TSL3’s Ro32 ended last night and we all bid farewell to the 4^th day of some more upsets and great performances. This Ro32 has been rather special, considering the variety of play styles on the menu and as expected, it has delivered some very interesting results. Let’s dive right into all the action that has taken place up until day 4 and the awesomeness that we’ve witnessed while at it.

This was a rather unusual Saturday because for once, I wasn’t driving my mom around to the shopping malls and visiting some relatives who probably think that Starcraft 2 is the second version of an already famous cellphone! Regardless, with names like BoxeR, Nightend, Strelok, Fenix, Tyler, Fruitdealer, Thorzain and Sen in the lineup, you just couldn’t miss this one. The first match was Liquid Tyler vs. Mouz.Strelok in a Protoss vs. Terran confrontation which is always fun to watch because of air as well as ground elements playing a crucial role in how each counters the other player’s move. Tyler looked really strong and despite the odds favoring Strelok, made light work of him on Shakura’s Plateau and Tal’Darim Altar. The Ukranian Terran had little choice as Tyler sealed the deal 2:0 to advance to the next stage. Tyler handed Strelok his second defeat in a row, after their run-in with each other in Finland. The reigning TSL2 champion got past his first obstacle to enter the Ro16 and he looked really strong in this particular game.

Up next was FnaticMSI.Sen, one of the best Zerg players of SC2 Beta vs. TSL_Fenix known for his Terran prowess. I wanted to see a quick banshee rush with Sen having to tier up to lair and quickly deploying hydras to counter them before it was too late. However, in the most dominant Zerg play I’ve seen lately, Sen just destroyed Fenix on Metalopolis and Terminus RE. Everything Fenix did was countered by Sen and in a rather hilarious counter-attack; he formed a beautiful loop of banelings to wipe out Fenix’s army. Fenix was clearly outclassed in this match-up as the Zerg advanced to the next round. The next match was already beginning to permeate into everyone’s head as a probable one sided affair, for FruitDealer has had better days. You could call it a concern or doubt but given his recent performances, one had to be somewhat skeptical about his games against a solid opponent like ThorZaIN, the Prae Swedish Terran player. FruitDealer did seem to have a few tricks up his sleeve but ThorZaIN kept taking jabs at his defense. The Korean Zerg put up little resistance as ThorZaIN sailed past the GomTV GSL Season 1 champion on Xel’Naga Caverns and Terminus RE.

The final match of the day was Prae.NightEnD vs. the Korean SlayerS Terran beast, BoxeR. With BoxeR stealing Xel’Naga Caverns from NightEnD, it looked like Strelok could’ve taken a leaf from BoxeR’s book of tricks but NightEnD soon put a dent in his lead with a comeback win on Tal’Darim Altar. With the first ever 3-mapper of the day, it all boiled down to Crevasse where BoxeR made light work of NightEnD to advance to the next round with a 2-1 victory.   

Day 1 was quite eventful, even though we didn’t see but one match going to the decider. Nevertheless, 3 more days were to go before it would be known who out of the remaining players would advance to Ro16. With the reigning champion already eliminated by a foreigner, it was evident that more upsets and great gameplay would follow.