The opponent he found facing him from the other side of the bracket was DongRaeGu. That final is still remembered vividly by StarCraft2 fans as perhaps the best final series in the history of the game.
MMA went up and was one map from securing the title, but DRG rallied to win three straight and tie up the series at A single map would decide the champion and that seventh game proved to be one of the most thrilling single games of SC2 ever played. It turns out that my strategies did not work at all and lose 3 in a row.
At I was very very nervous but my coach and teammates were telling me to relax and stable my mind, what I mainly did then was calm down. Earlier in the year the SlayerS Terran had risen to the moment of high pressure team league games only to stall each time he competed in the Korean individual leagues.
Succeeding overseas first MMA had established himself as a top tier player in the individual leagues, but still seemed far from the top of Code S. Having eventually climbed the Code S mountain and seen the view from the top, he had now scaled similar heights, beating out the best Korean players to win the final trophy of After sweeping the group with three series wins MMA moved into the playoffs and the top eight.
The opening round opponent was the rookie Feast, playing in his first big offline tournament, and despite losing the opener and looking initially shaky in the second, MMA took over the series to win In the semi-finals he stamped over Zenio, the man who had beaten him in his first ever GSL qualifier, by to progress to the final. He had defeated the new Team Liquid player in the Ro32 of GSL Code S only days earlier and once more ensured the Zerg knew who was the better of the two at this point in time.
Now the final awaited. When the Zerg won the opening map the crowd erupted with a boisterous wall of noise. It's easy to see how that could have rattled the soft-spoken Korean. Then I just thought about the game I really wanted to win the finals so I focused on that. Much as with his series against Feast, MMA locked in and elevated his game to a degree his opponent could not match.
Winning three maps in a row secured him the title and the first ever "triple crown" in SC2 history, having won big tournaments in all three of the game's major regions North America, Europe and South Korea. Nevertheless, the team would not make the playoffs that season, beginning a troubled period in their history. There, he decided to prove a point regarding criticisms of his TvP, selecting Oz, the man who had knocked him out of GSL November, to a group which would also feature team-mate and Protoss Puzzle.
I wanted to show everyone my change and improvement. However, it was really tough during practice, and I regretted my choice of picking a Protoss. In the quarter-final the opponent facing him was aLive, a fellow quarter-finalist from the previous Code S season. In the group stage MMA was a monster, crushing every player and going in maps. In the quarter-final he once more met Zenio and once more wiped him off his boot before moving on, making it and a total of in maps in their past three tournament meetings.
In the third place decider he rematched against Feast, the Belgian Protoss desperate for redemption from their Kiev quarter-final match, and dispatched him with ease In the upper bracket a loss to MarineKing sent him down to face elimination in the lower bracket. It had been around 10 months since the Protoss player had placed anywhere of note in an individual tournament, but the StarTale player was in the midst of an inspired Cinderella run.
MMA would not be the player to stop that, losing This victory, and progression into the final four, secured MMA a spot at the offline finals in Paris, France. MMA prevailed this time, winning to reach the final.
MMA never looked in true danger in the series, up and then , before winning out With another foreign crowd applauding, MMA draped himself in the South Korean flag and accepted his prize, which included a custom made metal helmet. His second European title brought him up to a total of five significant offline titles.
MMA's legend was continuing to grow. Iron Squid should have been MMA's return to the elite group of SC2 champions, if the storytellers shaped a smooth trajectory, but it in fact stood as the last moment he would stand atop a podium in a long while.
The eliminating blow came from GoOdy, a German Terran often derisively mocked with the nickname 'the Supply block Terran' due to his at times funky macro, despite being a player who essentially only played for the late game. MMA fell in two straight games to his unlikely better on that day.
Elimination without a single series victory and only one map won in five was a low point for MMA, a man who had been lifting the MLG trophy a year prior. Losing to Taiwanese Zerg SEn and beating Grubby in the third place decider was more disappointment for the Korean Terran, at an event where he was the sole Korean attending the LAN final of, and thus a heavy favourite to win the title.
