EPT
Game 1 – Oov vs. Dongrae
Hitchhiker
Oov (11) and Dongrae (5) opened with very different builds. Oov went with a fact/CC (big surprise
) while Dongrae opted for a fact/port build. Dongrae got a pair of cloaked wraiths in the air and poked at Oov (who by now had a port of his own) while the gorilla cleverly hid his lone dropship in a random area of the map.Oov built his factory count up and got a nice tank/goly force massed, but he was unprepared for Dongrae’s imminent assault on his cliff. Dongrae ferried some tanks to the high ground and walked them to the cliff overlooking Oov’s natural. He reinforced this group with dropship loads. After losing his few dropships to wraiths in an attempt to clear the drop, Oov tried to walk his large ground army across the map to attack his opponent’s natural expansion. However, Dongrae was ready for him...
![[image loading]](http://teamliquid.net/staff/ManaBlue/ShinHan3_OSL_2_2/oov_dongrae.jpg)
Dongrae blocks Oov’s passage with a pair of tanks and a rax wall.
Oov attempted some counter drops and signature random expos, but Dongrae was now in control.
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Dongrae > Oov
Great game from Dongrae who didn’t panic when his opponent expanded before him. He used his tech advantage to effectively control the air and caught Oov at the perfect time. Had that cliff attack been any later, Oov would have had enough dropships to defend himself. Dongrae’s technique to load up the high ground with units for a large cliff attack perfectly exploited the timing of his opponent’s build. Nice stuff.
Game 2 – Anytime vs. Yellow[name]
Arkanoid
Anytime (11) teched to sairs quickly and used his early zeal/goons to clear the way at his natural expansions. Yellow Jr. (1) went with a very different strategy. He pooled first and began to tear through the neutral buildings as he pursued a 2 hatch hydra build. It was obvious that Anytime was in big trouble. Not only did Jr. scout Anytime first, but he altered the path of his overlord to make it look like it had come from a different main. This ment that he had not only gotten full information about his opponent’s position, but the overlord trickery caused Anytime to keep his scouting probe in the wrong location in the center of the map.
Yellow got to mass up hydras as he broke through the buildings toward Anytime’s main, completely unnoticed and uninterrupted.
![[image loading]](http://teamliquid.net/staff/ManaBlue/ShinHan3_OSL_2_2/anytime_jr.jpg)
The “Oh crap!” moment.
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Yellow[name] > Anytime
Jr. went with an all in build that was basically based on fooling his opponent into scouting improperly. There was only a 33% chance that he would scout Anytime first, giving him this advantage. Further, Anytime had clearly expected a build like this and had a scouting probe in the middle of the map for no purpose other than to catch it. However, he misplaced it due to Jr’s trickery.
I’ll give Jr. props for planning a manipulation strategy, but the fact is that this game went so well for him because of luck. Anytime would have scouted it if the positions were anything other than perfect.
If I were Jr. I’d have headed straight to the casino after this game and if I were Anytime, I’d have cried myself to sleep. Tough break for the 2nd seed, who now has no chance of getting a top 2 spot in his group.
Game 3 – Savior vs. Chojja
Reverse Temple
Chojja (6, pool first) seemed to take the lead quickly as he forced Savior (2, hatch at nat first) to cancel his fast expansion hatch. Chojja also got his lair and spire up more quickly, but he cut drones in order to pull this quick build off. Savior, on the other hand, was heavier in drones and when his second hatch finished morphing, this made a huge difference.
![[image loading]](http://teamliquid.net/staff/ManaBlue/ShinHan3_OSL_2_2/chojja_savior.jpg)
Savior overwhelms Chojja with lings before spire tech can kick in.
Chojja lost a ton of drones and soon lost the muta/scourge game due to lack of economy.
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Savior > Chojja
Savior’s timing was great. He didn’t lose much from the canceling of his nat hatch and his early drone massing paid off big time. Chojja didn’t seem his usual self and his hungry build didn’t seem to give him any obvious advantages.
