ASUS ROG FINAL ABOUT TO BEGIN

The final of ASUS ROG 2012 Summer is coming up in a few seconds and it is going to be:

SK.MC vs. LiquidTaeJa

The Starcraft Stalker is standing right behind them and this is how they look just before the game.

TaeJa looks a bit more nervous doesn't he?

MC vs. Moon

MC is such a Freakin' Boss man.

With a demanding 3-0, MC almost made Moon like like a foreigner.
Moon tried to invest heavily in his drop play, but with perfect micro and well-placed forcefields, MC was never really threatened.

MC will now be waiting in the final for either TaeJa or ForGG.

 Moon is trying his best but is up against Mr. Cool himself.

This is what MC does after he qualifies for the final of ASUS ROG Summer 2012

He poses for a short while

Then he goes and checks his phone. He is probably making sure that wiki.teamliquid.net/ has updated the scores. Maybe he wonders why they don't just place him directly in the final to begin with.

Asus Rog Update - TaeJa and ForGG moves on

ForGG and TaeJa just won their quarterfinals and they have now qualified for the Round of 4.

ForGG defeated TheStC 3-2 in a rather close series. ForGG was definitely the better player though.

 ForGG saying wp to TheStC after defeating him. TheStC took the defeat as a man.

LiquidTaeJa on the other hand took out his own teammate LiquidHero 3-1 and with the form TaeJa is in this was no big surprise.

Teammates TaeJa and HerO battling it out. Moon is watching closely as he has already qualified for the round of 4.

  

HerO was devastated after his loss. He is out of the Asus Rog 2012 but he shouldn't feel too bad as he showed great play throughout the tournament.

ASUS ROG Update

So the first two quarterfinals are over and both of them turned out to be proof that the Koreans are still dominant.

MC took out MaNa 3-0 and Moon defeated SortOf 3-0 so they were both very one-sided.
There are only Koreans left in the tournament now and even though Stephano weren't present at this event it's still very hard to argue that the Koreans aren't still far ahead of foreigners.

MC stretching triumphantly after his win against MaNa

 MaNa seconds before GG'ing in the final set

Moon very focused as he takes out SortOf's last units. 

Hero is looking down at SortOf to see when he isgoing to type in GG.

Day 2 Summary

In the last game of the night SortOf managed to take revenge against TitaN in a nail-biting 3-2 victory. SortOf was naturally incredibly happy with the win and will now represent Scandinavia and Sweden as one of two foreigners among the last 8 players in the tournament.

SortOf was devastated after losing one of the close sets against TitaN

 

 In the end everything turned out well for him though and after the last game a very relieved SortOf was congratulated by fellow Zerg Suppy

The 4 quarterfinals tomorrow will be:

MC vs. MaNa
Moon vs. SortOf
TaeJa vs. HerO
TheStC vs. ForGG

So we're going to see four mirror matchups.

Who will take first place in this fantastic tournament. It's already certain that a Korean will be in the final. But MaNa or SortOf will have a chance to try and take the other spot in the final.

Our predictions are that the final will be between MC and Taeja, however we are secretly hoping for a SortOf vs. Hero final.

ASUS ROG update

ForGG managed to stage a hardcore comeback against PuMa thus making Puma the first Korean to exit the tournament.  This also means that all EG players are out of this years ASUS ROG Summer. Very disappointing and unfortunate for the team as they must have invested a lot in sending 5 of their players to Helsinki.

 ForGG being interviewed.

SortOf managed to take out Kas in a very very exciting series which he ultimately won with a massive amount of fantastic fungal growths.
SortOf will now play Titan for the last spot in quarterfinals. SortOf was defeated by Titan 3-0 earlier today so it's gonna be uphill for the Swedish Zerg.


SortOf was very happy with his win over Kas

ASUS ROG update

So far all the the Koreans have made it through to the next stage making short work of all the foreign hopes including local favorite Naama. The three EG players Suppy, DeMusliM and Idra didn't stand a chance either against the powerful Koreans.

