Day two of Katowice is still going strong as the Round of 12 finishes up. Four incredible match-ups produced four winners to march forward to the Quarter-Finals.
MaNa vs TLO
MaNa opened the day strong going up against TLO and taking the first match on Cloud Kingdom with ease using a well timed push. The second match saw MaNa try a to go for a blind two base Archon Blink Stalker. TLO saw it coming and was prepared with a big Roach-Ling army charging at MaNa's base as he took game two. Game three on Entomed Valley was an incredible match for both sides, TLO maxing out time and again vs MaNa's limited forces but great micro. In the end TLO pushed forward with Broodlords to take the lead. Game four saw MaNa jump back in action as he beat TLO with a strong ball-of-death pushing the series to the fifth and final match. In this last match TLO charged MaNa's base with wave after wave of Roaches, simply overwhelming his opponent, and took the victory 3-2.
LucifroN vs Kas
On the scale of Terran play Kas was always one of the top Europeans, but nearly always an under-performer in offline tournaments. He began Katowice from the Open Bracket, drove right through it, then, having successfully faced down Vortix, advanced into the playoffs. Facing Vortix's brother, Lucifron, was a little mentioned story but the Spanish Terran is more accomplished and more famously dangerous. It was hard, in light of Kas's repeated disappointments, to give him the edge in a TvT. The results belied our fears. Kas played every match with surprising comfort. His decision making was immaculate to the point of creating an image of invincibility. Wherever Lucifron went, he found Kas; whatever was undefended was vulnerable and punished for it. We can't fault Lucifron's execution, but his choice of strategy in the first two games left him behind in the long run. As Kas showed us, it always pays to be greedy so long as you have all your bases covered. 3-0.
Daisy vs Nerchio
Like Kas, Nerchio barely slipped into the playoffs. His prospects were much more optimistic however. For one, Nerchio is notoriously strong against Protoss. In addition, Daisy was not known to be as strong a Zerg killer as, say, Parting. Even while showing strong play throughout the tournament, ESC's star Korean was still somewhat of an unknown quantity. As the games finished it became clear we were dealing to a Nerchio closer to the one Socke successfully defeated in group play. Unfortunately for him, Daisy was determined to be much more ruthlessly aggressive than Socke, allowing no game to reach the late phase, crushing Nerchio with strong early timings - always supported by Warp Prisms. Whatever assault didn't win outright was followed up with an Immortal push. A strong 3-0 for ESC.Daisy.
YoDa vs Grubby
As the last round of the Bo12 began Grubby and YoDa stepped up on the stage. Both players built up their 2-base armies as they finally engaged in the first game. Grubby's control stumbled with his force-fields not doing enough and YoDa's vikings tore up Grubby's Colossi. YoDa pressed the advantage and took game one. At Ohana YoDa went for an all in one base build and Grubby simply did not read it. When the marines hit Grubby could only delay a bit with force-fields but eventually conceded the second match. In game three Grubby defends successfully vs early Hellion-Marine pressure and pushes forward to take the game and start his famous Grubby comeback. YoDa meant business on the fourth match as both players got to three bases on Entombed Valley. In a perfect timing YoDa pushed forward seconds before Storm was done and managed to destroy Grubby's army. YoDa continued reinforcing his army and Grubby could not hold as his comeback was cut short. YoDa took the win 3-1.
