Halfway through the OSL Ro16

The first of July marked the halfway point of the Ro16 and a few pivotal games were played. Two crowd favorites, Flash and Bisu, had lost their first match and were in desperate need of a win to stay in the race for the two advancement spots, while Leta and Jaedong looked to cement their top position and sit at a comfortable 2-1.

Due to some unfortunate time restraints I have been unable to watch the games themselves, but plenty of fun facts can be gleaned by just watching the current scores, starting with the Group of Death, Group A.

Group A

Group A
Jaedong 2-0	YellOw[ArnC] 1-0
Flash 0-2	EffOrt 0-1

Not completely unexpectedly, a group full of Zerg players is a comfortable one for Jaedong, who is more or less a sure-win against Yarnc when they face. Flash faces a more precarious situation after two stinging losses. He set out to prove that his TvZ was not bad, but it seems non-scrub Zergs stand a pretty good chance against him. It is possible for him to advance still, if tiebreakers are player later, but he still has to win against EffOrt, who despite his loss against Jaedong looks like the second candidate for advancement. Yarnc has shown us his ZvT, but now nothing but ZvZ games against top Zerg opponents await. Is he nervous? He should be.

Group B

Group B
Fantasy 1-0	type-b 1-0
Stork 1-1	BackHo 0-2

Poor BackHo has had a rough ride so far, first by getting hammered by Fantasy's excellent TvP and then Stork's fine PvP. It would seem the Ro16 is where his OSL run ends this time around. While we're speaking about the Protoss, the fact that type-b defeated Stork boggles the mind just a bit. Then again, Stork has been drubbed by every Zerg and their grandmother his last few games and he's a far cry from the OSL champ we saw a while back. Fantasy gets the pleasure of disposing of type-b, putting him at 2-0 and in a Ro8 spot. Interesting to note is that if type-b defeats BackHo, which is not too unlikely, he might just advance together with Fantasy, whom I think is in better shape than Stork and will defeat him when they face off. Type-b. My gosh.

Group C

Group C
go.go 1-0	ZerO 1-0
Bisu 1-1	Hwasin 0-2

It feels like these players are desperately trying to prove my predictions wrong. Hwasin is a mess, and is a long, long shot from getting anywhere near the Ro8. go.go takes a game off of Bisu and is scheduled to face ZerO next. Should he squeeze out a win there as well, jaws will drop and go.go will probably advance! Bisu has just one more match to play, also against ZerO, and although he should win, he should've won against go.go as well. This is not the time for having bad days. A lot rides on ZerO now. He really only needs to take just one more game to hit the sweet 2-win spot that at best advances him and at worst forces him to play a deciding match. My hopes aren't high, but it seems anything is possible in this group!

Group D

Group D
Canata 1-1	Kwanro 0-1
Leta 2-0	by.hero 0-1

Leta is doing what he does best, predictably dismantling his group and is bound for the Ro8 without much difficulty. Both by.hero and Kwanro haven't really shown that they have any right to advance, but both have two games each to make something happen. I still think Kwanro will end up on top, but I wouldn't stake my life on it. Instead, Canata, the one I was sure would crash and burn, is sitting pretty after defeating Kwanro. A win against by.hero and we might be seeing dual Terran advancement, if the matches turn out just right.

Tomorrow's battles

The schedule for the second half of the Ro16 is as follows:

◆ July 3rd
Ro16 Group A Match 4 Return of the King - EffOrt vs Yellow[ArnC]
Ro16 Group B Match 4 Holy World - FanTaSy vs type-b
Ro16 Group C Match 4 Outsider - go.go vs ZerO
Ro16 Group D Match 4 Heartbreak Ridge - by.hero vs Kwanro

◆ July 8th
Ro16 Group A Match 5 Holy World - Yellow[ArnC] vs JaeDong
Ro16 Group B Match 5 Outsider - BackHo vs type-b
Ro16 Group C Match 5 Heartbreak Ridge - ZerO vs Bisu
Ro16 Group D Match 5 Return of the King - Leta vs Kwanro

◆ July 10th
Ro16 Group A Match 6 Holy World - EffOrt vs FlaSh
Ro16 Group B Match 6 Outsider - Stork vs FanTaSy
Ro16 Group C Match 6 Heartbreak Ridge - go.go vs HwaSIn
Ro16 Group D Match 6 Return of the King - Canata vs by.hero

No real eyeopeners tomorrow, although the fate of go.go is certainly interesting. The fate of Group A's lone Terran rests with EffOrt. A win by Yarnc eliminates Flash completely and puts EffOrt in a very uncomfortable place. Most likely we'll see Yarnc destroyed, though. type-b will most likely also be dismantled by Fantasy, still the group favorite. go.go vs ZerO is a tough call, but perhaps go.go wants that advancement spot badly enough to pull it off. We shall see. Group D's ZvZ, like most ZvZs, are also tough to predict unless one of the Zergs happen to be Jaedong. I still think Kwanro is set for better play than he's shown so far, so I'm betting my minerals on him.

Remember to bet your minerals and tune in for some quality Starcraft tomorrow! Also, post your predictions in the comments, they will surely be better than mine have turned out to be!