Wookie came out first for KT and threw down the gauntlet with a crazy build that necessitated hiding his first gateway and getting a nexus before even picking up his gas. Despite some decent zealot micro by Bisu, his DT follow-up was neutered by a flawlessly placed gateway and some cannons, ensuring that Wookie entered the mid-game in a favourable position. Unfortunately, Wookie forgot to factor in the power of storm-drops, and Bisu utilised them to shred his economy, managing to wrest the lead from the younger Protoss. After the economic damage was done, Wookie was easily overwhelmed.


One of the matchups people were hoping to see in the finals occurred early on in the series with Flash being sent out on his favourite map, Ground Zero, only to be met by a stalwart Fantasy. After a botched vulture drop, Fantasy looked to be on the back foot, but managed to use his dropships to zone off Flash's tanks, cutting the main Tank ball in half and crushing it easily. The game went on from there, with Flash always losing ground. Despite a heroic attempt to come back with a huge doom drop that levelled Fantasy's main, the economic advantage Fantasy had secured in the mid-game had allowed him to rebuild and switch to wraiths, which slowly picked away at Flash, securing SKT’s position with a two zero lead in the series.


KT was on the ropes; having already sent out its Ace to no avail, it was up to the KT Zergs to do their business and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Action was the first up, and he managed to do his job in a kooky game against Soo. Both players opened up with nine-pools, with Action evolving zergling speed first (and scouting later), while Soo opted for an earlier lair.

While Soo managed to snipe the first mutalisks with his early scourge, he was forced into the role of aggressor as Action used the map controls his speedlings afforded him to take an expansion. Bizarrely, the game ended up in something of a base race, with each player sending his lings to the other’s base and missing one another on the way. Action was quick to send his drones to roam the map, while Soo let his die and soon found himself in a position in which he had only two buildings remaining, with neither drones nor money to produce more. Action, by contrast, had saved a considerable number of his own drones. Of course, Soo still had the muta advantage, but Action stalled long enough to get a spore colony up, securing the game.


Crazy-Hydra came out next for KT and was met by Ssak, the second-string Terran from SKT who hadn't had many games during the regular season. In what would be a see-sawing game, Crazy-Hydra managed to hold off Ssak’s attack, and eventually was able to overpower his Terran opponent by taking advantage of a superior economy that Ssak proved unable to shut down in the mid to late game.


Sun was sent out for SKT to strike back at the KT zergs, but instead was met by Stats. If you showed anyone the initial build orders, they would say the game should have been a sure win for Stats; stats opted for a DT-expand build order against a three-gate from Sun. Sun managed to sniff out the build with his goons and was able to use them to delay the DT from getting to his main, saving probes while he got his observer out. He then faked an expand, and instead mined out the two backdoor mineral patches to hit Stats from behind.

The positioning was superb, and, despite fighting hard with fantastic probe drills, the damage was done. Sun took the win, putting his team one game away from the proleague title.


Once again KT was forced to lean on the broad shoulders of its Zerg heroes; who better to stand up for his team when it mattered than the playoff-beast Hoejja. When it matters, Hoejja has a habit of piling on the pressure, and this time was no exception.

While Best attempted to get up to four bases without being too aggressive, Hoejja took the time this strategy gave him to take four bases of his own and get up to hive-tech. He then proceeded to put on a clinic on how to kill Protoss armies, flinging out effortless plagues and ensnares, while he battered down Best until, shattered and broken, he gave KT the victory.

The Ace match had been forced.


While it has been argued that Fantasy has been SKT's ace this season, realistically Bisu is the one that SKT would always turn to, considering his experience under pressure and his general form last season, especially on a map that teams have actively avoided sending Terran players out on.

The game started out strange and slowly evolved into something epic from there. Bisu proxied a gateway right in Flash's scouting path, with Flash scouting it just as construction began. Flash went with a two-barracks response to the proxy, but Bisu made it work, throwing down extra gates at his main, putting on a ton of pressure, and throwing Flash off his game. Flash rallied and pushed into Bisu's backdoor with a squad of tanks and some marine medic. He then managed to hold his position and deny mining at Bisu's main, even sniping his cybernetics core.

Bisu then pumped out a bunch of speedlots and rushed Flash's undefended natural, wrecking the SCVs and all the other forces there. When Bisu’s reinforcements arrived, a crushed Flash was forced to GG and concede the grand final to SKT.

This is the match-up everyone has been waiting for all season, two players with stellar season records going head-to-head for the first time to decide who will reign supreme. Ground Zero is where this titanic battle takes place; Fantasy, the ‘Crown Prince’ and heir to the Lim Yo Hwan Terran linage, spawns at eleven o'clock, while Flash, the ‘Ultimate Weapon’, emerges at seven o’clock.

