First off I want to thank the guys who put together the Live Report threads, from whom I steal the results, thank you all for your hard work putting them together. [Come back MoonBear!] With that being said...

F.United seems so schizophrenic with who their opening player is, there's no real pattern to be found. For game one F.United opened with Moon against one of oGs' few good Zerg players: Cezzane. But before the match got underway, there's something that needs to be said: oGs-TL's emblem is awesome, and their intro song is awesome, you should check them both out.

Moon showed off a much stronger ZvZ in this opening series than he did last week. Even so, it wasn't enough to best Cezzane. The game was back and forth from the beginning, with Ling/Baneling micro battles transitioning into a Roaches focused mid-game and eventually an Infestor focused late game. Cezzane had slightly crisper timings than Moon, getting upgrades and tech out slightly faster and was able to take the win through his superior timed execution. It's a game worth watching, if only for the hope that ZvZ is standardizing.

Next up was the often overlooked WeMadeFox's Soccer; it's still fantastic for me to see foreigners be the clutch team players over the Koreans. Soccer got a chance to show off his well thought out game plan, with nice transitions through unit compositions until finally getting High Templar, Void Ray, Colossus out. Despite some sloppy execution from both players, the game ended up being pretty fun to watch, and finally gave Soccer a chance to show his skill level when he's not being punished for sub-par execution.

In an interesting choice, oGs threw out another Zerg, Luvsic. Luvsic did what always seems to beat Soccer in his matches: abuse of his unclean execution. A nice Roach timing was all it took to best Soccer, who didn't get a chance to show his smart late game play.

It was time to bring out the foreigner big guns in the form of the Peruvian Fenix. Fenix showed off some fantastic play against Luvsic, demonstrating how much he's learned in Korea. Fenix was able to use solid Marine/Tank play to shut down Luvsic's economy at every turn. Despite some great counter attacking decisions from Luvsic, Fenix played TvZ the way it was designed to be played, absorbing the Zerg swarm but doing enough economic damage to come out ahead in cost efficiency every time. This game might have been made by Blizzard themselves with how "true to the races" it was played.

oGsTheSTC was the next hope against the unstoppable Peruvian. Fenix got way ahead in the early game, holding STC's timing and getting a huge number of SCV kills with his blue flame Hellions. Fenix was able to prevent STC's follow up harass from doing too much damage and so had too large an economic advantage to lose. If you like lining 'em up, than this is a good game, otherwise it was pretty basic with Fenix outplaying STC

oGs suddenly realized that they were about to lose so put out their ace player MC as their final hope against the much improved Fenix. Fenix should have pulled way ahead in the early game with hidden two Barracks pressure, but was stopped by some unfortunately poor micro. Afterwards both players were pretty even as they macro'd up to three bases with only back and forth pokes in between. Finally MC went for a very well controlled engagement, besting Fenix's army with excellent Storm control. MC got tunnel vision after the engagement, going for a series of almost kill attacks against Fenix's front without expanding or teching behind them. Eventually Fenix was able to take out MC's unprotected third base with a drop, and take the win out of nowhere.



Fenix was in trouble in two of his three games, with Wolf and Doa calling it in the enemies favor both times. Fenix was the comeback kid, and he did it with excellent micro, and much improved macro. He let F.United go out with a bang, and I can not wait to see his growth with IM.

Fenix is the one to watch.

---

Both Monster and Clide opted to expand before worrying about unit-producing structures, but Monster's Roach pressure transition proved much more effective than Clide’s Depot-heavy build. Unfortunately for Monster, that was about where his good play ended. Clide crept back into the game with some solid drops and some less solid pacing back and forth across the map with his bio, but he was ahead on both third and fourth expansion timings. Monster's fourth was actually so late it never got up, and we all know how three base Zerg does against four base Terran.

Clide’s TvZ didn’t seem particularly strong, because MVP went straight to back to the Zerg well. DongRaeGu proceeded to uncharacteristically bork a Baneling Bust, and I began to hope. Maybe this was Clide’s moment, his time to shine. Maybe Clide would be the man to end DRG’s reign of terror. Artosis would finally be vindicated.

Then Clide threw away about a half dozen Medivacs full of marines trying to drop while Mutas were on the field. God dammit.

