GSL 3 Round of 32 Day 2

NewDawn (Z) vs BitByBitPrimeWE (T)
Match Rating: 4/10
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Game 1 - Steppes of War

Wall-in at the bottom of the ramp by BitByBit, 10 hatch, 10 pool for NewDawn

Second barracks in the main for BitByBit

Two barracks wall-in on the bottom of NewDawn's ramp

Zerglings out quickly thanks to the early hatch and take out the bunkers and marines with a little drone help

Zerglings counter to BitByBit but of course he's walled in

BitByBit adds two more barracks, spine crawler for NewDawn

All the SCVs and marines head out to the Zerg base, two more spine crawlers coming

Way too many marines for NewDawn to possibly hold them off, they kill the spine crawlers easily

NewDawn concedes

The interesting build order from NewDawn allowed him to hold off the initial wave, but with his low drone count there was no stopping the second one

Game 2 - Shakuras Plateau

Top positions, NewDawn at 2 and BitByBit at 10

Standard opening for BitByBit, NewDawn goes hatch first at 15

Early double gas into two port banshee by BitByBit, lair and spine crawler for NewDawn

Hellion gets into BitByBit's main, a scouting overlord spots the two starports

Spire starts for NewDawn, two banshees on the way to NewDawn's expansion

Three queens are out and kill one of the banshees, the other goes to the main

The queens relocate and kill it there

No more banshees for BitByBit, he's switching to vikings

The vikings start picking off overlords, mutalisks are out

Zergling speed starts for NewDawn, yes, it's that late

Three mutas are out and go scouting, but the vikings pick off one of them

NewDawn switching to roaches rather than mass up mutalisks

BitByBit gets two more banshees and two dropships to go with a small marine/marauder clump

SCVs join BitByBit's army as it enters NewDawn's base

The SCVs tank damage from the roaches while the marines cut through zerglings and mutalisks

Vikings land as well to join the fight

BitByBit wins the battle and kills most of NewDawn's drones before reinforcements manage to finish off his army

NewDawn tries to rebuild a defense, but BitByBit sends another ten SCVs with a second wave of marines

BitByBit's army arrives while NewDawn is repositioning spine crawlers and rolls over the defenses

NewDawn surrenders

Despite crushing BitByBit's attempted banshee harassment, NewDawn's build order simply was not safe against a one base infantry attack

Commentary: Pretty disappointing match, frankly. BitByBit hasn't looked impressive in either of his matches. It's one thing for him to beat HayprO with a newly popularized rush, but somehow NewDawn didn't seem ready for one base infantry play after seeing the round of 64.

TSLFruitDealer (Z) vs sCfOu (T)
Match Rating: 6/10
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Game 1 - Xel'Naga Caverns

Hatch first on 15 for FruitDealer, two barracks for sC

The first marine comes with three SCVs to attack, two of the SCVs make bunkers

Drones attack the marine while FruitDealer's initial zerglings attack the bunkers

The drones kill the initial marine with a surround and the zerglings clear the bunkers

The marines retreat

sC builds a command center at his natural as well as two more barracks

FruitDealer takes a third base

sC moves out with fifteen marines and three SCVs, sniping overlords as he goes

Speed isn't done, baneling nest just finished, but the marines are in FruitDealer's natural

No banelings yet for FruitDealer, the marines do enormous damage before finally being cleaned up

sC builds a bunker just in case, but it's 27 SCVs to 18 drones

FruitDealer morphs about ten banelings, escorted with 10 speedlings

The banelings attack and destroy one of the bunkers, plenty of marines, but the speedlings have to retreat

Three full bunkers for sC, three zerglings for FruitDealer, though he shifts and produces 18 zerglings

Stim and shields coming for sC, no tech for FruitDealer

FruitDealer clears the rocks at the gold and takes it, upgrading out of an evolution chamber but there's no othe rtech

sC sends his marine/marauder army to FruitDealer's third and kills it, but FruitDealer evacuates all the drones before thhey arrive

FruitDealer morphs some banelings and attacks sC's army while he apparently is not watching...all the marines die

Zerglings surround the marauders and kill them easily, drones from the fallen third have moved to FruitDealer's gold

Dropship moves out counterclockwise but FruitDealer spots it, another dropship with marines going the other way

sC's main army moves up toward the gold

The gold gets destroyed but banelings obliterate sC's army

Drops in FruitDealer's main and natural force him to pull back much of his forces, sniping the baneling nest

A drop at the gold forces FruitDealer to cancel his replacement hatchery

Just too many dropships around the map for FruitDealer to deal with

Mutalisks out for FruitDealer picking off medivacs, but inattention allows half of them to be killed by marines

sC floats a command center to his gold base, FruitDealer tries to take a third yet again

Mutas and marines go around the Terran army and do some minor damage in the main base

Desperate harassment from mutalisks at sC's gold and expansion, but he's down by 50 supply

sC finally gets his army out to FruitDealer's third and kills it easily, then moves into the expansion

FruitDealer counters and destroys the planetary expansion out of spite, then concedes

FruitDealer's build order couldn't cope with sC's two barracks rush, and although sC could have ended the game sooner with more aggression his conservative approach still earned him a dominating victory

Game 2 - Steppes of War

FruitDealer sends two drones to sC's base and harasses the SCV building the barracks

sC pulls SCVs to fend them off, FruitDealer gets a second hatchery in the left center expansion

Two barracks build for sC, marines poke toward FruitDealer's base but pull back

Roach warren out for FruitDealer, no queen yet

sC expands to his natural, pokes and spots the first few roaches, then puts a bunker in front of his natural

FruitDealer getting speed and does a round of drones

sC sitting back and making bunkers, FruitDealer takes a third at sC's gold base

An SCV scouts FruitDealer's second base, sC getting siege mode

FruitDealer getting lair, morphing banelings

sC begins a bunker push under siege tank cover, FruitDealer getting a spire

sC tries to go up to FruitDealer's gold base but zerglings hold them off

Zerglings slip in behind the push and try to snipe tanks but fail

Some mutalisks come out and snipe two tanks near the gold

sC moves up into the gold but banelings and mutalisks crush it

Now there are no marines, the mutalisks start rampaging through the many tanks sieged up in the middle of the map

One, two, three, four tanks are killed, still nothing to stop the mutalisks

sC concedes

Wild build order from FruitDealer, but it was his calm and composed defense of the tank/bunker push that won him the game

Game 3 - Delta Quadrant

Cross positions, FruitDealer at 7 and sC at 2

Hatch on 14 for FruitDealer, double barracks for sC

The first marine heads to the watch tower with two SCVs, waits and is joined by another marine

Four marines and two SCVs now heading into FruitDealer's natural

More marines come, but FruitDealer brings lings and a number of drones and kills all but one of them, albeit paying a high price to do so

Command center built for sC, marines clearing the rocks at the back natural

Zerglings hit the rocks at FruitDealer's gold base, zergling speed finally starts

Baneling nest for FruitDealer, stim for sC

FruitDealer takes the gold base, sC getting shields

Lair starts for FruitDealer

sC moves out with a large infantry army, FruitDealer morphing twenty banelings

Massive battle in the center of the map, sC's marine micro is good but there are so many banelings sC's army is crushed

FruitDealer clears the rocks at another gold base, starts baneling speed

sC moves out with marauders, marines, and SCVs, but burrowed banelings kill the marines

More banelings kill the SCVs and then zerglings swarm the surviving marauders

sC surrenders

For someone relying on pure infantry against mid-game Zerg, sC's marine micro wasn't sharp enough. Full credit to FruitDealer for picking the right corners to cut.

Commentary: FruitDealer won GSL 1 by cutting corners and skimping on units at carefully chosen points in games. Foxer made him pay for it in GSL 2. He did it yet again today and sC couldn't find the weak points. Admittedly this may have been a reaction to the maps, but against better players FruitDealer will have to use safer strategies. sC wasn't horrible but he clearly isn't a top tier Terran at the moment.

LiquidRet (Z) vs TheBestfOu (T)
Match Rating: 6/10
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Game 1 - Metalopolis

Cross positions, Ret at 9 and TheBest at 3.

Hatch first for Ret on 15, one barracks expansion for TheBest

Factory now for TheBest, zergling speed for Ret

Three factories for TheBest, lair for Ret

Hellions and blue flame for TheBest, baneling nest now for Ret, then spire

Ret scouts the factories with an overlord and makes a roach warren

Five blue flame hellions on the way to Ret's base, only queens to defend for Ret

Ret spreads his drones and puts them on hold position, then cleans up the hellions

A second wave comes in but roaches are out and they do almost nothing

Third base is up and running for Ret, thor out for TheBest

Ret takes a fourth base, then starts hive

TheBest sends an SCV, probably to expand, but Ret is dropping creep at every expansion

TheBest starts to move out with four thors, about seven tanks, and SCVs

Greater spire and drop research under way for Ret

Ret thinks about countering but siege tanks are there to defend

The roaches move in and sandwich TheBest's army

Many tanks die, but three are left plus several thors and some marines, but brood lords are out

Thors under attack from brood lords are bottlenecked at the ramp

Queens transfuse the brood lords as TheBest tries to attack the brood lords

In the resulting battle only two brood lords survive but Ret makes more near his third

TheBest is at a supply deficit and almost his entire army is tanks now, still on two bases

Brood lord / roach army for Ret, not many vikings for TheBest

Three vikings are escorting TheBest's army now but corruptors repel them

TheBest tries to land a command center at the gold but there's creep there

Ret expanding again, brood lords moving into the gold base

Vikings try to attack the brood lords but corruptors kill them

Roach drop in TheBest's main at the production facilities forcing TheBest to move his army back

Roaches move into the gold and forces the command center to lift, 200 to 100 supply now for Ret

TheBest tries to move out again and roaches surround the army

"Vikings not very good against roaches!" Tactical advice from Artosis as the army melts

TheBest concedes

I think Ret's macro and unit composition was enough to earn a victory, but TheBest didn't help his cause with his disastrous attempts to attack the brood lords up Ret's ramp

