WCS
Even so, sometimes a lone unit (instead of an army) demands our attention and admiration by completely changing the game, often in ways we didn’t expect, and it receives its just rewards. In this blog contains a somewhat biased and not comprehensive power rank of units based on how important they were individually in one or multiple pro-level games. To make it more fair for small, weak units like zerglings, I allowed up to four supply for multiple units, meaning that two DTs would be allowed, or one battlecruiser, but not five marines. Additionally, if the unit was found to be critical in multiple games, I tended to give it a higher ranking, especially if the unit was important for different reasons.
Honorable Mentions
Some units (or structures) were either instrumental in victory or the decisive variable in defeat, but didn’t make it onto the list because there were too many of them or they were 0 supply. Still, they are easily worth a mention in a list of all-time MVPs.
4.
Pylons – Has vs Jaedong![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/The_Templar/TLCMAT/2/MVP_units/MVP1.png)
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Before Has vs Jaedong, no one knew anything about the fascinating and world-shattering Protoss. He had crushed his way through mostly weak opponents on his way to Challenger and 3-1’d Sage, but nothing indicated he was remarkable at all, especially not his previous series against Arthur. The pylons changed all of that. The first game featured a ridiculous cannon rush pivoted around two pylons and a single cannon in Jaedong’s main, and the second a proxy DT. However, the third set was where the pylons displayed MVP-worthy performance. With five of these remarkable structures, Has walled off Jaedong’s natural entirely, and a cannon in addition to miscellaneous buildings rendered all of the pulled drones ineffective. This allowed Has to kill the natural, and a warp prism + 7 gate followup got Has access to build another pylon in Jaedong’s main for reinforcements. After all the shenanigans, Has could barely help but take the most glorious pylon-filled upset of the season.
3.
Corruptors – RorO vs PartinG![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/The_Templar/TLCMAT/2/MVP_units/MVP2.png)
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In a PvZ base trade, the best units to have are usually ones that can hit buildings or have some sort of mobility. In RorO vs PartinG, the best thing RorO had left were corruptors. Usually, we laugh at corruptors as a silly, slow, Zerg anti-air weapon with little importance. Often, corruptors are detrimental or just a necessary evil against mass air armies. In this game, however, RorO’s choice to make four more corruptors with his last resources instead of some mutalisks and zerglings proved to be the best possible decision. They changed the last pivotal battle by corrupting PartinG’s three archons, allowing the mutalisk force to barely take the edge, and the desperation stalkers which turned an advantage into a win. The normally pitiful corruptors additionally fulfilled their role of protecting the mutalisks from phoenixes perfectly. They receive an honorable mention as there were five (too many) of them.
2.
Tie: Overlords + Spine Crawlers– Losira vs Gumiho![[image loading]](/staff/The_Templar/TLCMAT/2/MVP_units/MVP3.png)
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In one of the craziest endgames of all time, the units remaining on the field for Losira were one ultralisk, two queens, twelve corruptors, and a relatively large number of spine crawlers. However, he was up against two tanks, four marines, six marauders, and two SCVs, and with no high-range units it seemed likely that Gumiho could clear up his spine crawlers from a distance, making his precious ultralisk vulnerable. Despite being up against great adversity, Losira still had the overlords, and with them he had the power to potentially spread enough creep to trap Gumiho’s forces and win the game. Unfortunately, he didn’t spread his overlords well enough to do so, and bled out far too many spine crawlers to correct the situation.
1.
Spore Crawlers – Revival vs ByuL![[image loading]](/staff/The_Templar/TLCMAT/2/MVP_units/MVP4.png)
ByuL must really hate that overlord to prioritize it over the spore crawlers.
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That was like watching Revival cross the street and then a car is about to hit him. Then BAM, the car explodes, but the debris are flying everywhere, but Revival fucking dodges only to hit his head into a fire hydrant. He then gets up and is mugged by guys with guns and is about to get shot but then one of the thugs backstabs his friends and Revival gets the fuck out of there, but is then chased by a pack of ravenous dogs. He crashes through a butcher shop, throws the meat at the ravenous dogs to only have the butcher try to stab him, only to have the previous thugs start shooting up the butcher and the police coming in to shoot the thugs. After surviving all of that Revival walks home to only have a piano fall out of the sky and almost land on top of him until mutas swoop in from nowhere and die for him.
Dishonorable Mentions
As you can imagine, there were a few games that were exactly the opposite of what I was looking for.
