That was by no means an ordinary Monday. MVP met his next enormous challenge in the face of July and TOP found his revenge chance since Optimus beat him at the Super Tournament semis.
Optimus vs TOPGame 1 @ Crossfire. Optimus opened the set with a 1/1/1 rush that, although slightly mistimed siege-wise, successfully turned into a contain after TOP lost his bunker. Optimus maintained the contain until he got his natural up but overstayed his welcome and TOP was able to break out and gain a 20 supply lead this early in the game. Although this advantage was not enough for a counter kill, TOP was able to establish a position at the centre and get a gold behind that.
A little past the 20-minute mark came Optimus' biggest mistake. To respond to a minor drop at his own gold, the Prime terran pulled off a huge chunk of marines and recklessly chased the medivacs north, which allowed TOP to move up and freely take a second high ground, trapping Optimus' army in a bad position. But Optimus' micro is not to be underestimated and with a sudden surge of stim marines he cleaned up both flanking armies, although at the cost of even higher supply disadvantage.
Optimus' most impressive play came shortly after. Like a true Sun Tzu follower, Optimus bravely pushed further and further, looking strong in times where he was actually weak. TOP kept losing ground despite being in the army lead and even when he drew Optimus' marines back with a big drop, he found it tremendously hard to retake the centre. Optimus kept fighting back with nice marine attacks but the game was at a point where TOP's tanks were just too many and not even the perfect spread would break the lines. And after he carelessly lost some precious tanks, Optimus had to GG out.
Game 2 @ Terminus. The 40-minute long set began with mirroring banshee openings but the biggest difference was TOP's rabid expansion pattern than put him one base and nearly 40 SCVs ahead. But as a clear victor could not be decided in the early and mid-game, this TvT entered the heavy macro phase of intense air battles.
Apart from the endless flocks of vikings, Optimus chose to go for BCs while TOP went for Thors. For long minutes the two players traded armies in the middle and everything seemed equal but once again TOP's macro was off the hook. He had out-upgraded and out-muscled his opponent and when he succeeded into getting three Thors together there was little hope left for Optimus' vikings.
Game 3 @ Daybreak. Many mistakes were made in this game but few were amended. Optimus was the first one to do a big blunder, losing a large chunk of his bio army to tank fire, giving TOP a bigger lead that he would've wanted.
But then again, no one can do to you what you can do to yourself. TOP was quick to lose his advantage by moving out with small chunks of tanks, which easily fell victim to Optimus' ever-moving bio army. The Prime terran kept finding gaps in TOP's defences and applied pressure to keep his bases down but eventually the map was split in half. Which, to be honest, wasn't even a slight trouble for the massive bio count. Run-byes and drop plays pealed TOP apart (not without the help of TOP himself who kept throwing away tanks) and got Optimus back in the series.
Game 4 @ Tal'Darim Altar. This wild game revisited the old bio vs mech from the last set. The first opportunity came for TOP as Optimus' bio moved to take down his 5 o'clock base. TOP could have easily trapped that army but instead he moved a bit too far and got flanked himself. He repeated that blunder once again later and the question if TOP had beaten himself twice in a row arose.
Fortunately, TOP was able to impose a soft contain so he can keep the bio army away from Optimus' expos that were springing all over the place. He then started hunting them one by one, while at the same time Optimus attempted a bio drop. Although he did manage to snipe many important tech structures, Optimus was barely mining by the end and the contain was still there. He launched one last effort to break out and reset his economy but as TOP barely held it was lights out for the Super Tournament champion.
MVP vs 
JulyGame 1 @ Antiga Shipyard. There isn't much to write about this opening set. MVP blindly opened with double proxy rax between the 5 and 7 o'clock bases and as July's overlord arrived at his main, the terran knew just where to order his strike.
July could not stop the bunker from being completed and in a few shots he was down to seven drones. His desperate attempt to chase the marines away in turn cost him all his lings and MVP just a-clicked to victory.
Game 2 @ Metalopolis. This time July was much more stable in his early play, repelling the bunker rush, stopping the hellions and not overreacting to MVP's small push. Both players expanded calmly and geared for the late-game.
July was the first to deliver a big blast. Hitting 200/200 and +2/+2 on his mellee units, the zerg morphed a ton of banelings and sent them off to bust the terran but by some miracle MVP stayed alive, not even losing a CC. July kept stalling him with mutas until his ultra cavern was up and attempted another push.
MVP, however, had anticipated the tech transition perfectly and greeted the ultralisks with unusually high ghost count. Sniping his way through Zerg's army, MVP moved out to take his gold and hold it despite July's tech switch to brood lords. As MVP took another big victory by sniping all of July's misdirected ultras, the God of War was forced to GG out.
Game 3 @ Daybreak. By that time July had probably realised that it is not easy to play macro against MVP either so he went for his signature move - low econ aggression, this time in the form of baneling bust. Although MVP smelled the fishy opening, he could not react on time and July broke inside, tearing apart every terran unit there was.
Game 4 @ Crossfire. MVP opened with the good old reactor factory into banshee and in not time he had a scary amount of hellions. July, though, was there to react perfectly, getting his spines up and bringing his queen to block the ramp and take literally zero damage from the early attack. Seeing that there is no breaching July, MVP fell back to transition to Thors.
This switch proved to be most successful as July's mutas could not find a single weak spot to terrorize. So then, driven by a most strange decision, July went on for a baneling/muta attack against the units that counter it perfectly. MVP just stood there, probably laughing at the sight of his thors reigning dead upon the zerg. One push later MVP was the second grand finalist and is to meet TOP this Sunday. The terran had a mighty run through the GSL, defeating NesTea, MC, HuK and now July.
It is time to prepare for the finals now. The up-and-downs are almost over, Saturday is getting closer and soon we will have both our August champion and the Code S line-up for next season. Interesting times are ahead of us.
