EPT
Alright, I know, it's GOMTvTvTvT. Yes, yes, terran must be IMBA and OP because they're the only race standing. Marauders are unbeatable, banshees can freaking go invisible and shoot shit, and they can fly their buildings into the deepest ends of space where no mutalisk or phoenix will ever find them. Hey, I can feel your pain guys. If I was the master of the universe and could rig the entire tournament for your enjoyment, I would have made it so that the semifinals consisted of a zerg, a protoss, a terran and someone playing random. Every game would be the most amazing thing you had ever seen in your entire life, and poor Artosis would literally have a heart attack from the amount of awesome he was witnessing.
Well, sadly, I'm not and this is what we're left with. Me? I like TvT. I like the chess match feeling when two players move along the map with their forces, trying to find the smallest window of opportunity that their opponent gives them and then go in for the resounding checkmate. I like the long games. I even, like a masochist, enjoy the tedious moving of tanks slowly for five minutes straight with no actual action. Again, I know that a lot of you dislike TvT, and I can't make you like a match-up. You either like it or you don't.
I can tell you that I think the final four left do have interesting and some amazing plot points behind them. I can say that if you continue watching, you might see a great final that you've been hoping for. I can say, in my heart of hearts, that all four of these guys are great players. They might not be named MC, MVP, or Nestea, but none of these guys got here entirely on luck. Yeah, maybe TOP got lucky that Nestea couldn't catch his hellions in game three of their series, but the entire game of Starcraft 2, no, any sport in the world, involves luck.
Now, let's get caught up a little, shall we? Let's go through ten things I learned from the quarterfinals that went on the past two nights:
1. Seriously, this MMA guy, he must be doing this on purpose, right? He must be purposely playing a weak early game just so that when he comes back at the end of the game, girls will be throwing themselves at him. It's like a guy who takes his car and then drives as fast as he can on a clifftop, trying to see how far he can go before he stops or careens off, killing himself and his beautiful car. That's how I feel when watching MMA play. He gets behind, looks like he's about to drive off the end of the cliff, but then amazingly stops, makes a comeback and wins.
2. MMA beat Ryung in two ways. He not only won the battle in the game, but he also won the ceremony battle. Tuna, Ryung? Really? Yeah, yeah, I'm sure it's an in joke between the Slayers team, but a can of tuna? With MMA, you had him place cards on his window booth to signify how many wins he had over you. But you? A can of tuna. Okay, buddy, report to Keen's office at 12 tomorrow for training.
3. Ga-yeon, Boxer's girlfriend, likes and encourages cock fighting between the members of Slayers.
4. TheBest might have the worst banshee control in the entire world. When your entire build enlists you to go into MarineKing's base, do heavy damage, and get out, what does he do? He flies his banshee into MarineKing's base, runs straight at the marines and dies. Then, in the second game, he takes his banshee to the natural, mulls around for a few seconds, and then cloaks for the singular SCV there. Maybe TheBest thought that the SCV could evolve into a thor?
5. It is possible to make TheBest stop smirking. Yes, it happened, just for a few seconds, but it happened. After getting beat by MarineKing for third straight time in under twelve minutes, TheBest looked like he lost his smirk forever. I think the reality that he is now out of the Super Tournament and forever in the abyss that is Code B dawned on him. But hey, don't feel so bad, TheBest, you made around $5,000! That's more than MC and Idra combined to collect at MLG Columbus, even after playing endlessly for three straight days! Get your smirk on, TheBest, you sick all-in baller you!
6. I'm about to get attacked by half of you on this board, but I just gotta come out and say it.
Ready?
Okay.
I think MarineKing looks better with glasses than without. Yep, with the amount of time the series between MarineKing and TheBest took, I could make a clear judgment on what version of MarineKing I like better. I know all of you MarineKing Without Glasses fans are really angry at me right now, but I hope in time you can see what I'm saying is true.
7. It isn't a good sign when the first image we see of you before a match is that you look scared out of your skull. Alicia, I love you, I really do, but get your brother John to make you look tough and not back down from anyone. Grow a manly beard and put fear into your challengers. Because right now, when someone faces you, it looks like they're facing a scared turtle wanting to put his head back into his shell. I demand to see Alicia have manly facial hair the next time we see him. Make it happen.
