The tournament was a star-studded affair, with most of the top SC 2 players present, with the noted exception of TY. The format was a single-elimination series of best of fives (going from Ro16 to Ro8, to Ro4, and then finally the grand finals) and the tournament was spread over four days.

Innovation showed that the rumors of his demise were greatly exaggerated, as he easily took out reigning world champion Rogue in the Ro16.

Maru continued to show up in top form, eliminating perennial second-place finisher soO in the Ro16, but he, in turn, was beaten by Classic in the Ro8.

Stats and Solar had a great, closely contested Ro8 match, with an exciting game 1 where Solar managed to equalize despite losing a good fifty drones in the early/middle game, but Stats did eventually get the better of him, advancing to the Ro4.

herO managed to beat Innovation in the Ro8, before being defeated handily by Stats in the quarterfinals. For his part, Dark beat True and Classic to advance to the finals, with a 3-2 and 3-1 score respectively.

Grand final recap: Dark vs Stats

The finals came down to Dark vs Stats. The ultimate late game zerg vs the perfect defensive protoss.

Stats took game one proving that mass high templars do, in fact, trump roach ravager play.

In game two Dark opened up with a ton of zerglings, sacrificing economy in the hopes of catching his opponent off guard with a very early attack. While taking a circuitous route around the map in order to avoid Stats’ scouting adept, Dark discovered Stats’ proxied stargate.

The zerg player destroyed it before any air units could be made, but in doing so tipped his hand about the early aggression, enabling his opponent to erect a complete sim city defense. With both players’ early games plans thwarted they entered the middle game in a roughly even position. Stats tried some archon drop harass which failed to get any real damage done, and when Dark’s roaches moved across the map for a counterattack the Protoss was forced to tap out.

Game three was an incredibly exciting game. Dark proxied his third hatchery for an early queen/spore/ravager push on Stats’ natural. Stats managed to sneak out two oracles to eliminate Dark’s entire economy, but at the same time, Dark managed to eliminate the protoss natural and moved into his opponent’s main base. After a final climactic battle, a single ravager was all that remained, and Dark took a 2-1 lead.

Game four was a lopsided affair, with Dark’s +1 lings dealing game-ending damage early on, and suddenly the zerg player was on match point. Down two games, Stats began to rally, winning game five and six in the late game with carrier tech.

Tied up at 3-3 there was only one game left. Game seven came down to a massive chargelot / archon attack from Stats. Dark managed to hold off the attack, and with heavy losses on both sides the players had equalized and began to macro up.

Dark maxed out first, but his fourth base got taken out by a large attack, and while his burrowed roach harass kept Stats busy, Stats’ high tech immortal / archon/templar composition directly countered Dark’s roaches. Despite Dark’s excellent use of accelerated healing from burrow, eventually, Stats was able to power through and win the series.

But now the season is over and it’s coming down to the business end with just four players left fighting it out for the title of GSL Champion.

Who will it be? Could it be SoO, the champion South Korean, who has played in seven GSL finals without ever winning one, or will it be Stats, Dark or Maru?

EsportBet StarCraft II expert Zak Y gives his take and betting predictions on the semi finals.

soO vs Stats

March 21st, 2018 : 20:30 KST

Stats may be the perfect defensive Protoss, but soO loses only in the finals, not the semi-finals. All jokes aside, soO has consistently demonstrated himself to be one of the absolute top SC2 players over the years by making so many deep runs in very important tournaments, including last year’s Blizzcon. While Stats is an incredible player with a great depth of skill, soO is a 3:2 favourite to win this best of five. In terms of match history, soO is 29-22 against Stats, and while this should be an exciting and interesting match to watch, you can expect soO to be victorious.

