EPT
. But maybe you'll have better luck:http://www.so1.co.kr/
As most of you know, the players start out in groups and the top 2 from each group advance. The groups for the So1 Starleague are:
Group A:
JulyZerg (Z, POS)
Zergman (Z, Samsung Khan)
Boxer (T, SKT1)
Nal_Rock (P, ?)
Group B:
Stork (P, Samsung Khan)
Oversky (Z, GO)
Goodfriend (T, P&C)
Reach (P, KTF)
Group C:
Xellos (T, GO)
JJu (Z, ?)
Pusan (P, ?)
ChoJJa (Z, KTF)
Group D:
Yellow (Z, KTF)
GGPlay (Z, Hanbit)
Anytime (P, ?)
iloveoov (T, SKT1)
That gives us 7 Zerg, 5 Protoss, and 4 Terran.
And now, the reports for the first week of games...
Game 1: JulyZerg ZvZ Zergman - Ride of Valkyries
![[image loading]](http://img399.imageshack.us/my.php?image=2rideofvalkyries10logo5nx.jpg)
Stats:
JulyZerg 7:3 ZvZ
Zergman has no ZvZ record in official OGN play
At the start of the game, the fans shout "PARK JUN SOO FIGHTING!" Which is doubly kind of them, since BOTH players have the SAME NAME in this match. Small trivia fact: their name "Park" can also be spelled "Bak" (e.g. Mensrea used this spelling). But to be honest it sounded more like "Park" or "Pahk", so I'm using this spelling instead
.Another interesting fact: some years ago Zergman, aka KT.MGW)Zergman, was the #1 player on Gamei (the original, not the new one). But can he beat the first zerg to win a Starleague? We'll see...
Park (Zergman) starts on the left. By the process of elimination, this places Park on the right.
Each player builds 9 drones and an ovie: no cheese in sight. The key difference comes when July takes his nat when Zergman starts his pool. Zergman then takes his own nat while July has started his pool.
Zergman gets his pool first; JulyZerg gets his nat and gas first. Zergman's lings reach July's nat and shoo the couple few drones away, but other than that they cause no disruption, as July's own lings arrive and chase Zergman back to his nat. Zergman's own nat has since morphed in as well.
The two build more lings and prance back and forth in front of Zergman's nat, with little engagement.
Zergman gets his lair far ahead of July and starts his spire. But he has done so at the expense of his ground force, and has built no sunken colonies to compensate for his smaller army. July attacks with his lings and easily overwhelms Zergman's own. He razes the nat hatch and goes for Zergman's main. Zergman's spire is only about 3/4 done, and he builds more lings in the hope of salvaging the game. But July continues to pump lings and easily overruns Park's main. GG.
JulyZerg > Zergman
Game 2: Stork PvZ Oversky - R-Point
![[image loading]](http://img387.imageshack.us/my.php?image=4rpoint10n4dp.jpg)
Stats:
Stork 2:2 PvZ
Oversky 8:5 ZvP
I'd like to take this moment to say that the latest OSL opening video looks MUCH nicer than the previous one, in my opinion. It has some nice 3D models of the various races' units, and it also has PROTOSS PLAYERS! The previous OSL was ALL ZvT from the semi-finals onwards. It's nice to FINALLY report on some toss matchups. Especially because I'm a toss player myself
.Anyhoo, Oversky begins his terror in the top-right, with Stork across the map in the lower-left.
R-Point has been used by MBCGame for some time and has become quite popular -- so much so that now OGN has adopted it as well. It's a curious map at first glance. Don't be fooled by the 4 "islands" in the centre: they all have small resource amounts.
Unlike LT, Luna, and similar maps, R-Point does not allow a zerg player to defend their main from their nat. Optionally, they can expand beside the geyser first -- which will allow them to protect their main -- but they will be far from the minerals.
