The Ro8 of the tournament was played on 28th of May with the Ro4 right on the next day. All participants gave their best to snatch the win and some of the games were walking the thin edge of insecurity till the very end. And for a tourney with players of such magnitude, the GLHF.it Invitational deserves a detailed match coverage so let's see what happened and which players will squeeze each other's throats at the Grand Final. Beware, there will be spoilers so if you want to enjoy bigger excitement scroll down to the VODs links at the end of the article.
After two days of gaming, the tournament results and brackets have taken the following shape:
With that being put aside, we move on to shining light on the games themselves and the moves that brought the winners the much desired victory.
ROUND OF 8
Naugrim vs 
CloudGame 1 on LT ended as quickly as it started. Cloud opened with Thor drop build but unfortunately for him he met quite the resistance of speedlings and queens and did not manage to deal enough damage. Leaving the Thor on natural's high-ground to deal whatever damage it can, Cloud opted to begin macroing up but made a deadly mistake - now raising a supply depot in time enabled all of Naugrim's zerglings to enter the main and clear everything.
The next game on BS was a bit longer with Cloud opening with really fast Command Centre and Naugrim going for the standard fast expo. Having the advantage of the fast CC, Cloud opted to amass a large mech army to battle Naugrim's Speedlings/Infestor/Baneling composition, supported by quite a lot of mutalisks. Cloud tried to gain some position on the map by taking Zerg's gold and later assaulting the south expo but he had to pay the huge price of mech immobility and the pesky mutalisks and speedlings of Naugrim were just harassing the hell out of Terran's base. After winning a direct battle, Naugrim sent lots of zerglings to finish Cloud's main and the Terran, too immobile to stop them, GGed out.
WhiteRa vs JinroHectic right from the start, Game 1 delivered an epic experience for all the viewers who saw it. Putting a pylon in the 12 o'clock main, WhiteRa intended to catch the 3 o'clock Jinro by teching Dark Shrine and warping DTs dangerously close. However, a smart scan and an on-time Raven stopped the rush and the game entered the macro phase, very similar to a cat-and-mouse chase. Jinro's ravens managed to deal severe damage to WhiteRa's mineral lines by dropping constant turrets and using PDD to escape the stalkers. In the meantime, WhiteRa was using some beautiful prism + colossus play to counter harass Jinro while madly expanding like a Zerg. In no time WhiteRa was sitting at 5 mining nexuses as opposed to Jinro's 2. The highlight of the match was when a Mothership (yes, a MOTHERSHIP!) hit the field, mass-recalling a huge army into Jinro's main and claiming many of his production structures. Desperately trying to make something out of his units, Jinro pressured WhiteRa's southern expansions but an adequate Void Ray support soon arrived and ended the game.
Game 2 on Steppes was far shorter but exciting nonetheless. Sneaking a probe into Jinro's main, Ra warped in 2 Gateways and started to pump out Zealots. Furiously defending with all his micro, Jinro managed to stay alive for quite some time, but eventually his marine force and SCVs melted away, giving WhiteRa a 2-0 win.
Naniwa vs 
TheLittleOneThe first game on Lost Temple started quite funny and with a bit of chuckle. Nani's scouting probe reached TLO's terran base but departed way early to actually scout anything, since TLO was not walling off and building close to his CC. Bedazzled after scouting three empty spots, the scout wandered around a bit more discovering TLO's fast CC to 3-Rax way later than it should've. The mid-game was dominated by some back and forth Marauder vs Colossi action but in the end TLO's macro was just better and he managed to overcome Protoss's resistance.
On blistering sands, TLO spawned as Zerg and went for 12-pool after dual trick and managed to sneak some early zerglings into Nani's base, seeing his tech-heavy build. It seemed that the Swede intended to go for Phoenixes but they were later repelled by TLO's signature mass queens defence. Meanwhile TLO was further macroing up Zerglings and managed to stopped the eventual push of Nani's. Quickly sending counter zerglings to protoss's main, he happily found an improperly blocked ramp and proceeded forward to win 2-0.
Strelok vs HayproIn Game 1, Strelok went for a quick reaper but his rush failed and he was forced to transition into something more reliable. Banshees was the unit of choice but after being repelled once again by HayPro, Strelok wanted to show some terran muscle and went for a mech army against HayPro's Muta/Ling/Roach composition. HayPro soon woke up to find himself facing a grand siege around his natural and his gold. Managing to sneak some units of his around the tanks, HayPro issued an attack onto Strelok's gold PF but the terran army decided to come back and Zerg was just ran over for the GG.
On Metalopolis, HayPro went for Hatch before pool and soon the game developed to a similar situation as in the first one. Both players went for the same army composition, but this time the Mutalisks of Haypro were way more active and the heavy harass completely denied Strelok's main mineral line. Seeing that he was being the macro he so much needed, Terran pushed with four Thor but met a nice Roach counter force and the result was now tied.
The final game was one of those matches, that there was no clear winner till the final GG. The map was the much dreaded by Zerg Incineration Zone and after seeing an impregnable wall-off, HayPro used roaches to break the backdoor rocks, entered Terran's main and started killing stuff. Many of us probably anticipated a GG right there and then. However, banshees soon popped out and fended off the roaches. The big surprise came when the banshees entered HayPro's main just to meet no AntiAir or detector. HayPro GGed right away.
