Reign of Fire

By Ghostclaw



To look back at the last time that SKT T1 won a final, we need to go back to February, 2006, when proleagues had a Round 1 and a Round 2, when H.O.T. Forever had just announced his retirement, and when people first started posting things in the liquibet comments like:


The format back for the 2005 Proleague Finals was a best of seven, with 4 different 1v1's and 3 different 2v2's. Not only did it include 2v2, but you also were able to announce players to go up right before they needed to play – none of this announcing the lineups to prepare for a matchup, you just stood up to play when your coach or captain told you to go (check, I can't find a lineup anywhere)

Some of the notable players from this time from KTF included Sync, Nal_ra, Goodfriend, reach, Chojja, and Yellow. SK's roster was a veritable hall of fame, with Iloveoov, Midas, Kingdom, IntotheRainbow, Gorush, Canata, and, of course, Boxer.

Game 1: Goodfriend (KTF) vs. Boxer (SKT T1) on R-Point
+ Show Spoiler +
At this point, Boxer was 14-2 in televisied games on R-point (6-0 in proleague), and Goodfriend was 3-4 on R-point (No games played in proleague). Suffice to say, Boxer was the heavy favorite going into this match. However, Goodfriend at 5 goes 2 fact vult into a contain against boxer's (at 7) 1 fact → cc, and rides his unit advantage into a surprise win, holding his contain throughout the game.
KTF 1- 0 SKT

Game 2: Yellow & Nal_rA (KTF) vs. Canata & Rumble (SKT T1) on Usan Nation
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Previously, Nal_ra & Yellow were 2-0 in proleague, while Canata & Rumble were 7-2 in proleague. 2V2 is a very very complex matchup, and in the currently proleague format is starting to become a lost art.

Yellow started at 8, Nal_ra at 10, Canata at 5, and Rumble at 1. All of the players start off with a fairly low econ game – 9 pools for both of the zerg players, 2 gate goon for Nal_ra, and 10/12 rax for canata. The game was basically decided the first time the players combined armies met – Nal_ra's Dragoons were out of position, and zerglings with mnm killed off most of them
KTF 1- 1 SKT

Game 3: Chojja (KTF) vs. iloveoov (SKT T1) on Rush Hour II
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In proleague, Iloveoov was 6-0 on this map, and on rush hour 2 he was 10-3 previous to this game. Chojja was 8-1 however, and no slouch at all. However...Iloveoov was dominating professional Starcraft at this point. He had just qualified over Casy for the OSL finals the night before, and feared no zerg on the planet.

Oov(at 7) opened with a Bunker rush, which Chojja(at 7) fends off nicely with drones. Chojja ends up going mutalisk harass → lurkers + hive into expansion off of only 2 bases, and uses an ensnare+lurker to save one of his expansions (very cool). However, after some time, oov gets a large enough 2-2 upgraded mnm/tank force to run over chojja.

KTF 1-2 SKT T1
Game 4: Chojja & Goodfriend (KTF) vs. IntoTheRainbow & Rumble (SKT T1) On Luna
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Fresh off of his last game, Chojja got called up to play again on Luna. This was a bit of a surprise, as many thought that reach would be at least one of the players who would be called up to play. Neither of these pairs had played together previously either, which means that no one had any idea of what to expect.

With Rainbow at 7, Rumble at 1, Goodfriend at 11, and Chojja at 4, Rainbow chooses to open with a gate + forge into a cannon containment on Goodfriend. With both zerg players attempting to do damage to each other, Goodfriend breaks out with his first sieged tank as Rainbow techs to reavers. However, Goodfriend anticipated Rainbow's reavers, and already has a wraith out before Rainbow's reaver can do anything. With Goodfriend showing a large mnm army, and no more cannon containment, the combined KTF forces roll over SKT T1's team.

KTF 2 – 2 SKT T1

Game 5: Sync (KTF) Vs. Kingdom (SKT) on Neo Requiem
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Sync was a surprise choice for KTF, as it seemed odd that Reach was still sitting on the bench for KTF. Kingdom was 7-1on Neo Requiem in proleague, 9-5 overall, whereas sync was 3-8 on Neo Requiem. Very odd choice for the KTF coach to be sure.

