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“I’m ready to roar, ready or not
Ready to give it all I’ve got
Gotta live to win, get up, get out, get even
Ready to roar, ready or not
Ready to give it one more shot
Let the game begin, need somethin’ to believe in”
– Roar by Treat

Starcraft 2 has been a unique gift to E-sports. It has been a year since Wings of Liberty had its retail release and in that time, those that have been involved in its community have been witnesses to some of the most intense, creative, exciting games that have ever been shown on the world wide podium. These games not only helped to further legitimize playing video games as a form of professional competition, but also as a form of art. The rapid growth of the Starcraft 2 E-sports has allowed professional gamers to devote their entire lives to the honing of their gaming skills and in many cases, as I will attempt to highlight, the results have been beautiful.

Let us take a trip, you and I, in reminiscence of a year in the dream-come-true that has been the Starcraft 2 E-sports scene.

On one side of this conflict is the Korean pride in Starcraft 2; the other, the international scene’s immense desire to prove that they are good enough to compete with the Koreans. The round-robin style tournament would realize the hopes and fears of both sides.

At the time oGsMC had just recently established himself as the best Protoss player in the world by being the first player to win two GSL championships. Whisperings could be heard that he might even be the greatest Starcraft 2 player to yet appear. White-Ra, the team captain of the World All-Stars, was the seasoned veteran among the internationals, as he had been to countless tournaments, outside and inside of Korea, ever since his Starcraft: Brood War career.

The score was 3-4 in favor of the World All-Stars when White-Ra stepped into the booth to face oGsMC, after MC had just defeated TT1.

The players spawn at the two bottom, close-by-air positions on the map: White-Ra on the west, oGsMC on the east. Their weapons of choice are 3 Gate Robo for White-Ra and 4 Gate Blink Stalkers for MC. Both players micro their hearts out as White-Ra tries to stall for time to get his Immortals out and MC tries to kill White-Ra outright with his extremely refined 4 Gate build. White-Ra, however, has a trick up his sleeve. He makes a Warp Prism, picks out two of his most mischievous Zealots and flies them over to MC’s main mineral line to wreak havoc. While the Prism drop is going on, MC tries to force his way up White-Ra’s main ramp. In the chaos of the game, White-Ra misses a forcefield and allows some of MC’s forces to penetrate into his main. MC then uses this newly gained vision to blink up his Stalkers into White-Ra’s main, and engages White-Ra in a battle of psi and skill. Greatly outnumbered in his main base by MC’s Stalker force, White-Ra matches MC micro-move after micro-move and buys himself enough time for his Immortal production to kick in and return his Warp Prism and Zealots to defend their home base. White-Ra uses some sexy Warp Prism micro to fly over forcefields and land his Zealots where they can slash down at MC’s Blink Stalkers. MC, however manages to snipe out the Warp Prism and continues to push into White-Ra’s natural ramp. As an Immortal pops out of White-Ra’s Robotics Facility he just barely manages to weather through MC’s aggressive onslaught. White-Ra creates another Warp Prism and this time sends three zealots to re-commence the extermination of MC’s probes. The harassment from White-Ra proves fatal, as MC’s economy proves to be too crippled to compete with White-Ra’s impending death push. Realizing his immense lead, White-Ra expands and begins to stockpile colossi to compliment his Immortal-Gateway army. All this, while continuing heavy harassment of MC’s mineral line with his Warp Prism and Zealots.

The death blow from White-Ra comes in the form of a two pronged attack: Colossi, Immortals, and Gateway units on the front of MC’s natural and a Warp Prism drop with Zealots MC’s main mineral line—an unstoppable attack for MC. White-Ra proves that his Special Tactics work against the best of the best as oGsMC taps the GG.

Suspicion gathered among the witnesses of this game that there was some sort of plot a brew in the mind of NesTea. After seeing that anypro had gone for a forge expand, NesTea had teched quickly to a lair.

In NesTea’s base three drones detach themselves from their mining duties and go off on a secret mission only they, the rendezvousing Overlord in front of anypro’s base , and their Overmind, IMNesTea know about.

NesTea performs a symphony made of astounded cries and applause from casters and audience members alike, by using his Overlord to drop creep just outside of anypro’s natural and using the spilled creep to build three magnificent Spine Crawlers that proceed to hammer down anypro’s Nexus upon their completion.

Even with a Void Ray, anypro is powerless from stopping NesTea’s Spine Crawlers from breaking his Nexus as well as one of his Gateways. Although he eventually manages to clear out NesTea’s attack, the damage was dealt and all he can do is try to rebuild from the fallen shambles of his ecnomy.

NesTea takes a third base and easily slaps down anypro’s Void Ray harass with Hydralisks.

