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by Destructicon

As day three of Dreamhack Winter got under way it appeared like we would see a repeat of the previous day, with one sided stomps and terran domination abound. However as the players got closer and closer to the grand finals the games and series also became a lot closer, a lot longer and a lot tenser. There was no telling who was going to win, and as the smoke cleared and the dust settled, an unlikely face stood clutching the trophy. It was indeed a terran; probably not the one people expected, but certainly that deserved if the most: Millenium's very own ForGG.

The Brood War pachyderm had done decently in his Starcraft 2 career, but he always came short late in tournaments. Despite showing incredible potential upon switching over, his story was a perpetual case of close, but not quite. He looked threatening a few times in GSL, but players like Leenock and MC soon found they were empty. Unable to conquer Korea, he moved again. This time, to Europe.

He became one of the first champions—certainly the first BW champion—to move to a new continent. His move to Millenium brought high expectations, but he unfortunately became the first victim to the now infamous Summer of Taeja after he was reverse swept in the finals of DH Valencia 2012.

For the following years he failed to reach another finals, notably losing to Stephano in the semi-final of 2013 WCS EU Season 1, Dear in ASUS ROG Winter 2014, StarDust in 2014 WCS EU Season 2 and soO in Dreamhack Stockholm 2014.
It looked like ForGG was doomed to become the Curious of Europe. The gatekeeper of the semi-finals, an extremely good player that could make it to the bracket only to give someone a hard time. Despite finishing first in his group in Dreamhack Winter 2014, only his biggest fans expected him to go much further.

However there was something different about his run this time. He felt more complete as a player, somehow wiser, more patient. His TvP, which had looked like a major weakness, was patched up and it catapulted him to first place in his group against MC, Patience and StarDust. His TvZ overwhelmed Solar in a close 2-1 series. His success in the first stage of the competition set a date against Polt, but Captain America was no match against his legendary TvT.

ForGG looked like the second best player at Dreamhack as he stepped into the winner's bracket finals to face the one player that looked even stronger: StarTale.Life. It was a daunting challenge; the BlizzCon champion had slain both the mighty TaeJa and the speedy MMA, two of the illustrious terrans of the year on his way to the winner's bracket. But even Life would prove a minor hurdle as ForGG swept him aside 3-1 with anachronistic mech builds we haven't seen since GSL S5 2012. He booked a place in the grand finals against all odds.

This set up an epic rematch between Life and TaeJa in the lower bracket finals. In a repeat of their BlizzCon games, the series featured many early game shenanigans and late game havoc. The two juggernauts slugged it out to a game 5, but Life's intelligent army maneuvers and engagements proved superior. Once again he prevailed after trading blow after blow with the Liquid terran, marking his second consecutive finals.

On the other hand this was the first time in two years that ForGG had been in a grand final. Surely ForGG couldn't defeat Life again—Life always finds a way, as they say—because he had already show all his tricks in the first series. He had to have another plan for the reigning World Champion, right?

Nimbus

Instead, Life was the first one to try something different. After suffering against ForGG's mech in their first series of the night, the StarTale zerg took a gamble: a 9pool. At first it appeared to be a good call as they spawned favorably, but ForGG had opened conservatively with a reaper expand. Both players traded early attacks to little avail, and the result was a small economic and tech lead for ForGG. That would not be the only deviation as ForGG changed his own plans: he decided to go bio. The change of pace caught Life off guard and his 4th was denied several times. This opened up enough space so that ForGG could doom drop the natural of Life despite the heavy fortifications setup earlier. The Millenium terran was able to take down the spire and kills a horde of drones, but it came at the cost of his entire force. Seeing an opportunity, Life counter attacked immediately. He was able to ransack the terran economy but failed to deliver the killing blow. With three command centers, ForGG still had more income than the bleeding swarm, and a series of attacks culminating in a push with 3/3 eventually forced Life to tap out.

Overgrowth

On the second map ForGG decided to deploy some cheese of his own in the form of a proxy double rax. Life went for the greediest possible build, delaying his pool till the last possible second and it turned out to be a costly mistake as ForGG was able to raid the natural of Life and take a surprising 2-0 lead with little difficulty.

Catallena

His confidence growing, ForGG continued to play safely with another reaper expand on Catallena. He even cheekily feinted aggression with a bunker in Life's natural. This time, however, he reverted back to his tried and tested formula of a hellion-banshee midgame. Sensing that it was time for ForGG to play his standard, Life decided to try a different solution to a seemingly unsolvable problem: two base mutalisks.

After a fumbled attack in Life's natural, ForGG was forced to hunker down in anticipation of the flock. Unfortunately for Life, his mutas were able to do little damage. Curiously, ForGG took this as a cue to counter attack. He marched across the map with a small mech squad aided by a small fleet of vikings and banshees. The airforce cleared away all the mutalisks and overseers, giving the banshees free rein over Life's ground units. Unable to hold the push immediately, Life had no choice but to sacrifice his third base and turtle behind swarm hosts. Believing that he had done crippling damage, ForGG settled into his economy and expanded. As his income grew he became more and more confident, but he overestimated his lead and threw away too many units to the maws of Life's locusts.