Kingdom spawned at 9, whereas Sync spawned at 12. Kingdom showed why he was 7-1 on the map previously, as he used his dragoons to harass the scv's and wall that sync had built, and basically never let Sync out of his base. Kingdom made it look easy, as he teched to reaver (17 kills), and essentially made it look as if sync was some sort of D level player.

KTF 2-3 SKT T1

Game 6: Yellow & Reach (KTF) Vs. Midas & MuMyung on Iron Curtain
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With their backs against the wall, KTF sends out their veteran team of Yellow and Reach to try to get a win. At this point, they're 7-2 for the season. SKT T1 sent out Midas & MuMyung, who had never played together on TV up until this point.

SKT opens with both players on the left, and KTF opens with both players on the right. This allows both teams to tech up, and allows them to have less defenses than normal. This map almost requires a strong air force, as the mineral blocks in the center of the map make it very difficult for units to make a ground pus across the map. Reach techs to hidden DT, both zerg players get mutalisks, and Midas builds wraiths. However, the DT don't do any damage, as both SKT players have plenty of detection. SKT took control of the air fleet, and the KTF team had trouble getting across the middle of the map. As SKT launches the final drop (~40 hydras from MuMyung), KTF was forced to gg, and SKT T1 was crowned the Proleague Champions.

KTF 2 – SKT T1 4

For more information, check out the original coverage thread by Mani.

Rags to Riches

By Ghostclaw

The last time Lecaf OZ won was much more recent. Coach January had gotten her boys all the way out to the finals yet again, and Lecaf OZ was able to get all the way to the finals on the backs of Jaedong, anytime, and Hiya.

Before the matchup started, everyone knew that the keys were going to be players other than Jaedong.





Set 1: FrOzean < Un'Goro Crater > Jaedong

As Live2Win stated in his liquibet comment, everyone thought that Frozean was going to get worked. Jeadong had been dominating over the previous moths, and Frozean's TvZ was not consistent at all (and, in fact, is still not consistent under the name of “cuteangel”).

Jaedong at 9 goes 12 hatchery into spire, evolution chamber, into lurkers. Frozean at 12 goes 1 rax expand into 4 rax. Jaedong defends his main with 1 sunken, and 2 creep colonies ready to morph as soon as frozean shows a sign of making a push. When frozean scouts Jaedong's fast lurker build, he pushes up jaedongs ramp against 3 sunkens and a fourth morphing. As jaedong loses his sunkens, and then his natural hatchery, he is forced to type out, and leaves the crowd wondering what had just happened.

Khan 1- 0 Lecaf

Set 2: JangBi < Nemesis > fOrGG
This map was one of the oldest maps in the set, and was known for turtling. There is only one expansion, and only one choke into your base. Everyone expected jangbi to be able to get a win of of forgg, as jangbi had been playing well, and forgg wasn't playing as well as jangbi.

Forgg starts at 1, and opens with a fast barracks, and then expanded after walling off his natural. Jangbi at 7 opened up as safe as possible, and when he realizes he's behind, takes his own natural, attacks Forgg and breaks the wall, along with some great reaver micro. Jangbi expands again, and continues to harass with his reaver. Forgg is all but dead, as he is behind in base count and scv count. Forgg senses that this is the only time he's going to be able to have any advantage, and moves out to attack jangbi before jangbi's third base can kick in. Jangbi decides to defend at the choke, but watches in horror as all of his units melt to siege tanks and vultures. Forgg doesn't have any reinforcements, but Jangbi has no units, and is forced to leave the game with a much greater economy, but no way to get out of his base.
Khan 1-1 Lecaf


Set 3: JiHyun/CuteBOy < Hwangsanbul > Lomo/ShinHwA
Ahh 2v2. Everyone going into this game expects JiHyun and Cuteboy to dominate Lomo and ShinHwa. JiHyun and Cuteboy are 9-2 in proleague, while Lomo and Shinhwa are 5-3 in proleague.

