TeamLiquid's 2011 Awards were so well received that we couldn't help but come back for another annual installment. Hopefully, in a few years, we'll be a real gaming award, selling out to corporate sponsors and holding awful ceremonies. But until then, we have no choice but to stay the course as a decidedly pretentious, not-entirely-serious series of awards.
The categories have been shook up since 2011, as some of the awards just seem less relevant in this day and age. So good-bye "Most Creative Player" and "Most Revolutionary Player," you've been killed by brood lord-infestor. On the other hand, we've added a slew of new awards as well, with individual race awards for both the Korean and International regions. We figure that with more awards, it increases the chance of at least one player adding it to their list of achievements. As for prize money... well, we did say we're open to selling out.
We hope you enjoy reading our awards as much as we enjoyed choosing them. Without further ado, we present the 2012 TeamLiquid awards.
Rookie of the year awards are always going to be problematic. At least in the KeSPA ruled Brood War days a player could be called a 'rookie' based on his TV debut date, regardless of whether or not he had spent years as a B-teamer. With the lack of a centralized body in SC2, and the importance of online competition as well, it's almost impossible to give out a real rookie of the year award. And so, we're left with our fairly arbitrary "breakout player" award.
By.Rain: 2011 KeSPA Rookie of the Year. HyuN: Long time KeSPA veteran. TaeJa: Code S player in 2011. Squirtle: Excellent GSTL player, and a Code A run in 2011. Creator: Multiple Code A runs, and good GSTL performances in 2011.
Of all the players, Life easily takes the cake. For one, he happens to have the best tournament results of all the nominees. On top of that, he and Scarlett trump all the others in having come out of pretty much nowhere. Just like no one expected a hitherto unknown Canadian to show up one day at IPL4 and become the biggest North American hope, no one could have predicted a fifteen year old who's still a full-time student to beat Flash, Mvp, DongRaeGu, and a veritable who's who of StarCraft on his way to becoming a multiple champion.
Thanks, Life, for keeping things interesting.
- Waxangel
Map of the Year
Cloud Kingdom
Created by: SUPEROUMAN
After winning the TeamLiquid Mapmaking Contest in December 2011, Cloud Kingdom made its tournament debut in GSL 2012 S1 and not long after found its way onto the ladder. From this point on, every major tournament barring the OSL used this map. Only Daybreak and Antiga Shipyard were used as frequently as Cloud Kingdom - neither being maps released in 2012. With the uptake of GSL maps into tournament map pools being slow, and Ohana being home of Wonwonwon, it's almost as if Cloud Kingdom wins this award by default. But this map is more than just a map that was tolerated by the community, it is a map that facilitated many different styles of play and gave every race a more or less even chance to win.
Much of the maps success can be attributed to the interplay of high and low ground, chokes and open spaces and a third which can be easily taken but not safe enough to be a free base. The map gives as many tools as the SC2 engine will allow to give the better player opportunities to outplay lesser players. Along with Daybreak, Cloud Kingdom has pushed the SC2 metagame and has significantly contributed to the development of late-game play across all matchups - particularly in TvP which was notoriously difficult on this map at the start of the year. As a tournament staple that checks all the boxes, Cloud Kingdom is this years runaway winner of Map of the Year.
Ceremonies have become an integral part of StarCraft II esports. Players now talk up wanting to win the end of the year GSL ceremony award, and try to outdo each other in post-victory celebrations. In a year where we saw some great showmanship, Parting's Sunchips ceremony against Baby stood out above the rest of the field.
During the group ceremonies Parting was the butt of the all the jokes, getting made fun of by the KeSPA stars for his former position on the Estro B-team. Starting a feud with Team Eight's Baby from KeSPA, Parting said he would take him out in the first game of the tournament and prove that his dishwashing days were long gone.
Parting tore Baby apart in the opening match, and showed that StarCraft II and Brood War were two, very different worlds. But PartinG wasn't just happy to win, he decided to rub it in as well. After his victory, he pulled out a bag of delicious Sunchips (Baby's IRL name is a homonym for 'sun' in Korean), opened it up, and savored a taste. With his starring performance in the group nominations and his ceremony in his debut, the KeSPA fans fell in love with Parting's charismatic ways and made him one of the stars of the tournament alongside the well known KeSPA players. For his declaration of war on Baby, so-bad-it's-good overacting, and clever use of edible props, PartinG fully deserves this award.
There is a long story to be told about strategy in SC2, one of good intentions and unintended consequences. Here's the abbreviated version. As 2012 dawned, Zergs were having trouble in both match-ups. Terran's hellion-banshee double expands were allowing an incredible combination of greed, aggression, and safety in the early game, while late game ghost squads were decimating high tech Zerg armies for essentially no cost. At the same time, Protoss had an unlimited toolkit of early attacks to set Zerg behind, all of which were fairly difficult to scout. The Zerg, in preparing a seamless defense early, faced getting massacred by the Protoss deathball late. Early in 2012, ghosts were nerfed. But the single event that defined strategy in 2012 came with the May balance update that increased queen range and buffed overlord speed.
These changes made it significantly harder to attack Zerg early, essentially turning TvZ and PvZ into 15 minute races to a maxed army, with only the briefest of interludes for harassment. And as Protoss and Terrans discovered, engaging a maxed Zerg army was pretty difficult. As it turned out, infestor-broodlord only had one true enemy.
Our winner, isn't quite the immortal-sentry all-in that became the go-to for any Protoss against Zerg in a pinch. It's the immortal-sentry all-in of just one player; Startale's PartinG. It's not always clear what makes his all-in better than anyone else's but the results speak for themselves. In navigating a mass of foreign Zergs looking to kill him late at the BWC, PartinG reached for his bread and butter and stomped the 'patchzergs'. In getting to the finals of the Blizzard Cup, PartinG again used his not-so-secret weapon against the Zerg horde. More often then not, his opponents knew it was coming, and still could not stop it. It's this build that has made him the highest earning SC2 player of the year. It's this build that brought him the closest thing we have to a 'world championship'. (PartinG also won WCG and took second in the Blizzard Cup)
Won Won Won refers to the Korean currency, the past tense of "win" and PartinG's name (Won Lee Sak). In 2012, the immortal sentry all-in, executed without fear and with ample amounts of "soul", indeed won lots of won for Won. But it's the strategy of 2012 because when everything was on the line, PartinG's soul train conquered the world.
- tree.hugger
Biggest News Story
KeSPA Switches to StarCraft II
Photo by: R1CH
"Ladies and Gentlemen: Tonight, we make eSports history."
Clutch stood on stage at MLG Anaheim, those cocksure words prefacing his introductions of eight top KeSPA players who had come to play their first StarCraft II matches outside of Korea. It didn't take much more than those eight words for Clutch to have the crowd eating out of his hand. "We celebrate the legacy that is Brood War, and we welcome these players and fully support their transition into Starcraft 2. So to everybody watching around the world, and to everyone here in Anaheim, California, ARE YOU READY?"
The cheer from the crowd left no doubt: we were ready. We'd been ready since the KeSPA exhibition match was announced; ready since Elephant in the Room was published; ready from the very day of SC2's release. The amazing thing was that Brood War experience didn't matter. Some of us had never seen a Proleague match, and others had been following the Korean scene since the days of Boxer's championships. But no matter our background, we could feel it in the air: this was going to change everything.
There are no other nominees listed. No other news story approached the significance of this one. KeSPA has an immense depth of talent, long experience in the business of competitive Starcraft, and willingness to use the considerable power in their possession to shape the SC2 scene to their liking. Once HotS creates a level playing field for two-year and two-month pro alike, the elephant will, at long last, become impossible to ignore.
- motbob
Rivalry of the Year
GomTV vs. KeSPA
Art by fishuu
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Let's take a trip back to 2008. GomTV, a company that had dabbled in eSports by sponsoring MSLs in the past, hosted its first ever tournament in January: a 16 man Brood War invitational. They followed that successful tourney up with three full leagues called the "Averatec-Intel Classics." But with OSL, MSL, and Proleague all running, players had little time to prepare for GOM matches. KeSPA teams came to the conclusion that it was in their players' best interests to focus on the established leagues of the time, and they began to withdraw their participation. At the end of Season 3 of what we called the GSL, only five of the twelve Proleague were left. It was no surprise when Gom discontinued their league.
Three years later, the KeSPA teams withdrew their talent from a different tournament in a different game, and GOM not only survived, but fought back. When KeSPA announced this year that none of their players would be participating in GSL Season 4 or 5, the eSF (an organization composed of the GSL teams) announced that their players would withdraw from the upcoming OSL. With the threat of a massive withdrawal just days before the start of the OSL, KeSPA reversed course entirely, allowing their players full participation in every GomTV event since. There is an uneasy truce between the two Korean behemoths at the moment. The two organizations are still taking thinly veiled shots at each other: all eSF players turned down their invites to the MLG vs KeSPA invitational, while Rain made the curious decision to forfeit his Code S seed and travel to MLG instead.
Whether or not the players cared about the business side of things, they became soldiers in a proxy war. WCS Korea was the first major battlefield, and viewers couldn't keep their eyes off the screen as they wondered if the prophecy of the elephant would come true. Some of the most exciting matches of the year centered around the struggle between GomTV and KeSPA, with Rain vs. DongRaeGu, Life vs. Flash, and Rain vs. Mvp being remembered more for their stakes outside the game, than their in-tournament implications.
It's impossible to know what the future will hold. Perhaps the days of KeSPA playing hardball are over, or maybe some spat next year will lead to a permanent split between the GOM and KeSPA factions. The massive stakes of this rivalry easily overshadows anything mere players or even teams could squabble over, making it the Rivalry of the Year in 2012 and, I predict, the years to come.
- motbob
Most Entertaining Player
SK_MC ST_PartinG
ST_PartinG
Photo by: R1CH
Our winner for Ceremony of the Year also receives the distinction of being 2012's most entertaining player. But it's not just SunChips that put PartinG on top in this category. PartinG is one of the few Korean players who gives actually fun interviews. He's one of the few Korean players who really talks a good game. Even better, he walks the walk just as well as he talks the talk (usually), by being the better player. PartinG is good, and he knows he's good.
MC is good too, but he had less success and less opportunities to entertain this year than the last. Still MC stands out as one of the best HomeStory casters, and we will continue loving him for it. Finally deserving of a mention are GanZi and Leenock, who took Gangnam Style and ran with it. We need more progamers who have the confidence to dance like nobody is watching. Stephano at NASL3 and GanZi and Leenock doing Gangnam Style count as some of the most fun moments of the year. Cheers to them.
But here's a question. Where did all the foreigners go? Sure there are plenty of foreigners with entertaining playstyles, sure there are foreigners who have earned fan favorite status because of their hard work or competitiveness, and sure there are foreigners who are popular simply by virtue of being non-korean. But this year, it seemed like nobody was very interested in putting on a show for the audience, ceding the field to the Koreans. Hopefully in 2013, the foreign scene steps up its ceremony game. Being beaten by Koreans in Starcraft is one thing, being beaten in entertainment value by a guy who only speaks Korean is another.
- tree.hugger
Worst Drama
• Destiny Medley • People Like Other Games, Too • StarCraft II is Dying • Stephano's Youthful Indiscretion • There's Something About Jessica
No One
It's no surprise that the SC2 community loves its drama. Every year, there is plenty of it; tournaments not paying, teams disbanding, players switching alliances. The community grabs its pitchforks, douses them in oil, sets them on fire, and goes after the relevant parties. Now, most of us would agree, that's good drama, based on relevant news. The community's voice is important in keeping esports on the straight and narrow, and the passion of the fans is what keeps everything going.
But once in a while...
2012 was a bumper crop of terrible drama. Throughout the year, there were spasms of "SC2 is dying" hysteria that very rapidly slid downhill from the point where people could have a reasonable conversation. These were frequently coupled with equally hysterical SC2 vs. LoL drama, where the pros and cons of each game as an esport were hotly debated (in the loosest sense of the word), and not a single mind was changed. Every time someone in a Korean pro switched to LoL, every time Riot did something vaguely authoritarian, or when some mid-tier LoL teams made a joke of themselves at MLG, the inevitable comparisons started. Just as quickly the cavalry of people who like both games would sweep in and argue that esports fans should support all video games. And then we'd all forget and the cycle would repeat. Good grief.
Remember that time when Jessica said something on Twitter, and there was drama about it because the foreign SC2 scene has a terrible understanding of the Korean SC2 scene? It was a hard event to miss, since it happened at least five times. Then SlayerS disbanded, and the whole mess started again, except we had new villains, like greedy MMA, mendacious CranK, and pouty Alicia. Then, just as quickly, everyone started liking those players again, and hating Jessica. Except everyone didn't. QUICK GET MORE NETIZEN TRANSLATIONS. Whatever.
Saying dumb things online is one of the few arenas in which the foreign scene has the Korean scene beat. Stephano repeatedly demonstrated a Code S level of putting his foot in his mouth online. Whether joking about the holocaust or statutory rape, whether drinking and playing badly, or drinking and getting arrested, Stephano provided much in the way of TMZ-style drama for the foreign scene. Thanks... uh... for your service.
Yet nobody worked harder to bring mainstream, real world drama to esports than Destiny with his Brett Favre impression at MLG Raleigh. In the middle of a perfectly good SC2 tournament, the starcraft universe was alerted to the not-so-surprising existence of grainy cell phone photos of the penis of a low-tier American SC2 player, and naturally went absolutely insane. Accusations and recriminations flew thick and fast, with a mob of salivating teenagers eagerly pontificating on a diverse range of topics, from the right to privacy to the length and quality of the penis pictured. God forbid this ever happens again.