Thus, Oversky opens with a hatch in his main and a pool. He looks to place his 3rd hatch at his nat before teching, but is delayed substantially by Stork's probe. (even warping a pylon temporarily) But he does get his nat eventually, then takes his gas and begins to tech.
Meanwhile, Oversky has done a 1-gate tech build and is currently warping a Stargate. Oversky sees this with his scouting drone and reacts appropriately by starting a hydra den.
A dragoon dispatches the scouting drone, and Oversky no longer has his maphack. In contrast, Stork can now scout Oversky freely with his sair. It flies around trying to net free ovie kills, but can get NO kills as Oversky did not even try to scout with an overlord.
Oversky has his lair now, with no sign of a spire. He produced very few lings and so with just 3 zeals and a goon Stork is able to move out to his nat. He starts a pylon and then cannons to defend it. In response, Oversky expands to the gas expo below his main. He has also finished upgrading ovie speed, so sairs and DTs will be less of a nuisance. Stork keeps scouting constantly and trying to harass with his sair and also a DT, but his sair still can't get a single kill and his DT dies without getting a single hit.
Oversky morphs a spire and a queen's lair, most likely for scourge and a hive, respectively. Meanwhile Stork continues to amass units at his nat. Oversky has NOT chosen to lurker contain his foe. Instead he has focused his resources on hydras and lings, while using his gas for Hive tech and upgrades.
Oversky scouts around Stork's main with an ovie, with some scourge nearby which stop Stork from killing the ovie with his sair.
Oversky now has 2 evo chambers for upgrades, lurker tech, and Hive tech, which he uses for adrenalings and defilers. Stork has amassed a good number of zeal/goon/HT/obs and now chooses to move out. Upgrade-wise he has warped 2 more forges, bringing him to 3 forge for upgrading.
Stork moves unopposed around the centre, heading for Oversky's nat. The camera shows that Oversky has many, many zerglings at his nat and continues to make more. He has also built an ultra cavern, although there are no signs of any ultras yet.
Stork attacks Oversky's 2nd nat (the one below his main) from below. Oversky defends with many lings. They have trouble at first, because of the high number of goons, psi storm, and the restricting chokepoint, but the tables turn with a dark swarm and more lings from around the back, saving Oversky's nat.
Stork, however, tried to take his 2nd nat but it was overrun with cracklings. He now tries again and once again cracklings force him to cancel his nexus.
Now Oversky has upgraded ultras ready, and he sends his whole army to attack. Stork has only a small force and is greatly outnumbered. Ultra/ling pour forth, crushing Stork's 1st and 2nd nats and his poor ground force. Stork concedes.
Oversky > Stork
Game 3: Xellos TvZ JJu - Neo Forte 2.1
![[image loading]](http://img387.imageshack.us/my.php?image=4neoforte21logo9zp.jpg)
Stats:
Xellos 33:22 TvZ
Jju 12:11 ZvT
Jju was looking in great shape a couple of years back, but dropped out of the progaming scene for a while. Now he appears to be making a comeback. Let's see how he does against a very in-shape Xellos.
Neo Forte differs from Forte in a couple of ways:
1. The expos along the top and bottom now have a ground path between them.
2. The chokes are a little smaller, but they can be expanded by mining away 6 small mineral patches that constrict them.
Xellos begins the game in the lower-left and Jju kicks things off in the lower-right. Jju starts a hatch in front of his choke and sends a drone to scout in the direction of Xellos. Xellos chooses not to rush (at least not yet) and builds 2 rax in his main, while scouting towards Jju with his SCV.
Jju starts his 3rd hatch at his nat before teching. He also has his pool now. Xellos marches his marines across the map to attack, but when his scouting SCV sees Jju's lings hatch, he pauses for reinforcements, then takes position in front of Jju's choke. Both players take their gas and begin to tech. Also Jju builds some sunken colonies at his choke.
Xellos withdraws his marines and starts a command centre at his nat. Jju does not know this yet, but has an ovie drifting towards the cliff above his nat.
