WCS Europe Finals - We have a champion

So it's official.

We have a Sc2 European champion and his name is Stephano!

A majority of people in the community would probably already have agreed before the WCS Europe finals that Stephano was the best SC2 player in Europe, but to those few who didn't, Stephano certainly proved his worth.

Stephano beat Vortix in the grand final and took the 1st place trophy without ever really having looked truly threatened this weekend.
The fact that Stephano's original airplane from America to Sweden was extremely delayed so that he didn't arrive until shortly before his first game only made his dominance even more impressive.

An essential thing to add is that it's actually the first time that a European champion of a sport also has the coolest hair in Europe.

A very important part of what the players were fighting for in Stockholm were the seeds for the WCS world finals in Shanghai in November.
The 6 european players that managed to qualify were Vortix, Lucifron, LoWeLy, BabyKnight, Grubby and Nerchio along with Stephano and Socke who had already qualified earlier.

Congratulations to them all.

Stephano dancing everyone's pants off

 Stephano giving high fives while scouting for possible groupies

Stephano proudly waving the flag of his homecountry USA (no wait, is that right?

BabyKnight getting his prize thinking that it is hopefully the first of many to come

WCS Europe Finals update

SPOILERS BELOW:

Unfortunately it is over for our danish hero BabyKnight.

He went up against teammate LoWeLy who is from Belarus in what turned out to be a pretty depressing series. At least if you're a BabyKnight fan.

FXOBabyKnight vs. FXOLoWeLy

In the first set BabyKnight went for a typical Forge Fast Expand. Lowely had a few zerglings trying to run through BabyK's wall at the natural.
BabyK placed a quick pylon to protect his natural until the cannon could finish.
He then wanted to cancel the pylon after the zerglings were gone but accidentally cancelled his Nexus.
This seemed to throw BabyK completely of and he then forgot to cancel the pylon at the wall so that he was completely walled in, and had a lot of structures in an awkward place.
From here BabyK probably felt that he was far behind so he decided to take a very quick third.
This was very risky and probably not wise, as LoWeLy had gone for an aggressive 2 base build.
LoWeLy decided to put constant baneling/zergling pressure on BabyK's third and natural and for a while BabyK was able to defend, but LoWeLy was enough ahead that he could just keep sending units.
Eventually LoWeLy just took his fourth and fifth and BabyK could do nothing and even though BabyK got some colossi out, it was enough.
LoWeLy took the game easily.

Second set was on Ohana and this time BabyK didn't do any major mistakes but you still had a feeling that he was probably somewhere in his head still regretting the mistakes from the first game.
BabyK went for three bases relatively quick, but LoWeLy once again stayed on 2 bases for a long time to get some aggression going.
He put on some baneling/zerglings pressure, and then later dropped zerglings in BabyK's main with overlords. He did this a couple of times and every time BabyK had to passively warp in stalkers to try and save his probes.
BabyK never really felt safe enough to move out and LoWeLy simply took a lot of bases all around the map.
Eventually BabyK moved out and did have some decent engagements, but LoWeLy's economy and map presence was just way better and the game never really got close.
BabyK typed in GG WP and sadly that was the end of his WCS run.

LoWeLy vs. BabyKnight = 2 - 0


But the most important thing was that he managed to qualify for WCS world finals in Shanghai and he can certainly be proud of his results this weekend.

We went to our local Barcraft at CafeAE in Copenhagen to watch and cheer for BabyKnight.

It is of course always fantastic to watch SC2 at a bar with other nerds, but today the general mood suddenly turned somewhat blue as everyone was naturally a bit disappointing that BabyK didn't perform better.

But that's how it goes sometimes, and as the grand final gets nearer the mood will definitely improve again as people get drunker and get to enjoy some great final matches.

Stephano just beat Vortix 2 - 0 in the winners bracket final and he is now waiting in the grand final for either LucifroN, LoWeLy or Vortix again if he can make it back from the Losers bracket final.

Whoever meets Stephano in the grand final will have a very hard job ahead of him, as Stephano is certainly looking like a WCS Europe Final Champion. But let's see, everything can happen...

WCS Europe Finals day 1 Summary!

In the upper half of the winners bracket Vortix played some fantastic ZvZs and ended up in the 1st winners Bracket semifinal against our dear BabyKnight. Unfortunately for BabyK it was Vortix that came out on top in a pretty close series.

Vortix vs. BabyKnight = 2 - 1


In the lower half of the winners bracket Stephano lived up to expectations and tore his way through a list of very good opponents. He won his first three games 2-0 and it wasn't until he met Lucifron in the 2nd winners Bracket semifinal that he was actually challenged.
He did take the series though and knocked Lucifron into the losers bracket, even though Lucifron had played a really good tournament so far.

Stephano vs. Lucfron = 2 - 1


In the losers bracket the 4 players making it to round 5 were Nerchio, Grubby, Happy and LoWeLy.
Most people had probably not expected Nerchio, with his good results recently, to end up in the losers bracket, but seeing that he did it was probably no surprise that he ended up making it far.

So Nerchio and Grubby are now playing in the 1st losers bracket semifinal in what is turning out to be a fantastic series.
After that Happy and LoWeLy will play in the 2nd Losers bracket semifinal.
The winners of these two games will then face BabyKnight and Lucifron to see who can get to the losers bracket final.

Who ever reaches that final will then have to battle for a chance to play the winner of the winners bracket final between Vortix and Stephano in the Grand Final.

And then we will have our selves a European Champion!

BabyKnight vs. Ret (WCS Europe Finals - round 3)

BEWARE OF SPOILERS!

We just witnessed an epic 3rd round series between FXOBabyKnight and LiquidRet!
Apart from being a series between two of our absolute favorite foreigners we also had the pleasure of watching a BabyKnight series being casted by our favorite casting duo Tastosis, which was something we do not believe has happened earlier. At least we haven't witnessed it before.

1st set on Taldarim Alter.

BabyK went for a economic pylon-nexus-pylon opener and Ret of course also did a very macro-orientated build as he always does.
Ret quickly got up to three bases and around 75 drones.
BabyK did a small push on Ret's third but it was only a small push that he didn't invest a lot in.
While he did this he took his own third and also got a dark shrine and some other tech.
Babyknight also had a neat couple of gateways on top of his ramp outside his natural so that Ret would be able to do a run-by into his natural.
Babyknight send two DTs in the natural and main of Ret.

He killed some drones but didn't really do much damage, and BabyK didn't warp in more.
Instead he focused on getting some archons and a lot of gateway units in general.
Ret took his fourth but Babyk scouted the exact timing of it with an observer.
From there Ret went up to 95 drones (which was maybe a bit too many) and also started building some spinecrawlers at his fourth.
BabyKnight pushed at Ret's fourth when he was around 160 supply.
Ret did have infestors but not any broodlords yet.

BabyK used perfect forcefields and good blink micro and was able to win the big engagement at Ret's fourth.
From here BabyK could take out Ret's fourth and move on into his third and Ret could do nothing to stop him.


2nd set on cloud kingdom.

Ret did his usual macro opener quickly going up to three hatcheries.
At first it looked like BabyKnight would do a somewhat similar build as in game 1 with a quick +1 attack upgrade.
He cancelled this upgrade however and went for a stargate instead.
The stargate however was pretty late, and from this point on he actually looked a bit flustered.
Like he had originally intended one build and then changed his mind without really being sure if this was the right call or not.
He never did any real damage with his void rays or phoenixes either.
He tried to take his third but Ret denied it and Ret actually kept denying it for a long time.

BabyK then started producing Colossi but they were very late as well and Ret was already taking his fifth base.
BabyKnight was finally able to take his third, but he then cancelled it and went for 2-base all-in instead.
At this point though Ret's supply was way bigger than BabyK's.
And as it turned out Ret had far too much and no micro could save BabyK's army whose big push was never able to truly threaten Ret.

And since it was a BIG all-in BabyK was forced to GG.
So the series was tied and at this point we were almost shitting our pants on BabyK's behalf.
Going on to the third and deciding match must have been pretty damn nerve-wrecking.
For both of them of course, but since Ret is a lot more experienced he will certainly have tried more situations like this the past.


