OSL week 3.1: Displays of dominance

The last week of the group stage of the OGN StarLeague started today with the first of two playdays in week 3. OSL week3.2 is played on Friday. Here are the battle reports from today.

dOnGraE vs NaDa at Neo Arkanoid

NaDa landed at 5 with dOnGraE at 7. Both players opened with a command center before barrack. NaDa then went 2factory port, while dOnGraE went dual port. The wraiths of dOnGraE does next to no damage and the game settles into the usual TvT routive. This was easily the longest game of the day and to mention every drop would be a bit overkill. In broadstrokes it quickly became a dropwar. dOnGraE was mostly the agressor, but without massive success. The war goes a bit back and forth and it's clear that the two players are starting to split the map right down the middle. NaDa on the right and dOnGraE on the left. Suddenly the camera switches to NaDas base at 1 to reveal his six or seven brand new startports. dOnGraE responds to the switch to battlecruiser by dropping straight into NaDa's main at 5. NaDa doesn't have enough factory units to deal with it and his battlecruisers are too slow to get there in time. His main falls.

NaDa is left with his three bases at 1 and dOnGraE has the left side of the map. However, NaDa has a mean looking BC force by now. After a while of the usual TvT stalemate, dOnGraE has also built up a nice little BC group. NaDa is not so willing to engange though. That is until he get out a group of valkyries. With them he wins the first major BC battle quite clearly. NaDa carries on and head for 11. dOnGraE takes his factory units and heads for the startports of NaDa at 1. Unfortunately for him six new BCs pop out exactly as he arrives. dOnGraE no longer has any battlecruisers and decided a pure goliath versus BC battle would work. NaDa cheats and builds some tanks however. By the time dOnGraE realizes.. It's too late. NaDa pushes on 11 and although dOnGraE has started training some ghosts to lockdown the BCs he hasn't had enough time. NaDa just rolls over him. GG

FireBatHero vs YellOw[ArnC] at Reverse Temple

FireBatHero lands at 6 and starts off with a wall. Fake Yellow spawns at 9 and goes with a 12hatch. FBH does a nice job of delaying it with his scv until lings arrive though. Yellow adds a third hatchery in his natural and FBH starts a very late bunker outside the zerg natural. The marines are easily killed before they arrive and the bunker is cancelled. Zerg adds a spire, while terran is busy adding three barracks. When terran moves out, zerg is able to get two lings in for a quick look around.

Yellow takes 12 and and starts his muta harass. The turrets are just up in time for terran and initially the mutalisks don't do much damage. When they eventually figure out that there are no turrets in the main mineral line they kill off quite a lot of scvs. FBH responds by moving out and sieging up outside the zerg natural. Yellow was expecting it however and counters into the terran natural with a lot of lings. Both players naturals go down, but terran is denied entry to the zerg main by a few lurkers. Zerg does some damage to the terran main, but not too much. Both players take a breather and build back up again.

Zerg retakes his natural and starts working on a hive (he lost his lair in the natural). Terran is ready to move out again it looks like and is standing by the mineral only at 6. Yellow decides he might as well finish it quickly, but FBH spreads out his M&M force nicely and the plan backfires on the lurkerling army. Yellow puts down a mound and takes the 12 natural while having some hold lurkers ready for terran. Just as terran is about to roll over them, a vessel arrives. When FBH tries to enter the zerg natural again, he's flanked nicely and slaughtered. Yellow marches his entire army to the front door of terran and starts slinging swarm around. FBH has no way to handle it. GG

ChoJJa vs Midas at Longinus II

ChoJJa spawns at 3 and goes for a 12hatch followed by a third in his main before he picks the lurker tech route. Midas lands at 11 and opens with a barrack before his rather quick expansion. Terran then adds an ebay, some barracks and a factory. He marches his army down to the choke of ChoJJa and just contains him to avoid any more zerg expansions. They are slowly pushed back by some lurkers until they decide to run back and meet with the reinforcements who are already on the way out.

After some brief fighting in the middle Midas sieges up right outside ChoJJa's natural. The zerg tries a flank, like what worked so well for Yellow last game, but not this time. Terran has too many troops and stands firm before running into the zerg natural and ending the game. GG

Casy vs July at Hitchhiker

Casy landed on the bottom part of the map and went for a barrack before a quick gas. July went with a 12hatch before he tried to break the ramp of terran with some lings. Terran had two scvs in front though, so he handled it. Casy builds a factory by his neautral buildings and floated it over them, but July saw the whole thing with an overlord and there was no point in carrying on with that strat. Instead there's a lurkerling versus M&M battle going on in the middle. After some back and forth July get the best of it with some nice micro.

July starts making his way to the terran base and some new expansions by picking off neutral buildings, while casy has gotten a single wraith out and goes overlord hunting. July puts down a spire, but the wraith gets quite a few lords before it's killed by some mutalisks. Casy is preparing to move out and July sacrifices quite a bit to take out the first two vessels. Too much in fact. Casy just moves to the natural of July, sieges up and that's all. July was too agressive and sloppy when the vessels came out. GG


Midas showboating after his win

GoRush vs ForGG at Neo Arkanoid

GoRush spawned at 5 and opened with a 12hatch next to his cocoons before he teched to spire. ForGG landed at 7 and went for a quick command center as well. Terran adds three barracks and starts shooting down neutral buildings, heading straight for the zerg base. He makes it in behind the zerg main mineral line and the drones are force to flee. He also almost gets the spawning pool, but mutalisks and lings arrive to put and end to the terrans. Terran moves out again quickly afterwards, but GoRush proves once again that he simply has too many mutas and lings. GoRush reinforces a bit and the heads straight for the terran base. Game over. GoRush held his cool when terran was in behind his mineral line. That payed off in form of a superior army for him and he took advantage. GG

Hwasin vs hOyA at Reverse Temple

Hwasin lands at 3 and opens with a wall at his natural followed by a cc. hOyA, aka Jy, goes for a 12hatch followed by a third in his main and an evolution chamber. Hwasin moves out very early. He has two marines, two firebats and a medic. What can he possibly do with that? He just storms down the ramp. Then he puts his remaining one marine and one medic on either side of his last firebat behind the mineral line in the zerg main. The drones have to run and a lot of lings die when they finally take that out.

Hwasin is so far ahead so early on that it's almost scary. Zerg techs towards lurkers, but terran is ready to move out again. hOyA has managed to put up three sunkens, but Hwasin just walks straight into them. When hOyA tries to defen with drones, the terran focusfires on them. Hwasin handles, the drones, the newly made hydras and the sunkens with little problem and hOyA has to give up. GG


Midas, Hwasin and Casy happy after their wins.

OGN StarLeague Week 3.1 03/01-07
dOnGraE	<	NaDa	Neo Arkanoid
FireBatHero	<	Yellow[ArnC]	Reverse Temple
ChoJJa	<	Midas	Longinus II
Casy	>	July	Hitchhiker
ForGG	<	GoRush	Neo Arkanoid
Hwasin	>	hOyA	Reverse Temple

A long TvT followed by dominated TvZs in quick succession. Perhaps most impressive was Hwasin's confidence to just try something like that. Or GoRush's icecold decicion making. Tomorrow is MSL, day after OSL Week3.2. Then It's a day off before CJ Entus and MBCgame HERO try to kill each other.

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