I have just finished watching all 30 replays for the second time, and am pleased to announce the winners of the TSL Replay Contest!!!!!
Strelok and Chosen for their killer ZvT on Blue Storm
Both players will receive 100$ of my money! Time to start tracking them down so I can mail them their prize .
The Winning Replay
This game really blew me away. Strelok chose an aggressive 4rax before factory opening and never stopped bringing the noise. Even as Chosen pressured his front, Strelok sent dropships and vessels about the map to apply any bit of pressure he could. At the same time, Chosen gave a brilliant display of calm as he resisted a continuous stream of terran harass and pushes. With tense back and forth action, I still couldn't tell who the winner would be even when the game had a minute left to go. I strongly recommend watching this nailbiting game at x2 speed so you can catch all the non-stop action across the map.
Note:
Some of you might be a little bit surprised at my choice, as this replay was ranked #9 on week 1's top 10 list. Allow to briefly explain the things I was looking for when choosing a replay.
For the most part, I was mainly looking for the "wow" factor. I wanted a game that just blew me away from start to finish, whether it be w/ a nutty innovative strategy, amazingly strong solid play, or one of those weird elimination race games. Additionally, I avoided choosing games where one of the players simply played badly.
There were several games out there that had a nice flashy touch to them, but didn't quite pull through as "winning replay." For example, G5 managed to use scouts to crush gorush on blue storm. Although it was a cute use of the most underused unit in the game, the game itself was subpar. G5 had used solid play to put himself in an advantageous position, at which point he started making scouts, probably for a fun win. Not surprisingly, this transition almost cost G5 the game. Although i'm sure G5 enjoyed the game and posted it purely because it was entertaining (which it undeniably was), G5's decision to turn an easily won game into an almost lost game discourages me from choosing it as the replay winner. Likewise, many games had one of those "oh hey that was cool!" moments, but overall the game was fairly dull.
Also, there were a handful of games that were long that had NO ACTION. I <3 action, hence I <3 strelok vs chosen.
Other games I enjoyed:
Strelok vs David on Python (I wish I could comeback like that)
Inc vs Ptak on Zodiac (yay hydras)
Ninja vs blowex on Python (genius firebat drop opening vs protoss)
I'd like to finish by saying that I enjoyed watching all of your replays . In particular, I'm hugely impressed w/ Strelok's play. Strelok has an uncanny ability to just win games. In addition to his strong micro/macro, Strelok clearly has excellent decision making abilities, as he almost always seems to make the right move even in the most tense or unusual situations.
Cheers!
-Sean