He streams about 4 nights a week, typically as Terran, and does everything from 1v1, to 4v4, and FFAs.  He rolls with the ECG clan and loves to interact with the viewer community.

http://www.justin.tv/kaiba12

He will be streaming tomorrow Oct 13th @ 5PM EST!

Among those that got knocked out this time around include GomTV’s english commentator Artosis (who did make the cut last year). In addition to him, a couple other names that were hopefuls coming in also got eliminated. Luffy and Moon, that latter of whom made the transistion from WC3 to SC2.

Just a reminder that this is the first set of players to be qualified for the RO64 matches that will start on October 18th. There are still 3 more days of qualifiers before we’ll get our complete bracket going into the live broadcasts.

First set of Qualifiers. Only 48 more to go.

IrOn
Phoenix
Choya
IdrA
Loner
Rain
Ace
Garnet
Lyn
ChRh
Chief
Bleach
Review
ZanDarke
Gon/Bright
Tankboy

And some of the bad news. These are some of the better known players didn’t make it.

Jinro
Haypro
Artosis
Luffy
Moon
GoStop

As a side note on the Starcrafting Forums side, we’re looking to setup fantasy brackets for this season of GomTV. Much like the setup of NCAA Basketball’s March Madness. You can show your interest and give comments at http://starcrafting.com/forums/showthread.php?t=300

Thanks to TL for keeping the list super up-to-date: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=159256

If you aren’t able to participate in the tournament, you can watch it live on the Starcrafting Live Stream.  The tournament starts at 7pm EDT (4pm PDT).

For those that are wondering, Saturday Night Starcrafting will be returning next Saturday with Psylence going full throttle at the helm.  Expect the signups to open up for next weekend’s tournament series sometime in the next few days.

Officially speaking, Nada is retired from the Brood War pro circuit.  At least thats the word from KeSPA.  Now, he is spending his time prepping for the GSL Prelims with his new teammates.  While not living in the oGs/TeamLiquid house, he will be spending a lot of time there practicing for his matches.  It seems the house is even more full of famous names to the worldwide Starcraft 2 Community.

Source: http://www.fomos.kr/board/board.php?mode=read&keyno=110976&db=issue
With a little translation from: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=159266

When speaking that GDC Online out in Austin, Texas, Battle.net Project Director Greg Canessa spoke about the future plans of the all-encompassing service.  When responding to question, he hinted at the current release plans for Hear of the Swarm stating “a main area of focus we’re going to be seeing on the Starcraft 2 side over the next 18 months between now and Heart of the Swarm.”

That puts the release for the expansion a few months into 2012.  It isn’t so far-fetched as World of Warcraft has seen expansions every 18-24 months.  If that sort of timegap holds to for both Heart of the Swarm and for Legacy of  the Void, the Protoss-centric third expansion for Starcraft 2, that would place the latter’s release window sometime in late 2014.  Quite the wait for these two expansions, especially for players that have already been waiting since the trilogy setup was announced at BlizzCon last year.

Source: http://www.gamespot.com/news/6281119.html

The event itself is being streamed live.  If you’re interested in the tournament, since its a uncommon chance to see some HuK Progaming play, you can check it out right now.  ESL is providing a free live stream for anyone that wants to watch it live.  As a bonus, its co-commentated by day9, himself.  Enjoy the stream.

The prize pool for the tournament

• 1st – $4,000
• 2nd – $2,000
• 3rd – $1,200
• 4th – $800
• 5th/6th – $550
• 5th/6th – $550
• 7th/8th – $450
• 7th/8th – $450

The Participant list:

• Ben ‘MurDeR’ Cardwell
• Chris ‘HuK’ Loranger
• Andrew ‘drewbie’ Moysey
• Ryan ’suggy’ Hryczynski
• Kevin ‘qxc’ Riley
• Strieb ’silver’ Roman
• Jonathan ‘KiWiKaKi’ Garneau
• Jian ‘Fenix’ Morayra Alejo

Watch it Live Now: http://www.esl-world.net/masters/season5/newyork/

If you happen to be in the Dallas area that weekend you can get in on the action as a spectator.  There are plenty of events planned just for spectators as well as the chance to check out all the gaming live.  So, if you happen to end up in Texas November 5th through 7th, be sure to check out this event if you can.

Player Passes: https://secure.mlgpro.com/store/product.php?pid=143
Spectator Passes: https://secure.mlgpro.com/store/product.php?pid=146

The participant list has become increasing more epic and competitive.  Old-school Starcraft 1 champions are transitioning into Starcraft 2 to have a chance at the huge grand prize.  We’ll get to see fan favorites from Season 1 coming back, including IdrA, TheLittleOne, HopeTorture, and the grand champion himself, Fruit Dealer.  In addition, we’ll see many names from Starcraft’s past glories including, Nada, July, Moon, and old-school pro legend Boxer.

