[OSL] Jin Air OSL - Finals Preview Text by Waxangel Graphics by SilverskY



The Finals

by: contagi0n, flamewheel, Kwark, and Ver

Table of Contents



Brought to you by:

Elly the ESPORTS Elephant







Jangbi Hype:

Out of Darkness



Fantasy Hype:

Reaching for the Stars



Semi-Final Review



Brought to you by:



"It felt like fate, that we entered the kong-line together. But Myung Hoon escaped by winning a championship. It's time to punish the traitor."



- Jangbi







"Defeating me is not punishment. He will become a betrayer himself. It is better for him to remain, for the kong-line."



-Fantasy









by: flamewheel





I'm going to admit--I wasn't the biggest JangBi fan. Sure, I knew about the girlsguys everybody orgasms, and I respected the fact that JangBi held the highest PvT ELO ever, but I never really watched his games intently. Perhaps this is because I wasn't around for JangBi's heyday in '08-'09, when he started mining silver. JangBi was simply just another player, another progamer whose games I would watch during Proleague events. I wouldn't cheer for him, nor against him [unless he was playing one of my more liked players]--JangBi was simply just there. In short, I didn't pay him much attention.



Sadly, I first started paying more attention to JangBi near the end of 2010 not because he started owning face, but because of the fact that he started slumping ridiculously hard. Around that time, JangBi pretty much lost every single game he played. If you haven't seen moktira's



To be fair, JangBi couldn't be really considered to be in a slump--it was more that he was just steadily performing worse and worse, as moktira shows. His world-famous PvT was now a laughingstock, and army-devastating storms were a thing of the past.



Would JangBi turn this around?



Through the two rounds of Winner's League this season, JangBi continued to play poorly, and his individual league play in the 22nd MSL Survivor didn't look much better. At this point, I think almost everybody but old JangBi fans had given up on the fallen Dragon. I feel ashamed to admit it now, but I had him on my Anti Team for the last round of Proleague. I expected him to continue his trend of not-winning, and thus wouldn't own my anti-team.





Yeah, Killer was a poor choi--what the heck?

After nearly a one-month break from appearing in televised matches after his losses in Survivor, JangBi came back for Proleague. But something was different. JangBi looked more confident, his play was sharper, and all this definitely showed in his play. Instead of continuing to be the punching bag that he had become during SWL, JangBi decided he was going to be a Dragon once again, and his 10-4 run through Round 6 of Proleague is relatively indicative of that. And not just that--JangBi made it through the preliminaries of both the OSL and the MSL, and managed to 2-0 both his OSL Dual Tournament group and his Survivor group.



Around this time in the Power Rank, people were screaming for JangBi to be placed high. I was still relatively reticent about placing him high [and indeed, he only made it onto the June ranking at #7], for I wasn't sure that his comeback was genuine. He lost all three of his post-season games in KHAN's match against Stars, and I didn't think he was going to make it out of his OSL Round Robin group.



And then, at the end of July, JangBi decided to kick it into overdrive. During the tiebreakers, JangBi pulled an anti-EffOrt--that is, he ended them in a single round by breezing through Calm and BaBy.



With the dearth of Brood War games being played in the last two months, JangBi has truly brought us some amazing matches to watch in the OSL. We all know how overhyped his win over Flash was, but in the end it still comes down to the fact that JangBi beat the Terminator. And in the semifinals, JangBi saved us from having an SKT-SKTZerg final by defeating n.Die_soO in three amazing games.



Put his 2010-early 2011 slump into perspective. Now that's what makes JangBi's run to the final of the Jin Air OSL amazing.



If you had asked me at the beginning of this OSL who the finalists were going to be, I wouldn't have said jangBi. Even with all the hype, I still can't believe it. But JangBi, against all odds, has made it to the final stage of the Jin Air OSL. And tomorrow, a reborn Dragon will be facing off against the Crown Prince of SKT, the winner of the last OSL. The best PvTer against the second-best TvPer [after Flash], the master of storms versus the commander of vultures. All that in itself should be enough reason to watch the final, but there's something that makes this final different than the last OSL one, or really, any other Starleague final.



There are two main factors, one being Brood War's relatively stagnant top-tier pool of players and the other being that the MSL is 99% dead in the water with OSL not looking so safe itself. JangBi being in this final is amazing. For too long it's been TaekBangLeeSsang, with Hydra/Fantasy/ZerO trailing slightly behind. But with JangBi, the king of the paewangs, in the final, there's something poetic about this. JangBi is not only dramatically reviving himself, he is reviving the competitive scene of Brood War in general. And in this twilight period of professional Brood War, there is no better candidate than JangBi to wave the final flag of resistance. This isn't a story of somebody coming out of relative obscurity to kill everybody [Hydra], nor a story of a team Ace finally pulling it together to blaze through an individual league [EffOrt, ZerO]. This is the tale of a legend reborn, through darkness and storms.



I'll end with this:



Wary should the vulture be that flies through a storm.





