StarCraft II
The last month of games has brought us all to this very moment - the GSL March finals. Two fearsome entities fought their way to Daejon Expo Centre and walked on stage full of confidence, passion, energy and drive to win. On the most glorious of all stages, the GSL 3 champion 
met once again after the group of death an indisputable BroodWar legend and Golden Mouse winner Sung-Jun 'July' Park. The God of War of old was to face the Kratos Protoss in a clash of divine proportions.
Both players come on stage like boxing superstars, accompanied by their coaches and teammates, high-fiving the crowd, with smiles of confidence on their faces. Their determination radiates so strongly that even I, a half-asleep fan in front of the monitor, feel invigorated. Everything is so grand, that I forget my July fanboism and just sit there quietly, awaiting for the Secret girls to finish their disturbing K-pop so the games could start.
And so they did, eventually; the final of the biggest StarCraft 2 event began...
...ending in the not-as-epic-as-I-had-hoped manner.
4:1 Sung-Jun 'July' Park
-1:0 Metalopolis
-2:0 Crevasse
-2:1 Terminus Re
-3:1 Crossfire
-4:1 Shakuras Plateau
The series began on Metalopolis and "MC" went for deep mind games right from the start. In an incredibly daring way, the Protoss faked an expansion and allowed "July" to see it but even then he continued spitting units from his four gates, leaving the Nexus to almost complete. July checked MC's natural repeatedly and every time there it was - a warping nexus. Feeling a bit confident, July switched to droning and fell into MC's trap. The oGs hero cancelled his Nexus at around 90% and moved out with his scary 4-Gate army. July was forced to throw in some emergency Spine Crawlers but it was a bit too late for such critical measures. MC came, saw and conquered, Force Fielding the ramp for all eternity thanks to his signature mass Sentry army mix. Having no larvae to repel the enemy forces, July surrendered the opening set.
I bet no one suspected MC's exact plan for the set on Crevasse. Yes, he went for the usual Nexus on the inner natural. Yes, he mined a ton of gas. And yes, he was suspiciously passive. But few of the viewers probably foresaw that MC would go for a mindblowing 11 Sentry push. That is correct, sir - eleven Sentries. July, of course, had no idea this was coming (just like the first set) and probably thought that he would have the time to saturate his third. His plans were shattered, though, as MC marched viciously with his peculiar gas-heavy army of Sentries and whatever other Gateway units he could squeeze in. Using FFs to imprison all of July's roaches, MC just sat back and right-clicked on them, probably grinning like a deranged imp as his forces cleaned the enemy.
By that time everything seemed grim for July and his fans (me included, as I was now sober from the excitation and actually had to witness my favourite player in the tournament get beaten up like a bass drum at an Arch Enemy concert). But the former BroodWar superstar was not out yet by any means. The third set was on Terminus, which is generally a good map for Zerg with two expos under one choke. MC decided to take a risk and do a meta-game Forge/Fast expand build, despite the fear of Roach all-ins that many Protosses are currently experiencing. July, however, had no such plans and after scouting the wall-in at the natural he simply threw a third Hatch and continued to macro up.
A short imposition came for July around the 8-minute mark when MC, now past the time when Protosses worry about being busted and drowned in acid, sent a Void Ray and three Phoenixes to the Zerg base, killing the Queens and crippling July's macro. But StarTale's player had his Hydra Den already up and with a decent control he stalled off any further economy damage.
It was by that time that many of us probably looked at the production tab of July and saw the two simultaneous Overlord upgrades being researched. July obviously had something in mind and he revealed it in a matter of minutes. Rallying his Hydras to MC's main cliff, he elevated them and pooped them all over MC's Gateways. Although MC seemed fine for a while and held off the first attack, a second wave of Hydralisks forced a GG out of the Protoss.
I am sure that the set on Terminus pissed off MC quite a bit, judging by what he did to July in the following two sets. On Crossfire, the Protoss opened with a quick Dark Shrine and rallied DTs up July's main. The Zerg saw the blur and tried to stall the harass by holding some Roaches on the ramp, but the Templars eventually did break in and started annoying the God of War. Knowing that he has a total control of the map with his invisible assassins, MC made further use of his DT tech and researched Blink while keeping July from expanding and regaining economical strength.
Then, suddenly, like a really, really pissed off Kratos, MC summoned the largest force of Blink Stalkers I have seen by the 12 minute mark and, again using Sentries to control the battlefield, danced back and forth and obliterated everything that is Zerg.
The final set on Shakuras was the only game in which MC got a second expansion. Both players got their early third and started to trade forces in the middle of the map. MC's mix of choice was again Blink Stalkers with DT support for extra harassing opportunities. July, on the other hand, tried to battle this with mostly Hydra army. For some minutes MC kept persisting on killing July's third and although he never did so, July's Hydralisk number continued to wane until finally the Stalker count was just too much for the Zerg to handle. July typed GG and surrendered the throne to oGsMC.
Looking back at the finals and the whole tournament, I really didn't want it to end is such painfully one-sided way. After some sick upsets throughout the past month, which led to the elimination of "NesTea", "MVP", "MarineKing", "Boxer", "Rainbow", "FruitDealer", "Genius" and "Inca" in the group stage and to the Cinderella story of "San", GSL March deserved a better ending. And it would have nothing to do with who won, it all comes down to how. MC is a beast and he most certainly earned his right to call himself the first player ever to win two GSLs. But come on, don't you wish for another "NesTea" vs "MKP" finals? Do you not crave another 4:3 nail-biting series?
