GSL Season 5 Code S RO 32 Group A - RECAP

Liquid_TaeJa vs. MVP_Finale

Set 1 - Abyssal City - TaeJa to the left and Finale to the right

There weren't really any kinds of aggression during the first 10 minutes. TaeJa invested a lot in ghosts with cloak and Finale initially went for archons and storm tech, but later also added colossi.

TaeJa lost some ghosts for free when they were chasing part of Finale's army and got forcefielded away from the rest of his army. Finale on the other hand lost a colossus for free due to a misrally.

When they had their final engagement Finale had a couple of Colossi, but TaeJa had no vikings and Finale's archons, colossi and storms tore apart TaeJa's army and the young Protoss took the first set.

TaeJa vs. Finale = 0 - 1

Set 2 - Antiga Shipyard - TaeJa in bottom right and Finale in top left

TaeJa took his natural quickly, but Finale was able to sneak a pylon into the natural of TaeJa.

Finale pretended to expand as well, but went for a 4-gate instead, and unfortunately for poor TaeJa he never scouted the pylon. Finale warped in and attacked just before TaeJa got a second bunker up and the 4-gate pressure was far too much for TaeJa who was forced to GG giving Finale a surprising win in the first match.

TaeJa vs. Finale = 0 - 2

TSL_Polt vs. StarTale_Parting

Set 1 - Daybreak - Polt in bottom left and Parting in top right

Both got their third bases up (Polt's in the main though) without getting harassed. Parting tried some heavy 8 gate pressure, but Polt had 3 bunkers and was able to barely deflect the attack. From there Polt could fly his third safely out and they both went for double upgrades with Parting investing in archons and Polt in ghosts.

Polt tried some heavy drop play, but Parting scouted it and used the opportunity to move in at Polt's third and force a lift. But Polt was able to prevent Parting from pushing further on with great EMPs.

From there Parting started producing double colossi, but at the same time Polt went for triple viking production.
Parting however managed to force a big engagement before Polt had built up a decent army so that gave the protoss a good lead.
Polt tried some counter harassment, but Parting cleaned it up and was able to push towards Polt's base and take out his remaining forces with his Colossus/Archon based army.

Polt vs. Parting = 0 - 1

Set 2 - Antiga Shipyard - Polt in bottom right and Parting in top left 

Parting went for a DT into expand build whereas Polt took his natural quickly and from there aimed for a 8-minute marine/marauder with stim and +1 attack.

Parting's DTs were able to do a good amount of damage, but Polt evacuated some of his SCVs. At the same time Polt was able to take out Parting's natural with his push. On top of that Parting did an unfortunate move-command mistake and lost a lot of units for free.

By pulling probes Parting was able to deflect Polt's attack and then retake his natural.
Eventually Parting got some Immortals and Colossi, but around the 15-minute mark Polt pushed with his big bio army, and with good drop play was able to catch Parting's Colossi and different parts of Parting's army at different locations and in the end Parting had lost too much and was forced to GG.

Polt vs. Parting = 1 - 1

Set 3 - Cloud Kingdom - Polt in bottom left and Parting in top right

Parting went Nexus first whereas Polt went for some early 3-rax aggression upon scouting the Nexus first. Polt tried to get a bunker up at the natural of Parting, but by pulling probes Parting was able to defend.
Instead Polt expanded himself, but was of course pretty far behind in economy. Polt still has a bigger army though and he tried to push at the natural of Parting again and this time he forced Parting to retreat into his main and also got a bunker up at Parting's natural.

Parting got an immortal out and was able to push down his ramp and take out Polt's army and the bunker with good force fields, and thus save his natural.
At this point Parting was far ahead and he decided to go for a big counterpush. Polt was able to hold on for a while by pulling SCVs, but Parting stayed ahead while adding on colossi.
Polt never found an answer for Parting's colossi and was forced to GG in the end.

Polt vs. Parting = 1 - 2

MVP_Finale vs. StarTale_Parting

Set 1 - Antiga Shipyard - Finale in bottom left and Parting in top right

Finale went for a 4-gate and Parting went for 2-gate and a robo.

Finale managed to get a pylon into the natural and main of Parting and the game turned into a heavy micro battle in Parting's base, but Parting managed to survive and was only a few probes behind Finale after the attack ended.

From there Parting expanded whereas Finale decided to continue aggression instead of expanding himself. Finale was able to force Parting to retreat into his main, and thus take out Parting's natural.

From there though Parting was able to push out and take out Finale's army and also retake his natural.
Parting then pushed towards Finale's base, who had tried getting his own nexus up, but when Parting arrived he had far too much so Parting took the set.

Finale vs. Parting = 0 - 1

Set 2 - Cloud Kingdom - Finale in bottom left and Parting in top right

Finale went for quick DTs into expand, but Parting went for quick robo so he took no damage from the DTs.
Parting then expanded himself while Finale cancelled his Nexus and added more gates instead.

Eventually it came down to an all-in attack from Finale with his archon-immortal based army.
By barely having enough immortals and pulling drones Parting was able to survive the attack and with that the game was over.

