Today I become a StarLeaguer (ODT Group G)

Todays games were group G of the OnGameNet Dual Tournament (ODT) and one of the participants was Sea.Jy. All the players usually bring a little poster into their booth with some pictures and writing on it. Jy's said Today I become a StarLeaguer. He was confident at least.

The ODT works the same way as the MBC Survivor League. Four people in each group, two qualify for the StarLeague. The winners of the first two games play each other for one spot. The losers play each other for the right to play the loser from the winners final and this game decided the second spot.

Shine vs Clon at Tau Cross

Clon who is in the Airforce at the moment versus Shine from OGN Sparkyz kicked off the show today. Clon had a 6:7 win ratio versus terran before this game versus Shine's 1:3 stats against zerg. Clon spawned at 9 while Shine landed at 5 and opened with a 1 barrack, expansion build. Clon had already put down a 12 hatch, 11pool and when he scouted terrans quick expo as it was built, he put down a third hatchery in his main. Shine looked to be taking a page out of 910's book from yesterday and teched to vessels rather than adding more barracks immediately. Clon on his part chose to put his forth hatchery in his main along with a spire. As the mutalisks popped from their eggs Clon also took 12 as he started his harass, which was not very successful except it kept Shine in his base for a while. Before the terran had time to secure his base and move out, the zerg had newly morphed lurkers and put down a queens nest in his main and then attacked the terran head on with his mutaling and lurker force. With his late third and forth barracks Shine was forced to lift his CC due to a lack of marines.

When the smoke clears, the camera quickly shows Clon's completed hive and a defiler mound morphing before Shine decides to move out. Zerg has about 12 lings and six scourges outside the terran base and decides that is worth the cost to get the three vessels. In a nice little display of scourge micro the three vessels expo as the last ling dies. This promts Shine to wait a bit at the bridge outside his natural and Clon takes the opportunity to expand at 1 and go around the main terran force and attack his expansion again. This time the force consists of lurkerling and defilers. The dark swarms force the expansion to liftoff, but there's not major damage besides lost mining time. After the cleanup Shine sent ten or so marines to deal with the zerg expansion at 1. However Clon had a sunken and just morphed in a nydus canal and easily foiled the terrans plan. What had held the zerg back a bit so far was some nice mines, but Clon figured he might as well drop the terran main then. The drop is not spotted and the fighting is still going on in the middle so Shine gets caught quite off guard and as the camera shows him it looks like he's had enough. However he hangs in there with his newly built command center at his second natural. Clon on the other hand made two ultralisk caverns, and expanded at 3, while starting to harass terrans second natural. Right before Shine taps out Clon plagues his vessels and finishes them off with some hydras. Clon looked like he had a plan to contain the terran in his base until he could get defilers and overrun him. It didn't quite work, but it was close enough. GG

hOyA vs Hwasin at Tau Cross

hOyA is perhaps better known to most of us as Sea.Jy, but this is the nick he used in the games, so I will stick to hOyA. His ZvT record before this game vs 2:2 while Hwasins TvZ record was 1:2. Tau Cross had a TvZ record of 9:10. (ZvP 7:4, PvT 7:6 for those interested). Hwasin went with a 1 barrack, expo build. This seems to be quite popular among the pros these days. hOyA started with a 12hatch, 11pool. The first eight or so lings made their way to the terran expansion, but was dealt with by some scvs and marines with minor difficulties. Hwasin put down an academy early and followed it with two barracks while hOyA put a third hatchery in his main and morphed in a spire. The mutas races to the terran base once they spawned only to find turrets and no easy kills. When terran moved out he got assaulted by a mutaling force, but he quickly had another group to move out towards 7 with. He arrived at hOyA's second natural just when it finished and killed it. Seconds after the mutalings attack this marine force. The marines were outpowered, but Hwasin focusfired on the mutalisks and took out all of them at least. hOyA retakes the expo immediately and tries to go around to attack the terran expansion from the other side in hope that the main army would be elsewhere. It was not and hOyA retreated only to have Hwasin move out and simply overpowering him and his newly morphed lurkers minutes later. hOyA won one battle, otherwise Hwasin was pretty convincing. GG