While we wait for GomTV GSL Season 2 to begin, lets take a look at the first big news release from GomTV concerning the new season.

From GomTV:

Over 2,500 players have registered to participate in the STARCRAFT 2 Open Season 2, including many famous Pro-gamers from Starcraft Broodwar such as Lee, Yun-Yeol(aka Nada) and Park, Sung-Jun(aka July). Also well known pro-gamers from Warcraft 3 such as Jang, Jae-Ho (aka Moon), Yoon, Duk-Man(aka Soccer), Park, Jun(aka Lyn), No, Jin-Wouk(aka SouL), Kim, Sung-Sik(aka ReMinD) and Um, Hyo-Sup(aka BEV) also have shown their personal confirmations to participate in the tournament. Among the star pro-gamers, the players named above are confirmed to participate in the tournament.

The preliminary rounds of STARCRAFT 2 Open Season 2 was originally planned to be held only for two days but, due to increase in the number of participants, it has been extended to four days. The preliminary rounds will be held from the 9th of Oct. to the 12th.

Reflecting the world wide love for Starcraft 2, over 250 foreign players from 48 different countries have shown their intensions of participating in STARCRAFT 2 Open Season 2. These players include well-known players such as Loner and Loofy, who are among the best Starcraft players in China, and also TheLittleOne and IdrA who participated in the previous tournament.

The actual rounds of the STARCRAFT 2 Open Season 2 tournament will begin on Oct. 18th and the Finals are scheduled for Nov. 13th. Due to the fact that alot of pro-gamers and most players in the Diamond League of the Korean server actually signed up for this tournament, it will be a highly competitive tournament to distinguish the Champion of Starcarft2.

Source: http://www.gomtv.net/2010gslopens1/news/224

Looks to be quite the epic event again. Who are you guys voting for? Can Fruit Dealer get a repeat will players knocked out early last season (namely TLO and IdrA) make a push into the finals, or will one of the old legends of Starcraft 1 make tidal waves in their premiere Starcraft 2 Tournament?

Browder’s concern deals with the very early rushes that still plague the Zerg.  In particular, the Reaper Rush still shows a great deal of ability of knocking out a Zerg player before they have a shot at getting setup.  Well, it looks like in the next patch we may see a severe nerfing for Reaper rushes.

• The Barracks are going to require a Supply Depot, which will impact a lot of early terran reaper pushes.
• The reaper speed upgrade will require the Factory, which is meant to weaken a lot of the early terran reaper attacks that dominate so many matches, especially in team games.

These changes effectively removes any sort of Reaper Rush. The traditional order for a Reaper Rush simply went Barracks, Tech Lab, and then Reapers and Reaper Speed concurrently. With these changes, the new order will be more like this. Supply Depot, Barracks, Tech Lab, Reapers, Factory, Reaper Speed. In the current venue of Reaper usage, this may remove the Reaper completely from common play.

While these changes are meant to blunt the Reaper rush, the Supply Depot change will certainly effect all Terran early game play. In addition to slowing any attempted Reaper Rush Considerably, it also slows the ability of a Terran player to wall off and produce defensive units. This means that defensive marines will be produced up to 30 seconds later. Which is now the main concern of Terran players.

In addition to the changes that are clearly meant for Reaper Rushes, there were some additional plans mentioned for upcoming patches.  A Roach range buff that is meant to help prevent a large Roach group from getting in their own way by allowing them to not have to create such a small attack circle to get at their targets.  A nerf to Stalkers vs Zerg Fungal Growth that will prevent them from Blinking away.  Finally, a Zerg building health boost meant to help protect tech buildings.

• We’re increasing roach range. This will allow roaches to be more effective in large groups, giving the zerg more options in the mid to end game.
• Fungal Growth will now prevent Blink, which will give zerg a way to stop endlessly Blinking stalkers which can be very challenging to deal with in large numbers.
• We’re making a number of increases to the health of zerg buildings, which will make the very vulnerable zerg technology structures more resistant to raids. We don’t expect these hit point changes to have a super significant impact on the game, but the current numbers felt way too low.

Source: http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/882511

There are certainly a lot of controversial plans coming up for future patches. What do you guys think of them? How can they be improved upon?

Papp has given us several awesome guides on utilizing Zerg units to their full potential.  His Baneling guide is no different.  He goes through and explains how to best utilize a Baneling group and goes over the advanced tactics involved in using them with other units.  Everything from a Mass Baneling steam-roller, to the Overlord Bomber, its all here.  Enjoy this awesome guide from Papp.  Also remember to check out our awesome Guide Forums for even more great Starcraft 2 Strategies.

