EPT
iloveoov -Rush Hour III- Chojja
Oov started at 7 with an odd 2 rax build with one rax built out of sight off to the right of his choke point, presumably to confuse Chojja when he sent his scouting drone. Unfortunately for Oov his little trick played no role in the early game as Chojja utilized a standard expansion build and left the scouting to overlords. After a weak bunker rush attempt was fended off the two began going through the motions, Chojja getting his lurkers going and Oov expanding to his nat and adding a third rax.
Oov looked to be winning the early encounters, doing a little harass at the Zerg natural due to poor sunken placement. That is until he was ambushed by hold-position-lurkers on the bridge between the opposing bases. Losing what must have been 2 control groups of infantry, save a handful of medics, and killing only one of the four attacking lurkers. Puzzled by the uncharacteristically small army before him, Oov began his second factory and continued to scout around the map for the inevitable Zerg expansions. Strangely enough, there were no expansions to be found. Chojja had been spending his time teching up to hive and getting upgrades and defilers into the mix. Two late expansions followed, one to the gas expo between the starting main bases and one in the upper area of the map, after Chojja forced Oov back with some very nice dark swarm use. Oov tried to hold the Zerg army back by laying some mines, but with some very sexy control Chojja was able to clear the mines losing minimal amounts of lings and force his way to the Terran natural expansion. Oddly enough, Chojja was losing more lings to his hungry consuming defiler than to opposing forces. His CC lifted and natural expansion covered in swarm, Oov was losing the war. After finally clearing the mineral line and opening it back up for business, Oov went on the attack…only to meet another brick wall of swarm. Forced back yet again, the Terran was getting desperate.
Oov is not one to disappoint, however, and in true cheater fashion he managed to push past some spotty swarm usage with a modest army consisting of a couple groups of MnM and a couple vessels…oh yeah, and eleventy-billion tanks. Mineral hacks in full swing, the Terran army tore apart the lower Zerg expansion and even a hatchery in the Zerg main with a very garish Marine drop.
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/ManaBlue/Shinhan_OSL_Week_2_Wed_Resized/oov_vs_chojja.png)
How was this happening? Where were all the units Chojja should have had after all those forced CC lifts? Running around the map to counter attack Oovs natural expansion again, of course! Ignoring the fact that he currently had no functioning economies, Oov floated a CC to the min only above his main and continued to steam-roll toward the upper part of the map, destroying everything that could be hit by a tank.
Aided by crowd hack, Chojja discovered Oov’s undefended economy and pulled the plug. Without any functioning economies, Oov was forced to come back home and clear out his natural. Somewhat anti-climatically, Chojja’s suddenly large lurk/ling/dev army swooped in from the north and smashed the almost exclusively tank defence at Oov’s natural. Game. Set. Match.
Chojja > Oov
This game wasn’t as exciting as it might have sounded. After stealing an advantage with the lamest move still legal in tournament SC, Chojja teched up to hive and simply had to execute to work his way to the Terran natural. Oov being Oov, took another 20 minutes to die and made a run of it with a sick number of tanks considering he had his economy constantly interrupted. That doesn’t change the fact that he lost it at the 8 minute mark. Losing all that infantry basically castrated him for the entire mid-game. Bleh.
GoRush -815- Sync
The two competitors started at opposite corners of the map, GoRush at 11 and Sync at 5, which didn’t help Sync’s 8 rax bunker rush at all. GoRush kept his cool and was able to fend it off with little damage despite the fact that Sync was able to complete the bunker in time.
Both players were working their way toward air units as Sync built 2 ports and GoRush began a spire. Their first encounter in the air exhibited some very sleek moves from Sync who was able to utilize cloaking to kill the drone ferried to the 9 o’clock island before it could morph into a hatchery. Satisfied with delaying the Zerg expansion, Sync flew around searching for stray overlords and was successful in taking down 2 drones and 2 overlords. It seemed, however, that GoRush had simply sent drones everywhere so it didn’t seem to matter. He began expansions at the 7 o’clock main and the 12 o’clock island and while he lost 7 moments after it had morphed, GoRush was mining from his main, nat and an island and Sync was still running off of one base. After exhibiting some more very impressive wraith micro Sync took his natural and the 7 o’clock main. He escorted a line of SCVs with a vessel and an MnM force and did major damage to GoRush’s muta army when the Zerg made a botched attack on the convoy. He wasn’t discouraged though, and hydra/lurk dropped the 7 o’clock main, only to be eventually fought off by an impressive MnM force.
