There is not much to say about this week - there was barely anything to make you go "wooooow". It was a week when group favourites continued to perform solidly, while two underdogs were the only ones to bring a smile to a certain editor's face.
Huk continued owning people in week 3 as well like it is nobody's business. His third victim was Italian terran Cloud, who did succeed in sneaking out a single set with a 2-base push but was quickly punished in the next two sets. A hidden 4-gate by HuK tied the score and then a failed 1-base reactor marine/hellion brought the win for the Canadian.
In probably the best series for the night, Haypro opened with a win against Rain by beautifully keeping the terran to two bases while meanwhile amassing this scary tier 3 zerg ball that everyone fears. Rain tied the score on Terminus by recovering from much the same situation but managing to take and hold a fourth, while Haypro himself, despite the nice infestor harass, could not quite gather enough units to confront Rain directly. The series eventually went to Rain, who ended the third set with a proxy rax rush.
BratOk also looked incredibly strong this week as his solid play style and minimum mistakes brought him a quick lead after a 30-minute long game on Antiga, where the terran hunted down zerg's expansions until DarkForce's economy was in shambles and his supply was two times smaller than terran's. In the second game BratOK was probably tired of all the ZvP fiasco and ended the series with a 2-rax rush.
The night ended with a PvP between Mana and Axslav, where the American showed strong urge to go for some more unorthodox heavy econ builds and even teching to double stargate into +1 phoenixes but Mana's play was just universes more solid. By forgetting colossus range in game 1 and going quick nexus against Mana's 3-gate blink, Axslav did not live to win a single set.
| NASL Division 2 Week 3 Results | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
  Huk | 2-1 |   Cloud | ||||||||||||||||||||||
 Rain | 2-1 |   Haypro | ||||||||||||||||||||||
 Bratok | 2-0 |  Darkforce | ||||||||||||||||||||||
 Mana | 2-0 |  Axslav | ||||||||||||||||||||||
The games from this week imposed an interesting paradox. The group favourites did not display a thrilling performance at all, giving us some very boring and greyscale games. Meanwhile, two contenders that are practically doomed to not get to the top spots were the only source of entertainment this week.
Haypro and Axslav faced Rain and Mana, respectively: two of the best performing players in the group (Mana, because he has been on the ascend lately and Rain, because he is a Korean terran!). Yet they fiercely fought for the win and I found myself even cheering for them (I have never been a fan of the either). I mean Axslav has been always a darkhorse wherever he goes and there he is - trying to pull off a fast nexus/double stargate/+1 phoenix build against currently one of the strongest protosses in Europe. Every non top tier player that forgoes the boring 4-gate/3-gate blink in a PvP against Mana deserves a round of applause.
And Haypro, of whom nobody expects anything anymore since his golden beta days are long gone, goes head-to-head with a GSL grand finalist and plays two 25-minute games only to lose to a dumb cheese. A cheese that could've been scouted and prevented if it were not a millimetre away from an overlord sight range.
And because everyone will most likely ignore those guys performances (after all why would it not be the case - both hold the appalling 0-3 and are still to face some of the group favourites), here is the place where I give my kudos to Haypro and Axslav for making W3D2 interesting to watch.
With this win, HuK continues to hold his spot at number 1. However, his second 2-1 victory (although sweet I would not doubt) is keeping him dangerously close to the second place ties BratOK and Mana, who both crushed their opponents 2-0. In the middle of the group are Rain and Cloud, two terrans that keep playing unconvincingly and by the looks of it things are not going to change soon. Rain has not been having the best time since he moved out of Korea to join Fnatic and Cloud still has to make his big hit into the list of tier 1 pro-players.
Of Axslav and Haypro I talked a bit in the editorial spot above - they are doomed. DarkForce is also in a tough position but at least he has one victory to hold on to in the darkest of nights.
| Division II after Week 3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Player | Stats | Points | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1st | HuK | 3-0 | +4 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 2nd | BratOK | 2-1 | +2 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 3rd | Mana | 2-1 | +2 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 4th | Rain | 2-1 | +0 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 5th | Cloud | 1-1 | +1 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 6th | DarkForce | 1-1 | -1 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 7th | Haypro | 0-3 | -3 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 8th | Axslav | 0-3 | -5 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Division II Week 4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| HuK | vs | Haypro | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rain | vs | Bratok | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| DarkForce | vs | Mana | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cloud | vs | Axslav | ||||||||||||||||||||||
There are very tough matches ahead of the zerg players - such they are very unlikely to win. HuK vs Haypro is probably going to be one-sided, and Mana vs DarkForce nearly or just as much. Cloud and Axslav is a game without much meaning to be honest, but a victory for the Italian can rekindle his hopes for a higher place in the group.
All in all, the most enticing match for the week will be the TvT between BratOK and Rain. I never dare to 100% predict a terran mirror but voices suggest that the Russian can make something happen hear. IF he pulls a 2-0 victory, HuK's first place in the following weeks can be very much endangered.
