So it's that time of year again. The time of year when July puffs up, decides he's tired of losing to young ragamuffins and lets the world know that he's pretty sure he's still the "God of War." Last week, July patiently explained this fact to the relatively youthful and doe-eyed sKyHigh. Flash and Shuttle also gave good performances, with game 1 being particularly competitive right until one of them said "GG." In case you missed them, here are your results:
sKyHigh took his natural with a wall and teched for Valkyrie/MnM. July drone scouted and opened with 12 hatch, taking his gas before pool and following up with a 2 hatch muta opening. sKyHigh's Valkyrie prevented July from doing any damage with his muta and after sKyHigh built up a couple control groups of MnM and a some tanks, he contained July. Because July's hydralisk den placement was toward the front of his natural, sKyHigh was able to attack it with his tank range, this prompted a desperate and flankless attack from July. After the break out attempt failed, sKyHigh is able to end the game.
While July opened with a 9 pool speedling build, sKyHigh placed a barracks first in his natural, and attempted a bunkerrush. July pulled 5 drones to stop the rush, and was successful, losing only 1 drone in the process. July teched to two-hatch muta (with a few hydra to prevent vulture harass) while sKyHigh followed with two-port wraith. July's mutas effectively minimized the damage sKyHigh could do with wraith, so sKyHigh produced some dropships in order to place MnM and tanks to abuse Outsider's topography and damage July. July had teched drop as well, however, and was able to clean up each drop attempt fairly quickly. Still on one-base play, sKyHigh was eventually defeated when July dropped his main with mass hydra/lurk while preventing any expansion attempt by the CJ Terran.
sKyHigh walled in and teched toward mech while July drone scouted and opened with 12 pool speedling. Seeing an opportunity to slow July down some, sKyHigh half-built an engineering bay at July's natural. Using two drones to force a cancel, July placed his hatchery a little late. Careful to show sKyHigh's SCV only 4 zergling, July sends a dozen zerglings to sKyHigh's natural. July then used his overlord to spot sKyHigh's ramp and when he saw the barracks lift for the first vulture, July attacked, catching the vulture on its ramp with the barracks already back on the ground. With nowhere to run, the vulture dies. July backed off and teched to two hatch lurker while sKyHigh turtled, only briefly breaking the turtle to send out a second vulture which died nearly as quickly as the first one. With four lurkers, July marches up sKyHigh's ramp and forces his way into his base. Without detection, sKyHigh does his best to defend by getting a late scanner, but it takes so long to remove the spread lurkers that July gains an insurmountable advantage, which he patiently sat on until sKyHigh finally tried to move out. July crushed the attempt and sKyHigh finally concedes. In an anti-climatic game for a good series, July advances.
In the suggested game of the week, Shuttle opened with a proxy gateway zealot rush which fizzled when Flash built a depot at his choke to block reinforcements. Despite the early set back, Shuttle quickly took a massive economic lead by overexpanding. At points during this match, Flash's population was over 80 supply below Shuttle's. Through heavy turtling, and with precise, razor-like strikes, Flash is able to deflate Shuttle's economy in the very late game and simply outlast Shuttle's fury.
In game 2 Shuttle opted for reaver harass, which Flash was fully prepared to deal with. In stark contrast to game 1, Flash shut down Shuttle's harass, macro'd up and pushed out-- simply rolling over his protoss opponent. Flash advances.
The first game of the night features what are GOM's weakest Quarterfinalists. Iris is an aging veteran who has left his prime behind, but he still clings to relevance with an aggressive style that often allows him to set the tempo for his games. Iris was 9-5 in the 2008-2009 Shinhan Bank Proleague until mid-May where he began a five game losing streak. Despite this recent string of losses, Iris is not in a slump, but merely playing exceptional vT players (firebathero, Flash, Leta, BeSt) while being past his prime. Although Iris has been losing proleague games, he's continued to show respectable results in both GOM and the Avalon MSL.
Here's some news that should make Iris fans happy: his quarterfinals opponent is Tempest, a wholly mediocre KT MagicNs protoss whom I'm convinced only made it this far because of a series of lucky draws (GuemChi, Hul[Shield], and a slumping ZerO-- whose loss to Tempest seems to have lit a fire under him). Tempest is 5-10 in proleague and his most recent PvT was an embarassing 0-2 loss to Casy in the OSL Preliminaries.
