The OSL just kicked off with their first week of games. After having seen some of todays games, I can't wait for more. Hitchhiker was played for the first time in a televised match and some of the games were incredible.



There are six groups with four players in each in the OGN StarLeague. The top two from each group qualify directly to the tournament stage. That's 12 players. All the forth place finishers in the group stage are eliminated, but the third place finishers gets a chance to redeem themselves. These six players are split into two groups and the top two in each group takes the last four spots in the tournament stage. Now then... on to today's battle reports.

NaDa vs iloveoov at Reverse Temple



NaDa, who picked oov into his group is the reigning OSL champion. We all know about the OSL champion curse, but NaDa doesn't seem to. He showed up flashing three OSL badges on his shirt signifying his three previous OSL wins and most likely his hopes for this one. Anyways, oov starts at 6 and goes for a single factory. NaDa starts at 3 and builds his barrack outside his natural. He quickly forms a contain with marines outside oovs base and starts a proxy factory behind them. As NaDa is about to finish his bunker at the contain, oov breaks out with his own marines and two newly arrived vultures.

Oov puts down a starport and heads for NaDa, who has had to lift his proxy factory. He is building two new ones in his main, but it's a bit late now. Oov does a little damage with his initial force, then some with his first tank and some more with his first wraith. Not a lot of damage, but with that early setback NaDa is far behind. Oov takes his natural and a bit later his mineral only. NaDa doesn't do much besides defend, build 2 starports and tap out when oov defends the wraiths. A potentially gameending move by NaDa early on, too bad it didn't end the game in his favor. GG

YellOw[ArnC] vs UpMagic at Longinus II



Yellow spawns at 3 and goes with a hatchery on 12. UpMagic lands at 6 and starts a wall with a supply and a barrack before he builds a command center. Yellow is able to slow the start of the cc down a bit with his scouting drone in the way, but not much. He puts down a third hatchery in his main while UpMagic figures a proxy factory is a good idea. He makes one vulture which he runs past the single sunken into the zerg main to get some drone kills. After that he floats his factory into the zerg main and puts down two starports in his own main.

Yellow is struggling hard enough as it is with protecting his drones from vultures. UpMagic only adds to the pain when he starts harassing with wraiths as well. Somehow he is able to micro his wraiths, his vultures perfectly while macroing. Yellow has put down a den and a spire and eventually fends off most of the harass with scourge and hydra, but by that time UpMagic has added four barracks and ebay and a few factories. He simply marches his M&M force over to zergs natural and contains his without a problem while waiting for tanks and vessels.

Yellow has of course chosen to get his defilers a bit quicker than he perhaps normally would. The two first defilers are immediately irradiated though. UpMagic drops two full dropships into the zerg main without doing too much damage and also tries to attack the front, but is denied by swarm. Instead he takes the expansion at 1 and waits for a bit. Then he moves in when the defilers are all irradiated or busy elsewhere and demolishes Yellow. UpMagic played an excellent game, very good micro and decision making throughout. GG


Midas vs Savior at Hitchhiker



Easily the most anticipated game of the day. This was the first time we would see the pros on Hitchhiker, but that was not why it was so anticipated. In his last ten TvZ matches Midas has a 8-2 record. Savior has a 7-3 ZvT record. It's safe to say these guys are among the best at this matchup. Savior spawns at the bottom position and goes with a hatchery at 12 in his natural. Midas lands at the top and builds a semi offensive barrack halfway down the middle pathway. He tries to get some early drone kills, but supreme drone and ling micro from Savior means he has to withdraw. After this Midas takes his natural and adds a factory and a starport. The zerg on his part takes his left side expansions and starts opening up the right side with his lings. He also puts down a spire and a den.

Once the mutalisks are in the air they head for Midas' natural. Savior displays excellent control and does quite a bit of damage before terran can chase him away. As he is retreating Midas manages to irradiate one of the tightly grouped mutas, but it doesn't matter. Savior seperates it from the group so quickly that you would think he knew which muta Midas was aiming for. Both players take another expansion and Savior is getting his defiler mound up and running.

“...and I hereby nominate this game for the game of the year in the GosuGamers Awards!From here on in it's a frenzy of taking expansions, destroying the other guys expansions, perfect swarms and insane plagues. I lack the words to describe how fast paced this game was at times. No doubt I and most the observers missed half the mini battles happening all over the map. This map starts out very restricted, but as the game goes on, it has as many, or more, ways to go as Korhal of Ceres. Savior breaks through into Midas' main more than once but in the end he is short on money. It becomes a fight about the east-middle expansion that terran holds. There's hardly a battle there without the scvs running, zerg putting down swarm and plaguing marines. Somehow Midas manages to hold on with his M&M and tank forces until he can build more firebats. He eventually secures it and Savior taps out.

