EPT
Well I enjoyed my vacation, and it is now time to get back to the OSL. Because a certain hobbit decided WORK and MONEY was more important than game reports last week, I will give a quick rundown on what occurred in Week 3.
Clon > Iloveoov on Alchemist
“I’m going to choose Clon because he is a rookie.” Nice job Iloveoov, not only did you make yourself look like a dumb gorilla on tv, you also inspired the wrath of OSL VETERAN Clon, who during the picking ceremony simply said he would get revenge during the game. Take that to the bank, and the OSL winners curse lives on.
Doggi > Qoo)Max on Balhae’s Dream
Rumour has it that Max choked on a pretzel just before the game started, but nevertheless Dog-“don’t pick me Boxer”-gi sets himself up for a spot in the playoffs with a win against Max. Should Doggi sell his first born and beat Yellow, he is looking good to fufill his goals.
Midas > Reach on Alchemist
NOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooo……
Goodfriend > Sync on Requiem
Sync is the token punching bag this season, as Goodfriend and his crazy hair goes to 2-0 and grabs a playoff spot.
Now for this week’s games:
Game 1: Nada (t) vs Clon (z) on Requiem
Is Clon not one scary freak these days? NaDa should be shaking in his boots, because not only was he playing a man who had disposed of both Xellos and Iloveoov lately, but he was facing him on NaDa’s real nemesis; Requiem. However, with a win today, Nada would knock oov out of the playoff rounds, and complete the OSL curse for another season.
NaDa started the game at six, while Clon started at twelve, putting down a hatchery at his natural and sneaking a drone into the terran base. This drone took up residence on NaDa’s geyser, but was taken down rapidly by the initial marine and scv attacking it. As Clon threaded a drone threw his natural minerals to take the expansion at eleven, he tried to break through the ramp of NaDa with eight lings, but lost them all to some beautiful marine micro from NaDa, who maximized the effectiveness of his early marines while getting academy units and a starport. As Clon started a spire and continued his drone pump, NaDa raced up the tech tree with frightening speed, getting a science facility and ebay under the six minute mark.
Clon was relying completely on sunkens for defense as NaDa headed north with his MM force, and was still expecting a drop as he hatched his first mutalisks and sent his scourge ranging around the map. His mid-game strategy was all about guards as he got a very fast hive, using his lings and mutalisks to harass NaDa’s base. However, NaDa continued to mass vessels while starting a CC and increasing his rax count. The game was coming down to a race as the greater spire was pulsing and the sunkens increased at Clon’s choke.
As NaDa headed north with his MM, guardians rained death down upon the terran expansion. However, the attack was stopped cold by three irradiates and back up marine fire, which allowed NaDa to take his expansion back very quickly. Clon had a total of THIRTEEN sunkens at his natural (for the math challenged that is 2275 minerals) as he continued his guard assault on the terran base. Despite these numbers, NaDa attacked them straight on with his marine force, wanting to breech the zerg choke before the defiler/lurker combo Clon was working on could materialize. Clon lost his natural expansion, but his swarm with lings managed to halt the threat.
At this point Nada was working off only his natural, but was starting an expansion at seven, while Clon had lost his natural but had escaped his drones to one with a well placed nydus canal. Clon also had an expansion at eleven, but his standing army had been decimated. NaDa again came north with his MM/vessel army, and faced defiler/lurk, blasting his way into Clon’s main. Clon had tried a lurker counter at NaDa’s choke with some success, but the terran didn’t even blink as he plasted his was into the zerg main while decimating the drones at one with irradiated sci-vessels. With no economy left, Clon flopped around for a short while like a beached salmon, but quickly tapped out when faced with double matrixed dropships.
Nada > Clon
Nada’s fast science vessels countered the early guards perfectly, and the lurkers from Clon simply arrived too late to halt the juggernaut of MM.
Game 2: Yellow (z) vs Boxer (t) on Balhae's Dream
You may have heard of these two… something about bunkers last season? Yes, the immortals were back in this classic matchup, this time on the new OSL map which surely was not a coincidence.
Boxer started at five, while Yellow scouted north from his seven spot. Taking advantage of the extra minerals, both players started second initial structures in their base, with Boxer starting his at the edge of his base rather than in optimal mining position. His plans soon became clear as he floated his barracks and CC to the low ground in order to give himself an scv on the mainland. All this had been seen by a lord from Yellow, but he was unable to do much about it as Boxer started a bunker outside his natural minerals. That’s right, Boxer was freaking bunker rushing Yellow ON ISLANDS. Not only this, but the defending sunken from Yellow was ineffective as Boxer drew fire away from his bunker by taking out marines and then running them back inside, allowing his marine fire to kill the sunken.
While Yellow’s facial tick kicked in upon losing his expansion, he focused on getting mutalisks and tried to harass as well turreted terran base. Boxer put down a second factory and looked to be going goliaths, but none of the bipeds ever made an appearance. Despite the fact that Yellow only had one mineral source, he was still able to use both geysers, and his ever growing mutalisk force blasted Boxers turrets at his main, killing scv and reinforcements easily. A severe miscalculation by Boxer cost him everything as more and more mutalisks rallied to his base, leaving him impotent and defensless. In the end Yellow had eighteen mutalisks and ravaged Boxers expansion just as easily.
