2012 in Review - TeamLiquid Awards - Page 11

On January 03 2013 08:44 Clbull wrote:
What would my choices have been?

Breakout Player: VortiX. His true breakout was 2012. Life's kinda always been around but not quite in full force.

Map of the Year: Why not Bifrost, Araknoid or CalDeum? At least KeSPA are making serious attempts to shake up the stagnated map pool and metagame. My personal favourite though has to be Bifrost out of the three.

Ceremony of the Year: No mention of MC's "Gangnam Style" dance.

Strategy of the Year: From what I remember, Oz revolutionised anti-mutalisk strategies by incorporating a FFE into 4 gate Immortal Blink Stalker expand tactic. This deserves more recognition than an over-used sentry immortal all in that makes the game less entertaining and fun.

Biggest News Story: EG picks up Jaedong. Because KeSPA switching to StarCraft II was going to be inevitable considering how much the GOM exclusivity deal fucked over the Korean scene.

Rivalry of the Year: TaeJa vs HerO. So far, HerO is 7-0 against his teammate. He 4-0'd TaeJa in the Dreamhack Winter finals and he 3-0'd TaeJa in the NASL Season 4 quarterfinals.

Most Entertaining Player: Squirtle. Simply for the comeback he (almost) made against Mvp in the GSL finals, especially the game where he destroyed Mvp's Battlecruiser fleet with an amazing archon toilet feedback combo.

Worst Drama: SlayerS disbanding. It put the white knights of the Korean scene (eSF) in a lot of major shit and made them look almost as draconian and evil as KeSPA. Basically, assuming what Jessica said was true, it's a horribly dick move to force a practice embargo on SlayerS players just because they won't join your federation or boycott NASL.

Team of the Year (Int): ROOT Gaming. Vibe especially got really good results when he was virtually unknown before.

Team of the Year (Korea): LG-Incredible Miracle. LG-IM finally got their big break with a really good title sponsor and GSL champions representing all three races.

Terran of the Year (Int): MajOr. After being screwed over both by Sixjax and TSL, it wasn't until today that he finally got his big break and was signed to a KeSPA team. The dream of this determined Mexican pro is finally coming true.

Terran of the Year (Korea): LG-IMMvp. Simply because of the achivemeents he's earned this year whilst suffering from cervical kyphosis.

Protoss of the Year (Int): Naniwa. He pioneered a few really good builds.

Protoss of the Year (Korea): SKTRain. At a time when KeSPA players were shot down left right and centre in WCS Korea, Rain went on an eSF killing spree. He's also the first OSL champion of SC2.

Zerg of the Year (Int): EGStephanoRC. Obviously because of his dominance.

Zerg of the Year (Korea): TSLHyuN. If you earn one of IPL's events the nickname "IPL HyuN Club", you deserve a tonne of recognition. His 14 win streak is yet to be topped.

Game of the Year: Squirtle vs IMMvp, GSL 2012 Season 1 Finals. When GOMTvT finals traditionally ended in 4-0 or 4-1 ROFLstomps back in 2011, the first GSL of 2012 gave us a 4-3 close series and some of the most exciting games to grace us.

Tournament of the Year (NA): NASL Season 4 Finals. When Seasons 1 and 2 were slagged off over production values, casting and whatnot, the organisers over at NASL pulled out a pristine event

Tournament of the Year (Asia): Proleague. At least KeSPA are willing to shake up the stagnant metagame. And their format is actually exciting and easy to follow.

Tournament of the Year (Europe): Dreamhack Winter. The crown HAD to go to them. It was an amazing event. Now if only Twitch at peak times wasn't so laggy and unwatchable here in Europe.

Player of the Year (Int): Grubby. In a year where professionalism was brushed aside and many personalities were swept by drama over their behaviour, there was one player that was like "Fuck it, I play this game to enjoy it whether I win or lose." A true professional.

Player of the Year (Korea):LG_IMMvp. Again, this is because of all his achievements despite his severe physical state. To have won an IEM, earned the NesTea award, won a GSL and almost earned a 5 time GSL champion trophy whilst suffering from severe neck and wrist injury takes a lot of skill, balls, and courage.

On January 03 2013 08:01 Dodgin wrote:
I knew some people were going to complain about TL getting international team of the year, but if you actually look at the data then It's irrefutable. http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/Premier_Tournaments_Medalists/TeamYearly

Startale passed TL at the last moment by getting both first and second in Blizzard Cup. TL earned by far the most medals of any " international " team this year. ( someone mentioned EG, lol, EG is 15th on this list. )

by the way, the mini title says " GSTL finals: FXO vs MVP on the front page instead of 2012 TL awards.

On January 03 2013 08:48 CosmicSpiral wrote:


Thank god you weren't in charge of the writing then.

On January 03 2013 08:50 Schelim wrote:

i don't think anybody's gonna deny that Taeja and HerO (but especially Taeja) did amazing in 2012, but that doesn't really qualify for best 'team' imo, especially best 'international' team when those guys are two koreans. 2 of TL's foreigners quit starcraft this year and all the others have been in huge slumps. TLO did somewhat decent i guess, but he's not exactly a world champion either. Zenio didn't do anything all year despite being korean.

EG might not have a Taeja-level player (in fact they certainly don't), but they a lot more strong players than TL: Stephano, Thorzain, JYP, Demuslim, Puma, Jaedong, to some degree even Idra and Huk all did better than any of the TL foreigners in 2012. i guess Revival doesn't really count for EG yet. on top of all these solid players, you also have crowd favorites like Stephano, Idra, Incontrol, Jaedong, Huk, somewhat Demuslim and Thorzain... who does TL really have that is popular in terms of personality? Hero and TLO.

what i'm saying is, some players on TL had VERY impressive results in 2012, but it doesn't really feel like a team's accomplishments when it's just Taeja winning everything with Hero adding a few titles. even the team leagues were basically won by Taeja.

On January 03 2013 08:50 ELA wrote:


So rude Cosmic - Guy is just offering his opinion

On January 03 2013 08:50 ELA wrote:


So rude Cosmic - Guy is just offering his oppinion

On January 03 2013 08:26 yousaba wrote:
a shame naniwa didnt play zerg too, he would probably post the same results as stephano then. they're arguably the best players outside korea, just a shame the gap is so much bigger between them (in favor of stephano) than it should be (imo, barely noticeable) because of the state of the game.

lets hope blizzard shape up in 2013 and actually give us a game worth watching.

On January 03 2013 08:47 Fionn wrote:
I tried to push a Player Rivalry category so Polt/Stephano could have gotten an award, but I was shot down.

Fucking KeSPA vs. GOM.

On January 03 2013 08:59 TommyP wrote:

MKP DRG?