Jangbang, once more

Jangbi, after winning the last OSL, seems to be en route to winning his second in a row! He beat Flash, Action and Bogus to go 3-0 in his group. He defeated Flash in a convincing fashion, shutting down his biomech push by using dark templars to slow Flash down until his storm research was finished. Although he hasn't been doing well at all in Proleague, he seems determined to once again win the OSL.

With Jangbi going 3-0, the other three players struggled hard to secure the second ticket to the round of 8. Bogus beat Flash to force the tiebreakers, but neither Action nor Bogus could stop Flash from overrunning them in the tiebreakers. Flash advanced 2nd in the group for his last shot at passing NaDa's record of 6 golds and truly making history and becoming a legend.

The Terrorist

Group B went similar to group A, with Fantasy cruising through the other players to take the first place. After losing in the finals to Jangbi in Jin Air OSL, Fantasy has been playing spectacularly compared to Jangbi, going 18-3. That's better than Flash, Jaedong, or Bisu! So well that I would pick Fantasy as the favorite to win this last OSL. If he does, he'll really bite himself for losing to Jangbi 3-2 in Jin Air since he could have been the last person to win the Golden Mouse!

Behind Fantasy, we have mini who many people didn't expect to get into the round of 8. After debuting in Proleague as an upcoming rookie, mini maintained a decent record. However, nobody expected him to even pass the preliminaries. He's consistently shown that when he plays well he can beat any player, and he might be the last person to walk the Brood War royal road.

King of Zergs

Watch out Jaedong, we have a new ZvZ master in town! Shine, to everyone's surprise, beat hyvaa, Soulkey, and Hydra to win his group 3-0. Shine has always been mediocre, but he seems to have improved his ZvZ skills significantly. Since he is already pretty damn good at ZvP, he has a good shot at getting far into this tournament if he can just avoid Flash and Fantasy, but if he does, I have a feeling his run is going to be short lasting.

Hyvaa also didn't come into mind when thinking of possible players to get into the round of 8. Ever since he was in eSTRO, hyvaa was a player that won pretty often but never accomplished anything. Many people still don't consider him to stand a chance art winning this OSL. If he doesn't, he'll just become one of those players that played well but never accomplished anything, like Sea. Just kidding.

Animal hunting

ZerO, who's been struggling a lot last season, finally picked his game up to go 3-0 in his group. If ZerO continues playing at this pace, winning the OSL isn't out of reach. ZerO is one of those players that played very consistently but never won a title. This is his last chance to redeem himself and earn himself a title. On the other hand, sOo always suffered from a case of mediocrity, and I don't see him winning this one either. It would be pretty funny if Brood War ended with an SKT Zerg winning the championship though.

Today's first battle report will be a match between mini and Rush from their group stage game. The second one will also be a Mini vs Rush game from the tiebreakers. This just goes to show that Starcraft is such a game where you don't need star players in order to have an epic games.

Their first game started on Neo Ground Zero with mini spawning at seven o'clock and Rush at five o'clock. Each player sent their scouting worker in the wrong direction, undoubtedly making them nervous by playing in the dark.

Both players opted for economic builds, with mini going 12 nexus build and Rush making a 14cc build. Mini built two zealots just to be safe, because he still hasn't scouted his opponent. This resulted in him having his dragoons come too late to do any substantial harass on Rush's expansion.

Seeing his protoss enemy fast expanding and playing relatively safe, Rush decided it would be a good idea to take a quick hidden third base. Hidden expansions are an old concept of Boxer era. But we don't see them too often these days, because they simply rarely work.



On the other hand, mini opted for fast templar archives instead of making an observer. He also went with his small group of units to Rush's expansion to poke his nose, but was quickly shut down by siege tanks. All while this was going on, Rush's hidden expansion has finished and he began mining happily.

Rush sent out two vultures to scout for mini's third base timing and while on their way, they intercepted mini's shuttle going for his expansion (not a hidden one though). While it would be more normal that Protoss is doing a reaver drop at this point in game, mini actually dropped a high templar and stormed a few of Rush's SCVs.



