NASL Week 1 Review

Hello all. NASL has finally started up and had been the centre of attention for the foreign Starcraft scene all week, generally overshadowing even high profile events like Dreamhack. I'll make a disclaimer here, I didn't catch all the games, but I got most of them, probably 22 of 25 matches, and well over 44 games of SCII. In a single week. It ended up going for about three, three and a half hours each night. And most of the games were pretty good. Despite many predictions there really weren't any walkovers, Stalife dde and ViBe  all put up solid games, and took some wins.


Now there is a ton of bitching and whining about just about every aspect of NASL. I bought an HD pass after watching the first couple days, and I loved it. The quality was very good, no lag or choppiness, and only a couple technical glitches. It wasn't perfectly done, one match got spoiled ahead of time (I'm assuming the games were played in a different order than they were broadcasted), and in Painuser/Cloud this weekend they accidentally showed game three first, then went on to the next match, before showing the whole series again later. But it was worth the 25$, given the overall high quality matches.

In addition their is much bitching about the caster and observers. While I agree that they should probably get a professional observer, the casters are just fine. Not on par with DJwheat/Day9, but they are going to get a looooooot of practise. By the end of season 1, InControl/Gretorp will be up there with Tastosis with familiarity.



Warning: Spoilers ahead! You have been warned!



And the match quality was very good too. It's true that many games fade into the background, but I can clearly remember a good twenty individual games out of 49 games (Despite three matches being cancelled, I'm pretty sure there was more than that. Either my Math is off or NASL still needs to update their race stats page). And some of those games really stand out in my mind, and I'll tell you about one of my favourites:


Kiwikaki vs Fenix, game 1:

Game 1: Kiwikaki opens up with three gate pressure, and gets a ton of SCV kills while remaining about equal in army. At one point it was something like 36 probes to 18 SCVs. Finally Kiwikaki lets up, and Fenix knows he needs to counter. About two minutes later, the supply is a good twenty in Kiwikaki's favour, and Fenix does a two pronged attack, landing two medivacs full of infanty in the back of the main, and running about four marauders and a couple marines into the front. Kiwikaki's army is about in the middle of his base. He sends most of his army to deal with the drop, and so the battle in the front begins to go Fenix's way. At the same time, the drop starts killing probes before Kiwi's army runs in. but it gets squeezed between the Nexus and some nearby buildings, and gets fed into a meatgrinder of an army. The zealots got stuck behind the Stalkers, and Kiwikaki's front line melted surprisingly fast over and over to 4 marauders, 8 marines and two medivacs. And suddenly Kiwikaki didn't have an army. He eventually help off the attack on his natural, and brought that army back to deal with the drop, which mostly escaped. And then he was down 30 harvesters and a smaller army, and that was pretty much game.


Other Favourite Games:

Kiwikaki vs Fenix Game 2
TLO vs Vibe Game 1
Morrow vs Rainbow if you like seeing Koreans obliterated
dde vs Nada (Game 3 was particularly epic)
Squitle vs Axslav Game 1


Players who impressed me most:
Fenix
dde
Nada
Cloud
Grubby

NASL Division 3, Sort of Preview:

So now that NASL isn't actually happening today, I have time for a blog post! Hurray! So today I'll move on to Division 3, who have actually already played their first matches (Nada vs dde was pretty epic). I'll avoid spoiling anything but be warned! If you click on the link to the NASL player profile, it shows their match history, which was updated as of yesterday.


Terran:


FnaticMSI.KawaiiRice NASL Profile: KawaiiRice is fairly well known terran player, one of the first big names to get a SCII stream up on teamliquid. He has been fairly successful, winning a number of online events, the most recent being an online show match against Sheth. He has a pretty unique style, particularly evident in TvZ, where he had been known to go almost pure marine medivac, mixing in less tanks at later times than most players. While he is a strong player, I don't think he can handle some of the bigger names in this division.

