Shinhan 2006 OSL1 - 3rd/4th and 5th/6th Seed Games

5th/6th Place Matches

ShinHwa, Iris, Zergman and Yellow[name] were all in the running for the 5th and 6th seeds for this tournament. The matches were played in a Dual League format, with winners bracket for 5th and a losers bracket for 6th.

ShinHwa vs Zergman

Cultivation Period

Zergman (9) 11 pooled while his opponent ShinHwa (3) built his slightly later, at his 12th drone. Zergman concentrated on teching to spire quickly, which greatly contrasted ShinHwa’s drone powering 2 hatch build. With his extra minerals ShinHwa produced lings and tried to break through Zergman’s choke point, but Zergman was prepared and they simply traded lings.

Zergman micros his mutas and scourge flawlessly to take the game.

There were some muta/ling/scourge battles after this, but rather than going into it in repetitious detail, suffice to say that Zergman’s faster spire meant more mutas, which meant win.

Zergman > ShinHwa

ShinHwa must’ve had more minerals for lings. I have no idea how Zergman was able to trade lings with him when the opening to the base is so big... I can only assume that ShinHwa didn’t use the extra minerals he had and opted to play the air game, constantly behind in gas and units.

Iris vs Yellow[name]

Cultivation Period

Jr (12) opened with a 9 hatch to his natural and Iris (6) two raxed after depot. Iris made a token attempt at a bunker rush, which Jr. dealt with intelligently by ignoring the bunker to get his drones back to mining as soon as the SCV stopped building and ran. As Jr. got his lair started, he attacked Iris’ marine group outside of the Terran main and killed every Terran soldier. His remaining lings were quickly dealt with by reinforcements and SCVs, but he was clearly in the lead as he built up his drone numbers and teched to spire.

Iris didn’t allow this to frighten him, however, and he built up his infantry numbers again by adding a 3rd rax. When he had a decent MMF army up again he poked at Jr’s nat, which had 6 sunkens protecting it, and decided to break through the neutral buildings to enter the Zerg main instead. By the time Jr. noticed, Iris was already firing on the last two buildings. It was a race between firing infantry and morphing lurkers...the infantry won.

The lurkers were surrounded before they hatched...they didn't have a chance.

Iris > Yellow[name]

Iris seems to have a real knack for these cheesy maps. He took advantage of Jr’s over production of frontal sunkens and luckily surrounded the morphing lurkers before they finished. He probably felt pretty fortunate after this one.

5th Place Final - Iris vs Zergman

Rush Hour

Zergman (11) used a standard expansion build to his natural while Iris (3) lived dangerously and went with a one rax CC build. Once Zergman noticed the CC he switched into 3 hatch ling mode and attacked Iris’ under-protected natural. Iris clumped his units on the low ground without using his ramp and lost them all. A few waves of lings later it was over.

Way to position your infantry ya doofus.

Zergman > Iris

I wasn’t minimizing the report... there really wasn’t anything more to this game. Iris mucked up.

Zergman gets the 5th seed!

ShinHwa vs Yellow[name]

Rush Hour

ShinHwa (7) and Jr. (11) both started with early pool and gas builds. Jr. attempted to expand to his natural, but cancelled it quickly when he saw ShinHwa’s lings hatch with his overlord. Both players then teched to spire with their second hatches in their respective mains. Once he gathered some muta/scourge, Jr. went on the attack and got some drone kills before ShinHwa came in to defend. They had comparable army sizes, but Jr’s scourge did less damage. That combined with the fact that ShinHwa had a couple more mutas to begin with, due to the fact that the battle was happening in his main, led to his victory in this first battle.

Jr. pays the price for his over aggressive play. Were the couple of drones really worth it?

ShinHwa then went on the offensive and fired upon Jr’s drones. After losing his remaining reinforcements as they hatched, he left the game.

ShinHwa > Yellow[name]

They both used very similar builds and had similar armies throughout the game. All it took was some bad luck with scourge and a distant battle ground to lose it for Jr.

