Final Thoughts on IEM Katowice 2019

This morning was a little like finishing a great novel. For awhile, you cannot even imagine reading another book and anything you do for the remainder of that day seems to pale in comparison; indeed, after watching the StarCraft II semifinals and grand final of Intel Extreme Masters Katowice 2019 live on Twitch this morning (in my time zone, that is), anything I do after such an emotional release feels pretty trivial in comparison. The Wold Championship Series Global Playoffs/Finals at BlizzCon in Anaheim is the biggest StarCraft II tournament of the year in terms of prize pool, with $700,000 on the line these past two years and the champion taking home $280,000 of that for himself last year. For me, however, the event of the year in terms of entertainment value is Intel Extreme Masters in Katowice.

 

Not only is it a longer tournament, it’s also a far larger tournament in terms of players. Whereas sixteen players compete at BlizzCon, having qualified through lesser tournaments throughout the year, Intel Extreme Masters Katowice encompasses a pool of seventy-six players, all of them the best in the world. The production value is high and the $400,000 prize pool isn’t too shabby either, with the champion taking home $150,000.

 

I don’t play a great deal of StarCraft these days, but I’ve been playing it casually since the original game came out in 1998. After the bad joke that is Diablo III, StarCraft is also the only Blizzard franchise I give a damn about anymore. Most of the joy I find in StarCraft nowadays comes from following the professional scene, which I’ve been doing for at least seven years now. StarCraft, of course, is the original eSport, the eSport which founded all other eSports, and, in my view, the only eSport that matters. No other eSport has such a pedigree as StarCraft and no other eSport even begins to approach the skill ceiling of StarCraft and StarCraft II. It’s one thing to be good at gaming, one thing to be a pro at silly games like Counter-Strike or League of Legends, but it’s another thing entirely to be a pro in the StarCraft scene. All other competitive games are what you play when you can’t hack it in StarCraft.

 

That’s why the stories are so remarkable when you watch these StarCraft tournaments. Last year, we witnessed Serral, the “Finnish Phenom,” win every single World Championship Series event and be the first non-Korean player in StarCraft‘s twenty-year history to prevail at BlizzCon. It was a moment I shall never forget. After so many years of having so-called “foreign hopes,” from Grrrr…, IdrA, and Stephano to HuK, Elazer, and Neeb, all of whom ultimately fell short, the foreign (that’s non-Korean to those who don’t speak StarCraft) scene finally got its champion who went all the way and crushed the Koreans.

 

I fully expected Serral’s reign to continue in Katowice, where he was automatically seeded into the round of 24 group stage following his historic victory in Anaheim. Serral did fight his way to the playoffs, though he notably dropped a series to INnoVation after INnoVation had already been eliminated from the playoffs. For most, losing a single series wouldn’t be a big deal, but it was the first offline series Serral had dropped in a year, something previously unheard of.

 

Also of note during the round of 24 was the remarkable comeback of soO. This man has been around a long, long time. At twenty-six years old, soO is a geezer in the world of professional gaming, but he consistently always seems to come in second place at countless major tournaments throughout his storied career. By all accounts, soO should not have made it out of his group in the round of 24, where he dropped series to Bunny, Dear, and TY; yet, somehow, by trouncing both uThermal and Scarlett, the two foreigners in the group, he was able to make it through to the playoffs by the skin of his teeth.

 

 

When I saw soO was up against Zest, one of the top protoss players on the planet, in his first series of the playoffs, I had no expectation he would prevail once again, but, while my predictions were on point for the round of 76, my predictions were no better than a coin flip for everything thereafter, with titans like Maru, Rogue, and INnoVation, any one of whom could have won the whole tournament, falling sooner than expected. Once again, soO made me look like a fool. When his following opponent was to be Serral, however, I once again closed the book on soO’s tournament life; yet, in the back of my mind, I remembered how INnoVation had made Serral bleed yesterday and the smallest inkling of doubt cast a shadow over my certainty that soO was about the meet his match in the greatest of all StarCraft II players. I think everyone favored Serral, who had only just recently defeated soO at HomeStory Cup XVIII. SoO hadn’t even made it out of the group stage while Serral went on to conquer that tournament as well.

