[TLS] Round of 16: Week Two Preview Text by 2Pacalypse- Graphics by HawaiianPig

TABLE OF CONTENTS



Round of 16: Recap

Recap of groups A & B

By: Stratos & Sayle



Group C Preview

Group of death

By: Epoxide



Group D Preview

Fight for your lives

By: Epoxide



Interviews

Interview with invites

By:BisuDagger



Staff Predictions

Find out who TLS staff put ESPORTS dollars on

By: Sayle



Follow TLS on

Liquipedia



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Recap of groups A & BGroup of deathFight for your livesInterview with invitesFind out who TLS staff put ESPORTS dollars onFollow TLS on



A TLS cast without a ZvZ?! This is madness! If for no other reason, you should tune in just for the novelty of non-zergs playing. Fortunately, there are plenty of other reasons to tune in, including the chance to see our invites dOTY, runner-up of ISL3, and Skzlime, hero of Gambit's Cup, compete for the first time in TLS.





This will be the final day of what has been an extremely exciting round of 16 group stage, as we enter the elimination bracket afterwards, beginning with the round of 8. If last week's games were any indication, you can expect to see the same kind of crazy games and upsets in this week's set of games.





Join Sayle and Elegant on Saturday, Mar 09 8:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00) for some epic Brood War action.





Round of 16: Recap By: Stratos & Sayle



Group A Group B Group C Group D Sziky Michael dOTY skzlime TechnicS Bakuryu dRaW trutaCz G5 Pro7ect TerrOr dewalt SouthPark NeMu eOnzErG Ramms



Last week we saw groups A and B play out with both invites, Sziky and Michael, advancing to the Round of 8. Joining them are the Polish Zerg SouthPark who convincingly swept his group 2-0 and the ever entertaining Bulgarian, Nemu who chat rushed his way to victory. If you want to check out how the games went last week, there's a recap video below brought to you by Stratos & Sayle!











Group C Preview By: Epoxide



Group C is in my opinion the strongest group. All four players are extremely solid. eOnzErG was my favourite to come second in the tournament pre-round of 24 (Sziky too strong). But just like Sziky, eOnzErG's play has been uninspiring. He barely made it out of his round of 24 group narrowly beating vOddy in the final game. It was much thanks to vOddy playing poorly after looking like he had the game. Small mistakes and not looking like the eOnzErG who won several Defiler Tours makes me very doubtful of him advancing. Just because of how strong the other three in this group are.



TerrOr was somewhat of a question mark to me before the round of 24. He had gone far in several of the qualifiers but never actually made it to the final. I had him advancing narrowly 2-1 but he ended up destroying his group and it wasn't even close. I'm still not 100% sure in his TvP and with two other Protoss in his group he might get knocked out against one of them. Overall TerrOr's record has been way too good to pass up on, I think he stands a fair chance of advancing.



It seems to me that dOTY hasn't played in forever. His last recorded game being in August last year. dOTY had an extremely good showing in ISL3, taking Sziky to a final game nine . After the final he didn't really show anything. dOTY's shape is a big question mark to me. If he ends up being the ISL 3 finalist-dOTY he will absolutely crush, if he isn't though I see him having a hard time in this group.



Oh dRaW... You have really impressed me lately. Even though you say haven't practiced you still end up advancing without losing, all the time. The game of you against trutaCz on Fighting Spirit is still playing in my head. That game was the best one I have seen in quite a while. Even though you lost you really convinced me, this is dRaW's tournament. I'm expecting dRaW to 2-0 this group, and the games will surely be amazing.



Overall this group is quite hard to predict. Any of these four can advance depending on their shape, and I actually mean it this time. Be hyped for this group.





dOTY <Neo Jade> eOnzErG

dRaW <Neo Jade> TerrOr

dOTY <Neo Ground Zero> dRaW

eOnzErG <Neo Ground Zero> TerrOr

dOTY <Fighting Spirit> TerrOr



1. 2-0

2. 2-1

3. 1-2

4. 0-2

1. dRaW 2-02. TerrOr 2-13. dOTY 1-24. eOnzErG 0-2





Group D Preview By: Epoxide



I have been quite hard on the invites so far, only praising Sziky. skzlime is my favourite foreigner. But it hasn't been easy lately. Rumors are everywhere, "skzlime is out of shape", "he isn't the same as when he all-killed LRM". You know what? A new round of Gambit's Cup is soon upon us. skzlime sounds confident but modest in his interview and has hopefully managed to squeeze in the practice he needs because this group is really tough.