Back to top

I'm going to admit--I wasn't the biggest JangBi fan. Sure, I knew about the JangBi storms that gaveeverybody orgasms, and I respected the fact that JangBi held the highest PvT ELO ever, but I never really watched his games intently. Perhaps this is because I wasn't around for JangBi's heyday in '08-'09, when he started mining silver. JangBi was simply just another player, another progamer whose games I would watch during Proleague events. I wouldn't cheer for him, nor against him [unless he was playing one of my more liked players]--JangBi was simply just there. In short, I didn't pay him much attention.Sadly, I first started paying more attention to JangBi near the end of 2010 not because he started owning face, but because of the fact that he started slumping ridiculously hard. Around that time, JangBi pretty much lost every single game he played. If you haven't seen moktira's documentation on JangBi's slump , go read it. Now.To be fair, JangBi couldn't be really considered to be in a slump--it was more that he was just steadily performing worse and worse, as moktira shows. His world-famous PvT was now a laughingstock, and army-devastating storms were a thing of the past.Would JangBi turn this around?Through the two rounds of Winner's League this season, JangBi continued to play poorly, and his individual league play in the 22nd MSL Survivor didn't look much better. At this point, I think almost everybody but old JangBi fans had given up on the fallen Dragon. I feel ashamed to admit it now, but I had him on my Anti Team for the last round of Proleague. I expected him to continue his trend of not-winning, and thus wouldn't own my anti-team.After nearly a one-month break from appearing in televised matches after his losses in Survivor, JangBi came back for Proleague. But something was different. JangBi looked more confident, his play was sharper, and all this definitely showed in his play. Instead of continuing to be the punching bag that he had become during SWL, JangBi decided he was going to be aonce again, and his 10-4 run through Round 6 of Proleague is relatively indicative of that. And not just that--JangBi made it through the preliminaries of both the OSL and the MSL, and managed to 2-0 both his OSL Dual Tournament group and his Survivor group.Around this time in the Power Rank, people were screaming for JangBi to be placed high. I was still relatively reticent about placing him high [and indeed, he only made it onto the June ranking at #7], for I wasn't sure that his comeback was genuine. He lost all three of his post-season games in KHAN's match against Stars, and I didn't think he was going to make it out of his OSL Round Robin group.And then, at the end of July, JangBi decided to kick it into overdrive. During the tiebreakers, JangBi pulled an anti-EffOrt--that is, he ended them in a single round by breezing through Calm and BaBy.With the dearth of Brood War games being played in the last two months, JangBi has truly brought us some amazing matches to watch in the OSL. We all know how overhyped his win over Flash was, but in the end it still comes down to the fact that JangBi beat the Terminator. And in the semifinals, JangBi saved us from having an SKT-SKTZerg final by defeating n.Die_soO in three amazing games.Put his 2010-early 2011 slump into perspective. Nowwhat makes JangBi's run to the final of the Jin Air OSL amazing.If you had asked me at the beginning of this OSL who the finalists were going to be, I wouldn't have said jangBi. Even with all the hype, Ican't believe it. But JangBi, against all odds, has made it to the final stage of the Jin Air OSL. And tomorrow, a reborn Dragon will be facing off against the Crown Prince of SKT, the winner of the last OSL. The best PvTer against the second-best TvPer [after Flash], the master of storms versus the commander of vultures. All that in itself should be enough reason to watch the final, but there's something that makes this final different than the last OSL one, or really, any other Starleague final.There are two main factors, one being Brood War's relatively stagnant top-tier pool of players and the other being that the MSL is 99% dead in the water with OSL not looking so safe itself. JangBi being in this final is amazing. For too long it's been TaekBangLeeSsang, with Hydra/Fantasy/ZerO trailing slightly behind. But with JangBi, the king of the paewangs, in the final, there's something poetic about this. JangBi is not only dramatically reviving himself, he is reviving the competitive scene of Brood War in general. And in this twilight period of professional Brood War, there isbetter candidate than JangBi to wave the final flag of resistance. This isn't a story of somebody coming out of relative obscurity to kill everybody [Hydra], nor a story of a team Ace finally pulling it together to blaze through an individual league [EffOrt, ZerO]. This is the tale of a legend reborn, through darkness and storms.I'll end with this:







by: contagi0n



Almost three years ago now, in November of 2008, a new king was in the making. The days of Boxer’s reign and iloveoov’s dominance had long since passed, and a young new SKT terran had finally risen to continue their The Terrorist for eliminating better known players; they kept calling him the terrorist for his perfectly planned, elegantly executed harass style. In the finals he faced the strongest opponent possible in his best matchup. Destiny was on his side. The throne laid waiting for its Crown Prince.



And yet, he wasn’t ready. Far more experienced and at the top of his game, Stork took Fantasy to game five and fulfilled the legend of the fall while Fantasy faltered, frayed and fell apart. The very next OSL, Fantasy worked his way back up into the finals. Again, he fell short. Despite Fantasy’s decisive victories over Jaedong in games one and two, the master zerg proceeded to reverse sweep and hand oov’s star pupil another silver medal.



Two straight silvers in the OSL are already more than most players achieve in an entire career. Fantasy was to be held to a higher standard though. He could not fill the footprints of his mentor, not just yet. While his execution was always excellent, he was heavily reliant on oov for his clever builds and floundered when games ran off the script. Over time, it became painfully obvious that his unconventional TvZ strategies were compensating for his subpar standard bio play.



It would be a long time before Fantasy would reach the finals in an individual league again. His mechanics and game plans had taken him near the pinnacle of professional Brood War in less than a year. To reach the summit would take longer. For the next year and a half, Fantasy would go through ups and downs, showcasing in his play both the sublime and the ridiculous. All the while he was, slowly but surely, gaining experience and maturing as a player.



In January of 2011, Fantasy once again stood on the grandest stage in StarCraft. Once again, he was matched against the strongest PvT player in the world. Stork was at the peak of his performance, a firm favorite against any terran besides Flash. History was repeating itself.



This time, however, Fantasy was ready. He outplayed Stork on every level and dominated each set. The result: 3-0. This wasn’t a contest. This was a coronation.



The Crown Prince had, at long last, returned to claim the throne he had been close enough to touch all those years ago. True, he is not the bonjwa that Boxer and iloveoov were; he has neither Boxer’s indefinable mixture of star sense and unbreakable mental fortitude nor iloveoov’s ingenious in game decision-making.



His strengths are different. His mechanics are incredible, his play precise and refined. His harassment is a work of art. Years of training under iloveoov have taught him some of the best series planning in the world. He has improved upon some of his biggest weaknesses as well; in his semifinals against Hydra, Fantasy showed that he could bio with the best of them. Even his in game decision-making has clearly improved.



Both his forebears are gone now. Having accomplished all that he could in the world of Brood War, Boxer left to make his mark on a new game. iloveoov is finally stepping down to serve his time in the military. As he prepares to fight for his second consecutive OSL gold, something first achieved by Boxer and only by JD since, there can be no doubt that iloveoov’s “puppet” now stands on his own two feet.



When Fantasy steps inside his booth this Saturday, expect nothing less than the most awe-inspiring TvP in the world. This isn’t the safe, reactive, macro up and timing attack style of TvP that Flash has mastered. This is aggressive, unpredictable, irrepressible harass style TvP that only one player in the world can really pull off. Fantasy is the Terrorist, the



For Fantasy, this is more than just another OSL final; this is a second coronation for a crown prince who would be king; a king who would keep his crown, against a claimant to be cast down.







