-2 Eliminated

[VOD] Ssak < Circuit Breaker > hero
[VOD] Reality < Circuit Breaker > Stats
[VOD] Ssak < Empire of the Sun > Reality
[VOD] hero < Empire of the Sun > Stats
[VOD] Ssak < Dante's Peak SE > hero

Group 10: (3/29 1930 KST)
Mind 2-0 ► Advances to Round of 32
RuBy 2-1 ► Advances to Round of 32
JangBi 1-2 Eliminated
Action 0-2 Eliminated

[VOD] Action < Circuit Breaker > RuBy
[VOD] JangBi < Circuit Breaker > Mind
[VOD] RuBy < Empire of the Sun > Mind
[VOD] JangBi < Empire of the Sun > Action
[VOD] RuBy < Dante's Peak SE > JangBi

Group 11: (3/31 1700 KST)
Leta 2-0 ► Advances to Round of 32
Neo.G_Soulkey 2-1 ► Advances to Round of 32
M18M 1-2 Eliminated
Pure 0-2 Eliminated

[VOD] Neo.G_Soulkey < Circuit Breaker > M18M
[VOD] Pure < Circuit Breaker > Leta
[VOD] Neo.G_Soulkey < Empire of the Sun > Leta
[VOD] M18M < Empire of the Sun > Pure
[VOD] Neo.G_Soulkey < Dante's Peak SE > M18M

Group 12: (3/31 1930 KST)
firebathero 2-0 ► Advances to Round of 32
RorO 2-1 ► Advances to Round of 32
By.Sun 1-2 Eliminated
Jaehoon 0-2 Eliminated

[VOD] RorO < Circuit Breaker > By.Sun
[VOD] firebathero < Circuit Breaker > Jaehoon
[VOD] By.Sun < Empire of the Sun > firebathero
[VOD] RorO < Empire of the Sun > Jaehoon
[VOD] By.Sun < Dante's Peak SE > RorO

---

Qualified for MSL Round of 32
Terran:
Light, Flash, Really, Classic, Sea, Fantasy, Reality, Mind, RuBy, Leta, firebathero

Zerg:
Shine, Hyuk, ggaemo, HyuN, hero, Neo.G_Soulkey, RorO

Protoss:
Grape, Horang2, free, Tyson, Dear, Bisu

By flamewheel

Sometimes, we write Battle Reports on nondescript games for no real reason. Perhaps the rest of the games just weren't that good. Perhaps this is just the first game I laid my eyes on, and being lazy I just decided to write that.

Sometimes, a single moment is enough to define a game. as Youtube commenter kreternal says, "16:56 was like the orgasm to the extremely long foreplay."

On Circuit Breaker, HiyA the teal Terran opens up in the bottom left, and Paralyze the Afroninjabonjwatoss warps in cross-positions at top right. Some opening builds are made, but those aren't important.


No, but really, Afro opens with 1gate core, skipping the zealot and going for goon first, and HiyA prepares to wall off with factory-(shop)-rax-depot. Both players scout toward bottom right first, and after seeing each other head off in the correct direction. Paralyze's probe doesn't even get up to the ramp before it's driven off by four marines. HiyA is a bit luckier with his scouting, but his sCV is quickly taken out by the dragoon, allowing Paralyze to expand without HiyA knowing.

Of course, as we know HiyA doesn't actually care what his opponent does. As he starts a starport in the corner of his base, he moves out with a small force of seven marines, one SCV, and one tank to pressure Afro. However, with some very nice micro Paralyze is able to take out all the marines while only losing one of four goons. But remember: HiyA doesn't care. His dropship and vultures are ready to go.


The good thing for Paralyze is that he does care about what his opponent is doing. With his fast observatory, even though HiyA gets into the base and kills a good number of probes, the damage is slightly mititaged in the fact that no dragoons were lost to mines because of observers, and the rampaging vultures are taken care of quickly enough. Unperturbed by this, HiyA tries again with a drop on the natural, but Paralyze defends marvelously.

HiyA pretends to back off, and Paralyze moves out. HiyA then decides it's a good idea to try going for the main again...


...And proceeds to lose his forces and the dropship as well. Well done, Magikarp.

