Image courtesy of TeamLiquid

Series recap:

Recap provided by: MMDollar





Kyo-Seok 'Keen' Hwang



Game 1 Ohana - Winner: JonnyREcco

Game 2 Antiga Shipyard - Winner: Keen

Game 3 Metropolis - Winner: Keen

Game 4 Cloud Kingdom- Winner: JonnyREcco

Game 5 Entombed Valley - Winner: Keen

Game 6 Daybreak - Winner: JonnyREcco

Game 7 Ohana - Winner: Keen





Round of 8 - Live Stream Paul 'JonnyREcco' Whyte 3 - 4Game 1 Ohana - Winner: JonnyREccoGame 2 Antiga Shipyard - Winner: KeenGame 3 Metropolis - Winner: KeenGame 4 Cloud Kingdom- Winner: JonnyREccoGame 5 Entombed Valley - Winner: KeenGame 6 Daybreak - Winner: JonnyREccoGame 7 Ohana - Winner: Keen Kyo-Seok 'Keen' Hwang advances to the semi finals!

Series recap:

Recap provided by: EggY

The Team Liquid Starleague has become one of the biggest events of the year. TSL is known for changing the lives of many young pro gamers looking to make a name for themselves. This TSL will be no different in fact with the upcoming launch of HOTS this might be the tournament for someone to build their careerFinally the round of 8 is here, tonight we will cover the series between 4 players: JohnyREcco, Keen, Life and Curious. We'll be covering all the action from tonight. So make sure to check back for the latest updates!Cloud Kingdom is the map to start this great series between the two teammates Curious and Life. For build orders, Curious went for a rather fast gas and pool, while on the other hand Life went for an early expand with a later timing on the gas and pool. The early aggression kicked in as Curious went for a one base attack with mass lings, but that first attack was defended, loses were taken on both sides and the hatchery was heavily damaged. A second wave of zergling swarm occurred but this time they were accompanied by banelings which did good damage even economy wise. After wave after wave of attacks, finally Life could not managed to stop the incoming forces of Curious and lost game number one.Game number was on Entombed Valley where usually macro is seen on this map, and it was no different in this game as they both decided to go with a fast expand build rather than doing a one base aggression. A little after the natural base of Curious was done he decided to go with a roach attack, where he got a really lucky scout on the Spire of Life, as soon as he saw it he went into the “what to do now” situation and continued his attacks towards Life’s base. But as soon the mutalisk army was established, Curious had no answer to those units and lost game number two.Game number three started on Ohana, where both of the players expanded early game and Curious was the one who started the aggression with zerglings, but that was not the end his attacks continued with banelings being added in the mix. After the back and forth action from both of the players,. they managed to establish a three base economy but a little while after that they both destroyed those new third bases. The mid game approached and the attacks between the two players did not stop, but Curious had the advantage of destroying Life’s fourth base a couple of times. This ended with a huge infestor roach battle between the two of them, but Curious had the better upgrades and won his second game in a row.The fourth game of the series was on Antiga Shipyard, where both of the players fast expanded. Life went for zerglings with speed for his early defence and Curious got roaches. There was some early action between the two of them but nothing major happened, behind that both of them got their third base. Life had some issues establishing his third base, because Curious has managed to get some units there to either kill the base or force a cancel. Life with a better upgrade advantage and micro control in the battle managed to win him the fourth game.Metropolis is the map to start game five, as almost every game and here both of the player went for a mirror builds, expanding and getting banelings and speed for the zerglings. Life started the first aggression with pokes near the front of Curious and after that the battle was placed in the middle of the map with same baneling and zergling dance. When the three base economy was established between the two of them, Life went for an attack with a way higher infestor count and an upgrade advantage and win better concave he killed all of Curious forces and won game number five.Daybreak is the map for the six game, where this time Life mixed things up again and went for a 9 pool, while on the other side was Curious with a hatch first build, with gas before pool, with some drone action Curious defended Life’s attack with no drone losses. After this Life decided to expand behind some ling aggression but the attack was easily defended too. Curious decided to go for a huge counter attack which did good