mouz.Strelok NASL Profile: One of the better known European players, Strelok's most recent achievment was his qualification for TSL3. Finishing tied for 8th with Select, he dominated the other Terran (who would go on to place at MLG Dallas) with a 3-0 win, putting him in the round of 32. While not the biggest name out there, Strelok has been a part of the thriving European tournament scene, taking a number of craftcups and similar titles. Similarly to KawaiiRice, Strelok is a solid player, but not a top tier one.

sixjax.dde NASL Profile: One of the unknowns, and derided as a poor choice for the NASL, dde is something of an unknown going into this tournament. He was primarily a online player, being a regular competitor for the US CraftCup, winning it several times. He also placed 26 at MLG Dallas, where he took a couple notable wins, such as defeating Grubby 2-0. Whie not as solid or notable as KawaiiRice or Strelok, I think many people will underestimate him.

oGs.Nada: It's Nada. In NASL. Holy Crap.



If you don't know who Nada , I'm not sure what to say to you. He was one the Starcraf tBW bonjwa's, and switched to SCII, where he placed well in a number of GSLs. His economy management is unparalleled, with minerals and gas very rarely going above 400. he is a very dominant force, and one of my favorites in the divison.



Protoss:


dignitas.NaNiwa: A player well renowned for BM, he has already been famously removed from two SCII tournaments. Despite this he remains a very solid player, doing exceedingly well at Dallas, only dropping a couple matches. He has a large amount of momentum behind him, but his attitude remains a block for his participation in a on-going league. If he can hold it together, he will do very well.


EG.Axslav: Axslav is a more elusive player than most. While he has participated at every MLG (IIRC), he hasn't taken any notable wins. Accordingly, he seems to be a strong player, but unable to consistently defeat the best. As such, I fear for his future in this league, with players such as NaNiwa and Strelok with far more solid records in big matches.


ST_Squirtle: A feared giant killer, Squirtle is renowned in the GSTL for all-killing team foU, and defeating the legendary MVP. However in individual leagues he has been far less succesful, never making it out of Code A. He took 3rd at the IEM Grand Finals behind his two fellow Koreans, but along the way he dropped many more matches than they did. While he has proven that he can defeat the best, he hasn't shown himself to be very consistent, I predict him to do well, but not well enough to take top two.


Zerg:


TLAF-Liquid'Haypro: One the member of the Liquid team in Korea, Haypro is rather unknown here in the west. He has won a couple smaller tournaments, and was successful in the beta, he hasn't shown his ability to take big wins, similarly to Axslav. He qualified for GSL #3, and rode into code A on one of the the four foreigner spots, but never made it past the ro64 and 32 respectively. As such a predict a similar fate as Axslav, he won't be able to consistently defeat the high calibre players in the league, and as such will fade into the lower half of the division.

ROOT.Slush: Slush is a guy who we dropped off the map for a while, but has recently began picking results back up again. Notably he missed the top 8 at MLG Dallas by just a hair, and otherwise appears to be in top form. Like many players in this division, he isn't one of those names that makes everyone quake in fear, but will be a hard match for everyone.


FXO.mOOnGLaDe: Undoubtedly the top Australia player, Moonglade has dominated all the events in that sector of the world. Accordingly he went to respresnt the World in the GSL WCs, and though he performed well, he was ultimately unable to gain traction. He similarly performed well at the IEM global championship, where he took 4th, behind only Korean players. As such I think he is a cut above the rest of the group, but still very mortal. (Also: Squirtle rematch from IEM?)





This division is ultimately one of the hardest to call, especially knowing the results of day 1.


Top 3:

Moonglade
Nada
NaNiwa


Bottom 3:
Haypro
Axslav
dde


Dark Horse:
dde

NASL Division 2

Ah April. Snow is melting, birds are starting to come back, and the Starcraft scene is swinging into full gear. The TSL3 Ro16 began this weekend, with three utter dominations and a single series that went beyond three games. In addition, NASL starts in two days, and my previews for that have already started (although to be fair, two or three of those previews will be after the first games have been played). And thus really begins the biggest year in foreign e-sports, and the preview of Division 2. (TSL will come either tomorrow, or after the rest of the ro16 has been played)


NASL Division 2:

Terran: 