Meanwhile, Paralyze is enjoying better success. He manages to take out a bunker at the natural and its inhabitants, but is then driven away by tanks. Okay, perhaps it's not that successful, but it's certainly better than what HiyA was doing.

Both players decide to macro up for a bit. Paralyze takes a third at the mineral-only, adding more gateways and teching to Arbiters at the same time. Scouting the third, HiyA decides it's time to take his third as well, and adds three more factories. The next couple minutes pass without much incident. The most meaningful moment was around the 13 minute mark, when HiyA lost yet another dropship to Afro's watchful goons.


Unfortunately, this PvT is as of yet not that interesting, though Afro is going to turn this around. As he takes his fourth, Paralyze prepares to move out. After a minute of posturing, he engages HiyA's tank line, opening with some nice zealot bombs. With that deployed and a few stasies nicely placed, HiyA's forces fall in no time. The third lifts, and Paralyze heads toward the natural, though at this point what remains of his army is mostly dead as well.

And here's where commentators start screaming. With an incoming stream of zealots, the last few tanks are wiped out. And with that, Paralyze goes for the SCV line!


HiyA, distraught over the loss of miner life, taps out. Clearly, that superb mine daebak won the game.

But no, really, in actuality Paralyze played quite well that game. Before the massive engagement at the end, I don't think he had let a single Dragoon get hit with a mine--at least, I didn't catch any mines creating blue goo while perusing this VOD. His defense of HiyA's drops was very solid as well, and he definitely deserved to win this game.

I feel completely unsatisfied after writing this BR, but it really wasn't that bad of a game.

By nbaker

Here's Classic vs Hoejja. To be honest, it's probably not the best game, but it was the most interesting TvZ game I found and I'll admit I was looking for a slightly shorter game after doing Leta vs Pure

The map is Dante's Peak, Special Edition. Classic spawns in the top left position and Hoejja spawns in the top right position. Classic builds a forward 8 rax while Hoejja goes for the standard 12 hatch.


Classic brings out a second scv as his barracks completes so that he can double scout both adjacent positions so that he can get his bunker started as soon as possible. He finds Hoejja and starts the bunker, bringing his other scv to the 1 o’clock main. Critically, when Hoejja sends out his drones to defend the bunker rush, Classic’s second scv blocks their pathing, causing them to glitch, allowing his two marines to pick two of them off as the bunker finishes.


Left with 3 drones that cannot hold their own against marines, Hoejja is forced to send them out, where all but one is killed by rallied marines.Hoejja cancels his natural hatchery and starts another one in his main. He mines 100 gas while building up a zergling force and researches speed. His one drone outside of the contain finds Classic, and Hoejja runs his speedlings past the contain towards Classic’s main.


Classic is able to finish a bunker in time and floats his forward barracks in front of it as a buffer. Unable to get into Classic’s mineral line, Hoejja runs his zerglings to the back of Classic’s base where he is able to pick off an academy and refinery.


Classic restarts his academy next to his bunker. In this position, it further protects the bunker and is protected by it. Classic knows that if he can get firebats out, the game will end, but all of his attempts to re-start his gas are thwarted by the constant stream of zerglings that Hoejja keeps sending to Classic’s main. At Hoejja’s natural, Classic’s wall-in of a barracks, bunker and supply depot is broken by a nice zergling surround, but the real story is Hoejja’s economy.


The academy finishes and Classic has enough gas saved to get a few firebats out. Hoejja micros nicely to pick them off without losing too many zerglings, but Classic takes the opportunity to build another refinery while the zerglings are distracted.


Now able to mine gas, Classic pumps out more firebats and is able to kill off Hoejja’s zerglings by forcing them to attack into narrow chokes and demolishing them with splash damage. Hoejja, with five drones and no tech, has no way of affecting a meaningful follow up and must leave the game.