After seeing mini taking his third base, Rush decided to take another base himself, fourth one to be exact. Mini didn't want to make it easy for Rush, so he moved his units in front of his third fourth base, delaying it for as long as possible. But upon facing a fire from siege tanks, mini decided it would be best to retreat his units and secure another base of his own. After clearing out some stray vultures, he took a eleven o'clock base and it's natural expansion.

Rush was content with this though, because his hidden base was still operational and not yet scouted. This was evident by looking at the unit counter at the bottom right corner, where we could see that Rush was constantly ahead in supply. Upon reaching 200/200 supply, Rush decided to go for an attack. At this point mini was still at 160/200 supply which is not the situation you wanna be in as a Protoss.

The battle raged on the half way between the main bases of two players and the result went into Rush's favor, despite some nice storms from mini. Mini retreated the rest of his units with the confused look on his face. Commentators joked that mini probably thinks that Rush is playing with some kind of a mineral hack. There was simply no other explanation to the sheer number of his units.



Mini desperately tried to hold on for his dear life, but no matter how much he stormed or stasised Rush's units, there was just more and more coming. After seeing siege tanks knocking down his expansions, mini gathered a small group of units as a last-ditch effort in his main base. Meanwhile, Rush took every available expansion on the map, including the natural expansion of mini. Finally, mini sent his last group of warriors into their honorable death and in a state of somewhat disbelief, typed out gg.

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The second game started with a bang. Rush decided to take a risk and build a command center first even after being scouted by mini. Mini responded by sending his first zealot and pulling 4 more probes to punish him. Rush pulled his SCV's to defend, but mini used his initial probe to manner pylon Rush, and use the vision to rub his probes through to kill the first marine.

Rush made a bunker, but mini's probes and zealots prevented any marines from getting in. Mini takes an expansion and splits his army between Rush's main and natural to stall Rush, while getting another manner pylon. Rush could have taken a counterattack with his marines and SCV's, but mini, with superior micro, manages to go around and kill most of rush's marines before his zealots fall.



By the time Rush secures his natural, mini has dragoons out, and Rush is unable to punish mini. Mini recognizes that Rush's tech is much behind his, and techs up to reaver to punish Rush. Rush realizes this and sets up turrets around his base. However, mini finds the one hole in Rush's defense, and with amazing reaver micro, kills all the tanks and wins the game with his dragoons.

Match 1: Jangbi vs Mini

The first quarter-final match-up features two players with momentum on their side. Jangbi, coming off a decidedly average Proleague season, appears to have regained the form that carried him to victory in the Jin Air OSL. Having drawn himself what looked like a very difficult group at the outset, Jangbi played with the confidence and composure of a Starleague champion. Mini, meanwhile, had a somewhat tougher time advancing to the round of eight but the swagger which has defined his brief career was apparent as he dispatched Rush and Grape in the Group B tiebreakers.

Jangbi's PvP form has run hot and cold throughout most of his career and its difficult to establish a trend in his recent performances in the match-up. His victory against Best and close run loss against Bisu were clear signs of Jangbi's ability to compete with the best PvP players but these few good performances were balanced out by other less impressive showings. What Jangbi does have on his side is a wealth of experience in preparing for best of five series against Protoss, having had his first run of individual league success during the time of the Six Dragons when his PvP prowess saw him reach multiple finals.

Mini's record in PvP prior to his two dominating performances against Grape was quite poor on paper, having ended his debut Proleague season 1-3 in the match-up. Indeed, on the surface Mini appeared to be another of STX's one match-up rookies, having relied on his PvZ for most of his Proleague wins and his Starleague qualification. However, when examining his handful of games more closely, a different picture begins to appear. His three lossses came against Stork and Stats, two of the most formidable PvP players in Korea and in none of the games did Mini look out of his depth. These losses mean that although Mini has a clear deficit of experience when compared to his opponent, he is not wholly unprepared for the level of play that we would expect from the likes of Jangbi.

