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I’ve always been a sucker for end of the year awards, and since watching profession StarCraft has been such a big part of my life this year, I’m going to do some end of the year awards myself. I originally thought it’d be cool to do some sort of voting process and have everyone PM me with their votes for each category, but that’d take A LOT of work (too much for a vacation
) and a simple poll just wouldn’t cut it when you consider the vast amount of games that were played this year. So here are my awards, and please feel free, or rather encouraged, to post your own awards below (Ideally with some reasoning behind your picks too!).When picking each game, my thought process involved picking a game based on the quality of entertainment above all else. Whether it means that the game had some super sexy strategic play, mind-blowing micro, extremely excellent play by both players, or absolutely hilariously bad play, every game I picked was based on the amount of entertainment I got out of it, and I hope you picks with the same process.
Best ZvZ
Jaedong vs ZerO @ Sin Chupung-Ryeong
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ek9XO79HQeg
ZvZ this year has become about 10x better than ever before, mostly due to the rise of great ZvZers such as ZerO, Calm, and EffOrt. Jaedong vs ZerO from Winners League got tons of attention way back in February when it was played, and even after the 100s of ZvZs played the rest of the year, it still stands above all else and probably the best ZvZ of all time. Generally it’s the long, high-econ turtle-fest ZvZs that get the most attention from fans. Games like Yellow vs GGplay or luxury vs Yarnc @ Battle Royale. What makes Jaedong vs ZerO so good is that it’s the complete opposite of those sort of games. This game is just about the pinnacle of everything that makes ZvZ so great: super low econ, super action-packed, super back-and-forth, and super awesome. Amazing micro and multitasking by both players, and easily the most enjoyable ZvZ of the year.
Runners-up:
Yarnc vs EffOrt @ HBR (SPL playoffs)
Calm vs Kwanro @ Carthage
Calm vs Jaedong @ Byzantium
Best TvT
Flash vs Upmagic @ Sin Chupung-Ryeong
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkxJ4B_2L6g
I don’t watch much TvT unless I’m watching it live, hear it’s really good, or one of my favorite players is playing, so perhaps I’m not the greatest authority to make this call, but this game was totally fucking awesome, and EASILY my favorite TvT of the modern era. Very back-and-forth and with every conceivable unit in the TvT arsenal, this game completely walks over most TvTs in terms of sheer excitement. The ending “scene” is easily one of the most memorable moments in StarCraft history as well, and one of my absolute favorites.
Runners-up:
Flash vs Leta @ Neo Medusa
Flash vs Firebathero @ Neo Medusa
Best PvP
Kal vs Stork @ Outsider
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=le4oyahPCCw
I don’t watch much PvP at all and this was the only one that I’ve seen this year that I can still remember pretty well. Kal is awesome, stork is almost as awesome, and outsider is always awesome. This probably isn’t really the best PvP of the year even by my standards, so Protoss fans please tell me what is
Runners-up:
I hate PvP lol
Best PvT
Iris vs Bisu @ Byzantium
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0NZam1V3L0&feature=player_embedded
Perhaps one of the most unexpectedly awesome series of all time, the final game between Iris and Bisu in the Avalon MSL is one of the most entertaining and incredibly tense games of the year. Things start off intense with a proxy robo by Bisu followed by several minutes of nail-biting micro by both players. Once the harass is finally over Bisu looks to be set up to roll over Iris in the late game, but that’s not quite what happens. Without getting into too much detail, the late game is one of the most entertaining late game PvTs of all time, and just about as exciting as it can get (and such a great change of pace compared to the standard “terran slowly pushes this way, gets recalled, terran doesn’t know whether to pull back or not, blah blah blah that happens almost all the time). This is not the most mechanically perfect game of the year, and most definitely not the most strategically sound game of the year, but there’s not doubt this is most definitely one of the most awesome games of the year.
