The emotion present in the Mokdong GOMTV studio last Saturday was apparent; from the crowd that spilled into the lobby, to the enthused shouts throughout the match, to the farewells and thank you’s written on signs held high above the audience for the players to see. SlayerS, a long-time fan favorite Korean StarCraft II team, would be disbanding after one final match against MYM.MVP.

At 2:10 p.m. KST, fans who could find them took their seats as the two teams came out to bow and begin their games. Present in the audience was the legendary Terran Emperor himself,  Lim “BoxeR” Yo Hwan, who founded the team more than two years ago. Though he recently switched to another team of his creation a few weeks ago amid the drama that led to SlayerS’ disbanding, the team he fostered over the years still meant a lot to him.

Next to him, going under the English moniker of “Jessica,” was actress Kim Ga Yeon, manager to SlayerS and girlfriend to BoxeR. Jessica was the one who chose to disband the team after a string of problems internal and external, described in her public announcement and translated for English fans on TeamLiquid.net.

But if team SlayerS went out with a bang, it was  Jung “YugiOh” SeungIl who held the gun. The young Code AZerg player looked upset with the situation from the get-go when he trudged into the booth for his first match. But his disappointment gave him nothing but vigor and focus in his gameplay.

His first game was against Terran player  Chae “Noblesse” Do Joon. Noblesse delayed his expansion for an early four Hellion rush, a tactic made uncommon since a patch that increased the attack radius of Queens which makes the rush easier to defend. YugiOh validated the drop in popularity when he killed all four Hellions after losing just five Drones.

After peeling back for a bit with just the occasional ineffective attack, Noblesse laid down the pressure with Marines and Siege Tanks, destroying two of YugiOh’s bases and crippling his economy. Combined with the fact that the SlayerS player had no macro Hatcheries built, he was unable to produce enough units to keep up with Noblesse.

However, YugiOh got back in gear. He spawned an army of Infestors and a few Brood Lords and held back the MVP player long enough to stabilize his economy and get his army rolling. He was still at a 60 supply deficit, but used burrowed Infestors to sneak into Noblesse’s expansions and spawn whole ranks of Infested Terran militia. Killing two bases, YugiOh was able to shut down his opponent’s economy. After a chain of well-positioned Fungal Growth casts, he erased Noblesse’s army and took the game. 

When the game ended, YugiOh threw off his headset and stared down at his keyboard as if he had lost, while his opponent packed up and trudged away, seemingly more in sync with the reality of YugiOh’s victory in the last game. It was apparent that knowing it was his team’s last game was getting to YugiOh, who couldn’t even muster a smile as his team and the entire audience cheered for him as he returned to the SlayerS bench.

YugiOh had time to recover as the coaches from each team came forward for an interview. To the left of the audience was  Hong “Cella” SeungPyo, SlayerS’ coach who had previously been awarded the GSL Best Coach Award and had coached Team Korea at the 2011 GSL World Championship. When asked about the day’s match, he turned to the brimming audience and spoke with a charisma not normally seen in the Mokdong studio. 

“It's the last game for SlayerS, and the results don't really matter much, but we talked a lot before the match, and we really wanna do our best today,” he said as the Korean audience nodded and the international audience listened as commentator  "Wolf" echoed a translator. “And they really wanna show their best, especially because so many fans came out today.We really wanna give our best to the fans.”

“It's actually really crazy. I can't even get a coffee,” English commentator  Thomas "Khaldor" Kilian said of how crowded the studio was. “You know, you have a break, and you just walk, this is like, 10 meters? 12? Just walking down there and trying to get a coffee, is like impossible. Too many people. It's crazy, but I like it.”

To the audience’s right was  Shin “Killer” Sang Ho, a player filling in for MVP’s coach Choi. “I've never seen so many fans at the studio. I feel like every match should be like this, and that fans should come out for every GSTL match.” The entire studio cheered at this.

“Thanks, fans, for being here today,” he said with a smile, and added “It's an honor that the last match SlayerS plays is against team MVP.”

His statements came with even more respect than said outright. As the casters then noted, the match was extremely important for team MVP. Winning against Slayers would mean advancing to the Semi-Finals where they would play against powerhouse LG_IM. A loss would pull them out of the tournament and grant LG_IM a free win. He stood there ready to lead his team to victory, but in his words showed the utmost respect for his esteemed opponents.

MVP’s Protoss player  Seo “Vampire” Sung Min stepped into the booth next. Taking an enormous risk, he built eight Warp Gates early in the game while backed by just two bases worth of economy. It was designed to be an all-in; if his initial attack failed, he would surely lose the game.

With a powerful army of mostly Sentries and Immortals just 10 minutes into the game, Vampire charged across the map, leaving a wall at his natural expansion and two Sentries with Force Fields at his main base to block any attack that could come his way while his army was out. As it passed through the center of the map, the units got close enough to the Xel’Naga Watch Tower under YugiOh’s control to be revealed, prompting the Zerg player to send his own army of Zerglings and Roaches to the Protoss base for an attack.

YugiOh had enough Roaches in the push to pop open Vampire’s wall, exposing his expansion. But in a blunder that amazed the casters and audience members alike, Vampire failed to cast Force Field on his ramp when YugiOh sent a detachment of Zerglings to attack his opponent’s main base. Vampire’s economy was soon crippled.

The MVP player recalled his units to defend his base, but by then too much damage had been done. With no detection to worry about, YugiOh was able to Burrow his Zerglings, hiding them when the army came back until it left again, allowing him to whittle down Vampire’s remaining structures. 

