EPT
These finals, in particular, are rather interesting. It's the first ever consecutive OSL final to have the same finalists (Jangbi vs. Fantasy). This has happened in the MSL once, as well (Flash vs. Jaedong). It's pretty surreal to think that the torch has been passed so frequently that this is the first time this has happened in the tournament in over 12 years.
The last OSL in which these two faced off was one of the better OSL finals I have seen in my long history of watching Brood War. I've only been watching since 2006 or so, but that's enough to have given me a lot of memories regarding Brood War. Nostalgia of the days before Starcraft 2 clouds my vision somewhat, but still, I have never not been extremely hyped for an OSL finals.
But the game has seen me grow up. I was first introduced to Brood War after watching some of SCLegacy's Pimpest Plays videos and searching "Cool Starcraft videos" on the Internet. A trail of breadcrumbs led me to TeamLiquid in 2006. About a year later, I made my first TeamLiquid account - an innocuous account at first under the name "Gaetele", which is a name I had been using on online RPGs for some time.
I became enamored with a community of people as interested and insane as me, all dedicated to sacrificing health and sanity to consume content about a video game played by teenagers and twenty-somethings from a country halfway across the world. I spent a ton of time in the TeamLiquid IRC and became friends with a lot of mods and members of the community.
In 2008, I met a lot of these people for the first time at Blizzcon, and it was a surreal experience. These people who I'd only met online all of a sudden had faces, but it was not strange or awkward at all. Just like online, we bonded over our passion and it was like we had known each other for years.
And then, because I was dumb and immature, I got permanently banned from TeamLiquid for leaking information. I immediately made a new account, and got banned again. Still, I couldn't tear myself away. I browsed the site without logging in until I ended up creating this account about a year and a half later. By this time, Starcraft 2 information had been leaking, and everyone was extremely excited.
I took the beta key I had gotten from the 2008 Blizzcon, and I got early access to the beta. The game was different, but I knew that I would end up feeling the same about it as I had Brood War. And since then, I've also become really into games such as League of Legends and Dota 2. I watch a ton of fighting games and first person shooters, and even dabble in competitive Magic: the Gathering.
eSports of all sorts have become my passion, and it's all because of Brood War and TeamLiquid. While I may never be forgiven for my actions in the past, and I will likely never be accepted in the community the way I was before, I am indebted to the community for giving me something to be truly interested and passionate about.
Brood War may be a dying flame, but it has not died without igniting the torches of future generations. This is to the end of an era.
Sorry to hear about your perma-ban, but I can't imagine the excitement you felt knowing that much about sc2 when SC:BW was such a huge part of your life. 
?)