From Papp:

Banelings, are they right for you?

Banelings are a scary unit to use because of the simple reason that they only have one shot to justify their purchase. Once you have a baneling nest, you will only need a handful in each squad and it helps to remember that each baneling only costs 50min 25gas. Having a few banelings can be helpful (TvZ) to outright game-changing (ZvZ), but having them is only half the battle, you have to use em like a pro

Baneling Tips

Banelings are morphed out of Zergling, as a crafty zerg player, you might have noticed that units that exit a morph stage always come out at full health. If you just attacked and want to move in quickly with your baneling force, morph only the injured lings, then you will have a fully healed army in 20 seconds (morph time).

The baneling speed is a great upgrade, but you need a lair to start it, so use your speedlings to rush to enemy base and morph there. Obviously try to do this out of his sight, but if you want to be sneaky you can let him see that you have a large force of zerglings, and then morph to banelings when you are hidden. He might build zealots/marines/zerglings that can be juicy targets for your new banelings.

Banelings can be used defensively as well, if you have the uncanny ability to watch that minimap like a hawk, burrow a few banelings where you think he’ll run over and wait for enemies to tread over top. But if you are like most of us and miss what goes on in that minimap, you can set the banelings to auto-unburrow by right clicking on theunburrow button. This will make them unburrow and scurry at enemies that come too close. If you are using the auto function to defend your base, I find that players will realize what’s going on and stop advancing pretty fast, this is because they are currently watching their army. You need to place the banelings in spots where the player will tell them to walk past and not watch his army go, routine spots that wont get his attention. how many times have you just attack-moved your entire army somewhere and tended to your base? That’s where you need to set the trap.

You want to get the drop on enemies without burrowing? Hide a few banelings on top of high ground, or behind a shrubbery wall. They’ll never see that coming.

Baneling drops are exactly what they sound like, drop a ton of banelings from overlords on some helpless units. I personally don’t do this too often, but baneling drops can be a viable option in later stages of the game. The trick to doing max damage with this tactic is to have another attack going on, and just drop the banelings into the fray. To spread the pain even more you can do a moving overlord drop by clicking Unload All, and instead of clicking on a location, click on the moving overlord itself.

If you are planning on using banelings to disrupt resource gathering, i would suggest using either a speedy overlord drop or a nydus attack. I don’t really like these options though as they are easily defended by good players.

In zerg 1v1, banelings are what will make or break you. In the early-game, all you want to do is catch his zerglings with the baneling, and avoid his banelings. When defending micro your units and sacrifice one ling at a time to take out his banelings. When attacking, move in banelings 1 or 2 at a time and don’t attack-move, instead hover your hand over the X key and chase down his swarm, manually detonate when the opportunity presents.

Source: http://starcrafting.com/forums/showthread.php?t=293

Some of the changes they’re implementing are replacing two maps in the Starcraft 2 1v1 ladder map pool.  Desert Oasis which notoriously favored Zerg play.  As well as Kulas Ravine which did the complete opposite for Zerg players.  These two maps are being replaced by Jungle Basin and Shakuras Plateau.  This will hopefully smooth out some of the challenges that appear simply because of map selection.

From Blizzard EU:

In an effort to provide the best competitive ladder experiences possible, we have made changes to the 1v1 ladder pool.

Desert Oasis and Kulas Ravine have been removed from the 1v1 ladder pool and replaced with Jungle Basin and Shakuras Plateau, respectively. While Desert Oasis and Kulas Ravine are no longer available for 1v1 ladder games, they remain playable in custom games.

Do you guys think that these were the correct maps to replace? Do you think that the new maps will do better?

This version of the more standard 4-gate rush is even more risky and requires even more commitment.  However, it does still maintain a certain level of recoverability in that you aren’t forced to surrender in a failed attempt as with many other all-in strategies.  However, it is still a risky play, but let’s take a look at the build.

The Build:

• Chronoboost your Nexus ASAP once, then save Chronoboost for the Warpgate Upgrade
• 10 Pylon then use Probe to scout
• 10 Gateway
• 13 at ~90% Gateway, start Assimilator
• 15 at 100% Gateway build Cybernetics Core
• 18 when you reach 450 minerals and no later than ~30% on the Warpgate Upgrade) build 3 Gateways
• When the Warpgate upgrade is ~75% done, use your scouting probe to start warping in Pylons in or near your opponents main base.

Some Notes about the more precise microing of your macroing:

• You’ll be harvesting gas with 3 Probes until you reach your goal of 50. Best practice is to pull a Probe off gas at 44, then pull a second Probe off at 48 and finally take the third off at 52. That gives you enough for Warpgate tech.
• When you have your gas, begin warpgate and try to not let chronoboost drop.
• Let your mineral supply work up to 450 and pop out 4 Zealots at once. which leaves a bit for a probe so you don’t completely lose supply.
• Your goal is to have enough supply to maintain at least 2 groups of Zealots at once. 4 Pylons should do the trick here. Have as many in your opponents base as possible to maintain the proxy.