Best bet: Back SoO at $1.57 at GG Bet

Dark vs Maru

March 24th, 2018 – 13:00 KST

Dark and Maru recently played in the grand finals of the WESG, one of the largest tournaments of the year. Despite Dark taking a 3-2 lead in that best of seven match, Maru managed to take the last two games with the same aggressive proxy two rax build. This is definitely going to be an incredible series and one that is too close to call because neither side really has the advantage here. This match will be a statistical dead heat. Historically Dark is 25-22 in matches against Maru, but both players have been playing absolutely phenomenal lately and this will be anyone’s game.

Best bet: Back Dark at $1.98 at GG Bet

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How to watch GSL Semi Finals – AfreecaTV live channel

You can watch all the GSL semi finals action on the AfreecaTV live channel or read our guide to watching Starcraft.

Match #1 – trap vs stats

Game #1
Trap pulled out an archaic double robo disrupter build, with his tech hidden in an obscure section of the map. When Stats tried to move out, Traps just kited from the middle of the map, getting free kills with his disrupters. With Stats’ army sufficiently weakened, Trap pushed out and ended the game.

Game #2
While Stats opted for a fast expansion, Trap threw down three gates and a stargate and tried a one base all in. Unfortunately for Trap, shield batteries are pretty good. Stats held the first few waves of units, and his first immortal heralded the end of Trap’s rush.

Game #3
Trap opened up with a phoenix build, whereas Stats pumped stalkers and teched up to robo. Trap managed to pick off a few probes early on with his mobile flying units, and in response Stats tried to move across the map and end the game. He failed and Trap, with the help of his immortals, managed to barely hold his natural. Both players macroed up for a while then Stats moved out again. The players met in the middle of the map and a massive battle ensued but Trap’s immortal/archon composition again got the better of the fight, and he was able to slowly push forward and win.

Result: Trap 2-1 Stats

Match #2 – herO vs sOs

game 1
With two infamous trickster Protosses playing, we probably shouldn’t be surprised that game one opened up with both players dark templar rushing each other. sOs managed to scout his opponent’s rush with a timely hallucinated phoenix and immediately threw down a robotics facility, which set him up for a nice advantage. Unfortunately, by the time that sOs’ observer was built, herO’s dts had already chewed through his army, and both players were in a full-on base trade just five minutes into the game.When the dust had cleared, sOs had retained a partial economy whereas herO was down to a single probe; this forced herO to make a desperate all in but sOs was just barely able to hold.

Game 2
In game two neither player decided to fast expand, they both just massed stalkers, with sOs getting blink and herO opting for phoenix air support. herO forced an early cancel on sOs’ late expansion nexus and set up a contain, but then sOs snuck a strike force of blink stalkers past herO’s army and into his main base. Once again the two players had found themselves in a five minute base trade. Hilariously enough, sOs ended up building a nexus in his opponent’s main and leaving his opponent’s gateways up as a wall. With herO having zero probes left over and sOs beginning to mine, the clock was ticking and he was forced to make a move. herO positioned himself for an assault, but sOs again juked him out, running past his opponent’s army, and heading for the single pylon at the bottom of the map that was keeping herO alive. With no way to defend the pylon herO resigned.

Result: sOs 2-0 herO

Match 3 – Trap vs sOs

Game 1

Trap opened up with a dt rush which unfortunately for him was scouted by sOs’ hallucinated phoenix. For his part, sOs decided to make a fast expansion and a twilight council, although he threw down a robotics facility immediately after scouting his opponent’s build. sOs then made a proxy stargate, and after foiling Trap’s dt rush tried to get some damage of his own done. Trap dropped a dt in sOs’ main and managed to get seven probe kills, but sOs attacked with two oracles then got seventeen worker kills utterly crippling his opponent’s economy.bTrap never recovered.

Game 2
sOs opened up with a dt rush after running two hallucinated stalkers across the map but Trap had an obs so no damage was done. Trap, having opted for a more conservative robo opening, was well positioned for the mid-game, but sOs’ follow up all in caught him off balance and four adepts shaded into Trap’s main, massacring his probe line. This wasn’t actually the end of the world because sOs cut probes significantly for his assault, but Trap was unable to hold against subsequent attacks.

