Banner thanks to Pachi
The first set last Sunday was a battle between KT MagicNs teammates, Violet and Luxury. Although Luxury was clearly still slumping, Violet impressed, demonstrating a heavy harass playstyle. Violet won Game 1 when he snuck a DT inside Luxury's mineral lines while the zerg was busy destroying a substantial portion of Violet's base. After Violet finally deflected Luxury's attack, Luxury found himself behind without any hope of recovering. In Game 2, Violet employed a one gate zealot rush, which Luxury was able to survive without taking heavy losses, though the intent was clearly to throw Luxury off his game, not kill him. Violet then followed up with a Zealot/DT timing attack/runby which failed to get past overlords. After successfully defending the timing attack, Luxury immediately counter attacked, destroying Violet's natural and containing the protoss, eventually leading Luxury to victory. Luxury played Game 3 in much the same way he did Game 2, except he was unable to use his lurker contain strategy to secure a fourth base. Violet's army slowly became too dense for Luxury to contain, let alone overcome/destroy, giving Violet the a well deserved win. Keep an eye on this guy, his proleague results don't seem to be a joke.
In what can be described as the least anticipated match of the Round of 32, the next set was Tempest versus Hul. Tempest easily controlled his opponent and slid into a 2-0 victory.
The next set was an excellent ZvZ between Kwanro and MenSol[ZerO]. Despite the one-sided result of the series, Game 1 was easily the best ZvZ of season 3, and it qualifies as the recommended game of the week. I won't spoil the results.
The final set of the night was between CJ's EffOrt and WeMade FOX's Mind. Elf-man versus dork-incarnate. EffOrt was expected to win due to his recent string of successes, but Mind did his part to make the series interesting. Mind took Game 1 by opening with wraith harass and followed up with bionic, pushing in time to take out EffOrt's fourth base (twice) and threaten EffOrt's third by taking out his temples. Game 2 was a relatively standard game where EffOrt was able secure a win with solid muta harass into lurker expand and finally ultra/ling/defiler play. Toward the end of the game, Mind made a mysterious decision to switch to BC and counter EffOrt's ultralisks, but lacking a fourth base, was unable to afford it. In Game 3, Mind executed a very interesting tank/marine rush that only failed because EffOrt's scouting lings caught Mind's first tank off gaurd and destroyed it, spoiling the timing of the rush. With the teeth pulled out of Mind's rush, EffOrt took the game with relative ease, completing his comeback.
Results
Ro32 - Day 4
Violet vs Luxury
+ Show Spoiler [results] +
Tempest vs Hul
+ Show Spoiler [results] +
Kwanro vs MenSol[ZerO]
+ Show Spoiler [results] +
EffOrt vs Mind
+ Show Spoiler [results] +
Recommended Game
+ Show Spoiler +
Upcoming
Ro16 - Day 1
June 7, PDT 02:00
BaBy vs sKyHigh
Goojila vs July
Ro32 - Day 4
Violet vs Luxury
+ Show Spoiler [results] +
Violet > Luxury
Violet < Luxury
Violet > Luxury
Violet < Luxury
Violet > Luxury
Tempest vs Hul
+ Show Spoiler [results] +
Tempest > Hul
Tempest > Hul
Tempest > Hul
Kwanro vs MenSol[ZerO]
+ Show Spoiler [results] +
Kwanro < MenSol[ZerO]
Kwanro < MenSol[ZerO]
Kwanro < MenSol[ZerO]
EffOrt vs Mind
+ Show Spoiler [results] +
EffOrt < Mind
EffOrt > Mind
EffOrt > Mind
EffOrt > Mind
EffOrt > Mind
Recommended Game
+ Show Spoiler +
Kwanro vs MenSol[ZerO] Game 1 on Neo Medusa.
Upcoming
Ro16 - Day 1
June 7, PDT 02:00
BaBy vs sKyHigh
Goojila vs July
BaBy has exploded this season of GOM, exciting fans with his dropship play and abusive multitasking style. One of 6 non-seeds to make it to the Round of 16, BaBy eliminated KT.MGW)HERO, JangBi, and Modesty to get where he is now. Last season, BaBy was eliminated by his teammate, Mind, 1-2, but he's currently 3-0 in TvT for the 2008-2009 Shinhan Bank Proleague. Being a WeMade FOX Terran, BaBy has the practice resources of Mind and NaDa to draw upon in prepararing for this match, and he'll need it to eliminate the much more accomplished Terran, sKyHigh.
sKyHigh is CJ's new Terran hope and has been incredibly busy in Proleague and elsewhere representing his team with his exceptional abilities. Although sKyHigh was not a seed this season, he's clearly taken GOM seriously, making short work of Rage, GGPlay and Index on his way to the Round of 16. sKyHigh's TvT record in the 2008-2009 Shinhan Bank Proleague is only 4-4, but his losses include games against Flash and Mind, two excellent TvT players. And almost one year ago, in a 2008 Shinhan Bank Proleague game on Wuthering Heights, sKyHigh and BaBy played against eachother with sKyHigh coming out of the game with a win against the young Terran.
It's hard to draw many conclusions from a single game, especially when that game is a year old, and particularly when one of the players is young enough that a year is essentially an eternity... but if BaBy plays the way he did against JangBi, and sKyHigh plays the way he always does, expect this TvT to be worth a good hard watch.
Since the first set will be seedless, it's only appropriate that the second set should be played between two seeds: Goojila and July. Both players belong to STX SouL, and watching teammates play is always interesting, especially when they're high caliber players, as is the case here. What's even more interesting is that they're both established monsters in the PvZ matchup. Oh yes, this will be excellent!
Goojila beat Memory and fellow STX SouL player by.hero to earn his spot in the Round of 16, and he's currently an impressive 8-5 in PvZ for the 2008-2009 Shinhan Bank Proleague. Perhaps because they are now teammates, it's been almost two years since July and Goojila last played on television. Goojila won on Python in the 2007 Shinhan Bank Proleague Round 1, proving he's capable of beating the God of War.
If 8-5 is impressive, how's 8-0 strike you? Because that's July's ZvP record for the 2008-2009 Shinhan Bank Proleague. July is as monstrous as he ever was in ZvP, and that shows in his GOM bracket wins as well. He toyed with Spear and man-handled BackHo on his way to the round of 16 and now he's facing Goojila.
Whoever comes out on top here will have massive bragging rights on top of their already intimidating reputations regarding their PvZ skills, and it's almost a shame that they're meeting this early in the tournament.
Odds n' Ends
Valor Ro16 Day 1 was cast this morning. Here's the live report thread, and it involves some drama (pages 5-7 for details).
Click here for details on GOMtv's World Invitational (Warcraft 3 tournament).
See you in the Live Report Thread!