The 30th of April was the last day of Dreamhack Austin. We had TRUE looking strong going into the Ro4. He went through the Ro16 going 3-0 over uThermal, he went through the Ro8 going 3-1 over Cham. It was set to be a good series against the tough Nerchio.

Game one started off well. In the early game TRUE was able to get the better end off small speedling and baneling skirmishes. With small leads stacking up, he was able to create an economical lead. He kept at the small skirmishes, a group of burrowed roaches here, a ling run by there. With every moment he was able to create a lead out of nothing. He had more resources in the bank, more bases, yet Nerchio kept up in army supply and upgrades. It all came down to a single engagement that TRUE took magnificently. Better arc, better biles. He took it decisively.

Game two saw a little bit of a curve ball by TRUE. Again, after winning most of the small ling skirmishes, he was able to transition to mutas unbeknownst to Nerchio. He was unable to transition to hydras fast enough and was only able to use spores and a few fungals to defend against the massive muta flock. TRUE was relentless in his attack, completely overwhelming his opponents main base, Nerchio went for a desperate counter-attack and he found the bases completely undefended. TRUE sunk every single resource into mutas, he had no ground army. With the spawning mutas he tried to defend but it wasn’t enough and he called the GG.

After some early speedlings and baneling shenanigans by Nerchio, the game went late. With each player on five bases, on hive with a roach, ravager and infestor army, it became a game of small steps. Responding to an earlier attack, TRUE was able to snipe the evolution chamber researching +3 for Nerchio. His opponent then traded his army for TRUEs’ and both players remaxed to max with roaches and a new round of infestors. Meanwhile, our Zerg was able to saturate a 7th base and with the extra income started to tech up to ultralisks. When his ultras were halfway complete, Nerchio attacked TRUE’s 4th, killing it and most of his opponents army. He backed off only once he saw the 6 ultras that finally hatched. While TRUE tried to counter-attack, his opponent was able to tech up to lurkers and destroy what remained of his opponents army.
Economy devastated and with no army, TRUE GG’d out.

The fourth game was uneventful, after standard openings from both players and some ling/baneling skirmishes here and there, they both went into roach ravager and macroed. From there, TRUE tried an attack into the area between the third and the natural. His army was split in two parts, as the first wave hit, it was sandwiched by a group of roaches and ravagers to the north. The first wave of TRUE’s army lost about half of its forces while it retreated to the other half, the slower ravagers were picked off first and this spelled the beginning of the end. As he retreated back home, he was down a little more than half in army supply. Even at his base, he did not have enough resources or units to push Nerchio back and he sadly typed out GG.

With that, we were out of the tournament. It was still a great event for us.

■ TRUE – finishes 3rd-4th
■ JonSnow – finishes 9th-16th
■ PiLiPiLi – finishes 17th-24th
■ PengWin – finishes Group Stage 1
■ jheffe – finishes Group Stage 1
■ WarreN – finishes Group Stage 1
■ Silky – finishes Group Stage 1
■ sLeet – finishes Group Stage 1

All pictures by Troyseph

On this second day of Dreamhack Austin, we had two players in the Ro16 ; TRUE and JonSnow. [Read Day 1]

The first series to be played out was TRUE vs uThermal. Going into the match, our Korean star was feeling confident, having had a nice run through the 3 bracket stages. He started the games off with a bang. Some early ling pressure gave him just enough breathing room to adequately defend the hellbat pressure follow-up. From there, it was a macro game where he was ahead, granting him the resources to build up to ultralisks and run over his opponent. Game two was similar, the Terran opened like the previous game with a hellbat which was successfully defended by queens and speedlings. It then snowballed into a macro lead, into an army lead and finally into a map win. Game 3 was a whole other story. TRUE wanted to win quickly, so he opened with a 1.5 base roach ravager cheese. While looking promising, it ultimately failed when he walked up his opponents ramp and lost his entire army. Forced to play roach/ravager with some infestor support, our Zerg was able to defend his bases long enough to transition to a ultralisk, crackling and infestor based army. Even despite losing his entire army near the end, with an upgrade lead and economical advantage, TRUE win the 3rd game. In the Ro8, he then faced the ROOT Zerg Cham.

Meanwhile we JonSnow against the ever so frightening Polish Zerg Nerchio. With a best-of-five against such a strong opponent, our american hope had to pull out his best play yet. The series was played on BasetradeTV and sadly it was a quick 0-3 loss for our King of the North. Despite great effort, he was simply outclassed by the his opponent. Finishing top 16 at such a big event is nothing to scoff hmat, we are very happy with such an amazing performance.

