To be honest, it has been far too long since we've last seen a showmatch of this caliber. And this just eats me from inside since we barely get to watch the two sides of the StarCraft pro-scene in such direct contrast as we did in the GomTV showmatch which put two 8-player teams against each other. All the participants brought their own history and motivation to the table, eager for victory, for glory, for fame.

Team "Korea" was on home ground, in the marvelous city of Seoul. The army of the East marched to the studio with inner fire inside them, aiming to defend their honor. All along StarCraft's existence, Koreans have been dominating the pro-scene hard, overshadowing the foreigners with their impeccable reputation of being invincible. In BroodWar, the difference could not be leaped over but as StarCraft 2 grew larger, the Korean dominance seemed to be less marginal, less intimidating. Thus, coach Seung-Pyo 'Cella' Hong led his gladiators forward to crush the invaders.

Just opposite the Korean bench sat the united forces of the World. They too had their motivation for victory, wanting to prove that they are just as good as their Eastern comrades. So far, Koreans arrived as favorites at every international tournament and had won IEM World Championship convincingly, spurring once again the oldest argument among the SC community - can the East be conquered. And now, there was a clear shot at the Korean demigods, one chance for glorious battle and thus, led by Dan 'Artosis' Stemkoski, team "The World" stormed the Korean ssawon*.

For my pleasure and that of many, it wasn't a one-sided ownage. Not even close to that. All fifteen sets had to be played to determine the winner but finally, after two days of intense StarCraft, the victor stood still. Because in the end, there can be only eight!

Team "Korea" 8:7 Team "The World"
-1:0 Jung Hwan 'Anypro' Lee > Carl Stefan 'MorroW' Andersson @ Tal'Darim Altar
-1:1 Jung Hwan 'Anypro' Lee < Chia Yang 'SEn' Cheng @ Terminus RE
-1:2 Jung-Hoon 'MarineKing' Lee < Chia Yang 'SEn' Cheng @ Xel'Naga Caverns
-2:2 Cho Won 'San' Kang > Chia Yang 'SEn' Cheng @ Metalopolis
-2:3 Cho Won 'San' Kang < Payam 'TT1' Toghyan @ Scrap Station
-2:4 Yoon-Yeol 'NaDa' Lee < Payam 'TT1' Toghyan @ Crossfire
-3:4 Min Chul 'MC' Jang > Payam 'TT1' Toghyan @ Crevasse
-3:5 Min Chul 'MC' Jang < Oleksii 'White-Ra' Krupnyk @ Shakuras Plateau
-4:5 Sung-Jun 'July' Park > Oleksii 'White-Ra' Krupnyk @ Scrap Station
-5:5 Sung-Jun 'July' Park > Chris 'HuK' Loranger @ Xel'Naga Caverns
-6:5 Sung-Jun 'July' Park > Andrew 'mOOn-GLaDe' Pender @ Metalopolis
-7:5 Sung-Jun 'July' Park > Jonathan 'Jinro' Walsh @ Crevasse
-7:6 Sung-Jun 'July' Park < Dmytro 'DIMAGA' Filipchuk @ Shakuras Plateau
-7:7 Jong-Hyun 'Mvp' Jung < Dmytro 'DIMAGA' Filipchuk @ Tal'Darim Altar
-8:7 Jae-Duck 'NesTea' Lim > Dmytro 'DIMAGA' Filipchuk @ Terminus RE

Part 1: Sen Tzu, The Art of Swarm

As you can see from above, things did not actually start great for team "World". Morrow faced Anypro in a match that I thought would favor the Swede. Morrow spawned across the Protoss on Tal'Darim and had the chance to steam up his macro mode and for a while things were going great - he had his economy going and his army was growing larger. That was until he clashed with the Protoss deathball and got the worse part of the engagement. Slightly overproducing corruptors, Morrow did not have enough to battle the Stalker army and was soon overwhelmed.

But then along came Sen and put new hope in the hearts of the foreigners with two important wins for the team. First, he stopped any of Anypro's intentions of becoming the hero for team Korea and prevented a 0:2 disadvantage that would've been a bit problematic for foreigners to recover from. Sen opened quite risky with a 3-base Muta in a match-up that is usually played quite differently. With a nail-biting defense, the Taiwanese fended off Anypro's 1-base aggression and then just flew ahead to crush the second all-in wave of Protoss units.

Secondly, Sen proceeded to crush one of Korea's best - the two times GSL runner up MarineKing in a back-and-forth bio-baneling dance on Caverns. Sen showed immaculate defense and kept pushing MK's Marines and Marauders away and finally massed up enough forces to march down to Terran's natural and smolder it to the ground.

Unfortunately, Sen's crusade was halted at Metalopolis, where the Cinderella of GSL March San managed to outplay the Zerg in a very close game. For some inexplainable reasons (for insult win, maybe, or something else entirely), San opened with a passive 2-base opening and as he threw a gaze at his third he began warping... Carriers. That nearly cost San the game as Sen's untiring assault managed to dwindle down the much expensive Protoss army but the Zerg again fell into the same traphole as Morrow - overdoing Corruptors. Switching quickly to mass Stalkers, San blinked forward for the tying game.

Part 2: TT-1000

After Sen's defeat, Artosis had to do a tough choice of whom to send forward. If San was to be beaten, Team Korea would still have its ultimate best players on the line so it had to be someone who could stand up to it. TT1 was the one who stepped forward and, fortunately for all foreign fans, did not disappoint none of them.

The Canadian showed grand determination in the toughest moments and refused to yield even after bad odds. In his first game against San, TT1 quickly found himself against the ropes after losing some important Stalkers to a flank but then, as San marched into his base, he managed to pull off a stunning surround with his Probes, obliterating the whole lot of the Korean army, taking the advantage and winning the game minutes later.