Sync looked in control, but suddenly a wave of action flew through the game. GoRush did decent damage with a coordinated attack at the Terran natural and a drop at the main. Sync answered back by razing the Zerg natural under tank fire and GoRush immediately reacted, dropping 7 o’clock again, but this time successfully, forcing the CC to be lifted away. Sync made good use of his tanks and walked back and forth between GoRush’s two islands, killing the Zerg extractors to prevent Gas mining.
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/ManaBlue/Shinhan_OSL_Week_2_Wed_Resized/Sync_vs_gorush.JPG)
The Zerg tech-tree was expanding now. Guardians roamed the air and defilers were prepared. With some more swift hydra/lurk drops aided by dark swarm GoRush was containing his opponent and spreading more expansions across the map. With such a strong early game it was hard to believe, but Sync was eventually reduced to no running expansions. The outcome had become a forgone conclusion and after a final scrape, GoRush came out the winner.
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/ManaBlue/Shinhan_OSL_Week_2_Wed_Resized/Sync_vs_gorush_2.JPG)
GoRush > Sync
GoRush played a magnificent strategic game. Sync impressed with his unit control throughout the game, which made for some entertaining moments, but he simply had no way of attacking the islands (other than those cheeky extractor killing runs
). This allowed GoRush to hold his island economies easily and drop strategically to out manoeuvre the Terran army that seemed fixed uselessly in the middle of the map throughout the end game.Pusan -Peaks of Baekdu- Shinhwa
The first OSL PvZ on Peaks of Baekdu ever! Clearly Pusan was as excited as I was, exposing his chest to show off his golden necklace and imported Italian chest hair…um, shirt.
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/ManaBlue/Shinhan_OSL_Week_2_Wed_Resized/Pusan_vs_shinwa.JPG)
He wasn’t the only one showing off though. Shinhwa decided to display his mastery of the English language by graphically depicting his method of winning games.
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/ManaBlue/Shinhan_OSL_Week_2_Wed_Resized/Pusan_vs_shinwa_2.JPG)
With all that build up, I’d say it’s time to get to the game. Pusan started at the bottom main (7) and Shinhwa at the top of the map(1). Pusan opted for a 2 gate build into archives while Shinhwa teched to lurkers after dispatching a number of scouting probes, none of which saw the tech. This hurt Pusan badly as he guessed wrong, merging an archon and building anti-muta cannons around his nexus. After secretly hatching three lurkers in the bottom right corner of the map, Shinhwa quickly walked them over to the area overlooking Pusan’s main mineral-line and disrupted mining. After losing a scouting dt before it was able to see anything, Pusan’s situation looked pretty bleak. He could mine only a couple mineral patches in his main, Shinhwa had his natural and main full of drones and he was securely sunkened up, and Pusan had still not seen any of the Zerg tech tree. He wasn’t about to give up though and got an observer to clear the overseeing area and restart mining.
It had been too long, however, and Shinhwa was able to easily steamroll the Protoss forces and end any hopes that Pusan had.
Shinhwa > Pusan
Pusan fails yet again to show his flair in his “best match-up”. If he consults Shinhwa’s diagram he might be able to figure out what’s keeping him from winning. I’ll bet it’s the “Creat”…I’ve always had problems with that part too. -_-
GoodFriend -New Cultivation Period- Child
The game began with fast unit builds from both players as Child laid down a 9 pool at his 9 o’clock main and GF an 8 rax at 6 o’clock. GF quickly blocked his choke point with SCVs and rines which forced Child’s zerglings back. After scouting a second hatchery at the natural, GF was all up in Child’s grill in a matter of moments laying down a bunker at the entrance to the Zerg hizzouse.
Child brought a ling force around the center of the map to intercept marine reinforcements while he laid a sunken colony by his main hatchery. He then continued into the Terran main, killing marines and SCVs in nominal numbers. His natural lost, child threw down a den at his main and began morphing his lair, switching to a one-base lurker build. GF wasn’t about to let it happen though, and brought a group of marines in to punish Child for his lack of lings and poor sunken placement.
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/ManaBlue/Shinhan_OSL_Week_2_Wed_Resized/GF_vs_child.JPG)
It was all-in-time for Child, rallying every drone in his main to GF’s base. This was going to get ugly and soon. He poked at some SCVs until his “reinforcements” got to the Terran main…and then…
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/ManaBlue/Shinhan_OSL_Week_2_Wed_Resized/GF_vs_child_2.JPG)
As is usually the case when drones fight rines, the Zerg was melted and typed gg.
