GSL 3 Round of 64: Day 3, Afternoon

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.