Chapter VIII

Last Call

by stuchiu

At the harbor, the announcer yelled:

The last ship for the mainland goes out tomorrow. Get your tickets now!

FanTaSy looked down at his papers, which read:

Unreserved seating. Priority Rating: 3025

He stared at it, trying to will it into adding just one more point. It didn't, and he sighed with a mixture of resignation and jest. He had traveled the world and had gone to every major city on every continent collecting bounties along the way. The establishment had tried to take him down, but he had had none of it. Rain, Zest, INnoVation, even the likes of Lilbow. It didn't matter who they had sent; FanTaSy had achieved victories against the biggest fish in the sea whenever he felt like it. Maybe he should have felt like it more often though, because it wasn't enough to book his ticket. HyuN had caught up in the hitman power rank and only one of them was getting on this boat.

That's the way it was on these mafia-run cruise liners. You either ponied up a mortgage or curried favor with your jobs. The Morhaime Family was a tough nut to crack and the two of them were lucky to even get contracts. Old dogs like them usually would have gotten run out of the business by then.

FanTaSy heard steps encroach behind him and turned around. The first thing he noticed was his pants—strange taste as ever. HyuN had a big smile on his face and asked, "So, what's your number?"

"3025. You?"

"Heh. Same."

The two rivals stared each other down, waiting for the weaker man to flinch. Instead, they held in their laughter until they simultaneously burst. Even though the two hitmen had been contending for their jobs and their lives all year long, they still knew how to be friends.

"Let's go for a drink, FanTaSy!" HyuN bellowed. He knew his friend wouldn't be able to resist.

"Are you paying?"

"Hell no."

They entered a dingy seaman's bar, took seats by the counter and ordered a round of beers. At first they drank in silence, but they were interrupted by a military drafter. They waved him away but HyuN took the opportunity to bring up a forbidden topic, "So, what're you gonna do after retirement?"

FanTaSy shook his head, "Retirement? No, no, not yet. I still got things to do."

"Damn straight not yet! Still got pants to wear; still got bounties to take!" HyuN roared.

They clinked their glasses and downed their mugs. HyuN called for shots and they wiped those out too. Yet with each drop of alcohol it seemed as though the pair became more and more introspective. FanTaSy looked into his glass, and then at HyuN. A question burned inside him and he gave it a voice, "Why'd you leave your clan and become a free agent?"

HyuN looked at him quizzically and laughed, but FantaSy rolled his eyes. He needed to know. "Come on, I'm being serious here."

The flamboyant dresser sat up straighter. "Hmm... freedom, maybe? I get to practice when I want, travel where I want, and drink whatever the hell I want. Plus I get to wear these pants."

HyuN waved at his crotch and FanTaSy's eyes followed, drawing another series of snickers and another round of shots. "Free to live, too. What about you? You were the heir to the SKT empire. Why'd you leave?" the Zerg continued.

FanTaSy called for the bartender to refill his glass and shrugged, "They called me a 'prince' but I never really felt like it. Way back, they loved Bisu more and called me Oov's puppet. I even beat Flash in the last two campaigns of the old war yet they still voted him as the leader of Terran. When JangBi ascended to the throne against my will, I just didn't have much fight left in me."

HyuN witnessed FanTaSy's grief for the first time and gestured for the bottle. FanTaSy continued to pour out, "Or, should I say, I was done fighting for others. When I go out, I want to go out on my own terms. Not for SKT, not for whichever mad king sits on the throne, but for FanTaSy."

HyuN was surprised. He didn't expect there to be so much behind FanTaSy's fable. All he expected was an old man refusing to kick the bucket. "I heard about your battle against soO. Don't think there's a man alive that doesn't know that war tale. Hell of a story."

FanTaSy resumed smiling, "Aahh, best battle I ever fought. I spent years on the front lines of every single war, but never had a fight like that. One second from death, one second to life."

They spent the next few hours reminiscing about the old days, the new days, the various SPL Wars, HyuN's heavyweight title, those drunken ceremonies, FanTaSy's eternal fights with TRUE. Sailors came and went—some even shared a few rounds with them—but the pair remained. Eventually, they were the only two left in the bar.

"Ahh, too bad we can't both go, dammit," FanTaSy sighed.

