Group A



Mini is too strong!

Unpredictable play-style, large repertoire of builds and strong micro are three ways to characterize Mini's game. He's able to keep up with the best and is a force to be reckoned with considering his latest performance.

Mong has solid macro and showed a strong understanding of the TvP matchups which will come in handy considering the overall racial distribution of SSL.

Pure showed some strong performance in his games and played well however he was outmacroed by Mong and needs to work on his decision making skills if he hopes to make it further.

Disappointing performance all around. Movie's micro, positioning and decision making skills require a lot of work if he hopes to crack the Ro16 in the next SSL.

Group B



Lights out!



Units out of nowhere.



Uphill fight.



After a while, everyone started to feel like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day.



Final moments of Jangbi.

Mind's macro game is one of the best. He's not afraid of going to the late game with anyone and he's pretty quick to react. His only weakness seems to be Free's style of play which he needs to improve against.

Macro-oriented style though he can also cheese as well. He has good micro and know how to play PvT very well.

Solid macro and micro in general. Jangbi needs to learn how to cheese more so that he's not as predictable in his games. He also needs to work on his decision making skills if he hopes to go further in future tournaments.

PianO is able to pull off some unique strategies when he's in top form. He needs to learn to scout more and anticipate what strategy his opponent will play. He's got some of the best late game control available but he'll need to get there to utilize it.

Group C



Look familiar?

Great micro, the ability to take risks and stick to the plan are Snow's strengths. He plays very entertaining games and can vary his playstyle when needed.

sSak may not be a fancy player but he plays the matchups well. He has a calm, collected and patient mindset which potentiates his macro and micro making him a threat to all of the remaining players.

hero is quite the anomaly. Despite having strong macro, positional micro and some of the best ZvP around, his ZvT is still a matchup that he needs to work on greatly. Despite losing to Sea.KH, there is no doubt that hero will come back stronger in the next SSL.

Sea.KH's games against sSak and Snow showed that his macro needs improvements if he wants to advance further in future tournaments. His victory against hero showed that he has the potential to become a feared player if he works hard on improving.

Group D



Bunker my rax.



Dammit Zealot, you had one job!

Last's biggest problem is knowing when to retreat after a successful attack which is pretty important in the grand scheme of the game. Other than that, he is able to pull off cheese well when it matters and has great micro to boot.

Solid game overall with exceptional macro and great micro define HiyA in a nutshell. If he elevates his level of play just a bit more, he will be a strong contender for the title.

Unpredictable and has the guts to try new strategies even if it can cost him games. Larva still needs to work on his ZvT game which is holding him back if he ever hopes to advance in future tournaments.

Like Larva, GuemChi is not afraid to try new strategies. He has a solid understanding of the ZvP matchup and is patient when needed.

