Thorzain - A Modern Viking

This is my fifth London Barcraft re-post here, Hope you guys like it. Feedback is really appreciated!

Given the events that just occurred last weekend at Dreamhack Stockholm, the new announcement of TSL 4 and the fact that I’ve just finished taking some professional exams! I feel that the time is right for me to write my latest blog post about one of my favourite SC2 players:

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BIO
Name – Marcus Sebastian Eklöf
DOB – 9/2/91
ID – Thorzain
Team – Mousesports
Nationality – Swedish
Nick names – Spoon Terran, T-Zain, Master Jane

StarCraft Beta and the early release

Originally coming from a Warcraft 3 background where he played as humans, Thorzain originally joined the pro team Online Kingdom at the start of the beta. He was initially taken in by the charms of the Protoss from Aiur, however he soon came to his senses and re-joined his human roots as he claimed that he lost ‘every PvP’.

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Thorzain didn’t enter too many tournaments during the beta phase of the game. Rather he concentrated on improving his mechanics and overall game. However he did enter a few regular European tournaments, notably defeating the Finnish pro Naama in the ESL Viking cup #9 finals and FuRy in the Dreamhack on Tour qualifier for Sweden finals.
Moving into the early stages of the full release and with his beta experience behind him, Thorzain decided to commit fully to SC2 over WC3 and re-joined his old manager from WC3 – Lloth – on the newly formed team Praetoriani. Our Swedish hero next popped up in the TSL 3 qualifiers, finishing third in the first qualifier, before taking down the French Protoss Adelscott in the finals of the fifth qualifier, guaranteeing his place at the prestigious TSL 3 tournament.

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TSL3 -Coming out party

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While searching for this picture on team liquid, TSL4 was announced…freaky…

Having qualified for the huge Team Liquid tournament, you might expect that Marcus Eklof would be intimidated by the competition. Not a bit of it, in fact even as recently as his most recent pre-Dreamhack interview with Team Liquid (http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=330924) Thorzain explained that he only suffers from nerves when he is the favourite in a match up, and plays his best when the expectations are low for him. Being matched up against the winner of the first GSL open season, the Korean Zerg Fruitdealer; naturally the relatively unknown Swede was the underdog against the Korean powerhouse, but that is exactly the position that he likes best.

After dismissing the Zerg 2-0 with contemptuous ease he then ran over the previous TSL champion in Tyler. Next came a seminal match up against the consensus best player in the world (and best Protoss versus Terran) in Jang Ming Chul – MC.

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Un-deterred, Thorzain managed to get up two games utilizing a fast upgrade style which hadn’t been seen before from Terran against Protoss players. Thorzain decided to keep it interesting for the viewers and allowed the two time GSL champ to peg him back in some ridiculously high skilled games (set four on Tal-Darim Altar in particular) to make the score 2-2. In the decider, Thorzain unveiled a build inspired by his namesake, the Thor.

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Vod here -+ Show Spoiler +

Not many players can say that they single handedly got a unit nerfed, but the Swedes Thor usage showed exactly how ‘imbalanced’ they could be against Protoss in the hands of a professional. After his round of 8 victory the Blizzard balance team had to change the Thor to an energy based unit to make them easier to deal with feedback from Protoss High Templars.
Following his inspiring win in the RO8, Thorzain was picking up a reputation as a player with meticulous preparation, as well as being picked up by the Esports giant Mousesports; two days before his semi-final win against European online monster - Kas.
The finals against fellow Swede Naniwa (fresh off his 26-2 performance at MLG!) started off badly for Thorzain, going down 3-1 before rallying to take the next 3 games to win his first major event. Always the underdog in every round of the tournament, Thorzain won the hearts of thousands (well me at least

) with his likable, relaxed personality.