By nbaker

Trap spawns at the bottom left on Dante's Peak as Protoss while Ggaemo spawns in the cross position at top right. Trap sends out a probe and fast expands and Ggaemo chooses to overpool. Ggaemo sends out his drone to expand and sees Trap's probe in the natural. He positions the drone at the top of the ramp to keep Trap from scouting while he waits until he has enough minerals to contest the area. When Ggaemo sends his drone down to take his natural, Trap decides to sacrifice scouting information to delay the hatchery. He knows that if Ggaemo makes zerglings he will be able to see them as they move out and since they are cross position he will have time to set up cannons before they reach his base, so this is a very safe decision. Maybe anticipating a pylon block or just wanting to force another cannon from Trap, Ggaemo decides to make 6 zerglings even though he knows they cannot damage Trap immediately. He comes out ahead if Trap makes an extra cannon in response because zerglings are mobile and can be used to kill scouts and keep map control whereas cannons are only useful for defense. Ggaemo manages to kill off the scouting probe with his drone and plants down his expo.


Trap, in turn, goes cannon-nexus-cannon as a compromise between economy and safety. Rather than taking the natural of another main as is standard on four player maps ZvP, Ggaemo takes the gas expansion very near his natural, indicating that he will be going for aggressive hydra play off 3 base rather than using lurkers and zerglings to secure hive tech and a fourth base.


Trap scouts Ggaemo's base, giving him an inclination of what the zerg is up to, but he still has not gotten into Ggaemo's main, so he is feeling a bit uneasy…

With good reason. Ggaemo plants down his hydralisk den before starting his lair, choosing to put on pressure and possibly kill Trap in the early game.


Ggaemo continues droning up while he researches speed and range on his hydralisk den. On top of ensuring that he will have a solid economy when he wants to start getting aggressive, droning keeps Trap in the dark, ensuring he won't see hydralisks until he is ready to attack with them. Meanwhile, Trap is playing standard up to this point. He is teching to stargate in his main and researching +1 weapons at his forge. He is still on one gateway and is likely planning to put on pressure with corsairs and +1 zealots. The extra droning ggameo has been doing allows him to make a fourth hatchery outside of his natural.


However, the 300 minerals needed for this are taken out of his potential hydralisk force, meaning he ggaemo has four fewer to be aggressive with when he decides to move out. Clearly, he is planning to use the hydralisks for pressure rather than to deal a killing blow to Trap.

Trap realizes that ggaemo went for fast hydralisks and has to respond by adding 3 cannons.


Instead of attacking into Trap’s newly made cannons, Ggaemo cuts more hydralisks and makes his 5th hatchery at his third and gets his lair started to get lurkers and a spire. He can tech and build infrastructure because he forced Trap to make static defense and by cutting hydralisks he is effectively causing that money to go to waste.

Ggaemo leaves six hydralisks and zerglings to chill out in front of Trap's natural, threatening but not actually trying to bust in.


Eventually, he attacks Trap’s gateway without adding any more units to his force and manages to take the gateway down. With his second gateway nearing completion, Trap finds himself in the uncomfortable position of being unable to make any army units.

Trap's response is to get a robo and reavers. He can use the shuttle reaver combination to damage Ggaemo's economy even if he is contained and if need be he can leave the reaver at his natural to ensure that it does not get breached. Ggaemo drones up while Trap techs. Satisfied with delaying Trap's army and third base, he does not make an effort to reinforce his contain. Trap leaves his reaver at the natural for defense, using his shuttle to drop DTs around the map.


Aware of Trap's choice to go for shuttle play, Ggaemo decides to take his 6th hatchery at his 3rd, which keeps his area tightly compact and easy to defend from shuttle play with hydralisks, which is necessary as Ggaemo does not yet have a shuttle for scourge. At home, Trap amasses a sizeable army of gateway units to take control of the middle and set up his third base.

Ggaemo expands to his fourth base, once again choosing to take a base close to his other expansions to minimize the amount of space he needs to control. Trap's dark templar still has 0 kills and Trap, getting impatient, sends the DT in at ggaemo's third. It gets two kills but is quickly dealt with.

Ggaemo continues to fortify his bases with lurkers while Trap pumps out units from all his gateways, possibly looking to hit a timing window before hive and defilers finish.
Both players are staying out of the middle, Ggaemo because he is trying to protect all his expansions and Trap because he is waiting until he has enough units to not die to a good flank. Once he has his fourth base started, Ggaemo decides it is time to start his spire at his third.

