Even the artwork for the TSL3 was pretty awesome.
“it was comically fitting when Chill experienced connection problems in game seven. And when he finally dropped, in a way, it seemed like the inevitable final chapter.”
“It wouldn’t have felt right with any other caster, only Day9 could have flawlessly captured the tense excitement as ThorZaIN repeatedly beat back the larger death-ball of NaNiwa.”
There were two major tournament finals over the weekend. One was a 4-0 snooze fest while the other was such a perfect ending that it could have been scripted. ThorZaIN and NaNiwa’s glorious best of seven gave me that feeling you get when you slide the last puzzle piece into a gazillion piece jigsaw puzzle. No, not “why did I just waste hours of my life fitting tiny pieces of cardboard together just to create a pretty picture that I could already see on the box?” It was more like that feeling of satisfaction when everything works out the way it’s supposed to. No lost pieces, just a perfect collection of oddly shaped scraps, that collectively create something really neat.
We had started to see the puzzle take shape during the run up to the finals. ThorZaIN had taken down champion after champion, upsetting Fruitdealer (GSL1), Tyler (TSL2) and MC (GSL3, GSL March). Meanwhile, NaNiwa was coming off a 26-2 run at MLG where he blazed his way through the entire open bracket to take home the first place trophy. Champion killer versus champion... come on we had to see this coming, right?
The series started off promisingly, with ThorZaIN taking game one and NaNiwa taking game two. Perfect. A legendary tournament run needs to end with a long, hard fought best of seven. Plus we had just seen NesTea 4-0 InCa in the span of about 45 minutes and it would have been depressing if the other major tournament final of the weekend ended just as anti-climatically.
Then tons of cool stuff happened. NaNiwa took a 3-1 lead and looked like he might end ThorZaIN’s champion killing spree. But ThorZaIN came roaring back with a win in game five and an un-effing-believable defense in game six where half his army was trapped in his main while NaNiwa chipped away at his natural, perpetually force-fielding ThorZaIN’s ramp to prevent reinforcements. ThorZaIN responded brilliantly, using medivacs to elevator in additional troops while simultaneously showing off jaw-dropping repair micro to keep his last couple bunkers alive, knowing that if he lost those crucial structures, he’d lose his natural, the game, and ultimately the series. His inspiring last stand prompted Chill to shout “do you believe in miracles?” when, against all odds, he finally pushed back the Protoss army and forced a seemingly prophetic game seven.
To me, the final game in the wildly successful TSL3 was a microcosm for the entire StarCraft II scene. It attracted a whopping 65,000+ live viewers, epitomizing the game’s popularity as the world’s best eSport. It featured Tal’darim Alter, one of several “user-made” maps that have dramatically increased the entertainment value of StarCraft II by encouraging longer games and making one or two base all-ins less successful. Having two non-Koreans in the finals may have been a little atypical, but it symbolized the increasing competitiveness of foreigners against the traditionally dominant Koreans. But really, the icing on this microcosmic cake was when Chill began lagging.
As we’re all painfully aware, StarCraft II doesn’t feature any LAN capabilities. So even though both players flew to New York for the finals, they had to play over the less-than-perfect Battle.net. The same Not-Local-Area-Network that caused a two hour delay at last year’s MLG grand championship, has forced a handful of re-games at the GSL, and even prevented players from logging in at the PAX East gaming convention. Thus, it was comically fitting when Chill experienced connection problems in game seven. And when he finally dropped, in a way, it seemed like the inevitable final chapter to one of the most well organized, entertainingly awesome tournaments ever -- that Day9, the unofficial ambassador of Western eSports, the lovable nerd who reaches thousands of anonymous viewers every night through his dailies, who shares not only his extensive knowledge but his passion for the game and contagious enthusiasm for the StarCraft community, would solo cast the epic closing minutes of the TSL3.
It wouldn’t have felt right with any other caster, only Day9 could have flawlessly captured the tense excitement as ThorZaIN repeatedly beat back the larger death-ball of NaNiwa. Time and time again he was behind in supply and slightly out of position as NaNiwa’s giant army of colossi and gateway units moved in to engage. But with a few devastating EMPs, ThorZaIN kept coming out on top. Now I know EMPs do an obscene amount of damage to Protoss units, and vikings and medivacs are ridiculously powerful too, but there’s just something about seeing a bunch of tiny infantry beat back these War of the Worlds style giant laser-shooting tripods that feels epic. Like David taking down Goliath or Sam and Frodo defeating Sauron. Emotionally it’s just that much cooler when the visuals perpetuate the underdog story that we’re hoping to see unfold.
After one final battle left NaNiwa with nothing but the shattered remains of his once powerful futuristic alien death-ball, he tapped out. ThorZaIN was the TSL3 champion, with an amaing 4-3 victory in the finals. It ended NaNiwa’s 35-0 “best of anything” streak and was the perfect final piece in ThorZaIN’s champion slaying puzzle.
LINKS
TSL3 VOD Thread: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=203014
Woody "soso" Favinger is the author of The soso column, published every Wednesday on GosuGamers.net. You can contact him visit his website at www.eSportsGuy.com or follow him on twitter at twitter.com/wfavinger
