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StarCraft16 years agoGosu "GosuGamers" Gamers

Bacchus 2008 OSL kicking off Wednesday

The 2008 Bacchus OnGameNet StarLeague kicks off tomorrow morning. Four groups with four players in each battling to get to the next stage over the next three weeks. GosuGamers takes you through each group and then some.



Group A
JaeDong Lecaf Oz
sAviOr CJ Entus
Sea MBC HERO
Best SKT T1


Group A is stacked. What a group. JaeDong is the reigning OSL champion, but not only that, he's currently on a six game win streak in the ProLeague and is rampaging through the MSL so far. This man has to be a favorite in this group, there's no question about it. Now comes the difficult part, who will follow him into the elimination stage? Without thinking the obivous choice is sAviOr, but out of his last ten games he's only won four. JaeDong's strongest matchup is most likely ZvZ and sAviOr seem to be dropping a lot of games to Terran lately.

Sea has six wins out of his last ten games (and there's a six game long win streak before that). He is extremly strong, but as has been pointed out a lot lately, he has a tendency to not make it far in the StarLeagues. Another factor the plays in here is that Sea will face neither of the Zergs on Blue Storm, a map that's proved fatal for Terran is TvZ.

As far as BeSt goes, he is in over his head here. His PvZ is far from proven to be great, rather the opposite if anything. It's his PvP that's great, sadly for him there are no Protoss in this group. He does have a rising form though, but still remains a wild card at best.

A cursed OSL champion, a slumping sAviOr, the ProLeague ace who has troubles in StarLeagues and the write-off. JaeDong and Sea will make it out of this group, although ist's very open, especially if BeSt wins a game in this group.

Group B
Stork Samsung Khan
Rock WeMade FOX
Rumble SKT T1
Flash KTF MagicNs


Stork made it to the finals last time only to fall short to JaeDong. His PvZ is clearly his weakest matchup though. Even so, it's very good. It's better than Rumble's ZvP. Stork will not fumble this group. He'll crush Rock and Rumble and probably Flash too. Either way, he's advancing and probably doing so in style with 3-0

Rock is not going to beat Stork. His PvT is strong though, he beat Midas and Sea recently. He also beat JaeDong 4-1 for the OSC win last summer and by no means has a bad PvZ. Assuming Stork beats everyone, this guy is gonna be hard to keep out of the elimination stages.

Rumble has a chance, but that's about all he has. Rock and Stork should be strong enough to take him down without too much trouble and he doesn't have the best ZvT. This should be the last place finisher in the group. Flash on the other hand is unpredictable. He's a true joker. He can take down anyone, including Stork. He takes chances though and is not the most stable player. If he can play his best he'll follow Stork to the elimination stage.

Group C
Bisu MBC HERO
XellOs CJ Entus
Luxury OGN Sparkyz
July SKT T1


Bisu has had a lot of losses lately. He lost the MSL final to Mind, got knocked out of last OSL by Stork and then the quick exit from the current MSL at the hands of JaeDong and YellOw[ArnC]. Those are all big names though and Bisu is still the PvZ master, who has two Zergs in his group.

XellOs was impressive last season, but the early MSL exit recently and a few other losses doesn't look too good for him. He's definitely not someone to be taken lightly though. If he's on his game he can make this close, however I don't think he'll make it all the way in such a strong group. Facing Bisu TvP on Katrina is no dream situation as the map is in favor of Bisu.

Luxury is one of the newer really strong Zergs. He's facing XellOs on Blue Storm which is an advantage that will most likely seal that game. He's also a beast at ZvZ, which leads me to think he will catch two wins at least and make it through. I would not be too surprised if he even made a run a Bisu.

July has been doing well lately, but he has to be qualified as an outsider in this group along with XellOs. He recently got through a tough MSL group with JaeDong, YellOw[ArnC] and Bisu though. This group is the most exciting group this season. Everyone seems to have something to prove. Luxury that he belongs in this company, XellOs and July will be looking to prove that they haven't lost their touch and Bisu has to prove that this is not a slump. Having said that, I predict Bisu and Luxury, but would not be too surprised if this turned into a nailbiter.

Group D
Much CJ Entus
BackHo Lecaf Oz
FrOzean Samsung Khan
YellOw[ArnC] OGN Sparkyz


Ah, the forth OSL group. Last time it was probably the strongest on paper, this time it has to be the weakest. Much has quite a winning streak going a few months back, but has not been as impressive as of late. He's gotten good results though, beating Sea in the OSC best of five and Yarnc and Rumble best of three. Facing Yarnc on Katrina should be an advantage for Much.

BackHo is a bit difficult to get a hold on. He hasn't faced too many top players in shape and won. Nor does he have the best stats really. On the other hand he has a nice record as of late. Only two losses in the last eight games and those were both against July.

FrOzean has an ok TvP and luckily for him there are two Protoss in this group, because I have no faith in him versus Yarnc. He will need to win against both Protoss to advance. Much is normally a better player than him and BackHo is in shape, so it's going to be difficult for him. He has to be classified as an outsider in this group.

YellOw[ArnC] has a strong ZvT and will beat FrOzean most likely. His ZvP is not bad either. He lost 2-1 to Much last month, but this month he beat Bisu. He's very lucky that he is the only Zerg in this group as most of the other Zergs in this tournament would man handle him. That being said I think Yarnc can overcome Much on Katrina and win this group. Then in second place BackHo might pull an upset and claim advancement.

One thing that is not considered in the predictions are the two new maps. Pretty much no one outside Korea has played them since they have not been publically released yet. We did ask United States Artosis and United States G5 to do a little bit of guessing on the balance though.

Artosis thinks Demon's forest looks interesting, but he's also sceptical and doesn't think it's suited for progaming as it lends itself to luck with all those trees and a 70% hit chance while under them. Units with splash damage will not be as affected though. Also goliaths will be strong against carriers, which could mean Protoss will be at a disadvantage. G5 doesn't like to look of the map, but is excited at the prospect of no more goon battles in the middle. He also say that he thinks it will be a good map for Zerg ZvT mid and late game. "It has alot of ways to counter opponents which I think really hurts Terran and favors Z / P"

On Troy G5 thinks it's a map to make up for the Katrina and Blue Storm imbalances towards Terran. Artosis disagrees a bit and pictures mutalisk harass being able to lock Terran in their base while the Zerg takes the map. Either way nothing's certain until we've seen the pros play the maps for a while. There been more than one promap that looked like it was favored in a certain way, but turned out completely opposite.

Links
Teamliquid - TLPD - Stats
GosuGamers - The two new OSL maps

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