The Bacchus OSL 2009's conclusion is now less than a week away, and I've returned from my vacation (thanks for filling in, Plexa!) to cover its final stages. Here is the skinny on both of its semifinal matches — the one that was easily worthy of an OSL Final, and the one that was barely worthy of mention in this article. It shouldn't be hard to figure out which is which (hint: one's LR thread is 10 pages, and the other's is 111.
Semifinal B: Clash of Titans
The Bacchus 2009 OSL semifinal B's winner would both be the favorite in its Finals and climb on top of today's most intense TvZ rivalry. Heading into this match Jaedong already had an unforgettable Bo5 win over Fantasy (his gritty comeback in the Batoo OSL Finals, of course) under his belt, but it was undoubtedly Oov's prodigy who had most of the momentum. He got the best of JD in bothof their most recent encounters, at PL Grand Finals just 7 days before this match. These Proleague sets are must-see games, and a necessary part of any responsible fan's preparation for this titanic semifinal.
This game has everything we've come to expect from these two giants: nail-bitingly close defenses and blindingly swift offensives, precise micro, healthy use of high-tech units, and clever drop play. It doesn't quite stack up to their Proleague game on this same map just a week earlier (what can?) but is well worth watching. If you've got the time, check out the rest of the series too — sets 3 and 4 are dramatic.
Also: Outsider kicks ass. Although slightly imbalanced against Terrans, it has produced a remarkable portion of the recent months' best games. TvZ on Outsider is rarely boring — the map's structure guarantees a satisfying combination of drops (at peripheral expansions) and conventional TvZ micro (in the open middle). I hope Outsider is retained for next OSL season...and how about finally axing Return of the King, possibly the longest-running easily-forgettable map in OSL history?
Match Notes
As is almost always true in best-of-five series which are even after two sets, the third game in this match proved by far its most pivotal. To "reciprocate" Fantasy's traumatizing 2-rax rushes in Pusan a week earlier, Jaedong decided before this match that he would 4-pool in its third game. When Fantasy held JD's first 6 lings, the rush looked like a horrible mistake.
Looks impenetrable
With 2 marines, a well-protected bunker, a factory building, and a virtually unharmed economy, Fantasy was in a very comfortable lead — JD was severely understating when he said "I felt that I was at a disadvantage". Any Zerg would have suicided his remaining lings into the bunker and left the game, or even just typed out immediately upon realizing the situation.
JD is not any Zerg. He took half of his Zerglings to the rear of Fantasy's base, and then charged in to surround the bunker and win the game. Likely out of shock, Fantasy completely failed to react to Jaedong's move (just a few SCVs in the way of those lings would have saved the bunker and his base). This was the match's defining moment for two reasons.
First, it obviously unsettled Fantasy. He dragged out the 3set by lifting his CC and barracks to his natural, lost his composure in his booth after the game (FakeSteve put it best), and, for the first time during the match, stole away from the camera with Coach Oov.
Fantasy is visibly affected by losing to JD's 4-pool
Second, it gave Jaedong enough breathing room for a calculated risk in the 4set on Return of the King. JD considered the probability that Fantasy would wall in (decently high) and the probability that Fantasy would be in a starting position at which some units produced at the wall spawn outside it (2/3, considering JD occupied one of two bases on RotK at which all units will spawn inside the wall) and opened with a 9-pool. The game played out so well for JD that it's easy to peg its result as inevitable after his build order choice. However keep in mind that, had Fantasy spawned at 7:00 or simcitied his main rather than building a poor wall, JD would have been seriously behind. Jaedong's 2-1 lead is what gave him the confidence to bear this risk and thereby score a relatively painless series-clinching win.
This match's lessons are old ones: JD always performs in big matches, and cheese is the ultimate weapon in BoX series. In the hands of competent players, rushes and "strategic plays" have proven ruthlessly effective in countless contemporary Starleague matches, regardless of the cheesed player's skill. Jaedong > Fantasy (Bacchus OSL 2009) now joins July > Best (EVER OSL), Leta > Flash (Lost Saga MSL), Luxury > Leta (Lost Saga MSL), and Bisu > Fantasy (Avalon MSL) as a recent, pivotal Starleague series decided by cheese.
This series was so garbage that I feel guilty for labeling any of its games "recommended viewing". But if you're absolutely hell-bent on getting a taste for the match in VOD form, watch its 1set. This game features one instance of nice micro (more than can be said for any other set), and is fairly representative of the match as a whole.
Match Notes
Type-b's Cinderella Bacchus 2009 OSL run has come to a cataclysmic halt.