Game 2 - Steppes of War

Hatch first on 14 for Ret, standard opening from TheBest

Ret steals the gas and patrols a drone at the bottom of his ramp

A marine comes down and harasses the drone, forces drones to come off and fight

TheBest even starts a depot, though of course Ret doesn't let it finish

TheBest finally gets his second gas, has a hellion out

Ret has a spine crawler at his natural, starport up for TheBest making a dropship

Baneling nest for Ret, TheBest moves out with marines, hellions, and a medivac

Ret morphs four banelings and attacks down the ramp, killing some marines, but others are picked up

After some heavy drone losses, Ret forces TheBest to retreat

50 to 43 supply lead for TheBest but he's only on one base and only has a three worker lead

Two port banshees, blue flame research, and hellion drop coming from TheBest

TheBest shows the hellions and moves the dropship around to encourage roaches

Three banshees out and heading for Ret's base

The banshees kill two queens before Ret can transfuse

Ret concedes

Good build by TheBest that took my advice (one game too late) to put the pressure on Ret and not allow his macro to take off

Game 3 - Jungle Basin

Hatch first on 15 for Ret, standard opening for TheBest

Roach warren for Ret, quick starport for TheBest and a reactor on his factory

Concussive shells upgrading for TheBest, two hellions on the way as well

Lair coming for Ret

The Best moves out with marauder/hellion, Ret makes a spine crawler at his ramp

Queens shoot down the medivac but the hellions and marauders move into his main

Ret target fires the hellions while making a huge round of zerglings

The speedlings clean up the army, but a viking is killing overlords since the queens are dead

Finally the viking is driven out after killing five overlord

Ret making several spine crawlers and teching to lair, stim being researched by TheBest

TheBest still on one base, hellions poke but pull back from the spine crawlers

Spire on the way as well as banelings, TheBest moves out

Dropship puts the hellions in the expansion and attacks the front with his marauder/marine

The two spine crawlers take a heavy toll on TheBest's units before going down

Drones move out to help against the last few marauders

Reinforcements come in and in a long, running battle wear down Ret's supply count

Ret surrenders

A valiant effort from Ret but the combination of build order and micro from TheBest was too much on these maps.

Commentary: In a macro game Ret seemed like he was the better player, although not like a large margin. The map lineup was unforgiving for Ret's style, but it took some creative builds and long micro battles before TheBest actually scraped out the wins. I was especially impressed by the viking to kill overlords after the queens died...this was the first time I'd seen that little move. Without it Ret would probably have held off the rush in game 3.

HongUnPrimeWE (P) vs JSLZenith (T)
Match Rating: 4/10
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Game 1 - Lost Temple

Close air positions, HongUn at 9 and JSL at 6

Standard opening for HongUn, tech lab and then scouting reaper for JSL

Second barracks as well for JSL, expansion at about 21 for HongUn

Scout reaper is killed by JSL, command center started in the main for JSL

Bunker at the expansion choke for JSL, three gate robotics for HongUn

Stim and a factory for JSL, a fourth gateway for HongUn

Robotics support bay for HongUn, starport coming for JSL

Thermal lance for HongUn, JSL clears the destructible rocks

JSL getting a second starport after seeing the colossus

HongUn's army is at his natural but JSL drops two dropships worth of marauders

Kills several pylons, supply blocking HongUn, then retreats just as HongUn's army arrives

HongUn starts to move out but JSL drops his main again, forcing the colossus to come back

HongUn's army moves down to JSL's choke but there are about 10 vikings out for JSL

Not a lot of ground units to help the vikings, HongUn moves into JSL's main

JSL tries to drop HongUn again but HongUn has a few zealots and stalkers there to clean it up

JSL lands his vikings but he simply doesn't have enough ground units to stop the stalkers

JSL concedes

Although HongUn went colossus he had plenty of stalkers with them, and in retrospect JSL made too many vikings and not enough infantry.

Game 2 - Delta Quadrant

Cross positions, HongUn at 10 and JSL at 7

Standard opening from HongUn, two barracks and scout reaper for JSL

Stargate for HongUn, scouted by the reaper as it makes a phoenix

HongUn starts working on the rocks at his back natural, command center up for JSL

JSL floating to his front expansion, builds a turret in his mineral line

Two phoenixes arrive but one of them dies to marines and a turret

Ghost academy and sheilds for JSL, three phoenixes harassing now

One of the phoenixes dies as they try to continue harassing

Fleet beacon for HongUn, who said in interviews he wanted to make carriers in the GSL

JSL moves about a dozen marines and a few marauders to the front

A second reaper scouts and spots a second stargate, JSL getting a nuke

Carriers on the way for HongUn, air weapons upgrade

JSL getting cloak and vikings

Two carriers out, many vikings coming for JSL

JSL nukes the front of the ramp, forcing HongUn to pull back

JSL's army moves up, gets brutally force fielded, then flanked by carriers

The stalkers and carriers annihilate JSL's army

HongUn's army moves to JSL's natural and rolls over the few reinforcements there

JSL surrenders

HongUn delivered on his promise to build carriers and, er, they looked pretty good. JSL had a lot of vikings but it didn't seem to matter.

Commentary: This was one of my four games to watch in the round of 32, but it didn't quite play out like I expected. JSL looked nothing like a player capable of beating Nada and Kyrix, but perhaps TvP is his weakest matchup. Game 1 was entirely forgettable and game 2 almost was as well, but HongUn saved the day by going two base carrier.

GSL 3 Round of 64: Day 1

FnaticSen (Z) vs IMNesTea (Z)
Match Rating: 7/10

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Game 1 - Lost Temple

Close ground positions, NesTea at 9 and Sen at 12

Both players go hatch first, NesTea gets gas before pool, Sen does not

Speed researching for NesTea, baneling nest coming for Sen

Four banelings coming for Sen into the natural with zerglings

Long series of battles between zerglings and Sen's banelings

Sen gets a zergling advantage from the banelings, NesTea counters to Sen's base

Only four lings get in Sen's main but he ably kills them with drones

Sen's zerglings establish a position at NesTea's natural hatch and fight another series of battles against the speedlings

Finally the hatch falls after a long series of battles, but NesTea now has a lot of banelings

Sen pulls back to his natural, the NesTea's banelings kill most of Sen's zerglings

Sen fights off the remaining lings, but he doesn't see a few banelings morphing in his own main and they kill about half his drones

NesTea attacks with banelings into Sen's natural and kills all of Sen's zerglings

NesTea's drone advantage means he can stream speedlings and banelings into Sen's base, Sen doesn't have enough to defend his drones

Sen concedes

Sen almost won, but his zergling micro against the banelings wasn't nearly as sharp as NesTea's and that made the difference.

Game 2 - Scrap Station

Both players hatch first on 15, then gas before pool, identical builds so far though Sen is about two seconds ahead

Both players getting two queens and zergling speed now

NesTea getting a roach warren, Sen pumping zerglings

Much later roach warren for Sen

Sen's speedlings go to pressure but NesTea has five roaches at the choke

Sen hits the rocks and then when NesTea tries to respond he runs by into the main

Snipes a queen and a roach

NesTea sends his roaches through the rocks between bases

Sen sneaks some speedlings into the natural and kills a few drones

14 roaches and 42 zerglings for NesTea, 17 roaches for Sen to defend

NesTea's huge amount of speedlings get into Sen's main

The army of seedlings takes Sen's main hatch to half health, then attacks Sen's roaches

With reinforcements Sen manages to clean up NesTea's army

Sen counters to NesTea's natural and picks off drones as they withdraw

Large roach/ling battle fought at NesTea's natural, Sen wins, just barely

A round of zerglings from NesTea kills Sen's surviving roaches

With no queens, Sen doesn't have the larva to rebuild his army

Sen surrenders

Another extremely close game that was balanced on a knife-edge.

Commentary: I wasn't quite as impressed with Sen's first game as Artosis was...it seemed like Sen lost way too many zerglings to banelings. However, in the second game I didn't see anything wrong with Sen's play. Although they did somewhat different builds, there didn't seem to be any real build order advantage to either player in either game. Instead, NesTea won because he had slightly better tactical sense. In each game he and Sen had periods of dominance, and each time NesTea managed to convert his moments of ascendancy into a lasting advantage.

LittleBoy (T) vs MakaPrimeWE (T)
Match Rating: 5/10

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Game 1 - Delta Quadrant

Lower positions, LittleBoy at 7 and Maka at 4

Standard openings for both players, Maka getting a bunker

LittleBoy building his factory in a proxy location, probably to float to Maka's natural

LittleBoy also gets a bunker, then a starport, making a hellion from his factory in Maka's natural

Maka scouts it and partially walls off the ramp, then takes out the hellion with marines

LittleBoy floats his factory back, getting banshee and cloak

Maka getting two vikings, another banshee coming for LittleBoy

The banshee comes in but marines are ready, the vikings come down but it takes two scans to kill it

The second banshee arrives and this time Maka is out of scan energy

Many SCVs go down before Maka gets a turret up, the banshee withdraws just as its energy runs out

Maka has air superiority with four vikings, but he has a lot less SCVs from the banshee harassment

Maka now has a banshee and is researching cloak, LittleBoy gets his expansion going about a minute before Maka's

Maka moves out with his army and sieges up near LittleBoy's natural

LittleBoy's army is a fair amount larger, however, and he just walks down and kills Maka's army

Maka has to move his command center back, LittleBoy's army walks up into Maka's main and wrecks havoc

Maka cleans it up but LittleBoy has a huge SCV advantage now

LittleBoy attacks again, but his marines die and Maka's banshee then allows him to hold

Maka is sending more banshees for further harassment, but LittleBoy does a decent job holding them off

Maka moves his expansion command center to his back natural

Maka sends a dropship out with marines to LittleBoy's base

LittleBoy has a viking and cleans everything up easily

LittleBoy drops Maka's expansion with marines but gets repelled pretty easily

LittleBoy still at a substantial SCV and supply advantage

Two dropships load up with marauders and tanks and head toward the high ground

Despite Maka's sieged tanks, LittleBoy manages to get forces on the high ground and force Maka to move back

LittleBoy clearing the rocks at the gold, floats a command center there and transfers SCVs

Maka drops the gold base and forces LittleBoy to stop mining for about thirty seconds

Maka comes back and kills most of the SCVs at the gold

LittleBoy thinks about doing a massive drop on Maka but changes his mind

Maka tries to hit the gold base a third time but this time a viking catches it

LittleBoy seems to lose patience and just attacks into Maka's sieged tanks, gets crushed

Maka takes the gold and tries to take a fourth as well, but LittleBoy drops it and forces a cancel

LittleBoy takes his fourth, Maka drops it and LittleBoy's main at the same time

Maka double expands up the map, keeps trying to drop but LittleBoy defends pretty well

LittleBoy is maxed and banking a lot of resources, he attacks Maka's new bases but Maka wins the battle

Maka moves into LittleBoy's mining bases, now with a substantial lead

LittleBoy concedes

LittleBoy had the advantage for most of the game, but didn't seem to have the patience or subtlety to handle the positional game that TvT requires.

