[TSL] Semifinal Recap and Interviews

T7 Empire.Kas < Shakuras Plateau > mouz.ThorZaIN T1

Both of our European Terrans build their first marine and then attach a tech lab, with Kas choosing a reaper with ThorZaIN opting for a marauder instead. ThorZaIN heads over to Kas’ main with one of each tier 1 barracks unit, expanding and adding on additional barracks behind it. Kas is forced to pull SCVs, and ThorZaIN snaps three SCV necks and with his last breath, the marauder sees Kas’ cloaked banshee on the way. The banshee does little to no economic damage to ThorZaIN, but it does prevent him from moving out and putting pressure on Kas’s newly expansion. ThorZaIN’s marine picks off the SCV building Kas’s third command center, and delays it just enough for his third to go up first.

Kas has been repeatedly swinging his whole army between bases, leaving his main undefended and vulnerable to ThorZaIN’s octodrop. ThorZaIN picks up his army next to the bottom Xel’Naga Tower and unloads them on the high ground, and while Kas responds the minute the red blips show up on his sensor tower, what’s left of the drop makes life for Kas much more difficult by picking off important add-ons. Kas attempts to counter drop but runs into a line of turrets at ThorZaIN’s up and running fourth base.

Down 50 supply and a base, Kas is breaking down the northern rocks for a backdoor entrance into ThorZaIN’s main. At the same time, ThorZaIN had loaded up four medivacs full of units head in the same direction, and they are picked off, instantly evening the supply. However, ThorZaIN is reassured that there would be little forces in the front of Kas’s base, and attacks in with the rest of his army sitting in the middle of the map. While neither player are particularly cost effective with their attacks, Kas is stopped dead in his tracks as ThorZaIN sieges his own tanks in the main, but on the other side of the map, ThorZaIN has free reign on each of Kas’s expansions. ThorZaIN’s defensive units chase after Kas through the top passageway, and ThorZaIN stims in with marines in the middle, pincering Kas and forcing him to tap out. [23:48]



T7 Empire.Kas < Crossfire SE > mouz.ThorZaIN T1

Kas only grabs his gas after he has thrown down a command center, while ThorZaIN slowly techs up to the familiar 1/1/1, pausing only to build his own command center. ThorZaIN pushes out as his first medivac is done, and losing the Xel’Naga Tower triggers Kas to bunker up his natural. Kas tries to pick off ThorZaIN’s oncoming stream of marines, but ThorZaIN does a quick turn around with his main army to clear out any nuisance in the back. Stim and siege mode both will finish first for ThorZaIN, and Kas is put in a small contain.

While distracting Kas with a backdoor octodrop, ThorZaIN builds turrets north of Kas’ main, and expands to 11 o’ clock. When Kas has grabbed air dominance with vikings, ThorZaIN pulls back to the bottom Xel’Naga Tower, nullifying all advantage given by Kas’ vikings. Kas tries to flank ThorZaIN’s main army, but a scan reveals his intentions and with no defenses at the Ukrainian's front, ThorZaIN storms in to take a two game lead. [18:31]



T6 Empire.Kas < Metalopolis > mouz.ThorZaIN T8

Kas picks up 4 kills from his initial reaper, keeping ThorZaIN inside his base and preventing Kas’ FE from being discovered. ThorZaIN makes a CC of his own and Kas’ reaper just barely misses the factory/starport combo at the bottom of ThorZaIN’s base. ThorZaIN’s cloakless banshee does minimal damage, and now ThorZaIN’s expansion is way behind. Kas capitalizes on this blunder by putting down his third seconds after ThorZaIN lands the CC at his natural. Kas surges forward with almost double the amount of marines. Staying low on tech allows Kas to grab his marine upgrades much faster, and with stim kicking in mid-battle, Kas clears out ThorZaIN’s mineral line afterwards.

Both players trade an octodrop. Neither does any damage, but they serve as a potential threat, driving the need to construct lines of turrets on both ends. Kas almost picks off a CC floating to the 3rd, but the timely response of ThorZaIN prevents disaster. Kas and ThorZaIN demonstrate to the viewers why this was a mirror match-up, as both players load up 4 medivacs simultaneously and head towards each other’s main. However, a Kas scan prompted ThorZaIN to change his mind, and by unloading his units earlier, ThorZaIN was able to pick off most of Kas’s drop. Both players bring the remnants of their armies to the middle, and a siege stand-off ensues.