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Plus it doesn’t hurt that the ladies love him

Following on from his first big result, Thorzain attended an MLG event two weeks later. After a marathon session through the notoriously hard MLG open bracket he made it into pool play and ended up finishing ninth after losing to MC in a TSL 3 re-match. Importantly however, this high finish gave Thorzain a seed directly into code A of the GSL, which he accepted, and temporarily moved to Korea to participate in code A and the GSL Team league.

Viking Invasion

Along with fellow Swede Naniwa and the Peruvian Terran Fenix, Thorzain Arrived in Korea. All three making up half of Team F-United taking part in the GSL team league. Thorzain didn’t make too big an impact in the individual league, falling to the Code A king YuGiOh 2-1 in a tight series. However, he impressed the Korean public and pros with his performances in the team league as the ace player for his team. Notably he performed a three kill on MVP and earned the nick name the ‘Spoon Terran’ by his Korean fans, owing to his patient, methodical style of play, that felt like he was picking his opponent apart so slowly it was like he was killing them with a spoon.

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This time Neo, there is a spoon

Towards the end of his time in Korea, Thorzain was privileged enough to spend time in the Slayers team house, a team well known for its Terran prowess. He got to train with the likes of Ryung, Ganzi, Boxer and MMA. During his stay he became very good friends with MMA especially, and to this day MMA is quoted as saying that he still uses builds perfected by Thorzain in their practice together

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Back on the Continent

After his stint at the home of Esports, our intrepid hero returned home and was invited to take part in the Dreamhack Valencia Invitational. This was my first ever London Barcraft event that I attended (back when the TV screen was the only viewing option!) and will always be a sentimental tournament for me for that reason. It was made even more so because my favourite player there managed to make it all the way to the finals where he faced off against the best ZvT player in the entire world in DongRaeGu.
In a tense, back and forth series, Thorzain stretched the Korean to his limits and forced an ace match. Again I simply loved watching the Swede play as his standard play revolved around taking a quick third base at a time when 2 base Terran pushes were still so prevalent against Zerg. He took his time establishing a strong central position (even on big maps like Tal-Darim Altar) while slowly expanding, and using drop play to take down the far flung expansions of the Zerg player. He didn’t try and avoid the late game, but instead intentionally played for that period of the game and felt comfortable doing it. Unfortunately my first visit to the Assembly house ended with Thorzain falling 2-3 overall to take a respectable 2nd place finish at the event.

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We love you Assembly House

Other notable finishes towards the end of 2011 included a fourth place in NASL Season 2, as well as first place in the Starcraft2 across the Galaxy tournament in December.

Dreamhack Stockholm

Back in his home country, Thorzain had to deal with the pressure of being one of the home-grown players that had a realistic chance at winning the tournament. Rising to the occasion he fought his way through the entire field before encountering Polt in the finals.
Now the history between these two players was quite brutal. They had previously met 3 times in tournament finals, in consecutive finals of the MSI pro cup #5, #6 and #7. Overall Polt held a 9-1 match record, taking all three encounters easily. Set against this backdrop it was unsurprising to see Polt take the first match in the BO5. Fortunately Thorzain was in his home country and powered up on the support from the incredibly partisan crowd. Battling back he took the next three games handily and was simply overcome with emotion at winning such a huge tournament on home soil. His, and the crowds, reaction was simply overwhelming and I won’t even try to describe it in words

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the winning moment -+ Show Spoiler +

As a slight aside, this was actually one of my favourite tournament formats I’ve seen so far. With a greater chance of the better players making it through the bracket, as each stage up until the round of 16 was a group format, with the top 2 out of 4 players going through.
His underdog story throughout the TSL3 made me a fan, while his macro oriented style and his ability to truly compete with Korean players forces me to continue cheering for him. Now with the TSL4 being announced, I hope I will have convinced some of you to be cheering for the Spoon Terran as he defends what is rightfully his.

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No no, you’re OP Thorzain

GG
Rob (aka Furtle)

Special thanks must go to the Thorzain liquipedia page for a lot of the information contained here and the Thorzain fanclub on Team Liquid for the amazing pictures

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