Fantasy starts his depot and barracks at his ramp, placing them in a manner that will create a wall-in. Flash builds his barracks close to his ramp while sending out an SCV. The SCV sets out North, heading straight for Fantasy’s main. The scout arrives before the wall is finished and begins to survey the enemy base. Fantasy completes the wall, trapping Flash’s SCV inside the main where its eyes won’t see the factory at the natural. Fantasy deploys his own scout soon after to keep tabs on Flash's activities.

Fantasy finds Flash with a CC going up at the natural along with a bunker. Fantasy gets his own CC started after making a vulture, then a machine-shop is added to the factory and a starport is made inside the main.

Meanwhile, Flash constructs two factories inside his main, sends workers to mine at the natural and adds an armory.



Fantasy’s barracks floats over Flash’s natural, giving him another glimpse inside enemy territory. Speed vultures race out of Fantasy’s natural, managing to avoid Flash’s scout. The vultures rendezvous with a dropship at nine o’clock and sets out to complete its mission. A single vulture is dropped on the high ledge at the natural, disrupting mining, while the rest are dropped inside the main. Flash dispatches units and swiftly handles the early harass, but Fantasy isn’t finished just yet. The dropship is seen flying to the right side of Flash’s main, where two more vultures are dropped off at the edge. The vultures lay mines and begin hunting down SCVs. Flash rushes his tanks back to defend the main, allowing the workers to return to their mining duties.

Fantasy continues the early aggression by dropping two tanks at the natural’s high ledge, Flash quickly brings more tanks to cover the natural and as they arrive, Fantasy air-lifts his tanks to safety.

Fantasy adds his fourth factory, while Flash adds his third.

Flash moves out with a handful of tanks and sieges up outside Fantasy’s natural. Fantasy uses his dropship to position his units along the path where Flash’s reinforcements will run, cutting off Flash’s units from fortifying the current contain.

Flash sets up a small defensive tank line outside his own natural, while sending out a valkyrie and wraith to search for the dropship. Fantasy continues to drop units outside nine o’clock, his dropship comes under attack from Flash’s wraith and valkyrie, but Fantasy has anticipated the attack and has already called fo wraiths to escort the dropship, they cloak themselves and fire at Flash’s air units. Without any detection, Flash is forced to retreat his wriath and valkyrie, the crowd cheers wildly as Fantasy’s wraiths focus-down the valkyrie down.



Fantasy’s wraiths set their eyes on Flash’s small contain, the lone goliath bares the brunt of the wraiths’ lasers before a scan goes off to reveal the flying death machines, the goliath doesn’t last long and soon the defenseless tanks come under fire. They’re forced to un-siege and withdraw but Fantasy pursues them, wiping them all out. The camera shifts to the SKT bench where they applaud the Crown Prince’s performance thus far.

Fantasy adds more factories in his main along with an armory. Flash is pumping from four factories and starts ramping up valkyrie production.

Both players create a siege-line outside nine o’clock, both lose a few units while setting up the standoff. Fantasy takes his third base at 11.5, more tanks are rallied to the battle lines to bolster defenses. Vultures race around the map, dropping mines along the way as the campaign for map control begins.

The siege-line extends across the map, Flash’s tanks sustain damage from mines as they traverse the terrain, Fantasy capitalizes on the weakened units and advances, killing a few more units in another quick skirmish. Flash floats his third over to 6.5 but mines delay him from planting the expansion.
Fantasy’s wraiths spot the third and maneuver to the back of Flash’s tank line, finding them defenseless to an air invasion, the crowd cheers again upon seeing more tanks blown up by the paper planes. Fantasy recalls his wraiths to safety before Flash’s valkyrie squadron arrive.



Fantasy continues his aggression, sending his vulture gang forth to attack the weakened tanks, forcing Flash to pull back his units, which allowing Fantasy's tank line to push forward.

Fantasy takes his fourth expansion at one o’clock while his vultures race around the center and charge into Flash’s third. The vultures lay mines as Flash sends his own vultures to defend, as the vulture fire at each other, an SCV train-line enters into the expansion, allowing Fantasy to net some worker kills before his vultures perish.

Both players acquire +1 weapons upgrade, Flash adds more factories inside his main and sends out troops to cover the southeastern portion of the map.

Flash sends out a gang of vultures to scout and attack Fantasy’s vulnerable third. The crowd cheers with a mixture of concern and excitement as Flash assaults the mineral line. Wraiths are scrambled to handle the raid.

