Entombed Valley

The match opens with what looks to be an interesting clash of builds when Tails makes a quick stargate and PartinG starts with a 1 gate robotics and adds 3 more gates then a twilight. Excitement quickly diminishes, however, as nothing happens after the most minor of phoenix harass. They see one another's builds and both opt to expand, with Tails' being much faster.

They play passively, building up colossus numbers. and eventually Tails mixes in 4 void rays with his army. PartinG sees the void ray count and starts adding more stalkers to his composition, but not long after Tails moves out.

Finally the armies engage at PartinG's natural, and Tails targets the colossus with his void rays to plow over the opposing army. Pretty clean up single-battle game with MVP coming out on top.

Winner: MVP_TAiLS

StarTale (0 – 1) Most Valuable

ST_Sound vs MVP_TAiLS – Dual Sight

Sound opens up the game with a siege expand as the commentators lament how this build is typically stronger on maps where early game aggression is less common. Tails starts with a normal 1 gate nexus, and then adds 3 more gates instead of a more typical 2 gates and robotics.

Warping in his first round of units with a forward pylon in Sound's natural, Tails kills a few early marines and causes a lift on the command center immediately as it lands, doing no real damage but buying a lot of time as he adds a robotics and support bay.

Meanwhile Sound is creating more factories in his base as well as researching blue flame, going for double reactor hellions as a followup. As Tails moves out with his first colossus he finds Sound's mech army mid-map, and when he engages poorly into some sieged tanks, loses a good chunk of his force including the colossus.

Sound retreats and regroups, to runs across the map a second time and easily sieges up outside Tails' natural to leapfrog in with tanks and win.

Winner: ST_Sound

StarTale (1 – 1) Most Valuable

ST_Sound vs MVP_Finale – Calm Before the Storm

The game starts with a command center first from Sound and a nexus after gateway from Finale, no surprise on Calm Before the Storm. Finale gets a quick third while Sound harasses slightly with a cloaked banshee but doesn't do significant damage.

As Finale begins upgrading from double forges and teching towards colossus, Sound delays his own third for a small drop which is stopped efficiently and easily. Finale moves out midmap and catches a small portion of Sound's army off-guard, keeping the marine and marauder numbers low while he heads towards a fast 3-3.

Finale takes firm control of the center and postures outside Sound's natural while he starts adding in archons and teching to storm, as well as starting a fourth base. As he hits 3-3 Sound is just finishing 2-2, giving Finale a nice advantage in tech, upgrades, as well as army size because of the earlier third.

Sound tries to make a stand and flanks the army nicely, but he doesn't have enough to stop it and Finale wins the battle and runs through to the natural where he wins the game outright.

Winner: MVP_Finale

StarTale (1 – 2) Most Valuable

ST_Squirtle vs MVP_Finale – Crossfire

The builds on Crossfire start with a 2 gate robotics from Finale while Squirtle goes for a normal looking 3 gate blink. Expanding behind, Squirtle moves out just as blink is finishing and looks to do some damage.

He is met by a few zealots and stalkers at Finale's ramp and doesn't break through, but trades hits nicely. As Finale's immortal comes out and he adds a support bay, Squirtle lays waiting while Finale also adds a nexus. Squirtle goes in for round 2 shortly after, this time catching Finale's army on open ground down the ramp and is able to blink in and kill the immortal.

Finale is in a dire situation from here, and buys some time by retreating to his ramp and forcefielding the choke. Ultimately he can't hold for long, and as a replacement immortal comes to help, the sentry energy runs out and Squirtle blinks up to win.

Winner: ST_Squirtle

StarTale (2 – 2) Most Valuable

ST_Squirtle vs MVP_DongRaeGu – Daybreak

The game starts as Daybreak PvZs always do, with a forge expand on the Protoss side and an early third from the Zerg. Squirtle chooses to harass the third with a 4 gate followup, except without +1 or a stargate (just as we saw HerO do against DRG some weeks back). He does no damage, and as Wolf is suggesting he simply forgot the upgrade he starts it, long after the attack has failed.

Squirtle leaves no time for hesitation, and transitions straight into a 7 gate robo attack, albeit at an unusual timing. He leaves his base as the third immortal finishes and brings a warp prism with, to assault the third a second time. DongRaeGu isn't quite prepared, despite burrow having finished, and even after setting up a reasonable flank loses much of his army as well as the base.