Finale vs. Parting = 0 - 2

TSL_Polt vs. Liquid_TaeJa

Set 1 - Antiga Shipyard - Polt in bottom right and TaeJa in top left

Both went for quick CCs and TaeJa did a good early drop that took out some SCVs and Polt's tech lab researching Stim. Polt though did a decent counter push and was able to take out TaeJa's tech lab researching combat shields. Eventually both took their third while going for heavy Marine/Tank compositions.

Polt took control of the center, but at some point TaeJa was able to stim and catch some of Polt's tanks giving TaeJa the tank lead. Polt still remained in the center though.

Eventually TaeJa tried to do a big flank on Polt's army in the center, but ended up getting flanked himself when Polt came in with another force from the south and from there on Polt had a good lead.

They both took their fifth bases, but Polt was able to push on TaeJa's third with his tank lead advantage. Eventually Polt also pushed further towards TaeJa's natural and main and at this point TaeJa was way behind in army supply.
He still had 4 bases and a lot of SCVs, but since he had no answer for Polt's army and he was forced to GG eventually.

Polt vs. TaeJa = 1 - 0

Set 2 - Daybreak - Polt in bottom left and TaeJa in top right

Polt went for bio and TaeJa went for mech. TaeJa took his third faster than Polt and he also took out one of Polt's tanks early on with hellions so the Liquid player was in a good position.
Eventually Polt sieged up outside TaeJa's third and natural and it looked like neither would break the other.
Suddenly TaeJa engaged at the ramp outside his natural with only half his army and Polt's bio force took out lots of TaeJa's tanks practically for free and with all of TaeJa's remaining tanks still positioned at his third, Polt was able to move on into TaeJa's natural and TaeJa was forced to GG and with that was knocked out of the tournament.

Polt vs. TaeJa = 2 - 0

After taking out most of TaeJa's tanks Polt's bio force has free reign!

TSL_Polt vs. MVP_Finale

Set 1 - Whirlwind - Polt in top right and Finale in bottom right

Finale took his third rather early on whereas Polt invested a lot of all kinds of aggression, but Finale was ready for all his drops and took out several full medivacs, so Finale got way ahead in economy. 

When Finale finally pushed out Polt had no answer to the massive damage that Finale dealt with his Colossi and storms.

So Finale could push all the way up the main of Polt who tried a counter drop, but once again Finale defended well and thus he took the set.

Polt vs. Finale = 0 - 1

Set 2 - Antiga Shipyard - Polt in bottom right and Finale in top left

Both went for some aggressive builds with Polt going for reactor'd hellions + banshee and Finale for early twilight (blink) and robo. 

Polt got hellions into Finale's main and was able to take out 10 probes. Finale tried to counterpush with blink stalkers and was able to do a good amount of damage in Polt's base. Polt however got more hellions into Finale's base and in the end Finale has no probes left. 

At the same time Polt was able to force the blink stalkers to retreat with excellent SCV and hellion + banshee defense and with that he claimed the second set.

Polt vs. Finale = 1 - 1

Finale's only hope is his remaining blink stalkers, but they're doomed

Set 3 - Antiga Shipyard - Polt in top right and Finale in bottom left

Finale went for a 2-base 6-gate push around the 8-minute mark with around 5 sentries. Polt had two bunkers, and he scouted the incoming attack in the last second and was able to position all his SCVs correctly and also get a 3rd bunker up.

Finale decided to try and break him anyway, and he took out two of the bunkers, but his army was crushed and as stim finished for Polt the attack was absolutely denied.

From there Polt was far ahead, but Finale tried to transitioned into a longer game while getting DTs.
Polt moved out when he had a bunch of medivacs and Finale was able to hold on a bit with his DTs, but Polt just kept sending units and eventually Finale was forced to GG.

Polt vs. Finale = 2 - 1

Polt defends perfectly against Finale's big attack

Parting and Polt advanced to the round of 16! 

Finale and TaeJa is knocked down to code A!

Polt is a happy dude as he secures himself a spot in the RO 16

All in all some pretty surprising results as TaeJa was probably the favourite going into the group, but ended up finishing in last place.
Parting on the other hand showed some really dominating play and is definitely looking like a protoss contender to take this season.

Group brackets for MLG Fall Championship released!

OMG!

Group Play Brackets for MLG Dallas 2012

At first glance Group C looks like the "group of death" with top korean killer nerds TaeJa and Life in it. TaeJa vs. Life isn't exactly a bad match to open the MLG Group Play up with either.

Our Danish hero BabyKnight has been placed in Groub B alongside NaNiWa, TheStC, Grubby, Hwangsin and 1 of 4 proleague players (Flash, Soo, Soulkey or Hyvaa).

These 5 players will be joined by 2 of the 8 players that makes it through Open Bracket.

Anyway, we can't wait to see BabyKnight in action in his first MLG.

His game against NaNiWa especially will be quite epic.

Recently we stalked NaNiWa on twitter and noticed him writing the following.

Even though it's just twitter and probably said in fun, it still seems pretty obvious that NaNiWa doesn't consider BabyKnight to be a Starcraft mastermind.

We sincerely hope that BabyK can prove NaNiWa otherwise and crush him in their PvP clash.