Runners-up:
All Fantasy vs Jangbi games
Flash vs Bisu @ HBR
Fantasy vs Movie @ outsider
Leta vs Pure @ HBR
Tempest vs Light @ Byzantium
FBH vs jaehoon @ eye of the storm
Best ZvP
Calm vs Movie @ HBR
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqTTci_ef1Q
This was easily the hardest matchup for me to pick. Part of that is because there just wasn’t nearly as many “super fucking sick” PvZs this year as there was last year (most likely because July only played like 3 of them in the 2nd half of the year
), making it hard to find the matches that really “stood out.” I ended up picking Calm vs Movie over the other CLOSE runner-ups for 2 reasons: I fucking love Calm and Movie, and this was literally one of the most tense live games I watched all year. The game becomes a lot less exciting watching it multiple times, but that first watch is just absolutely amazing (at least for me), as I really didn’t know who would win the game until the very last minute. Absolutely amazing play by both players, with amazing harass by Movie and stunning decision-making by calm (not to say that Movie played dumb by any means though). Your pick may very well differ from me and I spent the better part of a day thinking about this call (watching about 8 PvZ VODs from the last year lol), and after a lot of personal debate I’m going with my gut and sticking to it.Runners-up:
Bisu vs EffOrt @ Medusa (SPL January 4th, not the other one!)
July vs Kal @ Outsider
Calm vs Backho @ Eye of the Storm
Best TvZ
Jaedong vs Fantasy @ Outsider SPL Finals
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_Id-Ocldho
ZvT has always been the golden matchup of StarCraft, and year after year the best rivalries and games are always ZvT. 2009 was no exception, and the majority of the top 5 games of the year are ZvTs, making this quite a hard pick to call. The 2 finalists are easily Flash vs Jaedong on Rush Hour and Jaedong vs Fantasy on Outsider (from Proleague Finals), and they’re both so close to each other in terms of awesomeness that I guess it might just depend on what mood you’re in, but for now (after a super quick final change of mind for the 10th time), I feel that the best ZvT of 2009 is Jaedong vs Fantasy on Outsider.
The game starts out intense with an 8 rax from fantasy and leads up to a failed sunken-bust. Fantasy somehow comes back by actually out-expanding the Zerg and the audience is treated to 15+ minutes of what can only be described at pure art. The game contains a plethora of harass and army control by both players that make watching the game an absolute delight. The reason I have to give this game the edge over any other ZvT though is how both players play extremely brilliantly, and fantasy in particular just awe-struck me with his strategy and tactics, from his extreme expanding in the midgame to his stellar harass to the he set up his final push by making 2 factories pump siege tanks in his natural non-stop (which btw has become oh-so-standard TvZ nowadays). It was probably the closest call I’ve made in this, but JD vs Fantasy is definitely the must-watch ZvT of the year.
Runners-up:
Flash vs Jaedong @ Rush Hour 3
Upmagic vs Luxury @ Outsider
Calm vs Upmagic @ Outsider
July vs sea.really @ HBR
Fantasy vs Jaedong @ HBR SPL
ZerO vs Hwasin @ HBR
Best (Individual) League
Batoo OSL
This year in the individual leagues there was a lot of disappointment. 2 ZvZs, a TvT, and a PvZ with Jangbi and Luxury. Unfortunately for most fans, Stork, Bisu, and Flash just couldn’t progress as far as they “should.” Luckily though, the Batoo OSL featured the absolute best final of the year between jaedong and fantasy, cementing them both as absolutely top players in Korea. The Batoo OSL wasn’t just great because of its final, but there were a lot of totally awesome games in it as well. Flash vs Upmagic, Hero vs Bisu (actually almost all of hero’s games in the Batoo OSL were awesome), July vs Bisu, fantasy vs Upmagic, and many more. While it’s true that Tears of the Moon sucker-punched a lot of Protosses in the league, Protosses sucked in just about every league this year so you can’t really blame the Batoo OSL. The Batoo OSL was far from perfect, but it was just about as good as you could ask for nowadays and easily the best League of 2009.
Runners-up:
Avalon MSL. If Iris didn’t blow it vs Kwanro in the semis I’m sure it would have been better than Batoo, but having a good final really is important for a league.
Best series
Iris vs Bisu Avalon MSL Ro8
2009 was a rough year on Best of 5s, with under half a dozen of them going to the 5th game and plenty of 3-0s. Fortunately, the ones that were good were REALLY good, and Iris vs Bisu takes the cake. Starting things off with an excellent 2-fac by Iris which SHOCKED the community, the “3-0 EZ” for Bisu turned into one of the nail-biting and close-fought series of the last few years. With JUST the right amount of cheese, JUST the right amount of standard play, and JUST the right amount of awesome, this series really is more than the sum of its parts truly one of the all-time great series in StarCraft. Needless to say though, what really makes this series so special is the just absolutely fantastic, ORGASMIC 5th game which sealed the series in its spot in StarCraft history. Please see “best PvT of 2009” for more details LOL.