Game 4 – GoodFriend vs. July
Longinus
GF opened with a one rax CC (sealing his base off with a depot/rax wall) while July played a standard 3 hatch. GF got an e-bay for +1 weapons right away and managed to get a vulture into July’s main to harass, but netted zero drone kills before it was dealt with.
GF continued to mass infantry and grow his infrastructure while July threw up a very late spire (his lair and den had both already been done for a while). Once his mutas were in the air, July wasted most of their health with some clumsy and ineffective sweeps.
GF was quickly ready to move out and flattened his Zerg opponent with a whack of MnM and 4 tanks.
![[image loading]](http://teamliquid.net/staff/ManaBlue/ShinHan3_OSL_2_2/gf_july.jpg)
GF sets up shop and July has no answer.
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GF > July
July’s build was confusing and had no momentum to it. He didn’t manage any harass and his muta control was sloppy. Easy win for our favourite mundane Terran.
Game 5 – GGPlay vs. ForGG
Longinus
GGPlay (11) played it by the book with a hatch first at his nat while ForGG (7) walled off with a rax, seemingly using the same expansion build as GF did before him. Instead, the Terran moved in for a bunker rush. He managed to kill 6 of GGPlay’s defending drones in the micro battle that ensued without even finishing his bunker. After this huge economic win, ForGG abandoned his attack and built a CC at his own natural.
![[image loading]](http://teamliquid.net/staff/ManaBlue/ShinHan3_OSL_2_2/ggplay_forgg.jpg)
ForGG shreds GGplay’s poorly microed drones, completely removing the need for him to press his attack any further.
The game continued and GGPlay made a run for it, but the conclusion was inevitable.
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ForGG > GGPlay
GGPlay threw this game away on drone micro. It looked like Boxer vs. Yellow all over again out there!
After that ForGG went through the motions to pull out his win.Game 6 – Zergman vs. Jy
Hitchhiker
Both players 9 pooled, Zergman (11) before overlord and Jy (5) after overlord. Right off the bat, Jy underproduced lings and lost 3 drones to an early ling attack from his opponent. Zergman even escaped with 2 of the lings and put up a sunk at his main to stop his opponent’s retaliation attack.
![[image loading]](http://teamliquid.net/staff/ManaBlue/ShinHan3_OSL_2_2/zergman_jy.jpg)
Zergman displays keen game sense in minimizing his spending on defenses to maximize the impact of his first wave of spire units.
A very typical muta/scourge battle ensued, but Jy was still down those 3 drones that he lost in the beginning of the game. Most guys can’t beat Zergman in a muta/scourge battle when they have even economy, so I think you can guess what happened here.
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Zergman > Jy
This game was pretty boring. Jy blew it in the opening minutes by letting those lings take him apart. Watching this gave me flash backs of Jju’s 6 game ZvZ disgrace a few seasons ago.
Recommended VOD of the day.
The competition wasn’t very tight in this game day. Unfortunate circumstances and big game blunders accounted for most of the games. I guess I’ll give Dongrae a node for taking down the scariest SKT1 Terran with a cool and calmly played cliff strategy. He loaded that sucker up so heavily that it couldn’t be cleared and still managed to hold his wall successfully. Not a fantastic game as recommended VODs go, but today wasn’t exactly a showcase of greatness.
There are some interesting situations coming up, like the possibilities for ties in some groups. The group stages will conclude next week and we’ll see which players will make it to the round of 16, be it by winning their groups or wildcards.
If you want to learn more about the mechanics of the groups stages and how wildcards will work, reference one of jkillashark's old OSL summary posts or read Mani's ShinHan OSL introduction news post.
I'll summarize the standings and possibilities of advancement for players once the first round is over at the end of next week.![[image loading]](http://teamliquid.net/staff/ManaBlue/ShinHan3_OSL_2_1/nada_much.jpg)