Though Iris and Tempest met back in January on Neo Harmony, and Tempest took the game with an aggressive DT rush into fast arbiters build, I don't expect Tempest to take this series. Iris is still in good enough shape to be the favorite here.
Next up: Zerg's reigning King, Jaedong versus its upstart Prince, EffOrt. I'm salivating just thinking about this series! If you're the type to speculate on how Jaedong/EffOrt's OSL group will turn out, this is definitely a series to watch. Jaedong's 80% ZvZ and 3-1 history vs EffOrt makes him the smart-money to liquibet, but don't count EffOrt out of GOM just yet. EffOrt may be 1-3 vs Jaedong, but he's 18-6 vs all other zergs-- the man knows how to ZvZ-- which means if Jaedong has an off-day he could easily find himself out of the tournament. Much more likely than that, though, Jaedong will not have an off-day and on the way toward eliminating EffOrt, we'll be priviledged to see quite possibly the most skilled ZvZ series that progaming has to offer. Thanks GOM!
Oh god I'm super pumped for the Jaedong vs Effort. Rooting for Jaedong though because I'd love to see him at Blizzcon. He definitely deserves to win the extra money from there as well.
dream top 3 for Blizzcon: Flash, Jaedong, July. Will be rooting for those three. If it was Iris instead of July I wouldn't mind that much. I just don't want Effort or Tempest, they have no history!
Oh I'm so so nervous for the match against Effort! He is definitively the most scary opponent next to flash and bisu - I actually fear effort more than fantasy because zvz is so random (yeah, even though Jaedong somehow have proven us wrong there).
I love July, but still hope for another epic Jaedong vs Flash GOM finals! Oh my god i can't even describe the happiness felt when watching the last one :D
July has been playing nothing but ZvT since he first found out he was playing Skyhigh in the Ro8. I suspect he purposefully asked to not be on the PL roster so that he can fully concentrate on the GSL. July wants to win this.
I think SkyHigh's first game was a bit better than described in the OP.
His game-winning push was honestly one of the greatest examples of Terran push momentum I've seen to date. The execution was just perfect. As was mentioned, July did fail to flank the attack, but then, he wasn't given any chance to. Skyhigh's units just poured towards July's base like a waterfall.
Either way, July still walked all over him in the subsequent matches, but I think it's worth recognizing the potential and flair that SkyHigh showed in their first match.
On July 11 2009 04:51 jtype wrote: I think SkyHigh's first game was a bit better than described in the OP.
His game-winning push was honestly one of the greatest examples of Terran push momentum I've seen to date. The execution was just perfect. As was mentioned, July did fail to flank the attack, but then, he wasn't given any chance to. Skyhigh's units just poured towards July's base like a waterfall.
Either way, July still walked all over him in the subsequent matches, but I think it's worth recognizing the potential and flair that SkyHigh showed in their first match.
the main reason the push looked so unstoppable was because July totally failed with muta-harass which put him WAY behind.
On July 11 2009 06:45 Djabanete wrote: Although I like July, I hope he loses to Flash so we don't need to witness the embarrassment that would be July vs Jaedong.
Hopefully...
Flash 3:2 July
Iris > Tempest Jaedong > Effort
Jaedong > Iris
...and then a Flash:Jaedong series to make up for the disaster that was the GOM1 Finals.
If you thought that was a disaster for Flash, just pay attention to his recent TvZs.
July vs Flash should have been the final! July is my favorite Zerg, and Flash is my favorite Terran after NaDa. Dont know who to root for. I dont want July in a ZvZ final though, because I think he will lose then. So if Tempest upsets everyone and beats Iris and JD/Effort, July would be nice. July vs Iris would be way cooler than Flash vs Iris too.
So if Zergs get to the final then Flash, if otherwise July!
I see why the brackets are incorrect. When GOM drew the Ro64 bracket on their site, Flash and July's quadrants were on top and it looked like the top two and bottom two quadrants would be placed together in the semifinals. This is probably the time when the TL bracket was created. However, when GOM drew the Ro16 and Ro8 brackets it became clear that the semifinal pairing was left two quadrants of Ro64 vs right two quadrants of Ro64. The TL bracket must never have been updated to reflect this.
