The annual Proleague All-Star match took place this weekend, where the coaches from the two best team from last season, Samsung KHAN and OGN Sparkyz, assembled one dream-team each to duke it out for honor and glory.



It was easy to tell that this was a pure showmatch. Laughter and jokes were prevalent, players chatted and taunted happily mid-game and spirits were high all around. All the pro teams had representatives at the event and rivalries and differences were set aside for this one match. Below are the results of the match followed by a brief battle report. VODs of the games can be found on Jon747's account on YouTube here. These games were quite entertaining and definitely worth watching!


2008 Shinhan Bank Proleague All-stars
Team KHANvsTeam OGNMap
NaDa < Jangbi @Othello
Luxury< BeSt @Colosseum
UpMagiC / Nbs> firebathero / free[gm]@Hunters
Sea[Shield]> Stork@Blue Storm
Lomo< Kal@Andromeda
DaezanG / Midas> Leta / YellOw@Hannibal
Jaedong< Flash@Katrina SE


Game 1 - NaDa vs Jangbi @Othello

The first game of the evening turned out to be short and sweet and turned out the way it did due to a couple deciding factors. First of all, NaDa in the bottom left corner scouted the wrong way, his SCV having to take the long way around before reaching Jangbi at the bottom right corner. Because of this NaDa was completely in the dark and unable to see what Jangbi was up to. Second, Jangbi was up to no good. A one gate tech build into reaver proved absolutely lethal, as would be seen. Third, NaDa's engineering bay was just a couple seconds later than it should've been to survive.

As Jangbi swooped his shuttle in over an unturreted Terran base, SCVs started dropping like flies. NaDa scrambled his marines and tanks to defend, but Jangbi showed some very, very nice micro and picked off all the marines and a few tanks. What his reaver didn't kill his dragoons did. The dragoons swooped in to Nada's natural expansion, killing off a tank and picking off SCVs who had been forced to flee there to escape blue, shiny scarab death. After about 30 or so kills on the reaver, NaDa had no option but to surrender.

Game 2 - Luxury vs BeSt @Colosseum

The second game wasn't quite as great as the first one. Cross positions on Colosseum usually means that little will happen early on and this was the case here as well. Luxury went for a fast expansion and so did BeSt after putting down a pylon and forge in his choke. The following few minutes mainly consisted of BeSt getting a bunch of gateways and templar tech and Luxury going for mutalisks. For a moment it looked like Luxury was going to rush past the barricade with speedlings, but he opted not to halfway through, throwing away a few zerglings.

The mutalisks came, but BeSt had scouted the spire and had thrown up plenty of cannons. A combination of mutalisks and zerglings attempted to batter down the buildings at BeSt's choke, but succeeded only in taking down one cannon and an archon, leaving only a few mutalisks surviving. BeSt saw his chance and started rallying zealots into Luxury's base. Luxury, lacking ground troops and sunkens, lost most of his drones to zealots and a dark templar while his mutalisks were impotently still battering at BeSt's gateways and pylons. Luxury soon crumbled as more and more zealots streamed into his base and he soon tapped out. OGN Coach's team is now up 2-0!

Game 3 - UpMagiC/Nbs vs firebathero/free @Hunters

2v2s are the domain of the Zerg/Protoss lineup, so when this 2v2 consisted of a T/P vs a T/P things became a little more interesting than you average 2v2. In a stroke of absolutely rotten luck, firebathero and free started in opposite corners, seven and one o clock respectively, while UpMagiC and Nbs started out at twelve and eleven o clock. All the players immediately threw up two or more barracks/gateways and went at it. The first move was fbh, as he pushed up a force of marines and the odd scv against UpMagiC. UpMagic was able to bring his own SCVs and marines to bear and wipe out fbh's force.

During this time Nbs' and free's zealots were line dancing outside of free's base. free's dancing impulses were stifled upon the arrival of UpMagiC, and free's base got summarily breached and all his probes wiped out. firebathero attempted to send some marines up to help out, but when he arrived too late he went for a counter attack. This was anticipated by the UpMagiC/Nbs duo and a small group of zealots and marines wiped out first the soldiers, then went to work on fbh's barracks. Not being a sore loser, fbh honored his enemies with a heart built out of a bunker, some unfinished supply depots and a few SCVs before surrendering. Apparently the fbh/free duo had worked out a victory ceremony and despite the defeat and some intense blushing by free, they did a pair of decent forward rolls into a pose. The score is now 2-1!

Game 3.5 - Coach KHAN/Coach Stars vs Coach OGN/Manager SKT @Hunters

Before Sea and Stork were to duke it out, the coaches decided to jump into the fray to play a 2v2 on Hunters. A fun little game which KHAN/Stars ended up winning comfortably. Spirits were high and chatting frequent all the game through, giving some insight into the skills of the coaches as well. OGN's coach quickly fell to KHAN's sneaky zerglings, leaving SKT to fend for himself. The combined force of KHAN's lurkers and Stars' templar and dragoons/lots quickly battered down the m&m and tank defense of SKT. No score awarded, but the KHAN team morale surely rose afterwards!

Game 4 - Sea vs Stork @Blue Storm

Sea and Stork have fought against each other many times, and Sea has rarely won. Would this game follow that trend? Both players opened in a standard fashion, Stork sending out a few dragoons to pressure early on from one gate. Sea played standard up until he built his second factory, which he floated to the expansion at 12 o clock and started building vultures. As soon as he saw Stork's units knocking on his front door, his vultures rushed down the map and into Stork's probe line, causing absolute mayhem. Mines took out Storks dragoons and fragmentation grenades devoured many a probe before the last vulture perished. After Stork's counter attacking force perished, Sea moved up his two tanks and started shelling Stork's natural expo, with help from the vision that the mines he'd planted there earlier gave him.