A torrent of Zerglings and Hydras flood down on anypro’s natural base and takes down his Nexus a second time. This same flood carries anypro and all of his remaining units out of the map as he can only cry out a faint “gg” as he is carried away to oblivion by The Swarm.

This game becomes the advent of a Spine Crawler revolution where zerg players are given a deadly new weapon against the forge fast expand. In a subsequent interview, Starcraft 2 game designer Dustin Bowder mentions even he had never thought of Spine Crawlers to be used in this way.

As it was being played out, TSL 3 was considered to be a tournament of great upsets where the under-dogs ruled. The favorite Korean powerhouses such as Mvp, Nestea, Genius, and FruitDealer were knocked out on the first round and by the quarter-finals only MC and BoxeR remained but they would be soon defeated as well. The last two men standing in the end, one could say, are a pair of unlikely competitors. Both of Swedish descent, ThorZaIN and NaNiwa had gone through the most powerful of opponents—especially ThorZaIN who had defeated two GSL champions, FruitDealer and MC—to get to the grand finals. ThorZaIN and NaNiwa proved to be equally matched as they traded blows to the community’s glee and brought it up to a game 7 with a tied score of 3-3. In Tal’Darim Altar, the largest map in the mappool, NaNiwa spawns at the south-west position and ThorZaIN spawns in the south-east corner.

But in the tensest of moments the enemy of all internet gamers rears its ugly head: Lag. Amidst the fist-gripping tension, the caster Chill is having issues with his connection and laggs down the game for both of the potential champions. NaNiwa is the first to address the issue: “chill get out” he types.

The lag subsides and the game resumes, ThorZaIN opting to go for a reaper expand, meticulously taking off SCVs off his gas in order to get a faster Command Center, and NaNiwa going with a 1 Gateway into Nexus build. Immediately the lead flips to ThorZaIN’s side as he is able to jump into NaNiwa’s main with his reaper and pick off a crucial sentry and even a bonus probe before his harassment is quashed. The overall game plan for both players is revealed when NaNiwa transitions into a 2 Gateway into Robo build, while ThorZaIN decides to go 3 Barracks into reactored Starport. NaNiwa initiates ThorZaIN by doing light pokes with his Colossi into ThorZaIN’s natural mineral line. The dance of death begins calmly between the two players, neither of them overreacting to each other’s movements. ThorZaIN gets another reactored Starport to counteract NaNiwa’s growing colossus count.

And then Lag happens again.

ThorZaIN pauses the game. “CHILL GET OUT” NaNiwa types—words that perhaps will ring immortal in the Starcraft 2 E-Sports scene—and Chill does get out.

The action resumes with NaNiwa picking away at one of ThorZaIN’s refineries. ThorZaIN fights back with his Vikings and even gets off some EMPs at NaNiwa’s units. NaNiwa then walks around into ThorZaIN’s natural choke and goes in for the kill. ThorZaIN manages to EMP all of NaNiwa’s sentries and focuses down the Colossi with his massive Viking air force. NaNiwa’s push crumbles as he loses all of his Colossi and he falls back with what little Gateway units he managed to keep alive.

ThorZaIN’s counter-attack pushes NaNiwa all the way back to his own natural choke. NaNiwa’s macro slips, banking 2000 minerals and he is forced to drop extra Gateways to compensate. Both players move on, taking their third bases, and readjusting their plans for the late game.

The immense, nerve-wracking pressure of the situation starts to metamorphosize in the mistakes each of the players make at this point. NaNiwa drops a chrono boost on an empty Robotics Bay and ThorZaIN researches Concussive Grenades 21 minutes late into the game.

The Danse Macabre continues with NaNiwa moving out once he reaches a critical number of Colossi and is presented with an opportunity to cut off the tail end of ThorZaIN’s army as it is being reinforced. A pair of perfect EMPs go off from ThorZaIN and he micros his Bio forces back while his Vikings attack NaNiwa’s Colossi. Once again NaNiwa is pushed back all the way to his natural choke yet ThorZaIN knows not to over-extend himself and hangs back just NaNiwa’s attacking range. At this point, ThorZaIN only has 3 Barracks against NaNiwa’s 10 Gateway production, as both of their main mineral lines dry up. ThorZaIN adds two more Barracks and NaNiwa once again tries to reach that critical Colossi count before he re-initiates his assault. This time it is ThorZaIN that moves in, Stimming in and sniping out NaNiwa’s third Nexus. ThorZaIN moves back and has a stare-off with NaNiwa’s army right beneath the southern Xel’Naga tower of the map. ThorZaIN’s ghosts step forward and shoot off some EMPs to pick away at NaNiwas sentry energy and shields. Before NaNiwa’s shields can recover, ThorZaIN stims into NaNiwa’s army. NaNiwa micros back his Colossi against ThorZaIN’s Viking force and tries to get off the best forcefields he can get with what little energy is left on his sentries but ThorZaIN’s upgrade count and Viking count prove too much. His army is decimated and he calls out the GG.

