ShinHan3 OSL Quarterfinals

A big thanks goes to KizZBG for the sweet custom made banner!

On Friday the OSL again cleaved it's number in half, as eight gamers entered the day and four gamers emerged victorious. With both the second and deciding games being played today, the studio was tense. More than three thousand people packed the OSL arena to cheer on their favourite gamers and wish them into the next round. The storylines for the day were also rich. SaviOr was the favourite to put down not only his team mate, but also the hopes of the entire protoss nation. FBH was looking to complete his upset over Casy and continue making Manifesto7 look like a goddamn genius. Iris was pitting his much maligned TvZ against ZergMan, and NaDa and Yellow[arnc] were looking to continue their epic battle from last week.

Here is a look at the bracket coming into the day's games:

And now, let’s get right to the action.

Match One: Casy vs FireBatHero, FBH leading 1-0

Game Two: Arkanoid

After a surprising loss in game one, Casy (using the ID Adamas) knew that there was no room for error tonight. He was focused in the booth, and came out boldly on Arkanoid. Sporting the brown terran at 7, his build was aggressive, forgoing the usual fast expansion in favour of a starport and goliaths. In the opposite corner of 1, FBH (using the id braq) also opened gas first but chose to build for a vulture drop from one factory as opposed to Casy's goliath build from two. With his earlier port, FBH was able to drop the vultures in the terran base before Casy took off, but the defending goliaths chased the bikes into a corner and prevented any mine damage.

There was nowhere to run for those bikes...

After neutralizing the early threat with no losses, Casy scooped up his biped troops and flew north to 1. His first move was to halt the expansion attempt by FBH while taking his own, and he then waited for a third dropship to load up. With twelve goliaths ready to drop, Casy showed his excellent micro by dropping his units in two straight lines in front of the tanks of FBH. The tanks were greatly outnumbered and quickly fell, giving Casy free hand with his army to decimate the scv population. With the well timed strike, Casy quickly levelled the score of the series, and made a bold statement about his contention for the championship.

Casy executes a perfect drop, also executing FBH in the process...

Casy 1:1 FireBatHero

Game Three: Longinus 2

Despite losing convincingly on Arkanoid, there was little time for FireBatHero to dwell, as the third and final game started with little delay. On Longinus, Casy opened with the white terran at 6 and promptly made a barracks on the high ground in the middle of the map. His first marine found FBH at 11, and while FBH fought the constant stream of grunts with his scv, Casy started a proxy factory at FBH's mineral only. The marines continued to appear for Casy, and he started a bunker at the choke of the Samsung player. Speaking of choking, FBH tried to engage the 6 marine/1vulture army of Casy and then promptly lost half of his units. Casy continued with fierce pressure, and his micro skills showed themselves superior. Time and again he fought FBH with less units, and time and again he came out victorious. Eventually, despite the fact FBH had managed a tank, Casy's goliaths whittled away his economy so much that unit production for FBH stalled. Bottled up with only a few scv left, FBH played out the string and then typed gg.

Casy 2 > 1 FireBatHero

Casy showed his game one slip-up was indeed, just a slip-up. He trounced FBH in two TvT games lasting under 30 minutes combined. Casy is the real deal, and is hungry for his second OSL championship.

Match Two: NaDa vs Yellow[arnc], Nada leading 1-0

Game Two: Hitchhiker

Three OSL titles is apparently not enough, as NaDa showed shades of 2003 in his game one victory over Yellow[arnc]. The mind-numbing micro was there, attacking on multiple fronts, and all backed by some of the best macro in the world. It took all of that to pull out a win vs Yarnc, who is showing himself to be worthy of his namesake.

The second game of the set was on Hitchhiker, and NaDa started in the bottom corner of this two player map, with Yarnc in the upper left. The first drone down the ramp for Yarnc was a scout, and he was able to see a one rax build while taking his own front yard expo. Preparing for the inevitable terran fast CC, Yarnc also took his mineral only and started making lings. His lings soon had speedy lings, and then, surprisingly, they were gifted the ability to burrow! While NaDa finished up his CC and pumped MM out of a single rax, Yarnc massed up a group of lings and headed south. NaDa retreated his marines to his ramp and lifted his CC until a medic and firebat could join his recruits, and he then walked the center path north to the zerg base, blissfully unaware of the trap about to be sprung.

As the ignorant trod overhead, death waited below...