After a standoff that would make any cowboy jealouse, Ggaemo decides to take an offensive posture. Rather than set up a lurker field in the middle, he sends a bunch of hydras and lurkers with overlords to the bottom left. He's going for drops!


ggaemo is disciplined about scouting for expansions. He spots Trap's third and quickly snipes it with zerglings.

The drop lands on an unsuspecting Trap. Trap has been focusing on gateway units so he has no corsairs to help defend. Lurkers burrow around the probes and gateways and start shredding Trap’s economy while hydras pick off the units as they try to defend.


Trap knows that he cannot force his way up a ramp with lurkers and hydras so he moves out to attack ggaemo, hoping to cripple him and then slowly retake control of his main, but ggaemo is well set up to defend, able to reinforce quickly from all his hatcheries and already set up with sunkens and lurkers.


His counter deflected, Trap has no choice but to try to force his army up his main ramp, but there is little hope of success. Trap knows ggaemo's units are either in his main or defending his bases, so he can safely take his third base. At this point, though, it won't be of much help. Ggaemo, meanwhile, gets his hive up. With this, he can halt any army compositions with dragoons and use adrenal upgraded zerglings as a very mobile raiding unit.

With excellent storms, Trap is able to win a battle in the center but with all his gaeways destroyed, he has no hope of winning against ggaemo's stream of reinforcements. Trap concedes the game.

By nbaker

Leta and Pure spawn cross positions on Circuit Breakers, Leta as the Terran in top left and Pure as the Protoss in bottom right. Leta Leta takes advantage of the huge rush distances on Circuit Breaker to open with a command center after his first barracks, while Pure goes for the more conservative one gateway with gas and a cybernetics core before he places a nexus at his natural expo. Leta scouts clockwise and passes Pure’s zealot as he heads to his main and sets up a bunker to secure his natural from any early harassment.
Pure scouts counterclockwise and, seeing the command center, opts to get dragoon range. He sends 3 dragoons to Leta’s natural and attacks the bunker, forcing Leta to pull scvs off mining to keep the bunker up until his tank finishes. While he is pressuring Leta’s front, Pure expands to the nearby mineral only at 5:30 and starts his robo and second gateway.
Leta’s tank finishes, but he waits until siege mode finishes before using it to repel the dragoons, not willing to risk having the dragoons run up and snipe it. Siege finishes and Pure backs off without sustaining casualties.


Pure plays standard, getting an observatory after his robotics facility finishes. He doesn’t like his chances of harassing with a shuttle and reavers cross position on Circuit Breakers, which is huge. Leta, meanwhile, guesses where Pure put his 3rd and sends two vultures along a sneaky route, managing to snipe two probes before Pure is able to defend with his dragoons.


Pure warps in a stargate and arbiter tribunal at his natural expansion, not liking his chances with carriers on a map with a center that’s basically a giant flat square. Circuit Breakers lends itself quite well to recalls as Terran mech will take a long time to get to where it needs to be for defense.


Having finished building another command center, Leta decides to attack while he floats it to his 3rd. His main force of tanks and vultures move across the center.


Pure sends his army of dragoons and zealots/high templar in shuttles to halt Leta’s advance. Leta sieges up. Both players are posturing like they are willing to attack, but ultimately neither feels comfortable with doing so. If Leta unsieges and attacks Pure, his army will be ripped apart, but if Pure attacks into a siege line, he will fare no better.

Leta, however, has something else in mind. While the two main armies stare each other down, Leta sends a control group of vultures to 6 o’clock and finds Pure has started his 4th nexus. Pure needs his army to hold his ground in the center, so he has no choice but to let it fall.


Satisfied with delaying Pure’s 4th and taking his 3rd, Leta backs off with his central army. Pure smells blood and takes chase, but is thwarted once he gets to Leta’s bridges, wisely choosing not to send his dragoons to cross under siege tank fire. However, the attack proves not to be a failure as it buys Pure the time he needed to take his fourth base at 3 o’clock.


