Table of Contents
Last Chances
Intro
SlayerS vs oGs
Match Results
StarTale vs IM
Match Results
oGs vs MvP
Match Results
Prime vs StarTale
Match Results
FXO vs SlayerS
Match Preview
NSH vs IM
Match Preview
Check out the GSTL on Liquipedia
Last Chances
As the GSTL nears the finals, the official announcement finally came that the winner would be crowned in Vegas during IPL4. This presents an interesting opportunity for teams, as flying to Nevada would give them the chance to play in a prestigious individual event as well as compete for a team title in the same weekend.
With the LAN season already underway, decisions have to be made for these organizations as to where they can allocate resources. Incredible Miracle sent their 3 aces abroad several weeks ago, and it cost them dearly when they were unable to beat StarTale without the help of Mvp, NesTea, or LosirA. Perhaps the time of their stars would have been better spent furthering the goal of team league advancement, where winning could mean a trip abroad for the entire team.
This week marks the first time there will be more eliminations, since being the field was squeezed down to 8 teams. Another pair will fall this Saturday and Sunday, and those who make it through have a harrowing trek to get to the promised land. With every series being a best-of-9 affair, every set can become a difficult task, and nothing is for certain.
Time now to kick it into overdrive, for any moment could be your last.
SlayerS
Old Generations
Game One – oGsTOP vs SlayerS_Ryung – 3/5
+ Show Spoiler +
Metropolis
Remember that patch that effectively removed the blue flame upgrade from the game? TOP must not have gotten the memo, because he opened up with the blue flame hellion opening that has been out of fashion ever since. Ryung, meanwhile, used the more modern reaper expand. It turned out to be a good choice, as he blocked all of the hellion drops with minimal losses. From there Ryung took control of the game with an aggressive bio/tank style against TOP’s defensive mech play. The map control advantage bio has over mech in the matchup showed here, as Ryung’s superior army movements pinned TOP in his corner of the map, cutting off all avenues of harass for the hellions. After dragging TOP around all over the place with his harass, Ryung took a 5 to 3 advantage in bases. The rest of the game was a formality as Ryung took a while to finish off his turtling opponent. Meanwhile, somewhere in the world, Artosis shook his head in disappointment as he watched the meching player lose to, well, someone who didn’t mech.
Overall, Ryung looked like the more solid player by far. As soon as he had the slight advantage, he refused to lose his momentum, dictating the pace of the game the entire rest of the way. TOP, on the other hand, didn’t seem to have much of a plan after his hellion harass was blocked. Well, maybe his plan was to ride on the supposed superiority of mech over bio.
Winner: SlayerS_Ryung
Old Generations (0 – 1) SlayerS
Remember that patch that effectively removed the blue flame upgrade from the game? TOP must not have gotten the memo, because he opened up with the blue flame hellion opening that has been out of fashion ever since. Ryung, meanwhile, used the more modern reaper expand. It turned out to be a good choice, as he blocked all of the hellion drops with minimal losses. From there Ryung took control of the game with an aggressive bio/tank style against TOP’s defensive mech play. The map control advantage bio has over mech in the matchup showed here, as Ryung’s superior army movements pinned TOP in his corner of the map, cutting off all avenues of harass for the hellions. After dragging TOP around all over the place with his harass, Ryung took a 5 to 3 advantage in bases. The rest of the game was a formality as Ryung took a while to finish off his turtling opponent. Meanwhile, somewhere in the world, Artosis shook his head in disappointment as he watched the meching player lose to, well, someone who didn’t mech.
Overall, Ryung looked like the more solid player by far. As soon as he had the slight advantage, he refused to lose his momentum, dictating the pace of the game the entire rest of the way. TOP, on the other hand, didn’t seem to have much of a plan after his hellion harass was blocked. Well, maybe his plan was to ride on the supposed superiority of mech over bio.
Winner: SlayerS_Ryung
Old Generations (0 – 1) SlayerS
Game Two – 1.5/5
+ Show Spoiler +
oGsVINES vs SlayerS_Ryung – Calm Before the Storm
I like this choice. It makes a lot of sense. Unlike in Brood War, Terrans trained by BoxeR tend to share his TvP weakness. In addition, Ryung is 0-7 against MC in his life, and what is the closest thing oGs has to MC? Another oGs Protoss who probably trained with him!
VINES opened nexus first (surprise surprise) while Ryung responded with a fast double expansion. You probably could have figured that out when you saw which map they were playing, but hey, I couldn’t just skip straight to the mid game. The game played out like the typical Calm Before the Storm PvT where nobody tries early aggression: both players use builds that would be greedy on any other map, max out, and see who has the better army. The big battle was somewhat close and Ryung could’ve won it, but he split off part of his army for a drop before engaging. Once VINES won that battle and took the lead, it only took one follow-up push to kill whatever Ryung had left over.
All in all, there were very few notable things in this game. The first is that VINES started making gateways instead of units at around 170 supply so that instead of maxing out, he simply kept the option to do so. This is probably a very good idea for Protoss players who fear drops in the late game, but it didn’t seem necessary on this map. Secondly, Ryung didn’t at all look like the same player who played a beautiful attacking game to dismantle TOP earlier. It seems that Ryung is a momentum based player. He showed some incredible play stretching his lead as soon as he pulled ahead against TOP, but if the opponent doesn’t give him anything to work with, he doesn’t have the ability to take control of the game. If he could learn to create leads from an even position, that would seriously complement his strong front runner play. Until then, Ryung will have to settle for being just another SlayerS Terran. Other than that, the game was about as exciting as I made it sound.
+ Show Spoiler +
Winner: oGs_VINES
Old Generations (1 -1) SlayerS
I like this choice. It makes a lot of sense. Unlike in Brood War, Terrans trained by BoxeR tend to share his TvP weakness. In addition, Ryung is 0-7 against MC in his life, and what is the closest thing oGs has to MC? Another oGs Protoss who probably trained with him!
VINES opened nexus first (surprise surprise) while Ryung responded with a fast double expansion. You probably could have figured that out when you saw which map they were playing, but hey, I couldn’t just skip straight to the mid game. The game played out like the typical Calm Before the Storm PvT where nobody tries early aggression: both players use builds that would be greedy on any other map, max out, and see who has the better army. The big battle was somewhat close and Ryung could’ve won it, but he split off part of his army for a drop before engaging. Once VINES won that battle and took the lead, it only took one follow-up push to kill whatever Ryung had left over.
All in all, there were very few notable things in this game. The first is that VINES started making gateways instead of units at around 170 supply so that instead of maxing out, he simply kept the option to do so. This is probably a very good idea for Protoss players who fear drops in the late game, but it didn’t seem necessary on this map. Secondly, Ryung didn’t at all look like the same player who played a beautiful attacking game to dismantle TOP earlier. It seems that Ryung is a momentum based player. He showed some incredible play stretching his lead as soon as he pulled ahead against TOP, but if the opponent doesn’t give him anything to work with, he doesn’t have the ability to take control of the game. If he could learn to create leads from an even position, that would seriously complement his strong front runner play. Until then, Ryung will have to settle for being just another SlayerS Terran. Other than that, the game was about as exciting as I made it sound.
+ Show Spoiler +
That means not very exciting.
Winner: oGs_VINES
Old Generations (1 -1) SlayerS
Game Three – 1/5
+ Show Spoiler +
oGsVINES vs SlayerS_YugiOh – Crossfire
Crossfire, despite being possibly the least popular map among the fans on our forums, does have the distinction of producing different games in PvZ. Not necessarily good, just different from the forge FE vs 3 hatch play you see on every other map. The map does have a 15-7 record for ZvP, so it must be a good decision to send a Zerg, right?
Well, try saying that to YugiOh, because he didn’t at any point in the game look like he knew what he was doing. VINES went for a 5 gate bust, and without any roach tech or a sufficient spine crawler count for defending these pushes, YugiOh quickly found his ramp force fielded and folded like a piece of origami paper (you thought I was going to say a cheap deck of cards, didn’t you?). I feel bad for the SlayerS coach, because using a Zerg on Crossfire was a good choice and VINES didn’t even execute his attack that well; YugiOh just lost in an embarrassing fashion.
Winner: oGsVINES
Old Generations (2 – 1) SlayerS
Crossfire, despite being possibly the least popular map among the fans on our forums, does have the distinction of producing different games in PvZ. Not necessarily good, just different from the forge FE vs 3 hatch play you see on every other map. The map does have a 15-7 record for ZvP, so it must be a good decision to send a Zerg, right?
Well, try saying that to YugiOh, because he didn’t at any point in the game look like he knew what he was doing. VINES went for a 5 gate bust, and without any roach tech or a sufficient spine crawler count for defending these pushes, YugiOh quickly found his ramp force fielded and folded like a piece of origami paper (you thought I was going to say a cheap deck of cards, didn’t you?). I feel bad for the SlayerS coach, because using a Zerg on Crossfire was a good choice and VINES didn’t even execute his attack that well; YugiOh just lost in an embarrassing fashion.
Winner: oGsVINES
Old Generations (2 – 1) SlayerS
Game Four – 1/5
+ Show Spoiler +
oGsVINES vs SlayerS_Alicia – Bel’Shir Beach Winter
Alicia went for a defensive 4 gate and died to blink stalkers. Since this game was so terrible, I might as well fill up space talking about the PvP metagame instead. Bel’Shir Beach is a 4 gate map, so the rules of PvP are very different from most maps but similar to Tal’Darim Altar. In the past every just went for an aggressive 4 gate on these ramp-less maps, but nowadays the game is less of a micro war and more like rock-paper-scissors. Defensive gateway play tends to have the positional advantage against aggressive 4 gates, so the defensive player should win. On the other hand, the defensive 4 gate gets blink so late that it’s an automatic loss against a blink rush. The blink rush kills a defensive 4 gate every time, but has no chance to hold off an aggressive 4 gate. Alicia went for the defensive 4 gate and died to VINES’ blink rush.