Inbetween terrified glances towards Yarnc's side of the stage and with a helpless look that even an in-booth meeting with three Hite coaches couldn't wipe away, Type-b made several critical mistakes that perfectly illustrated the gap between S-class (JD, Calm, Effort, Yarnc) and A-class ZvZ. Attacking up Yarnc's ramp (suiciding lings) cost Type-b the 2set, and his pathetic response to Yarnc's 9-pool cost him the 3set. The match's final moments were appropriately awful for Type-b. Looking for a swift end to his misery, he attempted an all-in sunken rush; somehow Yarnc's defensive sunk was down before Type-b's offensive one. There's not much else to say about this series simply because it was over so fast: from the moment he was horribly outmicroed in the 1set, Type-b put on his best "deer in the headlights" impression and threw himself in front of Yarnc, whose OSL title hopes have been accelerating steadily since group stages. Splat.
Zeus: "dude, you're sucking"
After the match, Yarnc tried his best not to smile and his teammates tried their bests not to congratulate him for stomping a player who was so clearly his inferior. It was awkward.
Initially I thought having all four of its Ro8 qualifiers on one side of the bracket was an awful situation for Hite. Now I'm not so sure, because it guaranteed the SPARKYZ a slot in the OSL Finals — an honor they have not claimed since Casy faced Chojja in 2006's 1st ShinHan Bank OSL, and one they were unlikely to achieve if Jaedong and Fantasy landed on opposite sides of the bracket. Yarnc is under immense pressure to perform in the Finals, and not only because he will face Jaedong's ZvZ. A bad loss would render Hite's involvement in the Bacchus OSL 2009 totally inconsequential, and cement the general consensus that the OSL Finals were already played in semifinal B.
One More Thing:
Leta implies that Type-b absorbed his skills...Leta must be awful at ZvZ.
Leta (trans. konadora): "I got absorbed so I'm weak now TT TT"
Be on the lookout for a sweet Finals preview in the coming days. And safe travels to all of you Blizzcon attendees!
good writeup. Man that play in game 3 by JD was so clutch. As I was watching it I was completely sure he would loose after fantasy held the initial 8 lings.
It is the perfect example of why JD can get away with being so aggresive against all players in all games and still win, even though everybody knows he is aggresive as fuck. He always finds a way.
Jaedong's 4pool was a genius move. The series was over right there. There was nothing fantasy could have done, even if game 4 turned out differently in the beginning. Fantasy was too shaken psychologically to be able to play his very best, whereas Jaedong had his confidence boosted.
On August 17 2009 20:44 konadora wrote: Sigh... ZvZ finals.
Great write up though, good job!
Gotta agree about Outsider being an awesome map, no idea why so many complain about it. And yes, take out RotK and bring in 2 new maps or something :<
I think people complain about it because it's a bitch to play if you don't know exactly how to play it cause it's so damn different. I don't like playing it either. Watching it however is a different story, it has produced such a large amount of great games in such a short time.
On August 17 2009 22:45 RaGe wrote: recap videos are the best, very good coverage system you have set up here
thx for the writeup
seconded. If games were great I'd watch them like I did with some of semiB ones. Watching recap was still cool after knowing what happened. For Yarnc vs typeB it was only your video, without watching vods and thats enough.
I'd just like to note here that fantasy did two tricky psychology plays in the 1st game, though correct me if i'm wrong. The first play was building his supply at the bottom of his base and rax on the cliff, thus he tried to make jaedong think he was cheesing him in order to make him either 12 pool or at least disrupt his eco somehow. This did not work as jaedong scouted the rax immediately. The 2nd play as a bit more complex. Fantasy went for a strange build. It was the fantasy build but with the cc earlier and the the starport later. By doing this he made jaedong think that fantasy was doing a standard 1 fact cc build, thus jaedong bought his hydras out to the middle of the map, chasing vultures and was probably going for a natural bust or harassment instead of waiting his hydras in his base for the dropship.
Fantasy got enough harassment off to win the game from there...
On August 18 2009 00:30 meegrean wrote: Yeah, I already considered Semifinal B to be the real finals (really really epic games). Yarnc is pretty much going to get raped by Jaedong
Yeah really dislike how the brackets got laid out, and not to mention that leta lost OMG!
woulda been much better to see leta vs jaedong SIGH
On August 18 2009 00:30 meegrean wrote: Yeah, I already considered Semifinal B to be the real finals (really really epic games). Yarnc is pretty much going to get raped by Jaedong
Yeah really dislike how the brackets got laid out, and not to mention that leta lost OMG!
woulda been much better to see leta vs jaedong SIGH
Speaking as a Leta fan, Leta vs Jaedong would've probably ended 3-0 Jaedong.
The actual final is likely to be less one-sided than a hypothetical Leta v Jaedong final.
