One year after losing 3-4 to TY in the 2016 WESG Grand Final, Maru returned to WESG in search of redemption. And redemption he did find—all $200,000 worth of it. At the end of an intense, roller coaster series, Maru defeated Dark 4-3 to claim the WESG world championship and the hefty prize purse attached to it.
Maru and Dark entered the finals as two of the best late-game players for their respective races, and their skills were on full display from the very first match. Theorycraft became real-life StarCraft as the two slugged it out in expertly played late-game Terran vs Zerg matches, perhaps the best ever seen in Legacy of the Void.
However, the series would be decided by one of the oldest strategies in StarCraft history, going all the way back to the 20th century. Down 2-3 and facing elimination, Maru pulled out two proxy-barracks bunker rushes in a row. Dark had shown near-perfect discipline in the late-game, but the classic cheese was enough to crack his composure. After two dejected GG's from Dark and one awkward handshake, a beaming Maru walked to the podium and lifted the WESG trophy.
The WESG title was Maru's first major championship in nearly three years since he won 2015's SSL Season 1. The interceding period was one of mixed success for Maru. He was capable of world-class play—even anchoring Jin Air to their first Proleague title—but he seemed cursed in individual leagues. Now, with INnoVation suffering a slump of his own, Maru has returned to his old perch as the best Terran player in the world.
Meanwhile, Dark found himself coming to terms with a worryingly frequent end. At his best, for a single game, he displayed the highest level of play of anyone in the tournament. Yet, he was unable to prevail in the most important series. Dark's career record in major finals worsened to one win and six losses.
Overall, the WESG finals capped off another major international that saw Korea reassert its dominance in StarCraft, as if the country's pros had rallied to salvage their pride after Scarlett's shock win at February's IEM PyeongChang. The recent IEM World Championship saw Korean pros claim eleven spots in the top twelve, and WESG concluded with all three Korean representatives finishing in the top four.
However, a familiar gatecrasher spoiled the celebration, as Finland's Serral defeated Classic in the third place decider match. Serral claimed revenge for his 0-3 loss to Classic at the IEM WC semifinals, as well as an additional $20,000 in prize money. Combined with earlier victories over Elazer, Neeb, and ShoWTimE, the result strengthened Serral's claim to the title of "best foreigner."
While fifteen-year-old Italian Zerg Reynor was unable to upset any Koreans, he also left an impact at WESG by defeating seasoned veteran and BlizzCon semifinalist SpeCial in the group stage. Reynor has only recently become eligible to compete on the WCS Circuit due to relaxed age restrictions, but his WESG performance suggests that he will be a force to reckon with in the foreign scene.
Maru! Yes! So happy he's gotten more silverware. That trophy is huuuuge. Also big congrats for Serral getting much needed payback on Classic, and Reynor; I knew he was special the moment I saw his games in 2016.
By the way, does it mean that we will see JinAirGWs roaster in 2019? Well, now it sounds perfectly reasonable, doesn't it? Rogue and Maru maek so much money! and it's only march.
On March 19 2018 02:21 DSK wrote: Maru! Yes! So happy he's gotten more silverware. That trophy is huuuuge. Also big congrats for Serral getting much needed payback on Classic, and Reynor; I knew he was special the moment I saw his games in 2016.
I always found it funny how the Gramophones award is a piece of useless plastic, while Starcraft II trophies could actually sell for money. Evidnece that Starcraft is a higher form of entertainment.
Wait.... Reynor is SpeCiaL? That dual existence hypothesis would explain everything.
Maru had an eureka moment of apotheosis midway through the series. He knew he could beat Dark in late game, he could beat Dark's all-ins, and he could beat Dark with bio pushes BUT if he didn't micro perfectly, Dark would win in each of those cases. So he made a huge decision, realising that if he put the stress on Dark instead, it would be up to Dark to have to micro perfectly to hold - which is really hard in a 2-3 hour long best of 7 under huge stress and monetary pressure.
Maru, you have finally absorbed the teachings of $O$ - and a similar paycheck.