With arbiters and recall finished, Pure sends his first arbiter up and then horizontally across, finding a gaping hole in Leta’s turret defenses. His arbiter only takes fire from one turret as it flies into Leta’s main base and recalls dragoons and zealots right on top of Leta’s buildings.


Although the recall is eventually cleaned up by Leta’s tanks and vultures, it more than paid for itself, severely supply blocking Leta and killing off the starport and science facility.


Figuring that since most of Pure’s army is in his main, Leta feels that now is a safe time to float his 4th command center to 12 o’clock. However, Leta soon finds that he has miscalculated! Pure predicted Leta’s move and preempted it by sending dragoons to 12, forcing Leta to retreat the command center.


Meanwhile, Leta has about 6 vultures patrolling the map, laying mines and keeping Pure honest with his expansions. However, they are not enough to keep Pure from going up 5 bases to 3, with his 6th base starting at 6. Leta uses tanks to secure 12 and floats his 4th command center into place. Pure temporarily moves his forces down to his half of the map where they can catch stray vultures and clear out mines, but then snakes back up to 12 and attacks into it after stasising four vultures. Leta manages to hold, but loses a lot of siege tanks and scvs to Pure’s storms and zealots.


Leta’s vultures keep him in the game. He sends a control group up to Pure’s 1 o’clock base, killing probes and delaying mining and delaying mining. Pure manages to defend 1 with only a few zealots and cannons, countering at Leta’s 3rd with his larger army, but is unable to make progress against the well-entrenched Terran. Meanwhile, Pure is greedily expanding to 6:30 and the 7 o’clock main and natural, but is unable to defend all of them as Leta sends another control group of vultures to 7 o’clock, forcing Pure to cancel both of the nexuses he was warping in there.

Having pulled Pure’s forces down and to the left, Leta decides now is a good time to attack Pure’s 1 o’clock main and natural, which is all the way across the map. He moves in siege tanks and vultures and manages to take them both down before Pure can affect any kind of defense.


Pure starts a fleet beacon and a second cybernetics core for a carrier switch. Leta tries to take control of the top half of the map, expanding the 1 o’clock natural where he recently picked off one of Pure’s expansions. Pure responds by being aggressive, attacking and killing the 1 o’clock natural and recalling at 12, where he once more deals damage, but is once more unable to kill off.


Leta’s vultures once more keep him alive. Faced with the prospect of fighting an 8 base Protoss with only 4 bases, 3 of which are getting thin on resources, Leta sends his vultures to the bottom side of the map and manages to kill off 6:30 and 6 o’clock with pure vultures.


But Pure senses that Leta has over-extended himself and counters at 12 o’clock, this time succeeding in finishing the job and killing off the command center.


The carnage continues as Leta’s army heads to Pure’s 3 o’clock base and takes it down. He tries to float another command center back to the 12 o’clock position, but Pure has left an arbiter there and recalls dragoons, which are able chase the command center down and kill it off. Having finished his work at 3, Leta moves his army up to 1 and once more takes out Leta’s expansion there. He also sends vultures to Pure’s 6 o’clock bae, which manage to kill some probes and a cannon before dragoons force them to retreat. At the end of all the chaos, Pure is left with two mining bases and Leta is left with none, but he does seem to have the superior army.


Both players take a breath and try to rebuild their crippled economies. Pure re-expands to 1 o’clock and 7 o’clock, while Leta loyally sends yet another command center to 12 o’clock. Leta makes use of his army advantage to attack down the map and take out Pure’s 6:30 base. He sends a few vultures to kill of 6 o’clock while committing his main army to killing off 7 o’clock.



Pure’s response is to recall at 12 o’clock (again), gambling that if he can take it out and defend his 1 o’clock base, then Leta will not be mining and he will be able to pull ahead. He succeeds in killing off the command center, and predicts Leta’s response of sending a cc to the 9 o’clock, sending an arbiter that recalls dragoons and forces Leta’s scvs to retreat.
Rather than attacking the four dragoons Pure has left at 3, Leta rolls across the map and attacks Pure’s bases at 1. Pure comes up way short in defense when Leta moves across the map to attack it and easily takes out both the natural and main expansion. Now neither player has any bases with resources.


