It was a shorter night for Division 1 this week with only three matches on the schedule. Vibe and Fenix took a break but the other six had some great motivations to fight, ranging from desire to stay on the top to the desperate need to crawl back out of a bad start.
I loved the way week 3 of Division 1 began. My new personal protoss favourite Hero and his opponent Lowely put up quite the show, despite their match being a bit away from the perfect PvZ. The Metalopolis set was the highlight of the night as Hero urged to show us his signature style against zerg, using storm drops, zealot harass and just general warp prism ownage to force Lowely into a base trade, which ended when zerg's broodlords melted under stalker fire. Hero continued to display excellence, relying heavily on chargelots and defensive storms to win the second set.
White-Ra vs Demuslim was what everyone would expect from two solid player playing on those big ass maps. Also it gave people plenty of reasons to bash on EMP for another day or two, as that was DeMuslim greatest helper in both sets. The EG terran got an early lead as an EMP timing attack put an end to WhiteRa's natural and sealed the 2-0 victory with an overall impenetrable play on Antiga, using mass ghost to render WhiteRa's archons useless.
The third game of the night was a bit of a let down as Sheth could not be more dominant against Cruncher. His reign of terror (a cheerful terror, of course, as this is Sheth we are talking about) began as he completely denied Cruncher's DT opening and sprinted to get a fourth base, overwhelming the protoss minutes later by dropping at his main and destroying his workers with a ling run-by. Cruncher tried to make amends in the second set by attempting to cannon rush Sheth's hatch first but as that failed (and as lings actually ran into Cruncher's main), it gave the zerg a carte blanche to go for a gold third. Cruncher's answer to that was a 2-base 8-gate all-in but he hindered himself severely, destroying his wall-off pylon in the middle of a warp-in cycle. Easy 2-0 for Sheth.
| NASL Division 1 Week 3 results | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
  Hero | 2-0 |   Lowely | ||||||||||||||||||||||
 WhiteRa | 0-2 |   DeMuslim | ||||||||||||||||||||||
 Sheth | 2-0 | Cruncher | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Pointing a hero of the night is easy (pun unintended, because I would look really dumb if it was). The Liquid newcomer continues to show incredible presence on the field and his victories easily speak to the viewers of the time when he will teach other protosses how to play correctly.
His games vs Lowely can be considered as somewhat of a preview of the future when HerO is destroying people left and right. If his PvZ teaches us something is that it's not important to just storm stuff; it's important to storm the right stuff. Regarding that, look at the screenshot below. Those are two high templars, casting a total of two storms. Just two. In three seconds Lowely was 23 drones behind. Once again - two storms jumping off of a warp prism. And the set on Antiga was played in such a BroodWar-esque fashion by having defensive templars at each expansion and walking around with zealot-centric army with heavy air support that it brought joy to my heart.
Oh, I almost forgot the bonus lesson. When the gas-heavy mid- and late-game hit, it is good to remember that zealots are practically free. And Hero's usage of them to pressure expansions or force out a chain-fungals, emptying infestor energy prior to the big battles was something to be on the look for.
| Division I after Week 3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Player | Stats | Points | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1st | Demuslim | 3-0 | 6 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 2nd | HerO | 3-0 | 6 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 3rd |  Fenix | 1-1 | -1 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 4th | Vibe | 1-1 | -1 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 5th | Sheth | 1-2 | -1 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 6th | Cruncher | 1-2 | -2 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 7th | Lowely | 1-2 | -2 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 8th | WhiteRa | 0-3 | -5 | |||||||||||||||||||||
Understandably (and deservedly), Hero and DeMuslim top Division 1 with a perfect 3-0 score and 6 points. With his third match, Hero has now officially played every single match-up in his NASL debut and has always came out 2-0. He is yet to play the big favourites in the group though, starting with DeMuslim next week.
DeMuslim himself is making quite the run. Sheth and WhiteRa were one of the favourites for the top spots in Division 1 and the EG terran has beaten them both with a 2-0. Having in mind that he is currently tied for first with Hero, there would be little trouble for him to earn his spot in the main tournament if he manages to go through the Korean monster.
Sheth's victory was a cup of relief for him and his fans. A loss in week 3 would've put him right there at the bottom next to WhiteRa (who, surprisingly, is not doing well at all as can be seen from his score). But the crushing 2-0 victory over Cruncher shot him to the middle of the standings from where the climb to the top is much easier.
| Division 1 Week 4 matches | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Vibe | vs | Lowely | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hero | vs | DeMuslim | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Fenix | vs | Cruncher | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Finally, finally the two leaders will meet. In one of the most important matches in the division, Hero will go against Demuslim and the winner will have to feel splendidly. Getting 7 or 8 points (out of maximum 14) is huge at that point of the group stage. I will not try to predict this match, I dare not.
We will have to see Vibe vs Sheth before that, however, and once again the future is unclear (some predictions, huh?). Vibe is famous for being one of the fastest zerg in North America and to put some weight to his reputation he owned Sheth in the opening week, which ought to scare Lowely a little. In consideration of previous results and overall performance I would give that one to Vibe.
In the third match, Fenix goes against Cruncher. Fenix is currently 1-1 in his group, both his games being against protoss players (WhiteRa in week 1 and Hero in week 2) and, funny as that might be, TLPD shows a perfect 50% overall TvP win-rate as well. Generally, I would consider Cruncher to be a less formidable opponent than WhiteRa but if he doesn't do careless mistakes (like killing his own units mid-warp) there is big hope for the American toss.
