GOMTV StarCraft 2 Open Round of 16 Day 1 - Live Report

15:03 - That's it for today, two zergs and two terrans advanced.

Tomorrow we'll see:

15:00 - Zenio interview:

Q: The contamination place seemed to slow down IdrA, how confident were you with this ZvZ play?

I chose this strategy to gain a psychological advantage in the second game because I'm sure IdrA wasn't used to playing against this style”

Q: Have you practiced a lot of ZvZ to be able to defeat IdrA? How does it feel now that he is out, and how long do you think you will go?

My goal is the final”

14:54 - A timing attack from Zenio, a smarter build order from the Korean took down the American, forcing IdrA to GG out with his attack. IdrA is out, making Loner the only non-Korean left in the tournament.

14:52 - IdrA is also making a banelings nest and another queen, Zenio is upgrading metabolic boost as well as banelings, so we have banelings and roaches vs zerglings and banelings at the moment. IdrA has his lair up.

14:51 - IdrA is going for metabolic boost for his zerglings, while Zenio is making a roach warren.

14:50 - EDITORS NOTE: No matter how this match turns out we will have two terrans and two zergs moving on to the round of eight. Tomorrow we will have at least one Protoss player qualifying, but maximum two protosses will qualify.

14:48 - The second game has started. On Blistering Sands we have Zenio spawning in the bottom left position as the yellow Zerg, and IdrA in the top right as the red Zerg.

14:46 - Zenio has the unit count lead right now, so the contaminate has paid it's prize, but IdrA has more drones and hydralisks.

Zenio attacks, going for the kill, it does not look like IdrA is going to be able to hold this off, Zenio is currently inside IdrA's base doing a lot of damage.

GG from IdrA, 1-0 for the red-haired Korean, Zenio.

14:44 - Zenio keeps on contaminating the hatcheries of IdrA, and Zenio has made an expansion now. IdrA has a few hydralisks along with his roach army.

14:42 - IdrA got two bases, while Zenio only has one. But Zenio has the double amount of roaches, which means he has to finish this very soon if he's going to have a chance against the American Greg Fields. Zenio is upgrading burrow.

14:41 - A ling roach timing attack is coming up from Zenio, gets up the ramp very quickly, and he keeps on contaminating the lair over and over. A very even battle is going on inside IdrA's main, he loses a few drones, but it looks like he's going to hold it off.

14:39 - Lair is done for Zenio, he got an overseer while IdrA has two queens and has put down an expansion. Zenio is going to contaminate the hatchery, preventing IdrA from injecting larvas, delaying his macro. Hydra den and roach warren is up for IdrA.

14:35 - We have IdrA in the top left corner as the red zerg, and Zenio as the yellow zerg bottom left.

14:32 - It's IdrA vs Zenio coming up, first map is Delta Quadrant. According to Artosis, these two players are the best Zergs left in the tournament.

14:28 - NaDa interview:

Q: At what point in the second game did you decide you wanted a fourth base instead of going for more units?

When dealing with zerg it's absolutely important that you have more units, minerals and gas than your opponent”

Q: You're part of the oGs team, so you have a lot of partners to practice with from both oGs and Team Liquid, who do you practice with?

there are a lot of great zerg and terrran players in oGs, and every single one of the have helped me, and I love how oGs feels like a big family”

14:19 - NaDa sees two infestors heading towards his base, gets one of them and follows that with a timing attack, tanks and marines. Banelings are being made, and baneling speed is done. An OK fungal growth is thrown at some marines, NaDa has spread out his units beautifully.

A big attack from Leenock, but didn't do enough damage, and GGs, NADA has moved on to the round of eight!

14:18 - Leenock is now making his third and fourth expansion as well as getting a hive, while NaDa is sticking with the two-base build.

14:16 - A banshee is out for NaDa, but Leenock got an overlord inside NaDa's base and saw everything, Leenock got so much intel in this game, while NaDa is basically playing in the blind right now. Three queens are up for Leenock. A banelings nest is now up.

