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"I sometimes discuss strategies with my coach. If I were wrong about something I would change, but I've never been wrong"It is no secret that the WCS suffers from narrative incohesion. With the three separate regions no longer interacting with each other through the Season Finals that tied them together last year, the WCS Global Finals were at risk of being all about the games and not at all about the story the WCS was created to build. While this is fine for some, many crave something else, a story that humanizes the players and allows them to feel connected to the players on stage. This is the primary attraction of regional tournaments, the feeling of commonality between the fans and their local players. These storylines and feelings that can be so crucial to the enjoyment of the game are, undeniably, things the World Championship Series has had a hard time creating on its own.

With that in mind, Startale.Life's miraculous championship run, after very nearly not making it to the Global Finals at all, was a perfect storm. For a player that has spent much of this year meddling in mediocrity and staving off inconsistency, there were no players attending Blizzcon that could have challenged him more than the four he defeated on his way to the championship. Not only that, but the way in which he won made all of these series legitimate in different ways, emphasizing strengths we knew that Life used to have, but suspected he had lost. When the StarTale Zerg finally lifted the trophy in front of the Blizzcon crowd he had faced all of his rivals, and defeated them all.

Tower Overwhelming

"Taeja is a predictable opponent, but knowing what he's going to do isn't enough. That's why it was so difficult to face him."

Being paired with a Protoss player boasting three Korean championships this year in the first round would be bad enough for anyone, but Zest's well-known PvZ prowess combined with Life's past struggles against players of Zest's caliber made his predicament appear even worse. Life, despite his knack for showing up and performing when it matters most, was counted out before the tournament had even began. He was good, though not on Zest's level.

But as it would turn out, he actually was. When Life showed up in the Burbank studios he was the underdog, mentioned by none of the casters as a player to make it deep into the tournament. It was quickly made clear that Zest, like Artosis, had not anticipated the form Life would show up in. Taking the first two games by turning ”normal” ZvP reactions upside down and greedily going 3hatch pool made it clear that Life hadn't come to mess around. Although he would lose the next two games (depending on your preferences, Game 3 on Nimbus might either be hugely entertaining or nauseating) in inelegant fashion, he ultimately closed out the series by calmly defending a cannon rush on the final map. As lightning, Life had struck where he hadn't been expected to, and one of the favorites to win the entire tournaments had fallen.

Unsurprisingly, a Protoss whose third base looks like this at 17 minutes is not looking forward to the next game

For someone that follows Life with any particular interest, a surprise victory over a GSL champion is not uncommon. Life has always had his moments, even in his lowest of slumps. That is, except against San. Against San, nothing had ever worked properly. But Life's newfound willingness to prepare for specific opponents carried him through against San as it had against Zest. His old Protoss rival played out the series much as you would have expected him to, with the same timings and builds that have worked for him longer than they have any right to. Life held the pushes through a combination of build adaption and preemptive action, poking and prodding at the Protoss to throw him off just enough that the kill timings became too inefficient and too weak to work. In a match that was notable given the two's history together, Life defeated San 3 games to none.

In taking out Zest and San, Life demonstrated that he had both the capacity for series planning and deviation from normative responses to situations that would have destroyed other Zergs. And while both victories went a long way towards proving that Life is once again a legitimate championship contender in even the most stacked of tournaments, they lacked a certain magnitude to symbolize Life finally breaking his pattern of disappointments that began with his losses to Soulkey and Roro two years ago. For this purpose, there was only really one player left in the tournament that would suffice, who also happened to be the toughest opponent Life could have been made to face in all of the WCS: Taeja.

"The smile that has ended many tournament runs"
That Life has struggled against the Liquid Terran many times in the past is common knowledge. In fact, many of his high-profile eliminations from tournaments he might otherwise have won have followed defeats against Taeja, whose playstyle has always been one he has had difficulty responding to. Their common history as online cup regulars long before they were repeat champions has ensured that every time they face off in playoffs and elimination matches, they do so as long-time rivals.

The way Taeja opened up that fated semifinals made things look grim for Life. A few lost lings, a single bad fight, and Taeja rolled him over without ever breaking a sweat. It was quick, brutal, efficient and first and foremost hope-crushing. What can Zerg do against such relentless aggression?
As Life would show in the second game, there is nothing you can do. soO played his match against Taeja as well as he could, but managed to only take a single game before ultimately being overrun by Taeja's superior trading and more efficient fighting.

But there is one important thing that sets Life apart from soO. He does not have the four-time GSL finalist's flawless macro and inject timings, but when simply being flawless isn't good enough, Life shines the most. By first planting a proxy hatchery down the ramp outside Taeja's natural expansion in response to a proxy reaper build, Life threw Taeja off his game to the extent that the rest of the game was played with the knowledge that neither player could follow the standard pattern of TvZ. Taeja did admirably in bringing order from the chaos, but for once he was put on the back foot and once he was, he never truly got the chance to put on real pressure of his own again. No matter where he attacked, Life was somewhere else, poking, counterattacking, harassing. Taeja could not muster the power he needed to win the game, and once a crack in his armor appeared Life never let up until the armor was broken and Taeja was defeated.


"This may not be the strategy that will win me this game, but it will be the strategy that breaks your brain!"

"I came to this tournament expecting less than the championship, and I think that is what allowed me to win."Unquestionably, the semifinal between the two long-time rivals was the highlight of the tournament for many. And certainly, once the dust settled after Life's queen/ling/bane push on Merry Go Round had won him the final game of the series, Life was the favorite to win the finals as well. He had just defeated arguably the best and most consistent TvZ player of all time, whereas MMA's TvZ had gone untested through the tournament. Facing a Life riding a wave of momentum has never, at any point, been an easy task, and it proved to be one MMA, too, was unprepared for. The first two maps went to Life in rapid succession, a simplicity to Life's play that radiated confidence. Life had overcome his doubts and surpassed expectations, his hunger for endless championships returned in full force.

The rest is history. Life went on to defeat MMA – the player whose career is the most similar to Life's – with a convincing and effortless 4-1 score, his one defeat coming from his own recklessness as much as MMA's prowess. MMA fell to the kind of Zerg play that made Life the undisputed best player in the world at the end of Wings of Liberty just as Zest, San and Taeja had, and when he conceded the final game to Life, the Ling King had reenacted the entirety of his career over the course of seven days

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Rivalries are things of beauty. Not only because they allow us to feel connected to players that battle each other in an arena completely disconnected from us, or because they drive players forward in a cycle of competition that never ends. Rivalries are beautiful, powerful, because when they are turned on their heads and our expectations are subverted, they create something much more powerful than an ordinary game could be on its own, something that transcends the game and the competition.

The weakness in sOs' story of last year was that he had no rivalries, no storylines that made his championship memorable of itself. There were no well-known ties between him and other players that made his run memorable for anything other than how unexpected it was and how incomprehensible his games were for theplayers he faced. In terms of year-long consistency , Life's championship run this year was even less expected than sOs' last year, even more lined with difficulties.

And yet, when we look back at past Global Finals years from now, we will remember Life's championship as one that defied challenges, broke trends, shattered expectations. Life's run will be immortal for all of these things, remembered as the tournament where Life rebounded and defeated all those that had overcome him in the past. As the tournament where The Tower stood tall, unmoved by all challenges.