OSL: Quarterfinals are getting close.

The OGN StarLeague is well underway. The round of 16 is here and today was the second week of one of the sets of best of three. The players play a best of three spread out over three weeks. Read on for the battle reports and what's been happening in the Korean scene lately.

GoRush vs Much at Longinus II

Much won last week and GoRush would need to win here in order to stay alive. He spawned in at 7 and opened with a normal 12hatch. Much warped in at 11 and went nexus first, followed by a gate and forge. GoRush also tried to take his mineral only, but was delayed by a probe and a nicely placed pylon. Much chose to start teching with core and then stargate, while his opponent went with a hydralisk den. Much started upgrading his +1 attack and added four gates in his main.

GoRush saw his opportunity and and attack the protoss front. Much had to take a lot of his probes off the line to defend, but he managed to hold it until his two new cannons warped in. GoRush keeps up the harass and even manages to take down the forge. However Much's macro is beginning to kick in. He manages to hold the line with mostly goons. When he moves out GoRush tries a clever flank with lings. It would have worked, if he had the units. Unfortunately for him, he didn't. The reason for that is evident when we see GoRush's drone count. His main is normal, but his two expansions have a total of five or six drones.

Much takes his time, then attackmoves across the map to victory. GG. This means that Much is in the quarterfinal with 2-0 over GoRush. Not bad by the only Protoss left in the OSL this time around. The brackets will be further down in this news.

Midas vs Savior at Neo Arkanoid

This is becomming a bit of a rivalry as Midas is one of the few players who is able to beat Savior on a regular basis. Last week it was Savior who was victorious however, so the standing before this was 1-0 for him. Both players last ten TvZ matches have gone 8-2 in their favor, with a loss to their opponent here each. Savior spawned at 7 and went for a 12hatch next to the cocoons above him before also exping to the right. Midas landed at 5 and quickly expoed to his top natural as well, before going for three barracks. Savior opted for a hydralisk den and they both started making their way to the middle at about the same time.

There was a lot of back and forth in the middle. Both players were busy opening routes and microing against each other. Midas seemed to get the best of Savior's hydras early on with his M&M force, but eventually Savior managed to flank him. Midas answered shortly after with a drop on the closest expo. He netted a few drone kills, but nothing major. Then he moves out as well as dropping the top expansion of Saviors. The zerg is busy in the middle and terran gets a lot of drone kills from that drop. Instead of engaging each other in the middle Savior counters Midas' top expo with lurkerling and hydra and takes it out. Midas follows suit with the counter and takes out the zerg main.

Savior quickly runs his forces back and after some less than perfect micro by Midas he clears out the ruins of his main. Midas has been a busy boy however and has a lot of tanks. He basically attackmoves into the zerg bases and Savior is forced to admit defeat. GG. This series is now 1-1 and we get to see these two battle next week as well.

Iloveoov vs YellOw[ArnC] at HitchHiker

Yarnc was up 1-0 from last week and spawned at the top. He decided to go for a normal 12hatch in his natural. Oov landed at the bottom and went with a one barrack, command center build. Oov moved out about the time that the spire was up for zerg. He chose to run his MMF force past the two sunkens and up the ramp. He forced the drones to flea, but Yarnc's mutas popped and quickly cleaned it up. From here on Yarnc proceeded to do some major muta harass on oov for the next five minutes or so. The terran didn't seem able to defend it too well.

“	...but defilers come to the rescue with dark swarm. Oov answers by running through the swarm and into the zerg main.

When oov finally thinned out the muta forces with marines and turrets, Yarnc had some lurkers ready. He attack the front with them and the remaining mutas and forced the scvs to flee and the cc to lift. He was unable to make it up the ramp though. Instead he delayed the relanding of the cc for as long as he could, while taking his mineral only and starting his hive. He also started opening the alternate paths to the terran base. Oov finally resecured his natural and started pushing through the valley. He also takes out the zerg expansion, but defilers come to the rescue with dark swarm. Oov answers by running through the swarm and into the zerg main. He does some minor damage, but is dealt with quite quickly. In the mean time Yarnc has been harassing the terran bases from the now open paths on the left. Zerg continues to expand as oov fights swarms in the valley. He also manages to take down a hatchery at 1 with a nice drop.