GSL Semifinals - RECAP

Mvp vs. Rain

Set 1 - Whirlwind - Mvp in top left and Rain in bottom left

Rain went for relatively quick expand. Mvp went for reactor'd hellions and medivac. Rain defended pretty well against the hellions, but still lost 9 probes.
Mvp expanded from here while sending a banshee to harass. The banshee did pretty well, but when
Rain counter-pushed with a big 2-base sentry/immortal based army, Mvp was forced to lift up his orbital at the natural and retreat to his main.

This gave Rain a big lead in economy, but their army supply was somewhat similar.
Rain also got pretty ahead in tech and when they finally engaged Rain also caught Mvp's tanks slightly unsieged and his colossi tore Mvp's army apart winning him the first set.

Mvp vs. Rain = 0 - 1

After killing Mvp's tanks Rain could easily feast on Mvp's poor troops

Set 2 - Abyssal City - Mvp to the left and Rain to the right

Both players played pretty safe and they each got up to three bases without taking any damage.
Mvp focused on ghosts anticipating that Rain would go for high templars which he did.
Rain tried some warp prism/templar harass in Mvp's main, but Mvp had placed two vikings in probable drop locations and he managed to take the warp prism out while Rain was spawning units from it. Rain did however manage to storm and take out almost all of Mvp's workers in the main.

At the same time though, Mvp pushed with his massive bio/medivac + ghost army and he landed some very good EMP's and even though Rain threw down a few good storms and forcefields, they weren't enough to save him and Mvp rolled him over and took the set.

Mvp vs. Rain = 1 - 1

Mvp used his ghosts effectively and no forcefields could save Rain

Set 3 - Entombed Valley - Rain in the top left and Mvp in bottom right

They both got up to 2 bases unharassed.
From there Mvp went for a pretty quick 2-base medivac/marine push, but Rain deflected it with an immortal/sentry based army and Mvp retreated.
A short while later Rain took his third and this caused Mvp to pull most of his SCVs and go for a big 2-base push that was aimed to hit just before the first colossus was out.

Rain reacted perfectly though and cancelled his third and walled of with force fields and was able to delay the attack until his colossus got out and Mvp was forced to retreat again.
Rain took his third again while getting some colussi out and also getting high templars. Mvp stayed on 2 bases and finally went for an all-in push with all his SCVs and a bunch of vikings. Rain however had too much and was able to defend with good storms and Mvp was forced to GG.

Mvp vs. Rain = 1 - 2

In the final engagement Rain knew Mvp was all-in so he threw
down some cannons and defended the all-in beautifully

Set 4 - Antiga Shipyard - Mvp in the top left and Rain in the bottom right

Mvp took his natural and built a third CC in his main quickly whereas Rain stayed a bit longer on 2 bases while going up to colossus tech.
He tricked Mvp into thinking he was focusing heavily on collosi and Mvp overproduced vikings a bit before realising Rain has switched to templar tech.

Rain took his third and Mvp went for a big push. Rain had an upgrade advantage, but Mvp had a more army supply and he was able to do lots of damage with the push, with Rain being forced to use probes to defend.
So from here Mvp was ahead in economy and he built to extra bases and started dropping different places to keep Rain in his base. The drops weren't that damaging, but they did keep Rain in his base and when they finally engaged Mvp was ahead in army supply once again and he also managed to catch half of Rain's army that had been split up and Mvp simply crushed him and took the set.

Mvp vs. Rain = 2 - 2

For a brief moment it looked like Rain could come back,
but Mvp simply had the economy to outproduce Rain

Set 5 - Cloud Kingdom - Rain in the top right and Mvp in the bottom left

Mvp went rax>CC (natural)>CC (main) while also delaying Rain's natural with an ebay block.
Rain on the other hand did his already infamous quick DT into expand built that went something like this:
gateway>gas>Cybernetics>gas>twilight>Nexus>dark shrine.

Rain built two DTs, but Mvp had a bunker in front of his natural and was building a turret so Rain pulled them back and for a long while he instead used the DTs with drops in the main and to delay Mvp's third and so forth. All in all Rain did built quite a lot of DTs all of which he of course lost so he spent quite a lot of money on them.

They both got a decent 3-base economy, but it felt like Mvp was a step ahead of Rain, perhaps because Rain had invested too much in DTs.
Rain had begun focusing on colossi, but Mvp had gone up the two starports relatively early so he had a lot of vikings.
Eventually Mvp pulled a lot of SCVs and went for a big push that was practically all-in. Rain had started templar achieves, but it wasn't done so he tried building defensive cannons once again.
But when Mvp arrived his vikings quickly took care of Rain's colossi and from there Rain had no way of defending so Mvp took the set and the series, and with that moved on to another GSL final

Mvp vs. Rain = 3 - 2

Vikings are pretty good against Colossi it seems

Life vs. TaeJa

Set 1 - Abyssal City - TaeJa to the left and Life to the right

TaeJa went for his classic heavy bio composition with double ebay.
Life went for some pretty quick 2-base muta aggression. He only built 6 mutas though and from there took his third. He harassed a bit in TaeJa's main with his mutas and then went for a big baneling bust up the ramp to TaeJa's main.

