This weekend's Go4SC2 went all the way with a gruelling 3-2 match played out last night. Grzegorz 'MaNa' Komincz was the one who squeaked through at the last possible moment on map five of five. Despite the tense game that ensued, the first map (Kulas Ravine) was something of a whitewash. Santeri 'Naama' Lahtinen went for a pretty quick expansion, leaving himself vulnerable to a strong early push. That's exactly what Mana went for with a reasonable four-gate army and won inside ten minutes.

Lost Temple provided a much longer game, despite similar early builds from both players. The protoss player went for a couple of early zealots for some pressure but they accomplished nothing as Naama went for a much more passive style. The game naturally evolved into a more macro-based style which played perfectly into the terran's hands. Drops all over the place kept Mana far behind and when Naama finally attacked head-on he crushed the protoss army.

Blistering Sands was up next and both players went for builds identical to the last game. This time the terran was more aggressive, expanding on the back of a banshee harass. Mana held it off with mass stalkers and made an expansion of his own, however. Still, Naama kept the advantage, taking a 3rd base while continuing to harass. But it was psi-storm which would decide this game, whether it was great place or bad dodging is debatable, but the protoss player took the advantage for the first time after attacking Naama's 3rd base. After reinforcing, he pushed in again with almost no resistance now, taking a 2-1 lead.

Both players switched their build up somewhat on Steppes of War. Naama opted for a very defensive marine and tank build while Mana went for some phoenix harass. The quick air units managed to delay Naama's expansion but turrets in the main base - and eventually the expo - nullified their affect. The terran started to slowly spread turrets and tanks across the map with a sense of inevitability. Mana tried to expand to the gold expansion and push out, but he simply pushed right into the tanks' line of fire and got utterly demolished.

Xel'Naga was the decisive map and it was another back-and-forth affair. Naama was in hardcore turtle mode for the early part of the game but Mana wasn't too willing to go aggressive either. The game was cagey throughout, with very few full-on engagements. The first one of those went in the protoss' favour thanks again to some superb storms. After a big collision at the middle of the map, Mana reinforced and attacked with around 80 supply advantage, leading to an obvious conclusion.

Zotac Cup

Zotac out-did Go4SC2 in terms of terran players per final, at least. Fresh from his Go4SC2 victory and subsequent ban, Carl Stefan 'MorroW' Andersson found himself in the final against '101110' . The 1st game in this series was similarly short as well, with both players going for a typical 1-1-1 build. Select was more aggressive in the early stages, pushing with hellions and marines. But Morrow managed to fend off the attacks and when his first banshee racked up an incredible 20 kills his opponent GG'd out.

Both players went for the 1-1-1 build in every single game and it turned largely into a battle of harass and counter-harass. On Xel'Naga it was Select's marine drops against Morrow's banshees. But the final battle came down to air superiority from Select. Thanks to his PDD use, the viking wars were so one-sided that he was able to land them to help clean up the ground and make the score 1-1.

Close spawns on Metalopolis meant yet another harass-heavy game, with a ton of banshees and drops. Select slowly pulled into the lead after killing man, many SCV's. Still, his own SCV count was so high that he had trouble finishing off the game due to his surprisingly small standing army. The outcome was inevitable, however, and he eventually sealed the deal after denying Morrow's 3rd base.

Lost Temple gave us another drawn out game full of tech units and harassment. Morrow was the first to expand, although he had to use SCV's in the fight to secure it. He put his new resources into a bio army with tank support while holding off banshee attacks. Select took his own expansion but left Morrow free to siege up in the middle of the map. When Select tried to leave his base he waltzed right into his opponent's tanks and lost his army in seconds.

Kulas Ravine was the decisive map and it was Select who went for the banshee harass once again. Morrow countered with an MMM ball. He was the first to try a frontal attack but it was easily stopped while Select's banshees pumelled Morrow's economy. That gave Select chance to expand and siege up outside his opponent's base with double the army size. The outcome was slow - Select didn't want to risk losing his tanks - but as expected given the situation: Select won 3-2.

Zotac replays from the quarters to the grand final are available here.