Kas circles around the other lane to try and deal damage to ThorZaIN’s third, and ThorZaIN over-commits to his defense. Kas smells the weakness in ThorZaIN’s front line and breaks through with 2/2 marines, not letting his macro slip as he takes a 30 supply lead. Kas’s army cruises into ThorZaIN’s natural, and a siege below the ramp disables any reinforcing units to help out, leaving nothing but ThorZaIN’s generous compliment to his competitor as he exits game 3. [19:59]



T6 Empire.Kas < Terminus RE > mouz.ThorZaIN T3

Kas had already suspected ThorZaIN of doing a strong harass upon seeing the starport with his reaper, but a hero scan hellions lined up alongside the starport for an eventual deadly drop. ThorZaIN circles around and drops the three hellions in the main instead, but does a pitiful job at slowing down Kas’s economy, trading all of his hellions for 2 SCVs and 3 marines. Knowing that he is behind, ThorZaIN slyly grabs a quick third, as it is his best bet to overtake Kas in supply. Rather than taking the third that neighbors ThorZaIN, Kas sneaks a CC atop the 11 o’clock expansion.

Kas’s slow saturation of his third allows ThorZaIN’s macro off of three bases kick in, pulling ahead in both army and SCV count. While Kas is slowly inching forward to prevent ThorZaIN from grabbing additional bases, 4 medivacs full of marines are tearing through his backdoor and natural expansion. Unable to pull back in time, Kas resigns without hesitation. [19:47]



T5 Empire.Kas < Crevasse > mouz.ThorZaIN T11

Both players go gas-less for quick CC, with Kas adding on barracks before grabbing gas and ThorZaIN the contrary. While ThorZaIN is clumping a mass of marines in the middle, Kas is producing units out of three barracks, thus ending up with more marines but without their essential upgrades. Although Kas has already saturated his third before ThorZaIN’s CC is even done, it is ThorZaIN who is ahead in worker count. Kas’s octodrop is cleaned up promptly without difficulty for ThorZaIN. Kas consistently stays a base ahead of ThorZaIN, and while ThorZaIN doubles up on his drop play, it too does not damage the economy of Kas much.

Both players are sitting on a low number of tanks, and are just simply clashing heads with pure marines. Kas engages with a more favorable marine count, but a nice arc and +2/+2 allows ThorZaIN to come out victorious. Winning the battle does not allow ThorZaIN to move forward however, as a planetary fortress melts through the remaining marines and tanks. Kas recollects his army and shuts down ThorZaIN’s second advancement, pushing ThorZaIN all the way back to his own fourth, forcing the liftoff. Kas greedily tries to finish off the CC, but is unable, and the overextension cost him a decent amount of marines.

ThorZaIN’s superior upgrades allow him to break the contain and push Kas back but this time he wisely chooses to stay put instead of recklessly charging forward. ThorZaIN puts a single tank next to the Xel’Naga Tower, putting Kas’s fourth under siege. Kas swings around the map, breaking down rocks in order to snipe ThorZaIN’s fourth, but is met behind the debris by a larger army of ThorZaIN. Kas streams forward to break ThorZaIN’s middle containment. Coming out with a few marines left over, ThorZaIN picks them up to drop on top of Kas’s tanks, but Kas responds swiftly and unsieges to avoid catastrophic friendly fire.

ThorZaIN loads up for a doom drop with three medivacs full of marines, unloading in the main to cut off Kas’s reinforcements. Kas pulls back too many troops to defend, and it is the opportune moment for ThorZaIN to claim that ticket to New York City. SCV meatshields shatter upon tank shell impacts but they are necessary sacrifices, as their deaths allow ThorZaIN’s marines and tanks to deal their DPS without taking damage. The break left ThorZaIN losing in food count, but in prime sieged position to take down Kas’s fourth. Kas counterattacks from the northern path, but his time spent breaking down the debris allowed ThorZaIN to properly erect a solid defensive wall of tanks.