3rd match was on Ohana

Once again it was a very quick +1 attack for BabyKnight again.
At the same time he was setting up for a very economic build preparing to take his third quite early.
Ret once again did his usual macro style, and you gotta hand it to that guy. He never cheeses!
They both macro'd up for a while with BabyKnight getting his third and Ret getting his fourth both relatively unharassed.
Eventually when Ret was at max supply and Babyknight was around 150, BabyK tried to move out on the map to try and pressure at Ret's fourth.
But Ret at hidden a big bunch of zerglings that he sneaked into BabyK's third and natural just after BabyK had left the base.

BabyK managed to return and clean them up pretty fast, but not without taking quite a lot of damage.
He then moved out again and at this point Ret was nearing completion on his greater spire so he desperately wanted to delay BabyK's push until he could get broodlords out.
Therefore he tried to do another run-by with zerglings but this time BabyK had expected it and he took them out immediately.
He was then finally able to move out for his long awaited push.
Because Ret was at max supply and because he needed his corrupters against BaByK's colossi, Ret didn't morph any broodlords.
At the first big engagement it was actually pretty hard to see who would come out on top for a long time, but BabyK used perfect forcefields and micro with his Colossi to deal massive damage.

Ret then did a new run-by with zerglings that killed a lot of probes at BabyKs third.
BabyK cleaned it up eventually and at this point in the game Ret had a lot more workers than BabyK but having won the engagements BabyK's army was way scarier.
BabyK then pushed at Ret's fourth and Ret's weaker army could not stop this push so he lost his fourth.
BabyK had also re-saturated his third again so their economy was similar, both of them being on three bases with their mains being pretty much dry.
BabyK then went for a big push outside Rets third and at this point Ret actually build a bit too many corrupters.

He was able to take out BabyKs colossi easily but BabyK had quite a big ground army that Ret didn't have an answer to.
So when BabyK kept bringing new gateway units, all of Ret's corrupters were rendered useless.
In the end Ret tried to pull out all his drones but that was in no way enough to stop BabyK's army who thus took the game and the series.
And what a freaking amazing series!!!

FXOBabyKnight vs. LiquidRet = 2 - 1

Congratulations to BabyK who has now secured his spot in the WCS world finals in Shanghai!

The feeling of relief that must have gone through BabyK's body when he was finally able to take off his headphones and fathom that he had actually made it to the WCS world Finals must have been undescribable.

In the interview after the game BabyK once again proved that he is no entertainer nor salesman. 

But the questions that were thrown at him were fucking retarded so his taciturnity was understandable and in our opinion actually made him seem even cooler.

I mean what kind of retarded question is, "If you were a car what color would you be?".

Can't believe he was actually asked that.

Anyway. Now BabyKnight can play the rest of his games at the WCS Europe finals without pressure as he has surely reached the goal he must have been aiming for. 

We wouldn't mind him taking a top3 though, so we'll keep cheering for him.

BabyKnight vs. WhiteRa (WCS Europe Finals round 2)

BEWARE OF SPOILERS!

We were so thrilled about the fact that BabyKnight had to play WhiteRa in the second round of the Winner's bracket. A very well-mannered legend against an upcoming well-mannered hero.

1st set was on entombed valley.
BabyK spawned in the top left corner and WhiteRa in the bottom left corner.
Whitera went for a robo and then a warp prism.
Babyknight went for 3 gate with blink and observer.
WhiteRa then went for an early zealot drop with his warp prism.  He dropped two zealots in BabyK's main and spawned 2 additional zealots.
BabyK had already moved out on the map so he didn't have any defense in his main but he reacted very quickly and moved his probes away from harm.
Then he hurried back with his army and he managed to blink in and snatch WhiteRa's warp prism.
From there he went towards WhiteRa's main.
He blinked up the ramp and took out WhiteRas two immortals.

WhiteRa had a colossus on the way but BabyK managed to take out all WhiteRa's other troops and then when the Colossus popped out it was all alone and WhiteRa could do nothing but GG.


2nd set was on cloud kingdom
BabyK went for the exact same 3 gateway, blink and observer build again.
Whitera went for a robotics producing immortals along with 3 gateways into expansion.
BabyK managed to take out WhiteRa's first observer as it was unfortunate enough to arrive in BabyK's base just when BabyK's own observer came out of his robo.
From there BabyK pushed out on the map looking to use his blink stalkers to harass both WhiteRa's main and natural.
At this point WhiteRa had two immortals along with some sentries and other gateway units, and for a while he defended really well taking a stand quite aggressively preventing BabyK from accessing both his main and natural..
BabyK didn't really lose any stalkers though because of his good blink micro, and at some point Babyk was able to take out WhiteRa's second observer.
This triggered BabyK to blink into WhiteRa's main where he took out a decent amount of probes and a pylon.
Then when WhiteRa got back with his army, BabyK retreated again going for some harassment at WhiteRa's natural.
BabyK constantly used beautiful aggressive blinks forward to snatch immortals and sentries.

He then lured WhiteRa back into the main again, only to return to the natural this time bringing a sentry that he used to block the ramp.
At this point WhiteRa's army was trapped in his main, and BabyK could safely take out WhiteRa's natural and since the expansion was the only advantage WhiteRa had left there was nothing to do but GG.
Hurray!!!

BabyKnight vs. WhiteRa = 2-0

Naturally BabyK was extremely relieved afterwards.














Since the game was played on the main stage, BabyK had to do an interview after his win.
BabyK isn't exactly experienced on big stages and although he didn't look like he felt at home up there as the center of attention, he still managed to create a few laughs.

  

Next opponent for BabyK is the cool Zerg player Ret, so he will probably have to use a different build than his PvP blink stalker build :)

BabyK has beated Ret before but generally PvZ isn't his strongest matchup. 

Hopefully BabyK can ignore this fact and take out Ret once again.

 

BabyKnight vs. Seiplo (WCS Europe Finals)

BEWARE OF SPOILERS!

So the first round of the WCS Europe finals is underway and we of course had to watch the FXOBabyKnight vs. AiSeiplo game.

In the first set BabyKnight went for blink stalkers and Seiplo went for a stargate and then robo build.
Babyk blinked unto Seiplo's ramp and did a perfect force field that trapped part of Seiplo's army. Furthermore he was able to snipe Seiplo's single immortal.
From here it was pretty much game over. Seiplo's had a bunch of Phoenixes, but they weren't able to help out much against BabyK's stalkers.
So Babyknight took the first game on account of perfect micro and execution.

In the second set both went players for blink stalkers, but Seiplo did a really quick blink build order whereas Babyk went for an early robo as well so his blink was a bit slower.
When Seiplo moved out BabyK actually seemed to fall apart a bit in the engagements.
There were a couple of times where he actually won the initial engagement but then got greedy and blinked forward too aggressively which Seiplo punished him for.
Therefore Babyk never felt calm enough to get his immortal production running and as they both expanded Seiplo was able to deny BabyK's expansion without BabyK even cancelling it. From here on Seiplo was far ahead in economy and army supply.
BabyK tried to push on Seiplo's natural but couldn't do any real damage and Seiplo took the game on account of a cool build order, but also because of some poor engagements on BabyK's part.

Third set was on Ohana and a really nice game.
Seiplo did a greedy but cool 1 gate expand and then robo.
Babyk went for blink stalkers once again and boy oh boy does he love those blink stalkers.
BabyK never scouted the expansion so this was good for Seiplo who had time to get some immortals out. Seiplo however decided to get extra greedy and build a robotics support bay as well.
When BabyK arrived at Seiplo's natural he was able to snipe all of Seiplo's immortals by using perfect blink micro. On top of that BabyK was a lot more patient than in game two and he kept moving back every time his stalkers were threatened.
Seiplo tried to defend the best he could but new stalkers kept streaming in for BabyK who didn't make a single mistake in any of the engagements.
Eventually his army supply was simply way bigger and he was able to expand himself while taking out Seiplo's expansion and pushing into the main.
So HOORAY! BabyKnight took the series.
But Seiplo is a really cool player and we hope he can do well in the loser's bracket.

BabyKnight vs. Seiplo = 2-1

WCS Europe finals

Today's the big day!

The WCS europe finals in Stockholm will begin in less than an hour and we are excited as hell.

