Despite my considerable excitement, I had a hard time writing the preview for this series (and it probably shows!). I poured over statistics and studied maps and watched games and theorized builds and drank liter upon liter of vodka, but in the end, my only coherent thought was this: we just don’t know.
We don’t. We don’t know who’s going to show up to the games tonight. It could be a consistent, skilled veteran who’s finally ready to take the plunge into stardom by brutally crushing the hopes and dreams of a young upstart. Or it could be another GoodFriend, a strong player who’s never going to clear that great player “hump.”
Likewise, we could see the micro-oriented art form that is TvZ taken to a whole new level by a player whose youthful strength simply has no equal, a player who embodies the proverb, “Experience should fear the strength of youth.” Or we could see an over-hyped, under-skilled player who doesn’t have what it takes to hang with the truly elite.
We just don’t know. With both players having had two full weeks to prepare for this series and both of them having shown—no pun intended—flashes of brilliance, no amount of statistics could possibly predict its outcome. No result would surprise me; this series has unlimited potential.
OSL Semifinal #2 July 13 18:30 Korean
Flash (T)
vs.
GGPlay (Z)
Game 1 – Fantasy
Speaking of not knowing, Fantasy features the most positional variance, well, ever. With four wholly different starting locations and some of the longest distances between bases since Legacy of Char, Fantasy seems custom-built for boring, safe, macro-based builds. But as Iris showed in his game against Stork,it doesn’t have to be that way. As I’ve noted in the past, the Legacy of Char position is aerially close to the other three positions, especially the Gaema Gowon position, making wraiths a viable option should either player spawn in the upper-left. Then there’s the absolute certainty that GGPlay will 12-hatch at his natural. Will Flash make a proxy barracks (or two) in an attempt to win a quick game, or will he acquiesce to the map’s generally slower pace?
Game 2 – Hitchhiker
When it comes to this game, I really don't know. Zerg players have employed a mind-boggling assortment of strategies, from two-hatch to one-hatch to three-hatch to mutalisks to defilers to guardians to ultralisks and everything in between. And Terran players are always dangerous on two-player maps, especially ones like Hitchhiker, with its mass of twisting corridors. Flash could bunker rush. He could SCV rush. He could float a factory to the other side of the neutral buildlings. He could even proxy two starports on the other side of the Zerg neutral buildings.
Or he might just fast expand. That's my best guess, but nothing would surprise me on Hitchhiker.
Game 3 – Python
On a map like Python, positions are crucial. With his strong mutalisk micro, I'm sure GGPlay would love nothing more than to have the spawning positions be 12/3 or 9/6. I don't doubt that Flash, with his propensity towards macro-based TvZ builds, would feel completely comfortable at cross positions, though he'd probably prefer 6/3 or 12/9 due to the shorter distance between bases. I'm expecting a completely standard game from both players.
Hot_Bid has made the interesting point that mutalisk harassment is far more effective when the Terran player spawns at 12 or 6 due to the larger space between the main mineral line and the back edge of the base. So positions are even more crucial than I thought!
Game 4 – Monty Hall
I'm expecting GGPlay to jump on the bandwagon and employ the ever-so-effective, ever-so-funky ZvT build that Silver pioneered on Monty. But more importantly, I'm expecting Flash to scout for the initial, offensive hatchery that is so critical for the success of that build and have an effective counter prepared, something along the lines of a floating barracks or a barracks crush in order to squeeze a few marines through the mineral wall. Knowing that Flash will inevitably have a counter prepared, GGPlay might try to vary the build by going up one of the side corridors, but because he's never played a ZvT on Monty Hall, I have to believe he'll acquiesce to something that's proven so effective for other players.
Game 5 – Fantasy
If the series makes it this far, we, as fans, will really have something to cheer about. While most players prepare an ace strategy for the deciding game of a series, there’s something about Flash and GGPlay that makes me believe that both of them will play completely standard this game, trusting in the same abilities that allowed them to win two games each.
