GOMTV StarCraft 2 Open Round of 8 Day 2 - Live Report

13:39 - That's it for today. The semi finals will be coming up, starting on Thursday. Later today we will have an in-depth battle report up, so stay tuned for that.

Semi finals:

13:30 - SlayerS_BoxeR interview:

Q: how does it feel to beat an old StarCraft BW rival, and how would it be to face the Fake Boxer in the final?

I was so overjoyed beating NaDa, my old rival. As for Foxer, there have been many players like him who looked up to me, but those are the ones I should be really careful about because I normally lose to those players”

Q: What were your expectations before the GSL, did you see yourself at the top?

My primary goal was the round of eight and the code S, so I didn't expect to make it to the semi finals”

Q: How do you usually celebrate after winning a tournament, and would it be different winning this one due to the huge prize-pool?

I do not do any personal celebration, I normally spend my time with my family after a victory, and this tournament is nothing different. I would've participated even if the prize pool was smaller to fulfill my unfinished goals”

13:24 - Boxer has a contain now outside Nada's base, Nada had to pull back his command center at his natural, he still got the third-base though, but Boxer got so many marauders and it's GG from Nada, Boxer, I've never seen a StarCraft 2 player that happy!

3-1 for the Emperor!!

Legends hugging:

13:23 - Boxer is moving in, attacking Nada, it looks like he's going to make it, a big push and it looks like this attack got SlayerS_BoxeR to the semi finals of GSL season 2. SCVs tries to save Nada.

13:22 - A big battle on the center, Boxer breaks free of Nada's contain, Boxer moving out, Nada countering with some vikings landing them on the cliff behind Boxer's expansion minerals, but is forced to fly away. Boxer knows about Nada's third base but is not attacking it for some reason.

13:21 - Another nuke is placed on Boxer's stacked vikings, but Boxer backs up with them.

13:20 - The game is pretty even, NaDa has the map control though, and is now making a third base.

13:19 - Nuclear launch detected!

It doesn't kill anything, Nada moves in, but Boxer holds it off and killed all of the ghosts.

13:17 - A nuke is being made by NaDa!

13:16 - Nada pushes out, sniping Boxer's marines. Boxer now sending three vikings towards Nadas base hoping to catch a medivak or something. Nada moves out, Boxer sends his SCVs to defend at the same time he's harassing with his landed vikings.

13:14 - Now Nada is harassing with a banshee, getting six kills until Boxer's viking killed it. Boxer has had his second orbital command center finished for a while, but still not floated it to the expansion, doing it just now.

Nada at the same time landing his expanding command center.

13:12 - Nada now has two ghosts, while Boxer is going for banshees. NaDa is now also making a starport, it could be for raven, and it could be for a banshee.

Boxer's banshee is in the base now, the ghosts almost kills it, but it gets away with two kills.

13:11 - Alright, we're in the game again. Boxer is doing a timing attack, but backs off believing a reaper is coming out of the barracks of Nada, but in reality it's a ghost!

13:10 - The game is paused due to Boxer having some problems with his mouse.

13:07 - The fourth game has started, SlayerS_BoxeR spawned in the bottom left corner as the rerd Terran while NaDa is at thte top left corner.

13:05 - Nada GGs, it's 2-1 for the Emperor!

13:05 - Boxer does a great job holding off the attack and at the same time he gets 21 kills with his banshee, Boxer turned this around.

13:03 - Nada is staying on one base and he got a thor out. Another banshee is heading for Nada's base, the turret won't reach the banshee though. Nada is doing a counter attack, two thors, two hellions and SCVs, Boxer has a tnak waiting for him.

13:01 - Boxer sends his banshee at the same time Nada sends his hellion drop, the hellions get a lot of SCVs, the banshee has 10 kills.

19 SCVs for Nada, 11 for Boxer. A turret is up for Nada now, who is in the lead.

13:00 - Nada is upgrading the blue flames for his hellions and is planning to drop hellions to devastate Boxer's economy, while Boxer is making a banshee.

** NOTE: When I say 'Boxer', I mean the real Boxer as in SlayerS_BoxeR/The Emperor/Lim Yo-Hwan.

12:58 - They are playing very similar right now.

12:56 - We're on Shakuras Plateau, Nada in the bottom right corner, and SlayerS_BoxeR in the bottom left.

12:55 - Commercials have just finished and we're waiting for the third game to start.

Uh-oh, the jacket is off for NaDa, you remember what happened the last time he did that?” - Tasteless

The last time NaDa took off his jacket he won all the matches from there.

12:45 - Nada is all-in with his SCVs, but it's not enough, Boxer takes the second game, 1-1..

12:44 - Nada barely lifts off the command center in time, but he is now way behind, Boxer is sending reinforcements. This is probably going to be 1-1.