14:14 - Two queens coming for Leenock, a factory and a command center for NaDa. Leenock did however manage to cancel his extractor and scout NaDa's base, so he knows exactly what's going on.

14:13 - An expansion is being made from Leenock, nothing out of the ordinary going on, except from Leenock managing to kill an SCV with his scouting drone, then he steals the gas.

14:11 - The third and deciding match will be on Xel'Naga Caverns. Leenock spawns in the bottom left position as the red zerg, NaDa in the opposite top right position as the blue terran.

14:09 - There are so many units for NaDa, kills all the mutalisks but at the same time, Leenock got a lot of marines, but it didn't matter, NaDa came out as the superior in that battle, and Leenock GGs. 1-1 as NaDa wins the second match.

14:08 - Leenock is putting down a fourth base while he's doing some mutalisk harassment here and there, but NaDa is also putting down a fourth at the same time. Leenock kills a lot of SCVs though, and also gets the command center of NaDa's third, NaDa is countering.

14:06 - NaDa got his third base up as well, so we have three-base vs three-base on Shakuras Plateau. Around maybe 14 mutalisks took down a thor, but NaDa is now transitioning into a biological build making a lot of barracks.

14:04 - NaDa did some great damage with a few hellions, killing zerglings and SCVs. Leenock now has mutalisks, but NaDa got two thors already. Leenock is making a third base at the moment while NaDa is making a fourth factory. Mutalisks try to do some harassing.

14:01 - NaDa is making another factory and upgrades the blue flames for the hellion, and he's also making an armory to be able to make a thor afterwards. Leenock is making a banelings nest and making burrow as well as a spire.

13:59 - NaDa is making an expansion, while Leenock has finished his. NaDa is making a bunker by the ramp of his natural just in case.

13:57 - Shakuras Plateau, with NaDa as the blue terran bottom left, and Leenock in the top right.

13:54 - NaDa takes off his jacket after the heat of the first game.

That's what you do when you're going to kill a nerd!” - Artosis

14:01 - NaDa is making another factory and upgrades the blue flames for the hellion, and he's also making an armory to be able to make a thor afterwards. Leenock is making a banelings nest and making burrow as well as a spire.

13:53 - Crazy micro battle, Leenock mmanaged to take out NaDa's marines, NaDa tried to chase the last drone of Leenock, but GG'd. 1-0 for Leenock.

13:52 - Leenock with very early pool, now sending his zerglings and five drones to NaDa's base, who has the better micro?

13:50 - NaDa spawned as the blue terran in the top left corner, and Leenock in the bottom left.

13:49 - First map is on Delta Quadrant between Leenock and NaDa.

13:45 - IT IS NADA TIME!

13:44 - HopeTorture interview:

Q: What did you think when you saw that Check had 6-pooled you, worried or confident?

There has been a patch that made the all the workers have a stronger attack, but it's not in the patch note. SCVs has more hit points, which makes it more effective against 6-pool, so 6-pool is not recommended against terran, which made me confident”

Q: Did you come up with the maruader/hellion drop with landed vikings yourself, or did you copy another player?

Originally I got the idea from cellawerra, the vikings can kill the overlord with two hits, then the hellions are very strong against the zerglings”

13:35 - Check cleaned it up with seven mutalisks, but the spire went down. Mutalisks in HopeTorture's main now, but HopeTorture has dropped a ton of marines and got a couple of vikings there as well, this is it for Check. GG, HopeTorture is moving on to the round of eight.

13:33 - A spire is going up for Check, HopeTorture got four vikings flying around to find some overlords, but Check has wisely pulled them back to his main wher ehe got queens and a spore.

HopeTorture drops marauders and hellions by Check's expansion and lands his vikings and gets the hatchery, the spine crawler was out of range. Only three queens defending the main now, this looks bad for Check, Four mutas out now, is it enough?

13:30 - Nothing out of the ordinary going on, HopeTorture sends two Hellions for harassment, two queens are however blocking the ramp of Check's main, and a spine crawler is up in his expansion. HopeTorture is making two vikings to kill overlords.