Ramms is my dark horse for the tournament. I keep thinking he won't stand a chance and get knocked out. But he keeps advancing. Unfortunately for him (maybe it's the opposite?) I don't think he will advance this time either. I believe he is severely outclassed by the other three in this group. A 0-2 is expected.



trutaCz hasn't lost a single game in the TLS since he played dRaW. He is looking extremely dangerous, just like Sziky and TechnicS I see him in the top four easily. But just like what happened last week can happen to trutaCz too. I also see him having trouble against dewalt as ZvP is his weakest matchup, a sub 50% winrate with recent losses to fold who is not exactly known for taking out players at the level of trutaCz.



I felt really bad when I had put dewalt not advancing from the round of 24. He had a terrific year in 2012 and has looked good ever since. Like a slap in the face dewalt absolutely crushes his group 2-0. The Protoss of the year sure is looking like he is going far. The rest of the players in the tournament should be really scared. With Sziky looking mortal dewalt is my current favourite to win the whole tournament.





skzlime <Neo Jade> Ramms

trutaCz <Neo Jade> dewalt

skzlime <Neo Ground Zero> dewalt

Ramms <Neo Ground Zero> trutaCz

skzlime <Fighting Spirit> trutaCz



1. 2-0

2. 2-1

3. 1-2

4. 0-2

1. dewalt 2-02. trutaCz 2-13. skzlime 1-24. Ramms 0-2





Interviews By: BisuDagger



We sat down with our two invites, and who will show their skill for the first time to our viewers. It's no wonder that they're under a lot of pressure to prove themselves after being invited directly to the Round of 16. Read on how they cope with their pressure and how much they have prepared to play in Teamliquid Legacy Starleague.





Skzlime

+ Show Spoiler + Skzlime, welcome to the tournament! Are you excited to finally be playing?

Hi, thank you. Of course I am, but also kind of nervous at the same time. I can never be adequately prepared, and I feel overrated, so there's a lot of pressure. I tried to squeeze in some practice, but unfortunately I'm getting too old to be able to afford leading a cavenerd lifestyle.

First, what does skzlime mean?

It's just a retarded spelling of skyline. It has nothing to do with anything at all. It actually makes less sense than Sziky vs Technics on FS in the Ro16.

How do you feel about your opponents in the coming matches, trutaCz, dewalt, and Ramms?

Ramms was excellent in his prime, but all things must come to an end. TT I believe currently has the highest eapm in the foreign scene, so he is a bigger threat.

Still if I had to pick, the hardest opponent for me would have to be Dewalt, as he is easily top 3 PvT in my opinion. It's a solid group.

Do you have a prediction of what your final score will be?

Since I didn't play the qualifiers I have no momentum, so my aim is a clean 2-0 to get confidence for the Ro8. Should I lose to Ramms I might even go 0-2, but my goal is no less than complete and utter domination. Seeing the volatility of the previous groups though, I would rather not make such bold statements as Michael and Nemu.

You are from Hungary, why are hungarians so strong in the foreign scene?

Hungarians have a bigger average penis size, which correlates to higher average starcraft skill.

Your liquipedia page says many interesting things that I would like to ask you about. First, it says you were "able to un-infest a Command Center in your game against Bakuryu in the ICCup Clan League Tournament". How is this possible?

It is not, only I can do it. It requires an extremely complicated series of actions mere mortals could never ever possibly fathom, but I'll tell you anyway, so feel honored. You have to repair the CC.

It also says you started as early as 2004, what's it like playing Brood War for so many years?

It's like wasting countless opportunities you won't ever have again that could have made you so much more than you are now, but you can never be sure whether it's actually true or just bullshit your mom keeps throwing at you because SHE JUST DOESN'T UNDERSTAND.

You are now a current member of SAS, do you plan on playing a major role in team leagues?

I plan on winning the TLS and then getting rich from taking bribes from opposing teams to throw games, but don't tell anyone. If we still manage to get to the finals I might smurf on my teammates' accounts and just AK everyone for the lulz.