He killed a ton of SCVs and did a lot of damage with zergings and banelings in general. At the same time TaeJa counterattacked and managed to take out Life's natural.
Life was ahead in supply though and unfortunately TaeJa accidentally sent a lot of SCVs towards Life's main and lost them all to banelings in the middle of map.

From here Life had the economy to restart muta production and built a lot of banelings and eventually he just overran TaeJa and claimed the first set.

Life vs. TaeJa = 1 - 0

Life does what he does best and baneling busts TaeJa's main

Set 2 - Whirlwind - TaeJa in bottom right and Life in top right

TaeJa went command center first which he built in his main, and Life went 10-pool and a bunch of very quick zerglings.
TaeJa however used his CC to wall of and therefore it looked like Life's early aggression wouldn't do anything, but suddenly TaeJa accidentally lowered his depot and ended up losing 3-4 SCVs and a lot of mining time.
From here the game transitioned with both players taking three bases and TaeJa focusing a bit on reactor'd hellions.

But omg Life is fucking crazy and in this game Life really got to show his very own style of zerg to perfection. For the rest of the game there was just constant aggression from him.
He stayed so long on lair tech and with his baneling/zerglings/mutalisk force he just kept forcing TaeJa to stay at home and defend.

Although Life again and again threw away a lot of army supply, with every attack he also managed to take out so many SCVs.
At some point he was also able to take out TaeJas third base and had at this point killed more than 60 SCVs in the game.
Eventually Life safely got up to infestors as well with his economy at this point being far superior to TaeJa's.
TaeJa tried a final push, but was crushed by fungals and banelings.

Life vs. TaeJa = 2 - 0

TaeJa tries to get up a good defense outside his natural and third,
but Life does not mind attacking into sieged tanks

Set 3 - Entombed Valley - TaeJa in the bottom left and Life in the top right

A long and close macro game in which Life went up to three bases a bit quicker and TaeJa went for his double ebay bio style again.

In this game TaeJa was generally able to put on a bit more aggression, but once again Life showed that he just uses zerglings better than anyone in the world.
He constantly does run-bys and tries to take out workers or small parts of army.
Around the 11-minute mark Life did a very successful baneling attack at TaeJa's third killing almost 20 SCVs and at the same time he focused heavily on infestor production at home.

The game went back and forth for a while with a lot of fighting in the middle of the map while Life got some broodlords out and TaeJa got a bunch of vikings out.
There were some engagements that went either way, and in one of them TaeJa took out Life's broodlords, but lost his army while doing so and from there Life transitioned to Ultralisks again.

In the end though Life's constant agression was just too much for TaeJa. Especially when Life started sending burrowed infestors to all the bases of TaeJa and the infested terrans just tore TaeJa's economy apart.
With that Life took the series in impressive fashion and moved on the final in his first GSL ever.

Life vs. TaeJa = 3 - 0

One of TaeJa's almost desperate attempts to break Life

Recommended games of the day:
Set 4 of Mvp vs. Rain and Set 3 of TaeJa vs. Life

GSL RO 8 - TaeJa vs. Leenock and MarineKing vs. Life - RECAP

Taeja vs. Leenock (Best of 5)

Set 1 - Cloud Kingdom

The first set was a lot like most of Leenock's games in the RO 16 in that he eventually ended up being behind on bases, but at the same time managed to get his beloved massive Broodlord/Infestor/Queen army. TaeJa had his own fourth base for a long time while constantly denying Leenock's attempts to get one, but eventually when Leenock carefully pushed out TaeJa had no way of stopping Leenock's deadly composition and the young zerg took the set.
0 - 1

Leenock knocks on the door with his favorite composition!

Set 2 - Whirlwind

Leenock went for a heavy roach aggression at the 12-minute mark, but TaeJa har sieged tanks and quite a lot of Marauders and was able to defend well. From there TaeJa started dropping in Leenock's main while pushing out on the map. Leenock tried to transition to Hive-tech, but TaeJa constantly pressured with numerous drops and in the end Leenock tried engaging, but TaeJa's army was better and he took the set.

1 - 1

Leenock's roaches meets some of the old tank and marauder love!

Set 3 - Entombed Valley

TaeJa went for a quick double rax and Leenock scouted only 1 of them. TaeJa got three bunkers up by the natural of Leenock and even though Leenock managed to morph a decent bunch of banelings he weren't able to take out all the bunkers and TaeJa took the set.
2 - 1

The worst zerg nightmare is when TaeJa has 3 bunkers at your natural!

Set 4 - Antiga Shipyard

Once again TaeJa went for a double rax, and tried sending marines and SCVs to the natural of Leenock, but this time Leenock defended and the game transitioned into a longer game. Leenock once again aimed for the 3-base Infestor/Broodlord/Queen composition while Taeja did a bit of drop aggression which allowed him to gain control of the center.
They denied each other's attempts to get a fourth base, but when they finally engaged in the center TaeJa had a lot more vikings than in the first set and he was able to spread them out perfectly and win the engagement. Leenock switched to Ultralisks but lost a bunch of them that were standing too far out on the map and eventually TaeJa could secure a fourth and at the same time do a big push that Leenock couldn't stop.
3 - 1

Leenock with good fungals, but not a big enough army to defeat TaeJa!