Xellos holds position at his choke. His nat is now finished, as is his academy. Jju sees SCVs mining with his ovie, and can now react appropriately. He chooses to build a spire in the corner of his nat.
Xellos amasses M&M with a few bats. He has one ebay and no sign of any facs just yet. Jju starts a hatchery in the top-right corner.
Xellos starts to move the bulk of his army towards Jju, then wanders around a bit in the centre. He also scouts Jju's expo with a firebat, but decides to stay out of vision and leave it be for now.
Jju has mutas and going on hydra tech. Xellos has 2 facs now and starts building turrets for defense. He briefly glances at Jju's expo with his bat (looking for drones to fry), then decides to wait at the ramp. But Jju saw him and dispatches the bat with his mutas.
Jju has a hefty number of muta/ling now. He starts to harass the side of Xellos's main with his mutas, but is turned away by M&M.
With a big force of M&M and a couple of tanks, Xellos heads out. Jju moves his speedlings around the centre, at first appearing to setup a flank but then he keeps going and while Xellos lays siege to his nat, Jju returns the favour with a powerful counter at Xellos's base, easily overrunning the defenses there.
Xellos razes Jju's nat, but now he must contend with lurkers. Note that he has NO vessels, and can use only scanner sweeps to see the lurkers. Suddenly Jju realizes this and focus fires on Xellos's comsat stations, his lurkers keeping Xellos stuck in Jju's nat.
Xellos continues to mine from his main, while Jju continues to mine from his main and top-right expo. Xellos has now "secured" his main for the time being, with some marines and a bunker. This has also allowed him to build a comsat station, which he uses to free his units at Jju's nat. For the moment Xellos seems to feel safe at his main, but what he doesn't know is that more lurker/ling are on the way from Jju. Xellos hopes to push into Jju's main, but 2 more lurkers atop the catwalk prevent him from advancing until he has another 50 energy in his comsat. So instead, he treks up to Jju's expo. Meanwhile, Jju uses his reinforced lurker/ling army to usurp Xellos's main. Xellos's dwindling army is clearly not strong enough to overthrow the swarm, and Xellos GGs.
Jju > Xellos
Game 4: Yellow ZvZ GGPlay - So1 815
![[image loading]](http://img387.imageshack.us/my.php?image=481510logo8oa.jpg)
Stats:
Yellow 20:10 ZvZ
GGPlay 2:3 ZvZ
815 is a queer map. In contrast to the widened ramps used by numerous maps these days, 815 has narrower ramps for the players' mains. This mini-ramps allow only small units to pass -- in this case, drones, zerglings, and maybe hydras (not that we'll be seeing any of those!)
Yellow hails from the top-right, with his opponent GGPlay situated across the map in the lower-left. GGPlay takes his gas before starting his pool, whereas Yellow does a 12 hatch at his nat before morphing his pool.
GGPlay starts his lair before Yellow's nat or pool can finish. Yellow meanwhile has taken his own gas and starts his lair immediately after his pool finishes. Neither player has scouted the other yet. GGPlay has built just 4 lings, lucky for his opponent whose nat is not safely behind the narrow ramp.
GGPlay starts a 2nd hatch in his main and a spire. He also scouts Yellow's nat with one of his lings and even manages to get a drone kill. Yellow has started his own spire which is actually not toooo much later than GGPlay's.
Yellow starts a 3rd hatch in the lower-right corner, perhaps taking advantage of his ground advantage and perhaps hoping to secretly gain a large resource advantage over his opponent.
Yellow's spire finishes just as GGPlay's first mutas emerge. With attack+move mutas he chases and kills all of Yellow's slowlings across the map.
GGPlay finds the secret expo and attacks it with mutas. Yellow tries to take advantage of this by attacking GGPlay's drones with his own mutas, but some scourge pop out and force him to retreat with no kills.
