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RO16 - Daily Recaps
Featured Game of the Week
Critic's Corner:
Opening Video Review
Brought to you by:
Elly the ESPORTS Elephant
RO16 - Daily Recaps
Featured Game of the Week
Critic's Corner:
Opening Video Review
Well, so much for Protoss. Not only are they barely carrying their end of the bargain in the Proleague post-season, the men from Aiur can't even acquit themselves in solo competition. There's a seed of hope starting to sprout in the MST, but for the time being it's just gloomy, dark days.
This week, KwarK was too depressed to watch another one of Jangbi's games so he contented himself trying to find some nice things to say about Stork's crushing defeat to Flash. Contagi0n gives us the low-down on the overall look of things, and I prove that I'm the true OSL hipster by pointing out how stuff was better five years ago.
As for Ver, he's busy digging up more ancient Ma dynasty relics.
By: contagiOn
Day Three
+ Show Spoiler [Results and VODs] +
- Everybody’s Favorite Matchup
Aside from hive tech, day three exemplified both the best and the worst of ZvZ: Shine and Hydra played an edge of your seat, nail-bitingly close game, in which Hydra hit a max APM of a blistering 554 (his average was 450). Hyuk skated by on a bo win, playing solidly enough to keep JD from catching up. Oh, and everybody’s other favorite matchup? HiyA demonstrated the inherent risk of opening 8 rax if you don’t micro your marines properly. If there’s ever been a shorter TvT, you’d be hard pressed to find it. - Drip Drop
BaBy and Calm played a very messy but very fun TvZ in which BaBy showed off his signature dropship play, and Calm returns the favor. Ultimately though, mollusk zerg couldn’t keep up with BaBy’s prodigious multitasking and succumbed to his relentless harassment. It was a good show, but both will have to tighten up their play to get deeper than the Ro8. - What the Hyuk?! Pt. 2
Oh Hyuk, you lucky dog. Not only are you in a strong position to qualify from your group, you're also in an amazing position to improve your chances in the RO8. Hyuk doesn't play until the last day of the RO16, which will allow him to see the result of Flash's game earlier in the week. So depending on whether Flash finishes first or second, Hyuk can adjust his play in the final game accordingly to avoid a RO8 meeting. And since he's already in Jaedong's RO16 group, he won't need to worry about facing him either. Hyuk as an OSL semi-finalist? I'm calling it now.
Day Four
+ Show Spoiler [Results and VODs] +
- Still walking the Royal Road
SoO stepped up his game to comfortably beat Sea, who did not step up his game at all. The Royal Roader now looks likely to make it to the Ro8 while Sea’s Ro16 curse suddenly seems likely to strike again. - Endangered Species
Stork got rolled over by Flash, who easily anticipated his carriers. Jangbi fell victim to a well-timed hydra bust that hit just when Jangbi’s shuttle and reaver had left to go harass drones. This means both protoss are now 0-2, a step away from elimination and miles away from advancing. Both will have to win their last games and hope that Flash and Killer respectively win theirs, just to have a shot at advancing through tiebreakers. Then they have to actually win tiebreakers. Don’t get your hopes up, sons of Aiur.
By: KwarK
Flash spawned at 1 in red while Stork got yellow at 7 on New Bloody Ridge. Flash went for a very ambitious one rax FE build with just one marine when he took his expansion, although he would add more alongside a bunker. He used the bunker and the barracks (which he flew out) to narrow his choke while he took his natural.
Meanwhile Stork had rushed to dragoon range and gone for a quick second gateway which allowed him to apply some heavy dragoon pressyre to the bunker, forcing three+ scvs to constantly repair it. However, this came at the cost of delaying his own expansion significantly.
Flash finally got his first tank with siege mode and attempted to use it to force the dragoons back but instead they surged forwards, sniping the tank and two scvs for the loss of two dragoons. Stork followed up by double expanding and getting his robotics.
Kwark's Marvelous Magic Theory Box
Stork's build was never trying to kill Flash early on; it was just seeking to gain an advantage in the midgame. Obviously it's nice if your opponent makes an unforced error and you can kill them with two gate dragoons, but that's not likely when you're playing Flash.
Stork was building momentum and monopolising the initiative. Flash had limited scouting information and all he knew was that there were a load of dragoons at the front getting aggressive. There could be any number of followups ranging from a three-gate bust with a zealot-bomb, to a DT drop, to a mass gate all-in or any number of mid-game plays. All of these risks needed to be accurately assessed and prepared for appropriately.
