[OSL] The Decisive Battle

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Alas, the final week of the round of 16 had finally come. With day five around the corner, tension was thick. The stakes were higher than ever and the pressure was immense. This entire week promises only one mirror matchup much to the delight of TL netizens. Day five was PvZ galore and with names like Jaedong, Stork, and ZerO, hopes were high.

The previous week of the OSL was disappointing in its short length. Flash versus Stork was the only excellent game from the entire set; the rest were short and intense dominations. Only one ZvZ was to be played this week, a refreshing change from the ZvZ fest of the previous day.

The boothgirls get ready for the final week of the Ro16

While Jaedong and Movie in Group A were guaranteed to advance, each other match had an intense effect on the dynamic of the group. Group D was highly anticipated; Kwanro has been playing sort of well recently while Stork has been a killing machine. ZerO was definitely the favorite in his match; his ZvP streak was beastly and Pure's recent games were underwhelming.

Day Five had a lot of potential and as the clock wound down to its beginning, nerds from all around the world tuned into Day[9]'s channel, OGN Ferron, and the various other streams that were available. Before too long, it began.

Despite all the hype surrounding this match, both players were guaranteed to advance regardless of the result. (P)

Movie spawns at the 12 o clock position on El Niño and (Z)

Jaedong at the 4 o clock position. Jaedong opens with an overpool and Movie scouts him quite quickly, using a pylon to block his hatchery. Jaedong accordingly expands to the mineral only expansion hugging the north wall of his base as Movie begins to warp cannons for his wall. Jaedong succeeded in a ling runby; Movie was too late to clog the holes in his wall with probes and Jaedong was able to kill about 5 probes.

As Jaedong harasses Movie, he throws a third hatchery down at his natural expansion. Movie sends a zealot to the mineral only expansion of Jaedong but Jaedong quickly kills it with zerglings. Movie smartly positioned his Zealot in such a way that lings would have to come one by one to kill it, killing more Zerglings than the Zealot itself was worth.

Jaedong transitioned into Spire tech. Soon after Jaedong's Mutas begin to morph, Movie throws down two stargates, although the timing was fairly late. Jaedong had already begun muta harass in Movies base before the Stargates finished warping. He massacred probes and shut down Movie's weak zealot counter into his natural expansion with a few mutalisks and a handful of zerglings.

After 2 sairs popped out, Jaedong managed to take them down with pure muta and Movie typed out as there was nothing he could do. For all the hype that this game recieved, it was a fairly boring domination by Jaedong. Movie's damaged economy didn't allow him to complete his tech fast enough to deal with Jaedong's Muta harassment and it ended up killing him outright.

Pure spawns at the bottom right position of Fighting Spirit and (Z)

ZerO spawns at the top right. ZerO opens with an Overpool and Pure with the standard Forge FE. ZerO expands to the natural as well as the 12 'o clock position, later planning to take the expansions on the top left side of the map. ZerO powered drones really hard as Pure powered through his tech tree.

Pure used Corsairs to do just a bit of harass around the map and harassed ZerO with the purpose to distract him. Pure needed to secure his third as easily as possible and built up a wicked defense of reavers and cannons there when he did.

ZerO amassed hydras and lurkers with the purpose to contain Pure, who had an army consisting of high tech units. ZerO kept his massive army just outside of Pure's natural bridge, delaying the time in which Pure could optimally push across the map or take his 4th base.

Pure tried to break the contain early on and just barely failed, retreating back across his bridge with just enough defense to keep ZerO on the other side. His quick teching eventually paid off and with some strong storms and smart reaver positioning, he was able to push ZerO back to his natural expansion.

Eventually, Pure overpowered ZerO with his army, despite having starved almost completely. After realizing there was no hope, ZerO typed out.

Calm spawned on the right position of Heartbreak Ridge and (Z)

Shine spawned on the left. Calm opened with a 12 hatch that went unpunished by Shine and after a failed zergling attack by Shine, Calm used his larvae advantage to overpower Shine with lings. Shine morphed a sunken colony barely in time, which survived with 2 HP after an attack by Calm's lings. Shine barely held on to the game until Mutas popped out; luckily Shine had a slightly earlier Spire than Calm and had a muta in his base before Calm had any air units at all.