8. I really, really like Polt. Don't take me for someone who has always loved the guy. I didn't at all. When he talked about how Jinro, our awesome Jinro, got lucky to get into the semifinals twice in back-to-back seasons, I threw my hands at my computer and pleaded for our Swedish Gorilla Terran to knock his head off. Jinro did, I was happy, and wanted Polt to fall into Code B forever. Then, out of nowhere, he actually got really good. He finished his studies at university and turned into a complete beast. His ELO shot up to second in Korea only behind Bomber. I'll get more into Polt later on in this article, but damn, how did I start liking this guy? Maybe I'll start like Choya next?
Nah.
9. ZeNex Line really loves to make mutalisks. You could almost say that he adores them and wants to marry them. Whenever I now think of Line, I will now just imagine a mutalisk with glasses on it. That's all I have to say about Line.
10. TOP really can't catch any breaks. Ever since he beat Nestea in the Ro16, people have been on his case because he bunker rushed him in the first game. Even the next game with early banshee harass, some people got mad and thought it was cheese. Then, at the end, even when he won the last game with some good play and nice hellion control, everyone demanded the guy to be beat up for taking out the Zerg God. You thought it couldn't get any worse? Next, he has to play the only remaining non-terran in the whole fucking competition, goes behind 2-1, and then makes a gigantic comeback to win the series, making the rest of the tournament TvT. Now he's the guy who made the semifinals and finals suck because it's all terran. Why does TOP have to ruin everything!? He first knocked out Nestea, then eliminated the last non-terran, and probably was the guy who ran the streams at MLG Dallas!
I'm going to stand up for TOP. The guy did what had to be done. No, even if you think he's a terrible cheesy player with no talent, TOP is a good player. He was our first Code A champion (before Losira and Bomber) and has been consistent in almost every tournament we've seen him in. He's a really good player and deserves this chance in the spotlight. Would I rather had Nestea here? Hell yeah! But that doesn't mean it's TOP's fault for playing his ass off to get where he is now.
So, I know a lot of you aren't really familiar with these guys and just are getting into the GSL. Some of you are slowly picking up on who is who and what is what. I want you guys to understand these guys too, you know. You don't have to follow GSL 24/7 for the past year to get the gist of what these guys currently are.
To try and prove I could get anyone into the GSL and share the character's backstories, I got my female friend, let's call her Leanne, and tried to get her into this crazy video game tournament with people who don't even speak her language half across the world. I sat her down, showed her a few games from the quarterfinals (I skipped out on the MarineKing/TheBest series to make sure she didn't hit me) and explained to her what she was going on.
She said that she thought the action was cool and that Tasteless sounded hot, but didn't understand who these guys were. I could have explained it to her in the way that I explained the eight quarter finalists in my last article, but that would have flown over her head.
That's when I decided to compare our final four to guys you would know in high school. All four of them wanting to ask you out to prom. Who would these four be if you knew them back in high school?
Polt? He's the guy you know who used to sit in the back of the class, be covered in pimples, and have the second creepiest smile in the world behind TheBest. He would stalk you after class, try to hang out at the locker right next to yours to just say hi like a total creep, and would hover hand you whenever he had the chance to do so. There would be no way in hell you would ever go to prom with this guy, right?
So Polt's family has to move to Antarctica and is gone for a whole year. You're elated, knowing you don't have to see that creep anymore. Then, when the new school year starts the year after, Polt has returned. No, this isn't the same Polt. This dude has a six pack, digs his hand into your shoulder when he takes a picture with you, and can bench press nerds for breakfast.
He went from the biggest geek in the world into a total badass. Yeah, some might say that he isn't all that cool and he'll eventually revert back to his old self, but right now he is looking and talking like someone you would go to third base with.
TOP? The boy next door. You know that guy who lives next to the cute girl, they become friends, and then the boy wants to actually have a relationship with the girl? Yeah, that's TOP. To his dismay, TOP will always get friendzoned and never be the hottest one of the bunch. Don't get me wrong, TOP is a good guy. Reliable, smart and consistent, but he doesn't have the shine or dazzle the other three candidates have.
He'll bring you flowers, talk to you when your asshole boyfriend breaks up with you, and bring you chicken soup when you're sick, but he'll never be more than a friend. He'll always be there for you and never leave you, even after years of emotional abuse, but the feelings will never be the same.