 

 

Serral fell in the quarterfinals to soO, who took the best of five series 3-2, a definitive and painful end to a win streak that seemed like it would never end. At the same time that Serral was not playing at his best, soO was playing like an absolute monster. Before I knew it, soO has also plowed through herO, the so-called “Prince of IEM,” in the semifinals this morning (I woke up at 3 AM to watch in my time zone). By that point, soO had made short work of uThermal, Scarlett, Zest, Serral, and herO. All that remained was either Stats or Dark, both of whom, once again, were favored against soO. It turned out he would be going up against Stats, the grand finalist who fell only to Serral at both GSL vs. the World 2018 and BlizzCon 2018. As much as Dark was favored against soO, Stats was favored even more. Stats is widely considered the best protoss player in the world, whereas soO would maybe be considered one of the top five zerg players in the world.

 

 

Aside from their Korean-ness, Stats and soO had something in common though: Both of them had so often been grand finalists in these major tournaments and never quite sealed the victory in their final series, constantly coming in at second place. For Stats, it had maybe been four major tournaments by that point; for soO, that number was more like eleven major tournaments. I fully expected this to be the twelfth, especially when soO dropped the first two maps to Stats in the best of seven grand final. Coming back from that is hard enough, no matter the opponent, but coming back from that against the best protoss in the world, who had just wiped the floor with SpeCial, Patience, herO, Creator, Zest, Neeb, and Dark in convincing fashion all while not dropping a single series along the way, was borderline impossible, but, if soO demonstrated one thing during Intel Extreme Masters Katowice 2019, it was his comeback potential.

 

Facing defeat, soO went soO-per Saiyan and cinched the victory in the next four games in his second remarkable comeback of the tournament. SoO thus defeated Stats 4-2 and secured the biggest tournament victory of his career. Then came the post-match interview and I struggle to imagine there was a dry eye in that arena as both interviewee and interviewer choked up, reminding me of the passion and emotion that makes StarCraft the greatest competitive game in the world by a margin so vast as to be incalculable.

 

To achieve what soO achieved today, he had to outplay all the best players from South Korea, Ukraine, Sweden, Poland, Lithuania, Russia, Norway, France, Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Canada, the United Kingdom, Croatia, Denmark, Australia, Italy, Brazil, Switzerland, Spain, Mexico, the United States, and Finland, including (players with over $250K in total tournament earnings in bold) sOs, Awers, Cure, Namshar, MaNa, FanTaSy, Krr, Leenock, Dear, Brat_OK, RagnaroK, Snute, Keen, Clem, HateMe, HeRoMaRinE, ShoWTimE, ArT, Stephano, Harstem, Scarlett, RiSky, Ziggy, herO, Trap, goblin, TLO, aLive, Bly, PtitDrogo, Skillous, Nerchio, Basior, SpaceMarine, Probe, Creator, TRUE, PartinG, Rail, Reynor, MarineLorD, ShaDowN, Kelazhur, Hurricane, Minato, Crow, GuMiho, Stats, Mamba, Zanster, Gremory, Impact, souL, Hellraiser, Elazer, Solar, Kas, Denver (yes, there is a French player named after my hometown and I don’t know why), SouLeer, DnS, Gerald, Lambo, Patience, SpeCial, Zest, Neeb, Dark, Maru, Serral, INnoVation, Rogue, Bunny, TY, and uThermal. There is always some amount of luck in StarCraft, but not enough to pull you unscathed through a meat grinder like that without an immense amount of skill.

 

In addition to the trophy, the prestige, and the money, soO gets a guaranteed seat at BlizzCon this year (again, there are only sixteen seats) for a shot at another trophy and an even larger prize pool. I look forward to seeing how he performs there and throughout the rest of this year. I’ve seen countless soO games over the years, but he has won a fan in me today.