The 32 best European players are fighting for the honor of calling themselves the best european player. On top of that they are all there to fight for their share of the 60.000 dollar prize pool and more importantly the six seeds for the world finals in Shanghai later this year.
Check out the brackets here

Above everyone else we are of course cheering for our danish hero FXOBabyKnight!
To honor him we've created a small "dramatic chipmunk"-inspired video, and in our unbiased opinion he is even cuter than the original chipmunk.

Apart from BabyKnight we will also be cheering for two following really cool Nordic players.

WWSortOf

FnaticNaama

But most of all we are just looking forward to seeing a ton of great games.

Check out the main stream here

Oh and if you haven't heard blizzard just announced that the prizepool for the world finals in Shanghai will be a neat 250.000 $ with 100.000 $ going directly to the winner.
Not bad at all for the nerd who ends up winning it.
Especially since we all know that nerds only need money for two things.
Computergear and energydrinks.

SaSe's cool and almost aggressive way of playing SC2

When we watched SaSe play some games it struck us how physically active he is when playing.
Not only is he a cool player with his own style in-game. He has got his own style of actually playing the game physically as well.
Check it out here:

It was pretty insane to watch actually. Compared to everyone else he has got a much more hectic and almost aggressive way of moving his fingers, arms and body when playing.
You can even see how the keyboard is moving around on the table, and that he has placed some paper under the corners of the keyboard to make it slide better. Or that's what we figured anyway. Notice how the glass of water is shaking as well. Crazy!

It looks pretty cool actually.

Movie and music by The Starcraft Stalker
www.starcraftstalker.blogspot.com

GSL season 4 RO 32 group H

Recap incoming - BEWARE OF SPOILERS

 So today was the final group of this season's round of 32.

It consisted of Bomber, DongRaiGu, GuMiho and Polt who had to battle for the final two spots in the RO 16.
So one of the absolute best Zergs in the world and three really consistent and killer Terrans.


First series was between Startale_Bomber and MVPDongRaiGu and it was supposedly a really cool series.
We only had a chance to watch the third and final set after both players had won a set. And if we had to compare this set to an icecream flavor it would be chocolate. Mostly just because we like that flavor and we liked this game as well.
DongRaiGu used some really cool Mutalisk harassment to keep Bomber in his base. It was a cool style where he never actually went for SCVs with the Mutas, but instead just kept snatching add-ons and supply depots. And then when Bomber finally moved out he finally went for the drones with his mutas and at the same time attacked with Zerglings at the third. And then after doing loads of damage he went back with the Mutas and along with a big number of Banelings they were able to crush Bomber's army and thus DRG took the first series.

DongRaiGu vs. Bomber = 2-1


Second series was between FXOGuMiho and TSL_Polt and was an ok series. If we had to compare it to an icecream flavor it would be the strawberry. Just because it's red and tasty.

First set was on Daybreak and we expected a pretty long game that could end up in a classic TvT split map situation. GuMiho however dominated Polt completely. Maybe because of the lucky piece of cloth that he places over the mouse, or maybe just because he is a bad ass kid.
Anyway, they went for pretty much the same Tank/marine/medivac composition but GuMiho just rolled over Polt when they finally engaged.

Second set was on Antiga shipyard and whereas game 1 looked one-sided in favor of GuMiho this game was a lot closer in general. In the early game Polt went bio and GuMiho went mech, and in this phase Polt generally seemed to be able to use his composition better.
Polt used his mobility and did some nasty drops that killed around 30-35 SCVs. GuMiho didn't have his defense positioned all too well during these drops, and all the damage Polt did allowed him to take control of the center with a big number of siege tanks. GuMiho tried to attack into the center but couldn't break Polt so Polt felt safe enough to start transitioning into skyterran. GuMiho had been smart as well though and built a lot of vikings and ravens along with his mech army. With this composition he was able to put on some pretty good pressure on Polt's army in the center. But then Polt moved out with a Battlecruiser fleet and they killed GuMiho.

Third set was on Cloud Kingdom and was actually a really cool and close game. Once again Polt seemed to favor bio (as he always does) whereas GuMiho seemed to favor Mech. GuMiho used a cool Helion/viking composition to control the map and this allowed him to take his third faster than Polt.
Polt invested heavily in marauders and tried to break GuMiho's third, but he was too well defended. From this point on it was a very back and forth game where both players kept moving forth in different locations. They both played really well in all of the engagements in this phase but at some point Polt caught GuMiho's army unsieged and this gave him too big a lead and GuMiho resigned.
A very good comeback from Polt that looked like he was in big trouble in the first set, but really showed some good bio skill in the next two sets.

Polt vs. GuMiho = 2 - 1


Third series was the winners DongRaiGu and Polt going at it for a spot in the RO 16.

First set was on whirlwind. DongRaiGu went for his classic style three base opening with some heavy drone production.
At some point Polt did a big push but DRG held it beautifully by building the exact right amount of units in the very last second and then sandwiching Polt's army.
From here on DRG's three base economy gave him what he needed to do a giant and insane baneling bust on Polts base and with constant zerglings and Mutas streaming in, Polt had to GG

Second set was on Antiga shipyard.
DRG played some of his usual three base zergling/baneling/mutalisk style again. This time he also had an absolute fantastic creepspread that went all the way to Polts base. Polt was also on 3 bases and when DRG took his fourth and fifth at the same time Polt decided to move out. But moving around on DRG's creep is not a very safe thing to do, unless you're chuck norris or a T-Rex with a light saber.
Polt had neither in his army though and at some point Polt's tanks were unsieged for a second too long and drg rolled in and crushed his army.
After that DRG had 5 bases against the three bases of Polt, and of top of that he had a massive supply lead, so that was game over for Polt

DongRaiGu vs. Polt = 2 - 0


Fourth series was between the loser's of the two first games GuMiho and Bomber.

First set on whirlwind
They both got up to three bases relatively unharmed. At this point GumiHo did a 4 medivac drop with siege tanks and marines in Bombers main that Bomber had not anticipated at all as he had his entire army out on the map. The drop did massive damage and took out a lot of supply depots and production fascilities. This provoked Bomber into attacking into GumiHo's natural but he had siege tanks set up and was able to defend pretty well. Bomber did manage to take out Gumiho's third though, by parking the tanks outside his natural. From here on the game stabilized a bit as they cleared each other's armies up.
Gumiho then took a sneaky fourth on the opposite side of the map. Bomber scouted it and tried to drop it, but Bomber defended it. Then Bomber tried to do a massive drop in GuMiho's main, but Gumiho scouted it with vikings. Bomber was never able to catch up after this and GuMiho took the game.

Second set was on Ohana
Bomber placed a proxy barracks with a tech lab just outside GuMiho's main. GuMiho scouted Bomber's proxy marauder plan and started a bunker immediately.
This caused Bomber to give up his initial plan and follow up with a proxy factory and starport.
He then tried to drop in GuMiho's main with a few marauders, marines and a couple of helions. He did this a couple of times but never did any real damage.
From here he went for cloaked banshees from his proxy starport, but GuMiho knew it was coming and he built a viking. Bomber never did any real damage with the banshees and eventually all his initial aggression ended.
From there GuMiho was able to move out on the map while building a third orbital. This gave him an economic lead over Bomber who only had two orbitals. GuMiho dropped some marines in Bombers main while assisting with tanks from the low ground, and he was able to take out Bomber's tech lab that was upgrading stim. GuMiho also pushed a bit at the natural and there he took out Bomber's third that was under production.
At this point GuMiho was in a pretty big lead so Bomber decided to try to do a doomdrop to find some way back in the game, but GuMiho scouted it almost by chance and took out all of the medivacs with all the units in them. This was a gameending move at this point and GuMihos lead was too big and he took the series and with that bombed Bomber out of the Code S.

GuMiho vs. Bomber = 2 - 0


The last series of the day was a rematch between GuMiho and Polt and this series was easily our favorite series of the day.

