Day 2 of TSL3’s Ro16 kicked off and promised more entertainment with FXO.qxc and Mill.Adelscott going up against each other in a TvP contest. The 2^nd game of the day had bigger chances of upsets though as oGs.NaDa was to face Empire.Kas in a TvT confrontation. With a lot of Koreans already eliminated in the Ro32, the foreigners really put up a great display of skill and how they’ve been closing the gap by squeezing in some hardcore practice as well as being somewhat unorthodox in their styles. Adelscott who had beaten the GSL champion IM.MVP in Ro32 and qxc who had beaten the Korean protoss MVP_Genius are both known for their very unique styles with qxc being on the more aggressive side while Adelscott preferring to get more units and upgrades going for him. Let’s dive into Day 2’s action and find out how the 2 games went, who advanced to the Ro8 and who bit the dust.

FXO.qxc vs. Mill.Adelscott

Map 1 – Xel’Naga Caverns

Adelscott spawned on the top right-hand corner while qxc took the bottom left spawn location on the map. Adelscott went in for a very late scout with his stalker while getting 3 gateways, 2 of which were switched to warp gates. qxc prepared to move out and took out Adelscott’s sentry and got his marauder punished for the same. As he retreated and tried to get his bunker up on the ramp, Adelscott moved in with 5 stalkers and sentries. Just then qxc’s reinforcements kicked in but Adelscott’s stalkers landed haymakers on his SCVs as qxc called in a “gg” to give the first map to Adelscott.

Map 2 – Metalopolis

Adelscott and qxc took the adjacent positions on the map with both taking the north-east spawns. Adelscott got his 2 gateways up with qxc building up his barracks down the ramp of his main. Adelscott’s stalker soon went down with qxc’s marauders chewing it up in no time. However, Adelscott pushed in with his probes to hurt those marauders but had to retreat. In the mean time, qxc lost his marauders as Adelscott force fielded the ramp cutting off their escape route. Qxc soon got 4 barracks in his main and 2 orbital commands. He then got his barracks flying on top of Adelscott’s main as Adelscott seemed to be on the backfoot putting photon cannons down at his expansion. Adelscott was stuck on 3 gateways but managed to get some stalkers out. However, qxc was clearly leading in terms of building numbers and unit sizes. Qxc soon marched in with medivacs and marines but Adelscott defended it well with his sentries and Stalkers. Qxc threw in 2 more barracks at his natural  and returned with his marines, marauders and Medivacs attacking the probes as Adelscott replied with his stalkers and sentries but qxc’s push was just too strong as Adelscott wrote “wp” to tie the game 1-1.

Map 3 – Terminus RE

Both the players took cross-position spawns on the map with Adelscott taking west and qxc taking the eastern location. Adelscott once again scouted very late as qxc got 3 marauders and 2 marines and placed them in centre map. Adelscott got his stalkers out and did not get his forge or robo going. He then marched out with 3 sentries, some Zealots and stalkers to centre map while qxc’s 2 banshees flew in. Adelscott managed to get 1 cannon up and got a twilight council up in his main.  At this point, the cloaked banshee moved in taking out those probes as Adelscott’s stalkers rushed back along with the sentries. He soon got +1 on his ground armies and got 3 nexuses as one of qxc’s banshees went down. Qxc still managed to get 26 kills with this banshee harassment and returned to Adelscott’s main with another banshee raking up 7 kills before Adelscott’s stalkers returned. Qxc continued this harassment style as the ghost academy finished up for him. Qxc marched in soon but retreated to reinforce and continued to produce more banshees. Adelscott had only +1 armor upgrade with qxc going for a +2 attack almost half way done. He then put down a 2^nd forge and marched out wiping qxc’s main army right outside his base. A big EMP hit his stalkers but he still managed to survive as qxc reinforced his army. Qxc soon had a drop in the main of Adelscott with 4 marauders taking out 6 of Adel’s stalkers. Qxc again pushed in with his marines + marauders army while taking up a 4^th base. He kept on dropping more and more marines at center map while Adelscott got his Colossi out this time. Qxc got a lot Vikings moving in with qxc simply sending in more reinforcements from centre map making Adelscott defend all the time. Qxc had 3 ghost academies by now as he landed some big EMPs on Adelscott’s sentries with his next push with Adelscott calling in “gg” to put the scores 2-1 in favor of qxc.

Map 4 – Crevasse

Qxc spawned on the bottom left with Adelscott taking the bottom right spawn. Adelscott soon got a 15 Nexus up with 2 gateways going down in his main. Qxc once again managed to scout before Adelscott and got his 16 command centre up. Qxc then got his 3 barracks going but surprisingly enough Adelscott still did not get his robo going. Both the players seemed to take up their quick expansions with qxc successfully scouting both Adelscott’s main as well as expansion. Adelscott now started off with his robotics facility along with some stalkers and sentries out. It seemed that he finally knew that maybe not having his robotics facility out in the previous games early enough really hurt his chances of getting to go with an aggressive push. Adelscott soon got his 3^rd base going up as Qxc started working on those back rocks as Adelscott spotted this push and reacted with his single Colossi and a horde of Stalkers and Zealots. Adelscott followed him all the way up to his expo keeping a close eye on his moves.  Adelscott soon reinforced with a 2^nd colossi taking down a single marauder while qxc dropped his marauders into Adelscott’s main. However, his medivac was taken down by Adelscott’s stalkers. Soon enough qxc took out 2 of the 3 Colossi forcing Adelscott to retreat with his stalkers and remaining Colossus. Qxc dropped in yet again at Adelscott’s main taking down another Colossus with 4 marauders. He soon flew in with some Vikings and medivacs and took away Adelscott’s remaining 2 Colossi. Adelscott then went headstrong into qxc’s expansion and wiping it out with his gateway units.  He then had his stalkers attacking the planetary fortress and taking it down with qxc’s options running low as he gg’ed out to give us a tied game again at 2-2.