Flash starts a fourth expansion at 5.5, Fantasy’s dropship flies by spotting the new expansion, a vulture is dropped, killing the SCV and halting the completion of the command center, three more vultures are unloaded at the third, causing havoc at the mineral line. Flash's SCVs are forced to flee while the vultures take out the drop. Fantasy continues his attacks, sending wraiths over to Flash’s tanks, Flash responds swiftly and sends his valkyrie fleet to cover his defenses.



Flash starts a fifth at five o’clock, SCVs already en route to begin mining as soon as the CC is completed. The tank-lines have extended all the way to the right side of the map, with Fantasy holding a little more ground.

Fantasy continues production from his seven factories, his armories spinning and a science facility under way.

Flash gathers three dropships, they move out towards Fantasy’s natural, they’re spotted by turrets along the way and Flash uses his valkyries to draw fire. Fantasy’s wraiths are alerted of the incoming assault and dart back to defend. At the same time Fantasy starts his fifth base at two o’clock, and orchestrates another vulture raid at Flash’s fifth.
The wraiths cloak themselves and begin targeting Flash's dropships, they shift their attention on the tanks, taking multiple volleys before Flash realizes and scans to reveal them. Fantasy withdraws his wraiths but loses almost all of them before they can get away, but not before they've dealt enough damage to severely weaken Flash’s drop . Tanks clean up the rest of the drop and Fantasy resumes mining.

Fantasy’s vultures are still present at Flash’s fifth, more SCVs die as enter the expansion to mine, the crowd continues to cheer and applaud as Fantasy appears to be everywhere. Flash rallies a few tanks and vultures to finally stem the attack at his fifth.

At this point, Flash has +2 weapons on his ground units, while Fantasy has 1-1.



Fantasy mobilizes a large chunk of his tanks and charges into Flash’s tank line, both sides lose a number of tanks. Flash manages to hold the offensive, blowing up more tanks as Fantasy tries to push in.

Fantasy continues production from his eight factories, he repositions a large number of his units, concentrating much of his forces to breaking Flash’s tank-line near the natural, both players sustain multiple losses as they exchange fire. Flash quickly reinforces his tank line and holds off Fantasy’s offensive.

Two science vessels are seen on the flying over the battlefield to aid Fantasy's ground force. More reinforcements are rallied to strengthen Fantasy’s assault.

Fantasy his sixth expansion, while rallying units towards the southeastern side for another blitz. Fantasy advances but Flash has mobilized his forces via dropship, completely blocking Fantasy’s assault and destroying a large number of tanks.

Fantasy secures his seventh base, his ground units now armed with 2-2; Flash still on 2-0.
Fantasy continues his campaign to take down Flash’s fifth and sixth, constantly attacking Flash’s defenses, eventually punching a hole and breaking through. SCVs are pulled to fight off the vultures as Flash’s dropships arrive to provide some relief.

Fantasy secures nine o’clock, the last remaining expansion as his eighth base, turrets line the edges to ensure dropships don’t enter without paying a price.

Flash loads up a number of dropships just as Fantasy's forces surge forward. Flash maneuvers his dropships past Fantasy’s army and into Fantasy’s main. The entire payload is delivered and Fantasy’s factories and depots come under heavy fire. Fantasy’s units head halfway back to the main before they’re commanded back to the front lines. Depots and factories are quickly demolished, the KT bench looks hopeful as Flash deals a violent blow to Fantasy, but the Crown Prince has other plans.



Screams are heard from the crowd as Flash continues to level Fantasy’s main. Over at his one o’clock expansion, Fantasy begins mass construction of starports. The KT coach looks on anxiously.

Flash’s own main and natural come under attack as Fantasy pushes in. Flash quickly sets up a small defensive line in an attempt to halt the offensive with the few units he has. Flashes mobilizes his dropships, sending them to attack Fantasy’s northeastern bases but are soon intercepted by goliaths and turrets, resulting in a few being blown out of the sky. The dropships deliver what’s left of the payload, but Fantasy as already taken the necessary steps to mitigate any damage.

Flash’s +3 ground forces tear down the last structure in Fantasy’s main and head to nine o’clock, where they demolish another expansion as Flash tries to make a comback. At the same time Fantasy mounts another assault on Flash’s four and five o’clock expansion. SCVs are pulled to aid Flash’s tank line, but the numbers are too strong and Flash loses control of the expansion.

Flash sends his units to attack Fantasy’s northeastern expansions; Fantasy relinquishes control of Flash’s main and natural choke, ordering his units to return to one o’clock to defend the incoming attack.
As Flash’s tank-heavy army arrives at Fantasy’s two o’clock, wraiths appear from above, making short work of the goliaths and the helpless tanks. The SKT bench applaud fervently as Flash’s tank numbers diminish.



