Source: Thisisgame.com
The second day of GOMTV's Heart of the Swarm team league featured a clash between FXOpen and Prime. Having both won previous seasons of the GSTL, the teams battled it out to decide who would go on to meet yesterday's winners AZUBU in the RO4.
In the first game we saw MarineKing go for a CC first opening on Silver Sands, with Lucky similarly taking his own the fast expand followed by a gas before Spawning pool. The Zerg punished his opponent's attempts to greedily tech to fast Hellbats with an early Roach attack, causing substantial initial damage due to his great burrow micro. Having eventually cleared his base of Roaches, MarineKing was able to hold off further aggression with Hellbats, Marines and Maruaders despite his economic deficit, opting to add Siege tanks to his composition before moving out. As his army laid waste to the 3rd expansion of Lucky, the FXO Zerg attempted to strike at the heart of the Terran's production with a counter-attack, however MarineKing's army advantage allowed him to effortlessly win the base trade.
Choya took down MarineKing convincingly in game 2 with a well executed 6 Gateway attack supported by the Time Warp ability of the Mothership Core. MarineKing's failure to scout left his defence completely under prepared and was forced to concede the game despite his every attempt to play on. Rookie Zerg Terror was unable to avenge his teams' ace in his debut when a successful cannon rush forced a cancel on his natural expansion. Things went from bad to worse for Terror as his decision to rush for Nydus off of one base was scouted by Choya, allowing for ample time to react. Unable to breach the main base, Terror assaulted the Protoss natural with a handful Roaches, Queens and Spine Crawlers but it proved to be too little to break Choya's defence.
Maru put an end to the FXO win streak in an uninspiring game 4 on Whirlwind in which he held off a proxy gateway despite somehow missing his opponents base with his scouting SCV. Although his opponent failed to scout his Stargate tech, Choya was unable to inflict any damage with his Phoenixes and was incapable of catching up as his opponent who pulled ahead with double expansions and effective Widow mine drops. Maru opened with a proxy of his own in the following game gaining an early lead with a well placed bunker on the low ground allowing his Reapers to stifle his opponent's mining. JKS was able to close the gap with great control and constant Zergling run-bys into the undefended Terran main. Once he stabilised his economy JKS went straight for the throat with a devastating Roach Baneling bust to take game 5.
JKS wasted no time in closing out the last game of the day with an aggressive Baneling bust off of one base that went unscouted by Byun who opted for a CC first. After the wall to his main was breached, Byun was unable to fend off the waves of Speedlings flooding into his base and reluctantly tapped out.
GSTL HoTS Pre-Season Ro8 Day2
FXOpen 4:2 Prime
LuckySilver Sands MarineKing
ChoyaAkilon Flats MarineKing
ChoyaBel'Shir Vestige Terror
ChoyaWhirlwind Maru
JKSIcarus Maru
JKSAtlas Byun
