Yesterday the Bacchus OSL kicked off. There is always a special feeling when the new starleague begins. The mix of veterans and new faces who are all starting on equal footing for a fight to the top really gets me excited. The following is just a few of my observations from the games yesterday.
The seats are about 2/3rds full today. Kind of surprising considering it is opening night featuring a strong lineup, but it is Wednesday after all. I'm sure happy that it starts at 7:30 rather than 6:30. It makes so much more sense.
OGN is featuring a bit more of a dynamic camera during the game. Rather than the mounted camera they used in the past to capture the facial expressions of the players, it seems like they are using a more hand-held approach. I like it.
I voted Jaedong for the first match. I love Savior, and that last proleague win was great, but Jaedong is the returning champ. He is going to want to get off to a good start, and he eats up zvz.
Game One: sAviOr vs Jaedong on Blue Storm
A wild first game for sure. I really felt Savior could have done more damage with those lings but he got caught up at that mini-choke where Jaedong had laid a couple sacrificial lings. Kudos to Savior for even being in the position to make a game of it after his opening, but more props to Jaedong for pulling out a win. This sets him up nicely, but I'm worried for Savior who is going to have to play something on Katrina.
Who says APM is dead? Jaedong averaged 395 in a zvz, and peaked at 523. Sick, it would take 5 Manifesto7 s playing at the same time to match that.
Kid Dynamite is up next. With all the turmoil at KTF recently, it would sure be nice to have a winner emerge and create a winning atmosphere in the team again. Flash is a lot easier to like than Rumble too. He has a great cheerful of he and Reach cuddling up together. I bet LR would photoshop himself into that image.
Game Two: Flash vs Rumble on Troy
Man that kid has STONES! I really liked Rumble's build, and he got the vertical positions he needed to make it work well. However, that sunken bust by Flash cost him so many drones that he was all or nothing on the guardians, and guardians just move too slowly to both defend and attack. Perfect timing by Flash on the scans, and steel balls to keep throwing MM into the maw to keep Rumble on his heels. Four port wraiths was just rubbing it in.
The map played out nicely, but we didn't get much of a chance to see it's true potential as the players basically only used the western half. I want to see a longer game and some good use of those assimilators. Am I the only one that thinks ra vs boxer would lead to hilarity on this?
The booth-girls must have been disappointed as they wore red and white. I thought they were SKT1 fans.
Match of the night coming up in my opinion. The Xellos resurgence has got me excited, but the map has not. Why throw out Fantasy II because of balance but keep this fucking nightmare map?
Game Three: Xellos vs Bisu on Katrina
As expected, the map gayed up this potentially great matchup. You can't fault Bisu for playing as he did, but even so, failing with a reaver drop and being pressured all game should not be rewarded with a 4 carrier victory. A lousy day for CJ. I wonder if they have a C team Xellos can go to?
Each player gets a nice graphic prior to each game. This isn't new (although it looks a lot cleaner than before), but the big news is that they are including MBC games on it finally. It is about time these two networks recognized players play in both leagues, and fans watch both leagues. Enough of the playground bullshit.
Looks like the OSL is trying to control the ceremonies a little bit. The winners have been asked to run down to a makeshift stage area and pose for pictures/sign autographs right after the game. While it gives some structure, I want to find out what happens to the goods they sign. Good thing FBH isn't in this, he would probably dry hump a stuffed animal for his pose.
Demon's Forest is up next, the second of the two new maps. I have no idea how this is going to play out, because I don't know how the doodads really effect things.
Game Four: Yellow[arnc] vs FrOzean on Demon's Forest
Well, none of the trees had foliage, which makes sense since a demon forest should be dead... and the audience was able to see the units. Too bad the units couldn't see each other until air got out there. The map makes for some early game shenanigans because nobody can see anything. Protoss corsairs are going to be even more important in PvZ now.
Liquibet stats: 675 losers and 65 misclicks for the terran.
Can I just get a big WTF about Yarnc? He had that game in the bag early on, and then just pissed away his lead. He didn't tech, didn't expand, and didn't attack. At one point midgame he led in supply 79 to 50. FIFTY SUPPLY for terran in mid-game? I don't think either player got over 100 at all, which is just how bad this game got. I hope Much schools FrOzean and Yarnc gets another try.
The next gameday is Friday, featuring these matchups:
Mmm, very nice read Mani, I don't think we'll see much more zerglings late game on Demon Forest except on ZvZ mathups, I have to agree the last match of the day was a big WTF! Thanks for the good article!
Nice! Really liked the way you wrote this too; it read like your thoughts as opposed to the "create a summary of a game using the most exciting and dramatic language you can" reports that are most typical.