The math behind it will be familiar to any poker veteran (assign your opponent a range of possible hands/builds, figure out the success rate of any course of action you might take against that range, and do the math to figure out what you should do to have the best overall success). So while Flash was stuck fighting shadows Stork was able to take his plan for winning and impose it on the game.
He stopped unit production, double expanded, and teched up accordingly. Stork's two gate aggression did no real damage to Flash but it placed him on the defensive, allowing Stork to get into a desirable position.
That's not to say it actually worked. Flash's response was pretty damn efficient as he clearly assigned a high probability to a double expansion in Stork's range of moves.
Even so, Stork's move was very demonstrative of the role of early aggression in monopolising the initiative and getting the freedom to impose your game plan.
Stork's build was never trying to kill Flash early on; it was just seeking to gain an advantage in the midgame. Obviously it's nice if your opponent makes an unforced error and you can kill them with two gate dragoons, but that's not likely when you're playing Flash.
Stork was building momentum and monopolising the initiative. Flash had limited scouting information and all he knew was that there were a load of dragoons at the front getting aggressive. There could be any number of followups ranging from a three-gate bust with a zealot-bomb, to a DT drop, to a mass gate all-in or any number of mid-game plays. All of these risks needed to be accurately assessed and prepared for appropriately.
The math behind it will be familiar to any poker veteran (assign your opponent a range of possible hands/builds, figure out the success rate of any course of action you might take against that range, and do the math to figure out what you should do to have the best overall success). So while Flash was stuck fighting shadows Stork was able to take his plan for winning and impose it on the game.
He stopped unit production, double expanded, and teched up accordingly. Stork's two gate aggression did no real damage to Flash but it placed him on the defensive, allowing Stork to get into a desirable position.
That's not to say it actually worked. Flash's response was pretty damn efficient as he clearly assigned a high probability to a double expansion in Stork's range of moves.
Even so, Stork's move was very demonstrative of the role of early aggression in monopolising the initiative and getting the freedom to impose your game plan.
Flash stuck on two factories and focused on making tanks so he could creep forwards and take his third, adding a quick academy for comsats - both for scouting and to defend against possible DTs. However Stork was already getting his late game on. He was on three bases with observers out, adding two more gateways before starting on +1 air attack. While Flash was focusing on holding his corner and taking his third, Stork was rushing to the late game and praying Flash would remain passive for long enough.
A pylon wall shielded Stork's fourth base at 11 while Stork remained on four gateways and pumped out dragoons alongside carriers from three stargates. Flash scanned and realised Stork was trying to catch him napping in the mid-game so he could take by surprise later. In response, he pushed out on just four factories with a predominantly tank army supported by zero vultures.
His target - the expansion at 11 - was quite out of the way and very tricky to push to in any short amount of time. The route was exposed on multiple sides, and without the control and mobility that vultures give (both from mines cutting off flanks and the incredible speed of vultures themselves), he found his army continually outmaneuvered. Stork sacrificed a lot of dragoons but Flash's push was slowed to a snail's pace, having to constantly shift focus from aggression, to rearguard action, to protecting his reinforcements. Stork did well to remove the first few tanks to reach 11, but negated that gain by allowing an important group of delaying dragoons to get sandwiched between Flash's main force and reinforcements.
Stork long term goal had to combine a dragoon and carrier army and use his awesome carrier micro to abuse the cliffs and multiple routes on Bloody Ridge. However while he had lost too many dragoons trying to delay Flash's push and retained his fourth base, leaving him with far too little ground support once his carriers were out. Stork tried to take a shot at Flash's natural but found himself being repelled by newly produced goliaths while Flash's main tank force crushed his bases at 11 and 9. This put Stork down to just two bases, without anything to stop Flash's tanks while his carriers pecked away fruitlessly at Flash's bases. The inexorable tank advance moved into Stork's natural and he was forced to GG.
Kwark's Fantastic Floating Analysis Box
Stork's plan here was a coherent and a clear attempt to exploit both the map and Flash's style. His early aggression attempted to entice Flash into following his turtling nature while the carrier rush attempted to punish him for it. However I feel teching to speedlots would have been extremely worthwhile, a 300/250 investment which would be repaid by making zealots useful for delaying the mid-game mech push, something they can do much more efficiently than dragoons once they have speed. While he never intended to use zealots in the lategame with his carriers (as dragoons smash goliaths) evidently his plan to counter a midgame tank push needed some work. You could see what he was trying to do but the sheer number of dragoons he threw away through poor micro during the delaying action left me thinking he'd perhaps have been better off with something simpler.