Against all the odds mouz.ThorZaIN wins the grand prize of $15,000. In the champions interview ThorZaIN is asked what he plans to do in the future. “…I’m going to practice…” he replies.

At the moment, this game is the closest we have ever come to having a draw game in professional competitive Starcraft 2 E-sports. Since MarineKing stepped into the scene had been known as a stylistic player, using his own original strategies to defeat his opponents. Now he must go up against NaDa, a former bonjwa of Brood War, and a player known to be the most consistent pro-gamer in history.

MarineKing goes with his own signature opening of 1 Rax to Command Center, adding two more Rax to start the production of Marines. NaDa, opts for an opening, at the time was still uncommon: a fast gas opening and aiming for some quick cloaked Banshees and then a transition into Seige Tanks-Marine.

MarineKing time and again staves off NaDa’s incoming banshees, minimizing the damage they could potentially do. MarineKing then begins production of Medivacs from a reactored Starport and begins to pepper in some Marauders with his army, as a counter to NaDa’s tanks. MarineKing makes a powerful double Medivac drop behind NaDa’s natural—the Stim, Combat Shields, and Medivac healing defeats NaDa’s un-upgraded Marines that try to defend, as well as some unwary SCVs caught in the crossfire. NaDa replies with a double Medivac drop of his own, destroying many SCVs in MarineKing’s main. But NaDa is caught unawares in the middle of the map as MarineKing ambushes him while NaDa’s Seige Tanks are unseiged. In the meantime, NaDa’s drop unhindered by any of MarineKing’s defenses is able to take out MarineKing’s main orbital. Each of the players offence dwindles down, as they must use their own reinforcements to defend their home bases to stay alive. Both players manage to stabilize their economies, ending up on even ground even after all the violent exchanges.

MarineKing makes a bold move, loading up all his bio forces into his Medivacs and making a doom drop straight into NaDa’s main. Instead of going back to defend, NaDa counter-attacks and heads into MarineKing’s natural, beginning one of the most epic base trades in SC2 E-sports history.

All hell breaks loose as both players uplift their buildings while trying, as best they can, to destroy their opponents escaping buildings. The survivor’s dilemma for both players begins. NaDa has the superior army but he does not have the resources to remake a Command Center and start mining. MarineKing however manages to save one of his Command Centers and is critically able to hide it from NaDa in the south west corner of the map. Because both players had managed to destroy each other’s supply depots they are forced into the tough situation where each of them must kill off a certain amount of their own units in order to free up enough supply to remake their SCVs. But kill off too much and the other player will overrun you with their superior army count. Because NaDa has the bigger army it falls upon him to kill off MarineKing’s forces and then kill off his own forces so that he may start remaking SCVs. But MarineKing knows this and refuses to engage NaDa in a straight up fight.

A deadly game of cat-and-mouse is played—NaDa manages to catch MarineKing’s army in the middle of the map and destroy a significant amount of it. NaDa then lands his only remaining Starport with the intention to make a single Viking with the potential to win the game for him. But MarineKing flies all the way around the map, avoiding any land areas where NaDa could catch him and drops his forces right on NaDa’s Starport. But NaDa reacts quickly and floats away his Starport, managing to save it at a dangerous yellow health. NaDa manages to corner MarineKing’s forces in the south east corner of the map and proceeds to kill off his own units, right in the vision of MarineKing. While NaDa is busy massacring his own units MarineKing slips away and it is revealed that MarineKing’s only Command Center has begun mining in the south west mineral line with a full energy count of mules. MarineKing begins to kill off his own units now, in the hopes of freeing enough supply to create an SCV. MarineKing then takes his forces and floats over to NaDa’s only remaining supply depot and kills it. Cries from the audience could be heard as NaDa grazes by MarineKing’s Command Center without seeing it. MarineKing’s only SCV then walks just behind NaDa’s army and then makes the most critical supply depot of the game. With MarineKing’s regained ability to reproduce, he bunkers up his position in the south west and successfully defends an attack by NaDa.

Out of a seemingly un-winnable position, MarineKing manages to eke out a victory by using his wits and his champion’s instinct.

This game is on the list not only because it is generally agreed upon that this game has the most epic rage-quit in Starcraft 2 history, but also because it is a standing testament to what a psychological game Starcraft 2 really is. The fact that a player usually must decide when he or she has lost and tap-out makes it so that you must only make your opponent think they have lost in order to actually win.

