Now it's October 2015 and I am serisously considering staying home for the weekend to watch the PL finals live. I am not sure that you get the seriousness of this statement, it is a weekend, the time I go somewhere with trees, water and birds. This is not something that can be taken lightly.
But this finals is not only the pinnacle of a season with awesome storylines. Even though SBENU did not make it and thus destroyed the possibly greatest story that could be dreamt of, there is still a lot to be said about a JAGW-SKT finals, at least for me. The contrast between the oldest, greatest and starriest SKT and the former T8 is obvious. But both teams are extremely interesting in terms of their individual players.
How can a team that recently lost Parting, Rain and Soulkey be still so strong? It's because they have their unique breed of a "strong player". soO, Dream and Dark, they share much the same status - I won't put them high on my GOAT list, but I would bet against them in very, very few matches (with the exceptions of finals for soO, of course). They do not stand out particularly strongly in my list of SC2 memories, but they are just fucking good at the game. And then there is Innovation who is a perfect personification of my feelings about the whole team - when I watch him, I admire his play, I expect him to win, but I am not particularly happy when that happens. I was never really much into this fan/anti-fan business, but I must admit that I sometimes honestly emotionally enjoy when somebody gives Inno a good beating. And that kinda applies to the SKT team in PL.
But this equation has two sides and the green side makes things even better. JAGW happens to have some of the most interesting players imaginable. What is there not to love about sOs's play? He is one of the few people who can perform at the top level while keeping a fresh flair, followed only by his faithful apprentice Rogue. And then there is Maru, the most old-school of all, and undoubtedly the greatest TvP player in SC2 history. I haven't sadly seen him play for quite some time now - and the last time I had, it was just really sad to watch his health-affected play - but he just remains one of the very few players I am unconditionally cheering for any time he pops on screen. And his struggle makes it really just only a better story when JAGW wins in a Maru ace match next Saturday.
Finally let me remind you of the great words from the Ministry of Hype:
On October 01 2015 03:26 OtherWorld wrote:
I suggest that for maximum HYPE for the finals, EVERY SINGLE PERSON who intends to post in the final's LR thread chose SKT1 or JAGW as a team flair, from now on and until the finals are over. Forget your really favorite teams for a moment, no matter if they're foreign or Korean, and make the final's LR thread a huge Red vs Green fest that will be spoken of for ages.
I suggest that for maximum HYPE for the finals, EVERY SINGLE PERSON who intends to post in the final's LR thread chose SKT1 or JAGW as a team flair, from now on and until the finals are over. Forget your really favorite teams for a moment, no matter if they're foreign or Korean, and make the final's LR thread a huge Red vs Green fest that will be spoken of for ages.