The two StarCraft stars are playing for the right to face the winner of Mini v Larva in the second semi final bracket, check our match breakdown here.

Our Starcraft expert Zak takes a look at how the match will pan out.

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Flash V Snow

Terran V Protoss

Maps:
Third World
Sparkle
Gladiator
Transistor
Third World

One simply does not bet against Flash. Flash is a figurative Broodwar God. We are talking about probably the strongest player to every play the game.

Flash’s Broodwar reign has been longer than that of any other bonjwa and he has an insane 70% win rate in every matchup. The odds of him losing a best of five are minuscule at best.

Flash is a lock and you can take that to the bank.

Betting prediction: Flash to win, paying $1.22 at GG Bet.

The two StarCraft stars are playing for the right to face the winner of Flash v Snow in the second semi final bracket.

Our Starcraft expert Zak takes a look at how the match will pan out.

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Mini V Larva

Protoss v Zerg

Maps:
Third World
Gladiator
Sparkle
Transistor
Third World

Mini vs Larva is going to be a good match, but the smart money is on Larva.

Larva is widely considered the second-best zerg in all of Broodwar, next to Jaedong (who Larva beat handily in their last match).

Larva is a much more accomplished player than Mini, as Larva finished fourth in the last ASL, getting eliminated by Bisu and also came second in the WEGL StarCraft Remastered Super Fight, where he was eliminated by Soulkey. He also won the DanJJING Star League Season 2 this year.

Mini for his part was taking part in Korea’s compulsory military service for the last two years and didn’t have very much tournament success before that. Mini winning this match would be a real upset.

Betting prediction:Larva to win, paying $1.44 at GG Bet.

The two StarCraft II stars are playing for the right to meet Rain in the first semi final, who advanced through with a win over Shuttle on Sunday.

Our SCII expert Zak takes a look at how the match will pan out.

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Mind v Hero predictions and analysis

Mind versus Hero will pit a Terran and a Zerg against each other over five maps.

Maps:
Third World
Transistor
Sparkle
Gladiator
Third World

With both players fairly evenly matched in the odds, this is simply a question of who is going to win, and the answer to that question is Hero.

Hero has been much more present in the Broodwar scene as of late, and is in general a great reactionary Zerg who is capable of handling any of the surprises his terran opponents throw at him.

If you look at the map pool that they are going to be playing on, a few of the maps are Zerg favoured, such as Sparkle and Transistor.

Mind has also been performing pretty weakly on Sparkle to date in TvZ.?

Overall this should be a decently close match but there is definitely good value in betting on Hero.

Best bet: Hero to win, paying $2.00 at GG Bet

The pair join Group A quarter finals qualifiers Flash and Mind and Group B success stories hero and Snow, who all qualified earlier this month.

Pool D will be played on Tuesday, April 17, with the final two places in the quarter finals to be decided out of Rain, Action, Movie and Mini.

Our StarCraft II expert Zak Y has recapped two of the btter Pool C matches and given a synopsis of the other games below.

Jaedong vs Larva

Map: Transistor

The round started off with a Zerg vs Zerg match between Larva vs Jaedong on Transistor. Jaedong, a one time dominant figure in the SC:BW world, entered the match a 2:1 favourite.

Jaedong opened up with a nine pool, whereas Larva opted for a conservative twelve pool, gaining a slight economic advantage in the early game.

Larva parlayed his economic lead into a fast expansion, whereas Jaedong tried to capitalize on his earlier pool by forcing his way into his opponent’s main with zerglings. While Jaedong did break through, Larva managed to minimize any losses and counter attacked with lings, doing devastating damage to Jaedong’s economy.

Jaedong had managed to tech up to spire, so Larva was forced to respond with spores and Jaedong sent his single muta (all he could afford) across the map. Amazingly, the game had been so scrappy that Jaedong was down to a single drone and Larva had only two.

Both players then began to rebuild their nascent economies, but with two hatches to one Larva had a tremendous lead and eventually Jaedong decided to tap out.