When that Pylon finishes, just start producing units like mad.  Zealots are going to be your unit of choice since you pull away from gas production.  At this point, you’re fighting a battle of attrition.  Either you overwhelm his defenses, widdle down his economy, or they get to the point where they outmacro you and you have to pull back and attempt a more standard approach.

Be wary of scouts though, your gas production (or lack thereof after you pull probes) is a tell-tale sign of this build.

Good luck with this one.

This action comes after weeks of player complaints concerning the state of cheating within Starcraft 2.  The Battlenet forums usually have a post or two a day concerning a player that is aggravated about playing against a cheater or a hacker.  Now, it seems, there are 5000 fewer players to worry about.  This shouldn’t effect the vast majority of the player base as there are over three million Starcraft 2 players worldwide already.  Still good news from Blizzard concerning this hot topic.

From Blizzard:

We recently took action, including suspensions and bans, on over 5,000 StarCraft II players who were in violation of the Battle.net Terms of Use for cheating and/or using hack programs while playing. In addition to undermining the spirit of fair competition that’s essential to play on Battle.net, cheating and hacking can lead to stability and performance issues with the service. Maintaining a stable, safe, and secure online-gaming experience for legitimate players is a top priority for us, and we’ll be continuing to keep watch on Battle.net and take action as needed.

Source: http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/882508

A couple of the names stand out, of course.  LiquidHuk (that is HuK in TeamLiquid form) and Kiwikaki were the top two finishers in the Raleigh competition earlier this year.  In addition to those two, Idra is going to be coming all the way from Korea to participate and is looking to prove his stuff again after getting knocked out early in GSL Season 1.  Now, let’s take a look at the list.

From MLG:

• LiquidHuK
• ROOT.Kiwikaki
• ajtls
• ROOT.CauthonLuck
• dignitas.SeleCT
• TTOne
• ROOT.qxc
• Nadagast
• ROOT.SLush
• ROOT.drewbie
• EG.iNcontrol
• Silver
• Masq
• Agh
• ThisIsJimmy
• avilo
• EG.LZGaMeR
• Gretorp
• PainUser
• ROOT.CatZ
• Time
• EG.iNkA
• LiquidTyler
• EG.IdrA
• KawaiiRice
• KingSpades
• LiquidRet
• White-Ra
• CheeseGrater_525
• TorcH
• Taurent
• Talbadar
• ROOT.Fayth
• Newsh
• orb
• EG.Machine
• GxZ
• hmp12345
• AlexCMoi
• imakeroaches
• ItsYoungLee
• jeremiahthebullfrog
• BackpackSC2
• Bluewolf.
• BuddhistSC
• Nayr.
• Nesh
• fograw
• Nokarot
• OmniscientSC2
• FoolyMlg
• powerfullone1773
• ryanrushia
• Sadistx
• sctipton
• ShaggySan
• systemkaos
• cava
• drewwarren
• dapz24
• UNC.Qiufeng
• UNC-oRe.saMa
• wonkman

Source: http://www.mlgpro.com/content/page/313698/Huk-Idra-White-Ra-and-Kiwikaki-Headline-MLG-D-C-StarCraft-2-Event

Who is your favorite to take it all in DC this time around?

If you’re attending BlizzCon in person, we’ll give you a bit of a low down on what to expect from the panels.  If you’re not so fortunate and have to rely on the DirecTV live stream, we’ll let you know which channel all the Starcraft 2 action is.  Even if you are stuck with the live stream, the production values have risen considerably from last year as each area of the convention has their own dedicated video stream.  So, there’s never a moment where you don’t get to watch what you want live.

From the BlizzCon website:

StarCraft II Art

Saturday 12pm, Developer Panel Stage
Get a look at the tools used to create the art of StarCraft II, and find out how our artists develop the unique visual identity of the StarCraft universe. You’ll see a range of epic artwork created for the game in this panel.

StarCraft II Custom Maps and Editor

Friday 3pm, Main Stage
Dive in with the designers of the StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty campaign and learn more about the creation of custom maps using the powerful StarCraft II Editor.

StarCraft II Multiplayer

Saturday 1:30pm, Developer Panel Stage
Interested in the science behind the thrill of competitive gameplay? The StarCraft II developers give you a behind-the-scenes look at data collected from multiplayer matches, leagues, and ladders, and explain how it all comes together in the art of balancing races and units.

StarCraft II Secrets of the Masters

Friday 1:30pm, Developer Panel Stage
Hear strategies and advice for players of all skill levels, find out how to move up the competitive ladder, and learn more about the nuances of resource management.