First set was on Abyssal City and it was an insane TvT. It was a really unique game and we have a hard time describing everything that happened, but we'll try do give an overview.
GuMiho did a helion drop in the beginning in Polts main, but Polt was ready and it did practically no damage.
From here on GuMiho transitioned into a mech composition whereas Polt once again focused on building up his bio force.
GuMiho went for a ton of blue flames helions.
When they were both on three bases Polt pushed at GuMihos third base and was able to take it out because Gumiho had a hard time defending with his helions against the sieged up tanks that supported Polt's bio troops.
Instead Gumiho went for a counterpush with an insane helion/viking/raven composition. It was a weird but successful push because a lot of Polts army was still parked outside Polt's third.
From here the game just went wild and very back and forth for a while with both players doing massive damage to the other at different locations.
Around the 25 minute mark they had both killed more 50 SCVs but GuMiho had more mining bases, because had done some amazing helionbased attacks on Polt's different bases that also showed that helions actually can take out command centers, tanks and all this other stuff that they arent supposed to take out. In the end GuMihos economy was just a lot better and eventually he pushed out with a big thor/tank army that Polt could not stop and GuMiho took first game.

Second set was on Entombed valley.
Polt went for cloaked banshees and Gumiho once again went for a heavy helion style. Polt didn't do much damage with the banshees and when Gumiho got a raven out Polts banshee agression was completely over. Polt followed this up with a tank/marine push and was able to siege up at the ramp at GuMiho's natural. GuMiho was just barely able to defend with a strange helion/raven/banshee composition, but he took quite a lot of damage and Polt got a supply lead.
They were both on two bases and Polt decided to do another big push and exploit the fact that GuMiho still did not have siege mode. Once again Polt sieged up at the ramp of Gumiho's natural and once again he did a lot of damage. But Gumiho pulled off another miraculous hold with some good raven usage with some point defence drones.
The problem for Gumiho was that Polt kept having a supply lead and that Polt was able to build up a decent force quicker. This allowed Polt to control the map and take a fourth base behind this.
Gumiho tried to move out a bit on the map with his mech force, but Polt was able to engage from a multiple sides and win the engagement.
From here on Polt could push into GuMiho's third and Gumiho could do nothing but GG.

Third and last set of the day was on Daybreak.
This time GuMiho went for bio as well.
Polt went for a nice two base marine/marauder push on Gumiho's natural. Polt's army was bigger, but GuMiho was able to hold by bringing his SCVs and by having two medivacs which Polt did not have.
This attack gave Polt a lead in SCV's but while this was going on GuMiho had begun building his third which Polt had not so the economy was pretty even in fact.
In stead of building his third a well, Polt did a two pronged attack by dropping in Gumiho's main and attacking the third at the same time. With this he killed a lot of SCVs and from here Polt took his third. This gave him an economic lead as he had lost no SCVs and had too fully saturated bases already.
At this point Gumiho decided to try and do a big drop in Polt's main but Polt was ready for it and the drop did no damage. At the same time Polt caught a lot of GuMiho's army out on the map and Polt gained a massive supply lead after this.
From here Polt pushed at Gumihos third and this attack could not be stopped. Polt continued into GuMiho's natural and that was it.
So Polt took the last spot in the RO 16, and GuMiho was thrown into code A even though he showed a really original and cool style today.
Congratulations to Polt though for making two amazing comebacks on one day against the same player.

Polt vs. GuMiho = 2 - 1


If we have to recommend one game it would be the first set of the second series between Polt and GuMiho. Everyone who has every been bored watching TvT, should watch this game cause it was pretty damn cool.
We look forward to the RO 16 and this season it's actually pretty damn impossible to guess who can make it into the RO 8 as there are so many good players fighting for the spots.

GSL code S RO 32 group G

Beware of Spoilers

We didn't have a chance to watch a lot of yesterday's games in group G which consisted of Life, Nestea, JYP and SuperNova.
Even though JYP and Life (with his ludicrously high win rate in ZvZ) are good players, we expected Nestea and SuperNova to take the two top spots and move on to the round of 16.

Mainly because they are both so experienced code S players, that we expected them both to deal better with the pressure and play the games necessary to advance.
On top of that SuperNova has shown some really good play lately and also more of the consistency that he has sometimes been lacking.

We were gravely mistaken however and Life absolutely tore the group apart with 2 easy victories and a 4-0 score. JYP took the other spot which was certainly also somewhat of a surprise.

We did get to watch the first series between Life and Nestea. And while Nestea used to be the God of ZvZ, it was definitely Life that looked godlike in that series. Life simply looked better in every aspect of that matchup and it was actually a bit sad for us to see Nestea outplayed like that.

And while no one can argue that Nestea is a bad player, the fact is that for a long time a lot of newer and younger players have simply developed their play more.
But we have always enjoyed seeing Nestea tearing nerds apart, partly because he is one of the oldest SC2 pros. And for some reason we feel that it's comforting that you can win games even though you are 29 and not 19 any more.
Perhaps because it's easy to understand that it get's harder and harder to dedicate every second of the day to training SC2. Especially if you start establishing a family and so forth.

Anyway, we hope to see him back again next season, but it will be hard no doubt.

Congratulations to Life and JYP. We feel sorry for the zerg players that might bump into Life later on in the tournament.

GSL code S RO 32 - group F

BEWARE OF SPOILERS

Today's group featured the only remaining foreigner in the GSL, the infamous NaNiWa (infamous as in that no one has ever provided as much perfect Reddit material as he has), going up against the three koreans Heart, Sniper and Squirtle. Well not going up against all of them, but being in the same group as them.

NaNiWa made it to the round of 8 in the last two GSLs (as everyone except my mum knows), but he hasn't really played well in any of the tournaments outside Korea over the summer, so we were pretty excited to see if he could prove that he is still one of the best foreigners by being able to move on from today's group.

First series of the day was between NaNiWa and Heart.
It was a pretty cheesy series, but Heart is known for his early aggression so it was not that different from what we had expected.

First set was on Entombed valley. NaNiWa took his natural after building a gateway and a gas. Heart went for an early factory, but NaNiWa scouted that Heart wasn't expanding so he built two extra gateways and a robo. Heart built a starport and pushed when the first medivac was done along with a few helions and a bunch of marines. He brought some SCVs as well even though we all know they are civilians and not supposed to be fighting.
NaNiWa scouted the exact timing of the all in attack though and he looked prepared at his ramp. Then Heart decided to do a fake drop, and this caused NaNiWa's units to get a bit out of position, and Heart wanted to punish him for it and went up the ramp with his helions. NaNiWa missed the forcefields, and the helions took out all his sentries. .
Heart placed a bunker next to NaNiWa's natural and took it out easily.
From here on NaNiWa was contained in his main. He went for an immortal composition and was able to push out and take out Heart's army. NaNiWa decided to do a counter push but Heart had siege mode and defended it somewhat easily. The game however seemed to be a bit even at this point and NaNiWa took his natural again and built a robotics support bay.
Around the 15 minute mark Heart went for a big all in push in which he brought all his SCVs.
All NaNiWa needed was a colossus or two to defend, so he had to buy time. Unfortunately he once again missed some forcefields, and Heart used good tank placement on the ramps of NaNiWa's natural to force NaNiWa to retreat into his main once again. NaNiWa got two colossi out and tried to break Heart that had already moved into the main with some tanks. But he could not break Heart's army and Heart took the first game. All in all a somewhat weird game that NaNiWa lost partly because of some grim mistakes he made.

Second set was on Antiga Shipyard. Heart went for a helions and a medivac and as he send them across the map to drop in NaNiWa's main, he also took his natural. NaNiWa however is a Swedish viking and they don't like to be cheesed in the way that he had been in game one. So he had decided to do a counter cheese and had already built 4 gates and even been able to sneak a pylon in Heart's natural. NaNiWa's 4 gate took out all of Heart's poor SCV's (they were slaughtered like animals), and although Heart's drop did some damage in NaNiWa's main as well, the game was essentially over and when NaNiWa's stalkers took out Heart's medivac he GG'd and NaNiWa thus tied up the series.

