[OSL] Semi-Final A

Set 1: Fantasy «Aztec» Calm
Set 2: Fantasy «Icarus»Calm
Set 3: Fantasy «Gladiator»Calm
Set 4: Fantasy «Pathfinder»Calm
Set 5: Fantasy «Aztec»Calm

3-2

As far as I’m concerned, Calm and Fantasy are the most similar players in Professional Starcraft. While known for spectacular failures when executing their often bizarre builds, their wins seem all the better when one of the builds happens to work. However, once such a player slumps for a while, the casual fan throws him in the trash, and Calm is a perfect example of this (along with HiyA). Read through some comments related to Calm and you should see what I mean. Why do I bring this basic law of sports up in the hype section? Because I sincerely believe he’s been proving his mockers wrong for quite some time now, and this semifinal might be his final transition out of the slump that’s plagued him for so long.

Don’t get me wrong, Calm WILL be the underdog this game, and his slump was very severe. To make matters worse, in a short period of time, he lost his team captain, almost the entirety of Round 5 of last years PL, and his appearance in January 2011 Power Rank was the first one for a YEAR, during which he didn't even show up in CBNC. To illustrate how bad it is, players who haven't even made it past offline qualifiers for god knows how long were included instead of Calm who hovered around the top half of it for the end of 2009. He still lacks in decision-making somewhat, and his 11(!) loss streak against Terran didn’t help boost his confidence. But at the beginning of this season, he said that he found some love of the game again. While he still doesn’t defeat the best of players, he puts up much better fights now, and his results have steadily improved compared to the end of the last season. His words about his love of the game coming back are not empty – just look at the end of the game 1 of Mind vs. Calm where he was shaking very hard after losing the multitask battle. Calm proceeded to roll Mind out of the tournament with superb flanking and much improved drop defense. I saw the happiness from the MSL win long ago once more, and I forgave every pain his slump had caused me instantly. Calm is a nightmare for Fantasy to play with because of his complete unpredictability. 9pools, Fastest Mutalisk Possible, different forms of lurker all-ins, slowdrops, hydrabusts, fast drop 4 base into Ultra/Guardian, his notorious 2 hatch lurker fake into 4 base expand, a simple, solid standard game... the list goes on. Here is also where I think Calm has proven himself as an immensely talented player, since he never stopped, not even in the darkest days, nor against the most difficult opponents.



Fantasy has his work cut out for him. But this goes also for Calm. If Calm can defeat this major obstacle, he’ll be a serious contender for the title, especially when he faces Stork next. Don't believe me? Did you know Calm has the second highest ZvP ELO as of this moment, and the 5th highest vs. P ELO, accompanied by a 62,65% winrate vs. P? The Brain Zerg is still alive and well in that matchup!



This OSL has been about new beginnings so far, but Calm’s would be the most refreshing of all. While both Stork and Fantasy have that whole Silver Surfer curse to overcome, and Modesty is ready to leave his reputation as a ZvZ sniper behind him, Calm’s return to glory would be a triumph of hard work, overcoming personal demons, and perhaps most importantly of all, never, ever giving up along the way, no matter how grim things seem. Calm is not to be underestimated by anyone when he enters this state of mind, and he seems determined to make the finals once again in order to prove he still has what it takes to be a champion. And he’ll do it too, the conniving bastard, he’ll find a way.

No matter the result, I'll cheer for him, so let me finish with a resounding:

Fantasy vs Calm is regarded as one of the most complex and interesting match ups currently going (with the likes Flash vs Jaedong and Jaehoon vs Lomo following shortly behind). With fantasy being known as a (if not, THE) driving force of terran innovation, and calm; well, he is the brain zerg after all. When these two strategic masters come toe-to-toe, the complexity of the strategies can be so overwhelming, that us mere bystanders can sometime misinterpret the complexity of the strategies as “silliness” or “ridiculous” know that every move is a carefully crafted decision that has come from hours of testing. When fantasy moves in with a dropship filled with 2 Goliaths, 2 medics, a firebat, and an scv, or when calm decides to double expand, without having all of his geysers running already, its not because they are making mistakes or BMing. It is because they have run into scenarios in practice that called for these, or other drastic responses. Ok, enough with the preference for the match up.

