Hopefully the very sight of this post on the front page cracked a smile on some of you. Long overdue, the IPL, for all its dedication and hard work, deserved some spotlight for its final week in Season 2. Admittedly, IPL staff has already generated great hype for the world's best online tournament with superb production, but not having a preview post for a tournament of this magnitude would be hurting ESPORTS. Luckily for all the avid fans of IPL, the Liquipedia team stops at nothing to bring you the latest news and results. As the finish line for IPL2 is in sight, two competitors remain to battle for $5,000 and the title of IPL2 champion. The Ukrainian tactician WhiteRa and the Polish hivemind Nerchio jumps into a final best of 5, and while one name has been around for a decade, the other is anxiously awaiting a chance at his first major title.



Oh yeah, we got recaps and stuff too.



ou've probably heard of WhiteRa. He's been everywhere these days. In fact, you might even be watching him right now. The legendary Protoss from Ukraine makes his comeback to a major tournament finals since coming up 2nd at the 2011 Dreamhack Stockholm Invitational . Between that time and when this match was played, (), WhiteRa participated in every possible high profile tournament you could possibly name. From Dreamhack to NASL, WhiteRa was present. While not every game ended in the deployment of special tactics, WhiteRa was never NOT a fan favorite. How could he? He's been making fans since the day your parents took you to the mall for that copy of Pokemon Red. Some have straggled along to question his performance as a married man at the age of 30. Well, you can always show them IPL2.WhiteRa arrived at the Grand Finals through the winner's bracket, with a combined record of 12-3. He made sixjaxCocoA , imbaFXO's BRAT_OK and Strelok looked like they just got promoted to platinum. With a loss at the hands of NA's representative at Blizzcon dignitas.SeleCT and a wonky PvP with mouz.MaNa (not to take anything from these players, of course), WhiteRa demonstrated that he can still compete with the new generation. Amongst the many youngsters in that generation who grew up watching WhiteRa, there is Nerchio.Coming from a low profile BW background, Nerchio is a distant name to many fans. Nerchio started as mainly an online player, and has only recently emerged as a contender for the title of best EU Zerg. His transfer to newly created team Acer has provided him opportunities to demonstrate his abilities. After the third matchday of IPL2, a quick 0-2 at the hands of MYM.ClouD almost had us making the same mistake of discarding the Polish Zerg. If there's any player in the world that's thankful for the double elimination brackets, it is Nerchio. After that defeat, Nerchio blasted through the loser's bracket, going 20-5 and on his way, eliminating EG.IdrA , and mouz's ThorZaIN and MaNa . If that's not an impressive list, I don't know what is. A win will silence the critics and IPL2 will serve as Nerchio's rise to fame.Will WhiteRa end Nerchio's cinderella story run? Or will Nerchio put down WhiteRa as another victim of the swarm? Two different generations of gamers, one who passed down the knowledge through his era, and another who looked up to him.IPL2 Finals starts at 5 PM PST.

After chasing the probe away with the first marine, Strelok begins a reaper to scout and CC behind it. A stalker continues to be irritating as he pokes at Strelok’s depot wall. As the nexus is close to finishing up, Whitera adds two more additional gates and gears up for a 2 base 5 warpgate attack. Chrono-boosting every single one as he finishes his second warp-in, Strelok’s ability to defend is impaired by force fields and Whitera cruises through Strelok and guarantees himself a top 3 finish along with $4000.

Strelok interestingly pumps out marauders and hellions after his first three initial marines, while Whitera returns to normalcy with a three gate expand. Strelok starts cloak banshees and push forward with his little force. Strelok’s hellion micro prevents stalkers from retreating via the most efficient path, losing a few of them to concussive shelled marauders. Forced back up his ramp, Whitera cancels his nexus. Strelok cancels cloak and expands instead. Whitera turns things around as he brings a total of 5 zealots to wreak havoc on Strelok’s mineral line. With thermal lance, the bunker contain is rendered useless, and Strelok begins the retreat. Unknowingly to Strelok, Whitera has grabbed the top left expansion. Whitera corners the retreating units by warping in via the warp prism and picks off Strelok’s initial attacking units. Both players push out, but Whitera chooses his engagements wisely and backs off as tanks siege up. Busting up Strelok’s ramp with little effort, Strelok turns back to defend. The production facilities of Strelok are no longer functional, and even though he has dealt great economic damage to Whitera as well, once those pesky nuisances are cleaned up, Strelok has nowhere to go and is facing elimination from the IPL.