PuMa is playing now against ForGG for a spot among the last 8. Will Puma advance and thus prove that it is impossible for Koreans to get knocked out of the ASUS ROG Summer 2012.
I am sure all EG fans are cheering for him, as he is their last hope.

So far the only foreigner to advance is MaNa. The polish protoss showed impressive play against NightEnD and DeMusliM.

One final foreigner will advance however as right now SortOf is battling Kas in an epic series. The winner will meet Titan for the final spot among the last 8.

Naama vs. Hero at ASUS ROG

Naama is playing a nerve wrecking series against Hero right now for a spot among the last 8!
Naama just won and the series is now tied 1-1.
The Starcraft Stalker is standing among a crowd of finnish teenagers who are watching and cheering wildly for Naama.

We got a few shots of Naama earlier after his impressive win against Suppy.
He was very pleased with him self.

 Getting interviewed for Finnish TV

SK.MC vs. LiquidHero (ASUS ROG Summer 2012)

1st set on TSL4 ESV Ohana
In the first set Hero blinked aggressively into MC's base and focused on taking out MC's Robotics facility which he managed to do. Unfortunately for him this meant that MC could trap all his stalkers behind his mineral line with perfect use of forcefields. This meant that Hero was well behind MC in army supply so when MC counterpushed Hero had to defend with his probes to tank damage so his colossus could get some shots off. He managed to do so for a time but in the end MC's control was too perfect and with his lead in supply he eventually overwhelmed Hero. Both players played well but Hero was simply too aggressive with that one blink into MC's base. 1-0

2nd set on TSL4 ESV Cloud Kingdom

In the second set Hero once again blinked into MC's base. This time he took out MC's colossus that had just been build. This meant Hero felt safe to expand. At the same time he managed to keep pressure on MC so that he could not expand. This meant that MC had to do an all in attack at some point which Hero held and thus took the game. Ironically the aggressive blink into MC's base which cost Hero the first game, ended up winning him the second. 1-1

3rd set on GSL_Daybreak

The third game was very back and forth. Eventually they both expanded but MC managed to take out Hero's expansion quickly with a stalker blink. At this point MC had already build his robotics before Hero so at this point he was in front on both tech and economy. Eventually both got their expansions running and both a number of colossus. So when MC finally attacked he had a better colossus count and on top of that he managed to position them slightly better and so he took the game. 2-1

4th set on TSL4 Entombed Valley

Both players went for a one base colossus all in and neither knew about the other player's build. At some point MC went for warp prism with warp prism speed and dropped two immortals in Hero's base. With this he took out some of Hero's pylons which supply blocked him for a while. After this Hero went for a push to try and do some counter damage. MC however was waiting for it and held it off easily. This gave MC the final confidence he needed and he counterpushed once again and this push was too much for Hero. MC takes the series 3-1

The Starcraft Stalker filmed the final 2 minutes of the fourth and final set between the players.

Notice how close they are seated to each other and how close to the players the casters Khaldor and Wolf are sitting as well. Hero should have taken out his headphones and listened to the casters. That would have prepared him for everything MC was building :)

MC and TaeJa getting ready!

While other players (the foreigners) are practicing their asses off, MC and Taeja are getting ready for their big games in their own ways.
MC is playing League of Legends -

while Taeja is improving his Zerg mechanics... Obviously!

ASUS ROG Day 1 summary

So the first group stage is over and we saw a lot of fantastic games.
There were also some surprises with regards to the results.

What was certainly no surprise was that all 7 of the Koreans at the event managed to qualify for the next group stage and 5 of them even finished first in their group.
Of the Koreans The Starcraft Stalker was most impressed by Taeja and The STC.

Fellow Koreans following MC and ForGGs games:

Taejas series against IdrA was also surprisingly tense, and it was nice to watch it over IdrAs shoulders. And although IdrA didn't win, he still managed to qualify for the next stage, with two 3-0s against Protosser. This leads us to the matter of how well the EG team performed.

