OSL/MSL Discussion

Wow. Just wow. I knew GoRush was losing his touch in ZvP, but I thought his recent wins meant he's on his way to his old self again. But this game.... damn.

Although, I personally think that Much's build and decision was far more the reason why he won than GoRush's screw-up. Much's build was timed perfectly and executed perfectly. Usually a proxy-reaver build is very risky if the opponent goes muta quickly, or if he has hydralisks ready.

GoRush's build, I think was pretty normal for any normal P build. 3 Hatch, dbl expansion, overlords making sure he doesn't go around and landing 3+ sunks plus a handful of zerglings if he came out. Against any 1 game or 2 gate build, this would have given him an advantage.

But Much's build kinda reminded me of the factory-before-academy build Terran's use to use so often. When I saw that robotics at first, I thought he was going for the drones. When he went 3 gates, I was wondering why he would do that instead of expanding (usually tosses harrass and expand, no?) and when I saw a spire being plopped I thought "oh, if he doesn't do major damage he's screwed".

But then I saw he moved out with zealots from 3 gates, and used his reaver as siege tanks, aiming at the sunkens and killing a bunch of zerglings with 1 shot. I was amazed at how effective this build would be. Even with a fast hydra build, with good reaver micro, you would still be able to win. Big props to Much

Personally, I think RT is a fair map. But apparently Savior and most progamers think it's almost as bad as Longinus (in favor of T). Apparently, he was thinking of using the 5 pool build on this game isntead of the Gom MSL game.

But he played brilliantly. It always amazes me how tedious Savior is. Instead of expanding regularly, he expands to the farthest island, using slow drop in the process too. He also fooled Midas with a tripple tech! (spire, lurker, drop) that's about 600/600 as soon as the lair's done. And he successfully forced Midas to go home, letting him send that drone w/out difficulty.

When he loaded those overlords for the first drop, I thought he would lose. Personally I don't like drop plays. Terrans defend so well now days. So when I saw those 2 tanks and groups of mnm, I thought "plz no, just play normal". But then he went in and to my surprise, he shattered that defense.

Then Midas counters, while Savior goes drop no.2. I knew Savior would lose his nat, but I did not expect Midas to have that many tanks. Then wtf, he loses them all to 1 lurker and a few lings?! Must be the most embarrassing moment of his life.

Savior played pretty well, and Midas screwed up. Simple as that.

I actually voted for YarnC here. I personally don't like Oov (he has an arrogant attitude imo) and YarnC's ZvT style has always impressed me. Plus the map was Arkanoid which was said to be slightly good for Z.

Oov's build was pretty good, predicting the muta build and going straight for valks instead of building turrets everywhere and running around with marines for 10 minutes. Although the fast tech led me to believe a Zergman-type rush build would have killed him... but w/e.

What impressed me was the way YarnC reacted to the build. Instead of trying to battle the valks with muta/scourge, he saved his mutalisks, only using them when needed, keeping them alive and putting up a bunch of spores, while quickly switching tech to hydralisks.

His decision to go upgraded hydras instead of lurkers was far more effective than I thought it would be. Oov's defense at his left nat seemed to be strong, but YarnC's sudden mutalisks ambush, killing about 2/3 tanks really helped him break through. I thought Oov's tank/valk strategy would be a good defense strat, but YarnC played really well to break it.

Then came Oov's counter. Mnm, mass tanks, mass valks, and a vessel. I honestly thought YarnC would die here. And he nearly did. Oov was at his doorstep, shooting in his livingroom when his defiler popped out. He did very well to block it, knowing any other type of attack would fail and waiting patiently until he was ready.

After that it was YarnC's game. That last plague on the 10+ valks followed by a group of mutas slaughtering the valks was a nice way to end it. Always love wathing plagues being used so effectively.

I wanted July to win. I wanted the zergs to prove why they keep insisting Hitch Hiker to be not bad for Zerg (yes, most progamers actually say hitch hiker is better for Z than T... wierd eh?). But I gotta say, Casy's strat was good. Forcing July into a 3 hatch build, delaying tech, and rushing to tanks.... july played right into his hands.

But July's muta counter also was impressive. I'm sure most ppl thought July would die to that first attack, but his calm reaction and ability to pick off each marine, followed by a nice harrass in Casy's main was impressive. I kind of wish he expanded to 5 a lot sooner though.

For a fleeting moment, I thought July was back in the game, when he started mixing in lurkers into his army. But Casy's lead was too big I guess. The upgrades definately made it harder for the lurkers to do much damage. Props to both July and Casy. Both of their games on this map was extremely exciting to watch.

Though I'm glad a protoss made it through, I was highly impressed in Light's game. He played well on DF, using the terrains to his advantage, playing as gay as possible and cutting off all expansions.