Both players now have muta/scourge in the air and they fight over Yellow's coveted expo. Yellow sees himself losing the air battle over the expo, so instead he tries to counter at GGPlay's main again. GGplay pulls back his mutas to defend, but in the meantime about 8 slowlings arrive and finish the job, razing the expo.
Yellow makes another attempt to grab another gas, as he strats a hachery directly in the top-left corner, as in behind the geyser there. GGPlay scouts the expo with a ling but he does NOT see the hatchery! Yellow makes sure to kill the ling though, to keep his expo a secret.
Once it hatches, Yellow reinforces the position with lings, spores, and a sunken. He has also built a sunken and 3 spores at his nat for defense, plus 3 more spores in his main (note that his nat protects his main from zerglings). GGPlay clearly has the superior air and ground force at this time.
GGPlay tries to attack Yellow's nat but quickly pulls back, seeing that he cannot overcome or run past Yellow's defenses. Then he tries to attack Yellow's not-so-secret gas expo with a sizable number of zerglings. But Yellow takes few losses and holds his grip on the expo.
When you can't beat 'em, join 'em: GGPlay expands to the lower-right expo himself, and later starts another hatch at his nat. Yellow finds the expo with a zergling, but his mutas are sorely outnumbered, and when GGPlay's mutas arrive to defend the position Yellow must let it be.
Yellow starts to morph a queen's nest, probably for a Hive and greater spire, but he may use queens as well for ensnare. Both players fly their mutas around a bit but do nothing more than kill the occasional ling scout.
Eventually Yellow makes a move: first a zergling sees that GGPlay's nat is wide open, so he swoops in with his mutas (currently defending his top-left geyser), kills the 4 drones mining there, and retreats back to his spores. He can pull no such shenanigans at GGPlay's lower-right expo, however, since it is well-defended by 4 spores and a sunken.
Yellow has started greater spire now, while GGPlay has only just started his queen's nest. Devourers will definitely help Yellow to close the growing gap in the two players' muta numbers.
GGPlay's massive muta flock pokes around Yellow's main and nat to see if he can raze either of them. It is there that he sees Yellow's first devs finish morphing. He quickly runs away. GGPlay has at least 4 groups of mutas at this point, while Yellow has about 2.5 groups of muta/dev combined. The crowd is in total awe of the HUGE mutalisk flock that GGPlay has amassed, gasping whenever they see it.
GGPlay decides that to counter Yellow's devs in the short term, he will use a large number of scourge. He also begins to erect more spore colonies and starts his Hive. Yellow continues to produce more mutas.
GGPlay shows some initiative in the expansion war, starting an expo at the 10 o'clock gas island (evidently with ovie sacs researched). He also takes a poke at Yellow's corner expo, but it has 8+ spores and he turns back.
Yellow now has 2-3 groups of mutas and 0.5-1 group of devs. Yellow attacks GGPlay's 10 expo while GGPlay attacks a morphing hatch in the centre and the two trade potential expos. Yellow is now trying to epxand to the island expos but both his attempts are stopped by GGPlay. GGPlay tries to expo to the 7 island and Yellow ends his attempt, and the players are back to square one.
GGPlay has a queen at his nat and his greater spire is ready. Meanwhile, Yellow appears to have closed the gap in unit counts. Now both players have incorporated devs into their forces. While GGPlay has a queen, we see that Yellow has morphed a defiler mound, probably for plague. Indeed, one plague on many stacked arial units would be devastating, especially with muta splash.
Yellow finishes a hatch at the 12 o'clock island, while GGPlay is starting a new one at 10. Yellow has also built about a dozen speedlings and attacks Yellow's spore-infested nat, killing 3 of them before GGPlay can kill the lings with his mutas.
Yellow approaches GGPlay's lower-right expo and he HAS A DEFILER with him! GGPlay flies out with his muta/dev to engage and WHAM: He gets hit with a plague that his most of his devs and at least 8 mutas.