A large number of units are seen sitting inside Flash’s main, unaware that the contain outside had disappeared.

The game is quickly slipping away and Flash has less than two mining bases left, he marshals the large number of troops inside his main and moves out. Meanwhile Fantasy’s wraiths attack five o’clock, killing turrets before they can go up along with the SCVs building them, further weakening Flash's mining activities.

Flash’s last battalion moves out, destroying a small roadblock of tanks. As they reach the center of the map, they’re intercepted by two control groups of cloaked wraiths, scans go off but the goliaths are no match for squadron of wraiths. The tanks are soon rendered powerless to the laser fire and Flash is forced to withdraw his force.

Flash loses his four o'clock, his five o'clock comes under attack one again, Fantasy's un-sieged tanks quickly annihilate the SCVs with a little d-matrix help. The SKT bench cheers once more with big smiles on their faces.

Time is running out for Flash and he attempts to bulldoze another enemy expansion, but his own establishments come under attack, siege tanks bombard his five o’clock and wraiths decimate his worker population at 5.5.

‘Jung Myung Hoon!’, the crowd chants the Crown Princes name zealously as Fantasy draws closer to victory. His wraiths begin to swarm around Flash's bases, obliterating the 5.5 expansion and assaulting Flash’s main.



Flash destroys Fantasy’s three o’clock and sends his remaining units to attack the northeastern base which houses Fantasy's starports . Fantasy pulls SCVs to defend and wraiths arrive shortly after. The last of Flash’s units are blasted away.

With no economy and no means to defend himself from the imminent air invasion, Flash bows out after an extensive and valiantly fought battle.

Fantasy’s music fills the air upon his enemy conceding, the crowd roars and the commentators shout out the prolonged ‘gg’. Fantasy throws his chair aside and smashes through the door with a smile on his face. He dashes towards the crowd where he locates his parents, giving them a firm embrace.

Who would have thought that it would all come down to this? The Grand Finals, Bisu and Flash, the ACE match.

It seems as though there could be no more perfect end to what could be the final BW-only proleague. That the game would be remembered forever was clear even before it had begun, but as it unfolded we were treated to something truly spectacular. The players sat in their booths with hunger in their eyes, eager to be the one who snatched victory for their team. It was to be the game that would be the final punctuation to a chapter of esports history.

Only one could leave the booth a winner, and he would emerge a hero.

I’ll admit now that, unlike most of my fellow SPL team writers, I'm not particularly fond of Bisu. Nor am I an enormous Flash fan, for that matter. What I am fan of is Brood War, and the excellent games it provides us. So if you were expecting an effusive battle report with veiled references to my undying love for Bisu, I'm afraid you're out of luck (though, if Reach had played...).

That said, let's dive into the game that kept us sitting on the edge of our seats, holding our collective breath. The match started on Neo Chain Reaction, a map reviled by Terran players. Regardless, KT still sent out Flash, because Flash laughs in the face of map imbalances. Bisu, the golden boy who makes ladies swoon, spawned on the left side of the map, while Flash, the machine that can’t be distracted by his opponent's good looks, spawned on the right.

Almost immediately, it was clear that Bisu had practiced extensively for this game; despite everything being on the line, he was confident enough to send his sixth probe towards Flash's base. Of course, Flash, being Flash, deployed his maphack impeccable game sense, sending an early SCV of his own and finding Bisu's proxy pylon just as he planted a gateway right outside Flash’s base. This was a crucial moment. Bisu had been dictating the pace of the game. Having had his gas stolen, Flash was left with no choice but to build a second barracks. He attempted to do so in the far corner of his base, but Bisu scouted it in short order.



Bisu's first zealot rolled into Flash's base and tried to pick off a stray marine. Flash, with his clever building positioning, managed to hold off the stream of zealots with minimal losses. Once his second barracks finished, Flash had a fair number of marines and was in a position to go on the offensive. His primary target was Bisu's proxy gateway, but zealots are pretty handy when it comes to mopping up marines. Realizing this, Flash retreated to his natural expansion where he began construction of a bunker and a brand new command center. It's worth noting that, while their back and forth micro was going on, Bisu still had a probe in Flash's base and had managed to steal his gas yet again. To add insult to injury, he also dropped manner pylons repeatedly.



Just as the bunker was about to finish, Bisu swept in with his zealot force to pick off as many marines as he could, then continued into Flash's base to do some opportunistic harassment. Flash's expansion was finished by then, and he tried, yet again, to bring down Bisu's proxy gateway. Bisu held it off as long as possible, but eventually found himself overrun by the sheer volume of marines from Flash. Flash tried to push the advantage with his marines and a few SCVs, but Bisu massacred his force with a group of zealots and a smattering of dragoons. Fortunately for Flash, marines are pretty cheap, and he had plenty of them back at home to negate the dragoon harass that followed.