Squirtle adds a support bay and takes a third, while DRG re-takes his third as well as a fourth in addition to adding a spire. The spire doesn't do well, as by the time he has a handful of mutas each base is well protected with cannons and Squirtle has an imposing army jamming colossus down his throat. He attempts one last stand with roaches, hydralisks, and mutas near his natural and when it melts to lasers, he is forced to leave the game.

3.5 stars for weirdness. Also for Ace's ceremony after the game.

Winner: ST_Squirtle

StarTale (3 – 2) Most Valuable

ST_Squirtle vs MVP_sC – Bel'Shir Beach

Starting with a barracks to command center and a nexus following a gateway the game begins, as with any other. From there Squirtle adds more gateways and prepares for 5 gate pressure while sC continues with normal factory and stim timing.

Squirtle's attack hits when there is only a single bunker and a second in construction, but even so is unable to break through. He retreats and begins upgrading from double forges and aiming to make colossus.

Terran decides to move out at this point before medivacs, presumably looking to do damage while Squirtle is teching or expanding. When he reaches the Protoss natural Squirtle has nothing but a handful of sentries and stalkers. Baiting forcefields and being patient with stim, sC is able to wear down the sentry energy and simply stim in to win when he sees the sentries have no more.

Winner: MVP_sC

StarTale (3 – 3) Most Valuable

ST_Curious vs MVP_sC – Metropolis

As Curious starts his build normally, sC opens with what apears to be a 1 barracks expand and then takes gas while Curious is in his base. Once the scouting drone is killed, however, he cancels his refinery and immediately produces another 4 barracks. Building up to a large 5 barracks 2 base attack, when he has around 25 marines he pulls every single SCV and attacks.

Curious, having not seen this at all, is completely unprepared. He engages at the natural with a few roaches, lings, and has to pull drones, but is forced into his main while building spines. The marine army chooses not to kill the natural and instead pressures in the main, trying to win the game outright, but falls just short when the spines move in to protect and the drones provide enough surface area to come out ahead.

Both players are completely exhausted both in workers and army, and they spend time rebuilding. A third command center comes out for sC, who has nothing but mules, while Curious drones up and eventually takes a third hatchery. Getting stim and combat shields and adding reactors, sC refuses to build a factory and aims for another large marine push, this time with marauders added into the mix to help with banelings.

He finds himself trapped on creep with his initial pokes and loses his army before eventually committing to a larger attack, which again engages lings and banelings deep into creep and dies to a surround. Essentially dead, sC tries another few half-assed attacks but Curious doesn't let up and he has to GG, never having started a factory.

Winner: ST_Curious

StarTale (4 – 3) Most Valuable

ST_Curious vs MVP_Genius – Antiga Shipyard

The game starts with a forge expansion on one side and a fast third on the other. Genius follows it up with 3 additional gateways and a robotics. He feigns pressure in the middle of the map several times, forcing some roaches, and then makes a third nexus while upgrading at his forge and researching blink.

Curious amasses an army of roaches and begins to play a smart positioning and posturing game. He splits his roaches and keeps the bulk of Genius' army occupied with burrowed roaches, while assaulting the third constantly and slowly wearing down the gateway wall that is there protecting it.

After several iterations of this he kills everything surrounding the gateway, and then goes on to focus his attention on the stalker army. As he pushes it back into the Protoss natural, he sends lings to the third and kills the nexus quickly. Adding a spire and a fourth, he keeps Genius occupied with constant pressure and is more than willing to accept trading roaches for stalkers. As the first colossus appears on Genius' side it is killed and right before the second finishes the robotics gets sniped.

Curious finally finishes off the game with a round of mutalisks that appear fresh and take on the stalkers directly, pushing them deep into their own mineral line before they have nowhere to go and fall one-by-one.

Winner: ST_Curious

StarTale (5 – 3) Most Valuable

StarTale won 5 – 3.

PartinG < TAiLS
Sound > TaiLS
Sound < Finale
Squirtle > Finale
Squirtle > DongRaeGu
Squirtle < sC
Curious > sC
Curious > Genius

StarTale 5 – 3 Most Valuable

Antiga Shipyard

GuMiHo starts with a command center after barracks and begins reactor hellion production shortly after, while BBoongBBoong pulls drones off gas once ling speed is started and amasses a ling army. Choosing the odd timing with over a dozen lings he runs into GuMiHo's natural and kills the first few hellions as well as stops mining for a bit, during which B4 takes a third.

