Metal and Creep: GSL Ro32 Day 1

The Ro32 was full with stardom as former and reigning champions stepped up to cross swords with rising stars.

MVP vs Ganzi

A TvT of big proportions opened the Ro32 as MVP went against Ganzi, the latter a student of the SlayerS school of "How to own with terran". The latter though did not have much luck in the first set as going for mech on Dual Sight was not the best choice. Although Ganzi had enough firepower to melt MVP's third, the immobility of his army allowed the former champion to run around with Marauders and kill two of his expos plus the majority of the production facilities.
The standard play worked way better for Ganzi on Terminus and as the game reached a base-trade scenario due to both armies passing each other without having sight of the other, the slight SCV advantage for the SlayerS terran allowed him to get a slightly bigger army, enough to even the score. Thus, both terrans spawned on Xel'Naga Caverns to decide the victor and Ganzi once again went for mech. The architecture of the map, however, allowed him to secure a better position this time and in addition Ganzi cautiously left some forces behind to repel the marauder run-by that MVP tried once again. Crushing face with huge Tank army, Ganzi eliminated the IM monster from the tournament.

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Supernova vs MMA

It was not a good day to be a MMA SCV that day. A Combat Shield timing push by Supernova on Crevasse caught the "legend slayer" with his pants down and even with pushing all his workers he could not make an efficient hold. Supernova continued his SCV holocaust on Xel'Naga Fortress by proxying a blue hellion drop, pinning MMA to 10 SCVs once again. The SlayerS terran, however, managed to stabilize and play passively and eventually took a faster third, thus getting ahead of Supernova, despite the earlier economy disadvantage. This allowed him to out-tank the oGs terran and tie the set.
For a third time Supernova went for a Blue Hellion drop, this time killing around 20 SCVs, walking out hugely ahead once again. And he might've won the series if he hadn't went for mech and surrendered his mobility. Learning from his teammate's mistakes in the previous game, MMA amassed a huge marauder force, ran by and seized the victory.

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Ryung vs Violet

Silly mismicro mistake cost Violet the first set on Terminus. But give the guy a credit, how shameful can it be to forget your banelings when you charge the fungaled terran line? Fortunately, he picked up his game on Xel'Naga Caverns and by catching the terran army off position and slaughtering it to pieces, the Zerg was 60 supply and 2 bases ahead, more than enough advantage to secure the set.
The deciding game on Belshir Beach was a bit more interesting with Violet doing a nice 5-roach pressure, killing some SCVs and marines. Ryung replied by doing a strong bio/tank push, sacrificing his army to kill the third while simultaneously dropping at Zerg's gold and sniping it as well. Knowing that he basically has no economy, Violet gathered all his forces (Brood Lords included) for one last attack, but the vikings and the bio army of Ryung was enough to hold the position at the terran third, winning the latter the game.

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NesTea vs Bomber

The Code S and Code A champion faced each other at Tal'Darim Altar and NesTea showed us an incredible macro Zerg play, surpassing the 100-drone count and using mass spine crawlers to slow and weaken the terran pushes and the crush it with massive baneling numbers. But Bomber would not surrender easily and a strong bio push caught NesTea in the middle of his Ultralisk tech and actually managed to kill two of his bases. Ultras popped in time, though, saving the day for NesTea and later crushing the terran remains.
Both players continued to display their skill at Crossfire and the game took faster pace as Bomber's push denied the third of NesTea. But due to being spread too thin, Bomber fell victim to NesTea's overwhelming number of mutalisks that cut off reinforcements and laid waste on the production facilities, securing a 2-0 victory for the reigning GSL champion.