Game 2 - Xel'Naga Caverns

Standard openings for both players, gas into factory

Hellion and then starport for LittleBoy, Maka has a bunker and starport

Vikings again for Maka, banshee and cloak for LittleBoy

Maka sends his vikings to likely banshee approach paths, but they miss LittleBoy's first banshee

The banshee arrives but is driven off by the next to vikings, though two scans are required

Just like last game, the second banshee arrives and Maka doesn't have energy for more scans

Massive SCV carnage, 32 SCVs to 12 now

Maka moves out with two tanks and a handful of marines, then sieges up at one of the chokepoints outside LittleBoy's natural

Maka has a lot of vikings but otherwise is hugely outnumbered

LittleBoy attacks with his superior numbers and SCVs, but Maka takes most of LittleBoy's army out

Maka floats a command center to his natural, then changes his mind when he sees LittleBoy's forces approaching

LittleBoy setting up a command center near the gold, Maka sends a banshee to LittleBoy's base to harass

The banshee takes out lots of LittleBoy's SCVs, and now Maka has a significant SCV advantage

LittleBoy knows he's in trouble and sends his army up Maka's ramp

Maka wasn't sieged and takes a lot of damage, but he does hold in the end

LittleBoy surrenders

They did the same builds as the previous game, and Maka made the same mistake and ended up in the same disadvantage, but LittleBoy squandered his lead a different way this time.

Commentary: It's surprising to see Maka take huge damage from a pretty standard banshee build not just once but twice. After that, however, he was clearly the better player. LittleBoy looked good at times, but in truth his advantages were more from Maka's mistakes. LittleBoy seems promising but he has a lot to learn about how to properly play TvT.

GoldenfoU (Z) vs STGgoBooGie (P)
Match Rating: 4/10

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Game 1 - Steppes of War

Golden puts a hatchery near the upper watchtower, then gets an evolution chamber in his main

He cancels the evolution chamber and gets a pool instead. Interesting. Mistake?

Now with two hatches and a queen at the proxy hatch, he streams zerglings down to GgoBooGie's ramp

GgoBooGie has the top of his ramp walled off with a zealot

The zerglings attack the zealot and not the walling builds, a sentry comes out meanwhile

The queen arrives and forces the sentry back, the zealot dies but another zealot gets in position

Golden concedes

I know Zergs don't think they can win on Steppes of War, but that was an absurd rush.

Game 2 - Scrap Station

Pylon then gateway on the low ground for GgoBooGie, quick scout, gas, then pool for GgoBooGie

The early scout steals GgoBooGie's second gas

Speed researching for Golden, GgoBooGie uses four probes and a zealot to get his second gas

Golden expands, GgoBooGie gets a stargate

Void ray now for GgoBooGie while Golden gets a roach warren

No second void ray, gets a twilight council instead, meanwhile the void way arrives at Golden's main

It kills the queen there and then withdraws, blink researching for GgoBooGie, lair done for Golden

Hydralisk den and spore colony for Golden

Proxy pylon near Golden's natural, the stalkers enter and kill a few drones

Only a few hydras and a queen to defend against a dozen stalkers and a void ray

More hydras come but of course stalkers are warping in behind

Golden still holding, the stalkers are getting weak

Now the stalkers get a numerical advantage and kill the hatchery

The stalkers move into Golden's base, drones come out but you can't surround blink stalkers

Golden surrenders

Surprisingly easy victory for STGgoBooGie, his build was timed out very well.

Commentary: fOu has been impressing people in GSL 3, but this was not their finest hour. It's hard to say if the cheese on Steppes would have worked, but the execution by Golden was ruinous. In the second game he at least lost to a pretty clever build by GgoBooGie. Still, GgoBooGie has to be relieved he was able to advance so easily.

NsPGenius (P) vs TSLRain (T)
Match Rating: 5/10

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Game 1 - Jungle Basin

Standard opening for Genius, Rain hides an SCV in Genius' natural

Second barracks in Genius's natural, so far Genius hasn't spotted it

Genius sends a probe to scout and spots the proxy barracks and the third one being built there

A stalker moves down and attacks the marine there

Rain's SCVs come with marines from his base and build a bunker beside the gateways

The bunker finishes and marines get inside, SCVs repair

Stalkers target the SCVs but the stalker count is dangerously low

Genius warps in a templar archives while fighting the marines with his stalkers

A second bunker gets up that's in range of the nexus

Genius just doesn't have enough stalkers to deal with this

Genius concedes

Good build by Rain. You know it's a good rush when your S Class opponent scouts it and it still works.

Game 2 - Metalopolis

Close air positions, Genius at 12, Rain at 3.

Standard opening for Genius, quick second gas for Rain

Quick robotics bay for Genius before his second gateway, starport coming for Rain

Sentries now for Genius, banshee coming for Rain but no cloak yet

Siege tank coming as well, Genius expands

More tanks and banshees for Rain, not using the banshees for harassment yet

The banshees poke now but withdraw as soon as stalkers arrive

Genius is teching to colossus, getting an immortal in the mean time

Raven now for Rain, then another banshee

First colossus is half done for Genius, siege mode researching for Rain

Rain moving out now with four tanks and a dozen marines, plus three banshees and a raven

Genius has an immortal, a colossus, and some sentires and stalkers

Sieges up underneath Genius' production buildings, kills the second colossus with tank fire

Genius tries to engage but there are enough siege tanks that they melt the stalkers escorting the colossus

Banshees kill the robotics just before a colossus finishes

Rain now building bunkers to complement his tanks

Banshees snipe stray stalkers and the tanks more into the natural

Genius tries one more time but he has no answer to the many sieged tanks

The tanks finally take down his expansion

Genius surrenders

Very good timing attack from Rain, Genius fought hard but couldn't solve it.

Commentary: Another very disappointing GSL for Genius. You can't say it was an undeserved victory, however. Rain came in with very carefully tuned build orders and executed them perfectly.

GSL 3 Round of 32 Preview

Note: This post will have implied spoilers for the round of 64 (hopefully this is obvious, but you never know).

Racial Breakdown

12 Zerg (37.5%)
14 Terran (43.75%)
7 Protoss (21.88%)

Zerg had a slight numerical edge in the round of 64, but more than half of them lost, so Terran now has a slim lead. There seems to be a pattern in the GSL that the race doing the best in the metagame when qualifiers are played ends up with the most players in the round of 64, but then suffers the most attrition, since the extra players aren't quite up to par. This might have been a little more pronounced in GSL 3 since Zerg players were doing well during the qualifiers, but then struggling to figure out timings against two barracks openings when the round of 64 was actually played.

Protoss lost half its players, which was disappointing given the already low numbers but not really unexpected as the players who lost aren't considered top tier. HongUn, Genius, and MC are the great Protoss hopes and they advanced. In a rare bit of Protoss good news, GuineaPig and Choya played above expectations and look dangerous as well.

Team Breakdown

fOu: 6
PrimeWE: 5
ST: 3
TSL: 3
IM: 2
Liquid: 2
oGs: 2
ZeNEX: 1
EG: 1
Fnatic: 1
FOX: 1
NsP: 1
SlayerS: 1
No Known Team: 3

Did anyone guess that fOu would advance the most players to the round of 64? I certainly didn't. ZeNEX will be disappointed to only get one spot, but probably the most disappointed team will be oGs. Not only is a two spot showing far less than they would have hoped, their two players (MC and Hyperdub) will be playing each other. Liquid will be thrilled, meanwhile, to have done as well in this regard as ZeNEX, IM, and oGs.

Best Matchups

Obviously there's a lot of interesting matches, but limiting things to one from each of the four sections:

Bracket A: IMNesTea vs FnaticSen

We've already seen in GSL 2 that NesTea has a good feel for ZvZ. Sen has been a top Zerg since the beta (a lot longer than NesTea, in fact). Can he knock out the GSL 2 champion?

Bracket B: HongUnPrimeWE vs JSLZenith

Despite some other good games in B with Ret and FruitDealer facing off against fOu players, my pick is HongUn vs. JSL. JSL, you'll recall, got here by eliminating NaDa and Kyrix, so despite not being well-known previously he's already eliminated two other S Class players. Can HongUn prevent JSL from completing a Terran/Zerg/Protoss S Class sweep, or is JSL going to make things even worse for the embattled Protoss?

Bracket C: TSLGuineaPig vs LeenockfOu

Neither of these players were counted among the best coming into this tournament, but GuineaPig won a lot of fans with his innovative "Sky Protoss" PvZ build in the round of 64. Leenock meanwhile played a thunderous match against TSLClide that is unquestionably in the top five of any GSL match so far and arguably the very best. Who will go to the round of 16 and a possible matchup with Foxer?

Bracket D: EGIdrA vs IMmvp

When the least interesting matchup involves SlayerSBoxeR, you know you've gotten to the loaded bracket. I'm really looking forward to choyafOu vs. CheckPrimeWE, not to mention FOXMoon vs. LiquidJinro, but IdrA and mvp are both capable of really strong play. Coincedentally, both were beaten by the already-elimated oGsZenio in GSL 2. IdrA had expected to play mvp instead of Zenio in that tournament and was very confident in his ZvT. One month later (and one round earlier) he's got a chance to back it up. Can IdrA take out the stongest Terran he's faced in any GSL, or will it be mvp advancing to the round of 16?

