EPT
July
Part one started with July, part two does as well. Another proof of how well he did last year. After having lost do NaDa in the final of the preceding IOPS OSL with an ashaming score of 0-3 it was now time to face NaDa's team partner from Pantech & Curitel - Goodfriend. Winning a close 3-2, with a fifth game that surely belongs to the most thrilling games ever played, he became the first Zerg to ever win an OSL final against a terran. Six times Zerg had failed before, including July himself against NaDa. Here he is holding his second OSL trophy! Some links: battle reports, interview and VODs.
This must definitely have been one of the most breathtaking sceneries progaming has ever seen. Set up on the beach of Reach's hometown Pusan the first round of the new joint Sky Proleague of MBCGame and Ongamenet ended with its final. A final between two worthy oppenents, as they are widely seen as the two strongest progaming teams around: SK Telecom T1 and the KTF MagicNs!
The lucky victorious team of this very event! With a result which in its clearness was definitely not expected by many Boxer's Team SK Telecom swept away the KTF boys 4-1. Here they stand, proud and happy! Interesting interviews and some short battle reports can be found in this thread. Also be sure to follow the action in our Tourney and Leagues forum, the finals of the second round are coming up tomorrow! SK Telecom will face Samsung Khan in a best of 7!
For the first time ever a girl competed in one of the Proleague (team league) matches: Tossgirl (SouL) lost to Eliza (eNature). We still love her all, do we not? <3
He does not win Starleagues, but he is the King of Special EVents and this was one: the MBCGame Snickers All-Star League! YellOw won 3-2 over NaDa.
August
August was mostly a break month for the progamers, they need some vacation like everyone else
The opening of the second round of the Sky Proleague with a line-up of MVPs from the first round!
Remember my words from part one? "Oh Happy Year of the Zergs!". Fits again, rising zerg star IPXZerg also known as Savior[gm] wins his first MBCGame Starleague (Uzoo) against Reach, who yet again fails against a Zerg player. Unlike the two Bo5 series (Winner Bracket Final and Grand Final) he lost against Chojja in the recent Cyon MSL back then he managed to win against him.
September
Being the captain of KTF and not being present in any of the important major leagues Nal_rA had proven to be one of the most valuable assets in the Proleague. Again and again he managed to pull his team from the edge of defeat, always winning the deciding fifth game. So he did in the opening match of the second round of the Sky Proleague, it was a rematch of the first round's finals. This time he won against the Emperor Boxer himself.
Ongamenet on Tour again. The group games are usually played in the Studio at the Megewebstation, but with all the high caliber matches of week 5 (Boxer vs. July, Reach vs Stork, Chojja vs. XellOs and iloveoov vs YellOw) they made the choice to host it in front of a bigger audience (notice how Chojja really is the Gnome Zerg).
October
The opening ceremony of the KTF Bigi Korea 2005 e-Sports Festival, a huge four days long festival that not only featured Starcraft, but also some other games like Warcraft 3 and Kart Rider. Part of the festival was a really big team tournament for the progaming teams and also some amateur teams.
Samsung Khan, who are scheduled to play in the finals of the Sky Proleague Round 2 against SKT 1 tomorrow have really been making a name of themselves in the past few months. Here they just won the team tournament of the aforementioned KTF Bigi Korea 2005 e-Sports Festival with a 3-2 victory over Hanbit. 40,000,000 Won is about 41,000 USD/34,000 EUR.
Oh the drama! Being down 0-2 in a best of 5 in the So1 OSL semifinal, the Emperor of Terran - Boxer tried a proxy double Barracks build in the center of Ride of Valkyries... his opponent Pusan scouted it, forcing Boxer to cancel one of the Barracks. Any other player would have resigned right here, but Boxer is Boxer is fucking Boxer and he proved once more that he is the greatest player of all time, turned the game around and won 3-2 in one of the hugest comebacks the OSL has ever seen. Thus he advanced to the So1 OSL Finals, where he met...
... Anytime. A debutant, who outstrategized iloveoov in the other semifinal, sending him home with a decisive 3-1 victory. Look at his face, he cannot believe he just eliminated one of the scariest players around - the Monster Terran!
November
And Anytime went all the way! Abusing the "Legend of the Fall" he beat Boxer 3-2 in the Finals, even though Boxer brilliantly managed to come back to a 2-2 score after being behind 0-2! A manifest of Mani's writing genius about the finals can be found here, interviews here. Next to Boxer, NaDa and July (who are all three holders of two OSL titles by now) he is one of the few exceptional players who get to win their first title in the first OSL they participate in! Truly amazing, and even though he has fallen to the OGN Curse in the ongoing OSL season I am sure we have not heard the last of him.
One more winner! fOru, who for the longest time was one of the most feared PvT players finally manages to win something important. Making the Russian Androide look like some C- PGT player in the final he wins the World Cyber Games 2005 in Singapore.
This is one of the moments in which all the hardcore fans of the Korean progaming scene curse themselves for not knowing any Korean: the group selection of the OSL. Thank god we have our beloved Koreans on board of the teamliqudian ship, who provide us with so much interesting stuff in general and a translation of what was said at the group selection for the Shin Han Bank OSL in particular: click me softly.
December
Historical Ongamenet moment no. 1: Boxer becomes the first player on Ongamenet to have 100 wins under his belt! Beating Stork in the Shin Han Bank OSL group phase he made his score 100-60 (TvT 22-13, TvZ 49-19, TvP 29-28). Jesus, look at this TvZ record, talk about scary.
Historical Ongamenet moment no. 2: For the 1000th OSL Game they dressed up the players (Cloud and iloveoov) like they were dressed back in the days of leagues like the Coca-Cola OSL 2001.
Hope you liked this one, too
