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The GSTL is a strange place. Or at least this current season is. It is a place where champions go to be manhandled and have a really tough time living up to their previous results. This came to put FXOpen and SouL against each other today, in a battle at the very bottom of the table, respectively two times GSTL champions and winners of the last Proleague.

It was definitely a bizarre sight watching how the two established clubs had to fight for not starting the season with a 0-3 but looking retrospectively both teams’ mishaps have their obvious roots. FXO had the “honor” of being the victims to the only all-kill thus far in the league at the hands of Innovation but this was not the only stick in their wheels. Their established team league players like Seed, sC and Hurricane were not bringing results and neither was their go-to ace Leenock. SouL in the meanwhile, had to figure out how they were going to win a GSTL with just Trap, Dear and Hyvaa.



SouL vs FXOpen: Series recap

FXOpen led in with Gumiho , a player who had missed the first two matches of his team despite being known as particularly skillful in team leagues. The multitasking maestro opened the series by blistering out SSanaEE , treating him to a hellbat barbeque to kick things up. The first raids yielded 26 drones killed, a number that kept growing as Gumiho kept going. Before the mid-game was over, SSanaEE was in such an economic deficit that he was basically checkmated.



Drone Barbeque: The Prequel



Although in early disadvantage, SouL did not look worried at all. Coach Park knew his roster possessed a few players who can successfully defuse even the most dangerous Terrans without giving too much blood and so Dear was called forth to deal with Gumiho. The series grew to be a quick one. Gumiho opened with 2-rax reaper while Dear went for a hidden blink build. Whereas Gumiho chose to stop producing reapers after the first few, however, Dear had the full intention of bringing his plan to fruition. Just as the Terran was setting up his defenses at home, a sneaky army of stalkers blinked up his base to snipe the lone tank and proceed to do lethal damage, tying the score.

FXO’s response to the 1-1 was to send another Terran in sC , at the time a strange decision considering Dear’s prowess in PvT and his near-70% win record. It wouldn’t be long before sC would justify the trust FXO put in him. After denying the proxy gate of Dear, sC established control over the game immediately, using a succession of drops and bio attacks to keep the Protoss at bay while he snowballed into unreachable sizes. Minutes before the actual end of the game, the FXO Terran was so ahead that he took the liberty of harvesting the lemons on fruit land for some extra income. He didn’t need to drop MULEs to insult Dear further.

As one Terran killer fell, another rose to take his place and Trap was sent for SouL to dispose of sC. And dispose Trap did, playing a normal and solid PvT, leading into templar tech and storms that devastated the bio of the FXO player. The score was back to a tie, 2:2.



sC tried to take bad engagements like these a few time more during the game

As they selected their third player, it became apparent that FXO had decided to stay away from the alluring “pick champion to win” strategy and had changed their strategy to accommodate team league tailored players. Thus, instead of Leenock, it was Lucky who stepped in the booth against Trap, his mission to bring FXO back in the lead.

Few minutes later, Lucky would do that, and more. The FXO Zerg played like a madman against Trap, spending his gas on upgrades only and throwing endless rivers of zerglings down his enemy’s way. Having went for a stargate build, Trap came to the realization that his void ray flotilla is completely useless against the dirty cheap and lightning fast army of Lucky. By the time the Protoss was able to stabilize at least to some extent, a full-blooded mutalisk switch came to ruin his day. SouL were now a game away from a defeat.

Said defeat came on Polar Night as Lucky unsurprisingly met Hyvaa, SouL regular last-resort guy. True to his volatile playstyle, Hyvaa weaved a simple ruse. Tricking Lucky into believing Hyvaa was going for a simple macro build was followed by a 2-base stream of lings and banelings, intended to bring early game defeat to the FXO Zerg.

What happened instead was Hyvaa hitting, quite literally, a wall. Lucky’s sim city came swiftly upon properly scouting Hyvaa’s intention and roaches, queens and evo chambers were erected immediately to shut out the aggression. Hyvaa banged against Lucky’s door fecklessly a couple of times before coming to realize this wasn’t going to work at all. Final score: FXO 4:2 SouL.

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Hyvaa experiencing severe troubles breaking through Lucky's wall



Results and standings

FXOpen 4:2 SouL Gumiho Frost SSanaEE Gumiho Yeonsu Dear sC Fruitland Dear sC Whirlwind Trap Lucky Haeundae Trap Lucky Polar Night Hyvaa