The series will likely be decided by a combination of preparation and decision-making, things which are especially difficult to predict in such a build order centric match-up. PvP was once described as being decided by “two armies throwing imbalanced shit at each other” and these are two players who have come to be known for their ability to throw said imbalanced shit. Jangbi, of course, is famed for his high templar usage while Mini recently described the reaver as “pretty”, these differentiating styles feed into what is a match-up between two utterly unique players. Regardless of the outcome, Jangbi and Mini are both players who have proven to be capable of the spectacular and with a Starleague semi-final on the line, they're unlikely to disappoint.

ZerO vs hyvaa

In ZerO versus hyvaa we have another seeming mismatch in which it is still difficult to pick a favourite. Since his appearance in the final of the ABCMart MSL, ZerO has slowly been overtaken by his younger team mate Neo.G_Soulkey. With Soulkey now eliminated, this OSL represents a chance for ZerO to reclaim the spotlight and take back his place as Woongjin's ace Zerg. Hyvaa's career lacks some of the glamour of ZerO's but his talent for individual league upsets has seen him advance to his first quarter-final.

While ZerO was originally known for being weak in ZvZ, it hasn't proven to be the case in recent years. With his run to the final of the last MSL featuring best of five wins over Jaedong and Calm and wins over strong ZvZ players like Hydra and Killer in SK Planet Proleague Season 1, ZerO's ZvZ clearly isn't the Achilles' heel it once was. In his game against n.Die_soO in the round of sixteen, ZerO displayed the kind of mutalisk control which often is often required to make the difference in high level ZvZ. Along with this comes the experience ZerO has gained in preparing for ZvZ elimination series in the past, an especially important skill for a match-up where calculated risks so often play a role.

It's always difficult to know what to say about hyvaa. The word that best seems to sum him up since his move to STX is “weird”. Losing convincingly to Hyuk and Modesty in the Jin Air OSL then randomly beating Jaedong, knocking him out for good measure? Weird. Getting easily defeated by RorO before beating Jaedong (again) and then RorO in the ODT? Weird. Going 3-0 against Soulkey, the best Zerg in Korea, after going 1-4 against Zerg in Proleague? Weird. Historically, hyvaa isn't even really that good at ZvZ, Modesty has almost always been used ahead of him for ZvZ duties in Proleague and he's well short of a 50% winrate in the match-up. And yet he made it out of an all Zerg group and might actually make an OSL semi-final? Weird.

Much like in Jangbi versus Mini, this is a quarter-final with a clear favourite in terms of individual and Proleague pedigree and yet it is still difficult to predict the outcome. Hyvaa has clearly demonstrated his ability to win important games against very good players without doing anything particularly remarkable. ZerO should be well aware of the threat that hyvaa poses and will be able to draw on the knowledge that his team mate Soulkey gained when preparing for the STX Zerg in the round of sixteen. In the end, ZerO's experience of best of five ZvZs and the decision-making ability required to thrive in that environment will likely win out but if hyvaa continues to show the form of his OSL run so far, the series has the potential to be a close run affair.

Shine vs Flash

The grandma versus the grand master. Shine's utter demolition of this OSL so far has been impressive but in best of five versus Flash he faces the greatest challenge of his career to date. In his round of sixteen group, Flash looked like a young man with a lot on his plate. His games versus Jangbi and Bogus were those of a player who is spread too thin, too many different competitions and two different games clearly impacted his ability to deliver the level of performance fans have come to expect.

For some time, Shine has been a player capable of making an impact on individual leagues. However, like many other modern Zergs, his weakness in ZvT has often undermined his ability to go deep in the elimination stages. Prior to his win over Last in the ODT, Shine was on a 7 game losing streak against Terran, stretching back to his elimination from the ABCMart MSL at the hands of Reality and Really. Shine's play-style in ZvT is not quite as easy to nail down as his ZvP but the aggression, bordering on cheese, is still often apparent. Against the likes of Flash, early all-ins do seem preferable to drawn out management games, but Shine will likely need to prepare something special if he hopes to catch the Golden Mouse winning Terran off-guard.