GSL 3 Round of 64: Day 4, Evening

IMmvp (T) vs. BanBansZenith (P)
Match Rating: 3/10

Click for match play by play and commentary

Game 1 - Scrap Station

Standard openings for both players

Reaper coming for mvp, concussive shells researching as well

mvp scouting likely proxy locations with his reaper, but a stalker prevents it from scouting BanBans' main

BanBans going three gateway robotics, immortal the first unit from the robotics

BanBans kills the reaper and begins knocking down the rocks between bases

BanBans has about six zealots, four stalkers, three sentires, and two immortals

BanBans' marches up mvp's ramp but there's two bunkers behind it

One bunker goes down but when the zealots are gone BanBans backs off

mvp replaces the destroyed bunker and adds another one, BanBans knocks down the rocks leading to the natural

Dropship heading to BanBans' main with two marauders and four marines

BanBans walks up the ramp while the drop happens, no defenses at his base to defend the drop

mvp's units at the top of the ramp beat BanBans' army pretty easily, most of his probes are down as well

BanBans concedes

Blind timing attack from BanBans. My guess is it was tuned for the banshee builds most players use on Scrap Station. Whatever the case, mvp had no problems holding it.

Game 2 - Metalopolis

Close air positions, mvp at 12 and BanBans at 3

Standard openings for both players

Three barracks before factory for mvp, then tech lab

Marines, marauder, then a reaper and stim for mvp

BanBans expands to his natural, then gets a robotics

mvp's reaper goes to the watchtower, not into the main

Four marauders and 10 marines heading out, concussive shells and stim almost done

Three sentries, three stalkers, and a few zealots to defend at the natural

Poor force fields for BanBans block his own zealots and mvp wins the battle easily

BanBans' natural is totally undefended, he tries to warp in more units and they get killed on the way in

BanBans surrenders

Basic one base infantry timing push from mvp hard countered BanBans' build.

Commentary: Two build order victories for IMmvp. BanBans can't complain about the result: he was somewhat unlucky, but it was his willingness to both attack (in game 1) and expand (in game 2) without any information on what mvp was doing that left him at the mercy of chance in the first place.

AnNyeongPrimeWE (Z) vs. choyafOu (P)
Match Rating: 6/10

Click for match play by play and commentary

Game 1 - Jungle Basin

Pool on 13 for AnNyeong, possibly in response to the scouting probe, which might have blocked a hatch at the natural

Nexus first for choya, then forge at the top of his ramp

Cannon behind the forge, but zerglings go to the rocks instead

choya puts a cannon there, repelling the zerglings after they take most of the health off the rocks

choya walls himself completely off with his cybernetics core

Zealot goes into AnNyeong's main and kills a drone before dying

Roach warren, lair, and speed for AnNyeong but choya is getting a stargate

Chronoboosting a void ray now, AnNyeong moving out with a roach/ling army heading for the rocks

Void ray in the opposite part of the map, not much to defend

The roaches take down the rocks, zerglings surround the three stalkers there to defend, the roaches kill the cannon

The survivors of the zerg attack move into the main and harass the workers

A second wave of roaches comes in and tries to snipe the nexus, choya desperately moves his army to stop them

The last roach dies when the nexus only has 63 health left

Zerglings try to go down and finish the job but choya walls off with pylons

Two void rays and a phoenix come to harass but AnNyeong has five queens, the phoenix dies

AnNyeong takes the top center expansion for a third, has a good group of mutalisks out to fight the Protoss air

choya finishes blink, but loses his phoenixes and void rays to the mutalisks

choya probes the third with stalkers but pulls back when he sees the defense

Using a phoenix to spot, he blinks into the main, forces zerglings and mutalisks to counter, then withdraw

choya taking the outside expansion near his rocks, puts three cannons there, AnNyeong takes the other outside expansion

AnNyeong getting a nydus network, loading it with roaches and zerglings

Nydus terminus is in the lower left, allowing it to finish and unload a ton of units without being contested

AnNyeong's army attacks the wall-in at choya's natural and manage to snipe the nexus

Misclick sends all his queens into the Protoss base, allows choya to counter with zealots and kill AnNyeong's fourth and natural hatches

choya adding immortals to his stalker army to counter AnNyeong's mass roach army

AnNyeong probes the front with his roaches, but blink stalkers come in from behind and crush the roach army

AnNyeong concedes

Very competitive game that seemed like it could have gone either way. AnNyeong's queen misclick might have cost him the game, unfortunately.

Game 2 - Metalopolis

Close air positions, AnNyeong at 6 and choya at 9

Forge first for choya, two pylons to AnNyeong's ramp where he's going pool first

Two pylons wall in AnNyeong's ramp, then two cannons on the low ground

AnNyeong kills two probes in his main, but the third comes up and puts more cannons at the top of the ramp

Queen attacks the cannons warping in, spine crawler moves in and kills the cannon, though the queen dies

The spine crawler clears the pylons from the top of the ramp, but more cannons are warped in below the minerals

Roaches out now and they clear the cannons from the high ground, though another queen dies

The low ground cannons are shot down from the high ground since choya no longer has vision

choya expands and adds another cannon to the two already in AnNyeong's natural

anNyeong getting a nydus rather than try to break out, but the lair is scouted by one of choya's probes

Cannons up in choya's main near likely nydus points, stargate warping in at the natural

Attempted nydus gets shot down by a cannon, but roaches move down and kill the pylons powering the cannons at the natural

Void ray coming from choya's stargate, needless to say nothing AnNyeong can do about it

The roaches shoot down the forge but the void ray and stalker fire chews through them

Stalkers stop another nydus, the void rays go sniping overlords, choya takes a third just in case

choya starts building a mothership, big hit with the crowd

AnNyeong's last gasp roach group gets hit by stalkers and gateways, mothership only half done

AnNyeong surrenders

choya shows how to do a cannon rush, and why Zergs should patrol the bottom of their ramp with a drone

Commentary: Somewhat disappointing end to the match after a pretty even first game. AnNyeong and choya both played well in the second game, but once the pylon wall was up choya knew exactly how to play out the game safely.

CheckPrimeWE (Z) vs. Destination (T)
Match Rating: 3/10

Click for match play by play and commentary

Game 1 - Scrap Station

Hatch first on 15 for Check, gas into tech lab, plus command center on 19 for Destination

Two more barracks now, marauder coming out of the tech lab

Stim and a reactor for Destination, zergling speed for Check

Baneling nest and a fair number of speedlings for Check

Destination starts hitting the rocks, Check's lings are at the watchtower

Zerglings try to surround Destination's marine/marauder ball but they melt quickly

Five barracks now for Destination, most marine army now with a few marauders

Check takes the gold and is making banelings

The marines and marauders move in and obliterate Destination's infantry

Counters to Destination's expansion and kills off the SCVs there, pressures the main's wall-in

While Destination gets SCVs to repair his burning expansion command center, Check's SCVs slip into his main

Going bad to worse for Destination as Check makes a huge number of banelings

Destination finally splits his marines properly as the banelings attack but there are more banelings than marines

The marines die and the banelings move into the main toward the SCVs

Destination concedes

Sometimes due to nerves the initial game from a player is deceptive, but on that evidence Destination is in the bottom tier of GSL 3 players. Check made a tactical mistake early but still crushed him.

Game 2 - Steppes of War

Pool first for Check, then hatch on 15, meanwhile quick tech lab for Destination and a reaper

Two more barracks for Destination and stim

The reaper pressures the natural but there's no drones there yet

Five barracks now for Destination, spine crawler for Check who saw some of the barracks with an overlord

Baneling nest before zergling speed for Check

Destination moves out with most of his SCVs and about twenty marines

Check has some banelings and reduces the marine numbers to about ten

They move into the natural killing some overlords, then get trapped by the next round of speedlings

Check kills the reinforcements pretty easily, then counters to the ramp and makes more banelings

The banelings kill both the depot and the tech lab, then zerglings stream in to kill the few marines behind it

Destination surrenders

Not a bad idea to rush, but Check played safely and handled it pretty easily.

Commentary: Destination was the inferior player and knew it. It was smart to try to aim for short games, but unfortunately Check's strength is his micro, and he had no problem defusing the rushes.

NEXON (T) vs. SlayerSBoxeR (T)
Match Rating: 5/10

Click for match play by play and commentary

Game 1 - Steppes of War

Standard opening from ON, late gas for BoxeR

Command center on 21 for BoxeR, also he's poking with three marines

Hellion coming for ON, BoxeR leaves his marines outside his expansion

ON moves out with a hellion, SCV, and marines

BoxeR steps down from the high ground with his marines and kills the hellion and SCV before the marines catch up

ON goes back while BoxeR puts a bunker at the top of the natural's ramp

ON moves out with a tank and some marines but waits for siege mode to finish

BoxeR has a viking out and it drives off the medivac ON uses to spot for his siege tank

ON loads 8 marines into his dropship and goes to BoxeR's main

He drops marines and kills a good number of SCVs before BoxeR can come back and clean it up

BoxeR moves his tanks down the ramp, uses his viking advantage to kill ON's viking and medivac

BoxeR moves around and flanks ON's army, landing his vikings to help destroy the tanks

BoxeR sieges his tanks on the high ground near ON's natural

ON manages to scan and take out BoxeR's tanks, but BoxeR reestablishes his position in the center of the map

ON moves out with two tanks, a few marines, and some SCVs and tries to move into Boxer's position

ON's little force melts and BoxeR moves down into siege range of ON's expansion

Just in case BoxeR takes a third, then moves in with his army and clears the last defenses at ON's natural

ON concedes

Comfortable win for BoxeR, never really in doubt after he defused the initial pressure.