The game on RT wasn't so impressive till mid games. After losing that first tank in that pathetic FD rush, getting harrassed by goons, and then failing his second attack on Bisu's min-only, I thought the game was lost for sure.

Though the outcome was just that, his constant vulture harrasses here and there, amazing defense (or rather Bisu's overly-aggressive attacks), and never-ending movements really amazed me. It was quite impressive, seeing him slowly close that gap that he made so early in the game.

When his last counter nearly cut off all of Bisu's expansions, we all knew he would have won if only he could do something about those carriers.... then out of nowhere, a handful of wraiths. That one moment was probably the second most intense moment of the entire match. Though Bisu won, Light's game was more impressive (I keep using this word) imo.

Then came game 3. His decision to go 3 rax mnm was once again, bold and impressive (there it is again). But Bisu's defensive micro was also very nice. The one moment when Light ran up the ramp was probably his biggest mistake, getting cut off by probes. Maybe if he stayed and killed the nexus he may have been in a better position... but then again, Bisu would have reavers.

Either way Bisu's reaction was very effective, and he deserved that third game.

Though I voted for Savior, my hopes weren't high. Longinus, DF, RT.... all death beds for zergs. Who would have expected Savior to pull a 9 pool, and a 4 pool? Even his DF game wasn't so bad. He had the lead but lost it because of a few nice plays by Justin.

The Longinus game was just very lucky for Savior. Justin scouted late, and in the wrong directly, going 1 rax double CC. Could Savior have wished for a better situation?

The DF game was ok. Savior did very well the first half, but Justin played smart the second half. Perhaps if Savior made some drops to harrass Justin's min-expansion it would have been a bit different. Who knows.

The Reverse Temple game. What the fuck. 5 pool, from Savior... not Jju, not ChoJJa. Who would have thought? From Savior's interview after the match, he said he was contemplating the decision on whether to use the build all week. He was thinking about using it against Midas the day before, he was thinking about it during his 2 matches before, he was thinking about it even as the third game started.

But really. Rather than Savior doing so well, Justin's horrible micro was just terrible. In another interview with Savior, he expressed his frustration at the crowd's reaction to his build. When he morphed his pool, he said he heard the crowed scream, and was sure Justin heard it too.

So Justin, gets warned ahead of time, goes 8 rax, and STILL fails to block it. Savior's decision to bring 2 drones to prevent Justin from building a supply was brilliant, and Justin's constant micro miss was just terrible. He only left 1 SCV to mine... what the hell yo? I really hope Ra kills this guy next week, cuz he doesn't deserve a spot in the semis.

Who would have guess it? ZergMan, of all people, knocks out Hwasin 2-0... His build last week on Arkanoid was nice, but had to do with a lot of luck too. But this week, he used a nice strategy.

Fooling the opponent, he succesfully murders the first batch of marines, followed by a good muta/ling strat. It's quite interesting too. ZergMan's known as the "map balancer". He's known to lose on maps that are heavily Zerg favored, and win on maps that are bad for Zergs. He lost on Arcadia, and won on Longinus and Hitch Hiker. I'm sure there's more too.

He played well, not allowing Hwasin to play at his full strength, and ending the games before they went into Longinus 2.

Last week game was disappointing. GGPlay was in the lead during 90% of the game, then screwed up one attack that costs him the game. Voting for GGPlay was pretty obvious. The map was Arkanoid, it was GGPlay, and braQ's TvZ was never impressive to me.

GGPlay played nicely here. Defending until he gets hive, and switching to ultras... never really giving braQ much of a chance after a while. braQ's one chance came when he was knocking on GGPlay's door, but he didn't take it, giving GGPlay enough time to get defilers. After that, it was downhill for braQ.

Once again, UpMagiC shows his ability to strategize. His proxy fact was more effective than I thought it would, as NaD was also 2 facts, and killing those early SCVs really gave him an advantage. NaDa's counter had also done some damage to UpMagiC, but just wasn't enough.

After that each of UpMagiC's drops were right on target. Sieging in from the left, using that as bait, waiting for NaDa to break it only to attack from a different side. Basically, he was attacking NaDa again and again till he crumbled.

It will be interesting to see what these two players show next week. Can't wait.

I never actually saw this game yet, and I'm not interested. I know GF lost, and that's not really surprising. GF is never going to get the "attention" he wants if he keeps playing like this. Get out of KTF and go back to Pantech, where you belong under NaDa.

EDIT: Ok I watched the game. GF didn't play so bad. His late nat was really horrible, but the surprise wraiths were a good choice. He should have been far more aggressive with them combining it with his tanks. There was a few times when I was thinking "NOW!! GO NOW!" but no. After that IriS was just ripping him to shreds. He defended well though... just... IriS's TvT is monster right now.