HuK spawns at the top position of Metalopolis, while Idra draws the bottom spot. HuK begins this game with every intention of causing any irk he may have the opportunity of provoking. With his scouting probe he harasses Idra’s mineral line, and then moves down to plan a manner Pylon in Idra’s natural and then canceling it just to cause delay on Idra’s Hatchery. HuK first goes for a 5 Gate rush, planting a Pylon on the high ground just to the right of Idra’s natural. But Idra reacts quickly and gets some Zerglings to stifle the attack. HuK cancels his warping-in Gateways at the last second in favor of planting a Nexus instead. Idra hatches some Roaches to deal with any potential rushes that maybe incoming and destroys HuK’s proxy pylon along with some stranded sentries that had been warped in.

Both players move into macro-mode, getting their upgrades, and poking each other for intelligence whenever they can. Idra shows he has intentions of doing Baneling bombs on HuK by getting Overlord Speed and Ventral Sacks as well as Baneling Speed. HuK goes for the conventional Gateway army with Colossi with Thermal Lance. Both players also expand aggressively, able to take earlier supporting expansions due to the distance between their bases.

Idra’s attempt at Baneling bombs gets thwarted by HuK’s Blink Stalkers but Idra then manages to take a bite out of HuK’s sentry count with a run in by Zerglings on HuK’s 3rd expansion. Idra produces an immense amount of Zerglings to be used for skirmishes against HuK, while he transitions into Infestors and Brood Lords. Idra amasses a frightening army of Zerglings, Infestors, and Banelings, along with some units stored up inside Overlords to be used for carpet bombing. HuK tries to take the gold base in the middle of the map while Idra harasses him with run-bys and drops into his main. Idra finds a hole in HuK’s positioning and leaps into HuK’s 3rd expansion with Zerglings, managing to kill a critical number of probes. Brood Lord cocoons appear in Idra’s main just as HuK decides to go for a push with his Colossus-Gateway army. HuK still manages to catch Idra out of position and picks apart first his Infestors, then his Brood Lords but losing all of his Colossi to Corruptors as a stream of Zerglings run in to reinforce the battle just in time to keep Idra alive. Idra quickly re-maxes his army and then uses his Brood Lords to harass HuK’s gold base while the rest of his army stands by for any possible counter-attacks. Idra builds up an immense number of Brood Lords and then uses them to take out HuK’s gold base while his Zerglings circumvent the map and deny any attempts by HuK to set up anymore expansions. Backed into a corner and forced to mine long distance, HuK researches…Hallucination.

The armies clash where HuK’s gold base was, and HuK is able to use his upgraded blink stalkers to destroy Idra’s Brood Lords and even the supporting Infestors. HuK quickly counter attacks, and manages to take out Idra’s own gold base, while Idra is forced to hang back awaiting the re-max of his army. Idra’s Swarm hits critical mass and it triggers him to move out with a significant air force of Corruptors and Brood Lords supported by Infestors and Zerglings on the ground. With Idra in the food supply lead he attacks HuK, but HuK, in a desperation move Hallucinates some fake Void Rays. Idra never notices that his units are not taking any damage from the fake Voidrays. Just the appearance of HuK’s army shatters Idra’s mentality. In frustration he leaves the game without a GG, not knowing had he fought it out, he would have been the victor.

This game shows TheLittleOne, like many mad scientists and iron-fisted dictators, uses the threat of nuclear warfare to gain a positional advantage upon his opponents. Until this game, this tactic had never been really showcased before on such a global media podium such as the GSL.

TLO spawns, on the top position of Xel’Naga Caverns, and Hyperdub spawns on the lower position.

