For the first time in Code A history, a protoss player reached the grand final, only to find another toss brother barring the way to the throne. Putting aside any race affiliations, the two young talents stormed towards each other, craving for victory and the spot in the Code S groups.
Game 1 @ Dual Sight. Tassadar chose the very standard 4-gate rush against Puzzle's 3-gate with double gas. At the fifth minute mark, Tassadar marched towards his opponent's base and, luckily for him, Puzzle was a bit too slow on the force field and Tassadar managed to climb the ramp and warp in a second proxy pylon inside. With powerful means to reinforce his rush and with a warp gate advantage, Tassadar quickly swept the first set.
With Tassadar having vision for his proxy pylon, Puzzle is in gravest trouble
Game 2 @ Tal'Darim Altar. Once again Tassadar went on the early offensive but this time it was a 4-gate mirror. Despite his slightly slower warp gate, Puzzle succeeded in holding the enemy forces for quite a while and even come even in supply but because of the said WG timing he was always one production round behind.
Tassadar saw this as the perfect opportunity to finish his opponent and continued to reinforce relentlessly, withering down the stalker count of Puzzle to barely any. When the last stalker fell, Puzzle GG-ed out.
Tassadar gets an important stalker advantage
Game 3 @ Crevasse. After neither player could win a decisive advantage with the 4-gate openings, Puzzle immediately put down a twilight council, rushing to blink as fast as he can. Tassadar, on the other hand, delayed his tech in favor of an addition round of warp-ins but as Puzzle arrived, the HoSeo player found out that his supply advantage counted for nothing.
Perfectly blinking each stalker out of harm's way, Puzzle completely ignored the fact that he had the smaller army; Tassadar had to GG out after barely killing any units.
Puzzle entered the battle with nearly 10 less supply. He ended up with twice as many units, blink tech and a GG from his opponent
Game 4 @ Crossfire. For a fourth time Tassadar combined a 4G build with an early aggression but Puzzle seemed to have already adapted to this play style. In addition to perfectly holding the attack, Puzzle had somehow sneaked a proxy pylon in Tassadar's base and when the time for counter push came, the Zenex protoss was hugely favored, winning the final battle with ease.
Tassadar is sentenced to death... by a proxy pylon!
Game 5 @ Terminus. Not until the fifth game did we see a deviation away from the manic 4-gate mirrors. Tassadar opened 3-gate/robo and transitioned into Colossi right after his first immortal finished. Scouting the passivity of Tassadar, Puzzle knew that something fishy was brewing so he threw down a robo of his own plus a blink tech.
Tassadar played really safe, building up his colossus/zealot army without trying to move out, fearing the blink of Puzzle and knowing that the huge distances on Terminus would put him in a bad position should the attack fail. Instead, he chose to take his natural and wait for a few more high tier units.
Puzzle, though, was scheming different plans. The Zenex protoss had already amassed significant amounts of immortals and blink stalkers and knew the time to strike was now. He attacked Tassadar's natural with his immortals and blinked his stalkers into his opponent's main, thus flanking the whole army of Tassadar. With the colossus ball being forced to split its fire, Puzzle found that battle easier than a child's play.
Tassadar is trapped in his own base
Game 6 @ Xel'Naga Fortress. Tassadar once again opened with a 4-Gate but chose to cancel his offensive proxy pylon seeing that Puzzle had gone for the same build. In response to that, however, Puzzle in turn cancelled one of his gates in order to throw down a quick robo.
On the other side of the map, Tassadar had transitioned into blink and soon renewed his attempts to crush Puzzle's face and he almost succeeded (several times) when his aggressive blinking sniped immortal after immortal.
But Puzzle's will to live was immensely strong and he stood his ground, managing to get a blink tech of his own. Tassadar, on the other hand, would not transition into anything beside his original tech and thus ended up in a dire situation, being forced to engage Puzzle's stalkers with his heavily injured army. After a couple of hugely one-sided battles, Puzzle became the new Code A champion.