With Leta’s entire army at 1 o’clock, Pure can walk right into Leta’s main base and manages to kill off almost all of Leta’s buildings. Leta manages to lift a few factories and an engineering bay over to his main army where he can defend them and avoid being eliminated.


Leta is left with no command centers to receive resources and Pure is left with a few probes. He tries to distance mine with them, but Leta finds them with scouting vultures and kills them off, making this a no income game. Leta sets up in the middle and sieges up. Pure repeatedly tries to sneak an arbiter in to stasis the science vessels, which will allow him to attack with a cloaked army and end the game, but Leta keeps on his toes and EMPs the arbiters before the can cast stasis. Leta attacks Pure’s main and kills it off, sieging up there. Pure still has buildings around the map and Leta has a factory and engineering bay floating over his army. Neither player dares attack the other.

Pure gets one big shot as he dances an arbiter into the main, dodging two EMPs and stasising both of Leta’s science vessels. However, he doesn’t account for the goliath that Leta has cleverly hidden under his engineering bay, which prevents him from bee-lining back to the ramp and leaves the zealots he sent to run to their death without any cloak. Leta chases the arbiter down with his goliath and kills it off.


After a long period of time with neither player doing anything, the game is paused and a Kespa referee declares the game a stalemate and calls for a regame, which Leta wins.

By ]343[

Jaehoon vs Firebathero is a matchup famous for its lulz (a la this game), and all hope for it to deliver as Firebathero spawns as the blue Terran at 1.5, opposite Jaehoon the orange Protoss at 7.5, on Circuit Breaker.

Jaehoon opens with a Nexus before gateway while Firebathero opens with a barracks and marine before expansion, even being forced to begin a refinery from the threat of a gas steal.

Jaehoon begins a Templar Archives and Stargate around the time range finishes, aiming for a fast 2 base arbiter build. Firebathero builds a very early academy for scan, and repels the goons hitting his bunker when siege finishes.

Firebathero adds an armory, 2nd factory with addon, and engineering bay, starting a turret at his natural when the first DT arrives. Jaehoon trades the DT for a tank, but scan finishes it off. Meanwhile, Jaehoon has taken a 3rd at 10.5, making the Arbiter Tribunal part of the pylon wall there and adding a forge as well.

After the DT is dealt with, FBH builds a second CC, starport and science facility, 3rd factory, and 2nd armory; Jaehoon has 5 gateways and adds a surprising 2nd stargate. He scouts FBH taking his 3rd at his mineral only, and Jaehoon responds with a 4th at his mineral only.

FBH drops four vultures in Jaehoon's 3rd, killing a zealot, DT, and later even a dragoon but getting no probes due to cannons. The arbiter moves out for a potential recall, but a floating ebay and four turrets deter him from carrying out his mission. Jaehoon's army moves around trying to clear mines without an observer with some success while FBH establishes a strong turret/tank line near his bases, looking to take a 4th. Jaehoon pumps arbiters from two stargates and builds a surprising 3rd forge while taking his 5th at 4.5 (a mine blocks the 6 o'clock base).

Jaehoon's strategy is in response to FBH's turtling on 4 base: he will take every other base on the map and ride the incredible macro advantage to victory. He just needs to maintain map control, keep FBH on his toes, and trade armies until he wins.

The first real action of the game is a recall at FBH's heavily turreted natural. He succeeds in killing 5 turrets and a handful of SCVs, but this recall is quickly followed by another at FBH's 4th at 12 o'clock, forcing a lift. Jaehoon then decides to give away the bulk of his recall force for no reason despite the existence of a retreat path.


Jaehoon increases his gateway count to 14 off his 5 bases and applies some more pressure on the 4th of FBH, but fails to do much damage. FBH executes a mildly successful vulture raid on 4.5, laying mines, denying an expansion to the natural, and killing a cannon and dragoon while delaying mining.

Jaehoon dances his army around the middle, looking for weaknesses in FBH's position, but FBH is turtling hard. He begins his push at 3/1, but Jaehoon has 2/1/1 upgrades of his own. Jaehoon does his best to slow the push despite populating his 5th with unrallied goons; FBH appears to be heading south to bottom right, but establishes a position in the center instead. Jaehoon flies an arbiter into five turrets and loses it, amusing the commentators to no end.