Have you ever played a Kespa/ex-Kespa player? If so, how did that turn out?

Not yet, but I would most likely accidentally cancel my first supply depot while trying not to pee my pants. I did beat LocDog once though (so our head to head is now 1-9001), and he beats pros all the time, so I'm probably better than Hiya.

Ok, here's a hypothetical question. What if you found out that Flash was adopted and there was a posibility he was your child?

I have never really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like I don't even this question... I would probably make amends and ask him to teach me starcraft so I could be as famous as dRaW and get mad bitches.

Back on the topic of TLS now, do you have any rivals in this tournament?

Not really. I'm much better than everyone else, but can't practise enough. Maybe Nemu, since he also has 110% win rate if he tries. Although I heard he doesn't take TLS seriously. Rumor has it he even quit his job just so he couldn't prepare (I just made that up).

You have a chance to talk some smack with the players you compete with this weekend, what would you like to say to them?

Please don't get nervous, I want to crush your best plays. If I can't I wouldn't have any place in the later stages of the tournament anyway.

Thank you for doing this interview, would you like to say anything to all the TLS fans out there?

Words of gratitude to the sponsors who made this event possible, and to the organisers who made it all happen. As for the viewers: You ain't seen nothing yet.



dOTY

+ Show Spoiler + dOTY, you have had the opportunity to watch the TLS on the sidelines. What are your thoughts on the results so far?

I haven't watched everything of TLS so far, but most results which i have seen did not surprise me. What did surprise me was Nemu Advancing over Bakuryu last week and of course Sziky almost going out 0-2 ^_^ since i have practice some with him and hes monster as usual. I hardly remember what happened before.

It appears you will be playing all three races in the upcoming matches, which will give you the most trouble?

Zerg ! I hate this matchup. I am very confident in my PvP and PvT but my PvZ has always been a problem for me so i just practice it as hard as i manage to do lately. Sadly didn't find too much time to do that though. I guess i need to 2 gate proxy eon.

You used to be part of the German national team. What was that experience like?

I have not played too many matches for Germany, i think it have been about 10 which i managed to win 8 from or so. It always was fun to play against other nations but i hated to play vs poland they had so good players back then and both of my losses was against polish players. Overall it was a pleasure to play for the national team .

Do you believe your involvement in Brood War so long gives you a great advantage?

I don't think so. All players left have got a pretty good knowledge of the game and nowadays it's pretty simple to learn/practice this game with looking VODs/Replays reading stuff on Starcraft sites and such. I do not think me playing this game longer than some of the other players will make a big difference. We'll see :-)

What was it like retiring when SC2 came out and why did you choose to return?

I never seriously retired, the time people thought i retired was when I could not join ICCup anymore without dropping after a couple of minutes for no reason. For that time i was playing on U.S. West playing in [3.33] clan. I never played SC2 either.

There are many new players rising up, who would you pick as the best rising star?

The best rising star for me would be eOnzerg, guys in amazing shape. He just needs to be a little bit faster. Besides him i don't have anyone else in mind who impressed me like that.

Team leagues are becoming a bigger deal, do you plan to play in those too?

Are you currently with a team? I recently joined LRM), i was on SJ. before. I have a lot of exams and stuff coming at me soon, so I don't know if i will be able to play many games on team leagues. Time will tell !

What score do you predict for yourself this round?

I predict a lucky 2-1 ! Could be anything though, everyone on my group is a top level player at his race. I definitely need my cheeses to work !

Here's your chance for additional mind games, what would you like to say to your coming opponents?

No matter who you are, my manlots gonna kill you !

YAnd now for a funny question. If it's not to personal, describe the worst date you've ever been on?

I seriously don't have any funny date story. I would say the last 2 years with my ex girlfriend has been the worst relationship in general, but no specific story :D. I do not want this interview to never-end so i wont tell the details.

Thank you for this interview, is there anything else you'd like to say to all the TLS fans out there?

I wanna say thanks to all supporters of mine, I can't promise that I will get out of the group but I will do my best to show you guys nice games at least. Also i wanna say big thank you to everyone involved in this tournament, sponsors, casters, news-writers and last but not least the viewers who are so important for such a event, especially nowadays when it is about broodwar. Keep loving the game guys. I won't do specific shoutouts to people, you guys are just too many ♥! Thanks for the interview.





