(Seattle, WA) – The grand final match was less exciting than what it could be. Big name players such as Grubby, Moon and ToD all got eliminated early in the round; all which were favorites to match up against two-time winner Xiao Feng “Sky” Li in the big stage.

Instead, Li went head-to-head against Night Elf player Olav “Creolophus” Undheim, who three months ago announced his retirement from professional gaming. 

Undheim played consistently last year, but never managed to finish first on major tournaments. He only finished 2nd at ESWC 2007, to mark the end of his career as his final hurrah. “I didn’t expect to win… [and] I never beat Sky in my entire life.”

Undheim almost did not even make it out of his group, losing his first match against Piotr "PGS.sLh" Michalski much to the surprise to many. Even if Undheim is inactive, he’s still considered much better than the other players in his group. “I barely made it out of my group and had a 3-way tie for second place,” Undheim says. “That just goes to show that I was really inactive for almost two months now.”

He lost the first game to Li, much to the elation of several Chinese fans who sat on the front row to cheer for their Human hero. Flags of China were waved around frantically when Li won the first game.

On the second game however, Undheim seems better prepared. “[On the first game] I just tried to make as many units as possible to push him if he expanded. In the game on Gnoll Wood, I had a pretty good start….he wasn’t able to expo. I had the advantage now so I kept pushing and see how it goes.”

The Norwegian Night Elf player continued to put on the pressure against the Chinese Human player, after he managed to foil Li’s plan of expanding on an adjacent spawning point on the map. This forced Li to stay inside his base most of the game. Undheim built offensive towers on the outskirts of Li’s base and brought in siege units. Li added much needed Mortar Teams to his army, but later on knew there was nothing to do to save the game.

With the score tied 1-1, Sky still remains the favorite to win the match.

Li fast-built his altar to get his Archmage out quickly and creep the nearby Golbin Merchant. This left him with several low HP peasants. When the Demon Hunter came along, Undheim managed to take down four of them, giving him a huge advantage.

Sky built a scout tower at the outskirts of Undheim’s base, seeing that he was going Huntresses. It looked as though Sky planned to do an early tower rush, but then decided against it.

The game teeter-tottered between the two players – it looked as though Undheim had the upper hand when he attacked Li’s base. “At that point in the game, I felt that I had an advantage but I felt that I lost it because I lost my Naga [when Li teleported back to defend his base].” Li quickly used this opportunity to launch an attack, not giving Undheim any time to revive and get his Naga back.

At this point, the game looks to be favoring the Human player. Undheim has lost several units and his hero was very low in HP, without any moonwells to continue healing him. Li had more units compared to Undheim, but there was  a small window of hope for Undheim.

“I saw that my Demon Hunter is like level 5, I started picking off units trying to get my hero to level 6. I got a mana pot on my Naga so I can kill extra units just so I can get level 6.”

Undheim getting the level 6 on his hero made a huge difference in the game. The Demon Hunter’s ultimate, Metamorphosis, gives more life and damage for the hero. Undheim managed to push Li back and regain composure. In the end, with high level heroes, good items and superior units won Undheim the game.

Undheim has a slight advantage to knowing his opponent better. “I think we are both pretty familiar with each other, but in the last two months I didn’t play any games at all in the official matches. So lately I’ve been studying him, but I think he doesn’t have any replays of me.”

The favorite to win 1st seed in his group, Undheim fell to lesser known players and took second place instead. This put him in the bracket where he was able to avoid Sky until the very end. “I think the only reason why I managed to beat Sky now was because I had an extra day to practice and think about strategies. I really think that I wouldn’t be able to beat Sky if I had to play him yesterday and without any preparation at all.”

“I guess the more games I played the better I became.”

He is still considered “retired” from professional gaming. When he was asked if he’ll return to Warcraft III after his momentous win, he said, “Considering that I already gave up gaming but I might have to think about it a second time. I don’t really make rash decisions like that in the moment.”

Undheim retires from gaming only to return and become the biggest surprise in the gaming community, winning the biggest Warcraft III tournament in the world. There’s no better way to end his career by taking home the gold medal to his country.