Infestors – Suppy vs Heart![[image loading]](/staff/The_Templar/TLCMAT/2/MVP_units/MVP5.png)
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There were a lot of really cool parts of this game, even though it was accurately described as a “hot mess”. In fact, a single ultralisk supported by mass queen is featured in the very scrappy game above, and is even mentioned on the main list, but perhaps more prominent than the ultralisk were the infestors. Suppy made a huge number of them, and at almost every single engagement Heart seemed to have an easy time killing two, three or more of them. This repetitive series of blunders nearly cost Suppy the game, and if it wasn’t for the queens and ultralisk they might have. The sheer numbers of dead infestors also lowered the eventual quality of Suppy’s win.
Corruptors – soO vs YoDa![[image loading]](/staff/The_Templar/TLCMAT/2/MVP_units/MVP6.png)
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76 corruptors. Seventy six. That’s the equivalent of 152 marines, or 304 zerglings. Imagine if your army was as stupidly one-dimensional as over 300 zerglings. Well, that’s about what soO did against YoDa, as his response to the ultimate air army. It seemed to be working, as the SKT Zerg took a nearly 100 supply lead, but somehow he lost all of his drones to hellions while maneuvering his small number of brood lords in his 90% anti-air only army halfway across the map. He stalled for an eternal amount of time, slowly bleeding out his corruptors and dying horribly. Just a reminder while you watch it (if you even want to get near this game...) that this guy made it to 4 GSL finals.
Main List
I only had enough time to write about the top five units in MVP-ness, but the full list of units/games is below.
5.
1 Banshee – Heart vs Xigua, FanTaSy vs soO, INnoVation vs TaeJa![[image loading]](/staff/The_Templar/TLCMAT/2/MVP_units/MVP7.png)
In three completely different scenarios, a single banshee went against the grain, the pattern of the entire game, and made a difference by itself.
In Heart vs Xigua, it was a pebble that lead to the collapse of a mountain. During Xigua’s incredibly dicey baneling bust, Heart dedicated a single resource, his only banshee, towards keeping the Zerg down. Over sixty units died at the hands of this merciless banshee, and Xigua was slowed just long enough to allow Heart to mount his comeback.
FanTaSy’s banshee was just another unit in an incredibly mediocre mech versus swarmhost game, but a base trade elevated its status to game-deciding. After a small pack of marines came out from left field and murdered the last overseer. As the banshee had nearly full energy, it was capable of greatness, and despite a pack of mutalisks flying over, it whittled down the last hatchery, dancing as it did so. This nearly proved to be its downfall, as a spine crawler was hiding incredibly well, and the banshee just barely tracked it down in time.
TaeJa and INnoVation had two huge macro brawls over the years of 2013 in 2014. Both of them were on one of the biggest stages, featured both players in peak form, and featured a classic bio vs mech battle. In 2013 at the WCS Season 2 Finals, TaeJa’s late-late-game banshee disrupted whatever force INnoVation had left and caused him to slide into oblivion. Nearly a year and a half later at Blizzcon, INnoVation’s banshee, arriving just a few minutes earlier in the game, caught TaeJa’s army lacking marines, and whittled it down to nothing. Both legendary games were ultimately decided by a single banshee, despite every other unit being featured.
4.
4 Banelings – Scarlett vs Bomber![[image loading]](/staff/The_Templar/TLCMAT/2/MVP_units/MVP8.png)
Most baneling mine games are famous due to their mysterious infrequency. Quite a few Zerg greats, such as Nestea, Leenock, and DRG used this dark art to their advantage at least once, but it oddly enough never seems to become mainstream. It’s not rare enough to become a spectacular sight when it works, but praise is still given whenever someone is courageous enough to attempt using them.
Their best chance to become widely used was when a foreigner won with them in the most spectacular fashion. In the deciding match of a RO8 group at Redbull’s final event of the year, Scarlett played one of the matches of her career against Bomber, culminating in a very scrappy, low-economy game three. This did not bode well for her – many foreigner victories occur in relatively normal games. Despite excellent play with mutalisks, it seemed as if she might narrowly fall in the series.
However, she had another trick up her green sleeves. After being forced to evacuate his last bases, Bomber quickly darted across the map. Too quickly. Before he could react, Scarlett had already destroyed a sizable chunk of Bomber’s marines with her first baneling mine, which put him into a panic. Mutalisks made work of the last orbital command, and Bomber was left with a guessing game, but despite a fear of the unknown he rushed forward… straight into the second mine, which left him bowing out immediately.
The burrowed banelings lay dormant for many months following this incident.
3.
2 Zealots – First vs Life![[image loading]](/staff/The_Templar/TLCMAT/2/MVP_units/MVP9.png)
“You just forget you have 2 zealots? You just forget that you pretty much won the game?” -Nathanias
First vs Life embodies the spirit of this article. Who cared that First had an unimportant zealot or two lying around when there was so many action-packed battles and crazy moves going on across the map? Our eyes were stolen by unidentified objects now known as carriers, a nydus worm, and multiple instances of borderline ridiculous antics by both players. Yes, there really were carriers. They were actually useful, as they rained death on the Zerg army.
