EPT
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Sigrun/GOM_Finals.jpg)
Banner by Sigrun
The GOMTV Classic reached it's climax last Sunday with rather surprising results. The event famed as the "Dream Final of 2008" certainly failed to live up to the enormous hype around the event. And well, with players the caliber of Jaedong and Flash going at it in a Bo5 final the hype was certainly justified. However as per usual, one player lifted his game and took his race to new heights while the other appeared to not care about the tournament.
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Plexa/GomTV_Classic/GOMPoster.png)
Leading up to this event Jaedong had a large amount of "free" time to expend how he wished - seeing as he had already qualified for the MSL by virtue of being the previous seasons runner up and was already out of the OSL - and from the sounds of things he practiced extensively to prove that he was the superior of the two. Flash on the other hand had spent the week on vacation. Team KTF took its mid-season vacation during the week prior to the GOMTV Finals hence Flash got very little practice time in. This is not to say he would be out of shape, especially seeing as Bisu came back from his team holiday in Thailand to destroy Savior. However even with this information a clear winner couldn't be predicted by TL, with only a slight majority choosing to vote Jaedong over Flash.
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The fans queue up for the most anticipated final of 2008
It's hard to say that there has been a final all year that has had the level of anticipation that this one had. On one hand we have, without doubt, the best Zerg player in the world. On the other hand we have, with little doubt, the best Terran player in the world. Although both players were upset by forGG in the MSL - the constant high performance throughout 2008 of these two gamers qualifies them as the best of their respective races to this point. Certainly fans everywhere were extremely excited for this final. With the lack of recent TvZ games (which were good) a classic strong TvZ series is now a rare treat. With everything at stake, fans everywhere were expecting the match of 2008 to be played.
With anticipation running high in both camps, and an exhilarating final expected from the fans, the stage was set for an epic showdown. With that, here is RaGe with his report of the series.
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Let's do this!
After the first game was announced through the beginning of the observer's zerg theme, we saw Lee Jaedong spawn at top right. Flash, of course spawning at the bottom left position, started off by sending an early scouting SCV to try and block Jaedong's hatchery.
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Not so subtle, Flash
Being the number one zerg, Jaedong didn't let this happen so easily, and upon scouting the SCV with his overlord skipped a few drones to get that hatchery down before the SCV arrived. Flash quickly reacted with a 14CC build.
Early reactions kept on determining the outcome of the game, as Jaedong committed to aggression by getting his lair quickly after his second hatchery finished. Flash sensed something was up, and tried to sneak out an SCV, but that attempt to scout Jaedong was quickly shut down by 8 speedy zerglings. Jaedong followed up with the obvious spire as soon as his lair finished, as well as a third hatchery at the 12 o' clock expansion. Flash, with late academy and therefor late comsats, still had no idea what Jaedong was precisely up to. Things were not looking good for Flash, as we saw a spire almost Reach completion, and no way for Flash to get stim, range and turrets up in time. Flash decided to do a tricky, timed move though, as he moved out with a group of marines right before Jaedongs spire finished.
He forced the teal zerg to commit one of his scarce drones to build a sunken, but lost quite a few marines as the mutalisks spawned just in time.
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Failure
Flash knew he was in bad shape. Blue Storm isn't a map you want to battle mutalisks with unranged marines and a low turret count on. His only way to get back in to the game was to take a risk. He committed all his defenses to his natural, hoping Jaedong wouldn't try to enter his main. Terrans all over the world felt tears coming in to their eyes when the scary mutalisk group flew in to Flash's unguarded main, taking out tons of SCVs and Marines.
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Looks as if Flash's refinery is having its periods
GOMTV displayed their shiny new overlay tool for a damage report: Flash actually had less marines than Jaedong had mutalisks now.
More harassment ensued. This time however, with 2 Control groups of zerg flyers with one attack upgrade. Destroying turrets in one hit, Jaedong's mutalisks feared nothing. When the mutas took out Flash's starport, there was nothing left for Flash to do. He moved out with his remaining marines in a desperate try to kill an expansion before Jaedong's hive finished, but was quickly raped by 20ish mutalisks. Flash typed out as his last marine died.
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GEE GEE
Afterthoughts: I have no idea why Flash tried that timed attack. He was playing a greedy build order against a really aggressive one. Pure defense, with faster ebay and academy would've made this a game. Jaedong harassing with 2 groups of upgraded mutas gave me nightmares.
Flash spawned at 1 o' clock, while Jaedong was 3 hours ahead on the 4 o' clock position. With Flash's natural cliff facing towards Jaedong, Jaedong looked in a favorable position if he got to mutalisks.