6th Place Final - ShinHwa vs Iris

815

ShinHwa (11) went for a gas first for fast lair build and Iris (5) two raxed. The Zerg seemed under the impression that he was playing a ZvZ as he pursued a one base muta build, but unfortunately for him the element of surprise was not to be had. Iris made a perfect scan, catching both the spire and the lack of sunkens at the ramp to the Zerg main. He rushed his infantry to his opponents base diagonally across the ramp, and despite the long walking distance, arrived before the sunkens had completed. After some feeble drone/muta defending, ShinHwa conceded.

Iris walks in and takes an easy win. Playing on 815 doesn't mean you can ignore defending yourself smart guy!

Iris > ShinHwa

ShinHwa should’ve had sunkens up. There isn’t much else to say. With only one base and 2 hatches going, plus the largeness of the map and the diagonal positions, there was no excuse for getting caught like that. Iris took his free win with a smile.

Iris gets the 6th seed!

3rd/4th Place Matches

The losers of our semi-final battles, Yellow and Jju, got to face off for the 3rd seed of this OSL. Not only was this for a higher standing in the tournament, but Jju was looking to redeem himself after his pathetic ZvZ performance vs the other KTF Zerg, Chojja, the week before.

Yellow vs Jju

Cultivation Period

Yellow (9) 11 pooled while Jju, determined to prove to us all that his ZvZ builds work, 12 pooled with later gas. Jju then expanded to his natural, while Yellow put his second hatch down in his main and started a lair. Jju’s lair followed shortly after, although it was still noticeably late.

Yellow did a great job of keeping his ling numbers up to stop Jju’s ground attacks while preserving larva to get his first 4 mutas built as quickly as possible. Those mutas did him well as his immediately harassed Jju’s drones before Jju could make mutas of his own. Jju decided to go with scourge instead, which worked out ok seeing as he killed off all of the mutas. The harass had taken its toll, however, and Jju had very few units left in the end. Yellow, on the other hand, had been producing lings as the battles were going on and quickly ran them in to overpower his opponent.

Yellow uses the brief window of time he's given to kill as many drones as possible.

Yellow > Jju

Larva are very important in this matchup, and Jju used most of his for scourge. This combined with Yellow’s harassment left little for Jju to make lings with and in the end he simply couldn’t keep up with his opponent.

Yellow vs Jju

Peaks of Baekdu

Yellow got the bottom main and Jju got the top. Jju finally decides to 9 pool for a game, but he did so after his first overlord. Yellow, however, was very comfortable with his 11 pool despite the tight nature of the map.

Jju got his spire up first...I know, it’s unbelievable, and guarded both the ramps to his main with a handful of lings. It wasn’t enough to cover both though, since Yellow was able to break through and with only a few more lings than his opponent, win the battle with five lings to spare. He then ran into Jju’s main, killed the only sunken before it finished, and ate drones. It was over.

Yellow shows his game sense by attacking during Jju's transition to spire.

Yellow > Jju

Jju didn’t manage his ling numbers properly on this tiny map. Rookie mistake.

Yellow vs Jju

815

Yellow (7) used that gas first build we’ve been seeing so often on this map, while Jju (5) 9 pooled into gas. Yellow immediately started his lair when his pool finished and used drones to help defend his ramp when Jju’s faster lings approached. Utilizing the tiny ramp, Yellow was able to deflect the early ling harass from Jju and build just enough lings to protect it.

Jju's ZvZ has devolved to the level that 4 lings can take him down.

With his remaining 4 lings, Yellow ran to Jju’s main to see what was up. He killed the single defending ling and ran in to hunt drones. Jju didn’t even bother using the two idle larva he had available. gg

Yellow > Jju

Jju lost the game to 4 lings. I would go into how pathetic Jju’s play was. How he somehow managed to make more of an ass of himself than last week against Chojja. How he needs to get his head out of his ass and start playing like a professional. How his opponents have been getting lucky as hell walking over him with little to no effort in the latest stages of the most important SC tournament in the world... but it would be redundant.

Jju, you broke my heart.

Yellow wins it 3:0

Yellow gets the 3rd seed!
Jju gets the 4th seed!

Well that just about rounds out the tournament, except of course for the finals! They will be played this Friday... that’s tomorrow! For some reason the games will be played during a favorable time for North American viewers, so if you’re a bum without a job and you know how to use Afreeca, you’re in luck.

Shinhan 2006 OSL1 - 3rd/4th and 5th/6th Seed Games

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