As the air battle progressed, Shine's superior muta/scourge micro became obvious as he whittled down Calm's army until they were even on food count. Calm's huge advantage was suddenly turned on him. However, Calm was soon able to claw his way back to an advantage. Firstly, Calm was ahead in the mineral account and was able to consistently build more mutalisks while Shine had to produce scourge to spend his money. Calm slowly regained the advantage as time went on due to this. Also, Calm managed to do quite a few smart scourge snipes with his mutalisks. Before long, Calm was back in the lead and after a muta battle in which Shine lost the majority of his army, he typed out.

Since Jaedong versus Movie turned out to be such a disappointment, expectations were high for this game. (P)

Stork spawned at the top left of Eye of the Storm and (Z)

Kwanro at the bottom right. Kwanro opened with a 2 base hydra all-in and Stork with the standard Forge FE. Stork couldn't quite figure out what Kwanro was doing, due to some good scout denial from Kwanro, and in suspicion Stork began to warp in some extra Cannons.

Kwanro soon had a large amount of Hydralisks at Storks front door but he failed to break past Storks defense. The camera zoomed in on Stork, who was talking to himself and laughing at Kwanro in his booth. The jovial Stork teched to high templar. Kwanro, in a tough position, used slow drops to ferry units over Stork's wall. The drops were complete and utter failures; all of the lurkers were stormed to death near instantly, the overlords massacred by archons. Stork made some micro mistakes such as attacking his own archons and losing some zealots needlessly, which he giggled about in his booth.

Stork grinning at Kwanro's repeated failures

Stork warped in an Arbiter Tribunal, an arrogant gesture against the failing zerg which he unfortunately never got to use. Kwanro managed to kill off quite a few probes with some Hydralisk drops, but it didn't matter. Once Stork decided to leave his base, Kwanro realized there was absolutely nothing he could so, and left the game before being embarassed by Arbiters.

- Kwanro played very aggressively.
▲ He thinks his nickname is "The Typhoon', but sorry, that nickname is reserved for (Z)

Shine. After seeing how he was going for an all-in build, I thought to myself, "the only way he can ever beat me was through an all-in". (Z)

ZerO said Kwanro practiced very hard for today so I was looking forward to today, but when I saw what he was doing, I was very, very disappointed. The fact that someone practiced so hard for an all-in is hilarious (laugh).

Day Five ended with relatively little upset, Pure's win coming as the only big surprise. Pure's victory ended Hwasin's chance in the OSL, while Calm's victory similarly ended EffOrt's run. With two more players eliminated the road to the Round of 8 got just a bit clearer.

Stork versus Kwanro capped off the day quite well as it was both theatrical and humorous. The image of Stork sitting in his booth, giggling like a schoolgirl while Kwanro embarrassed himself is one that Mr. Han San Bong will never forget. Stork's post-game interview even stirred up controversy among StarCraft nerds as he tore Kwanro apart in the Q&A session.

Kwanro wishes he could be this fly

Day five was a good one, an apt follow-up to the abomination that was OSL day four. Day six was just ahead and while day five was the PvZ extravaganza, TvZ was the dominating matchup of the sixth day.

The sixth and final day of the EVER 2009 OSL Round of 16 had finally come. This would be the day that would shape the upcoming Round of 8 and decide the fates of the hopeful young participants. The match between Pusan and go.go would begin the day somewhat awkwardly, as both players were already eliminated from the Ro16. It was what Day[9] called a "dignity match"; the results are irrelevant but a win would give the victor a dignified 1-2 result, rather than an embarrassing 0-3.

Jin Yung Soo prepared for his match, even though he can't advance

Group's B and C both featured already eliminated players looking to radically shift the dynamic of their group should they win. The Group D match between Flash and type-b would end with either Flash advancing from the group 2-1 or with type-b causing a tiebreaker to occur between himself, Kwanro, and Flash.

The end of the Round of 16 had come at last.