Congrats for the fans. Honestly I can't deny how talented Maru is but I will always hate him because of the way he wins in the most important moments with the usual rushes. Still there is no doubt that Dark is the best late game player in SC2 right now. It is a matter of choice and taste of course. For me is much more reasonable and enjoyable in the same time watching a player who wins trophies thanks to good macro games and strategies. The way Maru beat Rain in the OSL final back in 2013 determined my general view for his play. But I have to admit that both Maru and Dark looked equally good.
Gogo Dark in GSL! Maru and Dark are playing at 4 o'clock UTC on Saturday, that's the night between Friday and Saturday for all of you living west of the Atlantic.
Dark's finals loses are even harder to stomach than soO's. He plays so damn well and most of the time looks like the better player but still manages to lose somehow.
With soO you rarely get the impression that he might really win it.
@Veluvian I do not agreed with you in this, big macro games are just an aspect of the game, the strategy includes start, the game and the post-game and Maru played thayt better than Dark, Maru just applied a point of pressure and Dark broke.
On March 19 2018 04:30 Zaros wrote: Is Dark the new soO?
One of Dark's losses came against soO, so it counts as like 10 losses at least. Dark is out soO-ing soO
I'm pretty sure soO transferred the Kong line to Dark when he won that finals. soO has still lost 4 finals since then, but it's not a constant, season-after-season exercise in futility. They also haven't been the heartbreakers that his finals against Classic and Solar were, where he was the favorite to win, or came very close to winning. He's just been outclassed by players in peak form, while soO was just below them. Dark, however, has lost 5 finals since then, with 3 of them going to a game 7. So while soO hasn't been able to get past his mental block in finals, Dark has shown more of the heartbreak we associate with a Kong.
On March 19 2018 07:05 leublix wrote: Dark's finals loses are even harder to stomach than soO's. He plays so damn well and most of the time looks like the better player but still manages to lose somehow.
With soO you rarely get the impression that he might really win it.
I still can't believe he didn't pool first g6 or g7. Maru is well known for this type of play Hopefully we'll see some revenge (or fewer proxy losses) in the GSL tournament!
Love game 1.That is how zerg should be designed,mindless macro,keep inefficiency trading and overwhelm enemy. Only retards think 8 armor ultra and infestor are for zerg's army.Those thing are protoss units... Whine aside i could see Maru goes easy for Dark in GSL.
On March 19 2018 10:02 seemsgood wrote: Love game 1.That is how zerg should be designed,mindless macro,keep inefficiency trading and overwhelm enemy. Only retards think 8 armor ultra and infestor are for zerg's army.Those thing are protoss units... Whine aside i could see Maru goes easy for Dark in GSL.
Yeah, game one of the series is how I envision Zerg should be. Constant trading over and over until you starve the other person out. Zerg shouldn't have ultra powerful deathball armies, they should be running around and attacking or swarming and win by starving out their opponents. Oh well.
On March 19 2018 16:47 Geo.Rion wrote: gonna be so interesting to see the rematch in the GSL semis, Dark is probably out for blood
I also think Maru will have learned and adjusted from this series. I actually expect Maru to get in his head, put him on tilt early, and totally stomp him.
Game 1 was not macro game, it was roach/ravager 5 minute push that decided the game. 9/10 players would have lost right then, Maru survived and took the game to the late game, but he was so far behind he could have won only if Dark would have made some major blunders, and he didn't.
On March 19 2018 17:16 da.ta wrote: Game 1 was not macro game, it was roach/ravager 5 minute push that decided the game. 9/10 players would have lost right then, Maru survived and took the game to the late game, but he was so far behind he could have won only if Dark would have made some major blunders, and he didn't.
Welcome to TL! Nice call with your first post, indeed, G1 was an allin that worked, but dindt kill the Terran off entirely, and ended up being a 30+ minutes starvation game.
On March 19 2018 07:05 leublix wrote: Dark's finals loses are even harder to stomach than soO's. He plays so damn well and most of the time looks like the better player but still manages to lose somehow.
With soO you rarely get the impression that he might really win it.
I still can't believe he didn't pool first g6 or g7. Maru is well known for this type of play Hopefully we'll see some revenge (or fewer proxy losses) in the GSL tournament!
Honestly at this point everyone should know that in that position Maru consistently does a 2rax, and just blind-counter it.
