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Clash of the Titans

Two Code S titles.

Three Code S silver medals.

One OSL trophy.

25 - 12 in matches and +29 in maps.

And all the world behind them.

After dominating for 8 months in Proleague, GSL, and Korea, SK Telecom T1 seemed destined to be crowned the greatest team in Starcraft 2. They topped the charts and were seeded as the number one team throughout the season. With 6 Code S players in their lineup and 1 more on the bench, their depth of talent was incomparable, inexhaustible, and seemingly insurmountable.

On the other hand, their great rivals, KT Rolster, were struggling. While Zest had won Code S Season 1, 3 of their 4 best players--Flash, Stats, TY--were stuck in Code A or Code B for the majority of 2014. In Round 4 of the regular season, they even failed to make the playoffs as they limped their way to the finish line. Against Jin Air in the semi finals, many considered them underdogs. Standing in front of the behemoth that was SK Telecom T1 in the Grand Finals, many considered them undeserving.

But as the teams stood there on the grandest of stages, on a floating island in the middle of the Han River, they were equals. Their records, their histories, their individual achievements meant nothing. All that mattered was four wins. Four wins would separate the Greatest from the forgotten, and four wins would reward a year's worth of practice, a year long dream.

The confidence that engulfed the SKT T1 roster was evident in PartinG's demeanor. As he grabbed the mic to say a few words, the crowd listened intently to the man known for his sharp tongue and sharper micro. When asked about his match against Flash, he beamed proudly. "I will beat him," he said, and his grin suggested that to beat Flash was to beat KT. Yet theirs was only one match, and Flash had nothing but trust in his allies.

The greatest collection of individual talents ever assembled stood on the left.

The most cohesive team in Korea stood on the right.

And the crusade of Champions against God and his angels began.

The Grandest Stage

      Stats vs Soulkey opened the series on Out Boxer. Following the recent zerg trend, Soulkey sent an early drone scout in attempt to block Stats' natural nexus. Stats denied it with little effort though and the drone scout allowed Soulkey to safely open three hatch and even a gas before spawning pool. Stats then took the initiative by hiding a stargate but got unlucky when a single zergling found its way into his base to scout the lack of tech there. Soulkey immediately put up blind spore crawlers, minimizing the damage he took from Stats' oracle. Both players transitioned into a standard game from there, with Stats adding a third base and heading for +2 and blink. Soulkey successfully ran around with his double upgraded zerglings, snatching a few probe kills and even catching two colossi as they rallied out, meanwhile transitioning to a few Swarmhosts back at home. Stats however managed to defend his third base against the swarmhosts, roaches, lings and corruptors and even established a fourth base to equal the base count. Soulkey then made an odd and perhaps game losing choice - he didn't add more Swarmhosts, didn't add infestors but instead morphed eleven brood lords to clear out Stats' third base. At the same time however, two zealots were cancelling his own fifth base, essentially putting a timer above Soulkey's head. The SKT zerg was forced to make a tough decision and decided to attempt an almost all in attack before too many tempests hit the field. With a mothership, a cloud of void rays, storm, colossi and blink stalkers, Stats had little trouble holding the attack and from there simply steamrolled across the map, wiping out all of Soulkey's bases and his army in the process, drawing first blood for KT.



      Perhaps the most anticipated match of the night, Flash against PartinG started off without any surprises. Standard openings from both ensured a macro game. PartinG opened with the same blink build he showed in his games against both CJ terrans, Bunny and Bbyong. Flash's reaper managed to get the crucial scout on PartinG's opening though, giving him ample time to prepare for it. Having his strategy choice revealed immediately, PartinG opted for a warp prism to keep Flash pinned back even longer, while teching to colossi and attempting to put down a third base. Flash however showed incredible preparation for his build. Four marines wandered across the map unscouted and arrived at PartinG's third perfectly in time to snipe the probe, then found their way into the natural, scouting PartinG's choice of followup tech. Now fully aware of PartinG's plans, Flash's mind was immediately made up - he would pull SCVs. A second starport followed by a ghost academy made his choice of strategy fairly obvious. PartinG attempted an attack before the additional production could kick in but his army was pushed back easily and the counterattack came instantly. With SCVs leading the charge, Flash steamrolled his way into PartinG's natural after killing the third, demolishing his opponent's army and putting KT up 2-0.