"International" Team of the Year is rapidly becoming a mostly arbitrary and pointless category. The line between international and Korean teams was vague in 2011, and things didn't become any clearer in 2012. And just now, we've started off 2013 with a KeSPA team acquiring a foreigner. When it comes time for the 2013 awards, there might not even be a need for this category anymore.
But for at least one more year, this award still exists. Unlike an actual StarCraft II game, there does have to be someone who wins in the end. This year, it's Team TaeJaTaeJa and HerO Liquid. It's not a very close competition, with TaeJa and HerO's five major international titles and top four Code S appearances topping all other candidates. And while online team leagues are easily overlooked in a scene dominated by live, weekend events, Liquid performed excellently in them with 1st place finishes in EGMC and NASTL, and a 2nd place finish in IPL TAC.
From a purely non-Korean perspective, Acer takes the cake with Nerchio's double trophies at DH: Bucharest and HSC V, Scarlett's WCS Canada and NA victories, and a surprising third place finish in the EGMC despite having an almost entirely Zerg roster. We recommend that www.aceresport.com create their own awards, and give themselves an award based on the above non-Korean only criteria.
If we're talking only foreigners, then 'team' Stephano deserves special mention, having placed high at more tournaments, and having won more money than the entire foreign components of several teams. Also, we'd like to shout out to Los Hermanos Durán of team Karont3, for having great success as not just a 100% foreign team, but a 100% Spanish team as well.
- Waxangel
Team of the Year (Korea)
FXOpen Korea LG-Incredible Miracle MVP Startale
Startale
Startale had a peculiar start to the year. With a controversial loss to Prime in the GSTL finals, they narrowly missed out on gold in their first big final of the year. That kind of almost-success would repeat itself in individual leagues, with Squirtle and Bomber adding more second place trophies to the shelf. Startale's inclination to finish second in every tournament was so consistent that the term "Startale Curse" was coined (aptly enough, it would take second place to a more well-known curse in the SC2 scene).
The turning point was Startale's acquisition of the ailing ZeNEX. In the Startale house, Life learned to fully harness his talent, breaking the silver ceiling that had hampered his new team for so long. Once the gates were open, the championships started flooding in with Life and PartinG leading the charge. The multiple silvers that had been marks of shame turned into impressive padding on a packed resume. Startale was also impressive for their depth. From top to bottom, they possessed the most StarCraft skill of any team, with players like Squirtle, Curious, Bomber, Ace, Hack, Sound and Virus all enjoying success in Code S and international tournaments.
Yes, LG-IM and MVP both won more Code S champions. However, Startale had more success at the international level, and their deep roster achieved better aggregate results. FXOpen took two GSTL championships, and their ace Leenock was one of the best international tournament performers as well. Yet, as entertaining as the GSTL might have been, it did not carry the same weight as major individual tournaments. GomTV has grand plans for the GSTL in 2013, but it's clear that it was not their main focus in 2012.
From from ace to bench, from January to December, from Korea to abroad, Startale was the overall best team of the year.
- monk.
Terran of the Year (International)
K3.Lucifron EG.ThorZaIN.RC
EG.ThorZaIN.RC
Photo by: R1CH
For non-Korean Terrans, it was a terrible year. Terran was never the foreigners' best race even before the queen/overlord patch, but after May, they were hunted to near extinction. Things got so bad at one point that Take organized a tournament called Stim to the Win, giving 75% of its invites to Terran players. Lucifron managed to win that, and sadly, it legitimately counted as one of the bright spots in the year for European Terrans.
Still, there were some Terrans who managed to eke out results in the toughest of times. While the aforementioned Lucifron was definitely the most visible foreign Terran in the latter half the year, it's the tried and true ThorZaIN who takes home the award. ThorZaIN won one of the most notable victories of the year at DreamHack Stockholm, where he defeated Monster and Polt on his way to the title. He would go on to then win WCS Sweden, defeating the best of his countrymen including SortOf, NaNiwa, and SaSe on his way to the crown.
As well as ThorZaIN did, things were still pretty grim for Terran on the whole. But at least they have things to look forward to in 2013!
- Waxangel
Terran of the Year (Korea)
MarineKingPrime LG-IM_Mvp Liquid`TaeJa
LG-IM_Mvp
Photo by: silverfire
Mvp entered 2012 as the most accomplished Wings of Liberty player thus far. By May, he had won a fourth Code S championship, making that title his beyond a shadow of a doubt. By October, he put even more distance between himself and the rest of the pack by reaching his second Code S final of 2012, and was once again in the race to be TeamLiquid's player of the year. It follows naturally that Mvp is our Terran of the Year.
It's true that players like MarineKing and TaeJa looked stronger than Mvp for months at a time, and they laid waste to all in their paths at the international competitions that occurred during their brief reigns. It's also true that Mvp fell horribly flat at times, suffering a few terrible losses when his veteran savvy wasn't enough to make up for his wrist injury and declining level of play.
As competitive as premier international tournaments might have become, and as inconsistent as Mvp looked at times, no one matched his achievements in what is still StarCraft II's most prestigious tournament: the GSL. No one else even managed to reach the semi-finals more than once, much less play in a finals. Mvp simply knew how to get the job done when it mattered the most, and his two GSL final appearances and one championship easily puts him ahead of his politely dubbed 'competitors.'
- Waxangel
Protoss of the Year (International)
mouz.MaNa NaNiwa
NaNiwa
Photo by: R1CH
When 2012 began, things looked grim for NaNiwa and his Korean dream. He had earned an invaluable Code S seed through an incredible second place run at MLG Providence, but found it suddenly revoked after he probe rushed Nestea in December's Blizzard Cup '11. Fortunately, GomTV relented by the time season two rolled around, and NaNiwa finally got his long awaited chance.
To say NaNiwa seized his opportunity is an understatement. His two consecutive top eight Code S finishes were the best foreigner results in the GSL since Jinro reached two semi-finals nearly eighteen months prior, and some would argue that it is just as impressive an achievement given the nature of the times. NaNiwa was immediately back in the spotlight, and back in the conversation for best foreigner.
We have to note that the other candidate, MaNa, actually won championships at ESWC and DreamHack Summer, while NaNiwa has no titles to his name. Yet, when we weighed their achievements against each other, we had to side with NaNiwa in the end. After all, foreign tournaments try to woo Korean participants for the sake of enhancing their credibility, and that should tell you all you need to know about the tournament those Koreans consider their home field. And to some degree, we can't help but be biased towards the players who are willing to take huge risks with their careers and commit long term toward trying to make it in motherland of StarCraft esports.
NaNiwa might be just as far from GSL competition now as he was at the beginning of 2012, but we hope he can make it back and show the world what he can do once more.
2012 was a great year for Korean Protosses. While 2010 and 2011 were marked by the rule of the aggressive and even brutish MC, 2012 saw the rise of a new generation of Protoss, a new wave of well-rounded, solid pros. By the fall of 2012, six Protoss stood out: Creator, Hero, Parting, Rain, Seed, and Squirtle, who together took 6 of the 10 Korean spots for WCS Asia. It seemed as if history was indeed repeating itself, with The Legend of the Fall and The Six Dragons manifesting in WoL as they had in BW.
At that time, among the dragons, Parting was probably the least deserving of the six. After all, all the others held titles or at least 2nd place finishes; all Parting had to his name was was a hodgepodge of top ~8-16 finishes he had accrued in early 2012. But as the year drew to a close, something awakened inside Parting. In the spring, he was a player who talked a great deal, but shrunk away in the face more illustrious opponents. By the end of the year, PartinG was the one overwhelming opponents with his strength of spirit.
Over the span of a few months, Parting achieved 3rd place WCS Korea, 2nd place WCS Asia, 1st place WCS Grand finals, 1st place WCG, and 2nd place Blizzard Cup. With diligent practice, unwavering confidence, and the help of his trusty all-in, PartinG has earned the right to be called the Protoss of 2012.
- monk.
Zerg of the Year (International)
EG.Stephano.RC Acer.Nerchio
EG.Stephano.RC
Photo by: silverfire
2012 certainly didn't lack for foreign Zergs. After the queen and overlord buff patch, they began to rapidly infest the international tournament scene, making life miserable for their Terran and Protoss colleagues. Pejoratively called "patchzergs," these foreigners didn't stop at dominating their regional competitions, as they took out top-class Koreans on their way to establishing themselves as formidable players on the international circuit.
But Stephano was not impressed. There an endless argument raging on about who counts as a "patchzerg" and who does not, but everyone will agree that Stephano stands far above the fray. While other Zergs mostly only saw success in the latter half of the year, Stephano had consistent results throughout the entire year in every season, winning championships or placing high on nearly every tournament he deigned to enter. He knew how to win before May of 2012, and he knows how to win just the same after.
Independent of Blizzard's tinkering, Stephano has already changed the way Zerg is played, with his infestor-ling style and roach max-out play having shifted paradigms from Europe to Korea. Even now, he's showing yet another innovation in his hydra-roach play, making sure his influence will be felt in 2013 as well. Other Zergs might be enjoying great success and fame, but there's no doubt in whose footsteps they follow.
- monk.
Zerg of the Year (Korea)
MVP.DongRaeGu FXOLeenock ST_Life
ST_Life
Photo by: silverfire
With impressive tournament resumes in 2012, all three candidates for Korean Zerg of the Year had good cases to make. Life had the toughest tournament runs, having to beat the world's best players to win anything. DongRaeGu had the highest number of top finishes. Leenock had the unique advantage of being an absolute killer in the GSTL while the other two had fallen flat.
The thing that separated Life from his peers in this very close race were more intangible factors: the quality of his play and his incredible aura. In his break-out season of Code S Season Four, he brought a combination of aggression and near-perfect execution that we had never seen before. It was incredible to see a fifteen year old player come in with his own unique style, and tear through the best players in the world while making it look easy. By the time he reached the finals, we knew this was one extraordinary kid, and it did not feel rushed at the least to start bringing out the Flash comparisons. Life did not disappoint, and he defeated the greatest GSL player of all time in Mvp to win his first championship. When he went on to 4 - 2 Flash the proceeding week at MLG Dallas, it felt like a passing of the torch moment, as Life had taken out two players who defined two games within the span of week.
Though Life couldn't avoid the near-ubiquitous post-championship slump, he was back to top form by December. In the final GSL event of the year, the 2012 Blizzard Cup, Life went through a gauntlet of top players (including Leenock and DRG) on his way to his second GSL title of the year. Of all the players in 2012, Life has shown us the highest peak. The scarier thing is, he's probably going to be better in 2013.
Look out for TeamLiquid's Best Games of 2012 List, coming soon to a website near you!
2010 was the year of one base all-ins. 2011 followed as the year of two base all-ins. And although there were plenty of three base all-ins in 2012, StarCraft II finally started to stabilize into the macro-fests that we have become familiar with. Unfortunately that also meant StarCraft II became more rigid and predictable than it ever was, and many players and viewers complained about the staleness of the game. It would take two special players and a very special game to shake things up and prove that there might be a brighter future yet.
Heading into the GSTL S2 finals at Haeundae beach, both finalists sending out their big guns to start. The dark horse team of FXO fielded Gumiho, one of their two aces, in a gutsy gamble that would decide the entire outcome of the match. SlayerS, on the other hand, choose MMA as their champion, a player who had been conspicuously absent from SlayerS' lineup prior, but one with an unmatched reputation for clutch GSTL perormances.
The game started out rather normally with MMA opening up biomech while Gumiho choose mech as his composition. But soon enough, the game took a turn for the strange. In the preview article I wrote of this game: "A brilliant yet deluded man once said, 'Introduce a little anarchy. Upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos.' Gumiho is that agent of chaos."
And sure enough, everything became chaos. 40 supply swings became commonplace. Bases popped up and were dropped like whack-a-moles. Manner mules were dropped prematurely. Base trades abounded. And strange new unit compositions, elsewise ineffective, were put together to fit the circumstances. The game represented the best of what SC2 could be, a wake-up call and a stark contrast to the predictable, monotonous games we had become accustomed to seeing.
- monk.
Tournament of the Year (NA)
• IPL5 • MLG Anaheim • MLG Dallas • NASL Season 3 Grand Finals
IPL5
Art by: shiroiusagi
IPL4 was a mess. The IPL TAC 3 finals were also a mess. But with two strikes, IPL took a fastball and deposited it into the cheap seats. They had help, of course. The GSL production crew made a clear impact on the quality of the tournament's presentation. But if we're being fair, we need to give IPL equal credit for taking such a risk with IPL5. In light of two previous high profile disappointments, IPL went big and it paid off. IPL5 was the best tournament in North America this year, and perhaps even the best globally.
It was unfortunate that the results of IPL5 were marred by the massive chorus of balance complaints and the huge success of Zerg. But players like Bomber and Polt saved the day, bringing dynamic, non-Zerg play late into the tournament. Foreign players like Scarlett, Snute HuK, Stephano, Xigua and VortiX won just enough and against good enough opponents to factor into the money. Players like Sea and Leenock brought innovative strategies that made for instantly memorable games.
All of this for a few smart tweaks. The tournament was spread over four days, but IPL learned from their mistake in IPL4 of frontloading all the good games into just one day. IPL5 spread out the action. Meanwhile, events like the GSL World vs Korea matches and the GSL finals provided marquee events to give people a reason to tune in and stay tuned in. Against all odds, four days really didn't turn out to be so grueling.
The player quality was among the best we've ever seen. An astounding five GSL winners were in attendance, with three more GSL runners-up. (I'm counting the winners crowned at the tournament). HerO and TaeJa entered the tournament straight out of the Dreamhack finals. Stephano had won Lone Star just weeks earlier.