I have to point out that this game was so good that there is no way my battle report can do justice to it. The VODs are usually released a few days after the games, what can I say? Get the VOD and I hereby nominate this game for the game of the year in the GosuGamers Awards! After the game Midas looks straight into the camera and gives us a big grin. GG


July vs Child at Neo Arkanoid



ZvZ was actually a welcomed change of pace after all the red hot TvZ action. July spawned at 5 and Child spawned at 7. Both players copy each other and start off with a hatchery next to the cocoons followed by a pool then gas. Child gets his second gas a bit sooner, but his spire is started a bit later compared with July. Again the copy each other and put down a third hatchery by their third gas.

July uses his first scourges to kill the overlords of his opponent. This buys him some time to get a few drone kills, but it still looks like they are about even in the drone count. The standard muta versus scourge micro battles break out for a while until July wins the first big encounter. From here on it he is in the drivers seat. He starts harassing Child's natural and scourging mutalisks every now and then. When July wins the second big encounter it's over. GG


The two SK Telecom T1 terrans, happy with their performance.

GGPlay vs GoRush at Reverse Temple



GGPlay has an impressive record in ZvZ the last ten matched, 8-2. Although GoRush is no pushover in this matchup, he was certainly not the favorite. GGPlay spawns at 6 and GoRush at 9. Both players scout the right way, as would be expected in these positions. Then the mirror each other with an expansion at their natural on 12. GoRush is a literally just a second behind. Both put down a third hatchery in their natural.

Somehow GGPlay manages to sneak two zerglings into GoRush's main and take out a single drone. Both players build a lot of lings before the muta and scourge start roaming the air. The usual back and forth air battles break out, but there is nothing unusal about the micro. GoRush has very good muta micro, it's just too bad for him that GGPlay's is flawless. As GGplay gains air superiority and starts wreaking havoc, GoRush counters with his massive ling force. I think most people thought it was over, but when GoRush breaks down the natural and starts attacking the spire in the main of GGPlay there were some second thoughts. However GGPlay is not a fool and makes sure his spire survives with his mutas and that's that. GG

hOyA vs Yooi at Neo Arkanoid



Yooi lands at 11 and builds a command center after his first supply depot. Then he takes out the cocoons with his scvs and has a quick and correctly placed CC. hOyA spawns at 7 and puts down a hatchery on 12 next to the cocoons in his natural. He puts his third in place of the newly destroyed cocoons and a forth in the second natural. Yooi on his part has been busy killing neutral builds. His M&M force has made it's way to the front of hOyA's base, but three quick sunkens stop the progress. He then tries to kill some more neutral buildings to make it to the top zerg natural but is stopped by lurkers. The he actually tries for the bottom one as well, again stopped by lurkers.

Yooi's early pressure didn't do any damage, but at least it forced hOyA to concentrate on defending. As soon as everything is secure for the zerg it becomes clear what his plan is as he loads up his overlords with units. Terran had just gotten tanks and could have broken through, but the zerg drop means he has to run back to prevent any major damage to his economy. The next fight takes place in the middle and the zerg is quite easily defeated as some of his troops are elsewhere. They are in the terran main and expansion. Yooi opts to counter instead of running back once again, but it fails quite badly. From this point on zerg just keeps harassing until he gets swarm. When Yooi sees the swarm he gives up. Clearly not the best game of the day. GG

Midas, todays MVPat FighterForum

OSL Week 1.1
Nada < iloveoov Reverse Temple
Yellow[ArnC] < UpMagic Longinus II
Midas > Savior Hitchhiker
July > Child Neo Arkanoid
GoRush < GGPlay Reverse Temple
hOyA > Yooi Neo Arkanoid


Today featured a game from each group and some of the games were great. UpMagic and Midas. Watch them play terran to the fullest. GGPlay shows off his amazing muta micro. It was a good day. The next round is the day after tomorrow (22nd) and promises to be fun as well with both protoss players in action. Much vs DongraE, FireBatHero vs Anytime, LighT vs ChoJJa, GoodFriend vs Casy, IriS vs ForGG and Zergman vs Hwasin. Some great games today and clearly more to look foreward to. This is shaping up to be a nice OSL despite the lack of protoss.

Links
Teamliquid - jkillashark on the OSL and ODT format
FighterForum - Picture source