by Fionn

This match tonight really isn't about Fnatic RaidCall. They're a very solid, good team with a few under performing core members (Alive and Oz), but they have a stable squad with marketable players and various trips to foreign tournaments. You'll never mistake them for LG-IM or Startale, but they have the capability of upsetting a few teams here and there, making a run into the top six. Even if they do lose tonight, you will still be seeing Oz, Alive and Moon traveling the world, playing in MLG's and other foreign tournaments.

For New Star HoSeo, this is it. If they lose tonight, the only player you'll be seeing from them in the next few month is jjakji in this season's Code A, and with a difficult draw against one of the tougher KeSPA players, Woongjin's Shy, the team HoSeo might be extinct from every competition in the world. You won't be seeing any of their players at an upcoming MLG or one of the various European tournaments. With their recent departures and woes, all they truly have left is this GSTL season and the glimmer of hope that is jjakji making it back into Code S.

Just so you can realize the magnitude of how bad of shape HoSeo is in, let's look at some of the players who have left their team recently.

Sage: You can say that he was too hyped up by Artosis and was nothing more but a very smart, but extremely average fringe Code A/Code B player. Thing is, Sage was HoSeo's captain and right hand man to their coach. If you saw them picking who was coming out next or what to do, Sage would be consulting with the coach and helping decide what would go down next. He chipped in with big wins here and there for the team, and even if he wasn't on his A-game, his wisdom and leadership are desperately needed.

San: Before jjakji came into prominence, San was HoSeo. He put HoSeo on the map with his two GSL semifinal appearances, and he was the face of the franchise alongside their Terran ace. While not doing well in GSL, he still helped with big victories in GSTL and was able to qualify for OSL to get more exposure for his team. Having already left the team once to try and find a former team to no avail, San has left the team for a second time for a chance at greener pastures, rumors even saying he might be traveling to the UK for studies.

Freaky: Possibly the player with the best games played/most recommended ratio in the history of Starcraft 2, Freaky was a player that could have become a star for HoSeo. He was young, had a style all his own, and simply an amazing player with loads of potential. Then the news broke that he had unexpectedly quit the team and retired, making people wonder what happened. Recent news has surfaced that Freaky came down with some sort of illness that made him quit the team and put his SC2 career in risk. He is still in the official line-up for HoSeo in this season's games, but you shouldn't expect to see him due to his illness. What could have been a player that revolutionized the name HoSeo has now turned into a depressing story of a boy having to quit due to an unknown illness.

Seal: While still in the main roster and no concrete news of him retiring/leaving the team, Seal is still a major question mark. After qualifying for Code A for the hundredth time and losing in the first round for the hundredth time, you would have expected him ready to crush another Code A qualifier and try his hand at another GSL season. Surprisingly, he was a no show in last week's HoSeo match against LG-IM, and he didn't even show up to the Code A qualifiers to try and make it back into the GSL. There have been rumors that he has lost his passion for the game and has been practicing less. Seal, similar to Freaky, was supposed to be the player to help carry the load alongside with jjakji. With a defining wins over Mvp and Nestea in last season's GSTL, he was on the road to being one of the best new Zergs in the scene. Now? We don't even know if he's still playing Starcraft.

Sting: Left HoSeo for unknown reasons, but has put up strong online results since leaving. He got to the semifinals of TSL4, getting fourth place overall and proving that he would be a big help to HoSeo this season if he was still on their team. He might not be as missed as the others listed due to HoSeo still having jjakji and sculp, but with so many question marks, Sting would have at least been a dependable body that could have won at least a game or two if on his game.

Fairy/Flower/Vanvanth: You know your team is in major trouble when you look at players like Fairy and VanVanth and go, 'Wow, it sure would be nice if they still at least had these players on their team.'

So, what is HoSeo left with?

Sculp: Sculp is a good player, but if he is by far your second best player on your squad, then that's a gigantic warning sign that something is wrong. He made one Code A appearance, bombed out, and hasn't been able to make it back since. He has been able to pick up key wins before for HoSeo, but he is not a player you want to be the second in command of your ship. He's shown glimpses of a player that could become something big like against Symbol in last season's GSTL, but for HoSeo to survive the night, he will need to play out of his mind.

Tassadar: He made it to the Code A finals a year ago, got whooped by Puzzle, and hasn't been back since. HoSeo has some weird obsession with putting Tassadar as the ace when they have no one left to play. He has been used as ace three times, and he has been stomped into the ground three straight times, never even picking up a single win when being put in that position. Not a bad player, but when you have teams like LG-IM, Startale, TSL, and Prime who can throw out a line-up where every single player is currently in either Code A or Code S, Tassadar wouldn't make the starting line-up for 90% of the league.

jjakji: Can we start a campaign to save jjakji? He is the captain of a rickety boat, going down with the ship and drowning when he really doesn't have to for something he loves. You can commend him on his loyalty, but you have to wonder why he hasn't left yet. Yes, the foreign market for Korean players is drying up, but there has to be at least one foreign team that would love to have jjakji on their roster. He's young, a beast in team leagues, a GSL champion, and if he could only fix his TvT, a player that could become a constant in Code S once more. Even if a foreign team wouldn't bite, you don't think Slayers or TSL wouldn't want another Terran to help bolster their roster? If jjakji left HoSeo, he would find a new team no problem.

He's an extremely talented player, but he is now in a position where he needs to win three to five games a night for his team to win. If jjakji doesn't at least win three games, his team is pretty much done. Everyone else on his team is either in Code B, a rookie who has never played in the booth before, or...that's it. The saddest thing is, even if jjakji wins four games for his team and the rest of the squad only needs one map to secure the victory, can you say for certainty that anyone else on HoSeo could stop a reverse all-kill from happening?

Two seasons ago in a match between HoSeo and TSL, things were peachy for the boys of New Star. TSL was terrible, only had one relevant player in Polt, and they were the laughing stock of the league. Polt was put out first for his team, hoping to get a few victories to start out with, but sculp was able to take out the captain of TSL and take their best player out right away. In one of the most humiliating ceremonies in Starcraft history, the HoSeo team got off the bench, picked up their bags and headed for the exit.

"You are nothing without Polt. Your team sucks. We are leaving now."

TSL would lose in embarrassing fashion, HoSeo laughed, and it seemed like it would only be rainbows and sunshine for HoSeo from that point on. Ever since that night where HoSeo made fun of TSL, things have turned upside tremendously for both teams. The players that HoSeo made fun of that night like Polt, Symbol, and Shine have all developed and improved in the last six months. Polt and Symbol are now in the Ro16 of Code S, both two of the best players of their race, and TSL has four players, including Shine, in Code A for this season. HoSeo, in comparison, has now lost all of their core players except three, and they are hanging onto a thread with only jjakji at the bottom of Code A.

HoSeo says they're retooling and that they aren't dying, holding open tryouts online and hoping to develop their players the same way TSL did, but it could be too late. They might have made fun of TSL seasons ago, laughing at the down trotted team on the edge of blowing up, but now, with a loss tonight against Fnatic, there would be smiling anymore. You don't like talking about a team dying or having their final match, but if HoSeo loses tonight, it could be the final time you ever see them in the GSTL.

They need this win more than any team has ever needed a win in the history of GSTL. They are down to only three players anyone has ever heard of, and they need something to rejuvenate the team. jjakji, this is Moon, Byul, J, Oz and Alive. You probably need to beat all five of them if you want your team to live on another day.

Good luck.

Prediction: Fnatic 5 - 3 jjakji