JaedongYellOw[ArnC] vs Career vZ: 81-25 (76%) Career vZ: 44-44 (50%) Last 10 vZ: 5-5 Last 10 vZ: 7-3
With its many great Zerg qualifiers and Zerg-friendly maps, it's no surprise the Bacchus OSL 2009 has produced a Zerg versus Zerg Finals — and yet, this outcome has been the cause of much ire and depression here at Teamliquid. I'm here to say: damn the naysayers! The Bacchus OSL 2009's (ZvZ) Grand Finals is going to kick ass, and here are four reasons why. Hype!
1. This Is Not Your Father's ZvZ
Zerg versus Zerg is simply not what it was when it earned its reputation as a relatively unexciting, skill-less, rock-paper-scissors matchup. Just for kicks, I went into TLPD and pulled up the oldest VOD on record which includes ZvZ muta micro (the oldest ZvZ VOD is Yellow's crazy +1 speedling attack, which ends the game before mutas). Here's what I found: nearly stationary mutalisks which consistently die to scourge — a level of micro which, in today's ZvZ scene, would be considered not microing at all. That is boring.
Fast forward two years. The dynamic, weaving, muta-vs.-muta fights of today are still totally absent — watch Chojja defeat Savior with fleets of scourge in the final set of the MSL's first ZvZ Finals, at the 2005 CYON MSL. Another two years, to 2007 and the twilight of Savior's reign: most mutalisk-scourge battles (Savior vs. Jaedong in PL on 10.20.07, for example) still boil down to "attack-move and see who has more stuff". Even ZvZs from 2008 regularly include scourge-on-muta hits in open air, events which are almost absent from top-class ZvZs today (and which, if they are present, are game-breaking).
The trend is obvious: ZvZ mutalisk micro has changed dramatically over the past several years, and with it the entire matchup. As ZvZ's skill ceiling has skyrocketed, so has its entertainment value. Today's S-class Zerg versus Zerg players understand the matchup's metagame like nobody before them, defy"impossible" build order disadvantages, use a host of clevertricks and builds, and beat lesser Zergs with a regularity that betrays the difficulty of their craft. Is it any wonder that these players (Jaedong, Calm, Effort, Yarnc) have between them many of the recent months' most exciting games, and easily the greatest ZvZs of all time?
Jaedong's Avalon MSL semifinal match with Calm may be the best ZvZ series to date, but this OSL Finals is going to blow it out of the water. With so much at stake, so much raw skill between them, and so much practice time on their hands, Jaedong and Yarnc are poised to push Zerg versus Zerg's envelope just a bit further than ever before.
2. A Golden Opportunity for Jaedong
The third-ever Golden Mouse has been forged. If Jaedong claims his third OSL title tomorrow, he will become the youngest player by far to hoist the trophy — both NaDa and July were 21 when they won their third OSLs (the 2nd Shinhan Bank in 2006 and EVER in 2008, respectively) but Jaedong is just 19. The speed with which the Legend Killer has raced to the brink of winning StarCraft's most prestigious individual award is even more impressive in terms of career lengths: while it took both NaDa and July over five years of professional gaming to earn their Golden Mouses, if Jaedong beats Yarnc tomorrow he'll have matched their feat in just over three years. (Jaedong would also join Boxer as the only players ever to win back-to-back OSLs.)
With a Golden Mouse and second consecutive OSL victory on the line, this Finals is Jaedong's opportunity to officially place himself amongst the greatest individual StarCraft players of all time. Having lost in GOM S3, dropped out of the Avalon MSL, and failed his team badly at the Proleague Grand Finals, this series is also JD's only way to salvage a result from this Starleague season worthy of his overall performance in it. In this Finals, Jaedong's unmatched competitiveness will push him harder than ever before.
3. Yarnc Under Pressure
Though it's Jaedong who has a Golden Mouse on the line, Yarnc is actually under greater pressure to perform in this OSL Finals — and not simply because he has to play ZvJ.