In the meantime, Bisu had taken his natural expansion, followed swiftly by his third. Things had finally calmed down after the frenetic, micro intense, opening ten minutes of the game. Or had they?

Just as things settled down enough for us to begin to consider what an amazing game we were seeing, Flash decided it was time to move out with his medic/marine and tank force. Unbelievably, he made three factories, all with siege workshops, to ensure he could mass tanks quickly enough to catch Bisu off guard.



At the same time, Bisu had built a shuttle and a reaver, the combination of which he would normally use to harass. Now though, he had a crisis on his hands. Flash had managed to insinuate his force behind Bisu's main base, a cliff-ledge that is virtually impossible to break once a Terran player sets up camp. Bisu tried to go for a counter-attack with a few of his goons and the reaver-shuttle combo. Unfortunately, those three factories Flash had built were mass-producing tanks; Bisu’s attack was brought to a shuddering stop, and he even lost his shuttle and reaver.

Things were looking grim for Bisu. Flash had successfully sieged up behind Bisu's main base and, adding insult to injury, had managed to take down his cybernetics core. Bisu had no options; he would have to try to break what looked like an impenetrable contain.



Bisu took significant losses trying to break out of his own base and, while he didn't manage to completely clear a way through the contain, he did manage to cull a number of tanks in the process. In spite of the good work Bisu had done, Flash had continued tank production from his three factories, and was bringing an additional six tanks to reinforce his contain.

Bisu's cybernetics core had been down for quite a while now, and all he could do was to make... more zealots. Which he did, a lot of them. Hemmed in by Flash’s siege line, he countered with two groups of speed zealots, going for an all-or-nothing attack on Flash's main base. Flash reacted to the counter attack brilliantly, building a barracks to block the zealots and pulling all of his SCVs from an expansion to help. Unfortunately, all he had by then was a rake of tanks and, last time I checked, sieged-up tanks are not the best match for speed zealots. Bisu managed to penetrate the great wall of SCVs and brought down Flash’s tanks with his speed zealots.



Seeing his base eaten away, in what we can only imagine was a state of disbelief, Flash typed out his 'GG' while Bisu and the SKT team rejoiced.

We remember him for 3/3, his destruction of Savior and his PvZ revolution, where a young Protoss emerged from the darkness of Shakuras to overpower and forever defeat the symbol of the swarm. We remember the zip of the corsair in the night sky, the sound of the scythe and the dying murmur of an overlord. A drone is killed, and then a hatchery. Finally, a kingdom falls and a ruler slowly fades away.

We remember an up and coming MBC Protoss at SKY 2006, stepping up to play RainBOw as his team took the Grand Final away from SK Telecom T1.

We remember the transfer, as a newly arrived Coach Park brought over a fresh faced Bisu to SKT and we remember him for carrying us through season after season of victory, delivering win after win in yearlong Proleague seasons. We remember him for leading from the front. We remember him netting MVP and yet watching heartbroken during two finals as his team fell short of the mark.

The faithful old workhorse, time and time again he gave up his own dreams for the greater good, sacrificing his individual league practice time in favour of perfecting his Proleague run. And what a run it has been. His 2010 slump notwithstanding, Bisu has been perhaps the most consistent PL player of the past three years. He is the SKT gold standard, the player who despite his own obvious talent understood that there was something greater than himself.

He had the vision to see that a team was more than just the sum of its players.

He knew that he had a destiny to fulfil, a path to lead them down.

He realised that he was heir to an empire, an empire built by The Emperor himself.

Bisu may not have an OSL gold, and while that will always be a blemish on his otherwise illustrious record, as a SKT fan, this actually makes me smile. Bisu has no OSL medal and indeed, he is a long, long way from a golden mouse. He may not stand up there with Nada and July and Jaedong and Flash and yet, here in these final hours of Broodwar, he took his place up there alongside one greater than all of them.

Today, he stands with Lim Yo Hwan.


Boxer gave SK Telecom T1 life and brought it to maturity. Bisu saw it through to its end. Thanks to him, SKT’s spot as the number one ESPORTS franchise of all time will never be in question. We were the best in 2002 and we are the best ten years later. We’ve had our ups and downs, we’ve had our wins and losses. We’ve seen players come and go, and yet, as a team, we have remained.

Till the very end.

SKT is probably going to end up being a mixed team, and like every other outfit during these dying days of Broodwar will most likely dabble in SC2. We may adapt, we may not, but speculation is for tomorrow.