Somehow that brought the players back to roughly even, and when Clide began his slow Marine-Tank push, DRG went with an end-around. For a moment it looked like the Ling-Muta counterattack was brilliant, but then a single misclick sent the entire Muta pack on a suicide move command over a half dozen Turrets and a squad of Marines. And with that, the reign of terror ended. Clide had done the impossible: beaten DRG in the GSTL.

The announcers then let us know that Clide was “doing pretty good”.


With Protoss up next from MVP, Clide went to a Bunker heavy build, letting Vampire’s Gateway + Void Ray build keep him pinned in his base until Medivacs came out. Once Medivacs came out, though, the game was afoot: Clide’s first drop was a masterpiece, dropping into the natural, clearing out the Probes, getting chased into the main, killing more Probes, and then getting out with 5 of his 8 Marines. Like whoa.

MVP threw up their strategic hands and sent out the one random player in the entire league. The winds of fate brought us a TvT. GuineaPig’s quick CC into Banshees seemed solid, right up until Clide’s blue flame Hellions reduced his SCV count to 2.

Somehow the game lasted for quite a while longer; GuineaPig’s Banshee heavy force managed to keep the continual waves of Hellions from destroying actual buildings, but the Hellions managed to kill pretty much everything else, including almost 70 SCVs. That's not the kind of thing one comes back from.

Bomber starts this series off with one of his favorites: the Bunker rush! Oddly though, his opponent doesn't scout this somewhat standard Terran opening. This stroke of fortune allows Bomber to set up completely at the Zergs natural doing significant early damage until Lucky can fend it off. The pressure really never lets up from here. Invoking the ceremonial dance of hellions vs slow lings followed shortly by cloaked banshees courting queens, Bomber gains a tremendous lead and decides not to get more ahead and instead start screwing around and throwing away massive amounts of units for no real gain making this game far closer than it should have been. Lucky holds on, and fights, and claws and eventually base trades with SO MANY BANELINGS...enough to crush the remaining Terran army winning the Zerg the game in a most hilarious fashion.

Both players open up very similarly getting down an expansion accompanied by a Baneling Nest. The one major difference being that Lucky gets a Baneling bomb off in the natural of Curious killing a handful of Drones, more than enough to gain a strong lead. From here Lucky uses the Larva advantage to get out more units while Curious techs to Infestors. What ensues is one of the best and most entertaining ZvZ's that I've ever seen, all I can say is it involves lots of Fungals, Roaches, Infested Terrans, Brood Lords, and carrrrrrrrnage! A great game with so much going on that Curious ends up winning some how. WATCH THIS!

It's hard to know what exactly to say about this game, it's like the last game but minus the awesome. Inori opts for what looks to be a timing attack...but without the timing, instead he uses his large force and quick upgrades to take a hidden expansion that he Cannons the hell out of. So Curious is confused when the Protoss is on 2 base for so long with no attack and naturally begins maxing out his tech tree and taking the map. Eventually they fight and the armies kind of trade, and Inori holds on with his weird composition for a bit until a real fight finally happens. There's alot of Storms and tons of Feedbacks, but in the end around a dozen Brood Lords are still standing, a lack-luster finish to a very strange and boring game.

Curious shuts down this silly 1 gate expansion play by Protoss, simply attacking with a Ling force and forcing a cancel. From here nothing seems to go Choya's way, getting his tech scouted and always running into the Zerg at the wrong time. Eventually they go for somewhat of a base trade where Choya gets 1 and Curious gets 2, putting the Zerg rather ahead. After this Choya fights for his life, trying whatever he can to hold on, but Curious's overwhelming style ends up being too much

asd begins with double Reactor Hellions going for a quick attack that is to involve quite a alot of fire. Curious sees this in time to set up a Queen wall, managing to corner and kill all ELEVEN Hellions in his natural with some Banelings for virtually no losses. From here Curious does that voodoo that he does so well, getting farther ahead: backstabbing his opponent every time he tries to move, not giving an inch let alone a mile, macroing up an ever larger swarm force supported by non stop Muta harassment until a final engagement destroys the Terran 3rd along with his army, ending this series with a game that looked almost too easy for curious and ST as a whole.

Curious gets his own all kill!

One month ago, F.United embarked on the gruelling quest of taking on the GSTL, the harshest of team leagues. Last week marked the completion of their journey, ending on a high note with a win over Old Generations-TL.

