Just one week ago, I was praising the first ever five-man all-kill in GSTL history, a doing of none other than ST_Bomber. Now, IPL TAC 2 comes forth with double the stronger statement, saying that, hey, such a boasting is not an exclusive property to Korean tournaments.

GSTL 2012 Season 1 [Prize pool: €42,483]

FXO e-Sports VS ZeNEX

It was time for consolation matches in this week's GSTL and no, there weren't any all-kills but both winners came really close. FXO led the charge with Lucky at the point of the spear and that paid really well for them. It took ZeNEX four games to finally find an answer to the zerg threat, suffering meanwhile the embarrassment of seeing Mushroom being proxy-hatched right at his natural and dying to a queen/ling pressure, followed by a mutalisk wrap-up.

As Oz stepped in to take Lucky's place, it seemed that FXO had even more ways to tell ZeNEX that they should get out of here, and fast. Oz was ruthless in his PvP, eliminating Avenge and then surviving his decision to go quick nexus thanks to sniping Treme's probe to seal the series.

Poor Treme. I had such higher hopes for him after what he did to oGs in week one.

FXO e-Sports 5:1 ZeNEX
Lucky> Sparta@ Dual Sight
Lucky> Mushroom@ Antiga Shipyard
Lucky> Life@ Entombed Valley
Lucky< Avenge@ Metropolis
Oz> Avenge@ Cloud Kingdom
Oz> Treme@ Crossfire

HoSeo vs Team SCV Life

HoSeo vs TSL was even closer to an all-kill as HoSeo opened with the relatively unknown Sculp against the Super Tournament champion Polt. TSL's strategy was almost transparent - they knew that their roster was small and nearly incapable of surprises. So they went for the big ace - Polt - hoping to score an easy win or at least get a significant lead which Symbol or Revival can than bring to victory.

Alas, their parachute would not open as Sculp went on a four-game win streak, eliminating the aforementioned Polt and Revival in the process. Symbol, the only player to win a game in week one against IM, never made it to the booth. After Shine finally stopped Sculp's march, HoSeo just put Sage on the line and it all ended for TSL.

HoSeo 5:1 Team SCV Life
Sculp> Polt@ Cloud Kingdom
Sculp> Dream@ Calm Before the Storm
Sculp> Hyun@ Daybreak
Sculp> Revival@ Antiga Shipyard
Sculp< Shine@ Entombedd Valley
Sage> Shine@ Metropolis


Next on GSTL: Round 2

GSTL Season 1 Round 2
MVPVSFXO e-Sport
PrimeVSHoSeo


It's time for some champions action, fellas! For the first time in 2012 we'll see the rosters of Prime and Mvp play some GSTL, trying to defend the pride with which they adorned themselves last season.

MVP is going against FXO, who are to my opinion one of the strongest teams world-wide. FXO are doing extremely well in every team league they participate (which is, in fact, every team league out there), they are mightily strong in all match-ups and Gumiho seems to be shooting towards an incredible success, not to mention his IPL TAC 2 performance against HoSeo, about which you shall read about below. Still, MVP are the reigning champions plus they are two-times grand finalists and have two Ro8 Code S players. With Genius on the rise once again, it looks like MVP are stronger than ever.

On the other hand, Prime are still unconvincing in my eyes as a whole, but then again - neither are HoSeo. On paper, both teams have players that can turn every series upside down and it will be a pleasure to watch them get on each other's throats.

NASTL Season 1 Prize pool: $10,000

NASTL Standings
TeamScorePts
1. Team Empire4-0+8
2. FXO e-Sports4-0+7
3. Team Liquid3-1+5
4. Mousesports2-2+3
5. Team Reign2-2+1
6. Rox.Kis1-3-6
7. Quantic Gaming0-4-8
7. Evil Geniuses0-4-10
It's week four and the game is not changing over at the NASTL. Empire keeps strolling forward while Team Liquid and FXO are sprinting just within a hand's reach of the Eastern European squad.

The ranking excellency of the group leaders was paid with blood this time, though. Empire, who had a dominating 3-1 series last week against Mousesports, now went head to head with Reign, clinching the victory in an ace match between Kas and Inori.

Liquid experienced similar turmoil versus Rox.Kis, who were thus far one of the worst performing teams in the league but it all ended with a loss for the former. It got even stranger as both Ret and HerO lost vZ matches - something they are very much immune to. To Liquid's luck, Jinro and Sheth were there to save the team and bring it all to an ace match where Ret would once again lose (this time to Titan). Although ending unfortunately for them, the massively positive score of Liquid kept them in the top three.