All of this gave IPL5 the feeling of the end of the year tournament. Sure NASL4, Blizzard Cup, and HSC followed up, but only the Blizzard Cup really approached the same feeling of finality. It was a huge achievement for IPL. Against stiff competition, like NASL's massive performance comeback in Toronto and the high quality of MLG's KeSPA enhanced tournaments, IPL5 still manages to be the runaway winner.
- tree.hugger
Tournament of the Year (Asia)
• Code S Season Two • Code S Season Four
Code S Season Four
Art by: Meko
Though WCS and the OSL made interesting forays into the Asian StarCraft II scene, neither of them could challenge the dominance of the GSL in their first attempt. In all came down to Code S Season 2 versus Season 4, both having great matches from start to finish. Both had the great storylines involving rising stars and long time fan favorites, capped by amazing grand finals. Season 2 was all about Squirtle's unstoppable run to the finals, where he reeled off fourteen straight wins en route. In contrast, Mvp, injured and hobbled, came into the finals on the back of his cunning and all-in strategies. Squirtle and Mvp had the best finals of the year, Squirtle coming back from a 0 - 3 hole to force a final game. Mvp would cheese in the final, forcing a fatal choke out of his first-time finalist opponent. It summed up the LG-IM Terran's entire season in a single, championship clinching game.
Season 4, while not having a final that was quite as good, had a better overall story with more interesting characters. It was aided greatly by KeSPA's debut in the GSL, with Jaedong and by.Rain making their first appearances. Mvp was still there, still inexplicably winning games looking to win his fifth championship in a repeat of season two. Life, the prodigy, was making his royal road debut and destroying everyone in his path with a unique brand of Zerg. TaeJa came in as the most dominating player of the summer, with a GSL title sure to crown him the best player in the world.
The semifinals were the most anticipated of the year, pitting Mvp against Rain and Life against Taeja. Four of the best stories of the entire season had reached the final four, and the people were guaranteed an epic final no matter who won. Rain came at the king, and while he came close, he missed. Life continued his incredible train of momentum, crushing TaeJa 3 - 0 to end the Liquid Terran's impressive summer run.
The final was a classic. Two of the most popular players in Korea faced off in front of a full audience, and a seven game war commenced. Mvp was able to come one game away from his fifth title, holding a 3 - 2 lead over Life, but the prodigy wouldn't bend. Life was able to become the first player to come from behind against Mvp in a final, winning 4 - 3, walking the royal road, and blocking Mvp from winning the commemorative G5L trophy that was solely created for him. When it was all over, it was clear that Code S Season Four, with all its memories, great stories, and amazing games, would be one for the ages.
- Fionn
Tournament of the Year (Europe)
WCS Europe
Art by: shiroiusagi
Combining stellar production with a great sense for when to be dead serious and when to be totally irreverent, DreamHack presented some of the best StarCraft II tournaments of 2011. They came back with the same formula in 2012, but also showed improvement on all fronts. Simple innovations like a walkway and interviewer's couch that lead straight into the heart of the audience, or a well-prepared list of videos to play between matches reaffirmed that DreamHack were still the kings of creating a great viewer experience.
It was match made in heaven when Blizzard charged DreamHack with the production of the WCS Europe Finals. WCS was conceived as a tournament with lofty ideals, but other live events at the national, continental, and even world levels showed that even the most well-meaning, star-packed tournaments can't reach their potential without the right presentation.
WCS Europe turned out to be an absolutely fantastic event. Tournaments typically need at least a few Koreans to convince the audience that they are a credible event worth watching, but the all-foreigner WCS Europe ended up being one of the biggest hits of the year. Incredibly entertaining games were played, the fan favorites made it far into the tournament, international casters got to show their stuff, DreamHack presented some hilarious videos, and there was nary a dull moment during it all.
Of course, there was some luck involved with the right players making it deep in the tournament, and with some of the most epic matches happening on the most watched streams. But every tournament is subject to that kind of luck. WCS Europe did everything they could within the areas they could control, making sure they would succeed if the games went their way.
- Waxangel
Player of the Year (International)
mouz.MaNa NaNiwa Acer.Nerchio EG.Stephano.RC
EG.Stephano.RC
Photo by: Helena Kristiansson, DreamHack
Of course you saw this coming. Was there really anyone else? Sure NaNiwa had solid Code S success, sure MaNa won a couple tournaments, sure Nerchio stomped a few bros at Homestory. But throughout the year, only one foreign player consistently was considered a threat to the Korean menace.
Everyone knows what I mean. Stephano's run at NASL3 was the highlight of his year; stomping three top of the line Korean Protoss players and looking absolutely unstoppable. But don't forget his back-to-back LoneStar Clash victories. Or even the times he didn't win, but still placed as the highest foreigner, like the MLG Spring Arena, ASUS ROG Winter, or Red Bull Battlegrounds. Against foreign competition, he took home the WCS Europe crown, the toughest foreigner-only event of the year.
No, Stephano didn't win everything. He ends 2012 looking decidedly weak in ZvZ. He threw away some tournaments early on in the year by playing the final day hungover. His losses to MaNa at Dreamhack and ESWC were weird. His loss to forGG at Dreamhack Valencia was a massive (and almost unique) throw. But when it comes down to it, there was always Stephano, and then the rest. It didn't matter how bad Stephano had looked the day before or how good someone else had played. Stephano was the foreigner hero in 2012—all of it.
- tree.hugger
Player of the Year (Korea)
MVP.DongRaeGu LG-IM_Mvp ST_Life
ST_Life
Photo by: silverfire
2010 was a prelude to the greater story to come. 2011 was the Year of Mvp. 2012's plot was KeSPA's transition from Brood War to Starcraft 2. Everyone knew it was coming at the start of the year, but when it was officially announced that Flash, Jaedong and the rest of the best RTS players in the world were about to crash the party, everyone wondered who would stand tall at the end of 2012. Would the elephants stampede over the former bench warmers and B-teamers who had solidified themselves as stars in the new game? Would the stalwarts of GomTV and the eSF hold their ground, proving that the elephants still needed more training?
Funnily enough, the player of the year isn't a KeSPA player or an established eSF veteran. Life, at the young age of 15, took the scene by storm, winning two GSL championships, the final MLG championship, and defeated all challengers to the throne along the way. When everyone was wondering who would win in a war between the KeSPA players and the fringe KeSPA players who turned themselves into stars by transitioning right as SC2 came out, Life came out of nowhere and proved that the true elephant in the room is the new generation of players come to replace the old, regardless of their background.
Putting things into perspective, Life was only thirteen-years-old when Idra beat Tester to become King of the Beta and celebrate the release of Starcraft 2 to the public. Starting out on ZeNEX and mostly getting his practice through ladder while also going to school, Life made a name for himself by doing well in online tournaments and popping up to beat Code S players while they streamed their ladder play. Hardcore fans took notice of Life early, but it wasn't until the middle part of the 2012 when he started to become known to the greater StarCraft II viewing public.
As the ace of ZeNEX during their last GSTL run, Life all-killed Team Liquid and then had a three-kill against SlayerS-EG before being stopped by Puzzle. His team would be eliminated in the first round, not having enough depth to compete with the rest of the competition, but Life had made his first mark in the GSL. Not long after, Life made it through the tough TSL4 online qualifiers, and quietly started making progress through the lower rounds. A pivotal moment came when ZeNEX was absorbed by Startale. By putting in the time at a team house with some of the best players in the world, Life started to finally realize his vast potential.
With Life's prodigious talent and Startale's top of the line coaching and player staff, the fifteen-year-old would make it into Code S and embark on his royal road run (he also runner-upped in TSL4 along the way). Life rampaged his way through the first few rounds of Code S and made it to the finals while only dropping two maps the entire tournament. Being placed against Mvp, the greatest player in WoL history, Life fought back from a 3 - 2 deficit to win in seven games and became the first GSL Royal Roader.
Continuing on his unstoppable run, he flew to Dallas only a week later and captured the final MLG title of the year, in another 'royal road' performance. In another come from behind finals victory, Life defeated Leenock by a score of 4 - 3. Winning his second major title in a week's time, Life already had a strong claim to be called the player of the year. With Mvp having an injured filled year and DongRaeGu having a disappointing second half, Life was the player that everyone had their eye on. Every single interview with a Korean Zerg after they won a match in the GSL would involve some question about Life's style, the player usually commenting that Life's style is too hard to pull off and that he was the only Zerg who can make it work. No one wanted to face him in tournaments, and he was the one players eyed with fear as they scanned their brackets.
Life's first real disappointment came during the fifth season of the GSL, where he made it to the Ro16 with ease, but fell in the second round in an all ZvZ group. Life's ZvZ was again suspect a few weeks later during IPL5, where he would lose to future Homestory Cup VI champion Snute and then eventual IPL5 winner Leenock to get knocked out of the tournament. Facing adversary for the first time in his professional career, Life went back to Korea with the Blizzard Cup as his last chance to put things on a high note before entering 2013.
After having two deflating tournament losses in a row, a lot of players - especially younger ones - could fall into a slump. ZvZ being his obvious issue, Life went to work with his coach and was able to find a solution just in time. Making it out of his first group in second place, Life would go on to beat DRG 3-2 and Leenock 3-1 in the knockout rounds to make his third major final in a three month period. Facing his teammate PartinG in the finals, Life would grab his second GSL title of the year, winning four straight games after going 0 - 2 down.
Three major titles to end the year would be enough for almost any player to win player of the year, but if you look at who he actually beat, it's even more amazing. Mvp, the best Terran of the year, was Life's first victim. Leenock, alongside DongRaeGu were the best Zergs of the year behind Life, and the Startale prodigy took him out at MLG. Parting, the best Protoss of the year, was Life's third and final opponent, giving Life three championship wins over the best at every single race. And at least symbolically, his 4 - 2 victory over a former 15 year old prodigy in Flash at MLG was memorable. Life didn't rely on any one match-up to get him where he is today, and he was able to show masterful play in all three match-ups against the very best competition in the world.
These are always great; though Wax, what did you mean by your tweet ealier today, that alot of average fans would start caring about IPTL, NASTL and EGMSCL results when these came out? Did you have Acer on there for Team of the Year (International) and then switched it to Liquid? Haha
Not done reading yet, but these are always fun. Hope everyone remembers that its an editorial and basicly an oppinion piece
Great picks. I completely agree with the pick for Asian tournament of the year. It was the first GSL I watched, and it was insane. Nearly any player winning would have been an amazing storyline.
Excellent writeup, finally read everything. Can't say I disagree with any of these choices.
It's nice to get reminded of a lot of things that happened during the last year once in a while, the scene is moving so fast you start to forget some of it.
Mostly awesome picks but not sure why IPL5 won it's category. Is it supposed to be based on how much better the tournament is better than it's previous incarnation?
Great article! Agree with almost every point (Undertaker should have Won against Parting imo).
Imo the closest category is player of the year, with Life winning barely due to his Blizzard Cup title. Otherwise it's a tie between Mvp and DongRaeGu.
Here's to hoping for a SICK 2013, and the return of innovative players and talkative foreigners. Much love to TeamLiquid and it's writers!
Won Won Won has won the day wonce again! I love reading these awards. - I still think FXO deserved to win team of the year with 2 GSTL championships...
I can no doubt agree with the awards. 2012 was a great year and we really saw a ton of amazing players rise to prominence. I think compared to 2011, a lot of the "decent" players got separated and now we're left with a decently sized really strong performing group of players. Great year, 2012, and thanks to you, TL, too.
I'd give you all the awards (don't ask me how that's possible, but I would, damn it!).
How come tournament of the year: Europe didn't even have any other nominees? Fully agree with the decision but found that a bit weird, unless it's to mean it's the uncontested best. But no other continent had no other nominees, does Europe just need to step it up?
On January 03 2013 06:03 Darthozzan wrote: How come tournament of the year: Europe didn't even have any other nominees? Fully agree with the decision but found that a bit weird, unless it's to mean it's the uncontested best. But no other continent had no other nominees, does Europe just need to step it up?
WCS Europe was so good that it was far and away the winner without any debate and/or discussion.
Last year there was some controversy with some of the picks, but this year I don't know how anyone can argue with your picks. They were all spot on! Very nice read.
Brilliant article. Very well written! I can say that I do agree with nearly all of the nominations and winners as well as with the reasoning for each selection. Also 'Rain came at the king, and while he came close, he missed.' is just <3.
Having "none" as the worst drama is garbage. Taking the "high" road and shaking your finger at all of it is just stupid. It happened and some of it had worse effects than others. You can admit this. I loved the article but that part really pissed me off.
On January 03 2013 06:11 CosmicSpiral wrote: Life had a 3 kill against SlayerS-EG. Shame on you for not researching your player of the year.
You're right, San was the player who had a 3-kill against ZeNex.
Also deciding between Life/DRG for me was difficult. DRG's poor second half alongside Life beating Mvp/Leenock/Parting in three major finals made me give it to him. No player was truly dominate all year long like Mvp last year.
Awesome read. Didnt read the entire thing but I agree with most of it except for Zerg of the year (international) which is Scarlett in my book (she is also 2nd place breakout player if you ask me). Reading articles like this makes me happy to be a part of this scene for over 2 years now and even though I dont watch as much Starcraft as I did back then, I still feel the same passion and excitement when doing it, especially now through Proleague, which is in some ways like watching the GSL open seasons again.
The important part: What I want to say is: Thx a lot teamliquid, the Staff, everyone who is either writing articles and/or creating awesome LR-Threads and basically all of the community for making my life so much better. With this website I found a place where I can not just enjoy e-sports with like-minded people but also discuss other important stuff in a controlled manner like nowhere else.
My New-Years-Resolution: to get more involved in the community by contributing to liquipedia etc. which seems like a good way for me to at least give something back even if its just a little.
