ODT is over! Ready for OSL?

Group I of the OGN Dual Tournament has been played. We now know all 24 players who will be in ShinHan 3 StarLeague. Read on for that and of course the battle reports from today.

Much vs FireBatHero at TauCross

Much warps in at 5 and goes with a 1gate, core build. FirebatHero landed at 1 and opened with gas at the same time as his barracks. Much displays some nice goon micro to kill the two first scouting scvs while FBH puts a bunker at his natural. The first tank arrives and a command center is started. Much replies the way protoss usually does and double expands in his fist and second natural. Then he puts down four more gates and when he has pumped some goons he attacks as terran is trying to leave base. He takes out quite a few tanks, but the terran expansion is never in danger. FBH's response is a not so successful vulture raid on the second natural of protoss and to start his own second natural. Much says that he doesn't mind the macro game and takes 9 and also puts down a stargate and arbiter tribunal in his main.

Much has now built up a large goon/lot force and attacks terran's second natural. There are too few mines so protoss does more damage than he maybe should have, but FBH has plenty of tanks to never be in any real danger. The camera keeps focusing on FBH's strange supply depot spacing, there's one tile space between all of them. Maybe it was part of some clever plan, but the commentators seem to just laugh at it. The next time it focuses back on the supply field in the terran main it's because of the incoming recall. Much also attacks the front at the same time, but this seems like more of a distraction from the recall. FireBatHero does not send a lot of troops to deal with the recall and as a result he loses some supply depots. The terran response is to try and secure the expansion at 3, but it is quickly taken down by a goon/lot and arbiter force. Protoss on his part takes the expansions at 11 while he recalls in the terran main again. Again FBH is slow to respond and loses a factory, more supply and his main command center. FireBatHero's main has been mined out for a while though so instead of rebuilding he tries to take 3 again. Much immidiately responds with attacking it. This time it's a zealot, goon, templar and arbiter force. Stasis and storms makes quick work of the terran and it's GG.

JJu vs keke at TauCross

JJu spawns at 5 and goes for a 12pool, gas into expansion build. keke spawned at 1 and went a 9pool gas build. His early lings force JJu to cancel his expansion, but thanks to newly spawned lings he's able to avoid any more damage and puts down the second hatchery in his main rather. keke sticks with his one hatchery and has his spire done before JJu. The usual ZvZ muta and scourge battle breaks out with both players focusing on hurting the others economy rather than protecting their own. In the end JJu's second hatchery gains him the advantage and he simply grinds down keke's economy with lings until he has to submit. GG

JJu vs Much at Arcadia II

Much warped in at 11 and went the exact same build as in the MSL yesterday. He went quick dual gates in his choke by halting probe production. JJu spawned at 7 and went a 9pool followed by a hatchery in his main, by the ramp. It seemed like he knew what was coming straight from the start. However, after a brief pause at JJu's ramp to wait for more lot Much moves in. He harasses the second hatchery despite the lings and forces JJu to pull drones off his mineral line. Much even manages to take down the sunken just as it finishes. But there are too many lings and he has to retreat to his main.

At this point the protoss actually looks to be behind as he races to finish his forge and start warping in cannons at his choke. JJu takes a look at the protoss choke and decides that instead of suiciding there he'll take his natural. Much takes his gas natural and builds a stargate and a citadel. He goes for leg upgrades and +1 while he gets out 2 corsair before the hydralisk den finishes for JJu. The protoss adds a templar archieve but decides to move out before it's done with his big zealot force. JJu has sunkens, but cannot defend. He was too far behind from the early pressure and now he has to tap out. GG. Much from CJ Entus wins and becomes the second protoss to qualify for the OSL.