My thoughts appear on this series, however, appear to be largely unique! Or maybe Team Liquid, on the whole, isn’t as big of a cop-out as I am. Here’s what others had to say:
Jathin: “I honestly think the new generation of players have terrible late-game management. You'll notice that in long, drawn-out games, the more experienced player tends to come out on top. And with the little I have to judge Flash on, it seems he fell apart against Boxer in late-game.”
HonestTea: “Flash? They play best-of-5s in the semis so that players like Flash don't advance. There's no way he takes GGPlay.”
Hot_Bid: “I'm really curious as to how much Flash is going to cheese. Just because he did against Bisu does not mean he's automatically proxy 8 raxing against GGPlay, but he's gotta know that the longer the game goes the less likely he'll be winning.”
Awesome preview DJ. This series has potential, but at least we know that with all the preparation time we'll be seeing two very prepared players. That's half the battle right there.
Hope GGPlay wins. It's time for him to go big. He's been showing great skill, but always just ends up a little short of glory. This has to be his game or I'm going to lose hope in him.
oh and although i support by.flash's royal roader dream, beating ggplay will open up a tvt bo5 with iris. it's gonna be really tough, to say the least.
if this kid wins the whole thing, it'll be fully deserved. if he doesn't, at least it was nice to see a new face (a ktf terran O_O) go so far.
I agree that this match up is wide open..and I don't see why people assume that Flash can't keep up with GGplay in a long game. Just because he has shown some late game weakness in TvT doesnt mean it really applies here. Especially with the extensive preparation time. That's what I like about Flash..we haven't seen enough of him yet. So he has the potential to be suprisingly good, or bad...it's in his own hands as he said.
Yeah you can, mmf, vultures, the usual. It's just that players tend to have at least some units at each entrance or something, depending on the matchup. I would assume that a zerg player would hover some overlords with a movable force and deal with whatever comes through WHEREVER it comes as he can check the minimap constantly to check.
Flash's micro has looked weaker than his late game to me, especially in zvt (I have in mind here his wins over Clon and Odin specifically - he beat them, but not as easily as a top zvt player would have). He says that it's his best mu in practice, but in televised games, he throws lots of units away. That's part of how he lost to Boxer, too; he started sloppily losing dropships.
If he doesn't play as sloppily as he has, I think that he has a good chance. But if ggplay shows up in form, it seems like Flash is going to have an uphill battle ahead of him.
Basically, I'm copping out, too. Looking forward to the games, though! They better not give us another stork vs fbh fiasco.
I want GGplay to crush Flash into the dust. It will be his or Iris's OSL now, no other. Those two bloody well deserve the chance. Flash seems to struggle to keep his lategame up, losing a lot of units and relying heavily on his Macro. That will be a luxury he can't take against a strong GGplay, who will shut him down and take him apart for every mistake he makes.
Either way though, I want GGplay to win this even more because I really don't think Flash stands a chance in hell against Iris.
I don't really care who wins this semifinal (I think I'd rather give FlaSh a shot at the title but I think the GGPlay vs IriS final would be a lot more entertaining), but I agree FlaSh doesn't stand any chance against IriS. And I think IriS has a really good chance to beat GGPlay too since he can practice this whole time with sAviOr and GGPlay's style is almost identical to sAviOr's just not as good. So whoever wins I'd put my money on IriS to take it all.
On July 12 2007 18:33 DJEtterStyle wrote: If the series makes it this far, we, as fans, will really have something to cheer about. While most players prepare an ace strategy for the deciding game of a series, there’s something about Flash and GGPlay that makes me believe that both of them will play completely standard this game, trusting in the same abilities that allowed them to win two games each.
Well said :-) After reading this part. before the finals, I agreed 100% and hoped for a full Bo5 set that will make those words truth. And so it was. GO GGPlay.
EPT![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/KizZBG/daumstarleaguebanner.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://teamliquid.net/staff/DJEtterStyle/flash.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://teamliquid.net/staff/DJEtterStyle/gg.jpg)
You can add GARIMTO, Nal_rA, Xellos, TheMarine, YellOw etc to the bunch :o