Whitera goes nexus first and Strelok goes 1 barracks expand. Streloks saves all his gas to tech up to medivac, only after the starport is down does he begin a tech lab. Whitera techs to robo and taking a third at the same time. Strelok loads up 2 medivacs heading for Whitera’s back expansion, but is met with 5 stalkers and turns around. Strelok then spreads his drop to all three locations, but Whitera has just enough units at each base to deflect the drops. Whitera pushes out as he’s grabbing a fifth, with storm and blink on the way. Strelok’s army circumnavigates and takes out Whitera’s fourth, but is trapped by Whitera’s main army and is forced to engage. Losing a lopsided battle with landed vikings against colossi, Strelok could not recover in time for the counterpush, and quickly concedes game 1.

IdrA hatch first, and MaNa grabs his second gas even before the first zealot. The gas is to retain a safe amount of sentries as MaNa expands behind 1 gateway massing sentries, and adding on additional gateways. IdrA takes a third and MaNa adds a robo while researching hallucination. Scouting with a hallucinated phoenix, MaNa knows he’s safe to take a third. IdrA looks to put on some pressure while expanding again up top, but his roaches get cut in half from FFs. The zerglings stream into the main looking to do some damage but MaNa pulls everything back to defend. IdrA gears up for another roach attack even with burrow this time, but takes an unnecessary amount of damage while closing in burrowed. IdrA’s repeated attempts to break down the Protoss deathball are all in vain as the colossi number continue to rise and melt through everything. After winning a decisive battle and killing every single corruptor, MaNa moves into IdrA’s natural with a huge blink stalker army. The spine crawlers do not finish in time for IdrA, and with all his reinforcments intercepted and devoured by laser beams, IdrA reluctantly leaves the game, sending MaNa to the winner bracket’s final.

Forge FE vs. 14 pool. Manner pylon delays the hatchery, and IdrA starts the lair at 3:58 into the game. 2 overlords begin spewing creep and IdrA brings 3 drones over to turn into spine crawlers. The spines finish, so does speed for zerglings and they begin poking away. The zerglings could not get good surface area over the buildings due to a force field, and IdrA strangely leaves the game amidst the confusion, shared by caster and spectators alike.

Pool first for IdrA and forge FE for MaNa. A third soon follow for IdrA before even the 5 minute mark. MaNa goes for the quick colossus while successfully denying the overlord scout. IdrA tries to break the front with roaches, and is met with force fields and colossi. The third goes down at 6 o’ clock safely for MaNa, while IdrA sneaks a fourth at the top left main. IdrA loads up a huge drop heading for MaNa’s main, but MaNa’s army is ready in position to defend. The drop moves MaNa’s main army from the third where a roach army is trying to bring it down. MaNa cleans up with ease and push the other way. Continuous gateway warp-ins from 3 base along with storm finishing secures the Protoss deathball and IdrA concedes game 3.

IdrA hatches first and MaNa pulls 2 probes and puts down an offensive pylon. Almost losing both of his probes, MaNa cancels and retreats to his forge FE. IdrA scouts the nexus and makes a third hatchery before his first extractor. MaNa’s stargate unit proves to be useless, and he begins upgrading while grabbing a third. MaNa is blink stalker heavy and IdrA looks to shorten his travel time by dropping a nydus in the middle of the map. MaNa engages in the middle, but loses the battle and pulls back. IdrA loads up everything and nydus MaNa’s main base. Sustaining huge damage, MaNa sticks to blink stalkers. IdrA runs zerglings around the map to leave MaNa’s economy in shambles. While MaNa is able to retain his stalker count in several confrontations, IdrA’s unyielding macro eventually overran that tattered stalker army. IdrA 2-0.

