CranKy VTL S3 Awards

WHAT’D I TELL YA? #EZQUACK
A Clan Summary Of VTL

by Yakuzaku

From the bottom of the group in ATL, to barely not making VTL S2 playoffs, to barely making the playoffs and then winning the whole thing in VTL S3. CranKy Ducklings have come far, we’re on a roll, got no self control, I’m running on steam with methamphetamines, I don’t know what I want, and that’s all that I’ve got, something something something something. (Kuro: "No more coffee today, Yaku.")

We started off the season fairly weak, a close win in the first week against Confed, who knocked us out of last season’s playoffs, seemed auspicious, but after three weeks of losses in a row, we started to worry.

Before our match against All-Inspiration though, we picked up Dallycat, giving us more options for the Plat spots as well as getting ourselves a reliable Protoss practice partner.

Shortly after,

Milkncookies graduated from Squarespace School, putting us back to NA Dojo which ended up greatly benefiting the NA Four (actually 3 out of those 4 are SEA/ANZ but oh well) that eventually made up our main roster towards the end of the season.

Then the second wind kicked in,

Quirky went full on bootcamp mode and got to Diamond league,

Light_VIP refined his mechanics over and over,

PhoenixTears found a bunch of strategies to grind out as Random and

Yakuzaku made like a couple more SCVs than usual.

So to

Kuro,

Dallycat,

Quirky,

Voltacus,

PhoenixTears,

Milkncookies,

Yakuzaku,

Light_MVP and anyone else who helped us along the way... GGGGGGGGGG YAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!

Most Improved

Nominees:

Quirky,

DallyCat,

Light_VIP,

PhoenixTears,

Kuro

Winner:

PhoenixTears

Never has Cranky seemed more like a proper team than now, when everyone got a whole lot better overall.

Between

Kuro bringing it together when we needed her most as our starting Plat, despite having zero confidence due to her Gold MMR,

DallyCat coming in as our new starter, initially with no idea how to adjust to LotV, now having her own drawing board of theories, to

Quirky being mentored by Light to hit Diamond towards the end of the group stage and then finally

Light acing it all with the goal of hitting Masters next season becoming closer and closer, the Milk-Volt dojo duo did us all well.

In the end though, we had to give it to

PhoenixTears. As VTL season 2 came to a close for us, PT came out dejected from winning only one game ending with a map score of -1. He actually apologised to us for “letting the team down”.

Season 3 marked a new beginning. Reinvigorated and now playing Random, PhoenixTears came out swinging right from the start with an almost all-kill in week 2 against Daily Life esports.

PT continued to be a reliable mid-Diamond player, if us re-assuring him last season didn’t lessen the sting of his performance, him going 5-9 in maps this season absolutely should.

Though unavailable during the playoffs due to health issues, we couldn’t have made it there in the first place if not for him.

Most Entertaining Player

Nominees:

Quirky,

PhoenixTears,

Light_VIP,

Yakuzaku

Winner: Light told me to put

Yakuzaku

As times change, some things just stay the same, namely Yaku’s ability to cause heart attacks.

Though Quirky showed us some aggressive Ling-Bane with his signature Bane bust against better Terran players causing us to constantly hold our breaths, with his mentor Light’s own ZvZ being either completely clean executions or 300 ping mud-fests, and of course PT playing out of his mind with a little bit of that gamble factor with him playing random and us crossing our fingers that he gets his prefered match-ups, Yaku is just funny to watch in a stressful sort of way. (PT: “YAKU YOU FUCKED THAT UP SO HARD BUT GOD DAMN GJ GETTING IT IN THE END”)

For every SCV Yaku forgets to make, he ends up landing a sick EMP, for every drop needlessly thrown away, he splits his marines to make the most of his inevitably smaller push and for every #YakuCurse, he sets up a multi-prong to decimate his opponents base. All. In. The. Same. Game.

To paraphrase Volt, while the pressure gets to him, over time it only does him good as he turns on the aLive factor mid-game to clutch out the win.

#MiloCoffee>TurmericCoffee

Best Games

Week 2 - Cranky Ducklings vs Daily Life:

(

) PhoenixTears vs

Ice (Acid Plant)

Defeat in detail is a concept that Volt likes to lecture us on. It’s the idea of concentrating your forces and attacking where your opponent has less of a presence, the idea that the size of your army matters less than where it is in relation to your opponent’s.