StarCraft II Story Q&A

Friday 4:30pm, Developer Panel Stage
Finished the StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty campaign and still have unanswered questions? Sit down with some of the storytellers who crafted the epic saga to learn more about the lore.

If you’re interested in the complete schedule, here it is. Its a nice large image in case you want a hi-res print-off.

As always, we’ll be bringing you all the latest announcements and what they mean to the world of Starcraft 2 as they become available.  Check back all weekend long for all the latest news and views from the Starcrafting Community.

One of the bigger changes has come with the partnership between Facebook and Blizzard that has given us the RealID system integrated into the lastest BattleNet system. The identification system that has become available has allowed players to find each other across all Blizzard games. The system, however, didn’t allow for much privacy. There was no way to become invisible to the system or to other players. On top of that, you basically had to be a part of Facebook at that point.

Well, Blizzard has answered that by introducing some new privacy options that should alleviate a lot of questions and concerns from the BattleNet community.

From the Blizzard Community Blog:

We’d like to make you aware of the new Real ID-related privacy options we’ve introduced to Battle.net. These options provide Real ID users with additional tools for customizing the service based on their preferences, enabling the ability to opt in or out of the Real ID “Friends of Friends” and “Add Facebook Friends” features or to turn off Real ID altogether.

Real ID offers an optional, convenient way for keeping in touch with real-world friends you know and trust, whether they’re playing World of Warcraft, StarCraft II, or one of our future games. The “Friends of Friends” and “Add Facebook Friends” features provide you with even more options to stay connected while you play by making it easier for real-life friends to locate each other on Battle.net. You can easily enable or disable these features through your Battle.net privacy settings by logging in to your Battle.net account.

Well, from our guide forums, Papp has come up with a guide to help deal with Stalker well with two of a Zerg player’s main types of units.  First, he explains how to use Zerglings to your advantage by using higher battle strategies.  Then, he gets into how to deal with Stalkers with Hydralisks.  Also, how to use both at the same time for the best results.  Quite the excellent guide to check out.

From a post by Papp:

As a Starcraft 2 Zerg player, it’s often you see a Protoss player go 4-Gate and spam Stalkers. Its often you’ll know its coming way ahead of time, and its often they will collide with your waiting defences and somehow win seemingly against all odds. Before you take to the forums armed with acronyms like “OP” or “IMBA OMG”, you need to understand what makes them so good, and in turn, what they are bad at.

The 100% stalker force is an oddity in SC2 in that its one of those few army compositions that can be really effective with only one type of unit. Zerg don’t get this luxury, get used to it.

The stalker is a fast ranged unit that is armed with an ability called “blink” that allows it to move ahead instantly. This makes it extremely cheap against melee units because it can simply warp out of melee distance, It can also hop up cliffs or across small ledges. ( I mean srsly Blizzard?, zerg is the most mobile team and they don’t have anything like this)

The official counters for Stalkers are Zerglings or Hydras. But alone these units wont stand a chance against an equal force of stalkers, because zerglings can be blinked away from, and hydras are sooooooooooooo slow off of creep, so they can simply walk away from your hydra army.

ZERGLING COUNTER: SURROUND SURROUND SURROUND

To counter with zerglings you need either a big area to fight in, or decent preparation/foresight. The trick is to have 2 groups of zerglings.  When Stalkers enter your base, try to surround with #1 group of zerglings, and group #2 zerglings should come in from behind. Its hard to explain in only text so I will give an example.

In Lost Temple, I keep one set of Zerglings in my base and the other hidden in the nearest gold mineral expansion. When I see a stalker attack near my front, ill attack-move my lings from gold expansion, and then move in with my base defence lings at the same time. Because you essentially come from all directions, he cant blink away from you. This is easier done than explained .

If its later in the game or you are in a tight map, you can use burrow to get that second set of lings behind him.

HYDRA COUNTER: PIN EM DOWN

To counter with hydras you basically just need to hold him still, your hydras will win the fight by them selves if they can reach him. To immobilize them, use a late-attacking(or unburrowing) zergling swarm to hit him after he has already blinked away from your hydras. He can only blink once every 10 seconds so he’s finished. Alternatively you can use infestors to tie him down with fungal growth, if you have hydras already you should have an infestor.

In either case I prefer to use burrowed lings but i seem to be the only one that still buys that upgrade so find whatever works for you. Remember! Use your control groups!

This is the Zowie Gear EuroCup. A 512-player tournament for European players. Starting next saturday at 5pm CET, this is a single-elimination BO1/Bo3 split tournament. In addition, there are some prizes. Second and Third place are getting hooked up with some Mousepads while first place gets a Headset, a mousepad, and a gaming contract with Playzone.