IdrA opens speedlings and drops a hatch at 20. MaNa looks to 3 gate sentry expand, but adds another gate and looks poised to push out. The zerglings sneak into MaNa’s base and finds out his intentions, and IdrA already has roaches in production. Force fielding the ramp allows MaNa to pick off the queen before he pulls back. Looking back at MaNa’s base, it seems like the zerglings had nibble away a pylon, disabling 2 warp gates. IdrA goes for a third but MaNa doesn’t look like he’s expanding anytime soon. MaNa goes for a desperate push and force fields can only hold IdrA for so long and MaNa types out.

Nerchio 14 pools with gas while Ret 15 hatch again. Ret drops a roach warren behind his pool. Nerchio micros his 4 zerglings very well and kills 3 of Ret’s 4 zerglings while only losing 1 of his own. Ret pushes into Nerchio’s natural with 8 roaches and speedless zerglings. Nerchio counters with a handful of zerglings and picks off 3-4 drones. At his natural, Nerchio has 5 roaches and a spine crawler, more than enough to fend off Ret’s early aggression. Ret snipes the queen and the spine crawler, and Nerchio pulls all the drones at his natural to buy some time for more roaches to hatch. Nerchio barely holds and moves northward. Ret has more zerglings but they are without speed, and Nerchio’s 3 remaining roaches are starting to catch up. Ret’s zerglings are slowly picked off as they are retreating, and by the time Nerchio’s roaches reach Ret’s natural, Ret’s reinforcing units have not hatched and losing the natural means Ret is liquidated from IPL2.

Nerchio 14 pools, Ret 15 hatch. Nerchio’s zerglings harass Ret’s mineral line, forcing drones to stop mining momentarily. A baneling’s nest comes down for Nerchio and as Ret tries to poke the front, Nerchio traps them on the retreat, blowing up every zerglings with only three banelings. The counterattack cripples Ret’s economy, killing off both queens in the process. Nerchio does not let up the continuous aggression and Ret simply cannot replenish his army fast enough and goes down 0-2.

Ret 9 pools while Nerchio 14 with gas. With his first 6 zerglings, Ret pulls 6 drones and goes on the offensive cross map. Ret uses 2 drones to make spine crawlers. As soon as his spine finishes, Nerchio pulls all drones and moves his spine in range of Ret’s. Ret’s attack is denied, and as he cancels the spines, types gg.

On a smaller map, both players opt for the safer route of a CC only after factory, with neither showing aggression. Siege mode researching and vikings pumping. Thorzain slowly moves his tanks out to the middle, but Moonan’s sensor tower catches him in the act. Moonan drives an octodrop along Tasteless’s secret hallway, halting mining at the natural and then proceeds to head for the main for some more damage. Thorzain skirts around Moonan’s gold base and sieges up below. That cost Moonan a lot of units to clean up. Thorzain overestimated his advantage and tries to break the left side, but multiple layers of tanks foil his plans. With Moonan’s army so spread out, Thorzain ignores the minor annoyance at his expansions and push with his whole army through the middle, eliminating Moonan and moves on in the loser’s bracket.

Moonan 1 rax expand while Thorzain techs up. Thorzain elevators hellions and marines into Moonan’s main, and even with a tank Moonan can’t hold with his inferior marine count, forced to pull SCVs. Thorzain hates banshees and sends another one to its death. Siege mode is done for Thorzain and he begins shelling away at Moonan’s natural, denying the third as well. On three base with a 4th coming, Moonan loses a lot of units trying to break the siege at his third, and Thorzain just runs him over with superior macro capabilities.

