[OSL] Round of 16 - Day 1

Group A:
Playing: Hawkeye—The Defiler

This is EffOrt's group but none of the players in Group A are incapable of pulling the upset. Action is widely expected to be the last place finisher in this group, but this belies his strong ZvZ and his virtuoso hive management. The latter shouldn't come into play tonight (But, who knows?) but Action can give good ZvZ performances. EffOrt however, is still the overwhelming favorite here, and has been stunning in the match-up since the now-famous OSL tiebreakers. After seeing EffOrt embarrass three straigh SKT zergs in the playoffs, and having shown some interesting and effective ZvZ builds recently, I don't see EffOrt losing here. The map is Eye of the Storm.

Rest of the Group:
Leta
Bisu

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Group B:
Playing: SKT Zerg—Magikarp

The dregs of Group B, this game is basically a must-win for both players. The winner here will put themselves in a good position to take the second place in this group, while the loser will need to defeat both ZerO and Flash to survive, which seems more than unlikely. HiyA is a surprisingly solid player all around, with no match-ups below .500, while Hyuk's ZvT is notoriously horrible, despite recent improvement in the MU. This makes HiyA the favorite, but the map is Grand Line SE, which seems strongly terran favored, and thus HiyA ought to win handily here.

Rest of the Group:
Flash
ZerO

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Group C:
Playing: The Observer—Hydra the Overshadowed

Group C is similar to B, in that the group has a clear favorite, and a host of fairly evenly matched players contending for the third spot. Skill wise, these two players probably represent the back end of the group as well, but a win here would do wonders for either of these player's chances. This is the weak match-up of both, and each looked anemic in their proleague playoff games in this MU. It's really a push, but with the map being Polaris Rhapsody, the protoss haven, I'll take Pure at a slight advantage.

Rest of the Group:
Jaedong
Sea

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Group D:
Playing: Bird-Toss—The Terrorist

This is the headliner for tonight, and possibly the marquee match-up for the entire round of 16. Stork and fantasy are two players with long intertwined histories, and a lot of stunning games in between. Stork passed his position as a perennial silver medalist (the Kong line) to fantasy in the Incruit OSL, by defeating him 3-2, and fantasy has been unable to realize his full potential since. Both players enter this match-up in somewhat uncertain form. Both have been playing well enough to still be the their team's ace, yet neither have been playing quite up to the level we usually expect. This is a game between these player's signature match-ups, and on a new map (Flight-Dreamliner) with a small but balanced sample size in the MU. Both Stork and fantasy have taken games on this map. All in all, it's almost an impossible call between these two. I think the winner of this game figures to be the group winner, and I feel that fantasy holds a small advantage here, as this map allows a lot of latitude for vultures and drop-based play. Either way, this should be a great game.

Rest of the Group:
Kal
free

***

Should be awesome! I'm making the LR to force myself to wake up for this, hope it delivers!

— - Not recommended
★ - Recommended
★ ★ - Highly Recommended
★ ★ ★ - Watch Now

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+ Show Spoiler [Match #1: EffOrt—Action] +—

+ Show Spoiler [Match #2: Hyuk—HiyA] +—

+ Show Spoiler [Match #3: Pure—Hydra] +—

+ Show Spoiler [Match #4: Stork—fantasy] +★

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There's a pun in these recommendations. Can you find it?