Good luck to all of you awesome players on the east side of the Atlantic. Now, here’s the details for the tournament:

When: Saturday October 9th, 17:00 CET start time.
Where: Bnet 2.0 EUROPE Server
Format: 512-player BO1 single elimination, Bo3 for Semis + Final

Map Sets:
Steppes (Ro512), Delta Quadrant (Ro256),
Xel Naga (Ro128), Blistering Sands (Ro64),
Lost Temple (Ro32), Kulas (Ro16), Desert Oasis (Ro8),
Metalopolis (Semis, loser chooses), Lost Temple (Final, loser choose)

Sign up:
Check the info at http://starcrafting.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2524#post2524

Prizes:
1st: HAMMER Headset + G-TF mousepad + Contract with Playzone Gaming
2nd: P-RF Mousepad
3rd: P-TF Mousepad

Rules:
* No hacking, cheating, etc, will be tolerated.
* Observers are only allowed if both players agree.
* Replays from the Ro8 onward must be saved and emailed to xeris@gosucoaching.com
* Disconnects 2 minutes in will result in a re-game, disconnects after 5 minutes will be judged by an admin

Its been a long month getting here. We’re finally going to take a look at the GomTV GSL Starcraft 2 Tournament Finals for Season 1. The original pool of players numbered in the thousands. Among them are the best Starcraft 2 players in the world. There is, of course, a good reason for the incredible level of competition.

The prize pool for this tournament is the largest of any Starcraft 2 Tournament in the world. The total prize pool is $170,000 for the top players in the tournament. Both of these players have won $27,500 for making it this far. The winner of the tournament will recieve $85,000.

For the next couple weeks there won’t be much GSL Tournament news as we still have a couple weeks till season 2’s preliminaries start.  You can expect to see the same awesome coverage you’ve seen these past couple weeks along with coverage of all the biggest and best pro-gaming tournaments from around the world.

Kim, Won-Ki (a Fruit Dealer) vs Kim, Sung-Je (HopeTorture)

Game 1 Delta Quadrant

For the first game of the finals of the GomTV GSL Starcraft 2 Tournament we have a Fruit Dealer in the northwest base and HopeTorture in the southwestern position. Fruit’s scout starts out early as we look at a nice cheese-less build from both sides. Both immediately go gas and then we see a Spawning Pool and a Barracks.

Fruit sets up for speedlings, hoping to get the game’s harrass started the right way. In his opponent’s mineral line. He also moves into his first expansion. Hope does setup a racks/factory wall which sets up a nice defense for a speedling rush. And from the Factory we see a Hellion pop out to take care of the early Zergling poking at the wall.

Hope sends in the Hellion to go after some early harrass but is picked off by a Queen in Fruit’s main. After clearing all the scouts, Fruit starts to tech towards a Spire and some Zerg Mutalisks. A second Factory goes up showing some heavy mech play from Hope. That sets Hope up for some nice Thor counters versus Mutalisks.

Terran Thors do start to emerge even before Mutalisks start to mass. Fruit does set up a third base and forgoes producing a lot of Mutalisks. He does show play that shows some heavy teching particularly towards Infestors. At the same time, he does expand into a fourth expansion. The expansion do stay nice and spread out as a fail safe towards losing his other bases.

A scouting Terran Marine does spot Fruit’s fourth base, so it doesn’t remain hidden. Also, Fruit’s tech into Ground upgrades shows a heavy tech into Ultralisk play. He also catches a Medivac drop, negating it before it could be implemented.

Hope is playing defensively setting up a heavy siege line. Sending only a couple drops out to scout and harass. Hope does spot the Ultralisks among a few different drops.

Finally from all the defensive play Hope did, both armies are huge. And we see a push from Hope towards one of Fruit’s far expansion. The push contains Marines and Medivacs but is wiped out by banelings, zerglings, and roaches with some Infestor Fungal Growth.

While Hope attempts to push, Fruit sets his Ultralisks out against Hope’s expansions and are just allowed to go to town against Hope’s buildings. The Ultralisk force is simply huge tearing into Hope’s main. Forcing the first GG and giving Fruit the first win.

Game 2 Lost Temple

For the second game of this Starcraft 2 GSL Tournament, we see a Fruit Dealer set up in the western base and in the southern base. Very close positions for when the builds transition into air. While the ground builds endure, the positions are much farther. This makes a fast air transition very powerful.

Fruit does go for a fast expand. However, he does miss some key scout sights and misses Hope’s positioning and delaying his scouting. He does eventually find the Terran position and sends in a quick Zergling harass. A quick last second Barracks/Factory wall blocks the Zergling advance and causes them to go back to their own base.

