The Global Starcraft League is getting to the business end of the season, our man in the know Zak Y recaps all the action from Group D’s Round of 16 matches

Match #1 – trap vs stats

Game #1

Trap pulled out an archaic double robo disrupter build, with his tech hidden in an obscure section of the map. When Stats tried to move out, Traps just kited from the middle of the map, getting free kills with his disrupters. With Stats’ army sufficiently weakened, Trap pushed out and ended the game.

Game #2

While Stats opted for a fast expansion, Trap threw down three gates and a stargate and tried a one base all in. Unfortunately for Trap, shield batteries are pretty good. Stats held the first few waves of units, and his first immortal heralded the end of Trap’s rush.

Game #3

Trap opened up with a phoenix build, whereas Stats pumped stalkers and teched up to robo. Trap managed to pick off a few probes early on with his mobile flying units, and in response Stats tried to move across the map and end the game. He failed and Trap, with the help of his immortals, managed to barely hold his natural. Both players macroed up for a while then Stats moved out again. The players met in the middle of the map and a massive battle ensued but Trap’s immortal/archon composition again got the better of the fight, and he was able to slowly push forward and win.

Result: Trap 2-1 Stats

Match #2 – herO vs sOs

game 1

With two infamous trickster Protosses playing, we probably shouldn’t be surprised that game one opened up with both players dark templar rushing each other. sOs managed to scout his opponent’s rush with a timely hallucinated phoenix and immediately threw down a robotics facility, which set him up for a nice advantage. Unfortunately, by the time that sOs’ observer was built, herO’s dts had already chewed through his army, and both players were in a full-on base trade just five minutes into the game.When the dust had cleared, sOs had retained a partial economy whereas herO was down to a single probe; this forced herO to make a desperate all in but sOs was just barely able to hold.

Game 2

In game two neither player decided to fast expand, they both just massed stalkers, with sOs getting blink and herO opting for phoenix air support. herO forced an early cancel on sOs’ late expansion nexus and set up a contain, but then sOs snuck a strike force of blink stalkers past herO’s army and into his main base. Once again the two players had found themselves in a five minute base trade. Hilariously enough, sOs ended up building a nexus in his opponent’s main and leaving his opponent’s gateways up as a wall. With herO having zero probes left over and sOs beginning to mine, the clock was ticking and he was forced to make a move. herO positioned himself for an assault, but sOs again juked him out, running past his opponent’s army, and heading for the single pylon at the bottom of the map that was keeping herO alive. With no way to defend the pylon herO resigned.

Result: sOs 2-0 herO

Match 3 – Trap vs sOs

Game 1

Trap opened up with a dt rush which unfortunately for him was scouted by sOs’ hallucinated phoenix. For his part, sOs decided to make a fast expansion and a twilight council, although he threw down a robotics facility immediately after scouting his opponent’s build. sOs then made a proxy stargate, and after foiling Trap’s dt rush tried to get some damage of his own done. Trap dropped a dt in sOs’ main and managed to get seven probe kills, but sOs attacked with two oracles then got seventeen worker kills utterly crippling his opponent’s economy.bTrap never recovered.

Game 2

sOs opened up with a dt rush after running two hallucinated stalkers across the map but Trap had an obs so no damage was done. Trap, having opted for a more conservative robo opening, was well positioned for the mid-game, but sOs’ follow up all in caught him off balance and four adepts shaded into Trap’s main, massacring his probe line. This wasn’t actually the end of the world because sOs cut probes significantly for his assault, but Trap was unable to hold against subsequent attacks.

Result: sOs 2-0 Trap

Match #4 – Stats vs herO

Game 1

herO opened up with blink stalkers and an expansion at the gold base. Stats, on the other hand, took his natural expansion and teched up to robo. Stats then started pumping immortals as they counter stalkers pretty heavily. Unfortunately for Stats, immortals are not so good against zealots with upgraded legs. herO leveraged his gold base income (as well as that from his third base) into a massive gateway explosion and a ton of zealots, and promptly ran Stats over.

Game 2

herO opened with a stalker/phoenix build and a faster expand. Stats decided not to expand and instead just massed stalkers and walked across the map. Despite three shield batteries working overtime to try to heal herO’s units, Stats just had too many stalkers

Game 3

Both players opened up with fast expansions and blink stalkers, then followed up with robotics facilities. Despite a little poking in the early game from Stats, there were no real engagements until well into the middle game. Despite getting some pretty choice disrupter hits at the start of the fight, herO got the worst of the exchange and was eventually forced to retreat. Stats decided to press his advantage and herO was unable to hold.

Result: herO 1-2 Stats

match #5 – trap vs stats

game 1

Both players opened with double gate into stargate. Trap tried some phoenix and adept pressure in the early game, which didn’t get a lot of damage done and Stats took a modest lead. Not content to sit on his advantage, Stats then counterattacked and managed to kill a lot of his opponent’s workers. Stats then tried to further his advantage by out expanding his opponent and Trap, unable to compete in a longer macro game because of his worker deficit, decided to try an all-out attack hoping that his superior phoenix numbers would carry the day. Unfortunately for Trap, Stats had already upgraded Anion Pulse-Crystals (phoenix range).

Game 2

Both players opened up with fast expansions and robo tech, but then stats moved across the map, found a really good engagement in trap’s natural and won the game.

Result: Stats 2-0 Trap

Also read: