Opening Salvo

by stuchiu.

Results from Live Report Thread by opterown.
+ Show Spoiler [Results] +

FXO defeats FnaticRC 5 - 2
– FXO Zergs and Tear combine to take down Fnatic

As the reigning champions, a lot of fans were expecting FXO to win their opening match with ease. It ended up being an even easier victory for FXO than some had expected, as they were able to avoid using their two trump cards in (T)

GuMiho and (Z)

Leenock, and instead continued to give experience to their bench and developing talent. (Z)

Sirius,

Lucky, and (P)

Tear combined for five wins, with Tear taking three wins to be named the night MVP.

– FXO Zergs and Fnatic Terrans trade blows in the opening rounds.

The night started with a mundane ZvZ between (Z)

FXOSirius and (Z)

FnaticRC J. Sirius got an advantage early on with a 15 pool into hatch against a 10 pool, holding well against his opponent's attack with good drone micro. He proceeded to close out the game with ling/bling aggression when J’s defensive micro faltered.

(T)

Rain came out next for Fnatic RC and continued his recent run of good form by taking out Sirius in a standard game, riding out an advantage achieved with a marine/medivac/hellion timing attack in the early game. However, Rain was in turn dispatched of by (Z)

FXOLucky, who used constant speedling aggression followed by banelings to put him team back up by one game.

With their threadbare roster, Fnatic RC decided to send out their ace player early, as (T)

aLive was tagged in to avenge Rain. The game played out in a fairly standard, even way with Alive doing some damage with a marine/medivac/hellion attack in the mid game, but not really influencing the proceedings. Eventually, aLive took an advantage due to Lucky's mistake, capitalizing on a terrible ling-infestor attack that ended in a Zerg massacre. Lucky scrambled to get and get back in the game, but aLive finished him off safely, tying the score at 2 - 2.

– FXOTear goes on a tear, taking out aLive, ByuL and Oz to end the series.

The tide shifted in FXO's favor when they decided to send out their Protoss prospect Tear as their third runner. Having already come through in the clutch for FXO last season, by defeating StartaleQ's (Z)

Curious,

Squirtle, and (P)

PartinG consecutively, Tear achieved a similar feat by ending Fnatic with another three-kill.

Against aLive, Tear showed some unique play by going for both colossi and dark templars in the mid game, using delayed dark templars to punish aLive when he pushed out with his army while using colossi to successfully deflect the Terran attacks. aLive was left far behind after taking blows on offense and defense, and Tear moved in for an easy finishing blow to put his team up 3 - 2.

The next game would be the game of the night, as FnaticRC sent out (Z)

ByuL as their next player. Tear went for a cannon rush to begin, seemingly hard-countering ByuL's hatch-first on Whirlwind. However, a ByuL managed to pull off a clutch save on his hatchery, saving it by barely 100 HP after exploiting Tear's indecision between hitting the hatchery and killing off the defending zerglings. Tear had expanded behind his cannon rush, and transitioned into fairly standard warp-prism harass followed by an immortal all-in.

Every knew the success or failure of Tear's timing would decide the game, but few expected the resolution to take a full ten minutes. A never ending battle ensued as Tear constantly reinforced via warp-prism while Byul pumped out a never-ending stream of roach-ling reinforcements. When it looked like one player was starting to gain an advantage, another round of reinforcements would pile in from the other side to swing the momentum yet again. In the end, Tear managed to sap enough of ByuL's strength to triumph in the end, earning a very hard earned GG.

The final game was anti-climatic in comparison, and surprisingly predictable. Fnatic had no choice but to send out Oz as their final player, who Tear quickly dispatched of with 3-gate pressure followed by Dark Templars, handing Oz yet another loss in PvP.

– Player of the match: FXOTear

There is really no other candidate for MVP. Tear took out the three strongest players on Fnatic. His play wasn’t anything mind-blowing or game-changing, but he just looked solid in all three match-ups, defeating quality players of each race. He found the weaknesses in his opponents, took advantage and walked away with a triple kill.

LG-Incredible Miracle

SlayerS

by Fionn

Fall of an Empire

In the six GSTL finals that have taken place over the last two years, SlayerS have been in three of them, the most out of any other team in the league. They're still the only squad that has won two GSTL championships. If you're cruising through Liquipedia and only checking results, you would bet your house that Slayers would be one of the more well off teams in Korea. They might have lost 0 - 5 to Gumiho and FXO in the last GSTL finals, but they still made a strong run to the finals, trumping championship contenders like MVP and TSL.

Even with a silver medal from last season, only the disintegrating mess known as NS HoSeo, keeps people distracted from the fact that Slayers is in bad shape. Not only did they lose one of their top coaches and MMA's personal coach Ryu Won to Woongjin Stars, but the face of their brand, the most legendary player in Starcraft history, Boxer, the man who made the team, jumped ship to rejoin his first love SK Telecom T1 and help them become the top team in SC2.