On January 03 2013 06:13 Akamu wrote: Having "none" as the worst drama is garbage. Taking the "high" road and shaking your finger at all of it is just stupid. It happened and some of it had worse effects than others. You can admit this. I loved the article but that part really pissed me off.
Agreed.
Honestly, the biggest drama from my perspective was the whining about the "patchzergs", especially the thread that brought the word into our vocabulary.
Regardless, I loved reading the rest of the article. There are little subtle jokes everywhere and it's heart-warming to understand them. Great write up and thanks for the yearly review.
I have one big issue with this article. There is no "tree.hugger Hipster Picks for 2013" category. What the hell, man? Did you run out of Apocalypses?^^
Seriously, that's a cool storyline missing, having someone challenge you to pay closer attention to certain players and then rubbing it in his face if those players do well or not.
this article is awesome and i agree with most of awards
i am particularly happy for superouman, a fellow frenchman, i mean, i can feel how happy he should be, having his map played by the best players in the world
Excellent article! Regarding the most entertaining player, and why there were no notable foreigners...well...you kinda need to win to celebrate/be interviewed _P (the other option of podcasts was a pretty big disaster this year, both major ones were very inconstent)
Happy new year everyone and here is to an even better year for SC2!
Incredible write up. Agree with all the nominations and winners. One thing i'd argue about is the most entertaining player. I'm OK with Parting, but i laughed a lot during WCG with CombatEX games. Knowing that this topic is very fragile on TL, i won't continue. Anyways, good read before sleep. Thanks a lot. Also most awarded player - Parting. Well deserved, he was a shining Star of 2012.
On January 03 2013 06:13 Akamu wrote: Having "none" as the worst drama is garbage. Taking the "high" road and shaking your finger at all of it is just stupid. It happened and some of it had worse effects than others. You can admit this. I loved the article but that part really pissed me off.
Agreed.
Honestly, the biggest drama from my perspective was the whining about the "patchzergs", especially the thread that brought the word into our vocabulary.
Regardless, I loved reading the rest of the article. There are little subtle jokes everywhere and it's heart-warming to understand them. Great write up and thanks for the yearly review.
Hm, I'd say the clusterfuck that was Destiny2012 was a lot worse. I think that was their point when they chose not to "award" in that category, they wanted to avoid discussing too much about it, because I think we can all agree that there was way too much drama and negativity in this community in the past year, so it's clearly not worth it to spend even more time on that.
Can I be mad about TL's "Player of the Year" pick?
I concede that Life was a truly spectacular player this year and his 4-2 victory in Blizzard Cup really cemented that feeling of "wow, he's the best player in the world at age 15" - but I will never stop cheering for the Terran King.
great read overall. TL awarding TL with the international team of the year award was a little questionable to me though tbh. but i guess giving it to EG would be really hard for TL stuff to do.
i wish there was a "tournament with the greatest entertainment value outside of the actual games" award or something like that (would probably need more concise wording ), because HomeStory Cup definitely needs to be mentioned in this review in some way.
Player of the year not Mvp? I mean I understand that he faded away in the latter half of 2012, but Life wasn't even in teh game until the latter half of 2012.
I'm glad MMA and Gumiho finally won the game of the year. No individual game even came close to touching it, it actually amazed me that it wasn't winning all of them. I mean, if you wanted a most hyped or best series award or something, name it that, not best game!
Also, I'm happy with Startale's success here because the entire reason I chose this name when I signed up was to have a bad Startale pun as the name of my Fantasy GSTL team.
Heavily disagree with Player of the Year. Considering a 10 man tournament on the same level as a 32 man code S is very questionable, and blizzard cup didn't even feel like a real tournament to me. I would have to give it to MVP for his championship + runner-up, and being relevant throughout a larger portion of the year than Life.
But that's the fun of lists I suppose. Everyone has their own.
As someone that didn't follow sc2 much in 2012 I'm surprised this whole patchzerg/lings of liberty/brood-infestor thing is making people cry for so long. Is blizzard no longer working on the game or am I missing a joke ?
partings immortal-sentry all in over brood-lord infestor. the all in of one player over the strategy that produced enough qq to fill a forum on its own. that's a really weak call even though seems more in tune with the general sentiment on TL in these later months.
snute not mentioned. i'd say his trophies are more impressive than scarletts, homestory trumps any NA only tournament (4-0 vs symbol, 2-0 vs ostojiy and vibe), but overall performance i think is pretty damned close. if snute was on a team that competed in teamleagues like acer i feel pretty confident he'd get a mention, it would be well deserved (scarletts is as well).
sad there is so little competition for map of the year.
i wish you would stop using the term 'patchzerg', it's posion.
but good read, i for one don't hope that next year will be a corporate sell out with awkward ceremony, but rather more of the same, slightly improved.
maybe add in a teamleague warrior adward for next time, so gumiho can tear it up. actually gumiho will smash 2013 anyways.
On January 03 2013 06:55 RagequitBM wrote: Heavily disagree with Player of the Year. Considering a 10 man tournament on the same level as a 32 man code S is very questionable, and blizzard cup didn't even feel like a real tournament to me. I would have to give it to MVP for his championship + runner-up, and being relevant throughout a larger portion of the year than Life.
But that's the fun of lists I suppose. Everyone has their own.
If it wasn't a real tournament, then every single foreign event outside of IPL5 wasn't a real tournament.
Is there a reason why parting isn't in the nomination for player of the year for Korea? If it's because he had most success in the later part of 2012, doesn't that also go for Life?
On January 03 2013 06:44 Schelim wrote: great read overall. TL awarding TL with the international team of the year award was a little questionable to me though tbh. but i guess giving it to EG would be really hard for TL stuff to do.
i wish there was a "tournament with the greatest entertainment value outside of the actual games" award or something like that (would probably need more concise wording ), because HomeStory Cup definitely needs to be mentioned in this review in some way.
the funny thing is that they argue with results this year while last year Mouz crushed everyone results wise so it was "promoting esport" the main criteria. Tho if you include Korean players TL was miles ahead of everyone in 2012
I would mention Thorzain being the first foreigner to win a match in Proleague in the past 6 years in the Best Terran (International) section where he won! Put aside that, well written!
i disagree with a lot of these and where is scarlett in the nominations at least?
Leenock had the best results in all of 2012 i think. although he never won a gsl he won a lot of other tournaments too. Life's only big title win was a GSL.....
and LOL at teamliquid being the international team of the year.
On January 03 2013 07:11 xmungam wrote: i disagree with a lot of these and where is scarlett in the nominations at least?
Leenock had the best results in all of 2012 i think. although he never won a gsl he won a lot of other tournaments too. Life's only big title win was a GSL.....
and LOL at teamliquid being the international team of the year.
happy new years
Scarlett is nominated and mentioned often in the writeup.
Excellent writeup. Agreed with most choices, though I am getting slightly tired of both Life and Parting (mostly because they keep beating my favorite players, but still).
This part is what jumps out for me: "A brilliant yet deluded man once said, 'Introduce a little anarchy. Upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos.' Gumiho is that agent of chaos."
And sure enough, everything became chaos. 40 supply swings became commonplace. Bases popped up and were dropped like whack-a-moles. Manner mules were dropped prematurely. Base trades abounded. And strange new unit compositions, elsewise ineffective, were put together to fit the circumstances. The game represented the best of what SC2 could be, a wake-up call and a stark contrast to the predictable, monotonous games we had become accustomed to seeing.
So many newspapers would be proud of this level of work. So well written!
On January 03 2013 07:11 xmungam wrote: i disagree with a lot of these and where is scarlett in the nominations at least?
Leenock had the best results in all of 2012 i think. although he never won a gsl he won a lot of other tournaments too. Life's only big title win was a GSL.....
and LOL at teamliquid being the international team of the year.
I understand why there isn't a winner for the drama category but I really think Destiny himself should maybe be the winner since he sparked both the Starcraft is dying and cellphone picture controversies.
i agree that it is a negative aspect, at least to some degree. in particular any debacle that contaminates the forum with qq or flaming is really annoying, be it balance whining or who's game is best. but the rest of it i felt was pharisaical (i hope i used this word right, i googled it), and i would rather it was put in a separate blog. or maybe it was humor and my army is way out of position.
Awesome read, I read everything. Almost all (maybe even all) of these I could agree with. I can't believe 2012 is gone already, though by reading this, it seemed like 2012 was a long year. Well, to 2013 and beyond!
On January 03 2013 07:27 Tiazi wrote: Absolutely amazing read. Loved it!
This part is what jumps out for me: "A brilliant yet deluded man once said, 'Introduce a little anarchy. Upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos.' Gumiho is that agent of chaos."
"DongRaeGu had the highest number of top finishes."
but life gets first because of his "aura" and " quality of his play"
which I kind of call BS on becasue I dont feel an "aura' when I think of LIfe and as for Quality of Play, DRG won everything when Zerg might have been the weakest race, LIfe won when Zerg was hands down the strongest race.
Life's year in Code S: N/A, N/A, N/A, 1st, Ro16 DRG's year in Code S: 1st, Ro32, Ro4, Ro16, Ro16
and Leenock doesnt come close to Life or DRG in terms of achievements
DRG is player of the year.
Also you talked about DRG's "bad" 2nd half, he was still in Code S the whole year. His 2nd half was better than LIfe's first half and DRG's first half was better than Life's second.
On January 03 2013 07:45 TommyP wrote: "DongRaeGu had the highest number of top finishes."
but life gets first because of his "aura" and " quality of his play"
which I kind of call BS on becasue I dont feel an "aura' when I think of LIfe and as for Quality of Play, DRG won everything when Zerg might have been the weakest race, LIfe won when Zerg was hands down the strongest race.
Life's year in Code S: N/A, N/A, N/A, 1st, Ro1y DRG's year in Code S: 1st, Ro32, Ro4, Ro16, Ro16
and Leenock doesnt come close to Life or DRG in terms of achievements
DRG is player of the year.
i agree with the sentiment that the shift of balance towards zerg might be enough to tip the scale into DRG's favor. at least it should count way more than aura.
Life's title wins just impressed me more than DRG. He beat the best three players at every single race at the time he played them. Mvp was going for his fifth GSL title and Life stopped him. Leenock was going for his third MLG title and Life stopped him. Parting was going for his third major championship in the same month and Life stopped him. He was put up against the very best and beat them at every single match-up.
DRG also had a very worthy year, but I sided with Life. Neither had a Mvp 2011-like season, so it was a very toss-up award that Life stole by dominating the final months of the year that are more new to the memory than DRG beating up Genius at the beginning of the year.
On January 03 2013 07:58 InsidiA wrote: Not enough talk about Squirtle vs MVP. What a series :|
If we had series of the year, that would have won in a landslide.
My favorite game of the year was actually G7 of that series. It was the perfect ending to a perfect series. Gumiho/MMA was just overall the best game of the year, though.
It's been a long road, but today, I'm the greatest of all time. Thank you.
In all seriousness, thanks to TeamLiquid for honoring IPL5. It was great fun for all of our IPL5 staff, and it couldn't have been possible without every single one of them, GOTMV production staff, the game developers, our in house IPL staff, our awesome sponsors, and of course the fans and StarCraft II community.
On January 03 2013 07:56 Fionn wrote: Life's title wins just impressed me more than DRG. He beat the best three players at every single race at the time he played them. Mvp was going for his fifth GSL title and Life stopped him. Leenock was going for his third MLG title and Life stopped him. Parting was going for his third major championship in the same month and Life stopped him. He was put up against the very best and beat them at every single match-up.
DRG also had a very worthy year, but I sided with Life. Neither had a Mvp 2011-like season, so it was a very toss-up award that Life stole by dominating the final months of the year that are more new to the memory than DRG beating up Genius at the beginning of the year.
also, all of DRG's runs were pretty soft, minus his Code S win
Startale passed TL at the last moment by getting both first and second in Blizzard Cup. TL earned by far the most medals of any " international " team this year. ( someone mentioned EG, lol, EG is 15th on this list. )
by the way, the mini title says " GSTL finals: FXO vs MVP on the front page instead of 2012 TL awards.
Incredibly biased to pick TL as team of the year. Looking at the team as a whole, most their players have fallen in the worst slumps ever, three players have quit. Then you have two imported Koreans that have been doing well in foreign tournaments and for that you award yourself the top price.
On January 03 2013 07:58 InsidiA wrote: Not enough talk about Squirtle vs MVP. What a series :|
If we had series of the year, that would have won in a landslide.
My favorite game of the year was actually G7 of that series. It was the perfect ending to a perfect series. Gumiho/MMA was just overall the best game of the year, though.
All the heartbreak of watching him hold the first all-in only to lose to the second is rushing back to me T_T
Startale passed TL at the last moment by getting both first and second in Blizzard Cup. TL earned by far the most medals of any " international " team this year. ( someone mentioned EG, lol, EG is 15th on this list. )
Oh wow, looking at the individual results (and team results in EGMCSL Season 7 and NASTL) , mousesports might have deserved a mention, too. But after seeing what they did to their SC2 division this year I don't really want to lobby for it. D:
"Choo Choo, Motherfuckers." Awesome write up, shame that the lines are blurring so much between KeSPA/eSF/ the rest of the world. Gonna have to come up with more abstract awards. Part of me wants to say MaNa deserves best foreign Toss player this year, but I can't make that much better of a case over NaNiwa
Good write up, it's always nice to read those kinds of OP
Though, I'm disappointed that the 12 minutes max roach was not nominated in the strategy of the year award. Its influence was as big as the banshee mech, the helion banshee triple orbital and the wonwonwon and did not use a patch like the infestor-broodlord to become strong. It didn't have the beauty of having a good name but was used more than Parting's soul build. True it may have started at the very end of 2011 but its climax was clearly in 2012 and many protoss didn't know how to respond to it until the end of 2012
haha one of the 5 tvt's played this whole year is the match of the year also sad that life won instead of drg, drg was a man when it wasn't easy sailing for zerg.