But GGPlay adapts and gets defiler tech as well. Yellow decides to take action and attacks GGPlay's min only nat, where GGPlay NAILS more than half of his mutalisks and devs with a plague! After the expo is gone Yellow promptly flees to his top-left expo. GGPlay races to take advantage of the plague when a defiler in the middle of the map hits them, hitting at least half his mutas with the red disease! GGPlay hunts down and kills the defiler and then returns to his lower-right expo, only to find his devs hit with ANOTHER plague from a defiler in the middle of the map!
A moment of relative calm ensues, as both players wait for the effects of plague to wear away. Yellow has secured the 12 island, while GGPlay secures the 4 o'clock island, putting the cerebrates on equal terms resource-wise. Also Yellow has fully expanded to the top-left expo and is now mining minerals from there as well.
GGPlay has apparently started to build hydras, probably for use with dark swarm. However, Yellow attacks his nat and catches him without a defiler to cast DS. The hydras fall quickly and GGPlay almost loses his min only nat a second time, but he does land another plague on more than 50% of Yellow's air force, forcing Yellow to leave before finishing off the hatch.
Yellow now takes and fortifies the 11 o'clock nat while GGPlay starts a hatch at the 7 o'clock island. Yellow sends about 18 speedlings to attack GGPlay's nat to finish it off, but 12+ hydras stop them. GGPlay appears to be slowly making the switch from muta/dev to hydras, while Yellow continues to make cracklings.
Yellow sends about 18 lings to attack GGPlay's morphing hatch at 5. As GGPlay uses his air force to kill the attackers, Yellow tries to raze his 4 o'clock island. But GGPlay is ready with a defiler and plagues a good portion of the mutas, forcing them to run away.
Both players now have both hydra and lurker tech. Yellow starts 2 hatcheries, one in the centre and one at 10. Both fall to GGPlay's air force. GGPlay starts his own hatch at 10 and it quickly dies to Yellow's mutas. Yellow is in the most trouble at the moment because once GGPlay gets his 7 island up and running he'll have that one extra expo advantage.
GGPlay starts another hatch at 10 and kills an ovie which Yellow was going to use to take 10 himself. Then as GGPlay flies away Yellow returns with his mutas and kills the hatch at the disputed expo.
GGPlay now unleashes his hydralisk army. He moves all his units across the map, razing a Yellow expo attempt in the centre. He then attacks Yellow's nat with his hydras. Yellow seems to have no defence against the hydras, but in fact he has 6+ lurkers waiting on hold position! Yellow waits for the hydras to gather together in the choke, then unleashes his lurker spines, tearing down about 8 hydras and forcing GGPlay to turn back. GGPlay then uses his mutas to force his way into Yellow's nat, only to have most of them plagued. Yellow seizes the opportunity to finally raze the 4 o'clock island. GGPlay tries to engage him with his muta/dev, but most of his mutas die almost immediately thanks to the plague. GGPlay pulls back and Yellow completes the destruction of the expo.
GGPlay resumes his attempts to break through Yellow's choke. Now armed with overlords and queens, he tries to pick-off the lurkers with his remaining mutalisks. But Yellow reacts by protecting his lurkers with dark swarm. He also uses it as an opportunity to raze the island at 7, GGPlay's up-and-coming source of income. GGPlay probably has no potent geysers remaining, and his only sources of minerals are the two min-only expansions he owns, which are quickly running low.
Yellow then heads for GGPlay's main, but runs back at the sight of hydras (apparently his mutas have not fully recovered from their latest plaguing). GGPlay moves most of his hydras to his main to defend, keeping the rest at the 5 min only. Here we see the mobility advantage of mutas coming into play, although (as Eri knows) GGPlay could combat this with ensnare.
