[OSL 2008] EVER Day 5 Ro16 May 28

The Fight for Survival or: Threeway mirror and a Vulture raid.

Today is the moderate day in OSL. There are not as many badge-holders and former superstars thrown around like they will be on Friday. There are mostly mirror games. Everything is fine.

Not everything is fine. There will be eight players out there, and they are fighting for their lives. The mirrors go from the traditionally most static (TvT) to the most dynamic (ZvZ), topping the day off with an exciting PvT.

First off is a Terran mirror among the two most consistent Terrans of recent times. Proleague Monster Sea vs. "I-destroy-everything"-Monster Flash. Sea has a TvT career record of 65.57%. Flash has burst through to a whopping 68.75%. They met in Proleague recently with Flash coming out on top and leading KTF to a clean victory over the Heroes. Technically, Sea has no chance. He is known to be folding under pressure, and Flash is just on too much of a run to slow down in this passage. He won't let himself be endangered to slip into Playoff games, where some lucky cheese can throw him off. He will prevail. But Sea can live off the magnitude of opposing odds - nobody expects him to win, so he can play with a clean mind.

The second match of the day features two of the would-be protoss prodigies of modern times. They both have a history of beating their "the next big Protoss"-ancestor, as both already overcame the (formerly) most feared PvP-Player on the planet, Stork. BeSt is, solely looking at stats, the favourite in this matchup, but Jangbi has shown skills he was never estimated to possess in advance. This one will be close.

Rumble vs. Luxury makes for yet another interesting ZvZ in our most dearly beloved group. The maths of this group are dead easy: Winner gets to the next round, July is already qualified as 1st of the group. Can Luxury whip out his formerly 2nd best ZvZ in progaming? Can Rumble prove the new "If it is SKT1, bet on it" doctrine?

Mind vs. Much is the final match, and for me it is the most anticipated. Grandpatoss appeared to have some sort of renaissance when beating Bisu, not to mention he made it out of the "civil war" group in the MSL, stepping over Jangbi and Anytime. Mind on the other side has an especially artful TvP to watch - and that alone should provide for amazing entertainment. The group is tied 1-1 for everyone, so the doctrine is as simple as group C: Win it, and you're in it.

Sea < Flash ---> Flash advances as A1!
JangBi < BeSt ---> Best advances as B1!
Rumble < Luxury ---> Luxury advances as C2!
Mind < Much ---> Much advances to Ro8, which rank is decided Friday!

Some further Info: In group A, Sea will have to hope for GGplay to beat Rock. In that case, there will be a 3-way playoff with one getting through. In group B, Jangbi is in the same situation: He has to hope for Stork beating Nada, then Jangbi, Nada, and Stork will play the 3-way. Group C is decided. In group D, the winner of Bisu vs. Backho joins Much for the Ro8. If I understand the system correctly, Bisu would go as D2 (lost against Much), Backho as D1 (won against Much).