FXO.qxc NASL profile: I probably shouldn't be allowed to write this entry because qxc is one of my favourite players. He will dominate any game that he plays in, with his constant attacking style. As can be noticed in his TSL matches today, his games are really all about him. If he plays perfectly he can and will destroy anyone. However when he is off is game he will kill himself, throwing good drops after bad. But he will always be a figure to watch.


dignitas.Sjow NASL profile: Surprisingly, Sjow is a figure who I haven't seen a lot of games from, one of those problems that NASL will fix. He has posted a number of good results in MLG, coming 12 in Dallas. In addition he is a major player in the European online scene, having taken home the money in a number of smaller cups and matches. While perhaps not the most dominant player at NASL, I have faith that he will play good and consistant throughout the season.




oGs.Ensnare NASL profile: Another player who I look forward to watching progress, Ensnare is one of the Koreans at the tournament, and therefore a big dog. His main claim to fame is taking third in the first open season of GSL, but since hasn't made it past the round of 16. He is a Code S player who has retained his spot through two seasons, but he has been unable to advance much beyond there. While I believe he will tear through the weaker players in this division, I don't see him being able to dominate the entire pool.




Protoss:


coL.CrunCher NASL profile: Oh Idra, why do you insist on dragging so many players into the spotlight. CrunCher has posted exactly three good results: Winning one of the TSL Qualifiers, taking Top 6 in the FXO invitational #2 above a number of solid Korean players, and the infamous Idra incident *WARNING TSL3 RO32 SPOILERS AHEAD* Where Idra claimed that he would be a walkover. And then he beat Idra 2-1 finishing the screw over of my TSL brackets. Really he has only a couple good results, and I don't expect him to place at the top of this division.




FnaticMSI.TT1NASL profile: Probably one of the, if not the top Protoss in America, TT1 is a beast. He took second in the 2010 MLG National Championship, and recently went to Korea for the GSL WC where he posted a amazing performance, being one of the starts of the foreign team. He has an immense amount of momentum going into NASL, and I think he will carry it through. In addition he has joined the Fnatic/Root gaming house in florida.


Duckload.White-Ra NASL profile: The mainstay of the Western Starcraft scene, White-Ra has been gaming since times immemorial. He was one of the largest Brood War names outside Korea, and is one of the Starcraft names currently in Korea. He has a list of accomplishments a mile long, and is one of the strongest gamers out there. Like many of the his Protoss buddies, he has proven that he can take games off Koreans. The better question will be who can take games off him?


EG.iNcontroL NASL profile: What a controversial figure. Incontrol is another major figure in e-sports, largely because he is one of the commentators for this very event. Many people didn't like him playing in an event he is casting (not sure I agree or disagree, a topic for another post) and his lack of results. A lack he only recently filled, taking a solid 4th in MLG Dallas, losing to only a few players along the way. But can he continue to compete with the best? If he is casting five hours a day IDK, I'm don't think he will be able to keep up to his peers, and stay up to par.




Zerg:


CN!MoMaN  NASL profile: Who is that dashing French figure, with the epic NASL video? Damned if I know who he is, but that vid was awesome, so he gets a pass. Liquipedia tells me that he placed well in those weekly European tournaments in 2010, but has no posted results for 2011. Can he stand against the field arrayed against him? I'm not very confidant he can, but we shall see in the coming days. But with no moment and no big wins, it will be a uphill battle for him.






aTn.DarKFoRcE NASL profile: Clearly I need to pay more attention to the weekly European scene. because I have only seen a couple of Darkforce's games as well. He was able to win the Dreamhack BYOC qualifiers, and has done very well in the weekly events as well.  He seems to have more momentum than MoMaN, but I'm not sure he can hack it with the best (although a little birdie told me that European players are having a field day in the TSL3, so that weekly competition must be pretty cutthroat)




ST_July NASL profile: I must say that I am damn excited for the qxc vs July match. Because this is the Korean, Zerg version of that Hyper-aggresive style. As Tastosis will tell you, it isn't if July will attack you, but when and with what. He has proven that he is one of the best in Korea, doing very well in the GSL WC as well as GSL Season 5, where he did very well. He is one of my lead horses for this division.






