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OSL 3rd Place Match
19 December 2007
Results
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Bisu < Up @ Fantasy II
Bisu > Up @ Katrina
Bisu > Up @ Blue Storm
Bisu < Up @ Persona
Bisu > Up @ Fantasy II
Bisu wins 3-2 and secures the third seed in the next OSL!
Bisu > Up @ Katrina
Bisu > Up @ Blue Storm
Bisu < Up @ Persona
Bisu > Up @ Fantasy II
Bisu wins 3-2 and secures the third seed in the next OSL!
Supplemental Links
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The OSL third place match is about more than pride and money; it’s about securing the third seed in the upcoming OSL. No one wants to be left at the mercy of the Dual Tournament, a place in which two losses takes a player out of the spotlight for the next three months.
So it should come as no surprise that the Bo5 between Bisu and Up was an all-out scrap between two players clinging to the hope of winning the next OSL.
In the first game on Fantasy II, Bisu opened with a double nexus build. Up started a starport after his factory finished. After pushing Bisu’s initial troops back with a small force of marines and vultures, Up used his dropship to ferry his vultures into Bisu’s main. A single, heroic spider mine killed a huge lump of Bisu’s probes as Up dropped yet more vultures onto the cliff above Bisu’s natural expansion. From there, Up expanded aggressively, harassed often, used a wraith to counter Bisu’s attempted reaver harassment, and pushed just as Bisu was starting on carrier tech. Bisu conceded shortly after the demolition of his natural expansion.
One of the many dangers of stacking probes.
The game on Katrina was all about multitasking. Bisu moved into a dark templar drop after his initial zealot harassment put Up severely behind. Up countered with a drop of his own, which killed a good number of probes before Bisu managed to warp in a cannon at his natural expansion. Bisu’s drop, however, was significantly more effective. He kept Up from expanding and mining, and Up’s successive drops did only minimal damage. In the end, Bisu had a large economic lead, and he charged into Up’s base for the win.
Bisu’s shadowy sentinel stands watch over Up’s mineral line.
With the series tied at 1-1 and Persona coming up, both players had to have known that the game on Blue Storm was pivotal. Bisu stole Up’s vespene geyser, pressured with zealots, and expanded all before claiming his own geyser. Up responded with two factories and an expansion of his own. Bisu managed some light harassment with a lone reaver while he started carriers. By the time Bisu’s carriers were out, Up had a small fleet of cloaked wraiths, which he used, in conjunction with his land army, to kill all but two of the carriers. But Bisu patiently held the high ground, kept his expansions safe, and harassed with additional corsair-supported carriers, eventually winning the lopsided elimination race that took place at the end of the game.
Bisu’s carrier count reached truly epic proportions.
The fourth game on Persona was almost brutally one-sided. Up was well-prepared for Bisu’s proxy dark templar drop; it did no damage. In the meantime, Up was shelling the front of Bisu’s base. Bisu tried to secure an expansion at another main, but by that point, Up had three running bases and was constructing a fourth. Up rolled over Bisu with relative ease.
As cute as he tried to be, Bisu succumbed to Up’s safe, brute force approach.
Whereas their second game was all about multitasking, the deciding game between Up and Bisu was all about micromanagement. Specifically, it was about Bisu using his units really well. Several years ago, I played PvT almost exclusively against GroT; I am no stranger to holding off early pushes. So believe me when I tell you that Bisu’s micromanagement and expansion timing were absolutely spot on. Bisu then used some now-commonplace delayed reaver harassment to stall for carriers. The game boiled down to Up’s inability to assemble a cohesive push. His army seemed smaller than it should have been, and his unit placement was merely average. Bisu used his small land army to crush Up’s “mission critical” push. From there, Bisu used his carriers to guarantee victory over the troop-deficient Up.
The turning point for Up.
Credit for these videos goes to yakii and BaeZZi.
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Bisu vs. Up @ Fantasy II
Bisu vs. Up @ Katrina
Bisu vs. Up @ Blue Storm
Bisu vs. Up @ Persona
Bisu vs. Up @ Fantasy II
Bisu vs. Up @ Katrina
Bisu vs. Up @ Blue Storm
Bisu vs. Up @ Persona
Bisu vs. Up @ Fantasy II
All credit for creating and maintaining this incredibly cool bracket goes to pachi.
The OSL final between Stork and Jaedong is tonight. Criticism of Jaedong’s ZvP and Stork’s PvZ aside, I’m expecting this to be one of the closest finals in the history of StarCraft. Both players are young, both are hungry, and both are playing a matchup with which they’re not entirely comfortable. Which player will elevate his level of play according to the circumstance? Will the Protoss nightmare that is Persona be the deciding factor, or will Stork overcome the map that he called “the hardest map to PvZ on in the current pool” (SuperJongMan, source)?
Predictions
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I can’t imagine a more evenly-matched final. While Stork would to be considered the favorite under normal circumstances, Jaedong has had twice the time to practice the matchup, and Persona is the first and fifth map in the Bo5 final. I'm predicting that Jaedong wins 3-2 due to his additional practice time, his map advantage, and science.