Ask followers of esports about Korean pro-gamers who had a chance to be world champion and they'll likely start listing off famous StarCraft2 of Brood War players. Even if they expand the scope of their answer they'll likely next go to 
Moon in WarCraft III. For the first half of the 2000s South Korea had not been a factor in CS, only making ground with a surprise bronze medal at the 2004 WCG and then with lunatic-hai and project_kr's results at CPL and WEG, respectively, in the latter part of 2005.
Yet in 2008 a South Korean team, eSTRO, repeatedly vied for the biggest tournament titles in the world and put together a run which could have seen them crowned the first and only world champions from their country in Counter-Strike. As it was they fell short of that lofty goal, but nevertheless their year bears re-examining, as event wins that year by 
mTw, 
mouz, 
SK.swe, 
MYM.pl and fnatic have ensured eSTRO's impressive run has gone largely forgotten.
eSTRO, led by the magnificent solo, reached at least the semi-finals of all three majors in 2008, making the finals of two of them. The $99,924 they racked up ended up as the fourth most prize money won that year by a single five man lineup, and the 12th most won by one five man lineup in the history of CS. The Koreans beat fnatic in two best-of-threes, pushed the Poles of MYM.pl in the limit in the ESWC final and had seemed all but certain to take the IEM II final title.
This is the story of the best CS lineup South Korea ever produced and that one golden year where it almost came together for them to become world champions.
eSTRO 2008
Kang "solo" Keun Chul
Lee "bail" Sung Jae
Park "hee" Jin-Hee
Chung "ari" Su-Young
Pyun "termi" Sun-Ho
Setting the scene: the inconspicuous lead-in to 2008
Going into 2008 nobody had any reason to imagine eSTRO were capable of even reaching the semi-final stage of a major tournament, never mind actually contending for the title. The years had not been kind for the team formerly known as project_kr. Only two members, solo and termi, remained from the lineup which had first burst into the spotlight with their runners-up finish at WEG Season 3, and the four members of the third place finishing WEG Masters lineup of 2006 had never come close to replicating that form over the rest of that year.
Closing out 2006 they had taken in miffy for ryu and their results had continued to be lackluster. At ESWC they had been humiliatingly eliminated in the very first group stage, losing convincingly to the bad miniw-era NiP lineup and 
Turmoil. A month later they'd made fools themselves on home soil, finishing dead last at the first e-Stars Seoul event, an invitational made up of only four teams, even losing to an 
MiBR team using 
bsl as an emergency stand-in.
When the team became the South Korean CGS franchise, Seoul Jinwha, and moved over to CS:Source one could be forgiven for thinking they might never return, or at least in the form of yesteryear. If their stock was its lowest point then their performance at the WCG for 2007 would lower it to absolute rock bottom, as the lineup now called eSTRO became internationally infamous as the villains who had abused the ludicrous anti-crouch-running rules to have MYM.no eliminated in the Ro16, all while having crouch-run themselves during the same tournament.
2007 ended on a marginally better note, as they secured fifth at IEM II Los Angeles, beating ESWC champions MYM.pl and playing eventual champions fnatic to a narrow loss at 14:16. In the CGS their franchise had finished outside of the top eight, meaning they only earned $10,000 total, as a lineup, from the experience. Who could have predicted this line-up would stun the world with deep runs in 2008?
A blazing hot run of inferno upsets
With the miffy experiment having run its course eSTRO brought in ari to replace him and the first time the new lineup appeared on Westerner's radar in 2008 was at March's IEM II finals in Hannover, Germany. In a group featuring ALTERNATE, 
excello, SK and 
Virtus.Pro no-one had any reason to predict they had a chance of progressing, in fact they would have been most's pick to finish bottom of the group. Instead the Koreans managed to reach a tie-breaker, having beaten excello, tied Virtus.Pro and narrowly lost to SK on cbble, the latter seeing them losing a game up 11:4 after the half.
In the tie-breaker eSTRO met lurppis' roccat team, who were fresh off a second place finish at the NGL-ONE season four finals that had seen them push eventual champions fnatic to the limit. The map would be inferno and the Finns would be the first team to realise that inferno was this Korean team's best map, and a map on which they would establish themselves as one of the very best in the world. In years gone by the Koreans had been considered one-map wonders on dust2, hence teams had no reason to fear their inferno at this time. After a 16:5 thrashing the roccat players knew better.
In the upper bracket semi-finals SK.swe awaited and once more eSTRO managed to get the game on inferno, the result was very much the same story as they ran the Swedes out of the upper bracket 16:7. Thanks to ALTERNATE having dealt with mouz in the other semi-final the upper final was an all-underdog affair. MooN's men faced off against eSTRO on inferno, the third straight for the Koreans, and they found themselves victims much like all the rest before them, eSTRO winning 16:5 to reach the final of the tournament.
