There is only one game this week that needs to be highlighted, and this game also signals the second week in a row for which one of YellOw's games has been chosen at game of the week. But you know what, this guy deserves it. He showed great Starcraft again this week, and against none other than Jaedong himself. Going toe-to-toe against Jaedong for around 35 minutes in an epic ZvZ filled with higher tech units, YellOw showed that he still has what it takes.

The game begins with YellOw starting as the Red Zerg at the 7 position, and Jaedong starting as the Orange Zerg at the 1 position on Match Point. YellOw chooses to go for a 9 pool on Match Point, anticipating a greedy 12 Hatch from Jaedong to try to take an early lead over a 12 Pool that is rather common on this map. The crowd waits with bated breath to see what tech path Jaedong will take, and it turns out that he does indeed go for a 12 Hatch. The crowd splits into half – the YellOw fans cheering, and the Jaedong fans groaning.



Unfortunately for YellOw, he opts to go for a 9 Pool Lair, which is unable to properly build enough pressure on a 12 Hatch. As YellOw charges in with his Zerglings, Jaedong pulls 6 or so Drones, and distracts YellOw's Zerglings long enough to get his own Zerglings out, but loses 4 Drones in the process. The game still looks like it can swing into either player's favor, but with Jaedong losing out economically, as well as his immediate need to place Spore Colonies to stop YellOw's Mutalisks, YellOw has full control over this game.

YellOw attempts to provoke Jaedong with his units, but once he sees how few Zerglings Jaedong has since about half of them were outside of his base, YellOw charges in with his own force and proceeds to harass Jaedong's economy. YellOw is able to get three Drones at the natural before Jaedong repells his attack. Jaedong immediately counter attacks with his Zerglings, forcing YellOw to place two sunken colonies. To be extra safe against Jaedong's Zerglings.

As YellOw's Mutalisks pop, Jaedong starts setting up Spore Colonies in his base. This sets him even further behind economically both because he has an already extremely weak economy, and because he has two bases he needs to set up four Spores. YellOw takes his natural expo and continues to pump Mutas, prompting Jaedong to get up a third Spore at his natural to cover his gas. Jaedong, realizing that YellOw's mutas are away at home and recognizing the need to deal economic damage, runs his Zerglings towards YellOw's natural expansion, and tries to take it out. He's unsuccessful, but while this is happening, he also sends a Drone to 12, hoping that YellOw won't notice if he's busy with Mutalisk micro.

Yellow's Overlord does end up spotting the Drone though, And thus Jaedong decides to cancel the hatch and pull the Drone back. Yellow sends up Mutalisks to check bottom right, but when Jaedong sees this, he sends his Mutas to Yellow's base, which end up sniping some Drones. Jaedong tries to take a third expansion by any means possible to try to catch up to YellOw's economy, which he bolstered by adding a third hatchery in his natural. As both players vie for economic superiority, YellOw ultimately suceeds in stopping Jaedong's expansion attempts, forcing him to place his third Hatchery in his natural, even though it's ridiculously late when compared to YellOw's.

As the match wears on, a look back into Yellow's main reveals that he has barely increased his Drone count from a few minutes ago, choosing instead to get his carapace upgrades and pump more Mutas. Thus when his and Jaedong's Mutas clash, Jaedong is forced to pull back. At this point in the game, both players continue to dance around each other with their Mutas, although Yellow has taken this time to add a Queen's Nest, while Jaedong uses his money instead to take the 3 mineral only expansion. Yellow gets a Queen, hoping to ensnare Jaedong's Mutalisks while they are outside of his base and destroy them. Unfortunately he never gets the chance, but he continues to tech up while grabbing more and more upgrades. His economy still leaves something to be desired. Both players continue to tech up, and Yellow takes top left. Jaedong gets off an ensnare on Yellow's Mutas, but doesn't really do anything with it. He is able to take down Yellow's Greater Spire though, delaying upgrades and Mutalisk production. Meanwhile, YellOw has already teched up to defilers. He chooses to attack using his Zerglings and Dark Swarm, but Jaedong's Zerglings destroy all of his.



As more defilers come onto the field, the risk of getting plagued gets increased by a lot. Jaedong is the first victim, as a lot of his Mutalisks get plagued by Yellow. Yellow also hits Jaedong's Mutas with an ensnare, but realizes that Jaedong has no outlying bases to harass, so he just backs off. Meanwhile, he sends his Defilers out onto the map, trying to get another plague in. He also takes his mineral only, and now looks like he has a clear economic lead. As both players add devourers to their air armies, they become less willing to start flying in the open. Jaedong gets a beautiful plague on Yellow's Mutalisks. but he is still economically behind.