PhoenixTears now back on fire brought it right to edge, almost doubling Ice’s army supply with his first Cucaracha push. For all those Roaches though Ice had one silver bullet called the OP Umbrella. Chargelots were warped here and there, Roaches had to be pulled back and finally, when PhoenixTears’ army was banging down the gates, Ice held wave after wave, dodged bile after bile until one Immortal lived to tell the tale.

+ Show Spoiler [VoD] +

Playoffs Round 1 - Cranky Ducklings vs Team UnRivaled:

DallyCat vs

Subsonata (Acid Plant)

So what do you do when you’re down in workers and your opponent’s got a good defensive position? Hallucinate a couple Immortals, make your opponent play overly cautious, get your reinforcements in, have your opponent realise those Immortals are hallucinated, make sure they don’t realise you still do in fact have one very real Immortal and go. Warp in a couple more Stalkers for good measure and boom, you’ve brought your team up 1-0.

Light: “I’m not sure if I’d consider this one of the best.”
Yaku: “Light. Bro. Buddy. Pal. M8tey. Halluc’d Immortals are funny.”
Light: “O shit u rite.”

+ Show Spoiler [VoD] +

Playoffs Round 1 - Cranky Ducklings vs Team UnRivaled:

Yakuzaku vs

Jyoni (Dreamcatcher)

“Jyoni’s macro is just... Fuck, I want this macro” - Milk casting this game.

Then Yaku threw away half of his army, fumbled a drop but somehow managed to walk Marines into Jyoni’s vulnerable third base, took a good engagement and took the win. My control good.

+ Show Spoiler [VoD] +

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9htnj85COgQ&list=PLSzBLbHbYv7sl_sAYdJgYyFlep1rw4R2x&t=47m36s

Worst Game

Playoffs Round 1 - Cranky Ducklings vs Team UnRivaled:

Yakuzaku vs

Kamarill (Para Site)

Light: "I think you should play straight up since TvP is your best match-up."
Yaku: "Nahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"
*10 minutes later*
Yaku: "I should have played straight up."
Light: "..."

+ Show Spoiler [VoD] +

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9htnj85COgQ&list=PLSzBLbHbYv7sl_sAYdJgYyFlep1rw4R2x&t=1h7m12s

Best Game That Wasn't Casted

Week 7 - Cranky Ducklings vs Taste The Bacon:

Quirky vs

Draxos (Para Site)

+ Show Spoiler [VoD] +

Comeback King

Winner:

Light_VIP for reverse all-killing TTB in the Semifinals

Comeback King is a bit of a weird category. In its early inception it was meant to be given to the player who consistently turned games around, then when that became impossible we decided to award it for individual games, after it seemed like there were too many with too little to write about, we were ready to give up on it, but then I showed Light the Boomerang trophy and he suggested we make it a sort of hybrid; awarded to a single player for a single game.

Then Light had to reverse all-kill and throw the definitions out of whack again. Worst part is he wants different trophies this time.

Now let’s talk about PigPan/Taste The Bacon.

Our victory over TTB in the Group Stage was a stinging blow to their pride. They’d gone undefeated the entire time, all they needed to do now was defeat another clan and they’d walk into the Playoffs with a clean sweep.

Cranky put a blemish on PigPan’s perfect record. We got up 3-0 with Quirky’s ZvZ and then later Bane bust giving us much hope for the all-kill. It came down to the ace, EMCTwo, a Protoss player in high regard, known for clutching out victories for TTB and in many cases, beating opposing teams' aces giving them 4-2 victories.

Then

Yaku decided to Cyclone rush him, securing Cranky’s spot in the Playoffs and staining the pride of TTB.

While the thoughts on TTB were probably more along the lines of “Oh Cranky prevented our perfect record? Oh well, let’s do our best and make the Finals”, for dramatic purposes I like to imagine they thought “Let’s fuck these Bane-busting, Cyclone-rushing, record preventing bastards up”.

This bring us to

Draxos, a player who’s game against

Quirky wasn’t even casted. Though the game was observed and recorded by Kuro who added it into the VOD.

PigPan must have seriously dojo’d him up. As we went into the rematch thinking nothing of him, he became the wildcard disrupting Light’s plans of

Dally focusing on PvZ,

Quirky focusing on ZvT and

Yaku showing up.

Light_VIP though, with nerves of steel and ZvZ of Australia, brought us back from the brink when all was on the line, only faltering slightly when he worried about the possibility of playing a ZvT in the Ace Match. Once it became clear he’d be facing a Protoss, you could almost hear his confidence as he whipped out his Cucaracha.