The Koreans had emerged from a shaky start in the group stage to knock off three of Europe's top 10 teams, going 48:17 over their three playoff maps, to guarantee themselves a top two finish at the first major tournament of 2008. Being as this was a double-elimination format event they would need only a single map win, to their opponent's two, to secure the title. Rather than rematch with ALTERNATE they found the opponent for the title mousesports.
This mouz lineup had their own back-story which had meant few would have predicted they'd have reached the final either. Since adding cyx and 
gob b to their lineup mouz had continued to live under the thumb of ALTERNATE domestically, losing the EPS Season XI final to them, and had just finished in last place at the aforementioned NGL-ONE Season four final. This was a mouz lineup people would have picked outside of the top five teams in the world, still yet to show any of their potential.
With inferno nowhere to be seen, the Germans no doubt having picked up the fairly large hint that eSTRO were monsters on it, the first map of the final was dust2, formerly the Korean's best map, and mouz took it 16:8 to ensure the title would be decided one way or the other in the second map. When the second map turned out to be cbble one could sense that the Koreans were in trouble. One of their biggest problems had always been that CS' lack of popularity in their home country, and players not playing on steam, meant their practice was limited. Unsurprisingly they weren't going to find many practices on a map like cbble, which elsehwere in the world of CS tournaments had long been eliminated from the map pool.
Despite their early success in the close loss to SK in the group stage eSTRO could not hang with mouz on cbble and another 16:8 scoreline for the Germans ensured they were the ones crowned IEM champions and leaping around in celebration. eSTRO had successfully shocked the world with their cinderella story run to the title, but the one map nature of their run, and the fact their carraige had turned back into a pumpkin at the midnight striking of the final, meant few considered the performance much more than that: a great one-time run.
ESWC and the tuscan heartbreak
Around four months later, in July, eSTRO ventured outside of Asia again to compete at the ESWC Masters Paris event, not to be confused with the ESWC Grand Final which this event would seed teams into. After beating EG.usa 20:10 on dust2 and tying KODE5 champions mTw on inferno their run was halted by the appearance of a familiar enemy. In the quarter-final eSTRO found themselves faced with another match with mouz, this time on train, and were eliminated 7:16 in 5th-8th place. The bright note had been that this result was enough to earn them a spot into the ESWC Grand Final the next month.
For the first time the ESWC Grand Final would be held outside of France, the host city for this edition being San Jose, California in the USA. The tournament began without much fan-fare for the Koreans, losing to x3o on train in the first group stage. In the second group stage things turned around as they beat roccat and SK on nuke to reach the playoffs.
In the quarter-finals they met ALTERNATE and won 2:1 in maps to hit the semi-final. Despite losing the first map against the Germans, dust2, eSTRO had smashed them on the second, nuke, with a 16:1 scoreline and then comfortably taken the third, train, 16:9. Win or lose eSTRO had a second deep run at a major on their hands at only the second played that year. Still, when the semi-final opponent turned out to be fnatic it was only reasonable to expect an exit for the Koreans at this point.
fnatic had a case for being the second best team in the world coming into the match, they'd won NGL-ONE S4 and SEC as well as finishing runners-up to mTw at KODE5 and ESWC Masters Paris. fnatic took the opener on train 16:10 and the Koreans countered on inferno, winning 16:10 themselves. The decider was nuke it proved to be another instance of controversy starring the Koreans and a Scandinavian team.
The first half ended 12:3 in eSTRO's favour and soon they were leading 13:5, seemingly headed for a comfortable victory. At 15:7 the Koreans had eight match points to finish the series and book their spot in the ESWC final. Inspired play from fnatic brought the game all the way back to a tie and overtime. The first overtime was a tie and in the second eSTRO won, only for it to be discovered that solo had been in an illegal position. Bizarrely the admin decision was to remove three rounds from eSTRO, but not play out the rest of the overtime. So eSTRO won 19:18 to reach the ESWC final.
Facing the Koreans in the final was MYM.pl, reigning ESWC champions. The Poles had been having a less-than-stellar year by their standards. On the upside they had finished second at SEC and won Dreamhack Summer. Elsewhere though they'd not qualified for the IEM II finals, finished outside of the money at KODE5 in fourth and disastrously been eliminated in 9th-12th at ESWC Masters Paris. Only their having won 2007's WCG had earned them a spot at the Grand Finals, yet here they were in their second consecutive ESWC final.
dust2 was the first map of the final and MYM took it by a sliver, winning 16:14. The second was nuke and eSTRO struck back with a 16:13 win to send the final to a deciding map. When that map proved to be tuscan the Koreans were in all kinds of trouble. While the Poles will tell you they didn't know the map very well either it was an entirely different problem for the Koreans.