GF > Child
Not much to say here. Nice job GF. It didn’t seem like Child had a chance at any point.
Casy -New Cultivation Period- Zergman
Casy finally got a chance to play TvZ and it was on Cultivation Period! He started out at 9, licking his chops. Zergman, at 12, dropped a pool and after seeing this Casy cancelled his second rax to get to academy faster. Zergman expanded and began to sunken his natural up, but had to bring drones out to defend as Casy attacked while the colonies were still morphing. The attack was repelled, but Zergman had to sacrifice a number of drones to do it.
With a quick spire Zergman was harassing Casy’s main but did little damage. He backed off and Casy soon let his base with some MnM and two tanks. They met a huge sunken line, 8 colonies deep, and the tanks began to fire. Zergman doubled back and counter attacked Casy’s main which caused the Terran to pull the infantry back from his attacking force. The lone tanks were easily wiped away by the Zerg.
Casy took his natural and attempted to mass up a force but he was constantly met by large lurk/ling forces. Neither player seemed to be gaining any momentum, but Zergman’s tech tree was getting impressive, sporting defiler mound and a greater spire. He expanded to the 3 o’clock main and prepared his fancy army. Casy still didn’t even have a port, but was prepared for the coming dark swarm by covering the path to his natural with mines. It wasn’t enough to stop the fury that was about to come down on him though. Zergman attacked the Terran natural with guardians and hydra/lurk/ling under swarm. He swung down to the southern entrance of Casy’s main and tore through the buildings. It was all a matter of time.
Zergman > Casy
It’s games like this that make Cultivation Period look half decent for ZvT. Mind you, Zergman far outclassed Casy on this one. Maybe the lack of TvZ has had an effect on Casy. Hopefully he gets his chops back next time we see him.
Yellow -Rush Hour III- Iris
It was 8 rax vs 9 pool in the early goings of this match on Rush Hour. After seeing his opponents build, Iris blocked his ramp with SCVs and began a CC in his 3 o’clock main while Yellow morphed in a 3rd hatch back home at 11 o’clock. After some dancing around Yellow managed to sneak a happy pair of zerglings into the Terran main to discover Iris’ 3 rax build. After clearing it out, Iris moved forward and laid down two bunkers at the Zerg natural to rob Yellow of his second gas. It was short-lived though as Yellow was able to easily bring down the small Terran encampment with his first lurker/ling army.
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/ManaBlue/Shinhan_OSL_Week_2_Wed_Resized/yellow_vs_iris.png)
Iris did succeed, however, in razing Yellows newly morphed expansion at the 7 o’clock main, forcing Yellow to expand to a closer economy just below his natural. Iris, trying to be cute, sent a marine force up the ramp of the neighbouring expansion that overlooked the mineral-line of Yellow’s new real-estate and babysat it, stopping any potential mining of the area. It didn’t take long for Yellow to clear this little squad out, as he began to mine and successfully retook the main at 7 o’clock.
As Iris’ first MnM/Tank/Vessel army entered the fray, Yellow did well defending with hydra/lurk, decently upgraded at 2-1 I might add, and some sexy swarm and plaque usage. All of Iris’ forces were lost, but not before he took down Yellows 9 o’clock expansion and the freshly morphing hatchery at the neighbouring expo.
Reasonably outmanned, Iris attempted to use positioning to his advantage and swung in with a 2 ship MnM drop at the 7 o’clock main, but before he could destroy the nydus canal, Yellows forces appeared from it to defend. Yellow was all over the Terran now, attacking the natural expansion and destroying everything in sight. Iris bounced back with some impressive MnM attacks at Yellows main and lower map expansions, but the Zerg was everywhere and bought time to mass up some ultra/ling while keeping the Terran natural filled with swarm and lurkers. After a final failed drop, Iris types out.
Yellow > Iris
This game was a complete gong show. Yellow always seemed to have more of everything and Iris constantly lost units in little forces that waltzed around doing nothing until there were pointed counter forces to rape them. Iris continues to be unimpressive and is well on his way to becoming the new Doggi of the OSL group stages.
Well that’s it for Wednesday’s games. As always Mani will have Friday’s games covered for you at the end of the week. If you want to watch them yourself check out the tracker and for a comprehensive schedule to help keep your mind around this crazy tournament look here.
Am I just blind, or...