"Don't let us down"
First, Yarnc has all of his vanquished teammates' OSL hopes riding on his shoulders. He had a relatively easy run through Hite's side of the bracket — 2-1 vs. Go.go in the Ro8 and 3-0 vs. Type-b in the Ro4 — which means that his teammates' and coaches' expectations for his performance in this match are running high. If Yarnc bombs the Finals, he'll dash those expectations, leave doubts that another Hite member (Leta?) could have given Jaedong a better match, and, most importantly, embarrass Hite by stripping their little in-house tournament of any significance to this OSL's final outcome. Tomorrow night Yarnc plays not only for his first OSL title, but for Hite's dignity.
Second, Fake Yellow has been served this OSL Finals on a silver platter — it's obviously the best title shot of his career, and will in all likelihood retain that title forever. Thanks to this OSL's maps and poor showings from its few Protosses, Yarnc didn't have to put his horrific ZvP to the test once in his entire Finals run. Go.go's cheesy play in the Ro16 gave Yarnc a powderpuff Terran opponent in the Ro8 (instead of Bisu), and Type-b helped punch his Finals ticket by offing Leta and then rolling over and dying in the Ro4. Aside from his stint in the Ro16's group of death, Yarnc's Bacchus OSL 2009 has been an unrepeatable cakewalk — and that makes this Finals his one big chance. If Yellow[arnc] can't win an OSL under these ideal conditions, it's safe to say he never will.
4. Ro16 Grudge Match
Jaedong is even with Fake Yellow in their career series (4-4), but two of those games (two Yarnc wins) were at JD's tournament debut, a 2006 OSL preliminary. Remember the last game Jaedong and Yarnc played? It was their meeting in this OSL's Group A on July 7, and a solid Yarnc win. Jaedong was on the tail end of an awful 17-day, 12-game run that included several key Proleague games, a GOM series with Violet, the conclusion of his Avalon MSL Ro32 group, and his other two OSL Ro16 games. Up 2-0 in the group and exhausted, Jaedong had little incentive to prepare for this game — but likely regretted his poor performance immediately afterwards. Fans on TL cried "slump" and wondered "what's wrong with Jaedong?"
Now almost two months later, Jaedong finally has a shot to avenge that loss — and on a much bigger stage. For Yarnc, the Finals are the ideal opportunity to prove that his Ro16 win was not a fluke.
If you're amongst the 33%, give yourself a pat on the back. This season both the OSL and MSL have Zerg versus Zerg Finals, something that has never happened before (the OSL proper has never has a ZvZ Finals, and the MSL has had only two: Chojja > Savior at CYON, and Savior > Silver at Pringles 2). If two StarCraft seasons ago was the Golden Age of Protoss, this must be the Golden Age of Zerg — and if history's any indication, we can expect Zergs to struggle mightily in an unfavorable map pool over the next few seasons. Enjoy Zerg dominance while it lasts!
Oh, and some more fun facts, about Zergs at the 08-09 Proleague playoffs: all three super ace games, and three of four regular ace games, featured a Zerg player. Of these seven pivotal sets, three were ZvZs.
I really do think this OSL Finals matchup will defy everyone's expectations and produce an excellent series (fingers crossed that Yarnc brings his A-game). Don't miss it!
Yeah I totally agree. ZvZ is an incredible match-up and this series will likely be the highest level ZvZ ever played. Yarnc has great mutalisks in ZvT so there's no reason, with practice, he can't step up. He also has his brother who will likely want to help his younger bro get a title of his own.
It's just a shame they don't bump it up to Bo7/Bo9 to make it last a bit longer.
JD is my favo player nr 1 Yarnc is nr 2 Result will break my heart same time when im very happy Only reason why ZvZ is watchable is because it is so intense, and unforgiven
On August 21 2009 05:46 SilverskY wrote: JWD, I posted another version of the splash in the GFX forum, you can quickly go check it out, and replace it with that one if you like it better.
On August 21 2009 05:46 SilverskY wrote: JWD, I posted another version of the splash in the GFX forum, you can quickly go check it out, and replace it with that one if you like it better.