General thoughts on TaeJa vs. Leenock

In the Round of 16 Leenock had great success with his Broodlord/Infestor composition which won him a lot of games in which he was actually behind on bases and economy.
In this series though TaeJa's aggressive style just seemed to fluster Leenock more causing him to not be able to focus on getting his Broodlord/Infestor force as intensively.
Generally TaeJa just knew how he wanted to play Leenock and today he looked like the smarter player of the two.

TaeJa vs. Leenock = 3 - 1

MarineKing vs. Life (Best of 5)

Set 1 - Cloud Kingdom 

MarineKing tried some early bunker aggression on Life's natural, but Life deflected it perfectly. The game transitioned into longer game with both eventually going up to three bases, with MarineKing though delaying Life's third significantly.

The game was pretty back and forth with Life moving around with his zerglings beautifully and trying a lot of run-bys. He invested heavily in zergling/baneling aggression constantly switching between attack MarineKing's main and third and managed to kill almost 30 SCVs.
But MarineKing's upgrades were better and when he finally pushed out Life couldn't defend.
1 - 0

MarineKing likes his marines. Life doesn't! 

Set 2 - Daybreak  

They both went up to three bases pretty fast, but Life used his three bases to once again do some heavy zergling/baneling aggression. He did this beautifully and even though MarineKing got a bunker up by his natural he took far too much damage from Life's attack. MarineKing tried to do a typical MarineKing counter-attack, but Life had far too much and he crushed it, and when he then he pushed out afterwards with Infestors MarineKing had no way of defending.
1 - 1

MarineKing is thinking: why is this kid's zerglings so damn annoying!

Set 3 - Entombed Valley 

MarineKing went for proxy rax, but Life had 10-pooled which was the perfect way to counter. MarineKing built a bunker behind the minerals of Life's natural and forced a cancel. Meanwhile Life countered with some zerglings in MarineKing's main, and did a lot of damage. At this point MKP had lost a lot of SCVs while Life hadn't lose a single drone. 

Life expanded twice and delayed MarineKing's expansion for a long time with zergling aggression. The far better economy eventually won Life the game as he crushed MarineKings feeble attack.
1 - 2

Life plays with MarineKing as the zerg forces are far superior at this point!

Set 4 - Whirlwind 

Life went for quick speed, and did some light harassment. MarineKing went for hellions so he held off the lings pretty easily. While MarineKing had his hellions out on the map, Life did som ling run-bys and got a good amount of SCVs. Life then went for mutas and the muta-ling composition turned out to be too much for MarineKing and although he had Thors, Life did a really nice magicbox and killed way too many SCVs that was trying to repair the Thors. Eventually he just overran MarineKings natural and main with zerglings and the young zerg took the set and the series in impressive fashion. 
1 - 3

Look at that happy kid. 15 years old and already in the semifinals of GSL!

General thoughts on MarineKing vs. Life

Life just has his own cool aggressive style of playing and there are just so many small things that he excels at like his constant zergling movement and his somewhat strange timings. In every game his great zergling based harass managed to damage MarineKing's economy severely. And even with MarineKing's great micro and defensive abilities he was still forced to constantly try and protect his bases. This just allows Life to control practically all games he plays, which is why he has what it takes to reach round of 4. 

MarineKing vs. Life = 1 - 3

Dreamhack Valencia Grand Final

Everyone who missed last night's grand final of Dreamhack Valencia actually missed a great and exciting series.

Especially when keeping in mind that finals often end up being somewhat anti-climatic, so it was extra nice to see a tense final series that didn't disappoint.

The final was a BO5 between the two korean terrans ForGG and TaeJa.

ForGG snatched the first two sets, but then TaeJa made an impressive comeback and tied up the score to 2-2

The fifth and deciding set was on Metropolis.

They both went up to two bases rather quickly with ForGG setting up for some mech play and TaeJa doing a hellion into bio build.
TaeJa sneaked a couple of hellions into the mineral line of ForGG's natural, right as ForGG had moved a bit out on the map. He killed some SCVs but not a whole lot.

Around the 10-minute mark ForGG did a nice tank/marine/viking push where he sieged up below TaeJa's main and then used his vikings to gain vision of the high ground. With this he was able to take out some of TaeJa's add-ons and force TaeJa's to move some of his production buildings. He also killed a good amount of TaeJa's units but couldn't push further as TaeJa also had sieged up tanks.

TaeJa eventually got stim and some more tanks and ForGG was forced to retreat while taking some losses on the retreat. While TaeJa pushed ForGG back he could safely take his third base.
A few minutes later though, ForGG once again pushed with a big viking/tank force. This time he couldn't get all the way to TaeJa's base and for a while their tanks battled in the center with ForGG having the vision advantage with his vikings but TaeJa on the other hand having a big bio force that constantly tried to catch ForGG's tanks unsieged.
While this was going on ForGG tried to take his own third.