Today, we remember.

We remember SKT for finishing the work that Orion started nearly a decade ago.

We remember Fantasy for dismantling an ultimate weapon.

We remember By.Sun for laughing in the face of death.

We remember Bisu for leading this team we love, and indeed, this game we love, to a beautiful, fitting end.

Time may blur and even erase some memories, but for as long as we remember these months and years that we shared together, and for as long as we mention in reverent whispers those men of legend that shaped our time here, there is a name that will certainly be sounded loud and clear.

Kim Taek Yong. Revolutionist, maverick, leader. King.

Bisu

Bisu rose from the ashes of another set of failed Starleague preliminaries to lead his team to its sixth Proleague title, bookending the series with two wins, each of which crucial in its own way. His selection in the opening game against Wooki was a statement of intent from SKT, but early on looked as though it might backfire. However, Bisu was able to overcome his early disadvantage and eventually gave his team a 1-0 lead, lending them a psychological boost as they entered the second game.

His appearance in the ace match was a little easier to predict, but following Flash's loss to Fantasy earlier in the series the threat of a vengeful God loomed large. This game bore all the hallmarks of a Bisu PvT at his peak form; it had aggression, multitasking, and just a slight whiff of cheese. Bisu's well-devised and executed strategy proved too much for Flash, who looked utterly defeated, both in the game and in the booth.

Fantasy

A potential Fantasy versus Flash match-up was highly anticipated going into the finals and the ensuing game did not disappoint. It was clear who the favourite was going into the second set, with Flash not having lost a TvT all season, while Fantasy had dropped games to Leta and Last. Most impressive of all about Fantasy's win was that he succeeded by playing his trademark style, pressuring Flash early on with vulture drops and then holding his lead, even after losing his main.

Flash still maintains a huge margin of victory in their overall head-to-head statistics, but with this win Fantasy broke Flash's undefeated streak in Proleague finals, extending his own to an unparalleled six games.


By.Sun

Sun ended what has been an up and down season for him with another crucial finals win for his team. Having established an early lead by sending their two heavy hitters, SKT found themselves back on level terms at 2-2. With Stats and HoeJJa remaining, the possibility of a 4-2 victory for KT was oppressive. In hindsight, it's clear that Sun's game against Stats was one of the most important of the entire series.

The match itself was a tense one; Sun's three-gate pressure delayed Stats' initial DT and gave him the time to get out an observer. Sun followed up by mining out Stat's back-minerals and counterattacking into the main, completely circumventing the cannons at Stats' natural (so important for defence following a DT opening). In a matchup so often decided by a combination of build-order and decision-making, Sun outplayed one of the best Protoss players in Proleague, putting his team in the lead going into the final regular game of the series.

HoeJJa

Remarkably for a player with virtually no individual league pedigree HoeJJa excels on the big stage, and there are few stages bigger than the one upon which he faced BeSt in game six. Although HoeJJa was undefeated in the playoffs coming into his finals game, he had yet to be tested in what has, in the past, been his strongest match-up.

HoeJJa looked utterly assured as he defeated this season's PvZ win leader. He took the opportunity given to him by BeSt to build up an enormous economy, while easily defending BeSt's attempts at harass, building up to a point where he was able to crush the SKT Protoss. HoeJJa also displayed no small amount of swagger, utilising plague and ensnare to further extend an already established lead.

Although HoeJJa's play was superlative, his opponent provided little in the way of solid resistance and his eventual victory had the perfunctory feel of formality.

Action

Action's confidence in ZvZ may have taken a bit of a knock following his loss to Shine in the semi-final, and early on in his match against n.Die_soO things looked dire for the KT Zerg. However, having fallen behind early, Action made a desperate zergling counter, forcing the game into an elimination race. From there, the game remained on a knife edge, but, having kept his natural hatchery, Action was able to draw soO around the map until he was able to re-establish himself.

Through a combination of his own good decision making and a grave error by his opponent, Action rescued set three and, with it, KT's chances of winning the final.

Wooki

Most impressive about Wooki in his game against Bisu was the obvious diligence of his preparation, through which he was able to establish an unexpected lead in the early game. The unorthodox positioning of his first gateway, which so confused Bisu in the opening stages of the game, later turned out to be a perfect block on the back ledge, proving crucial in his defence against Bisu's DTs. The elegance of this play wasn't enough to give Wooki a victory, but was the kind of thing that should put a smile on the face of any Brood War fan, regardless of who they're cheering for.