13:26 - We're on Scrap Station, CheckPrime as the blue zerg at the lower position, and HopeTorture as the red Terran in the top position.

13:25 - GG from Check, and HopeTorture is up 1-0.

13:23 - HopeTorture dropped Marauders to kill Check's spawning pool, and he did get it. Another attack is coming up from HopeTorture, now with a tank and medivaks as well.

13:21 - Check holds the first attack though, but HopeTorture has his expansion landing so he's way ahead at this moment.

13:20 - An overlord gets picked off in terrans main, Check is expanding, a hellion is out but does not do any damage. A lair is up for check, and a third queen is being made. A banshee, around 10 marines, two marauders, two hellions attacking Check's expansion now, looks like a GG.

13:16 - This must be a very tough mental fall for Check who basically went all in with this 6-pool build and fails. A bunker is up now and six marines out, things are not looking good for the Zerg.

The marines are now in the Zerg's base, two queens are out, but the marines are doing a decent job, but the queen just barely survived and the marines went down. Factory is being made.

13:15 - The zerglings are inside the base, all of the SCVs are pulled out, one marine is out, zerglings running around in the base. HopeTorture is doing a good job, but not mining a lot, but has two marines out, a third on the way only two lings left, three more is coming!

13:13 - We have CheckPrime in the bottom left corner of Steppes of War as the blue Zerg, and HopeTorture in the top right as the red Terran.

6 POOL from CheckPrime, and no WALL!

13:09 - Next match coming up is Terran player TSL_HopeTurture, also known as IntoTheRainbow, vs CheckPrime!

13:05 - Kyrix interview:

Q: How did you learn to play Zerg vs Terran like that? Are there any players you emulate? (the agressive ZvT style of his)

There is no one I'm emulating, I'm just born agressive (laughs)”

Q: You said in your first interview you that you not were a threat in the tournament, now that you're in the round of eight, are you a bigger threat?

Yeah a little bit”

13:00 - Kyrix just cleans up the expansion of the terran, has put down a third base, busts Ensnare's base, and it's a GG from Ensnare. 2-1 for Kyrix!

12:58 - Kyrix with banelings killed marines, and even got inside Ensnare's expansion mineral line and killed SCVs, Kyrix in a great position.

Ensnare tries a thor drop, but loses first the medivak to mutalisk, followed by losing his thor. Kyrix counters with a lot of zerglings, banelings and mutalisks.

12:56 - I got the stream back up by logging off and in again then started the stream over. Trying to catch up with the game, Ensnare has a thor, one mutalisk and a queen and some drones took down the thor though. Kyrix at 61 units, and Ensnare at 59.

How did that happen? Drones took down a thor?

12:53 - Kyrix takes game number 2 and the third game would start on Steppes of War.

12:51 - Looks like the stream is down for Sweden, at least neither me or Raistlin can watch the stream in either HQ or SQ right now. Let us know if you're experiencing the same problems. Phantom, who lives in Canada is able to watch the stream though.


Experiencing the same problem? Try to log out and in again then start the stream over, worked for me.

12:45 - Kyrix's economy is so strong though, and got so many units now. He just recently killed the planetary ensnare had made in the golden expansion with banelings, and Ensnare is almost out of minerals. Looks like we're going to a third game.

12:41 - Ensnare sent in a few marines to the top mid expansion of Kyrix, killed the drones but it was not worth it.

Now a huge attack from Kyrix, but wasted A TON of banelings on thors, and Ensnare is way ahead unit wise now, heads for the top middle expansion, kills it. Kyrix, like in the first game, just wasted a lot of units, very sloppy.

12:40 - The zerg now takes another expansion at the top mid, and is soon on four bases, while Ensnare does not know about either of the last two expansions. Kyrix did however lose a lot of mutalisks to marines just now. A bunch of banelings in the middle waiting to engage.