On July 11 2009 07:49 professorjoak wrote: I think you've got the brackets wrong. Check the GOM site and click on "Match Schedule." It shows semifinals as
Flash vs (Winner Jaedong/Effort)
July vs (Winner Berserker/Tempest)
The english brackets on that site are effed. The issue with the brackets has been overdiscussed time and again and I'm pretty sure the TL guys have gone to painstaking effort to make sure they got it right.
On July 11 2009 07:49 professorjoak wrote: I think you've got the brackets wrong. Check the GOM site and click on "Match Schedule." It shows semifinals as
Flash vs (Winner Jaedong/Effort)
July vs (Winner Berserker/Tempest)
The english brackets on that site are effed. The issue with the brackets has been overdiscussed time and again and I'm pretty sure the TL guys have gone to painstaking effort to make sure they got it right.
Honestly. Who in their right mind would put Flash and JD on the same side of the bracket.
Awesome awesome! I really really want July to take this season, although it will be very tough to beat flash and will probably have to face a zvz final against insane zvz stats if he gets that far.
On July 11 2009 11:26 gokai wrote: Man, sometimes I fell uneasy being a July fan. Like I worry he's gona implode and get 3:0'ed any moment.
Tell me about it lol. Ive gone through years of this ;(. But then he turns around and wins another OSL, its so exciting being a July fan you just never know.
What if.... there were a July vs Jaedong final and July won? Would that give july an additionnal title? God of Comebacks anyone? :p I love ZvZ actually, that kind of final would be epic, as long as it isn't 100% onesided.
People rooting for July should realise that he's not gonna be able to win the title anyways
There's like a 90% chance that even if he beats flash he'll have to face a Zerg who is vastly superior to him in ZvZ, most likely resulting in a one-sided 3:0 finals.
On July 12 2009 01:38 7mk wrote: People rooting for July should realise that he's not gonna be able to win the title anyways
There's like a 90% chance that even if he beats flash he'll have to face a Zerg who is vastly superior to him in ZvZ, most likely resulting in a one-sided 3:0 finals.
On July 12 2009 01:38 7mk wrote: People rooting for July should realise that he's not gonna be able to win the title anyways
There's like a 90% chance that even if he beats flash he'll have to face a Zerg who is vastly superior to him in ZvZ, most likely resulting in a one-sided 3:0 finals.
July has only lost 2 Best of 5s in his entire career, and both were to the current bonjwa. Flash isn't even close to being bonjwa, he doesn't even deserve to be called S class right now. I hope that Flash loses because it would be a sad runover if Flash advanced to play against Jaedong.
July is an incredibly smart series player, in a bo5 its pretty ignorant to just declare that he will be rolled even though he is playing someone who is at the same level as himself. I don't know if you have been paying attention, but July's ZvT is quite good lately.
Also Flash is losing a to a lot of zergs recently, including Calm(lololol) and Kwanro, and also Yarnc and Jaedong. July has been doing just as good in ZvT as all four of those players who beat Flash
On July 11 2009 23:29 3 Lions wrote: July vs Iris finals please
On July 12 2009 01:38 7mk wrote: People rooting for July should realise that he's not gonna be able to win the title anyways
There's like a 90% chance that even if he beats flash he'll have to face a Zerg who is vastly superior to him in ZvZ, most likely resulting in a one-sided 3:0 finals.
July has only lost 2 Best of 5s in his entire career, and both were to the current bonjwa. Flash isn't even close to being bonjwa, he doesn't even deserve to be called S class right now. I hope that Flash loses because it would be a sad runover if Flash advanced to play against Jaedong.
July is an incredibly smart series player, in a bo5 its pretty ignorant to just declare that he will be rolled even though he is playing someone who is at the same level as himself. I don't know if you have been paying attention, but July's ZvT is quite good lately.
Also Flash is losing a to a lot of zergs recently, including Calm(lololol) and Kwanro, and also Yarnc and Jaedong. July has been doing just as good in ZvT as all four of those players who beat Flash
On July 11 2009 23:29 3 Lions wrote: July vs Iris finals please
+1!!!!