Back to top

Almost three years ago now, in November of 2008, a new king was in the making. The days of Boxer’s reign and iloveoov’s dominance had long since passed, and a young new SKT terran had finally risen to continue their deadly dynasty . Like oov before him, Fantasy had walked the Royal Road all the way to the finals. Fans had started calling himfor eliminating better known players; they kept calling him the terrorist for his perfectly planned, elegantly executed harass style. In the finals he faced the strongest opponent possible in his best matchup. Destiny was on his side. The throne laid waiting for its Crown Prince.And yet, he wasn’t ready. Far more experienced and at the top of his game, Stork took Fantasy to game five and fulfilled the legend of the fall while Fantasy faltered, frayed and fell apart. The very next OSL, Fantasy worked his way back up into the finals. Again, he fell short. Despite Fantasy’s decisive victories over Jaedong in games one and two, the master zerg proceeded to reverse sweep and hand oov’s star pupil another silver medal.Two straight silvers in the OSL are already more than most players achieve in an entire career. Fantasy was to be held to a higher standard though. He could not fill the footprints of his mentor, not just yet. While his execution was always excellent, he was heavily reliant on oov for his clever builds and floundered when games ran off the script. Over time, it became painfully obvious that his unconventional TvZ strategies were compensating for his subpar standard bio play.It would be a long time before Fantasy would reach the finals in an individual league again. His mechanics and game plans had taken him near the pinnacle of professional Brood War in less than a year. To reach the summit would take longer. For the next year and a half, Fantasy would go through ups and downs, showcasing in his play both the sublime and the ridiculous. All the while he was, slowly but surely, gaining experience and maturing as a player.In January of 2011, Fantasy once again stood on the grandest stage in StarCraft. Once again, he was matched against the strongest PvT player in the world. Stork was at the peak of his performance, a firm favorite against any terran besides Flash. History was repeating itself.This time, however, Fantasy was ready. He outplayed Stork on every level and dominated each set. The result: 3-0. This wasn’t a contest. This was a coronation.The Crown Prince had, at long last, returned to claim the throne he had been close enough to touch all those years ago. True, he is not the bonjwa that Boxer and iloveoov were; he has neither Boxer’s indefinable mixture of star sense and unbreakable mental fortitude nor iloveoov’s ingenious in game decision-making.His strengths are different. His mechanics are incredible, his play precise and refined. His harassment is a work of art. Years of training under iloveoov have taught him some of the best series planning in the world. He has improved upon some of his biggest weaknesses as well; in his semifinals against Hydra, Fantasy showed that he could bio with the best of them. Even his in game decision-making has clearly improved.Both his forebears are gone now. Having accomplished all that he could in the world of Brood War, Boxer left to make his mark on a new game. iloveoov is finally stepping down to serve his time in the military. As he prepares to fight for his second consecutive OSL gold, something first achieved by Boxer and only by JD since, there can be no doubt that iloveoov’s “puppet” now stands on his own two feet.When Fantasy steps inside his booth this Saturday, expect nothing less than the most awe-inspiring TvP in the world. This isn’t the safe, reactive, macro up and timing attack style of TvP that Flash has mastered. This is aggressive, unpredictable, irrepressible harass style TvP that only one player in the world can really pull off. Fantasy is the Terrorist, the Terran Revolutionist , the Crown Prince, the next great SKT terran. JangBi better be prepared for a fight, because Jung Laden is not going to give him any breaks.For Fantasy, this is more than just another OSL final; this is a second coronation for a crown prince who would be king; a king who would keep his crown, against a claimant to be cast down.









Semi-Final One Hydra vs Fantasy

by: Ver



Game One: Gladiator - VOD

+ Show Spoiler [The Meeting] +



Who would have ever guessed that Fantasy (@6), master of mechanic, would open bio in set 1? And what's even crazier, an 8 rax bunker rush! Certainly not Hydra (@2)! With Jung Laden clearly channeling the spirit (or mind) of iloveoov to upset his opponent's rhythm from the start, Hydra was completely surprised, had not practiced for such an eventuality, and thus responded poorly.



Fantasy naturally transitioned into the standard followup of a cc followed by a factory off 3 rax, intending for the usual tank/vessel timing attack. However, his turret positioning lacked, as it didn't cover either of the right edge of the map or the bottom edge of the mineral line. Even though Hydra's muta count wasn't as good as it could have been, he did serious damage and almost erased the deficit which was earlier incurred. This was compounded by Fantasy's nonsensical army movement where it looked as if he couldn't decide whether to save his base or kill Hydra's 3rd. Had he not taken the early lead from the bunker rush, such indecisiveness could have dearly cost him. The optimal play here, taking a leaf from Flash's TvP tactics, would have been to detach a squad of 6-8 units to kill Hydra's 3rd while sending the rest back to defend. In the end, Fantasy killed Hydra's 3rd and suffered a disproportionate amount of damage for the number of mutas Hydra had. Hydra was behind, but given the map, definitely in the game.



However, the decision to transition into Crazy Zerg off two hatch muta was inexplicable and rightly cost Hydra the game. Crazy Zerg is always done off 3 hatcheries, which gives you the drone count and the zergling count to give your tanking ultras bite. Hydra simply did not have the econ and larvae to make Crazy Zerg work, and was decisively defeated even though Fantasy let him get his 3rd up and then finally chose to end it in the most questionable way possible.



Overall, Fantasy's opening success put him in the dominating position to dictate the pace of the match. However, he squandered part of his advantage due to his poor reaction during the muta harass and nearly lost control over the game. Fortunately, Hydra proceeded to donate it back to him by going the insane strategy of skipping lurkers into ultras off 2 hatcheries and no stable 3rd. Fantasy had myriad ways to win, though his solution of attacking the sunkens head on without having done any damage to the ultras was certainly the riskiest. In such a scenario, Flash would (and did) force the Zerg to make many sunkens at the natural, and then just run around and kill expansions instead.





Game 2: Neo Bloody Ridge: VOD

Hydra (@7) opened with a greedy 13 pool into 3 hatch muta, while Fantasy (@1) walled with rax cc into the new T1 hybrid opening of +1 5 rax with a followup tank vessel timing into mech transition. The key innovation here was Hydra getting +1 carapace right after starting his lair, although in reality it is an idea Jaedong used all the way back in the infamous power outage game, only escaping notice due to a criminal lack of use since.



Hydra's mutas once again found a sweet spot, taking out a number of SCVs essentially for free. Again Fantasy tried to threaten Hydra away from his mineral line by keeping his marines in the middle of the map, but apparently felt uncomfortable with actually following through on his threat. Hydra correctly read Fantasy's temperament and didn't bite, thus allowing him to munch on several SCVs.



After another few rounds of units, Fantasy prepared the inevitable march to threaten Hydra's third. However, he was in for a rude surprise as his army was outmatched far earlier than he would have thought possible. Fantasy was completely caught off guard, not expecting Hydra to have +1 armor on his lings that early, and his army was massacred. Afterwards, Hydra continued some light harassment, while Fantasy prepared to hit the pre-defiler timing window. Hydra chose to go for a late hive and massed lurker/ling; it would just come down to how well he could use it, as Fantasy's attack would hit before any swarms.



Hydra, seeking to increase his lead channeled the CJ spirit and pulled off an excellent



After Hydra crushed both of Fantasy's advances so effortlessly, the game was mostly decided. Hydra elected to play as aggressively as possible to keep Fantasy's army and economy in check and then finally overran him with a nifty plague and rampaging ultra/ling, taking out Fantasy's isolated tanks that were the key to his position.



Hydra's play this game was pretty close to perfect. His muta harass was sublime, his opening build and midgame decisions led him to surprise Fantasy's suddenly overmatched bio force. Then he capped it off with an excellent maneuver to crush Fantasy's timing attack and converted his advantage into a win with solid play. The only errors were exposing a group of lurkers outside Fantasy's natural for too long when he was trying to bait Fantasy into running his marines into it, and some lazy attacks during Fantasy's mech transition. However, Fantasy patiently waited until he had enough units and killed them before Hydra could retreat and defended expertly with mines. Fantasy can be reasonably happy with his performance as well. Overall this game was an example of a good player getting bested by a great one. In the end, Hydra prevented Fantasy from doing the necessary damage to his econ absolutely required by Fantasy's build, and thus was able to gain enough of a lead to overwhelm Fantasy during his mech transition and never let him get a 4th up. Fantasy could have resisted harder, however, had he not exposed his core of 7 tanks and let them plagued and subsequently picked off for free.