Hope goes quick drop setups and loads up a Siege and two SCVs. He positions the Siege in the high ground over looking Fruit’s natural. Some very quick Spine Crawler and Queen movement knocks it right out. Meanwhile, Fruit does tech and pushes out a few Mutalisks. They do take out the retreating dropship and also the siege.

Fruit sets up a far third base that remains hidden from Hope. At least for the time being. He also sets up some tech for several possible uses for Banelings and Roaches. At the same time, setting up a fourth out of the way expansion.

A quick Medivac drop attempt is set up and repelled. In addition the Medivac is lost. Some very nice control and patrol with the Mutalisks. This slows down Hope as Fruit’s army sets up.

Hope shows a Thor/Siege mass and sets up to cap Fruit in. Fruit does set up some Baneling drops along with Roach/Zergling harass drops. And to top it off, keeps Hope’s main army engaged and even tears it apart. Even while that is going on, Fruit has the resources to setup a huge Baneling mass up for a Overlord drop.

A devastating carpet bombing seals the GG and gives Fruit Dealer a second win over HopeTorture.

Game 3 Kulas Ravine

After a huge 2-0 lead for Fruit Dealer, we see him set up in the southeast base with HopeTorture on the southwest base. Early scout goes out for Fruit getting a safe Overlord scout before the marines get out for Hope. In a risky move, Fruit sets up a quick expansion in the gold expansion.

Hope does figure out Fruit’s plan when the drone count in the main doesn’t figure out and goes to look for the mission base. The gold expansion is spotted and Hope pulls back and walls up. Hope sets up for a quick Medivac drop as Fruit starts setting up tech for Roaches and more.

Hope drops a tank in the smallest of high ground spots just outside Fruit’s gold expansion. Fruit does have spine crawlers setup to knock them out with a group of roaches to cover the far side of the high ground.

While Hope tries to figure out with to do with the remaining drop components, a Nydus pops up in HopeTorture’s base. His entire economy is rocked by a huge mass of Zerglings. He does try to set up shop in a new base, but there isn’t a way to reasonably comeback.

Fruit Dealer earns the GG big time. Moving ahead 3-0.

Game 4 Desert Oasis

In the bottom position of the Desert Oasis map in this fourth game of the GSL Starcraft 2 Tournament Finals is Fruit Dealer. In the top position we find HopeTorture. Hope is against the ropes on this fourth game after falling behind 3-0.

Hope walls off and pushes into a quick expansion. Fruit hasn’t shown super aggressive play so far this match which makes the quick expansion a smart move to avoid falling behind as he had in the previous games. In the meantime, he sets up Three barracks plus gas looking at some Reaper or Marauder play early on.

Fruit Dealer on the other hand continues the same builds that have won him the last three games. However, to change it up a bit, getting Banelings set up very early. Which is the perfect counter for super mass marines that opts to play instead of tech lab units.

Banelings are set up just in time for the mass marine push and cleans it up very quickly. Fruit once again has set up the perfect counter for HopeTorture. Fruit doesn’t immediately counter and instead opts to build at the gold expansion.

Meanwhile, Hope sets up shop at his own gold expansion while trasitioning to a mech heavy build. He does attempt to drop a couple of times but some pretty well-controlled fungal growth prevents a ton of damage.

Fruit then counters with his own drops. First a major zergling drop in the Terran main devasating Hope’s main, and then a Baneling bombardment against Hope’s main army taking out some siege tanks.

Hope does recover some by abandoning his main and pulls back to his expansion. He even spends the next couple minutes widdling down Fruits army even surviving a couple Baneling bombs. Continuing to push in, he can’t be stopped by Fruit Dealer. Fruit does attempt to fight back but it looks grim.

Fruit completely loses his main along with the majority of his tech structures. And despite attempting to hold the line in his expansions, Fruit Dealer is forced to GG. Huge comeback for HopeTorture to start to close the gap 3-1.

Game 5 Scrap Station

HopeTorture begins his uphill battle to try and pull an incredible upset and finds himself in the right position with Fruit Dealer in the left position. Hope immediately proxies a Barracks just outside Fruit’s natural. He pushes a Reaper and goes into Fruit’s main and goes for the quick harass.

Hope starts taking Drone after Drone until Fruit is finally about to get Zerglings to push out the rush. Fruit then takes the Zerglings and goes after the SCV that is attempting to build a second proxy. The SCV falls and the Reapers give chase as the Zerglings go for the Terran main.

Fruit does some very stategic play using the smoke around the Xel’Naga Tower to blind a quick counterstrike against the Reapers. Fruit continues the push towards the Terran main and reinforces the push with Roaches.

As Fruit is on his way, Hope walls off. Fruit just continues to push and due to some bad micro and unit blockage allows the Barracks to fall. After losing a few subsequent SCVs, the push is repelled. Then about a minute later, this same sequence is repeated as Hope simply isn’t in position to repair a barracks.

