Group F has come and gone and featured yet more surprises vs predictions. The VODs are up and include some excellent and entertaining games. Here's a look at how the various series went:
Genius 2 
Kas 0
The expected result, in game one Genius went for a hidden third base that was unscouted, but otherwise played completely standard; Kas didn't spot the third until Genius was firmly on a fourth base; Genius finally pushed out and walked into a ton of emps, but his economic and production advantage was too much for Kas to hold him off and he tapped out. Game two Kas went for a quick three CC's as Genius went up to quick colossus tech which was not scouted and an overly greedy Kas did not have a big enough army to hold off a three colossus push. Kas made the series easy on Genius with lackadaisical scouting.
TLO 2 Grubby 0
The expected result, as a mistake-prone Grubby (even in his wins) could not handle his German opponent. In game one Grubby went for a very early probe scout (presumably fearing an aggressive build), but TLO simply played standard other than taking his third before the natural on Alterzim; Grubby went for a stargate that was scouted immediately; both players went for economic builds with limited damage suffered from phoenix; TLO forced a cancel on the third as he went for an early hive, building a ton of lings as Grubby went for colossus; terrible positioning by the Dutchman lost him his first colossus to lings; TLO teched up to ultra/viper/corrupter, using his fourth largely as a macro hatch (for some reason Grubby let his phoenix die to corrupters); Grubby walled in his third, so TLO went for brood lords; Grubby flanked the army and despite losing all his colossus killed off TLO's forces without suffering any serious damage, but he threw away most of his army attempting a counter attack (allowing his immortals to get surrounded by lings); TLO killed the fourth while taking a fifth and Grubby tapped out moments later. Game two saw standard play again as Grubby went for phoenix's and TLO went for nydus play with roach/hydra (building two worms), going to the third and natural and rolling over Grubby.
TLO 2 Genius 1
The first surprise of the day, with the Korean pegged to win the group, but his struggles against European Zerg players continued. Game one both players opened passively; Genius went for a +1 attack off of two bases and TLO saw it very late and could not hold if off, tapping out. In game two Genius went for two-base, four-gate pressure, but TLO scouted it early and stopped it easily with lings; Genius transitioned to robo while TLO responded with the hydra den; TLO's ling/hydra attack killed the third and Genius' army--moments latter the Korean tapped out. The final game Genius went for a phoenix opening transitioning into colossus/stalker, while TLO went for a huge roach attack; Genius pushed out for some reason, got surrounded and lost all his colossus and getting completely steamrolled.
The expected result, but the games were incredibly long as Grubby was never able to translate early leads into early wins. Game one Grubby went for an oracle while expanding to three bases; the oracle did good damage and even better scouting; Kas moved to attack once he scouted the third, but took a bad fight and lost most of his army without accomplishing anything; Kas inexplicably went for a double drop that he knew was scouted and lost almost everything again; Grubby moved to attack the third and Kas moved his army into existing double time warps and lost it all (forcing him to abandon his third, but his ninja fourth went unscouted); Grubby tried to push through the third again, but was unable to break Kas and his excellent ghost control; Grubby forced a cancellation of the fifth, but lost his own fourth; Grubby finally found the ninja expo and destroyed it; the armies danced around each other and then Kas attacked Grubby's new fourth, but couldn't kill it; Grubby stopped his colossus production and went templar heavy as Kas overproduced vikings; Grubby harassed the fourth and fifth; Kas destroyed the fourth, but lost his fifth in the process; there was a lull and then Grubby sent five DTs into Kas' production and did a ton of damage; the two armies danced around each other again as Grubby took half the map; when they finally fought Kas was able to emp the entire army, but just didn't have enough forces to win the fight and tapped out. Game two Grubby opened with blink which Kas scouted and did not lose much to the attack; Grubby switched over to charge as Kas double expanded; Grubby tried to pressure the expansions, but wasn't able to do any damage as he went into colossus and templar production; Kas snipped the third; Grubby attacked the third and was pushed back; Kas pursued the army and killed the fourth and then the third; Grubby attacked the third, but couldn't kill it and lost his new fourth, but managed to kill Kas' fourth; Kas killed the third leaving both players largely mined out on their remaining bases as they tried to expand; Grubby lost his fourth as he killed Kas' third and second; Kas' vikings killed all the colossi as Grubby had almost no anti-air and both players temporarily dropped below 100 supply; Kas killed Grubby's fifth and fourth as Grubby harassed the third and fourth; Kas killed the third and Grubby did the same; the armies finally fought and Kas won easily ending the game. The final game Grubby went for a proxy stargate as Kas went for an early expansion and an ebay block as he didn't scout the main so the oracle did a ton of damage; Grubby went four-gate with four oracles, but Kas built turrets and three bunkers and held off the initial push so Grubby expanded, eventually making a push at the front which accomplished nothing; Grubby went up to templar as Kas moved out with a ton of marines; Kas killed the natural, but lost his army and didn't scout the third (the gold); Kas dropped the third and killed off a lot of Grubby's army, but not the base; players fought between their thirds without killing either as Grubby went up to triple colossus production; the colossi saved Grubby from the next push and cleared out Kas' third (the gold); Grubby killed the fourth putting him up by two bases as he added tempests; the armies finally fought and Kas was annihilated (his vikings attacking the tempests instead of killing colossi) and he tapped out shortly afterwards. These were entertaining and exhausting games.
Grubby 2 Genius 1
The second surprise of the day as Genius (playing from Korea) could not beat Grubby. Game one Grubby opened oracle as Genius went for a robo expand; both players went for blink and after an initial push by Grubby both played very passively moving up to four bases; Grubby threw away some units applying pressure (including a full warp prism) and despite getting tempests out first Genius' push destroyed his army and ended the game. In game two Genius again went for a robo expansion as Grubby went for DTs and snuck a pylon into Genius' base; the initial DT did nothing, but the second did some damage and got a full scout; Genius killed Grubby's natural with his first push, but took damage from DT harass and the game evened up; both players got up to four bases without much happening other than Genius taking one bad engagement; Genius took yet another terrible engagement and this one cost him the game. In the final game Genius continued to robo expand and Grubby responded to the strategy by taking an even early expansion; Grubby went up to two robos and got far ahead on the colossus count as Genius took a third; Grubby threatened the third while taking his own; Genius went for an early tempest transition, but Grubby attacked before that could begin and crushed the Korean.
Grubby and TLO move on and Genius joins ForGG as Koreans who will not make the round of sixteen.
This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)
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