As the two commentators took the stage, the players were ready, the game was created, and hundreds of diehard Blizzard fans were in attendance. A match of legendary proportion was set to begin between these two teammates, clanmates, roommates, and of course friends. IriS, was anxious to get revenge after his defeat just fairly recently back home in South Korea. His opponent sAviOr was looking to continue his reign of dominance.

Game 1 on Longinus:

The first match of the series was set on Longinus with sAviOr spawning at the 6 o clock position and IriS at the 9 o clock. sAviOr starts off with a rather standard opening by quickly expanding to his natural expansion. His opponent, seeing that an early pool was not yet made by the zerg decides to open up with a supply depot, one barrack, and another command center at his natural expansion.

Once sAviOr’s natural expansion was complete, he added yet another hatch in his main. sAviOr upgrades his hatchery into a lair and lays down a spire, a strategy that sAviOr loves to use. Knowing that mutalisks are coming, IriS puts up two barracks, so that he will have enough marines and medics to hold off the zergs harass. sAviOr adds several zerglings to his force and moves up to attack his opponent. This was a drastic mistake; IriS made a smart move by splitting his force in two in an attempt to hide the size of his force. sAvior attacks IriS's marines head on which are quickly enforced. With this attack, sAviOr lost all of his zerglings thus forcing him to retreat, at least for a moment. This time sAviOr would quickly return with both mutalisks and zerglings. To try to defend against an attack, IriS set up a bunker for defense. Instead of just killing the bunker, sAviOr chooses to run past the bunker right into the terrans main in an attempt to hurt his economy. IriS is quick to respond though and forces sAviOr out of his base.

The zerg quickly upgrades to a hive and adds a defiler mound, a strategy that he is well-known for. IriS, knowing that he has to make a move now before sAviOr masses a huge army, decides to take out sAviOr’s expansion. With several marines, medics, tanks, and science vessels, IriS is able to take out the zergs expansion. That one expansion was just not enough though, IriS is determined to seal the deal by sending a massive ground force to sAviOr’s main. Luckily for sAviOr, he was able use his lurkers and defilers to push the terrans force back. This did not matter though, back in his main, IriS had loaded two drops ships full of marines and medics. His destination was sAviOr’s natural expansion and it paid off. sAviOr loses several drones and types GG.

Game 2 on Blitz X:

The second match would be on Blitz X, sAviOr decides to change up his build order by choosing to place a spawning pool before a second hatchery. IriS, making an interesting decision builds his second command center before his barrack. sAviOr quickly sees this and kills the scv building the second command center with his zerglings. IriS is in trouble already, swarm after swarm of zerglings rally to IriS’s base with the terran having to use his scvs to defend.

Knowing that sAviOr does not have to worry about the terran making any kind of offensive move, does not make any sunken colonies, instead he puts all his effort into making mutalisks. Once the mutalisks are complete, they quickly make their move to IriS’s base. After seeing the mutalisks, IriS says GG and they move onto the third match.

Game 3 on Reverse Temple:

On the third and final match of the series, sAviOr would spawn at the 6 o clock position with IriS at the 9 o clock. IriS, trying to end the game quickly, builds two proxy barracks in the middle of the map. sAviOr scouts IriS’s base with his overlord and sees that there are no supply depots or barracks in sight. sAviOr now knows that a proxy rush is immanent and prepares to stop it. sAviOr quickly lays down a spawning pool and begins to mine gas to upgrade zergling speed.

sAviOr makes his move and begins to attack the barracks in the middle of the map. IriS lifts them off before they are destroyed, and moves them back towards his base. sAviOr realizing that he can end the game, sends a massive force of zerglings right into IriS’s base, surrounding all of IriS's marines. IriS types GG and sAviOr advances to the grand finals.