Staff Predictions By: Sayle



Group C

Player Staff Picks dOTY (8) HawaiianPig, 2Pacalypse-, Jonvvv, Kiante, mustaju, Sayle, itsjustatank, nbaker eOnzErG (7) Jonvvv, harem, Falling, mustaju, Sayle, itsjustatank, nbaker dRaW (6) HawaiianPig, 2Pacalypse-, harem, Falling, Epoxide, Torenhire TerrOr (3) Kiante, Epoxide, Torenhire



In the words of 2Pacalypse-, "Protoss powa!" Group C will be the grand entrance of our only Protoss invite dOTY, and it looks like his reputation as the ISL3 runner-up has preceded him with eight out of twelve staff members picking him to advance. eOnzErG and dRaW are close behind, giving us no clear favorite in this group of aLtErNaTiNg caps. It's interesting to see staff and fan favorite dRaW coming third in picks despite crushing through his Ro24 group while eOnzErG, who showed very shaky ZvP in the Ro24, comes second. The clear underdog in the group is TerrOr who managed only a paltry three votes. Given how accurate staff picks have been in the past, I think this can only mean one thing: TerrOr is definitely going to advance. Also, Epoxide picked TerrOr and he's a genius.





Group D

Player Staff Picks dewalt (8) 2Pacalypse-, Jonvvv, harem, Falling, Epoxide, Sayle, itsjustatank, Torenhire trutaCz (7) HawaiianPig, Jonvvv, harem, Epoxide, Sayle, itsjustatank, nbaker Skzlime (6) HawaiianPig, 2Pacalypse-, Kiante, mustaju, Falling, nbaker Ramms (3) Kiante, mustaju, Torenhire



Interestingly, group D has the same vote distribution as group C, and once again a protoss has come out on top with eight staff members backing underage Russian protoss Dewalt. Could this be the weekend of the manly race? My heart hopes it will be, but trutaCz and skzlime will probably have other ideas. Skzlime in particular might be a bit miffed that he's the lowest rated invite among TLS staff, only coming third in his group (although it is a close third). This is the man who all-killed LRM, so despite rumors that he's currently out of shape, it would be foolish to underestimate him. Our other terran in the group, Ramms, is also slightly lacking in the vote department. As I said for group C, I'm pretty sure this means he's going to advance :D













That's all for now! Join us on Saturday, Mar 09 8:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00) for the cast of Groups C and D! And as always a big thanks to our sponsors:











