NesTea

Overview

Results

NesTea [help] [edit]
Background Information
Name:	임재덕 Lim Jae Duk
Team:	Incredible Miracle
Sponsor:	SteelSeries
Race:	Zerg
Alternate IDs:	QIMNesTea, 하안사거리, ZergBong, ZergBOy
Nicknames:	Detective Zerg, God of Zerg, Professor Tea, Doctor Tea
Country:	South Korea
Birthday:	December 12, 1982 (1982-12-12)
TLPD:	International Korean
Fan Page:	NesTea's Fan Club
Twitter:	IM_NesTea_
Career
Team History:	KT Rolster
Crowning achievement:	2010 GSL Open Season 2

To read about NesTea's Starcraft: Brood War career, see ZergBong.

Lim "NesTea" Jae Duk is a Korean Zerg playing for Team Incredible Miracle. Following his third GSL championship, he was widely considered the best Zerg player in the world.

Biography

In Brood War, NesTea (aka Zergbong) was a coach and player for Korean progaming team, KT Rolster. He was most notable for his 2v2 performances with Reach, as well as being a coach for KT's zerg roster.

Playstyle

NesTea's most notable strength is his unparalleled decision making. Tastosis on several occasions has compared NesTea's playstyle to that of Brood War's sAviOr, as NesTea's playstyle generally revolves around heavy droning and making the correct/minimum number of units for defense before controlling the map by taking expansions slowly. NesTea's great decision making also contributes to his high ZvZ win-rate, as the decision to build either Drones or other units from Larvae becomes more crucial in such a volatile match up.

Wings of Liberty

NesTea was one of the top ranked zergs on the Korean ladder shortly after the launch of Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty. He managed to qualify for the very first GSL, but his tournament run met a quick end when he got knocked out in the first round by LiveForever. His opponent eventually went on to finish in 3rd/4th place. In late September 2010, NesTea, together with Mvp, TT, ChRh, and LosirA, founded the team IM - "Incredible Miracle".. All of these team members were former Brood War players.

NesTea was destined for a much longer stay in GSL 2. He made his way to the finals without losing a single game, defeating players such as MC (the future champion of season 3), Zenio, TheWinD, and BoxeR.

NesTea kissing his trophy after winning GSL Season 2.

In the finals, NesTea faced off against a young Terran, then known to the international audience as FoxeR, but now known as MarineKing. MarineKing had already made quite a stir in the previous rounds of the tournament, beating both previous GSL finalists with pressure based builds and superb marine-micro. NesTea, on the other hand, was known for his solid, macro-oriented style and an apparent invulnerability to cheese. During the finals MarineKing opted for early pressure in most of the games; this strategy was initially successful and put MarineKing in an early lead, but NesTea was able to adapt as the series went on. In the 7th and final set, NesTea baited the Terran into repeating his strategy from the first game of the series. This time, NesTea successfully held off the early marine and SCV push, winning the GSL 2 Finals 4-3.

After this victory, NesTea qualified for his third straight GSL. This tournament proved more difficult for him, as he dropped games to Jys and MakaPrime. He eventually reached the Round of 8 where he was upset by TSL_Rain, who used a marine-bunker rush and two marine-SCV all-ins.

NesTea started 2011 on a strong note, becoming the only-Zerg player in the top 8 of the Gainward Tournament. He eventually took 2nd place in the tournament, being defeated by his teammate Mvp in the finals. Then, NesTea's team Incredible Miracle took the first GOMTV Global Starcraft II Team League by storm, reaching the finals in a commanding fashion. There, they faced off against Startale. NesTea was chosen as the ace player to face off against Squirtle, a player who had managed to eliminate Mvp immediately prior. This was the first and only game NesTea played during the entire team league; he was victorious, securing the 5-4 win for Incredible Miracle.

After this tournament, NesTea was named as one of the five zerg invites to TSL3. This tournament was NesTea's first venture into a non-Korean tournament. He was surprisingly defeated in the first round to German player GoOdy with a 1-2 loss. On September 26th, NesTea was seeded to the National Finals of WCG Korea and was eliminated in the group stages, losing both games to GuMiho.

Code S

In the first GSL Sponsorship League tournament, NesTea advanced through the group stages by defeating Polt and Maka in the Round of 32, and Zenio and BoxeR in the Round of 16. Subsequently in the quarter finals, NesTea went 3-0 against Choya. NesTea was the only non-Terran player in the semi-finals, where he ended up losing to eventual champion Mvp, but not before making Mvp suffer his only loss in the tournament. In the second season, NesTea suffered a major upset with losses to San and Ensnare in the Round of 32. Although he managed to secure victory against BoxeR, this 1-2 record ousted NesTea into the Up & Down matches. NesTea then easily retained his Code S position in the Up and Down Matches by defeating Leenock 2-0.

