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Batoo OSL Week 3
The final week of play in the OSL is invariably a tense one. For the majority of the players this week, every game was a must win. There were four notable exceptions to this of course; Bisu and Jaedong were virtually through to the Round of 8, while GGPlay and Tester were virtually out of the OSL. Unfortunately, the quality of the games did not live up to standard and there was only one or two really decent games this week. The vast majority were average to sub-par.
Group A
Group A had an interesting scenario this week. No player could be sure of his fortune; although Bisu could be content knowing that the worst he could do is have to play for his spot in tie-breakers. July was in a must win position against Stork, seeing as he had already lost to Bisu and Yarnc. July played amazingly against Bisu and the smart money had him taking Stork - and indeed he did. July opened with a 4 hatch/lair hydra pressure build which seamlessly integrated Mutalisks. Stork had no answer for this, and could barely fend off the pressure with his Zealots and by the time Mutas had arrived Stork had no effective anti-air. It was all over very quickly, in rather boring fashion.
With July's victory, Bisu was assured a spot in the Round of 8. However, whether he advanced as A1 or A2 was still up in the air. That would be decided in the second game of the week - Bisu vs Yarnc. There was very little pressure on the players in this game, well, at least compared to the other games this week. This was because neither player was out if they lost - Bisu was still going to the Ro8 and Yarnc would have to go to Tie-Breakers.
The resulting game reflected the lack of pressure. Bisu opened with 1 gate play - for those of you who don't remember Bisu stated that it's impossible to win against Zerg nowadays using 1 gate play - and Yarnc opened up with an all-in Muta/Lurker opening. Yarnc's entire strategy revolved around being able to inflict enough damage on Bisu's natural to give him time to expand and pump hydralisks. Bisu, however, was on the ball as usual and was able to shut down Yarnc with relative ease - losing minimal probes. The game from there was all Bisu - his storming was perfect and his decision making immaculate. Yarnc really stood no chance.
With regular group play now over; Bisu advances as A1 with a perfect 3-0 score, while Yarnc, July and Stork will have to battle it out in tiebreakers for their right to be in the Round of 8. In my humble opinion, I think Yarnc has got what it takes to win. His game against Stork was so abysmally bad and can't be a true reflection of his skill. He should be able to beat July again, and hence advance easily. July has a chance to advance as well; Stork should be easy enough to kill, while ZvZ is always a tossup. What is certain though, is that Stork is going to be going 0-2. I say Yarnc will advance with 75% certainty, with 25% certainty that July will advance.
Group B
Group B was similar to Group A in that everything was essentially up in air, just reversed. By that I mean instead of Bisu being almost sure of advancing, we have Tester who was almost sure of failing. To start off the week, we had Leta vs Tester - a match doomed to mediocrity. There was hope amongst the very few Tester fans that he would be able to overcome Leta on Medusa, given the horrid imbalance. However, that did not transpire. Leta dominated Tester with dropships and high pressure play. The pressure was so great that Tester started to implode and failed to perform even the most basic of tasks to an adequate level, for instance; his micro was absolutely horrid towards the end.
With Tester now eliminated for good, Leta had to wait and see what the other game of the week had in store. For his 2-1 was not good enough to ensure him a place in the Round of 8; however the worst result for him would be a tie-break situation - which isn't exactly too bad when you're one of the strongest players in the tournament. And thus, by.hero and fantasy stepped up to the plate to determine the fate of the group.
It is amazing how far fantasy has fallen since his epic series win over GGPlay. This game was absolutely abhorrent on his behalf. By.hero went for a quick 2 hatch muta build which completely took fantasy by surprise. By.hero's micro destroyed fantasy very easily. Alas, with by.hero's victory we can look forward to another set of tiebreakers to occur on Friday.
What that means is that we have a 3 way tie for first. So how do we resolve it? We play more tiebreakers! However, two players advance this time instead of one hence all you need to do is win one game and you're safe. The player who goes 2-0 will advance as B1 and the player who goes 1-1 will advance as B2. After fantasy's terrible performance against by.hero, I think by.hero is a safe bet to make it through; if for no reason other than I don't see fantasy beating him in the near future. Leta should take B1 seeing as his TvT is so good, and he is finally finding his feet once again after defeating Flash in the MSL.