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A TLS cast without a ZvZ?! This is madness! If for no other reason, you should tune in just for the novelty of non-zergs playing. Fortunately, there are plenty of other reasons to tune in, including the chance to see our invites dOTY, runner-up of ISL3, and Skzlime, hero of Gambit's Cup, compete for the first time in TLS.This will be the final day of what has been an extremely exciting round of 16 group stage, as we enter the elimination bracket afterwards, beginning with the round of 8. If last week's games were any indication, you can expect to see the same kind of crazy games and upsets in this week's set of games.Join Sayle and Elegant onfor some epic Brood War action.Last week we saw groups A and B play out with both invites, Sziky and Michael, advancing to the Round of 8. Joining them are the Polish Zerg SouthPark who convincingly swept his group 2-0 and the ever entertaining Bulgarian, Nemu who chat rushed his way to victory. If you want to check out how the games went last week, there's a recap video below brought to you byGroup C is in my opinion the strongest group. All four players are extremely solid. eOnzErG was my favourite to come second in the tournament pre-round of 24 (Sziky too strong). But just like Sziky, eOnzErG's play has been uninspiring. He barely made it out of his round of 24 group narrowly beating vOddy in the final game. It was much thanks to vOddy playing poorly after looking like he had the game. Small mistakes and not looking like the eOnzErG who won several Defiler Tours makes me very doubtful of him advancing. Just because of how strong the other three in this group are.TerrOr was somewhat of a question mark to me before the round of 24. He had gone far in several of the qualifiers but never actually made it to the final. I had him advancing narrowly 2-1 but he ended up destroying his group and it wasn't even close. I'm still not 100% sure in his TvP and with two other Protoss in his group he might get knocked out against one of them. Overall TerrOr's record has been way too good to pass up on, I think he stands a fair chance of advancing.It seems to me that dOTY hasn't played in forever. His last recorded game being in August last year. dOTY had an extremely good showing in ISL3, taking Sziky to a final game. After the final he didn't really show anything. dOTY's shape is a big question mark to me. If he ends up being the ISL 3 finalist-dOTY he will absolutely crush, if he isn't though I see him having a hard time in this group.Oh dRaW... You have really impressed me lately. Even though you say haven't practiced you still end up advancing without losing, all the time. The game of you against trutaCz on Fighting Spirit is still playing in my head. That game was the best one I have seen in quite a while. Even though you lost you really convinced me, this is dRaW's tournament. I'm expecting dRaW to 2-0 this group, and the games will surely be amazing.Overall this group is quite hard to predict. Any of these four can advance depending on their shape, and I actually mean it this time. Be hyped for this group.I have been quite hard on the invites so far, only praising Sziky. skzlime is my favourite foreigner. But it hasn't been easy lately. Rumors are everywhere, "skzlime is out of shape", "he isn't the same as when he all-killed LRM". You know what? A new round of Gambit's Cup is soon upon us. skzlime sounds confident but modest in his interview and has hopefully managed to squeeze in the practice he needs because this group is really tough.Ramms is my dark horse for the tournament. I keep thinking he won't stand a chance and get knocked out. But he keeps advancing. Unfortunately for him (maybe it's the opposite?) I don't think he will advance this time either. I believe he is severely outclassed by the other three in this group. A 0-2 is expected.trutaCz hasn't lost a single game in the TLS since he played dRaW. He is looking extremely dangerous, just like Sziky and TechnicS I see him in the top four easily. But just like what happened last week can happen to trutaCz too. I also see him having trouble against dewalt as ZvP is his weakest matchup, a sub 50% winrate with recent losses towho is not exactly known for taking out players at the level of trutaCz.I felt really bad when I had put dewalt not advancing from the round of 24. He had a terrific year in 2012 and has looked good ever since. Like a slap in the face dewalt absolutely crushes his group 2-0. The Protoss of the year sure is looking like he is going far. The rest of the players in the tournament should be really scared. With Sziky looking mortal dewalt is my current favourite to win the whole tournament.We sat down with our two invites, Skzlime and dOTY who will show their skill for the first time to our viewers. It's no wonder that they're under a lot of pressure to prove themselves after being invited directly to the Round of 16. Read on how they cope with their pressure and how much they have prepared to play in Teamliquid Legacy Starleague.In the words of 2Pacalypse-, "Protoss powa!" Group C will be the grand entrance of our only Protoss invite dOTY, and it looks like his reputation as the ISL3 runner-up has preceded him with eight out of twelve staff members picking him to advance. eOnzErG and dRaW are close behind, giving us no clear favorite in this group of aLtErNaTiNg caps. It's interesting to see staff and fan favorite dRaW coming third in picks despite crushing through his Ro24 group while eOnzErG, who showed very shaky ZvP in the Ro24, comes second. The clear underdog in the group is TerrOr who managed only a paltry three votes. Given how accurate staff picks have been in the past, I think this can only mean one thing: TerrOr is definitely going to advance. Also, Epoxide picked TerrOr and he's a genius.Interestingly, group D has the same vote distribution as group C, and once again a protoss has come out on top with eight staff members backing underage Russian protoss Dewalt. Could this be the weekend of the manly race? My heart hopes it will be, but trutaCz and skzlime will probably have other ideas. Skzlime in particular might be a bit miffed that he's the lowest rated invite among TLS staff, only coming third in his group (although it is a close third). This is the man who all-killed LRM, so despite rumors that he's currently out of shape, it would be foolish to underestimate him. Our other terran in the group, Ramms, is also slightly lacking in the vote department. As I said for group C, I'm pretty sure this means he's going to advance :DThat's all for now! Join us onfor the cast of Groups C and D! And as always a big thanks to our sponsors: Moderator "We're a community of geniuses because we've found how to extract 95% of the feeling of doing something amazing without actually doing anything." - Chill