by stuchiu



Welcome to the strongest group ever formed in the history of SC2. It all started with some old-fashioned smack talk between Parting and Life in the Ro32, with the once Startale Protoss calling Life an easy opponent, and one that was merely lucky to have played zerg in WoL. Life responded by saying that Parting’s skill level not even high enough to reach his feet. This led to an inevitable game of chicken in the ro16 group nominations as neither player wanted to back down from the other, causing non-stop escalatio of outrageously strong player picks until these four players ended up in one group. You could hear Mr. Chae's anguish on the mic as he asked the players to think about the poor, poor tournament organizers as well, but his pleas fell on deaf ears.

Now we have a group of four of the strongest players in the world. All four players players have been hailed as the best of their respective races. All four players want the championship. All four believe that they will completely and utterly dominate the group. But only two can survive. Welcome to the group of death.

The Soul Train

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s a goddamn train. Here we are again with SKT_PartinG bearing the hopes of Protoss race. Yes, sOs may be the up and coming prince of Protoss, but for now the throne belongs to Parting. He is the one that the other Protosses look to lead them out of the darkness and to the holy land of a GSL championship. With Zerg and Terran players closing in on all sides and slowly squeezing the Protoss race out of the GSL, it will be up to Parting to save the Protoss race. If this all sounds familiar it’s because this is the exact scenario in which Parting made his major breakthrough last year, when he went on a strong end of the year run to win WCS and WCG. He even made it to the finals of the Blizzard Cup and was about to stand on top of the SC2 world, only to be cut down by his own teammate Life.

Life the child-prodigy, Life the royal roader, Life the player to break the ST curse, Life the boy-king. Parting could no longer stand in the shadow of Life so he cashed in on his skill and championship resume to switch teams to SKT1. From there Parting got revenge on his former teammate in the first season of 2013 GSL by picking Life for his group and knocking him out in the ro16. It was supposed to be his time, Parting seemed destined to finally win a GSL. But Startale had other plans and denied him his glory as Curious would smash him 3-0 in the Ro8.

Now here we are in the first HotS GSL and Parting has concocted the strongest group possible. And while Parting slumped a bit against Terran in MLG, it has been more than a month since then. He has gotten used to the medivac and has had time to adjust to the new world of PvT. And among Protosses, Parting is probably the absolute best when it comes to execution and mind games. While not as completely intellectual in his Protoss play like Squirtle or Rain, he is still one of the absolute smartest players on the planet and the only Protoss I can see with a real chance of making it out of this group. It will all come down to one thing for Parting. Does he have the soul to take on the 3 other greatest players in the world? When asked the only response he gave was:

"Choo Choo, muhfukkas!!"

The Group of Life and Death

Where the other players in the group can lay claim to being the best players of their race, only ST_Life can make the claim of being the best player in the world. His victory over Mvp half an year ago was the changing of the guard and Life inherited the earth. Since then Life has won 2 MLGs, 2 GSLs and 1 Iron Squid completing the world triple crown in less than a year since his first GSL appearance. He has made a new world order putting himself at the top and everyone else below him. All the world shook as Life battled the best players of the era in grand finals: Mvp, Leenock, DRG, Parting, Flash. None defeated him.

While many players have developed rivalries with Life, Life has barely acknowledged any of his rivals. Certainly he’ll exchange banter with Parting in trash talk and he’ll acknowledge Flash as a player, but no player has ever triggered a sense of competitive obsession the way Seed does in Symbol, Thorzain with Naniwa, or detection does for InCa. So Life should be going into this with a clearer mind than Parting and Flash as he has nothing to prove. He’s already proven he can beat them when it counts the most and Life will probably go into this group like he does in all of his matches, with complete and utter confidence.

In addition to his mindset, Life has incredibly strong series mentality, often able to gain the advantage in the mind games and keep it even if the series goes long. And the most dangerous aspect about Life is simply put, he is the best zerg in the world with only Leenock being comparable. This makes it nearly impossible for the other players to prepare for him with training partners, while Life can still play old friend Squirtle to prepare for Parting and Bomber for the Terrans. The only thing certain about Life’s play is that he can do anything at any time and do it better than anyone else. Even when Life is in dire straits, the pressure seems to make him play even better, which has fueled him to make comeback after comeback. Best of all for Life, none of his opponents are Zergs. While Parting, Innovation and Flash are three of the best players in the world, Life’s tournaments runs have only ever been stopped in ZvZs.

