Written by Mizenhauer
Photos by Leimmia


2017 has come to a close, and now is the winter of Terran’s discontent.

It’s been a rosy few years for our space cowboys. INnoVation, ByuN, GuMiho and TY have all snapped up silverware since the launch of LotV, calling upon bio, mech, and an assortment of nasty builds (who could forget the flying tanks?). But after an all-Zerg finals at BlizzCon 2017 and a major game-design shakeup by Blizzard, Terran looks snowed in for the foreseeable future.

Zerg’s main weapon, the hydralisk, has survived multiple patches unscathed and remains enemy number one for bio and mech. As for Protoss, the radical redesign (including the removal of the mothership core) has actually strengthened the heirs of Aiur significantly.

Meanwhile, Terran has emerged from the whole ordeal worse for wear. Protoss are running rampant in TvP and a solution has not been forthcoming. Elite Terrans have tried both bio and mech, as well as Frankenstein-esque amalgamations of the two. None of these efforts have yielded anything substantial. The recent GSL qualifiers painted a stark picture. SpeCial, the best Terran from the WCS Circuit, failed to make Code S, while pros with one foot out the door like ByuL and Losira made an improbable return. NoRegret, Aligulac’s 112th ranked player in the world, returned to compete in his second Code S tournament, while twelve-time Code S player Ryung failed to make it through through the qualifiers.


Terran is trudging along in a frozen wasteland, seeking the warmth of tournament seeds and prize money it might never find (Protoss and Zerg players may contend their suffering is exaggerated). Can anyone come to its rescue? GuMiho has a real sense for strategy, but he lacks in raw talent. TY is a quirky, championship-caliber player, but his skillset is ill-suited for the current metagame. ByuN has been a shadow of his former self ever since the 2/1/1 and three-rax reaper openings went the way of the dodo. aLive showed flashes of brilliance throughout 2017, but was too inconsistent to lift the weight of anyone’s expectations.

That leaves us with just two.

INnoVation and Maru have been Terran’s top players ever since Heart of the Swarm. From April of 2013, Terran has won the championship in eight of the twenty-one major Korean tournament finals. Four of those titles belong to INnoVation (three GSL’s and one SSL), while Maru has won two (in the OSL and SSL). In the last five years, every other Terran in the world combined added a mere two Korean titles to Terran’s total (Gumiho and ByuN). In the modern era, there’s no doubt that INnoVation and the Maru are the best Terran has to offer.

Maru and INnoVation are similar in many ways, and it’s not just their indifference toward interviews and lack of remorse while pummeling their opponents. Both possess elite mechanics—they can macro out a seemingly endless stream of units, which they then micro with exquisite finesse.

Yet, they are completely different players in how they choose to harness their gifts. INnoVation’s strength is in taking the ideas of others and unlocking their full potential. Maru is an artist, who embraces imperfection in a way players like INnoVation might find incomprehensible.

That contrast has existed ever since the two began to be compared. By mid 2013, INnoVation had completed a remarkable transition to StarCraft II, becoming the most dominant player in the world. His blandness outside the game had given birth to a new identity: The Machine. It paired perfectly with his precise in-game play: INnoVation’s macro never stopped, and his marine splits were so cleanly executed they felt more routine than awe-inspiring. He did the same things everyone else did—only much, much better.

Maru had his big break in 2013 as well, winning the OSL after years of being just another player with potential (he beat INnoVAtion 4-0 in the semifinals of that tournament, briefly wresting away the title of ‘best Korean Terran’). INnoVation was nearly a finished product in 2013, forged in a KeSPA team house. Maru was still raw after winning his first title, leaning heavily on his micro while he worked out the holes in his macro.

But Jesus Christ, could the kid micro. INnoVation’s control was no less precise, but Maru did it with flair. It pervaded everything he did, whether it was killing isolated colossi with a handful of marauders, or weathering a deadly wave of banelings with impeccable marine splits. In similar situations, INnoVation might have microed all the same, but his immense macro advantage would have rendered such movements extraneous.

The first half of 2014 was a dark age for Terran, one that makes the winter of 2017-2018 seem like a tropical vacation in comparison. Terran had their worst Code S in history, with just three players interrupting the Zerg and Protoss celebration. Maru fought back from the abyss with inspired fury, his manic and hyper-violent attacks leaving opponents bewildered and beaten. For giving Terran fans their sole glimmer of hope, Korean community bestowed Maru with a unique title: ‘The Fourth Race.’

Other players were looking at the game through an accountant’s eyes, where winning was a matter of accruing material advantage through a series shrewd exchanges (observers are still keen to remind us of how many units, minerals, and gas have been lost over the course of a game). Maru saw the big picture. To him, tempo was a tangible force that could be be harnessed with tech choices, maneuvers and attacks. Maru realized that getting the worse end of a fight looks bad on a balance sheet, but that sacrifice can serve a higher purpose. To him a game was more than an amalgam of moments—it was a fluid entity completely under his control.

