I have to apologize for the late report. After seeing the sheer glory of a five-day weekend stretched out before me, I completely blew off my responsibilities here at Team Liquid. Instead, I ate a lot of turkey and played a lot of Mass Effect. Now that the workweek has begun, however, I feel obligated to spend my employer's time writing the following report. Enjoy!
Up's game against Hwasin was a quick, enjoyable experience. Both players opened with vultures, but Up sacrificed machine shops and vulture upgrades in order to secure a relatively early command center while not falling too far behind in his unit count. When Up's economic advantage kicked in, he used a brilliant feint to draw Hwasin's vultures out from under a dark swarm. The maneuver worked; Up decimated Hwasin's vultures and coasted into his mineral line for an easy win.
Note: Up’s vultures are firing. Hwasin’s are moving.
Jaedong vs. Light was not quite so well-played. Light tried to shoehorn an expansion into the middle of a tech build, which left him with just shy of no anti-air units when Jaedong’s inevitable mutalisks arrived. In a desperate move, Light threw up several missile turrets while attempting to build a "critical mass" of valkyries from a single starport. Jaedong calmly used his mutalisks to draw fire from the missile turrets while his scourge took out lone valkyries. As a finishing move, Jaedong stormed Light's base with a couple control groups of zerglings.
Valkyries, Light? Really?
The game between Bisu and Savior was interesting, at the very least. While it's no secret that Protoss fast expansion builds are vulnerable to well-timed hydralisk attacks, Savior's play on the strategy was admirable. His proxy hatchery just outside Bisu's base allowed him to save critical resources by not morphing a lair or researching overlord speed, and starting off with a zergling speed build allowed him to deny Bisu's normally-relentless scouting probes. All in all, it was a well-conceived, well-executed strategy, though it didn't exactly make for an exciting game.
An overlord is on its way—its very short, close-in-proximity way.
Flash’s game against Stork is bound to raise comparisons to his game against Rock earlier in the OSL, but there’s a notable difference between Stork and Rock: Stork is actually good. Whereas Rock cut probes and decided to gamble with an early reaver, Stork maintained his probe production, kept his units fighting so as to not lose his nexus, and only added a robotics support bay after having cleared the front of his base. Though Stork’s carriers ultimately caused Flash to concede, micromanagement won him the game. Stork’s probe, dragoon, and reaver micro were all exquisite.
This is an open memo to Flash: Stork is not Rock, and Fantasy II’s distance between bases makes it ill-suited to a bunker rush.
Credit for these videos goes to someone other than me. + Show Spoiler +
The deciding games for the quarterfinals are coming up this week! Will Up pull off the upset win over Hwasin? Does Light have any hope of beating Jaedong on Fantasy II and Persona? Will Bisu deviate from his fast expansion build in an attempt to throw Savior off balance? Does Flash have what it takes to defeat a top-tier player like Stork?
I liked Up’s odds last week, and I like them this week. Though Hwasin is still the favorite to advance, Up’s excellent TvT, strategic sense, and unpredictability make him a threat to any Terran.
Light needed to win last week's game on Katrina. Having lost that game, I give him practically no chance to advance over Jaedong on such Zerg-friendly maps as Fantasy II and Persona.
Bisu is still my pick to advance over Savior, but I’d be lying if I said that my confidence in him wasn’t starting to wane. Katrina and Fantasy II are just fine for PvZ; Bisu has no excuse other than inferior play if he doesn’t manage to take home the win.
After catching up on Stork’s recent games, I’m convinced that Flash doesn't stand much of a chance against him; Stork’s mechanics are nothing short of the best in StarCraft today. While his game sense could use some work, there’s just no one out there who matches Stork’s potent combination of graceful micro and jaw-dropping macro.
As for predictions: Agree with your tendencies, Hwasin will have a very hard time beating Upmagic, who also beat Canata in Proleague, supposedly quite clearly, so his TvT is still going strong.
Jaedong should be able to take the map he needs.