12:43 - Boxer decided to move around to get to Nada's expansion from the behind, Boxer is there, sieging up, Nada is way out of position!

12:42 - Now it's Nada pushing out again, in a no-man's-land stance again, sieged up on both sides scanning each other until Nada decides to return home.

Boxer pushing out now.

12:41 - Nada is now moving out, they're meeting in the middle. Boxer is going for siege tanks and marines, Nada still got his raven and got some siege tanks and marines of his own, Boxer moving out now but backs off.

Nada is taking out the rocks blocking his golden expansion.

12:40 - Boxer with another banshee in Nadas base, gets two kills until Nada kills it. Nada's expansion is up and running, Boxer just landed his command center now.

12:38 - Nada scanned Boxer finding out they both were going for a banshee build, now they're both sending a banshee to each other's base, Nada cancelled the cloak ability and started making a raven when he saw the starportfrom the scan.

Boxer got 10 kills with his bashee while Nada's banshee only got one kill, but that one survived, Boxer's didn't.

12:37 - NaDa gets the reaper inside, gains some intel, but it gets killed as Boxer had blocked the path behind his mineral line nicely with a supply depot.

12:35 - Double gas and tech lab going up for Nada, while Boxer is not making any add-on yet, but another gas for Boxer is going up now.

NaDa is making a reaper.

12:33 - We have Slayers_BoxeR in the bottom left corner on Xel'Naga Caverns, and Nada in the top right.

12:31 - This game is just insane, Boxer now has a banshee as well and he manages to kill the mule mining at the bottom middle, but NaDa takes it as Boxer GGs, 1-0 for NaDa.

Boxer drinks some coffee after the game preparing for the next match.

12:27 - Boxer also sent some marines to the third base of Nada, Boxer does not have any base right now, Nada does, but he's not mining from anything else than his main as the marines forced the SCVs to stop mining at his third.

Nada is now making banshees while Boxer is floating around with his last command center, it's probably going to come down to the banshee.

Nada has established a base in the bottom mid position, repairing the command center that almost burned down.

12:27 - Now it's NaDa pushing, sieging up outside Boxer's main, dropping tanks in Boxer's base, awesome TvT battle going on. Boxer holds it, but lost a few buildings. Nada is taking the golden expansion now while he's pushing out again on Boxer's expansion, while Boxer is pushing Nada.

Boxer sieging up outside Nada's main now while Nada is inside Boxer's main killing everything, Nada is getting the best of this trade, but Boxer is moving in now.

12:24 - Boxer is moving up on the high ground of NaDa's third base position, NaDa is sieging up below that, using his medivak to spot the siege tanks. Tank battle now, Boxer sends reinforcements, a big battle is going on now, scanning each other, sieging up every where.

NaDa holds it, and is now going to make his third base.

12:23 - An entertaining battle for the Xel'Naga watch tower between a couple of marines from each player.

Boxer is moving out with a lot of siege tanks and marines along with a medivak.

12:23 - NaDa has two factories now.

12:22 - NaDa spends two scans and kills the second banshee as well, NaDa is now moving out with a huge army. Boxer has a siege tank, but he does not have siege mode. He's making a bunker, but it's too late.. Boxer uses his SCVs, both of them with great micro, but it's Boxer's SCVs, and he's way behind now. But a banshee was in NaDa's base at the same time, and he's actually still in this game, three tanks sieged up in his expansion now.

12:19 - Boxer's banshee is in the base of NaDa, it only gets two kills before it dies to NaDa's marines. Another banshee is coming up, already cloaked.

12:18 - NaDa prevents Boxer from scouting his expansion. NaDa has four barracks up, while Boxer is making a banshee and the cloak ability and an expansion of his own.

12:17 - NaDa is making an expansion, while SlayerS_BoxeR is going for a tech build, now making a starport.

12:15 - The first game has started, it's cross positions on Metalopolis. Boxer is the red Terran on the left side, and NaDa, the blue terran on the far left.

12:09 - NADA VS SLAYERS_BOXER!

Map pool: Metalopolis, Xel'Naga Caverns, Shakuras Plateau, Delta Quadrant, Lost Temple

You notice that the map Luna is not in here, the map which was made by masterminds trying to make NaDa lose” - Artosis

12:05 - NesTea interview:

Q: How do you prepare for ZvZ, and does laddering help at all?

Laddering does help because you can practice many different things, it varies”

Q: Did you think beating Zenio would be that easy for you? And how will it be playing either SlayerS_BoxeR or NaDa?

I didn't expect it to be this easy, the first two matches were easy, but the third one was hard. Preparing a match vs NaDa or BoxeR is going to be hard, it will be a best of seven so the maps probably won't favor zerg, but I will make the best out of the two days of practice I have”

11:56 - Zenio GGs, NesTea moves on to the semi finals after a 3-0 vs the Zerg who knocked out IdrA.

