GGL Wire

With Flash claiming the StarCraft GOMTV GSI title for himself, Stork is now grasping for the OSL. Flash, considered on of the top Terrans in the world, has been gaining momentum, rolling over so many opponents lately. With his GOMTV win, he turned from a dark horse into a crowd favorite. Showing he can defeat Stork despite stacked odds against him, Flash will sit down once again to prove his victory was not a fluke.Stork is arguably the top Protoss player to set foot on the proleague scene today. Excluding Flash, Stork has only lost one PvT game to Iris (later on in GSI event he would sweep Iris 3-0). He can multitask and optimize every move, balancing micro and macro to an incredible degree even among players in his class. Stork demonstrates the full potential of the Protoss races in his games, never disappointing spectators.

While the players are clashing for a rematch, the maps have changed for this set.

Game 1 - Blue Storm
Game 2 - Katrina
Game 3 - Troy
Game 4 - Fantasy II
Game 5 - Blue Storm Continued…

The GSI comes to a close soon, with only two players remaining. Their paths to this match were long and hard-fought against other invitees. Proxy builds, cheese plays, and guerilla drops all played their role in bringing us to this final moment.

Catch up on the VoDs, player bios, and schedule at the GSI website!

Flash’s path:

Flash > Savior, AnyTime, Mind in group play
Jaedong, AnyTime in elimination stage

Flash is on fire now, playing with unparalleled poise. He rose out of his group 3-0, then pushed out two favorites for event. His play against AnyTime in the semi-finals match on Blue Storm was incredible in both games. He managed to spot proxy gateways and adapted to AnyTime’s strategies each game. Though he took a loss on Katrina, a quick game on Baekmagoji tallied one more point in his favor. At a critical juncture in the match, Flash subtly moved a barracks and landed it to trap AnyTime’s units, changing their pathing into Flash’s favor. Unable to quickly finish the game on the second Blue Storm game, AnyTime bowed out after an all-in attack. Continued…

The GomTV Star Invitational enters it’s semi-finals stage, with players now playing best of five matches to see who advances. Only two Terran and two Protoss players remain now, so tune in tonight to see Nick “Tasteless” Plott casting the action!

The full schedule is available, as always, at gsi.gomtv.com.

View stream setup and info here at the GSI homepage.

Map list:
Blue Storm
Katrina
Baekmagoji
Blue Storm
Katrina

Hit the jump for the matchups. Continued…

Group play of the StarCraft GOMTV Star Invitational has concluded, with the two best players from each group advancing to the single elimination brackets. Four Protoss, three Terran, and one Zerg continue to duel for prestige and honor. Only the top players will survive, facing a best of three match in the Round of 8.

The map set follows (as reported by TeamLiquid) :

Blue Storm
Katrina
Baekmagoji

Quick analysis: It’s interesting to see two maps with 1v1 setups, sandwiching Katrina, a very controversial map.

The Matchups

Flash (Terran) v Jaedong (Zerg)

Flash really surprised me. Not only did he win out of his group 3-0, but he managed to really rise up and show everyone why he’s here. Jaedong took a strange loss and came out of his group 2-1. Some experts claim he threw the match to avoid playing his teammate so early on. Either way, these players aren’t going down easy, especially with Jaedong as the only Zerg making it out of group play. Both of them are not ready to back down.

With Jaedong on fire and Flash in shape, expect this to go to three maps.

BlueStorm: Jaedong > Flash
Katrina: Flash > Jaedong
Baekmagoji: Flash > Jaedong

Flash advances (2-1). Continued…