ShinHan3 OSL Week 1-1

Although the Pantech captain was able to clear his base, the situation was grim. He had lost not only scv, but precious building time which had allowed oov to tech to cloaked wraiths. A tanks and wraith continued to destroy his scv, and again NaDa was fighting with his loyal peons. Probably oov gave him a break because they are buddies, but this game lasted longer than it should have. Oov finally ended it with a mass of tanks, and NaDa’s hopes of defeating the OSL curse went up in smoke.

Iloveoov (apm 242, 304 high) > NaDa (apm 384, 506 high)

In the zerg camp, things were dire. While Yellow researched lurkers, he tried to pump drones in an effort to catch up his economy. UpMagic had a total of 6 rax though, and he soon moved out with his troops. This forced Yellow to drop three more sunks at his natural and use up even more precious drones. MM was rallied to the zerg choke, and Yellow dropped lurks in front of the sunks just in time while he teched to hive.

UpMagic busied himself with double ups and another expansion, and showed brilliant micro by keeping the lurkers of yellow at pinned to the choke. Yellow could only last so long under these conditions though, and soon tanks and vessels rolled off the line. The early defilers from Yellow were quickly irradiated, and the MM containment was flawless. UpMagic added to the headache by two ship dropping the zerg main, forcing the lurkers to retreat. As lurkers dealt with the drop, tanks blasted the sunks, and UpMagice slowly carved up the zerg base. With terran CC's dotting the map, Yellow gave up on a game that had been lost long ago.

UpMagic > Yello[arnc]

Midas' first irradiate was dealt with in record speed, as the offending muta was culled from the flock by its master. Zerg units were everywhere, as mutas harassed and lings probed for weakness. With a hive on the way and a burgeoning economy, Savior was in great position for mid-game. Midas took his mineral only, but could not find a chance to attack despite his formidable army.

Looking to end it, Savior set up his attack from 1 o’clock, with lings up top and lurkers coming up the edge of the trench. Midas had spent his money on an SK build, and his vessels were numerous. Savior was outnumbered, but attacked the terran mineral only in perfect position, separating Midas’ army from his expo with mass lurkers. As Midas tried to bring his army home to defend, his marines were shredded by spines in the narrow passageways. Massive reinforcements were sent by Savior, 8 hatcheries spawning unholy armies. Midas defended the best he could, rallying all troops to his mineral only to save it from extinction. By the time his base was safe, his economy was in tatters and Savior owned the map.

With his base temporarily safe, Midas took his vessels and MM on tour, taking down a couple hatcheries around one which had been getting ready for drones. However, Savior decided the time for direct action was needed, and sent his lurker/defiler up the center trench, breaking into the terran main. Midas suffered even more losses, but somehow managed to clear his main again of zerg. He tried to go on tour again, starting at the fresh hatchery at 1, but was stymied by plague throwing defilers and burrowed lurks.

Into late game, the battle continued to revolve around the 1 o’clock area, with Midas finally removing the stubborn hatchery and taking the expansion himself. His mass vessel strategy had failed thus far, but he somehow had managed to build a serious threat of tanks. Although Savior owned the entire left side of the map, Midas was determined to push south into the zerg main. As his tanks punished new recruits, Savior broke into the terran main from the natural building break at ten, and the cracklings tore down terran infastructure while causing general havoc. Midas lost most of his depots, forcing him to spend his precious remaining minerals on non-offensive weapons. With his tank army at Savior’s main slowly being worn down by a stream of lings, Midas was pushed back to 1. Lings raided his remaining expansion, and his mineral only became his main base of operations. Despite the incredible offensive launched at him by Savior all game long, Midas was hanging in there with his dregs of MM.

With the end game already old, Midas was left with a single expansion, and Savior controlled only the seven corner which was rapidly running out of minerals. Everything else had been mined out, or was blocked by a nicely placed tank and barracks from Midas. The SK terran was patient, and his army slowly grew again to lethal size. Midas’ use of firebats against dark swarm was increasingly cost effective, and time and again Savior’s offensive tactics were pushed aside by the remaining terran units.

Unbelievably, with most of his buildings on fire and his army in the red, Midas staved off the final zerg attacks and saw the GG on the screen. In a rare moment of jubilation, Midas allowed himself a smile and the crowd went while. His bigballs pick had just paid huge dividends, and Savior’s OSL title hopes took a huge shot.

Midas > Savior

Game of the year. Watch this or go to hell.

However, zvz is won with mutas, and when they clashed for the first time July took the upper hand. With nearby overlords soaking up splash damage, July brought his scourge in behind Childs mutas and won a crucial dogfight at 6. It looked lost for the SouL zerg as he ran his drones away from the expo, but the next minute say a very successful scourge raid even the tables and keep both players with three running gas. Even the slightest loss of mineral hurts in ZvZ though, and July's next batch of mutalisks were again successful in claiming an advantage. From this point on he grew that advantage into a game ending decision, making Sumo zerg the first of the swarm to go up a game in this OSL.

July > Child

The turning point of the match came as GGPlay won a major air battle vs GoRush over his main. However, GoRush succeeded in countering with mass lings, killing GGPlays expo. GoRush was left with no drones, and his opponent still had air. In a last mass push, GoRush threw his remaining lings at GGplay, breaking downt he ramp and into his main. However, GGplay was patient with his remaining three drones and he split his mutas for defence and offence, taking home the victory.

GGPlay > GoRush

However, Hoya was ready with his counter stroke as 4 overlords full of troops moved north and dropped lurker/ling into the terran main. The drop was small, and did not do much damage. However, it bought Hoya the time he needed to take advantage of his superior economy. As Yooi cleaned up the mess, the three gas zerg continued to drop on both the terran expo and main. Yooi again dealt with the threat, and then pushed his army into the zerg expo at 8. Hoya ran around the outside of his main and countered from behind, managing to cut off terran reinforcements. Busy with his attack, Yooi had failed to deal with two lurkers that had stopped the mining at his expo, and therefore was effectively working off one base.

With Yooi now poor, and his expansions saved, Hoya put the pressure on full. His lurkers continued to do damage alone or in pairs, and lings started flooding through the open gaps. A mass of hydra followed up, and defilers were imminent, but Yooi was already cooked. He was just throwing MM at lurks and not microing at all. With the path between the two bases clear, Hoya quickly finished the job.

Hoya > Yooi.

Poor play by Yooi who looked super nervous and uncomfortable. Hopefully he can rebound from this brutal loss.