With the quarter-finals finished the final stage of the most popular Korean league is within the remaining players' grasp.
Over three weeks the TV station OnGameNet spread out the individual games of the Ever OSL 2005 quarterfinals, in order to add a more suspenseful element for the fans. Each week one of the games from each best out of three encounter was set to take place.
XellOs eliminating iloveOOv with a clean 2-0 sweep
iloveoov, supposedly one of the strongest players as of now didn't seem to be able to find a recipe to beat XellOs (pic). After already having suffered a bitter defeat in the first week, he was finished off right afterwards during week 2. Although XellOs has an overall winning record versus iloveOOv this does not mean that much. The margin between losing and winning is extremely thin on this level play, which one of the OGN commentators acknowledged presenting a sort of formula: iloveoov > NaDa > XellOs > iloveOOv.But let us have a look at the result for now:
| iloveOOv | < | XellOs | 0-1 | @  Neo Requiem |
 Julyzerg | > | Iris[gm] | 1-0 | @  Forte |
| Goodfriend | > | Midas | 1-0 | @  Ride of Valkyries |
| GoRush | > |  Reach | 1-0 | @ Luna the Final |
| iloveOOv | < | XellOs | 0-2 | @ Forte |
| Julyzerg | > | Iris[gm] | 2-0 | @ Ride of Valkyries |
| Goodfriend | < | Midas | 1-1 | @ Luna the Final |
| GoRush | < | Reach | 1-1 | @ Neo Requiem |
| Goodfriend | > | Midas | 2-1 | @ Neo Requiem |
| GoRush | > | Reach | 2-1 | @ Forte |
Protoss failing again
We already had a look at XellOs vs. iloveoov, what about the other matches?
Reach, the only Protoss player to make it out of the groups, managed to take a game from the ZvP expert Gorush during week two. That week OGN held the games on an outdoor stage in Reach's hometown of Pusan, definitely igniting his will to win. But alas, it was not enough. Gorush overcame him in week three, sending him back to the Dual Tournament.SK Telecom T1 players unfortunate in Terran vs Terran
Three players from the SK Telecom T1 team made it into quarters,
iloveoov, Gorush and Midas. Losing to NaDa's team partner Goodfriend Midas had to join his Terran companion iloveoov back to qualification process for the next Starleague.. Out of the SKT1 players only Gorush proved strong enough to advance to semis.Paradise for Terran vs Zerg fans
Which brings us to the last encounter. July's (pic) opponent, the rather rookie player Iris[gm] proved to be no match at all. In two pretty one sided games July took quick care of him, demonstrating his scary Zerg vs Terran performance once again. Probably to his satisfaction he will encounter a Terran in the semi-finals as weel, have a look:| XellOs | vs | Julyzerg | June 10th 2005 |
| Goodfriend | vs | Gorush | June 17th 2005 |
This season's semi-finals very similar to last season's
Seems familiar? If it does you are not that far off! After all out of the four participants three are the same as last season:
Julyzerg, Goodfriend and GoRush qualifiy for the second semis in a row. Only NaDa was "replaced" by XellOs. Julyzerg and XellOs are both candidates for a second OGN title, if any of them accomplishes a win in the end, he will join the ranks of BoxeR, GARIMTO and Nada, who all already hold two titles each. Having been three-nulled in last season's 3rd/4th place game Goodfriend will probably be anxious to face Gorush -last MSL's winner- again. He probably has the slimmest chance of them, but nobody should count him as an easy prey!
Links
teamliquid.net - Source - quarter-finals week 1
teamliquid.net - Source - quarter-finals week 2
teamliquid.net - Source - quarter-finals week 3