Great writeup but a little too predictable for my taste.
I would have liked Antiga Shipyard to be map of the year because its the best map Blizzard has made and because we almost always see great games on that map.
I also prefered NASL 4 over IPL 5. In fact I think the NASL crew surprised a lot of us with how amazing a show they delivered.
On the player of the year: I dunno, as a fan of both DRG and Life they both had pretty stellar runs of complete dominance. I agree with the aura thing for Life currently, though I think that's only vZ and vT as his vP is aura-less like every other zerg unfortunately. DRG only had this aura around GSL S1 whilst his other later year accomplishments (OSL GSLs3) it felt like it wasn't the same guy.
It would be obvious if DRG had won something in the latter half of the year that he was indeed the best for this year, but unfortunately Seed stole his soul and he's been struggling to regain it since. So I think I agree with the Life pick even if he was n/a for over half a year.
a shame naniwa didnt play zerg too, he would probably post the same results as stephano then. they're arguably the best players outside korea, just a shame the gap is so much bigger between them (in favor of stephano) than it should be (imo, barely noticeable) because of the state of the game.
lets hope blizzard shape up in 2013 and actually give us a game worth watching.
Great write up, really well done. Had a good read through i agree with a lot of these, but i honestly dont think ipl 5 was the best event of the year, i think the mlg with the kespa players first appearance or one of the dreamhacks were better.
Fantastic work. That fishuu picture is amazingly cute from Gom vs. Kespa (as always). Happy tha Mvp got the Korean terran award, while Taeja performed mindblowingly in parts of 2012 it would not feel right.
On January 03 2013 08:30 Hondelul wrote: Fantastic work. That fishuu picture is amazingly cute from Gom vs. Kespa (as always). Happy tha Mvp got the Korean terran award, while Taeja performed mindblowingly in parts of 2012 it would not feel right.
On January 03 2013 08:30 Hondelul wrote: Fantastic work. That fishuu picture is amazingly cute from Gom vs. Kespa (as always). Happy tha Mvp got the Korean terran award, while Taeja performed mindblowingly in parts of 2012 it would not feel right.
Worst drama...? I think you mean best drama ok. I had so much fun reading those couple hundred pages of slayers drama. Here's to hoping for more good drama in 2013! ^_^
Is it weird that I agreed with everything save dongraegu nomination for player of the year (korea) over parting? Loved those write-ups, not only for the list but for recapping all the great stories from this year.
As someone who traveled to IPL 5, yes is was amazing to be there in person. Venue was incredible, things just felt like a step up in presentation from other live events I'd attended. The only ham handed things were the VIP passes (which I had) being let in day 1 while the rest watched outside and some of the players having a few issues with the security staff not letting them sit front row (Also a VIP perk). That does not however beat the fact that everywhere you went, it was the pros and the fans side by side either gambling, drinking or talking in some format. Games like Scarlett vs DRG in the GSL Korea vs World day 1 was beyond measure when it came to hype. For anyone who doesn't believe there was a 'Nerd Horn' I will be the first to say that it made the tournament that much more individual and the guy who did it deserves to be hoisted up for making that tournament even more hype. That's my piece.
This was a blast to read and try to predict your winners!! 2012 was really hampered by Zerg brood lord infestor, but other than that it was actually quite good.
So many great individual moments this year that I believe it would have been the best so far, if only the "standard" games were more fun.
Breakout Player: VortiX. His true breakout was 2012. Life's kinda always been around but not quite in full force.
Map of the Year: Why not Bifrost, Araknoid or CalDeum? At least KeSPA are making serious attempts to shake up the stagnated map pool and metagame. My personal favourite though has to be Bifrost out of the three.
Ceremony of the Year: No mention of MC's "Gangnam Style" dance.
Strategy of the Year: From what I remember, Oz revolutionised anti-mutalisk strategies by incorporating a FFE into 4 gate Immortal Blink Stalker expand tactic. This deserves more recognition than an over-used sentry immortal all in that makes the game less entertaining and fun.
Biggest News Story: EG picks up Jaedong. Because KeSPA switching to StarCraft II was going to be inevitable considering how much the GOM exclusivity deal fucked over the Korean scene. Plus if i travelled a year back in time and said that in 2012 Jaedong would be playing SC2 on a foreign team, I would have been laughed at and ridiculed.
Rivalry of the Year: TaeJa vs HerO. So far, HerO is 7-0 against his teammate. He 4-0'd TaeJa in the Dreamhack Winter finals and he 3-0'd TaeJa in the NASL Season 4 quarterfinals.
Most Entertaining Player: Squirtle. Simply for the comeback he (almost) made against Mvp in the GSL finals, especially the game where he destroyed Mvp's Battlecruiser fleet with an amazing archon toilet feedback combo.
Worst Drama: SlayerS disbanding. It put the white knights of the Korean scene (eSF) in a lot of major shit and made them look almost as draconian and evil as KeSPA. Basically, assuming what Jessica said was true, it's a horribly dick move to force a practice embargo on SlayerS players just because they won't join your federation or boycott NASL.
Team of the Year (Int): ROOT Gaming. Vibe especially got really good results when he was virtually unknown before.
Team of the Year (Korea): LG-Incredible Miracle. LG-IM finally got their big break with a really good title sponsor and GSL champions representing all three races.
Terran of the Year (Int): MajOr. After being screwed over both by Sixjax and TSL, it wasn't until today that he finally got his big break and was signed to a KeSPA team. The dream of this determined Mexican pro is finally coming true.
Terran of the Year (Korea): LG-IMMvp. Simply because of the achivemeents he's earned this year whilst suffering from cervical kyphosis.
Protoss of the Year (Int): Naniwa. He pioneered a few really good builds.
Protoss of the Year (Korea): SKTRain. At a time when KeSPA players were shot down left right and centre in WCS Korea, Rain went on an eSF killing spree. He's also the first OSL champion of SC2.
Zerg of the Year (Int): EGStephanoRC. Obviously because of his dominance.
Zerg of the Year (Korea): TSLHyuN. If you earn one of IPL's events the nickname "IPL HyuN Club", you deserve a tonne of recognition. His 14 win streak is yet to be topped.
Game of the Year: Squirtle vs IMMvp, GSL 2012 Season 1 Finals. When GOMTvT finals traditionally ended in 4-0 or 4-1 ROFLstomps back in 2011, the first GSL of 2012 gave us a 4-3 close series and some of the most exciting games to grace us.
Tournament of the Year (NA): NASL Season 4 Finals. When Seasons 1 and 2 were slagged off over production values, casting and whatnot, the organisers over at NASL pulled out a pristine event
Tournament of the Year (Asia): Proleague. At least KeSPA are willing to shake up the stagnant metagame. And their format is actually exciting and easy to follow.
Tournament of the Year (Europe): Dreamhack Winter. The crown HAD to go to them. It was an amazing event. Now if only Twitch at peak times wasn't so laggy and unwatchable here in Europe.
Player of the Year (Int): Grubby. In a year where professionalism was brushed aside and many personalities were swept by drama over their behaviour, there was one player that was like "Fuck it, I play this game to enjoy it whether I win or lose." A true professional.
Player of the Year (Korea):LG_IMMvp. Again, this is because of all his achievements despite his severe physical state. To have won an IEM, earned the NesTea award, won a GSL and almost earned a 5 time GSL champion trophy whilst suffering from severe neck and wrist injury takes a lot of skill, balls, and courage.
But since to me the biggest story of the year was the decision to cover dota 2 on teamliquid (even though this doesnt too much concern sc2, yet in some way it does very much), this should also somehow be mentioned in here. Or might there even be a separate tl-dota-awards-2012 article to come?
On January 03 2013 08:44 Clbull wrote: What would my choices have been?
Breakout Player: VortiX. His true breakout was 2012. Life's kinda always been around but not quite in full force.
Map of the Year: Why not Bifrost, Araknoid or CalDeum? At least KeSPA are making serious attempts to shake up the stagnated map pool and metagame. My personal favourite though has to be Bifrost out of the three.
Ceremony of the Year: No mention of MC's "Gangnam Style" dance.
Strategy of the Year: From what I remember, Oz revolutionised anti-mutalisk strategies by incorporating a FFE into 4 gate Immortal Blink Stalker expand tactic. This deserves more recognition than an over-used sentry immortal all in that makes the game less entertaining and fun.
Biggest News Story: EG picks up Jaedong. Because KeSPA switching to StarCraft II was going to be inevitable considering how much the GOM exclusivity deal fucked over the Korean scene.
Rivalry of the Year: TaeJa vs HerO. So far, HerO is 7-0 against his teammate. He 4-0'd TaeJa in the Dreamhack Winter finals and he 3-0'd TaeJa in the NASL Season 4 quarterfinals.
Most Entertaining Player: Squirtle. Simply for the comeback he (almost) made against Mvp in the GSL finals, especially the game where he destroyed Mvp's Battlecruiser fleet with an amazing archon toilet feedback combo.
Worst Drama: SlayerS disbanding. It put the white knights of the Korean scene (eSF) in a lot of major shit and made them look almost as draconian and evil as KeSPA. Basically, assuming what Jessica said was true, it's a horribly dick move to force a practice embargo on SlayerS players just because they won't join your federation or boycott NASL.
Team of the Year (Int): ROOT Gaming. Vibe especially got really good results when he was virtually unknown before.
Team of the Year (Korea): LG-Incredible Miracle. LG-IM finally got their big break with a really good title sponsor and GSL champions representing all three races.
Terran of the Year (Int): MajOr. After being screwed over both by Sixjax and TSL, it wasn't until today that he finally got his big break and was signed to a KeSPA team. The dream of this determined Mexican pro is finally coming true.
Terran of the Year (Korea): LG-IMMvp. Simply because of the achivemeents he's earned this year whilst suffering from cervical kyphosis.
Protoss of the Year (Int): Naniwa. He pioneered a few really good builds.
Protoss of the Year (Korea): SKTRain. At a time when KeSPA players were shot down left right and centre in WCS Korea, Rain went on an eSF killing spree. He's also the first OSL champion of SC2.
Zerg of the Year (Int): EGStephanoRC. Obviously because of his dominance.
Zerg of the Year (Korea): TSLHyuN. If you earn one of IPL's events the nickname "IPL HyuN Club", you deserve a tonne of recognition. His 14 win streak is yet to be topped.
Game of the Year: Squirtle vs IMMvp, GSL 2012 Season 1 Finals. When GOMTvT finals traditionally ended in 4-0 or 4-1 ROFLstomps back in 2011, the first GSL of 2012 gave us a 4-3 close series and some of the most exciting games to grace us.
Tournament of the Year (NA): NASL Season 4 Finals. When Seasons 1 and 2 were slagged off over production values, casting and whatnot, the organisers over at NASL pulled out a pristine event
Tournament of the Year (Asia): Proleague. At least KeSPA are willing to shake up the stagnant metagame. And their format is actually exciting and easy to follow.
Tournament of the Year (Europe): Dreamhack Winter. The crown HAD to go to them. It was an amazing event. Now if only Twitch at peak times wasn't so laggy and unwatchable here in Europe.
Player of the Year (Int): Grubby. In a year where professionalism was brushed aside and many personalities were swept by drama over their behaviour, there was one player that was like "Fuck it, I play this game to enjoy it whether I win or lose." A true professional.
Player of the Year (Korea):LG_IMMvp. Again, this is because of all his achievements despite his severe physical state. To have won an IEM, earned the NesTea award, won a GSL and almost earned a 5 time GSL champion trophy whilst suffering from severe neck and wrist injury takes a lot of skill, balls, and courage.
Thank god you weren't in charge of the writing then.
Startale passed TL at the last moment by getting both first and second in Blizzard Cup. TL earned by far the most medals of any " international " team this year. ( someone mentioned EG, lol, EG is 15th on this list. )
by the way, the mini title says " GSTL finals: FXO vs MVP on the front page instead of 2012 TL awards.
i don't think anybody's gonna deny that Taeja and HerO (but especially Taeja) did amazing in 2012, but that doesn't really qualify for best 'team' imo, especially best 'international' team when those guys are two koreans. 2 of TL's foreigners quit starcraft this year and all the others have been in huge slumps. TLO did somewhat decent i guess, but he's not exactly a world champion either. Zenio didn't do anything all year despite being korean.
EG might not have a Taeja-level player (in fact they certainly don't), but they a lot more strong players than TL: Stephano, Thorzain, JYP, Demuslim, Puma, Jaedong, to some degree even Idra and Huk all did better than any of the TL foreigners in 2012. i guess Revival doesn't really count for EG yet. on top of all these solid players, you also have crowd favorites like Stephano, Idra, Incontrol, Jaedong, Huk, somewhat Demuslim and Thorzain... who does TL really have that is popular in terms of personality? Hero and TLO.
what i'm saying is, some players on TL had VERY impressive results in 2012, but it doesn't really feel like a team's accomplishments when it's just Taeja winning everything with Hero adding a few titles. even the team leagues were basically won by Taeja.
On January 03 2013 08:44 Clbull wrote: What would my choices have been?
Breakout Player: VortiX. His true breakout was 2012. Life's kinda always been around but not quite in full force.
Map of the Year: Why not Bifrost, Araknoid or CalDeum? At least KeSPA are making serious attempts to shake up the stagnated map pool and metagame. My personal favourite though has to be Bifrost out of the three.
Ceremony of the Year: No mention of MC's "Gangnam Style" dance.
Strategy of the Year: From what I remember, Oz revolutionised anti-mutalisk strategies by incorporating a FFE into 4 gate Immortal Blink Stalker expand tactic. This deserves more recognition than an over-used sentry immortal all in that makes the game less entertaining and fun.