Why Fantasy is going to win:

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Before I go off into fan boy land and gush over how awesome he is (don’t worry, there will be enough of that), let’s look at the strategy. Fantasy loves dropships, we all know that. But it is his dropships that are keeping him alive in the OSL. Why haven’t terrans been fairing well on these new maps? It has to do with the distance between the bases. Not necessarily the rush distance (which is rather consistent) but the distance between mains as the crow (or Kakau) flies. This means that Muta harras is particularly effective, forcing terran to invest in more turrets (because bases are not in corners), earlier. Even if the zerg skips mutalisks, the terran is forced to invest in the early turrets anyway, leaving them vulnerable to a hydra or lurker/ling bust. The short distance, however, is a complement to fantasy’s play style. The distance reduction means that fantasy can get his drops off quicker, and with less chance of being sniped by scourge on the way. Calm, unfortunately, is not known for his mutalisk control, and one might say that this is the weakest facet of his game. What is a natural advantage for the swarm, suddenly becomes a huge obstacle to calm, as he will be forced to go spire (to get scourge) but is unable to do significant damage with his mutalisks. While watching the games, watch for fantasy’s drops to be the most important aspect of the game.

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Any way you look at it, history is on fantasy’s side. It starts with their head to head match ups, with fantasy taking the 9-5 advantage, and a 4 game winning streak. But it extend to Calm’s vT (sub .500) compared to fantasy’s vZ (still his worst match up, but a respectable .574). Even if we look at starleauges alone, calm still has a losing record vs terran. Hell just look at their recent games. Calm has beaten exactly 2 terrans in the past 8 months (well, 7 moths and 3 weeks, but close enough): hiya and mind. In that time, fantasy has beaten effort X 2, action X 3 Calm X 6, jaedong, zero X 3 and a bunch of other players that I don’t feel like listing.

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In any argument why an SKT player will win, the coaching is talked about, and some find it almost to the point of nausea by now. Well, that’s because its important, and there is nothing like it now, or in the history of the game. Oov is the best strategic mind the game has known. That strategy, that has lead him to become the most dominant play ever , is now only made stronger by the fact that he does not need to waste his time with silly things like “micro” or “practice”. Some people have builds named after them (flash build) but Oov has so many builds That he started naming them after himself, then just named them by what they did, then just started naming them after other players. No player has had a bigger influence alone on how the game is played, and fantasy has him in his back pocket.



This section isn’t about bunkie specifically (although, he can’t hurt fantasy’s bid), but it is about the fan culture that he (she? It? I'm not actually sure) symbolizes. SKT have the best/most fans for obvious reasons. When the players are doing the OSL stare down, whose fan’s do you think will be overwhelming? After calm s subjected tot screams of 1000 fangirls (of which, very few are for him, considering girls are typically not fans of other girls) he is going to have that linger in the back of the mind. Calm is going to need complete focus to have a hope try to diagnose, and properly counter Fantasy’s unique strategy. But as calm sets down his third, and sends his scouting overlords in new paths, he will be thinking about all of the support that fanta… and the mineral line is gone from vulture harass.

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Fantay’s victory has been predetermined, just look at the Ro16 intro vid. Fantasy has the coolest move by far, with the half turn and snap. You don’t even need to see the explosion and devastation to know it is there. Far superior to the calm “deer in the headlights look”.


Still not convinced? just take it from fantasy himself.

+ Show Spoiler +

Ill close by saying thanks to mustaju. His work on OP’s and his love for his team (although misguided) is a great thing for the brood war community. Keep it up

You will not be disappointed. They both deliver.
+ Show Spoiler [Game 1] +
+ Show Spoiler [Game 2] +
+ Show Spoiler [Game 3] +
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+ Show Spoiler [Game 5] +