Standard opening into factory for both players, and a reactor on the barracks after the first marine. Then, a CC for both almost simultaneously. Deviation starts when a viking comes out for Moonan and a banshee instead for Thorzain. The banshee does no damage and Thorzain basically paid for a very expensive scout. Marines and tanks for both sides, but Moonan moves out along Thorzain’s potential third and sieges down Thorzain’s refineries. Thorzain’s octodrop denies mining and the third CC, and he slowly wins the air battle at his natural to clean up the siege on his base. Octodrops fly in opposite directions, but with the siege on the low ground, Moonan has the advantage over Thorzain. Moonan denies the fourth, and brings the rest of his units to ravage Thorzain’s main base, tying up the series in the process.

Moonan goes CC first while Thorzain makes a barracks before his CC. Moonan techs up with 2 gases and Thorzain begins combat shield from his barracks’ tech lab with 1 gas for now. Before his factory even finishes, Moonan makes a third CC. Thorzain moves out to pressure, preventing Moonan to get his third going. Cloak banshees for Moonan, but does zero damage and now Thorzain gets his own third and is ahead economically. Both sides move towards the Xel’naga Watchtower, and Thorzain overpowers Moonan, shut downs the third, and pushes in for the kill.

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Both players spawned close positions, with Strelok being spawned in the top position, and the previous TSL3 champion spawned at the 3 o’ clock. Strelok opened with a Reaper scout, but ThorZain smartly spread his Marines across his main to deny any scount. Strelok follows by swapping his Tech Lab to a newly built factory, and put a reactory on his Barracks while he constructed his second Command Center. ThorZain chose to begin his aggression with a Banshee with Cloack research, while constructing his second Command Center as well. ThorZain canceled cloak as his harass is ineffective.



ThorZain pulls ahead in unti production and secures his advantage with an early third. Strelok attempts to deny ThorZain’s third but runs into the Planetary Fortress of ThorZain. Skirmishes in the top right lane heat up as Strelok attempted to push forward by trying to brute force with Auto Turrets and his Bio/Siege Tanks, but is easily denied by Thorzain’s superior position.



ThorZain continued to reinforce his position at the Xel Naga’ tower, while he took his fourth and denied Strelok’s own fourth. Sterlok gives up his position at the top right lane and attempted to swing around to catch Thorzain out of position, but failed as Thorzain came to meet Strelok’s army, forcing Strelok to retreat.



ThorZain kept up his own aggression by killing the completed fourth of Strelok still located near his third Command Center. ThorZain dropped in Strelok’s main, Marine bombed Strelok’s tanks, and eventually pushes up the top right lane advancing toward Strelok’s base, where the game finally ended where Strelok cracked under the pressure with a “gg’.

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ThorZain spawned top position, with Strelok on bottom position. ThorZain opened with an aggressive 2 Barracks, with the second Barracks hidden behind the mineral line of ThorZain’s natural. Strelok is denied scouting, and Strelok trained a Reaper but still is denied information of the Marine aggression approaching his base. Thorzain breaks into Sterlok’s base with a group of marines and an SCV and killed a vast amount of SCV’s.



However, Strelok manages to hold with well microed SCV’s and minimal marines. Strelok has tech’d to Banshees and manages to do a critical amount of damage with two Banshees (up to 15 kills on one Banshee) before they are picked off by ThorZain’s marines.



ThroZain counteracts and again devstated Strelok’s now established expansion with Marines, and Vikings to counteract Banshees. Strelok again barely holds with Blue-Flame Hellions and attempted to focus his production on Blue-Flame for a possible comback. However, as ThorZain began taking his gold, he also moves out a superior Marauder/Tank army and tore through Strelok’s Hellion only army, and brought the score 2-0 in favor of Thorzain.

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Strelok spawned top left positions, and ThorZain spawned bottom left. Strelok attempted to exploit ThroZain’s fast expansion with a fast Factory to fast Starport for Banshee. Strelok began his natural expansion much later than ThorZain, and his Banshee does minimal damage to ThorZain before being killed by ThorZain’s marines.



Strelok and ThroZain began their thirds at similar timngs, but ThorZain moved out by loading up his now very Marine heavy army in two dropships. ThorZain managed to drop Strelok’s in base natural and kill all the SCV’s, but loses a medivac and lot of marines in the process. As Strelok secured his third, ThorZain did two more costly drops at Strelok’s third and his in-base natural, and again lost a critical amount of Marines and momentum in the process.



