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The wait is finally over for  Scarlett. Nearly six years after she intrigued the StarCraft II world with her talent at IPL4, Canada's star Zerg finally won the first major championship of her career by defeating legendary Korean Protoss  sOs in the finals of Intel Extreme Masters PyeongChang. The result was an upset of the highest order: sOs was known as the ultimate big match player, having won some of the biggest tournaments in the history of StarCraft II with his brazen use of aggressive builds. On the other hand, Scarlett headed into the finals as a faded idol, a wildly popular player who had delivered just two runner-up finishes since 2012.
In a shocking case of role-reversal, Scarlett defeated sOs 4-1 with a combination of tricky strategies and unrelenting aggression. sOs seemed flustered as he struggled to cope with Scarlett's Zergling drops, Ravager timings, or even the common Hydralisk-Lurker combination knocking at his front door. Prevented from bringing any of his unusual strategies to the table, sOs' defense was only good enough to earn him a single consolation win. He was flattered to avoid a sweep.
After a flood of speedlings on Blackpink secured Scarlett the fourth and deciding GG, she walked over to her opponent for a customary handshake. Then, with minimal delay, she rushed to lift the trophy that had eluded her for years.
Heralded since 2012 as a "foreign hope" for a StarCraft scene long-dominated by Korean pros, Scarlett's career results lagged behind enormous expectations. At her best, she seemed just as good as the top competitors. She even went to Korea to train and learn in the ancestral home of competitive StarCraft. She could take games—even series—off championship caliber players. Yet, she could never string those wins together in a combination that could win her a trophy.
As time passed, Scarlett's form became more and more erratic. When Blizzard protected the non-Korean scene by separating it entirely from Korea's GSL, it should have been a golden opportunity for Korean-trained pros like Scarlett. Instead, it gave younger stars the opportunity to eclipse Scarlett's accomplishments. But her (considerably large) fanbase never wavered in their support. How could they? Not only was Scarlett skilled, but she had played some of the most exciting games of all time. She created moments that fans were willing to wait years for.
After it was all said and done, Scarlett saw her championship moment as a starting point, not a destination. In her post-finals interview, she mentioned her upcoming GSL round of 16 matches. She spoke of BlizzCon and her hopes to contend for StarCraft II's ultimate prize. Perhaps, for a progamer in the midst of a busy season, there is no time to sit and bask in the realization of one's dreams. But for StarCraft II fans, who have watched and waited for years—we might have that luxury.
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She fucking did it!! Woop!!
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Yeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!
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Her.
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Korean SC2 is getting sad, time to reverse the region lock.
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Very happy that she won. I can t wait to see all the games to understand how she won, as the latest results did not suggets such a win.
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That was well written! This win has indeed been a long time coming, it's amazing to finally see it happen against one of the very best Korean players at an event partnered with the Olympics and in PyeongChang, Korea no less. What a story.
This event was amazing all around, the games were great and Scarlett showing up with a performance like that after disappointing runs at WESG and WCS was a nice suprise.
The final was extremely entertaining imo, seeing sOs crumble under pressure, just as his opponents often do against him was crazy to see.
Everybody who watched Scarlett's stream recently knew exactly what was coming in game 3, I couldn't stop grinning in anticipation of that evo chamber going down. I was so sure it was gonna be 3-0 when I saw the map. sOs did well by taking another map, but Scarlett really was unstoppable overall in this event.
Congrats Scarlett, incredible performance and thanks to ESL for a great event. The production level was insane.
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France6440 Posts
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Great summary, most starcraft fans out there would aknowledge this is well deserved and totally overdue, she brings a lot to this game and I love her for it... congrats Scarlett... GG
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Gg nice to see her finally taking a huge win after all this time. What a huge surprise waking up and seeing the headline "Scarlett defeats sOs 4-1, wins IEM PyeongChang!
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Holy Jesus fucking Christ!!
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Well done. Hopefully this will stop her balance whine.
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It's quite interesting to see that both Scarlett and Special, who almost didn't get in thanks to scheduling conflict, both did so well, taking 1st and 3-4th. It's great that they've handled the NA qualifiers problems so well, those two really deserved to be there.
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No one is talking about how she brutalized both Elazer and Serral on top or sOs? thats a hard gauntlet and she excelled.
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And yet nobody mentioned 42 vs 58 PvZ balance? Even best korean protosses can't do anything vs zerg. But yet lets whine about PvT and stalkers.
In PvZ zerg have so strong mid game pushes, even Zest or sOs have hard time to stay alive against. Roaches, ravagers. hydras, lurkers, lings, banelings in any possible combination are hard to hold on 3 bases. 4th base or being on the map are impossible for protoss at all. Look at all these games, even Serral - Showtime series. Protoss need super precise defense to hold mid game zerg. If he failed even slightly he is dead. If he managed to do perfect and hard to execute defense, he is slightly behind.
Transition into late game isn't easy thing too. If too late - you are straight dead against brood lords. And in any given moment zerg can do another maxed hydra/lurker push, and kill you again. Not a surprise that on top of skill ladder zergs will beat protoss like 9 times out of 10, because skill difference needed to overcome such an advantage is impossible to reach.
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Yeah PvZ balance seems to be very bad atm. Feel sorry for Zest and sOs for getting eliminated because of this matchup.
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Vahvahvahvah. You forgot to say even girl cood win vs protos. So sad. Gg Scarlett. Good game.
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WCS
