NesTea vs CocaDual Sight. NesTea smartly went for a ninja gold expo which tricked Coca into throwing a spine crawler and a baneling nest, thinking that there is some 1-base all-in on the way. Instead, NesTea droned up like crazy and by the time that Coca discovered the hidden base it was way too late - NesTea was more than 30 supply ahead, having twice as many roaches than his opponent. The reigning champion seized a quick early lead.
Xel'Naga Caverns. Coca opened with a very quick gas/pool build, aiming to do an early baneling aggression with speedling support. He maneuvered his first four lings perfectly around NesTea's overlords so they remain unscouted and morphed them into banelings. As soon as the cocoons hatched and the speedlings arrived, Coca proceeded with his attack but made a huge mistake in microing his banelings, the latter dying before reaching the mineral line.
NesTea went on the counter offensive with his roaches and although his first few attacks were repelled, he kept sniping queens and drones, limiting Coca's production capabilities down to minimum. Starving for money and larvae, Coca had to GG as the final wave of roaches and lings ran into his main.
Belshir Beach. Coca's pool first build gave him an early edge at pressuring NesTea's fast expo but the ZvZ maestro were not at all tilted by that and zoned Coca's lings perfectly although his own speed tech was quite behind.
On the back of that little pressure, Coca transitioned into roaches but NesTea was quick to strike. By the time his ling speed tech kicked in, NesTea had almost 40 lings, a force too large to be effectively repelled by the puny roach army of Coca. After several run-byes, NesTea killed all but two drones of Coca, forcing a third and final GG out of his opponent.
HongUn vs MCXel'Naga Caverns. The first set ended with a most strange outcome despite its very typical beginning. Both players opened 4-gate and HongUn took the role of the attacker, warping in two proxy pylons below MC's main. As soon as HongUn marched up the ramp he caught a quite unusual sight: an undefended pylon ready for the taking. As it exploded under stalker fire, MC got supply capped, falling in an unwinnable situation. It was now 1-0 in favor of the Prime protoss.
Tal'Darim Altar. The second batch of 4-gate mirror was on Altar but this time both players met each other in the middle of the map. HongUn, though, proved to be the smartest protoss of the two, baiting MC into engaging his main army and forcing an extra round of warp ins, while simultaneously sending 4 zealots to the enemy mineral line. With his warpgates on cooldown, MC had no other choice but to go for HongUn's workers himself.
Unfortunately for him, however, MC's decision, although good, was a bit delayed by the way that the game progressed. A gg was in order as he lost all his probes and warp gate pylons before dealing any critical damage himself.
Metalopolis. HongUn opened 3-gate robo into blink while MC chose the defensive path of the Colossus. The constant blinking into the main cost MC quite a lot of Colossi but HongUn's persistence into pushing this 1-base play was his biggest mistake as when the colossus count got high enough, MC shredded forward to Hong's main with huge supply lead. The two-times champion would stay in the series at least for now.
| Code S July Ro8 Day 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| NesTea 3:0 Coca | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nestea | > | Coca | @ Dual Sight | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Nestea | > | Coca | @ Xel'Naga Caverns | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Nestea | > | Coca | @ Belshir Beach | |||||||||||||||||||||
| MC 1:3 HongUn | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| MC | < | HongUn | @ Xel'Naga Caverns | |||||||||||||||||||||
| MC | < | HongUn | @ Tal'Darim Altar | |||||||||||||||||||||
| MC | > | HongUn | @ Metalopolis | |||||||||||||||||||||
| MC | < | HongUn | @ Crossfire | |||||||||||||||||||||