TheLittleOne known for using his own weird build orders opens up characteristically, immediately making an armory and producing a Thor. Hyperdub on the other hand plants a proxy Starport on the middle east expansion of the map and goes for a Banshee with cloak while producing Marines and Tanks in his home base. TLO sets up his expansion just as the Banshee comes in for the harass and fends it off reasonably well with his Thor and a Missile Turret. TLO adds in more factories, showing that he wants to go for a Mech based play and then moves out to set up an early contain on Hyperdub, setting up a siege line within range of Hyperdub’s gold mineral base. Hyperdub uses his cloaked Banshees to harass both TLO’s trench line and his natural mineral line, hurting TLO’s economy enough to put Hyperdub in the economic lead. TLO makes a critical error, he tries to attack into Hyperdub’s defenses and suffers heavy losses on his Thor count as a result. With his gained army and economy lead, its Hyperdub’s turn to set up a contain upon TLO. He uses this contain to take his gold base, while TLO is forced to look to taking the less economically valuable north eastern base of the map. In a desperate situation, TLO uses a cloaked Banshee to do what damage he can to Hyperdub’s siege line. TLO send some hellions around the map to harass Hyperdub and then discovers Hyperdub’s proxy Starport with his Banshees and Vikings. TLO begins his ghost production and aims a nuke right on Hyperdub’s trench line. But it is scanned and taken out by the superior range of the Seige Tanks. Hyperdub executes a combo attack, hitting first TLO’s 3rd base and then TLO’s natural with his superior Mech count. TLO just barely holds, using his SCVs to repair his Thors, and a single cloaked Banshee to clear up Hyperdub’s Seige Tanks on his natural. With SCVs repairing his Thors, TLO manages to be the more cost efficient warrior as he manages to break Hyperdub’s contain even when Hyperdub had the supply advantage. TLO takes his gold base with his momentary gained advantage in army, and puts himself back in the game to economically compete with Hyperdub. A split map scenario appears as TLO secures the top half of the map, the bottom part, held by Hyperdub. In this stalemate situation, TLO once again turns to his Ghosts and Nukes to turn the tide into his favor while switching to Battlecrusiers to counteract Hyperdub’s Seige Tank heavy army.

TLO performs an intricate dance, using his Nukes and Battlecruisers to force Hyperdub into unsiegeing, giving up their ground, and then he uses his own Seige Tanks to inch forward and little by little increase his territorial control on the map. Hyperdub sends a large force to take out TLO’s middle western expansion. TLO again uses his Nukes just to threaten Hyperdub enough into unsieging and then cancels it so that he can move in with his own Seige Tanks. Hyperdub amasses a large number of Vikings and uses them to systematically take out TLO’s Battlecruisers and regain air control. But TLO goes to work on Hyper dubs middle eastern expansion, dropping a series of Nukes to damage the planetary, and even catches a clump of Vikings in one of the explosions. After battering down Hyperdub’s eastern expansion TLO moves in with some tanks and successfully mounts a siege line to destroy Hyperdub’s Planetary Fortress. TLO then uses his Ghosts to cast defensive Nukes on Hyperdub’s advancing army in an attempt to save the expansion. TLO buys enough time with his Nukes to destroy one of Hyperdub’s precious mining bases. TLO deals the death blow with a frontal attack with his Mech, forcing Hyperdub into counter-attacking into his defensive siege line. Hyperdub’s supply plummets far below TLO’s, forcing a no doubt grudging GG.

To the untrained eye, this game might look like Hyperdub being too careless with his units and allowing TLO to regain the lead, but in reality, TLOs intelligence allowed him to use Nukes to force these errors out of Hyperdub. With a little intelligence, and a lot of perseverance TLO executes one of the most epic comebacks in SC2 E-sports history.

Considering the impact of this game in T v Z, it’s shocking that this game almost never happened as Kyrix was stuck in traffic and came in late for his match. He had to step into his game booth and face live cameras, without even having time to put make up on. The judges had decided that he was close enough to the deadline to spare him the disqualification.

MarineKing, then known as BoxeR or FoxeR for fake BoxeR, spawns on the north east side, while Kyrix is on the south west side of Shakuras Plateau. Kyrix goes for a 14 Hatchery while MarineKing chooses to build a Barracks on the choke of his natural in preparation for a 1 Rax into Command Center build. MarineKing techs to a Factory for Siege Tanks and adds on some more extra Barracks with reactors. Kyrix, performing a strategy that will be later known as his signature, plants down a Baneling Nest before going into Lair for some high-economy Baneling aggression against MarineKing’s fortified position. Kyrix sets up his Baneling cocoons just outside MarineKing’s natural, and just as they are creating, MarineKing walks outside of his wall for a poke. As soon as MarineKing spots the sprouting Banelings and Zerglings he immediately doubles back. But Kyrix manages a surround on both of MarineKing’s only Seige Tanks and squeezes through a small gap in MarineKing’s defensive wall with his banelings to destroy the defending Marines. With micro unheard of before, MarineKing separates his marines into smaller groups to minimize the splash damage done from the Banelings. More Zerglings stream in from Kyrix and MarineKing is forced to pull his SCVs to defend against the torrent of attacking units. MarineKing re-walls himself in and sieges his Tanks right after he defends the initial attack. Kyrix is not giving up however as he makes another round of Banelings and kamakazes them into MarineKing, managing to take out MarineKings very important Factory as well as a depot and some Marines.