Though Jaehoon manages some decent stasis on the tanks in the center, his army is nowhere near large enough to engage; instead, he has been contenting himself with expanding even more, increasing his base count to 7 mining. The +2 mech armor upgrade finishes as FBH powers his way toward Jaehoon's main; a small force sieges the non-mining nat of 4.5 while Jaehoon sacrifices a number of probes into FBH's army.

FBH takes the ridge above Jaehoon's min only, killing the min only while stopping mining at 6. Jaehoon's army continues to attempt to clear mines while making a weak effort to save the natural at 4.

Jaehoon attempts to engage and successfully loses 3 arbiters for nothing, and FBH takes out 4 and 6 while taking his own 5th base; Jaehoon is left with only 6 bases himself.


Jaehoon finally tries to redeem himself by destroying, with a far superior force, the arbiter-killing goliaths and their comrades on the ridge, and then using zealots to remove the annoying tanks at 4.


But while Jaehoon surrounds the four stasised tanks left, FBH attack-moves into 4.5 with little resistance. Jaehoon goes for FBH's 5th, taking out the defenders and forcing a lift; he retakes 6 and 7 o'clock, loses another arbiter to turrets, and barges in with a large goon force to save the 1 gateway remaining at 4.5; incidentally, he stops FBH from expanding there as well.


But FBH is on a roll with his expo-killing. He sieges 9 and attacks the nat at 10 simultaneously. Jaehoon hurriedly sends his army back to defend, but suddenly, mines!


After this classic Jaehoon blunder, what little chance he had of remaining the game was over. Firebathero had a huge 3/3 mech army, while Jaehoon's many bases were somehow unable to churn out enough units to defend, especially when he threw away so many units earlier. After a pitiful attempt at defending 10.5, a deftly EMP-ed recall attempt on 12, and a great stasis backed up by a melted army at 3, Jaehoon gg's out.


Though Jaehoon had the right idea with the mass expansions and fast upgrades in response to FBH's 4-base turtling, his battle micro and multitask were woefully deficient, and for some reason he never seemed to have enough units to hold FBH off. A solid game by firebathero, and an embarrassing one by Jaehoon, but that's what we expected, right?

First, the top eight players from the previous tournament are seeded into eight different groups. These eight players cannot be moved. Beyond 1st and 2nd place, the players are given a seed order through an arcane formula MBCGame has devised based on their recent and historic pro-gaming performances. The remaining players 24 players who qualified through the Survivor Tournament are also ranked using the same formula.

Players ranked 9th through 16th are then automatically placed into the groups, following the format of 1 vs 16, 2 vs 15, etc. until there are two players per group. This is just preliminary placement; more on this shortly.

Players ranked 17th and 32nd place are the first to act. In descending order of rank, they choose their positions in the remaining spots on the bracket. The player ranked 17th has the most options, while the 32nd place player is forced to take the last remaining spot.

Players ranked 9th through 16th are then allowed to make a single one-for-one player swap in the bracket, which involves either themselves or their immediate opponents in the bracket. This is done in ascending order of rank (16th->9th).

Players ranked 3rd through 8th also receive a single swap opportunity. While they cannot move themselves, they can make a player swap anywhere in the bracket. Unlike the 9th-16th players, they can make swaps that have no relevance to themselves.

The second place player receives two of the above swaps.

The first place player receives three of the above swaps.

Initial Bracket (players in each group at opposite sides of the bracket)

A: Hydra(1)* and RuBy(16)
B: great(2)* and firebathero(15)
C: ZerO(3)* and Fantasy(14)
D: Jaedong(4)* and Light(13)
E: Stork(8)* and free(9)
F: Calm(7)* and Bisu(10)
G: Snow(6)* and Flash(11)
H: Kal(5)* and Sea(12)

*Position fixed.

#17: Mind - Group G, vs Stork

#18: Leta - Group C, vs Zero

#19: Hyuk - Group E, vs Free

#20: Hero - Group G, vs Snow

#21: Roro - Group F, vs Calm

#22: Horang2 - Group G, vs Flash
Lack of logic prize
Horang2 "Well, Snow was in the group so i went there.... I'm sure Snow will take me out of the group though."