Jaedong sent his overlord north, scouting the Terran SCV leave its base towards him. Jaedong opted to build his hatchery at 12 supply, quickly followed by gas and a pool before his third hatchery.
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2 gas lair AGAIN?
This time however, Flash opted for a 1 Rax CC, followed by a second barracks before gas. Jaedong kept making speedlings, while the terran expansion finished. Being a sneaky zerg, Jaedong harasses a bit with 6 zerglings, while keeping 8 more hidden to punish Flash when he looks vulnerable. Flash is no young padawan anymore, though, and senses something is up. He lifts his command center in pure fear, and blocks his ramp. Once he gets firebats out, he puts his expansion back in business. Jaedong was waiting for him though..
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Don't you just hate zerglings
With his Spire halfway, Jaedong feels it's the perfect time to diminish the marine count a bit. He runs in with a lot of lings and picks 3 off before getting fended off by a very quick SCV block.
Having lost a lot of mining time, and with a low marine count, things weren't looking good for our terran HerO. Mutalisks quickly spawned and picked off a LOT of marines. Jaedong, knowing that there were barely any left, moves in with mutaling.
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Jaedong is a bit too eager to finish it
Flash micros brilliantly though and fends it off, killing a few mutalisks. Flash senses he could get back in the game if he kept fending off the mutalisks. After all, with Jaedong committing his early larvae to zerglings instead of drones, he was unable to get up his 3rd gas yet.
Jaedong replenishes his mutalisk group, and starts doing the hypnotizing back and forth harass movement, picking off every marine and SCV he can. Then, he catches the KTF player off guard, with his critical turret unguarded..
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Flash make Oops;;
With the cliff guarding turret out of the way, the mutalisks are free to pick off a ton of SCVs and marines from the cliff, ultimately just moving in on the marine force to finish it off. As Jaedong sends his mutalisks to the clump of barracks to kill spawning marines, Flash gg's.
Afterthoughts: While Jaedong did a 2hatch lair build again, he did a slightly more aggressive variant this time. These games remind me so much of the July vs iloveoov series. Aggressive zerg builds against a macro god terran. Jaedong is however no July.
Jaedong has proven over the past year that he's not a defensive zerg like sAviOr, nor an aggressive zerg like July. He is a versatile zerg. He can play any style he thinks works best in a particular situation. That makes him so powerful in series, as players have a really hard time practicing against an unpredictable style.
I wonder if he's going to use the same aggressive style in the third game, even though Katrina doesn't really favor it.
Jaedong again spawned 3 hours ahead of his opponent, at 9 o' clock, while Flash spawned at 6.
The game started out standard, with Flash starting a wall with his first depot and barracks and his zerg opponent going for a standard hatchery at 12 supply. Jaedong sent out 2 drones to scout, wanting to be able to adapt to any proxy barracks or 14CC builds.
He scouts Flash at the bottom of the map and uses his third drone for a third hatchery before pool at 12's natural. Greedy, greedy zerg. Flash SCV scouts Jaedong's base and sees a late pool and no gas or third hatch. He seems not to realize what Jaedong is up to, as he decides to build his command center after his first barrack, showing no sign of aggression yet.
Once his academy is up, and he has a firebat and medic out, he moves out with his initial force. Jaedong scouts him moving towards the hidden expansion, and immediately adds sunkens to it.
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Halfhearted try at punishing a greedy zerg
Flash realizes he can't hurt the expansion and builds a bunker to kill the extractor, but not doing any more damage. Jaedong is already ahead in this game, with mutalisks spawning soon.
The mutalisks spawn and we get a glimpse of a queen's nest and evolution chamber going up, betraying a ultra ling follow-up.
Back at the Terran base, Jaedong is doing what he does best, harassing with mutalisks. He doesn't get many kills though, as Flash is well prepared this time. Jaedong has reclaimed his third gas before his hive finishes, while Flash has barely started his starport.
Flash decides he wants to move out before ultras come out and orders his big marine army to go towards the top of the map. While trying to stall Flash's army with mutaling, Jaedong already started a 4th base at the top right corner, forcing Flash to choose which way to go.
![[image loading]](/staff/Plexa/GOMS1_Final/10.jpg)
The sunkenguarded but droneloaded top left expansion, or the still building top right hatchery..?
Flash chooses to force a cancel on the top right hatchery, making Jaedong lose a few minerals as he waits for ultralisk upgrades and guardians to finish.
Flash joins his main army with his equally big reinforcements while adding 2 port vessel and moves in to the middle.