The WCS Korea preliminaries went no better, losing to inori to fail to qualify. There was a brief parting of the rain clouds, tough, as a good run through Code A brought him back to the promised land of Code S. I was able to realize just how precious being in Code S was. Even though I was being genuine about what I wanted, I kept losing during my practice games and I had a ton of stress on me, but I was still able to advance like this so I feel even happier than I would after winning a major tournament.
I feel like I just found an opening to something that was blocking me. The past stayed the past and the present the present, as MMA's form continued to be at an all-time low, his opponent not only beating him, but going on to all-kill his team and take the title. These results, in all leagues, were indicative of more than just poor play, MMA was suffering in the team environement too, having been demoted to the B team.
After the aforementioned events, I needed to clear my mind so I went out on Saturday. I cleared my mind and returned. Jessica stated that I did not return to the team house, but this is false. I did all my tasks, then left on Saturday night and returned on Sunday morning. MMA's return to Code S was short-lived. In Code A he was immediatly eliminated by the unknown Sirius Even worse, the rumours surrounding the team had been that SlayerS had initially asked exorbitant amounts of foreign teams looking to sign their former ace, then had changed their story and claimed they would send him on a free transfer.
On a community talk show it was stated that only a team like Evil Geniuses, with vast finances could afford MMA. Would he be forced into retirement? On the 20th of November it was announced that MMA had signed with Team Acer, a foreign team that had been gradually growing in exposure over the year, thanks largely to success of its Zerg line.
Now that that's all solved I want to focus on the game and do well. In the second group stage he was upset by German Zerg Xlord, beat BabyKnight and then lost a deciding match against Stephano.
In these latter days of Wings of Liberty it was hardly a surprise to see a Terran losing to a Zerg, but those losses seemed to also highlight how far MMA had fallen, now capable of losing to a number of foreigners too. Where had ended so brightly, and in such emphatic fashion, with that GSL Blizzard Cup win, ended with MMA seemingly exiled from Korean SC2 and hoping to grind out results in foreign tournaments for his new team. A week later he fell to Stephano, again, this time in the online Ro16 segment of the second Iron Squid tournament, meaning MMA would not get the chance to defend his crown or helmet in Paris.
The new year had brought some significant changes to life as an SC2 pro. March had seen the release of Heart of the Swarm, the new expansion for StarCraft2. This meant competing online initially, where he progressed from the first group stage to reach the offline Ro A component noticably missing from MMA's preparation had been his coaching situation back in SlayerS.
During the peak of his career MMA had received attention from Won Ryu, who had served as almost a personal coach. Won helped MMA with scouting his opponent's tendencies and preparing specific builds.
This plays a role in our story at this point in , as Won reached out to MMA to help him with his Zerg star Soulkey in the Woongjin team. MMA's TvZ had been weak in the latter days of WoL, but he had once been amongst the best in the entire world in the match-up.
MMA told Soulkey the solution. There are many details of the solution that even I didn't notice. But MMA covered all of it. MMA's team league form was at an all-time low and he would rarely be used. It's one of the things which keeps me going to practice hard, so I really wanna go to BlizzCon again and play and win in front of such a crowd again.
MC had been similarly plagued with a long slump, having only made the top four of a significant offline tournament once in the past nine or so months. MC did prove the better player, winning and denying MMA a spot in the final. Still, a top four finish in WCS Europe had been a significant result for MMA, providing hope to his fans that the dark days had perhaps come to an end. Against Millenium MMA again came in blazing, recording a four kill to win the match and reach the final.
Despite failing to capture the league title, MMA's form had impressed and hinted at an overall return for the troubled Korean Terran.
The welcome home party amongst elite players was put on hold when MMA fell in two straight series losses in the Ro16 of the WCS Season 2 final, a week later.
That included two losses to TaeJa, with one at the offline final. Winning his first two group stages with only one map dropped from six series, and a win over BW god Flash, MMA was moving on to the Ro16 bracket.