No, I can't tell that those are plagued either.

Jaedong realizes just how economically ahead Yellow is, and realizes that he can't compete in terms of ling numbers, so he adds Lurkers to his army, hoping that they still provide him enough defense to keep the Zergling off of him. Unfortunately for Jaedong, Yellow gets another huge plague off on his army, and is thus able to attack 12 while Jaedong runs his Mutas away, sacrificing his recently taken 12 expo. He does attempt to counter attack Yellow's third, but Yellow returns home and begins to destroy Jaedong's Mutalisks. Even though Jaedong destroyed Yellow's third hatch, Jaedong lost too many Mutalisks in that engagement, so Yellow ends up with a clear economic advantage. YellOw moves forward to counterattack though, and only a last minute plague saves Jaedong from destruction, although he did lose his third expansion. He's also so strapped on cash that he's forced to distance mine, and with Yellow now with enough Mutalisks to control that mineral only area, Jaedong has no choice but to tap out. GG.



This game is both a testament to Jaedong's skill at being able to just barely hold on for 35 minutes despite such a disastrous early game, but it's also a testament to Yellow's development as a solid Zerg player by never letting go of the advantage he got in the early game. By playing slow and cautiously, Yellow secured the victory and gave us all something awesome to watch.

---

• Third time's a charm?
  ACE is on a three match winning streak. Last week it was MBC and hite, it was a surprise, but both teams have been under-performing, so "no biggie". But after they managed to beat OZ this week (and 3-1 too), ACE is starting to pay off. So far they have 9 FPL points accumulated, making them a better option than hite, eSTRO and STX SouL. Not even that, but at their -1 cost, they scored almost as much as CJ Entus this round (13 points, #5 position in FPL ranks). That means you could pick ACE and play 'even' with more than 1300 teams, while having 3-7 extra points to expend. Sick.
  
  
• Flash a-ah, sAviOr of the Universe!
  Is it because he beats everyone? NO.
  Is it because he's a bonjwa? NO.
  Did Flash buy a Rolex? No!
  
  Then itw how is Flash a sAviOr? He's slumping, at least in FPL. There, I said it. *hides behind harem*
  
  Flash lost the only match he played this week, against free. Was it a good game? Yes. Are the people who picked Flash for FPL happy? NO.
  
  The ultimate weapon is 5-6 this round, 0-5 in ace matches (the ones that award the most points). He's lucky to get 1 point this week, given his teammates stepped it up for him. And by saying that last phrase, I just opened a rift to a bizarre parallel reality. Thanks Flash, now I can see how the future would be like if Stork YellOw won a gold medal.
  
  
  
• What?
  Who's the top scorer this round?
  
  Flash? I just told you he isn't, pay attention.
  Jaedong? close, but not (specially not after this week lolol).
  It's great! What? Yes, Samsung's Death God went 1-1 this week (won against HyuN, lost to Horang2). That's not very impressive right? It is, when that makes you 6-1 this round and 2-0 in ace matches. Not even that, but great beat HyuN first, so he got streak points too.
  
  29 points so far. 5$. Nothing further, Your Honor.
  
  
• STX SouL, Transform and roll out!
  STX SouL's coach finally understands his FPL team is not going to get very far if he keeps sending Calm and Kal. I mean, he still did, but not as much. Both of them went 0-1, which it's just another brick in the wall by now. But at least STX managed to go 1-1 this week. (3-2 eSTRO, 2-3 CJ Entus). Not that bad consider how they were doing this round. FrOzean racks up another win, and they world feels a little more empty. But who cares? less than 25 teams have FrOzean in their line-up as of now.

In other news, CJ Entus goes 2-0 and is close to settling their playoffs spot. Other teams near the qualifying line are Hwaseung OZ, Samsung KHAN, WeMade FOX and Woongjin Stars. So look for those teams when making trades, they are the ones putting all the meat on the grill. The top spots might change as well, so MBC and SKT might go through a harder playoff depending on the upcoming results. Look out for them as well!