As previously mentioned any non-standard map pool choice was a big problem for a team who couldn't get regular practice against good teams. The situation was so extreme that the Koreans had to ask ALTERNATE's MooN for help with how to play the map and positions etc. eSTRO would play for an ESWC title on a map they had never competed on internationally.
MYM.pl were dominant in the first half, taking it 10:5. Switching over the Koreans looked lost early in the second half and suddenly the Poles were at match point as early as 15:6, with nine match points to finish matters if necessary. At this point one could be forgiven for having assumed it would be smooth sailing across the finish line of the final round win and the Poles had repeated as champions in anti-climactic fashion. Instead either MYM.pl faltered with the finish line in sight or the Koreans summoned a fighting spirit from somewhere.
Round after round kept going the way of eSTRO and they were clawing their way out of a convincing loss into the territory of making their performance look respectable in the decider. Except it didn't stop there, they kept taking round after round and from 6:15 to 9:15 to 12:15 they were somehow coming back. Were the Poles going to fold under pressure and give away a sure-fire win by letting the map reach overtime?
When the Koreans reached 13:15 surely everyone on HLTV was willing an overtime to decide the title, in what had already been in incredibly close finals. Instead MYM finally got that 16th round to close out the map, the series and a second straight ESWC title. eSTRO had taken the reigning champions all the way down to the line in one of the closest best of three series ever played, but once more they left a major final with heartache instead of the trophy.
Another showdown with Germany's finest, this time in Asia.
While CS went on in the rest of the world the Koreans sat at home until October, when the World e-Sports Masters (WEM) would bring them back into the spotlight of international play. Placed in another group of death, this one featuring SK and mTw, they once more beat the odds to reach the playoffs. Tying SK on inferno, they also tied mTw on dust2 and beat
wNv.cn on nuke 16:5. With the format of this tournament that meant a spot in the semi-finals.
The opponent to reach their side of the bracket from the other group was mousesports, the team who had tortured them at IEM II and ESWC Masters Paris already. The Bo3 began with dust2 and again the Germans proved too much, winning 16:7. The second map was train and after going up 11:4 as CT in the first half hope could be held out that eSTR could force a third map, their beloved inferno. Instead mouz mounted a considerable comeback to win 16:13 and move on to the final.
In the third place decider match eSTRO found themselves facing fnatic in another Bo3. As if to prove that their ESWC semi-final victory had been no fluke the Koreans started out with a 16:9 win on inferno and then closed the series 2:0 after winning 16:13 on train. Another top three finish another five figure cheque awaited them. eSTRO could reasonably be considered one of the world's three or four best teams.
Back in Europe for another run
Weeks after WEM was the World Cyber Games (WCG) for 2008. Getting a little revenge on MYM.pl with a 19:11 win on dust2, and beating MiBR 18:12 on inferno, the Koreans advanced from their group stage. The bracket looked good as eSTRO pushed past
Tek-9 and 
k23 2:0 each to hit the semi-finals. There awaited SK and a chance at making three out of the three major finals for the year.
The series opened on train and the Koreans took the lead after a 16:12 win. On dust2 SK came back with a 16:11 win to send it to a third map. The third would be nuke, a map eSTRO had impressed on all year long, and SK made it out 16:12 to reach the gold medal game. After losing their second straight international semi-final eSTRO headed into yet another third place decider, albeit for actual medals this time around.
Their opponents were the Norwegian team which had almost shocked mTw in the other semi-final. For all their theatrics in making it this far elemeNt and REAL's team couldn't summon the same kind of play against the Koreans and eSTRO secured bronze medals 2:0 to earn their fourth five figure payday of the year. That would be the last of the big international events of the year for eSTRO, though there was still some CS to be played back at home.
Securing home soil and one last win for the road
The same month eSTRO had domestic business to take care of, as an IEM event was held in Seoul, South Korea, for Korean teams. Beating domestic rivals Lunatic-Hai twice, in the upper final and final, eSTRO ensured there was no doubt who was the best Korean team internationally and at home. There had been no international teams present but they added $5,000 to their total for the year all the same.
The last event of 2008 was once more in Korea, as the International e-Sports Festival (IEF) featured Asian teams and an appearance by fnatic. cArn's men perhaps hoped to snag and easy ~$17,000 against what was an easy field, comparative to international tournaments. To do so they'd need to beat an eSTRO team who had held sway over there every time that year.