From here on it it's all zerg. He's defending all his expos with nydus channels and swarm. Oov is also mined out and tried to secure his mineral only. Yarnc opens up the right path and now he's free to harass Oov on three sides. With the failing terran economy it doesn't take too long before oov loses his newly made mineral only expansion and give up. GG. Yarnc wins 2-0 and oov is out.

Casy vs July at Longinus II

Casy won last week and landed at 11. It looked like he wanted to go for the standard terran wall and quick expansion. July however had other thoughts. He spawned at 7 and went with a 9pool. He placed it in the middle of his mineral line and it optimized his mineral gathering. Casy had a whole marine when he saw the six lings running at him. He took practically all his scvs off the line to deal with it. When he eventually did July had started a spire and then an exp.

Anyone could guess what was coming next. Mutalisks. Casy even scouted the quick lair, but he seemed surprised when the mutas started killing his scvs. The mutalisks did a lot of damage. When Casy finally got some control over the situation and decided to move out July had five sunkens and some lurkers morhping in. Casy decided to just contain him with his M&M force and expand himself. July had been researching drop and now speed finished. He loaded up his overlords and dropped a lurkerling force in the terran main catching casy off guard again. Terran counters, but had no chance. GG. Excellent game by July, the series is 1-1 and I can't wait to see these two next week.




Gimme that cheeseburger! July and Midas

OSL, Round of 16. 31/01-07
GoRush	<	Much	Longinus II
Midas	>	Savior	Neo Arkanoid
Iloveoov	<	YellOw[ArnC]	HitchHiker
Casy	<	July	Longinus II

Here are the OSL brackets so far. Anyone in bold is already in the next round and will not have to play week 3. The winner of Casy vs July will play the winner of FBH vs GGPlay, etc. Anyone crossed out is already eliminated and must qualify through the ODT next season.

OSL, Round of 16. Brackets
Player	Score
Casy	1-1
July	1-1
GGPlay	1-1
FireBatHero	1-1
UpMagic	1-1
NaDa	1-1
iloveoov	0-2
YellOw[ArnC]	2-0
GoRush	0-2
Much	2-0
Midas	1-1
Savior	1-1
IriS	2-0
GoodFriend	0-2
ZergMan	2-0
Hwasin	0-2

Predictions for the OSL

Some interesting results. Let's start with my own predictions. If I had to give you a hint of who we will see in the final, I have to say that from the bottom part of the brackets it will be the winner of Midas and Savior. From the top part I still think Casy is a good guess. July is showing signs of getting back to his God of War mode, though. So the winner there will perhaps go all the way. ZergMan should beat IriS without too many problems, but then it will be hard for him. I also see NaDa as a bit of a darkhorse. If you want a single name for the winner of the OSL from me, it's Midas.

Manifesto7 hadn't had time to watch todays games yet and it was in the middle of the night for him when we talked. So he only gave some quick predictions. He thinks ZergMan will dominate IriS and NaDa will beat UpMagic in a long macro game. He also said FireBatHero will win the OSL. I'm not sure if that was based on FBH's awesome sunglasses or his skill, but there you go.

Mireille had a bit more time and came with some more in depth predictions.


iNcontroL: Casy > July, FBH > GGPlay, NaDa > UpMagic, Savior > Midas. Then, Casy > FBH Nada > Yarnc, Savior > Much Zergman > Iris. He also thinks that Savior will run away with the title.

Our beloved Editor-in-Chief, Raistlin only had time for half a sentence. "Savior wins!" Well, I suspect he represents a lot of people out there.

Tomorrow there's the tiebreakers in MSL between Hwasin and Light, Nal_rA and Justin (aka Bifrost). I'll hopefully give you reports from those games and a wrapup of the MSL so far. Stay tuned.

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