Though it’s changed definitions over time, you really can’t get more of a comeback than reverse all-killing, and in perhaps the most important match too, single elimination with one win away from the finals.

Gold-ish Whistle Coach Award

Winner: Milkncookies

Milk’s graduation happened at the right time, mid-way through the Group Stage, at which point we flip-flopped between “maybe making it to Playoffs” and “probably not making it”. Milk came back, put us on a strict regimen of dojo and more than that, understood each of our players enough to create personal training routines as well as find and experiment with build orders based on their preferences. And he 13/12’d Light relentlessly at his request. Milk might not have played this season, but he was as instrumental to our successes as he was last season.

Gold-ish Mic Caster Award

Winner: Kuro

This isn’t an actual award, just commemorating Kuro for casting when she didn’t want to but ended up doing so anyway 'cause Light told her to and Steel was unavailable.

She’s definitely more comfortable behind the camera than in front of it ("Production is my thing!") but when it came down to it, Kuro brought in her Zerg knowledge and play by plays, with colour commentary of our players to paint the picture of how we’ve been practicing and strategising for the week.

Best Match

Nominees: CranKy Ducklings vs The Confederation (Week 1), CranKy Ducklings vs All-Insipration (Week 5), CranKy Ducklings vs Ris3n Community (Week 6), CranKy Ducklings vs Taste The Bacon (Week 7), CranKy Ducklings vs Team UnRivaled (Playoffs Round 1), CranKy Ducklings vs Guns and Roaches (Finals)

Winner: AxiomAcer vs Azubu GSTL 2013 Season 2 Finals

After the match ended and we lifted that trophy, we knew this was going to get nominated, though at the same time, I worried that most of it was just the hype of the championship title. But when the hype stayed after 2 weeks, we knew it had to be.

The story is there, with us sneaking into the Finals against the top seed to avenge our sister-clan PsiX, who at this point were knocked out by them twice in VTL Playoffs, and then we get to the quality games which had stories in themselves.

Morgoth looked scary with what seemed like a single safe build for each match-up practiced throughout the week. By the time we were mid-way through Yaku's game it seemed like we’d have to rely on Light to reverse all-kill again.

Then Yaku switched it on, starved out Morgoth and took good engagement after good engagement to put a stop to the Morgoth all-kill hypetrain.

After a clean TvT though, the Yaku hype would similarly be put down by GnR’s

SGTBunny, continuing what seemed like a trend of safe openers.

When your ace is as reliable as

Light_VIP, who now only needs to play 2 games though, you know you’ve won. Or would you?

While Light managed to scout SGTBunny’s deviation, getting a Dark Shrine, and bring it to the Ace Match, GnR’s own ace,

EquinsuOcha, would seem unbreakable against Light’s aggression. Thankfully, Light’s game sense won us the series, as he pulled back to defend and counter-attack, never wasted his Banelings and finally, caught out Equinsu’s Lings in the open and pressed the attack before the already in progress transition to Roaches could come into effect.

We watched

Quirky Ling/Bane, we watched

Dally weather the Roach swarm, we yelled at

Yaku and we put our trust in

Light, and in the end, we lifted the trophy with a tear in our eyes.

Also this is the only time we’ve had Light cast with Milk #OTP

+ Show Spoiler [VoD] +

MVD
MOST VALUABLE DUCK

Nominees:

Quirky,

PhoenixTears,

Light_VIP

Winner: It’s

Light_VIP don’t even try to argue with me mate

Light had always been a reliable ace and at the start of the season it seemed like Light would be more of our secret weapon after we acquired

Phoenix as a Diamond 1 merc. With this, Light planned to take a step back and nurture the new wave of Zerg Ducklings, namely

Quirky but also

PhoenixTears who needed some guidance with the race.

Then timezones got in the way and it became impossible to schedule anything that would work for both Phoenix and our SEA/ANZ players. (Though that one time he was available Light wanted to ace anyway so…)

Light found himself back in the player booth and, in-between work and SDO, grinded non-stop. It’s a good thing he still struggles against mech and 2-base Roach all-ins or he’d have hit Masters making him ineligible to ace. I guess it’s also a good thing then that he never had to face those in VTL.

Achieving the second ever Cranky all-kill and first reverse all-kill, Light’s goal now is to hit Masters, win an MSO and captain the next line-up to win without him. Oh he hit it already. Welp.

In game anyway, last I heard he was playing irl Monopoly and his new year’s resolution is to become Scrooge McDuck.

Light_VIP? More like LIGHT_MVP