[HYPE] STL Finale

Hey folkz, how are you? I'm doing well, thank you. So anyway, a funny thing happened earlier last year. The Swedish government agreed to give money to BroodWar and Jaevlaterran organized the Swedish BroodWar Initiative (SBWI, sometimes hilariously misspelled as SWBI) and they created the biggest team-league for BroodWar since the dawn of human history Gambit Cup. The competition took place over the course of many, many weeks, and was casted by L_Master, who is now living legend, and Hacklebeast, who already was a living legend earlier. Two new teams were formed for the purpose of competing in the league: First was PsB, a mixture of [PaiN] and Stealth Bunnies, and LagFree, a South American clan which merged players from all those cool South American clans like [a.G], [Arena], eSpi, and brought them together to train in a jungle-fortress known only as "El Bunker" (English: The Bunker). El Bunker is rumored to be located in the Andes mountains in Peru near the border of Chile, and it is rumored that they have a buffet there which serves authentic and delicious latino-food.

Despite the assumption by us Ingles-speakers that South Americans are a bunch of noobies, they made it to the final of the STL, along with the Spanish-sounding Los Reyes Del Mambo la Evolución. So smash a piñata and take a shot tequila, because it is a good time to be Spanish.




I dunno lul. The final four teams to make the play-offs were sas (7-0), LagFree (6-1), iFU (5-2), and LRM (4-3). Despite some gut-wrenching losses for LRM in the mid-season, Team PsB fell far short of their grandiose expectations and ended the season with a disappointing 3-4 record. SOURCE

If we take this chart literally, it means that LRM overcame sas 4-1, and LagFree beat iFU 4-3, ruining everybody's liquibets. Why is this surprising news? Well, to everyone who is sOoOoOoOoOoOo busy with "real life" and isn't a try-hard who doesn't follow BroodWar, iFU was considered to have the strongest line-up in the STL, and then LOST TO LAGFREE!?



Probably the most surprising result was LagFree.Dandy defeating not only eOnzErg, but also Scan in the ace-match to bring victory back to El Bunker. It was probably the biggest upset in eSports history, and also places LagFree in the final against LRM.


LRM Evolutions (Normally called LRM for short) is a clan that was formed by the merger of iG (formerly g4i) and the original LRM to create a brand spanking-new clan. Since the formation of this clan, LRM's primary rival has been sas, the Hungarian-based clan that has been absolutely dominant in the non-Korean StarCraft community. Until now.

+ Show Spoiler +




Indeed, the only win for sas that day came by way of dRaW vs Sziky on Destination, in what was definitely the best game of the season, although Taylor Swift will probably win the award instead. But why was dRaW playing versus Sziky in a sas vs LRM clan war instead of a TLS final? To understand this, you have to be able to comprehend paragraphs that make no sense and are very vague, but basically what happened was: sas's line-up throughout the ages had consisted of Sziky (Considered to be the best non-Korean in the world), Skzlime, Michael, dRaW, LocDog (dsaqwe), and sometimes Zaraki and v0rti would step in and play if there was choice. Although sas had a small roster to draw from overall, it was an efficient killing machine, despite none of the players "ever practicing", according to sources within sas.

Then, before the commencement of STL, Sziky went rogue from sas and joined sas's arch-enemy, LRM, for the price of thirty pieces of silver, as depicted here:
+ Show Spoiler +
However, Sziky's defection had little impact on the tournament as a whole, but did not show up to many clan wars, and much drama and hilarity ensued. Ironically, Sziky was brought in to LRM to give LRM a better chance to win against iFU and sas, and he did not deliver the goods, and it was the regular LRM roster that came through against sas in the end.

Why did Sziky move from sas to LRM?

+ Show Spoiler [click 4 drama] +




So what happens now? Well, my young friend, LRM and Lagfree will fight each other in mortal kombat for the title of the first STL championship, and will give LRM a long-awaited win... maybe. El Bunker has other plans, and will be looking to once again put LRM in a position to be better known as los reyes de la plata! (It's a Yellow reference, poor guy)

LRM's line-up starts very Zerg-heavy, including: Sziky, TechnicS, Southpark, Pike, TrutaCz, Napoleon, KenZy, and Koll, although the last three have been inactive as of late. The other two strong players are Bonyth (Protoss) and Choosy (Random). I don't expect NeMu, dOTY, or Wallace to be sent unless there is some horrible outbreak of anthrax in Eastern Europe, and all the players die, and I pray that such a thing does not occur.

The prediction I keep hearing for this final clan war is "4-2" with LRM winning by 4. So who are the 2 wins? Well, LagFree has TerrOr , their best player, who is predicted to take one win, and then it gets very dicey. Castro is a long-time veteran Zerg player, but will his ZvZ be enough to win versus TechnicS, Southpark or TrutaCz? My presumption is no that it will be very difficult. Handy and Dandy may also have a chance to win, but who the hell knows. Ultra is a very underrated player, and could win his match if he plays. Darking, Wapool, Zety, and Dienmax are also decent players, but not LRM-level. Yugox is like C+ or B-, so I don't think he can win at all. Everyone else, I don't know. We really can not know what is taking place in El Bunker. Are they really training in there or just bringing prostitutes in for massive sex parties?

Maps: + Show Spoiler +

Prediction: + Show Spoiler +




I wanted to interview both team leaders, and actually added TerrOr on skype, but was barely able to speak with him in time to have a meaningful interview, but I did what I could. I also interviewed Skzlime, because he gives the best interviews, and played in the play-off round for sas against LRM, unfortunately dropping his game to Pike (who mysteriously used mutalisks) and I will probably interview Skzlime for pretty much everything from now on. DRTL finals? Skzlime interview. Bill Nye vs Ken Ham? Gotta talk to Skzlime. Destiny retires from SC2? Time to get a hold of Skzlime.

+ Show Spoiler [SKZLIME] +

Interviews:

+ Show Spoiler [TerrOr] +
+ Show Spoiler [LRM)Game] +
+ Show Spoiler [Skzlime] +




[







Warning: This thread contains spoilers from the previous week! If you don't want to read spoilers, do not read this thread!





Sources:
SBWI Teamleague
Official STL Thread
Swedish BroodWar Initiative Thread

Writers: NinaZerg