Ensnare has a sensor tower in the middle now though, so is going to be prepared for any attack. Zerg should just sit and wait as he got more bases, and does not want to waste units on siege tanks.

12:38 - Kyrix now takes down the rocks of Ensnare's main with mutaslisks and zerglings, Ensnare knows about it now though, mutas doing some more harassment while pumping out banelings and baneling speed.

12:36 - Kyrix wasted a lot of lings to kill only one tank, while he's expanding to the expansion that is most natural for the terran to get late game, and as Artosis and Tasteless pointed out, sucking out a lot of minerals there will give him an advantage if this game actually does go to late game, a very smart move by Kyrix.

12:34 - A very fast lair for Kyrix this time, while Ensnare now has his expansion finished, just waiting for the orbital command to complete before he moves it to the natural. A hellion drives around trying to find something to harass, and now a banshee is on it's way to the expansion of the Zerg. The banshee got 7 kills, and is still alive.

12:32 - An expansion just finished for Kyrix, factory going up for Ensnare.

12:30 - Second game has started, we're in the desert at Blistering Sands, Ensnare top right, Kyrix bottom left.

12:28 - Ensnare again in the lead, there's not much Kyrix can do as Ensnare is taking out Kyrix' natural expansion, and Kyrix GGs. 1-0 for the terran, Ensnare.

12:26 - Zerg now with a confident lead, got his golden expansion up, but wastes his mutalisks trying to kill the medivaks, but too many marines there killed them and the roaches are pulled back. Terran now engages the top right expansion, while Kyrix counters the middle at the same time, dropping banelings with overlords, but the siege tanks came out on the top in that battle, and the expansion in the top right gets cleaned out.

12:24 - Ensnare is currently in a minor lead with three base vs three base, and more units. Kyrix is taking out the rocks blocking the golden expansion, mutalisk harassment is going on, but he does not have many mutas.

A big battle in the middle, banelings cleans up all of the marines, only siege tanks left cleaned up by mutalisk, at the same time Terran drops in zerg's main again, but eventually gets killed by mutas and roaches.

12:22 - Kyrix tried another bust, killed the barracks and the supply depot of the wall, but the siege tanks took care of the rest. Now Ensnare is on the offensive having a drop coming up, Kyrix has another expansion at the top right position.

The drop did some damage, but banelings forced Ensnare to retreat. A spire is also up for the Zerg.

12:20 -The banelings got inside the base, but didn't do very much damage, even though it looked really bad for Ensnare there. Wasted banelings on the siege tanks.

12:19 - Kyrix Has made a banelings nest, no lair for the Zerg yet, and pumping out zerglings, he's probably going for the early kill!

12:17 - Kyrix is making a lot of drones, Ensnare is trying to take down the rocks at his expansion with three marines, got a factory up and the game is on hold right now with both players just building up their economy and teching..

12:15 - Ensnare did not make a refinery and decided to bunker rush the expansion of Kyrix, but he placed the bunker in vision of the overlord and the SCV gets taken down, now we have six drones chasing a marine, but backs off and another bunker is going down, it\s very close to being finished, and it is! The marine gets inside! But zerglings are attacking the bunker, takes it down. Ensnare is making a command center now.

12:12 - The first match has started, it is on Delta Quadrant, it's Ensnare vs Kyrix. Ensnare being the red terran in the top left position, and Kyrix being the blue zerg bottom right, so cross positions in the first game of the round of 16.

12:00 - We are now live, Artosis and Tasteless reminds us that the winner of GSL takes home the first prize of $87,000!




What is this?

11:54 - Yes, there they are, 'KARA', I think that's what they're called... This is a long shot, but I bet the letters of KARA stands for each of the girls' names - feel free to look that up for me!

Six minutes left now!

11:40 - A cup of tea, inspired by what Artosis and Tasteless said about their green tea in yesterday's stream, just waiting for the 'Go Live' button to turn green.

The first game will start in 10 minutes, but I'm guessing we'll be seeing some Korean pop-stars do their thing in a couple of music videos first.