Lomo is at 1 and shinhwa is at 7 for Lecaf, and JiHyun is at 10 while cuteboy is at 5 for Khan. Cuteboy goes for a 2 rax marine rush, and jihyun goes 2 hatchery speedlings into lair. As it looks like the Khan team is heading towards Shinhwa, Lomo moves out of his base. As soon as lomo moves out, the Khan team changes targets from Shinhwa to Lomo, and Lomo is overrun as his vultures pop out. As lomo is overrun, Shinhwa moves towards JiHyun with 5 mutalisks. JiHyun has no defenses, and gets overrun. This leaves ShinHwa and Cuteboy still in the game. However, Shinhwa was able to continue to build enough mutalisks to run over Cuteboy off of both of the gases in his main.

Khan 1 - 2 Lecaf

Set 4: Stork < Katrina > Anytime
In one of the best, most anticipated games of the night, we have Anytime vs Stork. Both players have a long history of playing, and they were facing off on a protoss map in proleague. What could be better?

Both Stork at 9 and anytime at 12 go 2 gate zealot into fast expansion. However, Stork chooses to go very heavy zealot, with zealot legs before dragoon range. Anytime goes reaver/shuttle/dragoon, as is standard, and stork has a large number of zealots, with very few dragoons, and a reaver and a shuttle. Predictably, 3 or 4 scarabs, and superior shuttle micro from anytime destroy stork's zealot heavy army, and stork is forced to attempt to defend with essentially pure zealots. However, Anytime's reaver micro is very good, and Stork was forced to give in shortly.

Khan 1-3 Lecaf

Set 5: firebathero < Python > HiyA

With Khan facing elimination, they needed to pull out a win from firebathero. With the grand final championship on the line, Firebathero spawns at 6, and Hiya spawns at 8. Firebathero decided that the island expansion at the bottom left is more important, and that defending his natural should be fairly easy, and therefore gets more dropships to attempt to expand to the bottom left, and push hiya at the same time. However, with less dropships and more units, hiya decides to push into Firebathero's natural, and use his dropships to land tanks at the high ground at the same time. This forces Firebathero to move all of his units to defend, and pull off scv's. However, as soon as he fends off the first attack, 3 more of Hiya's dropships land with reinforcements, and Firebathero is forced to concede (FBH choking, does that sound familiar?).

If you're interested in reading more on these finals Daigomi's news post has some excellent coverage.

Let’s be honest. Kim Taek Young and Lee Jae Dong should win their respective games, and sure, BeSt and BackHo might pull off some 2 base Arb or Proxy Gate shenanigans, but the people it’s going to come down to to bring in those extra points needed for a team victory are the Terrans. Indeed, they may not be the #1 players on their team, but their rôle will be no less than pivotal to the outcome of this Grand Final. Steel meets Steel - this is the weekend of the Terran.

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After his advancing in the OSL, by.fantasy declared he wanted people to know the might of SKT T1 Terrans. And yes, SKT T1 is well-endowed.

- by.fantasy
“Jaedong is better, but Fantasy is smarter”, and FakeSteve is right. Fantasy is an incredibly intelligent player. Who can forget how, for example, his builds completely dismantled Luxury in last OSL. His gameplans are clever and meticulous, he’s currently sporting a 60% winrate versus Terran and a nearly as good overall winrate. Having two silvers under his belt, this guy will be anxious to win the gold.

      Fantasy will be facing Jaedong and HiyA
      Vs Jaedong: 3-4 / Vs Zerg: 21-19 (52.5%)
      Vs Hiya: 0-1 / Vs Terran: 24-16 (60%)


- Canata
Canata used to be famed as the TvT specialist. Many of the SKT T1 Terran qualities can be ascribed to this player: he is nifty, precise and in good shape. He’s made the final 8 of both the MSL and OSL (only to be eliminated by Jaedong and Fantasy) and let’s not forget his secret weapon, which, according to NeverGG, will out-sexy OZ: his infamous bowlcut.