Thanks JWD for the excellent write-up. I want to watch this live, and for all the reasons you listed, I'm expecting this ZvZ to be the best ZvZ BO series ever played in the history of this game. There's just too much at stake, these will be the games JD and Yarnc gonna show the world what they are all about.
More than anything, I expect the winner, whoever it is, to be the one that comes out with more intelligent mindgames and plays in unpredictable fashion. At this level of skill, mechanical perfection is a given fact, and just not enough to win.
On August 21 2009 05:53 zazen wrote: More than anything, I expect the winner, whoever it is, to be the one that comes out with more intelligent mindgames and plays in unpredictable fashion. At this level of skill, mechanical perfection is a given fact, and just not enough to win.
I agree. Micro sometimes decides super-high-level ZvZ but lately smart builds (i.e. not 12-hatching every game) and clever little tricks (hiding lings is a big one) have been playing a big role. The best ZvZ players are really good at predicting their opponents' builds, and the OSL winner will be no exception...in this regard Yarnc got the best of JD at their last meeting — we'll have to see if JD can turn the tables here.
On August 21 2009 05:53 zazen wrote: More than anything, I expect the winner, whoever it is, to be the one that comes out with more intelligent mindgames and plays in unpredictable fashion. At this level of skill, mechanical perfection is a given fact, and just not enough to win.
I agree. Micro sometimes decides super-high-level ZvZ but lately smart builds (i.e. not 12-hatching every game) and clever little tricks (hiding lings is a big one) have been playing a big role. The best ZvZ players are really good at predicting their opponents' builds, and the OSL winner will be no exception...in this regard Yarnc got the best of JD at their last meeting — we'll have to see if JD can turn the tables here.
I really hope this is the case, but I'm a little bit concerned that it won't be. Yarnc may be overwhelmed and get outmicroed.
Oh god, until I saw that picture of the golden mouse, I thought it was a statue of a mouse (the animal). But that makes alot more sense O.o Looking forward to this finals, even tho I dont play zerg O:
The OSL has realy changed. From being a zerg nightmare in the start of its life to having (including this OSL) 6 out of the last 8 champions being zerg.
A while ago a JvZ finals would not have been a very exciting event, the outcome would be so set in stone you wouldn't even care. Lately however, Jaedongs ZvZ has been looking mortal, S-class but mortal. This may be because of his recent schedule, which almost makes Flash look like a slacker, but nevertheless he has been losing ZvZs to various opponents which might just tip the scales in Yarncs favor. Still, he has to bring his absolute A-game(S-game?) to this match to have a shot considering the pent up rage from dissapointment that Jaedong is going to unleash on him.
06-02-22 Jaedong < YellOw[ArnC] on R-Point 06-03-28 Jaedong < YellOw[ArnC] on Luna The Final 06-03-28 Jaedong < YellOw[ArnC] on Ride of Valkyries 07-12-29 Jaedong > YellOw[ArnC] on Katrina 08-10-04 Jaedong < YellOw[ArnC] on Neo Requiem 09-02-17 Jaedong > YellOw[ArnC] on Colosseum II 09-04-11 Jaedong > YellOw[ArnC] on Neo Medusa 09-04-11 Jaedong > YellOw[ArnC] on Battle Royal 09-07-08 Jaedong < YellOw[ArnC] on Holy World SE
nice writeup, but you made a mistake: Jaedong never played Violet in GOM, effort beat violet, I guess you're mistaking violet for much or whatever Protoss JD was playing back then
Hard to get hyped when you can't stop saying what a cakewalk Yarnc had to the finals (I'm not arguing with that statement itself; read on). That's just downplaying Yarnc's run. It wouldn't make any casual fan go, "Wow, I'm excited to watch someone I read on TL shouldn't be in the finals!" You never said shouldn't be, but saying enough what an easy road it was implies such. The pressure of performing well as a member Hite is not compelling. This isn't the SPL or SWL. If Yarnc wins, it means he was the better player; nothing more.