With the lead back in the hands of Strelok, he takes a superior Siege Tank and Marine count to the front door of ThorZain. ThorZain attempted to hold, but manner Supply Depots from Strelok in the base of Strelok cues ThorZain of his defeat, and he gg’s out of his first loss in the series.

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Strelok spawned bottom position, close air to ThorZain at the 9 o’ clock. Strelok again opted for an early reaper, along with ThorZain who mirriored his choice with another Reaper. A hidden second Barracks from ThorZain also recieved a Tech Lab and began the training of another Reaper for ThorZain, along with early stim. ThorZain massed up 3 reapers which leapt into Strelok’s main and manages to kill a key amount of SCV’s, and ThorZain narrowly escaped with one reaper.



ThorZain counters once again with a Banshee as he climbed the 1-1-1 Tech Tree during ThorZains harass. Strelok again lost his Banshee with minimal damage done to ThorZain, which echoed the progression of previous games. ThorZain waltzed a number of Marines into the natural of Strelok which kill another significant number of SCV’s. ThorZain followed up by beginning to construct his third, and dropped Strelok once again doing more damage to Strelok’s SCV’s.



However, Strelok is still ahead in tank production and moves out to set up a hard contain outside of ThorZain’s natural after harassment at the bottom of ThorZains main. ThorZain attempted to drop Strelok once more but is ineffective multiple times, losing his medivac and Marinse in the process. However, ThorZain’s third has allowed him to catch up to Strelok’s tank numbers and a superior Marine count with 2-2 upgrades to Sterloks 1-0 upgrades. Stelok attemped to mass drop into ThroZain’s main, but is easily cleaned up by ThorZain’s upgraded Marines. ThorZain follows up with another drop in Strelok’s name that sniped Strelok’s main Command Center. ThorZain then pushed his army advantage to the center of the map, and crushed through Strelok’s main army. Strelok, with a crippled economy and no army, gg’d out of the final set of the series.

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IdrA spawned bottom right position, while Nerchio spawned close positions on the bottom left. Both players mirrored each others openings with a Spawning Pool - fast expand, while IdrA used his first 150 minerals for a fast Roach Warren instead a Queen. Nerchio instead opts for a more standard Zergling Speed and Queen.



A few minor skirmishes between Zerglings occur as IdrA begins a steady Roach production, and both players proceeded to lay down Evolution Chambers as they transition into the mid game. IdrA obtained a macro hatch while Nerchio took the option of a fast Infestation Pitt. As both players took their third, Nerchio moves out to pressure and vastly outnumbered IdrA’s roaches. IdrA, while still being able to keep up with Nerchio’s fast Infestation Pit, critically mistook his Pathogen Glands research timing and pops his first Infestor without enough energy for Fungal Growth. Nerchio advances to IdrA’s third and managed to tear through IdrA’s forces easily despite suffering a fungal growth on his own forces some time later. Using the high ground advantage, Nerchio achieves a superior concave to best IdrA’s now superior roach numbers. Nerchio finishes off IdrA’s two Infestors and takes the game with his reinforcements, with IdrA leaving without a word.

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IdrA spawned bottom position, cross positions from Nerchio. IdrA opted for an early baneling nest while Nerchio began an early Roach Warren. As Nerchio attempted to pressure with a squad of Zerglings, IdrA easily holds with defensive banelings. A counter-attack from IdrA is met with four Roaches from Nerchio’s base, and IdrA is forced to back. IdrA’s own roach warren finished shortly after a failed baneling attack in Nerchio’s mineral lines.



Both players again began their range +1 reasearch at similar timings as they transitioned into the mid game. As IdrA takes his natural third, he moves out to Nerchio’s gold with his Roach army and denies Nerchio’s third at the gold, but does minimal damage to Nercho’s own army. IdrA proceeded to construct an Infestation Pit and Hydralisk Den to mix extra DPS into his current unit composition. Hydralisks proved to swing the future encounters in the favor of IdrA, but key Fungal Growths allowed Nerchio to push idrA back as IdrA pushes again at Nerchio’s gold.



