With Nal_Ra and GoodFriend eliminated, Reach and Oov had already booked their places in the quarters. So what was at stake in this game? Maybe, just maybe, the status of tournament favourite. When they clashed in the MBC team league final Reach lost after trying double proxy gateway and a pylon to stop the wall-in. This time out Reach (protoss at one o'clock) sneaked his probe into his opponent's main for a gas rush, then followed it up with an ineffective manner pylon. Oov (terran at the 11 o'clock position) returned the favour, taking the protoss vespene not once, but twice, quickly cancelling the second building refinery. Reach's shenanigans in Oov's main meant he was extraordinarily late with his first gate. Reach built up a small complement of zeals, standing watchfully at his ramp, while Oov was playing it safe with a meagre squad of marines to help fight off any early attacks.
As both players shifted over to more orthadox play, dragoons, vultures and tanks, Reach took a stab at Oov's wall with his zeals but quickly saw there was nothing to be gained. Oov broke out of his main with vultures and marines as Reach, now equipped with a robotics facility, went airborne with his first shuttle. Reach's loaded shuttle tried to stealthily glide across the top of the map but was spotted by a couple of Oov's flitting vultures. Reach signalled reaver as he warped in his support bay.
Both players now took their naturals, Oov slightly before Reach, who still seemed to be playing catch-up following the fun and games in the opening moments. While Reach looked to be slightly hurried, Oov was simply gathering momentum, raising the factory count and massing the metal. Reach was putting together an impressive looking gathering of zealots, crowding in the middle of his main. However, as in his game with Nal_Ra, Oov showed here that when he was ready to strike he was able to strike hard and fast and take advantage of the slightest weakness in his opponent's set-up. Before Reach even knew what was going on, Oov had stormed across the map and set up a rock solid containment at the bottom of Reach's ramp. Reach weighed up his options and instead of trying a desparate breakout he tried a desparate counterattack with a triple shuttle drop on Oov's main plateau. His strike team of zealots, backed up by one dragoon and a dark templar caused some disruption but, again mirroring the Nal_Ra game, Oov rallied his SCVs to neutraluise the threat.
The containment was complete. Oov had Reach in a bear hug and started to squeeze, breaking onto the plateau and getting in amongst the mineral line with vultures. It was only a matter of time for Reach as Oov's SCVs constructed bunkers in Reach's main and the tanks moved in. Reach tried one late reaver drop at Oov's natural but once again it was the SCVs who extinguished the threat, surrounding and destroying the protoss robot with its safehaven shuttle hanging uselessly in the air off to the right.
Iloveoov (3-0) finished top of Group A, with [Oops]Reach (2-1) second.
The question, the question that haunts the Gillette OSL: can anyone stop Iloveoov?
Group B: Zeus (Jeon Tae Gyu) v Doggi (Choi Soo Beom) on Requiem
Despite his loss to JulyZerg, last season's losing finalist, Zeus (1-1), would have been extremely confident of qualifying for the last eight once again, needing a win against the overmatched Doggi (0-2). Zeus (protoss at 3 o'clock) did not have to wait long to book his place in the quarterfinals. Doggi (terran at six) could not even save his wall as Zeus simply rolled over him. First two zeals pressured the terran wall, with just a single lonely marine standing behind his barracks able to provide any return fire. When Zeus' first dragoon arrived at the frontline the writing was on the wall for Doggi. Zeus clinically destroyed the lone marine and set about knocking down the supply depot. Four SCVs rallied to repair but as a second dragoon joined the battle the depot exploded and the protoss strike force surged through the breach. At long last Doggi's overwhelmed terrans caught sight of a siege tank but not for long. Zeus pursued the lone tank through the terran base and destroyed it. With new reinforcements arriving all the time from the nearby protoss HQ, Doggi signalled gg and bowed out in undistinguished fashion from this season's OSL.
JulyZerg (3-0) topped Group B in style, with Zeus (2-1) finishing second.
Ongamenet may be taking a long hard look at their qualifying procedures. While Doggi was being made to look like an amateur, Boxer, Yellow, Junwi and Chojja were watching the latest Starleague on television.
Group C: [Red]Nada (Lee Yoon Yeol) v GoRush (Park Tae Min) on Mercury
Always strong, always among the favourites, Nada (1-1) was under threat of making an embarrassingly early exit from the Starleague. Following his unexpected defeat to IntotheRainbow two weeks ago, Nada faced an all or nothing battle against Suma GO's GoRush (1-1) on Mercury. No difficult mathematics here, the winner would go through, the loser would go home.