With players stepping onto the dream stage, their performances were dialed up to its maximum level. It is no wonder that the Ro16 is full of amazing games. The first group consisted of mostly protoss players (Mini, Movie, Pure) and Mong. Mini took center stage as he defeated everyone in convincing fashion sending a message to his future foes, the shield battery master is coming to the quarterfinals. In the first game against Pure on Blue Storm , Mini easily overwhelmed Pure with a reaver and goon force after defending his 2 gate aggression with his signature unit, the shield battery. His second game against Movie showcased his unit control, superb positioning and map awareness with Mini managing to pick off Movie's Shuttle before beating him with a superior goon force. However, his best performance only appeared in the last game against Mong on Sin Peaks of Baekdu . His solid macro and relentless aggression (lots of drops) coupled with good decision making skills allowed him to come back from a base deficit and win the macro game against Mong.Despite losing a nail biting game to Mini, Mong played some fantastic games of his own sticking to the TvP style that he has grown accustomed to. On Return of the King , Mong's strong macro and constant drop aggression were more than enough to take the game against Movie who seemed to falter as the game went on. Mong went on to beat Pure in similar fashion on Fighting Spirit easily taking the macro game after early dark templar aggression by Pure forced Mong on the defensive.By far, the most disappointing performer of the group was Movie who was hailed as one of the top protoss players. Claiming that he was not afraid of anyone in his interview with TL , Movie's games reeked of lack of practice on par with his own claims. His unit control and positioning were subpar for someone of his caliber losing goons to spider mines and funneling units in a single line at his enemies. In his game against Pure, he failed to read the situation and deny scouting losing his expansion to Pure's zealots and eventually the game after his dark templar tech was detected. Credits to Pure for sticking to his gameplan and adapting to the situation. Though both Pure and Movie showed some entertaining games, they will have to elevate their game to the next level if they wish to go further in future tournaments.Dubbed as the group of death featuring veterans and previous OSL/MSL champions, this was the most anticipated group of the Ro16. A group that had no clear cut favourite with any two players advancing depending on their strategy and gameplay. Things almost went down this way as well except for PianO. It seemed like everyone had his number as he ended up losing all of his games to get knocked out in last place much to the shock of his fans. In his game against Free, despite defending a proxy gate and managing to even make vultures in Free's base, he suffered massive damage against Free's perfectly timed goon and reaver attack and was unable to recover.On Sin Peaks of Baedu, luck was not on his side as his proxy factory was scouted and his subsequent drops were defended. With a better economy, Mind was easily able to crush PianO. Though these two losses were painful for PianO, none were as bad as his final game against Jangbi. After opening up with a one base factory build, he was not prepared for Jangbi's sneaky dark templars who caused severe economic damage. The icing on the cake? A lone dark templar blowing up his mineral fieldcausing him to leave the game in dismay.With PianO out of the picture, all the other players traded blows with each other. Mind defeated Jangbi in a 45 minute long macro game on Fighting Spirit . Through solid defense, Mind was able to go up to three bases before managing to outposition Jangbi hitting right before his mass gateway play came into effect. Jangbi in turn ended up beating Free on the back of strong macro and a unit composition consisting mainly of zealots and a reaver for support. Free completed the circle by winning his game against Mind. On Return of the King , both players went for the late game macroing up fearsome armies. Mind's strong defense and good use of map architecture helped him take an advantage whenever he engaged Free however Free turned it all around through a great decision, attacking Mind's main. This forced Mind to pull back allowing Free to save his expansions and win the game through his economic advantage.We were now forced into the first tiebreaker of the Ro16. As if time was stuck on repeat, the first two rounds of the tiebreaker had the players beat each other in the exact same pattern as before until Free decided to break the cycle by beating Jangbi in round three. Mind beat Jangbi in all three of their games. In their first game, Mind won by taking down Jangbi's third and sieging his main after Jangbi overcommitted with a failed double reaver drop. The second game on Blue Storm was quick as Mind bunker rushed Jangbi for the win. The third game saw Jangbi play a risky strategy (double expanding) relying on it not getting scouted. He managed to pull it off defending a strong attack by Mind however both players made several questionable calls that had the game swing in their opponent's favour. Mind finally took the game through a strong offensive position at Jangbi's third then fourth base.Free beat Mind in all of his games. A proxy gate in game one almost had Free lose the game if Mind didn't blunder his bunker counterattack. Afterwards, Free took several key engagements to deny Mind's third and win the game. In game two on Fighting Spirit , Free straight up killed Mind with dark templars, reminiscent of PianO's defeat to Jangbi earlier in the group. The last game saw Mind try a bunker rush against the nexus first from Free. It seemed work however Free saved his nexus and went for carriers as he established a third base economy. With map architecture on his side and his growing carrier