damage, killing some queens which slowed the injection from Life a lot. When Curious got his three base economy he started to pump up roaches and as soon as he scouted that Life was trying to get a third base with spire with minimal defence, Curious attacked him and won game six.Ohana is again the map that will close the series, Curious this time went for an early pool and attacked with zerglings, but the attack was defended rather easily from Life and his hatch first build. After the failed attack Curious expanded, but Life put some pressure so he won’t have any free “drone time”. Curious did the same mistake as Life in the previous game he went for a Spire but with minimal to no defence and Life fully abused it with a roach attack darting between the basses and killing the enitre economy of Curious. When the mutalisks popped they were the only defence from Curious, they pushed the roaches but when Curious poked with the mutas he saw the Life was already with a established hydra forces and spore were spreaded arround, “gg” was typed by Curious, and Life won the series.Game one is played on one of the most balanced TvZ maps, Ohana. Both players started with the standard economic opening of 15 hatch/15 pool and 1 barracks expand. Keen transitions into 2 quick factory's, opening mass blue flame helion, but JRecco scouts the strategy with his overlord and instantly throws down a roach warren. Keen tries to dive the 3rd expansion from JRecco, but is surprised that there were no drones at the 3rd and JRecco was able to take down a good amount of helions. JReccos mid game composition is Roach/Ling/Infestor in order to deal with Keens defensive-passive marine/mara/tank/medivac build. Keen starts pressuring up into JReccos 4th, but JRecco was able to delay the push long enough so that his 8 ultralisks could push back the entire line of tanks. Keen pressures up the middle so JRecco opts out of engaging the army. and takes out the 4th of Keen. JRecco finds Keen with his army unsiegied and engages with his 13+ Ultralisks and after a morph in of broodlords JRecco pushes Keen for the win.The next match between JRecco and Keen would be played out on Antiga Shipyard. Keen opens up with a Helion expand while the zerg goes for the standard 15 hatch/15 pool. Keen tries to go for a dive into the main with his helions, but JRecco blocks the ramp with his queen and denies the dive, but Keen's philosophy seems to be "if you're first dive fails, dive-dive-dive again." This time Keens helion dive was able to take out over 15 drones making it cost effective. A drop into JReccos main and a small push into his 3rd caused some heavy economic damage putting the mid-game advantage into Keens favor. After Keen took his fourth he was able to push through the middle Xel-Naga tower denying JRecco from any 4th pinching JRecco onto 3 base play. JRecco was able to get out broodlords and push back Keen back to the middle Xel Naga tower but there was too much Viking production from the tripple Starports for JRecco to handle forcing him into a GG.Match 3 was played out on the large map, Metropolis. Keen and JRecco opening are exactly the same as in game one and Keen even tries to dive like he did in game one, but this time he only was able to get a total of 3 drones and a couple zerglings. Just like in game 2 Keen follows up with another helion run in except this time he tries to drop into the main, but the drop is scouted by a zergling and JRecco was able to deny it with ease. JRecco decided to go for Mutalisk play for his mid-game composition in hopes to do tons of economic damage. Keen is suprised with this play and is not prepared with turrets and loses a decent amount of SCV's. Keen pushes up into JReccos 4th, but the marine micro from Keen is just too cost effective making banelings almost useless. JRecco loses his 4th, his 3rd, and his army which subdues JRecco into a GG.The little bit more terran favored map, Cloud Kingdom was the next battleground for our two TSL players. One Barracks expand from Keen and 15 hatch 15 pool would be the opening builds from our two players. Keen gets two quick gas which resulted into a banshee helion build which is a good economic pressure build on this map. JReccos response to the build is Queen’s zergling and spores. The damage was decent, but not game changing, only sniping a few queens and drones. While JRecco was trying to take his fourth keen was able to send a marine/medivac squad and was easily able to force cancel. At about 14 minutes Keen pushes out again to the 4th of JRecco with a strong tank/marine force, but JRecco decided to take the 5th as his 4th tricking Keen into pressuring the wrong side. The end game composition from JRecco is Ultralisk/Ling/Infestor, but is slightly all in because he has been pressured into 3 base for over 18 minutes. An