I know you do! But I guess we must wait for the next GSL.
met once again after the group of death an indisputable BroodWar legend and Golden Mouse winner Sung-Jun 'July' Park. The God of War of old was to face the Kratos Protoss in a clash of divine proportions. Both players come on stage like boxing superstars, accompanied by their coaches and teammates, high-fiving the crowd, with smiles of confidence on their faces. Their determination radiates so strongly that even I, a half-asleep fan in front of the monitor, feel invigorated. Everything is so grand, that I forget my July fanboism and just sit there quietly, awaiting for the Secret girls to finish their disturbing K-pop so the games could start.
And so they did, eventually; the final of the biggest StarCraft 2 event began...
...ending in the not-as-epic-as-I-had-hoped manner.
4:1 Sung-Jun 'July' Park-1:0 Metalopolis
-2:0 Crevasse
-2:1 Terminus Re
-3:1 Crossfire
-4:1 Shakuras Plateau
The series began on Metalopolis and "MC" went for deep mind games right from the start. In an incredibly daring way, the Protoss faked an expansion and allowed "July" to see it but even then he continued spitting units from his four gates, leaving the Nexus to almost complete. July checked MC's natural repeatedly and every time there it was - a warping nexus. Feeling a bit confident, July switched to droning and fell into MC's trap. The oGs hero cancelled his Nexus at around 90% and moved out with his scary 4-Gate army. July was forced to throw in some emergency Spine Crawlers but it was a bit too late for such critical measures. MC came, saw and conquered, Force Fielding the ramp for all eternity thanks to his signature mass Sentry army mix. Having no larvae to repel the enemy forces, July surrendered the opening set.
I bet no one suspected MC's exact plan for the set on Crevasse. Yes, he went for the usual Nexus on the inner natural. Yes, he mined a ton of gas. And yes, he was suspiciously passive. But few of the viewers probably foresaw that MC would go for a mindblowing 11 Sentry push. That is correct, sir - eleven Sentries. July, of course, had no idea this was coming (just like the first set) and probably thought that he would have the time to saturate his third. His plans were shattered, though, as MC marched viciously with his peculiar gas-heavy army of Sentries and whatever other Gateway units he could squeeze in. Using FFs to imprison all of July's roaches, MC just sat back and right-clicked on them, probably grinning like a deranged imp as his forces cleaned the enemy.
By that time everything seemed grim for July and his fans (me included, as I was now sober from the excitation and actually had to witness my favourite player in the tournament get beaten up like a bass drum at an Arch Enemy concert). But the former BroodWar superstar was not out yet by any means. The third set was on Terminus, which is generally a good map for Zerg with two expos under one choke. MC decided to take a risk and do a meta-game Forge/Fast expand build, despite the fear of Roach all-ins that many Protosses are currently experiencing. July, however, had no such plans and after scouting the wall-in at the natural he simply threw a third Hatch and continued to macro up.
A short imposition came for July around the 8-minute mark when MC, now past the time when Protosses worry about being busted and drowned in acid, sent a Void Ray and three Phoenixes to the Zerg base, killing the Queens and crippling July's macro. But StarTale's player had his Hydra Den already up and with a decent control he stalled off any further economy damage.
It was by that time that many of us probably looked at the production tab of July and saw the two simultaneous Overlord upgrades being researched. July obviously had something in mind and he revealed it in a matter of minutes. Rallying his Hydras to MC's main cliff, he elevated them and pooped them all over MC's Gateways. Although MC seemed fine for a while and held off the first attack, a second wave of Hydralisks forced a GG out of the Protoss.
I am sure that the set on Terminus pissed off MC quite a bit, judging by what he did to July in the following two sets. On Crossfire, the Protoss opened with a quick Dark Shrine and rallied DTs up July's main. The Zerg saw the blur and tried to stall the harass by holding some Roaches on the ramp, but the Templars eventually did break in and started annoying the God of War. Knowing that he has a total control of the map with his invisible assassins, MC made further use of his DT tech and researched Blink while keeping July from expanding and regaining economical strength.
Then, suddenly, like a really, really pissed off Kratos, MC summoned the largest force of Blink Stalkers I have seen by the 12 minute mark and, again using Sentries to control the battlefield, danced back and forth and obliterated everything that is Zerg.
The final set on Shakuras was the only game in which MC got a second expansion. Both players got their early third and started to trade forces in the middle of the map. MC's mix of choice was again Blink Stalkers with DT support for extra harassing opportunities. July, on the other hand, tried to battle this with mostly Hydra army. For some minutes MC kept persisting on killing July's third and although he never did so, July's Hydralisk number continued to wane until finally the Stalker count was just too much for the Zerg to handle. July typed GG and surrendered the throne to oGsMC.
Looking back at the finals and the whole tournament, I really didn't want it to end is such painfully one-sided way. After some sick upsets throughout the past month, which led to the elimination of "NesTea", "MVP", "MarineKing", "Boxer", "Rainbow", "FruitDealer", "Genius" and "Inca" in the group stage and to the Cinderella story of "San", GSL March deserved a better ending. And it would have nothing to do with who won, it all comes down to how. MC is a beast and he most certainly earned his right to call himself the first player ever to win two GSLs. But come on, don't you wish for another "NesTea" vs "MKP" finals? Do you not crave another 4:3 nail-biting series?
I know you do! But I guess we must wait for the next GSL.
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