EPT
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A big thanks to KizZBG for the sweet banner!
On Wednesday NaDa made it through to the finals in a thrilling five game set against the tenacious Casy. The atmosphere for that match was electric as two players, two champions, two SHINHAN champions fought tooth and nail against each other. On Friday, the second act was played out, this time with two teammates battling against each other for the chance at being crowned champion.
Ill let Hot_Bid do the introductions...
With everyone gunning for him, even the mapmakers, Savior always seems to find a way to win, whether it be 4-pools, "maphacking," ordefiler rushes. Deliberately, inexorably, Savior marches on. He is now three wins away from capturing his fourth MSL and becoming a Royal Roader in the OSL.
His dominance and mastery of the game is considered at one of the highest levels of all time, and by winning this OSL, the last place where he still needs to prove himself, Savior can take a step towards staking the claim that he is the best player in the history of Brood War. Can the Maestro work his magic one more time?
Iris has been consistently good, but a bit shaky in television games. His Zerg teammate gets all the attention, but he has definitely stepped out of Xellos' shadow as the premiere Terran player on CJ Entus. He now has an opportunity to accomplish something no Terran has done for years: beat Savior in a Bo5.
Iris has nothing to lose, and nobody expects him to win. But standing in front of him are slightly favorable maps and a team-mate’s knowledge of Savior's play that no other Terran has. If he wins, he plays his best matchup in the finals. Will Iris finally break through?
The maps for the set were in this order:
1) Neo Arkanoid
2) Reverse Lost Temple
3) Longinus II
4) Hitchhiker
5) Neo Arkanoid
Videos were uploaded to YouTube by wifebeater232, who, despite his horrid username, does a great service to the community.
Game One
Game one of this semifinal matchup saw Iris open with an aggressive MM build which quickly ripped down the buildings between his base at 11 and Savior"s base below at 7. His first MM group burst into the zerg main through the stone temple and ripped up the defences and lings standing guard. However, with reinforcements too slow in coming, and saviOr with hatcheries at both his expansions, the Maestro massed up enough mutalisks to end the threat. Iris was not to be denied however, and with a well working expansion and six rax for a tough SK Terran army, his next army rumbled south, shrugged off the harassment from the mutalisks, and entered the zerg main again, claiming the win.
Game Two
Smarting after being slapped around in game one, Savior was all business in game two. He was in tough however, starting at 3 vs a terran at 12. As Iris fast expanded, saviOr dropped three hatcheries and again went into mutalisks. His harassment was clinical, picking off tanks and scv's while also expanding to 6 and working his way to hive tech. However, his mutalisks could only buy him so much time. Eventually Iris made the short trip from 12 to 3 with his giant land army. Knowing he could not fight it head on, saviOr swung his army around the center and countered with his lurker/ling at the terran nat. Iris' defences folded quickly, but his field army was battering the sunken colonies of saviOr, looking for a breach in the wall. In a race that went down to the second, saviOr hatched his defiler and threw up a dark swarm, seconds before Iris went all in with his MM and tanks. With the offensive route blocked and his main in shambles, Iris punched out.
Game Three
Longinus has been a graveyard for zergs this season, but after winning both his Longinus games vs Hwasin, saviOr definitely looks to have figured it out. Iris again fast expanded at 3 while saviOr worked his way to his customary mutalisks in order to harass while expanding. Iris moved out with his ball of bionic tanks and vessels, but like the previous game found himself being countered heavily. Irradiate helped stop the mutalisk threat initially, but while his army bogged down vs lurkers saviOr had time to tech to defilers. As he finally approached the zerg natural, saviOr had amassed an incredible army of lurker ling which nicely pincered Iris' army. Being bled every step of the way, his large attack failed once dark swarm appeared. From that point on, saviOr pushed his team-mate back to his main with lurkers and darkswarm. Possessing no creative play, Iris had no answer and typed gg.
Game Four
Iris opened this game at the bottom, and diverged from his typical fast expansion play to open with a strong one base army. Rushing irradiate and vessels to deal with the typical three hatchery mutalisks, he wowed the crowd by killing a group of saviOr's initial lings with two vultures. He soon added tanks to his army, and marched up the trench to the zerg natural. saviOr had misjudged the aggressiveness of Iris' build and was late with his lurkers. By the time they morphed they had only a handful of damaged mutalisks for support and were quickly wiped out by a bank of artillery. This tied the series and sent it to a final game.
Game Five
Just watch it. Arbiter could probably do it, and mensrea could for sure. However, I do not think I possess the skill to articulate this game into words. Just watch it.
This game was for everything. Top four doesn't matter in OGN history, nobody remembers or cares. The fate of both players rested on this final game, and it was a game that will go down as one of the greatest ever. When people make threads in the coming years about their favourite pro games, this one will join the ranks of the greatest ever. The tension and atmosphere of the studio surpassed anything I have seen before. For thirty minutes Iris threw his SK Terran skills at saviOr on Arkanoid, devising and executing a devastating campaign which eliminated from now on any criticism of his TvZ skills. Against it, saviOr clung, with all of his poise and will power, to his knowledge of the map and champion pedigree. Allowing Iris his main bases but nothing else, he deflected attack after attack while slowly spreading his creep across the map. This game showcased exactly how to manage larva as zerg, as saviOr perfectly mixed his military and economic needs. In the end, he achieved an incredible victory and will take on NaDa in the final round.
+ Show Spoiler +
Game 1 Savior < Iris @ Neo Arkanoid
Game 2 Savior > Iris @ Reverse Lost Temple
Game 3 Savior > Iris @ Longinus II
Game 4 Savior < Iris @ HitchHiker
Game 5 Savior > Iris @ Neo Arkanoid
Savior 3:2 Iris
Game 2 Savior > Iris @ Reverse Lost Temple
Game 3 Savior > Iris @ Longinus II
Game 4 Savior < Iris @ HitchHiker
Savior 3:2 Iris
This series showed me a few things. First, Iris proved he is in the elite of the progamers. Already possessing the greatest TvT skills, he shoed that vs any zerg he can bring to the table frightful skills. It is only his misfortune that today the serg was saviOr. As for the maestro, his game is predictable and see through. His builds today were generic, but he makes up for it with the best game sense in the world. His timing saved him on Reverse Temple, and his defiler use won him the game on Longinus. His fight against NaDa will surely be epic.
Mani.