Top 3:
ST_July
FnaticMSI.TT1
Duckload.White-Ra


Bottom 3:
CN!MoMaN
coL.Cruncher
EG.iNcontroL




Dark Horse:
aTn.DarKfoRce

NASL is starting up now in less than a week (April 12th woo!), I thought I'd start previewing some of the players. So without further ado, the first division:

Terran:

Fenix: The Peruvian Terran, Fenix was a big name shortly after release. His primary achievement was coming first in the IEM American Championship in New York beating qxc. However recently he seems to have been struggling. He went 0-6 at the IEM Grand Finals, lost to RootMinigun 0-4 in a recent show match, and failed to make it out of MLG Dallas's Open Brackets. Despite his present slump, he is still a high profile American player, and is the monster hiding the corner. But unless he can pull himself up by his bootstraps, he won't be able to make it out of his division.

TLO: I'm actually not sure what race TLO is playing in the NASL, but he played Terran in MLG, so that is what I'm assuming. Recently he had a strong showing in MLG Dallas, taking 5th. Before that he has had a string of impressive accomplishments including qualifying for the TSL, where he lost in the ro32 to Nada. Early in his career he was in Korea where he qualified for the first two GSLs. I think he is one of the stronger contenders in the division.

ST_Rainbow: One of the two Korean players in division 1, Rainbow hasn't been the most impressive lately. After doing very well in the first two seasons he has dropped off the map, having to fight against relegation from code S in the latest season. That said, he is a Korean Code S player, and that will put him above most of his adversaries in this league.

Protoss:

Root.Kiwikaki: Kiwikaki is probably one of the top three American Protoss. Being the 1st ranked seed going into MLG Dallas, he would continue on to take 2nd place, being the only player to take games off the winner, Naniwa. He has had many other accolades, such as being the best root player in the GCPL. Going into this event he will have a ton of momentum, and is one of the players to watch for.

Artosis: The fan favourite, and part of the casting archon for the GSL. Artosis is a large question mark going into this event. He was long ago able to qualify for GSL season 1, but hasn't had any results since, good or bad. He claims to be practising hard, but only time will tell if he can hobnob with the best.

Grubby: Fairly new to the scene, Grubby is a very famous War3 player. for a while he was something of an unknown, but MLG Dallas was not an impressive showing at all. He lost to dde in the Open Winner's Bracket, and was denied the Championship Bracket by Sixjax.Cocoa. Nether if those two players are very large on the scene, so I doubt Grubby's abilities to stay in the league.

Zerg:

FOX_Moon: One of the largest Korean names in Foreign e-sports, he and several other Koreans took IEM by storm, where he took 2nd, losing only to fellow Korean Ace. He showed his dominance in a lag-free dominating run. However he was unable to stay in even Code A in Korea, and several foreigners have already proven they are above that line. Several of the players in this group, such as Kiwikaki, TLO and Morrow could take games and matches from him. But like Rainbow, it will be hard for all but the ebst to compete.

FXO.Sheth: A player so unused to the Tournament scene he doesn't have a picture in liquipedia. Sheth appeared in his first LAN at MLG Dallas where he performed very well. He lost to Pokebunny in the open bracket, but was able to make it into the bottom of the championship gauntlet, where he beat KawaiiRice, dde and qxc. He may not be at the top, but he isn't near the bottom either.

NrG.Vibe: A fairly unknown player, he more than any other play was decried as unworthy to be in NASL. He actually doesn't have a liquipedia page (or I just suck at finding it), and has only really be noticed in online tournaments. But he had a solid showing in Dallas where he took 20th overall. He is good material, but he hasn't proven his ability to beat good players yet.

mouz.Morrow: One of the most well known Zergs in the foreign scene, Morrow was originally a Terran player who switched races. He has done very well without actually winning much, taken second in events such as Assembly and the SC Reddit invitational. In addition, he was one of the players selected to play in the Korea vs. The World tournament, although he was unable to take a game. I think Morrow will prove to be a very solid player in this division.

