EPT
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/pachi/banner/OSL_080730.png)
Pachi strikes yet again with an epic banner
The Incuit OSL has been off to a slightly controversial start thanks to the change in format from previous seasons. The change in format, which means players advancing from the offline preliminaries must play two Bo3's to advance to the OSL whereas those who drop from the OSL only have to play one to advance, has kept the qualifying players rather static in comparison to last season. Indeed, out of the 10 qualified players for the OSL - 9 are from EVER 08. With this fact in mind a number of questions have been raised around the move as to whether it was a positive or a negative change. Especially when players like ForGG ended up playing 8 games on a single day due to external commitments and the new OSL format.
Nevertheless, at least the games have not been terrible. The games on plasma are a love/hate affair - either you will love them or you will hate them. Personally, I'm loving the games on this map as even the rapes are highly entertaining due to impressive micro. The other two maps have produced rather standard games, which I guess is a good thing although Andromeda always has the pleasant twist of Sair/Reaver in ZvP and awesome macro games in PvT. Thus far the map pool is not disappointing and is generating interesting games.
Anyway, let's have a look at how each group unfolded and who has advanced back into the OSL...
Group A
(VOD)
Pure > 
Hyuk on Plasma(VOD)
Pure < Hyuk on Return of the King(VOD)
Pure > Hyuk on Andromeda(VOD)
Sea > Pure on Plasma(VOD)
Sea < Pure on Return of the King(VOD)
Sea > Pure on AndromedaGroup A produced an expected result of Sea advancing back into the OSL. Pure delivered a strong performance like he has been doing in proleage for a long time now. Despite the fumble against Hyuk in game two where he mismicroed his army, he advanced 2-1 in an impressive 3rd game. Against Sea his 14nexus build was dominated by Sea's 2fac while in game two he blitz Sea with a tank break. The closer was a tense encounter, but Sea was in control of the game for the majority of it and only came under trouble when he split his army and started to lose bases. Nevertheless, as expected, Sea advances back into the OSL.
Group B
(VOD)
Kal < EffOrt on Plasma(VOD)
Kal < EffOrt on Return of the King(VOD)
Flash > EffOrt on Plasma(VOD)
Flash > EffOrt on Return of the KingEffort pulled off a commendable effort in Group B - but after the initial upset he couldn't keep up the pace against Flash. That being said, the games against Kal were not outright walkovers. Game 1 started off as a back and forth struggle for dominance over a map which requires a high level of thought and reactionary play. Effort really stepped up his game and reacted brilliantly to everything that Kal could throw at him and after many entertaining fights in lair tech - he stepped it up to Hive and pulled the game home. The second game was a nice game by Effort where he slowly outplayed Kal and defeated him at Hive tech once again. Great games from Effort really.
Then came Flash - without doubt the group favorite. Flash took Effort to school in straight sets in impressive fashion. On Plasma he opened with a proxy fac and demonstrated brilliant vulture micro into brilliant wriath micro to take a one sided game. The second game was worse than the first, Flash simply massed wraith and reduced Effort to looking like a scrub and capped off a disappointing series from effort. But when your against one of the best in the world, you really need all the help and skill you can muster. Flash advances with incredible ease.
Group C
(VOD)
fOrGG > Shark on Plasma(VOD)
fOrGG < Shark on Return of the King(VOD)
fOrGG > Shark on Andromeda(VOD)
Much < fOrGG on Plasma(VOD)
Much > fOrGG on Return of the King(VOD)
Much > fOrGG on Andromeda Group C opened with a repeat of the final games of Group B. ForGG took Shark to school on Plasma with yet another wraith intensive build. Even at this early stage it looked fairly certain that plasma would be a map where the Zergs would struggle throughout the season. The second game, however, produced an intense encounter which showcased the best of what Shark had to offer. There was nothing too special about this game as both players essentially played macro game after a low eco start with ForGG's economy eventually running dry and missing a couple irradiations on Shark's defilers. The final game of the series was a simple 3rax timing attack vs Shark playing greedy and omitting sunkens. ForGG takes the victory in cheesy fashion.
