EPTOUR STORY UNFOLDS with two paths, one begun in the summer days of Brood War, and the other in these early days of Starcraft 2.
Slayers_Boxer, given the opportunity to create a team in Brood War, surrounds himself with a hand picked crowd of then unknown players. Most of them do well, but one -- iloveoov -- quickly stands out from the rest. Surpassing even his mentor, iloveoov becomes the first true bonjwa. The team that Boxer formed around him would become SKT, truly the greatest Brood War team there ever was.
In another time, and another place, CellaWerra of the Werra clan is playing Starcraft 2. He makes friends and gains many fans in the foreign audience. Known for his humor and his on-stream antics, he quickly makes a name for himself outside Korea with videos such as the 13 Gate build.
Two things happen.
Slayers_Boxer decides to leave Brood War and start a career in SC2 with the GSL. He makes his debut in GSL season 2, eventually beating NaDa to advance to the Round of 4. Now deep in the SC2 scene, Boxer needs a team. Intel answers his call, and sponsors not only a team, but also Boxer himself.
Meanwhile, the clan Werra is disbanded admist a firestorm of controversy as their coach is accused of sexual misconduct towards Werra members. And just like that, CellaWerra is just Cella, and needs a team.
Soon, Boxer puts out an open call for the new team he is creating with Intel's support, named Slayers. Cella applies, and is in. He becomes Slayers_Cella. And as Slayers_Cella, he still continues to amuse and entertain his foreign fans, including a certain rendition of a certain song.
First One's Just Practice
The members that Boxer gathers around himself this time around in the new Slayers team are composed, just like SKT, of relative unknowns. None of the star power or fame that a Nestea or MC possesses.
In February, GSL announces that it will be televising a one week team league. It features the top 8 teams in SC2 at that time in Korea: oGs, StarTale, Incredible Miracle (IM), Team SCV Life (TSL), For Our Utopia (fOu), ZeNex, Prime, and Slayers.
In an exciting series over a week (that you really should watch), IM manages to take the championship, on the strength of IMNestea, IMSeed and IMMvP.
Slayers, meanwhile, falls in the first round to ZeNex. Boxer himself came out as first pick for Slayers, and falls in the first game to ZeNex, one of the weaker teams.
But one player on Slayers stood out in that series: Slayers_ Jjob. In an almost reverse all kill, he went last in the Slayers lineup against ZeNex, and took out 3 of ZeNex's players.
An Emperor Falters
With a team around him and sponsors to support him, Boxer seems primed to focus on advancing in Code S. Unfortunately, in the March Code S season, he falls in the first round of 32 to SanZenith and Ensnare. In the following Up and Down matches, Boxer loses again.
Boxer, the Emperor himself, is in Code A.
At the same moment that Boxer falls to Code A, however, another Slayers player -- Slayers_Alicia -- plays an extraordinary series against IMMvP, advancing to Code S while simultaneously helping to knock MvP down to Code A. This would not be the last time viewers would see Alicia.
This Time for Serious -- or, GSL Team League 2
GSL Team League 2 started with the same 8 team lineup. Of the 8 teams, the general ranking was:
Top Tier: oGs, IM, TSL, ST Lower Tier: Prime, ZeNex, fOu, Slayers
Most people put Slayers below even the lower tier, given their past performance in the team league and the obscurity of their players.
Viewers were introduced for the first time to the new vice-coach of team Slayers: Slayers_Cella. Carrying a notebook and constantly talking to his team members, Cella was perhaps the person that Slayers needed the most. A coach who could focus on strategy, not just at the player level, but at the team level. Someone who could see the flow of the team vs team battles, and make calls about who to send out.
Slayers's first opponent was oGs. Home to NaDa, TOP and 2 time GSL Champion MC, oGs were heavy favorites to win the team league. MC appeared to be unstoppable, and NaDa and TOP rounded out a bevy of top tier players.
The Birth of a Legend Killer
oGs vs Slayers starts off with matches between Min, InCa and TOP that leaves the score at 1-1. In response, Slayers sends out Ryung. In a series of 2 games, Ryung demonstrates a masterful understanding of TvT. At every step of each game, he was composed, calm, and knew exactly what to do and when to do it.
Down 3-1, oGs had nowhere to go. What could they do but send out oGsMC?
Hot off the highs of winning an unprecedented second GSL Code S championship, oGsMC was considered by most to be the single best SC2 player in the world at that point.
And he proves it, by defeating Ryung and Frozen.