ForGG moved back and sieged up between his natural and third and this caused TaeJa to try and use his mobility and sneak around from the north and snipe ForGG's third. TaeJa did manage to kill some SCVs and a few tanks that were unsieged but eventually ForGG pushed him up in a corner and took out the part of TaeJa's force that had been invested in the attack. Luckily for TaeJa, being the agressor had allowed him to take a fourth base as well so he was up one base.

ForGG decided to do a big push with his mech force as he was at max supply and once again TaeJa used his mobility advantage and this time was able to take out ForGG's third, but not without taking some heavy losses.
But at this point TaeJa was on 4 bases and ForGG only on two so all TaeJa needed to do was defend. ForGG had part of his army outside TaeJa's natural trying to get in while also moving around on the map with his hellions. Once again there were a lot of hellion vs. tank engagements in this set, as it was actually the case of the entire series.
I've never actually seen hellions take on tanks so many times and actually win as I did in this series.

ForGG could not really break TaeJa or move in and take out any of his bases as TaeJa had sieged up tanks in all the right places. At the same time TaeJa used small parts of his bio force to prevent ForGG from expanding again and therefore TaeJa kept being up two bases.

Eventually ForGG was forced to try a push that was never going to work as it happened completely on TaeJa's conditions and after that attack ForGG was down 40 supply and two bases so he GG'd and TaeJa claimed the victory and the championship.

TaeJa vs. ForGG = 3 - 2

All in all a fantastic tournament with norwegian zerg TarGa probably being the biggest positive surprise and the koreans once again being somewhat dominating.

Next stop on the Dreamhack tour is Bucharest, which will occur in the end of October.
We can't wait.

TLO showing some manlove and hugging teammate TaeJa after his victory

TaeJa celebrating by pouring champagne on a big crowd of cheering nerds

Dreamhack Valencia Quarterfinals Recap (Stephano vs. ForGG)

So all the quarterfinals turned out to be foreigner vs. korean series.

Of the four quarterfinals Stephano vs. ForGG was probably the one from which most people expected a foreigner to advance.

And in the first two quarterfinals there weren't really any surprises as they were both won by the korean.

TaeJa vs. SaSe = 2-0

TheStC vs. Vortix = 2-1

So it was all up to Stephano, but in the end his series against ForGG ended up being rather strange.

Stephano took the first set on Ohana in dominating fashion and at that point it looked like he would have no problems defeating ForGG.

The second set was on Metropolis.

Stephano went for a quick roach attack with around 7-8 roaches at the 7 minute mark and he managed to catch ForGG completely by surprise.
ForGG had gone for reactor'd helions and was building a banshee and when he finally took out Stephano last roach he only had about half the supply of Stephano.
Stephano also had 3 times as many workers as ForGG and the game should have probably been over at this point if Stephano just had played safe.

Stephano did not really play safe though and it actually looked like Stephano was just so certain that he had won the game that he had forgotten all about his usual perfect gamesense.
And when ForGG attacked with cloaked banshees and hellions Stephano defended miserably.

In the end it was almost surreal to watch how the hellions and banshees just kept killing more and more drones until in the end Stephano had nothing left and was forced to GG a game that he had actually already won 4 minutes earlier.

The third and deciding set wasn't quite as surreal but still weird in the sense that it never felt like Stephano was playing his usual confident play.
ForGG once again went for some hellion and cloaked banshee harass and although it didn't do devastating damage, it still felt like Stephano defended a bit carelessly.

Especially when ForGG attacked at Stephano's third around the 11 minute mark with both hellions and banshees. He took out far too many units and it did not look like a Stephano defense at all.

The game transitioned into a somewhat normal macro game after this, but it was always with Stephano playing from behind.
ForGG got the map control he wanted to get far ahead in bases and production.
For a while Stephano defended really well around the map with ultralisks and infestors and managed to win a lot of engagements.
But ForGG had the economy to constantly remax and eventually he got a good siege up at the ramp to Stephano's natural and when Stephano tried to break this he lost almost all he had left.
Shortly afterwards he was forced to GG and with that Stephano was out of the tournament.

So Stephano lost a series that he had practically had in his bag and whether you believe in EG curses or simply being punished for celebrating before the fat lady sings it was a pretty depressing series to watch. At least if you're a Stephano fan.
But you gotta hand it to ForGG. In that second game he just kept playing the game as if he didn't know he was behind and in the third game he actually really played well.

ForGG vs. Stephano = 2-1


Luckily for those people cheering for foreigners Targa managed to take a surprising win against Hero in the last quarterfinal. Hero won the first set but Targa showed some really cool nerve for a relatively new guy on the scene and pulled off an impressive comeback.

TargA vs. HerO = 2-1

Dreamhack Valencia Day 1 Summary

Today was day 1 of Dreamhack Valencia and oh my God did we see a lot of exciting games.

In the first group stage (RO 64) played early today there weren't really any big surprises.

Apart from LiquidRet missing out on the tournament because of a delayed plane or something, almost all the players we had expected to advanced also managed to do so.

The first group stage did result in a lot of good games and series though, and one of our favorite series was probably LiquidTaeJa vs. FnaticNightEnD.