On August 18 2009 00:30 meegrean wrote: Yeah, I already considered Semifinal B to be the real finals (really really epic games). Yarnc is pretty much going to get raped by Jaedong
Yeah really dislike how the brackets got laid out, and not to mention that leta lost OMG!
woulda been much better to see leta vs jaedong SIGH
Speaking as a Leta fan, Leta vs Jaedong would've probably ended 3-0 Jaedong.
The actual final is likely to be less one-sided than a hypothetical Leta v Jaedong final.
I totally agree...and there are more reasons than this one to be excited about the Final...
I wouldn't call Semifinal B "epic." Whereas in the Batoo finals, it appeared that Jaedong had kicked his game up a notch, it felt more like in Bacchus that fantasy was just falling apart.
Maybe after Yarnc wins this, you'll stop calling Semifinal B the "real" finals.
On August 17 2009 22:20 Corrupt wrote: Type-B indeed absorbed Leta's Zerg skills. Here's a match between Leta and Yarnc, played couple of weeks ago @ Cooltime http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HpeYnhprBE
This was a non-serious match where both Yarnc and Leta randomed. Yarnc got terran and Leta got zerg. So it wasn't Leta playing horribly in that game.
1) From the LR thread and our discussion on vent, one thing missing from your summary is that Jaedong changed his approach on Outsider after losing to Fantasy on the same map in Pusan. Instead of using his double gas to fund ultralisks, he used hydra-lurk, which caused problems for Fantasy's unit mixture.
2) If you re-watch Holy World, you'll see that while Fantasy did have two marines when Jaedong attacked for the final time, only one marine was in the bunker. The second marine was in the mineral line, and it was killed by drive-by lings as they swarmed the bunker and cut off the SCVs from repairing. The second marine that pops out when the bunker finally dies is a third marine that spawned from the Barracks and entered the bunker in the very seconds that the final zergling attack commenced.
My own analysis of Holy World echoes some of the LR posters. There was a minor disagreement about whether or not Jaedong could have finished the game earlier. In his interview, Jaedong says that he felt he was behind. However, there is an entire minute during which only ONE marine is in the bunker... and Fantasy can't make any more. First, he lifts his barracks. Then, his only supply depot dies at the choke. With the re-landed barracks blocking the SCVs' path to repair on the left side, I think that there's no way that single marine could have stopped Jaedong's zerglings from flattening the bunker in record time, had he chosen to mass up and attack rather than let Fantasy rebuild his depot and a factory to boot. Thoughts?
On August 17 2009 20:44 konadora wrote: Sigh... ZvZ finals.
Great write up though, good job!
Gotta agree about Outsider being an awesome map, no idea why so many complain about it. And yes, take out RotK and bring in 2 new maps or something :<
I think people complain about it because it's a bitch to play if you don't know exactly how to play it cause it's so damn different. I don't like playing it either. Watching it however is a different story, it has produced such a large amount of great games in such a short time.
It's just too short really. They should make the final Bo7 or Bo9. It would still be pretty short and everyone's more satisfied.
On August 18 2009 02:41 Delerium wrote: thanks for the write-up, JWD!
two things:
1) From the LR thread and our discussion on vent, one thing missing from your summary is that Jaedong changed his approach on Outsider after losing to Fantasy on the same map in Pusan. Instead of using his double gas to fund ultralisks, he used hydra-lurk, which caused problems for Fantasy's unit mixture.
2) If you re-watch Holy World, you'll see that while Fantasy did have two marines when Jaedong attacked for the final time, only one marine was in the bunker. The second marine was in the mineral line, and it was killed by drive-by lings as they swarmed the bunker and cut off the SCVs from repairing. The second marine that pops out when the bunker finally dies is a third marine that spawned from the Barracks and entered the bunker in the very seconds that the final zergling attack commenced.
My own analysis of Holy World echoes some of the LR posters. There was a minor disagreement about whether or not Jaedong could have finished the game earlier. In his interview, Jaedong says that he felt he was behind. However, there is an entire minute during which only ONE marine is in the bunker... and Fantasy can't make any more. First, he lifts his barracks. Then, his only supply depot dies at the choke. With the re-landed barracks blocking the SCVs' path to repair on the left side, I think that there's no way that single marine could have stopped Jaedong's zerglings from flattening the bunker in record time, had he chosen to mass up and attack rather than let Fantasy rebuild his depot and a factory to boot. Thoughts?
