EPT![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/pachi/front/batoo_starleague.jpg)
Welcome back to the Teamliquid coverage of the OSL. The past two weeks have been pretty rough on the staff so apologies for the lateness on this issue. Last Romantic is bed ridden with illness so you're stuck with me to recap the events of the past two weeks in a simple concise format. There were some upsets and surprises and a few of the titans fell to lesser players. With that said the games have been pretty entertaining and promise to be good this week as well.
The Recaps
+ Show Spoiler [Group E] +
(VOD) 
Tester < 
HyuN on Tears of the Moon
(VOD)Tester > HyuN on Medusa
(VOD)Tester > HyuN on Return of the King
(VOD)
Midas > Tester on Tears of the Moon
(VOD)Midas < Tester on Medusa
(VOD)Midas < Tester on Return of the King
This group played out terribly. Firstly, after a really promising start in game one, Hyun proceeded to play like a fish and was destroyed by Tester. Tester of all people! For someone who showed as much promise as he did last year, Hyun really dropped the ball on this one. Then, after a dominating performance against Tester in game one; Midas lost againstMedusa tester n game two, then played abysmally in game three and got himself eliminated as well. Through some bizarre miracle/deal with Satan, Tester has managed to qualify for the OSL. Wow.
Tester < HyuN on Tears of the Moon(VOD)
Tester > HyuN on Medusa(VOD)
Tester > HyuN on Return of the King(VOD)
Midas > Tester on Tears of the Moon(VOD)
Midas < Tester on Medusa(VOD)
Midas < Tester on Return of the KingThis group played out terribly. Firstly, after a really promising start in game one, Hyun proceeded to play like a fish and was destroyed by Tester. Tester of all people! For someone who showed as much promise as he did last year, Hyun really dropped the ball on this one. Then, after a dominating performance against Tester in game one; Midas lost against
+ Show Spoiler [Group F] +
(VOD) maGma > SoO on Tears of the Moon
(VOD)maGma > SoO on Medusa
maGma <> SoO on Return of the King
(VOD)Flash > maGma on Tears of the Moon
(VOD)Flash > maGma on Medusa
Flash <> maGma on Return of the King
After a strong performance in GOM people expected SoO vs maGma to be close. They were dead wrong. Soo proved that he is incapable of defending a simple 9pool and lost the first game is about 3 minutes. The second game was significantly better, and much closer. I would go as far as to call it one of the games of the week - so definitely check it out! Flash vs maGma was pretty close. The fist game was quite impressive by maGma but Flash had his hacks on and was ready for one of maGma's doom drops and after that drop got raped it was all over. Unfortunately maGma couldn't keep the momentum up in the 2nd game and Flash just went into domination mode and re-qualified for OSL round 2.
maGma > SoO on Tears of the Moon(VOD)
maGma > SoO on MedusamaGma <> SoO on Return of the King(VOD)
Flash > maGma on Tears of the Moon(VOD)
Flash > maGma on MedusaFlash <> maGma on Return of the KingAfter a strong performance in GOM people expected SoO vs maGma to be close. They were dead wrong. Soo proved that he is incapable of defending a simple 9pool and lost the first game is about 3 minutes. The second game was significantly better, and much closer. I would go as far as to call it one of the games of the week - so definitely check it out! Flash vs maGma was pretty close. The fist game was quite impressive by maGma but Flash had his hacks on and was ready for one of maGma's doom drops and after that drop got raped it was all over. Unfortunately maGma couldn't keep the momentum up in the 2nd game and Flash just went into domination mode and re-qualified for OSL round 2.
+ Show Spoiler [Group G] +
(VOD) Hwasin > HoeJJa on Tears of the Moon
(VOD)Hwasin > HoeJJa on Medusa
Hwasin <> HoeJJa on Return of the King
(VOD)Mind < Hwasin on Tears of the Moon
(VOD)Mind < Hwasin on Medusa
Mind <> Hwasin on Return of the King
Hwasin was mercilessness against Hoejja in their confrontation. Hwasin raped Hoejja in the first set by rallying his marines to Hoejja, who wasn't able to defend. The second game was also a rape, although Hoejja tried to be cute with queens and spawn broodling vs Tank which made it semi-entertaining I suppose. Hwasin vs Mind was petty surprising as Hwasin stepped up his game and was able to overcome mind in straight sets. The games weren't particularly amazing, but still, Hwasin overcoming Mind is a huge achievement for him.
Hwasin > HoeJJa on Tears of the Moon(VOD)
Hwasin > HoeJJa on MedusaHwasin <> HoeJJa on Return of the King(VOD)
Mind < Hwasin on Tears of the Moon(VOD)
Mind < Hwasin on MedusaMind <> Hwasin on Return of the KingHwasin was mercilessness against Hoejja in their confrontation. Hwasin raped Hoejja in the first set by rallying his marines to Hoejja, who wasn't able to defend. The second game was also a rape, although Hoejja tried to be cute with queens and spawn broodling vs Tank which made it semi-entertaining I suppose. Hwasin vs Mind was petty surprising as Hwasin stepped up his game and was able to overcome mind in straight sets. The games weren't particularly amazing, but still, Hwasin overcoming Mind is a huge achievement for him.