Um, they weren't talking about Flash. They were talking about his ZvZ, which is atrocious. I mean the post started off with "If he beats Flash" so no one even said Flash is going to roll him.
edit: also he lost to Nada in the 2004-2005 osl finals. I'm pretty sure Nada wasn't bonjwa in 2005. :> (hint it was Oov)
On July 12 2009 04:26 DoctorHelvetica wrote: I would really like to see FlaSh or July win this tournament. FlaSh is too good of a player to only have two titles to his name, an OSL and a GOM.
However, July is such a legend. It's always great to see those guys do well in the modern context.
On July 12 2009 04:26 DoctorHelvetica wrote: I would really like to see FlaSh or July win this tournament. FlaSh is too good of a player to only have two titles to his name, an OSL and a GOM.
However, July is such a legend. It's always great to see those guys do well in the modern context.
effort vs jaedong (for those who seen it) shows the reason why I do not play zvz. + Show Spoiler +
This is fricken upsetting. Now we cant see an epic zvt between jaedong and flash in the finals damn it. I respected effort but not anymore, even though my argument just now doesnt make sense. He shoulda lost lol.
On July 12 2009 19:44 Ahzz wrote: effort vs jaedong (for those who seen it) shows the reason why I do not play zvz. + Show Spoiler +
This is fricken upsetting. Now we cant see an epic zvt between jaedong and flash in the finals damn it. I respected effort but not anymore, even though my argument just now doesnt make sense. He shoulda lost lol.
If you take Flash's recent losses in TvZ as a mark of weakness in the matchup, then an Effort vs Flash final would be several times better than Jaedong vs Flash. Remember GSL1? Jaedong > Flash where only one game got past mutalisk harassment and that game was basically over anyway by that point. At least Effort loves taking things to complicated endgames.
On July 12 2009 19:44 Ahzz wrote: effort vs jaedong (for those who seen it) shows the reason why I do not play zvz. + Show Spoiler +
This is fricken upsetting. Now we cant see an epic zvt between jaedong and flash in the finals damn it. I respected effort but not anymore, even though my argument just now doesnt make sense. He shoulda lost lol.
If you take Flash's recent losses in TvZ as a mark of weakness in the matchup, then an Effort vs Flash final would be several times better than Jaedong vs Flash. Remember GSL1? Jaedong > Flash where only one game got past mutalisk harassment and that game was basically over anyway by that point. At least Effort loves taking things to complicated endgames.
but its not even half as exciting. its not awesome because of how the games go, its awesome because the two are absolutely the best.
On July 12 2009 02:14 TwoToneTerran wrote: edit: also he lost to Nada in the 2004-2005 osl finals. I'm pretty sure Nada wasn't bonjwa in 2005. :> (hint it was Oov)
At that point in time, I don't think there was a bonjwa. That season (IOPS, YATGK, KT-KTF) was dominated by Nada/July/Gorush.
It was inbetween Oov's titles, wasn't it? I'm pretty sure 2005 was fairly within Oov's era. It's hard to find a time when Nada and July aren't doing well.
On July 12 2009 01:38 7mk wrote: People rooting for July should realise that he's not gonna be able to win the title anyways
There's like a 90% chance that even if he beats flash he'll have to face a Zerg who is vastly superior to him in ZvZ, most likely resulting in a one-sided 3:0 finals.
July has only lost 2 Best of 5s in his entire career, and both were to the current bonjwa. Flash isn't even close to being bonjwa, he doesn't even deserve to be called S class right now. I hope that Flash loses because it would be a sad runover if Flash advanced to play against Jaedong.
July is an incredibly smart series player, in a bo5 its pretty ignorant to just declare that he will be rolled even though he is playing someone who is at the same level as himself. I don't know if you have been paying attention, but July's ZvT is quite good lately.
Also Flash is losing a to a lot of zergs recently, including Calm(lololol) and Kwanro, and also Yarnc and Jaedong. July has been doing just as good in ZvT as all four of those players who beat Flash
On July 13 2009 06:50 TwoToneTerran wrote: It was inbetween Oov's titles, wasn't it? I'm pretty sure 2005 was fairly within Oov's era. It's hard to find a time when Nada and July aren't doing well.
It was after his msl streak and between his OSLs. If you look at the time period between when the first of those three leagues began and the last ended, oov won a mediocre 55% of his games. GoRush and nada both won approximately 67% of their games and the vast majority of these were in the individual leagues.