The first days in Korea were less than stellar for the United players. Those not from Korea – ThorZain, NaNiwa, and Fenix – were forced to play Code A matches on television shortly after arriving. The result was a somewhat half-hearted initial showing, in which only ThorZain won a game between the three of them (plus SaSe).

Later that week they had better fortune, when Thorzain and NaNiwa teamed up to take down MVP notables, wOn, GuineaPig, Noblesse, and Genius. The team was off to a surprising start; they had a hopeful but uncertain future. The road ahead would be difficult and they knew better than anyone else the challenge that they faced.

The next few weeks made that enormity of that challenge clear to all concerned. F.United managed a near miss against TSL, only to be completely shut out by both Prime and SlayerS. Being a team of universally strong constitution, F.United kept going. They trained, tirelessly and without hesitation. They didn't let bad news get them down, NaNiwa even traveled to compete in MLG Raleigh. Through the tilts and the triumphs, they trained. Tried and tested, they trained.

They shouldered the hopes of a globe full of foreigners, and marched on. Brave soldiers that they are, simply making the trip to Korea took each of them great effort, and once there they stayed course and kept up the energy.

Last week, their GSTL journey concluded. Already out of the playoffs, a chance of redemption presented itself. The conditions were still difficult. Their opponents, Old Generations, were fighting for their playoff spot and could not afford to soft-play. They had to go all out.

Fenix came in and showed the oGs team how Terran is played. He showed them what one of the most capable TvTs outside of Korea looks like, and then walked over MC in Crossfire like as though it were nothing. Their season ended on a resounding high note, those few brave souls savouring the taste of victory before facing the even more daunting task of tackling Code A as individuals begins.

With the GSTL behind us fast receding, and Code A looming large, it’s hard not to wonder; what has F.United achieved? When all was said and done, what did they have to show for their month of hardship? They who have risked so much and stood alone, astride a teeming horde of foreigner players. They who were the best of us. What stands testament to the effort of the brave few who flew so from far home and hearth to take on top Korean teams at home? What have they achieved?

Not-last-place.

A small victory, but a well deserved win regardless. Progress is slow; movement even so small is impressive. When you’re bringing the mountain to Mohammad, the slightest shift, the smallest slip, is seismic.


After all, fourth-from-last is better than Air Force ACE has ever placed.

After a grueling 10-week season against a field of over 10,000 fantasy teams, one man climbed to the top and became the undisputed champion of the inaugural TeamLiquid SC2 Fantasy League season.

His name is mrbamboo.


How does it feel to finally have a personalize TL icon?

It feels pretty good. I've been lurking around the TeamLiquid forums since the Brood War days, but I didn't really start visiting regularly until StarCraft 2 came out. Fantasy was the first thing that got me to regularly post on TeamLiquid. Now with a cool icon next to my name I'll continue to contribute to the forums and in particularly for future fantasy seasons.

Can't let that icon go to waste!


How are you handling your sudden claim to fame?

Haha. Even though there were 10,000 fantasy teams, I feel like the number of people that played seriously for the full season were probably only in the hundreds. I guess I'm a little e-famous amongst the small group of TeamLiquid that post in the Fantasy GSTL Discussion Thread. I have to say though, I've already got a handful of haters on the forums, so it's been a pretty interesting experience for me.


A budding rivalry appeared to have blossomed between you and Fanta_Rules since the win, one that has been called "our own Fantasy League IdrA and MC" by Swap. Any words for Fanta and the other "haters"?

I wouldn't really call it a rivalry. Fantasy is, for a large part, a game of chance. Whenever someone wins, they're bound to be people that don't think he deserved it. In the end, it's a game about speculating another game, so there's no need to take it personally.

I don't think I'm quite as boastful as MC, when things turned out as I predicted, I'm just really happy and likes to talk about how awesome it was. I also liked to analyze the outcomes needed for me to stay at that rank 1 spot. Some people might take that analysis as a taunt, but I just enjoy sharing speculations.

For these haters to be considered IdrA, they have to actually place higher in the league first, otherwise they are just people who BM with nothing to back themselves up. Although I have to say that Fanta admitting to rage-quit the fantasy league mid season is rather IdrA-like, I'll give him that.


When was it that you knew you had the league won?

Not until after the last match was played. I actually had work the next day, so I couldn't stay up to watch the series. The first thing I did when I woke up was check my phone for the results, and I couldn't believe it -- Lucky actually took out Bomber, then Curious got the all kill. It was the perfect storm necessary for me to win the whole thing!

