EPT
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10:03pm
Fuming from the mayhem that was the GIGA stream debacle, I decide that I’ll go run on the treadmill to make myself tired, shower, then sleep a few hours to wake up for the Proleague Finals (instead of staying up all night). I check the calendar, and it says I have another 4 hours and 55 minutes left.
I’m in good shape for at least a 3 hour snoozathon.
I should add that the Mani + Tasteless duo cast was simply amazing, and Mani seemed to find his comfort zone quickly after the first few jittery minutes.
10:20pm
I am on the treadmill and watching proleague vods from when I was in France (and hence haven’t seen yet). You know how the gym cardio machines have espn showing? Think of that, but with starcraft. I’m officially not normal.
By the way I had my brother DL these from sc2.org while I was away. Shoutout to ilovecats for all he does for us day in and day out.
3:04am
After turning off the alarm once, I am awake and turning on the stream.
3:09am
The stream is working, and I see some dudes dancing around. I go to the bathroom.
I forgot to turn snooze off, so the alarm goes off again.
3:15am
Looks like the OGN crew is on-site, while the MBC crew is commentating from a studio in Seoul. I can’t remember off the top of my head, but I’d hope that the roles were reversed last season, as well as next season.
3:17am
The teams march in, lead by Jju / Shinhwa followed by their respective coaches and teams. Shinhwa looks supremely awkward with the team flag.
3:20am
They move onto the coaches’ interviews. Since I can’t understand a word they’re saying, I’ll just mention that they kept panning to the Lecaf coach’s fiancée in the audience . Speaking of the Lecaf coach, his light-shaded sunglasses look gruesome on him. Samsung coach is dressed classy as usual.
(reading the live report thread, apparently he announced that he will propose to her if they win. Haha ballin’)
3:22am
A hobo walks on stage and starts blabbering into the mic, and Samsung coach looks flabbergasted. Well, looks like programming is really becoming a sport, complete with drunken fans. Next step for them will be getting streakers to show up.
3:30am
Why is Bisu sitting behind the Lecaf coach’s fiancée? He is a ninja through and through.
3:52
Game 1 starts. Finally, after almost an hour (what did I expect…).
This game may very well set the tone of the rest of the day.
3:57am
Both players being very aggressive with the zealot harass. It appears that Backho loses more probes than Jangbi, but on the other hand, he has his nat going up much earlier than Jangbi. The game should still be relatively even so far.
4:00
Zealot micro battle at Jangbi’s ramp definitely gave Jangbi the slight advantage there, I’m definitely slightly anxious at the moment.
4:02
Backho asks for a pause…
????
4:08am
Both players playing frustratingly passive. The fact that neither player cannoned up the opponent’s ramp is very telling.
4:11am
Jangbi just made one damn effective 3 shuttle drop, and while Backho doesn’t lose his back nat, he’s still very behind now. Jangbi’s been in full control all game.
4:14am
Jangbi “loses” a battle in the middle, but I’m not even sure he actually lost that in terms of unit count. He’s ahead in economy but did lose the initiative there and cost him a bit of map control, Backho able to gain space to try to crawl back into this.
4:18am
Well so much for that. Jangbi just steamrolled Backho in the center, and the difference in economy really showed in their army sizes.
4:35am
Game 2 starts, a TvT on Geometry: surprise surprise. We have the delight of watching this with the remarkably distinct colors of yellow and orange. Wonderful.
4:39am
The builds diverge after cc, as forGG goes for a 1 fac-addon 1 port build, and FBH goes 2 fact with 1 addon. FBH going for vulture play, forGG opens with tanks. Mmm, forGG sieges up at his nat, and FBH opts to just mine up outside instead of challenging with vulture control. I guess he’s taking it safe.
4:43am
FBH expands to 3 expo, and he’s definitely in danger of getting caught bent over if forGG decides to move out before the econ kicks in. And what do you know, forGG does move out, and gains control of the center. FBH still should have a slight economic advantage, but I would say that the terrain control FBH has is more significant.
4:46am
forGG is constantly running vultures around the map to check for vulture raids, but this has left his tanks open twice now to FBH’s assaults, whittling him down slowly.
??? what the hell? FBH getting wraiths?
4:47am
Oh man FBH with a beautiful attack off of the corner of forGG’s tank setup, attacks as soon as he has his +1 finished and just completely rapes forGG.
Hahaha forGG definitely hasn’t lost track of his own style though, just massing the hell out of tanks despite his opponent having wraiths. Whether this will be successful at all is another story.
4:49am
Uhh, covert ops from FBH… I’m not too sure about this, I don’t think his advantage is “that” large is it?
Oh wait maybe it is, FBH just destroyed forGG in the middle again and has already taken out a bunch of scvs via two vulture raids.
4:51am
Anyone watching the OGN stream is seriously missing out. Sea is adorable doing his analysis.