ThorZaIN runs Kas in circles sieging both the fourth and the sixth base at the near bottom, and eventually is able to stop mining at both bases. With all his mining bases under siege or being tear apart, Kas’s last ditch effort to break the middle goes down in vain, and ThorZaIN grabs his passport and carries Kas’s warm encouragement on to our TSL3 finals. [27:49]

P9 Dignitas.NaNiwa < Terminus RE > mouz.HasuObs P12

HasuObs begins the series by making 3 gateways and a robotics facility, while Naniwa chooses a blink build, making his Twilight Council after 2 gateways before adding a third gateway. As soon as blink researched finishes, Naniwa moves out with his force of stalkers and picks off a stray unit of HasuObs.

When he arrives at Hasu's main, the first immortal is ready and Nani finds himself unable to get over forcefields that protect the ramp. When a second immortal shows himself, Naniwa is forced to retreat temporarily. Naniwa adds a robotics facility back at home while keeping Hasu stuck in his base, Hasu meanwhile starts to produce colossus.

Naniwa adds a slew of zealots to his arsenal and busts out the charge upgrade. When he spots that Hasu is warping in a nexus at his natural expansion, he readies an attack and rallies his units. The ensuing engagement is a bit of a hit and run with Naniwa attempting to flank HasuObs, but finds himself unable to do so as Hasu hugs the wall. The game is over when Hasu crushes the opposing army with few losses. [15:54]

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P6 Dignitas.NaNiwa < Metalopolis > mouz.HasuObs P12

Game 2 opens in a more traditional manner: Naniwa makes 4 gates and chronos his warpgate research, while HasuObs chooses to use his chrono on stalkers from 2 gates, adding the third shortly thereafter.

When Naniwa's army comes bellowing, Hasu blocks his ramp by making 2 gateways at the top. It buys some time, but not enough and Hasu finds himself short of units as Naniwa's army attacks. He micros well for several minutes before being forced to tap out. [8:41]

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P7 Dignitas.NaNiwa < Shakuras Plateau > mouz.HasuObs P2

Naniwa decides to repeat his build, and open game 3 with a 4 gate as well. HasuObs has other plans, however, making a forge after core and placing cannons in front of his natural. 4 cannons appears to not be enough. Naniwa charges in with a handful of stalkers/zealots and kills the smaller army of HasuObs, then simply walks around the cannons and into Hasu's main.

Hasu pushes back death with a cannon in his main, aggressive probe defense, and a spare stalker here and there but he loses about half his workers in the process. Naniwa pulls the same trick at the front a second time, killing Hasu's ground forces while ignoring the cannons and then walking into the main. When he is able to kill the pylon powering the cannons Hasu recognizes the game is over and sends a GG. [10:47]

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P2 Dignitas.NaNiwa < Xel'Naga Caverns > mouz.HasuObs P7

Nani decides to shake things up in the fourth game, sending his first probe to the bottom of the map to build a pylon in Hasu's natural. He then uses that pylon to build a gateway at 9 supply, using his chronoboost on a zealot as soon as it is finished.

Hasu is forced to chrono a zealot as well, in addition to building a forge and a cannon near his nexus. The first 3 zealots do very little damage, Nani kills a pair of probes before being chased out by opposing zealots. HasuObs builds a pylon just outside Nani's main ramp and begins to cannon, while Naniwa adds 4 gateways.

Naniwa kills the cannon outside his base before it is finished, and when his first round of units warp in and walk to the main base of Hasu, Hasu calls GG. [7:51]

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P5 Dignitas.NaNiwa < Crevasse > mouz.HasuObs P2

HasuObs finally decides to take a page from Naniwa's book, and opens the potential match point game with a 4 gate. Maybe unfortunately for him, Naniwa chooses to do the same. The first skirmish sees Hasu comes out slightly on top, and be ever so thinly ahead in the important stalker count.

As things die down, Hasu ventures outside his base to and succeeds in killing one of Naniwa's proxy pylons while adding a robotics facility. It turns into a mistake when Nani catches him out of position and gets several stalkers for free.

Now ahead in the stalker count, Nani continues to put on pressure by killing the front rocks and widening the choke to Hasu's main. When Naniwa marches into the main of HasuObs not even a freshly build immortal can stop him, and the series goes to Naniwa. [10:23]