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To watch Wednesday's games, click the spoiler or visit our VOD Tracker.
+ Show Spoiler [OSL games and comments] +
Game One: Jaedong vs Best on Demon's Forest
- Jaedong 7-3 vs P in last ten games. A win seals up and tucks away that dirty old OSL curse. It would also give a sliver of hope to Savior.
- Best is quietly making a case for himself here to be a ro8 punching bag. If there was ever a map to do it on this would be it. Hardly anyone is studying this map, knowing it is on its way out, and Jaedong had been working on the PL finals all week. Best has been around for a while, and this is his best chance to make some noise.
- Well, Best's victory in game one came down to 1.5 seconds. That was his window of opportunity to get his obs in. His reaver build was obviously superior to Jaedong's one hatch lurkers. However, he nearly lost it when he built his observatory right in the line of fire. Jaedong took it down a second too late, and Best snuck in the one observer that allowed him to win. Tight game, and SKT1 will be represented in the next round.
- This group is almost set for the playoffs now. If Savior wins, he can assure Jaedong and Best advance. If Sea wins, we have a three way tie break to determine both spots.
Game Two: Rumble vs Rock on Blue Storm
- The second SK player, Rumble, was looking to take down Mr. Handsome. Lets hope that Rock can put on a better show that the pitiful display his Terran teammate NaDa put up in the MSL last night. God what a stinker.
- Blue Storm stats for ZvP are 25-17 (59.5%). Not nearly as bad as the ZvT balance, but it does speak to the tide this map has turned.
- Rock was pretty brave with his in-your-face zealots, but seemed to get confused after scattering the original drones. I think he would have slowed down Rumble more by killing that expo hatch than trying to run around the zerg main. As it ended up, Rumble lost a sunken and a few drones, but was able to resume mining quickly and mass his hydras. Another question is why Rock didn't have storm faster. He had to know the hydras were coming, and he finished the game with nineteen hundred gas. A couple more HT and he could have fried everything. Lastly, the cannons at his mineral-only were in a shitty position. Yes, the were out of direct fire, but vs hydras it meant they could not protect the nexus, probes, or Rock's army. Without storm or well placed cannons the nexus was doomed, and so was the game.
- Regardless, the fate of the group now comes down to Friday's matchup between Stork and Flash. If Stork sweeps the group, the remaining three players have a tie break for the final spot. Flash holds his own destiny, and can advance with a win.
Game Three: Luxury vs Bisu on Troy
- Lets hope this third game is a bit more epic. The games all last week, and so far this week have... stunk. Gimmie 50 minutes on Troy!
- Wow. One minute after I typed the last note, Luxury 5 pools. Awesome game. KEEP THE HITS COMING OGN. God. Bisu pulled out a miracle to save himself from the lings, then dies a slow death. Don't kid yourself Bisu, there was no way to win that. Interestingly, Luxury cancelled an egg at the beginning before placing his pool. Was this a spur of the moment thing, or did he make the drone purely out of habit before remembering his plan?
- Despite the way he won, Lux is 3-0 and out of his group. On Friday Xellos and July do battle. If July wins, he joins Lux in the next round. Bisu will be cheering for the stone-faced assassin though, as a Xellos win puts all three of them at 1-2 and in a tiebreak.
Game Four: BackHo vs Frozean on Katrina
- Well, time for the awesomest game ever, Frozean vs Backho. (Yes, I am still using the name Frozean because I cannot bear to call a progamer "cuteangel".) It saddens me that one of these players will be making it into the next round. Not because I dont know them, but because what I have seen of them leads me to believe that they add nothing of value to this tournament. They dont even die well. As much respect as I have for the OGN commentators, they should save their Royal Road talk for worthy candidates only.
- Despite my hard words, these players provided us with the best OSL games of the past two weeks! Sure, Frozean built three armouries, and sure he lost mass scv to HT drops, and sure he didnt attack a protoss expansion until 20 minutes into the game, but backho matched him by stasising units on ramps he was trying to climb, running through mine fields with no observers, and showing that micro is "optional" in the starleague. The winner of this game was not even really important. Neither deserved it.
A few themes have made themselves apparent in the OSL so far. First and foremost, the quality of games has been simply atrocious. Last week not a single game made it over 10 minutes. This week, the only game that was of any consequential length, the TvP on Katrina, only lasted as long as it did through the player's ineptitude. Quite frankly, there has been no "wow", and no "pop" in the OSL so far. Highlight movie makers will have their work cut out for them to make this an exciting tournament.
Directly related to the quality of games of course, is the quality of maps. With the proleague being 5 days a week and hundreds of games long, the maps used there quickly become stale. That is the case of Blue Storm. It has produced some nice games, but balance continues to slide in favour of zerg at the expense of terrans. Katrina is also horrible for terrans, meaning any 5 game series will severely handicap them. The re-insertion of Fantasy in the next round is supposed to help, but with a 6-11 record TvZ... will it? If Frozean or Sea make the next round, they are going to have to work a lot harder than their competition to come up with winning ways. If it were UpMagic or Casy I might consider it, but I am not sure that innovation is the strong point of any of our remaining terrans.
THE game to watch on Friday is July vs Xellos, and it is not on name recognition that I recommend it. Since his move to SKTelecom, July has been slowly building momentum with his admission into both major leagues this season. This is a big week for him, and really his whole career as the uncertainty in SKT1 must be affecting his game. His MSL dream is hanging by a thread as he needs to win two straight vs UpMagic. In the OSL, the equation is much simpler: win and carry on to the next round. Lose, and he is in a three-way tie with Xellos and Bisu, not a comfortable situation.
I think the reason people are not talking about July, despite the fact that he is the only Golden Mouse recipient contending this season, is that he has failed to reemerge with an identifiable style. He seems to be playing solidly, and used his trademark hydra smash on Bisu, but there is nothing in his game that shows he is asserting himself on others. I am not sure if that is enough to put him over the top as a favorite in this tourny, which must belong to Jaedong and Stork at this stage. I wonder if the already-eliminated Xellos will do July a favour, if only to eliminate Bisu from the race.
Looking at the Royal Roader candidates, this OSL is really the coming out party for Luxury. After making a few appearances in the MSL and being a stalwart ProLeague competitor, he looks to be making a serious run at the top, boosted by the favourable map pool. At this point only Jaedong looks to be in enough for to beat him.
Point of the day: When using Arbiters to attack a terran line, please you stasis on the rear units, rather than the front. Using stasis on the front impedes your attack, and prevents you from killing anything. Yes, Backho, I am talking to you.
The playoff picture will become much clearer after tomorrow, stay tuned!
Mani