As NaDa's troops marched past, Yarnc did not uproot just yet. Instead, he waiting until the human force was engaging the morphing sunken colonies and then ran up from behind. Fighting with lings and drones, he overwhelmed the small force despite delicate control from NaDa. His lings then ran south, breeched the terran ramp, and then the remaining three burrowed in strategic points in NaDa’s base. With both a spire and lurkers incoming and NaDa low on troops, Yarnc was able to take his corner expansion at 1 o’clock safely. His early mutalisks did little damage, but served the purpose of keeping NaDa in his base.

”Burrow zerg is in your ground, stealing your intel!”

With NaDa in complete turtle mode, Yarnc readied phase three of his build and a lurker/ling army started clearing the path through buildings to the terran base. His army slowly crushed their way through the path, as he built defilers in his main. Just as Yarnc breeched the terran base from the undefended side, NaDa chose to move out. Caught with his army half way between the two bases, NaDa decided to go for it, ignoring the destruction of his base in an attempt to take out the zerg first. His marines tried to make their way up the zerg ramp, but had to wait for artillery because of defending lurks. Finally, an instant before the marines established their foothold in the base, consume research finished and a darkswarm covered the ramp. With no way up and a base in ruins, NaDa typed GG and was forced into a game three.

NaDa 1:1 Yellow[arnc]

Game Three: Reverse Temple

Yarnc is here. There can be no more doubt that this kid is for real when it comes to TvZ, as his play is awesome to watch. In this third and final game, he would need all his skill to defeat NaDa on a map which all are saying is a tough one for zerg. Starting at 3, he searched north for the terran player while expanding to his natural. NaDa spawned at six however, and his early build blocked off the choke to his natural allowing him to also expand early. With a third hatch for Yarnc, both players settled in for a macro game...

...or so we thought. Yarnc simply assumed his two sunk defence would be enough, but NaDa added a couple extra medics to his force and pumped from three rax. Eyeing the zerg defences, NaDa took the plunge, sending in his troops against the two working and two morphing sunkens. Yarnc's lings came from the rear, but were unable to deal any damage to the marines who were given long life by the four medics with them. Once the sunks were down, Yarnc's mutalisks hatched, but with nothing to back them up and stimmed reinforcements coming from six o'clock, they were vaporized with glauss rifles, much like his OSL dreams.

NaDa 2 > 1 Yellow[arnc]

NaDa’s victory pose:
+ Show Spoiler +

Happy NaDa practiced that ALL DAY in front of the mirror.
credit for gif: Raist

Sublime timing by NaDa in this game, as well as a head for reinforcing his army with stimmed marines running double time allowed him to pull into the semi-finals and break the OSL curse. He will take on Casy is what is sure to be an epic TvT bo5.

Match Three: SaviOr vs Much, SaviOr leads 1-0

Game Two: Longinus 2

Can anybody stop saviOr? Maybe, but it probably is not going to be a protoss player. Much, one of two protoss players in the entire tournament, has done well to get this far. However, as game one of this set showed, it is going to take something special to stop saviOr from making the semi-finals. Perhaps saviOr is tired from working both tournies? Maybe his is fatigued from practice? You wouldn't know if from the unruffled way he goes about his business. Quite simply, he is the stone-faced assassin.

Much opened at 2, and his build opening was two gates at his natural expansion. An aggressive build, hoping to catch saviOr unaware, was soon found by the initial overlord. SaviOr had taken his expo first, and dropped a third hatchery despite the zealots running forth from the protoss base. Much hammered away at the natural hatchery a bit, but with nothing to really attack, his zealot force found itself basically patrolling outside saviOr's rapidly growing ling force. Back in the protoss base, a nexus was warped, and Much retreated back to his choke to defend his new investment.

Having prevented all loss from the early zealots, saviOr’s initial build was humming along smoothly. He had both geysers, a large ling force, and a spire in the making. Knowing that Much would have to be defensive for the time being to guard his expansion, saviOr expanded again to the island at nine. As his mutalisks hatched, Much still had not warped in cannons. The half-done defences were quickly vaporized by the arrival of mutalisks, and the speedlots of Much headed to the zerg base to draw them away. SaviOr flew his mutas home to defend, but his initial speedlings he had built to defend against the zealot rush swooped in from the rear and destroyed the gates and expansion of Much. As his speedlots fell to the mutas above, Much retreated to his main, put up more cannons, and watched them all get destroyed again. GG.

saviOr’s FPV, more often than not...