OZ needs to win this game to keep their playoff hopes alive. T1's playoff spot also is not secured at this point and Oz can theoretically steal it from them. T1 also doesn't have a player who can stand up to Jaedong in his current form. OZ has also won the last 3 times they have played T1 and that streak is in no danger of being broken here. Perhaps we'll even see a repeat of Winner's League where Oz didn't even need Jaedong and Killer will crush Best and then Bisu in ace. Speaking of Killer, I think he has something to say. Suck it, Flamewheel.



ACE are doing what no one thought was possible. They are on a 3 game win streak. STX, on the other hand, has been a constant source of depression during this round. They are a team that "should" be in first place but due to KT's record this round but ended up failing even harder. ACE could very easily make this a 4 game winning streak. Part of the blame for STX failing can be placed on its ACE players losing constantly. Calm said "he forgot how to play zvz" after losing to Jaedong but at this point, it feels more like he forgot how to play Zerg period. Plus, STX has no chance of dealing with a god himself. STX may have SouL but they don't have Kong


Before this round, this game could have actually meant something. Now, it's just two teams throwing out random B Teamers and hoping for the best. The interesting part is that KT would actually prefer to have Flash not play as Flash is just a free loss for them lately. If it does manage to get to ACE match then I wonder which random player he will lose to this time? Firebat? Favian? Haha? No, that is not laughter but there is an actual player on Samsung named Haha. It would be pretty haha though.


This match has tons of potential. Potential Shinhan 2 OSL Finals rematch? Check. Shinhan 2 OSL Semifinals rematch? Check YellOw vs NaDa for zillionth time? Check. However, with these kind of hopes, we'll probably be subjected to games like RorO vs GoRush and Shine vs Reach. Such is life. However, Wemade can't afford to take ACE lately if they want to make the playoffs.

Nature can strike at any time and when it hits, no one is safe. Congressman Spencer Bachus realized when he said, "today, the technology is there to give early and normally ample warning when a powerful tornado approaches. When a tornado strikes, all of us are at risk." Indeed, no one wants to be around a tornado when it hits as the chances of surviving are slim to none. Flying finds this out the hard way after playing the Tornado Terran himself on Match Point.

Flying spawns in brown as the bottom left protoss while Nada spawns as the teal terran in top right. Everything starts off standard as Flying makes a gateway before core while also getting an early zealot to block his ramp. Meanwhile, Nada makes enough marines to deny any probes from getting into his main while also being able to stop any incoming zealots. Just like a tornado, Nada wants to steamroll his opponent before Flying ever knew what hit him so decides to 2fac with mines first. However, also living up to his Genius nickname, Nada disguises the build as an FD as he hides the rally for the second fac where Flying can't see.


Of course, Flying wouldn't be a protoss if he didn't have an urge to make a nexus every 20 seconds vs terran. After warping in his nexus, Flying pressures with a few dragoons and a zealot but can't advance any further due to threat of mines. In addition, a probe starts making a gateway and robo in his main while another probe makes a pylon near the 6'oclock expo to spot any incoming drops. Adding to his drop paranoia, Flying orders most of his goons inside his main just to be safe. Flying also makes a robotics support bay as reavers are great for harassing as well as delaying any pushes.



Unfortunately for Flying, Nada's army just waltzes into Flying's natural while the majority of his army is still in his main. Nada's army consists of 3 tanks 4 vults, and some marines. However, when you are Nada, even just 1 vulture is enough to cause any Protoss to GG. From here, Nada begins his vulture magic and most of Flying's dragoons end up dying to mines. A mine daebak also manages to get some probes as dragoon pathing shows just how superior it is once again. Finally, vultures start to lay mines near the robotics facililty which nearly blow up the reaver itself upon spawning. Flying finally GG's when siege finishes and almost all of his probes die.



Thanks to this game, Nada finally gets his coveted 100th win and the commentators go wild. Nada also does a fist pump ceremony to show the crowd just how excited he is about getting what has eluded him for so long. Isn't it truly amazing how in this age of pro-gaming where most careers end before they even start, we have Nada whose consistency and ability to remain relevant eclipses everyone else. Here's to hoping this Tornado never dies.

"On the whole human beings want to be good, but not too good and not quite all the time."

      -- George Orwell

"I leave Sisyphus at the foot of the mountain! One always finds one's burden again. (...) The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man's heart."