Crazy-Hydra

Against Ssak, Crazy-Hydra was facing a player who had clearly been prepared by SKT as a TvZ sniper. CrazyHydra looked to be in complete control after easily defending his third from Ssak's +1 bio timing, but Ssak's mech-switch came earlier than Crazy-Hydra was able to deal with and, as the game continued, it became an increasingly scrappy affair. Ultimately, Crazy-Hydra's counter attacks did so much damage to Ssak that he was able to claim what was probably the least convincing win of any player in the final. Crazy-Hydra's ZvT clearly isn't on par with his other two match-ups, but in the end his performance was sufficient.

Ssak

Having played only two games this season, Ssak's performance against Crazy-Hydra was clearly affected by nerves. His +1 five-rax push was hugely delayed by indecision just as he should have been moving out, putting him in a bad position early on. However, Ssak's mech-switch succeeded in denying Crazy-Hydra's fourth and allowed him to establish a contain at the KT Zerg's natural ridge.

As the game went on Crazy-Hydra's multi-pronged attacks and harrass slowly overwhelmed Ssak, but for a decent portion of the game he was competing toe-to-toe with one of the best Zergs in Proleague. SKT certainly wasn't relying on a victory from Ssak to take the series and overall his performance was solid considering his lack of recent broadcast experience.

BeSt

In his game against HoeJJa, BeSt displayed almost none of the qualities that led to him usurping Bisu as SKT's main PvZ player in Proleague this season. His corsairs failed to do any significant damage to HoeJJa at any point in the game, and his harassment was so feeble it was effectively non-existent. While much of BeSt's play throughout his career has been defined by his macro, this was a game in which he seemed to ignore all other aspects of play.

Even then, BeSt found himself with nowhere near enough of the correct units in anything like the right quantities to assert himself at any stage of the game. Although his loss ultimately had no effect on the result of the series, this was truly a game to forget for BeSt and one where he looked utterly outmatched.

n.Die_soO

soO's game came at a time when a win for SKT was more of a luxury than a necessity, as evidenced by his comments in the winner's interview. Though he did well to establish air control and gained a lead early on, the terms of the game that unfolded thereafter were dictated by Action. As can so often happen in ZvZ, soO was undone by one poor decision, and perhaps a small amount of complacency, as Action's zergling counter-attack destroyed his main and forced the game into an elimination race. From there, Action used the threat of his mutalisks to lead soO on a wild goose chase. It was all soO could do to look on, powerless to prevent Action from re-establishing a base at his natural. ZvZ can be cruel sometimes, but in the end soO had no one but himself to blame.

Stats

Stats' PvP has been an incredibly important weapon in the KT arsenal this season, but against Sun he failed to impress. The fact that Stats had to balance his practice for the final with that of the OSL preliminaries on the previous weekend appeared to play a role in the outcome of this game. That said, Stats' failure to anticipate Sun's push through the backdoor minerals is confusing, especially considering the number of games he has played on Outlier this season. Whether Stats' reaction (or lack thereof) was a result of a lack of preparation or the sheer ingenuity of Sun's build is unclear. One thing that is clear, however, is that Stats was the overwhelming favourite going into this game and his failure cost KT dearly.

Flash

Attempting to consider Flash's performance in the context of those of his peers seems foolish. This is a player for whom the term 'bonjwa' seems inappropriate, simply insufficient. The steady rise in the quality of his performance over the course of his career has established a standard against which no other progamer can ever be judged. In this season's Proleague final, even Flash himself wasn't able to measure up.

Flash's games in the final were not without quality; his calculated decision to doom drop Fantasy's main, his marine control when defending Bisu's zealots, and his almost game ending biomech push. These moments of excellence are what we have come to expect from Flash. They are the kind of moments that have contributed to that continuously rising level and were part of two uniquely thrilling games.

In a season in which Flash's name had come to be synonymous with victory, he lost his two most important games. At some point, Flash became so good that how he won almost ceased to be a factor, the quality of his victories was peripheral to the quanitity. And so, victories are how he must be judged. Flash is so good that, today, I get to call him bad.

Have you ever had any event in your life that just seemed to complete you? Be it getting into your desired college, getting that dream job of yours, or just fulfilling whatever you’ve always wanted.

For me, having an article in this news post would mean mine’s a no-brainer. Being a SK Telecom T1 fan since its old days of Orion, the wait of 10 years to catch them in their billionth finals was such a long and cruel one. Living overseas and schedules that didn’t match meant that for the last 10 years, all I could do was support my favourite team from behind the monitor. But this year, this time, it was different. I was there, just metres away from my idols, cheering my heart out and pouring my soul into each chant, each shout.