Third set was on Ohana.
Heart went for a 2 rax and a early marauder/marine push. NaNiWa had taken his natural but he scouted the incoming attack so he built two extra gates (making it 3 gates), and a twilight. He was able to defend by bringing the exact right amount of probes.
From there NaNiWa went for DTs. Heart went for another big push when stim and siege mode finished.
When the dark shrine finished NaNiWa had gas enough for two DTs and he warped in both of them outside Heart's main. This was probably a tiny mistake, as Heart's army did a lot of damage at NaNiWa's natural before NaNiWa had enough gas for a defensive DT. He did however kill a ton of SCVs in Hearts main with his two DTs. Heart went for cloaked banshees but NaNiWa scouted them and got out an observer reasonable quick.
At this point NaNiWa had around 4 times as many workers as Heart. Heart however did have a bigger army, that included a raven and a couple of banshees. He then pulled all his SCVs and went for a final push Heart style.
So if NaNiWa could have defended against this the game would have been his, and he did get out an immortal, morphed a few archons and while also researching zealotspeed. Unfortunately for him his three gates didn't give him enough units and he could not stop Heart's army and Heart took the game and the series with an all in.
A deserved win for Heart, but also a heartbreaking loss for NaNiWa. He did some stupid mistakes but overall he kinda looked just as good as Heart, or even better in some situations.
But in the end Heart was the smarter player today.

Heart vs. NaNiWa = 2-1


Second series of the day was between Sniper and Squirtle, and in our opinion Squirtle is top 5 protoss in the world so we had him as a clear favorite going into the game.

First set was on Whirlwind. Sniper went for pool first, and then two expansions. Squirtle did a Gateway nexus built. From there he went for a 5 gate push with around 5 sentries and a bunch of stalkers. Sniper didn't get enough units or spinecrawlers out and Squirtle took out his third without much hassle.
Squirtle even managed to keep three of his sentries alive and was able to push on and by chrono boosting his gateways he ended up simply overwhelming Sniper with units who thus had to GG.

Second set was on Daybreak. Squirtle went for a warp prism sentry drop in Sniper's main. He did the classic force field of the ramp, to prevent the units from Sniper's second and third hatcheries to provive assistance. He did damage but at some point missed a forcefield and zerglings got in and surrounded his army. He did manage to continue the attack for a while though.
After a while Sniper got enough roaches to kill of the drop and from there went for a counter push with roaches. They overwhelmed Squirtle and took out his natural. As response Squirte tried to harass with warp prism again but didn't do all that much damage. Eventually Squirtle got out an immortal that took out Sniper's roaches, but Sniper had another big wave of zergstuff and that was too much for Squirtle. 1-1.

Third set was entombed valley. Sniper pretended to go for three hatcheries, but went for an early roach warren instead and then cancelled his third hatch. He pushed out with 6 roaches and a bunch of zerglings. Squirtle had to defend with probes to gain time for defensive cannons to warp in at the ramp, so Sniper killed quite a few probes, but eventually Squirtle secured his ramp. Squirtle went for DTs and was able to send a DT to each of Sniper's hatcheries. He killed a ton of drones with his DTs and even took out Sniper's third. Squirtle kept harassing quite successfully with the DTs after this, while he himself got a super economy. Sniper went for infestors, but he never got a good economy and when Squirtle pushed out Sniper could not stop his huge amount of Stalkers.

Squirtle vs. Sniper = 2-1


So the third series of the day was the winner's match between Squirtle and Heart.

First set was on Antiga Shipyard. Heart went for a trademark early push with reactored helions and some bio stuff. He even brought some SCV's as Heart seems to believe that he needs to punish some of his poor workers in every game so they all remember who their God is. Anyway, he got a bunker up at Squirtle's natural, but with an immortal and some stalkers from the high ground, Squirtle was able to defend. Heart decided to expand thinking that he had done a reasonable amount of damage, but when Squirtle finally moved out with stalkers and sentries he was able to push all the way into Heart's main with some really good forcefields, and he took the first game.

Second set was on Entombed valley. Having shown nothing else than cheeses today, Heart decided that it was time to be extra sneaky so he built a bunker at his ramp and then two Command Centers inside his main. The idea was that Squirtle would expect another cheese and therefore not be greedy giving Heart an economic advantage. This was a good idea in theory, as Squirtle did go for 3 gates and a robo pretty early. The stupid thing about the plan though was that went Heart floated his orbital out and took his natural he didn't really built a lot of defense at the ramp, which had probably been a good idea considering his economic position. So the production facilities that he had forced Squirtle to built, ended up providing enough units for a push that overwhelmed Heart's natural and took out all his SCVs. As the attack ended Squirtle had three times as many workers as Heart and from here on Squirly played extremely safe. Eventually he overwhelmed Heart with a ton of Colossi and won the game and the series relatively easy.

Squirtle vs. Heart = 2-0


Fourth series was between the losers of the two first games, NaNiWa and Sniper. A very hard elimination match for NaNiWa as his PvZ isn't exactly his strongest matchup.

First set was on Antiga Shipyard and it was actually a pretty painful game to watch.
NaNiWa went for a 2 base push with zealots from 6 gates. The plan was to take out Sniper's third but Sniper scouted both of NaNiWa's pylons and knew exactly what was coming so he just built some roaches and all of NaNiWa's zealots were practically a waste of money. From there NaNiWa decided to go for a blink stalker push that was pretty much all in. Unfortunately for him Sniper had a changelot by his army all the time (that he never saw strangely enough) and once again Sniper was perfectly prepared. He even managed to burrow zerglings in the middle of the map and do a perfect sandwich on NaNiWa's army and NaNiWa was so far behind at this point that he had to GG.

Second set was on cloud kingdom and actually a pretty cool game. NaNiWa once again did a 2 base push on Sniper's third. This time his army of mainly Zealots were supported by a few stalkers which allowed him to micro better against Sniper's units. He did this quite well and was able to take out Sniper's third, however he also lost all of his army in the process. Sniper retook his third and at around the same time NaNiWa began his third. He cancelled however and went for another big push with blink stalkers. This could probably have killed Sniper or at least done a ton of damage, but Sniper had researched burrow and NaNiWa had no detection at all. He tried to push on anyway but lost most of his army without doing much damage. This caused NaNiWa to try to take his third after all, but for what felt like a million years Sniper had a cool sneaky zergling burrowed there. And since NaNiWa had no detection this delayed his third for a while.
After this Sniper went for a heavy infestor composition. He then did a double pronged attack at both NaNiWa's natural and third and although NaNiWa defended pretty well Sniper managed to SNIPE his third (omg that's funny...).
Not having the army or map presence to move out NaNiWa started his third again. When it finished Sniper attacked it again. This time with around 25 infestors or something crazy like that.
NaNiWa had a few colossi to defend, and he controlled them really well, but Sniper had spawned the exact right amount of infested terrans and the last one of them barely managed to take out NaNiWa's third once again. This was too devastating a blow for NaNiWa and he resigned, and he will now have to battle in code A to regain his code S spot.

Sniper vs. NaNiWa = 2-0


So the last series of the day was between Heart and Sniper battling for a spot in the round of 16.
Heart took game 1 and Sniper took game 2, but unfortunately we didn't have a chance to watch those two games. Someone told us that it was actually the two closest games of the day so far, and supposedly they both went past the 20 minute mark (which was long for today's games), so we might have to check them out at some point later.

Anyway, the third and deciding set was on Entombed Valley. Heart decided that he didn't want to play another semi long game because it ain't his style man, so instead he did a proxy 2 rax and went for a bunker attack at Sniper's natural. Sniper managed to survive although he took some damage.
Knowing Hearts aggressive style, Sniper should probably have spend all his money on spines at this point. He only built one though, and Heart, being who he is, took all his SCVs and went for a final push along with a small flock of marines he had built. This was far too much for Sniper to handle and Heart took the game and the series with a smart all in.
He goes on to the round of 16 where he will get another chance to annoy a lot of good players and fans around the world with his sneaky cheeses.

Heart vs. Sniper = 2-1


So at the end of the day Squirtle and Heart moved on into what will certainly be the hardest round of 16 ever. Good luck to both of them. They will need it.
Tomorrow we get a chance to enjoy the grand old man in action. It's NESTEA, and what makes seeing him in action even nicer, is that Tastosis always lights up a bit more on days where Nestea is present.

GSL season 4 code S group E (round of 32)

BEWARE OF SPOILERS!

Today's group was the group that most people called the absolute group of death, even though there were a lot of groups fighting for that title this season.
Anyway, it was three of the absolute best Terrans in the world, MvP, MMA and TaeJa, and one of two foreigners in the GSL this season, MaNa.

