Table of
Contents
M-M-Monster Kill!
by Stuchiu
Results from Live Report thread by Dodgin.
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RagnaroK <Cloud Kingdom> finale
Polt <Abyssal City> finale
Polt <Whirlwind> Monster
Shine <Ohana> Monster
Symbol <Entombed Valley> Monster
HyuN <Muspelheim> Monster
HyuN <Antiga Shipyard> TAiLS
HyuN <Grand Lagoon> Sniper
Team MVP wins 5-3!
Polt <Abyssal City> finale
Polt <Whirlwind> Monster
Shine <Ohana> Monster
Symbol <Entombed Valley> Monster
HyuN <Muspelheim> Monster
HyuN <Antiga Shipyard> TAiLS
HyuN <Grand Lagoon> Sniper
Team MVP wins 5-3!
Monster takes three games in MVP's 5 - 3 playoff victory over TSL
Overshadowed first by DongRaeGu and then by Sniper, MVP.Monster loudly reminded FXO and Startale that there will be not one, not two, but three formidable MVP Zergs to watch out for in the GSTL finals. Brought on early to snipe Polt, Monster successfully wiped out the core of TSL's line-up in a Ro4 playoff series, going on to defeat Shine and Symbol after defeating TSL's Terran ace. Though Monster fell to HyuN, MVP.Sniper closed out the series, making sure his teammate's great outting did not go to waste.
MVP and TSL would start the night off by trading a couple of games, MVP taking the first set as MVP.finale defeated TSL_RagnaroK. Finale was able to get a fairly fast third off of the back of sentries, after which he grew his army and easily took his 4th The expansion timings were so fast that Ragnarok couldn’t keep up, and fell to a timing of archons collosi and gateway units. TSL quickly struck back with Polt, who hit a simple marine-marauder timing off two bases to crush Finale when he tried to take his third too greedily.
Monster Released
With Polt sent out early, MVP decided the time was right to let Monster loose. Having the map Whirlwind picked against him, Polt attempted to play marine-marauder style TvZ, but he was savagely overrun by Monster's mass muta-ling-bane armies. TSL_Shine didn’t fair any better against Monster. The Zergs went for mirror builds on Ohana, but Monster's superior speedling tactics allowed him to protect his third while he forced a cancel on Shine's expansion. Combined with good ling runbys, Monster made it so his mass muta-ling-queen(!) timing was enough to finish Shine off before he could transition to roach-infestor.
Monster’s last kill of the night came against TSL's best team league player in Symbol. After a build up where both players took multiple bases, the game was decided in a massive base trade with roach-infestor armies trying to level the other player's base faster. Both players managed to raze their opponent's base while building a new hatchery elsewhere, but critically, Sniper managed to trap and kill a large portion of Symbol's army when they were caught terribly out of position trying to kill extractors.
Memorial for Inori
Before the match started last night, it was announced on that Inori had finally retired. After a long fight in GSL where he was winless for two years, he threw in the towel. His achievements include some high placements at some international tournaments, beating MC at IPL and then losing to Stephano, beating Stephano at MLG and then losing to Idra, and denying a Zotac cup from Hyun once.
Alas, we will never see the battle that was demanded by fate and history: Inori vs J. In whatever way or form, we hope you find your win, Inori.
TSL's New AceBefore the match started last night, it was announced on that Inori had finally retired. After a long fight in GSL where he was winless for two years, he threw in the towel. His achievements include some high placements at some international tournaments, beating MC at IPL and then losing to Stephano, beating Stephano at MLG and then losing to Idra, and denying a Zotac cup from Hyun once.
Alas, we will never see the battle that was demanded by fate and history: Inori vs J. In whatever way or form, we hope you find your win, Inori.
HyuN would end up playing the Ace position for TSL, and he got off to a good start by stopping Monster's streak cold. First he stopped Monster’s 10 pool after going hatch first, taking an economic advantage. While Hyun lost his natural later to a follow-up ling-bane bust from Monster, it still left him ahead. Eventually, Hyun hit with a 1/1 roach push that caught Monster underdefended as he teched to muta, forcing the GG. MVP.TAiLS was then sent out to try and cheese HyuN as per his usual tactics, but his cannon rush was stopped cold, giving TSL a glimmer of hope.