fleet, Free was able to pressure Mind constantly eventually defeating his army and dealing damage to his third to win the game.Jangbi only won the first two games against Free (Rounds 1 and 2). Though Free matched Jangbi in the macro department, Jangbi's smart tactics helped him greatly. In his first game on Fighting Spirit , a single dark templar killed over 20 probes at Free's natural while Free lost his army at Jangbi's natural. In their second game on Sin Peaks of Baekdu , Jangbi's managed to grab the better position during engagements especially in the last major engagement which had Free attack uphill into Jangbi's concave. Despite being resilient and boosting about his 100% winrate during tiebreakers, Jangbi was not able to beat Free a third time. On Blue Storm, Free took down Jangbi's expansion using dark templars while maintaining his own. Jangbi realized his bad situation and tried to ferry his dragoons into Free's base but this was scouted and his army was wiped causing him to be eliminated.With only two Zergs left in the Ro16, this was another group that many kept an eye on hoping that hero would be the first Zerg to make the quarterfinals. The first player up was Snow, the young protoss known for his reaver play against Jaedong in PDPOP MSL. He opened with an aggressive 2 gate against Sea.KH. With great micro and decision making skills, he picked off reavers and took engagements in his favour to trounce the amateur player. He did not stop there as he also ended up beating sSak on Blue Storm in a lengthy back and forth game. After opening with a proxy gate, Snow used a combination of reavers and carriers to slowly break down sSak's strong defensive play style multitasking his way to victory with several recalls in the late game. His first loss came at the hands of hero after the Zerg managed to survive some strong attacks and overwhelm him in the late game despite his 'never give up' attitude (see battle report).sSak was the other player to advance in this group. Against hero, he showed off good MnM control and managed to hit the perfect timing, right before defilers were out to take what looked like a one sided game on Fighting Spirit. His second game against Sea.KH on Return of the King showed his ability to adapt to Sea.KH's carriers. Strong macro coupled with good understanding of map architecture and mech control (goliath/tank) were enough to push back and beat Sea.KH in the late game. The story of the group is no doubt, Sea.KH's victory against hero. Despite not advancing from the group, the amateur managed to beat hero on Blue Storm in what can only be described as a major upset.Tiebreakers would have occurred if hero won, alas, Sea.KH had other plans. In their game, the protoss opened up with a cannon rush which failed. He was able to remain calm and played a macro game against the God of ZvP. With strong macro, micro and lots of aggression, he took hero down disappointing Zerg fans everywhere. To say that hero not advancing is a disappointment is an understatement. hero is capable of much more based on past games that his latest results do not feel like his own. However, Sea.KH should be commended for his strong game and for playing his heart out for the win.While this last group of the Ro16 is arguably the weakest one, the games were still quite unique and entertaining to watch. Players pulled out all the stops to try and best their opponents so that they could advance to the quarterfinals. Our first player, Last was such a player. In his first game against GuemChi, he pulled off a bunker contain after GuemChi decided to go for the rare strategy of forge FE. Despite being in a tough position, GuemChi managed to break the contain, re-establish his expansion and muster up a strong army to challenge Last and win the game. After this loss, Last decided to spice things up with his next opponent HiyA.On Blue Storm , Last opened with a proxy 6 rax bunker rushing HiyA who lost after he was unable to destroy the bunker. The loss was so quick and unexpected that HiyA's expression after the game was one of confusion and contemplation. Last did not stop there going for another proxy rax against Larva on Fighting Spirit . With great rax positioning, Larva did not scout the rax instead scouting the bunker at his natural. He was unable to take it down and was contained. Attempts to break out were futile as Last's defense and macro were strong enough to stop the Zerg. Sources tell me that Larva, like HiyA, was taken back so badly by the proxy rax that he spent his evening proxying Zerg players on Afreeca. Could Last be the dark horse of the tournament? Could he be theone standing?In all the chaos, one must also not forget HiyA. Despite his unexpected loss to Last, HiyA was able to trounce his remaining opponents. Against Larva on Return of the King , HiyA's unit control and macro gave him control of the game. Larva tried some burrow shenanigans to get the upper hand but they failed miserably leaving him open to HiyA's constant aggression which he could not handle. In his last game against GuemChi, HiyA managed to get an SCV scout inside GuemChi's base to find out that dark templars on the way. He went on to trick GuemChi into trying to get into his base with his army but with perfect timing, HiyA closed off his entrance and easily beat GuemChi's army to win the game.Having lost two games, Larva had one last chance at redemption. Facing GuemChi on Blue Storm , Larva went for the one unit that even Bisu has trouble with, hydras. With 5 hatch hydra in full swing, Larva took control of the map and was able to overwhelm GuemChi with constant aggression. In the end, the last Zerg player was eliminated leaving us with an quarterfinal free of Zergs. Hard to comprehend considering all the strong Zerg players that SSL originally started with. As for GuemChi, he might not have advanced to the quarterfinal but he has won the hearts and minds of fans with his funny strategies.