As you read this you might be wondering, why the hell did SlayerS send out Alicia just to play rock-paper-scissors? I have no idea. Maybe they found VINES’ match history and saw all 4 gates. Maybe SlayerS ran out of Terrans (just kidding). Maybe Alicia tricked his team into thinking he can read minds. Whatever the case, they have to be feeling foolish for dropping 3 games to a player who, quite frankly, has shown nothing impressive so far. In any case, SlayerS decided they were done messing around and chose to use MMA next. Finally, we’ll get to see higher standards of play!
Winner: oGsVINES
Old Generations (3 – 1) SlayerS
Alicia went for a defensive 4 gate and died to blink stalkers. Since this game was so terrible, I might as well fill up space talking about the PvP metagame instead. Bel’Shir Beach is a 4 gate map, so the rules of PvP are very different from most maps but similar to Tal’Darim Altar. In the past every just went for an aggressive 4 gate on these ramp-less maps, but nowadays the game is less of a micro war and more like rock-paper-scissors. Defensive gateway play tends to have the positional advantage against aggressive 4 gates, so the defensive player should win. On the other hand, the defensive 4 gate gets blink so late that it’s an automatic loss against a blink rush. The blink rush kills a defensive 4 gate every time, but has no chance to hold off an aggressive 4 gate. Alicia went for the defensive 4 gate and died to VINES’ blink rush.
As you read this you might be wondering, why the hell did SlayerS send out Alicia just to play rock-paper-scissors? I have no idea. Maybe they found VINES’ match history and saw all 4 gates. Maybe SlayerS ran out of Terrans (just kidding). Maybe Alicia tricked his team into thinking he can read minds. Whatever the case, they have to be feeling foolish for dropping 3 games to a player who, quite frankly, has shown nothing impressive so far. In any case, SlayerS decided they were done messing around and chose to use MMA next. Finally, we’ll get to see higher standards of play!
Winner: oGsVINES
Old Generations (3 – 1) SlayerS
Game Five – 2.5/5
+ Show Spoiler +
oGs_VINES vs SlayerS_MMA – Cloud Kingdom
…or not. Just what is it with the terrible games today? We saw the nexus first vs 1 rax FE scenario that’s so common nowadays, but after that the game was decided purely by build orders. VINES went for a quick 6 gate timing attack and caught MMA doing the incredibly greedy cloaked banshee/tank build that has about 12 marines total when the 6 gate hits. MMA could’ve magically replaced every marine with a marauder and STILL died there. Funnily enough, this might actually be the most impressive game VINES played. His build is clearly well thought out, as the timing attack clearly kills a cloaked banshee player without needing detection, but also puts on a ton of pressure against standard builds which don’t have stim or any other important bio upgrades in time to defend against it.
MMA, meanwhile, really needs to learn to play a macro TvP at some point. I know that’s tough to do when your coach is the “Swiss Bank Account” Terran, but that’s no excuse to continue relying on gimmicky strategies like this. I mean, you’re a GSL Code S champion! You beat MVP in the final! And your opponent is… uhhh… well, he got to #1 on the NA ladder. My point is, there’s no way to lose against someone that much worse than you unless he predicts you will use some risky build and takes a build order win. This is the exact situation where you’re supposed to just fall back on a safe build and laugh as your opponent desperately tries to beat you with something that he normally does against the competition in Code B.
Winner: oGsVINES
Old Generations (4 – 1) SlayerS
…or not. Just what is it with the terrible games today? We saw the nexus first vs 1 rax FE scenario that’s so common nowadays, but after that the game was decided purely by build orders. VINES went for a quick 6 gate timing attack and caught MMA doing the incredibly greedy cloaked banshee/tank build that has about 12 marines total when the 6 gate hits. MMA could’ve magically replaced every marine with a marauder and STILL died there. Funnily enough, this might actually be the most impressive game VINES played. His build is clearly well thought out, as the timing attack clearly kills a cloaked banshee player without needing detection, but also puts on a ton of pressure against standard builds which don’t have stim or any other important bio upgrades in time to defend against it.
MMA, meanwhile, really needs to learn to play a macro TvP at some point. I know that’s tough to do when your coach is the “Swiss Bank Account” Terran, but that’s no excuse to continue relying on gimmicky strategies like this. I mean, you’re a GSL Code S champion! You beat MVP in the final! And your opponent is… uhhh… well, he got to #1 on the NA ladder. My point is, there’s no way to lose against someone that much worse than you unless he predicts you will use some risky build and takes a build order win. This is the exact situation where you’re supposed to just fall back on a safe build and laugh as your opponent desperately tries to beat you with something that he normally does against the competition in Code B.
Winner: oGsVINES
Old Generations (4 – 1) SlayerS
Game Six – 2.5/5
+ Show Spoiler +
oGsVINES vs SlayerS_Puzzle – Dual Sight
VINES faked the second gas and actually opened 4 gates, while Puzzle’s scouting probe left instead of scouting the other 3 gates. Looks good for VINES, right?
That’s what I thought too, until some really strange things happened. First, Puzzle somehow sensed the 4 gates and warped in 2 sentries, when you normally only need 1 with a blink opening. Second, VINES somehow sensed that Puzzle prepared for the 4 gate (despite seeing the probe leave early) and decided to get a robo instead of attacking. Whatever their thought processes were, Puzzle came out ahead here from the greedier opening.
What happened next was one of the coolest ideas I’ve seen in a PvP. Normally, a robo build defends against a blink all-in by chrono boosting out immortals and blocking the ramp with force fields so the attacking player doesn’t get the vision needed to blink up and kill everything. If the blink player gets an observer for vision, then he has spent so many resources on stuff other than stalkers that he won’t have enough units to end the game and thus has to settle for playing out the macro game but with fewer robo units than his opponent.
So what did Puzzle do to get around this problem? He used hallucination to get vision of the high ground, thus allowing the blink in without having to build a robo and observer! The strategy makes perfect sense. You need a sentry anyway to not die to 4 gates, so you already paid part of the cost needed to use hallucinate. The hallucination not only gives you vision but also tanks some damage. At the end of the day, you have a blink stalker all-in that doesn’t get blocked by force fields. In fact, it’s probably helped by enemy force fields because chances are they’ll warp in more sentries instead of useful units while waiting for their robo units to build. Once Puzzle got vision into VINES’ main, it was no problem focusing down the colossus and immortal and then easily killing the rest of VINES’ units.
Winner: SlayerS_Puzzle
Old Generations (4 – 2) SlayerS
VINES faked the second gas and actually opened 4 gates, while Puzzle’s scouting probe left instead of scouting the other 3 gates. Looks good for VINES, right?
That’s what I thought too, until some really strange things happened. First, Puzzle somehow sensed the 4 gates and warped in 2 sentries, when you normally only need 1 with a blink opening. Second, VINES somehow sensed that Puzzle prepared for the 4 gate (despite seeing the probe leave early) and decided to get a robo instead of attacking. Whatever their thought processes were, Puzzle came out ahead here from the greedier opening.
What happened next was one of the coolest ideas I’ve seen in a PvP. Normally, a robo build defends against a blink all-in by chrono boosting out immortals and blocking the ramp with force fields so the attacking player doesn’t get the vision needed to blink up and kill everything. If the blink player gets an observer for vision, then he has spent so many resources on stuff other than stalkers that he won’t have enough units to end the game and thus has to settle for playing out the macro game but with fewer robo units than his opponent.
So what did Puzzle do to get around this problem? He used hallucination to get vision of the high ground, thus allowing the blink in without having to build a robo and observer! The strategy makes perfect sense. You need a sentry anyway to not die to 4 gates, so you already paid part of the cost needed to use hallucinate. The hallucination not only gives you vision but also tanks some damage. At the end of the day, you have a blink stalker all-in that doesn’t get blocked by force fields. In fact, it’s probably helped by enemy force fields because chances are they’ll warp in more sentries instead of useful units while waiting for their robo units to build. Once Puzzle got vision into VINES’ main, it was no problem focusing down the colossus and immortal and then easily killing the rest of VINES’ units.
Winner: SlayerS_Puzzle
Old Generations (4 – 2) SlayerS
Game Seven – 2/5
+ Show Spoiler +
Liquid`Zenio vs SlayerS_Puzzle – Antiga Shipyard
Protoss players should watch this game, but everyone else probably won’t enjoy it. Zenio went for the fake 3 base, baneling bust that he used to kill Naniwa at IEM Kiev. I’ve never actually seen that build lose before, but then again none of the players who died to it were Code S round of 8 caliber. The idea behind the build is that Zerg pretends to go for a macro game off of a speedling opening by not showing all of his zerglings to kill the zealots poking at his third hatchery. This move should make the Protoss player relax, as macro games tend to be easier against the speedling opening than they are against the no gas opening. In reality, the Zerg player prepares a baneling bust. Puzzle wasn’t fooled though; he made sentries instead of stalkers and managed to hold on with force fields. Zenio, with his plan foiled, tried the same thing a second time but Puzzle was even better prepared than before with many cannons and sentries guarding his wall.
Winner: SlayerS_Puzzle
Old Generations (4 – 3) SlayerS
Protoss players should watch this game, but everyone else probably won’t enjoy it. Zenio went for the fake 3 base, baneling bust that he used to kill Naniwa at IEM Kiev. I’ve never actually seen that build lose before, but then again none of the players who died to it were Code S round of 8 caliber. The idea behind the build is that Zerg pretends to go for a macro game off of a speedling opening by not showing all of his zerglings to kill the zealots poking at his third hatchery. This move should make the Protoss player relax, as macro games tend to be easier against the speedling opening than they are against the no gas opening. In reality, the Zerg player prepares a baneling bust. Puzzle wasn’t fooled though; he made sentries instead of stalkers and managed to hold on with force fields. Zenio, with his plan foiled, tried the same thing a second time but Puzzle was even better prepared than before with many cannons and sentries guarding his wall.