NesTea is the best ZvZ player in the world” - Artosis

11:56 - Zenio tried to push, but NesTea has too many mutalisks.

11:55 - NesTea is doing some major damage, killing off overlords, supply blocking Zenio, killed a few roaches. Now he's getting roach speed and more mutalisks, I think NesTea is getting an advantage here. Zenio has a spire as well now, NesTea knows it.

11:54 - They are now both making a hatchery at their expansions, NesTea has five mutalisks heading for zenio's base.

11:52 - They both have their queen up again, Zenio made a roach warren, while NesTea is now making a lair, most likely aiming for the mutalisks again, could be infestors as well though. Nope, it is a spire going up as the lair finished.

11:50 - That counter attack worked out pretty well actually, he managed to kill the queen and brought the drone count down to eight, against NesTea's seven, but Zenio is now sending zerglings, they do some harassment, but not too much.

11:48 - Zenio was able to get some drones inside NesTea's base, NesTea started out microing well, blocking banelings with a drone between the hatchery and the spawning pool, but all the drones died eventually, NesTea is trying a counter attack with his roaches.

11:46 - Baneling nest is going up for Zenio who is now sending out zerglings around the whole map to avoid being spotted. NesTea is going for roaches right away.

11:44 - The third game has started on Xel'Naga Caverns, Zenioat the bottom, NesTea at the top.

Zenio is making a very fast spawning pool along with gas.

11:32 - NesTea pushes out with roaches, and it was too much for Zenio who GG'd first for the second time today, 2-0 for NesTea.

11:30 - NesTea had his overseer ready, preventing Zenio from doing anything with his infestors.

11:29 - Mutalisks are out, while Zenio is making infestors. NesTea has his expansion finished and is flying around killing overlords. Zenio has burrowed his infestors, who are now heading for NesTea's base. Zenio has put down his hatchery at his expansion.

11:27 - The stream is lagging a lot for me right now, but Zenio managed to get some zerglings inside NesTea's base, but backed off for some reason later without trying to snipe the spire.

11:26 - Zenio is now making a lot of banelings outside NesTea's base, but NesTea now has five spine crawlers while his lair has soon finished.

11:23 - Both players are actually going for a spawning pool first on Scrap Station, oddly enough. Zenio is focusing on his one base, making a spine crawler and a second queen, while NesTea is upgrading his hatchery to a lair and getting the zergling speed. NesTea is also making a spine crawler.

Zenio sent a zergling into NesTea's base, and knows about the lair tech. Two more spine crawlers are being made for NesTea, while a baneling nest just finished for Zenio who's now sending his zerglings.

11:21 - The second game has begun, we have Zenio as the red Zerg in the lower position of Scrap Station, and NesTea in the upper position as the yellow Zerg.

11:18 - Zenio is still alive, and his third-base is up and running, but he lost some drones to the heavy pressure from NesTea, who now has mutalisks out, and GG from Zenio. 1-0 for the former StarCraft Brood War pro.

11:17 - Zenio barely holds on, but more zerglings are coming, two crawlers are up at the expansion, but NesTea moves up to the main.

11:16 - Zenio is making a very early third-base, a risky choice, but if he succeeds he will definitely have the advantage.

Now NesTea is moving out, engaging Zenio.

11:13 - Tasteless and Artosis explain how NesTea has the advantage with the overlord positioning as Zenio does not have any place to keep his overlord safely with these position.

Zenio also did a blunder here losing his overlord to NesTea's queen. A roach warren is up for both players.

11:10 - The red Zerg is Zenio, spawning in the top position of Metalopolis, the yellow Zerg is NesTea on the right side position - The second day of the quarter finals has officially started!

11:08 - The first match coming up is NesTea, former BW pro-gamer also known as ZergBong, vs Zenio, the red-haired guy, in a Zerg vs Zerg.

Map pool: Metalopolis, Scrap Station, Xel'Naga Caverns, Steppes of War, Jungle Basin

11:05 - It IS NaDa Vs. the Emperor today, if you don't believe me, here's the proof;

10:59 - One minute left, one minute filled with Korean pop-ballad setting the mood!

10:34 - It's only been four minutes since my last entry? This feels like forever, and I am so excited!

While we wait, Artosis and Tasteless are probably in make-up getting ready to look good for us;

10:30 - The second day of the quarter finals is just 30 minutes away, starting out with a zerg vs zerg between Zenio and NesTea - both players moved on to the quarter finals after impressive ZvZs in the round of 16, now who is going to take it this time?

In the second match of the day, probably the most anticipated match of the quarter finals, heck the most anticipated match of the whole season, NaDa vs SlayerS_BoxeR. We know both players are capable to do amazing stuff on the battle field, now who's going to come out on the top of the two legends?