Effort vs Shuttle

Map: Transistor

Match two for this round was also on Transistor, with Effort (Zerg) vs Shuttle (Protoss).

Both players opened up with macro builds, with Effort opening with three hatcheries and Shuttle also grabbing a fast expansion then teching to corsairs.

For his part Effort got a lair, as well as a spire and a hydra den. Both players continued to macro up, and while Effort secured his fourth base before Shuttle even got his third, Shuttle did manage to do some economic damage with dark and high templar drop harass.

The protoss player tried to hit a pre-hive timing with a massive gateway based army but Effort’s defensive posture was too good.

Into the late game Effort made great use of plague to weaken his opponent’s units, while Shuttle continued his high templar drop harass causing economic damage and both players built up maxxed out high tech armies.

Effort attempted a massive doom drop into Shuttle’s main but it was eventually cleaned up. Shuttle did very well during the late game, trading efficiently and holding off attacks on his various bases as well as utilizing reaver drops to keep the zerg economy in check.

At thirty minutes into the game, with almost the entire map mined out. Shuttle had a pretty large supply lead with 3.6k minerals in the bank and after securing and holding the last available expansion on the map the game was his.

The overview

As for the other matches, Shuttle won the winners match against Larva, being the first to move on to the round of eight. Jaedong took a surprising defeat against Effort to be the first of the group eliminated, despite being widely considered the favourite to make it out of the group in first. Unfortunately for Effort despite defeating Jaedong he lost to Larva in the final match and was also eliminated.

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.

Due to kick off at 5PM KST time on the Tuesday, March 27, Jaedong will clash with Movie and Sea will attempt to topple Pusan in two intriguing clashes.

Jaedong vs Movie

Jaedong is a heavy favourite to win this match so you will have to lay odds if you want to bet on him to win. As one of the strongest Brood War players of his era, Jaedong accumulated many trophies, including a WCG title. Not only has Jaedong had an incredible Brood War career, but they will also be playing on Sparkle, an island map which Zerg players have been dominating on. While Movie is known for his PvZ, he has never had anywhere near the level of success that Jaedong has achieved, and if he were to win it would be a massive upset.

Best bet: Jaedong to win $1.33 with GG Bet

Sea vs Pusan

This is going to be another great match. Both Sea and Pusan are popular streamers and were once up and coming players with bright futures. The odds heavily favour Sea but while Pusan is an underdog his chances here are underestimated. Protoss is pretty strong on island maps with the mobility of shuttles and the raw power of corsairs, as well as the late game potential of the golden armada. While Sea did manage some relatively recent deep runs in ASL Season 1 where he finished 3rd, and ASL season 2 where he finished 2nd after being eliminated by Flash, he will simply not have as easy of a time disposing of Pusan as the odds suggest.

Best bet: Pusan to win $3.43 with GG Bet

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Action vs Sharp

March 25, 2018 – 19:00 KST
Zerg vs Terran
Map: Sparkle

Action is a solid buy here at 1.83 because Sparkle is a great map for zvt; the extra early gas really enables the zerg to tech up quickly. Couple this fact with the reality that Action is just a generally stronger player and you will see that he is a much larger favorite than the odds are making him out to be.

Best bet: Action to win $1.83 with GG Bet

Soulkey vs Mini

March 25, 2018 – 19:00 KST
Zerg vs Protoss
Map: Sparkle

Soulkey vs Mini also on Sparkle, while Soulkey is slightly favoured here Mini is a great buy at 2.75. Sparkle is just not a great map for Zerg vs Protoss and the odds-makers are definitely overestimating Soulkey’s chances.

Best bet: Mini to win $2.75 with GG Bet

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

How to bet on the Global StarCraft II League semi finals

Betting on the GSL is easy with many of the dedicated esports bookies like GG Bet running markets on the head to head match ups, plus many more. The follow table is geo-targeted to only show betting sites available in your country.

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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.