Winner: SlayerS_Puzzle
Old Generations (4 – 3) SlayerS
Game Eight – 3.5/5
+ Show Spoiler +
SlayerS_Puzzle vs oGsFin – Entombed Valley
With Puzzle on a roll, it was time for oGs to bring out their big gun: the elephant in the room. Both players took a fast expansion, but the interesting part was that they also took very late third bases for this map. It was probably a good idea, considering fOrGG put together a scary timing attack with both medivacs and ghosts on 2 bases. Puzzle is known to favor an aggressive PvT style relying on high templar control to keep Terran on the back foot, making the medivac/ghost build a very good idea.
So for SlayerS fans, it was fortunate that Puzzle decided to mix it up and play the other PvT style: defensive double forge with colossi, a la Creator. It turned out to be the right choice, as he came out of the exchange with the upgrade advantage over fOrGG, but without any disadvantages to even the playing field. fOrGG made a devastating attack where he caught Puzzle’s army out of position, but it wasn’t enough to make up for his low viking count and upgrade disadvantage. The rest of the game involved the usual dance of the deathballs, but with Puzzle having the upgrade advantage. The turning point came when Puzzle eventually outmaneuvered fOrGG and killed the fourth base for free. It takes exceptionally good engagements to make a comeback from the situation where the Protoss player has the lead in every way, but unfortunately for oGs, fOrGG is no Leonidas and Puzzle is no Xerxes. Puzzle’s PvT skill really showed in the late game, where many lesser Protoss players would attack recklessly and suddenly find their army evaporated. Puzzle, instead, played it like a boa constrictor: putting the Terran under constant pressure, suffocating his economy, and giving no openings for a comeback.
Elephant in the room, you say? Puzzle doesn’t care.
Winner: SlayerS_Puzzle
Old Generations (4 - 4) SlayerS
With Puzzle on a roll, it was time for oGs to bring out their big gun: the elephant in the room. Both players took a fast expansion, but the interesting part was that they also took very late third bases for this map. It was probably a good idea, considering fOrGG put together a scary timing attack with both medivacs and ghosts on 2 bases. Puzzle is known to favor an aggressive PvT style relying on high templar control to keep Terran on the back foot, making the medivac/ghost build a very good idea.
So for SlayerS fans, it was fortunate that Puzzle decided to mix it up and play the other PvT style: defensive double forge with colossi, a la Creator. It turned out to be the right choice, as he came out of the exchange with the upgrade advantage over fOrGG, but without any disadvantages to even the playing field. fOrGG made a devastating attack where he caught Puzzle’s army out of position, but it wasn’t enough to make up for his low viking count and upgrade disadvantage. The rest of the game involved the usual dance of the deathballs, but with Puzzle having the upgrade advantage. The turning point came when Puzzle eventually outmaneuvered fOrGG and killed the fourth base for free. It takes exceptionally good engagements to make a comeback from the situation where the Protoss player has the lead in every way, but unfortunately for oGs, fOrGG is no Leonidas and Puzzle is no Xerxes. Puzzle’s PvT skill really showed in the late game, where many lesser Protoss players would attack recklessly and suddenly find their army evaporated. Puzzle, instead, played it like a boa constrictor: putting the Terran under constant pressure, suffocating his economy, and giving no openings for a comeback.
Elephant in the room, you say? Puzzle doesn’t care.
Winner: SlayerS_Puzzle
Old Generations (4 - 4) SlayerS
Game Nine – 1.5/5
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oGsInCa vs SlayerS_Puzzle – Daybreak
Daybreak is known for producing amazing games, so it’s a little disappointing the Daybreak game today was a PvP. To top it off, the game wasn’t even good by PvP standards. What is InCa famous for? The first thing that comes to mind is his strong PvP. The second is DTs. Puzzle either forgot who he was playing or never watches InCa’s games, because he went for the same blink/hallucination build he used to beat VINES. He might’ve still had a chance if he dropped a robo instantly upon realizing DTs were killing all of his probes, but he panicked instead. And we all know what good panicking does for you when your opponent has DTs and you don’t have detection. Like MMA in TvP, Puzzle really needs to learn another build for PvP. I mean, if you don’t get detection against InCa, you probably don’t get detection against anyone else either. The blink/hallucination rush looked amazing against VINES, but you gotta have some kind of back-up plan when people know that’s your build.
Winner: oGsInCa
Old Generations (5 – 4) SlayerS
Daybreak is known for producing amazing games, so it’s a little disappointing the Daybreak game today was a PvP. To top it off, the game wasn’t even good by PvP standards. What is InCa famous for? The first thing that comes to mind is his strong PvP. The second is DTs. Puzzle either forgot who he was playing or never watches InCa’s games, because he went for the same blink/hallucination build he used to beat VINES. He might’ve still had a chance if he dropped a robo instantly upon realizing DTs were killing all of his probes, but he panicked instead. And we all know what good panicking does for you when your opponent has DTs and you don’t have detection. Like MMA in TvP, Puzzle really needs to learn another build for PvP. I mean, if you don’t get detection against InCa, you probably don’t get detection against anyone else either. The blink/hallucination rush looked amazing against VINES, but you gotta have some kind of back-up plan when people know that’s your build.
Winner: oGsInCa
Old Generations (5 – 4) SlayerS
Overall results
+ Show Spoiler +
Ryung > TOP
Ryung < VINES
YugiOh < VINES
Alicia < VINES
MMA < VINES (not a typo)
Puzzle > VINES
Puzzle > Zenio
Puzzle > fOrGG
Puzzle < InCa
SlayerS 4 – 5 Old Generations
Ryung < VINES
YugiOh < VINES
Alicia < VINES
MMA < VINES (not a typo)
Puzzle > VINES
Puzzle > Zenio
Puzzle > fOrGG
Puzzle < InCa
SlayerS 4 – 5 Old Generations
StarTale
Incredible Miracle
Game One – ST_Bomber vs IM_Seed – 3/5
+ Show Spoiler +
Daybreak
The game starts as with many TvPs on Daybreak, both players getting 3 bases quick and teching up before any real engagements. Seed chooses high templar and storm before colossus, while Bomber picks one of the many ways Terran has of arriving at a large marine-marauder-medivac force, while adding in a few ghosts.
The fights start to break out over the center when Seed decides to take a fourth and Bomber wants to fight over control of it. A few missed EMPs means that Seed wins the early fights, and as he adds colossus he looks ready to take control of the game.
Bomber, however, has another plan as instead of building up a large army again he simply rams the units he has down Seed's throat. Seed is unable to keep more than a single colossus, and Bomber pushes in and takes Seed's fourth and eventually his third. With the unit numbers kept low, Seed is unable to beat out the Terran army and is pushed back into his base until he finally dies.
Winner: ST_Bomber
StarTale (1 – 0) Incredible Miracle
The game starts as with many TvPs on Daybreak, both players getting 3 bases quick and teching up before any real engagements. Seed chooses high templar and storm before colossus, while Bomber picks one of the many ways Terran has of arriving at a large marine-marauder-medivac force, while adding in a few ghosts.
The fights start to break out over the center when Seed decides to take a fourth and Bomber wants to fight over control of it. A few missed EMPs means that Seed wins the early fights, and as he adds colossus he looks ready to take control of the game.
Bomber, however, has another plan as instead of building up a large army again he simply rams the units he has down Seed's throat. Seed is unable to keep more than a single colossus, and Bomber pushes in and takes Seed's fourth and eventually his third. With the unit numbers kept low, Seed is unable to beat out the Terran army and is pushed back into his base until he finally dies.
Winner: ST_Bomber
StarTale (1 – 0) Incredible Miracle
Game Two – 2/5
+ Show Spoiler +
ST_Bomber vs IM_Happy – Calm Before the Storm
Both players open with an expansion to their back natural, followed by gas and starports. Each goes into cloak banshee play, with Bomber getting around half a dozen SCV kills while Happy's only manages one.
From there it turns into a usual Bio vs Mech game, with happy ramping up to 5 factories and vehicle upgrades while Bomber opts for bio units and medivacs. Happy takes a faster third and builds a solid ring of turrets around the edge of his base facing Bomber, not nullifying but severely limited the damage his drops are able to do.
Bomber is unable to abuse his mobility much, and Happy is able to build up an army large enough to push out without much trouble. When he does late into the game, bomber swings around the other side with his marauders and tries to trade bases, but he is stopped easily with a few excess tanks Happy has and Bomber's dreams of a second all-kill end.
Winner: IM_Happy
StarTale (1 – 1) Incredible Miracle
Both players open with an expansion to their back natural, followed by gas and starports. Each goes into cloak banshee play, with Bomber getting around half a dozen SCV kills while Happy's only manages one.
From there it turns into a usual Bio vs Mech game, with happy ramping up to 5 factories and vehicle upgrades while Bomber opts for bio units and medivacs. Happy takes a faster third and builds a solid ring of turrets around the edge of his base facing Bomber, not nullifying but severely limited the damage his drops are able to do.
Bomber is unable to abuse his mobility much, and Happy is able to build up an army large enough to push out without much trouble. When he does late into the game, bomber swings around the other side with his marauders and tries to trade bases, but he is stopped easily with a few excess tanks Happy has and Bomber's dreams of a second all-kill end.
Winner: IM_Happy
StarTale (1 – 1) Incredible Miracle
Game Three – 2.5/5
+ Show Spoiler +
ST_Hack vs IM_Happy – Antiga Shipyard
The game begins with Hack starting on a 15cc,and then immediately showing his intentions to go bio, while Happy opens with a banshee on his way to mech. Once again his banshee does nothing, when Hack scans it just before cloak finishes.
