After consistently renewing and reinventing the game since 1998, StarCraft: Brood War's pro-gaming scene will effectively come to an end in the finals match between Terran player Jung Myung Hoon - SK Telecom T1's Fantasy - and Protoss player Heo Young Moo - Samsung Khan's Jangbi.

Fantasy is the latest Terran prodigy on a team that has consistently produced some of the most noteworthy Terran players in the world, starting with Brood War's original legend Slayers Boxer, and as such is nicknamed "the Crown Prince". Fantasy burst into the scene by completely reinventing the Terran versus Zerg matchup in 1998, reaching to a Starleague finals on his first run, where he narrowly lost to Protoss' most consistent finalist, Stork. Since then, Fantasy has made several more finals appearance, winning one gold. His style is especially creative and unpredictable, and ideal in situations like the finals which favour extensive strategy planning for a specific opponent. After overcoming the accepted best player in the world, fellow Terran player Flash in the semi-finals, and with an exceptionally strong record in the last seasons, a victory from Fantasy might not only make him the last StarCraft champion, but give him a chance at overtaking Flash for the claim of best player in the world in these last days of StarCraft.

Jangbi rose to prominence in a brief period of Protoss dominance, along with five other players who were together nicknamed the Six Dragons. During this time, Jangbi made three finals in three different leagues, and lost them all. Thus, he remained more obscure than fellow Dragons Bisu and Stork, who were the face of the Protoss race. And when the brief period of Protoss dominance ended, Jangbi fell especially hard. Boasting a truly terrible record, Jangbi was one of the most consistently awful players fielded in the Proleague. Last season, he was eliminated from the Starleague in the unbroadcasted preliminaries. Unexpectedly, one of the qualified players retired from the league, and a spot was made open for contention by the highest ranking players who had failed in the preliminaries. This was how Jangbi somehow found his way in the Starleague. In every round, Jangbi barely made it through, even going through a tiebreaker in the group stages, consistently providing nailbitingly tense games for the spectators, until he ultimately won the entire Starleague 3-2 over his opponent, ending a three year drought of Protoss champions. Jangbi's play became renown for his masterful use of High Templar's Psionic Storm, and a win here would make him one of only three players to ever achieve back-to-back championships. It would also confirm Jangbi as one of the best performing Protoss players in the history of the game.

This is also a rematch of last season's Starleague. That time, Fantasy seemed to have secured victory, but as he had all season, Jangbi skirted the very edge of defeat and somehow ended up on top. This season, Fantasy seems stronger than ever, reaching the finals without losing a single game, including a best-of-five win over Terran legend Flash in the semifinals. Meanwhile, Jangbi has continued to walk the edge, coming back from a seemingly certain lost game against Zerg player Zero in the semifinals to miraculously triumph before an extatic crowd.

The finals will be broadcast live at 18:00 Korean Standard Time, which is an ungodly hour in the night/morning for most people in American continent, and so will be posted up on this Youtube channel around a day later.

The history of professional StarCraft: Brood War could be better explained by people more knowledgeable than I, but if anybody wishes to witness the last moment in this unique saga, this is it.