The “ultimate weapon” was sabotaged in an epic final series over the weekend.
Lee “Flash” Young Ho was living up to his nickname during an outstanding run of play at the 10th Home Story Cup in Krefeld, Germany. But Won “Parting” Lee Sak wasn’t interested in contributing to Lee’s long list of tournament victories.
Lee had won more than ten consecutive games going into the event’s grand final, including dramatic playoff series sweeps of both Jens “Snute” Aasgaard and Yun “Taeja” Young Seo. As impressive as his run was, it was matched by Won’s, which included playoff sweeps of Lee Jae Dong and Hwang “Losira” Kang Ho.
But Lee’s run garnered much more attention given his background as arguably the single most successful player in the original StarCraft’s history. Fans on hand in Krefeld were ready to see Lee continue his ascendance to the StarCraft 2 throne. But Won had other plans.
The two met in a best-of-seven final. Won picked up the first two games of the series on the back of some impressive blink stalker micro, squeezing too much value out of his standing troops for Lee to deal with. Lee then stormed back, winning three of the next four games to tie the series and send it to a decisive seventh.
That seventh game may have been the tightest in the series.
Lee discovered an early proxy build from Won, but wasn’t able to punish him hard enough for it to establish a decisive advantage. Instead, the discovery set off a wild back-and-forth series of events including multiple engagements that seemed to be headed in favor of Lee, only for Won to survive intact on the back of strong micro.
When the final engagement came about, commentators were declaring Lee the likely victor. Seconds later, it became clear that Won would overcome him.
Won’s exemplary micro somehow carried him through the battle and led to Lee typing out of the game.
Won’s reaction was emotional, nearly breaking his newly won trophy while celebrating with it. He later explained to the crowd that he’d reacted so strongly because he’d failed to win a tournament of any significance ever since his mother had started following his games. This was his first opportunity to show her a trophy.
The win was Won’s biggest of the year, and came on the heels of a second-place finish at this year’s MSI Beat It event earlier in the month.
International players have a history of success at the Home Story Cup, and there were flashes of it here. Unsurprisingly, Aasgaard advanced further than any other player from outside Korea. Poland’s Grzegorz “Mana” Komincz also stood out, defeating multiple Korean professionals before being eliminated by Aasgaard one match shy of the playoff bracket.
Published: Nov 17, 2014 01:22 pm