Maru became a more complete player over time, but the spirit of 2014 never quite left him. The contrast with INnoVation stuck as well. When colossus-heavy Protoss styles were in vogue through the latter portion of HotS, INnoVation counted on overwhelming opponents with even more vikings. However, Maru realized that if one were decisive and acted without hesitation, the colossus count would never get high enough for vikings to matter. There’s a reason that even now, a game from the 2015 Proleague season is still one of the most frequently referenced in StarCraft II history. Maru’s legendary beatdown of MyuNgSiK taught us that you can, in fact, be at an advantage despite losing 10,000 more resources worth of units, as long as you understand your win condition.

Even now, in 2017, INnoVation focuses on the best way to do what has been proven to work. Maru doesn’t care what anyone else thinks is viable.


INnoVation and Maru have fared better than their Terran brethren in 2018, but it’s shaping up to be a trying year nevertheless. Weeks of winter qualifiers have been a roller coaster ride. Maru was encouraging early on, earning the right to represent Korea in WESG Asia-Pacific qualifier in early December. He took out in-form players Solar and sOs (who later qualified for IEM Pyeongchang) in the earlier rounds before securing his ticket to Shanghai with a victory over Forte. Forte is not a vaunted opponent by anyone’s measure, but the manner in which Maru won almost resonated more than his victories over the former championships. He tore through Forte with practically with reapers alone, with a kind of ruthlessness and casual indifference that evoked peak Maru. It was reminiscent of the time he nearly brought former teammate Creator to tears, or when he introduced Byul, one of the best Zergs of HotS, to five-rax reapers.

Two weeks later, Maru failed to make it past herO in the IEM PyeongChang qualifier. Two weeks after that, Maru was eliminated by Impact in the first GSL Code S qualifier. While Maru managed to make it to Code S in the second qualifier (defeating SortOf), some of the luster had faded from his WESG result. More recently, Maru was bounced from yet another qualifier, this time at the hands of Zest in the first IEM Katowice preliminary. Despite the missed opportunities, Maru’s combined results so far are more impressive than any other Terran in the new season… ...except, perhaps, INnoVation.

After effectively taking 2016 off, INnoVation returned in 2017 to lift the trophy in win four premier events. If one was looking for perfect LotV Terran play, they would have to look no further than the man who might be the greatest of all time.

2017’s Terran dictator had a rough start to 2018, missing out on both WESG and IEM PyeongChang. But recently, he bounced back to make it to GSL in his first attempt (the only Terran to do so), while also winning a spot at IEM Katowice (with wins against herO and Classic). His MMR, which plummeted at the beginning of the patch, is back up to nearly 6800, placing him as the sole Terran in the top ten.

INnoVation was most successful during periods with a stable meta, such as the end of 2015, or when a single strategy was clearly superior, as with hellbat drops in 2013. That’s when INnoVation can do what he does best: grind out wins with standard, effective play. INnoVation’s games during the IEM Katowice qualifier signaled that he may soon arrive at that point.

With the GSL set to begin, INnoVation once again looks like the player most likely to carry Terran’s championship hopes. He’ll be playing on opening day, and enters a heavy favorite to advance to the next round. After that, he’ll have plenty of time to work out formulas for the new Terran textbook, which he'll take with him into the later stages of the tournament.

However, there’s something not-entirely satisfying about allowing the machine to set the tone. The one thing about INnoVation that stands out above everything else is how often he makes his victories look routine. It doesn’t matter if it’s against benchwarmers or Code S champions—they all look the same when they’re stuck to the underside of INnoVation’s heel.

Perhaps that’s what Terran players want, or at least the ones whose hearts have been completely hardened by vindictive bloodlust. But those with loftier ideals are hoping for something else:

It should be Maru who saves us.

Maru is nowhere close to being the virtuoso he was in HotS, but hints of his incomparable brilliance come through on rare occasions. He still plays with brute force disguised as grand jetes and tour en l'airs. Every player loses, but few can win like Maru.

Given a hundred years, we can imagine ourselves becoming INnoVation. We can hone our mechanics through mind-numbing repetition and sharpen our decision-making through the pain of experience. No amount of time will enlighten us to whatever spark exists inside Maru. If INnoVation shows us how we’re supposed to play Terran, Maru shows us how we want to play. INnoVation impresses, but Maru inspires.

At his best, INnoVation is the greatest Terran player of all time. At his best, Maru transcends Terran.


We all know how this is going to play out in reality.

Maru’s most glorious moment wasn’t when he beat Rain to win the only StarCraft II OSL or when he won Proleague finals MVP after carrying Jin Air all season. It was when he went up against Dear in the semifinals of WCS Season 3 Finals. Maru had his OSL championship in hand, but he was still a boy entering the dragon’s lair. Dear was at his absolute apex, having grasped perfection for a fleeting moment in time. Maru lost that series 3-1. And yet, for his unrelenting attacks that staggered Dear for just one game, Maru was more celebrated than the victor. For fighting so valiantly in defeat, he is still remembered.

It's been two years since Maru last won a championship, and we've seen that loss against Dear repeat itself in countless, lesser ways. We face a sobering realization: Maru's greatest legacy may not be as a champion or a royal roader. It’s as a martyr.

And so, Maru will fight again, and he'll die again. All the while, INnoVation will march on, with or without the rest of us. And who knows? At the end of it all, when INnoVation has arrived at his destination, he may look back and notice that he saved the Terran race.

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