Game 2 - Shakuras Plateau

Top positions, BoxeR at 10 and ON at 2

Standard opening for ON, late gas again for BoxeR

Command center on 21 for BoxeR just like last game, command center not long after for ON

Bunker at the expansion for BoxeR, hellions being made by ON

Hellions poke the bunker and turn around, but more hellions on the way

Dropship being made by ON as well, viking coming for BoxeR

Hellion drop for ON but the viking catches the dropship out in the void

The dropship only drops two hellions before the viking kills it

BoxeR cleans up the hellions without losing any SCVs or marines

Banshee and cloak coming for BoxeR

The first banshee takes some hits from ON's viking, then cloaks and moves into ON's base

Kills 5 SCVs because vikings and a scan kill it

The second banshee comes in, dodges a scan, then kills about six SCVs

ON moves out to the center of the map with four tanks and a dozen marines

ON's vikings land in BoxeR's main, BoxeR pulls his entire army back to counter

ON finally moves into the natural with tanks on the low ground and his marines behind the geysers

"I think SlayerSBoxeR could lose this if he doesn't handle this perfectly!" shouts Tasteless

BoxeR handles it perfectly

He moves SCVs in to draw fire, then his superior number of tanks in to clear out ON's tanks

However the harassment and decoy role means ON now has an SCV advantage

ON tries to drop at the natural and attack at the front, but BoxeR has way too many tanks and marauders

BoxeR knocks down the rocks at the top of the map and moves across

ON drops in BoxeR's main but that means there's nothing to protect his own main from Boxer's huge army

ON's marines run back across the top of the map to his main, but BoxeR's tanks are sieged and they melt in one volley

With tanks sieged outside his production buildings, there's not a lot ON can do about this

ON surrenders

ON put up a good fight but BoxeR was definitely the better player.

Commentary: My guess going into this match was that GomTV matched BoxeR against the player they thought was the weakest in the tournament field. Nothing I saw changes my mind about that. NEXON wasn't terrible, but he was several steps down from BoxeR in every phase of the game.

GSL 3 Round of 64: Day 3, Afternoon

aLivefOu (T) vs. oGsZenio (Z)
Match Rating: 6/10

Click for match play by play and commentary

Game 1 - Lost Temple

Close ground positions, Zenio at 7 and aLive at 2

Hatch first for Zenio despite his proximity, steals aLive's gas

aLive sends a marine to pressure with an SCV, kills a drone before backing off

Tech lab and factory for aLive, spine crawler for Zenio but no gas

Siege tank on the way for aLive, no starport however, Zenio getting a roach warren

aLive pushes out with four marines and a tank, now getting a starport

aLive's little force pokes the natural, then retreats all the way to his base

Zenio getting lair and zergling speed, aLive finishs an orbital command in his base

Viking out for aLive but is misses Zenio's scouting overlord, orbital floats to the natural

Marines kill the scouting overlord, viking snipes another one at the natural

Baneling nest and baneling speed for Zenio, he pokes aLive's natural but is repelled easily

aLive counters down to Zenio's natural and sieges up in the choke, marines killing overlords

Zenio takes some heavy losses with an indecisive skirmish

Zenio attacks in force, kills two tanks, but there's one left and the marines clean up the zerglings and banelings

aLive's marines go up the ramp and kills many overlords before they get cleaned up

Zenio sends an overlord with four banelings to the aLive's natural, moves his ling/baneling army to the choke

Zenio doesn't move in but keeps the overlord in reserve, Zenio tries to take a third but a dropship with marines forces a cancel

Four empty overlords feint toward aLive's main, some of aLive's forces move to intercept, the banelings drop in the natural and do decent damage

Zenio loses all the decoy overlords and gets supply blocked, tries to get the third again

Zenio drops the natural again, but aLive's army continues its siege tank push towards Zenio's base

Zenio tries to morph banelings in front of his natural but marines catch them before they finish and wipe them out

The rest of Zenio's forces attack the tanks, but the tank fire and escorting marines clean them up with plenty left over

Zenio concedes

Much is made about the advantages of dropping the ledge, but aLive didn't bother and still beat a very good Zerg player easily

Game 2 - Jungle Basin

Hatch on 15 for Zenio, aLive walls in before the scout gets there and kills the drone with his first marine

aLive sends two marines to his natural and catches an overlord in the open

Zenio getting a roach warren, aLive getting a factory, tech lab, and blue flame despite scouting roaches

Expansion on 30 for aLive, zergling speed starts for Zenio

Two roaches attack the wall-in, aLive repels them with marines and hellions

Zenio getting lair, aLive getting a dropship, Zenio scouts with an overlord

Three hellions are dropped in the natural, picked up again without much damage

Armory for aLive, spire for Zenio

Scans and kills a creep tumor with his hellions, but two hellions die while doing so

Baneling nest and mutalisks coming for Zenio, thor and marines for aLive

Zenio takes his third and researches burrow

Mutalisks harass the wall-in but the thor chases them away

Mutalisks move to the rocks along with roaches and zerglings

The rocks go down, aLive steps out with marines and a thor to push them back

aLive switching to marine/tank

Zenio has a very large army outside aLive's natural, many zerglings, banelings, and roaches

Mutalisks harass the main base, banelings burrowed in the center of the map

Zenio takes a fourth, aLive doesn't seem to have any option to pressure

aLive moves out with mass marine, plus a thor and tank, towards the fourth

Zenio counters to the front but the sieged tanks and marines obliterate the army

Zenio attacks the natural while aLive attacks Zenio's third

Zenio's forces are held off by the upgraded marines, whereas Zenio's third is killed

aLive and Zenio take the center expansions, planetary fortress for aLive, of course

Zenio moves into aLive's natural and forces it to lift but aLive's army kills Zenio's center expansion

Zenio tries to take the edge expansions again but aLive sieges up outside one of them

Zenio tries to attack the main but the marines there defeat it easily

aLive's army moves to Zenio's only mining base and Zenio has nothing that can stop them

Zenio surrenders.

Zenio looked like he might pull away when he took the edge expansions, but he couldn't even dent aLive's upgraded mass marine army

Commentary: oGsZenio has S Class and played one of the best ZvT matches in GSL 2 against IMmvp, yet aLivefOu looked like a much stronger player. I thought that, after two GSL tournaments, we wouldn't see strong players coming out of the woodwork any more, but aLive (among others) has proved me wrong.

NsPJoon (Z) vs PoltPrimeWE (T)
Match Rating: 6/10

Click for match play by play and commentary

Game 1 - Delta Quadrant

Right-side positions, Polt at 4 and Joon at 1

Joon goes hatch first on 14, Polt gets a tech lab before his first marine

Reaper coming for Polt and another one queued

The first reaper chases the drones away from the expansion, killing a few

Polt puts a bunker at the expansion, also expanding himself behind the pressure

Queen comes in and kills the SCV making the bunker, Polt making a third reaper

Three reapers now at Joon's expansion, they kill the queen and then the rest of the drones

The reapers are finally cleaned up but Polt got quite an advantage

Zerglings take out the rocks at Joon's gold, he's getting a baneling nest as well

Five barracks making marines and marauders for Polt, Joon takes the gold

Polt floats the command center to his natural and moves his army to the low ground

Joon is getting lair, but Polt's army moves into his natural

Polt attacks, none of the banelings survive long enough to hit the marines

Joon's zerglings melt, Polt's marine force starts to move up the ramp

Polt's a little sloppy with his marines and loses most of them to a second wave of banelings

Marauders are killing the hatchery at the gold, Polt's reinforcements are still stronger than Joon's forces

Joon concedes

It turns out that reapers are pretty good against hatch first builds with late zergling speed, clever build as usual from Polt.

Game 2 - Scrap Station

Hatch on 15 for Joon, gas and factory for Polt

Reactor hellions and starport for Polt, Joon gets a spine crawler and then zergling speed

Queens drive off the hellions, banshee and tank coming for Polt

First banshee goes to Joon's main, two queens drive it off after it kills only a few drones

Polt moves out with eight marines and two tanks, building more banshees as well

Joon's lair is finishing, getting a roach warren and more spine crawlers

Polt going through the rocks with marine/tank/banshee

Joon is getting a spire, does some damage to a banshee but SCVs are along to repair

Siege fire smashes through spine crawlers

The marines pull forward and Joon flanks the army with zerglings and destroys it

Roaches counter to the front but Polt has four banshees

Mutalisks start harassing Polt's base, but he sends the banshees to Joon's base

The banshees kill three queens and several drones before the mutalisks can return to clean them up

Polt sets up an expansion at the natural but the mutalisks are still harassing

Polt moves out with three tanks and perhaps 18 marines

Joon as zerglings, banelings, and plenty of mutalisks, taking the gold

Polt sieges, mutas kill one of the tanks but take heavy marine fire doing so

Joon moves in with roachs, zerglings and, banelings while the marines are behind the tanks

The tanks fall and Polt isn't able to adequately split his marines, losing most of them to banelings

Polt drops eight marines at the gold, they kill the drones but zerglings come in before they can finish the hatchery

Polt moves toward Joon again, but Joon has a very large number of banelings

Another large battle is fought, all Polt's tanks die, but most of the banelings don't hit

Polt's surviving marines kill the roaches and the remaining banelings

A few more tanks arrive and Joon's few remaining units can't stop them

Joon surrenders

Not Polt's best game, but he managed to claw a victory out of it through sheer determination.

Commentary: This match was a microcosm of Polt's play in previous GSLs. He always seems to have some inventive build orders, but otherwise his play is a rather sloppy. Against NsPJoon that was good enough to advance, but Polt will have to play better to get deeper in the tournament.

LiquidJinro (T) vs NEXDrug (Z)
Match Rating: 5/10

Click for match play by play and commentary

Game 1 - Delta Quadrant

Cross positions, Jinro at 7 and Drug at 2

Hatch first for Drug, gas and factory for Jinro

Jinro pressures with four marines, Drug puts up a spine crawler

Jinro's marines force the spine crawler to cancel, a hellion arrives too

The marines kill the queen and many of the drones at the expansion, the rest retreat

Finally enough zerglings get out to force what's left of Jinro's little force to retreat

Jinro has a medivac out, sends it with four marines to Drug's natural

Drug getting lair, the medivac shuttles marines back and forth as roaches and queens try to defend

Another medivac arrives with more marines and a siege tank

Tank on the high ground outside the natural, the marines by the minerals under the tank's cover

The lair is at the natural, nothing to protect it from the marines

Drug counters to Jinro's main with his roaches as the lair falls

Jinro has a thick wall and plenty of marines at his ramp, the roaches are stymied

Drug remakes his lair at his main, two dropships moving out again

Drug clears the rocks at his gold, but Jinro drops a tank on the high ground there and sieges it

Jinro sieges his tank at Drug's back natural and pokes with the marines from his dropship

Meanwhile Jinro expands to his natural, Drug expands to the bottom right natural

Finally Jinro's army moves to the center of the map, three tanks and at least two dozen marines

Skirmish at Drug's old natural, roach has a decent roach count but the siege tanks crush them

Drug concedes

Surprisingly easy win for Jinro, he had a big lead right from his initial pressure and didn't make any mistakes.

