We're finally here, the intense part of the arena series provided by MLG. The winnder of these Bo3's advances, the loser goes home and watches their dreams float away in a river of tears. Well, may not a river of tears, but at least a trickling stream.

Stephano, France's best player by far and called the best foreigner by many people is pitted against Ryung, a member of the SlayerS team that knows what to expect from Zergs. We see a quick 1/1/1 build from Ryung as we see Stephano elect to go very quick banelings in hopes of popping a few units of Ryung's in an early push.

An insanely aggressive third hatchery drops from Stephano as we see Ryung make a banshee as he gets cloak. If the banshee targets the banelings, Stephano will be a bit behind. A small roach push proves to be a mistake from Stephano as Ryung pushes with a few hellions and counters the roaches with a few marauders in the back.

It's looking like a mech-heavy game from the SlayerS player Ryung as Stephano secures his third and contemplates the next step in how he takes the game into his own hands. Ryung spots a few queens and infestors, but strangely decides to pump out a few marines -- an unusual decision but due to his high level of micro, this could benefit him later when the mid-game approaches as it transitions into the late game.

Ryung marches forward against Stephano's infestor/ling composition and waits for 3/3/1 in the middle of the map as his tanks are sitting sieged on the high ground near the Xel'Naga tower. I smell dinner cooking downstairs as I weep that I may have to go near the end of this intense game, both players trading armies back and forth as the supplies fluctuate constantly.

Yet again a horrible engagement from Stephano with a maxed army decimates the ultralisks, as Ryung charges forward to take out the infestors with marauders. Brood lords get sniped left and right, Stephano's bank has trickled to nearly nothing as Ryung has 6,000 minerals and 2,500 gas just sitting around waiting to remax on any unit he may choose. Ryung once again drops the manner MULEs as Stephano drops a quick "wp". Ryung 1-0.


Day[9] taking the role of John Madden as he analyzes.
Game 2 on Entombed Valley had us looking at Ryung's 1/1/1 opening into a unique double armory style as Stephano goes for a build not identical to his roach build, but comparable. Banshees and hellions push Stephano's natural base, sniping a queen at his natural and picking off a few stray lings that were locked down at the Xel'Naga towers.

A nice roach/infestor composition with a compliment of lings make up Stephano's army as Ryung goes very mech-heavy, making the vast majority of his army thors and banshees. Stephano attempts to bring down Ryung's fourth base but the planetary is too strong, and Stephano brings in 6 ultras and 40 lings to take it down. At the cost of said units, the planetary falls and Ryung goes in for a counter attack. Stephano knows exactly how to handle it as he crushes the mech army with ultralisks and infestors by remaxing instantly, and Ryung drops quickly. The series is tied 1-1.

Game 3 on Cloud Kingdom will be the last game here at Summer Arena for either Ryung or Stephano. Winner advances to Championship Sunday, loser packs their bags and sulks their way home. Stephano opens with a 3-base double evolution chamber as Ryung gets his usual 1/1/1 opening in with some hellions as he gets blue flames and banshees. A spore crawler drops to deny the banshee as Stephano morphs a lair and gets ready to stack up on roaches.

A quick tech switch as the starport lands on the initial barrack's reactor, allowing for double medivacs to snipe a few overlords for Stephano. The banshees poke at Stephano's third -- a few drones fall but the banshees pull back to avoid damage from the detectors. As the spire completes, five overlords pop out and Stephano's gearing up for a strong timing push to cancel out Ryung's dreams of becoming an MLG champion.

Stephano pops a plethora of mutalisks as well as a handful of roaches and as always, a nice amount of zerglings to pad the army as a meat shield. A three-pronged attack as Stephano banks up to 3k of each resources. Ryung's army crumbles, Stephano's units pop out of the eggs and Ryung's thors and remaining bio army with the medivacs fall quickly as he hopes to somehow come out on top with a miracle. Fungals go down, but somehow Ryung dodges the fungals, snipes the brood lords from the back and the marauders pick off the ultralisks. Ryung's last hope is to snipe the hatcheries around the map.

Stephano impeccable ability to manage the last of his units results in one of the biggest comebacks in recent Starcraft 2 history. No mining bases against Ryung's two mining bases, as Stephano micro'd his brood lords perfectly, abusing their range and magic boxing them against Ryung's maxed out marines. The marauders fall, the perfect fungals take out the remaining army and the tanks are left exposed as Stephano makes a final push against Ryung in a race for bases. Stephano comes out on top as Ryung GG's out of the game 30 minutes in. The best foreigner in the world is quickly approaching the best Zerg in the world as he looks immortal right now. Can he take out HerO in the next match?


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