The game against Nada was even more brutal. Once again, TT1 was put in a difficult spot as the Genius Terran did a highly aggressive all-in Marine/Tank/Banshee push and sieged upon Protoss's natural highground. Patience, however, saved Canadian's day and by waiting for just the right amount of units, TT1 broke the contain, pushed down the hills of Crossfire and reinforced for the win. The legends has been slain. World was up 4-2.

Part 3: How to PvP (and how not to)

If you have seen oGsMC play PvP you know how things go if his opponent makes the tiniest of mistakes. Well, TT1 made a huge one and once again got flanked by MC's Stalkers. The game was over in under 7 minutes.

It was time for someone who knew how to PvP, properly. If team "World" was to push MC off his throne it had to be someone who had deeper knowledge of the game than anyone else on the team. Fortunately, the foreigners had such a player in their midst and forward stepped the grandpa toss White-Ra, ready to deliver justice to the Kratos Protoss. European style!

There are PvPs where you go 4-gate. There are PvPs where you go Blink, or 3 Stalker, or quick Immortal. There are even PvPs where you go 1-base Colossus (although you die quickly, of course). But I doubt that there are PvPs where you go fast Robo into... Warp Prism. Except this one. To be honest, MC did not any mistake per se in his play, besides underestimating White-Ra's micro skills and taunting him pre-game. Korean's blink play was spot-on but White-ra was just too good and using his Warp Prism (yes, I am not joking, look at the screenshot below) he dropped Zealots on top of MC's Stalkers to soft counter the Blink. After fending off the push, it was basically over but still I have to mention that White-ra had the calm decency to throw down a Nexus and do a Zealot harass with the Prism. Just in case there was still someone there who did not get the joke.

Part 4: 500 Lings of Summer

Things were looking really bad for team Korea at that point. They still had their heavy hitters but they were down 5:3 with only three players left. Korea was running out of soldiers to send to the front-line. Luckily for them, they had a second ultimate BroodWar legend in their team - July!

At that time I was still rooting for the foreigners but one cannot stay still seeing July's madness in the form of Zerg units. The rampage of Mr. Park started with White-ra's execution on Scrap Station where he sneaked lings inside the Protoss base, saw his Stargate tech and was completely prepared when, after minutes of cat-and-mouse game inside Ukrainian's main, White-ra came down with his army. The Zerg crushed the Protoss convincingly and looked at foreigners' bench, awaiting his next opponent.

HuK was next but, sadly, he too failed to find a way to beat July's ZvP which on Xel'Naga consisted of just 3 different components: push here, harass there, go mass Banelings. Written like that it might not look like a convincing strat but you can ask HuK's Stalkers. And Sentries and Colossi. And Probes.

July was tired now. It was time to hit him in his weakest match-up and eliminate him. That must've past through Artosis's head when he sent Moonglade to play a ZvZ on Metalopolis. Unfortunately, things did not work out well for the Australian. Failing to exploit the window of opportunity around July's hatch first build to the maximum, Moonglade soon fell victim to Korean's superior economy and production capabilities and could not stop July's 1/1 Roach push that ended yet another hope for foreign supremacy.

It is common knowledge that you cannot allow July to be aggressive early on. However, people sometimes forget that it is just as scary to let him macro up. This is what Jinro remembered on the game on Crevasse during his attempt to heroically bring the foreign team back in the lead. Using Mutalisks to harass the Terran and gain map control, July went up to four bases and did a strong Roach/Baneling timing push at a point when Jinro's tank numbers were quite insufficient. The Swede could just sit and helplessly watch as his forces melted away.

Part 5: A Last Hope

It was all down to this last player. Dmitriy "Dimaga" Filipchuk was World's last hope for winning this whole showmatch and he had world's strongest players ahead of him - July, MVP and NesTea, all former and current StarCraft legends and champions.

But it is no random occurrence that Dimaga was considered the best player in Europe for a long time. The Ukranian bore burning ferocity behind his friendly smile and stepped in the booth ready to avenge his team.

Naturally, July was the first to fall. Dimaga went through the Korean like a steamroller and outroached him nearly 2:1 like he was a bronze player playing since the last reset.

MVP was next and both players were looking forward to play a very comfortable match-up for them. The game soon developed into epic proportions, going into such a heavy macro phase that I would not want to ruin the pleasure for you by putting it to words. You just have to go and watch it at gomtv.net. Sadly, however, after more than 40 minutes of tension, the game crashed and had to be remade.

Not wanting to play another late-game torment like the one before, MVP opened 2-Rax with the intention to end it quickly. However, Dimaga was once again prepared and managed to defend the rush and then exploded like an Ukranian nuclear bomb. Getting his Bane nest up, Dimaga just went for 40 banelings and rolled through MVP's defence like it was paper. The score was 7-7. It was all about the last match.

It was now NesTea vs Dimaga, the last standing warriors from both armies. A legendary ZvZ to end the tournament. Dimaga, the hero of the foreign world, versus NesTea, the undefeated Zerg in mirror matches.

It all ended quickly, though. NesTea is truly a genius at ZvZ and Dimaga was at that time not prepared enough to face the GSL 2 champion. The Korean went for his signature +1 Roach push with Speedling support that has won him so many mirrors in the past. Being outmacroed and outupgraded, Dimaga had to concede the game.

Thus it ended, the Koreans triumphant but not as dominantly as they might have expected. And before another day would go buy, they were to face the foreigners again, this time in the individual league.

And everyone is hungry for revenge.


*Ssawon - Korean for "citadel"