Headshot
However, there would be no comeback for TSL as MVP.Sniper came out to end HyuN, and TSL's run in the GSTL. Both players started similarly, with Sniper taking the edge with an early queen kill. From there Sniper went for mutas while Hyun went for roach infestor, both players taking their thirds safely. Using his mutalisks for map control, Sniper took his fourth quickly as well, and with a 40 supply lead, hit a two prong attack with his mutas and ground forces. HyuN couldn't handle the damage from the attack on both fronts, and had no choice but to surrender.
Player of the match: MVP.Monster
Sniper has to be credited for closing the series out, but it was Monster who got a triple kill, beating Polt, Shine and Symbol. On top of that Monster, like Polt, gave up his spot in Dreamhack Winter just to help his team out, and his sacrifice was worth it as he allowed his team to advance to the finals.
Looking Ahead
TSL has now made it to the semi-finals five times and has fallen in the semi-finals five times. For whatever reason they can’t seem to bring it together in the GSTL semi-finals. Another interesting statistic is that the teams that beat TSL in the semi-finals have always lost in the finals, so MVP will have to fight the TSL curse. Luckily for MVP they have Sniper, a specialist in killing storylines, curses, and anything that's remotely fun.
Startale
FXOpen
by stuchiu
Despite being the reigning champion of GSTL, FXO has yet to gain the kind of respect a title like that usually deserves. Their run was an extremely interesting mish-mash of unexpected players like Sirius and Tear coming in to help, and the Gummi twins of Gumiho and Leenock carrying the team on their backs. On top of that, they were the first team ever to get an all-kill at the GSTL Finals with Gumiho playing one of the best matches of the year against MMA in game one. But their efforts were overshadowed by the Slayers’ drama, LG-IM's rise and fall as a super-team, and most recently by the achievements of Startale. With this GSTL, they want to prove they are still the best team until someone takes that title away from them, and it would be historic for the league if they could be the first repeat champions since Slayers last year.
On the other hand we have StarTale, more infamously and lovingly known as KongTale. Ever since they took two second place trophies in one tournament at IPL4, they have been known as the silver surfers. The two individual championships they won from Bomber and Ace in 2011 were retroactively written off as pre-curse and completely forgotten fort he sake of the much more interesting story of a team that would always get second. For a long time, they fulfilled their role with Squirtle’s back-to-back silvers in IPL and GSL. Then Sound got a second at homestory cup. Life got second to Creator in TSL 4. Parting and Squirtle had the chance to double team Creator, but Creator still took WCS Korea. Parting tried to take WCS Asia, but was denied by Rain.
Finally, Life took a double victory at GSL and MLG, but the community quickly discounted his victories as “Zenex” victories. The curse contniued as Squirtle lost IeSF and Bomber lost Lonestar Clash. However, PartinG won the WCS Global Finals last week, and has almost fully dispelled the curse as a result. The only thing the curse has left to cling to is the GSTL. Yes, Startale crushed LG-IM in the IPTL Finals, but like the desperate fans of the curse we all are, we said, “Well it’s online, so it doesn’t really count.” If Startale wins this GSTL, we can finally take the KongTale curse off life support and declare it to be truly, and finally dead.
FXOpen
In one sentence: FXO is a team with a core of three main players including a world-class Zerg ace, backed by a short, but skillful bench that has consistently performed well despite their lack of name value.
The Core
GuMiho: FXO really likes to send Gumiho in the first position. Who can blame them? Gumiho has for the most part gotten multiple kills against teams in the first position. He’s a hard player to snipe and has no weak matchups.
Tear: Tear has proven himself in the last two seasons as a solid player, despite his lack of tournament exposure outside the GSTL. He always contributes and seems good in all of his matchups. If there is one weakness in Tear’s play, it’s that he’s soulless, so you can’t expect an Ohana immortal-sentry all-in from him.