As 2008 ended eSTRO had reached the semi-finals of all three of CS' majors, made the finals of two of them, earned almost $100,000, won at least $10,000 on five separate occasions, shown the world they were one of the very best inferno teams, beaten fnatic on three separate occasions and placed in the top three at all but one of the events they'd attended. solo's men had finally delivered more than just a hot run here or there, consistently putting up high placings and crucially doing it outside of Asia, overcoming the stigma of fans saying they were "only good in Asia".
The stumbling blocks
There had been three key factors which had been stumbling blocks for the Koreans all year long in their quest for a title. The first, most obviously, was the Germans of mousesports. mouz were one of the few teams good enough on other maps to avoid inferno every time they faced the Koreans, and to top it off were pretty much assured to win on the dust2 both teams were willing to play. This made mouz a nightmare match-up for eSTRO, so the fact they had to face them in the IEM II final and the semi-final of WEM ensured their runs in those tournaments stopped there.
The second problem eSTRO faced all year long was losing to opponents they had previously beaten or beating opponents they had previously lost to, but always at the wrong time. After losing narrowly to MYM.pl in the final of ESWC they went on to beat them in the group stage of the WCG. Going into the semi-final of the WCG the Koreans had two wins, a draw and a 14:16 loss as their record against SK for 2008, so a loss to them at such a deep stage of a major event really stung. Especially since the finals opponent would have been mTw, who despite being the team of the year had tied both games they had played against eSTRO.
The third issue holding eSTRO back was their match-ups on all the maps. When they had to play cbble in the deciding map of IEM II that was a really bad draw for them, being as that wasn't even a standard map in 2008. Then at ESWC they had to play tuscan, since nuke and inferno had been eliminated. So again it was a case of match-up both with the opponent and the maps they were good on, some of the other teams would have instead played them on inferno or train.
eSTRO couldn't get enough consistency on dust2 or train across the year, if either had been a sure win then they'd have won some more series, but they lost at the wrong times to make it deeper. What makes that unfortunate is that in past years they had been considered a one map wonder on dust2, making it as deadly to pick against them as inferno was in 2008. Whether the difference in 2008 came from adding ari it's difficult to tell, but having both maps in strong form would have ensured them a good chance at more wins, since a number of teams they played kept dust2 in the map pool.
It's also worth noting that on train they were always destined to have issues due to star player solo having a very specific type of colour blindness which made train the map he found most difficult to see on, something which was only revealed to the world at large in 2011.
The fnatic statements
One of eSTRO most impressive accomplishments during the year has to be their three victories over fnatic, winning five maps and losing only one. While 2008 wasn't fnatic's year they still hovered in the top five teams in the world, to varying degrees, throughout. The ESWC semi-final in particular stands out as a moment where fans everywhere would have placed their money on fnatic reaching the final to face the Poles, instead eSTRO playing their part in ensuring fnatic remained without an ESWC Grand Finals final appearance.
The golden moment and the missed opportunity
Considering eSTRO came into the year on nobody's radar as a top five team, and that they would make roster changes in the first part of 2009, one has to consider their 2008 run the moment when everything came together for their team. They had the right lineup, anchored by the star power of solo and with solid players like ari and hee ensuring enough firepower for a team who had been without a distinct identity for the past year and a half.
2008 was also a missed opportunity for the team though. MYM.pl reached the top three of only one of the majors, but since they won that event it ensured they at least had their moment in the sun. Since eSTRO consistently reached semi-finals and had chances in finals their losses really burned them as players, putting doubt in their minds that they would ever win an international title. When three of their lineup would win WEM, in miraculous fashion, in late 2010 it felt like a kind of vindication but it still couldn't compare to taking down an event like IEM, ESWC or WCG, all of which they had their chances at in 2008.
I'm reminded of a story I was told in 2011 that termi would re-watch the demos of his team's WEM 2010 win, because to finally win meant so much to him. Bearing in mind their difficult home circumstances of living in Korea, with nobody to really practice with, it's impressive enough that this lineup, when viewed top to bottom, could even contend for major titles.
For a player like solo though it is heart-breaking to have seen him denied a world championship, aside from all the others solo, in his prime, was a truly transcendent player on the level of the likes of cogu, zet and REAL. For players like those only world titles can match their accomplishments to their ability level, and solo never really got there.
So our story has come to an end, the tale of eSTRO 2008 has been told. They weren't the best team of 2008, they didn't win the most money that year and they didn't take a single international title. And yet they did accomplish something impressive, both in terms of actual match wins and consistency, in overcoming the odds to make 2008 the best year of their careers.