In the Ro8, TRUE played against the Mexican Zerg Cham. Hot off a 3-0 against uThermal, our korean zerg was playing his very best. He started off strong with victory, overwhelming his opponent with strong macro and excellent micro when it counted. In the second game, Cham had the best of him with superior opener which gave him the economical lead which translated to an overwhelming push. Despite great harass, TRUE lost the game, but not his spirit. The third game went late. Both players maxed out on a roach, ravager and infestor composition. With a slight economical advantage, TRUE danced around Chams’ army and eventually decided to go for a basetrade instead of defending his fourth. At that moment, TRUE portrayed his superior decision making and split his army just enough to wipe out his opponents 4 bases while protecting his own bases just enough to evacuate a good number of drones. After a few skirmishes TRUE had the superior force and walked over what remained of Cham. Like with uThermal, with a single game to win, he went for a quick speedlight and baneling attack. Through superior micro and better macro, our zerg was able to force Cham into submission.

Watch the final moments of TRUE vs uThermal

In the semi-finals, TRUE will have to face off against either Kelazhur or Nerchio, a tough match no matter who he plays. Yet, with his performance throughout the tournament, it is very possible he can win the series and propel himself into the finals.

His match will be played tomorrow. Don’t miss out on the amazing series to come #GoPSISTORM

Day one of Dreamhack Austin concluded not too long ago. 6 players went into the First Stage with hopes of defeating strong opponents.
We had PengWin, WarreN and sLeet, TRUE, jheffe and silky competing in the hopes of advancing until the playoffs.

After three hours of intense games, the competition was whittled down from 64 contenders to 32. Unfortunately we lost 5 players in the bloodbath. Despite good games, PengWin, WarreN, Silky, sLeet and jheffe fell in their respective groups. Only TRUE was able to make it out of his group, even finishing in first place with a perfect 4-0 record.

Every single player was close to advancing, finishing either in 3rd place or in Group L’s case, finishing 3rd and 4th. Despite the losses, we are proud of our players who have shown they can battle it out with good players, they simply need a little but more to be able to drive it home.

In the second group stage, TRUE was seeded into Group B with TLO, Pandabearme and FeaR. he first played against the german protoss quickly winning in a 2-0. He then had to face Doctor Dario himself. He lost the first map on abyssal, but was able to mount a comeback and won 2-1. Topping the group 4-1.

The next group stage saw TRUE join JonSnow and PiLiPiLi, having been seeded through the qualifiers.

Our american zerg saw himself the only North American in group A with Harstem, Serral and Optimus. Losing the first match 0-2 to harstem, it started off poorly. He was able to grab on to hope with a flawless 2-0 win against Optimus and had to have a rematch against the dutch protoss. The first game went late, hydras, banelings and finally broodlords saw the game until his forces overwhelmed his opponents. In the second game, Harstem was able to quickly end it with some adepts and oracles. In the last game, JonSnow was once again able to dance around the map long enough to bring out broodlords, granting him the win.

In group E, PiLiPiLi had to square off against Cham, NonY and Namshar. Matchup against the veteran NonY, he was able to take it 2-0. Now against Cham, it was close series, but in the end, he wasn’t able to score and lost in a close 1-2. In the loser’s finals, he had to defeat Namshar to advance to the Ro16. Despite a promising Game 1, his attack failed and it lost him the game. On the second map, after defending some muta harass, he bet it all on a attack against his opponents 3rd with blink stalkers, immortals and a few disruptor. The swedes defence was too tight, as he held off the attack long enough with roaches and ravagers that his remaining mutas were able to pierce PiLi’s bases, killing all his probes forcing him to GG.

TRUE was placed in the hardest group of the three. With Snute, SortOf and TIME, it was going to be a tough battle. Faced off against the chinese terran player TIME, he lost the first map, but was able to bring it back with clever play and his famous multi-pronged harass. The 2-1 victory lead him to play against the formidable Snute. Once again, despite losing the first map, he was able to win the second game in a long game which saw TRUE send wave and wave of ultra and crackling into Snutes’ lurker defence until he fell to mutas, having most of his anti-air destroyed by cracklings and ultras. The third game was the story of a perfect defense. Snute went for a 1 base speedling and baneling all-in. TRUE was able to defend it perfectly despite not having any banelings of his own. With his massive economic lead , our Korean Zerg flooded his opponent’s base, forcing a GG.

Starting with 8 players, only 2 remain. It was a brutal day of StarCraft, our players did their best and we are happy with the result.

Don’t miss out on the the games on the 29th! It starts at 11am CDT!