The ProLeague has a week under it's belt, and the upstart GOM league has played it's first night. Yesterday it was time for the heavyweight of the pro broodwar scene to step into the ring. Step they did, bringing with them an extremely strong card featuring THREE former OSL champions on a host of new maps. With the last OSL panned by much of our community (present company included) it was important for OGN to have a strong broadcast on opening night.
With Um Jae-kyung and his partners dressed in snazzy suits, the opening did not disappoint. The OSL broadcast showed off some improving map preview technology, with a computer generated model of the map highlighting the features of Hwarangdo (say it out loud, its fun).
Another highlight was not waiting a week or two for the opening. OSL brought it strong, with no more happy hop-scotch garbage. This video showcased bare-sleeved gamers striking poses that would make the most frigid of fangirls (and boys) moisten. Definite props to OGN for coming prepared this season and avoiding the worrying trend of late sponsorship that has plagued recent events.
Game One: Jaedong vs Casy Map: Hwarangdo History: Jaedong 0:3 Casy
It feels like just yesterday when Casy won his OSL and ShinHan was sponsoring everything. However, it was two years ago that he made his run in a zerg and terran dominated field. Since then he has been released by OGN and picked up by WeMade. This OSL represents his big chance at making a comeback and proving his worth.
As for Jaedong, he needs little introduction. His OSL title came last summer, and despite being humbled by Flash in recent months, he is still an auto liquibet vote for most.
Utter destruction. Casy knew this map cold, and Jaedong wasn't even born when Nostalgia was in use. He better text July and figure out how to play with only one gas. Casy's early game micro was intense, with his 3 marines basically ending the game vs 8 drones. Vultures were the obvious follow-up, and with Casy's sick sick micro there was nothing Jaedong could do.
Game Two: BackHo vs GGPlay Map: Hwarangdo History: GGplay 1:0 BackHo
Pills & Kisses by the Donots is the song featured in the opening. I'm still loving the hard edge to the OSL theme this time. It was very necessary. The second match of the night featured GGPlay, the OSL winner prior to Jaedong. GGPlay basically disappeared off the map in terms of OSL results after his win over Iris, not making it out of the group phase of the following tournament. After missing out on the Bacchus OSL completely, he is back in the big time. This week serves as the first real litmus test of how his recent move to CJ has affected his game.
As for BackHo... how is this guy still around? He went 0-3 in Bacchus and is hardly a reliable ProLeague player. Is he the Protoss MuMyung, always good enough to make it out of the minor leagues but just taking up space in the big time? Wednesday was a big test for him as well.
I thought BackHo held his own early, repeatedly killing GGPlay's extra expansion and securing his own second gas with the help of a hero archon. However, GGPlay's stubbornness with mutalisks and ability to defend with lurkers bought him enough time to hammer BackHo's exposed production. With that breathing room he was able to mass up his basic units, something we will see from all players on this map. BackHo got too anxious, didn't expand enough while he was on the offensive, and was eventually starved out by GGPlay's aggressive macro. Center control proved to be very important, and GGPlay did a great job by preventing probe transfers to 9 in midgame.
Winner's Game Map: Andromena History: GGplay 2:1 Casy
After coping well with BackHo's mass speedlots, GGPlay came right back with another quality game. He punished Casy for his hyper-aggression and took advantage of the late vessel tech to maximize his muta harass. Their close positions in the north also allowed GGPlay to expand to 7 with relative safety and mine his third gas just as his hive popped.
Taking advantage of the close positions, GGPlay simply pushed across under the cover of swarm, and the choke sealed in the terran army. Casy's army seemed out of position, and his irradiate was late as GGPlay advanced in an impressive performance.
Zerg players are making such effective use of nydus canals these days, it has really served as an effective counter to the terran push + dropship combo that has wrecked zerg expansions in the past. It also frees up lurkers that would otherwise be stationed at expos.