Game Three: Pathfinder - VOD

+ Show Spoiler [The Meeting, Part Two] +



Once again, it was obvious Hydra (@12) came prepared. He properly reacted 3 hatch before pool against Fantasy's (@3) cc first opening, and took a quick early third, reading Fantasy's defensive goliath/tank posture correctly. He even showed Fantasy spire tech and 4th, but instead only made 1 muta and geared up for a hydra/queen timing attack.



However, Hydra's armor had a chink, and the terrorist was merciless in his harass. Repeatedly vultures managed to sneak into Hydras main, and while that is one feature of the map unfortunate for Zergs, the real problem here was Hydra's defensive layout. He seemed to be unprepared for the timing of Fantasy's harass, leaving no hydras in his main, having scourge just a bit late, and not having the full overlord coverage necessary.



Had Hydra not taken so much vulture damage, he would have absolutely been able to crush Fantasy and gain a decisive advantage right there. However, as it stood, he was just lacking a little bit of oomph to really finish him off. This was further compounded by the fact that he did not infest 3rd cc, which he easily could have done. So in the end, Fantasy was mauled, but Hydra's economy was wrecked. Hydra still had the initiative, but Fantasy was in a solid position.



This game really showed the strengths of both players. Hydra came prepared with a very well-planned idea that could have and should have ended the game right there. However, Fantasy's harass, which always seemed to find the slightest hole and exploit it masterfully, threw off his timings and when the hydra/queen semi-allin did a lot of damage but didn't kill, Hydra's economy was too weak to fully exploit it. Hydra's play in the later stages was rather suspect: he let his queens get EMP'ed too easily and didn't control his army right. If he was insisting on mass hydra/queen play, he definitely needed to play a much more aggressive midgame with drops and continued harassment. Instead, he let Fantasy build up his tank count too much with only one major raid on the mineral only base and was stuck with a most unsuitable army.





Game Four: La Mancha - VOD

Fantasy (@1) opened with rax cc with a natural wallin into the increasingly popular +1 5 rax play, while Hydra (@7) mirrored his game 2 innovation by going 3 hatch muta with a very fast +1 carapace. Hydra misinterpreted Fantasy's opening and made a round of lings a bit too early, leaving him with a slightly weaker econ than he would have preferred. However, the game was equalized when Fantasy didn't put any marines in his natural bunker, which let Hydra snipe more than enough SCVs. The game played out as a standard 5 rax vs 3 hatch muta, though neither player's movements were fully refined. Fantasy chose to not to aim for the third and kept his marines in too loose a formation, leading to many stragglers getting picked off. On the other side, Hydra showed solid muta control and attempted to cut off Fantasy's too ambitious army from reinforcements. However, he bungled the key flank and had to abort it halfway. Instead of killing either the reinforcements or the main army, he was able to do neither, and Fantasy's army continued to grow. His position wasn't helped with the loss of his mutas with some lazy micro on another attack. But on the whole, Hydra defended reasonably well and ended up in solid position to block Fantasy's tank vessel timing attack, having chosen to go for mass lurkers and breaking Fantasy's army with a decisive blow instead of rushing defilers.



In the moments before the big timing attack, Hydra kept Fantasy on his toes by trying to trap and ambush his marauding force. While Hydra didn't succeed in getting any kills, he still kept Fantasy wary and managed to safely extricate all of his lurkers and keep his army in good positions for the key subsequent maneuvering.



However, Hydra threw away everything he had fought for with a completely nonsensical attack on Fantasy's army with only a portion of his own. Yes, Fantasy was unsieged and not in proper battle formation, but the attack still defied standard ZvT logic, especially for someone who understands a bit of maneuvering like the Bloody Ridge game showed. There, Hydra delayed Fantasy's army, cut off reinforcements, then tore it to shreds in a flank attack where Hydra held a vast numerical superiority. The key part to this maneuvering is that Hydra slowed Fantasy while letting Fantasy ultimately advance across the map. This meant that Hydra had gobs of time to build up a great army. Fantasy had time as well to build an army, but the difference was that Hydra's army could concentrate at one spot, while Fantasy's army was separated from his reinforcements, and subsequently destroyed piecemeal. Here on La Mancha, Hydra did not let Fantasy cross the map and thus buy time for decisive numerical superiority. Nor did he even fight with his entire army. Ambushing the Terran army while they are crossing the map is acceptable if the terrain favors you and you bring everything to bear, but Hydra was attacking uphill without a sufficient number of units. After some solid micro from Fantasy, he lost irreplacable core lurkers.



Hydra managed to restore a little parity by scourging a dropship, but it was too little too late, as he was forced to pull the lurkers defending his 3rd in order to hold the attack. Fantasy showed some real killer instinct, anticipated Hydra's move, and did not let this momentary repositioning go unpunished by killing Hydra's 3rd during the main battle. So even though Hydra managed to hold his attack, he still ended up in a lost position with no econ and gg'ed out shortly after.





Semi-Final Two JangBi vs n.Die_soO

by: KwarK



I'm in a bit of a tough spot here. There's only one Protoss in this OSL and Protoss hasn't actually won an OSL in years (damn you Stork!). I play Protoss because I'm cool and all the cool kids play Protoss (or maybe Protoss is cool because guys like me play it) and therefore I should want JangBi to win. But JangBi isn't cool and is therefore unfit to be Protoss. His current surge is just the latest fluctuation in his long career of mediocracy interspersed with sudden moments of brilliance. When you watch the best play you can see their dominance in everything they do, they're a craftman laying the foundations of victory in a precise, calculated manner. That's what makes the late stages of the OSL so incredible, both players show up with masterpieces of preparation, planning and execution, both players showcase brilliance but only one can win.



Some people have suggested that the dominance of a certain player is bad for the scene, those people don't get it. The highest level of play is always amazing, it doesn't get old, every subtle manipulation of game flow, every attempt to decieve and confuse the opponent, every building placed at exactly the right time is a stroke from the brush of an artist. I want to support JangBi and in some random small tournament when he's the Protoss then sure, go Protoss! But this is the OSL, JangBi is aspiring to tread on the hallowed ground of the finals, and I just don't believe he deserves it.



Of course his opponent is a SKT Zerg so it's all relative. Of the two I'd rather JangBi won, especially if it'll avoid seeing Fantasy play TvZ again ever, but still, this situation sucks.



Game One: New Bloody Ridge - VOD

JangBi spawned in green at 1 on New Bloody Ridge while soO got white at 7. JangBi opened with a gateway wallin at his natural's choke, a style we've seen from him before to get some extra pressure going early, exploit the lack of a Zerg scout and still take a safe expand. soO opened overpool expand with four lings and a quick third. Meanwhile JangBi took his natural after two zealots and added a forge to the wallin. soO made another four lings but JangBi refused to do anything more than probe with his zealots, reserving them for the midgame while their very existence pressured soO's economy.