Moon in WarCraft III. For the first half of the 2000s South Korea had not been a factor in CS, only making ground with a surprise bronze medal at the 2004 WCG and then with lunatic-hai and project_kr's results at CPL and WEG, respectively, in the latter part of 2005.Yet in 2008 a South Korean team,
eSTRO, repeatedly vied for the biggest tournament titles in the world and put together a run which could have seen them crowned the first and only world champions from their country in Counter-Strike. As it was they fell short of that lofty goal, but nevertheless their year bears re-examining, as event wins that year by mTw, mouz, SK.swe, MYM.pl and fnatic have ensured eSTRO's impressive run has gone largely forgotten.eSTRO, led by the magnificent
solo, reached at least the semi-finals of all three majors in 2008, making the finals of two of them. The $99,924 they racked up ended up as the fourth most prize money won that year by a single five man lineup, and the 12th most won by one five man lineup in the history of CS. The Koreans beat fnatic in two best-of-threes, pushed the Poles of MYM.pl in the limit in the ESWC final and had seemed all but certain to take the IEM II final title.This is the story of the best CS lineup South Korea ever produced and that one golden year where it almost came together for them to become world champions.
eSTRO 2008
Kang "solo" Keun Chul Lee "bail" Sung Jae Park "hee" Jin-Hee Chung "ari" Su-Young Pyun "termi" Sun-HoSetting the scene: the inconspicuous lead-in to 2008
Going into 2008 nobody had any reason to imagine eSTRO were capable of even reaching the semi-final stage of a major tournament, never mind actually contending for the title. The years had not been kind for the team formerly known as project_kr. Only two members, solo and termi, remained from the lineup which had first burst into the spotlight with their runners-up finish at WEG Season 3, and the four members of the third place finishing WEG Masters lineup of 2006 had never come close to replicating that form over the rest of that year.Closing out 2006 they had taken in
miffy for ryu and their results had continued to be lackluster. At ESWC they had been humiliatingly eliminated in the very first group stage, losing convincingly to the bad miniw-era NiP lineup and Turmoil. A month later they'd made fools themselves on home soil, finishing dead last at the first e-Stars Seoul event, an invitational made up of only four teams, even losing to an MiBR team using bsl as an emergency stand-in.When the team became the South Korean CGS franchise,
Seoul Jinwha, and moved over to CS:Source one could be forgiven for thinking they might never return, or at least in the form of yesteryear. If their stock was its lowest point then their performance at the WCG for 2007 would lower it to absolute rock bottom, as the lineup now called eSTRO became internationally infamous as the villains who had abused the ludicrous anti-crouch-running rules to have MYM.no eliminated in the Ro16, all while having crouch-run themselves during the same tournament.2007 ended on a marginally better note, as they secured fifth at IEM II Los Angeles, beating ESWC champions MYM.pl and playing eventual champions fnatic to a narrow loss at 14:16. In the CGS their franchise had finished outside of the top eight, meaning they only earned $10,000 total, as a lineup, from the experience. Who could have predicted this line-up would stun the world with deep runs in 2008?A blazing hot run of inferno upsets
With the miffy experiment having run its course eSTRO brought in ari to replace him and the first time the new lineup appeared on Westerner's radar in 2008 was at March's IEM II finals in Hannover, Germany. In a group featuring
ALTERNATE, excello, SK and Virtus.Pro no-one had any reason to predict they had a chance of progressing, in fact they would have been most's pick to finish bottom of the group. Instead the Koreans managed to reach a tie-breaker, having beaten excello, tied Virtus.Pro and narrowly lost to SK on cbble, the latter seeing them losing a game up 11:4 after the half.In the tie-breaker eSTRO met lurppis'
roccat team, who were fresh off a second place finish at the NGL-ONE season four finals that had seen them push eventual champions fnatic to the limit. The map would be inferno and the Finns would be the first team to realise that inferno was this Korean team's best map, and a map on which they would establish themselves as one of the very best in the world. In years gone by the Koreans had been considered one-map wonders on dust2, hence teams had no reason to fear their inferno at this time. After a 16:5 thrashing the roccat players knew better.In the upper bracket semi-finals SK.swe awaited and once more eSTRO managed to get the game on inferno, the result was very much the same story as they ran the Swedes out of the upper bracket 16:7. Thanks to ALTERNATE having dealt with mouz in the other semi-final the upper final was an all-underdog affair. MooN's men faced off against eSTRO on inferno, the third straight for the Koreans, and they found themselves victims much like all the rest before them, eSTRO winning 16:5 to reach the final of the tournament.The Koreans had emerged from a shaky start in the group stage to knock off three of Europe's top 10 teams, going 48:17 over their three playoff maps, to guarantee themselves a top two finish at the first major tournament of 2008. Being as this was a double-elimination format event they would need only a single map win, to their opponent's two, to secure the title. Rather than rematch with ALTERNATE they found the opponent for the title
mousesports.This mouz lineup had their own back-story which had meant few would have predicted they'd have reached the final either. Since adding cyx and gob b to their lineup mouz had continued to live under the thumb of ALTERNATE domestically, losing the EPS Season XI final to them, and had just finished in last place at the aforementioned NGL-ONE Season four final. This was a mouz lineup people would have picked outside of the top five teams in the world, still yet to show any of their potential.With inferno nowhere to be seen, the Germans no doubt having picked up the fairly large hint that eSTRO were monsters on it, the first map of the final was dust2, formerly the Korean's best map, and mouz took it 16:8 to ensure the title would be decided one way or the other in the second map. When the second map turned out to be cbble one could sense that the Koreans were in trouble. One of their biggest problems had always been that CS' lack of popularity in their home country, and players not playing on steam, meant their practice was limited. Unsurprisingly they weren't going to find many practices on a map like cbble, which elsehwere in the world of CS tournaments had long been eliminated from the map pool.
