Due to scheduling conflicts we're unable to provide you with battle reports for the final two weeks of GOM's Ro16. Instead, we'll link to the games and provide a brief summary in spoilers, bolding two of the games to indicate preference for watching those games over the others.
Although at a positional disadvantage, Berserker took an early lead with a smartly executed 2 factory tank push. MVP was able to recover to an extent, but looked uncomfortable and indecisive throughout the mid-game. When MVP finally dedicated himself to a cliff drop, Berserker counter dropped MVPs main and pushed his ground forces into MVP's front natural, ending the game in short order.
Both players decided to open with massive amounts of vultures with mines, but while Berserker transitioned out of heavy vultures by making a sizable tank force, MVP opted for wraith. Berserker's initial reaction to the wraith was to unsiege his tanks and then reseige them, costing him 1-2 tanks that he didn't need to lose. By the time Berserker had goliath to discourage the wraith bombardment, MVP had a tank advantage which he used to set up a contain. Berserker was able to make a game of it, but never recovered from his initial blunder as MVP was allowed to control the flow of the game from beginning to end.
Berserker's famously surgical dropship play turned an early economic disadvantage around. Due to a few poor decisions, MVP was eventually starved for gas and failed to keep up with with Berserker's tank production. Berserker Eliminates MVP.
ZerO deflects Tempest's initial 2 archon/speedlot timing push with a mixture of hydra, sunkens and expertly placed zerg buildings. However, he lost a considerable number of drones in the process and was unable to counter Tempest's third quickly enough to prevent Tempest from securing it. Despite some incredible micro by ZerO, he's unable to defend against Tempest's superior economy, and eventually falls to streams of protoss units.
ZerO's sunken was moments late and Tempest was able to destroy it with his first four zealots. He walked two dark templar into ZerO's main while a back-up sunken was building and severely knocked ZerO off his game. Although ZerO placed his third at another main's natural and was able to secure it, it did not matter to Tempest's signiture follow up: a stream of protoss units straight into the zerg natural. Tempest eliminates MenSol[ZerO].
It doesn't look like Violet practiced for this game, he proxy gates and hesitates at EffOrt's ramp. Violet loses since EffOrt is able to place sunkens in his main and expand to his rear natural.
EffOrt decides Violet is vulnerable to all-in ling and, distracting Violet's Zealots with a small group of zerglings, he gains access to Violet's vulnerable natural. Violet ggs as soon as his cannon (singular) and zealots are killed. EffOrt eliminates Violet in a disappointing series.
sKyHigh vs July could turn out to be a pretty nice series. CJ's Terran phenomenon has been in a bit of a minislump for June, and this may open the door for July to win his first boX series against a Terran since he beat SEri and IdrA in the 2008 Winter MSL Offline Preliminaries. Lacking any proleague (or OSL or MSL) responsibilities, July can focus all his attention on this game, and with sKyHigh looking vulnerable for the first time this year, he may just sneak his way into the semi-finals! Doubt me? Check it.
Flash vs Shuttle isn't quite a forgone conclusion, either. Shuttle is used to being an underdog that eliminates big names-- especially in GOM, where he gets superpowers-- and he showed not twenty-five days ago that he's capable of giving Flash a challenge in the 2009 Bacchus OSL (check it out)! Unlike sKyHigh, however, Flash is most certainly not slumping, so Shuttle is still a big underdog for this series. If the OSL games were the result of Flash underestimating Shuttle, it's a mistake he's not likely to repeat, but it should be entertaining to watch this rematch anyway.
LosingID8 had a chance to interview Violet recently. If you haven't yet had the chance to read it, I suggest that you take the time to do so! Among other things, Violet talks about GOM and how he approached his games.
I want Flash to win because then all the races will have won GOM. But the Jaedong games, man, they are so good it makes me wonder if anyone can stop him.
Jaedong vs Effort Bo3 is going to be great. I'm really looking forward to this. And aren't they going to face each other in MSL or OSL, too? If both keep advancing..
On July 03 2009 23:21 Worthing wrote: Lolz, am I the only one praying for Eff0rt vs Skyhigh in the finals? I doubt it highly, but it would make this CJ fan proud. :D
Actually I was hoping for Iris vs Skyhigh personally, but I would take that as a good secondary choice.
flash and jaedong are on the same side of the draw the above draw is different to the 1 shown on gom... so according to gom no chance of a jaedong flash final
On July 03 2009 23:35 oldirty wrote: flash and jaedong are on the same side of the draw the above draw is different to the 1 shown on gom... so according to gom no chance of a jaedong flash final
On July 03 2009 23:35 oldirty wrote: flash and jaedong are on the same side of the draw the above draw is different to the 1 shown on gom... so according to gom no chance of a jaedong flash final
On July 03 2009 23:35 oldirty wrote: flash and jaedong are on the same side of the draw the above draw is different to the 1 shown on gom... so according to gom no chance of a jaedong flash final
no im pretty sure your wrong
but too lazy to check huh ^^ he's right theyd meet in the semis
On July 04 2009 00:12 King K. Rool wrote: Jaedong could possibly play CJ players for the rest of the tournament.
nope that is not possible, Flash/hwasin in the semis
This is GOM's bracket according to GOM's Korean site which we assume is less prone to errors. It is identical to the bracket we're using in these articles except it's in Korean and uses the progamers' real names.
This is the third time this has been discussed in as many GOM articles. Apologies for any confusion, but we think it's more important to be correct than to agree with the often confused/incomplete GOM english site 100%. If the semis roll around and it turns out we backed the wrong language... well, hell's bells... whoops!
Yeah both brackets being different is pretty confusing. We'll only know for sure over the next couple of weeks... I kind of hope that the English version is wrong because then that would give Jaedong an easier road into the finals. I think flash deserves to be in the finals again against Jaedong, which might not be too exciting because its already happened (though shouldnt be too surprising with some of the best players not even in the tournament)
On July 04 2009 02:04 geegee1 wrote: hoping actually for july vs jaedong finals
why would you hope for that? july's zvz is nowhere near jaedong's...it would probably be a pretty disappointing finals. hoping for jaedong/flash again....even tho i'm a jd fan, i'm hoping flash will have figured out 2-hatch timing to make this an interesting series
On July 03 2009 23:35 oldirty wrote: flash and jaedong are on the same side of the draw the above draw is different to the 1 shown on gom... so according to gom no chance of a jaedong flash final
Gogo Skyhigh and Flash! Tx for the write-up, checked almost all of the games live but still nice to see a recap and know which missed games are worth watching.
On July 04 2009 05:01 Avidkeystamper wrote: Gom draws are based on KeSPA ranking. Since Bisu is not in it, JD is #1 seed, Flash is #2 seed, and they will meet in the finals.
Season 1 Jaedong/Flash dream final was a bit of a disappointment. But I think Flash should have a good shot this tourney--jaedong is talking about veing fatigued after all
so.. it seems as though it'll be flash v jaedong in the semi's on 1 side.. and on the other side.. I guess it's still some what of a toss-up
July v Skyhigh \\ Tempest v Iris // both matches could go either way.
but i'd predict that in the top bracket semis would be Skyhigh v Tempest ( almost said July ) and.. if everything goes well for the players, or incredibly wrong for other players, we could have a TvT final.. (being hypethetically Flash v skyhigh)