My Predictions:

Top 3:

Kiwikaki

Moon

Morrow

Bottom 3:

Vibe

Grubby

Fenix

Dark horse: 

Artosis

MLG Dallas: An e-sports warning

MLG Dallas was the first Major North American SCII tournament of 2011. It is leading in to several even larger events. The NASL starts a week from today, as well as the newly announced IGN tournaments ( Information on that can be found here: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=209144). And it probably went very well for the players. Naniwa, the beast from Europe put on an incredible performance. Select showed some amazing multitasking, pulling poor players like iNcontroL apart. Kiwikaki put on his usually epic showing. Liquid was something of a disappointment and FXOMoonan was the Dark Horse, doing incredibly well given his low profile.

But it should be noted that the story of MLG Dallas has nothing to do with the players. It isn't how iNcontroL proved he hasn't lost his touch. It wasn't Naniwa's nearly perfect record, or Liquid's cannibalism in the upper part of the gauntlet bracket. It wasn't Idra vs HuK or Moonan's run through the gauntlet rounds.It wasn't dignitas's incredible showing or Root's general dominance. Nor was it Sheth actually appearing at a tournament.

The story of MLG Dallas was its incredible failure. Problems started early Friday night, with general complaints of bad quality. It worsened after the first match up with the stream dying for well over an hour. Already MLG lost much of their European audience, as well as those simply unwilling to wait for hours for the stream to come back up. Eventually they got it back up and running, and it remained so for the rest of the night.

The stream returned Saturday, and I remained hopeful. I hoped that the stream wouldn't die on us again, and that I could watch good Starcraft for the day. The first match up proved to be a very one sided affair between HuK and Moonan. They started dde versus Grubby. And the lag began. It destroyed all the MLG streams and stopped the Starcraft competition for hours. After several hours, the games returned. The Starcraft stream did not. For a good six hours (11am to 5pm local time) the stream was dead. I don't know why I sat their reading the Teamliquid LR thread and hitting f5. But I did. For six hours. Finally Day9 and DJwheat came back to commentate replays.

It appeared to be that the local internet was being a tool, and MLG couldn't stream live games without them lagging horribly. Whatever the cause, it appeared MLG didn't have anything resembling a back up plan. Rather than giving us the replays from the start (and given the pool play going on, their should have been many many good replays.) we sat and waited. And when the stream did come back it was very disjointed and not very well put together. Destiny vs. Response here. 2/3rds of HuK versus Gretorp there. It was not very entertaining to watch.

Even by Sunday morning they didn't have their shit together. More stream isues started off the day, something they managed to quickly fix by hacking the High Quality stream (Although by all accounts we missed an excellent qxc vs Sheth matchup). But by this time I, for one was burned out. And all the housework I delayed to Sunday I still had to do. I caught probably two thirds of the games, but I just didn't care anymore.

This should serve as a warning to the other tournaments out there. MLG lost a bunch of viewers, a lot of respect, and was forced to offer refunds for the high quality stream. You have to make sure your streams are working, and your prepared for what is coming at you. And you should certainly have a back-up plan or three. Much of Saturday could have been salvaged if MLG had gotten us watching replays three hours earlier. Maybe replays aren't as good as live, but they are a hell of a lot better than nothing, and you can feed us them until you get your problems under control. Or get someone out there doing interviews. And above all make sure we, the views know what is going on.


Players to Watch:
Naniwa
Moonan
Kiwikaki
Select

Poor showings:
Gretorp
Fenix
Team Liquid except for TLO


Epic Games:
Select vs iNcontroL Game 2
(supposedly) Sheth vs qxc both games
Kiwikaki vs Idra Game 2

MLG Day 1 Recap

Much excitement to be had watching the first day of MLG. The broadcast stream suffered some major issues which they hopefully have ironed out for today, and focused on the pool play which has no finished. Given that the 16 players in the pool play are all top notch, there weren't any upsets per say, but there were some interesting results. Some players rose to the occasion to dominate, others were surprisingly unremarkable. Here are some of the more interesting results :

Warning Spoilers ahead:


Liquid'Tyler: Going 2-1 in his group for 3rd place with only the open bracket player to go. Taken out first 2-1 by drewbie, and then a surprising 2-0 loss to Machine on the broadcast stream. It appears that the EG Zerg players found a solid counter to Protoss warpgate play in burrowed roaches, and Tyler couldn't come out on top over it.