"Well it's a job for one. Do you really think we'd have a chance against 'em? Buncha killers and monsters over there," HyuN grumbled, "and we aren't getting any younger."

FanTaSy stood, glass in hand. "I spent years under the wings of Boxer. He retired from the field but decided to come back when new wars kept popping up. Trained 10 to 12 hours a day just to get back into shape, yet he never regained his stars. And yet he said this."

FanTaSy pulled out an old cheerful of his idol from his wallet.

I don't believe in superstitions.

But I did feel that there was something special about the nickname "Emperor of Terran" that was given to me. Though I regularly practice of ten hours and my body feels like it will melt down, I hold myself up, thinking,

"I should live up to the name."

"I will live up to my name," the old Terran growled.

HyuN whooped, "Well said, well said! To the Emperor!"

They drank the last bottle dry and took turns visiting the bathroom, perhaps to relieve themselves one way or another. The two men looked tired but determined. "So, I guess we have to decide this," FanTaSy acknowledged.

"Yep. Gotta do what you gotta do," HyuN agreed.

They each paid half the bill and tipped their hat to the barkeep before lumbering into the alley behind. They had been friends, comrades in the trench, only minutes before, but now they had to be enemies. Only one man was getting on that boat, and they had to settle it between themselves.

What came next was a cyclone of fists, legs, and other body parts. It resembled two wombats in a washing machine more than two veteran in a duel, and it was impossible to tell who was winning. The drunken pair seemed more likely to hurt themselves than each other, but fortunately no one was watching. They traded blows and broken bones, yet everything looked even until the heavyweight champion leapt into a dropkick, only for his cargo pants to snag on a wire. He fell to the ground with an unpleasant thud and his body had had enough. FanTaSy had survived the most important bar fight of his life, even though it wasn't pretty.

FanTaSy offered a grisly handshake and HyuN accepted. The winner was about to leave but the beaten Zerg groaned, "Wait, wait, I gotta tell you something."

"Are you gonna cuss me out?"

"No, no. It's important. I heard Polt, Hydra and that scoundrel Lilbow are headed back to the mainland, too. War's brewing and they want their cut of the spoils," HyuN explained.

"Hm, more people to watch out for. What about PartinG? And Rain?"

"I haven't heard from them in a couple of months. You'd better bet PartinG's up to something, though."

"You're right. Wait. How do you know all this?" the Terran inquired.

"Well, I'm friends with everyone," HyuN smiled, his third incisor missing.

With that last piece of repartee, HyuN passed out, either from a concussion or from drunkenness. FanTaSy lifted him onto his shoulders and carried him to the front of the bar, where the owner had been sitting and smoking his pipe.

"Guess you're the one going, huh?"

FanTaSy was surprised, "Oh. You heard?"

"Yeah. Good man, that one," the barkeep admitted while drawing another chair.

"Yeah. Take care of him for me," FanTaSy appealed as he laid his friend down in the sun.

"Sure."

It was already a quarter past 6 when the cruise ship played its tuba. FanTaSy limped to the pier and searched for the ramp marked "special entry". Wiping some of the blood from his brow, the old dog squinted at the sign before presenting himself to the bouncer.

The ticket man asked, "Going to the mainland, eh? Business or pleasure?"

FanTaSy looked down at his bloodied ticket, then back at the bar where he had laid his unconscious friend. HyuN had woken, missing tooth in hand, and he and the barkeep waved FanTaSy goodluck. FanTaSy took a step forward and straightened his shirt before answering,

"Business."

Stats are from Aligulac.com.

Though many Koreans that leave to join foreign organisations experience a dip in their form, FanTaSy's move to Dead Pixels was as a breath of fresh air for the former SKT Terran. He came alive after a year of futile attempts to break past Code A and the disappointment in being all but forgotten in Proleague. He managed to top his 2014 results at the very beginning of the year by successfully qualifying for both Premier leagues in Korea, reaching a Ro16 and a Ro32 in SSL and GSL respectively. Though Fantasy requalified for GSL Code S in subsequent seasons, he was not able to improve his Season 1 result and his points total remained low. Even with his decent performance in the first season of KeSPA Cup, where he reached the Ro8 by beating Zest, his meager tally of 1000 points was far below the cut-off at the time.