JangBi scouted the third and the lack of ling speed and was willing to push out with four zealots off of a single gateway with just one cannon at home. As the lings moved out in response JangBi crept a probe in and scouted soO's lair, spire and single gas. With no threat from mutalisks JangBi was able to rush towards +1 speedlots and invest in gateways over cannons. Several minutes after the spire was scouted JangBi still had no cannons on his mineral line and it was only after speedlot pressure forced soO to make mutalisks to survive that JangBi responded with cannons.



Many zealots were wasted trying to kill drones and gain scouting information, but this kept the mutalisks at home while JangBi added gateways and built a dark archon. soO gained total map control and was able to take his fourth as he transitioned into six hatchery hydralisks and JangBi, with no high templar or storm, was forced to spam cannons against a potential hydralisk break. Eventually JangBi pushed out, but by this point soO had lurker research done obsoleting the zealot-archon play JangBi had been forced into. SoO deflected his push as expected, and pushed Jangbi back to his warping third where dragoons and high templar with storm finally gave JangBi a composition capable of fighting in the midgame.



However by this point soO had three evolution chambers, four gas, a fifth base coming at 12, defiler tech and drops on the way. soO was exactly where he wanted to be in the late game and JangBi had to simultaneously try and defend his mining bases at the bottom of the map and the gateways in his main from drops at the top.



The first drop did little damage and threw away a lot of overlords that lingered too long after the zerglings had died. This massively hindered soO's ability to remax after the fight. At the bottom of the map the defilers were used particularly poorly, with soO's late plague causing him to lose many opportunities to cripple JangBi's army, allowing JangBi's midgame dragoon heavy composition the freedom to act. Meanwhile JangBi's storms hit the mark and did horrific damage to the lurkers and hydralisks of soO.



Eventually plague research was completed and soO was able to stabilize at the meat grinder at the south, a position he had been holding with sheer numbers, and eventually drive the Protoss back. The battle raged back and forth for several minutes in a nail-biting contest of wills but eventually the Protoss was forced back, archons and dragoons unable to compete with the defilers, lurkers and hydralisks without dark archons and feedback. The front flowed from side to side of the ramp that led to JangBi's expansion at 6 as JangBi's last base at 5 was mined heavily. A few Zerg units made it up the ramp as soO attacked relentlessly and JangBi stormed them down time and time again, killing the first dozen lurkers but being unable to trigger a rout as swarm and lurkers held a dangerous position outside the base. Eventually JangBi lost control of the ramp, letting hydralisks swarmed up and reduce him to one mining base.



However as soO tried to establish the base at 6 for himself he was struck at 12 by everything JangBi had and responded by trying to attack move into the archons to save the base. He took massive losses and JangBi's momentum took him into the base at 11 too. Having been on the attack for almost the entire game, soO had never gotten around to establishing any permanent defenses, such as a spore colony with lurker support or even a nydus, at 12. Suddenly their positions were reversed, JangBi holding 12 and soO 6 with soO on the defensive. But soO hadn't fully consolidated 6 yet, his line of scourge and overlords which had been impenetrable for drops all game shielded his natural and main, rather than extending to cover his new key base. Most of his drones were on the 6 mineral line and a single storm drop lowered his supply by 30. soO threw all his remaining units at JangBi and GGed out as they died.



Analysis



This game was frustrating to watch because soO looked so strong right up to the late game. JangBi's composition lagged behind his opponent for most of the game, being unable to deal with mutalisks, then lurkers, then defilers. soO was just a guardian switch away from victory in my opinion and more frustratingly he had the mutalisks lying around near 6 the entire game. He turned the fight for 6 into a grinding war of attrition when a drop of a defiler and a dozen lings (while pressuring the base of the ramp) would have done. He dropped JangBi's main once and left his overlords and lings to die unmicroed to archons and then gave up once cannons went down, despite the fact that dark swarm drops are simple enough to do. He held the base at 12 within a stones throw of JangBi's gateways and yet didn't use guardians from there to push across. The late game saw JangBi only able to just about hold on with his army that was designed to deal with one thing in one place and soO refuse to change either the battlefield or the composition. This should have been an easy win for soO in the lategame, the situation was incredibly favourable for the Zerg, but soO's just not very good.





Game Two: Pathfinder - VOD

JangBi spawned in orange at 12 while soO got blue at 4 on Pathfinder. soO overpooled again while JangBi opted for a standard forge expand. He placed nexus before cannon but to be honest he didn't really need a cannon. JangBi had a probe in soO's base and could see that there was only one larva when the pool completed and his probe was being chased. I'd have much rather preferred he gone for a faster gateway to tech up even faster to core, stargate and corsair than make a cannon which he could place any time later. It annoys me that Protoss seem so reluctant to just match the Zerg at powering when the Zerg plays with his cards face up. Anyway, soO took a quick three bases and powered drones hard while JangBi took the standard route to corsair. soO's hydralisk den was placed in his main rather than in an expansion sim city so he could hide his quick hydralisk den and lack of spire, but it was meaningless as JangBi's scouting probe just cruised in past the lings and the drone on the ramp. This failure to keep out a scout probe at the six minute mark was pretty awful.



JangBi knew he was facing either a hydra bust or some kind of drop play and also that soO's drone count left him pretty committed to this strategy. He reinforced his front with cannons, kept his corsairs softening up overlords and rushed to +1 speedlots. Extra gateways were added for the incoming struggle for his main. JangBi had the superior economy, he was behind only in unit production facilities. Assuming he could hold onto his main, his victory would be assured. He had pumped zealots out pretty constantly from his first gateway and had a respectable amount to fight off a potential drop.



soO prepared to make his move but acted predictably, and his first attempt saw his softened overlords stack-up while JangBi's zealots camped the drop zone. The result was a massacre of overlords and the units inside them, soO aborting the mission at the last second and running back to the safety of his remaining hydralisks. Meanwhile JangBi produced a dark templar and killed a few workers, which had a considerable impact on a drone count as low as soO's. soO had no choice but to attempt a lurker switch and, several minutes after his initial timing attempt, he tried another drop.



JangBi started well against it, storming the lurkers and harassing the hydralisks but left his probes on the mineral line within lurker range which wasted dozens of them and his zealots stayed on a field with undetected lurkers. It was as if he went afk as the drop happened - it was a little strange. However his corsair pack continued to threaten further drops effectively and despite soO having hydralisks on both side of the wall around JangBi's base he still lost many laden overlords. JangBi's observer finally finished and the zealots he hadn't suicided were able to free up his main for the probes he hadn't wasted to resume mining. soO tried one last drop but it was suicidal and was annihilated by Jangbi's storms and corsairs. GG.