Kiwikaki vs Idra: One of the final broadcasted matches, the two players were both sitting 2-0 when their match came. the surprising element in this series was Kiwikaki's amazing economy management. I don't think their was a single time in those matches where Idra had more workers than Kiwi. In the first game some heavy economic damage by a Void Ray and four Phoenix (5+ Queens, A couple drones, a multitude of Overlords) cemented that dominance allowing Kiwikaki the win. And in game two some questionable decision making by Idra gave Kiwikaki the lead. Going for an almost all-in assault on Kiwikaki's front door with burrowed roaches, and then completely overmaking corrupters allowed Kiwikaki to glide to victory. Some tense moments occurred when roaches arrived at Kiwi's natural before his Observer came out, but he held on to Victory.

EG Axslav Losing in OBR2: We never saw the matchup, but Axslav was eliminated one round before he was going to face teammate LzGamer, who ended up avenging him. Axslav has a long Loser's Bracket ahead of him.

InControl 2-1 in group: Lost to Painuser, defeated Slush and then cheesed the living milk out of TLO. In his own words "I feel like a quesadilla right now", but he emerged at the top of his group with his win Slush, the other person 2-1 in Pool C.


Thats all for now folks, stream is coming back up in just over an hour.

GSL WC Korea vs The World

I'm not going to lie. After the IEM World Championships I thought that the skill gap between Korea and the rest of the world was very large. I thought that while isolated foreigner wins would occur, but the Korean's would largely dominate any tournament they went too. Then TSL happened. A series of upsets against many of the Koreans began to make me believe that competition was possible between the two realms. But I didn't really believe it.

            But then the GSL World Championships came around. The best the World can muster to be sent out against the pride of Korea (a term you will get very tired of hearing after watching the VODs). And it was far closer than I imagined. There was no 8-1 sweep of the International scene, with some legend taking a single win to be lauded over at home, as it would in the Brood War scene. No, this was a close and action packed series that showed that the world wasn't too far behind.

Players to Watch:

Sen: Calm cool and collected, all the shots of him in his both showed no signs of fear or worry. And he felt neither. One of the few Foreign players to qualify for the open GSLs, Sen is once again back in Korea. And he showed his worth. Calmly counter attacking with lings as his third gets destroyed, and standing off all sorts of early pressure, he was the one to say that "The International Scene is here, and won't be sewpt away!"

TT1: He's got this. Watching TT1 play was like being on emotional rollercoaster. Time and again, he seemed to put himself at a disadvantage and then say "No, I don't think I'll let you win like that". He would shut down the early pressure like a man walking through a water cannon, somehow emerging on his feet.

DIMAGA: This guy is a beast, and its a shame he isn't in NASL. His control is extremely precise, and his decision making very solid (Oh I see that you walled in there with your barracks sir. why don't I just make 50 BANELINGS!). He is one of the best in Europe, and could easily take Code S here in Korea.

JulyZerg: Of all the Korean players, Julyzerg has the best showing. I think that if his matches were first, the foreign scene would have given up, and left the top tier SCII play to the Koreans. Luckily for us he wasn't, but when he stepped into the booth he brought his usually ruthless early aggression. Time and again he would take the early advantage, and then roll over his opponent with a second wave of units. He proved himself to be a mastermind of the early game, baneling busting and going for a 7:00 third with equal skill.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

Series Recap:

I'm not going to go over all the games one by one, but rather give you an overview of the games as a whole (expounding the interesting parts of course). It started as one would have expected any Korea vs. The World tournament to go. Morrow gets rolled by anyproPrime. And I went "Ok, thats how I expected it to be, somewhat disappointing that. I hope a couple foreigners pull out wins".

