"Thanks IEM for giving me money." SK.MC talked the talk three days ago after making it out of his RO24 group at the IEM World Championship, but he had to wait until the grand finals to show that he could certainly walk the walk. MC emerged victorious in an uphill battle against nemesis EG.PuMa, taking home the title of IEM Season Six World Champion, as well as adding a tidy sum of $35,000 to his bank account.

Back from the brink of defeat

MC got off to a good start against the player who had defeated him in previous finals, using his trademark aggression and precise force-fields to make PuMa pay heavily for trying an overly greedy triple-orbital strategy in the first game. It was a tactic MC never strayed from in the entire five game series, always looking to force PuMa to stay on guard, and possibly end the game if a weakness was detected.

However, it was over-aggression in the later phases of the game that saw MC lose games two and three, nearly costing him the championship. Both times, MC traversed the map to attack PuMa with a large force, only to see PuMa successfully defend by the skin of his teeth while simultaneously sending infantry laden medivacs to wreak havoc in an undefended Protoss base.

Down 1 – 2, MC looked all but dead by the ten minute mark of game four. His early gateway pressure backfired on him, as PuMa surprised him by rushing for stimmed marines and medivacs. MC's forces were caught loitering outside PuMa's base for too long, and MC reacted two seconds too late to save his sentries as stimmed marines attacked.

PuMa continued to press with his highly efficient combination, making it all the way to MC's natural. Though MC survived by deploying his probes as a temporary militia, it looked like PuMa had done enough damage to secure a game-winning advantage. Knowing it was do or die time, MC pulled a strategy out of his PvZ playbook and decided to try and kill PuMa with a two-base blink stalker all-in before PuMa's advantage snowballed out of control.

Thought it looked like nothing but a desperation tactic at first, PuMa's defenses started to look a bit thin as MC warped in stalkers at a forward pylon. Had PuMa's macro slipped? Was he overestimating his advantage? Whatever the answer, one thing was certain: there were not enough defenders. MC crushed through the front to take an unexpected comeback victory, tying the series.

With the series on the line, PuMa showed the depth of his crafty planning. Having opened with gasless expansion variants in every single game up to then, he finally went for a tech build – after masking it as another gasless expansion, of course. A hellion drop toasted several of MC's probes and sentries, putting PuMa in a good position as he prepared to go up to three bases for mass infantry production.

MC decided he would go for another mass blink-stalker timing to try and get back in the game, but this time PuMa was prepared with bunkers and more than ample defenses. This put MC behind in the race to the late game, as he had lost valuable time he could have spent teching, upgrading, and keeping up on expansions. When a large Terran army came to knock at the door of MC's just finishing third base, it looked like there was very little hope for MC.

However, in dramatic turn of events, psionic storm finished researching just in time for MC to be able to engage the attacking Terran army, and just two well placed storms turned a potential loss into a resounding victory.

With his third base secure, MC counter-attacked with masses of zealots and archons. PuMa's heavily depleted army just barely held off MC's relentless warp-ins, but he lost many SCVs in the process. PuMa managed to barely survive on mules for a few minutes, but couldn't last forever against MC's constant waves of ground troops. With the GG received, MC burst from his seat, walked to the stand, and hoisted his rightful trophy towards the cheering crowd.

The more things change...

In ways, it seemed like a return to normalcy. The first half of 2011 belonged to oGs.MC. His winning ways made him the leader of the Protoss race, his obscene winnings painted him as the face of the Korean invasion, and his raw emotion made him pro-gaming's beating heart. For the most part, this victory has seen those titles restored.

In other ways, it was obvious that the MC of 2011 was long gone. His aura of invincibility had long since been dispelled, and he looked threatened at multiple points in the tournament. His last GSL victory had come almost a year before, and it seemed inevitable that he would be a victim of generation change, next in line after Mvp and Nestea. His swaggering victory lap might have said 'I am the best in the world!' one year ago, but one could not help but feel that it contained a note of 'Don't ever count me out' in Hanover.

Whatever his true position among Korea's Starcraft elite may be, MC made one thing clear at the IEM World Championship. With the Protoss race having its best spurt in almost a year, repopulating its ranks in the GSL, finding young talent springing from the earth like bamboo after rain, and seeing veterans catch their second wind – Protoss begins, and still ends, with MC.