engagement in the middle of the map leaves JRecco with a 20 supply lead allowing him to finally set up his 4th. Keen pushes up to JReccos 4th, but JRecco has ultra/broodlord/infestor was able to smash through the contain but the trade was even on both sides. The next engagement was once again an even trade, but Keen did not have the viking production to deal with the curropter/broodlord combo forcing Keen to run away. Keen decides to go with a mass bio ball without any vikings, but the amount of fungal's from JRecco completely decimate the attack from Keen giving JRecco a 70 supply lead. The broodlords are just too much for Keen and GG's out.Game five of this best of seven series was played out on Entombed Valley with players spawning in cross position. Keen once again goes for the 1 Barracks expand into reactor helion play while JRecco opens with standard expansion opening except this time he took 2 gases at 5 minutes indicating some early harassment play. JRecco is going for 1-1 timing with roach/ling/baneling in hopes of damaging the oponent or defending an incoming pressure from Keen, but decided to not attack after scouting siege tanks. Keen notices that his composition is better than the slow roach/slow baneling and moves across the map with his marine/mara/tank/medivac composition an easily picks off the 4th and a few units from JRecco. JRecco decides to go for quick ultralisks as he did in game one with quick 3-3 upgrades, before Keen can even finish his 2-2 upgrades. JRecco engages in the middle, losing every unit including his infestors, but is still left with a decent amount of ultras. Just like last game Keen transition into Ultra/Infestor/Broodlord and once again there is a low viking count from Keen. Keen tries to engage at the 4th of Keen, while sniping the 5th, and dances around with his bio ball on the ground trying to get pot shots off onto the zerg army. The reinforcement of vikings and mass medivacs proves to be to much for JRecco leaving Keen with a 100 supply advantage after the engagement, leaving JRecco to GG out.Game Six will be played out on Daybreak the player friendly map. Just like all the other matches both players start off with their standard economics builds. Keen places down a bunker at where the 3rd hatchery to slow down the economy of JRecco and at the same time Keen transitions into a cloak banshee play, but JRecco will have his lair finished by the time they arrive at the base. But the unprepared JRecco allows Keen to get 3 queens kills before the Overseer finishes and is able to have free reign at the mineral lines. JRecco finds Keen un-sieged and is able to get a good trade in his favour, but Keen continues to push up and deny the 4th from JRecco. Behind this JRecco is already getting his broods lords out which forces Keen into mass production of Vikings. Keen engages, but the lack of vikings is really hurting the engagement which results in Keen retreating. Keen continues to drop the main base and is able to take out all the production facilities and at the same time he sends a marine squad to snipe the 5th. Keen decides to go for Ghost-Nuke production to deal with the mass corrupter broodlord composition from JRecco. Keen continues to drop the main/natural and keeps taking out production facilities. With the constant pressure and nuke containment, Keen is able to take out the economy from JRecco, but the army from Keen is just too big to handle even without the economy. Keen GG's out.Game 7 returns to the map where this series started on, Ohana. Keen opens up with double factory helions as he did in game 1 on Ohana except this time JRecco does not scout this with his overlord. But nevertheless, JRecco puts down a roach warren using his spider sense to figure out that indeed Keen is going mass blue flame helion. And just like in game one, he tries to dive the third and the main but JRecco is prepared fully and takes no damage. Keen tries once again and it works getting over 18 drones killed, putting Keen in the harvester advantage, but behind one level in the upgrades. Keen pushes out at 13 minutes with his army to the 4th and JRecco engages, but the tank positioning from Keen is to good and destroys JRecco army. Keen continues to push into JReccos third and after some back and forth micro, Keen comes out on top and pushes into Keens natural. The Ultralisks finally pop out from JRecco, but the economic damage that has been taken from Keens push is too much and the next push from Keen overwhelms the Zerg foreign hope and his 4th expansion, but JRecco continues to hold on someway somehow even with his low economy. A lot of the Terran supply is in medivacs with over 20 medivacs currently out on the field. A stimmed engagement in the middle but the healing from the medivacs is toO much and forces him into a GG.