EPT![[image loading]](/staff/Tadzio/GOMquarter/battlereport6.jpg)
Backho, ironically suffering from a back injury and unable to play, forfeited his match to Jangbi. Jangbi progresses to the Semifinals by default. Best wishes go out to Backho during his recovery.
Fortunately, Free and Mind were still able to play....
Free opens at ten o'clock with a rush to reavers and Mind starts at three o'clock with a fast expand strategy. Free's reaver harass fails miserably when he tries to force the action and Mind takes out the reaver and shuttle without any trouble.
Free techs to arbiters while Mind executes some minor vulture harass. Although mildly successful, Free is expanding all over the map, barely noticing the dent the vultures are making.
Mind extends his turtle to take five o'clock and EMPs Free's arbiter's, but refuses to take advantage of the temporary weakness in Free's EMP'd army. Instead he focuses on getting five o'clock online.
When Mind finally moves out, Free draws his army toward nine o'clock and then recalls into Mind's mineral-only. Mind counter's Free's expansions at the six o'clock main, but Free's saved up a great deal of resources and he simply rebuilds once Mind moves back into the middle. The rest of the game is filled with moments where Mind tries to threaten Free's main and is rewarded with a storm drop and/or recall into his five o'clock expansion. Eventually, Mind runs out of minerals, and stasis picks apart his standing military. Mind GGs, looking for revenge in game two.
![[image loading]](/staff/Tadzio/GOMquarter/fremin1_1.gif)
+ Show Spoiler [Key Moments] +
Mind's unwillingness to pressure Free until deep into the late-game gave Free the chance to take the whole map and make up for his sloppy reaver play with some outstanding arbiter and high-templar play. Mind had the opportunity, but not the heart.
Free starts at eight o'clock and rushes dark templar followed by arbiters. Mind starts at two o'clock and fast expands. Free attacks Mind's natural expansion with a zealot, two dragoons and a dark templar, killing the turret, but Mind fires upon his own tank to kill the dark templar with splash, ending the early harass. Then Mind turtles, and turtles and turtles some more.
Eventually, he attacks Free's pylon wall at five o'clock to distract the protoss from his push. Mind uses the distraction to move out and secure twelve o'clock. After chasing the vultures away, Free shows that he's more than ready for Mind's push, casting two effective stasis spells, utterly dismantling Mind's push. He knows the advantage is his, and pushes straight into Mind's natural.
Mind drops two tanks and four vultures at Free's main, but Free mostly ignores it, and instead pins Mind behind his ramp. After he's dealt with the drop and expanded to six o'clock, Free backs off, allowing Mind to retake his natural and contemplate his enormous disadvantage. Mind GGs a few seconds afterward. Free moves on to the Semifinals where he'll play JangBi!
![[image loading]](/staff/Tadzio/GOMquarter/fremin2_1.gif)
+ Show Spoiler [Key Moments] +
Free's use of stasis was absolutely stellar this game and his timing on crushing Mind's push couldn't have been better. Mind's decision to tech dropship was decidedly less impressive. The dropships were scouted, delayed and stole resources away from Mind's push.
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Daigomi/Banner__Gom_Classic_Results_.jpg)
QuarterFinals - Day 2
free[gm] vs 
Mind+ Show Spoiler +
free[gm] > Mind
free[gm] > Mind
free[gm] > Mind
JangBi vs BackHo+ Show Spoiler +
BackHo forfeits the match to JangBi.
Recommended Game
+ Show Spoiler +
![[image loading]](/staff/Tadzio/Banner__GOM_Classic_Bracket_.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Daigomi/Banner__GOM_Classic_This_wee.jpg)
With Backho out of the tournament due to a back injury he suffered over the holidays, Skyhigh is officially the least accomplished player left in the GOMtv Classic. It's appropriate, if a little unfair, that he's facing the tournament's most accomplished player, Bisu.
Since October of 2008, Bisu has been playing out-of-his mind, going 37-12 for 75% win rate. Versus terran, he's 8-2 for 80% within the same time period. Aside from his surprise elimination from the Batoo OSL, he's absolutely been on a tear. Not that Skyhigh's been a slouch lately.
Skyhigh's been doing well since October as well, posting a record of 15-9 during that period, he's blossomed into one of CJ Entus' stronger Proleague contributors, and although his weakest match-up had been thought to be TvP, his performance in the Quarterfinals demonstrated that he shouldn't be underestimated, as he eliminated Bisu's teammate, Best, in an impressive, aggressive, vulture-heavy fashion.
Skyhigh and Bisu have never played before, but Bisu did mention in an interview that he was impressed with Skyhigh's vulture play. Does this mean he was intimidated? Probably not as much as Skyhigh should be, but we'll see how things turn out. I'm not going to give Skyhigh more credit than he deserves, but he has a better chance of eliminating Bisu than I thought Tempest had of eliminating Jaedong. As lilsusie says: This is the "Tournament of Upsets!" And with two protoss on the other side of the bracket, should Skyhigh eliminate Bisu, it would be a pleasant upset.
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Daigomi/Banner__GOM_Classic_Communit.jpg)
If you have any questions for the players in the upcoming matches, ask them on GOMtv's Community forums. Click on the Community button below for easy access to those forums.
Also, lilsusie started a thread for 'get well' wishes to
BackHo, aka, Son Chan Woong. If you haven't yet, be sure to contribute to the thread!![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Daigomi/Banner__GOM_Classic_Intervie.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Daigomi/Banner__GOM_Classic_Question.jpg)
See you in the Live Report thread, January 18th, 18:00 KST!
