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Love of my Life (pt. 2)

Blogs > kollin
Post a Reply
kollin
Profile Blog Joined March 2011
United Kingdom8380 Posts
January 14 2013 17:39 GMT
#1
Love of my Life


Read the first part here! http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?id=393138

The stage was set. The hype was at a loud roar and everyone was excited. This could end up being the greatest, most epic match seen this year, maybe in Starcraft 2 history.

[image loading]

Oh my god oh my god oh my god!!!


Life had not lost his cool and confident demeanour going into the game. Even when facing a giant such as Mvp, he quite simply was not intimidated. As the kpop blared out from the speakers in the GOMTV studio a hush went over the crowd and the tension was ramped up to a ridiculous high. The old master vs the protégé. The Nokia brickphone vs the iPhone 5000. Mvp had defied all his expectations to get to the finals...as did Life. Who could deny the expectations one last time? Would the game deliver?

It certainly did. From a tactical standpoint, it was sublime with Mvp opting to go for blueflame hellions in 3 of the games and subsequently mech in all of them. Life played his normal style of very heavy speedling infestor aggression, delaying his brood lords in favour of never stopping attacking and the styles worked so well against each other and made for amazing games to watch. While Mvp seemed to dominate the early and midgame, repelling early pool builds, fast mutalisks and constant aggression, he just didn't have an answer when Life reached hive tech and broodlords. In a back and forth series, which started with Mvp 2 games down, before he won 3 straight in a row. Life looked down and out, but in both games managed to delay for his broodlord tech and win 4-3.

It was a historic moment in Starcraft 2 history. Not only was Life the youngest GSL champion ever and the first royal roader, he was a symbol. The zerg race wasn't just a turtle fest until broodlords, it wasn't based around 12 minute hives. Life showed us that he could use absolutely dominating multitasking combined with monstrous macro to defeat even the strongest of opponents.

After this, most people would probably take a break and just focus on practice for the rest of the year, so they can come back refreshed into the GSL tournament season. Not Life. Not even 2 weeks later he was on a plane to the other side of the world to attend his first foreign tournament. He was a huge favorite to win, as his confident attitude and entertaining play had gained him a great deal of fans. He started off well, beating Major, Violet and TaeJa (twice!). These victories earned him a seed in the winners round 1, against esteemed Brood War bonjwa Flash. Flash pulled out a huge upset (I never thought I would say that) and beat Life 2-0, knocking him down the losers bracket. Once there, he easily dispatched of Heart which gave him a rematch against Flash in the semifinal. Flash fought well in both games, but it wasn't enough and Life won 4 games straight and advanced to the final.

FXOLeenock was his opponent. Someone who had risen to become one of the only people who could consistently take games off Life, who was hungrily looking for his foreign championship. Things started out badly, to say the least. Leenock was looking unstoppable after winning 3 games, to Life's single victory. Everyone had written Life off, attributing it to the sometimes volatile nature of the ZvZ matchup. They forgot who Life was though. He was the comback kid, the prodigy and he did not just sit down and give up, he did not surrender and he did not accept defeat. He fought and he fought, and won 3 games straight to win his first MLG championship, his first foreign tournament. It was a big milestone in Life's career and many people thought a fantastic end of the year.

[image loading]

Red Bull gives your lings wings!

Once again, Life one upped the people who thought things just could not get better for him. The 2012 GSL Blizzard Cup was announced and, of course, Life had been given a seed from his GSL Code S championship. If winning 2 premier tournaments in the space of a month seemed pretty good, Life decided to make it 3 in 2 months. He destroyed his group, only losing to Violet (in ZvZ, which was arguably his weakest matchup, or so people though). DongRaeGu would be Life's opponent in the Round of 6 and despite DRG's very formidable ZvZ, Life pulled through with a close 3-2 victory. His semifinal foe was his nemesis, Leenock. People just could not predict which way the match would go, some saying Life, some saying Leenock and others predicting a 2-2 draw with the final game ending in stalemate.

Life showed just how much his play could improve in such short amounts of time, beating his rival 3-1 and advancing him to the finals, where he would face teammate Parting. This match could have perhaps been more hyped than his finals against Mvp. Parting, the only non-zerg to make it out of the group stage with his astoundlingly strongly executed soul train WonWonWon immortal/sentry all in and Life, the charismatic young aggressive zerg, always finding solutions to problems in ways no one else could. Would he be able to find the solution to the strongest build to have ever been used against zerg's?

To put it simply, he could, with immense style.Parting only won a single game with his WonWonWon, the other being a very defensive style against Life's economy cutting aggression. Despite Parting having won BWC not too long ago, Life just looked like he was in and won with a decisive 4-2.

It was the perfect end to a perfect year for our zerg prodigy. While in the beginning there were ups and there were downs, he is undoubtedly the best player in Starcraft 2 right now. The world will watch with bated breath as to whether he can continue this domination in 2013.

***
Zealously
Profile Blog Joined October 2011
East Gorteau22261 Posts
January 14 2013 18:08 GMT
#2
Excellent write-up(s); greatly enjoyed reading them! Very nice summary of Life's career so far - 5/5.
AdministratorBreak the chains
kollin
Profile Blog Joined March 2011
United Kingdom8380 Posts
January 14 2013 18:16 GMT
#3
Thanks!
kawoq
Profile Joined November 2005
Guatemala357 Posts
January 14 2013 20:34 GMT
#4
Great reading, thanks for taking the time to make it!

Flash pulled out a huge upset (I never thought I would say that) and beat Life 2-0, knocking him down the losers bracket.


lol.. I read it and still cant believe it actually was an upset...
"It is not a shameful thing to be unable to reach the goal. It's becoming afraid and running away, even before considering the fact that the road is long and rough, that is truly cowardly." by - Lim Yo Hwan aka SlayerS_Boxer from "Crazy as me"
kollin
Profile Blog Joined March 2011
United Kingdom8380 Posts
January 14 2013 20:37 GMT
#5
Thanks for the compliment Personally, I think the defeat was an upset. At this point Flash hadn't really proved himself against the very top tier of ESF players, and people were still unsure of his skill level. Pretty much anyone just straight 2-0ing Life, especially in a ZvT, is pretty hard as showed by Life when he then beat Flash 4 games straight.
catplanetcatplanet
Profile Blog Joined March 2012
3829 Posts
January 14 2013 23:02 GMT
#6
It was pretty funny. Life got wrecked at first vs Flash, dumping infestors and brood lords left and right. His control was pretty bad, I guess because of nerves. Afterwards he was like "alright none of this shit" and killed Heart in 20 minutes to set up the rematch and 4 straight wins.
I think it's finally time to admit it might not be the year of Pet
kollin
Profile Blog Joined March 2011
United Kingdom8380 Posts
January 14 2013 23:06 GMT
#7
That was most likely it, because even for the confident ballet Life, playing against someone who was as accomplished as you, if not more so at a younger age can be fairly daunting.
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