As for your comment about another Hite member (Leta) potentially putting up a better fight than Yarnc, I reply: Leta couldn't even beat type-b. Leta is also 0-6 vs Jaedong. So please, enough about Leta!
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Also, I'm a dumb-fuck for reading the first page of comment because some of you spoiled the MSL semi-final B results before the VODs were even available! My fault, but I'm still severely pissed.
proleague is still the biggest and favourite league in korea now . you can just ask jaedong , he will tell you . OSL and MSL are still legends . but its now just everthing about proleague . i think its a good question to ask at blizzcon to savior , nada , skyhigh and zero .
Aside from his stint in the Ro16's group of death, Yarnc's Bacchus OSL 2009 has been an unrepeatable cakewalk — and that makes this Finals his one big chance. If Yellow[arnc] can't win an OSL under these ideal conditions, it's safe to say he never will.
How does that follow? The "unrepeatable cakewalk" led to the finals, not past them. Had you said, "If If Yellow[arnc] can't reach the finals of an OSL under these ideal conditions, it's safe to say he never will," that would have been reasonable, but he DID make the finals. To win it, he has to get past Jaedong in ZvZ, the furthest thing from a cakewalk imaginable. If FakeYellow loses the series, that hardly says that he will never win an OSL, perhaps one where he doesn't face Jaedong. Anyway, it's moot for now, but I think you went too far with the hype there.
Cmon Yellow Stick it to your brother! It's tough to decide who to root for in this matchup. Jaedong looked like he was on course for an absolutely amazing treble of trophies. (Up til the finals I think you could argue that HwasenOZ = Jaedong) However now that Jaedong is "only" going to win the OSL for the third time, my heart kind of wants to support the underdog. However much that Yellow and Luxury look like clones. Hopefully this ends up being a set of 5 good matches and not a complete stomping by Jaedong.
Aside from his stint in the Ro16's group of death, Yarnc's Bacchus OSL 2009 has been an unrepeatable cakewalk — and that makes this Finals his one big chance. If Yellow[arnc] can't win an OSL under these ideal conditions, it's safe to say he never will.
How does that follow? The "unrepeatable cakewalk" led to the finals, not past them. Had you said, "If If Yellow[arnc] can't reach the finals of an OSL under these ideal conditions, it's safe to say he never will," that would have been reasonable, but he DID make the finals. To win it, he has to get past Jaedong in ZvZ, the furthest thing from a cakewalk imaginable. If FakeYellow loses the series, that hardly says that he will never win an OSL, perhaps one where he doesn't face Jaedong. Anyway, it's moot for now, but I think you went too far with the hype there.
Even considering he has to face JD in the Finals, this OSL will have been relatively painless for Yarnc. His ZvT and ZvZ are just so much better than his ZvP that a solely Terran and Zerg field is a dream come true for him — any high-powered Protoss opponent, and he'd stand less of a chance than he does against even JD. The passage you quoted makes complete sense.
On August 21 2009 10:01 vaMpYr wrote: proleague is still the biggest and favourite league in korea now . you can just ask jaedong , he will tell you . OSL and MSL are still legends . but its now just everthing about proleague . i think its a good question to ask at blizzcon to savior , nada , skyhigh and zero .
That's fine. But the a player is usually judged by his number of individual titles before PL.
On August 21 2009 08:24 MountainDewJunkie wrote: As for your comment about another Hite member (Leta) potentially putting up a better fight than Yarnc, I reply: Leta couldn't even beat type-b. Leta is also 0-6 vs Jaedong. So please, enough about Leta!
To be clear, I agree that Yarnc has a better shot at Jaedong than Leta (or any other Hite player). What I'm saying is that, if Yarnc fails horribly in the Finals, it's still certain that Hite fans and players will wonder whether Leta wouldn't have given JD a better series. That's pressure on Yarnc.
Aside from his stint in the Ro16's group of death, Yarnc's Bacchus OSL 2009 has been an unrepeatable cakewalk — and that makes this Finals his one big chance. If Yellow[arnc] can't win an OSL under these ideal conditions, it's safe to say he never will.
