[SRT] Grand Final Preview - Remembered Forever - Page 5

Introduction

Sea is Perseverance.

In all stories of fantasy, danger, and death there are always characters who are heroic without being heroes. In Le Morte d’Arthur, you have Sir Gawain, who will always be the lesser knight when compared with Launcelot, Tristram, or Lamerok. Portrayed as a hot-headed character of sorts who does stupid or sometimes evil things, Gawain was unfairly shown up every single time in the stories by other knights. In the Lord of the Rings, you have Boromir, who was a great warrior and a noble Captain of Gondor, and yet the movies demonize him into some kind of power hungry villain. In A Song of Ice and Fire, you have Sandor Clegane, a man of violence hated by all of Westeros.

All of this shows what the world wants Sea to do: fall over and die. Sea is that unchanging rock in the middle of the sea (heh) that serves no glamorous purpose. Right now he is being brushed aside in the mad dash to hype a Flash Jaedong Bisu Broodwar triumvirate. And that’s where he wants to be. The underdog is always fun to root for. His perseverance is the story of our lives. At the end of the day, Sir Gawain remained fiercely loyal to King Arthur to the very end. Boromir redeemed his honor. Sandor Clegane saved Sansa and Arya Stark.

After all, a rock (iceberg) in the middle of the sea sank the Titanic.

Objectives

Survive Group D – Ro8

Sea is well-known to be a Proleague workhorse. The Terran ace of MBC since the beginning of time (no, Light was an ace sniper – there’s a clear difference), Sea has consistently put up win after win after win to help his team. This culminated in a Proleague championship, a Winner’s League silver, and zero individual acclaim. Off the top of my head I’m morally sure that he is statistically the best player never to have reached an individual league final. He is the gatekeepers’ gatekeeper.

This is why fate should not be so cruel to deny him a taste of success. In the MSL Group Selection, he was overheard hoping out loud not to be put in a group of death with the TaekBangLeeSsang. In a dark twist of fate that would make Roald Dahl smirk, that was exactly what happened. Now, Sea is a strong player. He’s a 60% player who excels in all match-ups. However he’s up against the great wall of Korea here, facing the best three players of all three races. Lady luck is out of magic. Sea has to transcend everything he has ever been to make it out of this group alive.

Analysis

Sea has a bad chance to win a single game, but Sea has also been dealt with the best of hands possible in this group.

First, his initial matchup against Jaedong is on a Terran-favored map. La Mancha is 64% TvZ. Also, his previous victory in the Korea OSL was on Zergliner (although his other recent win on Polaris Rhapsody was only due to Jaedong’s stubbornness in sticking to Mutas after dissecting Sea’s base with amazing micro). It’s a hard fight, but Sea himself said that Terran is a little imba once you get tanks. Look for a midgame mech transition or a Marine-Tank push against Jaedong in this game. Late-game is not an option after being destroyed by Neo.G_Soulkey with Defiler play.

Second, he might not have to play Flash at all. That is his only sure loss (0-8 is such a great head-to-head hahaha). Since Flash is still favored over a red-hot Bisu in his current status as Bonjwa, Sea can lose to Jaedong, win against Bisu in the latter’s worst matchup, and have a rematch against Jaedong on Dante’s SE where he has a 100% winrate (in one game). Cross your fingers Sea-fans.

Third, God exists. Somehow, some way, Sea has GOT to break through his mental block vs the S-Class. All his patience and hard work will pay off. He might not be the most talented, but he has done so much for the Starcraft scene (and TL.net) due to his innate friendliness and likeability that he deserves nothing less than to escape from his Starleague curse. Sea is like Flash without that special spark. It’s time to stop wishing for luck and to rely on skill, strategy and instinct. All players can lose on any given day.

Not So-Historical Representative

Sea is Scipio Africanus. The Roman Hannibal was an incredible military commander, defeating Hannibal Barca decisively and saving Rome from its Scourge. However, Hannibal was already severely weakened by war attrition. Furthermore, Scipio was unable to capitalize on his military success because he did not seize the moment, and was defeated and surpassed later on by Julius Caesar. Sea must rewrite the history books to achieve what all men want, but few ever do.