After Stork's nexus fell, Sea retreated with the knowledge that he was ahead. He built up his forces and started taking a second expo before rolling out his forces to shell Stork's natural again, leaving only a few tanks at home to guard. Stork had built up a sizable force of dragoons which soon pushed up and took out a number of tanks before being driven off, stopping the relentless shelling of his natural. The rest of the game was Sea's, who stayed even or ahead of Stork in expansions and in the end Stork couldn't withstand the upgraded mass of metal Sea brought to bear against him. Sea defeats Stork in an impressive display of TvP, bringing the overall score to 2-2.

Game 5 - Lomo vs Kal @Andromeda

Kal's opponent was supposed to be fOrGG instead of Lomo, but because of fOrGG's accidental fall down a flight of stairs and trip to the emergency room Lomo had to step in. Hopefully fOrGG fully recovers soon after his fall.
Lomo started out in the bottom left corner and chose to fast expand after his first factory. Kal built a single gateway and then went straight to observers while expanding at his mineral only. A skirmish between Lomo and Kal happened in between the two bases, as two tanks and a few marines ran into an overwhelming amount of dragoons. The forces were in kissing range before Lomo pulled them back, losing two tanks in the process. Right before this Kal had put down a sneaky stargate and began warping in his nexus at his natural expansion.

Although Lomo's tank count was somewhat lower than before, his vultures were not daunted. He managed to sneak three into Kal's base, but the damage inflicted was minimal as Kal's reaver wiped them out. For a moment it looked like Lomo would spot the stargate, but Kal had cleverly canceled it as the vultures breached his base, masking his intentions completely. Lomo's vulture and tank force proved superior to Kal's, but Kal's carriers had a thing or two to add to that. Taken completely by surprise, Lomo couldn't deal with the carriers who grew in numbers rapidly. As the zealots of Kal closed in on Lomo's 9 o clock expansion, Lomo gives up the ghost. 3-2 to team OGN!

Game 6 - DaezanG/Midas vs Leta/YellOw @Hannibal

Another 2v2 with two terrans meant a slightly lengthier 2v2 as it turned out. DaezanG and Midas started out at 8 and 2 o clock, leaving 12 and 6 o clock for Leta and YellOw. Early game only saw DaezanG push out with a few zealots against YellOw's base, but where deflected by zerglings and sunkens. Apart from this turtling was the name of the game, with the terrans building factories as quickly as possible, YellOw teching to spire and Daezang destroying overlords with his corsairs. While vultures clashed on the ground, YellOw's mutas attempted an attack on Midas main. Midas had decided to get a couple of goliaths and was able to repel the mutalisks with great ease.

A lull in the battle saw all players macro up a lot of units and in some cases expand. YellOw made a few jabs with a group of hydralisks but were driven off by dark templar out in the field. Finally Leta decides to move out with a large force of tanks, only to be intercepted by Midas' forces. Daezang arrives with zealots and high templar a moment later and storms Leta back to the stone age, paving the way into Leta's expansion. YellOw's mutalisks attempted a desperate counterattack at DaezanG's probeline, but the probes merely moved to the more heavily cannoned expansion as his zealots proceeded to level YellOw's base completely. Alone and outnumbered, there was nothing left but for Leta to surrender, meaning the score was 3-3 heading into the final match.

Game 7 - Jaedong vs Flash @Katrina SE

This game was for many people the highlight of the event. Everyone wanted to see if Flash could take revenge for his 0-3 loss against Jaedong at the GomTV Avaratec-Intel Classic finals. Flash started out at 6 o clock and Jaedong at 12 o clock, maximizing the distance between the players. Both players went for a fast expansion, Flash with his 14 cc and Jaedong with his 12 pool. Flash also walled in just before Jaedong's drone reached his base. Not unexpected at this stage. What was unexpected however were the four, that's right, four starports that Flash built, leaving only a vulture and two marines to guard his entrance.

What was going to be a traditional Jaedong mutalisk harass turned out to be a deathtrap for the mutalisks. Baiting them with one wraith, then following up with a bunch of cloaked wraiths, Flash cleaned up all of Jaedong's mutalisks, even though he lost a lot of wraiths to scourge. Jaedong seemed baffled as the wraiths just kept on coming, and Flash was able to totally cleanse Jaedong's second expansion of drones, Jaedong having no anti-air present. Nothing baffles Jaedong for long however, and soon a huge army of hydralisks made two attempts on the doorway of Flash, who was able to repel the attacks. Flash's wraiths were everywhere, sniping drones and overlords all over the place, forcing Jaedong to build a lot more hydralisks than he might've wished to whittle down the wraith numbers.

The wraiths had served their purpose and Flash's tech shifted to a more traditional m&m + tank + science vessel army, which moved out just as soon as Jaedong's hive finished. Even in his gas starved and weakened state, Jaedong managed to hold off wave after wave of Flash's units, even though Flash dropped his protected expansion and took out the all of Jaedong's tech, however crucially missing the defiler mound. The defilers managed to keep Jaedong in the game for some time, but the terran march was unstoppable and Jaedong taps out as his main was breached. Two smiling champion players shook hands after Jaedong had tapped out, finishing the event with team OGN as the winners.

A fun and relaxed match all around with some very nice play by many players, the All-Star event was quite successful in the end and a fitting finale to the Proleague season.

Links
Teamliquid.net - Source