An exciting series of games opened the Ro16 of GSL Super as five talented terrans and three up and coming zerg went against each other for the right to advance to the quarter finals.
Ganzi vs MMA
Game 1 @ Terminus. MMA's defensive play in the beginning really helped him deny the drop attempts from Ganzi while at the same time trying to do some Banshee harass. When both air plays could not achieve what they were made for, Ganzi threw down a couple of factories and went for full mech. In contrast, MMA countered that with Marauder/Tank composition and the armies were soon out on the map. Ganzi tried to secure a position at the centre but his mech army was caught off-guard and unsieged, having it slaughtered by the marauders of MMA, who took a commanding 40 supply lead. Not being able to secure a third due to the mobility and aggression of MMA, Ganzi soon fell behind two bases to one and had to type GG.
Game 2 @ Crevasse. Ganzi tried to take a big economy lead by going for Blue Flame Hellion drops twice but MMA's reactions and SCV splits mitigated the damage done and with his early third, the MLG champion soon started getting more and more ahead of his teammate. Ganzi once again chose to go mech and faced similar problems as in game one - he could not get a third up and running due to the constant pressure of MMA and the evergrowing marauder/tank ball. After being overrun at one of the xel'naga towers, Ganzi surrendered the series.
Ryung vs JookTo
Game 1 @ Xel'Naga Caverns. JookTo played evasively during the mid-game, cleverly dodging the Marine/Tank army of Ryung as much as he can and tried to use his mutalisks to their best by sniping some important add-ons but soon this kind of play came back to hurt him. By accumulating a humongous force that remained untouched for the whole game, Ryung secured the gold with a planetary and used it as a base of operations from which he launched attack all around to deny the Zerg any bases. JookTo's late infestors and small baneling count did not aid his cause and when the terran moved down to his natural, he went for a base trade but even though Brood Lords were out he kept losing tech and bases and soon typed a GG.
Game 2 @ Belshir Beach. After crushing the push that was threatening his third, JookTo managed to secure a mid-game map control and soon found himself sitting at four bases, one of them gold. Minutes later his well calculated aggression managed to take down Ryung's third and leave the terran starving for resources. However, Ryung's careful and patient brought some results as he killed two Zerg's bases despite the presence of numerous brood lords and infestors. But with his economy in the thrash, Ryung still could not accumulate a scary enough force to fight the Zerg and after yet another base, the terran gg-ed out.
Game 3 @ Crevasse. JookTo went for a risky 2-base drop push that would have dealt a lot of damage had a viking not scouted it. Ryung threw down some emergency defences and microed perfectly considering the small amount of space he had available. After minimizing his losses and stopping any roach follow-up, the terran managed to take a third and do a strong push that crushed the economically weak JookTo.
Min vs TheBest
Game 1 @ Crevasse. TheBest opened greedily with CC first but Min had read the meta-game plan of the terran pretty well and countered it with 2-base Baneling Bust. Although TheBest's siege tech kicked in before his tech lab went down, there just weren't enough forces to deal with the speedlings flooding in.
Game 2 @ Xel'Naga Caverns. After his hellion drop harass was completely nullified, TheBest knew that the only thing to do, considering he had neither a CC nor any other viable transition out of his 1-base play, is do an all-in push, bringing in SCVs with his Marine/Tank/Hellion army and hope that Min took the liberty to overdrone. Fortunately for the terran, that was exactly the case and without speed for his banelings and the insufficient creep spread, Min could not hold the attack and the score was tied.
Game 3 @ Crossfire. The third set started as its predecessor did with TheBest failing his 1-base hellion play and following it up with an all-in, made up of the same army composition as on Caverns. But this time there were no banelings for Min, who was teching to Mutas and this decision led to one of the most intense and edge-walking end-game scenarios. Min defended the all-in push and its follow-up by the skin of his teeth and there we had a most peculiar of situations. Min had his natural destroyed while TheBest did not even attempt to get it so both players had to operate off of one base and with poor economies. Min continued to squeeze out as many speedlings, mutas and now banelings as he could while TheBest was gearing for another, and this time probably final, all-in, getting out some Thors and bringing the rest of his SCVs. It would appear that Min would die in a matter of seconds but a bad clumping of Marines and SCVs led to death-by-baneling-explosion and TheBest now had a Medivac with a Thor against just Queens and Zerglings from Min.
Somehow, though, TheBest still had some extra funds left in the bank and he started Banshee production that would eventually win the game. Although Min's overseer scouted this tech, some micro mistakes by him cost him all his queens and without anything to hit air, the SlayerS zerg had to gg out.