Map 5- Tal’Darim Altar

Qxc spawned at the lower right hand corner with Adelscott taking the top-right spawn location. As qxc got his barracks going, Adelscott once again started off with the assimilator and Cybernetics core. Qxc now had 2 barracks along with a reactor. Adelscott soon went in for an expansion with 2 gateways in his main. Qxc soon went in for a bunker near Adelscott’s expo but Adelscott held his ground with stalkers and sentries. Qxc now had a factory and another barracks going up as Adelscott got his forge going and upgraded to +1 armor. Qxc then had a starport completing in his base as he seemed to be pushing with his medivacs + marines + marauders strat. A twilight council went up for Adelscott as the medivac moved in but Adelscott’s stalker count defended well. Qxc again flew out with a medivac to drop into Adelscott’s main as he lost one of his forges to the marauders just before getting the +2 armor upgrade. Qxc took a 3^rd base as Adelscott took his 4^th beefing up his gateway units further. Qxc missed the emp onto Adelscott as his blink stalkers, sentries and zealots wiped qxc’s army simply with his gateway units. That’s right – no templars, no colossi, just gateway units! With this victory, Adelscott marched into the Ro8 defeating qxc 3-2.

oGs.Nada vs. Empire.Kas

Map 1 – Crevasse

NaDa took the top right hand corner spawn with Kas taking the lower right hand corner location. Both the players did not gas up and NaDa spotted this getting his fast expansion up sensing Kas’s strategy. Kas soon had his 4^th rax up while NaDa hiding his factory and starport at the top of the map. NaDa then swapped the factory with the Starport and went on to get his first banshee out. Kas then went on to get a missile turret out just in case an early banshee push came in from NaDa. NaDa was in for a surprise as that turret did deal a lot of damage onto the banshee. Kas soon got his medivac out with an army of marines ready to go out. Kas then went in for a drop but his medivac was taken down by NaDa. NaDa had his siege tanks ready just when Kas’s medivac came in again. Even though the medivac was taken out by the turret, forcing NaDa to lift off. Just then another medivac came in from the right wiping more units as NaDa seemed to be on the backfoot. NaDa then got his siege tanks in a concave formation but got stomped really bad. As he retreated, Kas took a double expansion with NaDa stuck on 2 bases. However, he soon went out taking out Kas’s siege tanks in a great move as +1 completed for the ground armies of both the players. Kas soon amassed a lot of marines and more siege tanks to make a grand push as NaDa gg’ed out.

Map 2 – Xel’Naga Caverns

NaDa took the top right corner with Kas taking the cross position at the bottom left spawn position. Both the players went in for quick first rax. NaDa lost 3 marines early on as Kas went on with some clever placements near the watch towers. NaDa soon went in with marines into centre map but had to retreat. Kas soon had his banshee flying out taking out some SCVs but his marines were unable to take the banshee out. NaDa’s marine soon took out the banshee as he amassed more marines, a single siege tank and medivacs. Kas clearly had the income advantage with a gold expansion already mining at centre map. NaDa soon took his 3^rd base at centre map right opposite to Kas’ but they soon swapped positions with Kas simply giving up his 3^rd expansion. In an unexpected push, NaDa ended up sacrificing his natural with Kas losing his 3^rd expansion.  Kas soon struck back with marines and siege tank in centre map with NaDa gg’ing out yet again.

Map 3 – Shakuras Plateau

Both the players took the cross positions with NaDa taking the bottom left and Kas taking the top right  spawn. Kas soon had his reaper out once again while throwing down his expansion. NaDa landed his own command centre into the natural with 3 rax in total. NaDa moved in for an early attack but Kas already had his defenses up with a siege tank in position. In an early push, both the players met centre map at the watch tower with Kas coming out on top. Kas took his 3^rd base while pushing his agenda into NaDa’s main as Kas cleaned up everything with his medivacs and siege tanks. Kas then moved in with 6 siege tanks and a horde of marines as NaDa gg’ed out losing 0-3 to Empire.Kas.

Amazing upsets on day 2 and an epic game 1 between FXO.qxc and Mill.Adelscott going down to the wire. NaDa lost in a rather unexpected turn of events but that’s just how Starcraft 2 can be. With such phenomenal games so far in TSL3, one could only look forward to next week’s games which are going to feature 2 Zergs and a bucketload of epic moments. With another Korean out of the TSL3, this has definitely been the foreigners' show and we'll find out next week if this foreign invasion is going to continue for good.