Once GuMiHo retakes control of his natural his Zerg opponent does it a second time, delaying the Terran even further and pushing his own tech ahead. GuMiHo already has a third orbital however and when he lands it and sieges up tanks in the normal positions the game goes into a relatively stable mid-game.

B4 makes mutas while upgrading melee attack and carapace, and heads for hive as he harasses with the flying units. He keeps GuMiHo in his base longer while taking a fourth and stops GuMiHo from dropping, but as this is Antiga the threat of Terran maxing out and just killing remains ever present.

GuMiHo finally decides he can move out with his first thor, but meets with a handful of banelings before he sieges in the center watchtower and loses nearly the entire army. B4 continues to control the game as he heads to a lategame composition of broodlords and infestors.

B4 harasses as always and once the broodlords appear the Terran army can't keep up. GuMiHo manages a last stand of sorts and kills the first round of broods but dies immediately after to a followup consisting of lings, banelings, and some solid fungals.

Winner: BBoongBBoongPrime

Prime (1 – 0) FXOpen

BBoongBBoongPrime vs FXO_asd – Calm Before the Storm

Calm Before the Storm tends to be a good map for slightly different builds, and asd shows one when he opens command center first with an extremely fast gas for reactor hellions followed by earlier stim than usual. Getting a starport and 2 more reactors attached to barracks he pumps out 16 marines easily as well as a pair of medivacs, and moves out when they are done. He pressures the front with a handful of helllions, stopping creep and retreating when banelings begin to morph.

Each take their third, and B4 heads to a spire and hive while attempting to grab a fourth. Asd is able to force a cancel on the fourth several times, and pressures nicely with the medivacs but fails to do much real damage. Meanwhile B4 has corruptors positioned near asd's backdoor expansion waiting to transform into broodlords.

They finally finish and start to lay waste to the expansion. This triggers asd to move out with his viking-less army and attempt a counter, but when he splits up around some obstacles on the map B4 surrounds half of his army and easily kills it. From there it is no difficult task for him to clean up what is left of the Terran force and turn it into a win.

Turns out countering B4 with Terran is not a strong play.

Winner: BBoongBBoongPrime

Prime (2 – 0) FXOpen

BBoongBBoongPrime vs FXO_Lucky – Crossfire

The game begins with a 10 pool from B4 while Lucky looks ready to hatchery first, until a drone scouts the early pool and lays down one of his own. He defends the early aggression by making a spine, losing only a single drone.

As they attack each other with lings only, each takes an expansion and the game moves into a small series of ling-baneling fights. Lucky transitions into roaches from there while B4 adds a spire. Lucky attempts to bust B4's natural but the roach and ling attack trades with B4's banelings, spines, and eventually some roaches. Lucky was able to run by a few lings into the main during the fight and saw the spire, reminding him to make spores in his main and add queens in addition to starting infestor production.

Interesting, he also makes a nydus network as the mutas patrol around the map and try to pick off overlords, having been deflected from the main. The mutas don't spot an overlord in one of the corners of map, and Lucky is able to successfully finish a nydus canal and flood B4's main with queens, roaches, and a handful of infestors.

The fungals prove to be too much and B4's force is quickly eliminated.

Winner: FXO_Lucky

Prime (2 – 1) Lucky

CreatorPrime vs FXO_Lucky – Entombed Valley

Creator starts with a rarely seen gateway expand, while Lucky takes a third relatively quickly after seeing it. When Creator's scouts Lucky's third, he notices the rocks have yet to be broken that separate it from the natural and he attacks when his first 3 gateways are up.

Lucky is unable to stop it and sacrifices the base, in order to run across the map and counter. As Creator has warped in all his additional units at the third instead of at home to defend, the roach ling attack breaks through his wall and kills all the probes at the natural as well a some in the main.

Creator attempts to break through Lucky's front but by the time he gets there spines have finished and he can't go in. Lucky adds a third, a fourth, and gets a spire while Creator goes home to lick his wounds and attempt to rebuild a shattered economy.

The mutas eventually come out, lay waste to Creator's main, and Lucky finishes him off with some additional roaches and lings.