As for Flash, his plan seemed to be "FE, make tanks, scan Stork, beat whatever he's doing" and I can't really fault him for it. His build was very general and very safe but that can also be written as 'incredibly versatile' in other words. When he saw Stork's plan he had no problems with taking all his tanks, unsieging them and charging them across the map into pure dragoons. He scanned correctly, saw what Stork was doing and correctly assessed that he had the units and that the timing was now and that was that. He lacked the ambition of Stork's plan as his play was reactionary, but ultimately Stork's ambition left him open while Flash only had wait for an opening to calmly dispatch his opponent.
Stork's plan here was a coherent and a clear attempt to exploit both the map and Flash's style. His early aggression attempted to entice Flash into following his turtling nature while the carrier rush attempted to punish him for it. However I feel teching to speedlots would have been extremely worthwhile, a 300/250 investment which would be repaid by making zealots useful for delaying the mid-game mech push, something they can do much more efficiently than dragoons once they have speed. While he never intended to use zealots in the lategame with his carriers (as dragoons smash goliaths) evidently his plan to counter a midgame tank push needed some work. You could see what he was trying to do but the sheer number of dragoons he threw away through poor micro during the delaying action left me thinking he'd perhaps have been better off with something simpler.
As for Flash, his plan seemed to be "FE, make tanks, scan Stork, beat whatever he's doing" and I can't really fault him for it. His build was very general and very safe but that can also be written as 'incredibly versatile' in other words. When he saw Stork's plan he had no problems with taking all his tanks, unsieging them and charging them across the map into pure dragoons. He scanned correctly, saw what Stork was doing and correctly assessed that he had the units and that the timing was now and that was that. He lacked the ambition of Stork's plan as his play was reactionary, but ultimately Stork's ambition left him open while Flash only had wait for an opening to calmly dispatch his opponent.
Yeah they're the same box. Yeah, it says 'games,' not 'game.'
By: WaxAngel
It's official: The OSL is in an opening slump.
Let's begin with this season's opening. Intros are supposed to be the ultimate form of hype, used to fill the viewers with giddiness and excitement. But the only response this generic, uninspiring, theme-less montage leading into the games of the Jin Air OSL can invoke is a chorus of whatevers from OSL fans.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GP1hW707Hhk
I'll swoon for JD, but that's just by default.
I'll swoon for JD, but that's just by default.
There's really nothing about it that gets your heart beating. The players are walking around looking bored and doing nothing except some really awkward gazing. Flash can even be seen praying to every past and future incarnation of the Buddha to please make this shoot be over already.
The music is some of the most subdued we've ever heard. Though the songs from past OPs might have disagreed with your musical taste, but at least most of them had some good energy going. Jin Air's theme is just too plain, reminding me of an extra dull version of the 2008-09 Proleague Intro OGN Version.
Also, how are we supposed to tell who won the last OSL? You'd probably guess Jaedong from the video alone, because actual Bacchus 2010 winner Fantasy receives the worst hype treatment of any past champion. I mean seriously, Stork got his own goddamn statue for beating Fantasy.
Now, how about the previous OP? It's definitely better than the Jin Air OP, but that's not a hard feat to accomplish. I gave it two out of five stars in my review at the time, stating that there's nothing really wrong with it - just that it was just too plain for a company that has shown they can do much better.
And the one before that? Well, besides glass-exploder Jaedong, what do you really get out of it? If you're not a Jaedong fan, then there's pretty much nothing to like. Not that there's anything to hate either, but that just leaves this OP stuck in mediocrity.
I have to take another step back to find the last OSL intro I can really give a "good" or better rating: the Korean Air Season II RO36 intro. Effort's eyes burning with visions of glory creates a truly captivating visual image and the scene is further enhanced by the use of some awesome music that was deemed dramatic enough to be used in the trailer of a major motion picture.
I wouldn't say OnGameNet's status as the greatest ESPORTS production company in history is in any jeopardy, but COME ON! From 2010 onward, they've been pretty much on par with MBCGame. That's kind of embarrassing considering the fact that MBCGame doesn't even use video (ok, so they started using a little in the ABC Mart intro).
Maybe I'm being overly harsh. But after feasting on offerings such as the IOPS Starleague OP in the past, can you really blame me?
Rating: 1 out of 5 stars.
. Also great write up 
..the song is really fun and lighthearted too...let me try to find it
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