With the final day of the TSL3 Ro32 kicking off, one couldn’t help but wonder how much awesome Starcraft 2 action waits ahead in the Ro16. However, that does not by any means discredit the epic 3 days of Ro32 that gave us some really huge upsets and pretty interesting results - favorites, underdogs and dark horses alike. But day 4 had its own charm as we bid farewell to the Ro32 while being happy that it had been so awesome so far and a little bit of sadness because some of our favorites lost and the fact that it was the last day of Ro32. Instead of sulking though, let’s pick up the pieces from day 4 and put them together to get a picture of what happened and why.

The first match-up was a ZvP game, one of my personal favorites to watch as EG.IdrA went up against coL.CrunCher. IdrA probably got a bit overzealous and stated that he wasn’t scared of CrunCher, regardless of the fact that this match was not played on patch 1.3 but rather 1.2.2. As game 1 commenced on Shakuras Plateau, the American Zerg took the South-west corner spawn while the Protoss took the diagonally opposite North-east spawn point. CrunCher began with forge expand as well as a gateway along with a nexus while IdrA put up a spawning pool and captured some gas followed by a hatchery at his natural. Call it what you may, but it was evident from the very beginning that this would be a long macro game with each player not committing to an initial attack but rather expanding and maxing out their armies first. CrunCher got 2 stalkers out early in the game and put up a stargate to possibly gain the aerial advantage. As CrunCher took down the rocks behind his base, IdrA went on to get his 3^rd base up. Mind you that IdrA has been very vocal about this early advantage to the Protoss with its aerial units (Phoenixes and Void Rays) in most of his interviews about the balance issues or Protoss in general. As soon as the Void Ray popped out of that stargate, IdrA got a whiff of it with his overlord and got his evolution chamber up along with a hydralisk den to counter it. He also got a nice creep spread to defend his bases. CrunCher then spawned 3 Phoenixes and set up a Robotics facility in his main as he marched into IdrA’s base. CrunCher was planning a timed attack for sure as looking at his builds made it clear that his Colossi would be done even before his warp gates. IdrA by now had 73 drones with a 4^th base in the making. In a daring move, IdrA then marched straight up into CrunCher’s main with roaches and Corruptors. However, CrunCher defended it with his high Colossi and Stalker count. IdrA retreated but came in to attack again but CrunCher’s 9 Void Rays literally ate his army up forcing him to retreat again. He came back again only to have his corruptors being gobbled up by CrunCher’s Void rays. However, IdrA managed to deal a lot of damage and took down everything apart from the Nexus in CrunCher’s main. In what might have been a big mistake, IdrA did not choose to get a Greater Spire going to counter CrunCher’s aerial attacks with Brood Lords but rather chose +2 attack.  However, CrunCher’s army of Void Rays, Colossi and Blink Stalkers was just too much as IdrA simply left the game as the ground under his feet started to boil.

The next map was Terminus RE and IdrA took the eastern corner spawn with CrunCher spawning right across on the western position. CrunCher decided to go with the same forge+nexus+gateway build but IdrA decided to go with a hatchery first instead of the spawning pool and soon expanded to 3 bases. He then got his lair up and researched the ventral sacs while CrunCher moved in with his Phoenixes and Void Rays. IdrA thwarted his attacks and went on to take a 4^th base. He then moved his overlords into CrunCher’s main but CrunCher’s colossus defended the base pretty well. However, IdrA pushed in with another drop wiping out CrunCher’s nexus. IdrA continued drop-harassing CrunCher’s main with his overlords while macro’ing a bigger army that knocked down CrunCher’s front door and ate all of his army giving us a tied game.

It came down to Crevasse for the decider as CrunCher got a gateway up along with a core, which was different from his previous 2 builds. IdrA made a spawning pool and then a hatchery. CrunCher immediately put up a nexus and made 4 additional gateways and moved in with a big army of sentries. He kept dropping pylons on his way to IdrA’s main and ate up his roaches on arrival with forcefields. IdrA tried to fight back as he deployed more drones but by that time, CrunCher had sealed the deal with a big smile.

The second match was between the Terran Empire.Kas and Zerg Liquid’HayprO and it all started on Crevasse. Kas went for a barracks build without gas’ing up while Haypro put up a hatchery. Kas then put out some tanks from 2 factories followed by a tech up to starport. He then pushed in for an early harass just outside’s Haypro’s expo while solidifying his own defenses at the 3^rd base. However, HayprO watched it all and as soon as the speed upgrade got done, rushed his banelings to deal with Kas’s tanks. Kas reinforced with more tanks and marines but HayprO’s mutas fly all the way to Kas’s backdoor expansion making him wary of the enemy at 2 different locations. HayprO then decided to break that siege line right outside of his expansion and cashed in on the situation with Kas not being able to reinforce in time. In the meantime, HayprO’s mutalisks made light work of Kas’s marines. Kas then pulled out towards center map but HayprO read it perfectly but Kas’ tanks save him from the banelings who get obliterated on the ramp by them. Kas kept his momentum up and counter-attacked overwhelming HayprO and taking the first map.