Game Three: La Mancha - VOD

JangBi spawned at 11 in red while soO took yellow at 5 on La Mancha. soO opened with a twelve hatch eleven pool whereas JangBi felt safe enough to opt for a blind forge nexus cannon play, holding his probe count at thirteen. A quick gateway followed while soO took the standard route to lair with a third hatchery at the natural at 7. JangBi rushed out his citadel and added two gateways in the unscouted area behind his natural, delaying his +1 to avoid giving his opponent an obvious tell (or because he's bad) and only showing the zealot count from his first gateway. The first few zealots poked out without speed to get a little closer for the crucial timing and as speed completed he charged in with three zealots and a dragoon. soO had spire tech but scourge with no mutalisks while JangBi had no stargate and was playing so aggressively that mutalisks would be forced to be used defensively.



The zerglings and drones were incapable of stopping the zealots from overrunning the expansion and, with his opponent distracted, JangBi grabbed the 12 expansion and teched to archons. His intent was to use cannons to defend his mineral lines while archons provided heavier support against an attempt to break through the cannons and kill the base. This was enough to defend him in the short term but archons can't touch harrassing mutalisks and cannons can't stop a critical mass muta ball. Eventually the Protoss needs corsairs or, according to JangBi, dark archons. With the dark archon unscouted and the mutalisk clump growing and being used aggressively the game seemed to promise something incredible was about to happen. Finally the maelstrom went down and it caught every single mutalisk of them, pinned down as JangBi's... ...zealots charged at them. His archons were, obviously, in a different control group and they were nowhere to be seen which made the potental game ending epicness just look stupid. The mutalisks recovered, saw the archons rushing over and just flew away while soO wrote himself a note to not clump in a few minutes when the darchon had another 100 energy.



JangBi gave us a stupid smile despite having lost over a dozen probes at his natural, a load more at his third and still having no counter to mutalisks. Almost as if he realised how ridiculous it was that a player who thinks zealots counter mutalisks was going to get into the OSL finals. soO's attempts to harass ignored high templar which ended badly for his mutalisks but he still killed a lot more probes. soO's new third at 1 was scouted and attacked, and his mutalisks were maelstromed on the way to defend it, this time with some dragoons nearby to actually shoot them. They were in a fairly similar place in terms of economy due to the mutalisks but JangBi had gas to burn and was able to make the unstoppable dragoon high templar midgame combo. soO tried to stop it with a lot of hydralisks going out a few at a time through his own sim city which didn't go as he'd planned. The usual counter involving lurkers and a spore colony might have been more appropriate but hey, he's the progamer. With no units left soO then lost the game and Jangbi entered the OSL finals. GG.





