Neither Moonglade nor SEn could make the ZvZ between them at least a bit interesting. In less than 30 minutes (as it befits any ZvZ Bo3 series), SEn walked away with a 2-1 victory thanks to his banelings, roaches and just better timings in general.
Ret vs Select was no heart-mover either. After two proxy rax rushes (one successful and one, obviously not), it all came down to the third set on Shattered Temple. Once again Select opened the game with a bunker rush but as it got defended he took the peculiar decision to go heavily marine-centric, running 4-rax with triple reactors. Of course, Ret's banelings had something to say to that and after a trade gone bad, Select was down twice the supply.
Thankfully, Strelok and Nightend were here to make the evening interesting. Strelok won the first set with a very technical 1-base rush and tried to do repeat it in the second game as well, but NightEnd held till the mid-game when the terran walked into a horrible position for the tie. The third set was just a standard PvT on Temple where Strelok just outmacroed and outmaraudered NightEnd's army to get the win.
| NASL 2 Division 4 Week 3 results | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
  Sen | 2-1 |  Moonglade | ||||||||||||||||||||||
  Strelok | 2-1 |   NightEnd | ||||||||||||||||||||||
 Ret | 2-1 |  Select | ||||||||||||||||||||||
When the other two match-ups are pacing slower than a French art drama movie, it is not hard to award the best play for the night. This time it goes to Strelok and the way he handled NightEnd on Dual Sight, because every time a terran forgoes the "Imma make 50 marauders and shoot you in the face" strategy, he deserves a tap on the shoulder.
Strelok has long been known as a player who loves approaching the game aggressively, killing his opponents from air and on the ground. In his NASL Week 3 moments, though, Strelok took it a bit farther, orchestrating a complex but extremely methodical rush that stripped NightEnd of every chance of winning the set.
Strelok began with landing his proxy factory into the protoss main and starting a hellion harass from the inside, accompanying that with a concussive shell offence at the front door. Just as NightEnd managed to chase the threat away, Strelok's plan entered phase 2 as his banshee arrived, followed by a very technical marauder/raven rush. During all that time, Strelok was simultaneously macroing and expanding behind this and so when the mid-game hit, he was 50 supply ahead of the protoss - a lead won mostly in small increments during the early stages of the game.
Strelok and Ret took the necessary victories to hold their spots on the top relatively uncontested. Of course, Select could have tried to make Ret's job a bit tougher but as it is the Dutch is sitting comfortably tied for first and SeleCT's situation is quite worse than last week.
Evening's most important victory probably belongs to SEn, who keeps climbing the division standings and now sits at 3rd place with +1 points. He did a wonderful job recovering from his 0-2 loss to Select in week 1, which is good because it is always sad to see a group favourite in a deeper standings slump that he can actually handle.
| Division IV after Week 3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Player | Score | Points | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1st | Ret | 3-0 | +5 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 2nd | Strelok | 3-0 | +5 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 3rd | Sen | 2-1 | +1 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 4th |  Inka | 1-1 | +0 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 5th | Select | 1-2 | -1 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 6th | Moonglade | 0-2 | -3 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 7th | NightEnd | 0-2 | -3 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 8th | InControl | 0-2 | -4 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Division IV Week 4 Matches | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Inka | VS | Moonglade | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Strelok | VS | Ret | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sen | VS | NightEnd | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| InControl | VS | Select | ||||||||||||||||||||||
The next week is a four-match one, which means every player will get his chance to make a stand and undo the troubles they have inherited throughout the first three weeks. Ret and Strelok will meet each other to see who will be the reigning leader of the division in the next seven days and it better be a series to remember!
Futhermore, Sen is facing NightEnd in an important match for the Taiwanese, which he needs to win in order to maintain his top 3 position. This, more or less, goes to SeleCT and Inka too, who are currently hovering in the middle positions of the group. And although few can doubt Select crushing InControl, there is a strong chance that Inka falls to Moonglade, which put the centre spots in a state of shaky uncertainty.