How does that follow? The "unrepeatable cakewalk" led to the finals, not past them. Had you said, "If If Yellow[arnc] can't reach the finals of an OSL under these ideal conditions, it's safe to say he never will," that would have been reasonable, but he DID make the finals. To win it, he has to get past Jaedong in ZvZ, the furthest thing from a cakewalk imaginable. If FakeYellow loses the series, that hardly says that he will never win an OSL, perhaps one where he doesn't face Jaedong. Anyway, it's moot for now, but I think you went too far with the hype there.
Even considering he has to face JD in the Finals, this OSL will have been relatively painless for Yarnc. His ZvT and ZvZ are just so much better than his ZvP that a solely Terran and Zerg field is a dream come true for him — any high-powered Protoss opponent, and he'd stand less of a chance than he does against even JD. The passage you quoted makes complete sense.[/QUOTE]OK, I think I misunderstood you a bit there. I thought you were saying that losing to Jaedong will prove something about whether Yellow[arnc] has what it takes to win (which I disagreed with), but maybe you meant that whether he wins or loses, it's not likely that he'll even reach the final again, given his subpar vP.
Thanks for incapsulating the "ire", "naysayers" and "pat" words into my vocabulary! That's really great, that you are writing not on the "Simple English".
I don't agree with you when you said Yarnc was essentially handed his OSL finals opportunity on a silver platter. He definitely had his share of work getting through the Ro16 Group A, which was the group of death (Yarnc, Effort, Jaedong, and Flash). Getting past Light in the round before isn't exactly a pushover either b/c TvZ happens to be Light's best matchup. Even if Yarnc did have to face off against Leta instead of type-b I would still have called out to Yarnc as a favorite because he has the best ZvT in the league (debatable with Jaedong). Either way you look at it Yarnc definitely has a chance to take this OSL and future leagues. I'm a big Jaedong fan especially everything he's been going through but deep down inside I will be cheering for Yarnc...he deserves to win.
i have reasons to doubt that it will be the greatest zvz of all time. jaedong knows that the win will be hard when he meets the twins muta micro. thats why he will 5 times zergling rush. and knowing that yarnc will try to defence the zergling rushes, maybe succeeding 2 times...
'Hell it's about time' i am so fucking exited about those games comin' up! IMO everything leads to JD to be the winner after all! Sure he sucked hard in past and specially in PL but he had some time to calm down and get his nerves back to propper work. If Yellow wants to win he must put his A+ game on the table and for JD he just needs to back up his extrem ZvZ dominance he still will win this damn title if he wont play his best games, sure that would be some really close games. JD need to stick to his roots and will win!
i'm excited, nice article, but i really don't think Calm vs JD was an excelent series, since as JD stated he could not give his best and even his win wasnt fully deserved
I'm really excited to see jaedong get his golden mouse ^__^
I've never really found ZvZ that boring (maybe since I play zerg haha), though it is really disappointing when a Bo5 is over in like an hour. I just hope that all of the games are epic and that there's some longer ones at least.
On August 21 2009 05:46 SilverskY wrote: JWD, I posted another version of the splash in the GFX forum, you can quickly go check it out, and replace it with that one if you like it better.
On August 21 2009 05:46 SilverskY wrote: JWD, I posted another version of the splash in the GFX forum, you can quickly go check it out, and replace it with that one if you like it better.
Daniel! Looks super, thanks man.
Can't wait these finals :/
Hahaha, there is definitely a hidden message there.
On August 21 2009 15:15 asdfTT123 wrote: Great write-up!
I don't agree with you when you said Yarnc was essentially handed his OSL finals opportunity on a silver platter. He definitely had his share of work getting through the Ro16 Group A, which was the group of death (Yarnc, Effort, Jaedong, and Flash). Getting past Light in the round before isn't exactly a pushover either b/c TvZ happens to be Light's best matchup. Even if Yarnc did have to face off against Leta instead of type-b I would still have called out to Yarnc as a favorite because he has the best ZvT in the league (debatable with Jaedong). Either way you look at it Yarnc definitely has a chance to take this OSL and future leagues. I'm a big Jaedong fan especially everything he's been going through but deep down inside I will be cheering for Yarnc...he deserves to win.