First series was TaeJa vs. MaNa.
Not much to say about the series honestly. Even though MaNa probably has one of the best PvT's of all the foreigners, he was never any match for TaeJa.
MaNa did take one game of TaeJa, but that was in a weird game in which TaeJa did a 2 rax build that did no damage at all, and then decided he had to catch up by building two command centers, but MaNa had already build 4 gates so he just rolled over TaeJa.
In the Macro games however, Taeja looked very dominat.

TaeJa vs. MaNa = 2 - 1


Next series was a somewhat classic rivalry between Mvp and MMA.

First game was a game that we can definitely recommend. A 45 minute TvT, that was constantly back and forth. It was never possible to figure out who was going to take it, as both players kept sniping the other player's expansions with drops. On top of that they had almost the exact same Tank/marine type of army and army supply for most of the game.
MMA did have a secret base for most of the game though, that Mvp didn't scout until really late, and that gave MMA's economy a constant edge that eventually helped him outlast Mvp and take the game.

Second game was on Daybreak and actually even more fun to watch. Mvp invested heavily in a lot of helions, as he wanted to go mech (probably just to please Artosis). From there he went into a tank/viking/raven combination along with his helions. When MMA pushed out with marine/marauder/medivacs, Mvp had a very hard time defending. Mainly because he had built quite a lot of vikings that didn't really help him a lot. So he lost a lot of SCVs but managed to hold on. From that point on he was a bit behind but with his mech he could safely focus on his economy for a while. As MMA could not do another big push into Mvp's siege Tanks, he decided to do some drops while investing heavily in ghosts and nukes. So when Mvp was at max supply he moved out but MMA kept throwing defensive nukes which slowed Mvp's push massively, and while Mvp's mech army was in the middle of the map, MMA managed to do some quite damaging drops in Mvp's main.
MMA never managed to pull of a killer nuke, as Mvp was too careful. He did however nuke two of his own medivacs that were both full.
In the end he didn't really have any match for Mvp's army and MMA lost the game, even though he had a somewhat big lead in the beginning of the game. But we are grateful for his 20 nukes or whatever.

Third game was on Antiga Shipyard and not quite as exciting as the first two sets, but still good.
They both went for banshees, MMA's with cloak as well. Mvp on the other hand had a number of helions as well, whereas MMA only had marines. Mvp attacked with his banshee/helion combo and killed all MMA's marines and around 10-12 of MMA's workers. At the same time though MMA had his cloaked banshee in Mvp's base, and he ended up killing around the same number of SCV's as Mvp, so they ended up being pretty even.
From there on MMA continued to attack with various banshees and he did a bit damage here and there. At some point though, Mvp managed to get some helions to MMA's third expansion and kill a ton of SCVs. A bit later he even got up the ramp at MMA's main and killed a lot of SCVs again. Eventually MMA pulled all his remaining SCVs and vent for a push, but MVP had tanks in siege mode and was able to defend easily and take the series.

Mvp vs. MMA = 2-1


Next series was the winners of the first two series TaeJa and Mvp battling to claim 1st place in the group.

First game was on Abyssal city. Mvp placed a proxy barracks outside TaeJa's main but his rush failed, but he transitioned into an expansion. Around the 8.30 mark TaeJa did a 2 base push with some vikings, a banshee and some marines and he took out a lot of SCVs with the push. After Mvp held that attack TaeJa took out even more SCV's with another banshee. Mvp however, had quite greedily taken three orbitals so he wasn't exactly dead, even though he had lost so many SCVs.
Mvp did some damage with some helions, but when TaeJa moved out he simply overwhelmed Mvp because TaeJa had better upgrades and siege mode already and so forth. So it ended up feeling like the quick three bases of Mvp was simply too greedy an idea. At least against TaeJa, who doesn't really make any mistakes at the moment, so TaeJa took the game.

Second game was on daybreak. Both players went for mech. Mvp took both his natural and third a bit faster than TaeJa so he got a small economic advantage early on. TaeJa however managed to sneak in some helions at Mvp's natural and they killed around 15 SCVs.
From this point the game went into a real macro TvT. TaeJa seemed to be a bit in front of Mvp with regards to upgrades and production facilities, but at the same time they had some minor engagements that favored Mvp because TaeJa seemed a bit too eager to try and get ahead. Around the 25 minute mark the map was split in half as we have seen it on Daybreak so many times before. They both had 6 bases and both tried to transition into skyterran.
At the same time TaeJa managed to take out a billion of MVP's SCVs with helions, and when their armies met the next time TaeJa's skyforce was much bigger and he took the game and the series and moved on. In the end TaeJa never really looked threatened today and as Artosis put it: They need to put out a patch that buffs TaeJa :)

TaeJa vs. Mvp = 2-0


Third series was between MMA and MaNa but in our opinion it wasn't really a series that was that exciting, cause while we we're really cheering for MaNa, MMA actually ended outclassing him almost as bad as TaeJa did in the first series. MaNa is a great player, but GSL is a special format and he had to battle some of the most experienced GSL players.

First set was on Abyssal city. MaNa did a blink stalker build that was sort of all in. He didn't kill MMA and tried to transition. Eventually MMA crushed him looking much better in the engagements.

Second set was on Entombed valley and it was a weird and painful game to watch. MMA did a two base bio push while expanding, that did massive damage. For most of the game MMA was just in a big lead in general and it almost looked like he could have won it with one hand tied to his back.
Compared to the Up & down matches MaNa really didn't look that good overall today, and in almost all engagements he came out as the loser. Especially in this last set.
We hope that MaNa keeps believing that he has what it takes to show good results in code S, and hopefully he can return next season.

MMA vs. MaNa = 2-0


So the last series of the day was a rematch between MVP and MMA.
First set was on emtombed valley. MMA did an early push with a quick medivac, a few helions and some marines. MVP had scouted it though, and he flew his expansion into his main and build a bunker. MMA still did a bit of damage and killed some SCVs at the ramp but the game transitioned into a longer game.
MVP did a counter drop with helions in medivacs and did reasonable damage.
The game stabilized a bit after this. Around the 15 minute mark Mvp had more than twice as  many siege tanks as MMA and Mvp used this to his advantage and pulled of some beautiful engagements and brake MMA's siegelines.
MMA tried to take hidden bases and do different drops at the same time to try and get back in the game. But Mvp was on top of everything and MMA couldn't stop his army and had to GG out.

Second set was on whirlwind and a really cool game.
They tried to do some damage to each other in the early game, Mvp with helions and MMA with banshees. Neither did massive damage though.
Mvp went mech and MMA went bio as we have seen a lot of times before.
Around the 15 minute mark MMA did a beautiful 3 medivac drop at Mvp's main. He led the drop with a viking to absorb all the turret damage, which was why he could drop all the units.
Mvp did a counter drop that was also quite successful but he was still 15 SCVs behind.
From this point on the game gets really heated going back and forth all the time. A lot of position wars, most of which MVPs seems to come out of on top of.
While this goes on they continue to drop each other quite successfully. Mvp however does most damage with the drops and takes out a lot of important production facilities of MMA. Eventually Mvp does a beautiful and very nasty drop in MMA's main with a huge amount of tanks.
This is too much for MMA and Mvp takes the game and the series and moved on to the round of 16.
Must feel pretty good for Mvp to defeat MMA twice on one day, when he has had such a hard time dealing with him in the past.

MVP vs. MMA = 2 - 0

TaeJa and Mvp moves on, and this can hardly come as a surprise to anyone, as they are probably the too scariest Terrans out there at the moment.

GSL season 4 code S group C (round of 32)

SPOILERS BELOW

OMG! Today's group was MC, Jaedong, Curious and MarineKing. Another Group of horrific death.

First series of the day was MC vs. Jaedong. The most accomplished Protoss in SC2 against the most accomplished zerg in Broodwar.

First game was epic. Jaedong showed beautiful strategic skills. He build a rather big number of mutalisks, like 13, early on with the purpose of taking out MC's sentries. This worked out perfectly and Jaedong was thus able to deny MC's third for a long time simply with Zerglings.
Jaedong took the entire map and build around 35 spinecrawlers everywhere.
Unfortunately a MC on three bases is still scary as hell, even if you have the entire map. Jaedong had a billion of fully upgraded Broodlords and Infestors, but in the end MC just kept winning all the big engagements and MC was able to take the game

Second game was on whirlwind. MC did a one base push with some sentries and zealots, while expanding. It did some damage at Jaedongs natural but he actually defended pretty well.
From there on Jaedong tried to be more aggressive than he had been in game 1 by overlord dropping a lot of places with roaches. MC however kept stabilizing while secured his third as well.
When MC was at max supply he pushed out and once again he crushed Jaedong in the engagements and he won the game.