Happy takes control of the center early and uncontested, while Hack uses his forces for a drop in the back. Like last game, thanks to well placed turrets the entire medivac doesn't unload before being killed and the drop is less than effective and Happy takes a third with no problem.
Hack tries to take down the third while taking his own, but unfortunately for him it is already a planetary and the only result is him getting his entire army trapped deep in Happy's territory. As Happy begins to hit critical mass, Hack tries for an air transition by adding to his viking numbers.
Seeing this, Happy adds a thor and easily marches across the map until he can pressure Hack's natural and third. He is briefly driven back by 2 battlecruisers, but not for long.
Before the game ends Wolf notes that perhaps trying bio on Antiga after Happy already showed his proficiency in playing mech just a game earlier, was not the best of decisions.
Winner: IM_Happy
StarTale (1 – 2) Incredible Miracle
The game begins with Hack starting on a 15cc,and then immediately showing his intentions to go bio, while Happy opens with a banshee on his way to mech. Once again his banshee does nothing, when Hack scans it just before cloak finishes.
Happy takes control of the center early and uncontested, while Hack uses his forces for a drop in the back. Like last game, thanks to well placed turrets the entire medivac doesn't unload before being killed and the drop is less than effective and Happy takes a third with no problem.
Hack tries to take down the third while taking his own, but unfortunately for him it is already a planetary and the only result is him getting his entire army trapped deep in Happy's territory. As Happy begins to hit critical mass, Hack tries for an air transition by adding to his viking numbers.
Seeing this, Happy adds a thor and easily marches across the map until he can pressure Hack's natural and third. He is briefly driven back by 2 battlecruisers, but not for long.
Before the game ends Wolf notes that perhaps trying bio on Antiga after Happy already showed his proficiency in playing mech just a game earlier, was not the best of decisions.
Winner: IM_Happy
StarTale (1 – 2) Incredible Miracle
Game Four – 3.5/5
+ Show Spoiler +
ST_Squirtle vs IM_Happy – Cloud Kingdom
The game starts normally enough, both players expanding and Happy getting delayed cloak and 2 banshees. His harass is successful, killing 11 probes and highly annoying Squirtle while he techs to colossus. This leads to both of them taking their third at around the same time.
After his third is running, Happy pushes out with a large army of marine, tank, viking, and a handful of marauders and vikings. He sieges up at Squirtle's third, and easily takes the battle, killing the colossus easily. He drops 4 manner mules, apparently thinking the game is over. Squirtle, however, is able to fight back by pulling probes and holds just barely.
Each player takes a fourth and continues to build an army. Happy, with large supply lead, decides to never pressure or harass here for some reason and gives Squirtle free reign to replenish his colossus numbers. Squirtle adds archons to the mix, but does not research storm. He also pulls ahead in upgrades, reaching 3-3 while Happy is just 2-2.
There is a single large battle where Happy finds himself flanked on three sides, and has to retreat into his third. He is unable to EMP well enough and Squirtle presses his advantage, attacking with a now maxed army into a small area and coating them with storm, though the archons would have probably cleaned up all by themselves.
One can imagine Happy's shame in allowing Squirtle to have a chance to get back into this game, and further losing.
Winner: ST_Squirtle
StarTale (2 – 2) Incredible Miracle
The game starts normally enough, both players expanding and Happy getting delayed cloak and 2 banshees. His harass is successful, killing 11 probes and highly annoying Squirtle while he techs to colossus. This leads to both of them taking their third at around the same time.
After his third is running, Happy pushes out with a large army of marine, tank, viking, and a handful of marauders and vikings. He sieges up at Squirtle's third, and easily takes the battle, killing the colossus easily. He drops 4 manner mules, apparently thinking the game is over. Squirtle, however, is able to fight back by pulling probes and holds just barely.
Each player takes a fourth and continues to build an army. Happy, with large supply lead, decides to never pressure or harass here for some reason and gives Squirtle free reign to replenish his colossus numbers. Squirtle adds archons to the mix, but does not research storm. He also pulls ahead in upgrades, reaching 3-3 while Happy is just 2-2.
There is a single large battle where Happy finds himself flanked on three sides, and has to retreat into his third. He is unable to EMP well enough and Squirtle presses his advantage, attacking with a now maxed army into a small area and coating them with storm, though the archons would have probably cleaned up all by themselves.
One can imagine Happy's shame in allowing Squirtle to have a chance to get back into this game, and further losing.
Winner: ST_Squirtle
StarTale (2 – 2) Incredible Miracle
Game Five – 1.5/5
+ Show Spoiler +
ST_Squirtle vs IM_Horror – Dual Sight
This game is the familiar story of the forge fast-expand against the 2 base roach-speedling all-in. Unfortunately for Horror, Squirtle chose the stargate path after his expansion, and by the time his roaches arrived he had a void ray waiting. Even though there was only a pair of cannons at the Protoss base, Squirtle held easily with good forcefields and his single flying unit.
After failing his initial attack, Horror tries to transition into hydras and attack but the phoenix/void ray combo prove to be too much for him, buying more than enough time for a colossus to appear in Squirtle's army and bring the match to game six.
Winner: ST_Squirtle
StarTale (3 – 2) Incredible Miracle
This game is the familiar story of the forge fast-expand against the 2 base roach-speedling all-in. Unfortunately for Horror, Squirtle chose the stargate path after his expansion, and by the time his roaches arrived he had a void ray waiting. Even though there was only a pair of cannons at the Protoss base, Squirtle held easily with good forcefields and his single flying unit.
After failing his initial attack, Horror tries to transition into hydras and attack but the phoenix/void ray combo prove to be too much for him, buying more than enough time for a colossus to appear in Squirtle's army and bring the match to game six.
Winner: ST_Squirtle
StarTale (3 – 2) Incredible Miracle
Game Six – 1/5
+ Show Spoiler +
ST_Squirtle vs IM_Ready – Metropolis 1 star.
Squirtle opens with a straight forward 3 gate blink stalker build, getting 2 early zealots to bring the battle to Ready's base immediately. Ready chooses to expand after 3 gates. The first round of stalker fights is even, with Squirtle taking an extended series of potshots on the warping-in nexus.
Once blink finishes however the story becomes totally different. Retreating back to his pylon to ready reinforcements, Squirtle waits for 13 stalkers and blinks in immediately on top of Ready's army, before he can forcefield. Ready's army is a mere 7 stalkers, instead more heavy on sentries because of his expansion, and he simply can't put up the firepower that Squirtle has.
Squirtle doesn't even need to kill the nexus, he can walk into Ready's base and finish him off immediately.
Winner: ST_Squirtle.
StarTale (4 – 2) Incredible Miracle
Squirtle opens with a straight forward 3 gate blink stalker build, getting 2 early zealots to bring the battle to Ready's base immediately. Ready chooses to expand after 3 gates. The first round of stalker fights is even, with Squirtle taking an extended series of potshots on the warping-in nexus.
Once blink finishes however the story becomes totally different. Retreating back to his pylon to ready reinforcements, Squirtle waits for 13 stalkers and blinks in immediately on top of Ready's army, before he can forcefield. Ready's army is a mere 7 stalkers, instead more heavy on sentries because of his expansion, and he simply can't put up the firepower that Squirtle has.
Squirtle doesn't even need to kill the nexus, he can walk into Ready's base and finish him off immediately.
Winner: ST_Squirtle.
StarTale (4 – 2) Incredible Miracle
Game Seven – 2.5/5
+ Show Spoiler +
ST_Squirtle vs IM_Yoda – Entombed Valley
While Squirtle opens with a safe, gate-robo-gate build, Yoda makes a command center after a barracks...and then another, hidden on the other side of the map. Squirtle chooses to attack with a 3 gate, 3 immortal timing, attempting to bust Yoda after taking his own natural.
He breaks the rocks leading into the natural/main chokepoint and smartly cleaves through 3 of Yoda's bunkers one-by-one, but is stopped by a fourth. As he pulls back he starts his first colossus and adds another set of gates, as Yoda is finishing stim and beginning rounds of medivacs.
When Squirtle's first colossus is finished, he goes for an attack again, and this time it breaks through everything Yoda has. His hidden third orbital never is able to make an impact, and Squirtle walks away with the 4-kill and a StarTale victory.
Winner: ST_Squirtle.
StarTale (5 – 2) Incredible Miracle
While Squirtle opens with a safe, gate-robo-gate build, Yoda makes a command center after a barracks...and then another, hidden on the other side of the map. Squirtle chooses to attack with a 3 gate, 3 immortal timing, attempting to bust Yoda after taking his own natural.
He breaks the rocks leading into the natural/main chokepoint and smartly cleaves through 3 of Yoda's bunkers one-by-one, but is stopped by a fourth. As he pulls back he starts his first colossus and adds another set of gates, as Yoda is finishing stim and beginning rounds of medivacs.
When Squirtle's first colossus is finished, he goes for an attack again, and this time it breaks through everything Yoda has. His hidden third orbital never is able to make an impact, and Squirtle walks away with the 4-kill and a StarTale victory.
Winner: ST_Squirtle.
StarTale (5 – 2) Incredible Miracle
Game Eight – 2.5/5
+ Show Spoiler +
StarTale won 5 – 2.
Game Nine – 1/5
+ Show Spoiler +
StarTale won 5 – 2.
Overall results
+ Show Spoiler +
Bomber > Seed
Bomber < Happy
Hack < Happy
Squirtle > Happy
Squirtle > Horror
Squirtle > Ready
Squirtle > Yoda
StarTale 5 – 4 Incredible Miracle
Bomber < Happy
Hack < Happy
Squirtle > Happy
Squirtle > Horror
Squirtle > Ready
Squirtle > Yoda
StarTale 5 – 4 Incredible Miracle
Old Generations
Most Valuable
Game One – MvP_Vampire vs oGsTheStC – 2/5
+ Show Spoiler +
Dual Sight
The game opens up as PvTs tend to, with players grabbing early expansions and teching up quickly after while feeling each other out and prodding with a few units. Vampire chooses to make a forge while he is getting his robotics and begins with attack upgrades immediately, while TheStC adds a factory after 3 barracks. Vampire goes for a twilight counsel and heads towards chargelot-archon.