Yellow > Boxer
If revenge is a dish best served cold, then Yellow just force fed Boxer a crate of dry ice. The Emperor miscalculated after a successful early strategy, and was caught with his pants down as Yellow stomped all over him with mutalisks. In the upcoming weeks, Boxer must win his game, while Yellow must beat Doggi for the two of them to advance through to the playoffs. I’m a sucker for nostalgia, so I hope it happens.
Game 3: Jju (z) vs SaferZerg (z) on Alchemist
Both of these players sport identical 5-5 records ZvZ on OGN, and they would test themselves on the three player map Alchemist.
SaferZerg started at three, sending his overlord to the upper position, while Jju scouted correctly from six, sending his overlord east while working on a four pool. It looked like this would be a winning strategy against SaferZerg who was going for a two hatch build on twelve, and only had a pool down wen lings were on their way. SaferZerg put down a sunken in his mineral lines, and when Jju came into his base, he raped all the lings with his drones as the fanged melee units tried to hit the morphing sunken.
Jju did have the advantage in drones at his point, having taken them down as SaferZerg defended, but with two hatcheries that quickly, and gas as well, SaferZerg rapidly caught up and surpassed Jju. The game abruptly ended with SaferZerg feigning a drone pump to air and then switching to lings after getting speed far ahead of his opponent. Jju got run over, and tapped out before a spire could be completed.
SaferZerg > Jju
A pretty poor 4 pool by Jju, as all but one of his early lings died to SaferZergs drones. SaferZerg is now 2-0 and looking good going into the playoff round.
Game 4: Chojja (z) vs Sync (t)
Wow, that’s super, my OGN account just expired. I think Sync did a MMF rush on Chojja and got wrecked. Sorry about the lack of coverage, it will be fixed by next week.
Interviews of the winners are here. Thanks a million Sharp!
Ok, well here is a good look at the standings thus far for this season in the OSL: (this is blatently ripped off from PoP, who I want to say a big thanks to for his post in last weeks OSL thread) I have updated the post to reflect this weeks results.
So far...
Group A:
Results:
- July > iloveoov on Requiem
- Nada > July on Neo Guillotine
- Clon > iloveoov on Alchemist
- Nada > Clon on Requiem
Ranking:
1. Nada (2-0)
2. Clon (1-1)
3. July (1-1)
4. iloveoov (0-2)
Iloveoov is out, Nada advances, and Clon vs July will decide the second spot.
Group B:
Results:
- Yellow > Qoo)Max on Neo Guillotine
- Boxer > Doggi on Requiem
- Doggi > Qoo)Max on Balhae's Dream
- Yellow > Boxer on Balhae’s Dream
Ranking:
1. Yellow (2-0)
2. Boxer (1-1)
3. Doggi (1-1)
4. Max (0-2)
Both Boxer and Yellow have to win next week for Boxer to advance. If Doggi beats Yellow, and Boxer beats Max, then Boxer/Doggi/and Yellow will have to have a playoff (sorry Doggi). If Boxer loses and Doggi loses, there will be a three way tie-breaker between Boxer/Doggi/and Max; and if Boxer loses and Doggi beats Yellow, the earth will explode instantly.
Group C:
Results:
- Jju > Reach on Requiem
- Saferzerg > Ddang on Balhae's Dream
- Midas > Reach on Alchemist
- SaferZerg > Jju
Ranking:
1. Saferzerg (2-0)
2. Jju (1-1)
3. Midas (1-1)
4. Reach (0-2)
With his win, SaferZerg knocks out Reach and qualifies for the playoffs at the same time. Jju vs Midas will decide the final spot.
Group D:
Results:
- Gorush > Sync on Balhae's Dream
- Goodfriend > Chojja on Alchemist
- Goodfriend > Sync on Requiem
- Chojja > Sync
Ranking:
1. Goodfriend (2-0)
2. Gorush (1-0)
3. Chojja (1-1)
4. Sync (0-3)
Chojja eliminates Sync from the running, and needs to get GoRush drunk so he loses his next game.
OCL Update
My poor OCL has been so ignored over the past little while, but here is a quick update on who has advanced thus far. Remember that under this system, each group is decided in one week, so here are the results thus far:
Group A:
ForU and Nal_Rock advances. Ogogo and Fofy[gm] will have to requalify.
Group B:
Pusan and TheMarine advances. Zerglee and tester[gm] will have to try again.
Group C:
GGPlay and Kingdom advance, while IPXZerg and Cuteboy will requalify.
Group D:
Iris[gm] and Eliza advance, while Terato and Anytime[gm] will have to try again.
Upcoming:
Group E- 2005/01/11
Xellos vs Thewind
ShiwHwa[Name] vs Stork[gm]
Group F- 2005/01/18
Oversky vs SN_HoOny
Yooi vs Mumyung
The four people already in the OCL finals, gunning for the OSL fourth seed are:
ForU
TheMarine
GGPlay
Iris
Anyways, I hope everyone had a good holidays, ad we will update again really soon.
Mani.
:'(