Maybe. It depends how you want to view the sheer lack of Protoss players in this OSL. Yarnc definitely did not need to play any tough TvPs this tournament, so in that regard, one might think that this is his golden opportunity, or the tournament is handed on a silver platter, or whatever metal + noun combination you wish to use. So you might want to say that since his weakness has not been truly tested, the Fates have provided him this possibility.
...but then again one might well say that the lack of Protoss simply represents their own failures, and should not enter into our evaluation of Yarnc's performance at all. Frankly I'm not sure which side I agree with.
I think the tell-tale of the opening message is "And here's four reasons why." I figure you could do way more than that if either Leta or Fantasy won and it were a TvZ. It'll be a good match, I'm sure, for ZvZ, but it will still be an unsatisfying finals because, no matter what, it'll be over early.
Aw, Jaedong is gonna beat Fake Yellow so bad its not even funny. Yarnc is a good player but i dont think he can rise up to Jaedongs ZvZ again. Jaedong was a little worse for wear a while ago when he lost to him, but he seems to have gotten back into the game now.
And i quote from the last TL live chat "If Jaedong doesn't win this final he will definetly kill himself" and that wouldn't be the best since i would have to watch all his old games over and over : / Anyone know where i can get a good live stream? I kinda need an answer fast since its on in less than half a day! **UPDATE**
Haha, about 5 seconds after posting i looked at the calendar at the top and realised I got the time zones wrong. Missed the game by a day! DEVASTATED! although it was to be honest the worst finals so far.
I do not agree with some of the statements of the article. Mutas were microed in the past, but the "overlord stack bug" was unknown. There were some players (e.g. Ogogo, to some degree Yellow), who could "semi stack", but it required much more speed. Nowadays scourge became useless, due to that bug, even C zergs can stack perfectly.
In the past, it was not "unmicroed muta vs muta hit by scourge", but shift clicked mutalisks vs shift click mutalisks to focus fire. Actually you could not fly away, just like today, because your mutas would not stack (you cant fly away anyway). At the moment 3hat scourge lings seems to be absolutely inviable, while it was a key build in the past. Players like Ogogo could actually manage to defeat it with pure mutas, but at the time their micro required INCREDIBLE apm, because a player had to click A LOT to make his mutas stack. Now it's much easier.
Personally I believe that Yellow sucked, but he still managed to do some pseudo muta harass. Please try to harass without an overlord selected to see how hard it is. You seem to have forgotten the whole mineral stacking thing - and how big it was back then.
Even though I saw this at BlizzCon, I am so happy for this write-up because I was too high/drunk to really understand what the fuck was going on lol. Thanks JWD!
(As in, I didn't really get the significance of anything or who was playing Jaedong even by the time game 2 rolled along lol)
On August 25 2009 01:19 fanatacist wrote: Even though I saw this at BlizzCon, I am so happy for this write-up because I was too high/drunk to really understand what the fuck was going on lol. Thanks JWD!
(As in, I didn't really get the significance of anything or who was playing Jaedong even by the time game 2 rolled along lol)
On August 26 2009 14:13 GHOSTCLAW wrote: the blizzcon party was so late (zzz)
the hype for this wasn't as good as for the jd fantasy quarters though
imagine how much worse it woulda been if day9 didn't commentate? I think I really woulda fell asleep after the 1st set if he wasn't keeping me interested.
EPT![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/SilverskY/BacchusFinalsSplash2.jpg)
Jaedong ![[image loading]](/staff/JWD/bacchus_osl_s2/7_4.jpg)
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![[image loading]](/staff/JWD/bacchus_osl_s2/7_1.jpg)
![[image loading]](/staff/JWD/bacchus_osl_s2/7_3.jpg)
![[image loading]](/staff/JWD/bacchus_osl_s2/7_7.jpg)