It has been almost a year since Flash lost a TvZ. More than two years since he lost a best of five TvZ. Since June 2011, Flash has maintained an 80% win-rate versus Zerg, in the process beating literally every good Zerg in Korea at least once. Surprise, Flash is really good. However, since the beginning of the hybrid Proleague format, he has looked more human than usual. In his first game against Action in the round of sixteen, there appeared to be a very real possibility that Flash would lose to his heavily unfavoured team-mate. Following his strange build-order selection against Jangbi and his inability to defend Bogus' aggression, there was a notion that perhaps Flash simply didn't have time for Brood War any more. Flash managed to dispel this for the time being by winning his tiebreakers with two completely uncontested stomps but as the figurehead for KeSPA progamers the pressure on him to perform well in the new game is likely to continue to weigh heavily.

This quarter-final has the potential to be incredibly one-sided. If Flash plays the kind of TvZ that we know he's capable of, Shine, for all his best efforts, will not stand a chance. However Flash, regardless of all his years of experience, is not completely immune to pressure. Moreover his ability to maintain his level of play through the grueling practice hours that first saw him rise to prominence is likely to be hampered by Proleague preparation, along with his trip to Anaheim for MLG. Ultimately, the allure of a record fourth OSL title is difficult to ignore, even for a player with as many trophies as Flash, and it seems likely that even with all the distractions that exist, Flash's quality as a player will win out.

Fantasy vs soO


The token Fantasy team-kill, it wouldn't be an OSL round of eight without it. In the round of sixteen, Fantasy continued his trend of being much better than everyone not named Flash by easily sweeping his group full of Royal Road candidates. Meanwhile, SoO also continued his slightly less exciting trend of hydra-busting everyone's favourite players. Neither Fantasy nor soO is particularly fond of TvZ but both have had some decent wins in the match-up recently, especially in the case of Fantasy.

Fantasy's TvZ hasn't really been a weakness for a long time now and his bio play has reached a stage where he's able to beat top Zergs almost with control alone. It has come to the point where it's actually difficult, perhaps impossible, to name a Zerg player against whom Fantasy isn't the favourite. In fact, there is a strong case for Fantasy being the most in form player in Korea right now, supported by his recent, if brief, position at the top of the TLPD Elo rankings. Since his loss to Jangbi in the finals of the Jin Air OSL, Fantasy has lost only twice and is 5-0 against Zerg. Of particular interest are the four wins he's had against ZerO in Proleague. Although ZerO was in something of a slump when some of the games were played, in all four games Fantasy played the kind of TvZ that leaves you wondering how Zerg ever actually win that match-up.

SoO's form, although not quite as impressive as his team-mate's, has been pretty decent in 2012. However, his handful of ZvT wins in Proleague came in circumstances that he is unlikely to be able to recreate against the likes of Fantasy. Although most of soO's success has come from aggression, he has in the past displayed a decent ability to win management ZvT, starting his Jin Air campaign with two late-game wins against solid TvZ players Sea and HiyA. Whether or not he'll look to play management games against a player of Fantasy's quality is another question entirely. Fantasy has never appeared completely immune to all-ins but the difficulty of preparing tricky builds when you practice in the same room as your opponent should not be overlooked.

Fantasy has done a much better job of concealing the amount of pressure that is being placed on progamers by the new Proleague system than most other players. His performances in Brood War since the switch have been some of the best of any top player, in both Proleague and the OSL. Whether this is a result of some innate ability to maintain his level without practice or a product of his own personal efforts, Fantasy looks like the best player in the world at the moment and as such this quarter-final is the easiest to predict an outcome in. Based upon his performances in the match-up relative to Fantasy, and his recent form overall, soO will have done well if he manages to win a single map.