Leenock: The Ace of FXO. He’s proven himself as a player with an incredibly wide breadth of strategies at his disposal. He has so many builds that after the end of his run at MLG, he still came back to GSL and showed even more builds on top of that. He’s as good an ace as any team could hope for as he is experienced, clutch, and doesn’t fear anyone. But, his loss against Sniper hurts him here and they may not want to play him against any Zergs if they can avoid it.
The Backup
The Zergs: FXO has a wide array of back-up zergs they can choose from. The most experienced of the bunch is Lucky, who has typically been good for at least a single win. Sirius has shown some skills in ZvZ and ZvT, though his ZvP has looked weak. On top of that they have JKS and Whale, but they're unlikely to be used given the five man limit.
The Terrans: First we have asd. While he dropped out of Code A, he’s a solid overall Terran who can play each of the matchups fairly well. And then there is TheBest, a player everyone loves to praise sarcastically, which is a good cover for someone who is actually pretty decent.
Choya: Choya once gained a ton of credit for pulling his team through to the semi-finals by beating MMA and Ryung in a crucial match of a bygone GSTL season. Then he blew all of that credit by choosing himself over Oz in the semi-finals. All told, Choya has shown that he's a good planner and dangerous sniper in PvT and PvP, but his cowboy days seem to be over. Still, you always suspect he's wearing a jersey underneath his suit.
StarTale Roster
In one sentence: Startale is a team with a roster that's so skilled and deep, playing a best of nine series actually hurts them as they have so much more aggregate talent than other teams.
The Core
Bomber: The King of inconsistency. Some days he’s falling to Code B. Other days he’s making a killer run through the greatest players in the world and placing high in tournaments. Currently, Bomber is on a run. He’s gotten 3rd/4th at MLG, 2nd at Lonestar and just made it past his first Code A match. With such a good run, all of his fans are still waiting for the other shoe to drop, waiting for him to blunder horrendously and crush their hearts. If Startale is smart, they’ll spend Bomber quickly in the first or second pick as he can get really hot and get multi-kills, rather than take a risk when things become more tense.
Curious: The King of consistency. You can always expect him to play extremely well in anything except the ro16 Code S. Another player with no notable weaknesses and a hard to player to snipe. He has always been a workhorse for Startale in the GSTL, even capable of filling in as the Ace, as in their match against MVP where he closed out the series after a stumble from Life.
Life: The dual MLG and GSL champion. He has extremely strong ZvT and ZvZ. Despite losing to Soulkey and having his momentum slowed down, he is still one of the best players in the world. The only thing untested is how he would do against a 3-base timing attack from a PvZ player on the level of Rain or Creator. Startale should avoid sending him out until Tear has been dealt with.
PartinG: With his victory at WCS, Parting has taken the #1 spot for Protoss on his team. He has some inconsistency issues, all-killing IM one day and then dropping out of Code S without winning a single game in the ro16. Overall he has very strong PvT and PvP and he covers his only weakness in PvZ with great depth of soul. A great choice to take on Tear or Gumiho, and Leenock as well if Ohana can be picked.
Squirtle: While Squirtle’s stock is on the decline with his loss at ESWC and elimination Code S, he’s been able to stabilize a bit with his triple kill against IM in the IPTL finals and one-sided win in his Code A first round match. He's still a big threat to Leenock and shouldn't be taken lightly just because of his previous slump.
The Bench
Terrans: Startale has Harrier, Sparta, Virus, Sound and Hack as backup. But only Hack is really likely to play. Hack seemed poised to take Bomber's starting spot with his Code S Ro16 run, but Bomber's good international performances might have forced Hack to prove himself some more.
Protoss: There ACE, Avenge, Brain, TREME, and Tiger. None of them will actually play if Startale is serious about winning.
Zergs: There is Pet, SoN, ZerO, and Suhosin. See Protoss.
Prediction
This should be a very close series despite StarTale having the world’s deepest lineup. Even though FXO’s lineup is smaller, the core three players will be very hard to take down. It all comes down to team picks. Last time, Startale wasted a slot on Sparta and that nearly lost them the entire match against MVP. As long as they don’t randomly decided to go with one of their weaker players for some reason, I expect StarTale to win the close fought battle here.
StarTale 5 - 4 FXO
Writers: stuchiu.
Graphics: Pathy.
Editor: Waxangel.