Startale_Life
Startale Life is crazy. Two years ago, Life made his debut in The Teamliquid Starleague 4 (TSL4). He came second to Creator Prime, a good result but not career defining. But then, in an amazing display of dominance, Life would go on to dominate five tournaments in a row. These weren't some small time LANs. These were huge events, the MLG Fall Championship, Ironsquid II, the GSL Blizzard Cup, the Ritmix Russian Starcraft II League Season 5, as well as becoming the first person ever to royal road a regular season of the GSL.
For those who don't know, to royal road a tournament is to win the tournament on your very first time in the tournament. This is extremely difficult for the GSL because you have to fight through Code A, which is the lower tier of the GSL, and then you have to fight through Code S. Code S is where THE best players play, to win Code S usually takes the best players a few seasons to get accustomed to the difficulty. But Life wins it his very first time. An amazing result with an amazing trophy. It seemed like at the beginning of 2013 that everything would continue as it had been and that Life would keep dominating. He began the year with the Iron Squid Chapter II win, one of the last tournaments in Wings of Liberty.
After such a high, there's only really one direction to go. Saying Life was slumping is probably a bit harsh; after winning everything for the past few months, not winning everything can only be a slump. Without a tournament win in a few months, Life entered the MLG Winter Championship, no one expected him to make a dent, especially with phenomenal players like Flash, Parting, herO, Rain, Bomber, iNnoVation, Taeja, Polt, etc. There was a tremendous amount of talent, and even though only a few months ago Life had dominated the scene, this was a new game. This MLG would be the very first large tournament to play the brand new expansion to Starcraft II. Heart of the Swarm.
Life started out with an easy win over the American Protoss player Minigun and moved on to face"Captain America"himself, Polt. In a close match that almost spelled an early end to the tournament, Life took the series 3-2 and moved on to play the next Korean Terran Last. The series went in favor of Life again and then it was on to the Korean Protoss MC. At this time, Heart of the Swarm had just come out and MC had been showing off an insane Protoss vs Terran match up.MC Crushed both Mvp and Bomber, both of which were strong opponents at the time. From Wings of Liberty we also knew MC was pretty solid in Protoss vs Zerg, surely MC would be able to take out Life. Nope, Life demolished MC and moved onto the finals. In the finals he met Flash, the Ultimate Weapon, God, THE best Brood War player of all time. In Starcraft II he hadn't lived up to his former glory. But here he was in the finals of MLG, and this wasn't some Korean E-Sports Association (KESPA) only tournament. This was the real deal, was Flash back? Had he finally found his footing in Starcraft II? Was Flash about to destroy a player who, a few months ago, was easily the best player in the world? No, Life took the finals 4-2. However, this win was the end of Life's reign of terror.
So we've come to this year. It's 2014, Life has had a few good showings this year, 3-4th in GSL, a win at Dreamhack Bucharest, and another 3-4th at IEM Toronto. It wasn't a lot but it was enough to get him his spot at this year's Blizzcon. Again, he hasn't had the best results lately, who would pick Startale Life to win this tournament. Blizzcon had tremendous players like soO, iNnoVation, Taeja, herO, Classic, etc. Most of the people who made it to Blizzcon had an amazing year of results, soO with his four times second places in GSL, iNnoVation with his very recent win at GSL, Taeja the King of Summer, Zest who was probably THE best Protoss of this year.
Life's first opponent was this Zest. There is no way Life is winning this, Zest was one of the best players of this entire year, and Life was just a really good zerg who used to the best. Life clinches the series with a 3-2 victory over Zest. Immediately this sent ripples among everyone's predicted brackets. "Life beat Zest? Well that screwed my bracket. I guess that's great for Life, and he has San next? Well o.k he's round of four, there's no way he's getting past that though." As expected, Life crushes San. It's round of four and now it's time for fan favorite Liquid Taeja. In another huge upset, Taeja beats soO in the very first round. Two players who have defeated the very best of the year. But Taeja beat soO, soO is arguably the best player in the world. Getting to the GSL finals is one of the hardest things to do in Starcraft II, but getting it four times in a row is unheard of. It literally has never happened. It can be argued that soO is the greatest of all time. Taeja beats him and goes through to the next round where he faces iNnoVation, who has just come off his first win at the GSL after moving to WCS Europe. Taeja beats him. Taeja is on fire, he's channeling his inner Liquid HerO and is playing fantastic in the winter. Surely Taeja has this, he beat soO and iNnovation, he's set to win the entire tournament, no one is as good as those two at the moment. Life does it again. Another upset, and now he's in the finals of Blizzcon. He's doing it again, this is just like the first MLG of Heart of the Swarm, he's come off a slump and he's going to win another huge tournament.