Once again MarineKing re-walls himself in, this time with an Engineering Bay and he rebuilds his Factory. He also adds even more Barracks with the reactor add-on in preparation for a tempo based push with a Marine heavy composition. MarineKing pushes out and uses his impeccable micro control to spread his Marines against Banelings. As MarineKing marches towards him, Kyrix plants down a Spire, and begins research of Baneling Speed. MarineKing continues to rally forth with an endless stream of Marines and Seige Tanks, and even adding in some Medivacs. He manages to catch a large group of Banelings just as they are finishing morphing and targets them down with his Siege Tanks. MarineKing presses on and sieges up on the 3rd expansion of Kyrix but Kyrix cuts off his reinforcements with Zerglings and destroys MarineKing’s standing army with Banelings. MarineKings switches footing with his offense and attacks Kyrix with Marines being dropped from Medivacs and manages to take out a significant amount of Overlords, and even gets out with minimal losses. Kyrix meets up against MarineKing in the middle of the map with Banelings and engages but MarineKing once again splits his marines in four different directions, and with upgrades, manages to hold of Kyrix’s aggression.

Kyrix’s Mutalisks enter the fray and he struggles with MarineKing in a series of push and pull battles right outside of Kyrix’s natural choke. Their armies clash and MarineKing stutters and splits until Kyrix is worn down. MarineKing’s upgrades reach 2-2 and the damage per second from his Marines prove too much for Kyrix. Eventually MarineKing bullies himself in to Kyrix’s natural to take out the Spire. MarineKing never slows down, even against Banelings, Roaches, and Mutalisks, he uses his upgraded Marines to deadly effect. With each engagement Kyrix’s forces become smaller and smaller, and MarineKing’s forces plow through relentlessly. When MarineKing reaches 3-3 upgrades he manages to break Kyrix down, destroying Kyrix’s natural hatch and the Baneling Nest. With no units left for Kyrix, MarineKing focuses down the Hatches, and that spelled out the GG for Kyrix.

Both of these players represented the cutting edge of strategy and mechanics in their respective races. oGsMC largely known as the best Protoss player on the planet going up against TSL_PuMa, a player who initially was not even included in the NASL, who had to battle it out with a plethora of highly skilled opponents in the open bracket in order to make it to the NASL Grand Finals. Puma in his Brood War career was famously singled out by The Ultimate Weapon, Flash himself to serve as a practice partner. The series between these two players could arguably be the best Grand Finals in a tournament in Starcraft 2 that has yet been played. Out of the games they played that day, Game 5 on Terminus RE was the most exciting.

The players spawn cross positions. PuMa on the west side of Terminus RE and MC on the east. PuMa immediately gets both his gases and techs up to cloaked Banshees, MC goes for a quick Nexus into 4 Gateways with a dangerously late Robotics Bay. MC spots the first Banshee with a proxy Pylon early on and rushes back home for the defense of his probes. PuMa does some significant damage to MC’s probe count even causing the probes in his natural base to be pulled out of the mining line. PuMa manages to keep both his Banshees alive forcing MC to be pinned behind his base until proper static defenses are set up against them. And while PuMa is harassing, he sets up an expansion of his own and amasses a steadily growing ball of bio and Ghosts. PuMa loads up two Medivacs and moves them to drop onto MC’s main. PuMa executes some aggressive harassment, he accompanies the chaos caused by the bio drop in MC’s main with some extra Banshee harassment on MC’s natural. PuMa continues on with two pronged harassment from drops and Banshees while he and MC both get 3rd bases, with PuMa in the economic and supply lead.

MC moves out with a Gateway-Archon army, but his Probe, meant to build a proxy Pylon is incinerated by a roving scout Hellion. PuMa braces himself with 4 Bunkers against MC’s push while he continues to drop on MC’s bases while a battle is raging in front of PuMa’s natural choke. PuMa loads up another double drop and lands them in MC’s base, this time picking off 3 Warp Gates, and killing off enough Pylons to put MC in the red supply. PuMa’s main force then moves up and while PuMa sets up a posture in front of MC’s natural, he uses even more drops to force MC to move back deeper into his own base. Just as PuMa attacks into MC, MC casts a perfect Psionic Storm to cover the majority of PuMa’s main army. MC then moves forward pushing PuMa away with his Chargelots and Archons, causing massive casualties on PuMa’s end of the battle. MC continues to push PuMa, managing to take out a building Planetary Fortress meant to be PuMa’s 4th base. MC uses his map control to establish his own 4th base right by the middle of the map. PuMa keeps on with his double drop harassment, this time targeting down MC’s 3rd Nexus but MC rushes to its defense and manages to keep his Nexus alive at 4 HP. PuMa pushes up using his EMPs and Stim against MC’s main army, all this while he sends another drop to finish off the weakened 3rd base of MC. But on the main battlefront MC corners PuMa’s main army and crushes it with Stalkers and an Archon. MC has set up a secret 5th nexus on the lower right hand of the map and saturates it while PuMa is forced to use his original Orbital Command to set up a working 4th base. MC walks up to PuMa’s new base and drops some Psi Storms to weaken PuMa’s already dwindling bio forces. MC fends off more of PuMa’s drop harassment and makes a tech switch to Colossus against PuMa’s mostly bio and Medivac army. With the area of effect damage from both the High Templars and the Colossi MC obliterates PuMa’s main standing army, and that causes PuMa to call out the GG.