MMA? Wow, this guy is totally awesome. His father (Boxer) is rich as hell and buys him the nicest clothes and cars a guy would want. All the girls want him and think he's the coolest thing ever. He plays chicken with his convertible and makes you think he'll fly off the top of a cliff, but will always stop one inch before toppling over.
But is he the real deal? All signs point to yes. He's nice, great at anything you put in front of him, but he still hasn't given you a concrete reason to trust him fully. You want to give yourself to him and take him to prom, but he still needs that final piece to prove to you that he just isn't talked up by everyone around you.
MarineKing? Oh MarineKing. He's the guy who looks like the perfect boyfriend. Smart, funny, nice to everyone and cute. He'll pay for everything. He'll do all the right things. He'll say all the right words. You just can't help but love the guy, right? What could be wrong with him?
Well, the guy just doesn't finish right. The first date you went on with him? He mistakenly tripped over his own feet, pushed you hard in the back, and you fell into the river. Second date? When you were at the restaurant, ready to eat your food, he accidentally spilled his hot drink and gave you second degree burns. Third date? He's finally going to do it! He's finally going to have the perfect night out. He goes for the kiss, you lean in, and somehow, the universe forces his elbow into your face and breaks your nose.
You love him with all your heart, but every time he breaks it. How long can you go on, wanting to be with this guy when he always causes you such harm when all the good times are done? Why smile at all the good things when it'll eventually put you in the hospital.
After going through this whole rundown with Leanne, I look at her, wanting to know what she thinks. She's on my computer, checking Google and apparently landed on a picture of MarineKing. She looked at me, pointed at the picture, and said, "He's hot! I want him to win!"
Well at least I tried.
Also, I wonder, what kind of guy would TheBest be in high school? Hm...you can only wonder:
![[image loading]](http://imageftw.com/uploads/20110611/phpk4731XPM.jpg)
Let's hope he cloaks better here than in his games
![[image loading]](http://imageftw.com/uploads/20110612/MKPMMA.png)
The Battle for Boxer
If you aren't excited for this, what match will you be excited for? The story writes itself. If you didn't know, our seventeen-year-old MarineKing wasn't always named for being the king of marines. When he started out, he got a lot of flack from the community for using the name of his hero and idol, Boxer. Playing with the name Boxer, trying to carry on the history of the name, it looked like the teenager who loved Boxer would actually get to face him in the GSL 2 finals.
After defeating HopeTorture (now known as Rainbow) in the semifinals, this is what was asked to MarineKing:
Q. Who do you want to play in the finals?
A. SlayerS_BoxeR for sure. It's an honour to even stand in the same stage, and it'll be the greatest moment of my life.
Q. Who do you think will win the semi final match tomorrow?
A. Zerg is more favourable as the skill level gets higher. I think SlayerS_BoxeR will find a way to win, so I'll carefully bet on him.
A. SlayerS_BoxeR for sure. It's an honour to even stand in the same stage, and it'll be the greatest moment of my life.
Q. Who do you think will win the semi final match tomorrow?
A. Zerg is more favourable as the skill level gets higher. I think SlayerS_BoxeR will find a way to win, so I'll carefully bet on him.
Boxer/Foxer/MarineKing wanted to be in the finals with his hero more than anything. He was so close to playing against the guy he idolized in Brood War on the grandest stage of SC2. Sadly, for him and many fans hoping for it, Nestea took out Boxer the next night and crushed any dreams for MarineKing to have the match he always wanted.
After the tournament that ended with MarineKing losing to Nestea in the final, MarineKing said he would be changing his name because the only Boxer in SC2 should be the one that he wanted to emulate so bad. First, if you didn't know, he wanted to change his name to OptimusPrime. After some thought, thinking that only the best member of Prime should have that ID after winning a GSL, said he didn't deserve it yet and changed his name to the one we all know today - MarineKing.
MarineKing never got his match with Boxer. After the second GSL, Boxer became more involved with his own team that he was building called Slayers and never got as far as he did in the second season. MarineKing continued his rise through the rankings, proving that he wasn't a one season fluke and would be around for a long, long time.
