Zotac Cup returned yesterday for its first cup since the full release of Starcraft II. Jeffrey 'SjoW' Brusi emerged victorious from the massive field of 512 players, squeaking out a narrow 3-2 victory in the final. Giacomo 'Socke' Thüs gave the Swede a tough game in the final but was comfortably outplayed on the final map.

Map one

The trend was set early in game one when Socke had no answer for the bio ball of Sjow. Helped out by a few zealot-frying hellions, the MM army was too strong for Socke's 3-gate/stargate force. The German added a robo facility but, at the 13 minute mark, it already too late. He only had time to produce a single immortal, which failed miserably to live up to its name.

Map two

Game two on Metalopolis had a similarly one-sided climax. Socke went for colossi and it was the Swede's turn to be on the back foot. Sjow tried to produce vikings to counter them, but his opponent's stalker-heavy army made quick work of them, allowing the colossi to reign free in another 13 minute game.

Map three

Socke exhibited his phoenixes in game three and seemed to be having more success than he would in game five. But despite a seemingly useful harass, Sjow still managed to expand and amass a much larger force of bio. The counter-push from Sjow was held back but it seemed like only a matter of time before the terran would seal the deal. Sure enough, after cancelling Socke's expansion the game was as good as over. One last fight decided, due to simple mathematics and a lack of psi-storm.

Map four

On Kulas Ravine in game four, Sjow yet again went for bio with an early-ish high ground expansion. Socke took his own expansion and teched to fast colossi. It was the terran who won the first skirmish and had a significant supply advantage but chose not to push without medivac support. Some impressive psi-storm usage held back the push when it did come but Sjow still had a hefty advantage. However, their next encounter - at Socke's gold expansion - swung the balance in Socke's favour thanks again to psi-storm. Now it was Sjow's turn to run, but that left his own 2nd expansion undefended. He retreated to his main but Socke simply followed him and cleaned up the rest of the marauders with yet more psionic storms.

Map five

Socke begun the last map with a phoenix harass but only managed to kill a handful of SCV's. Meanwhile the banshee counter-harass was much more successful, allowing the terran to expand and increase his economic advantage. When the last fight started around the 13 minute mark, the protoss was simply overwhelmed by a far superior bio-ball force.

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Sjow was understandably happy with his victory but told Gamesports that he acknowledged the competitive nature of the tournament. " I think that it was pretty hard to achieve this title," he said. "After I have taken this title and the Inferno Online title I am happy that this has been some quite successful days."

You can download all the replays from the quarter-final onwards right here.