BenQ GSTL
Season One
LG-IM 5 - 3 MVP
Grand Finals Recap
GSTL Season 1 Awards
Unrivaled Prestige
Brackets and results on Liquipedia
LG-IM Win GSTL
After a two and a half year drought, LG-IM, the winners of the first GSTL season, finally captured another title. Many were skeptical at the beginning of the season when coach Hirai declared that he would no longer be pulling any punches in the team league and would go all out to win. LG-IM had a rocky run to the playoffs as they started off the regular season poorly, looking like they were headed toward another season of underachievement. However, they gained steam toward the end of the season to clinch a playoff spot, and their rampage continued in the post season. Azubu and Axiom-Acer were dispatched with shocking ease, thanks to two all-kills from Yoda and Yonghwa respectively. That set up LG-IM to face Team MVP in the finals.
5
LG-IM
First < Atlas > KeeN
First < Star Station > NAKSEO
First < Derelict Watcher > Dream
ByuL < Whirlwind > Dream
YoDa < Bel'Shir Vestige > Dream
YoDa < Akilon Wastes > DongRaeGu
YoDa < Icarus > Super
Squirtle < Red City > Super
LG-IM win the 2013 GSTL Season 1 Championship!
First < Star Station > NAKSEO
First < Derelict Watcher > Dream
ByuL < Whirlwind > Dream
YoDa < Bel'Shir Vestige > Dream
YoDa < Akilon Wastes > DongRaeGu
YoDa < Icarus > Super
Squirtle < Red City > Super
LG-IM win the 2013 GSTL Season 1 Championship!
3
Team MVP
The finals against MVP would prove much harder than the cakewalks against Axiom-acer and Azubu. Both teams had proven themselves in different ways: MVP with their dominating regular season performance and LG-IM through their stroll through the playoffs. Going into the match, both teams decided to start strong as MVP fielded their best player this season in KeeN while LG-IM sent out the rapidly ascending First.
It soon became apparent that the two players were evenly matched, and the first game became an all-out war as both players constantly poked and prodded at each other's defenses as they vied for map control. The match became a duel of spear against shield as Keen constantly bloodied First with piercing attacks, only to be barely held off by First's clutch storms before he could inflict mortal damage. Despite losing a few nexuses, First was still able to survive and get the economic foundation he needed, leaving both players in a late game deadlock.
After playing immaculately for most of the game, First made his first mistake when he allowed Keen to goad him into a base trade after the two armies missed each other in the middle of the map. While both would do significant damage, Keen got the far better end of the trade as he brought back his cloaked ghost and vikings to kill of First's observers and force a retreat. On the other side of the map, the firepower of stimmed infantry saw most of First's infrastructure wiped out.
However, with a solid bank and hidden bases, First was able to slowly start rebuilding his entire infrastructure in another corner of the map as Keen looked for new bases to mine. A misread from Keen saw him try to go for a wasteful kill move against First, not realizing his opponent still had plenty of gas (and templars) left in the tank. From there it became a race against time for Keen, who sought to kill off First before he could set up his infrastructure again. Despite some crucial tech building snipes from Keen, First eventually succeeded at converting all his banked gas to templars with his third templar archive of the game. Even with the best of micro, Keen could not hope to defeat First's far more efficient army and GG'd out of the game.
With the crucial first game going to IM, the momentum stayed in their favor as First would then beat NAKSEO in game two in another tight match. Despite an uncharacteristic mistake that saw him lose eight sentries to speedlings early on, Nakseo somehow failed to punish First for taking a fast third base. The resource and upgrade advantage kicked in for First, and he rolled over Nakseo to give LG-IM a 2 - 0 lead.
Team MVP struck back with their rising Terran prospect Dream, who lived up to his reputation as a Protoss killer by ending First's reign of terror with multi-tasking and relentless aggression. LG-IM then made one of their famous head-scratcher choices by sending ByuL out as their next player. ByuL put on a strong showing that somewhat justified his deployment, fighting Dream on every corner of Whirlwind in an exciting match. However, ByuL just couldn't keep up with the sheer efficiency and mobility of Dream's MMM and had to tap out.
With the score even at 2 - 2, IM finally sent out all-killer YoDa to exploit Dream's weak TvT. A peculiar banshee into tank-contain opener gave YoDa a big early advantage, and he was able to win handily in the mid game. In one of the turning points of the night, Team MVP decided to send out their ace of yor in DongRaeGu to try and recover a point. Unfortunately for Team MVP, DongRaeGu looked nothing like the unstoppable ace he was back in 2011. It was unclear what DongRaeGu expected to happen when he went hatch first despite scouting a 11/11 rax from YoDa, and he paid the price for his poor decision with a speedy loss.
It was none other than Super, Team MVP's ace for the regular season, who came out to try and salvage his team's season. For at least one game, Super was able to show his off his credentials as ace by recovering from a failed immortal bust with clever use of dark templars. However, a three-kill was too much to ask from even a skilled player like Super. With YoDa down, LG-IM decided to send out the former Startale player Squirtle as their fourth runner.