I had a pretty significant lead for majority of the season. Toward the end, however, I played a little too safe and allowed many people to catch up. It ended up being super close, and with one day left I was actually the underdog, because no one seriously believed Bomber could lose to Lucky in the first game. Although in hindsight, if you consider that Bomber just got back from a long flight from MLG the day before (and that Lucky has had a whole week to prepare), it shouldn't be as surprising.


There was some controversy surrounding the circumstances of your win. Words like "lucksack" and "scumbag" come to mind. Do you care to address them?

Fantasy is about managing your odds and taking risks, and of course there's tons of luck involved. In the end, you take whatever information you can get (about the players, teams, coaches, etc), and try to construct the best fantasy team from those information. Anyone who wins the fantasy has to be a little lucky. It never hurts.

Scumbag is just way too personal of a word. It's not warranted. All I got to say is that it's a game, so play it for fun, and don't forget to enjoy the amazing players in the GSTL.


Let's talk strategy. You are one of the most prolific player-trader in the league, and consistently top-10 in your points-gained-by-trading. What was your secret?

A couple things:

• The starting players are really important. If anything this GSTL has shown us is that there are tons of great players that we've never heard of, and that coach decisions can be sometimes strange. The only sure bet is that you know the starting players.
  A safe way to trade is to pick 1 or 2 of the starters of that week that are likely to win at least their starting match. If they win more even better, but at least you got a great chance of getting something instead of nothing. This is great when you are ahead and just keeping a lead.
  
• One of things I did better than some others is that I follow the smaller Korean tournaments. The Korean Weekly is fantastic for this, as well as some of the more recent TL Opens. They've all show cased some great B-team players that has tons of potential. Hack, Jjakji, Puzzle, Sage, GuMiho, Curious are all players that have scored Top-4 or better in those small tournaments before making a splash in the GSTL. The team league has traditionally been a tournament where the lesser known players get a chance at the stage, so a little research goes a long way of finding these hidden gems.
  
• Try to be objective. Root for your favorite players, but be realistic about who you think will win. If you are trying to win fantasy, your trades are not the place to blindly root for your hero who may not ever see play.
  
• Of course, look at the schedule. Try to get players that will play more than 1 series in a row. This will save your trade slots of swapping the same players in and out again. If you can, keep up with which player will be out of town or practicing for some other tournament/match up. This will help you gauge their likelihood of seeing play.
  

As one of the few players that swapped team several times (MVP -> FXK -> Prime). Do you think this is a strategy worth replicating in the future?

It depends on the situation. The big advantage with team trade is that it has no trade tax. If you look on the leader board, some of the people with the biggest trade gains got it through trading through all the teams that fought against FXO. I think this a totally valid strategy.

You just have to be very careful about calculating out the potential trade value scenarios, because there are much less options for trading with teams than with players. Generally speaking, you don't want to take too big a risk with team trades, because you'll get stuck with the team if it doesn't pay off.


What's your expectation for Season 2? Will you able to retain the crown? Or will you be happy with top-10 finish? Top-100?

I'd be happy with top-10. A big part of fantasy is chance, so even if you make some of the most sensible trades, it won't always work out your way. I think that if I can get top-10 again, I would already shown consistency in my decision making. Of course, I'd love to win again.

A big part of this season was betting against foreigners. Whether that becomes a major theme again next season will play a big role of how the fantasy season unfolds. I think Mr Chae mentioned during the code A preliminaries recently that some kind of international team league is under discussion. I personally didn't like that FXO and F.United each got to play 5 weeks in a row, since it made trade value progression between players really weird. I'd much prefer to see a more evenly distributed schedule for next season, and it'll made trades more interesting as well.

Either way I think it'll be really fun. I plan to continue contributing to the fantasy discussion threads with all my analysis and speculation during season 2.


After an exciting season like this, you have gained a few fans. maruchan wrote "I like mrbamboo a lot. Seems like a decent guy and a very deserving winner." Any last words to your fans or just general shoutouts?

Haha. I'm happy that I've made some fans; I particularly appreciate that some of you defending me against the small number of haters. I look forward to next season and will do my best to win again.


Congratulations on winning Fantasy Season 1. I believe I owe you a beer.

Thanks!