Pusan versus (T)

go.go was yet another match in which the results didn't matter. Both players had already been eliminated from the OSL, so netizens didn't expect much from this game, although it ended up being quite entertaining.

Pusan opened with 1 gate range at the left position and go.go with a siege expand build at the right. go.go scouted a pylon at the far back of Pusan's base which led him to expect a fast reaver or DT tech. Pusan took his natural expansion quite early and go.go snuck another scout into his base desperate to see his tech, but the scout was killed before he could get in.

Pusan warped in a Stargate much to everyones surprise, as well as a fleet beacon. However, he wasn't going to do 2 base carrier as people predicted. Pusan built a corsair. He built several corsairs off one stargate and researched disruption web. After getting about 4 or 5 corsairs, he sniped a dropship that go.go had running around the map at the 12 o clock position. go.go seemed quite surprised at the advent of corsairs and begun building numerous turrets.

go.go: OMG r those corsairs? | pusan: yea LOL

After getting an observer, Pusan attempted to push into go.go's natural with his goon only army, using d. web on the tanks and turrets. He decimated a large amount of go.go's army but was eventually fended off. By using counter drops smartly, go.go was able to put his economy way ahead. Pusan's second attack failed pathetically and as Pusan lost almost all of his probes to drops from go.go, he typed out of the game fairly soon after.

Pusan lost the game but he showed his fans an entertaining strategy. In this game, both players won; go.go got to leave the stage as a winner, Pusan got to leave knowing he played a fun and entertaining game.

Hwasin spawned at the bottom left of Fighting Spirit and (Z)

YellOw[ArnC] at the right. Both players went for extremely economic builds, Hwasin getting fast upgrades and an early expansion, while Yarnc went for an aggressive midgame that would allow him to take many expansions.

When Yarnc's mutas popped, he didn't manage to do massive damage with his harass, but picked off a few marines here and there. His mutas distracted Hwasin as he set up a lurker ling contain at the front of Hwasin's base.

Hwasin with 4 science vessels and no tanks (a result of his late-game oriented build) tried to break the lurker contain as soon as possible but acted just a tad too soon and lost a large amount of his marines. Yarnc got a defiler pretty quickly and used swarm to push his way into Hwasin's natural to do tons of damage.

With some clutch control and a large amount of firebats, Hwasin managed to force his way back into the game and immediately took control of the center of the map. Yarnc, however, already had defilers and an ultralisk cavern and was saving money for ultras. Hwasin valiantly harassed Yarnc's many expansions with his army but wasn't able to break through his bases to do any significant damage. As soon as Ultralisks popped out, Hwasin had no chance. Yarnc quickly destroyed Hwasin's entire army and Hwasin promptly left the game.

Fantasy spawned at the left position on Heartbreak Ridge and (Z)

EffOrt at the right. Fantasy opened up with a similar build to Hwasin, going for fast tech and upgrades to get a really strong midgame army. EffOrt played as standardly as possible, with 3 hatch muta into lurker ling.

EffOrt's mutalisk harass was quite effective, killing numerous marines and SCVs. However, EffOrt, while sweeping his mutalisks down through Fantasy's natural, ran into a large mnm force on Fantasy's high ground and lost a few mutalisks needlessly. He quickly transitioned into a large lurkerling force.

Fantasy began to push up the top lane of HBR and EffOrt jumped the gun a bit and attacked aggressively. Fantasy's tank placement forced EffOrt to funnel his zerglings through a small gap in Fantasy's army, greatly decreasing their overall effectiveness. His lurkers were slightly out of position and his army was quickly decimated.

Fantasy followed by pushing straight toward EffOrt's natural expansion, but he had dark swarm just in time. With well placed swarms and lurkerling control, EffOrt crushed Fantasy's push and brought himself back into the game. The rest of the game was a nightmare for Fantasy.

Even though Fantasy successfully destroyed EffOrt's expansion at the top left numerous times, EffOrt ran through him with lurkerling and swarm. EffOrt saved up some money for Ultralisks and as soon as the cows popped out, he dominated his way to victory, eliminating Fantasy from the OSL.

