[TSL] Day 1 Recap and Interviews

P5 Liquid`Tyler < Shakuras Plateau > mouz.Strelok T11

The opening match of TSL3 is Liquid`Tyler, winner of TSL2, fighting mouz.Strelok, long time BroodWar veteran who earned his place in TSL3 through point standings. The map is Shakuras Plateau, a staple and fan favorite, Tyler on at the bottom right and Strelok top left.

Strelok opens with barracks command center, while Tyler starts safe with gate, robo, gate. Strelok's initial 3 marauders make their way to the bottom of Tyler's natural where they hole themselves up in a bunker, while Tyler makes a third gate and bolsters his force with an immortal and sentries. Strelok salvages bunker and leaves before any confrontation, Tyler takes his natural and adds a robotics bay while scouting the Terran base.

Strelok moves his modest marine-marauder force todards the Protoss base, and is caught offguard by forcefields splitting his army and dealing with each part effortlessly.

Tyler pushes towards Strelok's natural with his first colossus, traps the remaining marauders behind forcefields and crushes into the natural easily, Strelok is forced to tap out as a forcefield seals off his ramp. [11:17]

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P5 Liquid`Tyler < Tal'Darim Altar > mouz.Strelok T11

On the larger GSL map, Tal'Darim Altar, Strelok once again opens barracks command center, this time using his tech lab to produce a single reaper. Tyler also chooses a slight variation of last game, making two gates then robo before adding a third gateway.

Tyler delays colossus tech for early upgrades from two forges, the same as his first game against Strelok in Assembly. Strelok takes a third while attacking Tyler's front and simultaneously dropping in back, both attempts thwarted without much damage. Tyler begins colossus production as his 2/2 is finishing, and takes a third as he wander out to the middle of the map.

He walks across to Strelok's planetary fortress at his third, and is able to take it down but not before losing a large chunk of his army. Strelok has taken a somewhat hidden 4th during the combat, which Tyler soon discovers with a zealot. The lone unit goes to town on SCVs as an orbital watches, eventually racking up 24 kills and putting the protoss ahead by 10 workers.

The now 3/3 Protoss army easily takes out the re-populated 4th while Strelok drops, but Tyler's forces seem unstoppable as they barrel through everything Strelok can collect to fight. Strelok gives the GG as colossus, sentries, zealots, and stalkers make their way into his main base. [23:35]

Z2 FnaticMSI.Sen < Metalopolis > FnaticMSI.Fenix T8

Sitting at crossed positions on Metalopolis, Fenix opens standard and Sen feels safe enough to go hatch first. Fenix delays his orbital command and marine in order to get out a quick reaper. Skipping his reaper into Sen’s base, Fenix sees no potential threat. Fenix then goes 1/1/1 and makes a second CC. Staying true to his harassment style, Fenix begins blue-flamed hellions production and a single banshee for some map control. Meanwhile, Sen, in fear of some sort of timing attack, fortifies his defense with spines and roaches. Seeing his opponent has invested quite heavily into roaches, Fenix tries his luck and researches cloak for banshees. Unfortunately, Sen is already on top of things and has spore crawlers spread out between his bases, and promptly takes a quick third.

While the banshees are unable to inflict damage onto Sen’s main, Fenix uses them to pick off helpless roaches and lings while harassing the morphing third hatchery. Fenix sends a small MMM force to try and take down the third while Sen is low on units. The hatchery snipe is a success, but Fenix loses half his army in return.

Sen’s spire gets up extremely late due to Fenix’s harassment. Fenix pushes out but upon seeing an empty base where Sen’s fourth is supposed to be, Fenix contently hustles back to claim his gold as a 4th. Sen’s mutalisks freely soar into the main, picking off turrets and important add-ons. Sen oozes creep all over the bottom half of the map, effectively connecting all of his now running 5 bases.

Sen notices that all of Fenix’s units are defending his fragile gold base in the middle, and rams all his banelings onto the 11 o’clock base of Fenix, taking out half of the SCVs working there and the planetary itself. Fenix counterpushes toward the 6’o clock natural, but Sen’s maxed army of muta-baneling rolls in and easily demolishes the push, losing only an empty hatchery. Baneling kamikaze seems to be the flavor of the month and Sen is loving it, destroying another plantetary at the gold, along with 20+ SCVs, effectively reducing Fenix to 1 ½ mining bases.

With the flock of mutas flying around and harassing each base, Fenix is reduced to 44 SCVs, and half the supply that of Sen’s. The planetary at the gold is taken out once again, and Fenix’s counterpush yields on result, forcing a GG from the Peruvian Terran. [28:24]

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Z6 FnaticMSI.Sen < Terminus RE > FnaticMSI.Fenix T6

Fenix does not deviate from his opening from game 1, opting for a strong harass-based play with hellions and banshees. While Sen prepares for every possible aspect of harassment, the banshee denies him any sort of map presence. Sen’s third comes up much quicker than Fenix, and knowing that he was not able to inflict any further damage with banshees, Fenix begins his third as well.