It is one thing to win a game for yourself, it is entirely another to win a game for your team. Both MMA and DongRaeGu are the respective ace players of their team, players whom their teammates have entrusted their hopes to in order to win the GSTL championship. Coming into this game, both players remained undefeated in GSTL 3, and both players were renowned for their ability to kill legends. MMA in the previous GSTL had proven himself against players like July, MC, and Mvp, and this season, a new legend killer arose in the form of DongRaeGu, who clutched out wins against players like MarineKing, NaDa, and MC. A fascination took over the viewers of this match: what would happen if legend killer faced against legend killer?

MMA is on the west spawning point of Metalopolis while, DongRaeGu is on the east. MMA executes a build, then unique only to himself by starting off with reapers into an early Command Center while DongRaeGu decides for an economic 15 Hatchery. MMA uses a pair of reapers to do some light harassment on DongRaeGu, deftly dodging the queens, and then moves on to use his reapers to establish map control. DongRaeGu plants down a quick 3rd base in a bid to get ahead of MMA in economy as soon as possible. Just as his Stim upgrade is about to finish MMA moves out and catches DongRaeGu’s Zerglings and massacres them with little loss, and then he loads up into a pair of Medivacs and proceeds to engage DongRaeGu in a series drops against Zerglings and Banelings. DongRaeGu replies by running in some Zerglings into MMA’s natural while MMA tries to establish a 3rd base, managing to take out some unguarded Siege Tanks. DongRaeGu manages to repel most of MMA’s initial drop attempts just by spotting them early on and then he goes into production of a large Mutalisk force. While he is being attacked by DongRaeGu’s Mutalisks, MMA proceeds to use drops to harass DongRaeGu’s expansions, doing his best to delay a 4th mining hatchery from going up. DongRaeGu’s macro reaches off the charts, as he explodes with a 60 food lead against MMA. As MMA moves out with a sizable number of Siege Tanks, he casts a critical scan over DongRaeGu’s army just before they come into attacking range and sieges up immediately. But DongRaeGu is un-intimidated and barrels down upon MMA with a force of Zerglings, Banelings, and Mutalisks that seems to drawf, MMA’s own army. DongRaeGu nearly crushes MMA but his reinforcements of marines come in just in time to thwart away the Mutalisks. MMA moves in with a killer instinct and destroys DongRaeGu’s 4th mining Hatchery before DongRaeGu can re-macro up an army.

MMA sets his sights on DongRaeGu’s natural as he heads over to the eastern side of the map and sets up a siege line but then feints away, meaning only to lead DongRaeGu’s main army away from his southern expansions with which he sends Medivacs full of marines to drop on. At this point Infestors have come into play for DongRaeGu and he uses them with deadly precision, casting Fungal Growth on MMA’s Marines, softening them up for his offensive units to attack. The pre-emptive damage dealt by the Infestors pay off as DongRaeGu is able to obliterate MMA’s attacking force with one quick assault. MMA persists, directing siege pushes towards DongRaeGu’s 4th and 5th expansions while he takes the gold base for himself and heavily fortifying it with Seige Tanks, supporting Marines, and Turrets. MMA uses a series of pushes and drops in combination with one another in order to cripple DongRaeGu economically. MMA loads up 4 Medivacs full of Marines and Tanks, in an attempt to elevator in forces on DongRaeGu’s 5th base platform, but DongRaeGu catches him, Fungals a large clump of MMA’s army and obliterates the half of his forces left at the bottom part of the ledge. The counter-attack from DongRaeGu however is repelled by some well placed defenses on MMA’s gold base.

DongRaeGu switches over to production of Brood Lords as soon as his Greater Spire finishes, but MMA is already prepared with Vikings, as they fight for position in DongRaeGu’s 4th expansion. MMA follows through with his theme of distraction and then attack, using drops to lure DongRaeGu away from where his main army will attack. DongRaeGu has to move his forces back and forth across the map to chase down MMA’s drops and this gives MMA time to set up a formidable position to attack DongRaeGu’s only mining expansions. DongRaeGu fungals MMA’s Vikings and attacks his land forces with the Brood Lords but, MMA’s Tank line has gotten too deep as he DongRaeGu loses the majority of his ground forces to Siege Tank fire. MMA’s previous harassment takes its toll on DongRaeGu as his income plummets and he is unable to reproduce any forces to defend his mining expansions. MMA drops some manner Mules on DongRaeGu right before DongRaeGu’s great undefeated run in the GSTL is ended with a GG.