GGPlay tries to expand to the centre of the map, but Yellow stops this with his mutas. GGPlay returns the favour by attacking at expo attempt at 10, but he must leave before finishing off the hatchery: he sees Yellow amassing his entire force near GGPlay's lower-right expo.
Yellow has a beautiful mixed force of dev, muta, lurker, ling, and defiler, a ZvZ force so diverse that even Eriador might grant it his blessing
. On the other hand, GGPlay has a simpler force consisting of mostly hydra as well as dev, muta, and a couple of queens. The hydras are needed to fend off Yellow's now superior air force, but unfortunately they are countered very effectively by Yellow's ground units.Yellow commences his massive assault. He uses his muta/dev to defeat GGPlay's own mutas, while using lurker/ling under the cover of dark swarm to defeat GGPlay's hydras. GGPlay has a larger army of hydras en-route from his main, but they cannot pass thanks to lurkers beneath dark swarm. GGPlay does land an ensnare on Yellow's mutas, but it serves little purpose. Yellow attacks the fortified lower-right expo with his lings at first, but sunken colonies defeat them. Then he moves to attack it with his mutas, but turns back in the face of spores and devs (plus they are already covered in acid spores). So the expo is safe for now. Still, he has razed GGPlay's main source of mineral income.
GGPlay is struggling to get back in the game, but Yellow has a decisive economic advantage at this point, highlighted by the hatching of 3 new hatcheries outside his nat compared to GGPlay's barely-rising unit count, funded by his nat and a handful of drones.
Yellow uses a hydra/lurker/ling ground force to attack GGPlay's nat. GGPlay's hydras are sitting idle in the middle of the map, and by the time they arrive GGPlay's nat has been exhumed. Yellow now moves against the lower-right expo with at least 3 groups of mutas, overwhelming it. GGPlay sees that he is overwhelmed, and surrenders.
Yellow > GGPlay
This 44-minute Yellow vs GGPlay was easily the best game of the week. An impressive debut for 815 in the OSL: the map definitely deserves credit for the way the game turned out, in my opinion. I think we can look forward to seeing some more exceptional games on this map in the future, thanks to its unorthodox concept of the narrow ramp.
The game between Yellow and GGPlay brings to mind one of Boxer's columns:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=30338
Boxer talks about how progaming requires physical stamina and endurance. He cites his long game against DIDI8 in WCG 2002 as an example of the need for physical strength, and at one point he says:
The opponent attacked aggressively. Whenever I blocked his endless attacks I entered and exited heaven and hell. The opponent slowly became impatient. At last Aleksandrov's final rush began. Though my back was damp with sweat, I did not give up. Finally, the moment his last attack failed, the admit of defeat "GG" appeared.
Perhaps this explains one key reason why the relatively inexperienced GGPlay (compared to Yellow) lost this game: maybe he grew tired and impatient of the long game and, like DIDI, tried to finish it by attacking rather than trying harder to secure the remaining expos on the map. His attack sent the game down a slippery slope towards its conclusion, but unfortunately it was GGPlay's victory slipping out of his grasp that led to the end of the game. So perhaps superior endurance played a significant part in Yellow's victory. Indeed, Yellow has more than 130 games in official OGN play, so he is no doubt well-prepared for this kind of situation.
Judging from the strategies he used and the decisions he made towards the end of the game, I'd say Yellow was performing very well despite the length of the game. In contrast, GGPlay made some questionable decisions (the attack as opposed to expanding, and also the lack of defilers from that point onwards), so maybe he was simply getting tired.
New Group Status
Group A:
JulyZerg 1-0
Boxer 0-0 (castles!)
Nal_Rock 0-0
Zergman 0-1
Group B:
Oversky 1-0
Goodfriend 0-0
Reach 0-0
Stork 0-1
Group C:
JJu 1-0
Pusan 0-0
ChoJJa 0-0
Xellos 0-1
Group D:
Yellow 1-0
Anytime 0-0
iloveoov 0-0
GGPlay 0-1
