EPT
Previous articles:
Evaluating Starleague History
Ceremony by Ceremony (Featured Thread)
Top Ten Moments from Shinhan3 OSL (News Post)
![[image loading]](http://teamliquid.net/staff/Hot_Bid/Column/taleoftwosclass.jpg)
Something amazing could happen in the coming weeks. For the first time in Starleague history, two players could reach the both finals of the current leagues, the Daum OSL and GomTV2 MSL. It is shaping up to be a true rivalry between these two. Not in sense of closeness of record, for their head-to-head is actually quite lopsided. It is for what is at stake: their legacy, their place in history, their ascension into greatness. It is what all fans of any sport want to witness: a player’s evolution and the rise of the next superman.
Dominance is interesting that way. Even those that cheer against the dominant force, the bonjwa, the endgame boss, cheer so fervently only because that dominance exists. Without iloveoov’s destruction path in 2004 (3 straight MSL wins), we do not care nearly as much about the special Gillette July-Oov semifinal that turned ZvT upside down. Likewise, without Savior’s 2006 aura (5 straight MSL Finals, Royal Road OSL) we do not have the giddy shock of seeing a young upstart reinvent a matchup thought to be lost and reinvigorate an entire race’s players and fans.
Dominance is necessary. Those that cheer for perfection get to see it in its purest form, a player, if only for a moment, becoming a god. Those that cheer for the underdog get to experience the weight and pressure, and thus the joy and intensity of the biggest upset victories. Dominance is good for Starcraft as it is good for any sport.
These two Starleagues are not special because of the return of an old hero or cheater. These two Starleagues are special because we can see dominance being established right in front of our eyes. It will happen, one way or another, and we can happily be witnesses.
Part I: A Maestro Reborn
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Savior’s will to win demands perfection, and nothing less.
What could be said about Savior that has not already been said?
To quote HonestTea in his “To Err is to be Human”
Savior Cuban Gangster. Perfect. Plays low-econ, high-econ, plays orthodox, plays funky, plays Mozart, plays Run-DMC. Micro, macro, strategy, management, fundamentals, and balls the size of Brazil. He plays Zerg the way the Xel'Naga intended - like a ball of mercury. Furthermore, he has the perfect demeanor - a cold-blooded assassin. I'm shocked - SHOCKED - when he loses. The way he carries himself, never smiling, I feel like it's simply natural for him to win. Birds fly, dogs die, people fuck, and Savior wins.
HonestTea hit it right on the head. Savior wins. When was the last time you remember Savior losing a non-invite ZvT series? Or the last time he lost a ZvP series to someone other than Bisu? Can you remember? Do you have to go look it up? How can someone be so consistent in a game where winning two-thirds of the time is considered outstanding? When all is said and done, Savior could be the best player in Starcraft history. He could be the first player since 2001 Boxer to win back-to-back OSL titles, the first player in history to win two simultaneous leagues.
If dominance could be condensed into a single emotion, it would be
the feeling you get when you watch Savior play.
Why was it that when other Zerg players try to duplicate what Savior does they cannot? They could copy his builds and timing down to the second, but the results were so different. Savior always seemed to have overlords in the right places. He always had that transcendent early game anti-cheese micro. He always seemed to do weird counter-intuitive builds at the right time. He always judged the ebb and flow of a game like no other, and multitasked at just one or two more locations than his opponent could. But what truly was the defining quality for Ma Jae Yoon that no other player could hope to emulate? For Nada it was his speed and style, for Boxer and Nal_rA their creativity, for July his sheer aggression, for iloveoov his blunt force macro. What was the Maestro’s?
The answer was that no other player has the ability to exert his will over the outcome of the game quite like Savior can. It is that “zone” where a player can do no wrong, where a player knows that he will win because he knows, without a doubt, that he is simply better than his opponent. Many casual and semi-competitive gamers have been in that zone, all Starleague winners at one point have been there, but for the past year or two, up until that MSL Final, Savior has lived there. He camped out in that perma-win area, pissing all over it to mark his territory. It was like he owned a reserved space in victory parking lot, and he can get all the other players’ cars ticketed and towed whenever he wished.
There is no denying that he has been pushed to the edge of defeat. For other players, finding victory was a combination of practice and circumstance. For Savior it was simply a matter of choice. You could tell when he switched it on, and it could be any number of things. It could be a smart build order like in the Round of 16 Game 3 on Hitch Hiker against Midas. It could be sublime control of maphacking scourge like in the MSL Semi on Desert Fox against Hwasin. It could be an inexplicable comeback fueled by low unit count base defense like in Game 5 on Neo Arkanoid against his teammate Iris. When he wanted to win, Savior won. At least we all thought so.
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GomTV MSL Finals: a shell-shocked Savior cannot believe what is happening.
Then came the GomTV MSL Finals and a Protoss named Bisu. Savior did the same build every game, almost as if he was just shocked that he could not exert his will to win. It was like he looked at Bisu and stubbornly thought to himself, what a fluke, I’ll force a win next game after each loss. The 0-3 was stunning to the fans, but it was even more stunning to Savior himself. How long had it been since he was unable to exert his will? The Zerg god fell back to earth, and he looked as if he lost himself, at least for a while. Losses to Oov and Bisu at SuperFight 5, Bisu again at WWI, and four more in ProLeague (Calm, Yarnc, Ra, Boxer) had many crying “slump!” as if anyone can really slump in the interim period between Starleagues.
In this way the MSL loss to Bisu was actually positive for Savior’s career. It forced him to look critically at his play, to not be complacent and rely on his own will. It presented a new challenge in a matchup he had thought he mastered. Most importantly, it gave him new motivation to find a way to permanently exist in that win-zone that only he seemed to find. When he was in the zone, Savior had a cool, casual, almost lethargic demeanor. He looked bored when he won, as if the opponent should not have even bothered. He had a cocky smirk after the games, a single-minded personal vendetta against his opponent, an I-can-win-with-anything sort of attitude. He showed that attitude previously with a four-pool against Bifrost and recently with his choice of Terran against GoRush.
Make no mistake, Savior is returning to us. It was in his face after his dismantling of the young genius Flash and his stylistic win against the red-hot Stork. He is smarter, more self aware, and an overall stronger player. Savior has gained newfound energy in his quest for the Daum OSL and GomTV2 MSL titles, and one cannot help but feel as if these tournaments are just stops along the way for his journey toward his place in history.
However, Savior’s newfound self will be tested and tried and pushed to the brink, because when he finally returns to that win-zone, that champion’s arena, that special parking space, he is going to realize that someone is already there waiting.
His journey toward greatness is one that plods forward slowly, ponderously, but inexorably. It is a journey that is predestined, a journey that can and will only have one inevitable end: Bisu.
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