The first real action comes when TheStC finishes a set of medivacs, and heads towards Vampire's base. He begins to elevator units up to Vampire's main, and when Vampire splits his army to dealwith it he simply leaves with the half on the low ground, juking around the top and bottom of the ramp with medivacs.
Vampire can never be where he needs to, and as more units stream in from TheStC he wears him down, eventually adding ghosts into the mix and finishing it off stylishly with EMP.
Winner: oGsTheStC
Most Valuable (0 – 1) Old Generations
The game opens up as PvTs tend to, with players grabbing early expansions and teching up quickly after while feeling each other out and prodding with a few units. Vampire chooses to make a forge while he is getting his robotics and begins with attack upgrades immediately, while TheStC adds a factory after 3 barracks. Vampire goes for a twilight counsel and heads towards chargelot-archon.
The first real action comes when TheStC finishes a set of medivacs, and heads towards Vampire's base. He begins to elevator units up to Vampire's main, and when Vampire splits his army to dealwith it he simply leaves with the half on the low ground, juking around the top and bottom of the ramp with medivacs.
Vampire can never be where he needs to, and as more units stream in from TheStC he wears him down, eventually adding ghosts into the mix and finishing it off stylishly with EMP.
Winner: oGsTheStC
Most Valuable (0 – 1) Old Generations
Game Two – 2/5
+ Show Spoiler +
MvP_Finale vs oGsTheStC - Calm Before the Storm
TheStC begins the game with a barracks in the center of the map, which is quickly seen by Finale's probe moving cross-positions. Finale starts with a gateway instead of the traditional nexus first on Calm Before the Storm, while TheStC walls himself off with a bunker and builds 2 command centers.
Finale takes his nexus, and from there adds a robotics and prepares for an attack. He goes up to 5 gateways and adds colossus plus range, looking like he will attack with a strong 2 base timing. For some reason he decides to attack after the first colossus is done but before it is with his army, which kills a bunker but lets TheStC know he needs a few more.
The colossus comes, and eventually a second, but TheStC holds with several tiers of bunkers and Finale is pushed away when the first vikings come out. From there the game plays out as expected with a 3 base Terran against 2 base Protoss, TheStC annoys him with drops and eventually plows over Finale with more units.
Winner: oGsTheStC
Most Valuable (0 – 2) Old Generations
TheStC begins the game with a barracks in the center of the map, which is quickly seen by Finale's probe moving cross-positions. Finale starts with a gateway instead of the traditional nexus first on Calm Before the Storm, while TheStC walls himself off with a bunker and builds 2 command centers.
Finale takes his nexus, and from there adds a robotics and prepares for an attack. He goes up to 5 gateways and adds colossus plus range, looking like he will attack with a strong 2 base timing. For some reason he decides to attack after the first colossus is done but before it is with his army, which kills a bunker but lets TheStC know he needs a few more.
The colossus comes, and eventually a second, but TheStC holds with several tiers of bunkers and Finale is pushed away when the first vikings come out. From there the game plays out as expected with a 3 base Terran against 2 base Protoss, TheStC annoys him with drops and eventually plows over Finale with more units.
Winner: oGsTheStC
Most Valuable (0 – 2) Old Generations
Game Three – 2.5/5
+ Show Spoiler +
MvP_Monster vs oGsTheStC – Daybreak
The third set starts with TheStC hellion expanding as is common TvZ. Monster cutely makes a handful of speedlings after his second base is up, and runs them into TheStC's natural, killing a few SCVs and the initial pair of hellions while he morphs his own third. TheStC tries to harass the third after rebuilding a few hellions, but they are stopped and killed without doing anything.
With his first 2 medivacs he barrels directly over to Monster's third and takes it down quickly as 1-1 finishes for the lings. When he sees their upgrades, he immediately responds with a ghost academy to prepare to the incoming infestor-ling attack while both players take another base.
Their first engagement ends poorly for TheStC, despite hitting some nice EMPs on the infestors, but he begins to take control with the second wave. As he is slowly pushing Monster back, a wave of ultras appear and turn the tide rather quickly against a nearly all marine army. They fight for the center that goes back and forth a few times, but ultimately ultras prove to be too much for the Terran.
Winner: MVP_Monster
Most Valuable (1 – 2) Old Generations
The third set starts with TheStC hellion expanding as is common TvZ. Monster cutely makes a handful of speedlings after his second base is up, and runs them into TheStC's natural, killing a few SCVs and the initial pair of hellions while he morphs his own third. TheStC tries to harass the third after rebuilding a few hellions, but they are stopped and killed without doing anything.
With his first 2 medivacs he barrels directly over to Monster's third and takes it down quickly as 1-1 finishes for the lings. When he sees their upgrades, he immediately responds with a ghost academy to prepare to the incoming infestor-ling attack while both players take another base.
Their first engagement ends poorly for TheStC, despite hitting some nice EMPs on the infestors, but he begins to take control with the second wave. As he is slowly pushing Monster back, a wave of ultras appear and turn the tide rather quickly against a nearly all marine army. They fight for the center that goes back and forth a few times, but ultimately ultras prove to be too much for the Terran.
Winner: MVP_Monster
Most Valuable (1 – 2) Old Generations
Game Four – 1/5
+ Show Spoiler +
MvP_Monster vs oGsVINES – Antiga Shipyard
The game starts out normally, with a forge-fast-expand for the Protoss and double expo for Zerg. VINES decides from there to proxy a stargate, in the same position Genius did against DongRaeGu a week ago. Unfortunately for him it is scouted, and the void ray has to turn back before even attempting any damage.
The game only gets worse from there for VINES, as he tries to take a third nexus while teching up to colossus. His army is caught out of position by some speedlings and whittled down, and Monster finishes the job with mutas shortly thereafter.
Winner: MVP_Monster
Most Valuable (2 – 2) Old Generations
The game starts out normally, with a forge-fast-expand for the Protoss and double expo for Zerg. VINES decides from there to proxy a stargate, in the same position Genius did against DongRaeGu a week ago. Unfortunately for him it is scouted, and the void ray has to turn back before even attempting any damage.
The game only gets worse from there for VINES, as he tries to take a third nexus while teching up to colossus. His army is caught out of position by some speedlings and whittled down, and Monster finishes the job with mutas shortly thereafter.
Winner: MVP_Monster
Most Valuable (2 – 2) Old Generations
Game Five – 4/5
+ Show Spoiler +
MvP_Monster vs oGsInCa – Entombed Valley 4 stars
Starting with a forge expand and double expo, the game starts passively which turns out to be a theme throughout. InCa starts with some early immortal drop harass, which succeeds in being annoying but not much else, while he takes a third and prepares to defend even more.
Monster plucks away at him for a bit, drawing the forces back and forth between the front of the natural and InCa's third, while he techs up himself. Monster takes a fourth and fifth base, while attempting some harass with mutas. InCa adds a mothership to his army and tries to get up to 4 bases but is denied rather easily, having given up map control a while ago.
Having read Monster as one not to attack in this position, InCa starts pumping out carriers. Monster suicides several armies into the mothership and first pair of carriers, and then again as more are being made, to not real effect. For some reason he opts for a heavy ultra army, which is predictably taken care of as he refuses to add corruptors to his army.
InCa takes the entire bottom edge of the map by taking a fourth and fifth, which he holds briefly before Monster kills them with his now huge army. After, he loses it in a battle that includes a double vortex while InCa continues to amass a carrier-mothership-archon army that looks pretty impenetrable.
The game goes on like this for a while, with InCa taking bases at the bottom of the map while Monster throws units at is with little success. They both max out, Monster throws everything he has at a mothership and carriers and it all dies. Ten minutes, twenty minutes, it goes on for over half an hour. At something like the 40 minute mark Monster finally gets a greater spire and adds broodlords to the mix, and starts making progress as he begins to choke InCa off from retaking the bottom left portion of the map which has become his last mining of mining. Eventually it finally breaks through, with Monster having 75% of the map he simply wins through what seems to be sheer will power and ability to run everything into a brick wall.
After nearly an hour, InCa is finally down to no probes and a mere pair of carriers. Having never ventured across the bottom third of the map with his army, he refuses to leave, waiting for the last remaining corruptors to kill them off before offering the GG.
This game was by far the most entertaining game of the night, for being at times highly frustrating and at others being purely hilarious. Watching Monster run head first into a huge nearly unkillable Protoss army, while InCa was forced simply to defend and hope Monster tires out. InCa's plan must have been to move out and win once he maxed, but as Monster had the rest of the map at that point he was never able to leave the security of his own base. Not worth the hour of watching straight through but amusing to skim through bits if you have the time.
Winner: MvP_Monster
Most Valuable (3 – 2) Old Generations
Starting with a forge expand and double expo, the game starts passively which turns out to be a theme throughout. InCa starts with some early immortal drop harass, which succeeds in being annoying but not much else, while he takes a third and prepares to defend even more.
Monster plucks away at him for a bit, drawing the forces back and forth between the front of the natural and InCa's third, while he techs up himself. Monster takes a fourth and fifth base, while attempting some harass with mutas. InCa adds a mothership to his army and tries to get up to 4 bases but is denied rather easily, having given up map control a while ago.
Having read Monster as one not to attack in this position, InCa starts pumping out carriers. Monster suicides several armies into the mothership and first pair of carriers, and then again as more are being made, to not real effect. For some reason he opts for a heavy ultra army, which is predictably taken care of as he refuses to add corruptors to his army.
