The 2011 North American Battle.net Invitational began this morning with eight of the region’s top StarCraft II competitors. Let’s take a look at the matches that happened earlier in the day.



To watch the stream, visit the tournament page. While you’re there, you can check out the tournament progress and learn more about the players.



Liquid`HuK (protoss) vs. GoSu.ostojiy (zerg): The first game on Shakuras Plateau began with HuK warping in the lower-right position and ostojiy spawning in the bottom-left. HuK started by going for an early expansion and unfortunately his cannon got up just a little late, enabling ostojiy’s first six zerglings to slip by and do significant damage. HuK took a slightly late third base and was forced to play defensively for the majority of the midgame while ostojiy took the opportunity to macro up and drone on his three bases. As the game progressed, ostojiy amassed an impressive ultralisk and brood lord army that HuK barely defended. The turning point came when HuK warped in a plethora of high templars and archons to mount his counterpush. This put ostojiy in a rough spot, and he tapped out after a very impressive debut performance.



Game two of the series took place on MLG Metalopolis; HuK warped in at the six o’clock and ostojiy began in the twelve o’clock to put the players at cross-map positions. For this second map ostojiy went for a speedling expand, while HuK went for early double-gas before his cybernetics core. Despite sensing HuK’s intentions of going for a dark templar rush, ostojiy’s spore crawlers were just a few seconds too late. While ostojiy put up a very valiant fight, no means of detecting the dark templar led to HuK winning game two and the series.



HuK 2 : 0 ostojiy



dignitas.SeleCT (terran) vs. FnaticTTOne (protoss): Game one began onTal’Darim Altar LE; SeleCT landed in the lower-right corner, and TTOne in the top-right. SeleCT went for a one-base early expansion, and followed up with a fast medivac supported by three-barracks. Meanwhile, TTOne chose a one-gateway expansion into three-gate with fast colossi. TTOne amassed a very large army, but SeleCT slowly picked apart TTOne’s bases with aggressive drops. This forced TTOne to try to perform an all-in push with his remaining forces, but SeleCT barely defends to win the first game.



Game two commenced with SeleCT in the top-right and TTOne warped in the top-left positions on Backwater Gulch. SeleCT began the game by scouting and stole TTOne’s gas while opting for a fast reactor-hellion play backed up by an extremely fast medivac. TTOne appeared to be able to defend it, but SeleCT lifted his hellions up with the medivac, unloading them into TTOne’s main where they were able to get 17 probe kills. This put TTOne in a very difficult position, and SeleCT followed up by adding a tech lab to both the starport and barracks. Unable to recover from that huge hit to his production, TTOne died to SeleCT’s next push, giving him the series.



SeleCT 2 : 0 TTOne



Liquid`Sheth (zerg) vs. RGNKiWiKaKi (protoss): The first set took place on Shakuras Plateau with both players in top positions; Sheth on the right and KiWiKaKi on the left. Sheth went for a 14-pool followed by two expansion hatcheries, while KiWiKaKi went for a really big one-gas eight-gateway timing attack after his forge expansion. Sheth was just barely able to hang on, surviving the attack and putting him far ahead of KiWiKaKi. Being the smart player that he is, Sheth kept that advantage and closed out the game after a very narrow defense.



Moving onto MLG Metalopolis, Sheth started in the left position and KiWiKaKi in the right. Sheth began the game similarly, except this time he went for a speedling expansion and waited before going for his third base. KiWiKaKi changed gears and started with a one-gateway expansion, adding extra gas and five gateways. Sheth did a phenomenal drop preventing any effective aggression from KiWiKaKi and keeping him from getting up a third base. With no escape in sight, KiWiKaKi bowed out and Sheth took the series.



Sheth 2 : 0 KiWiKaKi



EGIdrA (zerg) vs. sixjaxDDE (terran): The series kicked off on MLG Metalopolis, with IdrA in the left position and DDE on the right. Both players went for a fast expansion; IdrA followed up with speedlings and DDE with many hellions. DDE attempted to drop hellions around IdrA’s bases, but IdrA defended well. DDE moved into a two-base Thor, tank, and marine build and pushed through to kill IdrA’s third base. He pushed again too quickly, however, and IdrA was able to crush the second attack to get back on an even footing. IdrA retook his third base and added a fourth expansion, making it to brood lords and mass mutalisks. After several stifled pushes and crippling skirmishes,DDE was forced to tap out of game one.



Shakuras Plateau housed the second set with IdrA in the bottom-right and DDE in the bottom-left. DDE went for a fast expansion and hellions with marauders, but IdrA scouted it and prepared with spine crawlers so DDE could not push. DDE’s follow-up of Thor, hellion, and marine was denied by IdrA’s mutalisks supported by zerglings and banelings. IdrA gained an enormous lead and closed out the series in convincing fashion.



IdrA 2 : 0 DDE



Four more matches remain for the day and by the end of today’s broadcast only four players will be left. Tune in to see who will make it to day two.



Don’t forget to watch the North American stream and tweet #SC2BI all weekend!