BenQ GSTL
Season One

LG-IM 5 - 3 MVP
Grand Finals Recap


GSTL Season 1 Awards
Unrivaled Prestige


Brackets and results on Liquipedia

by stuchiu

After a two and a half year drought, LG-IM, the winners of the first GSTL season, finally captured another title. Many were skeptical at the beginning of the season when coach Hirai declared that he would no longer be pulling any punches in the team league and would go all out to win. LG-IM had a rocky run to the playoffs as they started off the regular season poorly, looking like they were headed toward another season of underachievement. However, they gained steam toward the end of the season to clinch a playoff spot, and their rampage continued in the post season. Azubu and Axiom-Acer were dispatched with shocking ease, thanks to two all-kills from Yoda and Yonghwa respectively. That set up LG-IM to face Team MVP in the finals.


The finals against MVP would prove much harder than the cakewalks against Axiom-acer and Azubu. Both teams had proven themselves in different ways: MVP with their dominating regular season performance and LG-IM through their stroll through the playoffs. Going into the match, both teams decided to start strong as MVP fielded their best player this season in KeeN while LG-IM sent out the rapidly ascending First.

It soon became apparent that the two players were evenly matched, and the first game became an all-out war as both players constantly poked and prodded at each other's defenses as they vied for map control. The match became a duel of spear against shield as Keen constantly bloodied First with piercing attacks, only to be barely held off by First's clutch storms before he could inflict mortal damage. Despite losing a few nexuses, First was still able to survive and get the economic foundation he needed, leaving both players in a late game deadlock.

After playing immaculately for most of the game, First made his first mistake when he allowed Keen to goad him into a base trade after the two armies missed each other in the middle of the map. While both would do significant damage, Keen got the far better end of the trade as he brought back his cloaked ghost and vikings to kill of First's observers and force a retreat. On the other side of the map, the firepower of stimmed infantry saw most of First's infrastructure wiped out.

However, with a solid bank and hidden bases, First was able to slowly start rebuilding his entire infrastructure in another corner of the map as Keen looked for new bases to mine. A misread from Keen saw him try to go for a wasteful kill move against First, not realizing his opponent still had plenty of gas (and templars) left in the tank. From there it became a race against time for Keen, who sought to kill off First before he could set up his infrastructure again. Despite some crucial tech building snipes from Keen, First eventually succeeded at converting all his banked gas to templars with his third templar archive of the game. Even with the best of micro, Keen could not hope to defeat First's far more efficient army and GG'd out of the game.

With the crucial first game going to IM, the momentum stayed in their favor as First would then beat NAKSEO in game two in another tight match. Despite an uncharacteristic mistake that saw him lose eight sentries to speedlings early on, Nakseo somehow failed to punish First for taking a fast third base. The resource and upgrade advantage kicked in for First, and he rolled over Nakseo to give LG-IM a 2 - 0 lead.

Team MVP struck back with their rising Terran prospect Dream, who lived up to his reputation as a Protoss killer by ending First's reign of terror with multi-tasking and relentless aggression. LG-IM then made one of their famous head-scratcher choices by sending ByuL out as their next player. ByuL put on a strong showing that somewhat justified his deployment, fighting Dream on every corner of Whirlwind in an exciting match. However, ByuL just couldn't keep up with the sheer efficiency and mobility of Dream's MMM and had to tap out.

With the score even at 2 - 2, IM finally sent out all-killer YoDa to exploit Dream's weak TvT. A peculiar banshee into tank-contain opener gave YoDa a big early advantage, and he was able to win handily in the mid game. In one of the turning points of the night, Team MVP decided to send out their ace of yor in DongRaeGu to try and recover a point. Unfortunately for Team MVP, DongRaeGu looked nothing like the unstoppable ace he was back in 2011. It was unclear what DongRaeGu expected to happen when he went hatch first despite scouting a 11/11 rax from YoDa, and he paid the price for his poor decision with a speedy loss.

It was none other than Super, Team MVP's ace for the regular season, who came out to try and salvage his team's season. For at least one game, Super was able to show his off his credentials as ace by recovering from a failed immortal bust with clever use of dark templars. However, a three-kill was too much to ask from even a skilled player like Super. With YoDa down, LG-IM decided to send out the former Startale player Squirtle as their fourth runner.

Playing a safe, reactive PvP against Super, Squirtle was able to scout and deny Super's DT and blink-stalker gambits to gain a significant lead. An immortal-void ray attack at Super’s natural was too powerful to overcome, and Super was forced into a desperate all-in after losing his nexus. There would be no miracles for team Mvp, as Squirtle stamped out the final attack to clinch the championship.


In a strange twist of fate, Squirtle ended up gifting LG-IM a GSTL title for the second time. Previously, as a member of Startale, Squirtle had been forced to look on bitterly as Nestea celebrated his ace match win. Two years later, it was Nestea who was congratulating Squirtle as he flung him in the air.

Writers: stuchiu
Graphics: Pathy.
Editor: Waxangel.