



-0:1 Delta Quadrant
-1:1 Lost Temple
-2:1 Blistering Sands
-2:2 Scrap Station
-3:2 Xel'Naga Caverns
"Ace" started on a bad foot, failing his Blink push on Delta Quadrant and losing the game to a swarm of units short thereafter. Fortunately for the Protoss, however, "Moon" was in a risky mood this day and followed the series with two highly all-inish 1-base plays.
On Lost Temple, "Moon" aimed for a 1-base Nydus play against Ace's fast Nexus and eventually, after two failed attempts, managed to sneak some Speedlings into the main, but the Protoss already had his Stargate units up and after some cat-and-mouse chases he managed to stabilize and counter-attack the barefooted "Moon".
Similar thing happened on Blistering Sands with "Ace" going for fast Nexus and "Moon" "countering" it with 1-Base Roach/Speedling aggression. Although for a minute it seemed like a valid opening, especially when "Moon" sniped the main Nexus, the Zerg economy was in shambles due to low Drone count and "Ace" once again managed to hold on, stabilize and win by just being patient.
To many's rejoice, the game on Scrap Station was a proper macro game. "Ace" once again opened with his signature fast Nexus/Stargate build and opted to do some damage with his Void Ray and Phoenixes but "Moon" was more than prepared and had Hydralisks and Spore Crawlers at right place and time. Step by step, the Zerg managed to get his Corruptor/Hydra mix high enough and pushed in for the kill before "Ace" had the chance to take his third.
The fifth set began on Xel'Naga and for the first few minutes things were incredibly cheesy. Ignoring the topography of Caverns, "Ace" was persistent with his quick Nexus play and once again "Moon" tried to break it with a 1-base play, going for an early Baneling Nest. "Ace", despite his risky play, had just enough Cannons and Sentries to fend off the early aggression and "Moon" had to transition into a proper macro game. The Zerg was soon on four bases and was spitting units constantly but "Ace's" defences were unbreakable. Turtling as much as he can, the Protoss added up more and more Colossi, teched to Blink and started sniping Hatcheries all over the map. Being stripped off economy, "Moon" soon began to falter and started losing more and more units until finally he could not stop the nailing aggression of "Ace" and had to GG out, surrendering the gold to the Protoss.
Thus, IEM World Championship ends with a Korean top 3, followed by "Moonglade", who fought valiantly in the bronze final against "Squirtle" but lost 2:3
IEM World Championship top four





Tyrael
Passionate (and now professional) StarCraft 2 journalist.
Twitter: @GGNydra
MSN: [email protected]
Skype: issuell


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