Life sensed weakness and abused ForGG's immobility, smashing several of his mining bases while rapidly expanding himself. The tides were swinging back in Life's favor, partially due to ForGG forgetting to saturate his most secure mining base. Life however did trade big chunks of his army to hurt his opponent's economy, allowing ForGG to take extremely cost effective engagements against spawning ultralisks, depleting Life's bank almost entirely. He did this in exchange for his army, so both players found themselves with little money banked and almost no income. ForGG, despite being heavily down in supply, rallied his troops for one last attack, this time against Life's outlying expansions. Against all odds, ForGG was able to set up a fantastic position outside of Life's fresh mining base, which even allowed him to shell another expansion from the high ground. Life quickly realized the desperate spot this put him in, and kept rallying units into ForGG's fortified position. When he finally broke ForGG's siege position, the damage had already been done and the trade gone too heavily in ForGG's favor, who had secured another mining base and set up a Planetary Fortress there. With almost no income and ForGG's army climbing back up in supply, Life's army was finally wiped out and ForGG took a hard fought but massive 3-0 advantage.

King Sejong Station

Life had become extremely paranoid at this point in the series. One mistake was enough to put the nail in his coffin. It showed in his opening and playstyle, sending an early drone out purely for scouting purposes. Realizing ForGG's mech opening rather quickly he cancelled his baneling nest and threw down a roach warren, spire AND hydralisk den - all on two bases. ForGG's mech army composition wasn't too different from the previous game, but he was presented with a golden opportunity to move out earlier than usual, as Life's early teching and late economy led to ForGG's army growing as fast as Life's did - a wonderful spot for a mech player. The timing he attempted seemed semi-successful at first, as he killed Life's fourth base, but the game completely turned on its head when Life maneuvered his big roach army around the mech forces and ran it straight into ForGG's base, dealing crippling damage to his economy and production. At the same time, Life got a great army trade off by eliminating every banshee with chained fungals. Even though ForGG's neverending hellion runbys killed ridiculous amounts of drones, the lead Life had taken earlier was enough to see him close out the game with an eventual unscouted mutalisk switch - Life stole a game back and brought the series to 3-1.

Deadwing

ForGG followed his plan to stay unpredictable, opening with CC first. Life scouted his build though and managed to deny mining with just six zerglings, all the while getting his third base up. ForGG attempted a desperate hellbat/banshee attack, but Life caught wind of it and fully countered it with a mass roach/queen composition. Having deflected the attack, Life slowly but surely marched his units across the map and with no tanks in sight ForGG couldn't stabilize, leaving him at only a 3-2 advantage.

Foxtrot Labs

With everything on the line, ForGG went back to his reliable hellion/banshee build. Life geared up early for another mech game, planting down an early roach warren. ForGG however had saved the best for last, feigning mech with a blue flame hellion mid game. While denying Life's scouting, ForGG threw down six barracks and transitioned back into bio. Minutes passed by, with Life committing more and more to countering a mech style. To further sell the story, ForGG even did a hellion runby into the 3rd of Life, scorching several drones and escaping with minimum losses. Life's eventual scout of the barracks prompted an immediate attack from ForGG. In one fell sweep Life lost his 4th base, his 3rd was gutted, plenty of swarm hosts were picked off and he was very nearly on the verge of losing the game right then and there. ForGG however displayed great patience and discipline, called back his units, let them heal back up and further cemented his commanding position in the game. He never let go of it and eventually ransacked Life's main and outlying expansions with drops, repeatedly denying his 4th while continuing to macro, getting 3/3 and more expansions. Life fought tooth and nail to stay in the game, but as time passed by, ForGG's units only became more and more cost effective until he simply overwhelmed Life, forcing the last GG and earning his first ever championship.

As ForGG stumbled out of his booth, he was filled with a distantly familiar feeling. Cameras flashed timed with a thunderous applause, his name echoing throughout the stadium. He gave an emotional interview with Smix and struggled to hold back his tears. Suddenly, everything came rushing back.

Two thousand three hundred and fourteen days since he beat the greatest zerg in the world. Two thousand three hundred and fourteen days since he held that MSL trophy. A lifetime ago. A lifetime he can't possibly regret.

The slump after his greatest triumph. The team change and descent into retirement. The passage into a new game as its first former champion. The unmet expectations. The journey to another continent. The almosts and the not quites.

At Dreamhack Winter, everything changed. But the more things change, the more the stay the same.

Twice he beat the best zerg in the world, and now he is twice a champion.

Writer: Destructicon
Graphics: shiroiusagi
Photo: DreamHack
Editor: lichter, DarkLordOlli.