InCa takes the entire bottom edge of the map by taking a fourth and fifth, which he holds briefly before Monster kills them with his now huge army. After, he loses it in a battle that includes a double vortex while InCa continues to amass a carrier-mothership-archon army that looks pretty impenetrable.
The game goes on like this for a while, with InCa taking bases at the bottom of the map while Monster throws units at is with little success. They both max out, Monster throws everything he has at a mothership and carriers and it all dies. Ten minutes, twenty minutes, it goes on for over half an hour. At something like the 40 minute mark Monster finally gets a greater spire and adds broodlords to the mix, and starts making progress as he begins to choke InCa off from retaking the bottom left portion of the map which has become his last mining of mining. Eventually it finally breaks through, with Monster having 75% of the map he simply wins through what seems to be sheer will power and ability to run everything into a brick wall.
After nearly an hour, InCa is finally down to no probes and a mere pair of carriers. Having never ventured across the bottom third of the map with his army, he refuses to leave, waiting for the last remaining corruptors to kill them off before offering the GG.
This game was by far the most entertaining game of the night, for being at times highly frustrating and at others being purely hilarious. Watching Monster run head first into a huge nearly unkillable Protoss army, while InCa was forced simply to defend and hope Monster tires out. InCa's plan must have been to move out and win once he maxed, but as Monster had the rest of the map at that point he was never able to leave the security of his own base. Not worth the hour of watching straight through but amusing to skim through bits if you have the time.
Winner: MvP_Monster
Most Valuable (3 – 2) Old Generations
Game Six – 1.5/5
+ Show Spoiler +
MvP_Monster vs Liquid`HerO - Metropolis
The game begins with a normal forge-fast-expand from HerO, while Monster shows his intentions for a 2 base attack by getting double gas and lair immediately after taking his natural. HerO's second scout probe is given a chance to pry into the main and sees, prompting a quick voidray from the Protoss.
After completing lair, Monster builds a hydra den and gets ready for an attack with upgraded hydras and a nydus. Instead of the more traditional back door nydus, he chooses to place it just in front of HerO's natural and begins the seige in the front. HerO responds with a handful of cannons, and holds easily with a voidray, a single phoenix, and gateway units.
Monster tries a second nydus in the back, and when it is immediately spotted he taps out.
Winner: Liquid`HerO
Most Valuable (3 – 3) Old Generations
The game begins with a normal forge-fast-expand from HerO, while Monster shows his intentions for a 2 base attack by getting double gas and lair immediately after taking his natural. HerO's second scout probe is given a chance to pry into the main and sees, prompting a quick voidray from the Protoss.
After completing lair, Monster builds a hydra den and gets ready for an attack with upgraded hydras and a nydus. Instead of the more traditional back door nydus, he chooses to place it just in front of HerO's natural and begins the seige in the front. HerO responds with a handful of cannons, and holds easily with a voidray, a single phoenix, and gateway units.
Monster tries a second nydus in the back, and when it is immediately spotted he taps out.
Winner: Liquid`HerO
Most Valuable (3 – 3) Old Generations
Game Seven – 3/5
+ Show Spoiler +
MvP_Keen vs Liquid`HerO – Cloud Kingdom
HerO opens the match with 3 gateways off a single gas, followed by a nexus after an SCV sees the possible aggression. Keen, meanwhile begins with reactor-hellions and does what looks much like a TvZ hellion expand. His first handful of hellions attack HerO's natural with a pair of marauders, but are uanble to do more than kill a few probes thanks to good forcefields.
HerO ramps up to 5 gateways and adds in a robotics facility, and goes on the offensive. His initial forces cause a lift on the natural command center, and as he pulls back to regroup he works on teching to blink and starts immortal production.
Keen meanwhile sends his first two medivacs full of marines and marauders across the map to see if they can make anything happen. They arrive at HerO's natural and get to work, stimming and killing the immortal at home and targeting the nexus. HerO responds when he sees it by charging up Keen's ramp and killing everything in sight.
Keen holds on for a bit, floating his buildings and being very annoying with a few marauders in HerO's base, but HerO has killed everything in the Terran main and it's only a matter of time before he finishes it off.
Winner: Liquid`HerO
Most Valuable (3 – 4) Old Generations
HerO opens the match with 3 gateways off a single gas, followed by a nexus after an SCV sees the possible aggression. Keen, meanwhile begins with reactor-hellions and does what looks much like a TvZ hellion expand. His first handful of hellions attack HerO's natural with a pair of marauders, but are uanble to do more than kill a few probes thanks to good forcefields.
HerO ramps up to 5 gateways and adds in a robotics facility, and goes on the offensive. His initial forces cause a lift on the natural command center, and as he pulls back to regroup he works on teching to blink and starts immortal production.
Keen meanwhile sends his first two medivacs full of marines and marauders across the map to see if they can make anything happen. They arrive at HerO's natural and get to work, stimming and killing the immortal at home and targeting the nexus. HerO responds when he sees it by charging up Keen's ramp and killing everything in sight.
Keen holds on for a bit, floating his buildings and being very annoying with a few marauders in HerO's base, but HerO has killed everything in the Terran main and it's only a matter of time before he finishes it off.
Winner: Liquid`HerO
Most Valuable (3 – 4) Old Generations
Game Eight – 2/5
+ Show Spoiler +
MvP_DongRaeGu vs Liquid`HerO – Belshire Beach
Starting with a cannon expand and 3 quick hatchies the game opens like any normal PvZ. HerO chooses to respond to the early Zerg third with a typical 4 gate pressure, but without +1 so he can get an early blink. It doesn't go well, DongRaeGu looks to be in trouble for only a moment before stopping it with lings and roaches, getting a nice surround on the warped in units.
HerO adds a robotics and takes a third, while DongRaeGu takes a fourth and starts in on roach upgrades. HerO tries pushing out of his main with blink-stalkers and sentries, but DongRaeGu baits out forcefields nicely, and gets a surround to kill the army with minimal loses.
HerO's death is just moments later, when Zerg forces swarm into his natural and kill all of his things.
Winner: MvP.DongRaeGu
Most Valuable (4 – 4) Old Generations
Starting with a cannon expand and 3 quick hatchies the game opens like any normal PvZ. HerO chooses to respond to the early Zerg third with a typical 4 gate pressure, but without +1 so he can get an early blink. It doesn't go well, DongRaeGu looks to be in trouble for only a moment before stopping it with lings and roaches, getting a nice surround on the warped in units.
HerO adds a robotics and takes a third, while DongRaeGu takes a fourth and starts in on roach upgrades. HerO tries pushing out of his main with blink-stalkers and sentries, but DongRaeGu baits out forcefields nicely, and gets a surround to kill the army with minimal loses.
HerO's death is just moments later, when Zerg forces swarm into his natural and kill all of his things.
Winner: MvP.DongRaeGu
Most Valuable (4 – 4) Old Generations
Game Nine – 3/5
+ Show Spoiler +
MvP_DongRaeGu vs oGsLuvsic – Crossfire
The game opens with DongRaeGu choosing to speedling expand, while Luvsic makes a hatchery first. Going to standard ling-baneling wars, they trade a few small hits but nothing big happens aside from Luvsic running a few lings through and killing a queen. The game remains largely passive as it heads into midgame, with DongRaeGu getting lair and building a handful of spines to makes mutas.
Luvsic goes directly for roach and infestors, and attempts an attack at DongRaeGu's front with banelings and roaches. They are softened up hugely by a few nice baneling hits, and he is repelled easily. DongRaeGu takes a third as his first mutas appear, and he runs around the map killing overlords with them. Somehow he sneaks a few lings into Luvsic's main and kills a handful of drones when he morphs them into banelings.
Luvsic responds by building a nydus network, and preparing a 2 base all-in with it. He builds the nydus in DongRaeGu's main unnoticed, and jumps out with an army of infestors, roaches, and banelings. DongRaeGu runs back a small mutalisk force, along with a compliment of roaches, a few lings, and drones to defend. When Luvsic uses much of his infestor energy to create infested Terrans inestead of fungals DongRaeGu holds, and Luvsic taps out.
Winner: MvP.DongRaeGu
Most Valuable (5 – 4) Old Generations
The game opens with DongRaeGu choosing to speedling expand, while Luvsic makes a hatchery first. Going to standard ling-baneling wars, they trade a few small hits but nothing big happens aside from Luvsic running a few lings through and killing a queen. The game remains largely passive as it heads into midgame, with DongRaeGu getting lair and building a handful of spines to makes mutas.
Luvsic goes directly for roach and infestors, and attempts an attack at DongRaeGu's front with banelings and roaches. They are softened up hugely by a few nice baneling hits, and he is repelled easily. DongRaeGu takes a third as his first mutas appear, and he runs around the map killing overlords with them. Somehow he sneaks a few lings into Luvsic's main and kills a handful of drones when he morphs them into banelings.
Luvsic responds by building a nydus network, and preparing a 2 base all-in with it. He builds the nydus in DongRaeGu's main unnoticed, and jumps out with an army of infestors, roaches, and banelings. DongRaeGu runs back a small mutalisk force, along with a compliment of roaches, a few lings, and drones to defend. When Luvsic uses much of his infestor energy to create infested Terrans inestead of fungals DongRaeGu holds, and Luvsic taps out.
Winner: MvP.DongRaeGu
Most Valuable (5 – 4) Old Generations
Overall results
+ Show Spoiler +
Vampire < TheStC
Finale < TheStC
Monster > TheStC
Monster > VINES
Monster > InCa
Monster < HerO
Keen < HerO
DongRaeGu > HerO
DongRaeGu > Luvsic
Most Valuable 5 – 4 Old Generations
Finale < TheStC
Monster > TheStC
Monster > VINES
Monster > InCa
Monster < HerO
Keen < HerO
DongRaeGu > HerO
DongRaeGu > Luvsic
Most Valuable 5 – 4 Old Generations
Team Prime
StarTale
Game One – ST_Curious vs TeriousPrime – 2/5
+ Show Spoiler +
The match opens with both players making a hatchery first, and then moving straight to speedling and baneling play as normal. Curious morphs 2 banelings just outside vision to the right of Terious' natural, and when he distracts Terious with a few speedlings uses them to kill 7 drones there right away.