Oh hey forGG typed out, what do you know. Well, Le… oh what the fuck FBH’s ceremony hahahaha. This guy is insane~~~. Haha Samsung coach looks extremely embarrassed by that. (in essence, FBH takes his shirt off, equips a floating device, and proceeds to prance off the stage and into the crowd, eventually being stifled by security)
Anyways as I was saying, Lecaf definitely dug itself a pretty big hole to climb out of here. This ceremony is either going to completely demoralize them or light a fire in them.
5:16am
The 2v2 starts on Vampire, both zergs are on top, and the terrans on the bottom. They’re crossmap from their allies. Just like last week against MBC, this is a must-win game for Lecaf. The builds are identical for the players, nothing drastic like 5 pools that were seen last week.
Oh wow jihyun goes for a 1 hatch lair??
5:20am
Oh man Lecaf team definitely came prepared, as they go in with a 1 marine + zergling attack on Jihyun, interrupting his mining and forcing a 2nd sunk. Meanwhile Dongrae is going for 2 port wraiths. Damn I am nervous as hell, but I have faith in this team.
5:23am
Oh man Shinhwa’s mining was interrupted by 1 single muta, and he was forced to burrow his drones. Lecaf looks to be in serious trouble here.
5:26am
Dongrae laying siege to Jihyun, while Shinhwa is getting killed in his main.
OH SHIT Jihyun loses his lair!! He has 1 drone left??
Shinhwa is saved by the fact that Jihyun took his mutas and then got killed by Dongrae’s wriths, he has next to nothing but at least has his main hatch.
5:29am
Shinhwa lost all his drones now to 2 mutas, both terrans have their nat. Jihyun has ONE DRONE left, and he’s trying to lay a hatch down somewhere. Definitely boiling down to a TvT 1v1 now.
5:31am
The two zergs trying desperately to stay alive, this is absolutely intense.
It definitely looks like Cuteboy over-expanded, he’s significantly outmassed by Dongrae!
Jihyun has one last hidden hatchery up, and he’s really doing quite a lot with his last 2 mutas, picking off at least 2 tanks. Where is Shinhwa’s last building?
5:34am
Hero mutalisk, 10 kills, it is finally put into its flying-monster grave.
Wow Cuteboy’s repeated mass drops on Dongrae net them the win, surprising how Dongrae couldn’t build a single dropship despite having 2 ports and at least 1 addon.
5:41am
Well it’s Anytime vs Stork next, and Lecaf can at least take solace in the fact that they have their bona fide ace take the stage to keep them alive. On the other hand, if Stork loses this, he might have a lot of questions to answer after losing in OSL, then MSL, then hypothetically, the Proleague finals. That would have to be pretty damaging to his psyche.
5:53am
The moment of truth: the two aces on Monty Hall. I’m getting tense just watching Anytime’s probes gather minerals…
Standard 1 gate techs for both, Stork goes robotics before nat nexus, Anytime warps nexu after 1 gate and range + 2 goons… This reminds me of that game Anytime lost (I don’t remember the opponent or the league), where he went for an earlier robotics than his opponent and lost because of that.
5:59am
Holy… I really don’t know about this now. Anytime going for a super greedy build with a triple nexus after 2 gate and obs. Stork could very well outmass Anytime in a timing attack, as he’s added gates ealier than anytime.
So far so good though… okay scratch that. Stork sees Anytime’s 3rd base with an obs.
6:01am
Stork trying to mine out the right mineral wall, and Anytime buying time by picking off those probes…
Stork opts to expand to his 3rd as well instead of a timing attack. A prudent move, currently Anytime appears to have the slightest of leads, as they both tech to templars.
6:04am
Anytime screws up getting out of his main through the mineral wall, loses some units for free. Stork has a shuttle out, and is looking to extend his lead further.
… What was Stork thinking there with the 4-goon suicide into Antyime’s main? Stork with a ht drop on Anytime’s 3rd, takes out 6 probes, but now anytime rushes into the left lane and clashes with Stork.
What the hell, how is he that badly outnumbered??
6:09am
Wow stork built gates at the 1 island and is expanding there on top of Anytime’s expo. That’s going to be really tough to repel for Anytime.
Wow Anytime runs into the left lane and gets slaughtered again, out massed andout stormed. Coupled with Stork’s now-stronger economy, this game is pretty much over.
6:12am
There it is, gg from Anytime. Stork gets his redemption for his individual league losses. A well deserved win and celebration for Khan, as they have dominated this season from start to finish.
On a side note, this choral rendition of We are the Champions is an awful musical choice.
6:18am
Perhaps a disappointing ending for me, but this is probably the way it was meant to be. I’m already looking forward to the next season though, as Season 1 has shown that with the incredibly strong lineups of today’s Proleague, no team can afford to send anything but their 1st tier lineup if they want to get to the playoffs.
All four teams that made the post season were willing to abuse their aces, and with some luck, we may see more teams following suit.
6:30am
Back to sleep.
). Did you set it up yourself so you can have a treadmill with a computer screen or tv hooked up to your computer? I hated the music too, shoutout to ilovecats as always, and ill see you in the channel sometime 
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