EPT
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There are good things and great things, then there are things made by Pachi...
So if you don't know what happened in the tiebreakers over the weekend then well, obviously you don't liquibet or have an interest in the OSL. In either case, it's pretty unlikely you'll be reading this report anyway. So yes, the tie-breakers happened; July tried to do some all in hydra build and failed while Much got schooled and Bisu emerged rather effortlessly from the tie-breaker. This caps off the Round of 8; which 99% of you will already know, but lets look at the bracket and have a look at who's got the best shot at the OSL title this season. Also there will be a brief preview of tomorrow's games for everyone to enjoy.
The Round of 8
(A)
Flash vs 
GGPlay(B)
fantasy vs Mind(C)
Midas vs 
BeSt(D)
Stork vs BisuWith the winner of A and B playing in Semifinal 1 and the winner of C and D playing in Semifinal 2.
Flash
Flash has got it pretty easy I must say. Realistically GGPlay is largely here because he got stuck with two player who simply cannot play vs zerg. Both Rock and Light failed terribly against GGPlay and well, sometimes these things happen. Flash on the other hand just destroyed the group of death 3-0, which included July. He is the strong favorite heading into the game against GGPlay obviously. Afterwards he plays the winner of fantasy vs mind. If you've seen fantasy's TvT you know that fantasy is right up there among the best of the S class in this matchup. The odds are that he will defeat the very mortal Mind and face Flash in the semi. It should be a close battle, and it should come down as to whether Flash is the Flash we used to know and love, or some slumping fool.
GGplay
GGplay is in tough luck really. Although the last time Flash was in this position (as A1 seed) and was up against Luxury - the Zerg everyone discounted, Flash was destroyed in impressive fashion. But coming at this game from a realistic angle can only yield the result that Flash will win. Given, by some miracle, that GGPlay wins he's got a fairly good shot at making the final ironically. I'm not sure of fantasy's TvZ, as I can't recall any games of his off the top of my head. Whereas GGPlay was probably the second best Zerg through the latter half of the Savior era with his brilliant late game play. I would be fairly comfortable betting on GGplay should this eventuate.
fantasy
Fantasy has the dream run for him. Every so often one player gets a string of good matchups, and fantasy is getting a nice long string of TvTs. Mind isn't the former god he used to be, and even then he never really got to assert his dominance like Nada did. Fantasy on the other hand already has a fearsome reputation as one of the best TvT around - there is little doubt to me that he will take the series. Should Flash advance, fantasy has a real shot at making the final and getting very close to the end of the Royal Road. Obviously, if Flash plays in God mode there isn't anything fantasy can do, but that looks increasingly unlikely if recent Flash games are saying anything. Fantasy is a real contender for the title this OSL.
Mind
Mind has the unfortunate burden of having to play one of the best TvT around in the Ro8. The one advantage Mind has over fantasy is experience - he's gone to the top and back and knows what it's like to perform under pressure. Mind's best chances will come if fantasy gets rattled by his nervous, in which case Mind should dominate. However, fantasy has shown no sign of being weakened by nerves yet - and I don't think there is much of a chance that it will happen any time soon. If Mind should win, he comes up yet again against Flash - a fairly epic sounding TvT which will more than likely result in a boring drawn out Bo5.
Midas
Midas has the unfortunate duty of playing a teammate in the first round - a coaches nightmare. While Midas has been performing really well lately, I can't say I'm completely convinced that he's back to his former self. But, maybe that's a good thing as perhaps he will no longer choke when its important. His chances against BeSt are not good to be brutally honest. But as always in intra-team conflicts, anything can happen. Should he advance he will probably go 2-1 heading into Set 4 against either Stork or Bisu, then gain an advantage in Set 4 then choke terribly and lose it, and the last set.
BeSt
BeSt has a really good shot at making the final this time around. In fact, if I were to put money on finalists I would say fantasy vs Best final (Kingdom vs iloveoov at SPRIS anyone?). BeSt hasn't looked bad at all - only dropping games to Zergs in recent memory. Well thanks to OGN and it's "brilliant" set of maps, he only has one Zerg to contend with - and he's on the other side of the draw! Best should clean up Midas with little difficulty, defeat whomever wins from Stork/Bisu because it is his best matchup. And then take fantasy to school in the final. BeSt's first title could be a very real reality soon enough.
Stork
Stork has a number of problems to overcome to get to the finals this season. Problem 1: long time rival Bisu is his opponent in the Round of 8. Problem 2: Should he win, he will most likely face BeSt - the best PvP in the world. Both players will be a very difficult task for him to overcome. Bisu always brings his A game to the table, regardless of the circumstances and could very well knock him out. While BeSt one of a select member of Protoss players that can say they have a series win over Stork. With that being said, Stork is the only protoss to have a series win over Best - right back in Bacchus OSL. Stork has a tall order to make the final, but should he get there - he will be the favorite to win (and will go on to lose as always).