Thanks for the thoughtful post. JD's strategy change on Outsider was also important to this series but I didn't feel it was as crucial as the 3set. You are right about Fantasy only having a single marine in the bunker, but I still doubt JD could have busted him earlier or that he was not in serious trouble when Fantasy held the first 6 lings (keep in mind that Jaedong loses the game if he loses a substantial portion of his first lings without completely wiping out Fantasy). I think the factor you are neglecting is Fantasy's SCVs, which JD would have presumed he would mobilize to protect the bunker. One marine is enough to hold ~8 lings if the bunker is near-surrounded by buildings and stacked SCVs are at work. Of course when JD did finally move in, Fantasy was totally out of position and he was really slow to react — I think you could say that if Fantasy's defense was as bad as it ended up being JD could have attacked earlier and won, but there was no way for Jaedong to know that he would catch Fantasy so off-guard.
argh, I really want Fantasy to win OSL some day. Watching his playstyle and awesome multitasking is so entertaining. Jaedong deserved his victory ofcourse, but too bad the last two games were so boring.
On August 18 2009 06:39 Piste wrote: argh, I really want Fantasy to win OSL some day. Watching his playstyle and awesome multitasking is so entertaining. Jaedong deserved his victory ofcourse, but too bad the last two games were so boring.
If those two games were "boring" then so was Boxer bunker rushing Yellow 3 times in a row, Proleague Finals ace match, July vs Best game 1 etc. -_-
JD got lucky with the traps, fantasy was being stupid sending his 2nd marine out to shoot the zergligns in the back instead of just putting it inside the bunker, instead the marine got pinned between the lings and scvs and got killed. JD also blocked fantasy's scv from repairing the bunker, also crusial for his attack. I think he might've even calculated(measured) the gaps between the bunker and the buildings. Either way, that was such a good all-in attack, made me cry
On August 17 2009 20:44 konadora wrote: Sigh... ZvZ finals.
Great write up though, good job!
Gotta agree about Outsider being an awesome map, no idea why so many complain about it. And yes, take out RotK and bring in 2 new maps or something :<
I think people complain about it because it's a bitch to play if you don't know exactly how to play it cause it's so damn different. I don't like playing it either. Watching it however is a different story, it has produced such a large amount of great games in such a short time.
It's just too short really. They should make the final Bo7 or Bo9. It would still be pretty short and everyone's more satisfied.
let's say yarnc and type-b miraculously made it to the finals. would you want type-b to get his butt handed to him 5x in a row? it might be mildly entertaining for us, but for type-b, his team would find him hanging from the ceiling later.
On August 17 2009 20:44 konadora wrote: Sigh... ZvZ finals.
Great write up though, good job!
Gotta agree about Outsider being an awesome map, no idea why so many complain about it. And yes, take out RotK and bring in 2 new maps or something :<
I think people complain about it because it's a bitch to play if you don't know exactly how to play it cause it's so damn different. I don't like playing it either. Watching it however is a different story, it has produced such a large amount of great games in such a short time.
It's just too short really. They should make the final Bo7 or Bo9. It would still be pretty short and everyone's more satisfied.
let's say yarnc and type-b miraculously made it to the finals. would you want type-b to get his butt handed to him 5x in a row? it might be mildly entertaining for us, but for type-b, his team would find him hanging from the ceiling later.
haha yeah, Type-b looked traumatized after just 3 sets
On August 17 2009 20:44 konadora wrote: Sigh... ZvZ finals.
Great write up though, good job!
Gotta agree about Outsider being an awesome map, no idea why so many complain about it. And yes, take out RotK and bring in 2 new maps or something :<
I think people complain about it because it's a bitch to play if you don't know exactly how to play it cause it's so damn different. I don't like playing it either. Watching it however is a different story, it has produced such a large amount of great games in such a short time.
Me too, I dread playing it but love watching it. Personally, God's Garden's my favorite to play ^^
On August 18 2009 06:39 Piste wrote: argh, I really want Fantasy to win OSL some day. Watching his playstyle and awesome multitasking is so entertaining. Jaedong deserved his victory ofcourse, but too bad the last two games were so boring.
Nice write-up! I really thought Fantasy would be the winner, riding off the momentum of his 2-0 against JD in the proleague... oh well. Next one! This ZvZ should be interesting.
Fantasy vs Jaedong is my favourite ZvT match, and between my two favourite players of each race! Definetly better than any final that comes out of this, and i thought jaedong was out when fantasy stopped his rush.
Let the best man win (Jaedong), I want a slaughter!...
...and uh, how do i make a thread? O.o i've been trying to work it out for ages
On August 21 2009 04:22 -PSUEDONYM- wrote: ...and uh, how do i make a thread? O.o i've been trying to work it out for ages
If you click on any forum header to the left (General, SC2, etc.) you should see an obvious New Topic link at the upper left. To protect itself from spammers, TL will only allow posters with a certain post count (15? Something reasonable) to create new threads, so that's probably why you can't.
EPT![[image loading]](/staff/JWD/bacchus_osl_s2/titlesmall.jpg)
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Tx for getting the translation. Nice write-up too. 