After the first two sets the series was tied which meant they had to play a third an deciding set on Daybreak.

They both got up to three bases without getting harassed at all.
At this point TaeJa decided to go and poke at NightEnD's third with a small bio force + medivac.
This resulted in a nice little engagement where NightEnD threw down perfect forcefields to trap and kill some of TaeJa's units. TaeJa however managed to pick up some of his units beautifully and therefore avoid too big of a loss.

Around three minutes later TaeJa pushed again and this time with a a lot bigger bio army + multiple medivacs. TaeJa's army size was actually a bit bigger than NightEnD's, but NightEnD used good storms and feedback on the medivacs to get out of the engagement a tiny bit ahead.

TaeJa however showed extremely good macro skills and maxed out quicker than his opponent.
For some reason TaeJa at this point decided to pull practically ALL his SCVs for a final All-in push. This wasn't exactly a necessary all-in, but TaeJa had guessed that NightEnD at this point had started transitioning into Colossi tech, and this realisation had made TaeJa decide to try and break him before his colossi started popping out.

With this big push TaeJa managed to take out NightEnD's third easily.
From here TaeJa went towards NightEnD's natural taking out big chunks of NightEnD's army along the way.

Eventually though, NightEnD got a few Collossi out and was able to take a final stand at the ramp to his main. Here he actually managed to take out TaeJa's remaining forces, and having drawn almost all his SCV's TaeJa knew that he was too far behind and he was forced to GG.
So NightEnD was able to take a surprising and impressive win against the bad ass TaeJa

NightEnd vs. TaeJa = 2-1


In the second group stage of today (RO 32) it certainly got hotter with regards to some of the big boys having to work harder in order to qualify for the playoffs sunday.

There weren't exactly that many surprises here either though and once again almost all of the players we had expected to go through also managed to.
One of the biggest upsets was probably that Italian terran Cloud managed to 2-0 DeMusliM and with that knock the EG player out of the tournament.

Grubby was also knocked out of the tournament which in it self perhaps was a bit of a surprise. Unfortunately for him though he had landed in the same group as Stephano and TaeJa, making it the absolute hardest group. This proved too much for Grubby as he was defeated by both Stephano and TaeJa, against whom he did however manage to put up a valiant fight.

Our favourite series of the second group stage was Stephano vs. TaeJa.

They played one of the last series of the day and when they met they had both already qualified for the playoffs. This didn't mean that they weren't totally hooked on crushing their opponent though.

Besides getting the best seeds for the playoffs, there was also a lot of pride at stake in this matchup between the best foreigner in the world, and the korean with the best results in foreign tournaments over the summer.

The first two sets were really close and well-played, with one player each claiming a set.

The third and deciding set was on Metropolis and both player's seemed keen on making it an epic macro game from the start.

They both went up to three bases rather quickly.
Stephano invested alot in getting his creepspread going while TaeJa focused on hellions and banshees to get some map control.
Stephano was actually pretty good at engaging hellions with zerglings and managed to get a good surround on them a couple of times. So with his zerglings he actually prevented TaeJa from taking out too many creep tumors.

Instead TaeJa tried to deny Stephano's fourth with his banshee. Stephano however was on top of it before the banshee had practically landed a single shot. This alertness from Stephano was characteristic of Stephano's play in general as he never seemed to take any damage from drops and so forth through the series.

Around the the 15 minute mark TaeJa did his first big push but when they engaged they ended up taking out most of each other's armies leaving them at a pretty even supply afterwards.

For a very long time the game battled back and forth with Stephano at some point being able to push all the way to the doorsteps of TaeJa's base with broodlords and infestors.
TaeJa managed to defend though, partly because of good raven usage, and eventually he was able to push all the way back towards Stephanos main.
Here he got a goo siege up and at this point things started looking really tough for Stephano.

Stephano tried breaking TaeJa's siegeline a couple of times but to no prevail and eventually he was overrun by TaeJa's forces, and Stephano's 4500 banked minerals couldn't save him.
In fact a big part of his defeat in this set was due to a severe lack of gas in the beginning of the late late game which meant he at that point could no longer remax with important units after a couple of big engagements.

TaeJa vs. Stephano = 2-1

So tomorrow the 16 best players will battle in the playoffs and it's not impossible that we get to see a rematch between TaeJa and Stephano.
They certainly both have what it takes to win the tournament.
If neither of them end up taking it, then our money is on Violet or Hero.
But we'll se tomorrow

GSL Season 4 - Round of 16 - group A

SPOILERS BELOW - Recap incoming

So today was group A, and what most people understandably called the RO 16 group of death.

It consisted of the following super deadly nerds:

LiquidTaeJa: Probably the best Terran player over the last couple of months. Certainly the one with the best tournament results over the summer.

MVPDongRaeGu: One of the most respected and successful zerg players on the planet. And without a doubt the best Zerg in the world throughout the first couple of months of 2012.

TSLPolt: Has managed to stay one of the absolute most feared players, ever since his 1st place in the GSL Super tournament in June, 2011.