Generally EG has been under a lot of pressure lately because of a lack of good results. 5 players from the EG team participated in the ASUS ROG so once again there was a lot of pressure.
Of the 5 players, PuMa, DeMusliM, IdrA and Suppy managed to qualify for stage 2. Suppy even finished first in his group and showed very impressive play in both his series.
So all in all EG certainly didn't disappoint during the first group stage and it will be exciting to follow their players further on in the tournament.

DeMusliM getting a hand and arm massage after his games. The massage was sponsored by twitch.tv and is available to all the players:

In group 6 MaNa created a new rivalry against Satiini as they played two exciting PvT series against each other for a spot in the next group stage. In the final series MaNa was the best player and he will move on and get a chance to test his skills against NightEnD who played extremely well in his games, especially against PuMa.

Unfortunately BabyKnight lost both his games and will not move on. But he was in a hard group and we are sure he will get a chance to prove himself in another big tournament soon. We talked to FXOpens manager who said they were very happy with having BabyKnight on their team, and that they were planning on sending him to as many tournaments as possible.

FXOpen supporting BabyKnight.

A number of exciting matches coming up today and 6 of the 8 opening matches will be mirror matchups. Those are: MC vs Hero, TaeJa vs. DeMusliM, MaNa vs. NightEnD, ForGG vs. PuMa, Moon vs. IdrA, TheStC vs. Kas

Generally we are looking forward to the games of IdrA and Kas.
IdrA hasn't achieved any really good results in a long time so it would be fun to see him do well here. Kas is just a really good player who btw was insanely tired yesterday because of cancelled and delayed flights and so forth, so it was really cool that he still did so well.

Finally we hope that SortOf can continue his fine play and secure a spot among the final 8 players.

Interview: Sortof

The Starcraft Stalker interviewed Sortof after his brilliant performance in the first group stage.

The Starcraft Stalker: Were you nervous when playing your first games?

Sortof: No, not really. The only time I got nervous was when I played the third map vs. Hero. But otherwise I was pretty calm.

TSS: So you weren't intimidated by having to play Hero?

S: A little bit. But after the first game I got really confident because I made a few mistakes and I still felt like he didn't play that well. So after that game I felt that I could win.

TSS: And now that you have won the group, are there any specific player in the tournament that you fear?

S: I don't wanna play any korean terrans, but I think I can beat any protoss that are in the tournament, and probably any zerg as well. I'm just hoping for protoss and zergs.

TSS: Who do you think will win the tournament, or a least place second after you?

S: There are a lot of great players here, but MC maybe. He plays very well at the moment. And Taeja as well.

TSS: Are you cheering for anyone besides yourself?

S: Well, a lot of my friends have been knocked out already, but I'm still cheering for Suppy.

Sortof number 1 in group!

Sortof has moved on to next groupstage finishing first in his group, after beating elfi 3-0 and Hero 3-2. Very impressive by the swedish player who played brilliantly in all of his games. 

Idra lost to Taeja 3-1. He played well, but it just seemed impossible to break one of the best Terran in the world at the moment. He will have to defeat Protosser one more time in order to move on.


JonnyREcco looks so small next to iNcontrol!

Huk out of ASUS ROG

We are sad to see Huk leave the tournament so soon after loosing to Seiplo and Naama in group 3. We really hoped to see him do well in this tournament, but unfortunately he is not at all on top of his game, and haven't been for a while. Some people say the EG house isn't the right training environment for him and others say that he just seems stressed out because of all the pressure.
No matter what, we will continue to cheer for him as he is a great player and a great guy.

ASUS ROG SUMMER 2012

We're at ASUS ROG!

It's very exciting. The first matches are underway.

Here are some pictures from the last preparations.

Khaldor and Wolf getting there makeup done.

Idra and Huk getting ready for their first games.

We just watched Huk lose the first set of his opening match against the finnish player Naama.
Huk didn't show any expression after the game, but Naama on the other hand seemed extremely happy and relieved.

More updates will follow soon.