Curious takes a third, and they both move to roach play with Curious having a clear economic lead. He forces Terious to cancel a third twice, trading armies in the process, and gets infestors while both players posture around the middle of the map.
The game is over in the following battle as Curious attacks Terious' morphing third, and wins a second roach battle decisively with a series of fungals.
The best part of this game is Ace, who came off the bench after to rip off his shirt and show his excitement for going to Vegas.
Winner: ST_Curious
StarTale (1 – 0) Prime
Curious takes a third, and they both move to roach play with Curious having a clear economic lead. He forces Terious to cancel a third twice, trading armies in the process, and gets infestors while both players posture around the middle of the map.
The game is over in the following battle as Curious attacks Terious' morphing third, and wins a second roach battle decisively with a series of fungals.
The best part of this game is Ace, who came off the bench after to rip off his shirt and show his excitement for going to Vegas.
Winner: ST_Curious
StarTale (1 – 0) Prime
Game Two – 2/5
+ Show Spoiler +
ST_Curious vs MaruPrime – Antiga Shipyard
The game begins with Maru reactor hellion expanding, followed by a quick third orbital and extremely fast double engineering bays, while Curious chooses to take his third after getting a few roaches. It goes into a normal midgame, with Maru taking his third and Curious taking his fourth while upgrading for infestor-ling play.
Maru plays passively from here, not beginning drop play until he has a handful of medivacs and has long since secured his third. He approaches Curious' fourth several times, but is unable to take it down and also manages to lose 2 medivacs while doing so. The same thing happens on the other side of the map as he loses medivacs to spores and marines are unable to puncture Curious' economy while the Zerg techs to brood lords.
Maru finally pushes out with a substantial tank and marine force, but he is so low on medivacs by this point that it is easily dealt with by infestors, lings, and the first round of several brood lords. He tries to make a second army but it is too late, and the broodlord-corruptor-infestor combination wrecks the last of his forces.
To keep up with the theme, Ace makes an appearance here as well, displaying a sign he made with his teammates and a nice dance to go along with it. He sure is enthusiastic about going to the finals.
Winner: ST_Curious
StarTale (2 – 0) Prime
The game begins with Maru reactor hellion expanding, followed by a quick third orbital and extremely fast double engineering bays, while Curious chooses to take his third after getting a few roaches. It goes into a normal midgame, with Maru taking his third and Curious taking his fourth while upgrading for infestor-ling play.
Maru plays passively from here, not beginning drop play until he has a handful of medivacs and has long since secured his third. He approaches Curious' fourth several times, but is unable to take it down and also manages to lose 2 medivacs while doing so. The same thing happens on the other side of the map as he loses medivacs to spores and marines are unable to puncture Curious' economy while the Zerg techs to brood lords.
Maru finally pushes out with a substantial tank and marine force, but he is so low on medivacs by this point that it is easily dealt with by infestors, lings, and the first round of several brood lords. He tries to make a second army but it is too late, and the broodlord-corruptor-infestor combination wrecks the last of his forces.
To keep up with the theme, Ace makes an appearance here as well, displaying a sign he made with his teammates and a nice dance to go along with it. He sure is enthusiastic about going to the finals.
Winner: ST_Curious
StarTale (2 – 0) Prime
Game Three – 3/5
+ Show Spoiler +
ST_Curious vs MarineKingPrime – Calm Before the Storm
Curious opens this game interestingly with double hatcheries before pool, while MKP goes up to 3 orbitals off a barracks. Getting double engineering bays, MKP moves into drop play once his first pair of medivacs are out while Curious simply sits back and drones up on speedlings. MKP's first drop ends poorly, losing the medivacs and marines for no gain, and Curious runs into the Terran natural with a force of pure lings while it happens, killing the marines and some workers.
Curious goes for the throat immediately after, adding a spire and morphing banelings. He runs in with reckless abandon, and forces a lift while killing more workers and marines. His first set of mutas come out, and MKP's one attempt to contest the center is shut down quickly by them.
From here the game is a long series of Curious throwing units at the fledgling MKP, while he takes the rest of the map. He makes 40 banelings while building a third, and not only kills all of MKP's army but destroys the orbital at his natural with them, running into the main to begin working on buildings. MKP holds on time after time somehow, barely defending again and again.
Curious has time to finish all of his tech while this is going on, eventually ending on an army with brood lords, ultras, infestors, and banelings, and MKP is finally forced out as his army dies repeatedly.
After the game Ace shows how happy he is, by coming out with another shirt about how much he and his team will enjoy Vegas, while waving a finger. Truly a man of show.
Winner: ST_Curious
StarTale (3 – 0) Prime
Curious opens this game interestingly with double hatcheries before pool, while MKP goes up to 3 orbitals off a barracks. Getting double engineering bays, MKP moves into drop play once his first pair of medivacs are out while Curious simply sits back and drones up on speedlings. MKP's first drop ends poorly, losing the medivacs and marines for no gain, and Curious runs into the Terran natural with a force of pure lings while it happens, killing the marines and some workers.
Curious goes for the throat immediately after, adding a spire and morphing banelings. He runs in with reckless abandon, and forces a lift while killing more workers and marines. His first set of mutas come out, and MKP's one attempt to contest the center is shut down quickly by them.
From here the game is a long series of Curious throwing units at the fledgling MKP, while he takes the rest of the map. He makes 40 banelings while building a third, and not only kills all of MKP's army but destroys the orbital at his natural with them, running into the main to begin working on buildings. MKP holds on time after time somehow, barely defending again and again.
Curious has time to finish all of his tech while this is going on, eventually ending on an army with brood lords, ultras, infestors, and banelings, and MKP is finally forced out as his army dies repeatedly.
After the game Ace shows how happy he is, by coming out with another shirt about how much he and his team will enjoy Vegas, while waving a finger. Truly a man of show.
Winner: ST_Curious
StarTale (3 – 0) Prime
Game Four – 2.5/5
+ Show Spoiler +
ST_Curious vs CreatorPrime - Metropolis
The game opens with a forge-fast-expand against a double expo from Curious. The followup for Creator is a void ray, which kills 3 queens with the help of some phoenix friends before being falling into a spore and dying. Creator takes the opportunity of Curious' injects being low to take his third, which Curious is inable to pressure due to low unit count.
Curious begins hydra production while Creator keeps upgrading attack, and adds immortals to his composition, no support bay in sight. Before the next battle, he also adds a darks shrine while Curious spends gas to get up to infestors.
Just as +3 finishes for the Protoss, he moves out with a stalker-immortal-sentry army. Curious puts up a fight with his infestors and hydras, but the 5 immortals and numerous forcefields makes picking a place to attack easy for Creator, and he runs over Curious.
Winner: CreatorPrime
StarTale (3 – 1) Prime
The game opens with a forge-fast-expand against a double expo from Curious. The followup for Creator is a void ray, which kills 3 queens with the help of some phoenix friends before being falling into a spore and dying. Creator takes the opportunity of Curious' injects being low to take his third, which Curious is inable to pressure due to low unit count.
Curious begins hydra production while Creator keeps upgrading attack, and adds immortals to his composition, no support bay in sight. Before the next battle, he also adds a darks shrine while Curious spends gas to get up to infestors.
Just as +3 finishes for the Protoss, he moves out with a stalker-immortal-sentry army. Curious puts up a fight with his infestors and hydras, but the 5 immortals and numerous forcefields makes picking a place to attack easy for Creator, and he runs over Curious.
Winner: CreatorPrime
StarTale (3 – 1) Prime
Game Five – 3.5/5
+ Show Spoiler +
ST_Bomber vs CreatorPrime – Entombed Valley
The game starts with Bomber making 3 barracks before anything, showing a bunker at his natural to mask his true intentions. Creator begins with a 4 gate, and when the two armies run into each other he warps in behind marines to trap them. Despite good positioning, he doesn't micro well and Bomber takes out a few before losing his marine force while he is making 2 command centers behind his attack
Creator pushes in, and forces Bomber to cancel one of the command centers, but builds bunkers and sits back. Creator double expands, and the game enters a phase where both players chill and tech. Bomber re-makes his third and begins to saturate it.
Bomber finishes stim and gets a pair of medivacs, and moves out to the center of the map to engage. Creator, having just finished his first colossus, pushes him back easily and they engage again at the Terran natural. Creator's army proves to be just too much, and Bomber can't make enough marauders or vikings before he dies to Creator's army.
Winner: CreatorPrime
StarTale (3 – 2) Prime
The game starts with Bomber making 3 barracks before anything, showing a bunker at his natural to mask his true intentions. Creator begins with a 4 gate, and when the two armies run into each other he warps in behind marines to trap them. Despite good positioning, he doesn't micro well and Bomber takes out a few before losing his marine force while he is making 2 command centers behind his attack
Creator pushes in, and forces Bomber to cancel one of the command centers, but builds bunkers and sits back. Creator double expands, and the game enters a phase where both players chill and tech. Bomber re-makes his third and begins to saturate it.
Bomber finishes stim and gets a pair of medivacs, and moves out to the center of the map to engage. Creator, having just finished his first colossus, pushes him back easily and they engage again at the Terran natural. Creator's army proves to be just too much, and Bomber can't make enough marauders or vikings before he dies to Creator's army.
Winner: CreatorPrime
StarTale (3 – 2) Prime
Game Six – 1/5
+ Show Spoiler +
ST_Squirtle vs CreatorPrime – Daybreak
Opening up with 3 fast stalkers, Squirtle takes a nexus before doing anything else. Creator meanwhile makes 3 gates off 2 gas, and then adds a robo after. Creator builds a nexus, and goes slightly ahead on tech by adding a support bay before Squirtle does.