In a lot of cases a coach and a head figure can be replaced, but that's not the case for Slayers. Since Ryu Won left, MMA has gone into a heavy slump and not really won anything of significance. He finally made it back to Code S this season, but wasn't able to beat Mvp, a player that he routinely beat back when Ryu Won was still behind him every step of the way. When you thought of Slayers, you thought of two things: Boxer and MMA. With Boxer leaving, that was one half of the image gone, and with Ryu Won leaving, MMA's play has fallen off. Combined with the past drama of his banishment to the B-team and rumors of his departure, it has hurt his image as the face of SlayerS even more.

So what are Slayers left with now? Last season they were carried by three players: (P)

JYP,

Puzzle, and (Z)

CoCa. The EG and Slayers partnership ended before the season started, so JYP is no longer playing for Slayers. Puzzle, their other strong Protoss last season, had to drop out of GSL and NASL due to an unknown serious illness. Coca, the MVP of last season with the most wins out of anyone in the league, didn't even show up to the Code A qualifiers due to being sick. So that means two out of the three players that helped Slayers get to the final last season are not playing this season, and their MVP, Coca, might not be playing either if he isn't feeling better.

For Slayers to get far this season, they will need to rely on their two main Terrans, (T)

MMA and

Ryung, hoping they can get back into mid 2011 form, and crossing their fingers the new generation of SlayerS can take over. However, it's not looking all that great, with even Ryung reportedly having left the SlayerS house recently. SlayerS does have some very interesting prospects like (Z)

Dark and

Arthur, both who have qualified for the recent NASL, but it's not enough that they are prospects. They need to be good enough to be immediate starters if SlayerS is to have hope for a brighter future.

(Z)

Miya,

Alicia and (Z)

Min are still on the roster as well, but the three of them haven't made a huge impact in the GSL for a long time, if ever. Miya did impress by qualifying for WCS Asia by beating two tough Terran players in aLive and Polt, but his nerves in the booth are still an issue and the reason why he hasn't been a broken out for Slayers in team leagues despite being given many opportunities. Slayers, sticking with their new generation movement, have put out Dark first in their game tonight against LG-IM's (P)

MC, hoping that their new Zerg can become a core part of this season's campaign.

Club of Champions

What do we really have to say about LG-Incredible Miracle?

MC. Seed. Mvp. NesTea. YongHwa. First. LosirA.

Oh, Nestea sucks at team leagues and is slumping? Bam, we'll just throw out MC. Oh, MC lost to a cheese? Oh well, we'll just put out Yonghwa, the WCG Korea champion and the guy who all-killed Fnatic. Wait, he didn't finish the job? I guess we'll have to use Seed to destroy the rest of you.

LG-IM is now at a point where it doesn't really matter what order they throw players out in. The LG-IM coach has been known for his decisions to put out less experienced players in GSTL to give them booth experience, but with how LG-IM has done lately, almost all of their players have some sort of experience in GSL. Even players like horror and dreamertt, players who you would consider at the bottom of their depth chart, still qualified for WCS Korea.

Proving that he is going for the throat this season, the LG-IM coach is putting out MC to start tonight's match, where he will face a GSTL rookie in Dark. With an IPL team championship now in their possession, his sights are mainly on getting his team another GSTL championship a year and a half after they won the very first title. With how well they are doing with sponsorships and player results, they have never been in a better position to win a championship. As a bit of silver-lining to some of their very recent failings in individual leagues, with all but Mvp and MC having been eliminated from OSL and GSL, players like Seed, Yonghwa, and Nestea will be giving their full practice time in helping their club win another gold.

This is a mismatch in terms of where two teams are heading. Slayers is on the biggest downturn in their history, with not even a second place finish in last season's tournament helping them get back on track. LG-IM is on fire, having four GSL champions, a recent WCG Korea champion, and impressive foreign results by some of their lesser known players.

Prediction:

SlayerS are rebuilding. For the first time since MMA broke into the scene and helped Slayers make an underdog run to the GSTL championship in only their second season, Slayers needs to massively retool their line-up. They've been using mostly their rookies in online tournaments, and for Slayers to continue on into 2013, the names Dark, Arthur, Miso and Miya will need to become mainstays in GSL. That might be a long shot now, but when Slayers first appeared in GSTL and got demolished by ZeNEX, not a lot of people thought those rookies could become anything more than mediocre, either. We all know what happened since then.

But just like when MMA, Ryung, Alicia and the rest of Slayers were beaten down in their first GSTL season, it's going to take time for the new blood of Slayers to improve. It would be nice to think Dark or Arthur could make a sudden impact by getting a three or four-kill against the strongest team in the world, but with MC being played first and LG-IM not afraid to throw out champion after champion anymore, it would have to be an incredible miracle for Slayers to take this series from LG-IM.

LG-IM 5 - 2 Slayers

Writers: Fionn and stuchiu.
Graphics: Pathy.
Editor: Waxangel.

[GSTL3] LG-IM vs SlayerS Preview // Fnatic vs FXO

Opening Salvo

LG-Incredible Miracle

SlayerS