The bulk of his points therefore came from international tournaments where FanTaSy was a staple contestant all year. However, even in "easier" events, he was stuck under his personal glass ceiling, rarely or barely squeaking into the playoff stages. His opening finally came at Gamescom in August. After upsetting his Ro16 group by beating INnoVation in order to advance in first place, he went all the way to reach his first semifinal at a Premier tournament in his SC2 career. It was this result that catapulted him in front of HyuN for last place, but the ROCCAT zerg eventually caught up with his semi final in Stockholm.

The two competitors had tied and had to battle it out for the last spot at BlizzCon. They were evenly matched—playing in the familiar venue of the GSL studios—and swapped wins until they were tied 2 apiece. However, it was FanTaSy that eventually survived the grueling series as HyuN was unable to break his late-game mech on Terraform.

What separates FanTaSy from the other BlizzCon attendees is that he does not have an impressive result to his name in 2015 nor can he match the consistency displayed by players such as Rogue. Rather it is the sheer number of different tournaments he attended that ultimately secured him a spot at the Global Finals. Granted, by participating in the Korean Premier leagues he repeatedly faced off against the best of the best, but he was never really able to reach the highest of heights. FanTaSy’s Starcraft II career is definitely at its peak right now, but he will have to reach even higher if he wishes to smash his glass ceiling in the biggest tournament of the year.

WCS Points:

Top 5 Games

1. FanTaSy vs Rogue, GSL 2015 Season 1 - Merry Go Round

FanTaSy may not have ultimately been successful in the opening GSL group of the year, but he did give us this tremendous show of strength along the way. After handily out-macroing Rogue in game 1 of the series, FanTaSy decided to repeat the trick on Merry Go Round. An early wall off easily deflected Rogue’s roach poke, and FanTaSy’s undisturbed triple CC opening allowed him to transition strongly into the mid game. His sense of positioning was critical throughout, constantly threatening Rogue’s fourth base with medivac elevator harass. Eventually, the constant pressure cracked Rogue’s defence as FanTaSy’s dual pronged push took out the fourth and fifth bases in quick succession.

2. FanTaSy vs Rain, IEM Katowice - Overgrowth

One fair criticism of FanTaSy’s record is that, short of his top four finish at IEM gamescom, he has consistently failed to register any impressive runs in tournaments all year long. However, what he has done is take one-off victories over more fancied opponents, such as in this opening encounter against Rain at the IEM World Championships. Few expected FanTaSy to emerge victorious, let alone to smash through Rain 3-0 with a breathtakingly aggressive display of terran power. A successful widow mine drop into SCV pull gave him a quick and dirty win in the opening set, while a bunker rush in game 3 sealed the deal quickly. The second game of the series on Overgrowth was the highlight, though—weathering Rain’s blink aggression before tearing him apart with medivac drops across his three bases.

3. FanTaSy vs soO, GSL 2015 Season 2 – King Sejong Station

Nothing in the early game of this match between FanTaSy and soO suggested that this would end up being one of the best of the year. FanTaSy’s uncharacteristically defensive mech opening locked down his three-base setup, while soO’s struggles at breaking down turtling opponents have long been noted by now. However, when a player with as storied a history as FanTaSy proclaims a game to be the best he’s ever played, chances are it’s worth a watch. When soO managed to push all the way into FanTaSy’s main, camping the production facilities with a handful of brood lords, the ex-SKT ace took that as the signal to force a base trade. A complete lack of effective anti-air left FanTaSy racing to eliminate his opponent while trying to cobble together a new base at his old third, but down 19 supply to 54, it seemed that all we were waiting for was FanTaSy’s traditional GG timing to expire.

That is, until he noticed his full energy banshee hovering in a forgotten corner of the map. A crucial snipe on soO’s last overseer with his final handful of marines deprived the zerg of detection, and in one of the oddest climaxes to a Starcraft game we’ve ever seen, it became a question of how long his invisibility would last...