The Greatest Terran in the World

With Mvp vacating his throne for WCS EU, the Terran throne has become empty in Korea leading to a mad scramble to decide who would become the new leader of the Korean Terrans. After MLG and GSL, there are only two candidates left for that title. The first is STX_INnoVation, Tastosis' most beloved player since Nestea left for WCS USA. It’s well deserved for Innovation, as while he doesn’t have the results of the rest of the players in the group, his skills are certainly their equal.

Unlike the rest of the players in this group, his story started out with very inauspiciously. Much like Mvp, he was just a mid-tier Terran from Brood War, except that he had even less results and a less ambitious ID in 'Bogus.' He was a solid player, but not someone that was in the upper echelons of Brood War. But something happened on the day of July 24th, 2012. On July 24th, Bogus played his last official game of BW at Yongsan. On that day, the player known as Bogus died, and his spirit drifted on to haunt the KR ladder. Not much is known about those months other than the wanderer MajOr met this spirit on the ladder, and became his first prophet. From there, the legend begin to spread with these famous words, “Bogus, man. Bogus.” After 4 months of training and meditation, he was ready to come back into the world on November 5th, 2012. On that day he was reincarnated, and he christened himself with a new name: Innovation.

Innovation would then take on GSL by storm, destroying Code A and easily making it out of the group stages in every Code S he has been a part of. With so many games played, one thing became clear. Innovation was a step above the rest. There no one thing special about him. He just played the standard Terran style better, than anyone with better macro, micro, timings and decision making than the rest. Here was the final form of Terran made flesh, here was Innovation. No gimmicks, no tricks, no cheese, just pure raw strength and skill. While that may hurt him later on in the play off stages, it has always gotten him through the group stages and for Innovation, that is all that matters.

Sooner or later, God’ll cut you down

Coming in last to the sound of cherubs blowing trumpets and seals breaking, we have the other player who contends to be the best Terran in the world. KT_Flash, the God of Brood War and KeSPA's greatest champion. While Kespa has had more successful players in SC2 like Rain and Roro, it is Flash that everyone thinks of when the Kespa teams are brought up. Flash is the one everyone expected to dominate the scene when it's all said and done. And unlike the rest of TBLS (Bisu, Stork, Flash, Jaedong), Flash has delivered. While the other three of have been exiled to either Code B or WCS NA, Flash has been making a run on the royal road.

For Flash this is an incredibly important season. It has been one year and one expansion since the switch. One year being moderated to Code A, one year of practice, one year to prepare for this one moment. For fans, this is the moment. This is the stage where everything will come to a head. Flash against the very best in the world. And more importantly Flash against Life.

Now known as neo-LeeSsangRok, a new age rivalry has developed between Flash and Life due to their numerous encounters at MLG. It is a battle that no one can look away from, and one where everyone must choose a side: Kespa vs. ESF, the young prodigy vs. the even younger prodigy, God vs. the most defiant man, Pocari Sweat vs. Red Bull. The parallels between the two are numerous. Both won their first championship at the young age of 15. Flash dominated BW with 6 major individual titles, Life already has 5.

But the facts tell the real tale. While their games with each other are very intense, the end results are decidedly one sided with Life winning favored head to head with a score of 10-5 in maps, and more importantly 3 - 0 in series. (2 MLGs and one Asian Martial arts).

For Flash, Life is the problem. He is the one obstacle that Flash must clear if he wishes to become the greatest in the world. Flash has already beaten Parting before, he’s already defeated Innovation. And while those two are are both very strong players that can beat Flash, only Life has denied him victory again and again. No matter how long it takes God will not be satisfied until he gets his revenge. Even if Life wins again here, Flash will make the message clear. Sooner or later, God will cut you down.

Overall Predictions

No player has a better chance to advance than any other. No matter how you think on it, any player can advance. But it seems impossible that one of them could ever drop two straight series. And yet it must happen. In a group like this, anything goes and your guess is as good as mine.

Parting > Life
Innovation > Flash
Innovation > Parting
Life > Flash
Life > Parting

Innovation and Life advance.