Update Log
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Results:

EG.PuMa vs SK_MC

• Game One: Daybreak. MC @ right, PuMa @ left. PuMa opened with a greedy triple orbital build, while MC went for a 1-gate expand. Instead of going for a standard tech/upgrade follow-up, MC decided to churn out a few rounds of gateway units from his three gateways after expanding in order to apply some pressure.
  
  PuMa didn't expect MC to be so aggressive, and was underprepared on defense. With good FF's, MC killed off PuMa's bunkers, marines, and a ton of SCVs to give himself a huge advantage before he backed off to consolidate his lead.
  
  The game dragged out for a while, but MC had a massive advantage after dealing so much early damage. He just raced towards his perfect army composition off three bases, advanced, and wiped PuMa out.
  
  
• Game Two: Cloud Kingdom. MC @ top, PuMa @ bottom. PuMa went for a FE into a kind of marine-tank triple orbital build. On the other hand, MC went for a two base gateway unit + colossi timing, looking to punish PuMa for his greed. However, MC just barely failed to break PuMa's defenses with his attack, even though PuMa had a significant number of troops sent out to drop the Protoss main. With his attack stopped and his main being ravaged, MC GG'd out.
  
  
• Game Three: Shakuras Plateau. PuMa @ bottom left, MC @ top right. The game progressed to the usual left vs right multi-base macro game on Shakuras Plateau. As MC decided to go for a chargelot + colossus attack, PuMa split off a small number of his troops to drop MC's main, while he made due on defense with a slightly reduced number of troops. PuMa managed to hold off MC's force at home while his drop did big damage, drawing the GG from MC.
  
  
• Game Four: Entombed Valley. PuMA @ bottom right, MC @ top left. PuMa punished MC's over-commitment to 3 gateway pressure by rushing towards stimmed marines and medivacs. PuMa did a lot of damage with his marines and medivacs, but overestimated his advantage and didn't build enough defenses after his attack was stopped. MC simply went for a huge blink-stalker counter attack, which was enough to end the game.
  
  
• Game Five: Antiga Shipyard. PuMa @ 3, MC @ 9. PuMa pummeled MC during the early game, doing a sneaky hellion drop build to kill probes and sentries, and another marine drop to kill off even more sentries. At a disadvantage, MC decided he would go for another mass blink-stalker timing to try and get back in the game, but this time PuMa was prepared with bunkers and a good number of troops.
  
  MC looked very behind as he desperately tried to catch up on tech upgrades, and expansions. It looked like PuMa was certain to win as long as he played it slow and safely, but one successful defense from MC managed to swing the game. PuMa attacked into MC's third with infantry and medivacs, and looked like he was going to tear down the nexus with his superior force. However, storm upgrade finished JUST in time for MC, and he was able to turn a potential loss into a resounding victory.
  
  With his third base secure, MC then counter-attacked with masses of zealots and archons. PuMa's heavily depleted army just barely held off MC's relentless warp-ins, but he lost very many SCVs in the process. PuMa managed to barely survive on mules for a few minutes, but couldn't survive in the end against MC's constant waves of ground troops.
  
  
• PuMa 2 -3 MC

Results:

Mill.Feast vs SlayerS_MMA

• Game One: Shakuras Plateau - MMA @ bottom left, Feast @ bottom right. After regular FE openings, Feast did a peculiar 6-gate blink build, instead of going for the usual tech and upgrades. He didn't really do anything with the units he pumped out, and MMA was able to take a fast third off a small number of troops without getting detected.
  
  Feast then belatedly decided to play a normal game, catching up in tech and expansions, but it was already too late. MMA's faster third base had kicked in, and had a supply lead, and an upgrade lead from having built engineering bays earlier than Feast had forges. With good positioning and a bigger army, MMA was able to easily defeat Feast with his first major attack.
  
  
• Game Two: Cloud Kingdom, Feast @ top, MMA @ bottom. MMA went for a cute reaper expand and fast engineering bay build, while Feast went for a 7-gate blink stalker all-in. MMA didn't cut any corners, and had three bunkers at his front, and was able to repel Feast's all-in very easily. Feast GG'd out after his all-in failed, as he was going up against 1/1 MMM, while he was on 0/0 blink stalkers.
  
  
• Game Three: Entombed Valley, MMA @ bottom left, Feast @ top right. MMA disguised a 3-rax build as a regular 1-rax FE, and caught Feast totally off-guard. His marine-SCV all-in easily beat Feast's 1-gate FE.
  
  
• Feast 0 - 3 MMA