With Sen’s third being so close to Fenix’s main, a simple drop by Fenix slows down Sen’s mining greatly. Sen takes a fourth before Fenix’s third begins to saturate fully. A blunder by Sen as his mutalisks engage head on with stimmed marines and medivacs, losing a few in the process. Fenix pushes out and sieges up right outside Sen’s fourth center base. Sen takes his 25 banelings, loops around the back of Fenix’s army, and wipe out Fenix’s army with ease, retaining every single mutalisk.

While the mutalisks fly into Fenix’s main, they were only able to take out a few turrets and SCVs, but the concentration it took from Sen cost him his 5th base over at 8 o’ clock from an octodrop. Fenix’s hidden CC at 12 o’ clock is scouted by a few stranded zerglings, and Fenix once again feels that it is time to push out. This time at the plate is a huge serving of Zergling sandwich, smothering Fenix as the tanks cannot fire fast enough to clear out the zerglings.

Sen picks off Fenix’s reinforcing marines and thors, and pushes into his production facilities. Sen is a bit too greedy in his endeavor, losing all his mutalisks and zerglings, running back home with just a handful.

With a 60 supply lead and nearly 30 more harvesters, things are looking quite bleak for Fenix. The mutalisks refuse to stop their obnoxious harassment, chewing through a lot of Fenix’s buildings with their +2 attack upgrade. Once Sen’s maxed army has noticed Fenix’s sole functioning base, the muta-baneling skims by and knocks FnaticMSIFenix out of TSL3. [25:57]

T7 ThorZaIN < Xel'Naga Caverns > TSL_FruitDealer Z1

One of the more anticipated matchups of the ro32, Thorzain is universally considered a heavy underdog. Meanwhile FruitDealer is looking to reclaim his former glory, having underperformed in the months following GSL1. Thorzain begins with 2 barracks, to FruitDealer's hatch before pool.

Thorzain's initial pressure does minimal damage, as the marines are never able to go inside the bunker. The second try is more successful, a handful of marines stop mining at the Zerg expansion and kill off a few drones, lings, and the queen. As Thorzain techs to blue flame hellions, FruitDealer begins morphing banelings, preparing for a bust.

Despite breaking in, Zerg is unable to make any progress once inside as hellions and marines clean up the remaining lings. As Thorzain repairs his wall, FruitDealer morphs more banelings and readies attempt number two. Embarassingly, the banelings kill an addon and nothing else, zerglings are forced to hang their heads and run back home.

Thorzain denies Zerg's attempt to take the gold, maintaining map presence with hellions and marine drops. His army seiged up in the center, FruitDealer runs around with roaches and finds his way to Terran's natural and begins to kill what he can. Thorzain's marines arrive before too much damage is done, and Thorzain begins to set up at the gold while FruitDealer burrows banelings in wait. Thorzain's army finds itself directly on top of them.



FruitDealer takes both side expansions as Thorzain turrets up his gold. Thorzain finds one of them and takes it out before mutas clean up his medivac, taking his 4th while FruitDealer rebuilds in the same spot. The two trade expansions, putting them back at 2 mining bases a piece (though Terran has gold). FruitDealer's mutas are able to kill some tanks and a thor, but his gorund forces are cleaned up too quickly and he is forced to leave when the mutas meet their demise. [25:35]

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T3 ThorZaIN < Terminus RE > TSL_FruitDealer Z6

Thorzain opens with a build rarely seen TvZ; the fast command center. FruitDealer begins as one might expect, hatch before pool, then quickly starts on roach production after seeing the cc. Thorzain then makes another command center off just five marines, taking full advantage of the terrain in Terminus RE. FruitDrealer walks several roaches to Thorzain's front door, but is unable to break in or kill anything significant.

As FruitDealer takes his third and begins morphling lings, Thorzain scans walks into the creep to kill tumors. FruitDealer finds him with banelings and takes out the force, after which he takes a 4th base. Thorzain's economy is running quite heavy by now, and he continues aggression by dancing marines near the natural choke and killing tumors.

As Thorzain begins sieging tanks further into the middle of the map, FruitDealer attempts to harass with mutas. They are not long for this world, however, their numbers are quickly thinned as they run into a thor, turrets, and marines. FruitDealer attempts to run around the Terran force, but is unable to advance past tanks and marines at the natural as Thorzain kills the Zerg's fourth base.