Then the real match of the night commenced, with ForGG taking on Much. Given ForGG's recent form he was the firm favorite - but Much has been renown for his PvT for a long time. Indeed things looked to end in favor of ForGG when his rediculous blob of tanks destroyed Much with little effort on his part. But Much stepped up his game in the second set and was able to defend off a 2fac build from ForGG with the help of a friendly reaver. The game progressed with Much opting to tech to fast Carrier, which was promptly scouted by a good scan from ForGG. He pushed forward with a nice timing push killing the vast majority of Much's probes but because he expended all his forces and is defenseless against the onslaught of Much he is forced to tap out. So everything came down to the final set - which including ForGG's WCG games would be his 8th game played on that day. Much opened with DTs, and ForGG was hampered by them but still was in with a fighting chance. Much continued to play a nice safe game expanding his lead over ForGG. Miraculously ForGG staved off the first major attack from Much - but ultimately Much's vastly stronger economy lead him back into the OSL with a 2-1 victory over ForGG.
Group D
(VOD)
Hwasin < Thezerg on Plasma(VOD)
Hwasin < Thezerg on Return of the King(VOD)
Rumble < Thezerg on Plasma(VOD)
Rumble > Thezerg on Return of the King(VOD)
Rumble < Thezerg on AndromedaTheZerg came out here to prove a point - and in doing so became the first player to advance into the OSL that did not play in EVER08 OSL. But given the last two nights games, TheZerg had his work cut out for him against Hwasin. Things did not go as expected in Plasma, as TheZerg opted to use Spire tech to counter the 2 port from Hwasin rather than the "standard" hydra/lurk. The results were immediate - with greater mobility and greater control over the course of the game TheZerg cruised to an impressive victory over one of the best in the business. The second set had Hwasin come out all guns blazing in an attempt to unnerve the inexperienced Zerg, but thanks to some nifty scouting TheZerg was well prepared to stave off the rushes. After a few army trades he kept up the pressure and was soon able to assert his dominance over Hwasin with inspiring Defiler play.
Then TheZerg took center stage as he dazzled the crowd with utterly impressive micro. In all three sets he demonstrated that he had far superior to control to Rumble. In set one his brilliant control turned a slight economic advantage into an insurmountable lead and took an easy victory. The second set had him at a severe build order disadvantage - but still put on an entertaining display and looked like the better player with his units being more cost effective despite being outnumbered. The final set showed that TheZerg was more than a micro maniac, he has the brains as well. He cleverly took an upgrade disadvantage and mutalisk count disadvantage to tech faster towards Hive and Devourer/Plague tech. He was able to scare Rumble into a passive state and by the time Rumble was ready to attack - the battle was over in no time with the aid of a cute and effective plague. TheZerg dominates and enters the OSL for the first time.
Group E
(VOD)
SangHo > NsP_JoJoBa on Plasma(VOD)
SangHo < NsP_JoJoBa on Return of the King(VOD)
SangHo > NsP_JoJoBa on Andromeda(VOD)
Mind > SangHo on Plasma(VOD)
Mind > SangHo on Return of the KingSangho went to work on JoJoBa right from set 1 - where he dominated him by slaughtering overlord after overlord. After flailing around for awhile and being humiliated, JoJoBa finally typed out. JoJoBa came back strongly in the second set with strong macro and good unit composition to take out SangHo's dragoon mass. With things tied up at 1-1 Sangho turned back to things he knew and went about killing Overlords with his corsairs once again. However JoJoBa fought hard and turned it into a nice long macro struggle with devourers/defiler vs corsair/carrier after a sair/reaver midgame. Both sides disappointing in the end game with a multitude of mistakes from both sides. In the end, Sangho made the least mistakes and was able to earn a fight against Mind.
Against a player the calibre of Sangho, Mind was the firm favorite. Knowing that he would probably lose in a straight up game, SangHo decided to open with a double proxy gate; which was scouted by Mind and deftly handled. He attempted a transition into carrier after expanding twice but this was scouted by Mind and the game eventually was won by Mind in convincing fashion. In the second set Sangho decided to proxy gate yet again - this time with proxy DT. Mind, of course, has his star-sense on and knows that he is going to be proxied and builds a fast ebay. With his DT's rendered useless, the game settled into a macro war which Mind quickly took dominance of - having more supply than Sangho for most of the game. Indeed Mind easily cleared out Sangho and returns to the OSL.