MarineKing vs Revival
Game 1 @ Tal'Darim Altar. When Revival opened up with a 6-roach pressure against MK's CC first he probably did not suspect that it would win him the game minutes after this. At first, Revival helplessly attacked the lone bunker at the ramp and could not break it down with all the SCVs repairing but suddenly MarineKing went for an add-on swap and entrance was now wide open. Revival reacted swiftly, sneaking his Roaches under the floating building and killing everything but six SCVs. Although a Banshee eventually came out to clean the Roach infestation, MarineKing did not have the necessary economy to fight off the second wave of Zerg units.
Game 2 @ Crevasse. Seeing that MarineKing is going for CC first, Revival decided to take his front expansion but that was a risky decision would only bring pain and suffering to the TSL zerg. Abusing the short drop distance, MarineKing loaded up two medivacs with marines and with his signature marine micro managed to take down Zerg's natural and the majority of his lings. When two more medivacs full of units flew to his main, Revival had no other choice but to type gg.
Game 3 @ Xel'Naga Caverns. Apparently, we were not going to see long games out of MKP and Revival as a crucial mistake by the Zerg in the final set caused his fall. Not having a spotting overlord at his natural, Revival completely missed the bunker rush by MarineKing and when the speedlings arrived it was already too late - the king of marines had a bunker already up and a second close to finishing. The hatchery thus soon went down and Revival typed in a gg after few more minutes.
Thus, none of the three Zergs survived the first day of the Ro16 and four terran advance further to meet each other in the quarter finals.
GSL Super Ro16 day 1
Ganzi 0:2 MMA
Ganzi< MMA@ Terminus
Ganzi< MMA@ Crevasse
Ryung 2:1 JookTo
Ryung> JookTo@ Xel'Naga Caverns
Ryung< JookTo@ Belshir Beach
Ryung> JookTo@ Crevasse
TheBest 2:1 Min
TheBest< Min@ Crevasse
TheBest> Min@ Xel'Naga Caverns
TheBest> Min@ Crossfire
MarineKing 2:1 Revival
MarineKing< Revival@ Tal'Darim Altar
MarineKing> Revival@ Crevasse
MarineKing> Revival@ Xel'Naga Caverns
Ganzi vs MMA
Game 1 @ Terminus. MMA's defensive play in the beginning really helped him deny the drop attempts from Ganzi while at the same time trying to do some Banshee harass. When both air plays could not achieve what they were made for, Ganzi threw down a couple of factories and went for full mech. In contrast, MMA countered that with Marauder/Tank composition and the armies were soon out on the map. Ganzi tried to secure a position at the centre but his mech army was caught off-guard and unsieged, having it slaughtered by the marauders of MMA, who took a commanding 40 supply lead. Not being able to secure a third due to the mobility and aggression of MMA, Ganzi soon fell behind two bases to one and had to type GG.
Game 2 @ Crevasse. Ganzi tried to take a big economy lead by going for Blue Flame Hellion drops twice but MMA's reactions and SCV splits mitigated the damage done and with his early third, the MLG champion soon started getting more and more ahead of his teammate. Ganzi once again chose to go mech and faced similar problems as in game one - he could not get a third up and running due to the constant pressure of MMA and the evergrowing marauder/tank ball. After being overrun at one of the xel'naga towers, Ganzi surrendered the series.
Ryung vs JookTo
Game 1 @ Xel'Naga Caverns. JookTo played evasively during the mid-game, cleverly dodging the Marine/Tank army of Ryung as much as he can and tried to use his mutalisks to their best by sniping some important add-ons but soon this kind of play came back to hurt him. By accumulating a humongous force that remained untouched for the whole game, Ryung secured the gold with a planetary and used it as a base of operations from which he launched attack all around to deny the Zerg any bases. JookTo's late infestors and small baneling count did not aid his cause and when the terran moved down to his natural, he went for a base trade but even though Brood Lords were out he kept losing tech and bases and soon typed a GG.
Game 2 @ Belshir Beach. After crushing the push that was threatening his third, JookTo managed to secure a mid-game map control and soon found himself sitting at four bases, one of them gold. Minutes later his well calculated aggression managed to take down Ryung's third and leave the terran starving for resources. However, Ryung's careful and patient brought some results as he killed two Zerg's bases despite the presence of numerous brood lords and infestors. But with his economy in the thrash, Ryung still could not accumulate a scary enough force to fight the Zerg and after yet another base, the terran gg-ed out.