+ Show Spoiler [Group H] +
(VOD) RuBy > by.hero on Tears of the Moon
(VOD)RuBy < by.hero on Medusa
(VOD)RuBy < by.hero on Return of the King
(VOD)Bisu < by.hero on Tears of the Moon
(VOD)Bisu < by.hero on Medusa
Bisu <> by.hero on Return of the King
This is the group that had everyone talking. Somehow, the TvZ sniper, Ruby, lost to Hero after going 1-0 up in the series. The games weren't even that spectacular, Ruby just sucked, and Hero just managed to play better than him. Bleh. Then to top things off, Hero harnessed the spirit of July and his ZvP skills and took out the big man, Bisu. Game 1 was a simple 3hat all in, Game 2 was a display of ZvP mastery by Hero. Massive congrats to him, but I'm sure the sponsors of this OSL are now crying in a corner somewhere because of him.
RuBy > by.hero on Tears of the Moon(VOD)
RuBy < by.hero on Medusa(VOD)
RuBy < by.hero on Return of the King(VOD)
Bisu < by.hero on Tears of the Moon(VOD)
Bisu < by.hero on MedusaBisu <> by.hero on Return of the KingThis is the group that had everyone talking. Somehow, the TvZ sniper, Ruby, lost to Hero after going 1-0 up in the series. The games weren't even that spectacular, Ruby just sucked, and Hero just managed to play better than him. Bleh. Then to top things off, Hero harnessed the spirit of July and his ZvP skills and took out the big man, Bisu. Game 1 was a simple 3hat all in, Game 2 was a display of ZvP mastery by Hero. Massive congrats to him, but I'm sure the sponsors of this OSL are now crying in a corner somewhere because of him.
The Previews
Group I
 |  |  |  |  |
 YellOw | Tears of the Moon | Medusa | Return of the King |  910 |
| 43 - 31 | 17-13 | 1-4 | 6-5 | 4 - 6 |
 | | | |  |
 Rock | Tears of the Moon | Medusa | Return of the King | Winner |
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZAErwkrc8o
That's right, Rock is up in the OSL and has landed himself a pretty tough group. But before we get to see Rock we have Yarnc vs 910. Now 910 is known as the other half of the TheZerg/910 2v2 team as well as his brief quarterfinals appearance many MSLs ago. Now that he's finally qualified for a major league again there's a bit of speculation as to how he is going to perform. Remember, 910 never sees proleague play because he is covered by Sea, Light and Ruby so we have zero idea about how good he is playing atm. On the other hand, Yarnc is playing like a beast lately and has perfected the 5hatch ZvP. Yarnc has always been really good at ZvT (as his record shows).
To be blunt, Yarnc is the absolute favorite here. Not only does he post a formidable record vs Terran, but he also has extensive TV experience in the field of 1v1 as well as league experience. 910 lacks all of this; seeing as he hasn't been on TV in months. 910 however has been known to post surprising results at times, but I have every faith in Yarnc to pull through with ease and take the series 2-0.
Then we come to the game of the night; Yarnc vs ROCK. Yarnc defeated Rock in the EVER08 OSL quite convincingly and despite what the Cult of Rock may tell you, Yarnc should do it again. The maps, overall, favor Zerg seeing as Tears has a slight Z>P bias, Medusa is just P>Z and Return of the King is massively Z>P. Yarnc should be very happy with this maplist. Rock is also known for not adapting his build orders on the fly and sticking to the game plan regardless. As a result he has lost some very humiliating games. Yarnc should know this and take advantage of it in this game and reallly, he should pass this group with ease.
Group J
 | | | |  |
| HiyA | Tears of the Moon | Medusa | Return of the King | YoonJoong |
| 10 - 6 | 3-1 | 11-23 | 9-8 | 2 - 10 |
 | | | | |
| Luxury | Tears of the Moon | Medusa | Return of the King | Winner |
This is by far the lesser of the two groups this week, but it really shouldn't be perceived as such. HiyA is an amazing Terran player who is severely underrated. He's been performing solidly in Proleague and has a reasonably high chance to take this group over Luxury. Firstly, however, he must take on YoonJoong. YoonJoong was hailed as one of the most promising Protoss of the new era after a spectacular GOM S1 performance. However, he has been slumping lately and hasn't looked like he is anywhere near his former skill level.
Hiya is going to take this 2-1. He'll take Tears fairly convincingly seeing as Terran seem to love this map for some reason. But he'll drop Medusa, because its such a good Protoss map. In fact, I'm fairly confident YoonJoong will play a DT drop build and gay his way to victory. Return of the King is a nice T>P map and should suit HiyA just fine.
Moving on, Hiya would then need to take on Luxury. And while Luxury is the perceived favorite, both Tears and Medusa heavily favorite Terran over Zerg, and in addition to that, Luxury is 2-3 against Terran in the last two months. Luxury hasn't been living up to his name and I strongly doubt he'll be able to take HiyA on good Terran maps. Which is a shame seeing as this OSL really needs some more Zergs, and Luxury would have been really good for that.
So that's it from me; don't forget to tune in at the usual time to watch both games (18:30 KST on Wednesday and Friday). However if you can't make that time, try again at like 23:00 KST with mms://liveongame.gscdn.com/L1 - if you have good internet you should be able to catch a re-run of the games without having to wait for vods
! Don't hold me accountable if the time is wrong, I don't have an OGN schedule to look at but from my experiences that time should work. 
PlexaThanks GrandInquisitor for the R&S thread and the results!