Despite their early success in the close loss to SK in the group stage eSTRO could not hang with mouz on cbble and another 16:8 scoreline for the Germans ensured they were the ones crowned IEM champions and leaping around in celebration. eSTRO had successfully shocked the world with their cinderella story run to the title, but the one map nature of their run, and the fact their carraige had turned back into a pumpkin at the midnight striking of the final, meant few considered the performance much more than that: a great one-time run.
ESWC and the tuscan heartbreak
Around four months later, in July, eSTRO ventured outside of Asia again to compete at the ESWC Masters Paris event, not to be confused with the ESWC Grand Final which this event would seed teams into. After beating
EG.usa 20:10 on dust2 and tying KODE5 champions mTw on inferno their run was halted by the appearance of a familiar enemy. In the quarter-final eSTRO found themselves faced with another match with mouz, this time on train, and were eliminated 7:16 in 5th-8th place. The bright note had been that this result was enough to earn them a spot into the ESWC Grand Final the next month.For the first time the ESWC Grand Final would be held outside of France, the host city for this edition being San Jose, California in the USA. The tournament began without much fan-fare for the Koreans, losing to x3o on train in the first group stage. In the second group stage things turned around as they beat roccat and SK on nuke to reach the playoffs.
In the quarter-finals they met ALTERNATE and won 2:1 in maps to hit the semi-final. Despite losing the first map against the Germans, dust2, eSTRO had smashed them on the second, nuke, with a 16:1 scoreline and then comfortably taken the third, train, 16:9. Win or lose eSTRO had a second deep run at a major on their hands at only the second played that year. Still, when the semi-final opponent turned out to be fnatic it was only reasonable to expect an exit for the Koreans at this point.fnatic had a case for being the second best team in the world coming into the match, they'd won NGL-ONE S4 and SEC as well as finishing runners-up to mTw at KODE5 and ESWC Masters Paris. fnatic took the opener on train 16:10 and the Koreans countered on inferno, winning 16:10 themselves. The decider was nuke it proved to be another instance of controversy starring the Koreans and a Scandinavian team.
The first half ended 12:3 in eSTRO's favour and soon they were leading 13:5, seemingly headed for a comfortable victory. At 15:7 the Koreans had eight match points to finish the series and book their spot in the ESWC final. Inspired play from fnatic brought the game all the way back to a tie and overtime. The first overtime was a tie and in the second eSTRO won, only for it to be discovered that solo had been in an illegal position. Bizarrely the admin decision was to remove three rounds from eSTRO, but not play out the rest of the overtime. So eSTRO won 19:18 to reach the ESWC final.
Facing the Koreans in the final was MYM.pl, reigning ESWC champions. The Poles had been having a less-than-stellar year by their standards. On the upside they had finished second at SEC and won Dreamhack Summer. Elsewhere though they'd not qualified for the IEM II finals, finished outside of the money at KODE5 in fourth and disastrously been eliminated in 9th-12th at ESWC Masters Paris. Only their having won 2007's WCG had earned them a spot at the Grand Finals, yet here they were in their second consecutive ESWC final.dust2 was the first map of the final and MYM took it by a sliver, winning 16:14. The second was nuke and eSTRO struck back with a 16:13 win to send the final to a deciding map. When that map proved to be tuscan the Koreans were in all kinds of trouble. While the Poles will tell you they didn't know the map very well either it was an entirely different problem for the Koreans.
As previously mentioned any non-standard map pool choice was a big problem for a team who couldn't get regular practice against good teams. The situation was so extreme that the Koreans had to ask ALTERNATE's MooN for help with how to play the map and positions etc. eSTRO would play for an ESWC title on a map they had never competed on internationally.