MC vs. Jaedong 2-0


The second series was between Marineking and Curious.

First game was on Emtombed Valley. Marineking went mech while actually expanded at the same rate as Curious or almost faster. He just seemed to keep building planetarys and orbitals all over the map.
Anyway. Curious never actually looked like any real kind of threat to Marineking in that game and in the end Marinekings massive amount of thors and vikings rolled over the infestors and Broodlords of Curious.

Second game was on Daybreak. Curious went for a nydus that he placed just outside of Marineking's natural. And as Marineking had his helions out on the map, Curious attacked with a number of roaches and two queens from the Nydus and he just did a ton of damage to Marineking. The rest of the game was just Marineking holding on because of his insane micro skills. But eventually Curious overwhelmed him and claimed the second game.

Third game was on Antiga Shipyard. It was a very back and forth macro game. We definitely had Marineking as the favorite to take this set, especially on that particular map. But Curious seemed to be all over the place, and not in a bad way, but in the way that zerg is supposed to be. Curious managed to do a lot of damage to Marinekings main and third with a bunch of mutas that Marineking had not expected at all or prepared for. Then later on Curious killed a billion SCVs at Marinekings third with a bunch of banelings. Marineking never caught up in supply but he stayed in the game for a long time, once again holding on with very good micro that won him most of the engagements. But Curious had taken so many bases that his brilliant economy allowed him to remax again and again.
So Curious took the series, and he showed that he certainly belongs in code S.

Curious vs. Marineking = 2-1


Third series was between the two winners, MC and Curious, for the first position in the group and a spot in the round of 16.

First game was on Antiga Shipyard and it was absolutely amazing. In fact everyone in the world should watch it right now.
We don't even know how to describe it but we will try.
It was a game in which both player looked fantastic at so many different times. For most of the game Curious was the aggressive one, and MC looked like he was far behind. But around the 25 minute mark MC attacked the fourth and the main of Curious at the same time and managed to take out the fourth and do a lot of damage in the main. Curious had all his Broodlords in the center of the map so MC really took advantage of his advantage in mobility.
However the game continued with Curious doing some great pushes. Anyway, in the end it turned into an epic basetrade where Curious finally only had a few spore crawlers left that he was moving around with his army while taking out all MC's remaining structures. MC tried to snipe the spores but he couldn't, and Curious took the game when he killed MC's last pylon.

Second game was on Cloud Kingdom. MC did a very cool greedy opening (Nexus, Gateway, forge) upon scouting that Curious was once again doing a greedy 3 quick hatcheries build again. At some point MC did a classic MC 2 base push with sentries/stalkers/zealots on the third base of Curious. Curious decided to do a counter push with zerglings and mutas because he felt like he could hold his third with a number of spines. He suddenly realized that he couldn't though so he turned around to defend. MC however took out the third with no problem and went for the natural. He couldn't break this however and he lost most of his army.
This also meant he didn't have any defense against the Mutas of Curious, and thus they managed to take out MC's main and a lot of his gateways and pylons. From this point on MC was far behind and even though there was a long period where he showed some superb Phoenix micro against Mutas, he eventually lost because Curious was far ahead in economy and supply. So Curious took the series and a surprising first place in the group.

Curious vs. MC = 2-0


Fourth series was between the losers of the first two games, Marineking and Jaedong who had to battle for the chance to take on MC for the second spot in the round of 16.

The first game was Antiga Shipyard once again. Jaedong invested heavily in mutas which turned out to be a good idea if you are Jaedong and known as the best muta user ever. Marineking went Mech and Jaedong just used the mobility of his mutas and managed to kill a billion SCVs. Eventually his economy was just so much better than Marinekings that he could overrun him.

Second set was on entombed Valley. Marineking build 2 proxy barracks but Jaedong scouted them. This caused Marineking to bring all his SCVs in an attack. He placed a bunker by Jaedongs natural and Marineking simply handled the situation much better than Jaedong and MKP defended the aggressive bunker perfectly. Eventually Jaedong had lost too many drones and zerglings, and was going to lose his natural so Marineking took the set.

Third set was on Daybreak. It was a really close game with a lot of good engagements on both parts. Marineking managed to get his third up and running relatively fast without getting bothered. But then Jaedong did quite a lot of damage with his mutas in Marinekings main again.
Eventually Marineking did a big push with tanks/marines/medivacs and Jadong decided to counterpush. It turned into a basetrade where they both lost practically all structures. In the end though Jaedong only had a few buildings left so he tried to attack Marinekings army with a lot of banelings that was all he had left. But Marinekings marine splitting was perfect and he took the game and the series, and with that knocked Jaedong into the up and down matches.
Jaedong however has proved that he is certainly close to matching the best players in SC2 in skill.

Marineking vs. Jaedong = 2-1


So last series of the day was Marineking against MC. On paper a match that could have easily been a final in any GSL.
First set was on Ohana and Marineking did a 1 base all in push with tanks and marines. MC however held it and this gave him a big lead as he was on two bases. Marineking did manage to transition a bit out of it and expand. MC however was constantly 20 supply ahead of him and when they finally engaged again MC had a number of colossi that just tore Marinekings army apart. So MC took the first set.

Second set was on Antiga Shipyard. It was a weird game. MC did a very defensive build that never really seemed to make any sense. He didn't really do a serious push, but at the same time allowed Marineking to take his third way before himself so MC just got far behind.
And MC never really recovered from this. So Marineking got a win that in reality seemed to spring out of MC never really knowing what he wanted to do in that set.

Third set was even weirder. Marineking went for helions plus cloaked banshees. MC however scouted the factory and went for early starport, and then a robotics bay which was of course the perfect counter. He build around 4 phoenixes and went to marinekings base to do some damage. The problem was that he for some odd reason cancelled his robo, and then restarted it too late. So when Marineking's cloacked banshee arrived there was no defense and it killed around 15 probes.
After that MC wanted to transition into Colossus tech, but instead of a robotics support bay, he accidentally build another robotics bay, which was of course absolutely useless when marineking eventually pushed with tanks and bio units. Especially since MC didn't have the economy to support immortal production on both bays. So he lost the game and the series due to a number of strange mistakes that didn't look like something one usually sees from MC. Maybe he was tired at this point or maybe he was out spending some of all his money on drugs and strippers the night before, who knows?
Anyway, Marineking moved on, even though his play today didn't look like some of the best play he has shown. All in all it actually felt like MC was a better player today, but he just fell apart in the last two games, which was of course pretty unfortunate for him.

Marineking vs. MC = 2-1


So it was Curious & Marineking that moved on from today's group, but we feel that both MC and Jaedong will be definitely be back in code S next season.

GSL code S round of 32 - group B

BEWARE OF SPOILERS

Group B in Code S round of 32 was played today, and it was another sick group. It consisted of Symbol, Yoda, Ryung and Hero. Based on their current form Symbol and Hero were probably favorites (and also two of the Starcraft Stalkers absolute favorite players atm), but Yoda and especially Ryung can show some really scary terran skill and beat most players on a good day.


First series was Symbol vs. Yoda.

Symbol took the first game on Daybreak. It was a macro game in which Symbol got to choose the exact late unit combination that he wanted. And in the final engagement around the 25 minute mark Symbol's typical heavy Ultra focused army supported by a billion banelings crushed Yoda's forces.

In the beginning of the second game, which was on Ohana, Symbol once again looked in control, but Yoda did a small poke that did a lot more damage that he had expected. On top of that Yoda played great in general and showed some really good micro and marine splitting against Symbol's banelings. In the end Yoda even dropped manner mules as he won that game.