4. FanTaSy vs Patience, Dreamhack Valencia – Moonlight Madness

Throughout his time in Brood War and Starcraft 2, FanTaSy became known for his excellent harassment, and his age old qualities were there for all to see in this match at Dreamhack Valencia. After his initial medivac harass was shut down easily by Patience’s phoenix opener, FanTaSy decided to up the stakes. He dropped all over Patience’s setup with two armies simultaneously, dragging his defensive setup out of shape before hitting with a follow up. In all, four nexi were sniped, along with considerable damage to the protoss worker count, before Patience felt he had no choice but to go all in and attempt to force a basetrade. The constant harass had taken its toll though, and FanTaSy’s considerably larger army easily dealt with the remaining protoss units.

5. FanTaSy vs INnoVation, IEM gamescom 2015 - Iron Fortress

Going into IEM gamescom, all the talk centered on the inevitable INnoVation vs soO finals. While that was indeed what we eventually got, FanTaSy showed that underestimating him was a dangerous mistake to make. A tense opening saw INnoVation take the better early engagements with his hellion / reaper harass, but FanTaSy’s crucial scout of the SKT terran’s upcoming cloak banshee tech allowed him to deflect it without significant losses. The follow up tank contain from INnoVation looked dangerous, but FanTaSy’s counterintuitive move to counter it paid off in style. The first medivac drop was effective, but it was the cloak banshee follow up which truly sealed the deal.

FanTaSy vs soO

Code S Season 1 Ro32 - King Sejong Station

by: Jer

soO—the ZvT monster. This man has incredible vs T up until the late game, where he seems to fall apart in every aspect of his play. He takes the absolute worsts fights ever seen, and reconstructs his army with questionable units. As monstrous as his early/mid game might be, if he can’t win the game there, he probably won’t in the late game. Fantasy—the GG timing. This guy will use every last unit he has, every last structure he has built, to win the game, up until the very end. It doesn’t matter how much his opponent has; if he’s got a marine, he expects the marine to get the job done. Two opposite sides of a coin. Yin and Yang. These two are the main ingredients to the recipe for a fantastic end game.

Queue minute one. Already, both players had made plans going into this game. On soO’s side, he’s thrown down a 15 pool 15 hatch, and Fantasy a reaper expand. It seemed soO was slightly better prepared, as he’d timed out exactly when the reaper was going to be going by, and sneaked some lings past the reaper with not an inch to spare. These lings were to pick off the SCV building the low ground CC, but Fantasy was ready for this. Instead of going for a single reaper into reactor, Fantasy was going for three reapers, and the second one was out in time to deflect the lings headed for his natural. The first reaper scouted the delayed hatchery and fast queen, and Fantasy knew exactly what was coming. soO saw the second reaper and repositioned his lings into the corner of the map, but Fantasy hounded them down and eliminated them.

Minute six. Because Fantasy had gone for a three reaper into reactor opening, soO knew there could be no marines out and that he was free to scout Fantasy’s base with two overlords completely uncontested. This gave away Fantasy’s build, 3CCs with a quick starport. In response, Fantasy started to rally hellions two at a time to soO’s natural base, using them as a distraction for his reapers to scout the main, and to pick off drones. A final overlord scout revealed the army choice of Fantasy: mech. Both players knew exactly what the other was doing and proceeded into the mid game. A standard roach/hydra vs. mech game ensued, with nothing atypical happening until Fantasy tried establishing his fourth base.

At minute eighteen, the first big fight broke out at Fantasy’s fourth base. soO, already with a maxed out army and large bank and trying to maintain the economic lead, split his army into two and busted up both ramps while landing blinding clouds. The spellcasting was good enough, and soO took a slightly favorable fight. Fantasy’s tank count was reset and he wasn’t able to establish his fourth base. He needed something to delay soO’s push while he rebuilt his expensive army, and a hellion runby would be perfect. Not only was he able to pull back soO’s entire ground army to defend the hellions, but he was also able to scan the brood lords morphing in the middle of the map. This allowed him to both build up a new army and have the right composition. With his new army, Fantasy was finally able to take a much needed fourth base, adjacent to his third base.

26 Minutes into the game. This would be the point where soO’s late game collapse began. With an almost 10k/5k bank, soO decided that it would be a great idea to push up a ramp with his entire army. Rather than split his army in two like he did the first fight, a single path was taken this time. A funnel of ultralisks and queens choked up the ramp, and soO’s army was halted in its tracks, all the while being berated by siege tank fire and banshees. soO was forced to concede the fight handily to Fantasy, and the latter was able to establish his fifth base.