Creator adds a second robotics, and pumps out colosus, shooting ahead in the army count. He moves across the map and looks ready to attack, while Squirtle builds a third and then cancels quickly after. Squirtle looks far behind, down by 2 colossus, but Creator takes a long time to engage and then when he does fails to micro well and loses the battle despite having superior numbers.
Squirtle takes the colossus lead and doesn't relinquish it, winning the next battle with archons and chargelots supporting his colossus, and Creator GGs out.
Winner: ST_Squirtle
StarTale (4 – 2) Prime
Opening up with 3 fast stalkers, Squirtle takes a nexus before doing anything else. Creator meanwhile makes 3 gates off 2 gas, and then adds a robo after. Creator builds a nexus, and goes slightly ahead on tech by adding a support bay before Squirtle does.
Creator adds a second robotics, and pumps out colosus, shooting ahead in the army count. He moves across the map and looks ready to attack, while Squirtle builds a third and then cancels quickly after. Squirtle looks far behind, down by 2 colossus, but Creator takes a long time to engage and then when he does fails to micro well and loses the battle despite having superior numbers.
Squirtle takes the colossus lead and doesn't relinquish it, winning the next battle with archons and chargelots supporting his colossus, and Creator GGs out.
Winner: ST_Squirtle
StarTale (4 – 2) Prime
Game Seven – 3/5
+ Show Spoiler +
ST_Squirtle vs ByunPrime – Cloud Kingdom
The game begins normally, with each player taking an expansion early after a gateway/barracks. Squirtle ramps quickly up to 5 gateways, and prepares a frontal attack on Byun's bunker at his natural. The battles rages on for a bit, with Squirtle killing a handful of SCVs but looking hesitant repeatedly, never quite able to deal the killing blow.
Once he is driven away by medivacs, he adds a third and robotics to start on immortal production. Byun chases him back to the Protoss front, and pokes and prodes repeatedly, sniping a pylon here and there and making Squirtle split between his natural and third expansions. His takes his own, quite delayed, third and adds ghosts while Squirtle adds double forge and researches upgrades.
Just before Squirtle can his 2-2, and before he is able to start adding archons to his army, Byun stims in and finally commits to an attack at the third. Due to some bad control by Squirtle, he powers through and kills the natural, winning the game just as the first colossus finishes.
Winner: ByunPrime
StarTale (4 – 3) Prime
The game begins normally, with each player taking an expansion early after a gateway/barracks. Squirtle ramps quickly up to 5 gateways, and prepares a frontal attack on Byun's bunker at his natural. The battles rages on for a bit, with Squirtle killing a handful of SCVs but looking hesitant repeatedly, never quite able to deal the killing blow.
Once he is driven away by medivacs, he adds a third and robotics to start on immortal production. Byun chases him back to the Protoss front, and pokes and prodes repeatedly, sniping a pylon here and there and making Squirtle split between his natural and third expansions. His takes his own, quite delayed, third and adds ghosts while Squirtle adds double forge and researches upgrades.
Just before Squirtle can his 2-2, and before he is able to start adding archons to his army, Byun stims in and finally commits to an attack at the third. Due to some bad control by Squirtle, he powers through and kills the natural, winning the game just as the first colossus finishes.
Winner: ByunPrime
StarTale (4 – 3) Prime
Game Eight – 1.5/5
+ Show Spoiler +
ST_Ace vs ByunPrime – Crossfire
Finally off the bench and into the booth, Ace opens his game with a nexus after a gateway, while Byun techs up and gets ready for a 1-1-1 off a single base. His fist banshee goes across the map and annoys Ace, killing a few probes and taking out a sentry. Byun moves out and catches another sentry, while Ace tries to set up a flank to catch reinforcements with a forward pylon.
His plan backfires, and the stalkers he warps in die to the tanks and marines streaming across the map as Byun adds to his army, and he seiges up outside the natural on high ground and sets up a position with bunkers. Ace has a last ditch attempt to win but it is easily taken down, and Byun bring it to a game 9. There were no ceremonies.
Winner: ByunPrime
StarTale (4 – 4) Prime
Finally off the bench and into the booth, Ace opens his game with a nexus after a gateway, while Byun techs up and gets ready for a 1-1-1 off a single base. His fist banshee goes across the map and annoys Ace, killing a few probes and taking out a sentry. Byun moves out and catches another sentry, while Ace tries to set up a flank to catch reinforcements with a forward pylon.
His plan backfires, and the stalkers he warps in die to the tanks and marines streaming across the map as Byun adds to his army, and he seiges up outside the natural on high ground and sets up a position with bunkers. Ace has a last ditch attempt to win but it is easily taken down, and Byun bring it to a game 9. There were no ceremonies.
Winner: ByunPrime
StarTale (4 – 4) Prime
Game Nine – 2.5/5
+ Show Spoiler +
ST_PartinG vs ByunPrime – Dual Sight
This time Byun opens 2rax, while PartinG goes for gate-robo-gate. Byun adds a factory and eventually a starport, looking like a kind of delayed 1-1-1 while PartinG makes a nexus and starts adding immortals and teching to colossus.
As Byun moves out, PartinG does too and they meetin the center. PartinG does what he can to buy time while he looks to add to his army, building immortals and colossus. Twice he forces Byun to siege up, but is caught in the tank line and loses several stalkers or an immortal.
The small losses prove to be all Byun needs, and he charges in with 3 tanks and a handful of marines. PartinG's colossus finally makes an appearance, but it is too late as it walks too far forward and dies to tank fire. The Prime bench can be heard cheering loudly as Byun's forces charge into the Protoss natural and take the game, and the match.
After the display while being up, StarTale is forced to go home with Vegas no closer than when the day began.
Winner: ByunPrime
StarTale (4 – 5) Prime
This time Byun opens 2rax, while PartinG goes for gate-robo-gate. Byun adds a factory and eventually a starport, looking like a kind of delayed 1-1-1 while PartinG makes a nexus and starts adding immortals and teching to colossus.
As Byun moves out, PartinG does too and they meetin the center. PartinG does what he can to buy time while he looks to add to his army, building immortals and colossus. Twice he forces Byun to siege up, but is caught in the tank line and loses several stalkers or an immortal.
The small losses prove to be all Byun needs, and he charges in with 3 tanks and a handful of marines. PartinG's colossus finally makes an appearance, but it is too late as it walks too far forward and dies to tank fire. The Prime bench can be heard cheering loudly as Byun's forces charge into the Protoss natural and take the game, and the match.
After the display while being up, StarTale is forced to go home with Vegas no closer than when the day began.
Winner: ByunPrime
StarTale (4 – 5) Prime
Overall results
+ Show Spoiler +
Curious > Terious
Curious > Maru
Curious > MarineKing
Curious < Creator
Bomber < Creator
Squirtle > Creator
Squirtle < Byun
Ace < Byun
PartinG < Byun
StarTale 4 – 5 Prime
Curious > Maru
Curious > MarineKing
Curious < Creator
Bomber < Creator
Squirtle > Creator
Squirtle < Byun
Ace < Byun
PartinG < Byun
StarTale 4 – 5 Prime
Group A Match 4
by Heyoka
FXO has always been a team of peculiar interest and flair, and in the last month it seems that everything has been going right for them. GuMiHo had a more than respectable run in GSL, losing narrowly to DongRaeGu and showing his overall TvZ strength at a time when many counted him out. Oz also had a pleasant tournament at Winter Arena before falling to DongRaeGu as well, which is fortunately a non-factor today. Even Leenock, who had a somewhat disappointing experience in New York, looked strong this week when he went 4-0 in his Up/Down group.
On the other end, SlayerS has been a team in the news far more often lately for inner-strife rather than performance at events. Between Jessica twitter happenings and losing a few more members, they give the appearance of a team in turmoil.
While there is no knowing how their practice environment has been or if team morale has been impacted, the recent Up/Down matches of Alicia and YuGiOh do not inspire great confidence with either their builds or decision making.
Even MMA hasn't looked himself in the last week, though all that means is that he lost to PuMa at IEM for a third place finish instead of taking the event. If he can avoid the mistake of playing a build that can be blind countered, ala his game with VINES, he may take SlayerS all the way. Ultimately, however, it seems that FXO is in a better position as a team on the upswing while SlayerS fights to keep their house in order.
FXOpen 5 – 3 SlayerS
Group B Match 4
by Heyoka
Thanks to the MLG weekend that took Mvp, NesTea, and Losira from the lineup, IM now faces being eliminated. We can hope that on the brink of tournament death they would bring out the serious roster of Mvp and NesTea, but if last GSTL is any indication this is far from a guarantee. It seems that, in general, IM is entirely reluctant to use their aces, presumably preferring to spend their energy on the individual matches. Regardless, should they play, either one stands a good chance of putting a serious dent in the HoSeo reserve.
HoSeo of course still has Jjakji, who still has the ability to mow down Zergs when he wants, though as near as anyone can tell is slightly below par these days. San has been looking promising over the course of the last few months, but his last outing at MLG looked as if he lost steam, particularly so in some bizarre games that led to him being knocked out by SaSe.
Sage is much of the same story, someone who at times looks as if he may be the next big thing, and at others flounders when his builds fall flat. Most recently he has won far more games than he has lost in IPL Team Arena, beating July, GuMiHo, and Bomber so perhaps he has figured out the next round of strategies that can bring NSH to another playoffs.
While neither team has looked overly strong in the past months, Incredible Miracle has an overabundance of talent which should be enough to carry them through this time.
Incredible Miracle 5 – 3 New Star HoSeo
Writer: Heyoka, iamke55.
Graphics: Pathy.
Editor: Heyoka.