Game 2 - Metalopolis

Close ground positions, Jinro at 9 and Drug at 1

Hatch first for Drug, two barracks for Jinro

Marines rallied to Drug's natural, most of Drug's drones come down to defend

Three marines and an SCV for Jinro now, Jinro expands while poking with the marines

Lots of zerglings out for Drug, not taking much damage this time

Zerglings head down toward Jinro's base but they pull back when they see his marine count

Drug getting a roach warren and poking Jinro's natural, but Jinro has a bunker and plenty of marines

Drug puts down a spine crawler at his natural, has six roaches as well to defend

Evolution chamber and lair coming for Drug, Jinro pushing out with marines and marauders

Jinro just goes around the spine crawler, surprising number of roaches attack and threaten to surround

Jinro's marines go around the statue and most escape

Drug upgrades his roaches and optimistically takes the gold base

Jinro adding tanks to his marine/marauder composition

Medivac with marines heads out, Jinro scouting for expansions

Marines unloaded in the smoke, they snipe a drone or two and then roaches repel them

Jinro moves out across the high ground, Drug sends half his roaches around and attacks from both directions

Most of Jinro's army dies, so the roaches continue on to Jinro's main and easily smash the defenses there

Jinro concedes

This time Drug didn't take very much damage from Jinro's initial pressure and his higher-economy build buried Jinro in the mid-game.

Game 3 - Jungle Basin

Hatch first for Drug, gas and factory for Jinro

Jinro sends four marines and an SCV to pressure, fast roach warren for Drug

Hellion coming as well, it joins the marines as they go up the ramp

One queen dies along with some zerglings before roaches finish and push out the marines

Jinro expanding to his natural, putting a tech lab on his starport

The roaches harass the buildings at the wall-in, Drug getting a lair and evolution chamber

Tech lab is switched to the factory after a single banshee, Drug getting a spore at his natural

Minor harassment from the banshee, Drug getting hydralisk den

Banshee snipes some creep turmors, medivac loads up with marines

Overseer scouts Jinro's base but is killed when it flies over the marine ball

Jinro drops off his marines in Drug's main but roaches force an immediate pickup

Drug's army moves to the upper watchtower, then expands to the central expansion

Jinro moves down his ramp with many siege tanks and a large amount of infantry

Jinro's army doing a slow siege tank push toward Drug's expansion

Drug tries to attack from multiple angles but his army melts under withering siege tank fire

Now unopposed, Jinro's marines move down and destroy Drug's third

Jinro now has three bases to two and a substantial supply lead

Jinro's massive siege tank force sieges at the bottom of Drug's ramp, his marines go up the ramp

The marines engage Drug's roaches out of range of the tanks but there's so many it doesn't matter

Drug surrenders

Commentary: Jinro didn't do anything amazing in his two wins...some good early pressure in the first game, building a strong army and pushing in the third game, but hey, they all count. NEXDrug joins a growing list of players who Artosis swears are amazing but weren't able to show it on the big stage.

FOXMoon (Z) vs. ButterflyEffectZenith (T)
Match Rating: 5/10

Click for match play by play and commentary

Game 1 - Shakuras Plateau

Top positions, Moon at 11 and ButterflyEffect at 1

Engineering bay at Moon's natural to block his hatchery

As a result, Moon goes pool first, gas and factory for ButterflyEffect

Moon's zerglings clear the engineering bay and he gets his hatchery down at 22

Scouting hellion checks out Moon's base, sees his engineering bay

First banshee arrives but two queens and a spore colony repel easily

ButterflyEffect adding barracks and building a command center in his base

Spire coming for Moon, ButterflyEffect's expansion up and running at his natural

Moon takes his third, mutalisks out finally get rid of the banshee

ButterflyEffect moves out with a dozen marines and four marauders

Moon is starting his roach warren and baneling nest, only has zerglings and mutalisks

Too much infantry for Moon's small amount of defenders, ButterflyEffect rolls over the natural and into the main

Moon concedes

Moon played very safe at first, getting spore colonies against a single banshee without cloak, but left himself get run over by expanding without enough defense.

Game 2 - Xel'Naga Caverns

Hatch first for Moon, fast tech lab for ButterflyEffect

Reapers coming for ButterflyEffect, he builds a bunker at Moon's natural

Drones come to drive the SCV away from the bunker, but reapers force them back

The SCV almost completes the bunker but the queen kills it

ButterflyEffect harasses with two reapers, one gets killed by a queen and the other withdraws

Another reaper joins the survivor and they jump into the main, get some extra drone kills before getting cleaned up

Baneling nest starts for Moon, he gets about twenty

ButterflyEffect has his natural walled off with buildings and bunkers

The banelings take out the bunkers and marines, only a few marauders survive but they quickly fall to banelings

ButterflyEffect is forced to lift his natural command center

Lair and roach warren started for Moon, his speedlings pick off depots at the abandoned natural

Moon takes his third in what would normally be ButterflyEffect's fourth, also clears the rocks at the gold

Two dropships move out with marines and marauders but are spotted by overlords, so they turn back

Spire coming for Moon, he also breaks the rocks leading to his normal third

ButterflyEffect moves out with a relatively small army but spots Moon's banelings and turns around

ButterflyEffect builds two bunkers at his natural and lands his command center there again

Dropship attacks Moon's third but mutalisks are out and kill it

ButterflyEffect sieges up outside the gold, but Moon goes around the other way into the natural

ButterflyEffect ignores Moon's attack and goes into the third base

Moon's third is destroyed but ButterflyEffect's natural has to lift as well

Moon has the gold now, however

ButterflyEffect sieges up at his watchtower but a large burrowed roach army comes up under the tanks

The tanks die, but ButterflyEffect has a very large number of marines and they force the roaches back to Moon's gold

Banelings move in and whittle down the infantry numbers, though too many of them hit marauders

The surviving two dozen marines now start hitting the gold base, but roaches and a few more banelings attack them

A small part of ButterflyEffect's army manages to withdraw, but Moon now has twice the supply and a secure gold base

ButterflyEffect concedes

Much better showing from Moon

Game 3 - Delta Quadrant

Right positions, Moon at 1 and ButterflyEffect at 5.

Hatch on 15 for Moon, double barracks for ButterflyEffect

Two marines and two SCVs head out for the initial pressure

Two more marines join them at the natural

They walk back to ButterflyEffect's main and he takes both gasses

Then with twice as many marines he walks back to the natural, but of course Moon has lots of zerglings now

They surrounded and kill the marines

Moon getting speed and lair, ButterflyEffect researching siege mode, getting a dropship, and clearing the back natural

Roach warren and spine crawler for Moon, ButterflyEffect builds his command center next to the rocks at the back natural

Tank is dropped outside Moon's natural, there are two spine crawlers there so they get attacked first

Moon getting nydus, ButterflyEffect drops his marines on the low ground covered by the tank

The nydus terminus goes to the high ground ledge, then a second one at ButterflyEffect's natural

SCVs kill the one at the natural, but roaches come out on the high ground and kill the tank

Moon getting a spire and a baneling nest, then researching burrow

A dropship with marines moves around killing overlords and harrassing the natural

Moon takes his gold, the dropship tries to force a cancel but roaches save it

Second dropship takes out the nydus on the high ground, then loads up and dies to mutalisks

The other dropship's marines try to kill Moon's gold again but zerglings stop them

Moon sends 15 burrowed roaches into ButterflyEffect's natural

ButterflyEffect moves out with a tank/marauder army over them, Moon unborrows

The roaches all die for only a few tanks

The army moves on to Moon's natural where they are attacked by banelings

Plenty of ButterflyEffect's tanks and marauders survive but mutalisks arrive and there are no marines

That army is wiped out, Moon takes a fourth

ButterflyEffect attacks again with marine/tank but Moon's roach/baneling army destroys it pretty easily

Mutalisks try to harass and snipe a dropship, but marines otherwise defend pretty well

Moon takes a fifth base, ButterflyEffect takes a third at the front natural

ButterflyEffect moves out with tank/marine, Moon has an enormous roach/baneling/mutalisk army

Moon goes around and counters to Butterfly Effect's third

When the army moves down to respond and most of its tanks are unsieged, Moon turns on it and destroys it

ButterflyEffect doesn't have much left so Moon's army rolls into the Terran main base

ButterflyEffect surrenders

Not quite as lopsided as it appeared since ButterflyEffect came close to killing Moon's third base, but when he failed to do that his defeat was probably inevitable.

Commentary: If it wasn't Moon, I might think that he had some nerves in the first game. But there's no way Moon would be nervous, right? Whatever the reason, Moon played far better in the second two games and definitely turned out to be the better player. Another quick exit for ButterflyEffect, but the brackets have yet to do him any favors.

EGIdrA (Z) vs. NEXChoa (P)
Match Rating: 2/10

Click for match play by play and commentary

Game 1 - Shakuras Plateau

Cross positions, IdrA at 10 and Choa at 5

Forge first for Choa, pool first for IdrA

Choa walls in the bottom of the ramp with pylons and puts a cannon behind it

Quick roach warren for IdrA, fast expand for Choa

Five roaches kill the cannon, Idra gets his hatch down at 22

IdrA sends his roaches Choa's natural, they fire from the low ground and force some cannosn to cancel

The roaches kill one of the gateways walling the natural and then shoot their way through the probes trying to block them

Three roaches survive Choa's desparate attempt to fix the wall in with pylons

That was Choa's only gateway that IdrA killed, he has nothing to kill the roaches

Choa concedes

Another GSL, another poorly executed cheese that Idra crushes. Echoes of his opening round game 1 in GSL 2.