And then they sent out Sen. The map is Terminus RE (which for the uneducated viewer is fricken HUGE), and anypro goes for a five warp gate push. And Sen catches wind, and gets 5 spine crawlers down, and stands it off, and then makes 11 Mutas. Then anypro breaks down the back door rocks, and tries again. But between the spine crawlers, the muta's and new hatching zerglings, Sen hold it off, emerging with double the supply of his opponent.

And then, after being ground down for 2 minutes, anypro all-ins with all his probes, and gets destroyed in the middle of the map. And suddenly, it looks so much better for the foreign players. Hope is back with us. And Korea responds by sending out one of their heavy hitters, MarineKingPrime. And Sen rises to the challenge and outplays him on Xel'Naga Caverns, getting a group of lings into MKP's natural mineral line and destroying all his SCVs their while MKP's army is out attacking Sen's gold.

And then Sen took down one of Korea's finest, MarineKingPrime. And it becomes very apparent then that the foreign scene is able to compete, and defeat the main Korean names. The rest of the day followed a similar pattern, with Sen getting taken down by SanZenith. And TT1 getting send out, and Artosis telling us that "He had a build that counters four-gate". Which wasn't quite true, but after being rushed, he was able to destroy San's army at the loss of almost no economy, ending up with a large advantage. And this was followed up with Nada getting manhandled by TT1s giant ball of units. And the World finished up the day 4-2.

The next day was dominated by one player. MC was sent out first, and with some ceremony, was able to displace TT1. And Head Coach Artosis decided that this couldn't stand, and sent out the Ukrainian Protoss White-Ra, who then played one of the most entertaining PvPs ever, and ended the reign of the Korean Protoss before it even really started.

But the next to stand up was the God of War, July. And he was able to defeat White-Ra with a lucky run past his wall-in zealot, and White-Ra's questionable decision to follow up with Void Ray's. And thus July's reign started. Next up was HuK, who never seemed to get his foot in the game. July pressured early, and then just existed, as some unfathomable existence, unable to be touched, as he got further and further ahead, until he rolled in with a maxed army.

Next was Moonglade, who in an unremarkable game got a build-order loss which, in traditional Hyper aggressive July style was immediately capitalized on. Against Jinro he went for a quick three base, into unusually fast Muta's, which did enough damage, that in a style similar to the HuK game, July just rolled over Jinro's army.

That left DIMAGA. Could he stop July's fearsome rampage, and prevent a five-kill on the second half of the foreigner bench? Early game favoured him, with two or three clutch banelings dealing massive damage, while July's banelings were largely ineffective. But after all the early attacking was done, July had snuck two zerglings into DIMAGA's main, and killed a whopping 7 drones in stroke.

Suddenly our Ukrainian hero was looking uncertain. He took a third while power roaches, while July started transitioning into Hydra's. But DIMAGA's macro proved superior, and moving into the final battle he had a small supply advantage, despite the Baneling Bomb. And as DIMAGA's pure roach army attacked, would he pull through against the superior DPS of the Hydra's? Yes indeed he could. July's rampage was stopped, with the foreigner team proving it didn't run completely out of steam.

Next was MVP, moving into battle. The game proved to be a long drawn out affair, and after well over half an hour, a Disconnect occurred, and there had to be a regame. In the regame, MVP favoured a quick marine pressure, which was easily repelled, and DIMAGA responded shortly after with a move he is famous for in the Korean scene. He morphed 50 banelings (49 IIRC, not an exaggerating)  and rolled right on through MVPs wall. And with that, he took the game and victory.

The Ace match was not as interesting as the build up was. Both players built up economy for ten minutes, before Nestea moved out with a timing attack that DIMAGA was unable to hold. despite this though, the foreign scene proved its ability to compete, with only July's rampage and Nestea's ZvZ skills preventing a complete domination of the players who were considered the best of the best.

Interesting fact: Not a single Terran player won a match in all 15 games (of those 15, 4 featured Terrans, Sen vs. Marine King, TT1 vs Nada, July vs. Jinro, and DIMAGA vs. MVP)

End of Spoilers

So you all should go watch the vods, available for free at www.gomtv.net. As well their are additional recaps and a couple interviews to be found at www.teanliquid.net, which is also the premier foreign SCII website out there, so you should all check it out