FXO continued their steady way to success, beating Quantic Gaming quite hard with the help of the usual suspects Leenock, Oz and Gumuiho while Destiny was the only one successful for Quantic. This was also Flo's first appearance at the NASTL!

In the fourth match, Mousesport recovered from two losses in a row and all-killed Evil Geniuses, who are now officially the worst team in the tournament points-wise. This put the European team in the upper half of the standings, making for a very interesting next week to come as the top four will have to play each other.


NASTL Week 4
FXO e-Sports 3:1 Quantic Gaming
Leenock> Agh@ Odyssey
Gumiho> Theognis@ Antiga Shipyard
Choya< Destiny@ Daybreak
Oz> Flo@ Ohana
Rox.Kis 3:2 Team Liquid
Abver> Ret@ Ohana
LiveZerg> HerO@ Odyssey
Slivko< Jinro@ Antiga Shipyard
Titan< Sheth@ Daybreak
Titan3-2 Ret
Mousesports 3:0 Evil Geniuses
Morrow> Puma@ Ohana
Thorzain> Idra@ Antiga Shipyard
HasuObs> InControl@ Odyssey
Team Empire 3:2 Team Reign
Beastyqt< Inori@ Ohana
Happy> Artist@ Odyssey
Ho8ot> Slush@ Daybreak
Kas< Kiwikaki@ Antiga Shipyard
Kas2-0 Inori


Next on NASTL: Week 5

NASTL week 5 (February 16-19)
Evil GeniusesVSTeam Reign
Quantic GamingVSRoxKis
Team EmpireVSTeam Liquid
MousesportsVSFXO e-Sports


IPL Team Arena Challenge 2 [Prize pool: $20,000]

You can argue that IPL TAC 2 was the most interesting of the team leagues lat week.

First of all, Evil Geniuses finally won a series, relieving some of the community pressure over them. Not to mention that the line-up order they went for was, let's be honest, unorthodox at best. EG opened with DeMuslim, which was a fairly logical choice regarding his none too shabby performance at Sao Paulo but after he fell to Apocalypse, the torch was handed to InControl. Not JYP, not Puma, but InControl. And there goes Geoff, owning two people of Quantic and putting the score to 3-1. All EG had to do after InControl lost to Theognis was sent Puma to close it all.

This was not all that TAC 2 had to offer that week, not even by a long shot. The losers bracket was dappled by an all-kill by team ZeNEX, widely regarded as the biggest underdogs at least as far as GSTL is concerned. Their victim was Team Reign, who were unfortunate enough to see Life dominate five of their best players, including Kiwikaki, Inori, Axslav and Artist. This was all she wrote for Reign, as they depart from the IPL TAC 2, going the same path as Quantic and Dignitas.

The future opponents of ZeNEX will be their compatriots from HoSeo who fell to the losers bracket after a second team kill within the week. The home of the last GSL champion suffered defeat at the hands of Gumiho even though HoSeo brought forth both San and Jjakji. It would not matter, however - FXO is steadily building towards a very convincing results in all three team leagues!


IPL TAC 2 February 7-10 results
[LBR 1]: Evil Geniuses 5:2 Quantic Gaming
Demuslim> Destiny@ Antlantis Spaceship
Demuslim< Apocalypse@ Antiga Shipyard
InControl> Apocalypse@ Daybreak
InControl> Agh@ Shattered Temple
InControl< Theognis@ Shakuras Plateau
Puma> Theognis@ Terminus
Puma> Sase@ Darkness Falls
[LBR1]: ZeNEX 5:0 Team Reign
Life> gix@ Atlantis Spaceship
Life> Kiwikaki@ Shattered Temple
Life> Axslav@ Shakuras Plateau
Life> Inori@ Sanshorn Mists
Life> Artist@ Terminus
[LBR 1]: Team Empire 5:3 coL.Mvp
Violet> Bang@ Atlantis Spaceship
Violet< Minigun@ Shakuras Plateau
Beastyqt< Minigun@ Antiga Shipyard
Aristeo> Minigun@ Shattered Temple
Aristeao< qxc@ Terminus
Kas> qxc@ Tal'Darim Altar
Kas> Dream@ Daybreal
Kas> Tails@ Sanshorn Mists
[WBR 2]: FXO e-Sports 5:0 HoSeo
Gumiho> Hoon@ Atlantis Spaceship
Gumiho> Tassadar@ Sanshorn Mists
Gumiho> Fairy@ Daybreak
Gumiho> San@ Calm Before the Storm
Gumiho> Jjakji@ Daybreak


Next on IPL TAC 2: Winners Bracket Round 2

IPL TAC 2: Winners Bracket Round 2
MousesportsVSOld Generations
Team LiquidVSPrime
StarTaleVSTeam SCV Life