Having managed to get tickets specially prepared by KeSPA for us, TeamLiquid (once again, thank you KeSPA), we managed to get hold of a section of seats smack in the center of the whole seating area at Jamsil Students’ Indoor Gymnasium. It afforded us a perfect view of the entire stadium, while being slightly towards the SKT side (yes, I specially requested that ). The bunch of us nerds, who gathered from all across the world, waited an hour from 6 o' clock, while the organisers did last minute checks and preparations. Meanwhile, there was a battle between the SKT and KT fans, as each tried to out cheer and out shout each other. Needless to say, I joined in. The other team’s fans (I called them “KT Scum” - heh) only cheered at the sight of Flash. Pfft, that’s no way to cheer for a team! The excitement and anticipation grew in the arena grew as each side took turns to bring out the fanboy and fangirl-ism in all of us by introducing pre-coordinated moves and cheers that catered to each of the players. I was already getting the nerd chills, and the other thousands of other Brood War fans could feel it too.



As the games drew nearer, the caster Jeon Yong Jun told the crowd to keep silent when the broadcast went live. He asked us to wait, and at the right moment, create a roar loud enough “to make those who didn’t come to the venue regret it so much.” As he shouted “Jamsil Students’ Indoor Gynasium!!!”, we roared. Everyone from different backgrounds, from different countries, all united together for the love of Brood War. It was an amazing sound.

While the broadcast went on a commercial break, the self-proclaimed Bisu’s #1 fan Park Wan Gyu (the long-haired rocker dude who performed during Jin Air OSL finals, if you’ve forgotten who he is) was named by KeSPA as the promoter and the face of ESPORTS in Korea. After a short ceremony, he was asked to predict the score, and he sheepishly said “4-3”, but didn’t say in favour whom. Who knew that he would be spot on?

Slowly, the time for the first game drew closer. Fans from both sides were being led on by their fanclub reps (or so I am guessing), who were going all out with mics, loudspeakers, drums, even cheerleaders (with very nice legs, I may add), and were getting louder by the minute. Unusually, my palms were sweating a lot. Was I nervous? Excited? Afraid? Even now, I don’t know, but one thing was for sure, it was something that could be experienced only there and then.

Finally, after an hour’s worth of waiting, the games were set to go. I won’t go into details about the games, but the first two sets made me jump up and down in my seat like a little fangirl, as T1 took two crucial wins. Bisu won his game and Fantasy won against god. I was ecstatic. T1 fans were going wild, chanting Bisu and Fantasy’s names at the end of each of their games. KT fans were dead silent. I even turned to the KT fan seating beside me (Zeehar, I’m looking at you!) and mocked him at Flash’s loss and T1’s early 2-0 lead.

After that, it was just an emotional rollercoaster ride, with T1 Zergs frustrating me no end despite how much faith I put in them. Then, our slumping rookie Protoss stepped it up for the team while Best, who put forth an amazing PvZ record this whole season, went on to a 3 game losing streak in the Finals thanks to Hoejja, who actually delivered a tailor made, near perfect build that caught him off guard.

KT managed to bring it to the ace match, and everyone was excited about the picks. But I was nervous, for I feared a repeat of the last two years. Will it be Bisu again, or will it be Fantasy? Or was it going to be BeSt who could try to redeem himself once again? Who will KT field? Their best Protoss player? One of the KT Zergs, who managed to bring them this far? Or would it be the Ultimate Weapon himself?



Right after the replay analysis, the ace players were revealed, and it was the matchup everyone was waiting for - Bisu vs Flash. I didn’t think my heart could take it anymore. My knees were already getting weak, but I pulled myself together. I couldn't stop now. I had to watch to the very end. All I could do was wave my huge styrofoam cheerful and pray.

I can’t put into words how I felt through the ace match, but all I know was that I was grasping tightly onto that cheerful, eyes glued to the huge screen, praying inside that Bisu and T1 would win. A little trivia, by the way - whenever I went live to watch Bisu play for T1 in Proleague, Bisu lost. This made me even more worried for this ace match but still, I just watched and prayed.

The game didn’t disappoint. Bisu won as predicted by his #2 fan (I still think the Bisu girl is #1, or maybe Kiett, I dunno), T1 won, KTears were shed, God was dethroned and balance was restored to the universe. But most importantly, my decade long dream of watching T1 win in the only and most prestigious Brood War team league’s grand finals had been fulfilled. For fifteen minutes or so after the end of the ace match, as the spectators slowly left the stadium, I stayed behind to watch the T1 players make speeches and celebrate their victory. Although I was just another unknown fan to the team, I still felt one with them and enjoyed celebrating our win together. We had triumphed against our eternal rivals.

Even if it was for a moment, I was the happiest fanboy alive.