Boxer might not be the powerhouse any longer in SC2 that he was in Brood War, but Boxer has a talent that almost no other person in esports has. This guy can make an incredible team. He'll find players who other teams have ignored, take the diamonds in the rough and polish them into diamonds. He did it in Brood War with SK Telecom 1, the greatest and most successful team in BW and maybe esports history. Could he do it with Slayers? Only time could tell.
The first time we saw the Slayers team, they weren't all that great. They played ZeNex, thought of more as a weaker team, and got beat down by them. It looked like it would be pretty much an all-kill by them and Boxer's team would get shut out in their first appearance. Down 3-0, just having SlayersAlicia (oh hey, it's Alicia) get beaten by ZeNexJun, Boxer only had one player left to try and take down all of ZeNex.
This man? His name was Jjob. Not expecting much, Jjob gave it his all and took a game off ZeNex and finally sniped Jun. Then he defeated another. Then he defeated Byun. Who the hell was this guy? He was pulling an epic comeback when it looked like all hope was lost. Eventually, in the final set, Jjob couldn't do the reverse all-kill and got knocked out by ZeNexNuke; even though he lost that day, we saw the first flashes of brilliance of who would become Boxer's star pupil and Slayers' ace.
Jjob then popped up in Code A, beat our very own Ret 2-0 and then got taken out of the tournament by Killer in the next round by a 2-1 score. After that, he changed his name and started his own legacy in the GSL. In the first round of the second GSTL, his team, Slayers was one loss away from getting taken out for the second time. MC was stomping face and it looked like all hope was loss.
Then he appeared. Jjob no longer. His new name was MMA and he was here to kick ass. Put in a game where whichever player won, his team would advance, MMA had take on MC during the height of his powers. In the end, MMA won and the legend was born of the man who would rule the GSTL. He would then go on to do a three kill against Startale, only losing to Bomber. His team still won and qualified for the finals.
In the finals, they faced the champions of the past season, Incredible Miracle. The little team that could, crafted by Boxer, had to take on the monsters Nestea and MVP. Slayers fought hard, but it still looked like it would be all in vain with MVP rolling and forcing an ace match. Slayers, with only one pick left, sent our their new ace MMA and put all their hope in him.
Result? He played one of the best TvT's I have ever seen in SC2 and won the match and championship for his team. After that performance, people started to notice him. He got his own fan club. Girls in the crowd started to show up just to see him. He got farther in Code A the season after that, but got beat by Bomber, the only guy who seemingly could beat him at the time.
Still, he qualified for the Up-and-Down matches and had a chance for Code S. Who did he face there? MarineKing, of course. The two battled and in the end, MarineKing after a tough 2-1 series where MMA won the first game. After that, MMA tilted against Huk and got knocked down to Code A.
You thought that would be where he vanished, right? Nope. Back to third season of GSTL, MarineKing loses in the first round in heartbreaking fashion against the team MVP. In true storybook fashion, the man that beat MarineKing in the ace match of that series, DongRaeGu, was the man that MMA had to beat in the ace match of the championship match to defend the title for Slayers.
The result? He played one of the best TvZ's I have ever seen in SC2 and won the match and the championship for his team. Back-to-back titles, only having lost once in the GSTL after getting beat by ZeNexNuke in the first season. He was officially the King of the GSTL and was proving to be one of the most clutch players in the GSL.
MMA then went to MLG Columbus and we all know what happened there. He stomped face, didn't lose a match and became champion. MarineKing while MMA was rising through the ranks, went to the finals twice more after the one with Nestea and lost both to MVP, a guy MMA defeated in the second GSTL to win the title for Slayers. Now, in the Super Tournament, these two are finally going to duke it out in a setting that befits the intensity of this match.
MarineKing wants this more than anything. After three finals that he has lost, the two men that knocked him out are both gone. He can almost smell his first title and will do anything to get it. MMA is 29-7 since MarineKing beat him in the Up-and-Down matches and looks like he won't be stopped until he adds another title under his belt.
Will MarineKing show that he is stronger than Boxer's Heir? He might have never gotten the match he wanted with Boxer so long ago, but this is the next best thing. Everything MMA knows has been taught by Boxer and this is MarineKing's chance to take him down and move into the finals. Can he do it and be one step closer to realizing his dream of raising the championship trophy, or will MMA with Boxer behind him be too strong for the kid who once named himself BoxerPrime?