MYM.pl were dominant in the first half, taking it 10:5. Switching over the Koreans looked lost early in the second half and suddenly the Poles were at match point as early as 15:6, with nine match points to finish matters if necessary. At this point one could be forgiven for having assumed it would be smooth sailing across the finish line of the final round win and the Poles had repeated as champions in anti-climactic fashion. Instead either MYM.pl faltered with the finish line in sight or the Koreans summoned a fighting spirit from somewhere.
Round after round kept going the way of eSTRO and they were clawing their way out of a convincing loss into the territory of making their performance look respectable in the decider. Except it didn't stop there, they kept taking round after round and from 6:15 to 9:15 to 12:15 they were somehow coming back. Were the Poles going to fold under pressure and give away a sure-fire win by letting the map reach overtime?
When the Koreans reached 13:15 surely everyone on HLTV was willing an overtime to decide the title, in what had already been in incredibly close finals. Instead MYM finally got that 16th round to close out the map, the series and a second straight ESWC title. eSTRO had taken the reigning champions all the way down to the line in one of the closest best of three series ever played, but once more they left a major final with heartache instead of the trophy.
Another showdown with Germany's finest, this time in Asia.
While CS went on in the rest of the world the Koreans sat at home until October, when the World e-Sports Masters (WEM) would bring them back into the spotlight of international play. Placed in another group of death, this one featuring SK and mTw, they once more beat the odds to reach the playoffs. Tying SK on inferno, they also tied mTw on dust2 and beat
wNv.cn on nuke 16:5. With the format of this tournament that meant a spot in the semi-finals.The opponent to reach their side of the bracket from the other group was mousesports, the team who had tortured them at IEM II and ESWC Masters Paris already. The Bo3 began with dust2 and again the Germans proved too much, winning 16:7. The second map was train and after going up 11:4 as CT in the first half hope could be held out that eSTR could force a third map, their beloved inferno. Instead mouz mounted a considerable comeback to win 16:13 and move on to the final.
In the third place decider match eSTRO found themselves facing fnatic in another Bo3. As if to prove that their ESWC semi-final victory had been no fluke the Koreans started out with a 16:9 win on inferno and then closed the series 2:0 after winning 16:13 on train. Another top three finish another five figure cheque awaited them. eSTRO could reasonably be considered one of the world's three or four best teams.
Back in Europe for another run
Weeks after WEM was the World Cyber Games (WCG) for 2008. Getting a little revenge on MYM.pl with a 19:11 win on dust2, and beating MiBR 18:12 on inferno, the Koreans advanced from their group stage. The bracket looked good as eSTRO pushed past
Tek-9 and k23 2:0 each to hit the semi-finals. There awaited SK and a chance at making three out of the three major finals for the year.The series opened on train and the Koreans took the lead after a 16:12 win. On dust2 SK came back with a 16:11 win to send it to a third map. The third would be nuke, a map eSTRO had impressed on all year long, and SK made it out 16:12 to reach the gold medal game. After losing their second straight international semi-final eSTRO headed into yet another third place decider, albeit for actual medals this time around.Their opponents were the Norwegian team which had almost shocked mTw in the other semi-final. For all their theatrics in making it this far
elemeNt and REAL's team couldn't summon the same kind of play against the Koreans and eSTRO secured bronze medals 2:0 to earn their fourth five figure payday of the year. That would be the last of the big international events of the year for eSTRO, though there was still some CS to be played back at home.Securing home soil and one last win for the road
The same month eSTRO had domestic business to take care of, as an IEM event was held in Seoul, South Korea, for Korean teams. Beating domestic rivals
Lunatic-Hai twice, in the upper final and final, eSTRO ensured there was no doubt who was the best Korean team internationally and at home. There had been no international teams present but they added $5,000 to their total for the year all the same.The last event of 2008 was once more in Korea, as the International e-Sports Festival (IEF) featured Asian teams and an appearance by fnatic. cArn's men perhaps hoped to snag and easy ~$17,000 against what was an easy field, comparative to international tournaments. To do so they'd need to beat an eSTRO team who had held sway over there every time that year."I'm sure we can harm eSTRO. I would put Estro as top 3 in the world along with ourselves and mTw. There is no doubt that the Koreans have stepped up a lot and for the Counter-strike scene this is awesome news. We have lost the two last bo3 matches against solo and his brave soldiers as I said this tournament belongs to us."The format for the tournament was single elimination best-of-one and as expected it was fnatic and eSTRO who made it into the final. The map was nuke and there would be no heroics from dsn and company to make for a thriller like the decider of their ESWC series, this time eSTRO handled the Swedes 16:7 to take the title and the most money.
