The TSL has gone through the ladder stage and now the qualifications. Today the top 16 players began their fight for the top.
The first day of the official Razer-TSL has ended, and ended with quite a bang. 8 players met on the field of battle today to prove that they deserve to advance to the Ro8. Alot of tension has built up amongst these players who have come so far to win the huge cash prize involved with this star league. Here is a short review done by GosuGamers of what went on today.
Ro16 Day 1
Draco2-0 MYM.Strelok
Excello.IefNaij2-1 ToT)Cloud(
ToT)Gosia(2-0 T.SQD)Kr
MYM.White-Ra2-1 Idra[Media]
Draco boards the Warship
Polish sensation Draco came today to face his more than formidable opponent, MYM.Strelok, The Warship. This was voted as the second most intense match of the Razer-TSL by members of TeamLiquid.net and definitely should have been. Well unfortunately for the Warship he was unable to defeat the former Korean pro gamer and left this group with a disappointing 2-0 loss.
Cloud takes a surprising first game
ToT)Cloud( and Excello.IefNaij went head to head for the second match of the day. Two of the worlds top Protoss players duking it out in a mirror match to remember. The first game was easily conceded to Cloud since IefNaij was just not ready for the quick Dark Templar build that hit him. An early and unexpected lead for the Italian Protoss from the Templars of Twighlight.
The next game was a totally different story, mainly due to IefNaij having rather amazing sense and strategy. They clashed at the Templars natural and with three reavers for the ToT member and only two for IefNaij it seemed cloudy. But the Canadian player was able to harrass efficiently and take down the defenses at his opponents base. The next game went much the same though this time IefNaij opted to crash in the front door and just destroy him.
Rafal on a rampage
This time one of the mostly unknown players in the Razer-TSL, Kr, faced off with well known ToT Zerg Rafal "Gosia" Kontowicz. No real surprises here though Kr did prove that he worked for his spot by putting a up a fierce fight. He made some poor defensive decisions in game one that led to his loss at the hands of Gosias amazing hydra harass. Game two went much easier for the Polish Zerg and he advanced from this round.
The Beast from the East rears its head
Ukrainian monster Protoss White-Ra proved today that he is worthy of that title, taking down American Terran IdrA, even with his Korean training as of late. There was much speculation as to whether or not IdrA's Korean training would help him to win the Razer-TSL and if it was even fair for him to have that advantage. Apparently it did not matter on either case since today White-Ra took him out of the line of fire.
The first game did not fair so well for IdrA as White-Ra landed close enough to do some major harrass and then take him to town with a proxy Reaver. The next game went much better for the eStro player as he was able to defeat White-Ra after a very close comeback against a quick carrier strategy. In the third game IdrA was unable to control the flow of the macro enough to put Ra down. Unfortunately he lost rather quickly to a very well executed push.
Ro16 Day 2
ToT)Mondragon(vs MYM.Dreiven
ret[Media]vs Excello.NonY
MYM.Dinotvs fuSion.Rondo
RoX.BRAT_OKvs HayprO
Tomorrow even more exciting!
Tomorrows games will be cast live as well through the Razer-TSL site which is Here. The sole Terran left in the tournament, former clan mates, and GosuGamers number one Mondragon all play tomorrow. Make sure to take the day off kick back and relax as you enjoy these fantastic games. Now enjoy the VODs on TL.nets torrent tracker (thanks to daigomi for link) as well as alternately YouTube.com!
Links
TeamLiquid.net - Source
TeamLiquid.net - VODS
YouTube.com - VODS (Alternate)