Loser's Game Map: Andromena History: Jaedong 0:0 BackHo
After being bunker rushed in the first game, Jaedong got proxy gated in the second. It sucks to be the champ. He made a choice early to retreat and fight the zeals rather than go to the protoss main which possibly could have forced BackHo home. That decision will haunt Jaedong for the rest of the OSL as he watches from the sidelines. BackHo ran over his natural hatchery while defending his proxy gates at the same time. Jaedong's too-late counter with three lings was laughable and the door was open for BackHo to expand and take the game. Weak sauce.
This one was over as soon as Casy scouted BackHo last, which was unfortunately after BackHo had seen the double barracks. Casy's marine micro is the best in the world, but even he could not fend off the protoss defense of zeal/goon/probes that BackHo put up. As the second attack failed, SuperJongMan cried himself to sleep and the Neo-Emperor scarcely lived up to his name. BackHo breaks through to the next round, joining GGPlay in a Liquibet busting day. Don't believe me? + Show Spoiler +
Remember, you can watch the games by using DAUM player, or by checking out the Small VOD Thread for video if your timezone doesn't let you see it live.
On April 17 2008 22:38 StarN wrote: Haha BackHo is going to take this OSL down!
While I am a fan of protoss, I don't think that these three games are a statement of his skill. He cheesed once and counter-cheesed once. The one "real" game of the day was in fact a loss. I hope he'll make it big, but I'm not yet convinced.
I want to blame it on the OSL curse, but I still can't believe that Jaedong actually lost. The fact that he lost to 2 cheeses in a row, one by his own teammate makes it that much worse.
What's the OSL curse? from how I see it could be not making it out of your group after winning an OSL, but last winner was flash so it prob means not winning an OSL no more? please help
woahwoah, put some spoilers on this thing. we love to look at the outline and announcements about the topic, but can we enjoy the thread without getting spoiled?
that's the great thing about OSL too - you can't get spoiled by looking at the number of games.
BackHo fighting! His game against GGPlay was inspiring. "Uhm, Mr. BackHo, zealots might not be the best thing against those mutas" "SHUT UP! No one tells BackHo what to do!"
The famous OSL curse may in fact be a matter of overconfidence. Once a progamer tells himself "I'm the champion", he might be a little less on his toes during the first few matches of the next OSL, which makes him the most vulnerable at that moment.
Anyone who has actually watched BackHo vods (rather than just go 0-3 stats :o he sucks) will know that he has perfect micro and multitasking that'd make Bisu jealous. His weakness has always been choosing strategies which are not only stupid given the units his opponent is using but also strategies which not even relevent to the matchup he is playing. Combined with that is a stubborn refusal to adapt to his opponents, instead deciding upon a unit combination and sticking to it with a bloody minded detirmination that'd make Field Marshall Haig proud. This is why we saw him take the upper hand against GGPlay with zeechon against mutaling but then continue to use zeechon, despite GGPlay switching to hydraling. However if given a good build, for example against Jaedong, he will execute it flawlessly and take the win. And if forced by Casy to engage in micro wars then he will absolutely destroy the bunker rush in a display of micro that leaves you questioning exactly why Casy is reputed as a marine micro master. In short Mani, you have missed what BackHo is about. Yes, he is awful. However I am not surprised that, when he does a build which is actually intended for PvZ and useful for the situation, he can destroy Jaedong. He is a very skilled player (albeit dependent on luck for which build he decides to use) and you underestimate him at the risk of your liquibet points.
So... I called him a lousy player, you called him a lousy player, and somehow I missed something? The bunker rush from Casy was over before it started, I could have fended it off. He showed little game sense in the one game that was still competitive after 5 minutes. I don't care how good his micro is, zealot vs muta will never work.
I obviously watched BackHo VODs, and I came to the conclusion that he is not a special player. Last night did nothing to change my mind.