Game 2 - Steppes of War

Pool first for IdrA, second gate before core for Choa

IdrA getting speed, hatch on 20, Choa chronoboosting two stalkers

Two sentries now for Choa, spine crawler for IdrA

Choa starts his nexus at the expansion as well as a forge, IdrA getting lair

Choa chronoboosting hallucinate research, IdrA up to three spine crawlers

Four spine crawlers now, also hydralisk den for IdrA

IdrA knocks down the rocks leading to his third

Overlords start dropping creep, IdrA plants his spine crawlers and covers them with about a dozen hydras

Choa starts to fight as the spine crawlers root, but pulls back

They fight an inconclusive battle, Choa loses all his sentries and is reinforcing with zealots

IdrA solidly entranched in the center of the map, taking his third

Choa moves down to contest the center but he walks into an enormous hydralisk concave

Hydras pursue the stalkers back to the natural and obliterate them

Choa surrenders

Another extremely comfortable win for IdrA.

Commentary: Much like in GSL 2, IdrA severely outclassed his round of 64 opponent. Choa's brutal game 1 cannon placement was reminiscent of sanZenith against Check in GSL 2 as well. All in all, then, a match with many GSL precedents, but unfortunately the precedents were all bad games.

GSL 3 Round of 64: Day 3, Evening

LeenockfOu (Z) vs TSLClide (T)
Match Rating: 9/10

Click for match play by play and commentary

Game 1 - Jungle Basin

Hatch first on 14 for Leenock, pool on 15

Clide poking with a marine and SCV, expanding at about 20

Four zerglings come out, Clide sends his marines back

Zergling speed for Leenock, factory for Clide

Two more barracks for Clide at the top of the ramp

More pressure with five marines, zerglings push them back

Two marines survive

Leenock getting lair and a baneling nest, Clide getting siege tanks

Double engineering bay for Clide, spire now for Leenock

Third hatchery at Leenock's natural

Leenock opts to take a third base, double evolution chamber as well

6 mutalisks move in and destroy the tech lab researching stim

Clide moves down his ramp with six siege tanks and lots of marines

Clide leaves the game! Yikes. Some sort of computer failure, presumably.

Esports is through the vehicle of technology, says Tasteless.

Game is replayed, players spawn in the same positions

Leenock goes hatch first on 13, Clide expands on 17

Clide sends five marines down to pressure

Zergling speed, then lair for Leenock, Clide's marines retreat without engaging

Clide researching siege mode

Zerglings poke Clide's rocks but a marine is there

Baneling nest coming for Leenock, double engineering bay again for Clide

Spire and baneling speed coming for Leenock

Leenock taking his third and getting mutalisks, very similar game to the previous one

Extra hatchery at Leenock's third again, zerglings hitting Clide's rocks but tank goes to defend

Mutalisks snipe the tank at the rocks, Clide sends marines to attack Leenock's third

Leenock kills the marines at his third but loses most of his drones

Clide expanding to the center expansion, tanks sieged and turrets built, planetary fortress constructing

Leenock goes around Clide's third and sends a huge number of zerglings up the ramp to his main

The zerglings and mutalisks converge at the natural, but there are two bunkers there

Leenock withdraws before Clide's army can return

Both players essentially maxed, Leenock takes two more expansions

Clide pushes down and kills Leenock's hatchery under siege tank cover, then withdraws

Skirmishing at Leenock's right sid eexpansion, tank sieged in range of the hatchery

The hatchery goes down, the banelings never manage to get through the siege tank fire to hit the marines

Greater spire coming for Leenock, has infestors out as well

Clide pushes down to Leenock's last mining base, siege tanks covering his marines

Clide's marine count eroded by the constant fighting, Clide builds turrets to compensate

Fungal growth allows banelings to kill a large group of marines

Leenock's hatchery is finally killed

Brood lords in the center of map forcing tanks to stay unsieged

Brood lords do a tremendous amount of damage but Clide snipes Leenock's hatchery

Clide has a thor out to attack the brood lords, loses most of his tanks but his marine count is good

Leenock no longer has any hatcheries, he has to concede

Really great game by both players in difficult circumstances due to the technical problems.

Game 2 - Lost Temple

Cross positions, Clide at 2 and Leenock at 8

Hatch first for Leenock, standard factory timing for Clide

Armory and starport coming for thor, so it looks like a thor drop

Leenock getting zergling speed, then lair

Hellion comes out for Clide, Leenock starts a spine crawler

Roach warren coming for Leenock, Clide sends four SCVs to Leenock's gold

Thor dropped on the high ground, four SCVs join it

Roaches target the repairing SCVs, Leenock researches burrow

Second thor dropped at the main, roaches force Clide to pick it up

Roaches manage to kill one of the thors but the hatchery is very low health

The last thor is down to 1 hp, but a mule is dropped to repair

The repaired thor kills the hatchery

Roaches counter to Clide's base, two thors and SCVs to defend

The roaches burrow and Clide starts to move one thor away

Leenock's roaches unburrow and break the wall in

Long series of fighting in Clide's base between roaches and tank/thor

Leenock's third is up and running

Clide's last thor dies, roaches then snipe the armory

Huge number of roaches in Clide's main, he doesn't have nearly enough to deal with it

Overlords drop all the roaches on the siege tank in the mineral line

Clide waits a while but finally concedes

Very good recovery by Leenock, but really a pretty disastrous error by Clide not to anticipate the counter.

Game 3 - Shakuras Plateau

Top positions, Clide at 1 and Leenock at 11

Hatch first for Leenock, Clide appears to be doing a one barracks fast expand

Clide floats his barracks to the natural choke, then builds a bunker there

Clide completes the walloff at his choke with an engineering bay. Leenock getting zergling speed.

Double factory for Clide, researching siege mode, Leenock starts his lair

Baneling nest starting for Leenock, Armory for Clide

Leenock takes his third, blue flame upgrade finishing for Clide

Clide moves out with seven hellions, Leenock walls in his natural choke

Clide diverts to the third and starts hitting it with hellions...mutas chase them off

The hellions turn around and return to the hatchery and hit it more, still alive

Returns again, kills the drones that transferred to the third, mutas finally clear them out

Leenock takes a fourth and starts his hive

More hellions attack Leenock's third but roaches and a spine crawler hold them off

Greater spire for Leenock, but Clide is coming through the rocks with many tanks, two thors, and infantry

Clide's army enters the main but brood lords are done

Roach/brood lord pushes back Clide's force, chases him back to Clide's base

Clide built a third but had to lift it when attacked by the brood lords

Leenock pulls back and Clide lands it again, covering it with vikings and siege tanks

Clide sieges up above Leenock's fourth and forces him to pull drones

Brood lords try to get in range of the tanks, but the vikings drive them back, kiting the corruptors

Leenock expands two more times

Clide tries to move into Leenock's main again and a massive battle begins

Leenock's corruptors destroy Clide's vikings, but siege tanks force Leenock's ground forces back

The corruptors and brood lords are now exposed to fire from the marines

Leenock has enough brood lords that even with no ground support they force the marines to retreat

The planetary fortress and turrets at Clide's third prevents Leenock from pursuing

Leenock's top center hatchery finally goes down, but he transfers drones to the other two

Clide moves his massive army clockwise back through his main, taking up position outside Leenock's expansion

Somehow the brood lords arrive first and take heavy losses from the vikings, but corruptors join

Clide pulls back, many more brood lords morphing for Leenock, he has about ten

Leenock moves through the middle of the map with a very large army

Clide drops Leenock's rear expansions

Leenock attacks Clide's command center at Leenock's old base with brood lords

Vikings move in but get fungaled, the command center gets destroyed

Clide sets up another expansion down in the lower right but has to clear out some zerglings

Large flock of mutalisks out for Leenock, Clide has switched more into marauders

The mutalisks attack one of Clide's expansions, Clide counterattacks instead of turning to fight

Siege tanks kill Leenock's hatchery, the mutalisks come back to Leenock's army

Thors mixed in with Clide's army keep the mutalisks at bay

Large group of vikings kills several brood lords

Large group of hydra/roach sneaks past Clide's army and attacks his expansion

Clide's army comes to attack them but gets fungal growthed

Clide cleans out the expeditionary force, but the brood lords are heading for Clide's northern bases

The vikings aren't with Clide's army, however, and they slice through the brood lords

Leenock switches to ultralisks...making twelve. Meanwhile Leenock snipes another of Clide's command centers

Leenock has many ultralisks but not a lot else, Clide making infantry to reinforce his tank/thor/viking army

Leenock sends zerglings and mutalisks to harass Clide's base, but Clide holds them off

Clide supply blocked, holding off mutalisks only by repairing a turret at his mining base

Clide's siege tanks dominating the center of the map and his vikings are too numerous for the mutalisks to handle

Clide's tanks move down to Leenock's lower center base, Leenock counterattacks Clide's planetary fortress

The fortress falls almost immediately, the ultralisks withdraw before Clide's army can reach them

Large battle in the middle of the map, Clide's tanks die but his infantry route the ultralisks

Leenock switching back to banelings to counter Clide's infantry

Zerglings and banelings attack Clide's last mining base and force it to lift

Leenock has four brood lords again, Clide has no vikings and not enough economy to replenish his armies

The armies clash again and this time Leenock has the numbers to crush Clide's forces

Clide surrenders

Commentary: I said this match might be the best of the round of 64, but I had no idea Leenock was capable of that level of play. That was the best set of games Clide has played at the GSL, but it still wasn't enough for him to win. Clide will be disappointed to go out in the round of 64 again, but at least he played to his potential.

oGsHyperdub (T) vs STMax (Z)
Match Rating: 6/10

Click for match play by play and commentary

Game 1 - Blistering Sands

Hyperdub putting down two proxy barracks near the northwest watchtower, Max going hatch first

Hyperdub adds a third barracks, Max doesn't cancel his expansion

Max assembles a large group of drones, Hyperdub gets five marines and three SCVs for the attack

Hyperdub manages to finish a bunker but his marines are cut off from it by drones and zerglings

Hyperdub seems to have too many marines, however, though Max's queen is attacking the empty bunker

One marine gets in the bunker, queen is caught off creep and dies

Six marines at Max's natural facing about eight zerglings, needless to say that doesn't end well for Max

Max has to concede

Max learns what LiquidTLO already knew: Hyperdub isn't afraid to all-in cheese on the big stage

