Lotte Homeshopping
Kespa Cup S2 2015

Sisyphus Succeeds - soO Defeats the Self

Brackets and standings on Liquipedia

One of the most difficult things to do in SC2 competition is to reach the finals of a tournament and fail. Good players, even great players, have never been able to even make the finals. But for those who do, those who play their hearts out, and those who are just one step away from winning to then fail in the clutch moment, the loss becomes unbearable. For most, they never rise to the challenge again. The first year of GSL was full of broken runner-ups who seemed to lose all strength and skill after losing their finals. Some finals ended careers (Like what Mvp did to TOP). Other finals could break a player and haunt them for the rest of their lives (Squirtle).

To get so far and be so close yet fail is life-shattering. Years and years of hard work and practice are dedicated to that one game, the one chance, and to fail there destroys players. Most never come back to challenge for a title again. Sisyphus can only push the boulder up the hill so many times before he accepts his fate and gives up. Players can only challenge for the title and fail so many times before they utterly break.

soO hit that moment not once, but five times. Each time he was close and each time he failed in the deciding moment. He could beat any player in the entire world at all times, except in the finals. That was his name and his legacy. The fourth time he went up to the plate, he lost to Solar, a player he had beaten multiple times before. soO was broken.



Then he lost his 4th consecutive GSL finals to Innovation. soO’s confidence and play completely melted away. He was a broken man and in his post-game interview, Canata revealed that soO was very close to just straight out retiring from his endless string of defeats.

Yet he didn’t give up, nor did he surrender. Though he was knocked out, he forced his way back up and turned it around in the last month. He has qualified for both Starleagues. He won Leifeng Monthly #3 (The hardest online tournament to have ever been played in SC2).

If there was one game, one moment that encapsulated his turnaround, it was his game against Dark in the finals on Coda. There, he got the bad end of build orders as Dark opted for an 8 pool against his hatch first 17 pool. Most would tap out or be forced out of the game, with the situation being similar to Life surrendering when Dark did something similar against him in the KeSPA Cup. Instead, soO hung in there, took the losses and stabilized. Not once, but three times, because the amazing thing about Dark’s build order was that it allowed for Dark to play Triple Jeopardy. soO held off all three rushes with incredible decision making and sacrificial slow ling attacks that bought him time to make a spine and a wall, gained valuable scouting information, and made sure Dark could not morph banelings in proxy positions. It was a performance completely unlike what we have come to expect from soO in the finals.

And today he stands for the first time not as a Kong, but a Champion. It is a testament to not only his skill, but the tenacity to force himself into a situation he had failed in over and over and over to prove he could do the impossible after all. That he could beat history, he could beat fate and he could beat himself. For one night we saw Sisyphus roll the boulder up the hill and for one night the boulder did not fall back down.

Writers: stuchiu
Graphics: shiroiusagi.
Editors: DarkLordOlli, The_Templar.