My humble thoughts: Game1 - After Jaedong's first harass I thought the game was over. But when they showed the mains of both players savior even had 1 or 2 more drones than jaedong and was only slightly behind in tech. So I think his suicidal ling attack came out of insecurity. Jaedong just is the superior one atm. Game2 - Sad for the zerg. Had such a nice start. I just wondered why Flash didn't kill the 9 Expo early when there were no defenses. Scouting? Game3 - When Xellos stopped Bisu's expo attempt he threw down 2 CCs himself. Maybe 2 Fax would have been the better choice. Anyways it's Katrina (Absolution for T) Game4 - Really unexplainable outcome. Muta harass was so deadly. My impression of the map just left me wondering how PvT will look like. Maybe this map is the salvation for the opressed Terran race.
On January 17 2008 18:26 Desade wrote: Game2 - Sad for the zerg. Had such a nice start. I just wondered why Flash didn't kill the 9 Expo early when there were no defenses. Scouting?
Watching the game it looked to me like when Flash moved out for the first time, he scouted up the ramp far enough to see the first assimilator, saw it hadn't been touched, concluded there was no expansion, and moved on. Of course, there was an expansion, and luckily for Rumble the second assimilator was the one he had beat up some.
On January 17 2008 18:26 Desade wrote: Game4 - Really unexplainable outcome. Muta harass was so deadly. My impression of the map just left me wondering how PvT will look like. Maybe this map is the salvation for the opressed Terran race.
After actually watching a game on it and seeing how the doodads work, I'm almost positive TvP is going to be a horrifying clusterfuck on that map. Talking worse than Katrina imbalance here; Standard Terran play simply will not work on the map at all. You can't see enemy forces until they're right on top of you (unless you have an air unit like say, an Observer with your army), giving no room for tanks to siege up and fight back effectively. To add insult to injury those doodads will make fighting Carriers pretty much impossible. I think we're going to see a lot of proxy BBS rushes and crazy turtle/dropship play in TvP here. I'd be pretty surprised if Terran manages to make it as high as a 20% win rate against Protoss on this map.
I was so pissed at Katrina after the Xellos Bisu game. It's not like Bisu did anything cool at all. Xellos also had him on his toes all game long and still it was auto lose for Mr. Perfect as soon as the Carriers came. Before the game I hadn't quite realized the horror that Katrina really is and was quite sure that the player playing the best (xellos) was going to win, but no. The thing he could have done better would have been to not expand as much and anticipate carriers in the exact same way Mind did against Bisu on Loki II. (the greatest terran timing push ever) On some maps you just know that a couple of Goliaths will always pay off.
Also, I wanted to see sAviOr's face after he beat Jaedong. Trying to hide his smile in his CJ face while posing. The ZvZ was a display of how sad the MU really is, since a very small BO advantage gives you the game when the two players are playing this, dare I say, perfect.
BTW, anyone else noticed the absence of the emo hair?
On January 17 2008 18:54 Barbarne wrote: Also, I wanted to see sAviOr's face after he beat Jaedong. Trying to hide his smile in his CJ face while posing. The ZvZ was a display of how sad the MU really is, since a very small BO advantage gives you the game when the two players are playing this, dare I say, perfect.
BTW, anyone else noticed the absence of the emo hair?
Uhm, Jaedong beat Savior, not the other way around...
On January 18 2008 00:34 Schiller wrote: now Jaedong is on a 10 games winning streak... and only vs the best existing players ... really impressiv
Wow, I haven't looked at Jaedong's streak in a while, that's amazing. He he really on fire lately, and he's got his lifetime win percentage to 66.67%!
Nice report. Usually I don't mind seeing terrans get stomped on Katrina but XellOs is among those few terrans who should always win. Demon's Forest lives up to its name ... I still can't believe yarnc actually lost and I wonder what sort of freaky games the map still has in store. :0
I was pretty surprised when I checked my liquibet and noticed that I voted for FrOzean over yarnc. Needless to say, I was even more surprised when he won.
cool games, imo rumble would have won against flash if he had killed his own assimilators leading to his main earlier when he was pressured and just having the oportunity of being able to attack instead of going back with his guardians twice to defend his main...flash only hope was with his mnm backstabs :s i like troy, will generate some cool games
They were all really good games... Jaedong seems like a really good candidate to take the Zerg Throne. He is looking so dang strong in all three matchups
EPT
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Manifesto7/bacchusstarleaguelogo2pl6.JPG)
Sea vs 
BeSt on Troy
July vs 
- Jaedong's apm is amazing 
Demon's Forest lives up to its name ... I still can't believe yarnc actually lost and I wonder what sort of freaky games the map still has in store. :0