Group C
Group C had the heartbreaking situation of "win and in". It is a rare event which always produces disappointing results. The last one I can recall was Group D of Bacchus OSL where Bisu lost to Backho - and hence was eliminated from the OSL. Thus only one of UpMagic/Hwasin and Flash/Best would advance to the Round of 8. So who made it through? Well the first game of the week was Flash vs Best on Tears of the Moon. Now Tears is statistically T>P and with Flash's recent form, this game looked like a shoe-in for him. Things looked so good for Flash as he forced Best to cancel his natural Nexus and gained a sizable lead because of it - but then things went sour, as they did in the MSL a few nights later.
Best somehow was able to comeback and defeat Flash. It was am impressive victory, a shocking victory, a satisfying victory. Indeed, in my opinion this was the game of the week - a heartbreaking game for Flash fans, but an unbelievable miracle for Best fans. As a member of both camps, I loved this game - so definitely check it out.
The other game of the week wasn't quite as spectacular. Hwasin opened with a 1 Factory CC build while UpMagic went for a 1 Factory Starport build and went heavy wraith. Hwasin was able to defend off UpMagic's wraith play with relative ease and thus, with a sizable economic advantage, took the game and advanced into the Round of 8.
So Group C is nicely settled, despite the many broken hearts out there. Hwasin advances as C1 and Best as C2. Hwasin advances as C1 because he defeated Best in week 1, hence gets ranked above Best despite the equal score.
Group D
Jaedong could sit up on his perch and feel content knowing that he was immune from elimination this week. Because GGplay was 0-2, there was no possibility of any player over taking him. Jaedong advances as D1. So then, who would take up the other spot? Well it was a win-and-in situation for Kal and Luxury as they took to the battlefield, both being 1-1. Kal decided that he was vastly superior to Luxury and tried to cannon rush Luxury. The cannon rush just failed, but after it failed Kal was helpless. Luxury tore him to shreds; first with Zerglings, and then with Mutalisks. As a result, Luxury will be joining Jaedong in the Round of 8.
And then came the one game which didn't matter in the whole group stage - Jaedong vs GGplay. Neither player looked too interested in this game, and Jaedong was easily run over by a blob of Zerglings. Oh well, at least this game didn't matter.
And thus, Group D also wraps up nicely. Jaedong advances as the undisputed champion of the group and is rewarded with the D1 position, while Luxury advances as D2.
Bisu's OSL?
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Plexa/State/bisu.png)
The path of a Bonjwa has been well established by the 3 former Bonjwa - Nada, Oov and Savior. Of course Boxer is considered a Bonjwa, but never walked the path of one. The path of a Bonjwa is to win 3 MSLs then win the OSL immediately after the third MSL. For Nada, this was the 2nd, 3rd and 4th KPGA Tours followed by Panasonic OSL. In Panasonic he overcame Chojja, one of Nada's rivals at the time. For iloveoov, this was Trigem, Cengame and SPRIS MSLs followed by EVER2004 OSL where he squared off against his master and mentor, Boxer, in the finals. For Savior, it was UZOO, Pringles 1 and Pringles 2 MSLs followed by Shinhan S3 OSL where he overcame long time rival, Nada, in the final.
Bisu looked set to follow the path of a Bonjwa - that was until Mind halted his progress in GOMTV S3 MSL. Bisu was then delayed until last season, where he was finally able to win that elusive 3rd MSL title. After winning his third title, he entered Bonjwa-mode, and has been destroying everything without mercy since. Everything looked good for Bisu until by.hero eliminated him from the OSL, and the Bonjwa theory came crashing down. The Gods of Brood War took note of this, and realized their mistake. They took out the least valuable player from the OSL via physical injury (hi Backho) and gave Bisu another shot at the OSL - and indeed, Bisu advanced into the OSL just as fate intended.
This OSL is Bisu's to win, and the fanboys aren't going to shut up about it all season (and that's going to annoy the hell out of me). Judging by how a number of Bisu's biggest obstacles have already been overcome (July, Stork) and another has already been taken out for him (Flash) this should really be an easy run for the God-Mode Protoss. But also note how each bonjwa made their triumphant OSL win - over long time rivals. Who else is left in this OSL to create such an epic final? Jaedong is. I haven't seen the bracket yet, but I have a feeling A1 and D1 are placed on the opposite sides of the bracket, hence the possibility of a Jaedong vs Bisu final is quite a real possibility.
If fate and fortune have anything to do with the OSL, this OSL is going to be one of the most epic OSLs in history with amazing games and an even more epic final that will be remembered for years to come. Indeed, the final is set up to be Bisu vs Jaedong - and should Bisu win, he can rightfully claim the title as the fourth Bonjwa. I don't know about you, but I'm overly excited to see what this OSL beholds for our dear Bisu.
It is Bisu's destiny to win Batoo OSL.
Plexa