Fruit does go Mutalisks while Hope takes the island expansion. Hope does reinforce the expansion with Thors and a Turret just in time as the Mutalisks show up. Fruit does commit and moves the Mutalisks against the Terran main.

At the same time, Fruit takes two more expansions, setting up the same sort of Macro game that causes Hope to just fall too far behind. In order to maintain the macro lead, Fruit continues to harass with the Mutalisks.

Once again, Fruit sets up Banelings for an Overlord drop and goes after the island expansion. With a Baneling bomb, the Thor drops with the Zergling mix cleaning up the island. Hope does commit a drop to maintain the island with reinforcements.

Hope goes for Tanks and thors to defend his main, but Fruit denies it with a heavy baneling drop. This pulls the reinforcements from the island and allows the Mutalisks to just clear it out.

Hope does attempt one last drop push into the Zerg main. However, Fruit simply rolls a huge Baneling mass in with the support of an Infestor to lock down the drop in place with Fungal Growth. The entire drop is wiped out with Banelings to spare.

This seals the tournament victory for a Fruit Dealer. Pulling off an amazing run as the underdog race and simply couldn’t be stopped.

Congratulations a Fruit Dealer.

Final: a Fruit Dealer 4:1 HopeTorture

A Fruit Dealer walks away with the $85,000 grand prize and is crowned the best Starcraft 2 player in the world.  Expect an even bigger, more elite progaming group next season of the GomTV GSL Starcraft 2 Tournament.

Papp takes us through the various stages of a standard Zerg build and identifies the threats you’ll face as a Zerg player yourself.  Anything from Zerglings to Mutalisks, Papp has you covered.  He sets you up to get the counters in place so that you don’t lose in a mirror match.

From a Guide Posted by Papp:

First off:

You have to realize that the basic laws of Zerg gameplay don’t apply to Zerg vs Zerg games. For example, usually you want as much creep as possible, but if I am going mostly zerg air, i don’t want to expand my creep because my enemy might get more use out of it, especially if he goes hydra. Also the rule that zerg can only build structures on creep becomes a nightmare if you catch him with planted spine crawlers on your creep.

Vs. Zergling/Speedling:

Some people will say use roaches, but I find that if I get a Roach Warren I will only have a few roaches by the time the rush comes, and you risk the Zerglings just running by your defenses into your base. I suggest Banelings to deal with this problem. Mix 2 Banelings into your swarm of Zerglings and you should be safe against a larger force of Zerglings. Having a few Spine Crawlers to stab at Zerglings in combat will even farther improve your odds. Also use Infestors if you have them.

Vs. Roach

Roaches are a predictable escalation after a zergling rush, but they are slow and their low range makes them bad against ranged defenders like queens and spine crawlers. My favorite way of dealing with fast roaches is to let em in my base and then surround with lings and let queens and spines attack from afar. this only really works with zealots and roaches, stalkers will blink and marines can be killed in easier ways.

Vs. Mutalisk

If you don’t see any Roach action after the initial attacks expect Mutalisks. These are easily defended against if you are ready for em, so i opt to get a Evolution Chamber early so all i need to do is pop down a few Spore Crawlers near my minerals when i see his Spire (scout for this often!) I always have one more Queen than I have hatches, so by the time i have to worry about Mutaslisks, i should have at least 3 Queens, more if possible. When the attack comes don’t panic, if you have an extra Queen you should always have some extra energy so use it on transfusing your fellow Queens and Spore Crawlers, sooner or later the Mutalisks will get the point.

Vs. hydra ball/mix

When i see a hyrda ball coming at me i smile, because i know that his only units that deal real damage will die without any trouble. Its important to know your armour types for this reason, the hydra is light armour, and you should already have some units that do massive damage to light armour. your banelings of course! since hydras are light those banelings will rip through em like warm butter as long as they can get close. So for maximum damage i suggest burying them and waiting for the bulk of hydras to tread over top.

Mid/Late game:

Many zerg(including myself) get sloppy when the late game rolls around, i tend to sit atop a massive pile of minerals and micro manage small forces when i could be building a whole new army. DONT DO THIS! if you see your money get too high just pump out units, do anything, expand and get even more, but keep building units and keep spawning larva. Also infestors would be a good choice because they can spawn an army on the spot for free, so spend some of your money on them.

All in all, i think the one unit you need more of is infestors. buy em, use em. zerg doesnt have fast healing medics or shields, those fungal growth attacks cause real damage that cant be healed quickly. dont bother getting neural parasite in zvz, it doesnt work against ultras a vs. protoss strat is next, but expect a separate infestor guide as well in the future. maybe a baneling guide as well.