The carriers were the peak of an extremely high-quality and intense game. When the base trade occurred, however, the carriers became the anti-MVPs. Their interceptors were high-maintenance, and it wasn’t long before First was out of cash, while Life was building a ridiculous number of spore crawlers at his last base. Then we remembered that there were still two zealots left, and the nearly legendary zealot vs drone battle occurred while carriers very subtly pushed void rays to their deaths.
Never was there a battle as lengthy or ridiculous as this one, as First took the utmost care to ensure his zealots survived as long as possible. Nearly every action taken was a safe one, as First chipped at spore crawlers and drones, avoided getting surrounded for as long as possible, and made sure his void rays were close at hand whenever something went wrong. The entire game ended up revolving around these zealots. When there were no zealots left, there was no longer a game. Once the zealots and all but one drone were eliminated, the set was called as a draw.
2.
1 Carrier – herO vs Curious![[image loading]](/staff/The_Templar/TLCMAT/2/MVP_units/MVP10.png)
On December 30 2014 22:43 AmericanUmlaut wrote:
Sentences I never expected to hear in a professional game: "The Probes are coming, Zerglings are going to have to defend this..."
Sentences I never expected to hear in a professional game: "The Probes are coming, Zerglings are going to have to defend this..."
On December 30 2014 22:45 isaachukfan wrote:
He literally won that game using 1 carrier and an army of probes
He literally won that game using 1 carrier and an army of probes
Swarm host games are usually relatively straightforward stalemates. Certain defensive measures must be taken on both sides to ensure that neither player will suffer horribly, to the point that attacking can be suicide. No one unit is ever particularly important compared to the ones around it, since attempting to utilize a single unit might as well be suiciding it. Large armies, large harass forces, and huge economies are almost always essential. It’s a game of patience, where the player that can outlast the other is victorious.
Oddly enough, when two of the most patient SH vs Protoss players faced against each other in Proleague, the result was one of the wildest and sloppiest games in existence. Neither player wasted time in getting to endgame tech, but from there the game took a completely unexpected turn. herO slowly gained an edge, suiciding unnecessary units such as immortals and colossi to get the perfect army. He pushed the issue by killing Curious’ third base… and Curious let him. He couldn’t hold off herO’s army, so he lost his natural as well, and after easily holding in his main with changelings and brood lords he completely abandoned his main base out of necessity. This put him at two bases against eight, but when herO tried to end the game, Curious held on against endless, borderline-suicidal waves of every Protoss unit herO could think of. Entire armies were wasted and herO eventually fell into ruin with very little gas left.
With almost no units and a huge mineral bank left, herO started to gather up a last force of void rays and one carrier, which seemed like a mistake or an attempt to go down in a blaze of glory. In the end, however, the only unit that no one expected to be useful was the unit that ended up winning the game, while every other unit (except phoenix, which wasn’t made) was carelessly tossed into the fray. Somehow, herO had stalled long enough with endless gateway units to build up enough void rays, the only army composition that reasonably stood a chance, and the single carrier. With this force he quickly shook off a few fungals, crushed the remaining corruptors, and attacked the third base with an entire production cycle of reinforcements as Curious scrambled a few units together.
Then, in a way befitting the entire game, herO’s seemingly now-unstoppable 80 supply army of "real" units inexplicably died to a few queens and static defense. At this point, in a game where everything seemed completely incapable of killing the opponent, the only way herO could win was with the most unlikely one-unit army supported by a squadron of probes.
1.
1 Mothership – KiWiKaKi vs Stephano![[image loading]](/staff/The_Templar/TLCMAT/2/MVP_units/MVP11.png)
The mothership changed everything. Of course, it was supposed to. The mothership was designed as the flagship of the Protoss Armada, the hero unit, or the most powerful unit. It was supposed to have great power and a fair amount of risk. Despite its vast potential, for most of WoL and HotS, we have watched the mothership provide one or two purposes, at most, as players barely even made good use of it most of the time. Most recently, motherships have been exceptional viper bait.
KiWiKaKi’s mothership usage against Stephano was unparalleled. Just two motherships starred in this 50+ minute game, the second one being far more important, but they completely changed the way this specific game was played. Instead of playing a pretty heavy-handed style as was more popular, KiWiKaKi darted towards the bases of Stephano and destroyed them with a blink stalker and colossus hammer before recalling his units. He could choose whether he really wanted to engage with the Zerg army. For the first time, Protoss had the mobility and not Zerg.