Puzzle blinks through the injured stalkers of Tassadar to win the Code A gold
Code A July Grand Final
Puzzle 4:2 Tassadar
Puzzle< Tassadar@ Dual Sight
Puzzle< Tassadar@ Tal'Darim Altar
Puzzle> Tassadar@ Crevasse
Puzzle> Tassadar@ Crossfire
Puzzle> Tassadar@ Terminus
Puzzle> Tassadar@ Xel'Naga Fortress
Game 1 @ Dual Sight. Tassadar chose the very standard 4-gate rush against Puzzle's 3-gate with double gas. At the fifth minute mark, Tassadar marched towards his opponent's base and, luckily for him, Puzzle was a bit too slow on the force field and Tassadar managed to climb the ramp and warp in a second proxy pylon inside. With powerful means to reinforce his rush and with a warp gate advantage, Tassadar quickly swept the first set.
With Tassadar having vision for his proxy pylon, Puzzle is in gravest trouble
Game 2 @ Tal'Darim Altar. Once again Tassadar went on the early offensive but this time it was a 4-gate mirror. Despite his slightly slower warp gate, Puzzle succeeded in holding the enemy forces for quite a while and even come even in supply but because of the said WG timing he was always one production round behind.
Tassadar saw this as the perfect opportunity to finish his opponent and continued to reinforce relentlessly, withering down the stalker count of Puzzle to barely any. When the last stalker fell, Puzzle GG-ed out.
Tassadar gets an important stalker advantage
Game 3 @ Crevasse. After neither player could win a decisive advantage with the 4-gate openings, Puzzle immediately put down a twilight council, rushing to blink as fast as he can. Tassadar, on the other hand, delayed his tech in favor of an addition round of warp-ins but as Puzzle arrived, the HoSeo player found out that his supply advantage counted for nothing.
Perfectly blinking each stalker out of harm's way, Puzzle completely ignored the fact that he had the smaller army; Tassadar had to GG out after barely killing any units.
Puzzle entered the battle with nearly 10 less supply. He ended up with twice as many units, blink tech and a GG from his opponent
Game 4 @ Crossfire. For a fourth time Tassadar combined a 4G build with an early aggression but Puzzle seemed to have already adapted to this play style. In addition to perfectly holding the attack, Puzzle had somehow sneaked a proxy pylon in Tassadar's base and when the time for counter push came, the Zenex protoss was hugely favored, winning the final battle with ease.
Tassadar is sentenced to death... by a proxy pylon!
Game 5 @ Terminus. Not until the fifth game did we see a deviation away from the manic 4-gate mirrors. Tassadar opened 3-gate/robo and transitioned into Colossi right after his first immortal finished. Scouting the passivity of Tassadar, Puzzle knew that something fishy was brewing so he threw down a robo of his own plus a blink tech.
Tassadar played really safe, building up his colossus/zealot army without trying to move out, fearing the blink of Puzzle and knowing that the huge distances on Terminus would put him in a bad position should the attack fail. Instead, he chose to take his natural and wait for a few more high tier units.
Puzzle, though, was scheming different plans. The Zenex protoss had already amassed significant amounts of immortals and blink stalkers and knew the time to strike was now. He attacked Tassadar's natural with his immortals and blinked his stalkers into his opponent's main, thus flanking the whole army of Tassadar. With the colossus ball being forced to split its fire, Puzzle found that battle easier than a child's play.
Tassadar is trapped in his own base
Game 6 @ Xel'Naga Fortress. Tassadar once again opened with a 4-Gate but chose to cancel his offensive proxy pylon seeing that Puzzle had gone for the same build. In response to that, however, Puzzle in turn cancelled one of his gates in order to throw down a quick robo.
On the other side of the map, Tassadar had transitioned into blink and soon renewed his attempts to crush Puzzle's face and he almost succeeded (several times) when his aggressive blinking sniped immortal after immortal.
But Puzzle's will to live was immensely strong and he stood his ground, managing to get a blink tech of his own. Tassadar, on the other hand, would not transition into anything beside his original tech and thus ended up in a dire situation, being forced to engage Puzzle's stalkers with his heavily injured army. After a couple of hugely one-sided battles, Puzzle became the new Code A champion.
Puzzle blinks through the injured stalkers of Tassadar to win the Code A gold
Code A July Grand Final
Puzzle 4:2 Tassadar
Puzzle< Tassadar@ Dual Sight
Puzzle< Tassadar@ Tal'Darim Altar
Puzzle> Tassadar@ Crevasse
Puzzle> Tassadar@ Crossfire
Puzzle> Tassadar@ Terminus
Puzzle> Tassadar@ Xel'Naga Fortress