ROUND OF 4
Strelok vs TheLittleOneGame 1 was a TvT on Kulas Ravine that later unveiled to be quite the dynamic battle. Strelok teched to Thors by hiding his armory while TLO went for the standard Tanks/Vikings army, supported by some Marauders. Both players skipped their natural for a while with Strelok taking the gold and TLO grabbing the island expo. From there on it was a straight on expo battle. TLO managed to use his Vikings to deny the gold and harass the main whereas Strelok cleaned the island with a nice Thor/Siege push. Afterwards, both players were in a way forced to get their natural going and sat back for a while to macro their forces. The game transcended into a "cold war" until Strelok decided to make a huge push with all his forces. Unfortunately for him, he was denied by TLO's siege tanks and was forced to GG.
Game 2 on Steppes was yet another TvT but this time the players decided to exchange their openings. Strelok opened with dual Starport, which TLO's floating Barracks missed. On the other end of the map, the German was going for a Banshee build with Tank/Thor transition which was scouted adequately. Thus, Strelok was completely prepared for TLO's army and daringly grabbing TLO's gold, he pushed with his Tank/Viking/Marauder army to tie the score.
Finally, the match-game on Metalopolis was a really ballsy TvZ with Strelok and TLO getting the 2 and 6 o'clock respectively. Proving why he is so adored by many, TheLittleOne demonstrated his insanely innovative style and going for just mass queens and speedlings he soon gained map control... via creep tumors. His queens were so daring that he actually walked all the way over to Strelok natural to poop creep and spawn tumor only to prevent Strelok's CC from landing. Well, you can't creep block a terran forever and the CC landed eventually but soon Strelok found himself contained... by creep tumors!!! Also, his mid-game unit of choice, the marine, was probably the worst possible variant, as TLO logically transitioned to infestors with parasite and started fungaling marines here and there. Knowing that he didn't have any other choice, Strelok gathered whatever forces he managed to produce and rallied them to TLO's base only to encounter lots of infestors and speedlings along the way, which completely rolled over terran's army.
WhiteRa vs NaugrimProbably the closest battles in the tournament so far were played namely by Naugrim and WhiteRa. Unusually opening with a 7-pool, Naugrim intended to end the game right there by continuously pumping lings to Ra's main. Lots of intense micro battles were fought and after several breathtaking minutes, Naugrims 24 Lings were watching Ra's heroic 5 Zealots in a calm-before-the-storm manner. It was then, however, that WhiteRa got dropped from the game...
Rematch was started on Lost Temple with the role of the "cheeser" exchanged. WhiteRa blocked Naugrim's ramp with a Pylon and Forge and later added a Cannon, now fully containing the Zerg. While Naugrim was teching to Lair, WhiteRa managed to wall-off his natural and start and expansion. However he was not fully prepared for what was to come soon - Naugrim's mutalisks. Killing a bucketful of Stalkers and Probes, it seemed that Zerg's air had managed to turn the game around as WhiteRa was trying to defend with all he had. Still operating off of 1-Hatch, Naugrim started pumping roaches, easily broke the contain and was now looking to break WhiteRa himself. And he almost did so, as his roaches managed to kill much of Ra's wall-off including his Robo Facility. As the roaches were marching inwards the game seemed over, but Ra had the final word with two Immortals left alive. Microing them carefully he managed to crush whatever roaches have survived the push and Naugrim, seeing that he is behind in every way possible, gave WhiteRa the GG.
Game two was on BS, where WhiteRa standardly walled off his natural and pressured with some early Zealots. However, Naugrim's 1-hatch Roach opening easily pushed them back and soon the game entered the standard pathway with Zerg expanding, getting Lair and aiming for a high DPS Hydra/Roach/Speedlings combo with some Corruptors to counter Ra's Colossi. Overall, though, Zerg had to experience the full might of Protoss's mid-game army, which, supported by Blistering Sands' topography easily roasted zerg units wherever it met them. The decisive battle was held on the north middle expo where WhiteRa came on top with virtually no losses.
Thus we arrive at yet another WhiteRa vs TLO battle la grande. So far, it seems that Protoss has abandoned TLO's randomness and that may just be good news for him as I bet he still remembers what WhiteRa did to him in three consecutive PvP games in the HDH Invitational. Overall, the tournament result between those two is 4-0 in favour of the Ukrainian and we yet are to see TLO coming on top and taking a full series. On the other hand, WhiteRa is as solid as ever and Dario will really have to give his very best (and beyond) to overcome the might of "grandpa" toss.
The Bronze Final should be no less of a show with a nice TvZ coming our way. Strelok recently owned Eric in the Asia vs EU showmatch series so he should feel very confident about his TvZ. But Naugrim is also a force to be reckoned with as his play against Cloud proved that crushing Terrans can be as easy as a walk in the park.
Both the Grand and Bronze finals will be streamed live on June 6th, 20:00 CET. We will provide you with stream links as soon as they are announced. Until then you can indulge into the VODs of the GLHF.it Invitational by clicking on one of the links below. Stay tuned!
Links
YouTube.com - Italian VODs
YouTube.com - English VODs
Blip.tv - German VODs