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Who would have ever guessed that Fantasy (@6), master of mechanic, would open bio in set 1? And what's even crazier, an 8 rax bunker rush! Certainly not Hydra (@2)! With Jung Laden clearly channeling the spirit (or mind) of iloveoov to upset his opponent's rhythm from the start, Hydra was completely surprised, had not practiced for such an eventuality, and thus responded poorly.Fantasy naturally transitioned into the standard followup of a cc followed by a factory off 3 rax, intending for the usual tank/vessel timing attack. However, his turret positioning lacked, as it didn't cover either of the right edge of the map or the bottom edge of the mineral line. Even though Hydra's muta count wasn't as good as it could have been, he did serious damage and almost erased the deficit which was earlier incurred. This was compounded by Fantasy's nonsensical army movement where it looked as if he couldn't decide whether to save his base or kill Hydra's 3rd. Had he not taken the early lead from the bunker rush, such indecisiveness could have dearly cost him. The optimal play here, taking a leaf from Flash's TvP tactics, would have been to detach a squad of 6-8 units to kill Hydra's 3rd while sending the rest back to defend. In the end, Fantasy killed Hydra's 3rd and suffered a disproportionate amount of damage for the number of mutas Hydra had. Hydra was behind, but given the map, definitely in the game.However, the decision to transition into Crazy Zerg offwas inexplicable and rightly cost Hydra the game. Crazy Zerg is always done off 3 hatcheries, which gives you the drone count and the zergling count to give your tanking ultras bite. Hydra simply did not have the econ and larvae to make Crazy Zerg work, and was decisively defeated even though Fantasy let him get his 3rd up and then finally chose to end it in the most questionable way possible.Overall, Fantasy's opening success put him in the dominating position to dictate the pace of the match. However, he squandered part of his advantage due to his poor reaction during the muta harass and nearly lost control over the game. Fortunately, Hydra proceeded to donate it back to him by going the insane strategy of skipping lurkers into ultras off 2 hatcheries and no stable 3rd. Fantasy had myriad ways to win, though his solution of attacking the sunkens head on without having done any damage to the ultras was certainly the riskiest. In such a scenario, Flash would (and did) force the Zerg to make many sunkens at the natural, and then just run around and kill expansions instead.Hydra (@7) opened with a greedy 13 pool into 3 hatch muta, while Fantasy (@1) walled with rax cc into the new T1 hybrid opening of +1 5 rax with a followup tank vessel timing into mech transition. The key innovation here was Hydra getting +1 carapace right after starting his lair, although in reality it is an idea Jaedong used all the way back in the infamous power outage game, only escaping notice due to a criminal lack of use since.Hydra's mutas once again found a sweet spot, taking out a number of SCVs essentially for free. Again Fantasy tried to threaten Hydra away from his mineral line by keeping his marines in the middle of the map, but apparently felt uncomfortable with actually following through on his threat. Hydra correctly read Fantasy's temperament and didn't bite, thus allowing him to munch on several SCVs.After another few rounds of units, Fantasy prepared the inevitable march to threaten Hydra's third. However, he was in for a rude surprise as his army was outmatched far earlier than he would have thought possible. Fantasy was completely caught off guard, not expecting Hydra to have +1 armor on his lings that early, and his army was massacred. Afterwards, Hydra continued some light harassment, while Fantasy prepared to hit the pre-defiler timing window. Hydra chose to go for a late hive and massed lurker/ling; it would just come down to how well he could use it, as Fantasy's attack would hit before any swarms.Hydra, seeking to increase his lead channeled the CJ spirit and pulled off an excellent Savior maneuver , crushing Fantasy's reinforcements , isolating his army, and setting up a devastating flank. The stage was set for the complete mastication of Fantasy's outnumbered and outpositioned army, but the Terrorist truly made it a fight to remember . For all the hate Fantasy has gotten for his bio play, that was some of the most exquisite bionic micro we have seen since Casy After Hydra crushed both of Fantasy's advances so effortlessly, the game was mostly decided. Hydra elected to play as aggressively as possible to keep Fantasy's army and economy in check and then finally overran him with a nifty plague and rampaging ultra/ling, taking out Fantasy's isolated tanks that were the key to his position.Hydra's play this game was pretty close to perfect. His muta harass was sublime, his opening build and midgame decisions led him to surprise Fantasy's suddenly overmatched bio force. Then he capped it off with an excellent maneuver to crush Fantasy's timing attack and converted his advantage into a win with solid play. The only errors were exposing a group of lurkers outside Fantasy's natural for too long when he was trying to bait Fantasy into running his marines into it, and some lazy attacks during Fantasy's mech transition. However, Fantasy patiently waited until he had enough units and killed them before Hydra could retreat and defended expertly with mines. Fantasy can be reasonably happy with his performance as well. Overall this game was an example of a good player getting bested by a great one. In the end, Hydra prevented Fantasy from doing the necessary damage to his econ absolutely required by Fantasy's build, and thus was able to gain enough of a lead to overwhelm Fantasy during his mech transition and never let him get a 4th up. Fantasy could have resisted harder, however, had he not exposed his core of 7 tanks and let them plagued and subsequently picked off for free.Once again, it was obvious Hydra (@12) came prepared. He properly reacted 3 hatch before pool against Fantasy's (@3) cc first opening, and took a quick early third, reading Fantasy's defensive goliath/tank posture correctly. He even showed Fantasy spire tech and 4th, but instead only made 1 muta and geared up for a hydra/queen timing attack.However, Hydra's armor had a chink, and the terrorist was merciless in his harass. Repeatedly vultures managed to sneak into Hydras main, and while that is one feature of the map unfortunate for Zergs, the real problem here was Hydra's defensive layout. He seemed to be unprepared for the timing of Fantasy's harass, leaving no hydras in his main, having scourge just a bit late, and not having the full overlord coverage necessary.Had Hydra not taken so much vulture damage, he would have absolutely been able to crush Fantasy and gain a decisive advantage right there. However, as it stood, he was just lacking a little bit of oomph to really finish him off. This was further compounded by the fact that he did not infest 3rd cc, which he easily could have done. So in the end, Fantasy was mauled, but Hydra's economy was wrecked. Hydra still had the initiative, but Fantasy was in a solid position.This game really showed the strengths of both players. Hydra came prepared with a very well-planned idea that could have and should have ended the game right there. However, Fantasy's harass, which always seemed to find the slightest hole and exploit it masterfully, threw off his timings and when the hydra/queen semi-allin did a lot of damage but didn't kill, Hydra's economy was too weak to fully exploit it. Hydra's play in the later stages was rather suspect: he let his queens get EMP'ed too easily and didn't control his army right. If he was insisting on mass hydra/queen play, he definitely needed to play a much more aggressive midgame with drops and continued harassment. Instead, he let Fantasy build up his tank count too much with only one major raid on the mineral only base and was stuck with a most unsuitable army.Fantasy (@1) opened with rax cc with a natural wallin into the increasingly popular +1 5 rax play, while Hydra (@7) mirrored his game 2 innovation by going 3 hatch muta with a very fast +1 carapace. Hydra misinterpreted Fantasy's opening and made a round of lings a bit too early, leaving him with a slightly weaker econ than he would have preferred. However, the game was equalized when Fantasy didn't put any marines in his natural bunker, which let Hydra snipe more than enough SCVs. The game played out as a standard 5 rax vs 3 hatch muta, though neither player's movements were fully refined. Fantasy chose to not to aim for the third and kept his marines in too loose a formation, leading to many stragglers getting picked off. On the other side, Hydra showed solid muta control and attempted to cut off Fantasy's too ambitious army from reinforcements. However, he bungled the key flank and had to abort it halfway. Instead of killing either the reinforcements or the main army, he was able to do neither, and Fantasy's army continued to grow. His position wasn't helped with the loss of his mutas with some lazy micro on another attack. But on the whole, Hydra defended reasonably well and ended up in solid position to block Fantasy's tank vessel timing attack, having chosen to go for mass lurkers and breaking Fantasy's army with a decisive blow instead of rushing defilers.In the moments before the big timing attack, Hydra kept Fantasy on his toes by trying to trap and ambush his marauding force. While Hydra didn't succeed in getting any kills, he still kept Fantasy wary and managed to safely extricate all of his lurkers and keep his army in good positions for the key subsequent maneuvering.However, Hydra threw away everything he had fought for with a completely nonsensical attack on Fantasy's army with only a portion of his own. Yes, Fantasy was unsieged and not in proper battle formation, but the attack still defied standard ZvT logic, especially for someone who understands a bit of maneuvering like the Bloody Ridge game showed. There, Hydra delayed Fantasy's army, cut off reinforcements, then tore it to shreds in a flank attack where Hydra held a vast numerical superiority. The key part to this maneuvering is that Hydra slowed Fantasy while letting Fantasy ultimately advance across the map. This meant that Hydra had gobs of time to build up a great army. Fantasy had time as well to build an army, but the difference was that Hydra's army could concentrate at one spot, while Fantasy's army was separated from his reinforcements, and subsequently destroyed piecemeal. Here on La Mancha, Hydra did not let Fantasy cross the map and thus buy time for decisive numerical superiority. Nor did he even fight with his entire army. Ambushing the Terran army while they are crossing the map is acceptable if the terrain favors you and you bring everything to bear, but Hydra was attacking uphill without a sufficient number of units. After some solid micro from Fantasy, he lost irreplacable core lurkers.Hydra managed to restore a little parity by scourging a dropship, but