After getting the GG, YugiOh once more showed no sign of happiness or achievement. He shook slightly as he tossed off his headset, his head looking down and away from the camera as he stood up to return to his team.

“Look at him!” exclaimed Khaldor. I feel like he’s going to punch somebody today!”

Since YugiOh was on such a roll, MVP knew they needed someone powerful to stop him. They sent out Terran player  Hwang “KeeN” Kyu Seok. Known as the “Commander” for reasons obvious to anyone fluent in video game nostalgia, the handsome KeeN walked confidently to his computer. He wore a smile that showed everyone how little the last two games had scared him. Like Wolf said after the player took his seat, “KeeN just looks like KeeN. He just sits down, he’s professional, he has a job to do.”

KeeN went for early Hellion harassment while YugiOh  produced lots of Zerglings for early pressure. Miraculously, when YugiOh brought a Drone to KeeN’s base for scouting, KeeN lifted his barracks at the exact second that the Drone approached the wall, allowing it to crawl in and scout everything.

Everyone was taken aback. “What!?” both casters shouted at the stroke of luck that came so soon after YugiOh had similar luck getting units into Vampire’s base through what should have been Force Fields. "That's no luck. That's the force,” said Khaldor. “I told you, it's strong with YuGiOh today. He was like,” and Khaldor put on his best Darth Sidious voice and finished “Lift it! Lift the barracks! Lift it now!”

After that, KeeN’s Hellion attacks failed to the hordes of Zerglings and queens, and YugiOh made it through yet another wall (this time of Supply Depots) to wreck KeeN’s SCVs. After modest pressure from KeeN, YugiOh kept his lead with lots of creep spread, a strong economic focus and a number of well-placed Fungal Growth casts. After getting Brood Lords, he walked his entire composition into KeeN’s base for the kill. Another victory, another point for SlayerS, and another scene of YugiOh beaming at the floor angrily as he returned to the bench.

“We talked to Cella, and he said that so often YugiOh has nerve issues,” reported Khaldor, as the player sat hunched at the SlayerS bench with those who would soonno longer be his teammates.“He is a player that is really affected by the environment and that if there's something going on he might not be able to completely focus.”

But Khaldor’s sympathetic tone switched to an excited one as he added “Today he looks like he may be able to take down the whole MVP team single handedly!”

But if YugiOh was to do this, he would have to survive MVP’s next choice: the Zerg Code S player  Kwon “Sniper” Tae Hoon, who is known to be strong in Zerg vs. Zerg games. The two sides used similar builds but avoided early aggression and skipping the usual Zergling and Baneling attacks that happen in the ZvZ early game. But when YugiOh expanded to his third base, Sniper took advantage of the temporary supply lead and took out his army with a similar but bigger force of Zerglings and Roaches.

With YugiOh sniped and one of MVP’s strongest player in the booth, SlayerS changed gears. Though they still had the strong Code S player  Jung “Genius” Min Soo available, the team instead chose to send the lovely player  Kim “Eve” Shi Yun, who at that moment became the first female player ever to play in the GSTL. She’s a Code B player, ranked far below her opponent Sniper, and she had never been inside a GSL booth before. In addition, she was playing Terran despite being a Protoss player because of how she registered at the beginning of the season. But glowing smiles from BoxeR and Jessica hinted that this match was now about something different than defeating team MVP.

The skepticism that the commentators had was not matched by the audience, as the entire studio cheered her entrance into the booth. Some chanted her name, while one fan even held up a scrapbook-style cheering sign made of pictures of Eve.

Unfortunately for SlayerS, Eve was no match for Sniper. She opted for a four Factory Hellion rush, but Sniper managed to scout it and line his front wall with Spine Crawlers. Having invested so much in the attack, Eve was forced to attack anyway, which left her Hellions looking like they had attended a monster truck rally. With nothing to combat her opponent’s strong economy and army composition, she was forced to GG.

She sat in the booth in tears, but they were soon drowned out by the cheers of her many fans.” Guen-cha-na!” the audience shouted over and over again in Korean as she left the booth and bowed to the audience. “It’s okay!”

The rest of the match continued in this fashion. Rather than gunning for a victory, SlayerS instead sent out their more inexperienced players to give them some practice in the booth and a shot at the limelight. Though the players didn’t fare well in the games themselves, the spirit present among the SlayerS players was visibly strong as the less famous players got to represent their team one last time.

After Eve came Protoss player  Yoon “Arthur” Myun Hyuk, who lost after Sniper bated his Sentry-heavy army out of its essential Force Fields and out-micro and out-macroed him into GG. Next was  Park “Miso” Soong, another Code B Terran player who lost to an incredibly effective Zergling-Baneling-Mutalisk attack in the center that melted whole lines of Marines in seconds. And finally came Protoss player  Choi “Brown” Min Soo, who built a strong economy with an early third base but suffered losses from every engagement due to inferior micro and unit composition. A final push with Brood Lords eliminated Brown, giving MVP the match point and meaning Sniper had officially committed an All Kill.

“This is an end of an era,” Khaldor said as Brown left the booth, the last time a SlayerS uniform would pass through that door.

For the fans that made it to the Mokdong studio, SlayerS had a special treat. After the cameras and lights switched off, the team stood up and drew audience names from a pool and awarded nearly three years’ worth of team jerseys to fans at random. Fans stood up excitedly as their names were called, so glad that they could take home a memory of such a legendary team. The players worked together to sort and hand out the jerseys, packed in silver bags, followed by SlayerS cups afterward. They stood together, one last time, to see off the fans that loved them so much over the years.

And with them stood Lim Yo Hwan, the legendary Terran Emperor BoxeR, in one final moment with his dream team.