By.Rain: Of all the KeSpa players that has recently switched over to SC2, Rain is the one that has transitioned the fastest and he just seems to be improving with scary speed.

Even though all of them are very good, most people (including us) probably expected TaeJa and DRG to take the two first spots in the group, simply because of all their accomplishments in SC2.

However we were all in for a big surprise.

The first series was between Polt and DRG and even though DRG has always been a ZvT expert, Polt managed to take it in a very close series.
Polt took first set, a 25 minute game that ended when DRG lost his entire army after attacking up a ramp.
DRG won the second set which lasted 35 minutes, but he actually had to take out EVERY single unit of Polt putting him to zero supply before Polt GG'd.
In the third set Polt did a well planned 3-rax marauder all-in on Antiga Shipyard that DRG could not defend against.

Polt vs. DRG = 2-1


Second series was between TaeJa and Rain, and to everyone's surprise Rain managed to take a dominating win.
First set was on cloud kingdom and it was an epic 25 minute game that Rain won, partly due to good DT harass and great storms.
Second set was on Antiga Shipyard and Rain played a brilliant game that included fantastic warp prism play (deadly archon/zealot drops), and once again devastating storms.

Rain vs. TaeJa = 2-0


Third series was between the winners of the first two games, Polt and Rain. 1st set was on Whirlwind and Rain did the old classic 4 gate, and managed to get a pylon in Polt's main so Polt was doomed. The 2nd set was a really exciting 30 minute game that Polt won in great fashion, especially because of good drops, and great EMP's from his cloaked ghosts.
Third and deciding set was on daybreak and Rain played beautifully and won the game showing great general harassment including a nasty storm drop.
So Rain took the 1st place in a very hard group, almost making it look easy and showing that KeSpa players definitely can bring something new and exciting to Starcraft 2.

Rain vs. Polt = 2-1


Fourth series was between the two GSL beasts DRG and TaeJa who surprisingly was forced to battle to avoid elimination.
First set was on whirlwind. TaeJa went for Reactor'd Helions + banshees and was able to take out DRG's third with this combo just before DRG's mutas finished. Later TaeJa dropped DRG and pushed at the same time to win the set.
Second set was on Cloud kingdom and DRG managed to overwhelm TaeJa in a couple of engagements during the game in classic DRG style with a baneling/zergling/muta composition eventually giving him too big a lead for TaeJa to stop.

3rd and deciding set was on Antiga Shipyard and a pretty tense game for us since we love both players. It was of course even more tense for them since they obviously both feel, that they belong in the Round of 8.

TaeJa spawned in the bottom left and went for 1-rax expand.
DRG spawned in the top right and went for a pool first into expand and then 4 queens.
TaeJa went for Reactor'd hellions + cloaked banshees, but DRG scouted it and went up to 6 queens.
TaeJa took his third almost at the same time as DRG and then went to harass with his banshees in DRG's main.

DRG had prepared perfectly however, with one spore and two queens at each hatchery so the banshees didn't do much damage.

They both got their economies rolling with TaeJa going for a tank/marine/medivac composition and DRG for a big zergling/baneling/mutalisk force.

DRG took his fourth and fifth around the same time and TaeJa tried to deny DRG's fifth with a banshee but DRG's mutas took care of it.

TaeJa sieged up defensively outside his own natural and third while DRG started building up a big force of zergling/baneling in the middle of the map. DRG must have felt he was in the lead or at least in a very good spot cause he decided to try and break TaeJa with his entire ground force + mutas. 

This wasn't entirely successful but he did manage to take out most of TaeJa's tanks. But it wasn't exactly a cheap trade for DRG who was a bit behind in supply from this point on. 

He did have a decent 4-base economy though (TaeJa had managed to drop and take out his fifth), and so DRG went for broodlords. TaeJa realized this a bit late but when he did he instantly placed down three additional starports.

At the same time TaeJa went for a big push towards the top left where DRG had his fourth and a fifth building. TaeJa managed to siege up below the fifth and trap all of DRG's ground army in the top left corner. DRG then came in with some broodlords from the right to try and break the siege line. 

DRG did manage to get most of TaeJa's tanks to unsiege but he did not have enough Broodlords to do lots of damage. DRG still felt he had to use this chance to try and take out TaeJa's army so he engaged with his entire army. He was nowhere close to breaking TaeJa though, and he was forced to GG.

Taeja vs. DRG = 2-1

So this meant Taeja got a chance to play a series against Polt for a place in the Round of 16. Unfortunately it also meant that DongRaeGu did not advance as he ended up surprisingly finishing in fourth place.

The fifth and final series of the day between TaeJa and Polt was actually pretty one-sided and in our opinion the least exciting of the day.
It certainly showed that TaeJa's TvT is much better than Polt's.
Although TaeJa's play in no way looked as flawless as it has done over the summer, he still took the series 2-0 and therefore advanced to the round of 16 knocking Polt out.

TaeJa vs. Polt = 2-0

Congratulations to Rain and TaeJa who advances to the Round of 16.


So a day with a lot of fantastic games and some rather surprising results.
We recommend all the four first series, but if we have to choose one it would be Rain against TaeJa, since Rain's play practically blew our minds in that series.