Thorzain has full control of the center of the map, expanding towards Zerg and looking to choke him out. As Thorzain has been maxed for some time, FruitDealer's last hope is a nydus worm in the back of the Terran main. As units pour out, Thorzain chooses to ignore them and run into Zerg's natural and quickly kill both the natural and third hatchery. He Setting up enough tanks in his own expansions, FruitDealer is down for the count when his attack dies off as his own main is being slaughtered. [23:00]

P1 Prae.NightEnD < Xel'Naga Caverns > SlayerS_BoxeR T7

Boxer opens standard but as soon as he chases out Nightend’s probe, Boxer takes all SCVs off of gas for a quick CC after 1 marine. Nightend makes his own nexus after 2 gateways, and Boxer is confident in his defense with pure marines, as he’s teching up while slowly building additional SCVs before floating his CC to the natural. Boxer moves out with 2 medivacs as stim finishes but this act delays his expansion saturation, as Nightend is fully mining even though it is Boxer who had made the CC first.

The observer closely follow Boxer, leaving no opening for Boxer to abuse and is forced to pull back. Nightend stay on 1 robotic facility while pumping out colossus, and adds two stargates. Boxer parks his units outside Nightend’s base and is slow to react as force fields corner his units, losing 12 supplies before he has to pack up and head home. Boxer takes the gold immeadiately as Nightend’s observer scouts it out, and Nightend respond by taking his own third at the 11 o’ clock base.

A period of lull occurs as both players max out their armies. Boxer’s massive army hugs his gold base, while Nightend moves into position along the left Xel’Naga watchtower. Both players throw their army at each other, with EMPeror Boxer coming out on top. Boxer moves the rest of his marauders into the third, where an unfortunate disconnect happens. The TSL panel rewards Boxer with the win after thorough investigation and review. More information regarding the result of this game can be found here. [19:00]

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P5 Prae.NightEnD < Tal'Darim Altar > SlayerS_BoxeR T11

Boxer proxys two barracks in the middle of the map as he has not scouted where Nightend could possibly be. Boxer moves in with two SCVs and two concussive-shelled marauders, and Nightend is forced to pull probes. The two SCVs gets sniped by the stalker, and Boxer is constantly reinforcing with more marauders. Given the slow firing rate of marauders, Boxer is pushed back and as warp gate kicks in, Nightend overwhelms Boxer with 139 HP left on his warp gate. The gateway units pick off the tech labs before Boxer could finish stim. Nightend expands behind his push but as he is met with bunkers, smartly retreats and continue to widen his 10 food lead.

Boxer pushes out with a small force once his natural is saturated, and parks himself below Nightend’s natural. Nightend leaves Boxer to roam the map freely, but he is first to sneak in a 4th base at the 9 o’ clock expansion. Once again both players are maxed out but neither look poised to engage. Boxer adds orbital commands in order to reduce the amount of supplies needed for SCVs, and gets upgrades and factories ready for a thor-heavy mech switch. In the same fashion, Nightend murders his zealots in order to make room for high Templars. Boxer’s form of freeing up supply continues with drops, none of which are really effective. One drop leaves a nexus with 93 HP, while the others’ unit are all dangling mid-air thanks to graviton beams.

The huge engagement happens outside Boxer’s natural, with EMPs only hitting a few stalkers, leaving the high Templars to freely carpet storm the Terran ball. Nightend reinforces with 20 stalkers, and his deathball does not look any smaller as time goes by. Nightend sends units all over the map to look for any sort of possible comeback Boxer could make. Upon finding the five factories at the bottom of the map, Boxer’s thors stand no chance against the Protoss army and Nightend ties up the series. [34:58]

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P5 Prae.NightEnD < Crevasse > SlayerS_BoxeR T11

Boxer skips his gas and starts his command center before even his first marine. Nightend does not feel as safe and makes 2 gateways before his own nexus. Boxer makes another barracks before teching up to ensure he’ll have enough units to defend. Meanwhile, Nightend stocks up on sentries and scouts out Boxer’s base. Boxer loads up 2 medivacs and heads down to Nightend’s natural, but is quickly scouted out by the observer.

A brave marine darts into Nightend’s base and gets a good glimpse at what Nightend is up to. Boxer rallies his units to the middle of the map but is slow to take a third, as Nightend is already beginning to saturate his. Both players look content to max out their armies while slowly gulping up the map.

Boxer makes the first move and stims in to take out Nightend’s potential 4th base. Boxer has a numerous amount of vikings that can easily one shot colossus. Boxer engages Nightend’s 3rd at a terrible angle, but landing crucial EMPs onto Nightend’s army, rendering the phoenixes useless and puts down Nightend’s 3rd. With weakened units, Boxer withdraws temporarily to regroup while leading the food count by nearly 60 food.

Once maxed, Boxer once again storms in and while it is a huge blunder to not focus down colossus with his vikings, the overwhelming amount of units power through Nightend, knocking the Romanian Protoss out of TSL3. [24:38]