IEM Season IX Taipei 2015: Final Results and Prize Money for 'StarCraft 2' Event

In an epic final series, Lee Seung Hyun, aka Life from the StarTale team, defeated Cho Seong Ju, aka Maru from the Jin Air Green Wings squad, 4-3 to win the Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) Season IX Taipei in StarCraft 2.

The event is also sponsored by Electronic Sports League (ESL).

Matches don't get more exciting than this one. You can check out the entire match in this video from ESL's YouTube channel. 

Life finished a great tournament, winning his ninth first-place finish in a premier event. It was his second in just under three months. This win earned him $10,000. Maru took home $4,000 for his second-place finish.

Life had to battle back from a 3-1 deficit, but the South Korean who recently tuned 18 years old was able to pull off the improbable comeback. With Maru not turning 18 until July, this was a battle of the StarCraft 2 community's best and brightest young stars.

Kwanghee Woo of Team Liquid talked about how such a star-studded grand final positively effects the popularity of the game's competitive scene.

A famed Korean-to-English translator for the esports gaming community, Susie Kim, tweeted this eye-popping image of the crowd during Life and Maru's final battle. I'd say there is a good amount of fan interest in this one.

Life's win earned him 195 points in the ESL, and Maru picked up 130 for his efforts, per ESL StarCraft 2 on Twitter.

Looking ahead, the next premier tournament on the StarCraft 2 scene is the IEM Season IX World Championships. The final event in the ninth season takes place from March 12-15 in Katowice, Poland. There's no doubting which player has the momentum heading into that tournament.

Life finished strong, and he had to have been energized by the crowd during his triumphant win over Maru. Fans of the game can only hope they're in for a tournament that is equally as exciting as the event was in Taipei.