Runners-up:
Jaedong vs Fantasy @ Batoo OSL
Jaedong vs Canata @ MSL Ro8
Nada vs Jangbi @ MSL Ro8
Leta vs Luxury @ MSL Ro8
Luxury vs Hwasin @ MSL Ro16
Most Entertaining player of 2009
Jaedong
What I realized about 1/3 through doing this write-up was that Jaedong showed up A LOT in this. Jaedong utterly dominated the StarCraft scene in 2009. For the vast majority of 2009 all eyes were on Jaedong, winning 2 leagues, bringing his team to 2nd place in Winners League and Proleague, 1 MSL semifinals and OSL/MSL Ro8 (currently). Unfortunately I didn’t follow the progaming scene until after the fall of Savior, but I would have to assume that this is the closest any player has gotten to just the amount of attention a single player can get without being a Bonjwa.
But winning games does not make a player entertaining, and Jaedong, perhaps just by getting the opportunity to play so many games in 2009 by being so good, played and unparalleled number of must-watch games in 2009. He may not be as stylish or have as sophisticated strategies as someone like Fantasy or Calm, but his sheer game-sense and control allows Jaedong to perform strategies and win games that no other player could, and watching Jaedong play ANY match is an event unlike any other. I’m not even going to make a list of must-watch JD games of 2009, but I DARE you to try to refute this statement.
Runners-up:
Fantasy
Calm
Bisu
Best rivalry
Jaedong vs Fantasy
Right after the fantasy-JangBi proleague game on Gods Garden, I was essentially PRAYING that the two would become THE new rivalry of 2009. I was hoping JangBi would get his shit back together and we could see the two duke it out in a series and bring TvP to a whole new level of gameplay, but alas jangbi still sucks and they haven’t played each other since. Like many others, I thought that the Batoo finals were surprisingly very good and thought that that was that. But when they played each other again 2 weeks later and Fantasy blew everyone away with extremely solid anti-2hatch muta play, I knew that this was blossoming into something special. The 2 have played each other a stunning 12 times in 2009, with an even-steven record of 6-6, with JD winning the “big games” in the OSLs and Fantasy taking every Proleague match. The 2 have vastly influenced the TvZ matchup in their matches, and completely trump any other rivalry in this regard. It’s a shame that fantasy was eliminated from the OSL/MSL so early, because I’m sure that fans everywhere want to see these 2 face off once again as soon as possible.
Runner-up:
Fantasy vs Calm
Fantasy vs Stork
(fantasy, king of rivalries)
Bisu vs Jaedong
Most Disappointing slump
Firebathero
On December 27th, 2008, FBH was just about as close as he’s ever been to true S-class. He had a 75% winning ratio vs Zerg that year, 65% vs Terran, and 48% vs Toss (better than usual for him!). He just came off of recent huge wins over Yarnc, ZerO, and Jaedong. TvZ had a name and it was Lee Sung Eun. On the 28th he played vs July and lost to a queen/guardian/defiler build and nearly got his main command center infested before GGing. In 2009 FBH has a 36% winning ratio for the year with only 30% vs Zerg. Let the truth be known, JulyZerg destroyed Firebathero.
It’s a complete shame because of everyone else who slumped, FBH was easily not only the most entertaining player (drawing much attention whatever he did with his flamboyant personality), but he also played IMO the most entertaining TvZ of any player on the scene. One of the most varied strategists in the MU, FBH ALWAYS knew how to entertain with his games, and I’m not just talking about Battlecruisers. He did other cool stuff too! Not only did FBH’s slump this year cause me to barely see him dance at all, but his play is just plain un-inspired nowadays, and it truly is a great tragedy that newer fans today will never know the sheer excitement that is true FBH TvZ.
Runners-up:
Much
Jangbi
Luxury
Overall Best Match of 2009
Iris vs Bisu @ Byzantium
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0NZam1V3L0
If you watch one game this year, let it be this one. Destined to join the ranks of Savior vs Iris and Boxer vs Oov, this is without a doubt the most entertaining and action-packed game of the year. One of the very rare games where I had to almost immediately watch it all over again, Iris vs Bisu does not let up and is the most unforgettable game of the year.
Runners-up:
Jaedong vs Fantasy @ Outsider
Jaedong vs Flash @ Rush Hour 3
Flash vs Upmagic @ Chupung-Ryeong
Thanks for reading, and now please share your opinions as well! Cheers to a great year in StarCraft, and more to come in 2010!