Savior 2 > 0 Much

Much played foolish this game, not being able to scout, nor put up air defence in time. His speedlots were useless, getting killed and accomplishing nothing. saviOr is good, but sometimes it is made easy for him. God but does he ever look bored after he wins.

Happy saviOr reachign the semi-finals! + Show Spoiler +

Match Four: Iris vs ZergMan, ZergMan leads 1-0

Game Two: Reverse Temple

While Iris may hold the best TvT around, his TvZ is considered only a notch above Yooi. Opening at three, he had but one chance to change that reputation or risk seeing his OSL journey come to an end. While ZergMan took his natural first at six, Iris started his rax at his natural choke. A scouted third hatchery for ZergMan gave Iris the info that allowed him to safely expand himself. While ZergMan opted for both his lair techs, an early evo chamber, and a fourth hatchery, Iris continued to build an army worry free back home. With his MM well positioned outside the zerg natural, the early lurkers from ZergMan had a difficult time moving out. ZergMan slowly pushed forward with lurker ling, managing with his speedlings to take out stray MM and forcing Iris to retreat home. With the situations reversed, ZergMan now contained Iris with his lurkers, waiting for the defiler mound to finish in his main base. With that complete, it would surely be GG.

Knowing this, inspiration seized Iris and he made his move. Sending his reinforced army south, he encountered ZergMan in the middle of the map and won a decisive battle. With a neat MM split to kill the remaining lurkers guarding the zerg natural, Iris now had ZergMan in a precarious position. A single darkswarm prevented him from overrunning the zerg natural, but ZergMan had little to defend with. Using his time wisely, Iris sent his MM to 9 to deal with an expo attempt, while his tanks remained behind to contain. When ZergMan tried to attack the tanks, he got a nasty shock as spider mines popped up from below, obliterating most of his army. The MM finished their job at 9, came back to six, and along with some new tanks finished the job.

Iris’s mines blowing craters in ZergMan’s army...

Iris 1:1 ZergMan

Game Three: Arkanoid

The final game of the night opened on Arkanoid, with Iris at one o'clock and ZergMan at five. Both players opened by taking their natural expansions and their economies quickly gave rise to impressive armies. ZergMan opted for mutalisks while taking his other expansion as well, while Iris focused on producing from his three barracks and tearing down buildings between the two bases. Never one to be shy with static defence, Iris put up a mess of turrets, while continuing to destroy neutral buildings. The early MM group from Iris was completely wiped out by mutalisks, putting him at a severe disadvantage when it came to preventing mutalisks harrass.

Just when it looked as though ZergMan would be able to buy enough time to macro a win, his control seemed to fail him. His harassment was always focussed on the most heavily defended area, and each strike seemed to result in the loss of one or two mutalisks. Although he had three gas, he could scarcely afford his losses and they quickly mounted. Finally, in one catastrophic attack at the main CC, ZergMan lost most of his mutalisks in a dazzling array of terrible control. Iris, now possessing vessels, made his move turning his army loose and marching south. Having no lurkers to trap the terran MM in the narrow paths of Arkanoid, ZergMan was forced to fight with pure mutalisks and wait for his greater spire to finish. By the time it did, Iris was busy dropping his expansions and setting up shop outside his main temples. Guardians morphed, but they were soon gassed out of the sky by vessels and Iris marched unopposed into the zerg main, sealing the win.

Iris 2 > 1 ZergMan

Good timing helped Iris in the first game, but ZergMan killed himself in the second game with that control. After killing the first MM group for free, he was unable to keep his mutalisks alive. Not having any lurkers meant that the MM/vessel army was easily able to march through the mutalisk force on the way to victory.

And then there were four, and what a four, with story lines galore. At the top of the bracket we have a much anticipated TvT battle between the Neo-Emperor Casy and three time champion Nada. Who knows, maybe Casy will get some diving inspiration

+ Show Spoiler +

Credit: Suffeli

On th bottom half of the bracket, we have saviOr about to take on yet another team mate in Iris. Iris may have surprised ZergMan, and he may have also taken out the only player capable of beating saviOr in a bo5. However, he said in an interview that in practice games he wins 50% vs saviOr. False bravado or an upset in the making? We will find out soon.

Here is an updated bracket, provided by Mynock

Also, you can follow then entire course of the tournament here, in GrandInquisitor's Results and Standings thread.

Lastly, for video of these matches, please use our Torrent Tracker or find links in the first post of this thread thanks to yakii.

I look forward to next week, you should too!
Mani

ShinHan3 OSL Quarterfinals

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