I said he's awful because he does stupid strategies which nobody, no matter how good, could pull off. However it's a testament to how good he is that for a while when he does them you think that maybe he might actually win with it. I can't defend his game sense, he has none. I must contest your conclusion that he is nothing special. He is unique in the same way that Boxer is. Boxer does innovative strategies that shouldn't work and somehow makes everything click. BackHo does bad strategies that simply do not work, combines them with insane multitasking, pushes his opponent to the brink and then implodes in a pile of 'epic fail'. While this hasn't proven effective he is definitely something special.
Last night he played two games in which he didn't attempt a ridiculous strategy, the first was a perfectly executed rush against Jaedong. Sure, it was a rush build but there was absolutely nothing improvable about the way he used it. And that puts his record when using real build orders at a comfortable 1-0 which given it was against Jaedong isn't bad. The game against Casy wasn't long enough for him to hang himself with a display of awful strategy. Casy pushed him into a micro war and was just utterly outclassed. Admittedly he did scout Casy's bunker rush but even so, 3 zealots, a dragoon and some probes just wiped out those scvs and marines with no effort. I really believe that in a game where BackHo uses a real strategy there are very few players who could beat him.
I feel like watching his games again. I also felt something was wrong about his play despite his wins but I didn't fully grasp it. Maybe your explanation is right.
On April 18 2008 09:41 MaZza[KIS] wrote: This sucks... unfortunatelly, that's starcraft! BackHo will probably fade away and never ever make it into another starleague again...
meanwhile, JD and Casy can either grow from this experience, or perish.... Having Nada in his team should help Casy.
I sure hope JD does. That must have been really frustrating for him. He probably should have scouted earlier vs. BackHo but everyone gets cheesed sometimes. Trick is not to get too upset over it.
If BackHo has such good micro and macro, how do you explain his mediocre 1-3 PvP stats? I remember watching his game vs Much. Despite securing a decent early macro advantage in his favor, he ended up getting RAPED in a huge battle (with ~20 supply lead) and Much easily took the win.
On April 18 2008 07:42 Kwark wrote: I said he's awful because he does stupid strategies which nobody, no matter how good, could pull off. However it's a testament to how good he is that for a while when he does them you think that maybe he might actually win with it. I can't defend his game sense, he has none. I must contest your conclusion that he is nothing special. He is unique in the same way that Boxer is. Boxer does innovative strategies that shouldn't work and somehow makes everything click. BackHo does bad strategies that simply do not work, combines them with insane multitasking, pushes his opponent to the brink and then implodes in a pile of 'epic fail'. While this hasn't proven effective he is definitely something special.
Last night he played two games in which he didn't attempt a ridiculous strategy, the first was a perfectly executed rush against Jaedong. Sure, it was a rush build but there was absolutely nothing improvable about the way he used it. And that puts his record when using real build orders at a comfortable 1-0 which given it was against Jaedong isn't bad. The game against Casy wasn't long enough for him to hang himself with a display of awful strategy. Casy pushed him into a micro war and was just utterly outclassed. Admittedly he did scout Casy's bunker rush but even so, 3 zealots, a dragoon and some probes just wiped out those scvs and marines with no effort. I really believe that in a game where BackHo uses a real strategy there are very few players who could beat him.
Near same builds vs the same player:
Bisu
Backho
Backho has decent mechanics..but lets not forget he lost to CUTEANGEL on KATRINA on A HUGE advantage. Seriously..and lets not forget this genius move:
Backho is a Nal_rock reincarnate. This is a cruel joke from the bw gods, once Nal_rock is ousted another one steps in to eliminate our favorites and do jack shit at the ro32.
I voted for Backho to advance! I thought he'd beat GGPlay tho (he got frustrated and wasted a ton of units -- I know the feeling). Also thought jaedong would beat casy oops.
EPT
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Plexa/Ever_OSL_Rnd1/evera1.png)
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Manifesto7/oslweek1lb.png)
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Manifesto7/backho.jpg)
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NaDa
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