Result: sOs 2-0 Trap

Match #4 – Stats vs herO

Game 1

herO opened up with blink stalkers and an expansion at the gold base. Stats, on the other hand, took his natural expansion and teched up to robo. Stats then started pumping immortals as they counter stalkers pretty heavily. Unfortunately for Stats, immortals are not so good against zealots with upgraded legs. herO leveraged his gold base income (as well as that from his third base) into a massive gateway explosion and a ton of zealots, and promptly ran Stats over.

Game 2
herO opened with a stalker/phoenix build and a faster expand. Stats decided not to expand and instead just massed stalkers and walked across the map. Despite three shield batteries working overtime to try to heal herO’s units, Stats just had too many stalkers

Game 3
Both players opened up with fast expansions and blink stalkers, then followed up with robotics facilities. Despite a little poking in the early game from Stats, there were no real engagements until well into the middle game. Despite getting some pretty choice disrupter hits at the start of the fight, herO got the worst of the exchange and was eventually forced to retreat. Stats decided to press his advantage and herO was unable to hold.

Result: herO 1-2 Stats

match #5 – trap vs stats

game 1
Both players opened with double gate into stargate. Trap tried some phoenix and adept pressure in the early game, which didn’t get a lot of damage done and Stats took a modest lead. Not content to sit on his advantage, Stats then counterattacked and managed to kill a lot of his opponent’s workers. Stats then tried to further his advantage by out expanding his opponent and Trap, unable to compete in a longer macro game because of his worker deficit, decided to try an all-out attack hoping that his superior phoenix numbers would carry the day. Unfortunately for Trap, Stats had already upgraded Anion Pulse-Crystals (phoenix range).

Game 2

Both players opened up with fast expansions and robo tech, but then stats moved across the map, found a really good engagement in trap’s natural and won the game.

Result: Stats 2-0 Trap

Also read:

• StarCraft betting guide
• StarCraft betting strategy

In the first game of Group C, played on February 21, GuMi opened up with mech against protoss, which is basically unheard of, but fitting for the legendary player nicknamed “the build master” for the wide variety of play styles he employs.

He killed a few probes with a hellion run by early on, whereas Classic tried some stalker/adept pressure but was unable to break GuMiho’s defences after some nifty widow mine micro and the timely arrival of a couple of cyclones. GuMiho actually managed to get his third CC out before Classic could take his third base, so he ended the early game with a modest economic advantage.

As the players entered the middle game, GuMiho moved out and Classic’s army met his in the middle of the map. At this point, Classic’s composition was mostly zealots, with some stalkers, and a single immortal. Gumiho for his part had a mix of tanks, hellions, cyclones, and liberators with one raven for detection and anti-armour missiles. Classic tried to catch GuMiho in the middle of the map near the neo violet squares, and while he traded out effectively, GuMiho did eventually win the fight.

Meanwhile, Classic had teched up to fleet beacon with triple starport, but unfortunately he never really had the time or the money to start carrier production. In a neat little mind game, the Protoss player did fake a carrier at one point, after GuMiho scanned him, with the hopes of tricking his Terran opponent into an inferior tech composition. This legerdemain ultimately proved to be in vain, as GuMiho eventually managed to push through to Classic’s fourth base. When the two armies collided, GuMiho scored an incredible hit with his raven’s anti-armour missile and Classic’s forces melted under the weight of GuMiho’s mechanical onslaught. With a twenty to one hundred army supply deficit, Classic was immediately overwhelmed and had no choice but to surrender.

Classic won both of his Bo3s and was the first player through to the Ro8, while Maru defeated Gumiho in an incredibly close series, that came down to a rubber match with both players floating their buildings to the center of the map after a base trade, to take the second spot.

Gumiho and Dear are both out of the tournament.

Group C results

Group C Matches