Even so, Stephano had a few tricks up his sleeve. His brood lord/corruptor/spine crawler/infestor army was fearsome, and didn’t allow any attacks outside of the right-hand side of the map. Eventually, he stabilized on his half of the map and began to push forward, killing the first mothership. Somehow, KiWiKaKi held on until his second mothership, the one that defined the game, was ready.
With a recall from Stephano’s right-hand bases into the main, KiWiKaKi earned the right to demolish Stephano’s tech structures at no loss. This managed to stall Stephano, who was short on cash, until KiWiKaKi was entirely ready for the final fight, at which point the mothership had reached 200 energy. After some indecision, both players went for it, but the mothership altered the entire fight with the vortexes, and the Protoss emerged victorious.
The full list:
17.
1 Hellion – Heart vs Xigua – VODOne of Heart’s hellions manages to kill a large percentage of the zergling flood after a baneling bust, making the situation far less dire than it could have been.
16.
1 Reaper – Zest vs INnoVation – VODINnoVation’s reaper perfectly distracts Zest and makes him lose control of his oracle and stalker for a split second, leading to the loss of both. The game ends instantly.
15.
1 Colossus – Classic vs Polt – VODClassic’s colossus drop opening is wildly successful.
14.
2 Phoenixes – First vs Life – VODTwo phoenixes prevent Life from camping over his spore crawlers later on with mutalisks, and kill the zerglings which would have saved most of Life’s drones.
13.
1 Swarm Host – Starbuck vs NightEnD – VODStarbuck uses a nydus worm to get a swarm host in NightEnD’s base after a successful cannon rush. The game ends instantly, as NightEnD has zero detection.
12.
2 Medivacs – Polt vs Rain – VODPolt’s medivacs ferry around units in a frantic base race. Later on, one of them is spotted by some of Rain’s units, and distract him enough to get his wall off completed later on.
11.
1-2 Mutalisks – TRUE vs FanTaSy and Scarlett vs Dream– VOD 1 | VOD 2Single mutalisks from TRUE allow him to kill off some of FanTaSy’s last-ditch units.
Scarlett’s last mutalisks combined with a large number of infestors economically kill Dream’s marines.
10.
1 Mothership Core – Lilbow vs ShoWTimE – VODLilbow’s MSC tries to slow down the only stalker left on the map with time warps.
9.
4 Drones – Rogue vs Classic and Nestea vs anypro– VOD 1 | VOD 2Rogue sneaks out four drones and makes multiple proxy hatcheries. There are a few other games like this but nothing quite as effective. Nestea uses the drones for proxy spine crawlers, but as a calculated cheese instead of necessity after a cannon rush.
8.
1-3 Marines – TaeJa vs INnoVation – VODOne of TaeJa’s marines intentionally picks off two vikings in the mid-game, which takes the air advantage away from INnoVation in the following battle. He uses this to drop marauders on INnoVation’s tanks and clear out the fifth base as a result.
Later on, three marines actively defend hellbat harass and defend one of TaeJa’s last mining bases for about two minutes, which puts him at an economic advantage.
Near the end of the game, TaeJa snipes most of INnoVation’s last medivacs with three marines, rendering his army immobile.
7.
1 Ultralisk – Suppy vs Heart and Losira vs Gumiho – VOD 1 | VOD 2In both games, an ultralisk supported by queens was the meat of both Zergs’ armies in a low-economy game. Suppy vs Heart was a larger-scale game and also involved infestors + banelings, while Gumiho vs Losira was at the end of a drawn-out, absolutely ridiculous match and was a part of an even crazier endgame. In both, however, the ultralisk ends up dying at the end, although the final results are different.
6.
1 Stalker – ShoWTimE vs Lilbow and Naniwa vs HuK – VOD 1 | VOD 2Both start with a proxy 2 gate. Oddly enough, Naniwa’s stalker was the only defense against the entirely zealot-based cheese, but ShoWTimE was the instigator of the proxy. The last unit for both players, however, is a single stalker, nothing more. Both have low HP, and the fate of the entire game is in their robotic hands.
5.
1 Banshee – Heart vs Xigua and INnoVation vs TaeJa and FanTaSy vs soO – VOD 1 | VOD 2 | VOD 34.
4 Banelings – Scarlett vs Bomber – VOD3.
2 Zealots – First vs Life – VOD2.
1 Carrier – herO vs Curious – VOD1.
1 Mothership – KiWiKaKi vs Stephano – VODIf you enjoyed this power rank, please vote for me in the below poll. If I win, I will write an article about why Scarlett was a superior player to TaeJa. (I'm a huge TaeJa fan)
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I wonder what spells and units KiWiKaKi will break in LotV :D 
