EPT![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/pachi/front/batoo_starleague.jpg)
thanks to the immeasurable illimitable pachi
They say in chess you've got to kill the queen and then you've made it.
Oh I, do you
A funny thing, the king who gets himself assassinated.
Hey now, every time I lose...
attitude...
Hope you’re all enjoying your break. LR’s gift to you: an OSL post brought to you by the power of Maison du Chocolat. The OSL this past week has been rather boring, with maybe two games worth watching out of the total 10+. Maps are part of it, player quality’s part of it, but here’s the report nonetheless. A theme to note is players getting overconfident and chucking away clear advantages. Next week’s got much better matchups to look forward to; previews at the end. Enjoy!
Group C
Set 1: 
go.go vs 
FireFist
+ Show Spoiler [Results] +
Set 2:
BackHo vs Winner of Set 1
+ Show Spoiler [Results] +
go.go vs FireFist+ Show Spoiler [Results] +
Set 2:
BackHo vs Winner of Set 1+ Show Spoiler [Results] +
Group C began with the much-hated Bug Terran (they say it’s for the game against TT; it’s more likely due to his face) going toe to toe against KTF’s rising FireFist. Having acted as a proleague force for a couple seasons, go.go entered the match a clear favorite. The winner of this showdown between friends would play Backho for the octofinalist spot.
FireFist vs go.go
The first set, Tears of the Moon’s inaugural Terran versus Zerg, sees FireFist open overpool speed at top left while go.go constructs a bizarre factory wall at the bottom position. FireFist moves to expand and quickly grabs his lair, spire, and den. Go.go responds by teching armory and shop while constructing a second command center; his vulture scores a drone before hydralisk needles force a hasty retreat.
FireFist retaliates shortly thereafter with a hydra wave, sweeping over go.go’s paltry bunker, tank, and scv militia. Forcing a lift and slaughtering many workers, this assault appears to be a game-ender, but at this critical juncture a hero vulture demolishes three drones and brings our intrepid zerg-lookalike Terran back into the game. Firefist’s economy is nearly as lacking as go.go’s, as he has 2 hatcheries with a third just finishing and barely as many drones as letters in his ID.
But as Terran re-establishes his natural, mutalisks sweep in, cleaning out a solid number of scvs before Charon boosters kick in for go.go and drive off the offending flyers. From this point, FireFist makes several cute feints, picking off tanks with mutalisks and then trying to clean up with hydralisks, but go.go defends adequately while conscripting a large mechanical force. Once the Terran commander decides his army is adequate, he moves to the center of the map, posturing for an attack.
FireFist takes this moment to counter the Terran natural, pillaging it and moving on to assault the factories. Instead of defending, the unwieldy Terran force rumbles forward, poised to annihilate the Zerg and commit to an elimination race. The OGN observer then cuts to a fleet of five queens lying in wait; these Zerg casters broodling every tank go.go possesses (a paltry 3) and a muta-hydra-ling flank decimates the remaining Terran troops.
From this point, it’s just a matter of Firefist rallying more and more alien warriors until go.go concedes. The use of queens and mutalisks to reduce tank numbers highlighted the game; rather entertaining play by Firefist though occasionally messy.
The next set opens on the zerg-friendly Medusa. Players switch positions from the first game; Go.go opens one rax double at his back base while Firefist expands at his mineral only and quickly erects a Spire. Mutalisk harass initiates as Terran sets up a factory and an additional brace of barracks. This textbook Zerg vs Terran then moves on to lurker against tank posturing as FireFist consolidates his third gas and morphs his Hive.
Unfortunately, before the third gas income kicks in, go.go’s bionic vessel tank army triumphs against FireFist’s swarm assisted forces after repeated trial and shuts down the Zerg expansion. FireFist attempts a natural counter but botches his swarm/lurker control and loses five lurkers for nearly nothing. He concedes shortly thereafter as Terran infantry raze his natural. A very uninspiring game lost after Firefist failed to defend his third and then failed his swarm counterpush.
On the final game of the set, go.go lands top right while Firefist spawns bottom left. Go.go goes for a two-barracks expansion build while Firefist hatches first. Firefist masses up a clutch of zerglings to face off against go.go’s initial infantry squad; he secretly expands to top left in the meantime. Desirous of an early victory, go.go orders two additional barracks for a total of four; as mutalisks pop FireFist trades nearly all of his zerglings for nearly all of go.go’s marines.
The depleted Terran troops are quickly replaced by four-barrack production and move out to break FireFist’s natural. Instead of defending, the Zerg opts to destroy buildings in the Terran main while defending with five sunkens. Unable to complete in time, Zerg defenses explode under gauss fire as glave wurms ravage the Terran main.