Except this is Blizzcon. On the other side of the bracket is another player who has tackled just as difficult opponents. MMA, a previous Blizzcon champion. Former Slayers poster boy has finally come back into the spotlight, he's amazing again. He's beaten Bomber who, in maybe the first time of his Starcraft II career, has had a consistently good year. Then he beats a GSL champion in Classic. Now is his time to rise up and reclaim his Blizzcon title, to show that you don't need compete in Korea to be the best, he's been in Europe exchanging the WCS Europe title between himself and MC. Both are huge fan favorites, MMA has been a legendary player throughout the entirety of Starcraft II and Life is this child prodigy who never lets up the aggression. All this hype, and yet, Life shrugs off MMA in a quick series 4-1.
Life has done it again. He's come out of near obscurity to show how fantastic of a player he is. It doesn't matter how good of a year you've had, Life will beat you. You were the best Protoss player of the year? Doesn't matter, he's Startale Life. You managed to be pretty consistent throughout the year, beating really good players and taking a title? Doesn't matter, he's Startale Life. You managed to beat the player who got to the finals of the hardest tournament in the world in this very match up, as well as dominate the summer tournaments like you always do? Doesn't matter, he's Startale Life. You won WCS Europe as well as returned to your former glory? It doesn't matter. He's Life, and he always finds a way, no matter his results.
Life's first opponent was this Zest. There is no way Life is winning this, Zest was one of the best players of this entire year, and Life was just a really good zerg who used to the best. Life clinches the series with a 3-2 victory over Zest. Immediately this sent ripples among everyone's predicted brackets. "Life beat Zest? Well that screwed my bracket. I guess that's great for Life, and he has San next? Well o.k he's round of four, there's no way he's getting past that though." As expected, Life crushes San. It's round of four and now it's time for fan favorite Liquid Taeja. In another huge upset, Taeja beats soO in the very first round. Two players who have defeated the very best of the year. But Taeja beat soO, soO is arguably the best player in the world. Getting to the GSL finals is one of the hardest things to do in Starcraft II, but getting it four times in a row is unheard of. It literally has never happened. It can be argued that soO is the greatest of all time. Taeja beats him and goes through to the next round where he faces iNnoVation, who has just come off his first win at the GSL after moving to WCS Europe. Taeja beats him. Taeja is on fire, he's channeling his inner Liquid HerO and is playing fantastic in the winter. Surely Taeja has this, he beat soO and iNnovation, he's set to win the entire tournament, no one is as good as those two at the moment. Life does it again. Another upset, and now he's in the finals of Blizzcon. He's doing it again, this is just like the first MLG of Heart of the Swarm, he's come off a slump and he's going to win another huge tournament.
Except this is Blizzcon. On the other side of the bracket is another player who has tackled just as difficult opponents. MMA, a previous Blizzcon champion. Former Slayers poster boy has finally come back into the spotlight, he's amazing again. He's beaten Bomber who, in maybe the first time of his Starcraft II career, has had a consistently good year. Then he beats a GSL champion in Classic. Now is his time to rise up and reclaim his Blizzcon title, to show that you don't need compete in Korea to be the best, he's been in Europe exchanging the WCS Europe title between himself and MC. Both are huge fan favorites, MMA has been a legendary player throughout the entirety of Starcraft II and Life is this child prodigy who never lets up the aggression. All this hype, and yet, Life shrugs off MMA in a quick series 4-1.
Life has done it again. He's come out of near obscurity to show how fantastic of a player he is. It doesn't matter how good of a year you've had, Life will beat you. You were the best Protoss player of the year? Doesn't matter, he's Startale Life. You managed to be pretty consistent throughout the year, beating really good players and taking a title? Doesn't matter, he's Startale Life. You managed to beat the player who got to the finals of the hardest tournament in the world in this very match up, as well as dominate the summer tournaments like you always do? Doesn't matter, he's Startale Life. You won WCS Europe as well as returned to your former glory? It doesn't matter. He's Life, and he always finds a way, no matter his results.
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