EPT
There are a couple of reasons why I believe that Stork will win this OSL:
1) His body is HOT.
After topics like Nada's body came up, I thought nobody would be able to surpass the amount of scarily homosexual fanboyism of Nada... Until I saw this. I, like many others, had been noticing that Stork's face had become much thinner than before, and disliked how skinny and frail he looked (at least on his face). This perspective changed with the pics of Stork that were released during WCG. And his body is HOT.
I must clarify here, that I am not stating that Stork will win the OSL because of his HOT body - I want to draw your attention to what it takes to maintain such a body: discipline. I believe that Stork's muscular body is a physical manifestation of the new level of maturity and mental strength he has achieved. The guy is practicing, and he's practicing like he's going to win the OSL. The guy kept up with his tight eating plan even while flying out to Chengdu for WCG! Props to Stork for the more disciplined and matured outlook on life! The little protoss that could is becoming a mantoss that could.
![[image loading]](http://i48.tinypic.com/15gvypx.jpg)
2) Reavers, reavers, reavers.
The man loves Reavers, the little critter like machine that spits out bombs of destruction. This is arguably Stork's greatest weapon. In PvT of the past, he used reavers to disrupt the Terran's midgame push. The terrans decided to turtle till 2-1 + 3 base. Stork has been leading the Protoss response for quite some time now: he evolved his metagame, integrating fast, flawless arbiter play with impeccable micro and macro. Couple this with his observers shenanigans that give him a VERY good scope of the game, and we have a macro/micro beast who knows what to do at every turn of the game. Stork basically has maphack once his observers are moving; I may be overanalyzing things, but I suspect that Stork's extensive use of using observers and observing what is happening in the game is the reason why his APM is historically low for a progamer; he uses the vision of the enemy he gains from observers to adapt and work with whatever people throw at him.
I don't think I need to speak much of his PvZ - go watch his game vs type-b and you'll see how his ability to see long term wins him the game, despite type-b securing 4 gases and doing the lurker + sunken line shit that every protoss dreads. Instead of trying to break through the line, Stork takes it slow, taking down the zerg defenses layer by layer with reavers while securing a third and later a fourth (with minor delays due to zerglings from type-b) himself. Yes, type-b screwed up with his guardians; but they were only meant to delay the protoss push until he could get ultras out, not a game-winning move by any means. I believe that type-b was heavily pressured by Stork due to his reaver play, and stork was able to win because he was able to see that he had a timing window where he could break through with his reavers and deal with whatever amount of ultras type-b could muster up before this, thanks to excellent scouting by his corsairs that died earlier and showed that type-b's hive was late due to the sunkens and lurkers he was making. I believe that stork saw the game play out from that point, decided to make reavers, thinking about the amount of time he had left before the zerg would overwhelm him. And he took that timing with surgical precision - what ballsy play, even with his ability to see the game at a greater level than most people. Storks' PvZ has evolved, and as long as he goes reavers in his games, he'll win.
His PvP is world class; it is his statistically best matchup, and he's never the underdog against any other protoss, even Bisu, in a PvP. Sure, he might drop some games here and there, but it may be more due to miscalculation based on what he saw or tricky play from the opponent. (that brings this to mind - perhaps his battles against Flash has developed in him a greater scope of the game... learning from him by playing with him)
3) The legend of the fall.
It is time for stork to win. The protoss gods have chosen stork to win this OSL, and not even Jaedong will stop him like he did at WCG. I have suspicions that Jaedong was not as hungover as stork at wcg, giving him the edge in that final stage... Jaedong has maliciously drugged the protoss warlord!
The Ever OSLS have featured a terran winner, two Zerg winners with two golden mouses (Jaedong and July), and no protoss winners. It is time that Stork wins his second OSL - the winds are brisk, and it is fall. Though the Zergs have been victorious in the last two EVER OSL finals, Stork will take the throne this time as the undisputed champion. Once again, not even Jaedong (my second place pick) will stop Stork when they meet in the finals.
Tune in to watch stork play. You'll be watching him as a Legend is born from the legend of the fall, and before you know it, Stork will join the other players in the growing list of legends in the korean starcraft scene.
-Joohyunee