      At this point, the third match was all or nothing for SKT. If Rain was to lose this game to Zest, surely there would be no hope left. Rain opted for a little trickery to start it, hiding his stargate on the low ground next to his base on King Sejong Station. Zest meanwhile opened with a 1gate expand into stargate, taking little damage from Rain's oracle who then expanded himself. Both players realized the situation they were in and both started phoenix production. It seemed almost like a gentlemen's agreement when both decided to stop production at the same time and differentiated their tech paths - colossi for Zest, charge/templar for Rain. As is standard for the latter playstyle, Rain added a faster third base. This is where his true genius began to shine through however. Realizing his opponent's colossus transition very early, Rain resumed phoenix production and added a fleet beacon. Zest's phoenixes got caught out and completely erased from the map when he finally showed his hand. With a third base down for Rain, air control suddenly massively in his favor and tons of economic damage being done by his phoenixes, Zest was left with little choice but to all in. The early fleet beacon proved to be perfect planning as Rain's tempests eliminated Zest's colossi just in time before they could deal the damage necessary. Rain crushed his opponent's army and secured the first win for SKT.

      Action and Dark squared off next on Overgrowth. Both players opened hatch first, but Action did so in slightly greedier fashion as he squeezed out a few extra drones and even a faster extractor. Action took the initiative by using his faster gas to rush out a lair and roach speed. Using that early tech advantage, he immediately took the gold base, knowing that it couldn't be threatened. Dark seemed to trail behind the entire game from there on, until Action finally broke him with his constant roach/hydra waves. Not even a full roach surround was enough to let Dark hold on and he was forced to surrender. KT were one map away from winning the finals.

      And who was it that had to carry SKT's hopes and dreams against Sleep? soO. The three time GSL runner-up who just recently lost their ace match against CJ. soO, who is known for choking on the biggest stage, decided to put it all on the line and copied a build that was used by Hydra against his teammate Soulkey on the same map. His semi-hidden extractor strategy was revealed by Sleep though, who smartly sacrificed his scouting overlord to attain that crucial information. With a wall being set up and a lair and roach warren starting for Sleep, there was no way for soO's mass speedling plans to work out. Instead, soO used his speedlings to deny Sleep from taking a third base while taking his own gold base and putting down a roach warren. All of this was but trickery however. soO never had any plans to play for a longer game, skipping his lair entirely in favor of mass unit production. A huge roach/ling attack was his strategy of choice and it crashed into Sleep right as he was upgrading and teching up. soO's overwhelming army supply was too much for the KT zerg to handle and soO did prevail, giving SKT fans hope again.



      With the score now at 3-2 for KT Rolster, the burden of saving SKT was transferred to reigning but already dethroned GSL champion Classic, whose task was simple: beat TY in cross positions on Frost to bring the series to an ace match. In a cruel twist of fate, all of SKT's hopes turned to ashes as Classic opened nexus first - against TY's unscouted double proxy rax. Classic's probe scout let him down, TY's barrack perfectly placed just outside of watchtower vision. The first glimpse Classic got of his impending doom was when he saw SCVs being pulled from TY's main. At that point, a bunker was already being constructed in his natural. Forced to pull probes to block the ramp, nearly losing the zealot, Classic tried to micro his heart out but made one crucial mistake: his mothership core spawned in the natural and was immediately killed by marines. TY then forced himself up the ramp, eliminating the majority of Classic's probes in the process. With four bunkers in range of his nexus and marines constantly rallying right into the heart of his base, Classic's stalkers were never going to be enough to hold the attack. All of them died, as did the natural nexus and Classic's only gateway. Celebrating his victory, TY even started a command center in his opponent's base but it never finished as Classic typed out once his natural died. Denying the ace match with a stone cold strategy, TY claimed the final victory of the season, grabbing the Proleague championship for KT Rolster.

A Champion Crowned

Not many believed it was possible, but by the end of the evening, everyone was convinced. KT had prepared better for their matches, and each of their wins was well deserved. After a season full of up and downs and a final few months full of doubts, they stood alone as kings of Korea. Amidst a frenzied crowd and casters hailing, the team tossed their coach in the air and you could hear the roar of champions. It was a title fished from the river, and a rival kicked into the stands. Tonight they celebrate, and tomorrow they practice for Code S. At least until the next season, KT are best KT.

For SKT T1, the heartbreak was palpable. As they sat in silence, watching their adversaries revel in applause, they had no one to blame but themselves. Rain and soO, the only original T1 players from Brood War, were the only ones that managed to put their team on the score board. Soulkey--signed from Woongjin Stars--, PartinG--signed from Startale--, Dark--signed from SlayerS--, and Classic--signed from STX SouL-- were the new faces of the most storied franchise in Starcraft, and they all failed. But their story of disappointment will be forgotten and their valiant two wins nothing more than footnotes to someone else's success. To their fans' chagrin, it was KT Rolster's.

Four wins, four players.

      A faithful servant.

            A restored God.

                  A KT Zerg.

                        A fearless warrior.

                              And a Telecoms' War was won.

Writers: Destructicon, lichter
Graphics: shiroiusagi
Photos: Proleague, Inven, Ethan Ahn, Twitter
Artwork: Blizzard
Editors: DarkLordOlli, lichter.