Bisu: He seems to have a knack concerning Blue Storm in general. In the series against Mind he resorted to a proxy rush, in the series against Xellos he also lost his game there, it was that map where he got rolled over by Hwasin. So the other maps might show his other face again.
If Flash had won the first game *somehow* he could maybe sneak out a second win. But with Stork 1-0 up, I don't see him having a chance.
Read more carefully. DJ didn't say the game wasnt interesting. He wrote that the game was "Interesting, at the very least". He only said it wasnt exciting. Which makes sense because it was one sided, and won in the early game. However, for die-hard savior fans, I'm sure it was incredibly exciting
On November 28 2007 10:05 TheFoReveRwaR wrote: Read more carefully. DJ didn't say the game wasnt interesting. He wrote that the game was "Interesting, at the very least". He only said it wasnt exciting. Which makes sense because it was one sided, and won in the early game. However, for die-hard savior fans, I'm sure it was incredibly exciting
u bet ur ass it was! damn all ins by ur favorite player, got to give u a heart attack!
I think the people who won last week will win again this week, with perhaps the exception of savior v. bisu. As somebody said before, bisu seems to be pretty bad at blue storm. He lost to xellos, oov, and free, and resorted to cheese against mind. Granted, none of these are zerg players, but I think it's indicative of his general inconfidence in that map.
Savior has what it takes, I believe in him. As soon as it was confirmed that he was an actual god with no father and no birth, he was destined to win the OSL.
I thought alot of the blame for Flash's loss wasn't only in his decision making, but his micro. I mean, Stork's micro was good, but flash didnt even try to move the three early marines he lost when a zeal was coming at them. Those 3 rines in the bunker could've been game changing.
Up > Hwasin -- blue storm (up's TvT is solid. so is hwasin's but, whatever) jaedong > light -- fantasy II (short air distance, though i guess less of a chance of ling rape) bisu > savior -- katrina (unless savior pulls something amazing, katrina is bullshit) bisu > savior -- monghwan (as long as bisu plays straight up and solid, i dont see his multitask being outdone) stork > flash -- persona (flash shines in early and midgame, but i dont see him being able to pull one of his aggressive openings on persona for some reason. also, i get the feeling that stork might use the swarms better than flash)
On November 28 2007 09:13 DJEtterStyle wrote: When Up's economic advantage kicked in, he used a brilliant feint to draw Hwasin's vultures out from under a dark swarm.
On November 28 2007 09:13 DJEtterStyle wrote: When Up's economic advantage kicked in, he used a brilliant feint to draw Hwasin's vultures out from under a dark swarm.
Dark swarm?? Where did that come from in TvT?
Go power up the map they played on and take a look .
I totally expect that the OSL Finals will be Jaedong vs Bisu, cause Jaedong who has a good micro for Mutalisk, prefers an offensive battle against a toss more than an offensive defense, for standing in toss's 2nd expansion way.
His character come up with hurried steps for everything and his mind has "Attack is the best defense at first time" as interview with OSL commentator before.
Bisu always thinks over, about putting a dagger in his bosom when more efficient use of attack or big deal of a dagger could be a reversal of the situation or when the other side falls into a trick. Bisu (Korean) is meaning of "a dagger" which also meaning "stab other person with a dagger" when other side is off his guard.
On November 28 2007 09:13 DJEtterStyle wrote: When Up's economic advantage kicked in, he used a brilliant feint to draw Hwasin's vultures out from under a dark swarm.
EPT![[image loading]](http://teamliquid.net/staff/DJEtterStyle/EVER.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://teamliquid.net/staff/DJEtterStyle/osl/osl81.JPG)
![[image loading]](http://teamliquid.net/staff/DJEtterStyle/osl/osl82.JPG)
![[image loading]](http://teamliquid.net/staff/DJEtterStyle/osl/osl83.JPG)
![[image loading]](http://teamliquid.net/staff/DJEtterStyle/osl/osl84.JPG)
:D
