EPT![[image loading]](http://img805.imageshack.us/img805/6305/nshsiconthin.png)
NEW STAR HOSEO
For some reason people seem a bit confused; in fact I count 11 people who've tried to fully reason who will win the GSTL and yet they've all failed so far. It should be painfully obvious that the real answer is NEW STAR HOSEO.
First let's talk about The Team:
What should strike you about the top of this post is the fact that NSHS have the best logo out of any of the teams. For the slower among you I'll point out that their beautifully crafted emblem contains the letters NSH in a sleek chrome finish.
It's classy, it's clever, and it delivers what you want while not being overstated. That's the NSHS team in a nutshell.
There's a reason they're so smart, why their builds are so refined, and why their gameplanning actually makes sense. It's because they're sponsored by a goddamn university. That's right, these guys had so much potential that an educational institution decided they just flat out had to have them on board.
So now you understand why the team itself is so awesome let's break down the components:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/QsagL.jpg)
JJakji gets a really big picture because he's a GSL champion, this should be pretty self explanatory right? Don't listen to MMA fans when they try to tell you who has the best TvZ around, the answer is this man and no one else has played such a crisp and well planned high quality bo7 in the match up.
Everyone knows Jjakji has devastating TvZ though, but what about his other matches? Well his TvP is awesome, that's the long and short of it. The more exciting thing is that he can play any style and play it well, he's that damn good. Bio? No problem! 2 base marauder hellion? sure! Marine/tank contains with perfectly thought out transitions to 3 base MMMGV? Of course! Does he play the marine/thor/banshee composition better than anyone else? You bet! What about Mech? Shut up Artosis!
Now recently there's been a bit of talk about his TvT being weak, and I'll grant you this, it's not the greatest TvT on the planet, but it's damn well good enough to take games off anyone. You don't get to have an almost 80% win rate across your GM smurfs in Korea without being able to win a TvT against good players.
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/images/players/2091.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/images/players/191.jpg)
What are you going to do when you find your nat being encroached upon by creep? When the machinery of your production structures becomes meshed in goo? When your minimap resembles nothing more than a purple haze? You're going to do nothing, you're going to die.
Seal is a creep spreading monster, with strong mechanics and an excellent understanding of how to play in any given scenario. He's a teamleague veteran by now with wins over several big names and a lot of booth experience. He'll carry the teams zerg line on his back and when called for will deliver without fail.
Flower is a lesser known, but he's a player on the up and up falling just short of qualifying for this seasons Code A with a close loss to qualifier Avenge. He's recently taken series off notables like Hack and played Leenock very close in an extremely tough series at the ESV Korean weekly. NSHS are masters of preparing a lesser known player to snipe for the team league and you can expect Flower to pick up several notable scalps.
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/images/players/1973.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/images/players/1853.jpg)
You're having a nice leisurely afternoon on Terminus when out of the corner of your eye you see a shimmer flickering across the creep of your main, it's ok you think, I've got lair tech already I'll just morph an oversee-. Your lair starts to die, fast. This crazy bastard just dropped 8 dark templars into your main solely to snipe your lair and now you're screwed.
Somewhere else your buddy is being battered by wave after wave of warped in units. He tries to attack another location only to bathe in some kind of psyionic jacuzzi, he tries to expand but there's units there almost before the CC lands, he tries to run but he's chased down, and when he finally tries to stand and fight but gets crushed regardless.
There's very few Protoss around with more definitive styles than the twin powerhouses Sage and San. Sage is a master of complex well thought out builds,the clever strategy specifically designed to hit that one opening in his opponents play. San is a man who essentially invented a new way to play with Protoss utilising the warp in potential of the race to out economise and then mercilessly grind down his opponents.
Sage's rise to stardom was quick and his recent fall equally so, but don't let his absence from the GSL get you to thinking that he can't run through teams. His only weak match is PvP yet he's still given us some of the more memorable games in the match up one of the earlier incarnations of warp prism immortal play. Watch for his vT and vZ to take down a number of notables this season.
If you haven't been keeping a close eye on things you may not have heard this name in a while, but there's been rumblings in the deep dark place of Korea for months now, MANzenith is back. He turned in a good run at the WCG, he's been clutch for NSHS in clan wars (creator and marineking who?), and he's at the top end of the GM ladder. All that though is nothing but a precursor for his glorious return to the GSL stage where you can bank on him slaughtering nerds left and right (probably with the very same sword he made someone swallow a year ago).
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/images/players/2847.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/s5iSu.jpg)
There's no need to write something silly here, they're both Terran.
It's easy to be overshadowed when your teammate is a GSL champion, but both of these guys are more than capable of taking down anyone on the planet and both the past and future will bear that out.
Sculp first came to our attention in the GSTL last year when he popped up to make a couple of Startale notables look like complete amateurs. If you've kept an eye on smaller events since then you'll have seen him show up a few times to give various other top players tough games, and he recently made the breakthrough to Code A. He's got astonishingly good micro, strong macro, and the game sense to be great. If anyone is even slightly vulnerable to a Terran you can bank on Sculp going out there and cleaning them up pretty promptly.
It may have occurred to you that that isn't Hoon in the picture, it's not...it's actor Kim Jeong Hoon, but I wasn't going to let a lack of a picture stop me from including this ladder beast. I'm not sure whether he'll play under the id Hoon or Sting in the teamleague, the latter may be more fitting because this badass constantly stings the hell out of top pros on the ladder and he may or may not have had several run ins with The Police. This is a player everyone expects to break through in a major way sooner or later and given his strong showings in team performance lately I'd be very surprised if (given the chance) he doesn't make a ton of people sit up and take notice during the GSTL.
STIM TO WIN.
Every team needs a well balanced backbench and NSHS certainly has that. Their Zerg line up is flexible with players who can challenge anyone, you need to look no further than Realmaker beating up a ton of IM in the KSL recently for evidence on that front.
Shuttle has had little exposure but he's a very solid Terran capable of providing a lead off for the team or an important snipe somewhere down the line. Meanwhile S is so good he only needs a single letter to identify himself (MMA and MVP are good but they were still too self concious to take the really manly road of associating yourself solely with a letter).
Reinforcing the team is the mighty Tassadar, a true enigma who'll all in you for 3 days straight and when you finally think he's playing a standard macro game you'll find 6 voidrays at your door. He can snipe anyone, he can play standard, and having a player who can all in from any position and during any period of the game is always handy.
If any of the above fails they can always turn to:
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/images/players/1983.jpg)
...so what have we learnt?
Well obviously the fact that NSHS have the players and the depth to stand toe to toe with any other team in the league. That they have the brains and the talent to outhink anyone. And that come the end of March they'll be standing triumphant upon a pile of their opponents skulls holding the GSTL trophy aloft.
GL HF to NSHS
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We may have also learnt that I shouldn't do this on a whim after feeling bad they didn't have a thread, that I should fact check, that I'm not good at brevity, and that I should proofread >_>
Lovely write-up, Asha! Finally someone sees sense and knows that NSHS will win! Too damn many gosus that get overlooked cause they aren't in code S, they'll take it for sure!