Both mains lie in shambles: go.go has lost three barracks, turrets, and most of his depots while FireFist counts his his lair, in-main hatchery, and extractor amongst his ruined buildings. Harassing lurkerling put go.go on the back foot; with his tech relatively untouched FireFist recovers much faster. Facing a three-gas zerg off of one base, go.go floats his factory out for a sneaky vulture raid.
The vulture riders pick an unfortunate route, going directly past a flying overlord. Mutalisks clean out the grenadiers after a couple drone losses, and then raze the factory. In the midst of renewed mutalisk harass, a dropship loaded with infantry heads out – in a moment of comedy, it misses scourge and mutalisk alike to unload its cargo safely.
Go.go transfers his entire army out slowly as Firefist morphs his hive. The force of twenty infantry and vessel marches towards the natural as a dropship heads towards the top left. Lurkers and scourge deflect the assault at top left; the main army returns to clean out the zerg containment. However, his economy is still too far behind and repeated lurkerling attacks – later augmented by defilers – end go.go’s OSL run.
An initially very entertaining game; however, go.go makes the critical mistake of leaving the Zerg tech untouched. Having lost much less infrastructure than his opponent, Firefist recovers and maintains his lead to close out the series 2-1.
BackHo vs Winner
A visibly tired FireFist, hatching at three, moves on to challenge 6-oclock BackHo on Tears. The KTF Zerg chooses the normal speedling-into-three-hatch-lair-into-five-hatch ZvP staple; Backho goes for a reaver break. Despite abominable cannon positioning requiring the killing of one’s own buildings, Backho moves out with a five-goon-five-zealot-reaver force against a handful of hydralisks and zerglings.
Firefist botches his build abominably and has no units to fight the Protoss push. Despite assassinating the shuttle with scourge-ling, he has less hydralisks than Protoss has dragoons. Backho simply makes his reaver crawl on the ground; his reaver-zealot handle the hydralisks easily while the dragoons blast tardy mutalisks out of the sky.
A very easy win by BackHo; Firefist got way too greedy with his drones; had no army and no delaying sunkens either.
On Medusa, the Swarm takes the top left against the forces of Aiur arrayed at the bottom. Firefist opens with a nearly identical build though with a faster gas and mutalisks. Fast-expanding Backho constructs an additional cannon to defend his backdoor temples while teching towards corsair into mass gateway.
Unfortunately for Backho, the cannons at his natural choke cannot phase to move towards either main or nat. The single cannon defending the main probe line falls, and a half dozen probes go with it. The uncannoned natural also feels the Zerg scourge. Amusingly, Backho’s third, just warping in, already has four cannons defending it.
Mutalisks continue their rampage as FireFist hatches an additional twenty hydralisks and handful of zerglings. Trading mutalisk health for high templar, Firefist’s hydra wave tramples the cannons, archones, and probes at Backho’s choke to cinch the necessary victory. Another one-sided game with no redeeming qualities.
The third game is a repeat of the second; the only difference is that Protoss goes for pre-mutalisk harass instead of a quick third. Thus the mutalisks are forced to clean out remaining zealots before heading for Protoss. Storms and archons and cannons make short work of the mutalisks and also roll the followup hydralisks.
The only amusing part about this series is the final moment of the third game: Backho declares ‘zizi yo’ before FireFist concedes. KeSpA fumbles with technicalities for an undue amount of time; FireFist is mannered and doesn’t take the win. KTF: teaching players how to lose in style since 1999.
BackHo advances. Zizi YO.
Group D
Set 1: UpMagiC vs. Shine[kaL]
+ Show Spoiler [Results] +
Set 2:Much vs. Winner of Set 1
+ Show Spoiler [Results] +
UpMagiC vs. Shine[kaL]+ Show Spoiler [Results] +
Set 2:
Much vs. Winner of Set 1+ Show Spoiler [Results] +
The opening set features heavily favored eStro ace UpMagic against Fox’s emerging Shine[kaL]. The winner faces Protoss grandfather Much. The Z>T mapset makes for a more interesting initial match than the respective playernames suggest; the predicted UpMagic/Much showdown promises entertainment as well.
UpMagic vs Shine
UpMagic finds himself at top left against the zerg at top right. UpMagic goes for one-factory expansion. Sadly for him, the initial zerglings force a command center cancel while going for three-hatchery hydralisks. Hydralisks kill another expansion attempt while constantly reducing UpMagic’s mech numbers.
Lucky mines stave off an early defeat, though UpMagic is clearly at a disadvantage. He attempts to turtle and gather a sizable-enough ball for the winning hanbang. Shine does all he can to prevent this: he drops lurkers at the nat, at the main, on cliffs, anything he can do to keep UpMagic on the back foot.