The score is now 3-3. Cella gathers his notes.
Slayers sends out Slayers_MMA.
Who the hell is Slayers_MMA? Slayers_MMA is the new name of Slayers_Jjob, the player who nearly reverse all-killed ZeNex in the prior team league.
In a furious game of micro timings, MMA managed to defeat MC and create one of the great upsets of the season.
Slayers, considered the worst team of the previous team league, advances over oGs.
Entering the Octagon
Next up for Slayers is team StarTale. Trying to prove himself, Frozen opens up for Slayers. In a surprise move, StarTale decides to lead with JulyZerg.
Frozen fared no better against July than he did against MC the previous day. Down 0-1, who could Slayers send out against July, the Code S finalist?
Slayers_MMA.
In a quick game, MMA decisively defeats July. And every single StarTale player until STBomber. In an amazing comeback play, STBomber bridges a huge deficit to defeat MMA. The score was now 3-1, Slayres lead.
One more win for Slayers would end the series. And it happens. The TvT master Slayers_Ryung steps out once again, and defeats STBomber for the win.
Slayers is now in the finals.
Perchance to Dream
Team Incredible Miracle, with no less than two GSL champions in their roster, is widely considered to be the most consistent top tier team in Starcraft 2.
The finals is a best of 9. First team to five wins seals the deal.
Leading the charge for Slayers was Alicia. Not having been used at all during the second team league, he makes his debut with an astounding 3-0 run against IM with convincing wins.
Down, IM decides that they should take advantage of PvP and sends out YongHwa. In a quick back and forth, YongHwa takes the game from Alicia, making the score 3-1.
Comfortably ahead, Slayers decides to send out Slayers_Golden. Golden, formerly of fOu, is unable to surpass YongHwa. The score is now 3-2.
Falling once again back to the very solid and consistent Slayers_Ryung, Slayers manages to take a victory over YongHwa with some clutch TvP.
4-2, Slayers lead. IM is now against the wall. With Nestea out, that left only one player they could send.
January GSL champion IMMvp.
Patch 1.3 and the sweet, sweet sounds of Yamato cannons
Stepping back a couple hours, Blizzard released Patch 1.3 in Korea just before the finals of the team league. Patch 1.3 introduced many changes, including a speed buff to Battlecruisers.
Back in the team league finals, Ryung is playing great against IMMvP. Ryung is sieging at the right moments, expanding at the right timings, and generally avoiding any serious missteps in the complicated chess game that is TvT.
Then MVP breaks all the rules. He makes Battlecruisers. MVP realizes that with the new speed buff, Battlecruises were once again useful in the TvT endgame. MVP tears through Ryung's primarily ground and siege tank based army. With a few clutch Yamato cannon shots at a sizable amount of vikings that Ryung had managed to scrounge up, MVP wins the game.
The score was now 4-3, Slayers lead.
Pause, Crash, Restart, Pause
After conferring, Cella and the rest of Slayers decides to send out GanZi next, in an effort to wear down MVP and to gain more information about his playstyle.
After a series of delays, the game begins only to have GanZi pause and then leave the game. Drama erupted. The IM coach could be seen shouting at a GomTV official.
In the rematch, MVP completely abandons the strategy he was starting to show in the first aborted MVP vs GanZi game, and goes for a quick 5 barracks all marine push. GanZi is caught flat footed, and loses.
And just like that, the Game Genie Terran equalizes the score.
4-4. Tied.
Legend vs Legend Killer
As Slayers has done when facing MC, July, or ZeNex, out comes Slayers_MMA.
MMA decides to go for a marine heavy force based on decisive tempo based play. MVP, meanwhile, decides to play orthodox TvT, getting a fair number of siege tanks and marines.
The atmosphere is tense. Nerdchills are experienced. The game to decide it all between the two pillars of each respective team.
In the end, it comes down to timing. In a moment so tense that Artosis and Tasteless were reduced to silence as they watched along with the audience, MMA takes advantage of a momentary opening. He stims and runs. Tanks explode, and MVP loses his army.
Soon thereafter, it flashes on the screen: gg.
MMA wins.
A legend killer. Over the course of a week, Slayers_MMA defeated oGsMC, STJulyZerg and IMMvp.
Cameras flash. SlayersBoxer, the Emperor, the founder of SKT, once again holds aloft a championship trophy.
The Emperor has returned.
With minions.
And Cella?
Cella is now coach of the Korean team for the World Championship games next week.