Game 2 - Scrap Station

Barracks at the low ground choke for Hyperdub, Max goes hatch first despite not seeing it

Command center on 20 for Hyperdub, then a bunker at the smoke near Max's base

Now Hyperdub makes another bunker, closer...a bunker push with a small number of marines right now

Max getting zergling speed, Hyperdub adding more barracks

Max gets a ton of zerglings and destroys the bunker and the marines inside, albeit with some losses

Hyperdub has walled off his main and natural with barracks, Max attacks the rocks

Hyperdub puts up a wall behind the rocks with a factory and engineering bay, has another factory in his main

Lair for Max, Hyperdub getting siege tanks, two armories, and blue flame

Max takes the gold base and tears down the rocks at the lower chokes in the southwest of the map

Hyperdub pushes out with about 15 marines and a few hellions, blue flame about to finish

Mass zergling for Max, also expanding to the Terran fourth

Max surrounds a group of marines but the blue flame hellions crush them

Hyperdub destroys the gold base with marines and hellions

Mass infestor coming from Max, his expansion at the Terran fourth remains unscouted

Mass ling/infestor army for Max moving around the map, tank/thor/hellion for Hyperdub

Huge group of hellions move out and get fungaled, mass zerglings attack them and all die except two

Max uses neural parasites on Hyperdub's thors, allowing his small group of roaches to obliterate Hyperdub's army

Max has another expansion up in his traditional third, Hyperdub probably still doesn't know about the real third

Six overlords load up with roaches and head for Hyperdub's main, Max also taking his traditional fourth

The roaches do tremendous damage in Hyperdub's main and force Hyperdub to pull back

Max getting hive and expanding to the island as well, has every possible expansion except the gold and Hyperdub's third, now compared to Hyperdub's two bases

Hyperdub takes his third, Max attacks with neural parasite and roaches but Max's tanks easily defeat it

Hyperdub sieges up at the central watchtower firing at Max's hatchery. Max breaking down the rocks between bases

The rocks go down but Hyperdub sieges up in time to repel them

Max's large roach force catches Hyperdub's tank army unsieged, destroys it entirely, then pulls back

Another big roach drop coming from Max, lucky scan spots the overlords as they fly over tyhe island

Max drops some of the roachs at Hyperdub's main, but the other overlords take the rest down to Hyperdub's natural

The orbital command at Hyperdub's natural falls as he fails to lift it

Another drop behind the minerals at Hyperdub's third does some damage, but it's a planetary so the command center is safe

Max switches into brood lords, but Hyperdub has anticipated this and gotten a huge number of vikings

Hyperdub takes out Max's hidden third, moves to take the gold base

Max manages to fungal Hyperdub's vikings, Hyperdub tries to attack but all his vikings go down

The brood lords are now essentially unopposed and destroy Hyperdub's entire army

The brood lords move to Hyperdub's planetary fortress and there's nothing to stop them

Hyperdub concedes

Just when Max's economy seemed to be slowing down, his fungal on the vikings cleared the field for his brood lords and gave him the victory.

Game 3 - Delta Quadrant

Lower positions, Max at 7 and Hyperdub at 4

Hatch first for Max, double barracks for Hyperdub

Max scouts it almost immediately but as usual doesn't cancel his expansion

Two marines and an SCV coming, Hyperdub walls him in with bunkers at the bottom of the ramp

Max gets a baneling nest instead, sends what zerglings he has to stop reinforcements

Max has banelings ready to destroy the bunkers, Hyperdub has stopped rallying his marines

Max counters his banelings to Hyperdub's ramp but doesn't attack, seems to be opting for a contain

Max sends his zerglings to clear the rocks at the gold, Hyperdub expanding to his back natural

Hyperdub creating bunkers, expecting an all-in probably, getting blue flame and siege mode

Max expanding to the gold, finally getting zergling speed

Max gets a nydus, but loses a ton of zerglings to two hellions since they don't have speed

The nydus completes at Hyperdub's natural, banelings and zerglings kill some marines and SCVs

Max getting a spire, Hyperdub getting an armory

Hyperdub moves out and contains Max in his main, then diverts to the gold and easily kills the nexus

Mutalisks come out and Hyperdub only has a few marines, they die quickly and the mutalisks are unopposed

Hellions kill all the drones anyway before the mutalisks manage to clean everything up

Max surrenders

Once again, Max's insistence on a high economy build order even after he scouted a high pressure opening from Hyperdub cost him the game.

Commentary: Once he actually reached the midgame, Max seemed like he was at least as good as Hyperdub, but he stubbornly went hatch first each game even though Hyperdub was ruthlessly exploiting it. Hyperdub is a good player, but he doesn't seem like he's improved to the same degree as some of the other prominent players.

OdinMvP (T) vs oGsMC (P)
Match Rating: 2/10

Click for match play by play and commentary

Game 1 - Jungle Basin

Standard openings for both players

Odin builds his factory at the low ground and then lifts it, then proxies his starport near MC's rocks.

MC expands at 22, then gets a robotics, Odin gets a bunker and moves a small group of infantry into the center

Odin getting a banshee and cloak, MC getting two observers

Odin rallies his banshees with his army, not in MC's base

One banshee probes the main from the north, but stalkers and an observer repel it easily

Odin continuing to make banshees, finally expands to his natural

MC moves out, two banshees attack his natural, kill the two stalkers there defending

MC pushes up the ramp, force fields split the defending marines and make it an easy victory

Odin concedes

Odin looked, uh, not very good. Perhaps it was just nerves?

Game 2 - Shakuras Plateau

Cross positions, MC at 7 and Odin at 2

Standard openings from both players

Two barracks and tech lab for Odin, scouted by MC

Marauder and now reaper coming for Odin, reactor on other barracks

Stargate for MC, expansion for Odin

Reaper goes into the base and sees the stargate making a phoenix

MC scouts with a phoenix, then puts down an expansion

MC starts his robotics, still making phoenixes

Phoenix do some minor harassment, teching toward colossus

Odin gets a ghost academy and an armory, the phoenixes see them as they build

Odin is still not making vikings, moves out with marine/marauder/thor

MC has three colossus and a decent ground escort, moves out to engage

Force fields prevent the infantry from retreating from the zealots, Odin's army melts

MC's army reaches Odin's natural with four colossus and the remnants of their escort

In the ensuing battle, the support units for the colossus all die, but there's nothing left to stop the colossus anyway

Finally a viking comes out and forces the colossus to drop back to a proxy pylon where stalkers are warping in

MC goes back, kills the one viking with the stalkers, then obliterates the other defenders

Odin surrenders. MC comes out and points to his LiquidHuk sweatshirt.

Another easy victory for MC, really.

Commentary: It's a cruel world. Several top players have gone out in the round of 64 against unexpectedly strong opposition, and oGsMC meanwhile drew a player who clearly was in way over his head. That was kind of how I expect all teamless unknown players to play, but Odin was by far the least impressive so far. Apparently OdinMvP eliminated Huk but based on what we saw here...that's pretty hard to believe. Maybe Odin let his nerves get to him.

cOreZenith (P) vs STJuly (Z)
Match Rating: 4/10

Click for match play by play and commentary

Game 1 - Shakuras Plateau

Pool first for July, then zergling speed, cOre with a standard opening

Hatch on 18 for July, scouted by cOre's probe

July's zerglings slip past what should have been a zealot wall-off and scout the main

While cOre tries to get those zerglings, July sends in more, but good force fields defuse the attack

cOre expands, July getting a spire

cOre getting twilight council, then a dark shrine

Zerglings catch sentries out in the open and kill several of them

Ten mutalisks out for July, dark shrine is finishing for cOre

No defense at the main when the mutalisks arrive, they kill many probes and then snipe sentries

Mutalisks finally withdraw from the stalkers, then move down to the natural which is even more undefended

July takes his third, dark templar tries to go into the natural but an overseer is there and it dies immediately

DT delays the drones from transferring to July's third

Mutalisks continue to harass cOre's main, no blink yet

DTs go through the rocks and enter the main, killed by a drone surround after some decent damage

July staying at 10 mutalisks and switching into roach

cOre's army is mainly stalkers with a few sentries and zealots supporting

His DT sees the size of July's roach army so his army stays at home

cOre moves out into the center of the map, sniping some overlords

Enormous roach army goes to meet them, cOre puts up some force fields and they all burrow

There's no observer, so the roaches easily move under the force fields and then slaughter the stalkers

cOre concedes

Pretty one-sided game. July looked substantially better than cOre, though he faces a much less favorable map in game 2.

Game 2 - Delta Quadrant

Right side positions, cOre at 2 and July at 5

Pool first for July, standard opening for cOre

Zergling speed for July, then pulls drones off gas

Expansion at about 22 for July

cOre getting a stargate in addition to the usual gateways, July getting a roach warren

cOre starts a void ray, July starts lair at about the same time

Three queens for July, two void rays moving out with a very small ground complement, third void ray on the way

Transfusion micro allows the queens to do enough damage to the void rays, they all die but more are made

Roaches and zerglings easily eliminate the ground forces, forcing the void rays to pull back

July starts a spire, cOre stops making void rays and expands to his back rocks

The two void rays left move back to July's base to try to harass, but three queens at each base means no dice

Zerglings kill the rocks at the gold despite void rays shooting at them

Mutalisks come out and destroy the two void rays

The mutalisks are repelled from cOre's expansion, but July expands to the gold base

July makes a few corruptors, gets roach upgrades

Mutalisks do some minor harassment, July expands to a fourth and switches to hydra

cOre is two bases down, he moves out with a large sentry/stalker army

July engages in the middle of the map, loses pretty badly, but of course his economy allows him to replace it

July making all roaches now, pushing the stalkers back to cOre's ramp

cOre surrenders

cOre didn't seem to have any kind of idea what to do after his void rays failed to do very much damage, and July made him pay.

Commentary: It's hard to tell how good July is since his opponent was grievously outmatched, but he disposed of him without breaking a sweat, and that counts for something. Since July had trouble qualifying for previous tournaments, it's easy to discount him, but as sSKS, NaDa, TOP, and many other players have proved, even the best sometimes lose in the qualifiers.