      -- Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus

After more than thirty minutes of back-and-forth action on the bloodied steel and concrete of Match Point, when Yellow, having expertly built up his early advantage throughout the game, finally broke through Jaedong's remaining defenses, cut him off from his last source of distance-mined income and forced him to type out, Hwaseung OZ fans had a sinking feeling in their gut. Sure, this was only the first set and more games remained to be played, but haunting memories of previous rounds floated to the surface of their minds. Jaedong losing to DarkElf during the Winners League, his lurker opening utterly failing against the Terran's mech; Killer sent out for an ace game and defeated by Ruby; Hiya suffering the wrath of the Mantoss. Their fear was well-founded: Gorush beat Hiya, former teammate Anytime overwhelmed Killer and once again OZ found itself losing to the dregs of Proleague. ACE now has a 4-1 record vs OZ this season. The team that came close to winning it all in 2009 has come crashing down, a tragedy that becomes a farce with the adjunction of players like Killer and Perfectman.



This is a far cry from OZ's heyday, the 2007 Shinhan Proleague. All the building blocks of a champion team were in place during that season: a coach who formed a strong relationship with his leading player, Anytime, as he has done with Jaedong now; a group of strong, complementary players that were consistently fielded throughout the season -- Anytime, Jaedong and forGG -- and a number of promising up-and-comers -- Backho, Lomo and Hiya. Samsung Khan and MBCGame HERO were the favorites, but with Anytime going 15-8 and 18-6 in the season's two rounds, Jaedong putting up 16-7 and 14-6 records and forGG providing solid support with 10-10 and 5-2 tallies, the team's three-headed Cerberus launched OZ into the Grand Final where they defeated Khan 4-1, even making firebathero cry.

The 2008 Proleague (an intermediate season to transition into the new Proleague system) was far less successful, as Anytime started rusting with an insipid 5-4, forGG was busy winning the Arena MSL and went 10-8, and bad maps did Jaedong and other Zergs no favors (Luxury was the only Zerg among the ten best players of the season). Still, the 2008-09 season looked promising. Though Anytime had left for ACE in the summer of 2008, Jaedong and newly-minted MSL champion forGG were ready to flex their mechanical muscles and put holes in the opposition. Hiya had pulled his own weight in the previous season, with a decent 8-6 record, while Backho and Lomo had gone on fiery streaks in the individual leagues during the summer. Lomo reached the Ro8 of the Arena MSL on the back of strong TvT, even taking Flash to the fifth game in the quarterfinals. As for Backho, he suddenly discovered PvP and ran with it, reaching the semifinals of the EVER OSL by beating Bisu and Much in the Ro16 and Jangbi in the Ro8, only to be defeated by the eventual tournament winner, July. At the same time, in GOMTV Classic's first season he beat Stork and Kal and also made it to the semifinals.

During the 2008-2009 Proleague, Hwaseung OZ rose once again and had victory in its sights, but its weaknesses were there, lurking in the shadows. The promising second tier players did not deliver the expected good results, and Jaedong's copilot was traded to KTF. As the team stretched its luck, those weaknesses would emerge at crucial moments, whisking victory away from the players' hands. One player can only do so much for his team. Jaedong's supporting cast would still play a role during the season, but after a strong start the team's results became mediocre and OZ's luck finally ran out as it collided with the much stronger and well-rounded SKT, as Jaedong's clutchiness evaporated, his mind on the starleague ahead -- and can we blame him? Every man has a breaking point.

forGG established a strong 10-4 record in the first two rounds of the season, but his performance dropped off precipitously during the Winners League, where he went 0-5. After the playoffs, he was traded to KTF, surprising fans and observers. KT fans, though questioning the need for a second Terran on the team, rejoiced at this juicy addition to their roster, while OZ fans grumbled at Coach Cho and the KT moneybags who looked to other teams for talent. The trade didn't seem too bad at first, as forGG had crumbled in the Winners League while Hiya was revving his engine with a 17-9 record that made him the fourth best player of the league, and Jaedong was romping in the lead.



Yet Hiya's form didn't last. As his team's fourth player, he failed to stop Skyhigh from achieving a reverse all-kill during the Winners League finals, where OZ's limitations came to light so vividly. Jaedong had racked up three kills but failed a 5 pool against Skyhigh. A strong performance nonetheless, and the rest of his team now had three chances to seal the deal. They failed miserably. At the most crucial moment, OZ's overreliance on Jaedong reared its ugly head and smacked their hands away from the Winners League trophy, a trophy that they could already sense at their fingertips. Hiya would then struggle through the rest of the season, going 7-13 in the last two rounds. What about Lomo and Backho, who were on fire in the sweltering summer of '08? They only produced a blend of mediocrity and comedy. As Anytime once said of the younger Protoss, "the damn kid won't listen to me" and "he eventually screws it all up."

