Goodbye 2011: Part 1

CPTBadAss

United States594 Posts

December 23 2011 22:27 GMT

With the end of WCG and Blizzard Cup, I feel that I can finally publish the obligatory “2011 in Review” post. But 2011 was really something special. In less than a year I went from watching GCPL Season 1 with a total prize pool of $10,000 to DreamHack Winter 2011 with an individual prize pool of ~$30,000. I went from cheering for ROOT (RIP) to cheering for Evil Geniuses and mousesports. I started the year as a casual watcher to a diehard fan. (I drove 8 hours to watch MLG Providence.) And I watched nerd ballers like (T)

ThorZaIN,

NaNiwa, and (P)

HerO go from StarCraft 2 obscurity to superstardom.

I became a fan of (T)

SeleCT,

ThorZaIN,

IdrA,

Sen,

Sheth,

NaNiwa, and (P)

White-Ra.

Here are my 2 favorite tournaments from early 2011.

GCPL Season 1

After leveling up my knowledge of the scene and becoming a codified TL troll, (Yes, I didn’t have an account for a long time. I was that guy.) I found GCPL Season 1. At the time, this was the biggest foreign team-league. And it was wild; this was where I watched the team that got me into pro-StarCraft 2 take on some of the best teams in the world. Who else misses ROOT Gaming? ROOT had (P)

KiWiKaKi; they kind of reminded of of KT Rolster with (P)

KiWiKaKi as their (T)

Flash. This is where I took note of (P)

Minigun and (Z)

SLush. I also loved their middle finger to everyone; fuck you, we do our own things. We have our own site, our own team, and we don’t need sponsors or outside help. That whole grassroots thing has always appealed to me.

What about that old fnatic lineup with (Z)

Sen,

Fenix, and (P)

TT1?

Sen won me over as a fan during this tournament. Watching him play was amazing just because he’s so deadly; (Z)

Sen can use any build at any time. But it’s the fact that any build he breaks out, he’ll execute incredibly well. Plus, he may or may not have influenced (Z)

Mondragon’s hallmark strategy in TSL3 later.

Who remembers this hilarious guide? More on that tournament later though.

GCPL was when I first saw TeamLiquid in action. I watched (P)

HuK roll nerds, admired (P)

Tyler’s refined builds, and I first learned of (Z)

HayprO. They lit this tournament up and it was amazing to actually SEE them play instead of just hearing rumors. Sometimes I feel like I spend more time with their community pillar than supporting the team side. I was also introduced to the diesel lineup that mousesports has. It makes me so happy that throughout the year, mouz has pretty much fielded the same team since January and has had some amazing results. (P)

HasuObs has always played a solid, sound Protoss since I first started watching him. (P)

MaNa has always been this under-the-radar, beast-mode protoss. And morrow, he has always been a favorite of mine…even if I still can’t stand his choice to play TvZ.

Everyone knows (P)

iNcontroL as this huge community figure now but I had no idea who he was. I watched him play a few matches and didn’t really know much about him other than that. But since he casted GCPL, that’s where I first discovered how hilarious he was. It was his casting that endeared him to me. His play peaked during MLG Dallas but his always improving-mindset and hilarious personality have always drawn me to him. I love him on State of the Game; one of my favorite episodes is the one that (P)

iNcontroL hosted.

Finally, and most importantly, I finally became a fanboy of both (T)

IdrA and

SeleCT.

IdrA’s incredible macro is still amazing to watch even to this day. And (T)

SeleCT? Well reader, I’ve mentioned him probably once each time I’ve blogged. His marine stutter step, drop play, and (T)

BoxeR-esque tendency to never die continue to amaze me.

SeleCT’s response to me becoming his fanboy…and maybe winning the Blizzard North American Invite.

TSL3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7M_Gh9GtexY

I still get nerd chills from this video. <3 Glider

For me, this is the tournament to end all tournaments. TSL3 had the best qualifying system: an amazing tradition stemming from TSL 1 and 2, some of the best players of the time, hype material that inspired nerd chills, the best possible time slots, and a format that properly showcased each player’s skill. Even the round of 32 games were all incredible.

I started watching the TL Opens late. Partly because I didn’t know any better, but also because it was running during school and I couldn’t devote every weekend to watching every Open. I mainly remember watching a few and finally getting a taste of who (P)

White-Ra was. My first exposure of Grandpa-Toss was during the World All Stars (which I’ll talk about later).

Anyways, the real excitement for me began March 3rd when the bracket was announced. I did not stay for the bracket show but I did watch my boy (T)

SeleCT lose to (T)

Strelok; which made me sad…so sad. But I just remember looking and being stunned. Little did I know back then that TeamLiquid never ever fucks around.

Oops

Yes kids, this is the bracket of the biggest noob ever. I literally had never heard of (T)

NaDa,

Genius,

Ciara, and (P)

ZeeRaX. I was grasping at straws so bad. Even from the round of 32, there was amazing drama: (T)

ThorZaIN overrunning (Z)

FruitDealer; (P)

Adelscott showcasing that incredible gateway-heavy army composition that no one had seen; and (T)

GoOdy proving that even against (Z)

NesTea tanks are pretty good. And because TeamLiquid loves us so much, the tournament only got better from there.

Who remembers this? And now that I look back, how could I have doubted ThorZaIN. Oops part 2.

I watched all but 3 matches of the TSL3 tournament. It was that good.

But the 2 biggest moments for me, were remembering (T)

ThorZaIN’s round of 4 set against (P)

MC and the finals between (P)

NaNiwa and (T)

ThorZaIN. This is where I became a (T)

ThorZaIN fan. His safe play, sick macro, and dat StarSense still give me the shivers. (P)

NaNiwa’s crisp execution and variety of builds would echo with me as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmcPaEEDBTM#t=5m25

This was my 2011 Pimpest Play

The finals were everything you could hope and dream for: A best of 7 that went to the end, the drama, the incredible games, and CHILL GET OUT. I’m still convinced that TeamLiquid sabotaged Chill and the game in order to build tension.

TeamLiquid Star League. Thank you for fulfilling all my nerd dreams in one tournament.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-vnh6sGTR4

I know it’s black and white but does anyone else feel like Tyler has pierced their soul? I swear one day I’m going to have a nightmare and it’s simply going to be Jaedong versus Tyler in a staring contest.