In May, NesTea advanced out of his group, only losing a single game to Clide. In the Round of 16 he faced fellow zerg GSL champion, FruitDealer, whom he beat 2-1. He then defeated anypro 3-1 to advance to the semi-finals, where he played sC. sC used aggressive timing attack builds to take 2 games off of NesTea, but great decision making by NesTea allowed him to take the win in the pivotal fifth game. The game ended in a clutch situation where both players were down to small armies and had very limited incomes. NesTea used his Muta force to great effect, sniping Marines and Thors where possible and whittling down the Terran army to force a surrender. NesTea then reclaimed the GSL championship by quickly sweeping InCa in the finals.

In July, NesTea surpassed his previous achievements by winning the whole tournament without losing a single game. He defeated HongUn in the semifinals and proceeded to sweep LosirA in the finals. Combined with his 4-0 victory in the previous finals and his final win in the previous semifinals, this put him at a 20 game winning streak in Code S (including a win by default against Rain in the group stage).

In August, NesTea beat Kyrix in the group stages and lost against MMA, which ended NesTea's massive GSL win streak. He advanced from his group to the Round of 16 by winning a close match against his teammate Happy. Unfortunately, his next opponent was once again his teammate and rival, Mvp, whom he lost to 0-2.

In October, NesTea was once again in a group with MMA. However, this time, NesTea managed to advance through his group by defeating both MMA and NaDa. He then defeated Virus 2-1 in the Round of 16, but lost in the Round of 8 to Mvp in a close (2-3) series.

NesTea struggled a bit during the initial stages of the 2011 GSL November. He was able to advance out of the Round of 32 by defeating his teammate LosirA, but he then lost 0-2 in the Round of 16, sending him into Code A.

In the 2012 GSL Season 1 Code S Round of 32, NesTea was seeded into a group with Mvp, Lucky, and IdrA. He defeated IdrA 2-0 and Mvp 2-1 to continue into the Round of 16. NesTea would lose 2-1 against both DongRaeGu and Genius to fall down to Code A as last in his group.

Code A

After falling from the Round of 16 of the 2011 GSL November, NesTea was seeded into Code A against asd, whom he defeated 2-0 to retain a Code S spot.

Outside Korea

On August 17th, it was announced that NesTea and his teammate Mvp had been invited to Blizzcon. Only a day before the event, it was made public that Steel Series would personally sponsor both players. NesTea would go on a tear through the winner's bracket, defeating players such as Brat_OK, Sheth, NaNiwa and Mvp, marking the first major tournament where he would defeat Mvp in a "best of" series. He would then face Mvp again in the grand finals after Mvp tore his way through the loser's bracket. Because of NesTea's previous victory, the rematch was an extended series where Mvp had to win two best of threes, whereas NesTea only had to win one. NesTea lost the first best of three with a score of 0-2. The second best of three was considerably closer, with Mvp managing to clinch the victory in a long and epic third game, which included 100+ Banelings at one time, pooled resources of over 10k minerals and 6k gas, as well as mass Brood Lords, Ghosts, and Nukes. After this 1-2 loss, NesTea ultimately took second place.

On the first day of Blizzcon 2011, it was announced that NesTea and Mvp would be going to MLG Providence as part of their new partnership with Quantic Gaming. At Providence, NesTea started in the Open Bracket and won his first 6 matches without fail, earning a spot in the Championship Bracket. There he beat BoxeR, SeleCT, and Slush before losing a fierce match to NaNiwa, cementing a new rivalry. In the losers' bracket, NesTea was surprisingly knocked out in a ZvZ by HayprO, finishing in 12th place.

Rivalries

NaNiwa

During MLG Providence, a rivalry formed between NaNiwa and NesTea. NesTea had previously defeated NaNiwa 2-1 in the BlizzCon 2011 StarCraft II Invitational, but NaNiwa returned the favor by defeating NesTea 2-1 when they met again during the 2011 MLG Global Invitational final. In an interview after that game, NaNiwa commented about a drone pull NesTea made during their 3rd game: "I thought that he would do some smart shit, [...], I thought he was that genius but apparently he's just an idiot. What he did made no sense.". When NesTea heard about these comments he was reportedly very angry and ready to destroy NaNiwa. The two players proceeded to meet in the Championship Winners' Bracket Quarter Final of Providence, where they both played aggressively, including a 3rd game cannon rush by NaNiwa. NaNiwa won the match 2-1, and cameras showed a clearly angry NesTea. In twitter posts and a later interview, NaNiwa stated that he was "caught up in the moment" and "didn't mean any disrespect." He also stated: "He showed he is a very smart player, obviously, since he won 3 GSLs. He can't be stupid."

