WCS America - Season 3

Brackets and standings on Liquipedia

VODs on Youtube

by Christelle and Waxangel

CMStorm_Polt defeated LG-IM_ByuL by a final scoreline of 4 - 1 to capture the WCS America Season 3 title. The championship is Polt's second in a row after sweeping Jaedong at the Season 2 Finals, making him the only player in WCS 2013 to capture two titles.

Though Polt entered the tournament as the defending champion and one of the top favorites to win, many feared things would be more difficult than in Season 2. With the start of a new school year, Polt had resumed his usual schedule as a full-time student at UT Austin, while several more Korean pro-gamers had broken through the qualifiers and entered the WCS America pool. Indeed, Polt's grand final opponent ended up being one of those newcomers in ByuL—a skilled but often overshadowed player on the star-studded LG-IM—who had already proven himself a worthy opponent in a 1 - 2 loss to Polt in the Ro16. While ByuL performed admirably in the first grand finals of his career, in the end he was forced to admit defeat to the multiple-champion Polt.

Ironically, Polt's road to the WCS America finals was filled with 100% Korean opponents, having run up against and defeated Revival, Sage, Apocalypse, Heart and ByuL (x2). With Blizzard being harshly criticized for failing to understand the repercussions of opening the gates of WCS AM to a deluge of Korean progamers, Polt had earned the the nickname of "Captain America" for being the only Korean competitor to follow Blizzard's original intent by moving to the United States and integrating into the local scene. In that way, Polt's victory is more than just a personal achievement, but also something of a saving grace for a tournament that is often derided as being only American in name.

The victory gives Polt his fifth major title over the span of his three year career, while the $20,000 first place prize makes him the 4th highest earner of all time at approximately $240,000 total (reference). In terms of sheer consistency at playing at the top level, Polt seems to have no rivals except for perhaps Mvp and MC, and has forced himself into the discussion of the all time greats of StarCraft 2.

Grand Finals Recap

Game One – Polar Night: ByuL took his only victory of the series in straight-forward fashion on Polar Night, executing a 3-base muta/ling/bane-bust that literally and figuratively rolled over everything Polt had tried to build. The first game also revealed ByuL's overall series strategy, as he would go on to use the same, standard mutalisk-based-composition for the rest of the series. ByuL 1 - 0 Polt

Game Two – Frost: Polt showed that he is capable of nothing short of magic in game two, coming back from a terrible position to earn his first win of the series. After his reaper opening, Polt quickly set the tone for both the game and the remainder of the series when he succeeded at inflicting some painful damage at ByuL's base with effective harassment. However, Byul would show that he too was capable of performing great harassment, using his mutalisks to prevent Polt from ever really saturating his fourth base.

The game would transition into a back-and-forth-struggle between both players with Polt always lagging a bit behind despite his good start, never being able to completely saturate a fourth base. At times Polt seemed to be at the verge of breaking under ByuL's continued pressure, but his continued resilience would eventually pay off. As the match went deeper into the end-game and the expansions grew further apart, Byul had more and more trouble against Polt's relentless attacks on multiple fronts. The positions were eventually reversed, with ByuL struggling to defend against Polt's constant pressure. Unfortunately ByuL, he could not find a way to swing the game one last time and conceded defeat. Polt 1 - 1 ByuL

Game Three – Akilon Wastes: Game three again followed the familiar marine-medivac-mine vs. muta-bane-ling pattern, with both players getting comfortable on their three bases before turning the center of the map into a deadly maze of widow mines and burrowed banelings. Byul continued to show his prowess with mass mutalisks, using a flock of several dozen to heavily contest Polt as he tried to establish a fourth base. However, it wasn't all good muta-micro from ByuL, and it took just a few moments of recklessness for his mutalisk count to be severely cut down.

Polt would end up taking the upper-hand due to the mobility of his more easily replaced bio-army as opposed to the much more expensive ultralisk-brood lord composition that ByuL had transitioned into. When Byul finally succeeded at moving his slow and deadly army across the map to Polt's final and most precious expansion, it ended up being the Zerg who was swarmed from all sides by a mass of cheap units in the final engagement of the game. Polt 2 - 1 ByuL

Game Four – Derelict Watcher: Already known as a frequent contributor to highly entertaining games, Polt teamed up with ByuL to play a truly EPIC TvZ in game four. The game was reminiscent of the once-upon-a-time-rivalry between Polt and Stephano as the game did not end until both players were in the process of mining out every location on the map, with the outcome of the game unclear until the final minutes.

Polt faced trouble in the early phases of the game as his pack of hellions was chased down, surrounded, and killed off by ByuL's speedlings, enabling the IM Zerg to saturate himself on four bases and establish an outrageous economy. The game soon turned into a sequence of never-ending-battles with Byul’s fourth base becoming the epicenter of the conflict. Wave after wave of marines supported by widow mines and medivacs poured into the base, but Byul was steadfast in defense and kept Polt at bay.

With his fourth base still being contested, Byul found the breathing room to launch a series of counter-attacks on Polt’s own fourth base, changing the game into a multi-task-battle with both players trying to hang onto their vital expansions. With skirmishes constantly flaring up all around the map, Polt was slowly but surely able to regain the economic advantage by taking the more efficient engagements. As the isolated corner bases started coming into play, ByuL finally began to run out of steam after trading blows with Polt for the entire game. Unable to muster the forces to push Polt's final base, ByuL had to admit defeat after at the end of his valiant effort. Polt 3 - 1 ByuL

Game Five – Bel'Shir Vestige: Polt and ByuL set themselves up for yet another macro game in game five, but the key-difference from game four was that Polt came out ahead in the early hellions vs speedling war. He managed to claim total map-control after winning the initial encounter against the lings, and a follow-up attack with marines and medivacs killed precious drones and forced more defensive units from an already struggling ByuL.

Once ByuL was able to get his flock of mutalisks out to begin harassment, Polt's defenses were already too firmly set for any damage to be done. Quickly running of options and opportunities, ByuL engaged Polt's army as it moved out into the field, only to trigger a barrage of widow mine shots straight into the heart of his dense ball of mutalisks. At that moment, ByuL realized he had been bested for good by the Terran from Texas, and called the final GG of the season. Polt 4 - 1 ByuL

Writers: Christelle and Waxangel
Photos: itsjustatank.
Editor: Waxangel.