Flash spawned at the top left position of Eye of the Storm and (Z)

type-b at the bottom left. Flash went 1 rax FE and type-b went for a low econ hive rush build. The idea was that Flash would have difficulty pressuring all of type-b's expansions since they were so far apart on the corners of the map and type-b would be able to use fast upgrades and ultralisks to control the center easily.

But this was Flash. type-b stupidly built an evolution chamber next to his 3rd hatch in such a way that units became trapped inside. After some decent pressure from type-b, Flash had amassed a huge army. Flash decided to move out later with nothing but mnm plus vessels; he utterly destroyed type-b's expansion at the top right. type-b sent units to defend into the WRONG nydus canal and even when his ultralisks popped out, perfect army control from Flash quickly shut down the defensive units. Flash barely got pushed back from type-b's natural with perfectly timed dark swarms and instead opted to go kill type-b's expansions at the bottom right. There was absolutely nothing type-b could do against the incredibly massive army that Flash has amassed.

That is many marine, yes?

In dominant fashion, Flash showed why his TvZ is the best in the world. He destroyed type-b mercilessly with giant numbers of mnm to win the game.

+ Show Spoiler +

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXH8eCcvQMI&feature=player_embedded

Macro, thine name is Flash

The tiebreakers for Group B began immediately after the end of Group D. The first game was Pure versus YellOw[ArnC] on Heartbreak Ridge, Pure spawning at the left and Yarnc at the right. After some early game aggression in which Yarnc mined out Pure's backdoor to attack with lings, which Pure defended quite well with Probes and a single cannon, Yarnc transitioned into a hydra heavy army.

Great use of templar units and corsairs put Pure in a good position during the midgame. Yarnc was consistently unable to deal heavy damage to Pure's main army or economy and was just eventually overpowered.

Pure versus ZerO on Eye of the Storm immediately followed, ZerO spawning at the top left and Pure at the bottom right. Pure got a lot of corsairs early on and teched to Reavers quickly. ZerO powered hydralisks off of 4 bases and Pure did relatively little to punish ZerO's strong economy.

Pure let a DT down to ZerO's 4th expansion managing to force drones to run away, but a sunken colony and a morphed overlord would protect that expanion. Although Pure was able to put a small dent in ZerO's economy, ZerO was still ahead. With a powerful economy and mass hydralisks, ZerO steamrolled over Pure.

On Fighting Spirit, Yarnc opened with a fast gas build at the top left position, while ZerO opted for an overpool at the bottom left. As a result, Yarnc had a slightly slower Spire in exchange for a gas advantage over ZerO.

However, ZerO's much faster natural expansion and superior upgrades/muta micro decimated Yarnc's army and won him the game. ZerO and Pure would advance to the Round of 8 from the Group B tiebreakers.

The Round of Eight groups have been selected and once again the swarm dominates the brackets. 4 of the 8 players belong to the overmind. Another ZvZ finals is a possibility, but if Movie, Stork, Flash, and Pure have anything to say about it we won't be reliving that nightmare.

Three OSL champions are in the brackets as well as the royal roaders Calm and Movie. ZerO and Pure are no strangers to the OnGameNet Starleague and this time around they both hope to prove they have what it takes to be called a "Starleague Champion."

The talk of the town is going to be the first quarterfinal between Lee Young Ho and Lee Jae Dong. The legendary rivalry will flare once again in the OSL Round of 8. On December 18th, their epic clash will begin and the Round of Eight will start off with a bang.

Flash's TvZ has been getting a lot of attention recently and so will his matchup against Jaedong. These two players are at the top of their respective races and of progaming in general. Their rivalry has its roots in the 2008 season, when Flash eliminated Jaedong from the Bacchus 2008 OSL, having been eliminated by Jaedong in the GOMtv S4 MSL that same season. Both of them went on to win that individual league (Flash also won the GOMtv Star Invitational around the same time) and cement their spot in StarCraft history.

Jaedong's ZvT used to be the scariest in the world, although his prowess in that matchup has yet to be significantly tested. Flash, on the other hand, is on an absurd tear in his TvZ. If anyone can stop his beastly streak, it's Jaedong, but considering the way they're both playing right now; Flash just might be the favorite.

