[NOTE: HanbitStars players on the left, IS players on the right]
1. [Oops]Spoon (T) ("Shim Sung-soo") < Mumyung (Z) ("Sung Hak-seung") - Neo Vertigo
2. HOT_Forever (Z) ("Kang Do-gyung") < Yellow (Z) ("Hong Jin-ho") - Neo Lost Temple
3. Sync (T) ("Byun Gil-sup") < [Red]Nada (T) ("Lee Woon-yeol") - Neo Bifrost
4. Silent_Control (T) ("Na Do-hyun") < IntoTheRainbow (P) ("Kim Sung-jae") - Gaema Gowon
5. Kingdom (P) ("Bak Yong-wook") > Sir@Soni~ (Z) ("Lee Jae-hang") - Neo Forbidden Zone
The format of the event was changed slightly, so that neither team knew who the other would send to play a given map. It made no difference. Once again, IS dominates 4-1 over HanbitStars. I know it's only exhibition, and to be sure, the HabitStars did send out a more "experimental" group than the battle-hardened veterans the IS team mobilized, but it was still kinda ridiculous the way the HabitStars players got dissected and left to hang.
A few notes:
- [Oops]Spoon wasted a great start and himself got wasted by a pissed off Mumyung (he got Spark Terraned last time by Sync). Spoon's inexperience showed big time.
- The fates had the two best Zerg players in the universe squaring off on neo LT. It wasn't much of a fight tho. HOT lost his spire early to a ling rush that shouldn't have done much damage, and basically it was all downhill from there. BOO!
- Silent_Control had his expo going, the middle all wrapped up by mines/tanks/vults/turrets, and IntoTheRainbow contained. Then IntoTheRainbow reaver drops the expo and pushes the middle Maginot with lots, goons and obs. Silent_Control folded like a deck of cards. Trivia: Silent_Control apparently mentors the female gamer Seo Ji-soo (who recently came within 2 wins of being the first female gamer to make it into the Challenge League).
- In Clash of the Titans Part II, we had Sync (the current holder of the best TvT win % in OGN play) go head to head v Nada, perhaps the most feared player on the planet right now. A group of all-female Nada supporters started screaming his name before his match. Nada blushed redder than the Red Sea and Sync's upper lip twitched slightly on his Botox-frozen face - that's his equivalent of rofl. All the cuteness stopped there tho. Nada steamrolled over Sync like he didn't even exist using bio-mechanic (bio to take care of Sync's mines, tanks to take care of everything else). Last week it was Reach, now Sync (both players btw are one of the very few players who have a winning record v Boxer). Nada seems pretty unstoppable right now (altho I guess Starcraft_Side (Z) and forU (P) may have something to say about that...)
- The respective team coaches were interviewed after the 4th match was played. Coach Lee Jae-gyoon of the HanbitStars team hinted that his losing players would be walking home that evening. On the other hand, Coach Song Ho-chang of the IS team gave this gem of a speech: "I'm glad to see my players putting on a good show ... I only hope the HanbitStars players don't get too much of a shock from the experience, and I ..." (at which point, you could see the arm of coach Lee of HanbitStars suddenly dart in off camera and attempt to push coach Song off his chair.)
- Sir@Soni~ isn't really an elite-level player, but decent enough to make Kingdom's overwhelming victory that much more impressive. Watch for Bak in the upcoming Challenge League. Nothing spectacular yet, but he could turn into an excellent player soon.