Winners Hwasin vs Clon at Arcadia II

Hwasin landed at 5, while Clon spawned at 11 and opened with a 12 hatch in his mineral only. Hwasin started with a barrack followed by a quick command center at his gas natural. Clon proceeded to put down a third hatchery at his gas natural and then two more hatceries in his natural while teching to spire. No doubt Hwasin had been watching Clon's previous game closely and he knew just what to do. He added an academy and a second barrack before a factory and then 2 more barracks. The inital mutalisks did no damage due to quite a bit of turrets. By the time terran was moving out zerg has lurkers ready to attack while he was away, but a bunker and some newly trained marines kept the damage to a minimum. From here on terran just disposed of the defending lurkers in a quick fashion and force Clon to give up. Hwasin did an excellent counterbuild to the build Clon used so well in game 1 and by the look on Clon's face, he just couldn't believe it. GG. Hwasin from STX Soul qualifies for the OSL.


Hwasin ready for the competition in the StarLeague

Losers Shine vs hOyA at Arcadia II

The Arcadia II TvZ stat was 17:16 before this game (ZvP 11:14, PvT 8:6). Shine landed at 1, while hOyA spawned at 7 and opened with a 12hatch in his mineral only. Shine on the other hand had gone a barrack before supply in his outer choke and was ready to put on some early pressure as he started a bunker by the zerg expansion. However hOyA pulled most of his drones off the mining and defended it well, despite losing a few drones. Terran then took his gas natural and the zerg followed suit. While hOyA put up a den, a spire and a forth hatchery in his main, terran has made dual engineering bays and added three more barracks. As he was teching up to vessels his marines reached 1/1 and he moved out. But he did it so slowly that hOyA had time to morph in his lurkers and shortly after the hive finished and the defiler mound started building. Zerg took 6 and got pushed back to his natural choke by the main terran army, but got swarm just in time. Terran tried a drop in the zerg main, but found two sunkens and shortly after the fully loaded dropship found two scourges.

At this point the usual TvZ game started, hOyA would expand and Shine would try to limit the number of expansions. hOyA did try something rather interesting, he sent about ten overlords towards the terran main, but it seemed like Shine somehow knew they were empty and didn't care too much about the fake drop. As the situation got settled zerg has gained control of the south east corner and kept trying to secure 6 despite terran destroying it a few times. Terran on his part had his corner, the island and 3 and was trying to secure 12 which zerg kept harrassing. Terran dropped the zerg main with 2 dropships and took out the defiler mound, but was stopped moments later from doing any further damage. He had also been trying to break into the south easy corner for quite a while, but was unsuccessful. Although there was a moment there where Shine displayed some nice micro with medics to kill a lurker under swarm with siege splash the fact that he couldn't dent the defenses here was crucial. hOyA simply steadily harrassed 3 and 12 until he was quite far ahead. At this point the commentators sounded like they were screaming for ultralisks, but the zerg simply stopped the last push at 5 with lurkerling and defilers and then marched the same force straight into Shine's base. GG. Shine from from OGN Sparkyz is eliminated and not qualified for the OSL.

Final hOyA vs Clon at New Peaks of Baekdu

hOyA had a 0:1 ZvZ record while Clon sported a 1:3 record before this game. Clon spawned at the top and went for a 9pool expansion build. hOyA at the bottom also went 9pool, but rather placed his hatchery in the main. Both spires finished at about the same time and Clon went for muta while hOyA went for scourge. After some micro hOyA managed to get all the mutas with his scourge in an impressive manner. Following this Clon put down a third hatchery in his main, while hOyA took his expansion. Clon had built up quite a massive ling force and almost got into hOyA's main. Then as hOyA moved out, Clon tried to sneak in, but some reinforcing lings foiled his plans. The ling counter from hOyA was too much for Clon and he had to type GG. Clon is eliminated, while hOyA from CJ Entus is qualified for the OSL.

OnGameNet Dual Tournament - Group G
Shine	vs	Clon	Tau Cross
hOyA	vs	Hwasin	Tau Cross
Hwasin	vs	Clon	Arcadia II
Shine	vs	hOyA	Arcadia II
hOyA	vs	Clon	New Peaks

Todays games were all, except the final, nice TvZ with defilers in frequent use. Some very interesting games. Looking foreward to seeing both of these in the StarLeague.

Links
FighterForum - Source from picture of Hwasin
OnGameNet - Home of the OGN StarLeague