Biggest News Story: EG picks up Jaedong. Because KeSPA switching to StarCraft II was going to be inevitable considering how much the GOM exclusivity deal fucked over the Korean scene.
Rivalry of the Year: TaeJa vs HerO. So far, HerO is 7-0 against his teammate. He 4-0'd TaeJa in the Dreamhack Winter finals and he 3-0'd TaeJa in the NASL Season 4 quarterfinals.
Most Entertaining Player: Squirtle. Simply for the comeback he (almost) made against Mvp in the GSL finals, especially the game where he destroyed Mvp's Battlecruiser fleet with an amazing archon toilet feedback combo.
Worst Drama: SlayerS disbanding. It put the white knights of the Korean scene (eSF) in a lot of major shit and made them look almost as draconian and evil as KeSPA. Basically, assuming what Jessica said was true, it's a horribly dick move to force a practice embargo on SlayerS players just because they won't join your federation or boycott NASL.
Team of the Year (Int): ROOT Gaming. Vibe especially got really good results when he was virtually unknown before.
Team of the Year (Korea): LG-Incredible Miracle. LG-IM finally got their big break with a really good title sponsor and GSL champions representing all three races.
Terran of the Year (Int): MajOr. After being screwed over both by Sixjax and TSL, it wasn't until today that he finally got his big break and was signed to a KeSPA team. The dream of this determined Mexican pro is finally coming true.
Terran of the Year (Korea): LG-IMMvp. Simply because of the achivemeents he's earned this year whilst suffering from cervical kyphosis.
Protoss of the Year (Int): Naniwa. He pioneered a few really good builds.
Protoss of the Year (Korea): SKTRain. At a time when KeSPA players were shot down left right and centre in WCS Korea, Rain went on an eSF killing spree. He's also the first OSL champion of SC2.
Zerg of the Year (Int): EGStephanoRC. Obviously because of his dominance.
Zerg of the Year (Korea): TSLHyuN. If you earn one of IPL's events the nickname "IPL HyuN Club", you deserve a tonne of recognition. His 14 win streak is yet to be topped.
Game of the Year: Squirtle vs IMMvp, GSL 2012 Season 1 Finals. When GOMTvT finals traditionally ended in 4-0 or 4-1 ROFLstomps back in 2011, the first GSL of 2012 gave us a 4-3 close series and some of the most exciting games to grace us.
Tournament of the Year (NA): NASL Season 4 Finals. When Seasons 1 and 2 were slagged off over production values, casting and whatnot, the organisers over at NASL pulled out a pristine event
Tournament of the Year (Asia): Proleague. At least KeSPA are willing to shake up the stagnant metagame. And their format is actually exciting and easy to follow.
Tournament of the Year (Europe): Dreamhack Winter. The crown HAD to go to them. It was an amazing event. Now if only Twitch at peak times wasn't so laggy and unwatchable here in Europe.
Player of the Year (Int): Grubby. In a year where professionalism was brushed aside and many personalities were swept by drama over their behaviour, there was one player that was like "Fuck it, I play this game to enjoy it whether I win or lose." A true professional.
Player of the Year (Korea):LG_IMMvp. Again, this is because of all his achievements despite his severe physical state. To have won an IEM, earned the NesTea award, won a GSL and almost earned a 5 time GSL champion trophy whilst suffering from severe neck and wrist injury takes a lot of skill, balls, and courage.
Thank god you weren't in charge of the writing then.
So rude Cosmic - Guy is just offering his oppinion
Startale passed TL at the last moment by getting both first and second in Blizzard Cup. TL earned by far the most medals of any " international " team this year. ( someone mentioned EG, lol, EG is 15th on this list. )
by the way, the mini title says " GSTL finals: FXO vs MVP on the front page instead of 2012 TL awards.
i don't think anybody's gonna deny that Taeja and HerO (but especially Taeja) did amazing in 2012, but that doesn't really qualify for best 'team' imo, especially best 'international' team when those guys are two koreans. 2 of TL's foreigners quit starcraft this year and all the others have been in huge slumps. TLO did somewhat decent i guess, but he's not exactly a world champion either. Zenio didn't do anything all year despite being korean.
EG might not have a Taeja-level player (in fact they certainly don't), but they a lot more strong players than TL: Stephano, Thorzain, JYP, Demuslim, Puma, Jaedong, to some degree even Idra and Huk all did better than any of the TL foreigners in 2012. i guess Revival doesn't really count for EG yet. on top of all these solid players, you also have crowd favorites like Stephano, Idra, Incontrol, Jaedong, Huk, somewhat Demuslim and Thorzain... who does TL really have that is popular in terms of personality? Hero and TLO.
what i'm saying is, some players on TL had VERY impressive results in 2012, but it doesn't really feel like a team's accomplishments when it's just Taeja winning everything with Hero adding a few titles. even the team leagues were basically won by Taeja.
Well Sheth, who isn't TaeJa or HerO, from TeamLiquid did allkill the team you are suggesting should have won instead
On January 03 2013 08:44 Clbull wrote: What would my choices have been?
Breakout Player: VortiX. His true breakout was 2012. Life's kinda always been around but not quite in full force.
Map of the Year: Why not Bifrost, Araknoid or CalDeum? At least KeSPA are making serious attempts to shake up the stagnated map pool and metagame. My personal favourite though has to be Bifrost out of the three.
Ceremony of the Year: No mention of MC's "Gangnam Style" dance.
Strategy of the Year: From what I remember, Oz revolutionised anti-mutalisk strategies by incorporating a FFE into 4 gate Immortal Blink Stalker expand tactic. This deserves more recognition than an over-used sentry immortal all in that makes the game less entertaining and fun.
Biggest News Story: EG picks up Jaedong. Because KeSPA switching to StarCraft II was going to be inevitable considering how much the GOM exclusivity deal fucked over the Korean scene.
Rivalry of the Year: TaeJa vs HerO. So far, HerO is 7-0 against his teammate. He 4-0'd TaeJa in the Dreamhack Winter finals and he 3-0'd TaeJa in the NASL Season 4 quarterfinals.
Most Entertaining Player: Squirtle. Simply for the comeback he (almost) made against Mvp in the GSL finals, especially the game where he destroyed Mvp's Battlecruiser fleet with an amazing archon toilet feedback combo.
Worst Drama: SlayerS disbanding. It put the white knights of the Korean scene (eSF) in a lot of major shit and made them look almost as draconian and evil as KeSPA. Basically, assuming what Jessica said was true, it's a horribly dick move to force a practice embargo on SlayerS players just because they won't join your federation or boycott NASL.
Team of the Year (Int): ROOT Gaming. Vibe especially got really good results when he was virtually unknown before.
Team of the Year (Korea): LG-Incredible Miracle. LG-IM finally got their big break with a really good title sponsor and GSL champions representing all three races.
Terran of the Year (Int): MajOr. After being screwed over both by Sixjax and TSL, it wasn't until today that he finally got his big break and was signed to a KeSPA team. The dream of this determined Mexican pro is finally coming true.
Terran of the Year (Korea): LG-IMMvp. Simply because of the achivemeents he's earned this year whilst suffering from cervical kyphosis.
Protoss of the Year (Int): Naniwa. He pioneered a few really good builds.
Protoss of the Year (Korea): SKTRain. At a time when KeSPA players were shot down left right and centre in WCS Korea, Rain went on an eSF killing spree. He's also the first OSL champion of SC2.
Zerg of the Year (Int): EGStephanoRC. Obviously because of his dominance.
Zerg of the Year (Korea): TSLHyuN. If you earn one of IPL's events the nickname "IPL HyuN Club", you deserve a tonne of recognition. His 14 win streak is yet to be topped.
Game of the Year: Squirtle vs IMMvp, GSL 2012 Season 1 Finals. When GOMTvT finals traditionally ended in 4-0 or 4-1 ROFLstomps back in 2011, the first GSL of 2012 gave us a 4-3 close series and some of the most exciting games to grace us.
Tournament of the Year (NA): NASL Season 4 Finals. When Seasons 1 and 2 were slagged off over production values, casting and whatnot, the organisers over at NASL pulled out a pristine event
Tournament of the Year (Asia): Proleague. At least KeSPA are willing to shake up the stagnant metagame. And their format is actually exciting and easy to follow.
Tournament of the Year (Europe): Dreamhack Winter. The crown HAD to go to them. It was an amazing event. Now if only Twitch at peak times wasn't so laggy and unwatchable here in Europe.
Player of the Year (Int): Grubby. In a year where professionalism was brushed aside and many personalities were swept by drama over their behaviour, there was one player that was like "Fuck it, I play this game to enjoy it whether I win or lose." A true professional.
Player of the Year (Korea):LG_IMMvp. Again, this is because of all his achievements despite his severe physical state. To have won an IEM, earned the NesTea award, won a GSL and almost earned a 5 time GSL champion trophy whilst suffering from severe neck and wrist injury takes a lot of skill, balls, and courage.
Thank god you weren't in charge of the writing then.
So rude Cosmic - Guy is just offering his opinion
I find it more rude to basically say "You TL guys got most of your selections wrong, let me put up my own list which is based on no standards whatsoever and deliberately omits certain facts to warp perception".
On January 03 2013 08:44 Clbull wrote: What would my choices have been?
Breakout Player: VortiX. His true breakout was 2012. Life's kinda always been around but not quite in full force.
Map of the Year: Why not Bifrost, Araknoid or CalDeum? At least KeSPA are making serious attempts to shake up the stagnated map pool and metagame. My personal favourite though has to be Bifrost out of the three.
Ceremony of the Year: No mention of MC's "Gangnam Style" dance.
Strategy of the Year: From what I remember, Oz revolutionised anti-mutalisk strategies by incorporating a FFE into 4 gate Immortal Blink Stalker expand tactic. This deserves more recognition than an over-used sentry immortal all in that makes the game less entertaining and fun.
Biggest News Story: EG picks up Jaedong. Because KeSPA switching to StarCraft II was going to be inevitable considering how much the GOM exclusivity deal fucked over the Korean scene.
Rivalry of the Year: TaeJa vs HerO. So far, HerO is 7-0 against his teammate. He 4-0'd TaeJa in the Dreamhack Winter finals and he 3-0'd TaeJa in the NASL Season 4 quarterfinals.
Most Entertaining Player: Squirtle. Simply for the comeback he (almost) made against Mvp in the GSL finals, especially the game where he destroyed Mvp's Battlecruiser fleet with an amazing archon toilet feedback combo.
Worst Drama: SlayerS disbanding. It put the white knights of the Korean scene (eSF) in a lot of major shit and made them look almost as draconian and evil as KeSPA. Basically, assuming what Jessica said was true, it's a horribly dick move to force a practice embargo on SlayerS players just because they won't join your federation or boycott NASL.
Team of the Year (Int): ROOT Gaming. Vibe especially got really good results when he was virtually unknown before.
Team of the Year (Korea): LG-Incredible Miracle. LG-IM finally got their big break with a really good title sponsor and GSL champions representing all three races.
Terran of the Year (Int): MajOr. After being screwed over both by Sixjax and TSL, it wasn't until today that he finally got his big break and was signed to a KeSPA team. The dream of this determined Mexican pro is finally coming true.
Terran of the Year (Korea): LG-IMMvp. Simply because of the achivemeents he's earned this year whilst suffering from cervical kyphosis.
Protoss of the Year (Int): Naniwa. He pioneered a few really good builds.
Protoss of the Year (Korea): SKTRain. At a time when KeSPA players were shot down left right and centre in WCS Korea, Rain went on an eSF killing spree. He's also the first OSL champion of SC2.
Zerg of the Year (Int): EGStephanoRC. Obviously because of his dominance.
Zerg of the Year (Korea): TSLHyuN. If you earn one of IPL's events the nickname "IPL HyuN Club", you deserve a tonne of recognition. His 14 win streak is yet to be topped.
Game of the Year: Squirtle vs IMMvp, GSL 2012 Season 1 Finals. When GOMTvT finals traditionally ended in 4-0 or 4-1 ROFLstomps back in 2011, the first GSL of 2012 gave us a 4-3 close series and some of the most exciting games to grace us.
Tournament of the Year (NA): NASL Season 4 Finals. When Seasons 1 and 2 were slagged off over production values, casting and whatnot, the organisers over at NASL pulled out a pristine event
Tournament of the Year (Asia): Proleague. At least KeSPA are willing to shake up the stagnant metagame. And their format is actually exciting and easy to follow.
Tournament of the Year (Europe): Dreamhack Winter. The crown HAD to go to them. It was an amazing event. Now if only Twitch at peak times wasn't so laggy and unwatchable here in Europe.
Player of the Year (Int): Grubby. In a year where professionalism was brushed aside and many personalities were swept by drama over their behaviour, there was one player that was like "Fuck it, I play this game to enjoy it whether I win or lose." A true professional.
Player of the Year (Korea):LG_IMMvp. Again, this is because of all his achievements despite his severe physical state. To have won an IEM, earned the NesTea award, won a GSL and almost earned a 5 time GSL champion trophy whilst suffering from severe neck and wrist injury takes a lot of skill, balls, and courage.
Thank god you weren't in charge of the writing then.
So rude Cosmic - Guy is just offering his oppinion
Yeah, and it is possible for opinions to be indefensibly terrible.
On January 03 2013 08:26 yousaba wrote: a shame naniwa didnt play zerg too, he would probably post the same results as stephano then. they're arguably the best players outside korea, just a shame the gap is so much bigger between them (in favor of stephano) than it should be (imo, barely noticeable) because of the state of the game.
lets hope blizzard shape up in 2013 and actually give us a game worth watching.