Predictions

Flash < Fighting Spirit > (Z)

Jaedong
Flash < New Heartbreak Ridge > (Z)

Jaedong
~~Flash < Eye of the Storm > Jaedong~~

Pure's PvZ hasn't been too impressive lately, although he certainly looked damn good against ZerO in their game on Fighting Spirit. Calm has been inconsistent recently and maybe it could be said that this match really depends on if Calm or Clam show up to play this game.

Calm still has pretty good ZvP and he is a favorite in this match. Pure occasionally shows strokes of brilliance. This matchup will be very interesting to see play out.

Predictions
(Z)

Calm < Eye of the Storm > Pure
Calm < El Niño > (P)

Pure
Calm < Fighting Spirit > (P)

Pure

Movie is the sort of player that does really well and beats his opponent in an extremely impressive fashion, or just sort of rolls over and dies. ZerO is still a ZvP beast and an inconsistent player like Movie will have a tough time taking him down in a series.

Movie can execute Sair/Reaver like no one's business and he just may have something interesting prepared for us. A young and creative protoss like Movie might be the one to destroy the ZvP beast that is ZerO. ZerO will probably take him down in a standard game but hopefully Movie's wits and creativity can take it all the way for him.

Predictions
Movie < New Heartbreak Ridge > (Z)

ZerO

Movie < Eye of the Storm > ZerO
Movie < El Niño > (Z)

ZerO

Finally, Stork versus Shine will end the Round of 8. Stork has been playing PvZ recently like it was meant to be played. Rather than stupidly suiciding his army into sim-cities, losing ridiculous amounts of units to mutalisks, or relying on fragile Dark Archon plays, he's been winning with the most standard PvZ there is.

Stork has said recently he wanted to debut a "revolutionary" new style of PvZ and where better to do that than in an important series against a strong zerg opponent? There is a lot of speculation as to just what Stork has planned, some TL netizens having faith it will involve arbiters, but more than likely it will be a new management style or some overlooked timing window that Protoss can exploit.

Shine might just be the most hated progamer on TeamLiquid right now and hatred for Shine is totally unwarranted. His mutalisk micro is spectacular, his aggressive style is entertaining, and his ZvZ is top-notch. Shine hasn't really shown a strong late-game yet, since his aggressive style (earning him the nickname "The Typhoon") usually ends games one way or another before the late game can swing around.

Shine, however, is one of the most respectful and polite progamers around. During the MSL Group Selection, rather than trash talk his peers he chose to play July out of respect. As a child, July inspired Shine to become a progamer and a zerg player and Shine merely wanted to play a game against his hero. He thanked his family and even brought his grandma along with him; the crowd was so impressed with his manner attitude that he got applause just for being that baller.

This will be an interesting series. However, if the games last long enough, Storks beastly late-game will probably just style all over Shine. Hopefully Shine can show he is a progamer deserving of respect, whether he wins or loses.

Predictions
(P)

Stork < El Niño > Shine
Stork < Fighting Spirit > (Z)

Shine
Stork < New Heartbreak Ridge > (Z)

Shine

Lee Jae Dong is the defending champion and in dominant fashion he has advanced into yet another OSL Round of 8. There is a distinct possibility of 3 consecutive OSL wins from Jaedong, a frightening prospect. Lee Young Ho, Lee Jae Dong, and Song Byung Goo all have OSL wins under their belts.

The three champions look to be in the best shape of their careers, both of them representing the absolute top of their respective races. With Stork, Flash, and Jaedong in the same bracket phase, disappointment is but a remote dream.

Now we move ever closer to the end of this tournament. The weak have been eliminated and the strong will face each other in a decisive battle. A victor will be chosen. The EVER 2009 OSL Round of Eight is set to begin and once again the heavens will tremble.

This OSL Update brought to you by DoctorHelvetica. Thanks to HnR)Insane for the editing/proofreading help, FOMOS/dailyesports/NeverGG/by.SlaSh for the photos, and good luck to motbob who could not write this week due to finals!

[OSL] The Decisive Battle

[OSL] The Decisive Battle

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