When NaNiwa went back to Korea to participate in the Blizzard Cup, he mentioned the rivalry in various interviews, remarking in one, "I hope [NesTea] can stop being angry." On the second day of the tournament, when NaNiwa and NesTea were scheduled to play, both players were already down 0-3 in their group and were essentially already eliminated. NaNiwa proceeded to attack-move his starting probes to NesTea's base, effectively losing the game on purpose. This move sparked heavy controversy about NaNiwa's professionalism. See main article.

Trivia

He is the first player to win three GSL championships. He is the first and only player to win a GSL without dropping a single game. (July 2011). The only player who has ever come close to achieving such a feat is is his teammate Mvp, who only lost a single game in GSL January 2011--to NesTea himself. He ran a 19-game win streak in Code S from GSL May through GSL August. He is the first player to win two Code S tournaments in a row. He has won the GSL finals against every race. He won GSL Open S2 against MarineKing (Terran), GSL May against InCa (Protoss), and GSL July against teammate LosirA (Zerg). He chose the ID NesTea because there was a NesTea bottle on his desk when he was making his StarCraft 2 account. Bong is a censored word on Blizzard's Battle.Net 2.0, so he could not use his original ID, 'ZergBong.' Until the beginning of GSL March 2011, he had a 100% win rate against Zerg and Protoss in the GSL, holding a 6-0 record against Protoss and 10-0 record against Zerg. His perfect record against Protoss was broken by San; his perfect record against Zerg was broken by DIMAGA.

The first player to defeat him in a televised ZvZ was DIMAGA, who eliminated him 2-1 from the GSL World Championship He is the third oldest contestant in GSL history (after BoxeR and TheWinD). White-Ra has stated NesTea is his favorite Korean player, simply because "I am old". He is second dan in Kendo. As of March 31, 2011, every time NesTea has checked his "minihompy" before a match, he has lost. He once stated that the toughest series he has ever played was against sC in the GSL May semi-finals, which was a narrow 3-2 win. NesTea competed in nine consecutive GSL Code S tournaments beginning with the 2011 GSL January and ending with the 2012 GSL Season 2. Tied with NaDa's identical run, this is the longest consecutive streak of GSL Code S appearances. He has won over 240,000 USD in prize money since release. He has only been eliminated from Code S single elimination bracket stages by his teammate Mvp.

Achievements

2012

Date	Event	Result
2012-05-05	Iron Squid	NesTea 3 : 2  aLive
2012-04-08	IGN ProLeague Season 4	NesTea 2 : 3  Squirtle
2012-02-12	2012 MLG Winter Qualifier Korea	NesTea 4 : 1  PartinG

2011

Date	Event	Result
2011-11-19	2011 MLG Global Invitational	NesTea 1 : 2  NaNiwa
2011-10-22	BlizzCon 2011	NesTea 1 : 2*  Mvp
2011-07-30	2011 Pepsi GSL July: Code S	NesTea 4 : 0  LosirA
2011-05-14	2011 LG Cinema 3D GSL May: Code S	NesTea 4 : 0  InCa
2011-01-23	2011 Sony Ericsson GSL January: Code S	NesTea 1 : 3  Mvp
2011-01-09	Gainward SC2 Tournament	NesTea 0 : 3  Mvp

* Mvp forced a deciding match in the double elimination tournament by beating NesTea 2:0 in the first match of the finals.

2010

Date	Event	Result
2010-11-13	2010 Sony Ericsson Starcraft II Open Season 2	NesTea 4 : 3  MarineKing

To see NesTea's full GSL standings, see NesTea GSL Results

Gallery

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Interviews

• CNNGo interview 2011-10-06
• Interview with Nestea after winning GSL July
• Fomos.kr GSL 2 Ro8 winner interview
• GSL Season 2 Quarter Final winner interview
• GSL Season 2 Ro16 winner interview
• GSL Season 2 Ro32 winner interview
• GSL Season 2 Ro64 winner interview

Championships

Global Starcraft II League Champion
GSL Open Season 1 Preceeded By:   FruitDealer	GSL Open Season 2 13th November 2010 - 18th December 2010   NesTea	GSL Open Season 3 Succeeded By:   MC

GSL March 2011 Preceeded By:   MC

GSL May 2011 14th May 2011 - 18th June 2011   NesTea

GSL Super Tournament 2011 Succeeded By:   Polt

GSL Super Tournament 2011 Preceeded By:   Polt

GSL July 2011 30th July 2011 - 10th September 2011   NesTea

GSL August 2011 Succeeded By:   Mvp

External Links

• NesTea's profile on the Korean Ladder