Like Naniwa revolutionized any match up. Also Naniwa doesn't have the "wow-effect" to me that Stephano has. Stephanos units are better than normal Zerg units. Naniwa is a good foreigner. Stephano is magic.
Startale passed TL at the last moment by getting both first and second in Blizzard Cup. TL earned by far the most medals of any " international " team this year. ( someone mentioned EG, lol, EG is 15th on this list. )
by the way, the mini title says " GSTL finals: FXO vs MVP on the front page instead of 2012 TL awards.
i don't think anybody's gonna deny that Taeja and HerO (but especially Taeja) did amazing in 2012, but that doesn't really qualify for best 'team' imo, especially best 'international' team when those guys are two koreans. 2 of TL's foreigners quit starcraft this year and all the others have been in huge slumps. TLO did somewhat decent i guess, but he's not exactly a world champion either. Zenio didn't do anything all year despite being korean.
EG might not have a Taeja-level player (in fact they certainly don't), but they a lot more strong players than TL: Stephano, Thorzain, JYP, Demuslim, Puma, Jaedong, to some degree even Idra and Huk all did better than any of the TL foreigners in 2012. i guess Revival doesn't really count for EG yet. on top of all these solid players, you also have crowd favorites like Stephano, Idra, Incontrol, Jaedong, Huk, somewhat Demuslim and Thorzain... who does TL really have that is popular in terms of personality? Hero and TLO.
what i'm saying is, some players on TL had VERY impressive results in 2012, but it doesn't really feel like a team's accomplishments when it's just Taeja winning everything with Hero adding a few titles. even the team leagues were basically won by Taeja.
Strange that Parting wins so many awards and yet is completely absent from the final, Player of the Year, award. I agree Life takes the cake, however a strong argument could be made for Parting.
Soooo good. I wish there was a Kong of the year category. It would go to hyun or violet. Online player of the year goes to Hyun...which should of won something considering his amazing year.
Startale passed TL at the last moment by getting both first and second in Blizzard Cup. TL earned by far the most medals of any " international " team this year. ( someone mentioned EG, lol, EG is 15th on this list. )
by the way, the mini title says " GSTL finals: FXO vs MVP on the front page instead of 2012 TL awards.
i don't think anybody's gonna deny that Taeja and HerO (but especially Taeja) did amazing in 2012, but that doesn't really qualify for best 'team' imo, especially best 'international' team when those guys are two koreans. 2 of TL's foreigners quit starcraft this year and all the others have been in huge slumps. TLO did somewhat decent i guess, but he's not exactly a world champion either. Zenio didn't do anything all year despite being korean.
EG might not have a Taeja-level player (in fact they certainly don't), but they a lot more strong players than TL: Stephano, Thorzain, JYP, Demuslim, Puma, Jaedong, to some degree even Idra and Huk all did better than any of the TL foreigners in 2012. i guess Revival doesn't really count for EG yet. on top of all these solid players, you also have crowd favorites like Stephano, Idra, Incontrol, Jaedong, Huk, somewhat Demuslim and Thorzain... who does TL really have that is popular in terms of personality? Hero and TLO.
what i'm saying is, some players on TL had VERY impressive results in 2012, but it doesn't really feel like a team's accomplishments when it's just Taeja winning everything with Hero adding a few titles. even the team leagues were basically won by Taeja.
It's based on results, not by how popular the players are. EG can keep buying popular players but it didn't work at giving them gold medals. Nazgul saw the potential in TaeJa and grabbed him, it paid off. It's that simple, really.
On January 03 2013 09:05 Misacampo wrote: Tl won international team of the year?
Kinda ironic, as I don't think they had a single non-korean player do well in 2012, along with not winning any teamleagues.
Oh wait this is TEAMLIQUID.NET. How could I forget.
If you're going to get mad at least have the facts right, TL won two team leagues and placed second in another.
Startale passed TL at the last moment by getting both first and second in Blizzard Cup. TL earned by far the most medals of any " international " team this year. ( someone mentioned EG, lol, EG is 15th on this list. )
by the way, the mini title says " GSTL finals: FXO vs MVP on the front page instead of 2012 TL awards.
i don't think anybody's gonna deny that Taeja and HerO (but especially Taeja) did amazing in 2012, but that doesn't really qualify for best 'team' imo, especially best 'international' team when those guys are two koreans. 2 of TL's foreigners quit starcraft this year and all the others have been in huge slumps. TLO did somewhat decent i guess, but he's not exactly a world champion either. Zenio didn't do anything all year despite being korean.
EG might not have a Taeja-level player (in fact they certainly don't), but they a lot more strong players than TL: Stephano, Thorzain, JYP, Demuslim, Puma, Jaedong, to some degree even Idra and Huk all did better than any of the TL foreigners in 2012. i guess Revival doesn't really count for EG yet. on top of all these solid players, you also have crowd favorites like Stephano, Idra, Incontrol, Jaedong, Huk, somewhat Demuslim and Thorzain... who does TL really have that is popular in terms of personality? Hero and TLO.
what i'm saying is, some players on TL had VERY impressive results in 2012, but it doesn't really feel like a team's accomplishments when it's just Taeja winning everything with Hero adding a few titles. even the team leagues were basically won by Taeja.
It's based on results, not by how popular the players are. EG can keep buying popular players but it didn't work at giving them gold medals. Nazgul saw the potential in TaeJa and grabbed him, it paid off. It's that simple, really.
You know what's really confusing (and possibly troubling for the foreign scene)? There really isn't any major "foreign" teams left. TL, EG, Fnatic etc. all picked up Korean aces, and now the majority of these teams accomplishments are won by these Koreans (I guess one exception is EG, since Stephano is an outlier in terms of performance.) Even Acer picked up MMA and Cella recently, so they can't be considered purely foreign anymore either. I guess a few "foreign" teams such as Rox still exist, but they are far and few.
Nowadays, it seems silly to differentiate between Korean and International teams. Hell, why are we even so fixated on the Korean-foreigner divide anyways?
Anyways, it's surprising how quickly 2012 went by.
Startale passed TL at the last moment by getting both first and second in Blizzard Cup. TL earned by far the most medals of any " international " team this year. ( someone mentioned EG, lol, EG is 15th on this list. )
by the way, the mini title says " GSTL finals: FXO vs MVP on the front page instead of 2012 TL awards.
i don't think anybody's gonna deny that Taeja and HerO (but especially Taeja) did amazing in 2012, but that doesn't really qualify for best 'team' imo, especially best 'international' team when those guys are two koreans. 2 of TL's foreigners quit starcraft this year and all the others have been in huge slumps. TLO did somewhat decent i guess, but he's not exactly a world champion either. Zenio didn't do anything all year despite being korean.
EG might not have a Taeja-level player (in fact they certainly don't), but they a lot more strong players than TL: Stephano, Thorzain, JYP, Demuslim, Puma, Jaedong, to some degree even Idra and Huk all did better than any of the TL foreigners in 2012. i guess Revival doesn't really count for EG yet. on top of all these solid players, you also have crowd favorites like Stephano, Idra, Incontrol, Jaedong, Huk, somewhat Demuslim and Thorzain... who does TL really have that is popular in terms of personality? Hero and TLO.
what i'm saying is, some players on TL had VERY impressive results in 2012, but it doesn't really feel like a team's accomplishments when it's just Taeja winning everything with Hero adding a few titles. even the team leagues were basically won by Taeja.
It's based on results, not by how popular the players are. EG can keep buying popular players but it didn't work at giving them gold medals. Nazgul saw the potential in TaeJa and grabbed him, it paid off. It's that simple, really.
On January 03 2013 09:05 Misacampo wrote: Tl won international team of the year?
Kinda ironic, as I don't think they had a single non-korean player do well in 2012, along with not winning any teamleagues.
Oh wait this is TEAMLIQUID.NET. How could I forget.
If you're going to get mad at least have the facts right, TL won two team leagues and placed second in another.
Team Taeja* I didn't see any INTERNATIONAL team win two team leagues and place second in another.
lol, TL won NASTL before TaeJa even joined the team.
Startale passed TL at the last moment by getting both first and second in Blizzard Cup. TL earned by far the most medals of any " international " team this year. ( someone mentioned EG, lol, EG is 15th on this list. )
by the way, the mini title says " GSTL finals: FXO vs MVP on the front page instead of 2012 TL awards.
i don't think anybody's gonna deny that Taeja and HerO (but especially Taeja) did amazing in 2012, but that doesn't really qualify for best 'team' imo, especially best 'international' team when those guys are two koreans. 2 of TL's foreigners quit starcraft this year and all the others have been in huge slumps. TLO did somewhat decent i guess, but he's not exactly a world champion either. Zenio didn't do anything all year despite being korean.
EG might not have a Taeja-level player (in fact they certainly don't), but they a lot more strong players than TL: Stephano, Thorzain, JYP, Demuslim, Puma, Jaedong, to some degree even Idra and Huk all did better than any of the TL foreigners in 2012. i guess Revival doesn't really count for EG yet. on top of all these solid players, you also have crowd favorites like Stephano, Idra, Incontrol, Jaedong, Huk, somewhat Demuslim and Thorzain... who does TL really have that is popular in terms of personality? Hero and TLO.
what i'm saying is, some players on TL had VERY impressive results in 2012, but it doesn't really feel like a team's accomplishments when it's just Taeja winning everything with Hero adding a few titles. even the team leagues were basically won by Taeja.
It's based on results, not by how popular the players are. EG can keep buying popular players but it didn't work at giving them gold medals. Nazgul saw the potential in TaeJa and grabbed him, it paid off. It's that simple, really.
On January 03 2013 09:05 Misacampo wrote: Tl won international team of the year?
Kinda ironic, as I don't think they had a single non-korean player do well in 2012, along with not winning any teamleagues.
Oh wait this is TEAMLIQUID.NET. How could I forget.
If you're going to get mad at least have the facts right, TL won two team leagues and placed second in another.
Team Taeja* I didn't see any INTERNATIONAL team win two team leagues and place second in another.
You must have missed Sheth and Zenios all kills this year and the fact that only IPTL is in all kill format. EGMC....Research is a good skill toi have.
Awesome work TeamLiquid, like last year, it was great to read it !
Just before reading, I made some forecasts and I went 15/22. Here are my fails :
- Ceremony of the year : Leenock Gangnam Style - Biggest news story : didn't know really what sort of news to put on it - Rivalry of the year : Stephano-Polt - Most entertaining player : - - Terran of the year (inter) : LucifroN - Protoss of the year (inter) : MaNa - Game of the year : Mvp-Squirtle
I must say I miss some of the previous categories like the playrs to follow next year or the non-player personality but the improvements are good so, I don't complain. And yes, WCS Europe were, for me, the best tournament of the year as a viewer.
I agree with everything, just I find it hard to give TL the international team of the year, when they had next to zero success that wasn't stemming from their korean lineup
So glad NaNiwa won international toss Was afraid he'd lose it after hitting his current slump. Love his mindset, where expertice of the game itself weighs more than winning tournaments, and glad to see it's being rewarded.
Startale passed TL at the last moment by getting both first and second in Blizzard Cup. TL earned by far the most medals of any " international " team this year. ( someone mentioned EG, lol, EG is 15th on this list. )
by the way, the mini title says " GSTL finals: FXO vs MVP on the front page instead of 2012 TL awards.
i don't think anybody's gonna deny that Taeja and HerO (but especially Taeja) did amazing in 2012, but that doesn't really qualify for best 'team' imo, especially best 'international' team when those guys are two koreans. 2 of TL's foreigners quit starcraft this year and all the others have been in huge slumps. TLO did somewhat decent i guess, but he's not exactly a world champion either. Zenio didn't do anything all year despite being korean.
EG might not have a Taeja-level player (in fact they certainly don't), but they a lot more strong players than TL: Stephano, Thorzain, JYP, Demuslim, Puma, Jaedong, to some degree even Idra and Huk all did better than any of the TL foreigners in 2012. i guess Revival doesn't really count for EG yet. on top of all these solid players, you also have crowd favorites like Stephano, Idra, Incontrol, Jaedong, Huk, somewhat Demuslim and Thorzain... who does TL really have that is popular in terms of personality? Hero and TLO.
what i'm saying is, some players on TL had VERY impressive results in 2012, but it doesn't really feel like a team's accomplishments when it's just Taeja winning everything with Hero adding a few titles. even the team leagues were basically won by Taeja.
It's based on results, not by how popular the players are. EG can keep buying popular players but it didn't work at giving them gold medals. Nazgul saw the potential in TaeJa and grabbed him, it paid off. It's that simple, really.
On January 03 2013 09:05 Misacampo wrote: Tl won international team of the year?
Kinda ironic, as I don't think they had a single non-korean player do well in 2012, along with not winning any teamleagues.
Oh wait this is TEAMLIQUID.NET. How could I forget.
If you're going to get mad at least have the facts right, TL won two team leagues and placed second in another.
Team Taeja* I didn't see any INTERNATIONAL team win two team leagues and place second in another.
You must have missed Sheth and Zenios all kills this year and the fact that only IPTL is in all kill format. EGMC....Research is a good skill toi have.
My bad you had ONE international player do well in ONE match in ONE lower tier team league.
Startale passed TL at the last moment by getting both first and second in Blizzard Cup. TL earned by far the most medals of any " international " team this year. ( someone mentioned EG, lol, EG is 15th on this list. )
by the way, the mini title says " GSTL finals: FXO vs MVP on the front page instead of 2012 TL awards.
i don't think anybody's gonna deny that Taeja and HerO (but especially Taeja) did amazing in 2012, but that doesn't really qualify for best 'team' imo, especially best 'international' team when those guys are two koreans. 2 of TL's foreigners quit starcraft this year and all the others have been in huge slumps. TLO did somewhat decent i guess, but he's not exactly a world champion either. Zenio didn't do anything all year despite being korean.
