The most anticipated tournament to take place in months has finally begun, and here's a quick rundown of what went down. Obviously there will be spoilers, so if you haven't watched, DON'T READ!!!
A great deal is at stake in this league. With every old school gamer trying to hold on to their fading glory, and a prize pool rivaling an individual league (20,000,000 won to be exact), these gamers are sure to bring out everything they have in their bag of tricks to take this tourney.
I stayed up till midnight with nachos and mountain dew at the ready for these epic matches, so if you aren't as fanboy as me and have an actual life and/or a job and/or friends, then here's a report on the matches.
Remember, there will be spoilers in this, so be forewarned:
Nal_Ra v 
NadaThese two titans met on Outsider. Nal_Ra went for a one gate range expo to the mineral only while Nada headed towards dropship tech. Nada scouted the expo early with a second scv scout, sees Nal_Ra's reaver tech (which is canceled and replaced with obs tech) , and was able to get off great harassment with his vultures at the min only. Nal_Ra opts to expo to his natural, but is still bugged by tanks dropped on the ledge nearby. Nada on 4 bases compared to Nal_Ra's 3 tries to push out with a massive Terran ball, but is stopped by a wave of storm drops all over his tanks.
Nal_Ra with his signature glasses
Nal_Ra tries to push into the natural, but reinforcement tanks wipe out the rest of his goons, and the game headed downhill from there for the Protoss. More deadly dropship play from the Tornado Terran keeps Nal_Ra's from mining efficiently. He tries to harass with reaver drops, which are fended off, and storm drops, which never end up actually storming. Eventually Nada is too big, and rolls over Nal_Ra's base for the chijee.
Yellow v TossgirlTake a guess how this went. GRATS you are right! I haven't laughed so hard at a pro game of SC in a long time. Game takes place on Destination. Tossgirl opens up with a misplaced barracks (maybe a half proxy) which is delayed by a drone that snipes two scv's. Yellow sends his first lord to his high ground expo to check for proxy, then sends another to the middle of the map which spots the proxy factory. Yellow pulls drones to delay the fact, then lings to block the vulture from exiting. The vulture gets out, but does minimal damage against Yellow's well timed hydra.
<(Q_Q)>
Factory is floated to Zerg's base but gets scouted. Again. One more vulture gets out, but does next to nothing. Yellow pushes in with hydra for the chijee. After the game, Yellow doesn't even bow to audience, and Tossgirl heads straight to the back room to QQ. Sad day to have a double X in Starcraft.
I acknowledge that she is the undisputed champion of women's SC, but really July deserved her spot far more, as he is not just an empty publicity stunt. Oh well.
Savior v Kingdom
OMG OMG IT'S THE MAESTRO! Essentially the only diction I can conjure up when witnessing the epic Ma Jae Yoon. This match begins on Neo Medusa, a hard map for PvZ. IPXZerg opens with a 12 hatch while Kingdom opens with a standard FFE. Savior throws down a spire for scourge, then techs to 5 hatch ling/lurker. Kingdom does an epic eehan speedlot push...without the push part. He merely pokes into the Zerg's natural, which he could have easily destroyed, before running away. Protoss then waits for 2 archons (for the invisible mutalisks) then tries to push in again, but by this time Savior has lurkers out to defend. Savior grabs a 4th base and techs quickly to hive for crackling tech, then tries to take out Kingdom's temples, but fails, then tries again and succeeds. Savior attacks the min only with lurker/ling and destroys it, and simultaneously attacks Kingdom's natural which is also razed to the ground for the chijee.
Reach v Boxer
There was so much "man" in the arena when these two arrived that I didn't know what to do with myself. These two duked it out on Python. Reach opened with a 1 gate range into expansion, while Boxer opened with a 1 fact expand. Boxer tries some early vulture harassment but fails. Both players grab a 3rd base early, while Reach gets obs. Protoss spreads the Terran line of defense thin and attacks at his 3rd, but fails to take it out. Reach tries to bust down the front door while getting arbiter tech, but fails again. Boxer loses his dropship, which fails to do much damage with vulture drops, then makes a huge push that Protoss tries to stop with stasis, but there are far to many tanks. Boxer pushes in and takes out Reach's 4th and 5th. Reach tries to push with a goon/templar army, but without shuttle, stasis or zealots he fails. Boxer busts down the front door for the chijee.
These were some amazing games, and are just soaked in pure nostalgia. Tomorrow is day 2 already, and here is the lineup:
| Kingdom | vs | NaDa |
| sAviOr | vs | iloveoov |
| Reach | vs | YellOw |
| BoxeR | vs | Anytime |
~Thanks to Team Liquid for the Schedule, you can check out the entire tournament's date down below
Links
Teamliquid.net - Tournament Schedule