Winner: FXO_Lucky

Prime (2 – 2) FXOpen

ByunPrime vs FXO_Lucky – Cloud Kingdom

Byun's game starts with a typical command center after barracks, moving into reactor hellions. Once his starport is completed he researches cloak and attacks with a banshee, making 2 more behind it, and killing around 10 drones. They each take a third without much hassle.

Byun makes a huge host of barracks and reactors while Lucky upgrades from double evolution chambers and readies an infestor-ling army with some banelings. Lucky is attempting to take a fourth when Byun moves out to siege it, but he only has 3 tanks and Lucky easily kills the army with lings and banelings.

Lucky counters to Byun's own third and not only forces a lift, but burrows lings underneath it which stay there for quite some time. Byung moves out and again attacks the fourth, this time successfully taking it down when half of Lucky's army walks by on move command and simply dies.

The game begins to degrade as each player starts to play sloppy, trading expansions and running armies into each other. Lucky has a sizable lead after Byun fails an attack on the fourth again, but then Byun gets building upgrades, which prove to be relevant when Lucky assaults his planetary at the fourth and suicides an army on it without killing it.

Lucky replaces his army with ultras, and the game begins to slide in Byun's favor. Lucky gets some ultras trapped between tanks and they die without note, Byung is able to stop both Lucky's fourth and fifth with good positioning.

The battle comes to a huge slug fest with each of them throwing maxed armies at one another, and Byun slides into a lead that Lucky finally finds himself unable to dig out of.

Winner: ByunPrime

Prime (3 – 2) FXOpen

ByunPrime vs FXO_Choya – Metropolis

Byun opens with a reaper, which sees a gate-robo-gate into nexus coming from Choya. Byun then moves into 1 base play, the 1-1-1 variant that involves dropping 3 hellions first. An observer from Choya sees it and he prepares accordingly, denying the first hellions from doing anything useful. Choya looks to have colossus ready by the time the push comes.

Byun also adds banshees and cloak, but seeing the observer he doesn't go on the offensive with them yet. He also researches blue flame, and attempts several more drops with the hellions. The second time proves to be the charm, as he takes the like of 9 probes and then another 12 with an additional round, all from the same original hellions.

Byun moves out with a tank-less army of marines, marauders, hellions, a pair of banshees and a raven. He catches a handful of stalkers in the middle of the map and kills a few of them before they catch up with the main army.

Despite a few nice forcefields Choya's army melts relatively quickly when the banshees target down the colossus, and the game ends rather unceremoniously.

Winner: ByunPrime

Prime (4 – 2) FXOpen

ByunPrime vs FXO_Leenock – Dual Sight

Leenock starts the game normally, while Byun opens with reactor hellions. He then deviates from the norm, and builds an additional 2 barracks while at one base and begins to research stim, forgoing the thought of getting another command center completely.

As siege finishes, Byun pulls most of his SCVs and attempts a stim-less marine-tank all-in. Despite not scouting it until it is on the way, Leenock holds with pure lings and queens and Byun taps out after, not even attempting a round 2.

Winner: FXO_Leenock

Prime (4 – 3) FXOpen

MarineKingPrime vs FXO_Leenock – Bel'Shir Beach

MarineKing opens with a 2 barracks expansion, not bunkering or killing anything directly but forcing a lot of lings. While Leenock builds a spire on 2 bases, MKP makes a third orbital and being upgrading from double armories and producing tech labs on 2 factories.

MKP tries a marine hellion timing, which looks ready to kill any lesser Zerg but Leenock holds barely as his mutas comes out. MarineKing transitions into a bio-mech army that looks much like the build he used against DongRaeGu, and pumps out thors while each player takes a third base. Leenock does a good job harassing the third orbital and forces a lift several times, but is unable to find an opportunity for lasting damage.

MKP brings out his army to the center of the map, and Leenock catches him to kill about half of it. Unfortunately for him the surviving half is all thors, and when he regroups there are 7 thors ready to lay waste to hatcheries. They hit 2-2 as they get to Leenock's third and easily clean it up, and the game simply ends when he marches into the natural.

MKP brings home the gold for his team and they begin preparations for the championship series.

Winner: MarineKingPrime

Prime (5 – 3) FXOpen

Prime won 5 – 3.

BBoongBBoong > GuMiHo
BBoongBBoong > asd
BBoongBBoong < Lucky
Creator < Lucky
Byun > Lucky
Byun > Choya
Byun < Leenock
MarineKing > Leenock

Prime 5 – 3 FXOpen