       Canata will be facing Lomo and BackHo
      Vs Lomo: 1-1 / Vs Terran: 36-30 (54.55%)
      Vs BackHo: 1-0 / Vs Protoss: 19-17 (52.73%)


On top of this, Fantasy and Canata are the prodigies of the SKT T1 Terran lineage that is BoxeR, Oov and Midas. With 3 times 10 years of Starcraft experience at their back, these players have enough of a foundation to build upon.

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With fOrGG leaving the house not too long ago, Oz’s Terran hope rests with HiyA and Lomo. They did bring in points for Oz throughout the season, but can they face up to their SKT T1 colleagues?

- HiyA
Hiya is your typical A-class gamer. He’s definitely good, but that’s all he has going for him. He’s facing powerhouse Bisu – the only dragon still in a StarLeague - and by.fantasy against whom a 40% vT record just isn’t gonna cut it. In the Semis he played really well versus Movie, but his play against sKyHigh is hardly enough to take out Fantasy. I forgot what Magikarp evolves into and I doubt I’ll find out this weekend.

       Hiya will be facing Bisu and by.fantasy
      Vs Bisu: 1-2 / Vs Protoss: 26-15 (63.41%)
      Vs Fantasy: 1-0 / VsTerran: 22-33 (40%)


- Lomo
Lomo is Oz’s pick for Shades of Twilight, having played 9 games on it since its introduction (4-5 overall, 3-3 vT, 1-1vP) and playing both of his matches on it vs SKT T1. Sure enough, Lomo will have had plenty of practise on the map, but will it help enough to overcome a below 50% overal record? One thing is for sure: if Oz wins, there will be humping.

      Lomo will be facing Canata and BeSt
      Vs Canata: 1-1 / Vs Terran: 17-24 (41.46%)
      Vs Best: 0-0 / Vs Protoss: 10-12 (45.45%)


Hwaseung Oz’s Terrans are good, well-rounded players. They’re just not great. Both players are fun to watch, have shown some great games in the past, but, overall, aren’t Finals material.

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When comparing Fantasy/Canata to Hiya/Lomo the latter just don’t seem to have it in them. They fall behind on all terrains and even Fantasy Proleague Points show an average of 25.5 for Fantasy/Canata, while Hiya/Lomo evens out at 15.5. I hate to be the bringer of bad news, but a lot will hinge on these four players and Oz is going down.

Live Event Survival
by Manifesto7


So you are going to Pusan to watch the finals live? With a little advance planning, this trip could be a rewarding experience. You will need the following:

1. Time

Better wake up early, because you will be competing with hundreds for those precious seats. The last thing you want is to be stuck at the back, staring at a screen that looks like a postage stamp. I recommend camping out the night before on the beaches of Pusan. I also recommend not showering for three days prior, as your stench will throw off the people crowding around to get a spot.

1a. Elbows and sneakers

Time to stake your claim. When the gates open you want to swing one arm left, one arm right, then dash forward as your competitors lay there stunned. DO NOT underestimate the power of a 14 year old Jaedong fan. They will grind you to dust in order to sit one row closer to their idol.

2. Marker and paper

If you have arrived early enough, and you have been merciless in crushing your rivals, you have a decent seat. Now with the four hours you have until game time in which to make some signs and get on TV. The key to getting on TV (besides being white) is to a) draw a sweet picture of a BW unit, b) sketch a caricature of a player or commentator, or c) write in English. A shoutout to TL.net is mandatory, obviously.

3. Lungs

Scream, scream, scream. Give those pipes a workout. Each player has a fan club leader that leads the chant. Learn the pattern, squeeze your eyes shut, and let it rip.

3a. Ear Plugs

Between the girl beside you sobbing into her hands, the boy beside you screaming "Kim Taek Yong" in soprano, and thousands of thundersticks beating the air, your ears will feel like they have been beaten by the KT coaches of old. Take precautions.

4. Sustenance

Soju looks like, and tastes better than, Korean tap water. A water bottle of that as well as some fish flavoured twisty cracker things and you won't care who wins at the end of the day.

5. TL.net

With your phone, you are always connected to TL. You can check the LR thread for when you popped up on screen, use the calender to check upcoming matchups, and impress the girl beside you by knowing the player's Korean names.

Enjoy the show.