It was then down to Crossfire SE as Kas got the blue flame hellions to push in an early attack but a single spine crawler plus some zerglings thwarted that early aggression completely and Kas lost all his hellions. Kas then mimicked his strategy from game 1 trying to for a siege line and reinforce with marines and more tanks right outside of HayprO’s expansion. HayprO also repeated his roach + banelings push to deal with the tanks but got put in his place right away. In a nice move, HayprO burrows in some zerglings onto the sideward expansions and denied Kas the opportunity to land his command centre. His mutalisks then flew in to clean up the SCVs. Meanwhile, Kas took center map yet again in a bid to take HayprO’s third but it proves to be futile. HayprO then waited for Kas to move forward unsieged as his burrowed banelings fed on some tasty tanks.  HayprO’s mutalisks made sure that Kas would not expand further and with only marines left to his name HayprO took the 2^nd map giving us the 2^nd tied game of the day.

Shakuras Plateau was the decider as Kas went off on a rax + blue flame hellion build and launched an early attack with marines and hellions. The attack paid off taking down the only guarding spine crawler not giving HayprO enough time to morph in any banelings. HayprO once again got his mutas in the air to play the cute harass game but Kas knocked down the rocks to clear the attack patch to HayprO’s main. Sensing trouble, HayprO rushed everything back to defend it but not without getting his 3^rd and 4^th base up. Kas pushes in again but with a bigger force this time consisting of tanks and marines as banelings crumble to their feet. However, HayprO still manages to handle the push only to watch his supply drop to 93 vs. Kas’s 163. Kas pushes yet again from the same route with a +3 on marines and wipes the map clean to advance to the Ro16 with a 2-1 victory over the Zerg.

Up next was the Zerg MYM.Mondragon going up against the Protoss ZeeRaX on Crevasse. Mondragon began with a hatchery and expanded towards the protoss while ZeeRaX put down a stargate. He soon spawned a Void Ray accompanied by 2 phoenixes taking down Mondragon’s drones, queens as well as the overlords. He continued his harassment while Mondragon took a 3^rd and soon had a hydra den and roach warren. On the other hand, ZeeRaX spawned his Colossi and kept churning out phoenixes to play a supporting role for the single Void Ray. By this time, Mondragon decided to head straight into ZeeRaX’s main with an insane number of roaches while dropping zerglings at the back of the natural. He took out many of ZeeRaX’s Colossi and took out his natural’s nexus. ZeeRaX sent in his Void Rays but by that time, his main had been overrun by Mondragon’s roach army giving him a 1 map lead.

Shakuras Plateau was the second map as ZeeRaX begain with a gateway + Core build while Mondragon made a spawning pool and took a gas before deploying a hatchery. ZeeRaX decided to delay the void ray as he put down a stargate followed by a nexus. ZeeRaX immediately started working on building Colossi while Mondragon took a 3^rd base and added a hydra den. Just like game #1, Mondragon marched through the front door of ZeeRaX’s main with a roach army and managed to kill a colossus and some probes before going down. While taking his 4^th base, he decided to drop in with overlords onto ZeeRaX’s main while continuing to pound the front door of ZeeRaX’s main with more roaches. ZeeRaX was once again on the backfoot as he churned out a few voidrays and colossi but they’re overrun by Mondragon as he advanced to the Ro16 with a 2-0 victory.

The last match of Day 4 was oGs.NaDa vs. TLAF-Liquid’TLO which was a TvT matchup. What made this all the more exciting was the fact that both the players are considered pretty good and it was a sort of Korea vs. Europe/Foreigner contest. As Xel’Naga Caverns kicked off, NaDa put down a starport to immediately spawn a banshee while TLO built a ghost academy and barracks. TLO tried to make his way into NaDa’s base early on but was dealt with on the spot. As he backed out, he put down a command centre. However, just when his forces were taking down the rocks, NaDa’s banshee came in to say “hi“ and left with kills in double digits! NaDa immediately started raking up a Tank + marines army for the push while TLO was busy adding more barracks and churning out marines + marauders. NaDa soon caught a whiff of TLO’s gold expansion and comes in for the kill. TLO hurled a nuke his way but NaDa managed to kill the ghost and his tanks took down everything TLO had. NaDa 1 – 0 TLO.

The 2^nd map was Crevasse and both the players started off with rax followed by a CC and adding factories for the time being. No major action took place until both the players were settled into their unit building. TLO however had the edge in terms of upgrades and tried to push his luck with an attempt to knock down NaDa’s 3^rd, but did not succeed. Both soon took a 4^th base and churned out a banshee each for some aerial harassment. However, as NaDa took the 5^th, TLO built up 2 battlecruisers. He then spotted NaDa’s expansion and took it down before the planetary fortress could finish morphing. There was no looking back from then on as TLO marched ahead with a bigger and well upgraded army to win the 2^nd map and tie the game up.

Terminus RE became the platform for the final showdown as either player needed to win this map in order to advance to Ro16. NaDa opened up with a Starport and had a banshee flying in no time and researched the cloak. TLO started off with a command centre. NaDa then split his harass attack between TLO’s main and expansion assigning one banshee to each and gobbling up those SCVs. TLO tried to counter attack with one marauder as well as a few marines but NaDa was prepared for it. Throughout these attempts from TLO, NaDa managed to keep those banshees healthy and flying and opens up a full frontal attack with marines and tanks to overwhelm TLO and take the 3^rd map to advance with a 2-1 victory.

As the epic 4 days of TSL3 came to an end, so did a lot of fun. Ro16 has a lot in store for us though and will further blur the line between the skill levels that the Koreans and the foreigners possess. We can only hope that our favorites win but I actually dig big upsets. May the better player win!