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Banner thanks to Pachi
The outcomes of last week's games shouldn't have surprised anyone, but the manner in which those results were reached deviated from expectations to such an extent that they're worth describing here.
In the first set of the night,
HoeJJa crushed Calm with superior strategy and hidden intentions. Calm didn't seem to know what hit him as HoeJJa showed a ferocious desire to play 
Flash in the next round. Calm is not the best ZvZer in the world by any stretch of the imagination. But he's competent. And in this series, HoeJJa showed that he is better than competent. In the second set,
Shuttle did his level-best to get eliminated by ZergBong, but ZergBong was hearing none of that. Game 1 was embarassing. Not only did Shuttle fail to get his scouting probe killed in time to miss seeing ZergBong's earlygame build, but he also couldn't manage to avoid killing ZergBong's Lurker drops. A series of events that eventually led to Shuttle's coming out victorious. In game 2, Shuttle did a much better job of losing, though this may, in part, be attributed to the fact that ZergBong hadn't yet discovered that Shuttle didn't want to win. In the deciding game three, ZergBong seemed to understand what was happening and simply did a better job of losing than did Shuttle. In a masterful display of ungame-sense, ZergBong almost, but did not quite, break Shuttle's fast expansion with a hydra rush when he spent a couple half-dozen crucial seconds destroying a gateway with 10 hydralisks, valiantly ignoring the three vulnerable photon cannons that lay behind. His efforts towards ineffectualness were rewarded when three more cannons warped in despite Shuttle's complete lack of a forge. Shuttle, for his part, then spent a great deal of time and resources placing cannons at his natural, completely neglecting any defenses in his main. By this time, however, ZergBong was onto Shuttle's little mind games and when he dropped lurkers into Shuttle's main (as, surely, Shuttle wanted him to), ZergBong deftly refused to move his lurkers away from danger, losing his drop of 4 lurkers and 4 hydralisk (and even the overlords) to 1 storm and a handful of zealots. This cringe-worthy cock-up led directly to Shuttle's victory and is immensely more interesting if you force yourself to look at it in this backward way.Jaedong came within half a cannon's warp-time to losing his series against jjonga, which would've been the biggest upset since MVP eliminated Stork. Unlike the Shuttle vs ZergBong series, I don't think Jaedong was trying to lose... jjonga was likely playing at the top of his game and Jaedong played down to jjonga's level-- a phenomenon that is much more common in athletic team sports than esports, but makes for some exciting games. To avoid spoiling the details on how it all went down, I'll simply recommend this series for y'all to watch.Finally,
Falcon wound up posing absolutely no threat to Much, whatsoever. Grandpa Toss spanked Falcon in two straightforward games where Falcon looked clumsy, inexpert and very much unlike an upcoming star. Poor NaDa....Results
Ro32 - Day 3
Calm vs HoeJJa
+ Show Spoiler [results] +
Shuttle vs ZergBong
+ Show Spoiler [results] +
jjonga vs Jaedong
+ Show Spoiler [results] +
Falcon vs Much
+ Show Spoiler [results] +
Recommended Game
+ Show Spoiler +
![[image loading]](/staff/Tadzio/GOMS3/GOMbracket32.png)
Bracket by GTR
Upcoming
Ro32 - Day 4
May 31, PDT 02:00
Violet vs Luxury
Tempest vs Hul
Kwanro vs MenSol[ZerO]
EffOrt vs Mind
Ro32 - Day 3
Calm vs HoeJJa+ Show Spoiler [results] +
Calm < HoeJJa
Calm < HoeJJa
Calm < HoeJJa
Shuttle vs ZergBong+ Show Spoiler [results] +
Shuttle > ZergBong
Shuttle < ZergBong
Shuttle > ZergBong
Shuttle < ZergBong
Shuttle > ZergBong
jjonga vs Jaedong+ Show Spoiler [results] +
jjonga > Jaedong
jjonga < Jaedong
jjonga < Jaedong
jjonga < Jaedong
jjonga < Jaedong
Falcon vs Much+ Show Spoiler [results] +
Falcon < Much
Falcon < Much
Falcon < Much
Recommended Game
+ Show Spoiler +
Bracket by GTR
Upcoming
Ro32 - Day 4
May 31, PDT 02:00
Violet vs LuxuryTempest vs HulKwanro vs MenSol[ZerO]EffOrt vs MindLuxury has been slumping something awful since his MSL win over JangBi, but his slump has been coming primarily out of ZvZs, with a few ZvTs on the side. Unfortunately, it's impossible to know whether the slump extends to his ZvP as well. If it does, Violet has a chance, though I still think Luxury is the clear favorite. Violet only has two recent games versus Zerg under his belt, the most recent a win over hyvaa in proleague, which is only impressive because the game was on God's Garden, hyvaa's billions of scourge were almost entirely wasted, and Violet managed to go sair/dt/reaver all at the same time.Last season,
Tempest eliminated Jaedong and then proceeded to lose to practically every Zerg he met until the present. Meanwhile, Hul lost to SoO, and then eliminated an incredibly under performing free[gm] this season. So for this series, at least in my eyes, there is no favorite. Whether this means the series will be close or one-sided is anybody's guess.Kwanro (aka forhitech, aka Gangyu) vs MenSol[ZerO] should be a pretty fun series if you like ZvZ. Kwanro is statistically the favorite. After not playing a single ZvZ in 5 months, he's gone 4-1 in the match up in this month alone. Zero, on the other hand, just survived a 6 game losing streak in the match up but has managed a 3-2 ZvZ record this month. Whoever wins this game will be the favorite against the winner of Tempest/Hul, so there's plenty of incentive for both these players to give these games their all. A win here could mean an easy walk into the quarterfinals.The last game of the night, and certainly the most anticipated, is
EffOrt vs Mind. Unfortunately for Mind, EffOrt's been on a tear, destroying everyone he's matched up against in the last 2 months (look for him to move up in next month's Powerrank. It'll be a crime if he doesn't). This isn't to say that Mind doesn't stand a chance... but in recent months Mind's been under performing and-- coupled with the fact that he hasn't played a Zerg in 3 months-- this means that Mind's the underdog here. Mind has the maps on his side, though just barely, and if Mind brings his A-game that may just be enough for him to cause an upset.Odds n' Ends
Valor Tournament Ro16 Trailer by GOMtv.
It's been brought to my attention that Huskythehusky, an amateur commentator that has merited a "designated article on Starfeeder," has been making commentaries for Valor's Ro32. I watched one of his commentaries (LzGaMeR vs aCe) and wasn't terribly impressed, but neither was I offended by an astounding lack of ability/knowledge that often pollutes amateur commentaries. And since I'm of the opinion that something is better than nothing and decent is better than bad, I invite those of you that're paying attention to Valor to check out Husky's YouTube Channel.
Valor Tournament Ro16 Trailer by GOMtv.
It's been brought to my attention that Huskythehusky, an amateur commentator that has merited a "designated article on Starfeeder," has been making commentaries for Valor's Ro32. I watched one of his commentaries (LzGaMeR vs aCe) and wasn't terribly impressed, but neither was I offended by an astounding lack of ability/knowledge that often pollutes amateur commentaries. And since I'm of the opinion that something is better than nothing and decent is better than bad, I invite those of you that're paying attention to Valor to check out Husky's YouTube Channel.
See you in the Live Report Thread!