The third and deciding match was quite insane to watch. Most of the game Yoda was playing better in the sense that he was successfully attacking a lot of places at once, while symbol didn't show his usual flawless play at all. Like for instance not handling helion harass very good nor dealing properly with Yoda's drop play later on either. On top of them he had a number of burrowed banelings that Yoda's massive marine army kept walking over. But Symbol never noticed and thus missed the opportunity to gain a massive lead in an instant.
Yet in the end Symbol was just so good at handling his economy. He never spend any resources on things that might not be needed. Like too many spines or spores. And then when they finally had an engagement it was a massive ultralisk/infestor/baneling/zergling vs tank/marine fight at the 20 minute mark in which Symbol just engaged perfectly and crushed Yodas army.
And that was it, and symbol took the series, which was fair considering he generally looked like the better player, especially in all the big engagements.  

Symbol vs. Yoda = 2-1


Second series was Ryung vs. Hero.

In the first game on antiga shipyard Hero showed some of the masterful sneaky strategy that he is so well known for. First of all he hid his second pylon in the beginning so that when Ryung scouted he noticed it missing and starting scouting everywhere on the map for proxy something. Instead Hero just expanded and then after a while he followed up with a fake two base all in with a few colossi. And although it wasn't actually an all in he still managed to do a lot of damage and deny Ryung's third and kill a lot of his SCVs. Meanwhile Hero took his third and then he pretty boldly decided just to stay on colossus tech even though Ryung had already seen them and had therefore started his viking production.
Hero however knew he was ahead and was thus confident he could stay ahead. So when he finally attacked he was at max supply and Ryung was only at 170/200. At the same time Hero had so many colossi that he just tore Ryung's bio army apart while killing his vikings with stalkers. So hero took the game.

The second game on Ohana was weird. Ryung took an early hidden third base that Hero never scouted. Hero pushed at Ryungs natural with speed zealots and storm, while taking his own third. Ryung managed to drop Heros third at the same time and deny it for a little while. However Heros push at Ryungs natural did massive damage mostly because Ryung didn't raise his supply depots in front of the natural. So Hero got in there with all his zealots and also landed great storms.
At this point Hero felt he was way in front because he thought Ryung had only been on two bases. So Hero did some pushes that were a bit too risky and threw some units away he thought he could afford to lose. But since Ryung had had a hidden base all the time where he had dropped all his mules he ended up overrunning Hero with too many stimmed biounits and some really good ghost play.

The third game was on cloud kingdom and very back and forth game. Most interesting thing was that Hero infested heavily on DTs throughout the entire game. And there was never a moment where he actually did significant damage with them. But he kept forcing Ryung to use scans instead of mules, and he kept putting DTs at expansions and delaying them. In the end what actually won Hero the game was some epic money storms on Ryung's vikings. Since Ryung didn't have two starports he couldn't reproduce vikings fast enough, And in the final engagement Heros collusi simply melted Ryung's army.

Hero vs. Ryung = 2-1


Third series was the winners Symbol and Hero facing of for the first spot in the round of 16.

First game was on Ohana. Hero did a FFE, while at the same time managing to cannon rush and kill Symbol's third base. That gave Hero a massive lead. The rest of the game was basically Symbol on the defense. Hero did a sentry drop in Symbols main that did a lot of damage and some other pretty successful pokes. For a while symbol held on but in the end Hero overpowered him.

The second game was on antiga shipyard. In this game Hero did a two base immortal/sentry push. Once again he tried to be sneaky and pretended to take a third base. Symbol however did scout it so he knew the attack was coming on his own third base. Symbol realised that he wouldnt be able to stop the sentries and immortals from killing his third so he decided to do a counter push with a huge number of zerglings. Hero on the other hand had prepared perfectly for this.
He had expected Symbol to do that and had placed 4 perfect cannons at his natural so Symbols zerglings could do nothing and they had to turn around.
So hero managed to kill Symbols third, and then he went home and expanded. A while later a similar situation happened again. Hero went for Symbols third, that he had rebuilt. Symbol decided to counter push on Heroes third, but this as well was perfectly defended. So hero took out Symbols third but Symbol couldn't take out Hero's. So Hero's economy was simply better.
Eventually Symbol secured his third with infestors and spinecrawlers. This mean symbol got the economy he needed so he could go into broodlords.
At the 30 minute mark Symbol was on 3 bases and Hero was on 5 bases.  They were both maxed and Symbol engaged with infestors and broodlords against a mothership supported army. Symbol got ahead in supply during the engagement, but in the end Symbol didnt have the economy to build up a new army. And Hero crushed him in the next engagement with good storms and a bigger army.
So Hero took the series and qualified for the round of 16 by showing play that just seemed more well prepared than that of Symbol.

Hero vs. Symbol = 2-0


The fourth series was a TvT between the losers of the first two games, Ryung and Yoda.

First game was a very long and classic macro TvT game on ohana. It was a back and forth game in which Yoda ended up with quite a lot of battlecruisers.
At the 40 minute game Yoda finally outlasted Ryung and Yoda thus took the first game.

The second game was on entombed valley a bit shorter but as it was still a TvT it still ended up being about 28 min. long. Ryung won it even though he was behind in most of the game. His fantastic comeback however was mainly due to very good engagements and efficient drops on Ryung's part.

The third and final game was on cloud kingdom, and it was another macro game but this time a mere 24 min. TvT game.
In this game Ryung went mech and Yoda went bio. And although Artosis as usual made fun through the entire game about all the bio supporters out there, it was the bio player that eventually won because of the infamous advantage in mobility that bio always provides in this matchup. So Yoda won the game and the series, once again proving that the SC2 players are still not so flawless in their play that mech beats bio every time. Which is essentially what Artosis and many others argue it eventually will since the bio player usually only comes out on top because he can effectively punish the mech player's mistakes.

Yoda vs. Ryung = 2-1


So the final series of the night ended up being the same as the first as Symbol had to battle Yoda again to see who could claim the final spot in the round of 16.
The first game was on cloud kingdom and Symbol did a 2 base roach, baneling cheese. Yoda had expanded, while going helion and building a third expansion in his main. And although he managed to get a few banshees out Symbol killed around 35 SCVs with the attack and Yoda had to GG thus providing a very quick win to Symbol in the first game.

The second game was on ohana. This turned out to be a pretty long and weird game. They both pretty much got the 3 base economy that they wanted without getting disturbed much except for some minor drops by Yoda. It was Symbol however that seemed to take control of the map and it looked like he was simply aware of everything. At some point Yoda went for a big push, and Symbol decided to counter push. Yoda's push did massive damage and he killed Symbols natural and a lot of important tech in his main. A the same time Symbol's counter push failed miserably mainly because he attacked into a lot of wellplaced defensive tanks. At this point Tastelesss declared the game to be over, but Symbol had another opinion on that matter. And since he was still fully saturated on his third and fourth he tried to fight back with all his might, and he did so with brilliant infestor play. And eventually he managed to overwhelm Yoda with perfect fungals, leaving Yoda's bioarmy as sitting ducks for Symbol's ultralisks.
So Symbol took the final series of the night and in the end it was the two favorites Hero and Symbol that took the two spots for a round of 16. This season's round of 16 is already looking to be absolutely insane and we can't wait for it.

Symbol vs. Yoda = 2-0

 All in all an awesome day with many great and long games that ended up lasting something like 6 hours in total. A lot of work for poor old Tasteless and Artosis :)

GSL Season 4 groups

So the code S groups for GSL season 4 has been announced and there is definitely a potential for some epic matches in the group play.

Check the groups out here!

There are two foreigners competing this season and they are both protoss. Naniwa of course was automatically qualified as he made it to the round of 8 last season, and Mana was seeded into the up and down matches by the GSL, where he managed to impress and claim his spot in the code s.
Unfortunately for Mana he has ended up in the absolute group of death.
It's group E, and besides MaNa it consists of TaeJa, Mvp and MMA. They are without a doubt 3 of the bests Terrans in the world. In fact, TaeJa and Mvp are probably the two bests Terrans in the world right now so this group will be nasty indeed.
MaNa does however have a very strong PvT so maybe he can perform a miracle and move on.
We will be cheering for him.

The tournament starts tomorrow with group A, consisting of Seed, SoHoSin, Leenock and Parting. With Seed being the GSL champion and Leenock being the MLG champion we have these two as favourites, but Parting and SoHoSin certainly won't make it easy for them.
Let's see who grabs the first two spots in the round of 16.