Stakes are high and the pressure is on as University of Waterloo faces University of British Columbia last Friday for the finals of the CSL. Both teams have a strong roster of four grandmasters and have defeated many formidable teams to get where they are now. The energy and excitement is high with Day[9] casting in his trademark whimsical way with the first match-up between teammates coLAntimage (P) for UW and NOVAStalife (T) for UBC on Metalopolis. coLAntimage playing a more economical build which suffers to an aggressive marine marauder medivac push. It seems utterly hopeless for the Protoss but Anitmage builds up as many stalkers as he can. Even with an impressive counterattack with an elevator style warp prism push in NOVAStalife’s base, he could not come back and calles the gg.

coLFireZerg (Z) from UBC plays an exciting match against NrGHumble (Z) from UW on Tal'Darim Altar in match two. NrGHumble opens with an early hatch and defends with the help of some roaches against coLFireZerg’s speedling push. What happens next is an extended period of teching up with both players on three bases. coLFireZerg dominates the map with control over the watchtowers while he techs to infestors and continues to upgrade his melee attack. NrGHumble anticipates mutas and builds spore crawlers with a roach hydra army. Both sides lack creep spread through the entire game which severely hinders Humble who gets caught with lings at his expansion while his army is out of position. The hydras and even roaches with speed could not get back in time to prevent the expo from falling into an ooey gooey zerg hatch mess. Meanwhile in base FireZerg, ultras are being made and a very scary army begins to push. Humble sends his army back to fight but the combination of fungal growth and the dreadful ultra attack decimates the roach hydra army and the game plays itself as FireZerg pushes all the way to Humble’s base as the gg is called.

Round three is a 2v2 on War Zone between UW’s team all stars SuperNinja (P) and lALalA (Z) against high level players: Saikou (Z) and tQWannaBe (T) from UBC. Dynamics play an important part in this round as both teams need to work with each other to get the right amount of units and economy to come out on top. Team UBC splits their force by sending in hellions into the base while the lings defend against a great push of lings, stalkers and zealots for team UW. The hellions fall quickly and Saikou’s base is soon destroyed by the strong army. tQWannaBe cleans up the intruders and is left to tech up while his teammate feeds him what resources he can. SuperNinja and lALalA play defensively and tech up on their side as it is possible for the lone Terran to defeat them with a timing push. Unfortunately for tQWannaBe, the marauder/medivac army could not hold well against the lings and roaches that break through the back rocks with the sentry/stalker/colossus army to end the game with UW up 1 in the series.

It could be anyone’s game as round four gives us a ZvP with UW’s xiGerbil and UBC’s ValiditySAGA on Shakuras Plateau. The game opens with xiGerbil doing the double extractor trick to place a 12 pool while ValiditySAGA goes for an early push with a stalker and a zealot. xiGerbil expands, but is disrupted as the stalker and zealot kill a number of drones. Speed finishes and the zerglings prevent any more damage to be done. ValiditySAGA expands and creates a nice defensive wall of zealots, stalkers and sentries against the looming speedings outside the base. Roaches join the group and immortals are made in defense. ValiditySAGA pushes to the middle against the ling/roach army and defeats them with the sheer numbers which destroys xiGerbil’s recently made 3rd base. ValiditySAGA continues to replenish his army with stalkers and immortals as his Zerg opponent tries to re-build and re-mass his ling/roach army. The lack of creep and roach speed once again hinder the Zerg allowing the Protoss army move through into the base with ease. xiGerbil attempts a counterattack with his roaches but it is simply not enough as ValiditySAGA takes the game.

UW sends out tGKangpo (P) a grandmaster that has a nearly flawless record in this season of CSL, to keep them in the game of this exciting final series. He faces UBC’s Saikou (Z) on Xel'Naga Caverns who played earlier in the 2v2 match. The match begins with a very sensual worker dance as Saikou tries to expand, but Kangpo’s pesky probe keeps him from doing so. They circle round and round until finally, the hatch begins to form with the help of some lings. Meanwhile, Kangpo stays economically safe goes for a three gate expand. A forge is put down as well and as the expo finishes, an army of lings and roaches approach the base. Only two cannons are up and only a group of sentries and there to defend. Drone production stops for Saikou and the all in attack masses around the base. Force fields tried to stop the army, but it just wasn’t enough to handle all the roaches who, with the support of lings, take down the Protoss expansion. The army falls back and the economy builds up once again. Both sides frantically build and expand with the resources they have. Saikou makes queens, roaches and spine crawlers and Kangpo tries to add as many robo units as he can to fortify his small army. The creep travels fast and Saikou goes in with all he has, even the queens and spine crawlers. Overlords are used to send the creep all the way to Kangpo’s expo and the roaches with burrow and tunneling claws rip through the force fields allowing Saikou to take the win and the victory of UBC over UW!

Both teams played very well and the games were all fast-paced and worthy of many nail biting moments. Congratulations to University of Waterloo and University of British Colombia for an exciting finals and a special thank you to Sean Plott aka Day[9] for casting and bringing the spotlight to this amazing tournament.