EG might not have a Taeja-level player (in fact they certainly don't), but they a lot more strong players than TL: Stephano, Thorzain, JYP, Demuslim, Puma, Jaedong, to some degree even Idra and Huk all did better than any of the TL foreigners in 2012. i guess Revival doesn't really count for EG yet. on top of all these solid players, you also have crowd favorites like Stephano, Idra, Incontrol, Jaedong, Huk, somewhat Demuslim and Thorzain... who does TL really have that is popular in terms of personality? Hero and TLO.
what i'm saying is, some players on TL had VERY impressive results in 2012, but it doesn't really feel like a team's accomplishments when it's just Taeja winning everything with Hero adding a few titles. even the team leagues were basically won by Taeja.
It's based on results, not by how popular the players are. EG can keep buying popular players but it didn't work at giving them gold medals. Nazgul saw the potential in TaeJa and grabbed him, it paid off. It's that simple, really.
On January 03 2013 09:05 Misacampo wrote: Tl won international team of the year?
Kinda ironic, as I don't think they had a single non-korean player do well in 2012, along with not winning any teamleagues.
Oh wait this is TEAMLIQUID.NET. How could I forget.
If you're going to get mad at least have the facts right, TL won two team leagues and placed second in another.
Team Taeja* I didn't see any INTERNATIONAL team win two team leagues and place second in another.
You must have missed Sheth and Zenios all kills this year and the fact that only IPTL is in all kill format. EGMC....Research is a good skill toi have.
My bad you had ONE international player do well in ONE match in ONE lower tier team league.
Hm? What is a "higher tier" team league then? Additionally, EGMC is played in a Bo3 Proleague style, it would take more than just Taeja to win that tournament. Similarly, the closest next International team would be Acer/Mousesports, who combined do not have as many total tournament wins.
It may be that the majority of what we hear from TeamLiquid are the successes of their Korean players, but pretty much every team now has that.
As for the team leagues, they won EGMC and NASL, and came second in the IPL Team Arena. While only the IPL TA may have had an international attendance, that doesn't take away from the fact that TeamLiquid consistently won against other International teams.
Was funny to see how Rain kinda disappeared off of the list, I cant think of a place where he else he should have snuck in, but looking at his play at certain points you would have been sure that he would end up on top of something.
Also missing hipster predictions for 2013 and worst game of the year. I expect better next time.
Of course I love seeing all the Startale award wins This truly was a really fun of year for SC2. Despite the few negative things throughout this year, these awards helped remind me of the awesome tournaments, matches, and players throughout 2012.
On January 03 2013 10:47 MCDayC wrote: Was funny to see how Rain kinda disappeared off of the list, I cant think of a place where he else he should have snuck in, but looking at his play at certain points you would have been sure that he would end up on top of something.
Also missing hipster predictions for 2013 and worst game of the year. I expect better next time.
Nice writeup TL Esports. Each write up gave me good look into some of the players of the years that i even though not considered team or player of the year gave me a good mind to look up. Thanks can't wait for further write ups this year and the end of the year as well.
On January 03 2013 05:31 Sombre wrote: I dont understand why you feel the need to separate awards between "Korean" and "The rest of the world"
Because then Foreigners wouldnt get any awards..?
Perhaps that may be best. Win based on merit, not nationality. But I'm probably the minority opinion here, and I still did enjoy this recap quite much and appreciated it.
Awesome write-up. Its amazing the things you forget have happened, or things that seem so long ago that you think 'that was 2012?' I really appreciate the effort in writing these up. Loved reading every word of it!
Should naniwa really be international toss of the year? He had 0 premiere or major tournament top 4s... Mana had 2 1sts in premiere tournaments, a 3/4th and a second in a major tournament.
On January 03 2013 12:38 Luepert wrote: Should naniwa really be international toss of the year? He had 0 premiere or major tournament top 4s... Mana had 2 1sts in premiere tournaments, a 3/4th and a second in a major tournament.
Consecutive Top 8s in the hardest SC2 league in the world has more weight IMO.
On January 03 2013 09:05 Misacampo wrote: It may be that the majority of what we hear from TeamLiquid are the successes of their Korean players, but pretty much every team now has that.
About 81% of TL's winnings this year came from Taeja and Hero. While only 27% of EG's winnings came from Puma/JYP this year. Do note I crunched these numbers with their winnings only while the players were on the team. JD and Revival have not won/placed to earn any prize winnings while on EG. So it seems the Koreans didn't really play too large of a role for EG in 2012.
Startallllllllllllles :D, my favorite team, my favorite year. I'm so happy to see the team that I've liked for a long time come of age, when before they seemed like they were going no where fast. I wonder though, why wasn't EG considered for the international team of the year?
Despite being a big TL fan, I don't like their (self) acceptance of best foreigner team. DIdn't they just have three players (Jinro, Haypro, Sea) retire after seeing that their careers weren't going anywhere? I know it comes off as harsh, but where are the W's and big name additions to back up their claim of best foreigner/international team?
Always love these! Polt should have been nominated for T of the year, and I'm not sure about Life's being the player of the year. Other than that though, I totally agree!
On January 03 2013 13:52 dirtydurb82 wrote: Despite being a big TL fan, I don't like their (self) acceptance of best foreigner team. DIdn't they just have three players (Jinro, Haypro, Sea) retire after seeing that their careers weren't going anywhere? I know it comes off as harsh, but where are the W's and big name additions to back up their claim of best foreigner/international team?
TaeJa wins ASUS ROG and MLG Summer Arena, HerO wins DH Winter and NASL Season 4. Both have had several great GSL runs. It's a close contest with EG but arguments can certainly be made for either. TL certainly has a legitimate argument for best foreigner team of the year.
Thank you for that game of the year pick. I think it gets forgotten because of how much Gumiho destroyed the rest of Slayers, but my god that game was pure gold. By far one of the best TvTs of all time.
Is it fair to say that Stephano's near all kill against Life, MC, Seed, DRG at GSL world Championship as the winner in the most epic near comeback of the year?
On January 03 2013 13:52 dirtydurb82 wrote: Despite being a big TL fan, I don't like their (self) acceptance of best foreigner team. DIdn't they just have three players (Jinro, Haypro, Sea) retire after seeing that their careers weren't going anywhere? I know it comes off as harsh, but where are the W's and big name additions to back up their claim of best foreigner/international team?
TaeJa wins ASUS ROG and MLG Summer Arena, HerO wins DH Winter and NASL Season 4. Both have had several great GSL runs. It's a close contest with EG but arguments can certainly be made for either. TL certainly has a legitimate argument for best foreigner team of the year.
Plus, TaeJa went 23-3 in IPL TAC3 versus lots of good players
Last year, I wrote that article completely unprompted to hype few players I thought deserved some attention, and Wax (maybe reluctantly) allowed it in. This year, I simply haven't followed the scene as closely as I did in late 2011, and I frankly just don't know. So I'm sorry if you're missing your hipster picks for 2013.
It's going to be an unpredictable year with HotS anyway. When in doubt bet on foreign zergs, korean terrans and protoss of all nationalities.
On January 03 2013 15:17 tree.hugger wrote: Re: players to watch for in 2013,
Last year, I wrote that article completely unprompted to hype few players I thought deserved some attention, and Wax (maybe reluctantly) allowed it in. This year, I simply haven't followed the scene as closely as I did in late 2011, and I frankly just don't know. So I'm sorry if you're missing your hipster picks for 2013.
It's going to be an unpredictable year with HotS anyway. When in doubt bet on foreign zergs, korean terrans and protoss of all nationalities.
snute kept you waiting, but delivered at the end. it's a shame though, i loved that article!
On January 03 2013 13:52 dirtydurb82 wrote: Despite being a big TL fan, I don't like their (self) acceptance of best foreigner team. DIdn't they just have three players (Jinro, Haypro, Sea) retire after seeing that their careers weren't going anywhere? I know it comes off as harsh, but where are the W's and big name additions to back up their claim of best foreigner/international team?
I agree completely. Hero and Taeja did great but the success of non-koreans in the roster of the international team winner should have more of a role in this award.
My terran bias says IM_Mvp shouldve been Player of the Year (Korea), but oh well otherwise they pretty much went where I also thought of them going. Was a good read.
Lucky for everyone that missed the game of the year, it was game 1 of the GSTL finals and therefore FREE to watch. Look for the 2012 GSTL Season 2 Finals on gomtv.net
Fantastic write up, the only thing I disagree with is the "game of the year" but that is of course going to be highly opinionated. Personally MVP vs Squirtle where squirtle vortex mass bcs to win a game seemed more epic.
hrmmm, gumiho and MMA had action throughout whereas squirtle vs. mvp was a few seconds of ownage for an otherwise long macro game
On January 03 2013 14:31 Osiccor wrote: Is it fair to say that Stephano's near all kill against Life, MC, Seed, DRG at GSL world Championship as the winner in the most epic near comeback of the year?
not reallllyyyy haha. the games weren't that clutch or exciting
On January 03 2013 19:24 Benramin567 wrote: I don't like how Mvp got all cred for the hellion banshee when it was ForGG who came up with it first...
Because ForGG's build was not the same as his, his went into double armory Mech and hit a pre hive timing. It was a new build he unveiled at IEM and it helped him win the tournament, defeating many good Zerg players in a row. After the tournament other players copied the build and it became part of the standard TvZ metagame. Because of the heavy Zerg dominance at the time it got a lot more attention than it otherwise would.
I'm unbelievably glad I finally joined TL, the writing and the insight we see into the world of starcraft 2 is just unparalleled anywhere else, seriously guys, a real joy
P.S. Whoever made that PartinG soul train pic deserves a Nobel Prize.
I love these. Grats to Parting on his many successes, I was hoping MC would grab one but its understandable that he didn't and I was glad that Naniwa got the credit hes deserves as all too often he is (somehow) overlooked.
Why don't you delete this article and replace it with 1 word so people save time, "ST_Parting". I just summed it all up for people who don't have time to read it all.
On January 04 2013 01:13 Yokwe wrote: Why don't you delete this article and replace it with 1 word so people save time, "ST_Parting". I just summed it all up for people who don't have time to read it all.
actually STARTALE. as there's mostly life and parting XD
don't get me wrong, MMA vs Towel Terran was epic, but the Squirtle game literally made me forget life and transported me to another world. i think it was the 45 minutes of slow build up, to a final orgasm that ripped my body to shreds. on paper, yes it was just a vortex. but in that moment, it was more than that. it was a life defining moment for every spectator that watched it.
On January 04 2013 01:13 Yokwe wrote: Why don't you delete this article and replace it with 1 word so people save time, "ST_Parting". I just summed it all up for people who don't have time to read it all.
actually STARTALE. as there's mostly life and parting XD
Nice write up, the choices were fair even if I'm sure calling TL team of the year will catch some doubters. Look forward to you guys selling out giving players prizes and you guys living in yachts half the year.
I have a tiny insignificant question - why do the PotY awards include nominees who have not won Z/P/TotY? If someone is not worthy to be considered the best player of their race, why are they nominated for best player overall?
Team Taeja Liquid is foreign team of the year? LOL can they even be considered a foreign team if all of their results come from Koreans? Acer is foreign team of the year, they actually win with foreigners.
Gross. That game was a horribly boring turtlefest that was decided in 2 seconds because Mvp made a very strange mistake. Thinking it even belongs in the same sentence as Gumiho/MMA is madness.
On January 04 2013 06:31 Whatson wrote: Team Taeja Liquid is foreign team of the year? LOL can they even be considered a foreign team if all of their results come from Koreans? Acer is foreign team of the year, they actually win with foreigners.
FXO should have been foreign team of the year imo. they won 2 GSTLs and have foreign management + NA and EU rosters. Basically the same thing right?
This is awesome! So happy for Team Liquid. I really wanted MKP to win Terran of the Year. He has always been my favorite player and believe he is far more consistent than his competitors.
Think Leenock should have won a title for all his innovation and contributions to both individual leagues, team leagues, nationally and internationally. Life did amazingly, but giving the same player 3 titles, seems very lazy to me. And the reason for letting ST win, I do not understand at all.
To be honest guys, PartinG has come completely out of nowhere and took the world by storm, there have been two years of terran and zerg dominance and now that a Protoss appears out of nowhere and develops a completely new playstyle for the world to use, I think he deserves a couple more awards. Anyone that had followed the korean ladder scene somewhat last year would have remembered Life as a ladder monster, I still have vivid memories of watching DRG stream and Life rip him to shreds in 2 consecutive games, it's tough to decide, but PartinG is in a league of his own.
P.S. MC's undertaker is my undisputed best ceremony, his dancing, his commentary, his WWE-esque undertaker. I love him.
On January 04 2013 06:31 Whatson wrote: Team Taeja Liquid is foreign team of the year? LOL can they even be considered a foreign team if all of their results come from Koreans? Acer is foreign team of the year, they actually win with foreigners.
I see your point. Team Liquid didnt had that success with their foreigners, only TLO improved strongly, the rest more or less dont play a role anymore.
But on the other hand no foreign team had such a lucky hand by picking "cheap" koreans and make them to top players, dont forget that. Also i think EG should have been mentioned, cause they created a lot of high quality esport content this year, and they made these funny videos
I tought fionn was the person who made like 500 post stating how terrible St_Parting is and how much he refuses to ever call him good no matter what happned.
Maybe startale has no money issues afterall. Seems like a payed recap.
Or then i might mistake fionn to some other TL writer. Hmm...
Well done, agreed on almost every award. I'd have given the prize to IronSquid for the best European tournament, that was a surprisingly great event and really stacked. I hope IS2 gets it for 2013 !