![[image loading]](/staff/Plexa/GOMS1_Final/11.jpg)
That's one fucking scary army
Flash irradiates some guardians and moves towards 12 o' clock while Jaedong prepares to defend 12 o' clock with defilers while countering on the terran main. Things are looking really scary for our KTF boy.
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Flash can deal with ANY counter
Flash quickly gets rid of the counter while still pressuring 12 o' clock. Miraculously, he seems to be coming back in the game. Then, this happens:
![[image loading]](/staff/Plexa/GOMS1_Final/13.jpg)
Perfectly cloned scourge, and some ugly dark swarms.
Jaedong's 4th gas kicks in, and Flash is falling apart against the heavily upgraded ultraling. He masses up another big force though, despite his main being mined out and his natural almost dry. Flash wants to pressure Jaedong's expansions, but is too afraid of a ultraling defiler counter, and decides to attack Jaedong's 4th gas, right outside his base. He kills off a few ultra's and defilers, but gets stopped by a dark swarm protecting the base.
Jaedong prevents any reinforcements from coming in, while holding the main force off, and soon enough succeeds in killing off every single vessel along with the main army.
Flash moves out again, this time with a brand new army. He goes directly to 12 o' clock. Jaedong, already on 6 gasses right now, easily surrounds and kills it off.
![[image loading]](/staff/Plexa/GOMS1_Final/14.jpg)
When did it get so easy to rape Flash?
Flash killed the defiler mound with a drop, doing no further damage. Jaedong rounds up all his units for the final battle, while Flash tries to pump a sizable army out of those barracks clusters. Flash gg's as soon as the ultras put their paws in front of his third.
Afterthoughts: Wow, Jaedong just raped Flash cause of his predictability. He predicted a 14CC or 1rax CC build, and did this super greedy 3hatch before pool build. Flash couldn't punish him for it, and was behind all game. Pure domination, definitely a deserved title for Jaedong
Results:
Jaedong 3-0 
FlashMuch thanks to RaGe for that brilliant Battle Report of a substandard final. The question obviously lingering in everyones minds is what was Flash thinking after he lost the final. The cordial conversations with Jaedong after the final imply either that he wasn't too bother by the final, he had already accepted that Jaedong had him beat in the final or the two have become good friends over the course of their rivalry. This truly is bizarre and highly surprising as everyone expected Flash to bring his A game to the table and give Jaedong a good run for his money. While I could spend the rest of the article dwelling on Flash's pitiful performance, the other man in the final deserves the spotlight.
![[image loading]](/staff/Plexa/GOMS1_Final/JD2.jpg)
Man of the hour
Jaedong showed that he is as sharp as ever and showed Savior-esque grace in slaughtering the lamb that was Flash. After some trouble in the OSL and being dropped to the offline preliminaries (and subsequently losing in the offline preliminaries) and then getting destroyed by ForGG 3-0 in a one sided rape, some thought that Jaedong's time at number one would be cut short. Jaedong has shown the mental toughness to bounce back from difficult outcomes and dominate like nothing happened. This is great sign for Jaedong fans as there can be very little doubt he will continue to dominate for seasons to come. Obviously the same cannot be said for Flash.
Jaedong thoroughly deserved this victory and he fought through bad Zerg maps to dominate one of the scariest Terran players like he was little more than a B-Team scrub. With each season the number of Zerg players qualifying is getting and smaller, but as long as Jaedong continues to dominate the scene there will always be hope for those Zergs and they will have someone to look up to and aspire towards. Jaedong is going to be be around for a long time yet and I'm certain we haven't seen the best of him yet.
![[image loading]](/staff/Plexa/GOMS1_Final/JD1.jpg)
A well deserved victory for Jaedong
With the final game of the tournament played out, this brings the first season of the GOMTV Classic to a close. Word on the street is that the second season will be starting sometime in September, more on that as the news is released. This tournament has seen some brilliant games, as well as some substantial upsets and on the whole was a huge success. Tasteless's commentary made the entire tournament significantly better and highly entertaining - my hat goes off to you, sir. GOM really took a step up from the GSI and delivered a more professional and substantial tournament which has entertained us over a number of Sundays - thanks to them for making such a great tournament for us to enjoy. Thanks to the staff who maintained the R&S thread (pachi) and those who helped me churn out reports for this tournament (G.S)Naruto, DeadVessel and RaGe). And lastly, thanks to all the Starcraft fans who prove that Starcraft is a long way away from seeing its dying breath
Plexa
![[image loading]](/staff/Plexa/GOMS1_Final/JD3.jpg)
I had hoped for something more epic, hopefully this will change next season