On March 19 2018 21:32 CaptainBurnTurn wrote: Best TvZ finals I have watched since the 2016 WCS Finals. Funny how both included Dark
I feel like I'm one of the few people who didn't like the ByuN Dark final that much. Dark seemed like he really was a better player than ByuN. I guess the reaper abuse kinda killed it.
On March 19 2018 21:32 CaptainBurnTurn wrote: Best TvZ finals I have watched since the 2016 WCS Finals. Funny how both included Dark
I feel like I'm one of the few people who didn't like the ByuN Dark final that much. Dark seemed like he really was a better player than ByuN. I guess the reaper abuse kinda killed it.
The 2016 WCS Grand Finals only had 1 good game, but that one is probably all people remember when talking about it with fondness.
Never had anything to do with esports. Just playing some sc2.
Then became fan of competitive sc2 cause of the IEM 2014 final, where sOs did back to back inbase proxy vs herO. this bold move in a 100k the winner takes it all final just fascinate me. form there on i followed the scene, especially proleague, and became a quite huge maru and jinair fanboy. now seeing maru winning this biggest single prize ever (220k) in a similar fashon... is rounding it up for me. maybe proxy rax are not as bold. but doing it in game 6 and 7 against the ropes make it compareable imo.
i dont know how long sc2 will hang on, but i will enjoy every tournament left.
On March 19 2018 21:32 CaptainBurnTurn wrote: Best TvZ finals I have watched since the 2016 WCS Finals. Funny how both included Dark
I feel like I'm one of the few people who didn't like the ByuN Dark final that much. Dark seemed like he really was a better player than ByuN. I guess the reaper abuse kinda killed it.
The 2016 WCS Grand Finals only had 1 good game, but that one is probably all people remember when talking about it with fondness.
I was more fond of the story. ByuN winning back to back GSL and Blizzcon without a team was pretty special imo
What an interesting ending. Maru's double cheese looked like it really frustrated Dark. Looked like he didn't practice vs cheese in a grand final haha.
On March 19 2018 02:43 DSh1 wrote: To be honest, I don't know how Dark could not see the proxy rax in game 7. Maru ALWAYS relies on cheese when he is feeling pressured.
maru researched dark's searching tracks and choose there
On March 19 2018 02:54 KR_4EVR wrote: Maru had an eureka moment of apotheosis midway through the series. He knew he could beat Dark in late game, he could beat Dark's all-ins, and he could beat Dark with bio pushes BUT if he didn't micro perfectly, Dark would win in each of those cases. So he made a huge decision, realising that if he put the stress on Dark instead, it would be up to Dark to have to micro perfectly to hold - which is really hard in a 2-3 hour long best of 7 under huge stress and monetary pressure.
Maru, you have finally absorbed the teachings of $O$ - and a similar paycheck.
These guys play the game more hours per day than I show up at work to earn my meager "living." And you're looking at top level pros who have been in these situations (semis/finals offline) so many times, unless one of them is like man if I don't take #1 I won't be able to afford the gas bill for my parents house next winter (definitely not the case)... these cats are loaded because they keep placing so well, as they should be. I'll give them some of my money just to watch them play! Maru is killing it in real late game scenarios, but Dark has for many years when i've been screaming "dude build more zerglings/banes, do more early aggression!, more drops" etc., he always does. And he hits at the right time and he hits hard. Maru took the right steps to win. Dark breaks him too early for him to get comfortable with his super late game which we never really saw in this series. Rematch tonight is going to be awesome!
We have a huge REMATCH from WESG BO7 here tonight, all of you nerds better stay up, it's Friday! Call upon all your nerd friends, your sisters, your mom and dad, your long lost second cousins that called on you after you won the lottery or received your inheritance from that Nigerian prince you made a down payment for! Let's get everyone in here to support STARCRAFT, the most competitive 1v1 game of all time!
EPT
![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/maruwesg.jpg)
Maru returned to WESG in search of redemption. And redemption he did find—all $200,000 worth of it. At the end of an intense, roller coaster series, Maru defeated 
Hopefully we'll see some revenge (or fewer proxy losses) in the GSL tournament!
