EPT
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Hot_Bid/Bacchus_OSL.jpg)
Stork[gm] - Song Byung Goo
Bisu[Shield] - Kim Taek Yong
Flash - Lee Young Ho
Luxury - Park Chan Soo
Those who have fallen in the OSL
Countless progamers strive to win the most prestigious Starcraft tournament there is, each season only one manages to live the dream. Out of the 16 players who qualified for Bacchus OSL, only 4 remain. After two short series we will know who the finalists for this season are. The cream of the crop has risen, and those who were unworthy have fallen. These are perhaps some of the best semi-finals we have seen in Starcraft for quite some time. Everyone of these player holds a winning percentage over 60%. Let’s have a look at each of these players, and their upcoming semifinal.
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Plexa/Semipreview/flash.jpg)
Flash – Lee Young Ho
D.O.B. – 1992/07/05
Team: KTF MagicNs
History: 4th place Daum OSL
Stats:
All: 51-32 (61.45%)
vP: 18-13 (58.06%)
Last 10 games vP; 6-4 (60%)
Flash finds himself here after going 1-2 in the group stages of the tournament; losing to Stork and Rock. However, he redeemed himself in the tiebreakers going a smooth 2-0 over Rock and Rumble. He then met the strongest player in BW at the moment, Jaedong, and managed to edge him out 2-1 earning him a ticket to the semifinals. Recently, he has been performing really well in the GomTV Star Invitational event going 3-0 in his group – even defeating Anytime on Katrina. He is also in the semifinals for the GSI.
Flash has been on fire lately, he is playing smart and solid starcraft. His ingenuity against Jaedong with his firebat built and his Mech oriented builds on Katrina show that he is not just another clone copying the latest trends, but he is thinking for himself and developing a winning strategy. On top of that, he is playing a solid game – his macro his fearsome, his micro is smooth and his timing is sick. He is a well rounded gamer and looking very good right now.
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Plexa/Semipreview/bisu.jpg)
Bisu – Kim Taek Yong
D.O.B. – 1989/11/03
Team: SK Telecom T1
History:
![[image loading]](http://teamliquid.net/tlpd/images/common/bronze.png)
![[image loading]](http://teamliquid.net/tlpd/images/common/gold.png)
![[image loading]](http://teamliquid.net/tlpd/images/common/silver.png)
Stats:
All: 94-61 (60.65%)
vT: 43-29 (59.72%)
Last 10 games vT; 7-3 (70%)
Bisu started his run off poorly – dropping games to July and Luxury and edging out Xellos on the Protoss haven Katrina. Luckily, Xellos cheesed July on Troy and gave Bisu a second life in the tie breaker round. He didn’t miss his chance, he defeated both Xellos and July and earned himself a Quartfinal spot against Much. Bisu stepped up his game and showed some nice honed PvP and walked away victorious 2-0 over his Protoss adversary.
After losing the GomTV S3 Finals to Mind – Bisu has seemed unstable. Some moments he looks like he’s got the spark to dominate completely like he was supposed to, other times he looks absolutely terrible. You only need to look at his game against Iris on Katrina in the GSI to see how far he has fallen. Bisu has never been known for his PvT but that’s not to say its bad. According to ygosu, as of January, Bisu has the strongest PvT inside Korea (although I beg to differ).
Bisu has also changed teams recently, and his performance may have been affected by this if the GSI is anything to go by. Nevertheless, Bisu is known for his extensive preparation for series matches and could very well churn out some Revolutionary Magic.
![[image loading]](http://teamliquid.net/staff/Plexa/Semipreview/luxury.jpg)
Luxury – Park Chan Soo
D.O.B. – 1987/12/07
Team: OnGameNet Sparkyz
History: None
Stats:
All: 67-41 (62.04%)
vP: 14-10 (58.33%)
Last 10 games vP; 8-2 (80%)
Luxury finds himself here after demolishing his group 3-0 which featured Bisu, Xellos and July. If this impressive result wasn’t enough, he totally dominated Frozean’s cheese attempts on Katrina and defeated him on Fantasy II with pure mutalisk. Luxury is looking very good recently, as good as Jaedong is. In fact, their styles are very similar – notably when it comes to ZvT and ZvP.
Despite Luxury’s fearsome record he is not a player which wins in large streaks. He is very vulnerable to dropping the random game to an unexpected player. This leads me to believe that the mindset he holds is a large determining factor in his games. If he thinks his opponent is weak, he may get lazy and let something through. But when he is taking something seriously like an OSL game he puts everything out there on the line. He also is capable of thinking outside the square, his 5 pool build on Troy again Bisu was rather ingenious (despite the massive controversy). He is a very lethal weapon and a potent threat to anyone in this competition.
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Plexa/Semipreview/stork.jpg)
Stork – Song Byung Goo
D.O.B. – 1988/08/04
Team: Samsung Khan
History:
Stats:
All: 148-94 (61.16%)
vZ: 40-38 (51.28%)
Last 10 games vZ; 6-4 (60%)
Stork has been playing very impressive lately – in getting here he blitzed his OSL group 3-0. This is no mean feat against players like Flash, Rock and Rumble. The maps he played on were all rather balanced too. In the Quarterfinals he met the new face of Protoss – Best – who boasts a formidable PvP despite being a rookie. After three intense sets Stork emerged victorious 2-1.