#23: Classic - Group B, vs Great

#24: Shine - Group B, vs FBH

#25: Really - Group H, vs Kal

#26: Soulkey - Group H, vs Sea

#27: Hyun - Group A, vs Hydra

#28: Han - Group D, vs Light

#29: Reality - Group D, vs Jaedong

#30: GGaemo - Group F, vs Bisu

#31: Grape - Group A, vs Ruby

#32: Dear - Group C, vs Fantasy

Brackets after selection:

A: Hydra* vs HyuN and RuBy vs Grape
B: great* vs Classic and firebathero vs Shine
C: ZerO* vs Leta, and Fantasy vs Dear
D: Jaedong* vs Reality and Light vs Han
E: Stork* vs Mind,and free vs Hyuk
F: Calm* vs RorO and Bisu vs ggaemo
G: Snow* vs hero and Flash vs Horang2
H: Kal* vs Really and Sea vs SoulKey

*Fixed position

Starting brackets:
A: Hydra* vs HyuN and RuBy vs Grape
B: great* vs Classic and firebathero vs Shine
C: ZerO* vs Leta, and Fantasy vs Dear
D: Jaedong* vs Reality and Light vs Han
E: Stork* vs Mind,and free vs Hyuk
F: Calm* vs RorO and Bisu vs ggaemo
G: Snow* vs hero and Flash vs Horang2
H: Kal* vs Really and Sea vs SoulKey

*Fixed position

(text in bold are the CHANGED positions)

#16: Ruby - No Change

#15: FBH - Switches himself with Mind. Stork vs FBH <---> Mind vs Shine

#14: Fantasy - No Change

#13: Light - Switches himself with Hyun. Hydra vs Light <---> Hyun vs Han
Tautology award
Light: I'll either get to the next round, or I won't get to the next round.

#12: Sea - Switches himself with Leta. Zero vs Sea <---> Leta vs Soulkey

#11: Flash - No Change

#10: Free - No Change

#9: Bisu - No Change

Brackets after switches:

A: Hydra* vs Light and RuBy vs Grape
B: great* vs Classic and Mind vs Shine
C: ZerO* vs Sea and Fantasy vs Dear
D: Jaedong* vs Reality and HyuN vs Han
E: Stork* vs firebathero and free vs Hyuk
F: Calm* vs RorO and Bisu vs ggaemo
G: Snow* vs hero and Flash vs Horang2
H: Kal* vs Really and Leta vs SoulKey

#8: Calm - Switches Bisu and Soulkey. Calm vs Soulkey <---> Bisu vs Leta

#7: Stork - Switches Hyuk and Mind. Free vs Mind <---> Hyuk vs Shine

#6: Snow: Switches Horang2 and Dear. Fantasy vs Horang2 <---> Dear vs Flash

#5: Kal: Switches Han and Grape. Ruby vs Han <---> Grape vs Hyun.
Kal passed his swap to Han

#4: Jaedong: Switches Ruby was GGaemo. Han vs Ggaemo <---> Ruby vs Soulkey
Jaedong passed his swap to Ggaemo.

#3: Zero: Switches Ruby and Fantasy. Horang2 vs Ruby <---> Fantasy vs Soulkey

4th place (tie): Final Weapon (Flash), Tyrant (Jaedong), Black-god (FBH, he has dark skin for a Korean)
2nd place (tie): Terrorist (Fantasy), Revolutionist (Bisu)
1st place: Go-berman (Hyun. After the dog, doberman)

3rd place (tie): Horang2, Light (a joke by his teammates)
2nd place: Ruby
1st place: Zero

3rd place (tie): Grape, Ggaemo
2nd place: Reality
1st place: Shine

3rd place: Bisu (fans booed)
2nd place: Ruby
1st place: Jaedong

And a timely shot of an audience member holding up the following picture.

3rd place: Sea, Dear
2nd place: Shine
1st place: Horang2

3rd place: Hydra
2nd place: Jaedong
1st place (tie): Flash, Bisu, Fantasy