MMA used the culmination of his teammate’s hard work as support to give himself strength to bring home the win. Team Slayers for a second time gets crowned GSTL champions.

NesTea had expressed his concerns about sC prior to this game. In GSL May sC had been showcasing his frightening talent for engineering relentless push strategies that seem to overrun his opponent on sheer micro and macro. Even before the match begun, NesTea knew that if he could beat sC, he would have his best chance of winning another GSL.

The matches between them were played and it seemed both sC and NesTea functioned on equal footing, going 2-2 and taking it to a final game on Crossfire, a then supposedly Terran favored map. NesTea spawns on the north and sC spawns on the South end. sC opens with an aggressive double Barracks that has been the hallmark of his play against Zerg. NesTea wary of sC’s deadly early game opts for a speedling expand. Reacting to the other’s opening, both players sit back and plant expansions, both deciding to go for defensive economic builds. Both players advance cautiously knowing how dangerous the other can be. sC carefully leap frogs Bunkers leading down, and NesTea readies a Spine Crawler in front of his natural for any aggression that might come his way. NesTea gets a quick 3rd expansion on the north west side of the map and sC immediately spots it with an SCV he had hidden. Knowing the map lent itself to Siege Tank pushes, NesTea strategically places some Spine Crawlers on the platform leading to his natural expansion. sC pushes out towards NesTea’s 3rd base just as it is beginning to get saturated with drones. But NesTea sees it coming and promptly moves to cut of reinforcements and attacks it just as Baneling Speed and Roach Speed finishes for him.

After the battle both sides end up with similar army supply. NesTea waits patiently for proper reinforcements before attacking, his hatch gets damage down to red health before he lashes out and quashes sC’s offense. sC’s following pushes are then foiled by some orgasmic Baneling mines that blow up so much of sC’s forces that he has to turn back and regroup. sC solidifies a foothold on the middle platform with his Siege Tanks preventing NesTea from attacking his newly set up 3rd expansion. sC executes some missions to his marines to delay NesTea’s expansions, and launches a double Medivac drop that destroys NesTea’s 3rd expansion that he had weakened earlier. While NesTea is distracted with the drop sC inches forward his siege line and gets within range of NesTea’s potential gold base. But then NesTea counter-attacks with his Mutalisks and manages to take out sC’s natural Command Center. sC manages to catch a huge clump of Mutalisks trying to fly around and harass his bases and shoots them out of the sky with a flank with his Marines. sC has also wizened up from the Baneling mines earlier and scans where he is about to step, and manages to spare himself some heavy losses from Baneling explosions.

When sC threatens NesTea’s gold expansion NesTea attacks into sC’s entrenched position causing heavy casualties on both sides but sC’s Thors and 1-1 upgraded Marines force NesTea’s surviving Mutalisks to back up. sC powers forward now assaulting NesTea’s 3rd expansion with Siege Tanks. NesTea again counter-attacks with his Mutalisks, forcing sC to uplift his Orbital Command while sC destroys NesTea’s only remaining, mining-Hatchery, bringing both players into a near zero income economy. NesTea sets up a secret Hatchery on the middle east expansion while sC moves in his natural base. NesTea then uses his Mutalisks to destroy sC’s last remaining mining Orbital and SCVs.

The tension mounts as NesTea does his best to stall until his infestors can come into play with their Fungal Growth ability. NesTea attacks sC’s entrenched army and loses the majority of his ground forces although he does take out a considerable amount of Marines and a Thor. NesTea proceeds to systematically snipe out sC’s Siege Tanks one by one with his Mutalisks. sC discovers NesTea’s hidden base, but it’s too late, NesTea’s Infestors are ready and he casts Fungal Growth upon sC’s Marines, decimating a huge number of them. Two more Thors from sC come in and continues the assault on NesTea’s last remaining Hatcheries. NesTea once again patiently hangs back, waiting for Zergling reinforcements to hatch. NesTea slings himself forward in a swift attack, placing Fungals on sC’s Marines and attacking his Thors with Zerglings while focusing down the Tanks with Mutalisks. sC who had been so close to reaching his first finals, gets his army obliterated and calls out arguably the most epic GG to have yet been uttered in Starcraft 2.



The GSL studio erupts with cheers. As NesTea leaves his booth, the crowd chants “Lim Jae Duk! Lim Jae Duk! Lim Jae Duk!” In the Grand Finals of GSL May NesTea meets Inca and crushes him 4-0 becoming the first Zerg to win two GSL championships.