Iron Squid II Grand Final - Page 6

art thanks to Nicolas Chaussois

January 25th, 2013
Iron Squid II Finale Preview: Line of Succession
by Neoghaleon55

Three Zergs, Three Ruling Lines, Three Generations. The war of succession begins in Paris this weekend as DongRaeGu, NesTea and Life battle for control over the Zerg Swarm. But before we discuss their fates in this tournament, we should harken back to how each of these men came to power. It is without a doubt the Nestea was the first supreme ruler of the Zerg race. FruitDealer, who came before him, briefly held power but it slipped from him as quickly as it had came. Nestea, however, was no one time wonder. In 2011, he took 3 GSL championships and ruled uncontested as the best Zerg player in the world for almost half the history of Wings of Libery. Nestea was a strategic mastermind. At the peak of his dominance, he would always be one step ahead of his opponent and often won matches while leaving his opposition completely bewildered. Nestea was also very good at clutch/ low-econ style of play, where he would achieve victory from seemingly unwinnable circumstances by smart usage of counter attacks, burrow play and base trade maneuvers.

But towards the end of 2011, Nestea began to show signs of decline. His once stellar plays were becoming standard in the GSL. And though Nestea continued to bring innovative builds to the table, the mechanics of the 30-year-old Zerg player never really improved to match the ever growing prowess of his peers. By early 2012, DongRaeGu overtook Nestea as the best Zerg player in the world. In a decisive match at the GSL Season 1, Round of 16 Group of Death, DRG defeated Nestea with a score of 2:1 and seized control over the swarm for the next 7 months, winning a GSL championship, and two MLG titles. DongRaeGu was a completely different beast than Nestea in terms of playstyle. Though he rarely displayed the level of ingenuity that Nestea had, DRG was mechanically superior in every way. He relied less on defensive macro styles that Nestea favored, instead, DRG was a momentum based player. He was constantly active on the map in all his games, preferring fast units that could out maneuver and flank his opponents. DRG was capable of attacking and pressuring the enemy base at multiple fronts simultaneously. His trademark mutalisk play was and remains peerless in the competitive StarCraft to this day.

DongRaeGu's slipped from power by the end of July due to several tragic losses in the finals and semifinals of major tournaments (OSL, GSL S3, GSTL 2 & 3). And though he is slowly regaining what he had lost, the throne laid bare for a period of several months (from July to October 2012). It wasn't until GSL Season 4 that Life came along and claimed the crown for himself. Life was unique from his predecessors in that he seemingly broke all the laws on how to play Zerg in StarCraft II. The Zerg ethos established by Nestea was: defend, defend, outmarco and outsmart the opponent. The ethos established by DRG was: outmaneuver and distract the opponent long enough to get a strong economy, then crush the opponent. Life's ethos was simply: attack, as often as possible until the opponent dies. It seemingly didn't make sense for a Zerg player to favor a lower economy in order to gain more aggressive timings, but Life somehow made it work. Like DRG defeating Nestea before him, the line of succession passed on to Life when took down DRG at the BlizzardCup 2012 with a score of 3:2 to solidify his position as the apogee of the Zerg food chain. By the end of 2012, Life had claimed two GSL championships and currently holds the record high ELO in all time of StarCraft II history.

Going into the Iron Squid II, I can't help but to feel the gravity of it all as the Past, Present and Future of Zerg playstyles are about to collide to battle for supremacy. Each of these three players have a lot to prove and it's difficult to know whether Brains, Brawns or pure Savagery will define the zeitgeist of our time.

That being said, this is the DRG fan club, and I'm a firm believer in solid but sound strategies that doesn't sacrifice economy or hinge on quirky surprises, I'm going to call DRG to win it all. The crown will be reclaimed for Park Soo Ho and Iron Squid II will be the first stone that he will use to build his new kingdom.


Go DRG!!

PS. Yes, I know there's a random MarineKingPrime in the tournament also, but he hasn't convincingly won a TvZ against top end Zerg players in a long time (and these are the best of the best of them), I'm not betting things will change this weekend.