Nada (terran at 11 o'clock) opened with straightforward double barracks, while GoRush (zerg at eight o'clock) expanded immediately to the nine o'clock position with just one sunken for defence. Nada's first marine force moved out towards GoRush's position at nine o'clock but he withdrew it quickly without skirmishing, waiting for his imminent academy to help strengthen his assault. Nada was waiting for his academy as GoRush mutated his lair and hydralisk den but the zerg player was also expanding to a slightly unusual position, mutating a new hatchery towards one o'clock, just a short way from the main thoroughfare connecting the two mains and along which Nada's marines were walking back and forth. What was going through his mind?
As Nada started to go on the offensive with marines, firebats and medics, GoRush made his bid. Nada was setting up camp outside the nine o'clock expo but GoRush had three lurkers and a swarm of zerglings heading straight for the terran main, catching a surprised Nada with no siege mode and no turrets. The whole season was on the line for Nada. GoRush tried to advance his lurkers in amongst ling cover but lost one as Nada defended tenaciously. The whole game hung in the balance. Trying to advance again, GoRush lost a second lurker as Nada targeted the dangerous burrowers. Nada was almost out of the trap and he finally put out the fire with a comsat scan taking care of the last lurker. Counterattacking swiftly, Nada's marines and firebats raced round to destroy the hidden hatchery just in time before a mass of zerglings reinforcements arrived.
Detection difficulties ended with the arrival of Nada's first science vessel and he was clearly in the ascendency as his new force of marines and siege tanks rumbled across the Mercury landscape towards the nine o'clock expansion. Five tanks blasted GoRush's line of sunken colonies as Nada turned the screw on the expo. GoRush's last desparate attempt to counterattack came to nothing. The tanks survived the zergling onslaught, signalling he rest of the zerg base would soon fall. A crestfallen GoRush bowed out of the Starleague.
Nada (2-1) won the group, having beaten second-placed Silent_Control (2-1) in their game.
Group D: Xellos (Seo Ji Hoon) v TheMarine (Kim Jeong Min) on Nostalgia
TheMarine, beaten handily by Jju and Kingdom. Zero wins. The last week of the group stage. Yet still, despite his poor form, TheMarine had a chance to make the next round. If he could overcome fellow terran Xellos on Nostalgia he, Xellos and Jju would all have one win and two defeats and play off for the final qualifying spot as Devil Toss Kingdom relaxed and waited for the quarterfinal line-up to take shape. No doubt Jju was cheering TheMarine.
Xellos (terran at one o'clock) sporting his new trimmed look, and TheMarine (terran at seven o'clock) both opened two factory, although TheMarine looked to be slightly behind very early. The two players' scouting barracks passed each other in the centre of the map, with a solitary Xellos marine firing determinedly at the enemy building. Xellos appeared to be outbuilding his opponent from the very beginning and sent out his first squad of vultures backed up by one siege tank to secure the Nostalgia double diagnal roadway. As Xellos set up his defensive position and started work on a new command centre there was still no sign of a single tank rumbling off the production lines for TheMarine. He was slowly but surely building up a massive flock of vultures from three factories while taking his natural.
All was quiet on the Nostalgia front, the only sound being the grenades from TheMarine's vultures as they took potshots at Xellos' barracks which had cheekily landed in TheMarine's main, momentarily blocking in a group of factories.
Suddenly the the entire game erupted into utter chaos. Xellos launched a full scale assault on TheMarine's expansion. Unknown to him, TheMarine's vulture squadron had sneaked round the back of the advancing army and mirrored events at his own base with a huge attack on Xellos. At opposite corners of the map vultures were swooping on defenceless buildings. Both mains were full of rampaging enemy armies obliterating everything in sight. Devastation had ensued.
Xellos finally lifted his buildings and his command centre slowly floated towards a new home at the 12 o'clock position. Meanwhile, TheMarine sprang a surprise. In the bottom right hand corner of his rapidly disappearing main, a single wraith reported for duty from a previously unseen starport. As TheMarine attempted to attack Xellos' relocated command centre at 12, Xellos' own forces were racing back to the smoking ruins of his original main. On his mind just one objective: save his armoury. Despite the destruction, if the armoury fell the game would belong to TheMarine as his lone wraith would be unopposed and able to bring down an excruciatingly slow destruction upon Xellos' defenceless building and units. It was almost as if TheMarine did not quit comprehend the importance of the armoury, as he was slow to target it. Xellos surrounded it, destroyed the attackers and assembled a goliath to guard his new mineral line. Bizarrely, TheMarine's fleeing command centre took a diagnal route to the one o'clock position and set down amid the remains of his opponent's original base. However, with just two wraiths and Xellos preparing new air defences he knew it was a lost cause and typed out gg.
Kingdom (3-0) easily won Group D. Xellos (2-1) took the second qualifying place
So the qualifiers for the last eight are: Iloveoov, JulyZerg, [Red]Nada, Kingdom, [Oops]Reach, Zeus, Silent_Control and Xellos.