![[image loading]](http://imageftw.com/uploads/20110611/PoltTOP.png)
Living in the Shadows
The other semifinal. The one without the gigantic hype. The one without the built in story. Both of these guys have been living in the shadow for too long. For Polt, it's always been MarineKing. It has always been MarineKing and Friends when people thought of Prime. People only thought of Polt when they wanted to rage about his comment against Jinro before their GSL match. Besides that, the only person talked about on Prime with any sort of ability to win a title was MarineKing. Who else would win on Prime? Maka? Check? Anypro? All good players, no doubt, but they weren't MarineKing. They didn't have the legion of fangirls like MarineKing and didn't have the accomplishments.
For TOP? He's on oGs where they house the legend himself, Nada, the foreigner who got to back-to-back semifinals, Jinro, and the super rookie who took TOP's thunder, Supernova. TOP never could get noticed with those guys there. This guy was our first Code A champion and it seemed like everyone just forgot that ever happened a week later. Yeah, people would say he was good at TvT, but that was it. Where's the respect? Losira and Bomber both suddenly became top players at their race when they won their title, but TOP won his Code A championship and got mostly unnoticed by the community.
TOP has always been consistent. He hasn't fallen out of Code S since he got there after winning Code A. Last season, he beat Supernova in the Ro16 and then had to face Nada in the Ro8. He lost 3-1, but showed that he was a force to be reckoned with. He isn't just some random guy who popped out of nowhere, cheesed Nestea, and now is in the semifinals like a few people think. The guy is good. He's solid. He knows how to play a good macro game. This is his time to earn the respect of the community and take over as the top terran on the oGs team with Nada falling to Line, the guy TOP had to beat in the Ro8 to get into the semifinals.
Back to Polt. He used to suck. A lot. I thought he was going to fall into Code B forever and I wouldn't have cared. Then, out of nowhere, he got good. As I said in my previous article, Polt had been going to one of the top colleges in Korea (ranked 50th in the world, I believe) and wasn't committing full time to Starcraft 2. He wasn't living in the team house and was probably focusing more on his studies than the games he was playing.
Then, finally, after graduating, he finally could concentrate fully after that game. This was around the time Jinro knocked him out of the GSL. After that night, Polt has gone 38-12.
LET ME REPEAT: THIRTY EIGHT WINS AND TWELVE LOSSES.
If it wasn't for MMA and his MLG Columbus championship, he would be the hottest thing going in SC2. Damn, you could even make a case for him being the hottest player right now even with MMA winning MLG. When you watch Polt, you might not see the most innovative play or the most amazing tactics, but he doesn't make mistakes. He's smart and he knows that. He knows how to play a long game. He knows how to deflect other builds. He knows what to do when someone is going all-in on him. He's beaten a terran, a zerg, and two protoss this tournament. He's 9-2 overall and only dropped two games; one of them being a cheese from Maka, his own teammate, in the Round of 16.
So where does this leave us? Two guys who a lot of people don't expect to do any damage in the finals. It's all about MarineKing or MMA. Whoever wins that match is going to be champion, a lot of people are saying. Polt or TOP? Ha! Just go home, another one-sided final with MMA/MKP winning in the end without any trouble.
Right?
Wrong. I firmly believe either of these two could be champion. TOP has shown amazing TvT, and Polt has been on a whole other level since he finished university. They shouldn't be overlooked any longer and need to be recognized as great players in the GSL. Whoever wins this match will be the underdog in the final, but they shouldn't be looked at as another Rain or Inca. They have both proved that they deserve to be in the spots they're in.
Polt is sick of being in MarineKing's shadow.
TOP is sick of being in Nada's shadow.
It's time for one of these men to step out from the darkness and into the light of the GSL Finals.
Poll: MarineKing vs. MMA
MarineKing (315)
50%
MMA (312)
50%
627 total votes
MMA (312)
627 total votes
Your vote: MarineKing vs. MMA
Poll: Polt vs. TOP
Polt (291)
56%
TOP (230)
44%
521 total votes
TOP (230)
521 total votes
Your vote: Polt vs. TOP
P.S: My hands hurt from typing so much.
Hope you enjoy and thank you for reading!