No one can question Stork’s PvT or PvP - without a doubt Stork is the best at PvT and PvP but his PvZ is somewhat questionable. Although he was demolished by Jaedong, his PvZ is looking better but there is a still a large dark cloud over it. Stork is riding high on momentum after his GSI Quarterfinal victory and his OSL Quarterfinal victory, and there isn’t anything that looks to phase Stork at the moment. He copes with loss well which is so blatantly clear after his losses in the grandfinals and EVER finals. In January’s words – “Stork has great staying power, the longer the game goes the more likely he will win”.
So let’s get down to business with guest analysts
![[image loading]](http://teamliquid.net/images/usericons/P7.gif )
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/images/usericons/tlnet_staff.gif)
LastRomantic!![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/pachi/news/0208_ognsemi_bisuflash.jpg)
1st Set - Troy
2nd Set - Fantasy II
3rd Set - Katrina
4th Set - Blue Storm
5th Set – Troy
Finally, we get the rematch of Flash and Bisu. Many of you will remember when Flash denied a red-hot Bisu a semifinal appearance in Daum OSL via some slick cheese. No doubt both players will be out to prove something. Bisu needs this to restake his claim to the Protoss throne and to get revenge for the happenings of Daum. Flash is out to show that he can beat Bisu without resorting to some ugly cheese.
Remember that Flash hasn’t always been known for a strong TvP (especially his weakness against Carriers). But now he is packing a huge punch in the matchup - his only fault would be trying to be too revolutionary. His games against Stork on Blue Storm were deviating from the normal TvP procedure (with his +1 rush mixed with fast gollies) which tells me that he is out to win these games. His desire to upgrade TvP to the next level should work well with Troy.
Bisu on the other hand should be happy with two Carrier havens – Fantasy and Katrina, but lately his Carrier control has been lacking. His losses to Iris in GSI were shameful to all Protoss. Bisu will probably end up losing 1-3 or 0-3 in my opinion. Flash is just too strong these days, he even beat Anytime on Katrina, who is arguably better than Bisu at the moment.
Before I completely write-off Bisu, we all should be reminded that he was the underdog against Much as well. He ended up winning that series 2-0 so he still is capable of pulling out some magic for the series. Thus he will probably do better than we all expect and quite possibly could win the series. But meh, Flash has simply been too impressive of late for me to take the gamble. Flash will take this 3-1.
“Bisu looked weak in GSI against Iris, with two of those maps being featured in this series. Meanwhile Flash has been solid as a rock - even against Anytime's fast carriers on Katrina. I see Bisu cheesing in game 1, maybe utilizing BeSt's build, with Flash losing; the second game will involve Flash doing some sort of rush against Bisu's fast nexus and succeeding, while game 3 will feature Flash's fast goliath build against Bisu's 2-base star build, resulting in a T win. Game four will be a long-fought macro war with Flash coming out on top, like his game against Stork but with reversed results [either that, or Bisu cheesing like a madman and failing]. So I'm calling Flash in four, despite maps favoring Bisu. And not only because he sports the KTF tag.”
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LastRomantic![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/pachi/news/0208_ognsemi_luxstork.jpg)
1st Set - Blue Storm
2nd Set - Fantasy II
3rd Set - Katrina
4th Set - Troy
5th Set - Blue Storm
2nd Set - Fantasy II
3rd Set - Katrina
4th Set - Troy
5th Set - Blue Storm
”Will the experience of Stork be enough to overcome his weak PvZ? Will Luxury do as he has been doing this whole tournament and just keep winning while people’s attention is drawn to more glamorous match-ups? I’m picking Luxury in this one for a few reasons. Firstly, the maps are in his favour. Blue Storm is a less than ideal map for Protoss. With two games on Blue Storm, Luxury will need to win either Troy or Fantasy II which he is more than capable of doing. Stork has Katrina on his side, but I don’t think it will be enough.
I’m a fan of Stork, and like Yellow, feel really bad for the kid considering how close he has come on so many occasions. Stork’s career has been one plagued by the phrases “almost” and “disappointment”. Let’s not beat around the bush – Stork is to Protoss what Yellow is to Zerg and Midas is to Terran. Whether it be forgetting Goon range, facing a red hot Jaedong or receiving an unfavourable map draw, little things just seem to conspire against Stork. He’s still a strong chance of winning this series, but for me the signs are all pointing to Luxury. It’ll be close, but for Stork there will be no cigar. Luxury wins 3-2.”
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This is an insanely hard series to call – both players are playing some of the best games of their careers. The map list doesn’t help either. Blue Storm, while the statistic favour Zerg, is a nice map for PvZ. Progamers often say that the better player usually wins on Blue Storm, given this fact and the fact that the map promotes long macro games – Stork could very well win games here.
The other maps all look good for Stork. Fantasy II has a protoss favoured record (5-3) although that advantage comes from a very small sample. Katrina, as we all know is a very nice Protoss map all round, thus Stork should take it here as well. Troy is an unknown factor – you can’t really call how this game is going to go as Luxury may have another 5 pool planned. But I think Stork will like Troy – even if he resorts to Sair/Reaver (which was his best PvZ style back in the day).
Stork’s PvZ, however, may not be up to matching that of Luxury’s ZvP. Lux is looking so strong right now ZvP. Thus, in reality all signs point to Luxury taking the series; probably 3-2. But in my humble fanboy opinion, Stork will take the series 3-1 and send Lux to the 3rd/4th playoff.
So there you have it, these semis are set to be awesome. The best in broodwar are here to do battle for our entertainment and rest assured the games are going to be great. So tune in at 18:30 this Friday (29th) and the following Friday (7th) and don't miss out on what will be an historic event for sure.
Until then!
Thanks to Pachi for the awesome semifinal banners
