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With a 4 - 0 sweep of HyuN, Liquid`TaeJa takes his fourth championship of 2013.

The history of StarCraft 2 is short, but not so short that it hasn't developed some traditions. Traditions like the laid back and humorous casting at HomeStory Cup. Like the inevitable Liquid Team-kill deep in the bracket. Or the foreigner Terrans who almost make it, but are stopped in the end.

Now, we might want to add Liquid`TaeJa winning European tournaments to that list.


With an overwhelming 4 - 0 sweep against Quantic_HyuN in the finals, TaeJa claimed the HomeStory Cup VIII championship, becoming the first two-time HSC champion and first back-to-back HSC champion at the same time. The championship was the continuation of a marvelous 2013 campaign that had started in June with a championship at HomeStory Cup VII, followed by further titles at ASUS ROG Summer and DreamHack Bucharest. Combined with the three championships won during the famed "Summer of TaeJa 2012," TaeJa is now up to seven major championships in his career, with six of them won in Europe.


TaeJa's almost bored—no, actually bored—reaction after clinching game four against HyuN reflected the ease with which he won the final. HyuN's aggressive roach-based style had worked against lesser opponents but proved to be mostly ineffectual against the rock-solid Liquid Terran. An old TvZ staple in siege tanks made their way back into TaeJa's compositions as he crushed HyuN with walls of unstoppable firepower.

However, it was not all smooth sailing for TaeJa, as he narrowly escaped defeat against Symbol in the semi-finals. Symbol's clever all-ins saw him force a game five, where he seemed to have TaeJa in the palm of his hand with a maxed out ultralisk army and over 8000/2000 in the bank. However, a combination of excellent play from TaeJa and throwing from Symbol saw the game head toward an unexpected conclusion, with TaeJa massacring dozens poorly supported ultralisks to take an improbable series win.

At the end of the tournament, TaeJa stood alone with a 18 - 4 map record, 7 - 0 series record, one large trophy, and a $10,000 prize.

In an intriguing turn, TaeJa confessed at the award ceremony that he had considered retirement after losing some interest in the game, which had resulted in his poor performances at recent WCS tournaments. He expressed some surprise at his win, portraying it as something that "just happened." However, the year is not over for TaeJa yet, and his win at HomeStory Cup seems to have given him new motivation. Soon, he will head to DreamHack Winter in an attempt to take his fifth title of 2013.

Why I always win 10000$? I want get more money. My highest earning is DH winter 2nd place Now time to win DH winter.

— 윤영서 (@LiquidTaeJa) November 18, 2013

Other Tales of HSC8

In the irreverant style of HomeStory Cup

The European Terran Black Hole: Happy showed some great games against HyuN in the quarter-finals, but overly passive play in a potential series-clinching game allowed Hyun to make an unlikely comeback. With Happy's elimination, SjoW retained his title of most successful European Terran of HotS.

Changing of the Guard: This may have been overshadowed by the other events, but HSC saw a lot of Korea and Europe's old powers brushed aside by relative newcomers. TLO, DIMAGA, MaNa, Kas, Stephano, Ret, Nerchio, ThorZaIN, HasuObs, and HuK were all eliminated in the Ro32.

Something something BabyKnight: Foreigner BabyKnight also made it to the Ro8, only to get swept by Symbol. That deserves some applause, at least when we can force it out between our tortured sobs.

USA! USA! USA! For once, an American player managed to outshine Canadians in StarCraft 2. iNcontroL consistently carried a variety of casting partners and was easily the most entertaining personality of the tournament. On top of that, he even managed to win a map in competitive play! Sure, Scarlett made it to the Ro16, but we all know who the real winner is here.

Follow @M_Dayshi: Follow @M_Dayshi

Mules are Good: We're not going to SAY that jjakji made a ridiculous comeback vs. Symbol because of mules, but we are going to let you infer it.

The return of Jkajikiji Speaking of triple J, he managed to earn a 3rd place finish in his international tournament debut for mYi. Granted, any kind of result would have been better than burning in Code B, but it's a promising start for the newcomer to the European scene. In particular, his Code S finals rematch against Leenock was highly entertaining, and the two players combined to produce a fantastic series.

What Curse? Oh yeah, Stephano played in this tournament. He was eliminated by ToD.

Writers: Waxangel.
Banner: TakeTV stream.
Editor: Waxangel.