Greg "Idra" Fields advances to the 7th round of the lower championship bracket after winning a heart-stopping series against Yo Hwan "Boxer" Lim. Idra is to face HongUnPrime in his next match.
Idra opened the extended series with an amazing macro victory on Antiga Shipyard to make Boxer's job even harder, but the second set on Caverns saw Boxer pulling off a double proxy rax to put the score closer at 3-1, as Idra could not adequately transition into the mid-game even after surviving the actual bunker rush.
What followed amazed both the casting archon and the MLG crowd alike. Coming into Metalopolis, Boxer flew his base to the gold minerals and it took Idra quite some time to find the cheese. When he eventually did, Boxer was well fortified and safe against both ling attacks and roach busts. As his gold base started to run dry, Boxer opted to expand at the centre top expansion but was forced into a tank/marine/banshee all-in as it got scouted. Although in a better position economy-wise, Idra found it impossible to defeat Boxer's army despite flanking it perfectly - the Emperor's micro of both his marines and single banshee was too good.
Photos by: Riot_Style
The fourth set was played on Tal'Darim and saw Boxer going for double rax opening that grew into a "BitByBit"-esque SCV/Marine all-in. Although he scouted the maneuver and threw down three spines, Idra once again fell victim to Boxer's cheese.
With the series tied 3-3, it was a deadly anxious moment for either player. The final map was Dual Sight and once again Boxer had a strong early game plan. Not going for any proxy antics this time, The Emperor opened with double reactor hellion, opting to run around Idra's scarce spine crawler defense and win the game in its bud. Unfortunately, Idra once again had luck in scouting Boxer's build and a giant amount of spine crawlers bloomed at the zerg's natural.
Boxer was forced to immediately proceed with his attack but Idra's defence was unfaltering. Losing only four drones in the process, Idra managed to transition to the muta-intensive mid-game he likes so much and soon Boxer was overwhelmed, losing the series 3-4 but performing absolutely amazing throughout it.
This ended Boxer's run at MLG Orlando. Idra's next opponent is the GSL invite HongUn, who is currently down 0-1 against EG's star zerg.
