by Fionn

With the opening of the new Proleague, the success that was IPL5, and the onslaught of patches in Wings of Liberty and the upcoming Heart of the Swarm, the GSTL Finals have been a bit overlooked. Most expected a clash between the two super teams Startale and LG-IM for the championship, but both failed to make it to the very end. MVP and FXO, two former champions, were the ones to take out LG-IM and Startale respectively, giving us a final that most didn't expect.

FXO comes in as the defending champions. Weirdly, they haven't been getting the respect a reigning champion is usually given. Throughout the season they've been considered the underdogs against their opponents, but have continued to power forward with their strong core and endless depth. After Gumiho all-kiled Slayers 5-0 in last season's finals, you would have thought that might put some fear in the hearts of the rest of the teams in the league, but they've continued to their second straight finals as a surprise team.

MVP has never really been an underdog ever since they began playing in the GSTL over a year ago, though they may have been a bit overshadowed by the superteams of the times. Not formed until the third GSTL season in mid 2011, MVP made the finals in their first season. taking the defending champion Slayers to the final set before losing to then super ace MMA. They would eventually get their GSTL championship, facing off against Prime in the next season and taking their first title. While never a heavy favorite to win it all like LG-IM has been since the very first season or Slayers before they crumbled into dust, MVP is always considered a team that will be in the semifinals or above come the playoffs. Statistically, MVP is the most successful team of all-time in GSTL, having an astonishing 15-6 record in five seasons of competition.

The final two seasons of Code S and the GSTL pretty much summed up the second half of 2012: the Zergs will rise to the top. Life took the season four title, Leenock hauled his team to the GSTL finals and let Gumiho take over, and Sniper won a ZvZ final in Las Vegas to become the third new Zerg champion of the year in the GSL. The final four teams in the GSTL all had Zerg aces or even duo Zerg aces, with Startale having Life/Curious, MVP having Sniper/DRG, TSL having Hyun/Symbol, and FXO relying on Leenock with Zergs like Lucky and Sirius helping along the way. There is no question that to win this season you needed a strong Zerg, and these finals will be dictated more than likely by which team's Zergs are better on the night.

While the battle of the swarm will be one of the biggest storylines during the finals, the second will be how each team is carried by a duo. There have been many great bromances back in the day with MKP/Polt, MMA/Ryung, and Clide/Artosis, but FXO and MVP are led by duos that will need to come up big if they want to be celebrating when the night is over.


FXO: Leenock and Gumiho

Ever since the start of their careers on fOu, Leenock and GuMiho have always been linked together. Back then, sC was the ace of the team, getting all the praise on the middling GSTL team. He was the player who most thought would have the best chance at eventually winning for a title for his team, and Leenock along with Gumiho seen more as complimentary players that were the core of the team. Eventually sC went down with health issues, stopped practicing, switched over to MVP, and then switched League of Legends.

When they were still out of the limelight, the main thing everyone talked about Gumiho and Leenock was how much they looked alike. Every time they would come out and sit on the fOu bench, you would have to hear a thousand times how much they looked the same and how it was hard to tell them apart. Leenock was the cute, chubby 15-year-old kid who had tons of potential, and Gumiho was the Terran that had a sweating problem and needed to cover his mouse with a towel when he played.

Through sC leaving, Oz joining and then leaving months later, the team was firmly on the shoulders of Leenock and Gumiho. The two eventually started to differ in looks with Leenock dying his hair, Gumiho working out more, and the two gaining their own personalities along the way. With performances abroad and in the GSL, the pair started to get the reputation as two of the most exciting players on the planet. Leenock with his heavy multitasking and brilliant micro, and Gumiho with his crazy multi-prong medivac drops that attacked up to five places at a single time.

While neither was able to win a GSL title, they were finally to win their first Korean titles together in last season's GSTL. Leenock was able to get his team to the finals, taking down almost the entirety of the MVP team by himself in the semifinals, and he gave the baton to Gumiho in the finals against Slayers. After having one of the best games of the year against MMA to start of the series, Gumiho destroyed the rest of the dysfunctional Slayers squad, being the first player to all-kill in a GSTL finals. FXO were champions, and they got there on the backs of the tag team effort from their twin aces.

For FXO to win back-to-back titles and tie them with the now defunct Slayers as the most successful team in GSTL history, these two will need to be at their best once against. Leenock is coming off an IPL5 victory, and Gumiho seems to always rise to the occasion when it comes to a big match. They may not look like twins any longer, but their significance to the team is the same. From fOu to FXO, Leenock and Gumiho with Choya coaching from the bench, will always be the heart of the team.


