Picture art by Teamliquid.net
The first games of the Teamliquid StarLeague have been played, bringing two clear winners from both of the matches when IdrA took on XiaOzI and Draco played Sen.
IdrA vs XiaOzI
The first games casted were IdrA playing XiaOzI in some very anticipated terran vs zerg games. However, IdrA turned the maps Fighting Spirit, Destination and Outsider to his very own playground, and seemed very confident in all of their games.
XiaOzI was doing pretty good in the beginning of each match, but it only lasted until IdrA made his first attack, and then the game was over. His timings were really good, and his micro even better, wasting very little marines, and made XiaOzI type out in all of the games after three one-sided games. 3-0 for IdrA who moves on to the quarterfinals.
Draco vs Sen
Draco and Sen played the second match on the first day of TSL playoffs, and this series was to many the most exciting one of the round of 16. Both of the players are oldschool, and have dominated the foreign scene for a very long time before they both went inactive for a while.
Draco had his spot in the playoffs by ending second in the last TSL, while Sen got it the hard way by ending at the 11th place of the ladder, and later beat GhosTa in the round three qualifiers. It seemed the hard way had it's prize, as Sen, making it look just as easy as the IdrA vs XiaOzI match, dominated the games against Draco, and won the series 3-0. Well deserved, Sen moves on to the quarter finals along with IdrA.
NonY vs Tarson
There's not a lot to say about this series, the games were short as the nerves got to Tarson. First game Tarson lost to a basic and safe build by NonY, who could just move in with 6-7 dragoons against three unprepared tanks.
The second game was won by basically a 1-dark templar drop, followed by one more after a little while. They did a lot of damage, the turrets were late, and in the end NonY could walk freely in Tarson's expansion with his other dark templar.
Third game was an early rush by NonY, some zealots and some dragoons managed to kill one tank after another, and break the wall. GG, 3-0 for NonY who moves on to meet IdrA, which, according to NonY, will be the match of the tournament, and the winner of that game will win the whole tournament, without mentioning any of the other strong players of the tournament.
kolll vs Fenix
kolll totally outplayed Fenix in the first game doing an amazing job with his mutalisks, followed by a lurker contain, guardians and defilers with very nice swarms and plagues. A one-sided game, but a very entertaining one compared to the rest of the games of the round of 16 so far.
The following two games were really short games where Fenix rushed kolll before he had his guards up, and the series had turned into a 2-1 favor for Fenix.
The final game on Destination was somewhat entertaining, Fenix did mech-style and managed to do a lot of harassment with his first vultures as well as his first goliaths. When kolll's mutas came Fenix already had enough goliaths to hold them off, and kolll made a really bad choice trying to kill the goliaths.
Fenix later ran over kolll's ten o' clock expansion, and some mines blew off the hydralisks which were kolll's last hope. First series that has been more than three games, though just barely. 3-1 victory for Fenix who moves on to the quarter finals.
