by: Zealously

LG-IM: Once Again

Once again, we find ourselves looking at LG-IM's insane roster in awe, and wonder why they don't have three more GSTL championships. Once again, Incredible Miracle is coming into a live team league with incredible hype, and all the players you would ever need to win the championship.

IM is familiar with being in this situation, and unfortunately, they're also familiar with getting eliminated early after disappointing performances from their solo-league superstars. More so than any other team, IM is the should-have-been champion team, with only a single GSTL title despite always being one of the favorites in every single tournament. But this time it's different. New game, new format, and more advantages.

The Team

Incredible Miracle has always been considered one of the deepest, if not the deepest team in Starcraft II. They've always been a team of multiple champions, possessing players like Mvp, NesTea, Seed and even MC after their partnership with SK Gaming. But despite having ten total GSL championships, they've rarely been a champion team. In fact, the GSL champions on LG-IM's roster have often been sent out and beat down without taking a game, with the less far less heralded members of the roster carrying the team. Other times, players capable of all-killing entire teams outside the GSTL have stepped into the GomTV boot hand looked anything but solid. It's almost as if the league itself is willing LG-IM to lose.

Right now, it looks like all of that might have changed with the release of Heart of the Swarm. Not only did LG-IM win the GSTL pre-season using a combination of the team's less-known players (which in IM's case happens to translate into ”Not GSL champions”), and the Protoss duo MC/Seed, the team also did this at the recent IEM World Championship:



As I've said, IM has been in the situation where they looked like the prohibitive favorites several times before, and it remains to be seen whether or not they will bomb out again. But with the current state of IM's roster (even adding former Startale player Squirtle between GSTL seasons). and the changes to the game in HotS, it is difficult to argue that IM is not looking better than they ever have before.

The problem for LG-IM's opponents is that it's nearly impossible to pin down who they're going to send out. With their SK-IM partnership, they have at least 8 players with all-kill potential, who would almost certainly make the starting four of any other team in the GSTL. As frightening as it might be for their opponents, I would also argue that Nestea and Mvp – two players with 9 GSL finals appearances between them, aren't even among IM's most important players in the team league. Though Mvp on occasion shows good play in weekend tournaments (see IEM WC, IEM Cologne), both he and Nestea need to play in preparation-style tournaments to truly shine. They've only made infrequent appearances for LG-IM in the past, typically being saved for more important matches.

The really important players for IM in the team leagues are not the multiple champions, but the large number of still relatively unknown and unheralded players – which makes having IM as your opponent all the more worrisome. After RagnaroK and ByuL joined the team, they proceeded to immediately show why they were acquired by IM with strong team league performances. Add to that Ruin's convincing performance in the pre-season and Coach Kang's famous team league strategy "Never send out a well-known player unless it's really, really necessary", and preparing snipers for IM becomes even more difficult.

Key Players: Pretty much everyone.

YoDa, Squirtle, First, YongHwa, RagnaroK, ByuL and LosirA. These seven players have all proven themselves more than capable of carrying a team in GSTL, with almost all of them having recorded an all-kill in the past. The one-two Protoss punch of First and YongHwa more or less single-handedly won the online section of the recent IPTL for LG-IM, and they've proven themselves (maybe less so in YongHwa's case) to be consistently good in live, solo competition as well.

Even if Mvp, Nestea or Squirtle aren't sent out, they have all at one time or another been considered among the most intelligent players of their race, and when they're put in a team house together with a bunch of units with a lot of untapped potential, it is likely that a lot of strong strategies will come out. The game is still young and many things are yet to be discovered, but these three have been innovators before, and are rather likely to be again.

Yoda's performance at IEM cannot be underestimated – First is a very strong Protoss and played quite convincingly at IEM, and Yoda still tore him apart 4-0, making him look silly each time. It's fair to say that if Yoda is sent out, there are few Protoss players in the league that could take him out. First and YongHwa are terrifying opponents in team leagues, Ragnarok and Byul both got themselves several wins in the pre-season, and Ruin came out to take down MMA against Axiom-Acer. And as if IM wasn't deep enough, they recently acquired Squirtle - who alongside Parting was the main reason for StarTale's success in team leagues, making it so that IM could probably win a match with only Protoss players.