MVP: Sniper and DongRaeGu

Our next duo is very different from the one on FXO. Instead of the twins comparisons that Leenock and Gumiho have drawn since their careers starter, Sniper and DongRaeGu have always had the little brother/big brother relationship when it came to their careers. DongRaeGu was one of the most popular players in the word, the super ace of MVP, and a player who got to two GSL finals, and won the first Code S of 2012 against his teammate Genius. Sniper was just the little version of DRG, playing a similar style, but never drawing the same fanfare or praise. He did very well in the GSTL and in online team tournaments, but while DRG was seen as amazingly exciting and extremely popular, Sniper was viewed as a duller, less polished little brother that could never catch up to the older, stronger sibling.

The first time their relationship started to shift was during last season's GSTL semifinals. DRG, after losing to MC in the Code S semifinals, had one last chance to play for a title in his hometown of Busan, and was put against Leenock in the ace match to see who be going to the finals. DRG didn't come up in the clutch for one of the first times in his career as the team's ace, FXO went on to take the championship, and that's when everything started to change for MVP. Sniper, who was already being played as an ace during a lot of MVP's online team league matches, started to come out more frequently as one of the last players in their team league line ups. Instead of counting on DRG to pull through, Sniper was able to pick up the crucial victories to propel his team upward.

DRG continued to fail in the Ro16 of Code S, and Sniper kept his momentum going in online and offline competitions, making it to his first Code S quarterfinal by taking down Parting and Polt. With wins over Leenock, Bogus and then Hyun in the finals, Sniper became the 11th GSL champion and took hold of the super ace spot that DRG had been holding since MVP first started playing in team leagues. DRG, the man who always was looked upon to carry MVP on his shoulders, had finally seen the mini version of him, his little brother in the world of Starcraft, get on the same level he had been just a year earlier.

Apart from the whole little brother/big brother dynamic, you can also see it as a good brother/evil brother situation. DRG is still one of the most beloved players on the planet, hailed for his brilliant tactics, personality and all around great play. Sniper, even after winning the title, is still not seen on the same level as former champions, and he still has the tag of a villain for his excellent, but dull play that defeated many, more popular players. He had an epic seventh game against Hyun to see who would win the GSL title, but with the overload of ZvZ these days, it wasn't enough to turn everyone's perception of him.

Make no question about it, Sniper is just as good or better than DongRaeGu currently. His ZvZ was the only thing that could stop Leenock from winning IPL and GSL, and he made his name for himself with his strong results in online and offline team leagues. He might not get the same love DRG, Leenock or Gumiho does for their amazing games, but he is the scariest player in the entire field that will playing in the championship series.


Overall thoughts and prediction:

There are four main actors in this play, but it's not improbable for a minor character to come out nowhere and steal the show. MVP is loaded with talent behind their two stars with KeeN, finale, Vampire, Noblesse, DREAM and many more that could step in at any time and reel off a line of victories if on their game. The same goes with FXO, having guys like Tear, Sirius, Lucky, TheBest, and asd, who might not be doing amazing in the GSL, but have always been consistent enough to win a game or two if given the chance in team league.

The series is starting off with TheBest vs. Vampire, so neither of the two team's ace duos will be on display at the start of the series. Even with how impressive the teams are in the back end of their line-ups, it will more than likely come down to if Leenock and Gumiho can take down DongRaeGu and Sniper and vice versa. Sniper and Leenock both won titles this weekend, and even if Gumiho and DRG haven't been on fire as of late, they are two of the most dangerous players when it comes to team league.

If you forced me to pick who the best player in the world is right at this second, I'd go with Leenock with Sniper right behind him, but we've already seen Sniper take out Leenock in the GSL. FXO's best chance at beating Sniper might be with Gumiho, a player who has shown ridiculous TvZ of late, even being able to beat Life in the semifinals of the GSTL. Not a lot of Terrans are the key for their team when it comes to team leagues these days, but Gumiho must come up big if FXO has a chance to take down the GSL champion.

This, on paper, is a very close match, and I would be surprised if isn't except if Leenock, Gumiho, Sniper or DongRaeGu are used in one of the first three spots for either team. MVP is the favorite to win it all, but that has never stopped FXO from being able to shut up critics and take out teams favored over them.


Prediction: FXO 5 - 4 MVP