-cArn prior to the final of IEF
As 2008 ended eSTRO had reached the semi-finals of all three of CS' majors, made the finals of two of them, earned almost $100,000, won at least $10,000 on five separate occasions, shown the world they were one of the very best inferno teams, beaten fnatic on three separate occasions and placed in the top three at all but one of the events they'd attended. solo's men had finally delivered more than just a hot run here or there, consistently putting up high placings and crucially doing it outside of Asia, overcoming the stigma of fans saying they were "only good in Asia".
The stumbling blocks
There had been three key factors which had been stumbling blocks for the Koreans all year long in their quest for a title. The first, most obviously, was the Germans of mousesports. mouz were one of the few teams good enough on other maps to avoid inferno every time they faced the Koreans, and to top it off were pretty much assured to win on the dust2 both teams were willing to play. This made mouz a nightmare match-up for eSTRO, so the fact they had to face them in the IEM II final and the semi-final of WEM ensured their runs in those tournaments stopped there.
The second problem eSTRO faced all year long was losing to opponents they had previously beaten or beating opponents they had previously lost to, but always at the wrong time. After losing narrowly to MYM.pl in the final of ESWC they went on to beat them in the group stage of the WCG. Going into the semi-final of the WCG the Koreans had two wins, a draw and a 14:16 loss as their record against SK for 2008, so a loss to them at such a deep stage of a major event really stung. Especially since the finals opponent would have been mTw, who despite being the team of the year had tied both games they had played against eSTRO.The third issue holding eSTRO back was their match-ups on all the maps. When they had to play cbble in the deciding map of IEM II that was a really bad draw for them, being as that wasn't even a standard map in 2008. Then at ESWC they had to play tuscan, since nuke and inferno had been eliminated. So again it was a case of match-up both with the opponent and the maps they were good on, some of the other teams would have instead played them on inferno or train.
eSTRO couldn't get enough consistency on dust2 or train across the year, if either had been a sure win then they'd have won some more series, but they lost at the wrong times to make it deeper. What makes that unfortunate is that in past years they had been considered a one map wonder on dust2, making it as deadly to pick against them as inferno was in 2008. Whether the difference in 2008 came from adding ari it's difficult to tell, but having both maps in strong form would have ensured them a good chance at more wins, since a number of teams they played kept dust2 in the map pool.
It's also worth noting that on train they were always destined to have issues due to star player solo having a very specific type of colour blindness which made train the map he found most difficult to see on, something which was only revealed to the world at large in 2011.
The fnatic statements
One of eSTRO most impressive accomplishments during the year has to be their three victories over fnatic, winning five maps and losing only one. While 2008 wasn't fnatic's year they still hovered in the top five teams in the world, to varying degrees, throughout. The ESWC semi-final in particular stands out as a moment where fans everywhere would have placed their money on fnatic reaching the final to face the Poles, instead eSTRO playing their part in ensuring fnatic remained without an ESWC Grand Finals final appearance.The golden moment and the missed opportunity
Considering eSTRO came into the year on nobody's radar as a top five team, and that they would make roster changes in the first part of 2009, one has to consider their 2008 run the moment when everything came together for their team. They had the right lineup, anchored by the star power of solo and with solid players like ari and hee ensuring enough firepower for a team who had been without a distinct identity for the past year and a half.
2008 was also a missed opportunity for the team though. MYM.pl reached the top three of only one of the majors, but since they won that event it ensured they at least had their moment in the sun. Since eSTRO consistently reached semi-finals and had chances in finals their losses really burned them as players, putting doubt in their minds that they would ever win an international title. When three of their lineup would win WEM, in miraculous fashion, in late 2010 it felt like a kind of vindication but it still couldn't compare to taking down an event like IEM, ESWC or WCG, all of which they had their chances at in 2008.
I'm reminded of a story I was told in 2011 that termi would re-watch the demos of his team's WEM 2010 win, because to finally win meant so much to him. Bearing in mind their difficult home circumstances of living in Korea, with nobody to really practice with, it's impressive enough that this lineup, when viewed top to bottom, could even contend for major titles.
For a player like solo though it is heart-breaking to have seen him denied a world championship, aside from all the others solo, in his prime, was a truly transcendent player on the level of the likes of cogu, zet and REAL. For players like those only world titles can match their accomplishments to their ability level, and solo never really got there.So our story has come to an end, the tale of eSTRO 2008 has been told. They weren't the best team of 2008, they didn't win the most money that year and they didn't take a single international title. And yet they did accomplish something impressive, both in terms of actual match wins and consistency, in overcoming the odds to make 2008 the best year of their careers.