Unable (or simply unwilling) to bring Hive tech into play, Shine’s muta-lurker-hydra-ling combined forces melt before the huge Terran ball. Not only does he nearly kill his own hydralisk with a zergling, he dies with over 2k gas in the bank. Young nerves on the big screen show as Shine tosses an early advantage to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Moving to Medusa for the second game, Shine opts for a pool-into-hatchery at the right position. He still cancels in the face of top-left UpMagic’s bunker rush. One-hatchery mutalisk now faces 1-factory double; Shine masses up zerglings to kill Terran’s forward bunker and proceeds on to UpMagic’s backdoor temples.
As his replacement nat hatch pops, mutalisks head into the enemy main. UpMagic scrambles to defend with only turrets and goliaths off of one factory – given free rein, mutalisks annihilate various Terran units. The last temple falls, zerglings stream into the Terran main, and mutalisks follow to cripple the Terran main. Hydralisks clinch the game for Shine.
The last game is a comical farce by Zerg as he marches zerglings, overlords, and mutalisks alike to their doom at the hands of the Terran war machine. Ridiculously sloppy play – losing overlords (plural) to the initial marine, keeping harassing mutalisks closer to his own natural than the Terran’s, allowing four-digit minerals and gas mid-game – the list goes on and on. This was incredibly painful to watch. 1-1 goliaths easily roll a third-tier zerg.
Much vs UpMagic
UpMagic moves on 2-1 to face the presumed Seventh Dragon, Much. Much takes the bottom Tears position; UpMagic takes far right. Much takes the ridiculously safe one-gate robo but UpMagic moves in with vulture/rine and takes ten probes down anyway. The countering reaver meets with unfortunate scarabs, doing minimal damage and setting Much economically behind.
After repeated dud scarabs, Much loses his reaver – immediately following this, he takes his third base while UpMagic adds three additional factories. Five factory against two gateway is always entertaining; Much’s nat gets rolled and he taps out soon after. Some really unlucky play by Much to drop the game. Reavers are just so damn frustrating.
In the second game, Much warps in at the three o’clock position and UpMagic lands at the bottom. UpMagic opens with a two-factory build; Much harasses with his initial zealot and scouts it. He proceeds with a DT drop build off of two gateways. Upmagic’s scout is denied, but he moves forward anyway. Four marines, a vulture, a tank, and an scv charge forth against three defending dragoons. As rallied vultures and tanks arrive, darks and shuttle leave the Protoss base.
Much allows far too many mine plants and his entire defending force melts. Two darks provide decidedly insufficient offense to make any sort of elimination race possible. After losing all his probes, Much surrenders and Upmagic advances. A very short, very ugly game whereby everyone’s favorite CJ toss meets a humiliating early exit from the OSL.
Preview - Group E
Set 1:
Tester vs HyuNSet 2:
Midas vs WinnerTester is a phenomenal 1-9 in his last ten with an overall 10-23 record against Zerg. Fortunately for him, HyuN has a recent record of 2-8; no wins against Protoss. Whoever takes the first set should win, seeing as Medusa is a Protoss map and RotK is dominated by the Swarm. I’d tip HyuN for the win, seeing as his losses (against Stork and Much) are somewhat more understandable than Tester dropping games against Juni, Oversky, and Yarnc. To be frank, I don’t expect much out of these two.
Midas, on the other hand, bears some consideration. The best Terran of 2006, he fell a long way after a pair of heartrending OSL semifinal exits and an ill-considered decision to take sAviOr in the quarterfinals of the next one. Since then, he’s largely been relegated to early-stage losses in the individual leagues. He carried the Terran contingent of his team last season; this season he doesn’t even manage that much. A win here is necessary for the revival of his career.
Though he solidly outclasses both his opponents, the maps are not much to look at for Terran. The baby bear must overcome this emotional rut and re-emerge as the Engine of old.
Preview - Group F
Set 1:
maGma vs SoOSet 2:
Flash vs WinnerPractice-game beast maGma takes on STX’s second-fiddle Protoss SoO in a competition to see who gets to lose to Flash. The mediocre SoO is just that – an average middle-aged progamer with a respectable, but not outstanding, career. His Gom run is worth some notice: he scalped ForGG and took a game off SkyHigh before elimination. Other than that, nothing to say. On the other hand, maGma, the oft-touted king of the eStro practice house, has much to live up to. Though he’s 2-8 recently and 41% overall, one keeps expecting him to do better. His vs Protoss record of 8-5 lends him some hope, and hopefully some confidence. If he can triumph against SoO – and I’m predicting him to – all eyes should be on his next series.
Flash is the indisputable favorite, map imbalance or no. The Ultimate Weapon against SoO would be a disappointing rape. Shinmugi vs maGma, on the other hand, holds some potential. If maGma could, after so many years of disappointment, come out and take a best of three against the best Terran in the world, he would be the next great zerg hope. Unlikely. Flash to advance 2-0 regardless of who takes the first set.
Cheers, love, and luck,
LR
!!