Game 3 @ Crevasse. JookTo went for a risky 2-base drop push that would have dealt a lot of damage had a viking not scouted it. Ryung threw down some emergency defences and microed perfectly considering the small amount of space he had available. After minimizing his losses and stopping any roach follow-up, the terran managed to take a third and do a strong push that crushed the economically weak JookTo.
Min vs TheBest
Game 1 @ Crevasse. TheBest opened greedily with CC first but Min had read the meta-game plan of the terran pretty well and countered it with 2-base Baneling Bust. Although TheBest's siege tech kicked in before his tech lab went down, there just weren't enough forces to deal with the speedlings flooding in.
Game 2 @ Xel'Naga Caverns. After his hellion drop harass was completely nullified, TheBest knew that the only thing to do, considering he had neither a CC nor any other viable transition out of his 1-base play, is do an all-in push, bringing in SCVs with his Marine/Tank/Hellion army and hope that Min took the liberty to overdrone. Fortunately for the terran, that was exactly the case and without speed for his banelings and the insufficient creep spread, Min could not hold the attack and the score was tied.
Game 3 @ Crossfire. The third set started as its predecessor did with TheBest failing his 1-base hellion play and following it up with an all-in, made up of the same army composition as on Caverns. But this time there were no banelings for Min, who was teching to Mutas and this decision led to one of the most intense and edge-walking end-game scenarios. Min defended the all-in push and its follow-up by the skin of his teeth and there we had a most peculiar of situations. Min had his natural destroyed while TheBest did not even attempt to get it so both players had to operate off of one base and with poor economies. Min continued to squeeze out as many speedlings, mutas and now banelings as he could while TheBest was gearing for another, and this time probably final, all-in, getting out some Thors and bringing the rest of his SCVs. It would appear that Min would die in a matter of seconds but a bad clumping of Marines and SCVs led to death-by-baneling-explosion and TheBest now had a Medivac with a Thor against just Queens and Zerglings from Min.
Somehow, though, TheBest still had some extra funds left in the bank and he started Banshee production that would eventually win the game. Although Min's overseer scouted this tech, some micro mistakes by him cost him all his queens and without anything to hit air, the SlayerS zerg had to gg out.
MarineKing vs Revival
Game 1 @ Tal'Darim Altar. When Revival opened up with a 6-roach pressure against MK's CC first he probably did not suspect that it would win him the game minutes after this. At first, Revival helplessly attacked the lone bunker at the ramp and could not break it down with all the SCVs repairing but suddenly MarineKing went for an add-on swap and entrance was now wide open. Revival reacted swiftly, sneaking his Roaches under the floating building and killing everything but six SCVs. Although a Banshee eventually came out to clean the Roach infestation, MarineKing did not have the necessary economy to fight off the second wave of Zerg units.
Game 2 @ Crevasse. Seeing that MarineKing is going for CC first, Revival decided to take his front expansion but that was a risky decision would only bring pain and suffering to the TSL zerg. Abusing the short drop distance, MarineKing loaded up two medivacs with marines and with his signature marine micro managed to take down Zerg's natural and the majority of his lings. When two more medivacs full of units flew to his main, Revival had no other choice but to type gg.
Game 3 @ Xel'Naga Caverns. Apparently, we were not going to see long games out of MKP and Revival as a crucial mistake by the Zerg in the final set caused his fall. Not having a spotting overlord at his natural, Revival completely missed the bunker rush by MarineKing and when the speedlings arrived it was already too late - the king of marines had a bunker already up and a second close to finishing. The hatchery thus soon went down and Revival typed in a gg after few more minutes.
Thus, none of the three Zergs survived the first day of the Ro16 and four terran advance further to meet each other in the quarter finals.
GSL Super Ro16 day 1
Ganzi 0:2 MMA
Ganzi< MMA@ Terminus
Ganzi< MMA@ Crevasse
Ryung 2:1 JookTo
Ryung> JookTo@ Xel'Naga Caverns
Ryung< JookTo@ Belshir Beach
Ryung> JookTo@ Crevasse
TheBest 2:1 Min
TheBest< Min@ Crevasse
TheBest> Min@ Xel'Naga Caverns
TheBest> Min@ Crossfire
MarineKing 2:1 Revival
MarineKing< Revival@ Tal'Darim Altar
MarineKing> Revival@ Crevasse
MarineKing> Revival@ Xel'Naga Caverns