it was too little too late, as he was forced to pull the lurkers defending his 3rd in order to hold the attack. Fantasy showed some real killer instinct, anticipated Hydra's move, and did not let this momentary repositioning go unpunished by killing Hydra's 3rd during the main battle. So even though Hydra managed to hold his attack, he still ended up in a lost position with no econ and gg'ed out shortly after.JangBi spawned in green at 1 on New Bloody Ridge while soO got white at 7. JangBi opened with a gateway wallin at his natural's choke, a style we've seen from him before to get some extra pressure going early, exploit the lack of a Zerg scout and still take a safe expand. soO opened overpool expand with four lings and a quick third. Meanwhile JangBi took his natural after two zealots and added a forge to the wallin. soO made another four lings but JangBi refused to do anything more than probe with his zealots, reserving them for the midgame while their very existence pressured soO's economy.JangBi scouted the third and the lack of ling speed and was willing to push out with four zealots off of a single gateway with just one cannon at home. As the lings moved out in response JangBi crept a probe in and scouted soO's lair, spire and single gas. With no threat from mutalisks JangBi was able to rush towards +1 speedlots and invest in gateways over cannons. Several minutes after the spire was scouted JangBi still had no cannons on his mineral line and it was only after speedlot pressure forced soO to make mutalisks to survive that JangBi responded with cannons.Many zealots were wasted trying to kill drones and gain scouting information, but this kept the mutalisks at home while JangBi added gateways and built a dark archon. soO gained total map control and was able to take his fourth as he transitioned into six hatchery hydralisks and JangBi, with no high templar or storm, was forced to spam cannons against a potential hydralisk break. Eventually JangBi pushed out, but by this point soO had lurker research done obsoleting the zealot-archon play JangBi had been forced into. SoO deflected his push as expected, and pushed Jangbi back to his warping third where dragoons and high templar with storm finally gave JangBi a composition capable of fighting in the midgame.However by this point soO had three evolution chambers, four gas, a fifth base coming at 12, defiler tech and drops on the way. soO was exactly where he wanted to be in the late game and JangBi had to simultaneously try and defend his mining bases at the bottom of the map and the gateways in his main from drops at the top.The first drop did little damage and threw away a lot of overlords that lingered too long after the zerglings had died. This massively hindered soO's ability to remax after the fight. At the bottom of the map the defilers were used particularly poorly, with soO's late plague causing him to lose many opportunities to cripple JangBi's army, allowing JangBi's midgame dragoon heavy composition the freedom to act. Meanwhile JangBi's storms hit the mark and did horrific damage to the lurkers and hydralisks of soO.Eventually plague research was completed and soO was able to stabilize at the meat grinder at the south, a position he had been holding with sheer numbers, and eventually drive the Protoss back. The battle raged back and forth for several minutes in a nail-biting contest of wills but eventually the Protoss was forced back, archons and dragoons unable to compete with the defilers, lurkers and hydralisks without dark archons and feedback. The front flowed from side to side of the ramp that led to JangBi's expansion at 6 as JangBi's last base at 5 was mined heavily. A few Zerg units made it up the ramp as soO attacked relentlessly and JangBi stormed them down time and time again, killing the first dozen lurkers but being unable to trigger a rout as swarm and lurkers held a dangerous position outside the base. Eventually JangBi lost control of the ramp, letting hydralisks swarmed up and reduce him to one mining base.However as soO tried to establish the base at 6 for himself he was struck at 12 by everything JangBi had and responded by trying to attack move into the archons to save the base. He took massive losses and JangBi's momentum took him into the base at 11 too. Having been on the attack for almost the entire game, soO had never gotten around to establishing any permanent defenses, such as a spore colony with lurker support or even a nydus, at 12. Suddenly their positions were reversed, JangBi holding 12 and soO 6 with soO on the defensive. But soO hadn't fully consolidated 6 yet, his line of scourge and overlords which had been impenetrable for drops all game shielded his natural and main, rather than extending to cover his new key base. Most of his drones were on the 6 mineral line and a single storm drop lowered his supply by 30. soO threw all his remaining units at JangBi and GGed out as they died.JangBi spawned in orange at 12 while soO got blue at 4 on Pathfinder. soO overpooled again while JangBi opted for a standard forge expand. He placed nexus before cannon but to be honest he didn't really need a cannon. JangBi had a probe in soO's base and could see that there was only one larva when the pool completed and his probe was being chased. I'd have much rather preferred he gone for a faster gateway to tech up even faster to core, stargate and corsair than make a cannon which he could place any time later. It annoys me that Protoss seem so reluctant to just match the Zerg at powering when the Zerg plays with his cards face up. Anyway, soO took a quick three bases and powered drones hard while JangBi took the standard route to corsair. soO's hydralisk den was placed in his main rather than in an expansion sim city so he could hide his quick hydralisk den and lack of spire, but it was meaningless as JangBi's scouting probe just cruised in past the lings and the drone on the ramp. This failure to keep out a scout probe at the six minute mark was pretty awful.JangBi knew he was facing either a hydra bust or some kind of drop play and also that soO's drone count left him pretty committed to this strategy. He reinforced his front with cannons, kept his corsairs softening up overlords and rushed to +1 speedlots. Extra gateways were added for the incoming struggle for his main. JangBi had the superior economy, he was behind only in unit production facilities. Assuming he could hold onto his main, his victory would be assured. He had pumped zealots out pretty constantly from his first gateway and had a respectable amount to fight off a potential drop.soO prepared to make his move but acted predictably, and his first attempt saw his softened overlords stack-up while JangBi's zealots camped the drop zone. The result was a massacre of overlords and the units inside them, soO aborting the mission at the last second and running back to the safety of his remaining hydralisks. Meanwhile JangBi produced a dark templar and killed a few workers, which had a considerable impact on a drone count as low as soO's. soO had no choice but to attempt a lurker switch and, several minutes after his initial timing attempt, he tried another drop.JangBi started well against it, storming the lurkers and harassing the hydralisks but left his probes on the mineral line within lurker range which wasted dozens of them and his zealots stayed on a field with undetected lurkers. It was as if he went afk as the drop happened - it was a little strange. However his corsair pack continued to threaten further drops effectively and despite soO having hydralisks on both side of the wall around JangBi's base he still lost many laden overlords. JangBi's observer finally finished and the zealots he hadn't suicided were able to free up his main for the probes he hadn't wasted to resume mining. soO tried one last drop but it was suicidal and was annihilated by Jangbi's storms and corsairs. GG.JangBi spawned at 11 in red while soO took yellow at 5 on La Mancha. soO opened with a twelve hatch eleven pool whereas JangBi felt safe enough to opt for a blind forge nexus cannon play, holding his probe count at thirteen. A quick gateway followed while soO took the standard route to lair with a third hatchery at the natural at 7. JangBi rushed out his citadel and added two gateways in the unscouted area behind his natural, delaying his +1 to avoid giving his opponent an obvious tell (or because he's bad) and only showing the zealot count from his first gateway. The first few zealots poked out without speed to get a little closer for the crucial timing and as speed completed he charged in with three zealots and a dragoon. soO had spire tech but scourge with no mutalisks while JangBi had no stargate and was playing so aggressively that mutalisks would be forced to be used defensively.The zerglings and drones were incapable of stopping the zealots from overrunning the expansion and, with his opponent distracted, JangBi grabbed the 12 expansion and teched to archons. His intent was to use cannons to defend his mineral lines while archons provided heavier support against an attempt to break through the cannons and kill the base. This was enough to defend him in the short term but archons can't touch harrassing mutalisks and cannons can't stop a critical mass muta ball. Eventually the Protoss needs corsairs or, according to JangBi, dark archons. With the dark archon unscouted and the mutalisk clump growing and being used aggressively the game seemed to promise something incredible was about to happen. Finally the maelstrom went down and it caught every single mutalisk of them, pinned down as JangBi's... ...zealots charged at them. His archons were, obviously, in a different control group and they were nowhere to be seen which made the potental game ending epicness just look stupid. The mutalisks recovered, saw the archons rushing over and just flew away while soO wrote himself a note to not clump in a few minutes when the darchon had another 100 energy.JangBi gave us a stupid smile despite having lost over a dozen probes at his natural, a load more at his third and still having no counter to mutalisks. Almost as if he realised how ridiculous it was that a player who thinks zealots counter mutalisks was going to get into the OSL finals. soO's attempts to harass ignored high templar which ended badly for his mutalisks but he still killed a lot more probes. soO's new third at 1 was scouted and attacked, and his mutalisks were maelstromed on the way to defend it, this time with some dragoons nearby to actually shoot them. They were in a fairly similar place in terms of economy due to the mutalisks but JangBi had gas to burn and was able to make the unstoppable dragoon high templar midgame combo. soO tried to stop it with a lot of hydralisks going out a few at a time through his own sim city which didn't go as he'd planned. The usual counter involving lurkers and a spore colony might have been more appropriate but hey, he's the progamer. With no units left soO then lost the game and Jangbi entered the OSL finals. GG. Administrator Hey HP can you redo everything youve ever done because i have a small complaint?