Playing a safe, reactive PvP against Super, Squirtle was able to scout and deny Super's DT and blink-stalker gambits to gain a significant lead. An immortal-void ray attack at Super’s natural was too powerful to overcome, and Super was forced into a desperate all-in after losing his nexus. There would be no miracles for team Mvp, as Squirtle stamped out the final attack to clinch the championship.
Squirtle plots a downward trajectory that will apply maximum stress to Mvp's wrists
In a strange twist of fate, Squirtle ended up gifting LG-IM a GSTL title for the second time. Previously, as a member of Startale, Squirtle had been forced to look on bitterly as Nestea celebrated his ace match win. Two years later, it was Nestea who was congratulating Squirtle as he flung him in the air.
Season 1 Awards
With GSTL finally over, we'd like to take the time to recognize the players and individuals who stood out over the course of a long season.
The oGs.MC Award for Best Protoss
Winner: The Super Vampire
Runner-up: ST_Avenge
While neither player is a new face, both have reached an entirely new level of skill since the release of HotS. While MVP has always had some strong Protosses, none shined as brightly as Super (9 - 1 record), who ended up becoming Team MVP's improbable ace over the course of a season. He frequently played as the final player for his team, and took at least one kill in every match where he was fielded. Second place goes to Avenge (9 - 4) for filling in admirably for PartinG and Squirtle and being Startale's best player this season.
Best Terran
Winner: AX.Ryung
Runner-up: MVP.KeeN
While Axiom-Acer relied on even contributions from all their players, Ryung (12 - 6) ended up doing the most important work. Whether it was playing as the last-man or all-killing StarTale, Ryung constantly showed that he was the team's true ace. Keen (10 - 5) also deserves a shoutout. He was the player that team IM most feared and with good reason. He led his team to the finals with style, and once there, played perhaps the best game of the entire GSTL. However, he receives negative points for performing no ceremonies.
Best Zerg
Winner: Azubu.Symbol
Runner-up: BBoongBBoong
This GSTL saw the Zerg race fall off as they were hugely outperformed by Terran and Protoss players. Only Symbol (7 - 6) was able to consistently contribute as he played as Azubu's ace, winning a lot key games to lead his team to the playoffs. Special mention goes to BBoongBBoong (4 - 4) for being a complete non-factor all season before pulling out a random clutch performance at the very end against MVP.
Best Coach
Winner: MVP.Swagger
Runner-up: AX.CranK
Special Mention: AnnyungPrime
The best coach all season was MVP’s Swagger (aka Killer aka Sangho). Not that we have any idea about what he actually does, but no other coach was thanked as much by his players in interviews. Whether it was individual leagues, team leagues, or even friendly soccer matches against other teams, Team MVP's players were constantly giving Swagger credit for motivating everyone and making them better. Amusingly enough, Swagger declined to be called a coach for most of the season, considering himself to be a player first.
The runner up for the award is Crank, the player-scout-coach-driver-cook-manager-translator-video producer for team Axiom-Acer. Alongside handling every sort of non-game related task for his team, he also found the time to provide a positive contribution to his team with a 3 - 2 record.
Special thanks goes to Annyung for coming out of retirement to convince Gerrard to finally play a Zerg.
The "MVP.Genius" Award for Best Redemption Arc
Winner: FXOsC
Runner-up: NSH_jjakji
After going on a long sabbatical of playing LoL, sC decided to finally return to StarCraft II. No one quite knew how he would do after being away for so long, but his all-kill against Axiom-Acer showed that there was nothing to worry about as he played even better than he ever had before, showing his signature 3 base aggression against everyone. Special mention to Jjakji for winning the last team match that NSH will ever play and then going on to qualify for Code A.
The "FXO.qxc" Award for Biggest WTF Moment
Winner: Azubu.Genius
Runner-up: LG-IM_NesTea
The last time Genius was relevant was during his 2012 GSL run where he eventually lost against DRG. Since then he went on a slow descent into LoL (Strangely he would never go full LoL like his ex-Slayers teammates Coca and Puzzle). He would finally reappear on Azubu where he would quietly do nothing for six months until the first night of the GSTL playoffs where the coach decided to send him out first. His reason? No reason, really. His confidence in Genius? None at all. Genius would then go on a 4 kill rampage against Startale’s best before losing in a PvP by Avenge. The next day he would skip the playoffs to qualify for WCS EU.
Special mention goes to NesTea for playing the 4 best games of his HotS career against one of the weakest teams in the league in NSH. What made this so WTF worthy was that Nestea didn't just play extremely well, but that he pulled out 4 unique and sniper-worthy builds that anyone else would have saved for WCS.
The "NSH.Madbull" Award for Best New Player
Winner: The Mad God, NSH.MadBull
Runner-up: Madbull’s calfs
Provocative!
The most pleasant surprise of the season came in the form of NSH’s best new player Madbull. It was with nervous trepidation that we watched Madbull’s debut hoping beyond hope that he would live up to his incredible ID. All of our completely unjustified hopes were rewarded as he proved to be everything we ever wanted. He would make funny faces at the camera. He played strong, macro PvT where he would go up to 90 probes on 4-5 bases and slowly run down his opponents with constant DT and zealot counter attacks. He capped it off by performing ceremonies where he showed off his calfs for no particular reason. We love MadBull, and look forward to seeing him on Evil Geniuses next season.