With that being said, this rickety crew still eked out enough wins to maintain their team in second place and take it to the Proleague Grand Finals. And there, once again, under the harsh spotlights illuminating the stage, their deficiencies were exposed. Worse, their leader failed them, losing all three of his games and dashing any hopes of victory with his last loss to Fantasy and his 2 barracks (one of them proxied) opening. One week later he was tearing him apart in the Bacchus OSL semifinals. Hwaseung OZ had run out of steam, but Jaedong had a grudge to settle with SKT's leading Terran and an OSL to win.



If the start of the 2008-2009 Proleague season had been all sunshine and flowers for Hwaseung OZ, the beginning of the current 2009-2010 season was like waking up on a sidewalk on a bleary morning in the seedy red-light districts of Seoul. The early hype surrounding Backho and Lomo had run its course. Hiya was nothing more than average, and Killer was that kid who got nuked by Boxer. The team's leading player now had a Golden Mouse but the supporting cast was as mediocre as ever. Jaedong's parents had tried to save their son from this madness and have him join another team, but KeSPA's free agency rules essentially chained him to OZ. What the new season would unfortunately reveal was that however average the lineup had been in the past, it could still become worse.

thedeadhaji, one of Lecaf's most stalwart supporters and an astute observer who had never believed in any Backho hype whatsoever had once claimed "I am going to kill myself if I see Back-Fucking-Ho in a playoff lineup one more time." His wish was finally granted nearly two years later as Backho's back injury, which had in the past made him withdraw from the Batoo OSL, came back to life and forced him to the sidelines. In his stead, a Protoss named Perfectman. Backho had a 15-17 record during the previous season -- mediocre, yet oh so desireable now that Perfectman has illustrated himself by going 2-12. Lomo, who went 13-17 last year, has produced a 5-11 record this season, and Killer's tally is 14-20.

The one player that has kept his head up and improved his performance is Jaedong's sidekick Hiya, with a 22-17 record and an evolution of his play over the season that has seen him strengthen his TvZ and TvT. This would not be enough, as OZ went 4-7 and 6-5 in the first two rounds. At the same time, Jaedong was setting a record ZvP streak and winning the NATE MSL, in another occurrence of the now expected contrast between the frontman's individual performance and his team's lagging fortunes. As the Winners League rolled around, fans hoped that Jaedong's personal skill would translate into more wins for the team. Indeed, the Winners League allows stronger progamers to rack up kills against weaker opposition, a boon to the teams with the strongest players. Flash took KT Rolster to the playoff finals and three-killed his way to victory, with a highlight game against Sea on Neo Moon Glaive. Jaedong on the other hand put up a subpar performance, starting with an infamous game versus Flash during which he forgot to research the consume spell for his defilers. His record was "only" 15-8 during the round, with an alarming lack of all-kills until he met his insurance team, Hite SPARKYZ. Once again, when it was time for him to step it up for OZ, Jaedong failed to do so. Unsurprisingly, no one was there to pick up the slack, as Hiya for one was unable to reproduce his 2009 performance and went 11-9.

To make matters worse, over the season Coach Cho stunned fans with his repeated decision to send out Killer for the ace game. Three ace games were wasted this way, including two against Air Force players. A desire to show that he wasn't overusing Jaedong? Underestimating ACE? A genuine belief in the value of ace games as a way of developing a player? Love of F16s? Maybe the coach had come up with elaborate theories that explained why this should have been a genius move, but fans knew instinctively how wrong it was. They groaned whenever Killer's puppy eyes replaced Jaedong's killer glare in the fifth set. And they were right.



Now the end of the season draws close, the playoffs are soon upon us, and Hwaseung OZ is in seventh place, one step below playoff qualification. The team can still make it, but it's in that terribly stressful position where qualifying depends not only on their performance but also on the results of other teams. OZ must win every one of its remaining games while CJ Entus or Wemade FOX must lose theirs. In other words, fans are waiting for a miracle. Jaedong must be in Tyrant-mode throughout the remaining matches, Hiya must prove himself as a consistent sidekick and Killer must turn his puppy into a pitbull. With the return of Backho, anything is possible.