The two provided some spirited but friendly trash talk before the game, with MMA suggesting this match would decide who was the best player in the team, but INnoVation was the better in the actual games, winning a three map series. Again MMA had made a deep run in an offline tournament, again he had failed to make the final.
Good results, of course, but something was still lacking from the two time GSL champion. Winning his group in two series he moved on to a second consecutive quarter-final appearance at the tournament. In the semi-final yet another Zerg awaited, this time Spaniard VortiX.
Beating him by another comprehensive , MMA moved into the WCS Europe S3 final having only lost a single map out of 11 played in the offline portion. The storybook first individual league final of for MMA, his first offline individual league final in 17 months, came with the requisite storybook final boss: MC.
The Protoss who had beaten him back in their BW B team days and denied him a finals spot in the previous WCS Europe season, would now battle him in a Bo7 to see who would be crowned champion, both sorely lacking championship for over a year and a half.
Which GSL champion would emerge on top? That answer soon became startlingly obvious, as MMA rushed out to a lead in the series. MC struck back twice to make it competitive, but MMA closed out his fellow Korean to win the series and his first title of The struggle had been ceaseless, but the exiled prince of Korean SC2, once called the 'son of BoxeR', had been crowned a champion once more.
He would go no further than the quarter-finals though, as young Korean Terran prodigy Maru bested him in four maps there.
He would lose the opener to Bomber in five maps, meaning elimination. The team had lost to Azubu in the first series, with MMA not getting sent out. Dreamhack Winter was primed to be another stacked Dreamhack event overseas, this time in Sweden. After beating Protoss player Patience in the upper bracket, MMA was assured a top six finish at worst. MMA took the opener but could not deliver the series, losing A rematch with Patience, who was the revelation of the tournament, saw MMA eliminated in 5th-6th overall.
MMA fell in the group stage, losing two crucial Bo5 series vs. San and VortiX. MMA once more proved masterful in an ATC final, this time surpassing even the performance of the previous season. MMA scored a two kill as Acer won the series to reach the finals. Their finals opponents ended up being a rematch with Axiom. MMA put three kills on the board as Acer rolled to a win an the title. Winning a second offline team league title also helped add to a now fully stocked trophy cabinet for the Terran from near Incheon.
Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.
This was despite Blizzard's recent buffs to the Terran Widow Mine. It was the first time they would face each other in an individual finals and as well as their longest match yet, being a best of 7.
The last map was a drawn out game with both players making incredible comebacks, eventually DRG managed to get Broodlords inside MMA's production lines but MMA held strong and took down the series Many considered these finals as the best GSL finals yet. This time the game was much closer with DRG coming barely on top Their games quickly became highly anticipated by the community clashes of the SC2 titans.
On MMA 's road to supremacy in late , he had to overcome many obstacles, in particular his Terran rival, Mvp. In , MMA and Mvp faced each other six times in individual series and team leagues. MMA successfully swept the title for his team, in a nail-bitingly close marine-tank game.
Once again the fought in the final where MMA was coming from the lower bracket as the defending champion. This time Mvp left no room for doubt easily defeating MMA Both MMA and Mvp qualified to the event, topping their qualifying groups.
Then they met in the quarterfinals of the upper bracket with MMA barely edging his opponent However Mvp fought his way through the loser's bracket facing SlayerS' ace once more, this time in the grand final that took place full month later. This time MMA comfortably won The match was highly anticipated as - at the time - both players were considered two best progamers in the StarCraft II pro scene. On one hand Mvp was trying to win record-breaking fourth title being - at the same time - defending champion.
To add fuel to the hype before the match, both players represented very different styles in TvT, with Mvp known for his safe and efficient mech style and MMA known for his perfected drop and harassment bio-based play.
Once again they played in a final and while Mvp edged MMA , it may be considered a bittersweet victory considering there was a lot less on the line in terms of prestige, money and popularity. He went on to win the tournament, and was awarded as "best" player of In total, MMA is leading the rivalry and in sets.
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