Minute 27.5. Surprisingly, soO actually learned from his previous mistake and split his army into two, like he did the first fight. An assault was launched on the same location as a minute before, and this time soO’s entire army was able to charge up the ramp and get on top of Fantasy’s units. Fantasy had overcommitted to vikings, and soO’s army destroyed the fifth base location of Fantasy and most of his army. With his huge bank, soO was able to remax instantly while Fantasy had a measly 109 supply. This would be the perfect time to take advantage of Fantasy’s wiped army and charge his base for the win, right? Well, not for soO. Fantasy started attacking one of soO’s eleventeen bases on the map, and in soO fashion, he pulled his entire army to defend this base. Rather than clean up Fantasy’s rural expansions, soO pulled his army to the base only to not make it in time. Immediately following the banshee pickoff of the hatchery, Fantasy sent four hellions to another base of soO. Again, rather than countering the terran player and taking a likely victory, soO chased the terran units around helplessly, even though there were spine crawlers at each of his bases. Fantasy’s last ditch delay efforts worked yet again to build up some more units.

Minute 32. Although not maxed out yet, Fantasy was hovering around the 170 supply mark, and eagerly tried taking his fifth base again. soO decided that this would be another good time to charge up a single ramp, without blinding clouds, into a siege tank line. This fight ended up much like the first time soO charged up a single ramp: disaster for the zerg player. A perfect opportunity presented itself to soO again in the form of a potential mutalisk tech switch, but soO decided to stay on roach/hydra/ultralisk in the hopes that one of these single line attacks would bhe enough to crush his opponent. Fantasy was able to take back his fifth base, and the bank of soO started to shrink more and more.

Minute 38. soO again tried to take the outlying base next to Fantasy’s natural base, and this time Fantasy would contest it with his army. Fantasy took position with siege tanks and had air control with a superior viking count and tons of PDDs. Another major blunder from soO occurred here, and that was not casting blinding clouds. Instead, he pulled four ravens into hydralisks, which didn’t even die. First, single file ultralisks marched their way into graves laid out in front of siege tanks. Then, hydralisks followed their hulky brethren into the ground. Finally, queens hopped into the hole, and the fight was over. Fantasy took a decisive fight, and was finally ahead in supply.

Minute 41. Fantasy was trying to establish the base previously contested, but soO had gone all in with air units now. A massive corruptor count shielded brood lords from the vikings, and this was the trigger for the base trade. After years and years of Starcraft, soO still hadn’t gotten the message: never base trade a terran. Realizing the only army soO had was the corruptor/brood lord force, Fantasy was free to send his ground units across the map and start sniping the structures of soO. The only damage that soO could output to structures were the brood lords (lest they were lifted), and this gave Fantasy a huge advantage in the base trade. Although he had the advantage in killing structures, the brood lords still posed a threat to Fantasy, and any structures hiding behind them were likely not going to be killed. Considering this, Fantasy launched a contingency plan. He had a mineral bank, and started new barracks followed by marines. He knew that he still had a single banshee left in the corner of the map, and this would be his failsafe should he not be able to kill all the structures with his ground force. The priority target was the last overseer on the map, and this is what the marines and remaining vikings would be made to kill. A micromanagement war broke out over this last overseer, as vikings and marines tried to outposition the brood lord and corruptors. On soO’s end, he had to avoid turrets, flanking marines and vikings to keep the package alive. Scan after scan was landed on the overseer, keeping tabs on its location through these last few minutes of the game, and Fantasy’s opportunity finally arose when soO mismicroed his overseer into the last marines on the map. Now, it was all up to the banshee to kill a hatchery and a spine crawler with 100 energy remaining. Fantasy kept his cool under pressure, and correctly predicted the spine crawler would likely be under soO’s air army. Fidgeting under pressure, both players could only watch both the energy of the banshee and HP of the spine crawler trickle down. At the last moment, the banshee launched its backlash rockets at the spine crawler, uncloaking as the victory screen laid out for Fantasy.