The Aces: Pretty much everyone.

In the GSTL Preseason, IM's biggest problem was giving all their players time in the booth. With Ragnarok, Losira, Byul, Yoda, Ruin, YongHwa, First and now even Squirtle all having good claims to be sent out, it's hard to call any one player the ace of LG-IM. Most of these players (Seed and MC also fall into this category depending on how often they are fielded) are definitely capable of coming through for IM in an ace match, and bring all-kill potential to the table. With Yoda's performance at IEM, I feel inclined to call him the ace of the team right now, but IM has a lot of smart players and there is no telling how much they've improved and what they've come up with in their team house. The easiest way is to say that more or less every competent player on IM will have their chance to be the most important player at least once. Even if one or more of IM's previously strong team league players haven't adapted well, they can rely on the new guns in Ragnarok, Byul, Ruin who all played convincingly in the pre-season. To sum it up, LG-IM has more ace-level players than most other teams have players in total.

FXO: The champs are here!

If you were to look at performances in individual leagues only, this match would be hilariously easy to call. Beyond Leenock, FXO doesn't have a lot of trophies – certainly nothing to match a team like IM. But they do have two GSTL championships, obtained back-to-back (FXO also happens to be the only team with back-to-back championships) through strong performances during the regular season and with the GSTL final-version of Gumiho to close things out. Among the eSF teams, FXO has the definition of a strong core – a team not dependent on one single player, but instead relying on a solid handful of players that each can cause serious damage to any team. This is their greatest advantage, and very rarely has it been a disadvantage due to their core players always being able to step up when it has been needed, becoming super-aces for the duration of a single match.

The Team

Whereas IM is the team that should have won a lot more team leagues, FXO is the team that won without a star-studded line-up, and did it twice. In some ways, FXO is IM's polar opposite – the team is smaller, doesn't have as many individual championships, and at first glance the team's line-up would be considered a huge underdog against a team like IM.¨But toward the end of WoL, FXO's roster regularly crushed the opposition in GSTL.

FXO's main strength is that unlike many other teams in GSTL, they do not rely on a single superace-level player to carry them match after match. FXO has at least three players capable of filling the ace role, with Tear, GuMiho and Leenock representing Protoss, Terran and Zerg respectively. Not only is it near-impossible to prepare single match-up snipers for all three of FXO's key players, but the preparation is even more difficult given Leenock's and Tear's aptitude for wonky strategies. While FXO's supporting cast isn't as strong as the core trio, Lucky, TheBest, and JKS are all solid players capable of holding their own.

Key Players: TheBest, Lucky, JKS

TheBest and Lucky have both come through for FXO on many occasions in GSTL – although they don't always perform alongside the best players in the league, they more often than not come out and take down at least one player with them, which is all they need to do to set-up to core trio to clean things up. Honorable mention also goes to the out-of-retirement sC who has come back to Starcraft II. He might not be ready in time to play against IM, but he is almost guaranteed to make at least one appearance this season.

Finally, there is JKS - the player who actually performed the best out of all FXO's players in the pre-season, winning games against Maru, Byun and SuperNoVa. We don't know very much about JKS, but beating Maru (who is currently sitting high up on the ladder) and Supernova (who has also looked very good in HotS) bodes well for him against a team that's likely to send out at least one Terran.