FireBatHero vs keke at Arcadia II

keke spawns at 1 and puts down a 9pool before he takes his mineral only. FireBatHero goes with a standard two barrack build at his landingpoint at 5. FBH builds up a group of MMF and moves out. When he arrives at the zerg choke keke has taken his gas natural as well, but slightly neglected his defenses. There's one sunken, one morphing and one creep colony. The terran decides this is a good opportunity to attack and keke does not have the forces to hold him. As the second sunken morphs, FBH runs his remaining two marines, two bats and 2 medics past it into the gas natural. He gets some drone kills there and then follow them into the main as keke transfers them there. After some impressive firebat micro keke is forces to transfer back into his gas natural, but the terran follows and micros very well again to win the game with a single firebat left in keke's gas natural. A true FireBatHero. GG.

JJu vs FireBatHero at New Peaks of Baekdu

JJu spawns at the bottom and goes for a pool before his expansion. FireBatHero lands at the top and goes for a standard two barrack build. There's not really much going on as JJu puts down his third hatchery in his main and terran eventually moves out with a rather large MMF force. It looks like JJu knows exactly what is coming again, and he definitely watched the previous game. He has four sunkens protecting his ramp and is spawning a fifth. FireBatHero is not scared by this however and attacks. After he takes down four of the five sunkens he runs past the last one into the main. JJu has nothing to defend with and has to give up. GG. FireBatHero from Samsung Khan beats his team mate for the last spot in the OSL.


Much, the 2nd protoss in the OSL

Besides the first game, all the games today were short and decided with a single attack or build. The battle reports are short, because the games were short. That doesn't mean they weren't exciting. FireBatHero did some risky moves in TvZ and they worked. The ZvZ between keke and JJu featured some nice mutalisk and scourge micro. And of course, Much dominated his two games.

OGN Dual Tournament, Group I
Much vs FireBatHero Tau Cross
JJu vs keke Tau Cross
JJu vs Much Arcadia II
FireBatHero vs keke Arcadia II
JJu vs FireBatHero New Peaks


That means FireBatHero and Much qualified for the OSL and I think we are all glad to see another protoss make it. Here is the lineup:

ShinHan 3 StarLeague
PlayerTeamWay to OSL
NaDa Pantech EX Seed 1
Anytime Lecaf Oz Seed 2
Midas SK Telecom T1 Seed 3
GoodFriend KTF Magic Ns Seed 4
GoRush SK Telecom T1 Seed 5
ZergMan Samsung Khan Seed 6
Iris CJ Entus ODT Group A
Child STX Soul ODT Group A
LighT MBC Hero ODT Group B
YellOw[ArnC] OGN Sparkyz ODT Group B
Casy OGN Sparkyz ODT Group C
Savior CJ Entus ODT Group C
ChoJJa KTF MagicNs ODT Group D
fOrGG Lecaf OZ ODT Group D
DonGraE Lecaf OZ ODT Group E
JulyZerg MBC Hero ODT Group E
Yooi STX Soul ODT Group F
GGPlay Hanbit Stars ODT Group F
Jy CJ Entus ODT Group G
Hwasin STX Soul ODT Group G
Upmagic eSTRO ODT Group H
Iloveoov SK Telecom T1 ODT Group H
Much CJ Entus ODT Group I
FireBatHero Samsung Khan ODT Group I

Seed refers to how they finished in the last OSL. The top six from that gets an autobirth into this one. The rest are all through OnGameNet Dual Tournament (ODT). You qualify for the ODT either by having been in the last OSL (and not have been seeded) or by offline qualifications. All the teams are represented by at least one player, but as you can see protoss only has a total of two players. Terran has 13 and zerg has nine. Despite the lack of protoss it looks like it will be a very interesting StarLeague.

The ShinHan 3 Format

The 24 players are split into 6 groups of 4 where the top two will advance after full group play. The 6 players who finished 3rd will play of of the others and 3 of these 6 advance. The 3 losers her will play each other and one will advance. That makes it a round of 16. Here the tournament style starts with best of 3. The semi finals and final are best of 5.

Links
TeamLiquid - Live2Win on the OSL format
FighterForum - Picture source