Bisu
Just like Stork, Bisu has problems to overcome. Bisu hasn't been known for his PvP - but that doesn't mean it's bad, just that his PvZ was just that much better. In his prime (and Storks) he managed to edge out Stork in probably the closest final of 2007. Their next encounter well... wasn't close at all and us PvP enthusiasts have been longing for a proper rematch for a long time now. This just might be that chance. Moving on from Stork we have a teammate battle regardless of the outcome of the other group. BeSt will likely defeat Bisu while Bisu should defeat Midas, but again its a teammate struggle and weird things happen in those situations (like Iris learning how to TvZ overnight right before his semifinal with Savior).
Friday's Games
 |  |  |
 Flash | Medusa |  GGPlay |
| 31 - 16 | 1-2 | 46 - 41 |
Medusa is probably a Zerg map, although we can't say for certain at this point just yet. Zerg seem to be the favored race to play here in proleague - which surely must be indicative of something. With that being said, this map is such a versatile map which can be played in a number of different styles. Things like 2rax are semi-valid, as well as a fast triple command due to the safety of the expos. It's a flexible environment and really, Flash will be able to make the most of it while GGPlay probably won't. The odds are firmly stacked against GGplay here, he's got a real monster to overcome and quite frankly, I don't think he's up to the task.
 |  |  |
| fantasy | Plasma | Mind |
| 9 - 4 | 2 games | 24 - 19 |
While fantasy's stats are not impressive, his reputation certainly is. I know I've repeated this a lot already, so I'll try to refrain
Plasma should favor the player with the better strategy and execution should be the difference between a win and a loss. Mind is renown for his impeccable execution in his timing pushes in TvP, and I suppose the question is can he transfer some of that across into this map? I think that fantasy stands a very good chance and will most likely win seeing as he should be able to hold off any advances from Mind (then again that's what we thought about Bisu). My money is on fantasy. |  |  |
| Midas | Chupung-Ryeong |  BeSt |
| 53 - 32 | 2-1 | 16 - 12 |
Chupung-Ryeong has seen a remarkable amount of cheese in PvT thus far. Now over the years I've noticed that the best maps always have a myriad of cheesy games to open with before they settle into the macro style. Such maps include Peaks of Baekdu and more recently Blue Storm. Chupung looks set to continue this tradition - and Midas should know that cheese is coming. If Best is smart (which he is) he'll either place his cheese in a unique place or he won't cheese at all. I'm hoping and praying for the latter as this has the potential to be a really good game. Ultimately though, I do beleive Best will win although Midas will make Best work for every inch of ground.
 |  |  |
| Stork | Return of the King | Bisu |
| 59 - 32 | 4 games | 26 - 20 |
This map should yield a macro intensive fight with Stork trying to steal a macro advantage over Bisu and Bisu trying to exploit Stork for being greedy. That's just how Stork rolls these days. At least from the games I've seen, Stork is more than eager to try and establish his dominance through his macro and will always try and "cheat" himself ahead with a faster expo. This almost backfired against Backho, so here's hoping he plays a lot safer against Bisu for Bisu will not make the same mistakes as Backho. In all honesty, I think Bisu has a real edge on this map; Stork simply has not looked impressive on it. Thus I'm picking Bisu to take this set.
Proleague Pre-Match
While not OSL news it's definitely worth the mention for nostalgia's sake. There's a pre-match hype event for the Proleague also coming up tomorrow. I think that it is on MBC, but I'm not certain. I'm not even certain that there will be a stream for it (here's hoping there is though). The players are all retired players working in the industry, so it should bring back some pretty cool memories
Game 1:
Yooi < Destination > EJi Game 2:
Junwi < Medusa > [Oops]Lee Game 3:
JoyO < Sword in the Moon > ChRh Game 4:
iloveoov < Chupung-Ryeong > H.O.T-Forever Closer: Destination
Note that we get to see the recently retired Junwi back in action, as well as JoyO and ChRh back for one last stab at things. Should be really fun to watch so if you're around a couple hours before the OSL,.namely at 14:00, you may just be lucky enough to catch this.
That's all from me this week, semioldguy will be back next week to bring back the battle report for everyone to enjoy. After that both myself and semioldguy will be attending Blizzcon (yes it's already here!) so someone will fill in for us. The next few weeks look set to be very cool games with some classic matchups to be played over the coming rounds. Missing these games would be like betting on gosugamers.net in liquibet - not a smart move. Don't forget to tune into the show match either, which is being held on Saturday/Sunday. Keep an eye out for the clash of the "Head" writers between myself and vilda
Cheers,
Plexa![[image loading]](/staff/Plexa/I_OSL_2/incruit3.jpg)