IdrA made a critical scouting error as his Overlord barely misses Nerchio’s morphing Hive. Unaware of Nerchio’s incoming Hive Tech, IdrA continues to macro up a Roach/Hydra army and attempts to push Nerchio’s gold once again, where he immediately leaves upon seeing some unexpected Broodlord which came to greet his army.

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Players spawned close air positions on Shattered Temple. IdrA spawned 2 o’clock while Nerchio spawned at 12. Both players went gas/pool opening and Nerchio again opted for a fast Roach Warren, this time passing Zergling Speed. IdrA chose to research Zergling Speed and place a Baneling Nest as well. Nerchio used his Roaches to secure his natural, and begins his +1 attack range upgrade with an early evo chamber. IdrA again was in the dark in terms of scouting information, and as +1 finished for Nerchio, he simply moved out with his own Roach/Zergling army and tears through IdrA’s defenses at his natural. IdrA leaves the game and Nerchio takes the series 3-0.

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Nerchio spawned close air position Zerg at the 9 o’ clock position to ThorZain, who spawned at the 6 o’ clock bottom position. As Nerchio fast expands, with a standard followup pool and gas, ThorZain oddly constructed two Refineries with a fast Command Center. As ThorZain tech’d to double Starport, Nerchio took his third. With a group of Hellions and and four Banshees, ThorZain moves 4 Banshees directly into the main which immediately wrecked through an unsuspecting Nerchio’s Queens. Nerchio evacuated his drones and Zerglings mistakenly toward the direction of ThorZain’s Hellions. As Nerchio attempts to produce more Queens for anti-air, the damage done by ThorZain is too great and Nerchio gg’d shortly after a failed Zergling counter-attack.

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Nerchio spawned bottom right, which is cross positions from ThorZain spawned at the top left. Nerchio again fast-expands while ThorZain shows an interesting build with a fast Command Center after Factory, and still proceeds to obtain a Starport. ThorZain prepares a group of Marines and Hellions for a drop, but Nerchio is well prepared with his mid-game Roach army. Though ThorZain’s drop in Nerchio’s main kills quite a bit of drones, it is easily cleaned up by Queen’s, spinecrawlers, and Roaches. Nerchio manages to do a Zergling run-by during ThorZain’s offensive which kills a significant amount of SCV’s. Nerchio follows up with more Roach and Zergling Pressure which put’s ThorZain on the ropes until he stabilizes with one Banshee defending. However, ThorZain is still forced to gg under Nerchio’s pressure as Nerchio has transitioned to Mutalisks during his Roach/Zergling attack waves, and ThorZain is left with minimal anti-air.

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Nerchio spawned cross positions bottom right from ThorZain. Nerchio fast expanded to the front of his base instead of his natural back expansion. ThorZain tried to open up with 2-Barracks pressure but his aggression is easily denied. The game again quietly transitioned to the midgame with Nerchio expanding to his back-natural with a Marine/Tank composition. Nerchio built up a Roach/Infestor/Zerlging composition for his mid-game army and is pressured again by ThorZain as ThorZain moved out with a few Siege Tanks and Marines to pressure Nerchio’s natural. As ThorZain moves back doing minimal damage to Nerchio and sustaining losses of his own, Nerchio intercepts his retreating forces and Fungals it, and cleans it up with Roaches and Zerglings.



Nerchio takes the initiative to take his fourth and fifth base. ThorZain continually tries to drop the fifth base of Nerchio but is continually denied, as Nerchio keeps throwing waves and waves of Zerg units at the front of ThorZain’s base and easily replinishes with a superior economy, even denying multiple attempts from ThorZain to secure an expansion.



Nerchio eventually tech’d to Brood Lords and begins the final assault on ThorZain’s base. In a last ditch effort, ThorZain’s ghosts try to snipe and EMP all of Nerchio’s key units, but Nerchio’s economy is too great as he easily replenishes and ThorZain gg’d.

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