The Aces: The FXO Trifecta (Leenock, Tear, GuMiho)

The FXO trio of aces was perhaps the most dangerous three-man squad in WoL GSTL. Tear, whose greatest GSL achievement is reaching the Ro48 in Code A, has an uncanny knack for performing far above expectations in GSTL, and has performed countless multi-kills against high-caliber teams. Leenock, likewise, time and again brought clutch ace match performances to the table whenever necessary. And then of course, Gumiho is 8-0 in GSTL finals, winning the championship almost single-handedly for FXO not once, but twice. To illustrate:



Naturally, this is a new game and the majority of FXO remains largely unproven against top tier opposition in HotS. Leenock showed some interesting use of swarm hosts at MLG, but fell unceremoniously to Innovation by a score of 0 - 3 after showing weakness in his previous best match-up ZvT.
But with Gumiho (whose aggression will now be much stronger with the addition of the turbovac) and Tear who will doubtlessly bring a slew of new, innovative strategies, Leenock still having yet to find his footing might actually be alright for FXO. Make no mistake, Leenock stepping it up and showing renewed confidence will be very important for FXO, but with how well Terran and Protoss have performed so far in HotS compared to Zergs-not-named-Life, things are looking grim but not impossible for the two-time champions.

Head to Head

Starting Match: FXOLucky < GSL Red City > LG-IM_Ruin

FXO's best shot at winning here is hoping for Lucky to take down Ruin in the opening match and then rely on Gumiho's relentless aggression to take down two or three players if or when Lucky falls. According to various interviews (and the statement he made by playing well), Ruin is one of IM's better players currently and will be no walkover for Lucky. Once again, it'll come down to adaption - how good is Lucky at HotS? He's been a solid player for FXO in team leagues for a long time, but has never really had the multi-kill potential of Gumiho, Tear or Leenock. With Ruin, it's still difficult to say where exactly he is at. Strong performances in the pre-season in combination with praise from his team mates should mark him as the favorite, but we haven't seen him play against Zerg yet. Still, with how shaky most Zergs looked at IEM and MLG, it's not hard to give the edge to Ruin barring clever all-ins devised by Lucky and friends.

Additionally, we will see the debut of the new GSTL map Red City. We've seen players take advantage of new, infrequently played maps by bringing some very map specific strategies to the table, and it will be interesting to see if either player wants to go that route. With a new map and a new expansion, this match could be very unpredictable.

General outlook and prediction

There are two interesting stories to look out for tonight as the two teams battle it out in the new Gangnam studio: first, it's the matter of how well the key players on each team have adapted. We saw a glimpse of LG-IM's power in HotS, but how has the rest of the team fared? Second is the theme that starts off the season: the should-have-been-championship team Incredible Miracle vs. the actual champions FXO. Few people believed FXO to be the championship-caliber team they've shown themselves to be twice, whereas everyone has always considered IM the favorite. Will history repeat itself, or will IM finally take down their polar opposite to start off the season?

I'm going to risk triggering the IM GSTL curse by calling them the massive favorites in this match. Yoda showcased stunning use of the new medivac speed at IEM, Mvp looked very good and didn't lose until he ran into another IM player, First and YongHwa both crushed face until they lost to one of their team mates, and showed that even if you don't know how to use all the new fancy things yet, you can still deal serious damage. YongHwa has a history of not performing in GSL competitions, but with Yoda, Squirtle, First, Byul, Ragnarok, Seed, Losira and even the 9-championship trio of Mvp, Nestea and MC, IM should be fine anyway.

Whether Lucky wins or not, this match will most likely come down to the FXO trio once again. As for Gumiho, things are looking good for him as long as he gets matched up against Zergs or Protosses. So far, players of both races have had a lot of trouble against the greatly improved drop-heavy styles, something Gumiho will no doubt excel at. Leenock and Tear are very capable of playing macro games, but given that Leenock looked slightly lost against Innovation he might resort to all-ins if pitted against a Terran. As for Tear, we've not seen much of him in HotS – if he has adapted well, he will be an important asset.
But with LG-IEM still fresh in memory, and the unfair imbalance in depth that's been further exacerbated by the acquisition of Squirtle, the advantage of this match (and most of the season) has to go to LG-IM.

LG-IM 4 - 2 FXO