Group F
Iris < [b]Pusan[/b] on Plasma[b]Iris[/b] > Pusan on Return of the King[b]Iris[/b] > Pusan on AndromedaBisu > Iris on PlasmaBisu] < Iris on Return of the KingBisu > Iris on AndromedaGroup F, arguably the group of death of the tournament, got off to a surprisingly close encounter between Pusan and Iris. Both gamers brought out their big guns in the first set with some top level PvT. After crushing Iris's first push, the game progressed into a scrappy affair with Iris and Pusan trying to counter each other and hopefully take the other player out. Pusan eventually coming out on top with some nice storming after what was a really entertaining game. Set 2 had Pusan open with a robo before expansion build forcing the reaver into a position where it needed to do damage. Iris however was prepared with turrets and Pusan was only able to muster a small number of SCV kills at the cost of a Zealot putting him behind. With the disadvantage, Iris was able to punish Pusan with a nicely timed push and without speedzeals Pusan was unable to defend. After things were leveled out at 1-1 Pusan played a reaver first build again - to which Iris was already prepared for with Turrets. Pusan was once against unable to do damaged and was put marginally behind. Iris's first push was the decisive moment of the game, already being behind, Pusan needed to break it with ease. However without storms in his high templar he was unable to break it effectively. Iris was able to clear out Pusans (foolish) expansions to 3 and 5 and seal the game for himself. In all honesty, Pusan really should have expanded to 12 as opposed to 3 initially and collected himself better against the first push.
With a 2-1 victory over Pusan, Iris looked not as dominant as he should have been meaning his game against Bisu would be a difficult test for him. Indeed Iris couldn't elevate his game above what he did against Pusan and lost to the better player. Bisu's fast Carriers (and sneaky reaver antics) on Plasma left Iris for dead in a rather standard island Protoss style. Iris really didn't understand the fundamental concept underlying plasma and looked subpar in both sets. The second set showcased Iris's skill on RoTK yet again with an impeccable timing push which left Bisu searching for answers. With everything coming down to the final set, things were prepped for an intense encounter. However, Bisu's DT drop completely destroyed Iris and earned him a huge advantage very early on. Despite sloppy play, he held onto this advantage and ran home with the victory.
So after half the groups have been played out the OSL is shaping up to look pretty much identically to EVER2008. Here is the list of qualified players thus far;
From EVER OSL
July (STX SouL)BeSt[HyO] (SK Telecom T1)Luxury (OnGameNet SPARKYZ)BackHo (Lecaf Oz)From Round 1
Sea[Shield] (MBCGame HERO)By.Flash (KTF MagicNs)Much[gm] (CJ Entus)Thezerg (MBCGame HERO)Mind (WeMade FOX)Bisu (SK Telecom T1)The maps are shaping up reasonably well thus far and currently the balance on each map is as follows;
Plasma
TvZ: 2-1 (66.7%)
ZvP: 1-2 (33.3%)
PvT: 2-3 (40%)
Return of the King
TvZ: 1-2 (33.3%)
ZvP: 3-0 (100%)
PvT: 2-3 (40%)
Andromeda (Incruit OSL stats only)
TvZ: 1-0 (100%)
ZvP: 2-0 (100%)
PvT: 1-1 (50%)
Nothing really to cry about just yet, although the balance of ZvP on Return of the King should have an eye kept on it as well as the balance on PvT on Plasma as both protoss victories were over Iris. No real conclusive results just yet
There is only one week left in the OSL preliminaries and there's still 6 places left to find. That means the upcoming week is going to be full of OSL action. If you want information on whose playing and when check out SemiOldGuy's preview thread or the calender. As per usual, after the last games conclude we will update you with the final 16 for the OSL and give you all the information you need for each series. Until then...!
Plexa
Huge thanks to GrandInquisitor for maintaining and updating the R&S thread for the OSL - the thread where all of these results came from
.
